The food offerings tend to be similar, too, typically with a half-dozen buffet tables offering roughly 100 to 150 all-you-can-eat choices including both Chinese and American items. But while they may all look very much alike, there's a substantial gap between the best and worst of the genre. I'm happy to report that Dynasty Buffet, a new arrival in the Glenview Pointe shopping center just out from the Watterson Expressway and U.S. 42 interchange, ranks well above the median. One element makes Dynasty unique: In addition to the usual Chinese and American dishes, it also features a smallish but well-stocked Mongolian barbecue, a smaller version of the excellent concept that 2 Hahns introduced to Louisville. This feature may offer Dynasty's best real dining choice: Select your choice of (or any combination of) beef, pork or chicken slices, strips of shiny white squid or tiny raw shrimp; add a selection from sliced cabbage, white onions, green onions, mushrooms, broccoli florets and spaghetti-like wheat noodles, and turn it over to the chef along with your preference in sauces. He tosses it on the big round grill - according to legend, a practice that goes back to Mongolian warriors using their shields as cooking surface - and tosses your meat and vegetables together with the sauce until it turns into a tasty stir-fry. I started with a portion of Mongolian barbecue so hearty that it left me more in a mood to graze than gluttonize as I checked out the six buffet tables, which include Chinese specialties, American dishes, a salad bar and a dessert bar. The food was generally competently prepared and, with a few exceptions, kept fresh and hot on the buffet. Among highlights: Crab Rangoon was generously made, with plenty of good crab flavor melded with molten cream cheese in a crisp, fried triangle of egg-roll pastry. Surimi (ersatz crab "shapes") wrapped in bacon and deep-fried were more memorable for the bacon than the crab. General Tso's chicken, the Chinese equivalent of McNuggets, were crisply breaded and tender, presented in a mildly spicy hot-sweet sauce, a bit tepid from time on the buffet but otherwise appealing. Garlic chicken was similarly afflicted, with lots of tasty veggies that had become somewhat limp on the buffet. Whole spareribs were meaty and chewy, with a hint of Asia in their sweet-soy marinade. Honey chicken was truly sweet as the name implies, almost a chicken dessert. Among other offerings, fried dumplings were well-made, savory ground pork in a sauteed pastry wrapper, "potsticker" style. Hot-and-sour soup was quite good, tangy and spicy with plenty of tofu and mushrooms. Sweet and sour chicken nuggets were tender and crisp, with a golden, crunchy breading that reminds me of Long John Silver's fish, of all things. I passed on the sticky, fluorescent red-orange sauce.
Dynasty's buffet is $5.99 for lunch, $8.99 for dinner daily. A seafood buffet is available for $13.99 Friday through Sunday, and Sunday brunch (until 3 p.m.) is $6.99. You can also order standard Chinese dishes from an a la carte menu, but I've never seen anybody do that at a buffet. $$
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*** Dynasty Buffet