This was my first time at the restaurant. My relatives have been here before for another gathering but I wasn't able to attend at the time. You can't miss the restaurant. We came to the restaurant for my grandma's birthday gathering. The parking lot was full by the time we got there so we had to park on the side street. The place is pretty spacious. We had the room for larger parties though it seemed that there was not enough chairs as guests came in. The waiter/waitress were nice. The waitress came to ask us if everything was alright. The food selection looked pretty good and well stocked. It's pretty clean too. The food was decent but better compared to other buffets I've been. The sushi tasted fresh. They also had 7 selections of ice cream (instead of the normal ice cream machine). I've seen a buffet with icky ice cream scooper that were not clean but they kept their utensils clean. My mom ordered tea and instead of getting a tea kettle for the hot water, she got her own Thermos. Looks like we will be coming back here for family birthday gatherings. read more

Had a lunch date with the sis before she left (this was last month some time, late review). Anyway it was decent. Place is clean. On the napkin dispenser it says they charge you for food you don't eat...somehow we escaped that phenomenon. Lol. Yay. Good food overall...I've gone twice. Both times were decent. read more

This place is really bad. The owner of this place constantly verbally abuses and yells at his employees. After I was served by the cashier, the boss sits next to the food being served and begins to cough all over it (the food that was going to be served to customers). He was told to stop by another customer and he did not care. He does not care about the mask mandate and rarely wares it. He does not take covid precautions seriously. Makes me wonder what he does to the food behind closed doors. Disgusting. read more

Not a bad place. For all buffets, I highly recommend sampling a little of everything before grabbing a buttload of something. Anyway... My friends and I came here on a Sunday for lunch and man, the line was out the door! We weren't going to go somewhere else though(the rain was making us lazy). Turns out the line moved really quick! we were seated within 5 minutes. It didn't even seem that long since they had the 49ers game on. The food was a hit or miss. The crab here was a bit try and the meat was hard to take out. The battered shrimp was my favorite, crispy and flaky, something you would expect elsewhere and not at a buffet. I didn't try the sushi because there weren't many selection, but their noodle bar was excellent! They had different types of meat and veggies for you to make your noodle with. They really know how to deep fry here and if thats what you like, then this is a good place for it. Also, they have a small carving station which was good. A few other goodies: creme puffs were okay, not bad. The self served ice cream seemed like a bad idea, but the chocolate didn't have ice crystal and seemed fresh. Cocktail shrimps was good too. All and all, not a bad place to come if you want a cheap buffet dinner. Be warned though, they charge $1.20 for soda! they tricked me! read more

If you go to Century Buffet and only eat seafood... you might say this is the best oriental buffet possible. Not for their cocktail shrimp, not prawns, not snow crab, not sea bass, not the many entrees with seafood (although those are all very good... --- FOR THE RAW BAR!! At Century Buffet, you get your money's worth with your first plate of Sushi and Sashimi. You're not dreaming... five star sashimi at a buffet!! Definitely try the oysters on a half shell, also. We don't go to any other buffet since discovering this gem. read more

Used to have crab. Sometimes yes or no. It's East Oakland so if you come out on a Sunday and plan on drivin... You might get blocked off during a sideshow in the intersection. But you already know if you from the town. Free entertainment if you ask me but what do i know. Food is pretty good for the price though. Basic buffet. read more

Adult Lunch: 7.99 (8.99 weekend) Adult Dinner: 11.99 (12.99 weekend) Pros/cons: All you can eat with a ton to choose from - including pizza!(weird - but I'm not saying I wasn't tempted). 8 Different ice cream flavors and a table of other yummy desserts, sushi bar - sashimi was yummy/rolls were old, make your own chow mein bar, big pieces of fried fish, oysters, shrimp, chicken and (fill in the blank) and all the yummy soups and Chinese comfort foods you love. Don't forget drinks are NOT free..save on the calories and get water; ) read more

I see why this place only gets two and a half Stars. The bathrooms are dirty and disgusting ice cream is a mess (See photos)and the place is not clean. Food is not bad and if you like to eat a lot and like seafood this may be the place for you. Good deal if you eat here on a weekday $11 all you can eat all day. read more

