There has not been a new rule of the buffet in some time. Not that there have not been really outlandish things observed. More and more I have been seeing something happen at various buffets that needs to be noted and a new rule made. The new rule is -
If you take a plate, bowl, cup, or piece of silverware and you decide you don't want it, do not put it back on the stack of clean dishes or back with the clean silverware. Take it back to your table or put it on the side of the stack where it will not be taken as clean.
Why? I have watched people of all ages - this is not just kids, though kids do this too - take a plate and then put it right back on the top of the stack of clean plates. So, you ask what is the big deal? Well, the big deal is that where ever that person's hands have been, I do not want to have to eat from a plate that they touched.
Here is an example - Mr. X blows his nose before going up to the buffet server. It is bad enough that he will be touching the serving pieces but he takes a plate and then goes back and puts it back on the stack. You take that plate and are eating directly off the surface that his hands held right after blowing his nose. Another example - Little Susy has been to the restroom. As many children in buffets seldom are, she was not accompanied by her mother. She did not wash her hands. Little Susy goes up to the silverware and takes a spoon - and then decides she does not want that spoon and back it goes into the cup with the clean spoons - just waiting for you to take it next. Better yet, Little Susy puts the spoon in her mouth and then decides to put it back. I have watched these happen and more. Again, this is not just about kids - adults do this - and frequently.
Come on people. If you take it or touch it - and you don't want it, it is simple - bring it back to your table and put it on the side and the server will take it away- no extra charge.
So here are our rules now in total - including our new #30.
RULES OF THE BUFFET
1. All you can eat is not a challenge. It is an offer!
2. There is no limit to the number of times that you can go up and get food.
3. Take your food in courses - as you would be served if ordering from a menu.
4. Everyone must pay!
5. No food is permitted to be taken out of the restaurant.
6. Take only what you will eat - do not waste food.
7. For a more social meal, it is polite to wait for the others at the table to finish their plates and then go up together to get more.
8. Take a clean plate every time that you go up to the buffet tables.
9. If you put it on your plate, leave it there. Never return food to the serving tray.
10. Never eat at the buffet tables!
11. Children under 12 should not be going up to the buffet tables alone.
12. The buffet table is not a cafeteria line.
13. Tip the server.
14. Never take a serving piece from one item and use it for another item.
15. Never place your dirty plates on someone else's table.
16. Never use your silverware to serve yourself from the buffet trays.
17. Once you have gotten what you want, don't stand around the buffet tables. Move on back to your table.
18. Children should remain seated through the meal.
19. Do not fill community plates for the "table". Each should take their own plate of what they wish to eat.
20. If you cough or sneeze into your hand, please do not use that hand to pick up the serving utensils.
21. In the buffet, as in any restaurant, children (and adults) should use their inside voices.
22. Don't talk on your cell phone while you are getting your food at the buffet tables.
23. Never bring an animal into the buffet. (this is not referring to medical guide dogs)
24. Never put your hands into a serving tray.
25. Tell your children not to put their hands into a serving tray - and make sure that they do not!
26. Do not carry on a conversation throughout dinner with the people at the tables around you.
27. Do not put anything back into a serving tray that has dropped onto the serving counter - and never put anything back into a serving tray (whether from the counter or your dish) with your fingers.
28. Never put the serving utensil, whether it a spoon, fork, or tongs, up to your nose to smell the food that you have taken out of the serving tray.
29. Do not eat while walking with your plate back to your table.
30. If you take a plate, bowl, cup, or piece of silverware and you decide you don't want it, do not put it back on the stack of clean dishes or back with the clean silverware. Take it back to your table or put it on the side of the stack where it will not be taken as clean.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Tuesday Night at Dutch-Way Family Restaurant, Gap, PA
It was just a few weeks ago that I wrote about my second trip to Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, Pennsylvania. I had an opportunity to return to Dutch Way Restaurant just a month after my recent visit that appeared here in June. This time I went on a Tuesday night and the special theme feature on Tuesday nights is Build Your Own Burger and Wings.
The night we went was the night before the Fourth of July and the restaurant was the busiest that I have seen it. We did not have to wait for a table but the dining rooms while not completely filled were full. As I have written about this restaurant before, this is a locals restaurant and not one that attracts tourists. The reason for this is its location as it is in one of the more distant eastern ends of Lancaster County. It impresses me more that locals would come out to this restaurant on the night before a holiday when this area is overfull of tourists. It is the locals that appreciate the restaurant in a way that makes them come here - and not as a place to eat chosen at random by tourists. I have often thought that I should not write about these hidden gems - as I do not want them to be overrun by tourists - but at the same time I want to share a great place with my readers - who, I hope know how to act when they come to a restaurant like this - and not act as the tourists often do.
