The variety of foods that can be enjoyed in San Francisco is remarkably broad: Italian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. However, I cannot list them all. Even compared to New York City, San Francisco’s variety of food does not lose its excellence.

In addition, the cost for enjoying these fabulous foods is amazingly reasonable. I consider buffet-style restaurants to be the most cost-effective. About two years ago, we found an extremely good Asian cuisine buffet restaurant, the Beijing Buffet, close to the San Francisco Airport. I referred to several rating sites before writing this article, and the ratings varied from person to person. However, the general rating was average. My own experience at this restaurant has been good, and my wife and mother-in-law love it as well. Because my wife is a Chinese American who was born in China, her sense of taste for authentic Chinese foods is trustworthy.

My wife and I like this place because of the size of the buffet and the variety of foods offered. There are five large buffet tables that keep the food warm. Along the right wall of the square restaurant is the counter for sushi, sashimi, shrimp, crab, and fresh seafood. The other counter carries both warm and cold Asian and European deserts. At the end of the desert counter, there are ice cream self-dispensers that offer the following flavors: vanilla, chocolate, or a mixture of both.

Each buffet table has its own food categories:

1) warm vegetables and cold salads,

2) fish and seafood,

3) Chinese and American-style poultry,

4) fried rice, noodles, and rice soup, and

5) steamed, fried, or boiled pot stickers and Chinese-style meat buns.

Some restaurants offer a regular menu in addition to a buffet. Beijing Buffet does not have regular menu. However, a BBQ counter is a part of the buffet service offered by this restaurant. They have a buffet menu for both lunch and dinner. My wife is not very excited about BBQ, but I love it. It is like ordering an omelet to your taste during breakfast at a hotel. The buffet includes choices of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, fish, vegetables, tomatoes, bean sprouts, and more. Although some buffet-style restaurants do not have lobsters or crabs at lunch, this place offers all types of foods for both lunch and dinner.

You also can ask the chef to make your dish spicier, sweeter, or saltier. Mr. Choi, who works in the BBQ section, became my friend because he thinks that I request more choices in my food than other people. If you like grilled fish or jumbo shrimp, you can ask to have it skewered. If you want to eat Chinese buns, which are called pao, Mr. Choi can grill them for you. He makes pao with only pork, pork and vegetable pao, and pao with only vegetables, or sweet pao.

Finally, you can order Chinese egg noodles grilled with your choice of meat, seafood, vegetables, or a combination of these options. You can also choose thick egg noodles, thin egg noodles, or rice noodles.