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Great place to go to eat all you can eat crab or lobster or snow crab it varies day to day after 3:30 pm yeah its 15.00 but where else are you going to all of the varieties of fish and steak ,ribs fresh sushi,and Asian dishes that they have to offer my family loves this place every since they opened ive been a fan no more red lobster for me they open at 11am why go get a freaking burger and fries when you can come here for 8.99 and get all you can eat oh yeah 4 Big screens tv on the wall so you can watch the game while you eat parking lot in the rear with plenty of cameras so you could see your car while you eat on their cctv monitor on the wall read more

NYC Buffet - Buffets Near Me - Oakland, California

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I gave 4 stars mainly for location and for at times,a slow turn around on items. I've been to three of these buffets in the east bay, Fortuna in DT Oakland, Lees Garden in Hilltop Mall and this Century which confused me as it's name it almost the same as New Century Buffet in El Cajon CA. As far as quality, I found it to be th highest of all I've mentioned above. Only Onami which is no longer in the Bay Area is really any better. The others are not only bad in quality of food but they are less classy in that 1. you pay before you eat and the biggest issue 2. They have sings telling you how long you can stay before you get charged again and if you waste anything they'll charge you by the pound. Century Buffet does none of that! They seat you and take your drink order and have no hostile signage. This and the food is better than those other places. For those looking for 5 star restaurant quality, be serious, it's a buffet in east Oakland. However it's better than similar places in Downtown Oakland or Hilltop Richmond. My suburban girlfriend who has eaten at many good places has commented on the quality of this buffet positively. read more

It has everything you think you'd want at a buffet and more. There is tons of food. It is always refilled. All the staff is really nice. The shu mai was okay, but only after the second batch came out. I'm pretty sure they changed brands during the night. Anyway, the stuff seafood is okay, but it's stuffed with all fake seafood. Still good though. There's lots of meat. Tons of meat. There's also pizza, but it looks pretty gross. One thing to note, be prepared if you get the build your own plate, the sauce makes it pretty salty. I couldn't even eat it. Maybe I was pretty full at plate 5, but still. For $12.99, this place could be an option in the future. read more

I would rave about this buffet to strangers who are first time dining in asking about my opinion and to friends and family when they wanted decent buffet food. This place has a good variety of cuisines from American, Japanese, Chinese, seafood, fruits, baked goods and ice cream. When I'm not in the mood to dine it, I just pick up a container, pack my favorites or cravings and head on home to devour it. One of last 2 incidents, I believe the owner who is a middle-aged balding Asian guy, went up to the counter where my container of food was getting weighed and re-opened the container not trusting his staff to correctly charge me by the weight based on the contents. Guess he wanted to make sure she charged me for seafood and regular food and not just regular food without seafood. A bit annoyed, I'm like, OK whatever! Second incident, craving their juicy, tender ribs, I walked in with my son, grabbed a container for both of us and went about our merry ways. First stop, I went to the rib dish and was tearing the meat off the bone with the tong. In my head, I'm not going to pay for the weight of the bone. I have always taken the meat off. This time, the owner must have saw me doing it, not like I was trying to hide it, and rushed up to me raising his voice telling me with his broken English to not do that. I looked up in horror. Why did he have to raise his voice and cause a commotion in front of his staff and other customers dining in? I told him that I wasn't going to pay for the weight of the bone. Him not thinking I understood him, yelled for a younger staff member to tell me what he was trying to say. His staff looked scared, shook his head in disbelief, walked over to me and explained to me that they'll have to charge me $2 more per pound since I'm taking the meat and leaving the bone. I said OK, I understand. My son came up to me at this point, I took both our containers, left it at the food counter and walked out. How rude and disrespectful must you be to humiliate me in the middle of your restaurant? Was there no way of being more polite? Was it necessary to raise your voice as if I was at the other end of the buffet? I AM NEVER GOING BACK! Lost my patronage for good! Here's to lowering your rating! read more

The food isn't bad at all, my sister loved the lobster! I enjoyed their stuffed mini mushrooms the best.. went back for those a couple times! We came around 7:30pm, there still was a big selection however the chow mein had crunchy stale noodles & some of the food had been sitting so long, the oil soaked at the bottom. The sushi was good, I skipped on the Mongolian BBQ. The ice creams are in those serve-yourself tubs with about 6 flavors. The place itself appears old.. the restaurant was dirty, the carpets smelled like that at a skating rink or Chuck E Cheese! $15.99 for dinner buffet seems pricey, but they're really nice staff & have a lot to choose from read more