Anyway. We were seated and in a few minutes our server came over with a big smile and a very friendly greeting and took our beverage order and noted that we were there for the buffet and not the menu offerings.
The price of the buffet for dinner is $10.99 on Tuesday nights. Unlimited beverage refills are $1.79. Right here we are beating OCB's prices. Prices do vary by night- Monday to Wednesday will be this same price. Thursday is Seafood Night and the price then is $18.99. Friday and Saturday are less than Thursday, but more than Monday to Wednesday.
As there has been, there were four soups. The choice this night included beef vegetable, chili, ham and bean, and stuffed pepper soup. I tried the ham and bean and my wife had the beef vegetable. My soup was full and flavorful. The beef vegetable soup was according to my wife, "very nice". (From my picky eater wife, this is a rave review.)
The salad bar was as extensive as it has been with much of the same choices. There are many local styled prepared salads and and an overwhelming selections of items to create a salad. They don't have just bacon bits or chopped bacon. They have large pieces of crumbled fried bacon!
I went over to the grill to check out the features - build your own burger and wings. There was a large crowd of people around the grill and two chefs behind doing their best to get out the orders - each person, of course, was ordering their burgers and wings the way they wanted them. This is a very popular feature theme! I decided that I would explore the hot buffet tables first and come back to the grill later on. There were four types of wings to choose - hot, mild, ranch, and honey mustard. You asked for as many and what ever combination you wanted. The burgers were being cooked and built to order. The toppings included any of these cheeses - American, Swiss, cheddar, and pepper jack. Then you could add bacon, sauteed mushrooms, friend onions, barbecue sauce, tomato, lettuce, and more. Then there were the condiments that were your basics plus raw onion. Any or all of this cooked to your liking, and then assembled on a large bun. The burgers were large and thick.
Over at the buffet servers there was a large variety of very interesting dishes. There was chicken and biscuits - a thick creamed chicken with bits of chicken pulverized in a dense cream sauce served over biscuits. There was Dutch meat loaf. There were ham balls in a not overly sweet pineapple sauce. There was an excellent pork and sauerkraut. There was something called porcupine meatballs. We wondered. This could not be porcupine - could it? No, it was beef mixed with rice. It was good. There was sauteed beef and vegetables which was later replaced with chicken and vegetables, but later still was back to beef and vegetables. There was a thin but tasty version of the local dish, Chicken Bot Boi (I have described what this is many times before). There was so much for a buffet that that I will just list what else there was - Henny Penny Fried Chicken, roast turkey in gravy, roast beef in gravy, zesty talapia, mashed potatoes, potato filling (wonderfully different here), carrots, string beans with bacon, mixed vegetables of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, herb roasted potatoes with peppers and onions, stewed tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, beets, and baked beans.
I tried a little of several things that I had not had before and enjoyed the chicken and biscuits very much. I enjoyed everything that I tried very much! This is my third time back to this buffet and I have not been disappointed yet.
Not long after seeing the crowd at the grill, the crowd thinned out and I went up and "built a burger". I had the chef put cheddar cheese, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, and fried onions on a medium rare burger - and skipped the roll. Let me say this about build a burger - eat one large burgers like this and there is not much room for much else to eat. I would have been happier with a thinner burger only because there was so much more to eat with everything else on the buffet! I enjoyed the burger. I did not try the wings. I am not much for wings and was not looking for anything spicy. Many were eating the wings with looks of great enjoyment on their faces and lips - lots of licking of lips.
There were various breads to try - warm, crusty rolls, white rolls, wheat rolls, pumpkin bread, cornbread, blueberry bread, and cranberry bread. There were also assorted bread sticks.
With all of this can you fit in dessert too? There are plenty of desserts to end your meal with. There was shoo fly cake, shoo fly pie, molten lava chocolate and vanilla - a hot dessert that was later replaced with hot peach cobbler, apple cobbler, egg custard pie, fruit pies, layer cakes, corn bread in a cup, an extensive assortment of prepared desserts, fresh fruits, puddings, and more. There was one prepared dessert called "Broken Glass". It was a pudding with pieces of different color jelly candies that looked like pieces of glass!
