Oh boy, grab your popcorn, friends, because it's storytime. 504 Lau & Noodle, that glittering jewel wedged between the equally 'inspiring' Left Restaurant and Right Restaurant, has given me an experience I just have to share. Consider this a public service announcement: your palate's most mortal enemy has been identified, and it's this establishment.Walking in, you can't help but notice the atmosphere--or rather, the lack thereof. The menus? Sticky. So sticky, I was half-tempted to peel one off the table and slap it on the wall to see if it would adhere. It's as if they were designed by someone who misunderstood the concept of Post-it Notes and thought, "Ah yes, semi-permanent adhesives for food lists--genius!"Then, you meet the chairs. Oh, what a meet-cute it was! Most eateries give you a side of bread or perhaps a mint; here, they prefer chunks of raw meat as a garnish. I had to check my watch to make sure it wasn't April 1st. Was I in a restaurant or the set of a low-budget horror film? Hard to tell.And now, let's move on to the magnificent spectacle that is the food. The seafood and meat must have been sourced from the depths of Antarctica, they were that frozen. The shrimp were so icy, I half-expected them to belt out a Broadway number about the joys of solitude. Even the iceberg lettuce seemed warmer by comparison.A special shoutout to the flies, though. If you're a fly and you're reading this, I want to congratulate you on your successful annual convention at 504 Lau & Noodle. No need for RSVPs; they've got your seat (and your feast) all set up! With vegetables so wilted they look like they've just received bad news, you're sure to feel right at home.The heat lamps? Oh, don't get me started. They're about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I inquired about the warmth of the food, and the staff treated me to a theatrical rendition of "Lifting the Lid." A moment so touching, it deserves its own Oscar category: Best Non-Performance in a Culinary Tragedy.Ah, but every dark cloud has a silver lining. In this culinary disaster, it was the sugarcane drink. It was so good it almost had me questioning my life choices--almost. Even the elderly lady who greeted me seemed to have that look of, "Oh honey, you have no idea what you're in for," which in hindsight, should have been the only review I needed to read.So, let's do some quick math: soul-crushing disappointment, garnished chairs, an entomologist's dream environment, a culinary world tour of Antartica, and Oscar-worthy non-performances from the staff--all for a mere $100. You could say it's a steal, but only if you're in the business of stealing joy from the human experience.In conclusion, would I recommend 504 Lau & Noodle? Absolutely--if your taste buds are on a quest for nihilism, or you're an undercover health inspector looking to hit the citation jackpot. Otherwise, steer clear. Don't say I didn't warn you. Bon appé-NO WAY-tit!
Adam Yin
Food could be more fresh and plates could be
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
Jeri L.
We at on the other side and not the buffet style side. I'm only back in California for a couple days and wanted hot pot so I went to this place. Delicious as always! When I lived here I always loved it. BUT do not buy the sugarcane here it taste weird other than that food is delicious and restaurant is very spacious.
Ashley B.
This place has a yummy hot pot. Approximately $25 will be a good large size hot pot. Half side is spicy, the other half is mild. They provide lots of veggies on a boat platter. I got the seafood platter. You can do all you can to eat also for $12/person. A good deal. Definitely recommend this place.
Tony Nguyen
Food was great. Everything was fresh and will be back soon. The hot pot and grill is good and well prepared. It's about 35 per person with out drinks. It's all you can eat beef and seafood.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Elon D.
I usually come here with my family. Food is good and they have cooked and uncooked for bbq and hot potHighly recommended for everyone but if you come in weekends or holidays, expect long delay.
Ira Wu
Grill and hotpot in one table. Love the sweet and sour soup. They have a lot of choices of seafood and meat. Can't stop eat the Kalbi together with the kimchi so delicious. Must try the Mango salad also.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Ruby C.
