San Jose Buffet Reviews

I hate buffets as a rule but LOVED this place here's why:
Decor is beautiful. I hate buffet places that punish you with cafeteria atmosphere. Which describes 99% of buffets.
Heirloom tomatoes on the salad station. Fresh baby spinach leaves and spring mix. This is to give you an idea of the quality.
Tender beef with lemongrass in Thai section
Tender basil chicken with also in Thai Section
Beef Kabobs that were moist and flavorful.

New chef since the last awful reviews when they first opened. Check out their Metro review. It was a stellar review and truly indicative of how great the food is.

Some people are pissed because they have a server at a buffet and knock stars because it is not Harry's Hofbrau. But if you want a cafeteria style buffet with spaghettios then IGB is not for you. If you wanted to be treated like a human being while dining and actually have nice decor and an owner that is interested in your experience while eating amazingly good food, then this is the place for you!

1) friendly staff
2) Great atmosphere
3) yummy food
4) 6-person booths
5) great price for what you get

the place offers a lot of diverse food witch was a pleasant expirience for me. by far the best buffet i've been to. i tried at least one item from every geographical region and i did not taste one thing that i did not like.

This place has excellent food choices! A word of caution though, for those who come to IGB expecting it to be like Todai or any other Asian or American buffet places, then they may be disappointed. It is not a place to gorge on seafood nor giant slabs of steaks.

I am usually not a big fan of chicken but most of their chicken dishes were great. My favorite are Chicken Toluca (Mexican/Spanish area) and Chicken Kabob (Persian area). They are usually still nice and moist and well flavored to my liking. I had seconds and thirds for those which is extremely rare when it comes to sampling buffet food.

I came during brunch so they still had breakfast dishes out. One of the most interesting omelette I'd come across was Greek Frittata (Breakfast area). The egg was fluffy with olives, which totally bursted with flavors in my mouth.

A common favorite was Cancale Creamed Spinach -- almost everyone at our table loved it.

A very strange but interesting discovery was Melon Mint Cous Cous. It looks very odd but tastes really good -- make sure there's a piece of melon in every bite. :)

Overall, the seatting was perfect. We sat by the window with comfortable booth seating. There's also the option to sit outside -- getting a nice view of the plaza. Service is like most buffet places. They clear the dishes promptly and check in on us periodically during our stay. They also rotate out the food every half our or so, so most of the food plates are fresh and bountiful.

It's an excellent place to try out a variety of new gourmet food.

I've been back to IGB twice since my first review. Once, again for dinner, and a Sunday brunch. I still give it a strong recommendation of 5 stars. The quality of the food and service is excellent.

Another benchmark criterion for my judging is the quality of scrambled eggs at a restaurant. Here the eggs were fluffy and moist, cooked to the perfect point and texture. The sausage was great, and the french toast looked good. Unfortunately I rarely eat high carb. food.

Most of my favorite dishes were on the buffet, with some new additions. You will find items here that never appear in a buffet at this price point. For those who are not adventurous, there are plenty of well prepared 'standard' dishes, but the lover of interesting, tasty and creative food, will find tasty international treats on this bountiful international spread.

K, I gt 2 florid sometimes w/my writin', suffice it to say this place rawks! It's gr8. Give it a try guyz.

I'm not a big buffet fan as a rule. I almost never go to them. I just always think of places with old food sitting there for hours, and lots of greasy stuff, you know what I'm talking about. Who hasn't been to one and felt disgusting and sick afterwards?

We went to this one for Christmas dinner. No, it was NOT my idea. It all started in August, on a hot day that I was busy doing something and not thinking about Christmas, when the phone rang and my husband answered. The call was from his Dad's wife, my step mother in law, who by the way, I like and respect very much.

She wanted to know if she was doing Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner because my in laws business is busy these days and she was trying to plan her schedule. My husband called out to me, "do you want to do Christmas or Thanksgiving?" I was taken completely by surprise. I'm a bit of a control freak about Thanksgiving and Christmas when I have time to be.

There were a few years recently when I gave up some of my control because I was too busy at work to do both, and my SMIL, being the happy helpful person she is was just trying to do her share. So when her Mother, who has moved from out of state to be closer to her daughter then announced that SHE was going to host this year's Christmas dinner, there was nothing I could do but go along. After all, my father in law had been in the hospital last week and their household was naturally a bit chaotic. He is on the mend, and will be just fine.

She decided she wanted to bring us all out to dinner so no one had to do any of the work. And the restaurant she picked was The International Gourmet Buffet. When I heard this, my first thought was OMG. I smiled and said oh, that sounds nice.

It was not as I expected. The place is in a strip mall yes, and yes, it's a big buffet style place with lots of tables. But it's new, and clean. The waitresses make sure you have drinks and water at all times. There must be a wine list, because a bottle of Ventana Sav Blanc appeared on our table right after my family arrived. I was surprised to see a decent bottle of wine there. Seriously, I was expecting a sort of nightmare dinner. Apparently someone else in our group had ordered the wine before we got there.

The food was not just your standard greasy buffet. It's actually pretty good. I had just about every kind of chicken known to man. I have to admit, I mainly stuck to trying the various chicken dishes, and had a bit of rice and a salad. My husband, the back seat yelper would like you all to know that the tri tip with mushrooms is good, and so is the Jambalaya.

I would go back to this place, and that is a high compliment from me, because I think buffet restaurants are gross in general.

The service was excellent the staff is very friendly and helpful. Went there for the first time last week. Loved the place the variety of food was really nice. Has mostly middle eastern food which I love! There is also other types of food.

The only complaint: some of the food was a bit stale like the chips. The felafel balls were hard as if they had been there too long.