And, just like on my last visit there were chocolate donuts cut in half. I cannot resist chocolate donuts and I indulged in just one half, but I really should not have, but what the heck.
So there you have another featured theme at Dutch Way Restaurant Buffet. As it has been each other time I have been here it was WONDERFUL!
There is something that you need to know about this restaurant - if it is a holiday it may be open only until about 1 pm or it will just be closed. It is also closed on Sundays - as are most local restaurants in this area.
I will be going back. I may be able to try another location of this buffet in the near future. There are two. I am sure it will be just as great. Perhaps it is too early to be thinking that Shady Maple - for me, at least, may have a rival. Dutch-Way is much smaller. It does not have anywhere near the selection. But, as far as value and my looking forward to the next time going back as soon as I am walking out the door of the restaurant - there is something very special here.
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.
The night we went was the night before the Fourth of July and the restaurant was the busiest that I have seen it. We did not have to wait for a table but the dining rooms while not completely filled were full. As I have written about this restaurant before, this is a locals restaurant and not one that attracts tourists. The reason for this is its location as it is in one of the more distant eastern ends of Lancaster County. It impresses me more that locals would come out to this restaurant on the night before a holiday when this area is overfull of tourists. It is the locals that appreciate the restaurant in a way that makes them come here - and not as a place to eat chosen at random by tourists. I have often thought that I should not write about these hidden gems - as I do not want them to be overrun by tourists - but at the same time I want to share a great place with my readers - who, I hope know how to act when they come to a restaurant like this - and not act as the tourists often do.
Anyway. We were seated and in a few minutes our server came over with a big smile and a very friendly greeting and took our beverage order and noted that we were there for the buffet and not the menu offerings.
The price of the buffet for dinner is $10.99 on Tuesday nights. Unlimited beverage refills are $1.79. Right here we are beating OCB's prices. Prices do vary by night- Monday to Wednesday will be this same price. Thursday is Seafood Night and the price then is $18.99. Friday and Saturday are less than Thursday, but more than Monday to Wednesday.
As there has been, there were four soups. The choice this night included beef vegetable, chili, ham and bean, and stuffed pepper soup. I tried the ham and bean and my wife had the beef vegetable. My soup was full and flavorful. The beef vegetable soup was according to my wife, "very nice". (From my picky eater wife, this is a rave review.)
The salad bar was as extensive as it has been with much of the same choices. There are many local styled prepared salads and and an overwhelming selections of items to create a salad. They don't have just bacon bits or chopped bacon. They have large pieces of crumbled fried bacon!
I went over to the grill to check out the features - build your own burger and wings. There was a large crowd of people around the grill and two chefs behind doing their best to get out the orders - each person, of course, was ordering their burgers and wings the way they wanted them. This is a very popular feature theme! I decided that I would explore the hot buffet tables first and come back to the grill later on. There were four types of wings to choose - hot, mild, ranch, and honey mustard. You asked for as many and what ever combination you wanted. The burgers were being cooked and built to order. The toppings included any of these cheeses - American, Swiss, cheddar, and pepper jack. Then you could add bacon, sauteed mushrooms, friend onions, barbecue sauce, tomato, lettuce, and more. Then there were the condiments that were your basics plus raw onion. Any or all of this cooked to your liking, and then assembled on a large bun. The burgers were large and thick.
Over at the buffet servers there was a large variety of very interesting dishes. There was chicken and biscuits - a thick creamed chicken with bits of chicken pulverized in a dense cream sauce served over biscuits. There was Dutch meat loaf. There were ham balls in a not overly sweet pineapple sauce. There was an excellent pork and sauerkraut. There was something called porcupine meatballs. We wondered. This could not be porcupine - could it? No, it was beef mixed with rice. It was good. There was sauteed beef and vegetables which was later replaced with chicken and vegetables, but later still was back to beef and vegetables. There was a thin but tasty version of the local dish, Chicken Bot Boi (I have described what this is many times before). There was so much for a buffet that that I will just list what else there was - Henny Penny Fried Chicken, roast turkey in gravy, roast beef in gravy, zesty talapia, mashed potatoes, potato filling (wonderfully different here), carrots, string beans with bacon, mixed vegetables of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, herb roasted potatoes with peppers and onions, stewed tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, beets, and baked beans.
