Max Orient in Camden

Lovely good, and great variation of dishes.

Dry food, the Cantonese rice was white, the fried foods were a mess

In my opinion the food was not good and also way too expensive. Don't go there!

The food here was truly disappointing—dry, tasteless, and so tough it was almost inedible. Some dishes were so dried out they could practically be considered a safety hazard. To make matters worse, the hygiene standards were lacking. The gents’ bathroom door wouldn’t lock, and the tap only produced a slow trickle of cold water. Adding to the poor experience, one of the staff members (the person in the picture) was incredibly rude, aggressive, and had a shockingly obnoxious attitude towards customers, even bordering on abusive. Overall, a terrible experience I would not recommend.

Attractive price but does not accept credit cards. Otherwise the choice is very limited and the cuisine is average.

Love this restaurant! Food is fabulous! We managed to crump our plates full. No much place to sit upstairs and time to spend is limited to 1.5 hour. But food is good!

Food stinks and is spoiled. Not worth a quid. Worst choice ever.

The price looks attractive but the food is not at all worth for the money it's worst and most of dishes are spoiled and bad. Don't dare to go and try and water your Money

I really liked it, the food was very good and in quantity and hot. Good atmosphere and very helpful

We have been to the Max Orient buffet about 5 times and have noticed the last couple of times it has gone down hill and now they charge £14.95 per buffet and I think a pint of beer is over £8.The food s pretty tasteless none of the curry dishes have any proper sauce just a watered down liquid.I would have to say it was very busy when we went so they must be doing something right.What I have no idea

rude service & wrong glass but given raw water, stupid & arrogant

Gone are the days when this place was good. We have been coming to the Buffett 8years when it was £8:95 3 years ago the food was better after today probly the last time not much choice and becoming a bit tasteless oily. It used to be great now just rubbish. I Brang ppl from abroad and they where like this is ver very low quality and I was eating 2 plates and they where watching me and I realised it’s a rubbish we are just use to it. But the variety has become so basic not with £15. Only worth around £5 for the quality. No wonder the reviews are getting worse. They lets us in at 9-15 with just left over rubbish. A few times in the pass they have tried to say something but they just bark don’t be afraid to make the staff who work their sit down and obey when they are rude.

Bad food & horrible service. Not worth £14.99 at all

This place is bad the price zoomed up and the service went down the hill . The food is poor and tasteless the stuff are very very rude. the look that they give you is like you are stilling from them 🤨 I had a severe stomach ache the night I ate in this restaurant 🤮 They have the cooking kitchen in the basement no one can see how it looks 😱 I suggest “ jimmy’s’ check it online.

My family loves chinese food. To be honest, we were disappointed. Food is dry and a bit tasteless, really. My wife said the beef was chewy and had no flavour. I tried it and she was right. She had a salad and said that was the best food there. Who goes to a chinese restaurant and resorts to having a salad!? What does one expect from an £15 all you can eat buffet. It will fill you up for sure if that's all you need. The place is ok. Not wonderful. Overall, we will not go there again, even if we are ravenous. My family loves Chinese food. To be honest, we were disappointed. The food was really dry and a bit tasteless. My wife said the beef was chewy and tasteless. I tried it and she was right. She ordered a salad and said it was the best food there. Who goes to a Chinese restaurant and only eats salad! ? What can one expect from a £15 buffet? If that's what you need, it will definitely fill you up. This place is ok. Not great. Overall, we wouldn't go there again even though we were very hungry.

The best if not the only buffet in Camden. I recommend using the services of London Turysta. Polish guide to London.

no flavour food was disgusting staff r ok they kept watching me and my family we felt uncomfortable

Always too busy, people pushing passed. Food is average. Bit over priced for average food. But the apple fizzy drink is nice.

If you like to eat don't come. The worst place I have ever eaten in my life. Food without taste, cold and reheated. The best bottled water

High quantity, low quality, low price.

We went to this restaurant because of its prime location and good prices. But once we got in, we saw that the buffet trays contained little meat, and the little that there was, judging by the look and taste, had been reincarnating on the same tray for weeks. Definitely the worst restaurant in Camden, a horrible experience of those that make you wonder if sometimes, for convenience and trying to save, we don't end up paying for it in other ways...

Very disappointed! The food aren't many options and the taste was very bad 😔 never go back there again!

