I like Blue Pearl Buffet a lot. The price is very very good for the amount of food and the quality of food they provide. The selection of food is just incredible - cold, hot, vegetables, meat, sea food. Then they have this counter for fresh made soup noodle, and fresh stir fried dish with your own choice of ingredients. This is a great place to go for a family! read more

Last sunday I decided to set out in search of a Chinese buffet in the area. I was hoping to find something just general and americanized, but yelp was not really giving me a good read on anything in the area. I don't think I have seen so many bad reviews of a single type of restaurant on this site before. Deciding to settle for "least bad" of the group, I took a short drive down to Springfield to give this place a shot. First off, I just want to clarify. This place is pretty authentic. I mean, I think it's authentic. But then again, I definitely would not know what authentic is to begin with. So maybe that's a stupid statement. Regardless, this is not the Chinese buffet in your small town back home. The people who were eating here definitely knew what they were looking for. We came at 2 on a sunday thinking the lunch rush would have died down. Wrong, it was just getting going. Yes, they have general tso's. No, it's not that great. People don't come here for the general tso's, trust me. If you are looking for americanized stuff, you aren't going to find that much and should probably look elsewhere (where that is, I don't know). That said, Blue Pearl pleasantly surprised me with its variety, quality, and the comprehensive scope of its offerings. I am not sure if this is an everyday occurrance or if it was because I was there for sunday dinner, but there was a very broad selection of many types of dumplings, all of which I found to be delicious. Seafood was definitely at the forefront of the menu, with several preparations of clams, shrimp, whole grilled fish, little fried fish, frog legs, multiple types of crabs, and some baked fish heads which were really good. They also had a station where they would make pho and other soup for you, and some great barbecue. Because I'm not really experienced with authentic Asian food, there was definitely a novelty factor at play and a little bit of the "bizarre foods" thing going on for me which made it interesting. But at the end of the day, I could really see that this place has a strong emphasis on quality and puts a lot of effort into the preparation of their dishes. Also, I was really impressed by the efficiency of their operation given the incredibly high throughput they were achieving. The fact that they have a man with a microphone standing at the buffet tables barking out orders to the kitchen over a loudspeaker to let them know which dishes need to be refilled makes me very happy. read more

One word states the awful truth "Revolting" Not one food item was fresh, hot or eatable read more

Went here on Tuesday night with the entire family. I was hesitant at first because of past bad experience here. But my oh my, was I wrong. The food has gone downhill really really bad. I thought that food would be better because I have not been here in two years. Food was dry, salty and tasted like crap. You could tell that food has been sitting there for a very long time, maybe days old food that has been reheated over and over and then get served again. I will never go back to this place. read more

The people are nice, and you can get soup made, but the buffet food is a special kind of ick. I should have trusted the Yelp reviews!

I walked in with hungry-brain and immediately regretted it once I sat down. The temperature of all the food items were questionable. Some items on the steam line were just cold. The atmosphere was that of any other buffet - hood, and the wait staff were just your run-of-the-mill overworked busser types. Main point: the food was bad! Like really terrible. My organs think I hate them and I'm sure they'll exact their revenge without warning....glad we have two bathrooms... read more

My Fiance and a friend of ours decided we wanted to eat a this buffet on June 11,2014. As we got our food we noticed the plates were oily and filthy. The food was ice cold and we demanded a refund. The managers excuse was they were just changing over from lunch. There ice cream freezer had gallons of ice cream opened with a scooper which to me I felt was unsanitary. I was not impressed with this buffet and would not recommend it to anyone. It upset my stomach pretty badly. Horrible place! read more

Good for Amerasian buffet. Lots of fresh selections. The steamed fish was the best. Good service and nice atmosphere.

