Maple Grove's Finest

Fact Sheet:
? Name: Orient Buffet & Grill
? Location: 16314 County Rd. 30, Maple Grove, MN 55311
? Cuisine: Guangdong cuisine
? Capacity: 110-130
? Offers: Buffet, Take-out
? Signature Dish: Peanut Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Butter Seafood, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Chicken with Broccoli.
? Drinks: Beverage, Tea, Coffee
? Year of establishment: 2000
? Phone: 763-494-8845
? Owner: Mingsang  Jou

The Scene

If you’re a customer, buffet restaurants are great. You have lots of items to choose from and can choose as much as you’d like. For a restaurant owner, buffet restaurants are a real challenge because the food must always be kept fresh (while not wasting any) and you have to be prepared to produce lots of different entrees quickly. Orient Buffet and Grill overcomes the challenges of a buffet-style restaurant to deliver quality foot in a timely manner. A favorite of the community, owner Mingsang Jou has built his restaurant into an efficient machine of service and taste.

Orient Buffet & Grill has 3800 square feet of dining space to serve the burgeoning community of Maple Grove, Minnesota. The restaurant offers a luxurious buffet, dine-in, and take-out options for diners. Located on County Road in a recently-developed business center of Maple Grove, there is always a steady stream of customers circulating through the restaurant.

The dining hall is decorated in warm colors, making customers feel cozy and at home. The sense of intimacy is furthered by the restaurant’s division into four individual sections. The tables are decorated in a lovely shade of green that match the booths. The furniture is arranged in several meticulous lines, giving a clean and orderly impression.

On the walls, Chinese cultural elements such as paintings, ornaments, and other various accoutrements are displayed prominently. The buffet area is surrounded by tile flooring to insure ease of cleaning, but many other areas in the restaurant are carpeted.

Classic Chinese music wafts through the spacious dining area, enhancing the peaceful scene.    

The owner, Mingsang Jou, chose the area because it’s a rapidly growing area that is becoming more and more prosperous. He believes location is vital for a restaurant.

The Food

Orient Buffet & Grill has provided exquisite Guangdong cuisine to the Maple Grove area for over eight years. Each night, two chefs labor to produce delightful entrees to a welcoming audience. The chefs utilize a variety of cooking methods including stir-frying, steaming, grilling, and many others.

The most popular dishes on the menu include Peanut Chicken, Mongolian Beef, and Butter Seafood. The chicken used to create the Peanut Chicken is boneless and the sauce is specially prepared to create a fabulous flavor. Meanwhile, the Butter Seafood is prepared with garlic, scallop, scallion, butter, shrimp, crab leg, sleeve-fish, etc. All these ingredients create an enticing taste that is both sour and sweet. The Mongolian beef is also a signature dish that has won the hearts of many customers.

There are many health-focused items on the menu for customers who are looking to eat healthier or with a more positive effect on the environment. Chicken with broccoli, String bean, and Sour & Sweet Chicken are some of the favorite items on this part of the menu. Vegetable Lo Mein and Vegetable Egg Foo Yung are particular vegetarian items that customers enjoy. To create both healthy and nutritious combinations, the quantity of oil is strictly limited to avoid an excess of trans-fat or saturated fat. Both of these unwanted forms of fat are contributing factors of obesity and high blood pressure.
     
As a buffet restaurant, the owner is particularly aware of how important freshness is for his restaurant: “We are very clear about the importance of the freshness of our dishes we serve on the buffet bars. We purchase cooking materials every single day in order to make sure everything is new and fresh. We do not use any ready-made food. All the dishes are cooked on the spot to ensure the freshness and their authentic flavors. Besides, all dishes on the buffet bars are continually maintained in proper temperature to ensure the freshness,” explained Mingsang Jou.

The Service

The service at Orient Buffet is engineered by a capable and motivated working staff. The management attaches great importance to “the three minute rule.” This rule dictates that customers will enjoy soft drinks and has their order taken within three minutes of being seated. The other half of this rule is that the staff members will ask customers whether or not their food and service is satisfactory within three minutes before they leave.

 The dining area is arranged for easy navigation and is well tended. The table settings are clean and carefully arranged. The carpet is cleaned by a professional cleaning company every month. The staff is well-groomed and wears clean garments. The restrooms are well maintained and staff members work to ensure they are well stocked with necessities. “To take responsibility for both the restaurant and the guests, we always keep the restaurant sanitary,” explains the owner. 

Due to the dedication to service and friendly environment, the restaurant is ideal for gatherings and family reunions. During the Chinese Spring Festival, the restaurant generally provides some traditional Chinese food to customers for free. In this way, the restaurant is rewarding the loyalty of customers.

The owner likes to stress the importance of the restaurant not only being family-friendly, but the staff being treated like a family within itself. Stable employment is very important for a restaurant. The owner works not only to take care of his staff in the work environment, but checks up on them to ensure their lives, their state of mind, and their opinions are listened to and cared for. Communication is also very important to win the trust of employees, and it is something that the management has strived to perfect.

Success for Orient Buffet has not come easily. There once a rival buffet restaurant in the area that challenged the business of Orient Buffet. After initially seeing a loss of customers, little by little they began to trickle back to Orient Buffet and the competition had to close.

The owner was not worried about the competition, because he believes in his restaurant and seeks to maintain first-rate food quality and guarantee top-notch service at all times. Additionally, the wide selection of food at Orient Buffet ensures that no matter what your preference or taste, you’ll be satisfied by the food. Whether you are in the mood for a fragrant soup, such as Wanton Soup or Hot & Sour Soup, or after a tasty chicken dish, such as Chicken with Broccoli and General Tsao’s chicken- Orient Buffet & Grill will make you happy.
 
Owner

Before immigrating to the United States in 1992, Mingsang Jou had a clear goal: He wanted to make his career in the Chinese Restaurant industry. His success was gradual, but impressive: “I opened my first small-sized restaurant with my friend in 1992, after accumulating enough experience in management. I planned to enlarge my business, and my second one was established in 2000, that’s Orient Buffet, and now I am quite satisfied with my current status,” explained the owner.

Mr. Jou credits his success with a strict dedication to service and quality at all times. Persistence really pays off. In the future, the owner plans on helping his eldest son learn the ropes of the family business and eventually take over the restaurant. Maybe someday they’ll open another restaurant in the area. But, for now, Mingsang Jou is content with life and his business. And who wouldn’t be?