I have been to both of the other Chinese buffets in Sheffield city centre and have been pleased with the variety and quality of the food on offer. So having read Ciao reviews on Wokmania decided to give it a go for lunch yesterday.
On walking in was pleased to see a clean, smart modern looking restaurant. We were shown to our table and asked for our drinks order. Since we both had to work in the afternoon we ordered two soft drinks. We were not shown a drinks menu, or told that our drinks were refillable, we only realised this when we saw others refilling their empty glasses. We did not manage a refill however since the drinks machine broke ten minutes into our visit. I understand that these things happen and customers waiting for drinks were reassured that the problem would soon be rectified. However, when we left after an hour there were still no drinks and customers were still being told the problem was getting fixed. There was no offer of an alternative, unless we ordered (and paid for) these.
Drinks worries aside, first impressions were that the main buffet section food looked good, if a little more limited than some of the other buffet options in town. There did seem a number of Indian dishes on offer, which was unexpected in a Chinese buffet, but since I like Indian this was more of a bonus than a problem. First visit my partner had a bowl of piping hot soup (from a choice of two), a little gloopy but on the whole quite nice. I opted for a plate of snacks, which varied in quality, lovely samosas, which I nearly burned my mouth on, acceptable spring rolls, and stone cold ribs and chicken wings.
Unfortunately the latter was the shape of things to come, although it seems the dishes themselves were probably of a reasonable standard, they were luke warm at best, and to be honest the cold Chinese dishes were making me feel a little ill.
Undeterred I plunged into the dessert section, which is usually quite nice in these buffets, and at least cold ice cream shouldn't be a problem. The choice was perhaps not as good as in other establishments, but sufficient after a big meal: bananas, pieces of apple and orange, jelly, ice cream (vanilla only), and plain sponge cake. Again it was a bit of a mixed bag. The sponge, which I was little dubious about, was moist, light and fluffy and the fruit was as you would expect it to be. However the jelly was lumpy (how can anyone muck up making jelly?) and the ice cream had obviously been in and out of the freezer so many times it had mini ice cubes in it.
The icing on the cake for our visit was the gratuity automatically added to the bill. Remember this is a self-service buffet, where you pay at the till on the way out. The only service we had received -being shown to a table and brought two drinks, surely did not warrant an additional 10%?
To be fair this was a lunchtime visit, which could have accounted for the lack of warmth in the food, and a brief survey at work afterwards (five lunchtime and two evening customers) seemed to support the fact that although lunches are often cold and with poor service, in the evening things are greatly improved.
My verdict: avoid in the daytime. The evenings may be better, but with other far more reliable alternatives available why take the risk?