Chinese buffets are hit or miss. This was a big miss. I got there at 7:30 and everything I tried was ice cold. I tried a bunch of items but never had more than 2 bites of anything. Shrimp was way over cooked , chicken was chewy, everything was greasy, and half the ice cream containers were scraped empty. Best thing there was the iced tea. I left after less than 15 minutes still hungry. Don't bother with this place. read more

Call me crazy, but I love this place. I probably come here 6 times a year. I love the overcooked fried squid, sushi, fresh crystal cake. Not too many Caucasians or African Americans go here, mostly Latino and Asian immigrants go here for some reason. I always noticed that about Asian buffets around here, strange. It's a lot better than Green Olive on Route one. read more

So, after reading some other reviews, I decided to give Blue Pearl a second chance. One other reviewer hit the nail on the head: the reason to go to this place is dim sum. They do it well, and the selection is huge. I could make an entire meal out of the huge variety of dim sum available. I also enjoyed the stuffed crabs. The rest of the seafood is a little outside my comfort zone... I can't bring myself to eat a crawfish with the spindly little legs still attached, and I'm not big on fish in general. But the stuffed crabs are good, so if you like seafood, I'm reasonably confident the rest will be palatable as well. Just make sure to avoid the Americanized dishes, like General Tso's, and the noodle soup. Dear god, avoid the noodle soup. read more

My family used to come here quite often, but we haven't gone here in over a year... We came on a Saturday night and the place was pretty much empty.. There were around 4 tables. Well.. Guess we should had figured out why, but since it was late and it was raining outside, we decided to stay. The food was old, greasy and hardly much left to eat....The waitress was rude; when I asked her can i get some fresh pepper, she told me to go to the soup area to ask the guy behind the counter for some..We left there pretty hungry and pissed- We definitely will not go back to this place again!!! I hate to give any restaurant only 1 star, but that is what this restaurant truly deserves!!! read more

After raving about this place, I have had a change of heart after finding a HUGE cockroach on the floor next to the food. It was half-dead....two legs were twitching. Absolutely disgusting!!! And I'm wondering why after a week the soft-serve ice cream machine is still "out of order". The food is mediocre towards the latter part of the afternoon. My recommendation is to go when they first open. I'm still grossed out. EEEWWW!!!!! read more

4 stars, but relative to other Chinese buffets in the area. I have much higher standards to grant a $13 buffet meal an absolute 4 stars. :) It is probably the best Chinese buffet in the DC Metro area. Same owner as Bamboo Buffet, but this place has warm soy milk, soft tofu to eat with ginger sauce, and a wider selection of desserts. There are also fresh blue crabs, which I love. Why cough up $40 or more for a crab shack feast when you can have unlimited blue crabs here? Seriously, if you love crabs, go here. The other seafood is well....just OK. Oysters are sometimes there, but you have to be quick. Surprisingly, though, that barbaric/"I will pile all seafood in sight on my plate even though there are 15 people behind me" mentality isn't as bad here as it is at Peter Pan or Bamboo Buffet. I think Peter Pan is the worst and China King in Woodbridge is the best when it comes to sharing. Anyway, back to Blue Pearl, I think the soup section should be avoided at all costs with the exception of the hot and sour soup. If you want decent pho at a buffet, go to Peter Pan. If you want snow crab legs, go to China King on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday though their other food (except pho) is not so great. Seriously, $13 for unlimited snow crab legs is a fabulous deal. Do you really need a serving of sweet, overly fried chicken? Like I said, who needs crab shacks? :) Like other buffets, it's ~$9 and ~$13 for weekdays and weeknights/weekends, respectively. Dinner starts at 4 p.m., FYI. Oh, and to the person complaining about crab rangoons and "cream cheese wontons." I suggest you explore authentic Chinese food and then reassess Blue Pearl. Crab rangoons are not, by any means, authentic and definitely should not be used to evaluate a Chinese restaurant. Just a friendly suggestion. :) read more

This is a cheap Chinese buffet with American and Sushi thrown into the mix. They have a large selection of low quality food. If you like quantity over any sort of quality, this place is for you. I've been to better Chinese buffets in the area. read more

this place is GOOD. i mean REAL GOOD. they have everything you can think of what ever u want they got it come here if u like buffets good place A+ read more

Yep, it's dirt cheap. The food is quite fine. Judging from the price, I thought there would be quite a few dishes available, but there is actually a variety. Their chicken dishes are good. There is one fish dish which is disgusting. Lol. Shrimp is nice, dimsum is nice, steamed cake and sushi are nice too. It is good there are not many fried dishes so you will not be full very fast. Service is not great. If you stay too long, they will stare at you! The restaurant is pretty crowded. Expect to have a really big meal! You will be full to the point you find it difficult to walk! read more

