Tin Tin Buffet

Here, the eating strategy is simple: eat it all and look around for more

2 Coes Square (corner of Park and Lovell), Worcester 792-1689
Mon.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. noon-9 p.m.
Buffet Hours Lunch Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Weekend Brunch noon-3 p.m.
Dinner Sun.-Thurs. 3 p.m.-9 p.m.
Fri.-Sat. 3 p.m.-10 p.m.
Major credit cards
No alcohol
Handicap accessible

by Jim Johnson

Tin Tin Buffet makes all other all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets pale in comparison. First, you have 45 choices -- and not just familiar ones. Second, every container is filled to the brim by a team of relentless, eager servers. Third, each choice is fresh as can be with nary a hint of soggy or dried-out dregs. Fourth, the restaurant is huge, like the K-Mart of buffets, with perhaps 120 feet of serving space and enough seating (hyperbole alert) for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Not only that, but the place is fun. Conga lines of gleeful diners snake around the four two-sided serving stations, each long enough to hold a dozen different dishes. Servers sneak through with fresh portions. Everyone is smiling. It's like a game show where you have 60 seconds to grab everything you can. Except that, at Tin Tin Buffet, there's no time-limit; you can eat for hours. It's the ultimate feeding frenzy.

Not bad, especially when you consider the price: $8.95 for dinner, $5.95 for weekday lunch, $6.95 for weekend brunch. Kids from ages three to 11 eat for 50 cents per year for lunch, 70 cents for dinner -- and that includes beverages and dessert. Or you can choose carry-out and pay by the pound: $3.25 per pound for lunch, $3.75 for dinner. But why take out? The setting is so welcoming. The ceilings are high, the lighting is cheery, and the decor is lively, including two huge photo murals of Chinese scenes. Everything is modern and spotless.

People's buffet strategies vary. Some folks pile their plates high with a few items and make return trips for other items until they're stuffed. Others put a dozen sampler portions on their plates and return (repeatedly) for their favorites. Those with self-control clean their first plates (which are efficiently whisked away) and wait for their appetites to subside. The other 97 percent head right back up to the culinary orgy.

When a friend and I arrived around 7 p.m. on a Saturday night, a short line had formed at the register, where you pre-pay for your dinner. As we waited (just a few minutes), neighbors in line tried to best each other with tales of previous Tin Tin visits and conquests:

"I must have had a hundred shrimp."

"I had every single item -- at least once!"

"I went up nine times."

"Last time, I ate every pork dish. This time I'm targeting chicken."

Many people were there on dates, a bargain at $17.90 per couple. Some adults had children trailing along. Heck, you could fill up an eight-year-old for about as much as you'd pay for a Big Mac, soda, and fries.

There's enough variety to please almost everybody. Here are descriptions of some of my favorites (of course, I just sampled):

* Chicken and broccoli: absolutely tender chicken and fresh, green broccoli.

* Chicken teriyaki: ditto on the chicken, served on a skewer and permeated with a rich teriyaki glaze.

* Fried dumplings: crisp outside with plenty of ground pork and ginger inside.

* Honey rib tips (a favorite): simmered long enough to make usually tough meat absolutely tender, drenched in a brown sauce with just the right touch of honey.

* Chicken wings: flavorful and tender.

* Pepper steak: ditto.

* General Tso's chicken: better than the colonel's -- plenty of white meat coated in batter, fried, and served with a sweet, spicy sauce.

* Cashew chicken: plenty of both ingredients plus lots of fresh veggies in a full-bodied brown sauce.

* Shrimp with vegetables: dense with small shrimp cooked just right and served with celery, peppers, peapods, cauliflower, and onions (I added some hot chili oil from the condiments table, and it turned a mild dish into rocket fuel).

There's more, of course, like mussels in black-bean sauce, egg rolls, spring rolls, boneless spareribs, broccoli in garlic sauce, crab Rangoon, lo mein, and white and fried rice.

There's also plenty of peel-and-eat shrimp, salads, melons, fruits, Jell-O (for which many bloated guests proved that there's not always room), ice cream, and various beverages. You can also order a la carte from an extensive list of Hunan, Cantonese, and Szechuan dishes.

If the key to success is great food in great quantity at a great price, Tin Tin Buffet is a winning concept.