Ding's Grande Buffet

Tom Beattie   01-12-2008

This restaurant is no longer in existance but I can say it is sadly missed. I find the first reviewer astounding.Dings was brilliant value.It was bursting at the seams every weekend and often had queues going out into the street.The choice of food was amazinga.As well as about 25 different Chinese food choices,you could also order steaks,freshly cooked.There was also an Italian Section.You had a choice of soups and a variety of various gateaux available as well as 4 choices if ice-cream to add to the friut and jelly.
I came across this page whilst browsing on the net and just felt the first reviewers findings very different from mine and from many many of my other friends and colleagues and as a consequence,wanted to put over my assessment.

Scott   18-05-2007

Well, the first thing I can say is - GO TO DINGS!First off the value for money is second to none. It is just under a tenner a head before 7pm, then not much more expensive after that.There is a great selection of quality food to suit all tastes. If you like seafood, go here. I haven't tasted fresher and you wont get the same at any other buffet. It is a nice place inside and you are likely to get a booth if you ask for one. It is close to a few good pubs in the Merchant City.Overall this place is highly recommended...

scottish_chick   17-09-2006

If you are looking for a cheap meal with a decent selection of food - DON�T GO TO DINGS. We went for lunch at Dings in the Merchant City and were quickly shown to our table. The restaurant had no atmosphere what so ever and the fact that the restaurant was completely empty with the exception of 3 tables taken spoke volumes. The selection of food was pitiful to say the least and we were left extremely disappointed. Where to start�.. For a start the little selection they did have was not even at passable standard - most of which I would not even have fed my dog . The beef dishes were grizzly and extremely chewy - one dish was more than enough to put you off beef for life! The chicken and pork dishes were not much better. And because of the lack of signage next to each of the dishes - you could have been eating anything! The only pass marks goes to the ONE noodle dish and rice so if your happy to pay in the region of �6 per person for rice and noodles - this is the place for you!The selection of desserts again was disappointing (something you come to expect from a visit to Dings) You had the selection of kids jelly, fruit salad or one variety of cheese cake (which I�m told by my partner was quite good). So on goes to my BIGGEST grumble about Dings. The pint of beer my partner had tasted off. He had drunken less than a quarter of the pint and could not continue to drink it. So we called over the waitress to inform her of this and prompted by ordering a glass of water - which was fine enough. So we asked for our bill at the end of our disappointing meal and saw that we has been charged for the pint of �off beer�, of course, we questioned this, the waitress told us because we had drunken part of the pint - we had to pay for it. We could not believe they would have the nerve to charge a customer for a pint of beer that firstly was not fit for drinking and secondly - it was not like he had drunken the whole pint then expected it to be free - we did inform the waitress right away of this. So we asked to speak to the Manager, so the Manageress comes over and to cut a long story short insists we have to pay for the pint. We kept calm tried to put across our view of the situation with little effect - she was not willing to compromise in the least - not even apologetic in the slightest that the customer (who is always meant to be right) had a point. Anyway, after about 15 minutes of trying to get some sense out of the Manageress we finally agreed that we would pay for a half pint - we tried to explain that it wasn�t the monetary value we were quibbling over - simply a principle.So its safe to say we will NEVER go back to DINGS and would NEVER recommend this restaurant to anyone.