Don't believe some of the reviews on here - this place does NOT have an ice cream machine, or ANY ice cream for that matter! Crowded. Very limited selection. We had 1 plate then left.

I never leave negative reviews, usually just keep them to myself, but this one had to be given. We have visited yesterday and this was the worst chinese of our lives. The positive reviews are probably from those who have never been to a Chinese buffet before and so have nothing to compare it to, but the whole experience was awful. The food was definitely not tasty, luke warm, and very salty. Not much to choose from either. Very very limited choices. I have asked for tap water for the table and got a very cold look and ended not drinking it, because the jug was dirty, it had black dirt around the edges. When I was adding food to my plate the second time ( as its an all you can eat buffet), one of the waitresses kept looking at my plate and it felt very judgy. Dessert is basically non existent. Tasteless horrible coconut jelly and very very thin cheap Swiss roll. You have to pay before you eat which is probably why, cause the experience is so bad you feel horrible for wasting your money here. Also they clearly don't trust their customers. Usually you always pay after at chinese buffets. The food was so awful that we were actually worried if we will get food poisoning. The plates were not collected from our table, we had to sit and eat around dirty dishes, in other restaurants they collect your plates almost straight away. The toilets don't have a clear toilet sign, you have to guess if you are going to the right direction until you get there. Definitely will never go back and do not recommend to anyone. There are so many other options to eat at Camden, just go literally anywhere else.

It used to be a very popular restaurant about 4 years ago. However, since the price has doubled £14.90 accepting cash only and the ice-cream machine is not on, as well as some other food such as duck is not on the buffet anymore. Very disappointing 😞

The food looked delicious and it tasted good. Cheap for an all you can eat restaurant. One of the staff was acting weird by looking at the fish a lot. The guy checked the water, which was fine and made photos of the fish tank. Another staff gave me a tissue without me asking for one because he saw me eating with my fingers and having a dirty tissue, which was fine. Kinda unsuspected and very surprisingly kind. The plates are on the small side but I saw signs that said something about wasting food. So I guess that's the reason why they chose for small plates, which is a good enough reason for me. I liked the interior. It wasn't really Chinese interior to me but definately made me think of Asia and made me a bit homesick. Cause I am half Asian.

Whenever I come to London I go to eat at Max Orient one day.

The place it's great and atmosphere was fantastic. If you are looking for day out with a family member or yourself this is the place. Also, you can call the place for a seat reservation. If you really want to feel the taste of the food take the dine in option. The price was at great value per person.

Came here for something to eat after visiting the British Museum. Very cost effective and you get what you expect from a buffet. Glad they didn't rush us out and left us to eat comfortably and chat.

After a long time I have visited this place and I'm so disappointed. Very less food, very little choice and the desserts which you can have is gelly and plane cupcake. During the working hours team made a birthday party and disturbed every guest and there was noone in the bar to ask anything. I would not recommend. I won't be coming back here.

Food was dry, seemed to been left over from unwanted food in the day, hardly any choice, food trays where empty, asked for top up of chicken curry n chips n it was raw. Made me sick then next day alday, If I could give e no star I would. DONT GO DONT WATSE YOUR MONEY. THINK OF YOUR HEALTH.

If I could give no star I would. Food tray wasn't fresh, Food was dry n seem to been there hours. When asked if there was more food coming out as there was no chicken curry or chips, I had them team walk away talking there own Language. No pudding like ice cream or chocolate machine. Then the following day I was sick all day...... DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY !!!

All the food was lovely. The staff were friendly and helpful.

Went into this restaurant for a quick lunch before our trip home. If you just want soft drinks they give you a glass you can refill as much as like during your stay. The meals were a variety of meat such as chicken and lamb with rice or noodles, various seafood dishes were also available such as mussels. The food was mainly lukewarm which was ok for me. If you just want a quick unpretentious meal for not much money this is fine. Only accepted cash when we visited.

We've been before and the food was great but the last time we visited the food was all dry and very salty.

This is my second time eating here and you can finally pay by card 👏👏👏The gentleman who accompanied us to the table and who removes the plates is very attentive to the customers and the children, a wonderful person 🙂🙂🙂. It was a pleasure to eat here today

It's a nice Chinese buffet. They have a variety of Chinese food. The price is £13.99 per person.