I tried a little of several things that I had not had before and enjoyed the chicken and biscuits very much. I enjoyed everything that I tried very much! This is my third time back to this buffet and I have not been disappointed yet.
Not long after seeing the crowd at the grill, the crowd thinned out and I went up and "built a burger". I had the chef put cheddar cheese, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, and fried onions on a medium rare burger - and skipped the roll. Let me say this about build a burger - eat one large burgers like this and there is not much room for much else to eat. I would have been happier with a thinner burger only because there was so much more to eat with everything else on the buffet! I enjoyed the burger. I did not try the wings. I am not much for wings and was not looking for anything spicy. Many were eating the wings with looks of great enjoyment on their faces and lips - lots of licking of lips.
There were various breads to try - warm, crusty rolls, white rolls, wheat rolls, pumpkin bread, cornbread, blueberry bread, and cranberry bread. There were also assorted bread sticks.
With all of this can you fit in dessert too? There are plenty of desserts to end your meal with. There was shoo fly cake, shoo fly pie, molten lava chocolate and vanilla - a hot dessert that was later replaced with hot peach cobbler, apple cobbler, egg custard pie, fruit pies, layer cakes, corn bread in a cup, an extensive assortment of prepared desserts, fresh fruits, puddings, and more. There was one prepared dessert called "Broken Glass". It was a pudding with pieces of different color jelly candies that looked like pieces of glass!
And, just like on my last visit there were chocolate donuts cut in half. I cannot resist chocolate donuts and I indulged in just one half, but I really should not have, but what the heck.
So there you have another featured theme at Dutch Way Restaurant Buffet. As it has been each other time I have been here it was WONDERFUL!
There is something that you need to know about this restaurant - if it is a holiday it may be open only until about 1 pm or it will just be closed. It is also closed on Sundays - as are most local restaurants in this area.
I will be going back. I may be able to try another location of this buffet in the near future. There are two. I am sure it will be just as great. Perhaps it is too early to be thinking that Shady Maple - for me, at least, may have a rival. Dutch-Way is much smaller. It does not have anywhere near the selection. But, as far as value and my looking forward to the next time going back as soon as I am walking out the door of the restaurant - there is something very special here.
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Midsummer Swedish Smorgasbord at IKEA
We have just returned from the Midsummer Swedish Smorgasbord served for one night in June each year at the store restaurant at IKEA. IKEA has five one night special all you care to eat meals at their store restaurants during the year. This one is held in June each year.
We had been to the Easter Smorgasbord at IKEA this past April and enjoyed it very much. When we learned that there would be another in June we watched closely at the store for signs about when it would be. This year it was held on Friday, June 15th. These dinners are always held on Fridays. There are two seatings. The first is in the late afternoon starting at 4:00 pm and ending at 6:00 pm. There is an hour to reset the dining room and replenish the serving tables and the second seating starts at 7:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm. Tickets for these dinners must be purchased in advance at the store restaurant and there are a limited number of tickets sold. The price of the meal including everything is $9.99 - and the meal is worth much more.
This is the menu that was presented by IKEA for the meal that would be served at the Midsummer Swedish Smorgasbord:
Assorted varieties of Herring
Hard boiled Eggs with Shrimp
Gravad Lax with Mustard Sauce
Smoked Salmon w/Horseradish Sauce
Whole Poached Salmon
Tossed Green Salad
Cucumber Salad
Rhode Island Salad
Midsummer Fruit Salad
Assorted Swedish Cheeses
Boiled Dill New Potatoes
Meatballs with Lingonberries
Swedish Ham (served cold) w/Mustard
Prinskorv Sausage (sautéed)
Crispbread, Thin bread, Dinner rolls
Strawberries and Whipped Crème
Ice Cream
Assorted Desserts
Coffee, Tea, Fountain Beverage
Everything on this menu was there at the dinner. The Easter dinner had some differences and actually, was more extensive. The set up for Easter was more extensive and a bit more organized as well, but at Easter there were many more people in attendance. At Easter there were hot trays to keep the hot food hot - here the few hot dishes that were served were in smaller serving dishes that were continually brought out hot as they needed replenishing - so everything remained at a good eating temperature.
