People who prefer lots of variety when they shop often want a similar range of choices when they stop for lunch or dinner.
You'll find many such people at Lin's Buffet, a Chinese and sushi restaurant at Northlake Village shopping center, at W.T. Harris Boulevard and Statesville Road in the blossoming Northlake Mall area.
Weekends are a busy time for the retail stores in that area. Lin's Buffet, which has retailer hhgregg among its neighbors, is ready and waiting when shoppers and others take a break for a mega-meal.
The 150-seat restaurant with a 30-seat party room offers perennial favorites such as pepper steak, chicken with mixed vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, and salt-and-pepper shrimp.
The buffet selections reach beyond familiar recipes at dinnertime to include a number of house specials.
"It's Chinese food from Hong Kong, not just chicken and broccoli," said manager Amy Nicholson.
The more unexpected choices include baked sea bass, sautéed clams and fried frog legs. Sushi is included with the price of lunch and dinner buffets.
The sushi chef has a prominent station where diners can watch him at work, ask questions and request many of their favorites.
Customers pay $7.39 for lunch Mondays through Saturdays and $8.99 Sundays. Dinner prices are $9.99 Mondays through Thursdays and $10.99 Fridays through Sundays.
Dinner prices for children are $4.99 for ages 3 to 9 and $6.99 for ages 10 to 12. Takeout from the buffet is priced by the pound.
Owner Raymond Lin added $5 to the price only if customers want snow crab legs, which are available with the dinner buffet Fridays through Sundays.
Customers also can order from the menu, which repeats many of the buffet items and offers others that aren't on the buffet. Dumplings, egg foo young and chef's specialties are among these.
The chef's specialties include a dish called special trio. That's jumbo shrimp with chicken and beef in a brown sauce with broccoli for $9.25. Seafood delight combines shrimp, scallops and lobster with vegetables in a white or brown sauce for $10.95.
Steamed vegetables -- with or without chicken, shrimp or scallops -- are an option on the menu for diners who want a meal cooked with no fat.
Most customers, not surprisingly, choose the buffet, as did Benjy Britton, who has worked in the area for nine years. He visits two to three times a week for lunch.
"It's very convenient," said Britton, who said he can get in, out and back to work quickly. He also can get a varied menu.
"One day you can eat chicken or fish. The next day you can eat sushi," he said.
John Sage and Anh Le are detention officers with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office. They lift weights at the department's training academy on Spector Drive, then visit Lin's for lunch.
"After we get done working out, I want to sit down and relax a bit and eat good food," Sage said. "It's the only Chinese buffet in the area where you can get sushi and they don't charge you extra." Flavor of the neighborhood Rich Haag
Lin's Buffet
Address: 7010 Smith Corner Blvd., Suite F.Phone: 704-596-3668.
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Dinner 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; open until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; Sundays 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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Call or e-mail Karen Sullivan at ksullivan@charlotteobserver.com, or 704-358-5532.
For more Flavors
Visit www.charlotte.com/ucity. Click on the link for Flavor of the Neighborhood. Rich Haag