Nous avons souhaité tenter l'expérience. Mais plusieurs choses nous ont fait renoncer. 1) Ils indiquent 14,90$ à l'entrée et Kid half price. Notre fils de 9 ans est considéré comme un adulte car il mesure un peu plus d'1,30m. Vu la quantité qu'il mange, ça nous a déjà refroidi. Du coup, si on est un adulte mais petit, on paie le prix kid ? Panneau trompeur, il faut indiquer -1,30m = half price et enlever le terme KID. 2) Ils ne prennent pas la CB mais uniquement du Cash. Ils ont un distributeur à l'intérieur mais ça ne nous arrange pas car nous payons exclusivement en CB. 3) Ils étaient assez froid.

No. Just no. Food wasn't nice or fresh. Sat next to the smelly toilets. Didn't enjoy at all.

The personal is very rude. I paid for my food before i went inside. one of the crew was gossiping with another worker and stared at me. After that he approached me and in extremely impolite manner told me (not asked "have you paid? " - that's fine, as he might not have seen that i paid): "you. Pay. " And it's not the only example. Everything that they told was absolutely understandable, but they could have told it in at least a neutral manner.

Superb place to eat and drink... unlimited food experience...

OK place for Chinese buffet. Was surprised they had room and we sat so fast considering how busy it was on the market this day. Nice staff, one lady in particular was getting verbal abuse from a horrible, entitled female customer but she remained calm and polite throughout. Beers were slow didn't really want it after so much food eaten already but overall it was good.

Last Sunday 4 of us visited the place at 1pm, opening time was noon. 3 of us ended up with food poisoning due to the unhygienic way of keeping the food, bet it was re-heated from the previous day. NEVER again! Be careful people, £14 pp sounds appealing however they don’t give a damn about the quality.

Me and my boyfriend have been several times and watched the price slowly increase while the quality of the food decreases. The sweet and sour chicken is so watery now and the staff could be a bit more friendly. We’ve left the last few times disappointed and probably won’t come back. It used to be so nice so it’s a real shame

Fri 26th July '2024: Popped into here for a quick munch. I have given it a 4 rating, because I was disappointed to see they had no ICE CREAM, which they use to have in the past. Hopefully if they see this review they will upgrade the dessert section by bringing back the ICE CREAM & then I will change my rating to 5. The food was lovely, the mussels in that sauce is delicious 🤤 and I will be back!

Absolutely terrible food. Note that it is difficult to make rice with eggs wrong, well, they have achieved it. The environment is fine, cool and all, but they could remove the totally unnecessary dwarf fish tank where a large number of fish that can barely move are crowded together, a shame.

What a load of old slop, curry like water ,cold hard chips, soft prawn crackers ,meat you couldn't identify, dirty place full of cobwebs ,seen a woman worker mess around with a boy working pinching his skin with some of the tongues used to pick the food up,they both denied it when we complained and asked for a refund , oh and as for the Deserts it was a cheap Swiss roll cut into the thinest pieces I've ever seen God knows how they managed to do it . Signs state no food wastage, well our table was full of it because we couldn't or dare not eat it , 4 of us went but they would only refund for 1 person

Hey foodie! This place is not that great with the food option, but definitely worth trying once. I mean the only choices that I liked were crispy fried chicken chicken, vermicelli noodles and egg fried rice. That’s it. And, even if you try to eat most of the food, you won’t be able to finish 5 pieces of chicken, whereas generally an adult is able to eat 6 pieces with no complaints. Usually some buffets do add sodium bicarbonate to their food, but I am unsure about this place. Moreover, anything once or in moderate is fine. Also, not to mention that the ambiance is good for Camden Town. P.S.: Try the shrimp with the mussels’ sauce Safe eating!

Just saw the 3 star hygiene rating wow.Cash payment was demanded as soon as we walked in by an abrupt rude man. The food was very poor quality. Chicken curry was full of onions a watery, ribs were sparse, veg was mush, desert was jelly squares and cardboard like thin slices of Swiss roll.Staff were totally uninterested. Atmosphere was nil.very disappointing experience, regret spending my money here and now see a very poor 3 star hygiene rating. Won’t be back.

Food is on a buffet and is very delicious. Not the tipical smelly Chinese food. Good quality alchol. The interior is nice and well decorated.