I think some of you are being a little harsh on this place. You have to remember at the end of the day it's a cheap buffet. Where else can you go to get a wide selection of hot foods and eat as much as you want for $9 (lunch)? And that includes a soft drink too! The food isn't Top Chef quality but it's certainly edible. I probably wouldn't crave this place if I'm feeling a buffet but I would definitely come back if I were super hungry and in the area. I personally prefer to pay $17-20 for better quality and with seafood. But now we're talking $$$ instead of $ or $$. To the person saying there were no Asians in the restaurant, I'm Asian myself and there were a few other tables of Asians in here. Also your theory is wrong as most of these cheap Chinese buffets are geared toward non-Asians anyway. Asians who want authentic Chinese just go to a Chinese restaurant, not a buffet. read more

It's a very stuffy environment. It feels unclean. Everything, the seats, the tables, feel sticky. The food is not fresh. It's oily, unappealing, and there wasn't much variety. You get what you pay for. Will not be going back. The only thing that was somewhat okay was the Pho. read more

This place was alright it certainly wasn't the best. The Ice cream is practically hidden, there's little to no meat on the ribs and the food isn't all that fresh. The server that I had was nice which is good. The decorations and stuff are nice even though they don't look much for a Chinese place. Overall for me, I'm fine not going back here, since this place isn't really all that good for me in my perspective. read more

The buffet wasn't too bad... there were a lot of selections, and I saw coconut shrimp (it was labeled cream shrimp, that seemed sketchy), but it was really good... Pho, bbq, vegetable skewers, crab, oysters... they were pretty delicious as well...I wasn't a fan of their available dim sum/dumplings, and the watermelon was old... but all in all it was OK. I'll go back and try more stuff and hopefully I'll have a better review than this. But for now, my first experience in this restaurant wasn't horrible. read more

Blue Pearl is ok. It is satisfactory for me as far as buffets. It's not bad, but not great. As you enter you are bombarded with pictures...mostly children. You would think Dateline NBC is trying to catch a predator up in this piece. lol. Food wise, there are other buffets in the DMV where you get more variety. Trust me, I'm a connoisseur of this shiiiiiiit. lol. This place though gets the job done if you are hungry and want to eat. Favorites at this one are the dumplings and the stuffed crab shells. Three stars. read more

My boyfriend and I were kicking ourselves for going here even after reading the reviews, never again!! There was little to no options, and what they did have was not great. My second plate consisted of corn and that was probably canned which is why I liked it. read more

Small cockroach in the soup. Need I say more? The manager went off trying to explain what could have potentially happened and blamed the packaged noodles. Gave me a refund of one dinner (there were 11 of us) and a gift certificate for one free dinner. I threw it away. I don't understand why she thought I would ever take my family there again. $15 didn't cover it. If I were the manager, I would have gone above and beyond and refunded the whole cost of the check. I bet she doesn't feed her family cockroaches. read more

We went there after a movie. It was a buffet so we paid before we started eat. The food was barely OK. Then we found out we didn't have cash for tip. We were quite embarassed and told the waitress we were sorry. Then what the waitress did really shocked us. She demanded our credit card and brought us back to the cashier to add the tip. We paid the tip with the card. It was not much money. But the demanding attitude from the waitress really turned us off. Definitely no interest to go back. read more

I rarely complain about a place but this lunch buffet was terrible. I'll have to say we only tried the more Americanized dishes as the others didn't look appetizing to us. Even the drinks tasted weird. We all left full plates & hungry. I hate, hate, hate to waste food but this was that bad to me. Usually my kids eat any sweet & sour or general tsos chicken but they couldn't eat any of it. Really dissappointing as I've been hoping to find a good chinese buffet. The only positive was that it was cheap & there were lots of diners there that seemed to be enjoying their meals, unfortunately just not us. read more

