Old Country Buffets To Get Grills

Through a comment to one of our articles I have been informed that all of the Old Country Buffet restaurants will eventually have grills in the buffet serving area. This would allow steaks and other features to be cooked (hopefully) to order. If you have been a regular reader you know that this is one of my major complaints about the steak at OCB and why I rank Ryans and Golden Corral above Old Country Buffet in the buffet chain hierarchy.

This sounds great but then I started thinking while dining at the local OCB how this would work. Presently there is supposed to be always someone carving at the carving area. Well, that is not always so. It is not uncommon to have to find someone to come over to carve - and often who you may find has never done this before and does not carve very well. What will happen when there needs to always be a cook behind that new grill? Will he/she be there? Will it be another case of find someone?

Of course, the other chains manage this and do not have a problem. And as I have admitted in the past - perhaps the problems that I often see are the consequence of the particular management or the employees that they are able to hire - and perhaps, it is a New York thing - as things always seem to go differently in New York at restaurant chains and stores - and not for the better. A number of years ago we actually had a Golden Corral on Long Island in New York. That Golden Corral went out of business because it was poorly maintained, poorly kept clean, and most knew after one or two visits not to go back. Now, Golden Corrals seem to flourish everywhere else - in fact on financial criteria it is considered by business reporting sources to be the number one buffet chain. Not so here! (I am born and raised - and have lived all of my life in NY - so no criticism please that I am down on NY.)

Well, I actually cannot wait to see this new grill come to OCB. I am not sure how it will be fit in without a complete renovation - and the local OCB was renovated on a year or two ago. Since steak seems to be on the menu now (except Sundays), it can only get better on a grill.