Came across this hidden gem on a Saturday night and I'm so glad we did! The AYCE hot pot and bbq is totally worth your money. There was no wait and the staff seated us right away. You serve yourself all the food yourself from the buffet bar in the back and their seafood selection is huge! It has tons of condiments as well to create a dipping sauce but the broth is so flavorful you don't even need it. The bbq comes with a small block of butter and putting that on the seafood is amazing as well. It's a huge restaurant so it is a bit loud but still an amazing place to try out! 10/10 recommend
Peter P.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this AYCE grill and hot pot buffet, or related to the owner in any way. I like AYCE buffets and have eaten here a few times in the last few yearsWent for lunch Tuesday, $20 AYCE seafood, shellfish, meats, deserts with both hot pot and grill. This place is fairly large with about 50 tables equipped with induction grills and hot pots, newly refinished, tables and seats are nice, clean, comfortable. The woman owner and her family have been operating this hot pot place a couple years. They were from the Mekong Delta. This is the typical food they ate there, lots of fish and shellfish grilled and poached. Unlike city people, they are country folks, so they tend to talk loud and sharp with heavy inflection and large gestures. They shocked me a little at first, but meant no offense and were friendly. There were 5 parties having lunch, about 15 people. We were seated quickly, individual hot pot for each of us were fired up and the grill started. Hot pots have 2 broths, beef Pho and mild tom yum.3 food counters serve up cooked shell fish and noodles, raw seafood and meats and veggies for hot pot, a counter with marinaded meats and seafood for the grill and one for rice, fried chicken drum sticks, deserts ect. Unlike my visits last year, this time the food selection is bigger. Food all looked fresh and tasted delicious. They actually serve a bigger and better selection of AYCE food for $20, compared to the $13 AYCE lunch pre CoVid.I took a couple plates of bright red sliced beef and pork, shrimp plus the snails, clam, mussels and razor clam stir fried in coconut juice, plus water cress, morning glory, Chinese green and herbs for the hot pot, also chopped clam fried in lemon grass. I also made a couple trips for marinaded beef, pork, shrimp, fish, calamari for the grill.Having both hot pot and grill with fresh ingredients made this meal far more delicious than the separate japanese shabu hot pot and Korean grill. The solid plate on the induction stove heated up very quickly. My beef and shrimp reached medium rare and were sizzling hot within 2 minutes. I removed the hot food and waited for them to cool down a few minutes before eating. They were still way too hot but also juicy. The grill and hotpot have easy control and adjustment on the table. I was able to adjust the heat to match my pace. The flat induction iron grill spreads heat evenly over the entire surface, allowed me to cook the meats to exactly juicy medium rare and consumed them sizzling hot. This is a big advantage over Korean BBQ's slotted dome grill over gas stove, which cooks unevenly and I was always grilling crisp, burned, overdone, tasteless meats. This place has huge ventilation hood over the grill which do its job well. After 1.5 hours lunch, I did not smell like grilled meats and smoke, unlike unpleasant odors that stick to me at other high-priced grills. Diners share the grill at the table but each has his own hot pot. It lets each cook his own food to his preferred doneness, prevents people from dipping their utensils in a common pot, makes it very convenient and polite in large companies. The tom yum is mild with chunks of ginger and lemon grass. You can add pepper oil to make it more Thai. The beef pho soup is very good. You can make a credible bowl of pho with the raw beef and noodles. The premixed dipping sauces were too sweet for my taste. A counter has a large variety of sauces and condiments so you can make your own favorite dipping sauce. This is a huge boost to the tastiness of the food, far better than other Shabu and grills. The place served a number of country drinks like sugar cane and coconut juices, but no beers or wines. You can bring your own and tip them extra. The $20 AYCE lunch was delicious and very good value, far exceeding my expectations. I was so full after 6 plates of food I had to give up deserts. This place is authentic the way Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta grill and poach their food, also the loud and sharp ways they talk. The same content would probably cost each person around $6
Nicole V.