We arrived a half hour early for the 7:00 pm seating and there was a long line to get in. The regular restaurant is closed for the day when this meal is served. We were let in about five minutes to 7. You enter and find a table. The tables are pre-set with silverware, a glass with a festive color paper napkin folded inside the glass, and for this dinner each table had a plate of Swedish crispbread and also a plate of chocolate bonbon cakes - one large one in the center of the plate and several smaller ones around the outside that were chocolate covered in coconut. The smallest tables seat four, but are separated in the middle so it may seat two couples without each couple touching the other's table. There are tables for larger groups as well - and the staff are very accommodating putting tables together for large groups. We found a table for two/four. No one else sat with us at the other half of the table. There were less people here for this dinner than there were at the Easter dinner - at which another couple did sit down at the other half of our table. You then get on a line to go into the serving area and there are two buffet serving tables with another shorter table opposite each of those at the end. Each side of the serving table duplicates what is on the other side and much is in the middle. On the ends you do have to reach from side to side for a few dishes.
When we had come in April we had jackets with us and it was easy to mark our table as taken. It was over 70 degrees out on this day and we did not think to bring a jacket in with us just to put on a chair at the table. To make sure our table remained ours, the first time we went up, we went up separately. When I returned to the table, I realize that all we had to do was fill our drink glasses with soda and our table would have been saved. As it turned out, there would have been no problem.
The dinner was very good and the food was very good as well. I tried a little of everything and I was pretty much full at the second dish. Of course, there are always things that I want to try some more of and the thir
d time up was perhaps one trip too many, even with the small amounts that I took. The hardboiled eggs with shrimp also had a bit of caviar on top and this was good. The graved lox was excellent. I have said before that I don't like salmon that is not either smoked or raw. The poached salmon was exceptional and was served with a sour cream and cucumber sauce on the side. This is the only cooked salmon that I have liked. I had this at Easter also and made a point to take more of it this time.The ham was a baked ham that was served cold and was very good. There were little sausages (Prinskorv Sausage) that were sauteed with thin cut onions and these were very good. I had these also at Easter and at that time they ran out quickly. Tonight, they were continually replenished. While I enjoy cheeses, I don't generally choose them at a buffet but there were three cheeses that I had to try - one was semi-soft, one was semi-hard, and the third was hard. They reminded me of other cheeses that I have had. I am not cheese-saavy, so I can't identify what they were or what they were like, but I enjoyed all three. Not on the list about, but out on the buffet were jars of sliced sweet pickles. These were very thinly sliced and while they tasted like most sweet pickles, because they were so thin, they were quite different. I liked all three herrings with the herring in cream sauce as the one I enjoyed most. The other two were herring in wine sauce and herring in a yellow cream sauce that must have had mustard in it.
At the dessert server there was a large bowl of huge, fresh strawberries with the green leaves cut off the tops. Next to that bowl was a bowl with whipped cream. People before they went up for their meal, went straight to those strawberries and mounded them on plates and mounded whipped cream on top. There were also bowls of cut up strawberries and blueberries. There were several desserts. We decided that we would each take a dessert and taste it. We took a small piece of a dense cinnamon swirled cake covered in chocolate and a pudding cup with caramel swirled on the sides and a vanilla custard pudding. There also was fruit salad, the strawberries, the strawberries with blueberries, ice cream cups, small two color chocolate(what looked like) brownies, and a pink dome of smooth frosting with some type of cream inside. The chocolate cinnamon cake was very good. The pudding was nice, but not what I anticipated. It had appeared to be an egg custard - my perception only - and it was more a custardy vanilla pudding.
The people who are working at this dinner and at the Easter dinner are exceptional. Everyone is going out to their way to be welcoming and friendly. They go around the dining room and greet you. This dinner is a Swedish festival at which summer wreathes are made and worn like crowns. They were putting these flower crowns (artificial flowers - no allergies) on the children's heads to keep. We suspect that the people who are hear are store management - they go so much beyond what the general employees do - not saying the regular employees would not be this nice - but this really is beyond what we experience at this same restaurant when we dine here for regular meals that are not special dinners like this one. My wife wanted tea and was not sure what to push on the coffee urn to just get hot water and went over to one of the people working and was greeted and told that she would come over and show her - she could have just said push the orange button in the middle. Everyone was all smiles. And we experienced this same thing in April at the Easter dinner.
You do clear your own table here - as you do when you eat at this restaurant for regular meals. There are stacks of tray carriers with trays walled off from the dining area (two of these setups on the floor) and you take your dirty dishes and put them on the trays - and then go for more. This is not a problem. And if you have dishes stacking up on your table you have only you to blame. Plus there is no one to tip!
