Ponderosa

Ponderosa Steak Restaurants are often called buffet restaurants. I have put off publishing this article several times. I hesitated each time that I thought of posting it. There is an uncertainty about Ponderosa. The reason will be clearer as you read this article. Perhaps it should be titled, "Ponderosa, Is it a Buffet?" In the past month I have learned news that bring up a more important and timely question, "Does Ponderosa as a chain still exist?".

The chain of Ponderosa restaurants is owned by a parent company called Metromedia Restaurant Group. This company also owned and operated Bennigans Restaurants and Steak and Ale Restaurants. In July 2008, the parent company declared bankruptcy, under Chapter 7 and in August closed all of the Bennigans and Steak and Ale restaurants in its holdings - with the exception of very few which were franchised and would continue under independent ownership. The question was raised at the time as to what would become of the Ponderosa/Bonanza chain. Metromedia stated publicly at the time that Ponderosa was operated by a sub-division of thier company that was not declaring bankruptcy and that these restaurants would continue to be open as usual. In September 2008 Metromedia took down the Ponderosa chain website. It was suspected that they would reopen the website at a future date, but going to that web address now brings you to a GoDaddy.com home page that says that the domain name is "parked there for free". This seems odd to me. If the business will continue as usual, why not have a website for the chain? Why would you not have just a home page that said, "Ponderosa website will be back". The website, when operating, listed the menu, briefly mentioned a "buffet", had a location finder, and had an email club for discount offers on meals. All of that is now gone.

From Internet searches I come across many articles about Ponderosa restaurants closing - some very suddenly, others as a result of law suits against them, and still others due to illegal activities by their franchise owners. It appears that many of the Ponderosa restaurants (perhaps all of them) are franchised ownerships. Franchise owners with more than one Ponderosa are closing all of the stores at once. Articles refer to employees being told not to come to work the next day - there is no work any longer. At one restaurant employees staged a public protest because not only were they told that the restaurant was closing the next day but they would not be receiving their pay checks!

Current searches for individual Ponderosa Restaurants come up with nothing recent. I cannot find a website or customer rating newer than several months ago for any Ponderosa Restaurant.

Prior to this news I had written the following article about Ponderosa restaurants. I present that articel here, but will conclude with some questions for you, our readers.
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Several times in my searches for buffets the Ponderosa Restaurants have come up and some of my readers have written and asked why I have not reviewed the chain. Many, many years ago there were Ponderosa restaurants in my area and I did dine there. Back then, there was no buffet. The restaurant was a "discount" steak restaurant that you ordered your meal at a counter and then were seated and wait staff would carry your steak and potato out to you from the kitchen when it was ready. The Ponderosa Restaurants closed around here many years ago. Since then I had never connected Ponderosa with buffet. More recently, there were other Ponderosa restaurants in areas that I have traveled and those I passed seemed to feature a salad bar with your steak order, but that never much appealed to me and I did not go in. Those have closed as well. There are Ponderosa Restaurants in several states and even one as close to me as the Bronx (You know, The Bronx - New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium. Some parts nice and some parts are not the safest areas to travel in).

I asked one of the readers who I was communicating with by email if the Ponderosa Restaurants had full buffets now or was it still an order off the menu restaurant with a salad bar. I was assured that it is a full buffet of the same type as Golden Corral, OCB, etc. With that understanding I decided to do a bit of research and see what I could find out and share with you about Ponderosa. This is another of my discovery articles and I want to be right up front with you all that I have not yet eaten at a Ponderosa Resaturant (at least not for the past 20 or more years), but I will share with you what I have been able to find out. And that is not much.

The Ponderosa website (when there was a website) home page says "Big Honkin' Buffet". That was encouraging. Beyond that there is a description of an order from the menu menu of steaks, chicken, and seafood - much as I remember it 20 years ago. The buffet is mentioned in a small side box with the description of a salad and appetizer bar that includes soups, vegetables, salad, and dessert. The last line states that a variety of beef, chicken, seafood. and pasta dishes appear on the buffet - but items will vary by location and are not at all restaurants. Hmm. I have been through this sought of buffet before - one of my worst buffet experiences was at a Western Sizzlin' in Maryland several years ago.

It has been my experience that when the main business of the chain restaurant is not buffet, the buffet is just a compliment to the items that they want you to order off the menu. Ponderosa talks about getting the buffet with your entree instead of a vegetable and potato. In the restaurants that I have been in that do this ,the buffet is not well maintained and the offerings on the buffet beyond the salad bar are minimal.

A recent special feature at Ponderosa was an All You Can Eat Shrimp Platter served to you at your table and refilled for you by your waiter at your request. This makes me wonder that if there is a buffet, why isn't the all you can eat shrimp on the buffet? Why does this need to be a special that must be brought to you? Another indication that this will not be the type of buffet that we all would expect. Everything on the website is focused around the entree menu including the buffet served as a side dish.

And yet, buffet keeps being associated with Ponderosa - in business articles and in several emails that I have had from readers. On a restaurant trade rating scale of buffet restaurants, Ponderosa was rated higher than OCB. When I went to the Ponderosa website, I truly expected to find a restaurant description that would equal that of Golden Corral, Old Country Buffet, or Ryans, but as I have said it did not.

With what I have learned about Ponderosa (also called Bonanza in some locations) I would want to see the buffet before I committed to eating there. Without one local to me I am not certain that I would travel to one, if I am near one of their locations, to walk in and look around. I certainly would not want to spend money for meals for my wife and myself to find out that we are having a salad bar and hot wings for dinner, which one source stated was what a Ponderosa buffet often has to offer - hot wings, pizza, and pasta - along with a soup and salad bar and small desert selection. Another source stated that some Ponderosa's just have salad bars and not buffets, while others offer a few entrees like fried chicken and meatloaf.

I had been hoping that I would find a description of a "real" buffet restaurant. I was hoping for another chain to explore like Golden Corral, Ryan's, or OCB. I do not think that I have found one.

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Now, my questions for our readers - if you have an answer please post a comment.

If you have ever been to a Ponderosa Restaurant what there is to be found on the buffet and how extensive a buffet meal one can have (could one once have had) there?

Is there a Ponderosa Restaurant near you that is still open for business? Have there been any changes there recently? Does it appear that it may be closing?

Has a Ponderosa Restaruant near you or that you know of closed recently?