This is a Chinese buffet restaurant. Charges 13.99 per adult. And 9.99 for kids less than 130cm. We paid for 4 adults as our 2 kids were taller than their mom. Food is average and some food items above average. They had prawns, chicken, mussels, beef, pork, duck items in non veg. Mushroom, broccoli, tofu vegetables, French fries in vegetarian.2 soups. Unlimited sparkly drinks at 3.99 (we had to take a minimum of 2). I think sparkly drinks were a bit diluted. Beef with black beans, chicken wings, mushroom , sweet corn soup, duck were good. If u like cooked prawns and mussels with intense lemon grass flavour, u can go for it also. They serve deserts also, which was not that good in taste

What a load of rubbish chicken was horrible along with everything else

Food not great.. "Chicken Seaseme Toast??" Bland, no Salt and Pepper on the SALT and PEPPER CHICKEN. Limited tables, had to walk up and down a set of stairs to plate up. Wouldnt waste your lunch here with the quality of food Camden has to offer elsewhere. Real shame.

If you have never been before in a Chinese buffet, maybe it's OK for the first time. BUT if you have been before, you will be very disappointed. Food is awful absolutely, even if it's not too much you can choose, rice noodles overcooked, meat just pork some beef and wings some brocoli and mostly spring rolls and ect. No words how bad it was

The worst Chinese restaurant I have ever been to. Not many options as a buffet and the quality wasn’t good, actually the food was awful. Not clean and hygiene is zero. The food was even under average and tasteless. As a Londoner tried many Chinese buffet and there are many good one in London but this one for the first and last time I tried. Don’t waste your money there.

Best Value in London if want to drink 2 soft drinks with your meal. Delicious food Lot of variety including vegetarian options and dessert. I am disabled and a blue badge holder I can not fault the staff they helped me before I could ask for assistance I live near China Town and have been to every buffet there. My local favourite is slightly more expensive but before today it was my favourite place to eat Chinese food 😋

Regular Chanise food and cheaper.

Prices for ever going up but quality doesn't.

The food is disgusting, I am a lover of Chinese food and this is without a doubt the worst, you ask them for “tap water” and they have the nerve to tell you that it will make you vomit, and what makes you want to vomit is what they serve you, Furthermore, there is little variety. The duck is anything but duck, it looks like spoiled tofu, the meat doesn't even taste like meat. I don't recommend it AT ALL.

Nice interior and service but the food is way oily salty and with much vinegar so that you don't eat a lot. Overall bad experience

The only good thing about the place is that you can eat a lot for a “low” price but the quality of the food is not recommended.

It is not eat as much as you want for £8.80. The price increased to £12 or £14 pounds so £20 per person gets you meal and drink.

The food and presentation was on point. Could taste all the flavours in the food. I had food still on my plate in front of me. PRAWNS. Waiter came and took the plate. I explained to him I haven't finished I am still eating. Rudely he gave me a dirty look and shoved the plate back onto the table. He did not apologise. How can you treat customers like that. Will not be going back there ever again

To flee ! I ended up in the toilet all night honestly there is no choice big disappointment a tourist trap

You get what you pay for really. It's cheap and in a tourist location so can't expect too much. Food was bland and tepid, not many options either. Also a bit ridiculous that they charge you for water. You can find much nicer places if you walk a little futher out of Camden highstreet and go towards either Chalk Farm or Mornington Crescent.

The place is wonderful, the food is worth the price, but I didn't like the attendant, by mistake when looking for the bathroom I was going into the wrong place and the attendant shouted at me in the middle of the restaurant I was completely embarrassed, I'm not going to a restaurant to be shouted, she should have gone to me and said that I couldn't go in there, not shouted at me in front of everyone, as if I was asking for free, I paid to be there. the restaurant only works because we, the customers, go there, if the restaurant stops having customers the restaurant will close, they should value customers more, my experience was horrible.

Used to come quite often. Came yesterday and saw there were no tongs for the noodles, as me and my friend went to ask staff for tongs, we come back to see the tongs from the pork tray was put into the noodles tray. Not sure why the pork tray was even in the same stand as noodles as it wasn’t like this before. Obviously a customer came and used tongs from pork on the vegetarian noodles. Very concerning, not sure if I’ll come back

Busy & cramped full of people!! Try for a seat down stairs, upstairs bit tricky with a plate full of food & people going up & down. Plenty of food.