I hate this place. It's filthy and disgusting. I can't even put my elbows on the table. I noticed around the restaurant was a ton of food.. I assumed from the buffet. This food was nasty, like it came out of the dumpster. Speaking of the dumpster, it's really visible and unattractive...and right next to the parking lot. Usually restaurants would hide the dumpster but there it was. I'm pretty sure I saw a dead rat near it. The parking lot is also dirty. Literally everywhere I stepped I had to look down to see if I was stepping on crap. When we were seated, we noticed the crap on the chair so we asked one of the waiters to clean it up. He asked someone else to do it. Another waiter wiped it and left. But he left the chair wet. So we just had to go grab another one. Being a clean freak I didn't want to look down..because when I did there was food, utensils, napkins, and what not all over the floor. I also noticed that they take a while to clean the tables. This other family had a problem with a table they were seated with; it was dirty. They couldn't move because all the other tables weren't cleaned yet. And this one was somewhat clean. They waited patiently until a waiter passed by so they could ask him to clean it. He wiped it, like how the waiter who wiped our chair, but he didn't dry it, so they dried the table themselves with napkins. I guess the only good thing about this buffet is that there's a varied amount of selections of food. And it tastes..better than average (just a bit) This place is so dirty though, I was cautious when eating because I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bug cooked in the food or something. read more

*This place drops to 1.5- 2 stars at night time* Decent buffet for the price, but definitely go during lunch or at least not too close to closing time... All the times I've eaten there I noticed a distinct drop in food quality towards the later business hours... For some reason everything seems grosser all around lol. Definitely not worth going there at that time and having to pay more for the dinner buffet too. in general the service is usually good, the people friendly, the food surprisingly good if you go at the aforementioned times, and the atmosphere also surprisingly nice. Make a long story short, I'd only go back or recommend people go around lunch time otherwise there are better Chinese buffet options elsewhere. read more

This is a fairly large, popular buffet place, the more crowded and busy it is, the faster their food inventory turns over and gets replenished, no one wants to go to an unpopular buffet where the food just sits there, being pushed around by its workers to keep it from looking old and drying out. I tried calling first, but no one answered the telephone. Upon entering, wait to be seated of the greeter, assigning a table. A waiter/waitress will come by to take your drink order. I asked for water, but after I drank up my water, they didn't offer to refill it. The food selection choices are fairly good Monday-Saturday 11am - 3:30pm USD 8.99, 3:30pm-10pm USD 13.99, Sundays & holidays USD 14.99. Prices are lower for children by age up to 10 years old, age 11and older are charged same as adult. There's seafood of calimari/squid, clams, fish, mussels, salmon, shrimp; sushi, cook to order station, fruit station of fresh fruits/canned lychees, General Tsao's Chicken, pizza. I did find some of their fish and meat dishes overcooked and the fish and meat dry not juicy. The siu mai was overcooked, dry, been too long at the steam table. There are signs stating not to waste food and that you would be charged by weight for food wasted/uneaten. I wouldn't like to eat something I picked and found out after tasting it that I didn't like it. So best to just take a small sample to taste it first. I've observed at another lunch buffet a customer wasting almost half what they gathered on mutiple plates where the waitress said nothing to discourage such waste/uneaten food on repeated visits. I would have made them paid or refuse to serve the individual outright The seasonal fresh fruits are great, during the summer there's sweet juicy watermelon, and fresh cut mango. But their dessert station is their weak spot, not the best choices, creme puff with no real whipped cream, better to leave off the fake stuff. The staff was slow at picking up my used plate, so I bused my own plate a few times when I was done, but got intercepted by someone glaring down at me on my last plate, probably an overlord of waste. And I ate way too much and felt better afterwards walking back home. read more

Uhhhhh you get what you pay for! The place is bust down and so not clean. The food looks pathetic and tastes so sad. I mean if you're just hungry and on a budget cause lunch is $11.20 go for it reason why I came. But man eating In here just makes me wanna go to TOMI BUFFET! I asked for 7 up they gave me this carbonated water. And the food is soooo not fresh. Lord. read more