We learned on this night that the next all you can eat dinner will be Crawfish - all you can eat crawfish. This will be in August. We will skip this one. I only marginally like crawfish and my wife would not eat it at all.
There will be another big smorgasbord in the Fall. I don't know when that one will be. Following that there is one for Christmas, and then Easter again.
When I have talked about these meals at IKEA in the past there have been some very unjustified negative comments and not from anyone who had ever had one of these meals. If you would like to try something different - with good food - and I will add quality food (much of it is sold in their small grocery department and it is imported from Sweden and expensive) - then try one of these smorgasbords. For $9.99 you can't get a quarter pound of gravad lax at a gourmet counter - you get all you care to eat of that here plus the herring and all the rest for $9.99. If you want to be a food snob, then stay away. This is a loss leader for the store - they do it to get you into the store in hopes that you will shop - and to introduce you to foods that they sell for you to take home. In fact one of the nice ladies came around and told us that we can get much of what we ate down in the grocery section to take home - and gave us a coupon to save money on it, as well! If you want to feel rich on at a $9.99 AYCE meal- go for it. I will be back!
We had been to the Easter Smorgasbord at IKEA this past April and enjoyed it very much. When we learned that there would be another in June we watched closely at the store for signs about when it would be. This year it was held on Friday, June 15th. These dinners are always held on Fridays. There are two seatings. The first is in the late afternoon starting at 4:00 pm and ending at 6:00 pm. There is an hour to reset the dining room and replenish the serving tables and the second seating starts at 7:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm. Tickets for these dinners must be purchased in advance at the store restaurant and there are a limited number of tickets sold. The price of the meal including everything is $9.99 - and the meal is worth much more.
This is the menu that was presented by IKEA for the meal that would be served at the Midsummer Swedish Smorgasbord:
Assorted varieties of Herring
Hard boiled Eggs with Shrimp
Gravad Lax with Mustard Sauce
Smoked Salmon w/Horseradish Sauce
Whole Poached Salmon
Tossed Green Salad
Cucumber Salad
Rhode Island Salad
Midsummer Fruit Salad
Assorted Swedish Cheeses
Boiled Dill New Potatoes
Meatballs with Lingonberries
Swedish Ham (served cold) w/Mustard
Prinskorv Sausage (sautéed)
Crispbread, Thin bread, Dinner rolls
Strawberries and Whipped Crème
Ice Cream
Assorted Desserts
Coffee, Tea, Fountain Beverage
Everything on this menu was there at the dinner. The Easter dinner had some differences and actually, was more extensive. The set up for Easter was more extensive and a bit more organized as well, but at Easter there were many more people in attendance. At Easter there were hot trays to keep the hot food hot - here the few hot dishes that were served were in smaller serving dishes that were continually brought out hot as they needed replenishing - so everything remained at a good eating temperature.
We arrived a half hour early for the 7:00 pm seating and there was a long line to get in. The regular restaurant is closed for the day when this meal is served. We were let in about five minutes to 7. You enter and find a table. The tables are pre-set with silverware, a glass with a festive color paper napkin folded inside the glass, and for this dinner each table had a plate of Swedish crispbread and also a plate of chocolate bonbon cakes - one large one in the center of the plate and several smaller ones around the outside that were chocolate covered in coconut. The smallest tables seat four, but are separated in the middle so it may seat two couples without each couple touching the other's table. There are tables for larger groups as well - and the staff are very accommodating putting tables together for large groups. We found a table for two/four. No one else sat with us at the other half of the table. There were less people here for this dinner than there were at the Easter dinner - at which another couple did sit down at the other half of our table. You then get on a line to go into the serving area and there are two buffet serving tables with another shorter table opposite each of those at the end. Each side of the serving table duplicates what is on the other side and much is in the middle. On the ends you do have to reach from side to side for a few dishes.
When we had come in April we had jackets with us and it was easy to mark our table as taken. It was over 70 degrees out on this day and we did not think to bring a jacket in with us just to put on a chair at the table. To make sure our table remained ours, the first time we went up, we went up separately. When I returned to the table, I realize that all we had to do was fill our drink glasses with soda and our table would have been saved. As it turned out, there would have been no problem.