1 1/2 of all you can eat. No cards accepted, they have an atm machine inside the restaurant The food was ok. It gets quite crowded so you better get there early

The food was not for human consumption horrible after eating the food stomach hurting and constantly going toilet !

If you have any standards you should consider somewhere else to eat. The staff s attitude is horrible and they manage the amount of food you take,, in an all you can eat?! Half of the food was cold and the workers keep bumping into you as if you were bothering them for being them NEVER AGAIN

If you want to get food poisoning you will get it here! Terrible experience.

Mediocre food, I paid with a card, they didn't tell me anything about cash, if you want the infinite drink they call it, which is refilling the glass, whatever you want, they charge you almost 4 pounds, but the cool thing is that if there are, for example, 3 of you, the 3 of you have to be an infinite drink, although If you don't want to drink anything, they charge you, I wouldn't even go crazy having positions much better than that.

Endroits pratique.simoke et bon avec des enfants.repaw très bon personnel très gentil.1/2 tarif enfant appréciable

Not many options available. Some food was cold. Found a hair in the rice and when we told the server, he ignored us completely and just took off with the plates. Very cramped seating and table wise.

Worst Buffet i've been so far!avoid at all cost .dont waste your money.there's a lot of choices around the area,just dont eat here!

Absolutely awful Pressured on arrival to pay first, which was fine with us but the attitude of the staff was terrible, food is awful, definitely not piping hot by any means, chips very pale and cold, not a great selection, you are given one fork and one napkin, the chair I sat on was filthy, I had to sit on my jacket, I complained about all of the above but they were not interested just started shouting at us in front of customers, we ended up walking out after a few fork fulls of food, would never have went in if we had known this but we were rushed in and made pay before we had a chance to decide. Definitely not a good experience.

Been here at least four times now and I would say it’s one of the best Chinese buffets in London. It’s cheaper than most others and accepts card payment too; Something many Chinese buffets/restaurants don’t do. There are items here which I could definitely cook better myself at home like the fried rice for example, but the sweetcorn soup is the best. The Chinese woman with blonde hair who appears to be one of the owners has got a bit of an attitude. But the old Chinese man who appears to be her husband/partner is very smiley and polite; Something extremely unusual for Chinese people. Will keep coming back and would recommend

Ok for starters the waiters are nice and they lead to the table but there should be more choices of food and I don’t think the food is that great the chairs are very uncomfortable it’s very tight but there’s a nice aquarium but overall food isn’t good at all .

horrible selection of food chicken wasn’t fully cooked food was lukewarm closer to cold chips were stale rice was still crunchy roped into unlimited fizzy drink we stayed about 5 minutes and left because we felt sick 34€ for two 18 year olds to eat there and i’m genuinely sickened a week on that we even spent that much money next day my boyfriend and i both couldn’t stay off the toilet luckily there was two in the house . do not waste your money here , we much preferred the asian food from the market stalls and much cheaper

That something like this is even legal. Under no circumstances go there. Most disgusting food I've ever eaten!

Not much choice, don't go there with your children they won't like much... plastic plates... dessert: 3 slices of cake and half an apple floating in its juice... rarely seen such a low-end restaurant this price… in short, I absolutely do not recommend it!

Very low quality food. There is much better around.

The mayonnaise had hair on there when I went to check to refill and also my mrs has got food poisoning after eating from this place definitely will not be coming back and definitely not recommended.

On the main street in Camden. Its only advantage is the price, and possibly the aquarium and unlimited drinks For the rest, there is very little choice, many dishes are similar, even less choice for desserts, everything does not seem fresh Special mention for the unpleasant side of all the staff, a "prison door" at the cash register, the "waiters" don't know how to smile, push you to drop what you have on the plate, without apologizing, you send you away, and you leave the restaurant as soon as you swallow your last mouthful

If you are a Chinese friend, I suggest you not go there. I am quite disappointed. The price has increased to 13.9 pounds per person. When I went there, the ice cream machine was broken. There was no ice cream. There were only two kinds of fruits. There was only one kind of dessert and staple food. It’s also very average….

The rice and noodles don't taste like anything.

