Seafood got your attention? Good, because the buffet is not done with you yet.
At this Maine restaurant, the all-you-can-eat setup gives dinner plenty of room to wander without turning the meal into a checklist. Seafood and sushi stay prominent, while familiar Chinese favorites keep the spread grounded.
There is also a full menu for anyone who would rather commit to one entrée instead of sampling the room.
No pressure to pick a lane here.
Indecision is not the problem. It is basically the house specialty.
The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Runs Seven Days A Week
The easiest buffet schedule to remember is the one that barely needs remembering.
Lotus operates seven days a week, with current hours listed as 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The restaurant also promotes its all-you-can-eat buffet as a daily option.
That makes the setup unusually flexible. A weekday lunch does not require waiting for a special buffet day, and a weekend visit does not depend on catching a narrow service window. The buffet is part of the restaurant’s everyday identity.
The dining room can seat about 300 people, giving Lotus plenty of space for families, groups, and diners settling in for more than one trip through the buffet.
You are not required to attack the buffet with a clean plate and a mission, either. Lotus also keeps a full Chinese and Japanese menu for dine-in and takeout.
Some restaurants make you study the calendar before dinner. Here, the bigger decision is what reaches your plate first.
Seafood Gives This Maine Buffet Its Strongest Hook
A Maine buffet without a seafood angle would be leaving an awfully tempting card on the table.
Lotus has recently promoted its all-you-can-eat buffet with seafood, sushi, desserts, and unlimited servings. Other restaurant promotions have paired seafood with sushi and hibachi choices.
The exact buffet lineup can change, so it makes more sense to expect a seafood component than one specific fish or shellfish dish every day.
You will find Lotus Restaurant at 279 Center St, Auburn, ME 04210. Current hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday and Saturday.
The buffet format lets you sample instead of committing to one large entrée. That is especially useful with seafood, where a smaller portion can share plate space with sushi or something from the hot line.
It also gives you room to try something unfamiliar without making it the centerpiece of the entire meal.
If one seafood item catches your attention, take a little. If another appears on the next pass, your plate is allowed to change its mind.
That freedom is the real hook. The ocean does not own the whole buffet, but it gets enough room to make the spread more interesting.
Sushi Gives Your Second Plate A Completely Different Direction
Your first plate does not have to predict your second.
Sushi is part of the Lotus buffet experience, and the restaurant’s full Japanese menu goes much further. Lotus says its made-to-order sushi is prepared fresh for each order, with maki, sushi, sashimi, combination platters, and specialty rolls all represented on the menu.
The seafood choices include tuna, salmon, shrimp, octopus, eel, red snapper, yellowtail, and scallop across different preparations. Rolls range from simple tuna and salmon options to combinations using shrimp tempura, spicy scallop, eel, avocado, and other ingredients.
That distinction matters because the entire sushi menu should not be confused with the smaller selection that may appear on the buffet at any given time.
If a particular roll or sashimi choice catches your eye, ordering from the menu gives you a much more specific route.
For buffet diners, the sushi area provides a useful change of pace between hot dishes. A couple of pieces can break up the meal before you head back toward the main trays. It is also an easy way to keep the next plate lighter before another run at the hot food.
Buffet strategy is personal. Sometimes the smartest move is simply giving plate number two a completely different personality.
Shrimp And Scallops Keep The Full Menu In The Seafood Conversation
If the buffet starts the seafood conversation, the regular menu refuses to let it end there.
Lotus lists numerous shrimp and scallop dishes among its house specialties. Sizzling Seafood combines jumbo shrimp and sea scallops with vegetables, while another entrée pairs shrimp and scallops with ma-la sauce.
The menu also includes Seafood Garlic Sauce, sesame shrimp, scallops with mixed vegetables, shrimp tempura, and seafood teriyaki.
Those dishes belong to the regular menu, which is useful when the changing buffet lineup does not include exactly what you were hoping to find. You can browse the spread first and still order a specific seafood dish instead.
The Japanese side adds another route. Shrimp tempura appears as an appetizer and in sushi combinations, while scallop and shrimp show up in several rolls and sushi choices.
That flexibility works especially well when people at the same table want completely different meals. One person can make repeated buffet trips while somebody else sticks to a single ordered entrée.
The buffet may be the headline, but the menu is a pretty capable backup singer.
Chinese Favorites Keep Plenty Of Competition On The Hot Line
Seafood may get you through the door, but it does not get the buffet to itself.
Lotus centers its kitchen on Chinese and Japanese food, with some Thai-inspired and American-influenced dishes appearing in the restaurant’s broader mix.
Its current menu includes familiar choices such as General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, orange chicken, lo mein, dumplings, and numerous beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, and vegetable dishes.
The buffet similarly leans on recognizable Chinese favorites while adding sushi, salad, desserts, and other selections.
That variety makes the place useful when your table cannot agree on a single craving. You can head toward noodles and chicken while somebody else spends more time with seafood or sushi.
It also means a seafood-heavy first plate does not have to dictate the rest of the meal.
It rewards a little restraint on the first trip, too. Filling every open inch of the plate immediately leaves no room for discoveries later.
Think of the first pass as reconnaissance. The second plate is where the negotiations really begin.
Holiday Buffets Give The Regular Spread A Seasonal Shake-Up
The calendar occasionally sneaks onto the serving line.
Lotus adds special dishes for some holidays rather than simply running the ordinary buffet unchanged. During Mother’s Day weekend in 2026, the restaurant featured seafood-stuffed haddock as part of its special buffet.
Other holiday promotions have added seasonal entrées, sides, and desserts.
That makes holidays a different experience from an ordinary weekday lunch. Special dishes, pricing, and service details can change for those events, so checking the restaurant’s latest announcement is useful before building a celebration around a particular item.
The 2026 ownership transition did not end that tradition. When the new owners took over in May, they said they intended to maintain the restaurant’s holiday service along with its established menu, recipes, hours, and buffet.
For groups, the large dining room is another practical advantage. Lotus also recommends reservations for certain busy holiday services, which can make a little advance planning worthwhile when the dining room is likely to be especially active.
A regular buffet lets you roam. A holiday buffet gives the serving line an excuse to dress up a little.
The 2026 Ownership Change Kept The Buffet At The Center
A new owner can turn a familiar restaurant upside down. Lotus took the quieter route.
Lijun Lin and her husband, Jimmy Liang, purchased Lotus from the Wu family on May 1, 2026. The Wu family had operated the Auburn restaurant since its 2014 opening, giving the business a 12-year run under its founders before the sale.
Lin and Liang arrived with extensive restaurant experience and worked with the Wu family during the transition. At the time of the purchase, they said the existing menu, sauces, recipes, hours, holiday traditions, and extensive buffet line would remain in place.
That continuity matters because the buffet is not an add-on hiding behind the regular menu. It has been a central part of Lotus for years, and current promotions still advertise the all-you-can-eat format.
The new owners also indicated that the menu could gradually gain more Thai options, but the restaurant’s Chinese and Japanese foundation remains easy to recognize.
That leaves room for small changes without turning the place into something longtime customers would barely recognize.
So if you visited Lotus before the handoff, the basic proposition has not disappeared. You can still arrive hungry, grab a plate, and let the buffet decide how many directions dinner takes.
For a restaurant built around choice, keeping that part unchanged may have been the easiest decision of all.