Cafe 2012 International Buffet & Club

They a wide selection of soup base for the hotpot. I tried the satay and Thai curry. Liked them both but preferred the curry.
The meats and seafood were fresh. I like the selection of veggies. The meats are not put out so you’ll have to ask for them.
Will RTE.

This place is officially a hot pot place, and it’s delicious. I know there are a lot of mixed reviews, but DO NOT LET THEM DETER YOU. If you have issues with being aggressive, you might have problems being here. You can only get two plates of each meat (pork, chicken, beef, lamb) at a time, so we had to flag down our servers and ask them for more each time you run out. Yes, it’s annoying, and yeah, you feel really self-​conscious about the amount of food you can eat, but they give it to you smilingly and don’t judge you, so don’t worry.
The all-​you-​can-​eat, self-​serve items come in fish, crab, shrimp, scallops, mussels, fish balls, vegetables, mushrooms, and pretty much anything you could think of putting in a hot pot. Me, I’m a total lamb person. I ate three plates by myself, so I hardly ever went to to buffet table, but they have a wide selection.
My advice, besides being aggressive, is let the broth (which you have six choices) simmer and boil off the extra water for a bit (10 minutes?) The first things I cooked were a little bland, and I was disappointed. Towards the end of the meal, though, as the spices became more concentrated, it was flavored REALLY WELL, and it was super delicious. Give it a chance! It gets better.
They have various dipping sauces, too, so it’s fun to mix and match and figure out what you like best!

I went to Café 2012 last night for a spontaneous date with the girlfriend despite the poor ratings and was so happy I ignored those reviews! THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!
Let me make this clear. If you want typical, american-​chinese that has everything fried and loaded with MSG this is not your place to go. If you consider yourself a «foodie» and have never had an opportunity to try an authentic Chinese Hot Pot YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO GO HERE. I had a traditional hot pot when I was working in China a few years ago and this immediately took me back.
WHAT IS A HOT POT?
A hot pot is a large pot filled with hot oil and seasonings that you toss all sorts of food into and cook right at your table. The buffet is filled with a large selection of seafood, noodles, tofu, noodles, and veggies. You can also order as much beef and lamb as you want from the waiter. I went on a Sunday night and everything was super fresh.
RECOMMENDED ORDER:
— Szechuan Hot & Spicy for your soup if you like a little kick
— Beef and lamb (ask your waiter for these) (AMAZING!!!)
— Green, leafy veggies
— Seaweed Noodles (these soak up the flavor of the oil and are delicious)
— Quail eggs (hard boiled, its just like a chicken but smaller)
My girlfriend is not a fan of seafood but I love it and these were great:
— Calamari (after 4 minutes these are great)
— Clams
— Shrimp
Special buy 1 get 1 free means Date night = $ 25 + tip… seriously!!!
I made a Unilocal account after all these years because I thought the reviews were so wrong and needed to be addressed…
«FOOD WAS COLD» — what a ridiculous complaint! you cook the food at your table bro! If the food is cold it’s because you’re eating it raw or partially cooked!
This place is DELICIOUS, AUTHENTIC SOUTHERN CHINA brought to Plano. Please go! Enjoy yourself! And put a review up here that is intelligent!

Initially came here wanting to eat some buffet, but apparently they have changed to only hotpot. Eh, we thought we’d give it a try since they said they were also having a buy one + 2 drinks, get one free deal.
Soup bases weren’t bad… we got ½ thai and ½ japanese bonito. I have had better soups, but they weren’t terrible. A good variety of vegetables, noodles, and seafood (crab legs, shrimp, fish balls, squid, etc) to freely pick from the center previous-​buffet counters. You had to request meats (lamb, beef, pork) but they came out sliced nicely and clean. Service was slightly slow so if you wanted meats, better to ask for them early on.
The one thing that shocked me — a 25% gratuity was automatically added to our bill, with no mention of it on the menu, front sign, or by our waiter! I did not know of this at the time because my parents handled the bill, but I would’ve really said something here. My parents are the type to not argue and just get scammed, unfortunately. I could have reasoned a 15−18% gratuity, but the service/​food was nowhere near 25%. We were merely a party of three so having a large party could not have been a reason. I am very upset this happened and for this reason we are never coming back. I assume they could tell my parents could be taken advantage of and slipped it through. I have learned my lesson and will always check the bill so that I know my parents understand what’s happening. Very disappointed that this happened to a potentially nice restaurant. Sorry, but decent food can’t make up for rude service.

