All-you-can-eat buffets are a boon to diners who want to go out for a restaurant meal, but don't want to pay a hefty price.

For the best experience, a buffet should have a large variety of well-prepared, tasty items at reasonable prices as well as an efficient staff. Although you'll be serving yourself, you don't want to arrive back at your table with a fresh plate of goodies and find dirty dishes from your previous go-round still sitting there.

China Buffet, in a corner of the East Greenwich Marketplace across the street from the Showcase Warwick Cinemas, has all the right things going for it. There's a wide selection of delicious dishes that run the gamut from such Chinese favorites as General Tso's Chicken, pork fried rice, vegetable lo mein and chicken with broccoli to Mayo Shrimp, the largest peel-and-eat shrimp I've ever seen at a buffet, and baby octopus salad. There's even a sushi bar where the chef will fix you something from dozens of combination choices.

For those wishing something a little less exotic, there's pizza, French fries, roast beef, apple pie and even ice cream cones. The price for all this bounty can't be beat — $11.95. And the friendly, efficient staff will make you feel they're happy you're there and eager to keep your table clean … something that's important when one is returning for the third, fourth or even fifth time from the buffet table.

An important way to work a buffet, which a surprising number of people do not do, is to walk around the perimeter first to plan a course of action. I've seen too many people load their first plate with breads and rolls and heavy things like pastas or potato salad, so by the time they're ready for the oysters on the half shell or the foie gras, they're no longer hungry.

China Buffet has three two-sided stations plus the sushi counter and, as you navigate, you'll discover that some things are not always where you might expect. The apple pie, for instance, was next to the pizza and roast beef, not with the other desserts. A friend had raved about the baby octopus salad, but by the time I realized I hadn't tried it because I hadn't visited the other side of a display table, I'd already been to the dessert station.

Manager Jack Kuan said that since new owners took over the restaurant a little more than a year ago there are many more seafood items on the menu.

The baby octopus and the thin slice of surprisingly tender grownup octopus tentacle that did I sample at the sushi bar are just part of these newly expanded seafood choices at China Buffet, an attractive place with mauve-and-gray tiles and wallpaper, a pair of elegant little chandeliers and a scalloped ceiling with recessed lighting. Seafood choices include fat mussels in the half shell, the very large peel-and-eat-shrimp, fried shrimp, House Special Shrimp, Mayo Shrimp, (imitation) crab with cheese, crawfish, chicken and shrimp, and Crab Rangoon.

There's more traditional Asian fare, too, including enormous and very tender beef teriyaki on a stick, the general's chicken of course, pork fried rice, egg rolls, honey chicken nuggets, chicken with broccoli, half-moon-shaped fried dumplings and shumei, the little dumplings made with ground pork and shrimp, garlic, scallions, ginger and other spices. There's also an array of salads and a dessert table that includes macaroons, chocolate cheesecake and something called "Sesame Seed Dough Boys," a yummy treat that manager Kuan said was homemade. They looked like Italian fried wandis but are sprinkled with honey and sesame seeds.

I could have chowed down on the mussels all evening and left happy. But other items that made it back to my table more than once included Mayo Shrimp, which had a wonderfully sweet mayonnaise base; shortneck clams (actually tiny but surprisingly plump clams) in dusky oyster sauce; chicken and shrimp whose fragrant mayonnaise and red pepper sauce complemented this surf-and-barnyard combo; sweet and crunchy honey chicken nuggets; sautéed mushrooms, green beans and House Special Shrimp, which may have been the biggest hit of the evening. Fried with their tails on and coated with simple seasonings, they had a surprisingly mild if slightly woodsy flavor that was enticing. I noticed my dining companion returning from the buffet line with them nearly as often as I.

Although I tackled a crawfish, I believe this round was won by the tiny red crustacean because there didn't seem to be a lot of crawfish meat to savor, although a friend swears by them and was disappointed two nights prior to my visit that none were on the menu that evening.

And although judging simply by the looks of them I had had my doubts about the oddly yellow Crab Rangoon, my dining companion urged me to try one and one bite was all it took to win me over.

China Buffet has a bar, too, with the Mai Tai ($4.95) and the Planter's Punch ($5.95) packing a punch. There's also a full dinner and takeout menu for those who don't want the buffet, although you can also get the buffet as a takeout — $4.25 a pound at lunch; $5.25 a pound at dinner; $8.50 a pound for all seafood.

China Buffet, 1000 Division St., East Greenwich, (401) 884-8836. chinabuffetri.com. Casual. Wheelchair accessible. Child seats. Reservations. AE, M, V. Parking lot. Open 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sun. to Thurs.; to 10:30 p.m. Fri. and Sat. Appetizers $1 to $11.95. Entrees $2.80 to $10.95; $11.95 for the buffet. Bar menu as well.

BILL OF FARE

Dinner for two at China Buffet might look something like this:

Mai Tai…$4.95

Planter's Punch…$5.95

Two buffets…$23.90

Total food and drink…$34.80

Tax…$2.78

Tip…$7.00

Total bill…$44.58