Omg they be buying old meat from a store my cousin work at she told me lucky I only went to eat crabs sooooo everybody please don't got eat over there if y'all eating meat read more

This is by far the worst buffet I have ever been to! Horrible food nasty bathrooms and terrible service! For me and my mom it was $60 that is too expensive and for horrible food too read more

Cons: Rude service from reception to end 1. Usually, the ones hosting or cashiering are relatives of the owner. Still, they don't even care to show a smile at the entrance. In other words, they don't give a damn if you come or not. 2. After paying, the waiter would not bring back your change if it is less than $5 --thinking that he can keep it by saying 'thank you' repeatedly. So you have to ask him to return the $4 change for a $15 buffet. Well, he doesn't like that! The next time you come, he remembers you and would not serve you with pleasantness. 3. If you ask to seat other than where the host wanted, he (yes, some dude who rotates with hosting and putting out food) will show you a face. 4. No 'thank you' from waiter, host, cashier, or any staff upon leaving. They don't give a crap. Pros: Can't think of any; except there is food here. read more

This place is disgusting!!!! Dishes are dirty looks like they haven't swept, EVER. The tables and seats were covered in old food and God knows what elseI ate there and got sick to my stomach because I'm pretty sure the food was old and contaminated. read more

Poor customer service , disgusting and dirty , there were flies all around the food .

Above average place with good value and a wide selection of foods. Their service is pretty good and everything was flavorful. I would recommend this place to others. read more

Century buffet is normal standard meh- Chinese fare. It's like going to a cheap chinese take-out place but you get to sit down and have a larger selection. I actually think it went up in price recently, which really makes it a bad buy but it's probably to accommodate the rising cost of food. They do have a parking lot in the back and get relatively busy during some peak eating hours. I think it's a nice place to go for a cheap lunch buffet but don't expect any top-notch food or to be blown away by anything. The place is here for a quick lunch fix with a variety of food not to impress your date! read more

They have a Mongolian barbecue at this place. We actually saw them take a plate with raw meat and vegetables, cook the food, give us attitude when we asked for sauce, and then plate the cooked food in the same plate that has raw meat in it. When we complained about this to the manager, we were met with annoyance and indifference. This is not sanitary, people. They were actively contaminating the whole restaurant and didn't give a crap. If you like the food, great. Just be aware of the fact that this was the conduct of cooks in front of the customers. Imagine what goes on in the kitchen. We have already reported this restaurant to the health inspectors and the BBB. We don't want these people to be shut down but unless a regulatory body tells them what they're doing wrong, this behavior won't stop. read more

YUCK!!!! Dirty towels, non-sanitation.. Almost look like the plates, tables, all utensils had been wiped down with a towel saturated in yesterdays pile of greasy dinner ware. Staff is unorganized and very rude, they are only nice to huge families who they will suspect will tip them.. Heres a type when working in food service "treat all customers with the same equal dignity and respect" We were probably the only ones in this night asked to pay first because my husband is a bigblack dude, they didnt offer him refills or take his used dishes. Wtf? But you looked me square inmy eyes and asked me, I would have caused a scene but I had a long day. They also let regulars in the back door, but everyone else has to walk around.. Never again, they let children run free in this buffet restaurant wtf?? People had to try to avoid these kids, this place will have a law suit probably in the near future.. Also a customer sitting next to me reminded me to watch my car because a customer the night before had therecar stolen... Tf??? This is in the east but shit there actually way way better joints to take the familia... read more

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First time here. The experience was a good one. The food is good. I didn't get to try the grill stir fry. But it looked really good. I will be back. The one think that was kinda a "ewwww really" to me was the carpet was FILTHY. Kinda gross. It's needs a extreme deep cleaning. read more

Gross place, look at review about rodent in the restaurant, and food all over the steam table line , don't like this restaurant is located at Oakland . Restaurant should sellingthe food don't know why are they getting any permit to sell fruit by front door ? Weird , and need health department find out why ? read more

DON'T EAT HERE!!!! SPOILED FOOD. Girlfriend ate bad eggs here and the staff didn't care a bit at all. I informed them my girlfriend is still breastfeeding as we have a four month old. I wanted it to go on record and the girl called her boss laughing while talking to her. Her boss didn't care. They didn't even compensate our plate. What a shame I used to love coming here but no more.... read more

