Restaurateurs respond to new, incoming buffets

Super China Buffet II coming in June

Moses Lake's fortune might read, "You will soon have many restaurants in your area."

Two restaurants with Chinese food buffet themes are opening or have opened in the area recently.

As was previously reported, China Buffet opened May 7 on Pioneer Way.

And very soon, a Super China Buffet II will open alongside True Value and fabric store Country Fabrics in the Market Place building on Stratford Road.

"We had several other buffet Chinese companies approach us," said Mario Padilla, manager of True Value. He said the owner of the Super China Buffet II, Didi Qiu, also has a restaurant going up in the Tri-Cities, and one in Hermiston, Ore.

"We took a drive to his other operation, and we felt that the cleanliness and quality of food was something that we needed in our area," Padilla said. "This particular Super China Buffet II is going to have a Mongolian grill, which is the grill where they take your vegetables and meats in front of you."

Padilla said it will be the only Mongolian grill he knows of in Grant County. The restaurant will have over 80 feet of buffet table, and offer seafood, American food, Chinese food and Italian cuisine.

Padilla said that the reasons to bring the restaurant into town include the grill, the quality of the food and the amount of food Qiu is willing to put out.

"This is something you see in Seattle and bigger cities, with the amount of food this guy is going to have out for the public," Padilla said.

Padilla said he felt that there is a need in the area for good quality and a lot of variety of buffet establishments.

City community development director Gilbert Alvarado said that the arrival of two Chinese food buffet restaurants in town within the same period of time is purely coincidental.

"It's a timing thing," he said. "All a matter of chance."

The restaurants already in the area aren't too concerned about the amount of competition that's going to open up, either.

"When they want to come in, they'll come in," said Tracy Loin, owner of Lin's Restaurant. "We own good quality, we're nice to the customers. Downtown has a lot of small stores. (They) do the best quality for customers. Buffets don't care. We do as a quality; they do quantity. We have a lot of customers come in too."

Suvicarn Pituracsatit, owner of the Bamboo Shoot in Ephrata, said that his business is "a little bit different" from the new buffet restaurants.

"They come in, (the customers) will try over there anyways," Pituracsatit said. "It probably hurts more over there (in Moses Lake) than it hurts us."

Pituracsatit did say that the buffet places coming in is "kind of going to become too much. That makes it bad for anybody anyways. (You'd) make less money than what you'd normally make."

"Any kind of a restaurant always takes an impact away from from another restaurant," said Cindy Miyamoto, owner of Kiyoji's Sapporo International in Moses Lake. "When they first opened, everybody felt the impact. It's a new place, we totally understand."

But Miyamoto doesn't think it's going to be a long-term problem for her business.

"It being Chinese and us being Japanese, not so much," she said. "People know our quality of food here. Everything's made to order at that time. I think everything will just stay the way it is."