Damn.... I was really hurt eating here today.. and felt like the money spent could have been spent somewhere else.. This is the first and the last time I'm dining here... the place is huge and all but very disgusting. Menus are sticky and not cleaned. Chairs have pieces of raw meats. My appetite was ruined the very moment I gotten the chance to personally grab my food. There was just so many flies flying everywhere and in the food.. the veggies was old looking and not fresh, I was also afraid to eat the raw fish or anything seafood related for the hot pot. I just wasn't so sure if anything out there was fresh to begin with. What's more upsetting is they have these commercial countertop warmer with lids over the food. I was hoping I can at least walk back to the table with food but every single item was cold... I even asked the young worker if anything here was warm. And all she did was lift up the lid for me LOL. Hope you guys can do better with the place.. my meal was about almost $100 that's including tip. The only thing I enjoyed most was my sugarcane drink and the old lady being very welcoming.
Love this place. Very large & roomy & clean inside. The veggies are very fresh, especially the rau muon❗ I love the oc & the marinated meats for the grilled. The price for dinner AYCE for both the grill& the hotpot is very decent. Highly recommended.
KAY KAY L.
Love this place. Very large & roomy & clean inside. The veggies are very fresh, especially the rau muon I love the oc & the marinated meats for the grilled. The price for dinner AYCE for both the grill& the hotpot is very decent. Highly recommended.
Vittoria Le
Checked off and won't be coming back although I understand there is a clientele for this kind of eatery.Price tag is definitely not worth the dingy, dirty, and sketchy environment and buffet-style foods available. There aren't tags or explanations for things and there's no way to ensure the raw and cooked foods are prepared or handled with separate, safe-serve guidelines.. especially since there are tons of tongs for both children and inattentive adults to just grab and drop whatever they want..Everyone leaving looks relatively content with their overall experiences but this doesn't disqualify stomach bugs or one-and-done guests.
Hmoob Yaaj
What can I say give it try you won't regret it. Good food with great taste
Dai Truong
Always a wonderful experience very polite staff good service high quality food best value for the dollar good deal for seafood $20 a person for lunch
Oh boy, grab your popcorn, friends, because it's storytime. 504 Lau & Noodle, that glittering jewel wedged between the equally 'inspiring' Left Restaurant and Right Restaurant, has given me an experience I just have to share. Consider this a public service announcement: your palate's most mortal enemy has been identified, and it's this establishment.Walking in, you can't help but notice the atmosphere--or rather, the lack thereof. The menus? Sticky. So sticky, I was half-tempted to peel one off the table and slap it on the wall to see if it would adhere. It's as if they were designed by someone who misunderstood the concept of Post-it Notes and thought, "Ah yes, semi-permanent adhesives for food lists--genius!"Then, you meet the chairs. Oh, what a meet-cute it was! Most eateries give you a side of bread or perhaps a mint; here, they prefer chunks of raw meat as a garnish. I had to check my watch to make sure it wasn't April 1st. Was I in a restaurant or the set of a low-budget horror film? Hard to tell.And now, let's move on to the magnificent spectacle that is the food. The seafood and meat must have been sourced from the depths of Antarctica, they were that frozen. The shrimp were so icy, I half-expected them to belt out a Broadway number about the joys of solitude. Even the iceberg lettuce seemed warmer by comparison.A special shoutout to the flies, though. If you're a fly and you're reading this, I want to congratulate you on your successful annual convention at 504 Lau & Noodle. No need for RSVPs; they've got your seat (and your feast) all set up! With vegetables so wilted they look like they've just received bad news, you're sure to feel right at home.The heat lamps? Oh, don't get me started. They're about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I inquired about the warmth of the food, and the staff treated me to a theatrical rendition of "Lifting the Lid." A moment so touching, it deserves its own Oscar category: Best Non-Performance in a Culinary Tragedy.Ah, but every dark cloud has a silver lining. In this culinary disaster, it was the sugarcane drink. It was so good it almost had me questioning my life choices--almost. Even the elderly lady who greeted me seemed to have that look of, "Oh honey, you have no idea what you're in for," which in hindsight, should have been the only review I needed to read.So, let's do some quick math: soul-crushing disappointment, garnished chairs, an entomologist's dream environment, a culinary world tour of Antartica, and Oscar-worthy non-performances from the staff--all for a mere $100. You could say it's a steal, but only if you're in the business of stealing joy from the human experience.In conclusion, would I recommend 504 Lau & Noodle? Absolutely--if your taste buds are on a quest for nihilism, or you're an undercover health inspector looking to hit the citation jackpot. Otherwise, steer clear. Don't say I didn't warn you. Bon appé-NO WAY-tit!
