The Scene:

In 2001, owner Hongrui Lin opened the New Golden Buffet with the hope in mind to create a family-style buffet restaurant where customers could come in and warm up in the chilly weather for a large, delicious, and healthy meal. And so far, customers have been pleased and New Golden Buffet is a success. The media has paid attention as well; the restaurant was recognized as “First place” in The Phoenix 2004 Readers’ Choice Awards Contest and as a winner of “Top 100 Buffet Chinese Restaurants” in the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA competition.

The restaurant is about 4,000 square feet and is located in a residential town about half hour drive from city of Philadelphia. While Phoenixville isn’t a major city, it benefits from its location near a few main roads. There are also some businesses and schools nearby that often call on New Golden Buffet for catering.

As for the interior décor, when planning the design, Hong was not interested in anything very fancy. Instead, he decided he wanted to create an atmosphere for his customers that was cozy and homey. At the same time, she wanted to fill the restaurant with Chinese art and culture. Red lanterns hang from the ceiling and the walls are adorned with Chinese-inspired landscape paintings, and decorative Chinese knots. The color scheme throughout the restaurant is a soothing light yellow and the background music is soft and relaxing.

Fact Sheet:

• Name: New Golden Buffet


• Owner: Hongrui Lin


• Location: 700 Nutt Road, Suite 701, Phoenixville, PA 19460


• Cuisine: Chinese cuisine


• Capacity: 128


• Offers: Menu, Buffet, Take-Out


• Signature Dish: Mongolian BBQ Chicken, Sautéed String Bean, Coco Shrimp  


• Year of establishment: 2001


• Phone: (610) 415-9855


• Web site: www.newgoldenbuffet.com

The Food:

New Golden Buffet’s menu selection is huge. The buffet is vibrant in color and vivid in flavor, with items ranging from soup and fried rice to dishes with chicken, beef, pork, and prawns. Vegetarian dishes are also offered. They specialize in mostly Chinese cuisine but there’s a lot of variety. The most popular appetizers are the Chicken On Sticks, Dim Sum and Dumplings, and the most popular entrée is the Sautéed String Bean, which is influenced by home cooking style and using very simply ingredients, the secret of the flavor comes from combination of nature taste of green bean, garlic, wine and salt,  simple, green, delicious and healthy. Mongolian BBQ Chicken is the best selling chicken dish at New Golden Buffet, and Coco Shrimp is the best selling seafood dish. Other popular dishes are the Mongolian Beef, House Special Duck, Spicy Pepper Chicken, Cool Peel Shrimp, Steam Clam, Peanut Butter Chicken and Crab Leg.

Additionally, the kitchen at New Golden Buffet prepares healthy food. There’s a special selection of healthy seafood dishes such as mussels and salmon and steamed brown rice is available to go alongside any meal. Customers can also have their dishes steamed, served with the sauce on the side. The healthy dishes are cooked with no oil and salt and the kitchen staff is also completely open to cooking according to customers’ specific requests. There is also a large selection of fresh fruit offered in the buffet. The food is guaranteed fresh at New Golden Buffet; the kitchen staff chooses the freshest ingredients and they store the food in sealed containers when not in use.

The Service:

Mr. Lin strongly believes that superior customer service is the key in running a successful restaurant. Customers will not return if they are not treated properly. The entire staff is professional, the chefs are skilled, and the wait staff is knowledgeable, always ready to satisfy the customers’ demands. As a buffet, the restaurant lacks in direct communication between staff and customers. Despite this fact, staff members are required to constantly refill drinks, make conversation with customers when they are free, and to monitor the food supply in the buffet.

While monitoring the food in the buffet may seem like an easy task, it’s actually a tough job to handle. According to Mr. Lin, the food at New Golden Buffet is always fresh. The staff keeps a close watch on the foot traffic in the restaurant to ensure that the right amount of food is prepared for each shift so that there aren’t any leftovers to be thrown away.

In addition to customer service, the staff is also required to keep the restaurant clean. Each staff member is assigned different tasks throughout their shifts to obtain the best results. With their joint efforts, the restaurant is free of tiny particles and stains. The mystery dining report agrees, stating “All of the dining areas were clean, and the restroom was well stocked.”

The Feature:

One of the reasons New Golden Buffet stands above other restaurants in the area, is because it offers free Wi-Fi service for customers. New Golden Buffet also has a very useful Web site where customers can browse the menu, a photo gallery of the food, and learn about the restaurant, among other things.

The Owner:

Mr. Lin is very happy in his career. His secrets to success are a lot of hard work, perseverance, and dedication to his restaurant, staff, and his career.

To help business during the current economic crisis, Mr. Lin is distributing coupons to his customers in the hope that they will return and also to bring in new customers. Customers can easily find and print the many coupons from the restaurant’s Web site. www.newgoldenbuffet.com