TOM ANGLEBERGER Special to The Roanoke Times

The King Buffet's hot and sour soup is loaded with tofu and flavor.

Tom Angleberger knows what he likes. So we've asked him to eat at NRV restaurants and write about them. If you have a restaurant to recommend, e-mail him.

Tom Angleberger

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A reader suggested I visit King Buffet in Fairlawn.

But when I arrived, I couldn't see why it had been so highly recommended.

The restaurant had looked pretty plain from the outside. Inside it was simply decorated with light-up pictures of menu items, a few pictures and lots of flowers.

The buffet was bigger than I had expected, but the food choices seemed to be all the usual suspects. Sure there were plenty of options, but I've covered several Chinese buffets already and I couldn't see what was going to make this one stand out from the others.

Then I sat down and took a bite. Delicious!

Let's face it. Buffets of all sorts sometimes go for quantity over quality. Sometimes our taste buds get ignored in the hustle and bustle. But this food had some real flavor to it.

I tried the garlic chicken and loved it. I would have gladly gotten more, but in the interest of sampling different dishes, I picked something labeled chicken with cashew nuts. This didn't seem to actually have any nuts, but it did have a wonderful rich flavor. Even the standard lo mein was tasty.

Also on the buffet were pork and mushroom, pineapple chicken, General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, chicken wings and the like.

I had some great side dishes, too, including a fantastic cheese wonton and some excellent sauteed mushrooms. The hot and sour soup achieved a nice balance between flavor and potency.

One disappointment was the fried zucchini. It's so hard to keep these things hot and crispy.

Aside from that, everything I sampled ranged from good to great. I guess my reader was right about this place.

Bottom line: The King Buffet stands out in the area that matters most -- offering delicious dishes.