Food could be more fresh and plates could be
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
We at on the other side and not the buffet style side. I'm only back in California for a couple days and wanted hot pot so I went to this place. Delicious as always! When I lived here I always loved it. BUT do not buy the sugarcane here it taste weird other than that food is delicious and restaurant is very spacious.
This place has a yummy hot pot. Approximately $25 will be a good large size hot pot. Half side is spicy, the other half is mild. They provide lots of veggies on a boat platter. I got the seafood platter. You can do all you can to eat also for $12/person. A good deal. Definitely recommend this place.
Food was great. Everything was fresh and will be back soon. The hot pot and grill is good and well prepared. It's about 35 per person with out drinks. It's all you can eat beef and seafood.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I usually come here with my family. Food is good and they have cooked and uncooked for bbq and hot potHighly recommended for everyone but if you come in weekends or holidays, expect long delay.
Grill and hotpot in one table. Love the sweet and sour soup. They have a lot of choices of seafood and meat. Can't stop eat the Kalbi together with the kimchi so delicious. Must try the Mango salad also.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Came across this hidden gem on a Saturday night and I'm so glad we did! The AYCE hot pot and bbq is totally worth your money. There was no wait and the staff seated us right away. You serve yourself all the food yourself from the buffet bar in the back and their seafood selection is huge! It has tons of condiments as well to create a dipping sauce but the broth is so flavorful you don't even need it. The bbq comes with a small block of butter and putting that on the seafood is amazing as well. It's a huge restaurant so it is a bit loud but still an amazing place to try out! 10/10 recommend
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this AYCE grill and hot pot buffet, or related to the owner in any way. I like AYCE buffets and have eaten here a few times in the last few yearsWent for lunch Tuesday, $20 AYCE seafood, shellfish, meats, deserts with both hot pot and grill. This place is fairly large with about 50 tables equipped with induction grills and hot pots, newly refinished, tables and seats are nice, clean, comfortable. The woman owner and her family have been operating this hot pot place a couple years. They were from the Mekong Delta. This is the typical food they ate there, lots of fish and shellfish grilled and poached. Unlike city people, they are country folks, so they tend to talk loud and sharp with heavy inflection and large gestures. They shocked me a little at first, but meant no offense and were friendly. There were 5 parties having lunch, about 15 people. We were seated quickly, individual hot pot for each of us were fired up and the grill started. Hot pots have 2 broths, beef Pho and mild tom yum.3 food counters serve up cooked shell fish and noodles, raw seafood and meats and veggies for hot pot, a counter with marinaded meats and seafood for the grill and one for rice, fried chicken drum sticks, deserts ect. Unlike my visits last year, this time the food selection is bigger. Food all looked fresh and tasted delicious. They actually serve a bigger and better selection of AYCE food for $20, compared to the $13 AYCE lunch pre CoVid.I took a couple plates of bright red sliced beef and pork, shrimp plus the snails, clam, mussels and razor clam stir fried in coconut juice, plus water cress, morning glory, Chinese green and herbs for the hot pot, also chopped clam fried in lemon grass. I also made a couple trips for marinaded beef, pork, shrimp, fish, calamari for the grill.Having both hot pot and grill with fresh ingredients made this meal far more delicious than the separate japanese shabu hot pot and Korean grill. The solid plate on the induction stove heated up very quickly. My beef and shrimp reached medium rare and were sizzling hot within 2 minutes. I removed the hot food and waited for them to cool down a few minutes before eating. They were still way too hot but also juicy. The grill and hotpot have easy control and adjustment