If I could get this place 0 stars I would..This place is terrible the food tastes old...the chicken to The Mongolian BBQ was so thin it is questionable if its chicken or not I would say NOT! Stay clear of this place nothing tastes Fresh whatsoever! read more

First of all, if there was such a thing as 0 star, I would give this restaurant one. Decor: For a fairly new grand opening restaurant with a nice chandelier, this place looks like a dump. The carpets are heavily stained as if they took the carpet from the last owner. The white walls are already dirty. The trim work is poor at best. It was my first sign this place should be avoided but I had to be sure the food was just as terrible and it was. Service: The service is fairly good. The waiter was friendly and good about bringing drinks and clearing dishes. The Garbage (I mean food): For the first time, I could stop myself from eating. I tried almost everything and it was pretty poor. For example, the clams in black bean sauce was bland and the sauce was watery. The sushi was not very fresh. the chicken stick was tough. We found hair in the soup. The Korean short rib was sinewy. The three things that were acceptable was the shrimp salad which is very close to Mexican cerviche with cocktail sauce, the seafood stuffed crab and the sauteed shrimp with vegetables. In addition to the food mentioned, they do have soup, salads, ham, hot links, fruits, desserts and a cooked to order noodle bar. Overall: One observation was the number of hispanic and african american patrons. All which seem to enjoy the food. However, to me, it was garbage and I know I could have cooked it better myself and it would be healthier and safer. Good luck if you brave the yucky buffet. read more

This place is in my hood, so I stopped on the hope that some gem was just being unearthed. In stark contrast, I had just had a snack at Heaven's Dog, before jumping on BART to come home. Oh, cruel fate, why dost thou mock my snacking whims? Of all the things I can think of that would be appropriate to be done in a mediocre way, then left out for hours at a time, seafood would be last on that list. I suppose at a buffet service is not a high priority, but even given that, I was still impressed by the almost comical treatment I received. There's some novelty in being open until 11pm, but the price per head ($12) is definitely not worth it for the quality you get. Unless, of couse, you measure quality by mere physical existence, or perhaps your idea of edible is being anything warmer than room temperature? If it were actually cheap, or open all night, I could see some drunken, bargin hunting value in this place. Similarly, if you typically buy 3 or 4 rounds of meh Chinese food, you might find yourself in hog heaven as you waddle into the acres of heat lamp glory, with mouth agape, fork at the ready. For normal people with any standards at all, this place is a pass. read more

I had probably been there at least 4 times and tried most of the Sushi, seafood, BBQ, fruits, salads and used various ingredients to make my chow mein at the noodle bar. I think the foods are great (thus the 4 or more times) and very affordable price. My nieces and nephews love to go there and my folks are very happy with the price. I had been to many buffets before and this is the one that I would want to take my family back :) I wished they had the text coupons earlier. By the way, you can get discount coupons by texting "century" to 41242. The only thing that I might complain about is that some times they can't get the seafood out fast enough because people are so fast emptying them . read more

Two words: food and filthy. Not sure how that goes together well. Make your own conclusions.

I was reading the bad reviews for this place but I have to admit, I go here often. My personal reasons for going here are, I'm vegetarian and they have just enough meat-free food to fill my plate and have me leaving here quite full. What I especially like, and this would be something even meat eaters would go for, is that they have a nice grill where they will cook up your custom created chow mein [and include meat if you want]. And chow mein is my favorite Chinese food dish. I make it with veggies and teriyaki sauce. The fact that it's all you can eat, I could technically make two plates of that wonderful dish. But with just one of my custom chow mein plates, I also grab fried rice and by then I am already full. Their fried rice also has no meat and it is really done well. They always replenish it with a new batch of hot fried rice constantly. They also have more chow mein available in the buffet trays. I also get corn on the cob and veggie egg rolls. I have two favorite dessert dishes that they always have, fried banana which is soft banana that is cooked to dip in sugar [NOT for when you are dieting obviously!] and they have these horseshoe cookies that are delicious and I usually grab a bunch of those. For kids they have pizza so my son, who doesn't really eat Chinese food, can make a plate of several slices of pizza and french fries. The salad is just okay but they have fresh fruit. The soups are usually the same, sweet and sour and egg drop soup. For meat eaters, they do have a good chicken and broccoli and they have seafood too which seems to be the most popular among fish and meat eaters. Sorry I can't comment on those dishes but they do look good in the day. Another reviewer said the quality goes down at night, I can't say because I usually come here before 7pm but between 2-6pm it's not that crowded and I get good service. By that, for buffet, I mean I can get my drink filled pretty quick. Oh yeah and they have an okay sushi selection and ice cream with chocolate fudge for dessert. One bad thing that I overlook because I like the food is, it isn't the most classy clientele who dine here. I have come here where there was a family with a screaming kid and the parents just sit there and don't seem to care or try to quiet their kid. Things like that. But for the most part the other people don't bother you. There is a parking lot so you can park there and not worry about street parking. It's not the best part of Oakland at night but in the day it's fine. I would and do come back here often. read more