The dinner was very good and the food was very good as well. I tried a little of everything and I was pretty much full at the second dish. Of course, there are always things that I want to try some more of and the thir
d time up was perhaps one trip too many, even with the small amounts that I took. The hardboiled eggs with shrimp also had a bit of caviar on top and this was good. The graved lox was excellent. I have said before that I don't like salmon that is not either smoked or raw. The poached salmon was exceptional and was served with a sour cream and cucumber sauce on the side. This is the only cooked salmon that I have liked. I had this at Easter also and made a point to take more of it this time.The ham was a baked ham that was served cold and was very good. There were little sausages (Prinskorv Sausage) that were sauteed with thin cut onions and these were very good. I had these also at Easter and at that time they ran out quickly. Tonight, they were continually replenished. While I enjoy cheeses, I don't generally choose them at a buffet but there were three cheeses that I had to try - one was semi-soft, one was semi-hard, and the third was hard. They reminded me of other cheeses that I have had. I am not cheese-saavy, so I can't identify what they were or what they were like, but I enjoyed all three. Not on the list about, but out on the buffet were jars of sliced sweet pickles. These were very thinly sliced and while they tasted like most sweet pickles, because they were so thin, they were quite different. I liked all three herrings with the herring in cream sauce as the one I enjoyed most. The other two were herring in wine sauce and herring in a yellow cream sauce that must have had mustard in it.At the dessert server there was a large bowl of huge, fresh strawberries with the green leaves cut off the tops. Next to that bowl was a bowl with whipped cream. People before they went up for their meal, went straight to those strawberries and mounded them on plates and mounded whipped cream on top. There were also bowls of cut up strawberries and blueberries. There were several desserts. We decided that we would each take a dessert and taste it. We took a small piece of a dense cinnamon swirled cake covered in chocolate and a pudding cup with caramel swirled on the sides and a vanilla custard pudding. There also was fruit salad, the strawberries, the strawberries with blueberries, ice cream cups, small two color chocolate(what looked like) brownies, and a pink dome of smooth frosting with some type of cream inside. The chocolate cinnamon cake was very good. The pudding was nice, but not what I anticipated. It had appeared to be an egg custard - my perception only - and it was more a custardy vanilla pudding.
The people who are working at this dinner and at the Easter dinner are exceptional. Everyone is going out to their way to be welcoming and friendly. They go around the dining room and greet you. This dinner is a Swedish festival at which summer wreathes are made and worn like crowns. They were putting these flower crowns (artificial flowers - no allergies) on the children's heads to keep. We suspect that the people who are hear are store management - they go so much beyond what the general employees do - not saying the regular employees would not be this nice - but this really is beyond what we experience at this same restaurant when we dine here for regular meals that are not special dinners like this one. My wife wanted tea and was not sure what to push on the coffee urn to just get hot water and went over to one of the people working and was greeted and told that she would come over and show her - she could have just said push the orange button in the middle. Everyone was all smiles. And we experienced this same thing in April at the Easter dinner.
You do clear your own table here - as you do when you eat at this restaurant for regular meals. There are stacks of tray carriers with trays walled off from the dining area (two of these setups on the floor) and you take your dirty dishes and put them on the trays - and then go for more. This is not a problem. And if you have dishes stacking up on your table you have only you to blame. Plus there is no one to tip!
We learned on this night that the next all you can eat dinner will be Crawfish - all you can eat crawfish. This will be in August. We will skip this one. I only marginally like crawfish and my wife would not eat it at all.
There will be another big smorgasbord in the Fall. I don't know when that one will be. Following that there is one for Christmas, and then Easter again.
When I have talked about these meals at IKEA in the past there have been some very unjustified negative comments and not from anyone who had ever had one of these meals. If you would like to try something different - with good food - and I will add quality food (much of it is sold in their small grocery department and it is imported from Sweden and expensive) - then try one of these smorgasbords. For $9.99 you can't get a quarter pound of gravad lax at a gourmet counter - you get all you care to eat of that here plus the herring and all the rest for $9.99. If you want to be a food snob, then stay away. This is a loss leader for the store - they do it to get you into the store in hopes that you will shop - and to introduce you to foods that they sell for you to take home. In fact one of the nice ladies came around and told us that we can get much of what we ate down in the grocery section to take home - and gave us a coupon to save money on it, as well! If you want to feel rich on at a $9.99 AYCE meal- go for it. I will be back!