on the table. I was able to adjust the heat to match my pace. The flat induction iron grill spreads heat evenly over the entire surface, allowed me to cook the meats to exactly juicy medium rare and consumed them sizzling hot. This is a big advantage over Korean BBQ's slotted dome grill over gas stove, which cooks unevenly and I was always grilling crisp, burned, overdone, tasteless meats. This place has huge ventilation hood over the grill which do its job well. After 1.5 hours lunch, I did not smell like grilled meats and smoke, unlike unpleasant odors that stick to me at other high-priced grills. Diners share the grill at the table but each has his own hot pot. It lets each cook his own food to his preferred doneness, prevents people from dipping their utensils in a common pot, makes it very convenient and polite in large companies. The tom yum is mild with chunks of ginger and lemon grass. You can add pepper oil to make it more Thai. The beef pho soup is very good. You can make a credible bowl of pho with the raw beef and noodles. The premixed dipping sauces were too sweet for my taste. A counter has a large variety of sauces and condiments so you can make your own favorite dipping sauce. This is a huge boost to the tastiness of the food, far better than other Shabu and grills. The place served a number of country drinks like sugar cane and coconut juices, but no beers or wines. You can bring your own and tip them extra. The $20 AYCE lunch was delicious and very good value, far exceeding my expectations. I was so full after 6 plates of food I had to give up deserts. This place is authentic the way Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta grill and poach their food, also the loud and sharp ways they talk. The same content would probably cost each person around $6
Damn.... I was really hurt eating here today.. and felt like the money spent could have been spent somewhere else.. This is the first and the last time I'm dining here... the place is huge and all but very disgusting. Menus are sticky and not cleaned. Chairs have pieces of raw meats. My appetite was ruined the very moment I gotten the chance to personally grab my food. There was just so many flies flying everywhere and in the food.. the veggies was old looking and not fresh, I was also afraid to eat the raw fish or anything seafood related for the hot pot. I just wasn't so sure if anything out there was fresh to begin with. What's more upsetting is they have these commercial countertop warmer with lids over the food. I was hoping I can at least walk back to the table with food but every single item was cold... I even asked the young worker if anything here was warm. And all she did was lift up the lid for me LOL. Hope you guys can do better with the place.. my meal was about almost $100 that's including tip. The only thing I enjoyed most was my sugarcane drink and the old lady being very welcoming.
Restaurantji Recommends
Love this place. Very large & roomy & clean inside. The veggies are very fresh, especially the rau muon❗ I love the oc & the marinated meats for the grilled. The price for dinner AYCE for both the grill& the hotpot is very decent. Highly recommended.
Love this place. Very large & roomy & clean inside. The veggies are very fresh, especially the rau muon I love the oc & the marinated meats for the grilled. The price for dinner AYCE for both the grill& the hotpot is very decent. Highly recommended.
Checked off and won't be coming back although I understand there is a clientele for this kind of eatery.Price tag is definitely not worth the dingy, dirty, and sketchy environment and buffet-style foods available. There aren't tags or explanations for things and there's no way to ensure the raw and cooked foods are prepared or handled with separate, safe-serve guidelines.. especially since there are tons of tongs for both children and inattentive adults to just grab and drop whatever they want..Everyone leaving looks relatively content with their overall experiences but this doesn't disqualify stomach bugs or one-and-done guests.
What can I say give it try you won't regret it. Good food with great taste
Always a wonderful experience very polite staff good service high quality food best value for the dollar good deal for seafood $20 a person for lunch