Very bad… Say away… All the food was cold. Not a very good selection. They have sushi but all the rolls are 6 – 7 different california rolls, yuk. Being owned by the same people that own Japan House you would think that they would know how to run a buffet. I Will never go back to this place.

What can i say about café 2012? Weird name since its 2013 now… and café? Why café? I think just plain Hotpot 2013 is much suitable. Anyway, when i went there yesterday. there was only great hotpot but no hibachi. However, the hotpot was awesome. Ive been to mongolian hotpot and waited an hour before getting a table, but now i can go here and enjoy better hotpot at much shorter time. The building is bigger so much more seating availability. The food… They have 5 – 6 soup base. The thai curry was quite good in my opinion. The meats they had to be brought out but the rest is all u can choose and grab. The beef slice meats are the bomb. Cut nice and thin to perfection, the beef slices taste even better in my mouth. Smaller meat servings so you should order more. Unlike mongolian stingy servings of seafood, here you can grab as much shrimp as you want. They even have scallops and snow crab legs too… all fresh. Service… Although they were short handed, the service was awesome. The server did his best being short handed but i was impressed how he handled himself well. The boss’ son was working too and he made sure customers were all taken care of. Btw, for those who didnt know, this restaurant is owned by the same boss who opened japan house. Overall i am very pleased with my experience here today. If im thinking of hotpot, café 2012 will be the first i consider and then mongolian hotpot second. Why? Even though mongolian hotpot has better cooking pots, ambient atmosphere, and newer seating, i still prefer the freedom of getting my own seafood at café 2012 and better service. I am here to eat right. Price wise it is almost the same. Café 2012 charges 17.99 but its under promotion right now for buy one get one.

This place is new, so maybe they just need to work out a few kinks and I’d give them another star or two.
When they say international buffet, they mean 90% Chinese food, and 10% other. Yes… that does make them international technically, but don’t go in expecting American, Latin, Indian, etc and everything else under the sun. The food as a whole wasn’t very good, and other than the egg drop soup and the fried rice everything else I had was cold. Cold, cold, cold.
Again… Maybe they’re just needing a bit to get things sorted, but it’ll be a while before I’ll want to go again.

So I ate at this place when it was Hibachi House and it was a pretty good restaurant. This place is… well.meh. We went here for lunch and while the service was top notch, the food left something to be desired (even for a buffet). All the food was about a level or two below lukewarm but I will say their sushi is quite good.
I think that one reason they have a cold food problem is because they use porcelain plates instead of metal containers. While the plates look pretty, they don’t do an adequate job of keeping the food warm.
Would I go again? Probably not.

The experience that is Café 2012 is your typical Asian food buffet. You walk in, get a table and get to work.
Simple, right?
The food was a nice mixture of Asian dishes, such as egg drop soup, gyoza, beef and broccoli, chicken and broccoli, fried rice and sushi. They even had pizza and curry flavored fried chicken, so there’s a little something for everybody.
Here’s the reason why I gave it a 3: the warmest thing you’ll eat in the place is the egg drop soup, which is pretty good, but come on y’all. Porcelain plates to keep your food hot? That’s not gonna work, you need some metal tubs or something. I get that they want it to be aesthetically pleasing, and trust me, it is, but that food really needs to be hotter.
Most of the stuff is lukewarm and my lunch group was a bit disappointed. For $ 8, it’s not a bad bet, but if I come back, it’ll be for the sushi selection, the salad, the egg drop soup and the AMAZING sweet & sour chicken. Seriously, that chicken was a crunchy bite of Heaven.