We went to Century for the first time right after they opened. I'm vegan and my wife is an ovo-lacto vegetarian, so we were skeptical about what they'd have for us. We were pleasantly surprised at the variety of veggie fare -- and the sushi chef even made us a few rolls to order. The food was good and fresh, and the staff were helpful and responsive. Great value for the money, too -- I've paid far more for buffets where I've ended up with much less. Highly recommended! read more

Yelp says three stars means "A-OK" which is about what I feel about Century Buffet. This place is close to my house, so I decided to give it a try despite the dire warnings in the other posts. It has only been open a few weeks, so I thought perhaps they were still ironing out their problems. In fact, my wife and I found the service to be fine. We were seated promptly, and made our drink orders, then got up and went to the buffet. Our drinks were waiting at the table when we got back, and we were offered refills during the meal, which we declined, so I don't know if they would have been free. Empty plates were promptly cleared from the table by the staff. The staff was cheerful and efficient, in general. I found the service so good I even left a tip, despite it being a buffet. The food was inconsistent. I would advise very small portions on the first trip to the counters so that you can discover what is good and what is not. I particularly enjoyed the pepper pork, general chicken, a couple of shrimp dishes, and the egg rolls. Not so good were the calimari, onion rings, barbecued chicken, and fried noodles. There are warnings posted around the buffet that you must not waste food, and that uneaten food must be paid for, so I was cautious not to incur any penalty. The floor was somewhat dirty (I wouldn't wear sandals, yes really), the decor is utilitarian, and the lighting is fluorescent. I suppose you must also recall that this is really a pretty poor Oakland neighborhood, and your fellow patrons may not always contribute to your enjoyment of the meal. This is not a place I would take my parents (unless they were really really hungry for some reason), but it's nice to have as a local option. I wish them luck. read more

One doesn't go to a buffet expecting the world. You do hope for quality ingredients, flavourful dishes and quick turn over so the food doesn't sit too long. Century does have a huge variety of food, salads, sushi, Chinese food and Mongolian grill style food (fresh ingredients selected in any combination and cooked to order) and dessert. The food was okay. There is reasonable turn over so you should be getting many dishes at their freshest. One doesn't expect much in the way of service at a buffet either. My experience was a new low. I arrived at the front counter where 3 staff were standing. No one acknowledged me nor offered to seat me. Eventually I just sat down and started eating. My waiter took my drink order and promptly brought my drink. After that he never returned to my table. I had to go to the front counter to get him to bring my bill. So why only two stars? Less than average service. There was little on the buffet that was beyond average. Combine that with the $12.99 price tag and I figure I can do better. Try Genghis Khan Kitchen in Alameda. Same foods with only slightly less variety, welcoming staff and only $9.99. read more

I give them 2 stars because I felt they lied to me. A friend told me to come on Sunday to spend $20 a person because there is crab and lobster on Sunday. So I came and lo and behold I saw a tray of lobster and crab. Then my friend and I came again next Sunday and the lobster meat is gone and only crab is left. Then next Sunday I came and no crab and lobster at all. We spoke to the Chinese waitor and he said we came too early. They don't serve crab or lobster anymore at lunch time. They might serve it after 3 pm. Then why did they charge us $20 for lunch? I came for crab and lobster. After that gig we never came on Sundays. read more

bad bad costumer service !! no patients to serve people food. they were walking away from me when i clearly need help!! really mean man