Rainbow Buffet: Pretty Good Food At A Pretty Good Value

Rainbow Buffet opened its doors towards the end of September in the Short Pump Village shopping center, a few doors down from Walmart. The latest in a myriad of new Chinese and Japanese restaurants to open in Short Pump, Rainbow Buffet offers good, affordable Asian cuisine in a nice atmosphere.

If you’ve ever been to the popular Super King Buffet east of here in the Westland Shopping Center, you’ll feel right at home at Rainbow. The decor and layout are much the same, with stylish dark wood decor and granite counter and table tops. Rainbow is a hole-in-the-wall compared to the sprawling buffet at Westland, but offers a good selection of food at a very reasonable rate.

The two buffet islands in the center of the restaurant offer an array of chicken, beef, pork and seafood options, not to mention sushi and desserts.

Featured dishes include honey chicken, chow mein, beef with broccoli, baked lump crabmeat, an assortment of meat and vegetarian dumplings, hunan pork and more.

The chicken and pork dishes I tried were very good for the most part, although the honey chicken was so drenched in sauce that it was soggy all the way through.

The sushi selection is small and included only Philadelphia rolls (tuna, avocado and cream cheese) and California rolls upon my visit at lunchtime. It was, however, freshly-prepared and tasty. I wouldn’t call it my favorite by any means, but I’ve had far worse.

If you’re looking for a quick meal on the go or at lunchtime and want to fill up without breaking the bank, I think you’ll be satisfied by Rainbow Buffet. There are certainly other more expensive options in Short Pump, but at $6.95 per person for an all-you-can-eat lunch, Rainbow Buffet is a pretty good value and worth checking out.