I agree with some of the other reviews about this place asking for payment before you eat, never seem this anywhere else before plus only take cash so obviously not paying tax. On last visit about 6 week's ago I could not finished the food on my plate, so politely asked if I could take it home but they refused and said no food must leave the premises and took my plate away and emptied into waste bin, so they would rather waste food then allow me to take what was left on my plate. Then was told the ice cream machine was not working so had nothing for pudding. Will not bother visiting again as price is now about 13.50 for the buffet, plus almost 3.00 for tea or soft drink, and not worth it when there is no ice cream either.

A horror!!!! Some of the worst Chinese food I've ever had. And the worst of all the service. Drinks are not included. I bought a can of Coke and used one of the glasses the waiter left on our table and another waitress literally ripped the glass out of my hand and emptied the coke into a bucket. I told him that I had paid for that Coca-Cola because it wasn't from the refilling machine. He didn't listen to me and it was an embarrassing situation in the middle of the restaurant screaming.

Went today with my daughter and my two friends my daughter is 9 and doesn’t like Chinese so I wasn’t going to her her one to b told by the man that I have to pay for her even tho she isn’t eating as I can’t be seen to give her food and also I wasn’t allowed to buy one drink for me as my Daughter wouldn’t b allowed to have a so he was extremely rude aggressive and mean. I asked where it says children cannot sit n the Restaurant if they r not eating he said no signs he was just pure rude will deffo not b going na k there

What can I say... the food, not much choice at all, and what was out was not hot but cold. Very disappointed especially for the grand price of £27!!!. On a safety note it was disturbing to see a fire exit blocked by bins and chairs definitely a health and safety factor and maybe a visit from the London fire brigade might be in order.

Unless you are starving and everything in the city is completely closed, I do not recommend eating at this place at all. To get by, it complies (just barely), but it is nothing more than a trap for tourists, who are the customers you will see in this place 🤷‍♂️ We went, but we will not return.

The meal was okay. The cleanliness left a lot to be desired. The plates were apparently only briefly rinsed under water after use and then put back in a stack, which meant that the undersides were still oily and dirty. This probably explains the low price offered there.

Went in with my daughter, pushed around place by staff, CASH ONLY, took 40 pound from the machine they have in store, with exchange rate should of been 46euro, it took 58 euro..when putting food on plate, woman that worked there pushed me over, started asking me if I had paid for my food..The food was freezing, the oil and grease in the curry sauce, was disappointing 😞.when we sat down an other woman was screaming in a man's face and pulling at his plate, while he was trying to eat, .she was looking for his receipts to prove thst he paid...No manner to run a business, say eat all you want and free refills, you get 1 hour at wk ends and 2 refills...please think twice before going in here...tgere are lots of nice places in the market or up high street

Food was bland the desserts was a let's down and sitting area very cramped won't be eating here again sorry

Old food and not worth the price for Camden town sona I don't recommend it sorry

Food it was ok. Reheated. Employees force us to pay cash instead of paying with debit or credit cards. This business is a scam. They make you withdraw money from the ATM that they have inside of the restaurant. You pay 13.90 pounds CASH. And you withdraw 20 pounds, and the ATM charges you 3.79 pounds fees additionally. Plus, they ask you for tips when you haven't even received a service. The waiter or waitress the pressure to finish your meal. They provide you with only one fork and one napkin on the table. When you ask for more napkins. The waiter brings you toilette paper to the table. Unacceptable. If you want a poor service, with extra fee because they only accept cash and be treated like you are in a rash. Please come to this all you can eat. MAX orient (with the dragon 🐉 outside of the building)

myself and son and 2 friends from USA went here for lunch. The staff were friendly and we were seated straight away. The food was lovely (as it has been every time I've eaten here), and there was a wide selection to pick from. The only downside was £2.80 for a can of fizzy drink!

This is the second time I have eaten at this Asian buffet. It has a fixed price for eating and then you can pay for individual drinks or an amount to drink unlimited soft drinks. Beer is not unlimited. There's a little bit of everything. Prawns, mussels, ribs, chicken, beef, vegetarian food... Fruit and sweets for dessert. It's a shame because the ice cream machine was broken. The other time we went it was in operation and the ice creams were very good. It's usually quite busy. The waiters are a little "dry", but the food is very good for the price in the area.

Great food, service and Atmosphere we will definitely re visit