I recommend the chicken curry it was the bomb. There was a steak not sure what it was called but I was loving it. The desserts were good the grapes a bit sour but the other fruit was good. The chocolate chip cookies are home made and yummay

If I was to recommend this place to a friend I would, the price was reasonable and I will definitely go back.

I like this buffet because it's not like all the typical (Asian) buffets around. The atmosphere is great and the employees are nice. We actually had the reception after my grandpa's funeral here and they were very accommodating to us.

This place is great! Why?

1) The inside is wonderful. The seating arrangements and decor are top class for a buffet style restaraunt.
2) Service is very good. So good that I don't mind tipping even though I'm doing all the work)
3) The price is right for what you get.
4) The food is wonderful. Many different varities - Tri tip, creamed spinach, curry chicken. Very flavorful and filling.

Now, buffets, everyone has their own expectations of what it should be and how good it should be. I can only tell you from my perceptions and buffet experience (which is many, I've lost count and that it includes buffet in SoCal and Toronto) that this buffet is like no other. Yes, you read right, it is like no other. Like no other with the intentions that no other offers this same quality and diversity of selections and they are freshly prepared and most importantly the price for lunch of $9.95 and Dinner $12.99 and optional $1.95 drink is quite attractive.

I would have to say the food is primarily Mediterranean themed and there is NO OTHER such themed buffet at this time. The BEST part of the buffet is the beef and chicken Kabobs and the Baklava for dessert. But they do have other dishes that are also good as well. I don't think I have been to a buffet with such a VAST selection of chicken dishes, you will just have to try it yourself. Don't forget to pace yourself, for you buffet connoisseurs! :)

Because of the "International" name, it has to have difference cuisines from different parts of the world. Just some of the international flavors they have to experience are Thai, Chinese, Mediterranean, Mexican, Spanish/French, and American. Now, if all the food was perfect, this would be 5 stars, but let's face it, perfection is not likely at a buffet, but I can see they try quite hard and eager to see them add a sushi section once they find a real good sushi chef, which is what they are planning to do. Did I mention that the 3 times that I have been here, I've got very good service. My drinks were always filled, which is very important to me, cause I can't choke on all the food I am enjoying.

As a rule of thumb to increasing your chances of having a good experience, it is best to go during the peak times as the food always gets freshly replenished.

My husband brought me here along with some friends after a long day at Oktoberfest. Im sure we were obnoxious, but we needed food in our tummy! The buffet was good!

After reading the reviews on here, I expected it to be more like "Hometown Buffet" haha....but it was pretty darn good! The soup, different main courses and even the sweet treats were nice!

I only wish there was more chicken and less pineapple in the curry! :) Other than that, I think making this a regular place is a good plan....

PS. I also went back AFTER the Oktoberfest and the food was still good, and service was great! Took in our newborn and they made sure we were right at home there!!

My wife and I have been here twice now, both times for Sunday brunch. I would call this a high-end buffet. They have foods from a variety of cultures. I enjoy being exposed to the different cuisines and ingredients. They have traditional breakfast items for the buffet, but I'd skip them. The desserts are fabulous! My favorite is the lemon-lime tort, and all of the cookies. Things that stood out today for me included the Vietnamese kabobs and the Israeli Mint Cous Cous. They are known for their Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, and rightly so. Service was prompt and both the eating and serving areas were very clean. The outdoor eating area is small. The bar seems to be popular.

I would recommend this place to anyone who likes to experiment on a limited budget.

Had lunch here last week (Thursday 10/22) with a couple of coworkers. While I understand the overall disdain people have for buffets around the area, this one is well run (greeted and sat quickly, drinks ordered before helping ourselves to the buffet and were there when we returned to the table) and offers quite a varied spread. I guess that's where the International name originates.
Asian, Indian, Italian and traditional American fare were just some of the choices.
Great flavor, well stocked...I can't complain.
I'm sure I'll be back..

IGB is not your grandparents buffet, that's for sure. You'll know this when you walk in as the sounds of the Gypsy Kings greet you, and the decor is fresh and contemporary, plus a full bar and big screen tv in the bar area.

We've been there twice in the last week, once for dinner and the second time for Sunday brunch. Priced at $12.99 per person. Our first experience our server was more interested with talking to the bar staff and other tables than serving our table. We ordered water no ice and one glass of wine. We had already had one plate and working on seconds when he returned to ask if he had taken our drink order. Upon being reminded he said oh, we're out of that wine. The water arrived later with ice and didn't get refilled. It took a long time to get our bill as well.

I love beets with my salad and was disappointed the salad section didn't have beets, although here they are served as dessert. I did fall in love with the Persian rice with bayberries. The mashed potatoes were chunky (I like that) and the Thai basil chicken good as well.

For Sunday brunch we were pleased they didn't hike the price up more and we had a much better server. We saw our other server at the back and I swear he talked to a table for over 15 minutes. We decided he's in the wrong line of business.

We both enjoyed the food. The pumpkin soup flavorful and not overly thick. The Greek fritata wasn't a fritata but it was tasty, except when I went back for seconds that batch was overly salted. The Thai Basil Chicken was Beef (I avoid beef) so they need to work on labels. The maple syrup was different in a good way.

We go to buffets when we are hungry and don't want to wait, and usually walk away disappointed. Not at IGB. Remembering it is a buffet, but you don't have to have fried and creamed everything. I like that we can have American, Italian, Mexican, Persian, Asian all in one buffet.

They do not offer a carver section of meat, nor do they offer a made to order omelet/eggs.

My suggestion is they need to work on staffing for consistency. The salad bar needs a little more variety, and salt isn't really needed when it's on the table (easier to add then to take away)

We'll be back.