I had a crawfish boil at an East Houston Chinese buffet spot

For many Houstonians, I like to think going to a Chinese buffet as a kid is a kind of shared experience. My family used to live at an apartment complex in West Houston back in the 1990s, and I can remember regular visits to Lucky Palace and Lucky Village. Hot egg rolls, bouncy cubed Jell-O and warm fortune cookies were fond memories.

Those memories stirred when I passed by China Star at 12621 East Fwy. The colorful Northshore buffet restaurant is right by one of attorney Jim Adler’s offices. His “Texas Hammer” moniker is displayed prominently at the top of the building. I wonder if Adler or his son Bill has ever eaten there?

China Star is a small chain of Asian buffets in the Houston area. There are four locations, with the one in Northshore having opened in 2015. The space previously housed a Golden Coral.

I visited China Star on what I thought would be a quiet Sunday around noon. The parking lot and front of the restaurant were packed. Families were waiting in line for a table in the busy dining room surrounding the buffet lines, the hibachi grill and the sushi station. It was clear that the diners attending were coming from a late morning church service.

I was eating for one, so I skipped the line and was quickly escorted to a small table at the other end of the restaurant. China Star’s buffet was immediately familiar. Heaps of Chinese fried rice, General Tso’s chicken, lo mein, crab rangoon, and sticky pork ribs make up a good chunk of the menu. A good chunk of the buffet is also dedicated to Mexican, American and fusion dishes: menudo, camarones, quesadillas, Vietnamese spring rolls, pizza and fried chicken.

At a table next to mine, a group of fellas ordered a large bottle of Negra Modelo and fetched a plate piled high with steamed crawfish. Curiously, nobody around me was partaking in the large sushi roll display nearby. An employee was busily wrapping rice and bits of fish with seaweed paper as I grabbed pieces of a California roll here and a salmon roll there.

China Star’s food is exactly what I expected it to be. Filling and infrequently surprising. Sometimes you might take a bite out of something that’s pleasant. Other times, you might find something that makes you say to yourself, “Oh no.” Apart from the food, the service is exceptionally attentive. The waitstaff were busy walking the various corridors, talking on their headsets and asking guests how they were.

There’s a charm to China Star’s operation. It knows exactly what it is and what its customers want. You just have to lift your head up and stop eating to see it.

And yes, China Star does have the cube-y Jell-O that I remember as a kid. It tastes exactly the same, for better and worse.