Lee's Golden Buddha

We have gone to dinner at four different Chinese restaurants in the last 3 months. Tonight we went to The Buddha Original in the Publix shopping center on the corner of Hwy. 9/Atlanta Rd. and Hwy. 20/Buford Hwy. The operator of this restaurant tells us they have been at this location for two months. We have found the best Chinese food in the area. The food was excellent in flavor, freshness, and the servings are generous. The restaurant was clean, nicely decorated, it has pleasant background music, and good service from our server Calvin. We are happy to have finally found our favorite Chinese restaurant. One more plus is that they deliver!

:( Not a very dope restaurant, at all. According to the reviews prior, ownership has changed. So, apparently the new owners aren’t so great, and unfortunately my experience can attest to this. The decor was pretty dope. That’s about the only good thing about the place. The service was only mediocrely dope. The server we started with was polite, but when he wasn’t at our table, he was behind the bar with the female server, both just staring at their phones. I know they probably didn’t have anything else to do because me and my lady were the only party present, but it wasn’t great to see them and be reminded of the terrible atmosphere of the restaurant. Speaking of atmosphere, my god, this restaurant was dead. It was like a graveyard. The decor was nice, but it was obvious we were one of few parties to arrive to eat. The radio played three songs over and over again, atleast four times over. The table sets were on a table adjacent to mine, so, there were stacks of to-go boxes and napkin-wrapped silverware that the waiters would go to in order to set tables. It was weird to see. The food was pretty bad. If it wasn’t bad, it was bland, and nowhere near good. Nothing was good. The soup we started with tasted like nothing, same with the dumplings, and the egg roll had an odd, plastic flavor. Then our entrees and our fried rice arrived. Our sweet-and-sour shrimp was a dish where shrimp were deep fried and DUNKED in this strawberry-honey jam mix, which was way too sweet and not at all sour. It was like candy. Our Mongolian beef was okay, actually probably the best thing we had, but not at all worth the extreme prices. Our fried rice was the biggest crime. It was straight up gross. I took a bite and nearly gagged- it tasted like crushed, mushed dog food. It also gave a very strange odor. We told our waiter and he politely, and swiftly, allowed us to change our rice into steamed rice, which wasn’t great either, the texture was weird. I don’t know how they messed up rice at a Chinese restaurant. To summarize, the restaurant’s decor was nice, the atmosphere was dreadful, and the food was vile. Getting the bill was the worst part. It was incredibly expensive for such terrible food. Definitely the worst eating experience ive had in a long time. Don’t go here.

I came here because I thought it was still the Golden Buddha. I came and the restaurant had apparently changed ownership. I came in and ate and it wasn’t a quarter as good as the old Golden Buddha. I now never go there again because it was sabing gross. I would much rather make out with a gorilla than go there with all of the other good Chinese restaurants to eat at. This place is a dump. Don’t waste a single dime here. I also didn’t feel good after I ate. I didn’t get to sick but I was a little sick. I have had good memories at the Golden Buddha and was angry they changed! Like I said don’t go here unless you like disgusting food!

Ownership has changed. That is sad because the "LEE's GOLDEN BUDDHA" that was at this location had the BEST Chinese food for the past 20 years. The new ownership must have lost the original chef. So sad. If you want just acceptable food go by this place. I myself, will be on the lookout for a new restaurant. So sad. And for all of the new reviews that had not eaten at this restaurant before the ownership change...you really missed out on a good meal. To all others - Don't look at the reviews over 3 months ago...they have NOTHING to do with this new place, all the old reviews should be scrapped, it's not honest using reviews from a previous restaurant.

I used to love this place. Then it changed names and the food went south. The fried rice is just gross now. The shrimp with lobster sauce is not even recognizable. The hot and sour soup is bland. I don’t know what happened when it changed names but it fell off my places to eat list. I won’t be back.