A Good Inspection

You have the poo-pay?" I was momentarily startled when the waiter at Royal China Restaurant (7800 Shawnee Mission Parkway in Shawnee) looked me straight in the eye, his pen poised over his waiter's pad, and asked me a second time, "You have the poo-pay?"

My friend Patrick, sitting across from me, made the connection that was eluding me: "He's asking if you want the buffet."

Oh, right. Unfortunately, our young server's awkward pronunciation was exactly wrong for this little Chinese-Korean restaurant. Before walking through the front door last week, the only thing I knew about Royal China was that, back in May, it had been cited by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for "continuing, repeated violations."

I probably never would have eaten here, but a friend of mine who's a fan of the place asked me to check it out. "They've really tried hard to correct everything they did wrong," she said. "And on Sunday nights they offer a terrific buffet of Korean dishes."

I was game. Patrick and I decided to venture in on a Sunday night. Before sitting down, Patrick investigated the men's room — bathrooms are barometers of the cleanliness of most restaurants — and reported that it was quite tidy. "And I peeked into the kitchen, and it was very spick-and-span," he whispered.

Despite the restaurant's name, the focus here is on Korean fare. The menu devotes 10 pages (with little color photos) to Korean dishes and only three to more familiar Chinese-American concoctions such as lemon chicken and Happy Family.

The buffet was an elaborate affair of salads (including a heap of fiery kimchee and a cooling mixture of cabbage, shrimp and cucumber), hot dishes (spare ribs, squid, shrimp in a luscious peppery sauce, General Tso's chicken) and sushi, sweet dumplings, fresh fruit and soup.

Patrick tasted nearly everything and gave it all raves. I was fussier but still polished off a couple of plates heaped with delicacies. We definitely got our $15 worth, and Patrick said he planned to go back. After all, he said, "I don't care what they call it if it tastes good."