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Last night, Newcastlecentric decided to take a trip to Newcastle’s Lau’s Buffet King in Stowell Street, part of Newcastle’s small but perfectly formed Chinatown.

Lau’s Buffet King is unspectacular. It feels like a dining hall rather than a restaurant - with basic wooden tables and chairs, no sense of comfort and their all you can eat, help-yourself buffet at which people queue as though having school dinners.

The service is blunt, with no niceties - you are told on arrival that you will be charged £8.50 if you are seated at the restaurant, regardless of whether you are eating or not. So whilst being cheap, we wouldn’t call Lau’s cheerful.

Making up for lack of ambiance is the wide choice of food, from salad, chicken soup, duck pancakes, prawn crackers and seaweed to start, to main courses including New Zealand Green Mussels in a seafood dish, the usual sweet and sour pork and chicken, lemon chicken, beef and black bean sauce, Chinese curry and a choice of noodles and rice.

Unfortunately the food lets itself down somewhat by being lukewarm when it hits your plate and pretty much cold by the time you return to your table to eat. But it’s swings and roundabouts in Lau’s, as making up for lack of satisfaction with your main course is the choice of desserts to sweeten your palate. Banana fritters, gateaux, jelly and ice cream as well as fruit salad for the health conscious. If you can leave room for a little something extra, it’s a nice way to finish off your meal on a good note.

Time and again we’ve have returned to Lau’s, despite it being a consistent disappointment, but there’s something to say about easy dining. With no frills or fuss you know what you’re getting and you get your money’s worth - no more, no less.

Tags: chinatown, lau's buffet king, newcastle, restaurant, stowell street
Posted at November 7th, 2008 by Alex Grover | 3 Comments »