This place freaking stinks! I don't like paying that much usually, but i don't mind cause my wife can eat a lot! But she couldn't here - 'cause the food is terrible! This place is wonderful if you don't like drinking liquids with your food! It must cost more than I thought it did to pour water in a glass! It costs WAY TOO MUCH for what it is! I always get the hibachi grill at Asian buffets, but the raw ingredients looked old and wilted which goes right along with everything else I found there...old dumplings,old desserts, old vegetables(as my wife say- "everything old"). Now I was raised with southern manners- you always tell a waitress thank you when she brings you something...and it's proper manners to respond back.............with SOMETHING! Even a nod or grunt will do. The place is full of waitresses with NO PEOPLE SKILLS! My father's advice in a situation like this is to leave a penny or so for a tip, so they will know you didn't forget, yet that was too much for them this time! My wife said the best thing here was the cut up splices of orange. We can't wait to get back to Ni Hao in Greenville, South Carolina! We've got some real Chinese people workin. They've got excellent food at a much better price, pretty waitresses(there were none at B.P.buffet), and these young ladies know how to serve a customer! It'll be worth the drive y'all! read more

This place has really gone down hill. Not worth the effort. Too expensive for so little.

I'm surprised nobody got diarrhea. You pay up front before you see the food. Can you say SCAM?! I asked the lady if they offered a military discount. Instead of politely saying they didn't. She scoffed at me and rolled her eyes! So rude and unfriendly. Never again! read more

This place was absolutely terrible and not to mention overpriced to boot. The crab legs were so dry and light when I cracked them I swear I could see dust. I don't understand why anyone would eat at this place let alone pay overpriced charges to do so. read more

This place was very busy and has limited parking. I thought the buffet prices were a little high, but the amount of choice was ridiculous. They have a huge buffet with lots to eat. Later i recieved a stomache ache, but that could be because I ate way to much food. Great place for variety, but if you plan on avoiding the crowd and saving money, this is not the place for you. read more

The rating that I am giving is comparing them to other chinese buffet in the area, Bamboo Buffet, Peter Pan Buffet, King Buffet, etc. Out of all the buffet places in the area, Blue Peal is the best. In my opinion it has better food and more variety compare to the other restaurants. I personally love the crawfish and the stuffed crab shell. The price is average compares to other places and the service is decent. They make sure your drink is filled and the plates you are done with are put away. Overall, this place has decent food for decent price. read more

I am picky about what I want to see at a Chinese buffet. Deep fried shrimp, crab legs, frog legs, crab heads, fish, and some other junk. This is the place. It is one of my favorite buffets in nova for sure. I eat here all the time with my family and they love it too. If you want to pig out, come here and try it out. read more

I have to says that the food here was awful. The food tasted bad and old. I really didn't find anything I liked on the buffet, and in general i'm a pretty easy guy to please. And the thing is that its a bit pricey for a lunch buffet. I can assure you one thing, i'm never going here again. read more

eeww...it was $18.97 for two people which is expensive for lunch, I think. We were there around 2:00 and I'm always weary about these kinds of places and for a good reason. The food was gross looking, I tried a couple different things and they were pretty much tasteless...my boyfriend spit out the General Tso's chicken in his napkin. I mean how can you screw up hot and sour soup. And when you don't see Asian people eating at an Asian restaurant that should be a huge heads up... read more

Food seems old i think the only thing i likes was the ice cream. Also, i could have been dying of thirst and they will never know from "all the times" they walk by. read more

For a Chinese buffet, this place is decent. I mean again you can only compare this to other buffet establishments. They have a decent amount of seafood variety which is nice since I am a huge seafood lover. It gets pretty busy so the food is always fresh. A lot of people seem to like the sushi, but I can't do it. It's just not a tasty as Japanese restaurant sushi. Overall, it's decent and good to come here if you have a lot of people with you that just want all different things. read more

Based on mixed reviews my husband decided he wanted to eat there anyway.He is not hard to please when it comes to food however this is probably the first time we did agree on food because he said it was the worst food he had ever had and for me one star is too much. I will never forget that God awful taste of that chicken wing.overall I give it a big O.. read more

The food quality here is as expected of any chinese buffet...mediocre. Although they do offer a good selection of seafood! I've been here many times and the service is spotty. They're on point with clearing tables, but refills are another story. read more

This is the worst Chinese buffet I've ever experienced. It was disgusting food and dirty.