Friday, July 06, 2012
Willow Tree Restaurant and Smorgasbord, Lancaster, PA
The Willow Tree Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was formerly called the Willow Valley Farm Restaurant and Smorgasbord. It is part of a hotel complex called The Willow Valley Farm Inn and Suites. I had been to this restaurant/buffet a number of years back and to our recollection we had been there perhaps three or four times. This was before I started writing this site. We had not gone back. One reason was that my good wife would have stomach problems after eating here. Another was that it is located in an area that is out of the mainstream of Lancaster County - below the City of Lancaster and getting there requires driving through Center City Lancaster which is just OK and, surprisingly for a city surrounded by gentle people and farmlands, it is very urban.
It has been a long time and we were in Lancaster County on a Sunday night. There are few buffets open on a Sunday in Lancaster. Willow Tree is open - as it is the hotel's restaurant (which recently started serving only buffet and on longer serves from a menu). We talked it over and figured that after so many years things must have changed and we would try it again - and hopefully, my wife would be fine after the meal.
We set out for the restaurant using the GPS and I saw that it had a way to go that did not go through the city. Interesting. OK, we started out and soon discovered that this route was taking us on mountain-like roads that were single lane. We came to one spot along the way with a single lane bridge. It was still daylight even though it was dinner time and we at least could easily see the road and where we were going. Of course, when we came to the road that the restaurant is located on it had us turn right instead of left - and before we could turn around we were in the city. Finally, we arrived at the restaurant. We decided right then that we would go back the usual way through the city after dinner.
There are now two hotels in the complex. One is a Double Tree and the older part of the complex is the Willow Valley Farm Inn and Resort. The restaurant is around the back of the building that is signed as the office for the hotel. You follow the parking lot around and you will see a very pretty pond with fountains. The restaurant is in the building facing the pond and there is a sign. You climb up a staircase to get to the restaurant from the parking lot.
I had vague recollections of what the restaurant looked like inside though my wife remembered it exactly as it is now. You enter past a cashier's desk and there is a hostess pedestal there. You are seated in one of two dining rooms. We were there on a Sunday night on Memorial Day weekend in one of the few buffet restaurants open. There was hardly anyone there dining. This should have told me something. I also should have walked around and looked at what was offered on the buffet before we sat down, but I rarely, if ever do this, and we were seated, ordered soft drinks and went up to start our meal. I still did not look at the hot buffet servers.
The buffet area is made up of two round, cold buffet servers, two small, double sided hot buffet servers, a wall with two soups and rolls, a small grill area, and another corner wall with desserts. The price of the buffet including beverages is $18.99, Sunday through Thursday and $22.99, Friday and Saturday. We had a coupon clipped from a visit Lancaster County magazine that gave $4.00 off each adult meal. There are coupons on the Lancaster County tourist website for $3.00 off each adult meal.
There were two soups. One was seafood chowder and the other was beef vegetable soup. I tried the seafood chowder. My wife had the beef vegetable. I found that the seafood chowder was overfull of potatoes. It was a white cream chowder with chunks of some type of fish and small, over cooked shrimp. The taste was more like a bisque (sharp) than a chowder. My wife found the beef vegetable soup to be salty.
The salad bar and cold servers had the makings for a lettuce salad with toppings and a few dressings. My wife commented to me that the "fresh" cucumbers that she took were just on the edge of going bad. There were prepared salads that were typical macaroni salad, potato salad, and coleslaw. There was a good tasting chicken salad, that I eventually took as part of my entrees. I will explain why as we go along. Up to this point we were pretty much fine.
We then went up to the hot servers for entrees and side dishes and we were in for a surprise. There was not very much to be had and what there was certainly did not justify the price that they were charging for this meal. Several of the dishes were almost duplicates of each other. There was stuffed cabbage and stuffed peppers - the same meat and rice stuffing in a tomato base in different casings. There were McDonalds-like boneless riblets - really, just like the boneless ribs that McDonalds serves on their rib sandwich. These were over done and were covered in a thick commercial barbecue sauce. There was pulled pork barbecue that was over sauced. There was barbecue chicken that were over done pieces of chicken covered and cooked the same commercial barbecue sauce. There was also fried chicken. Over on the side wall next to the desserts there was a small hot server with macaroni and cheese, potato tots, and chicken nuggets - obviously meant for the children. On the grill they were slicing ham with a pineapple glaze and roast beef. This was it as far as entrees. There was no fish of any kind (hot or cold). There were some side dishes and these included kernel corn, carrots, stewed tomatoes, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, red potatoes, baked beans, and what was labeled as buttered noodles but was actually ziti swimming in butter (or some butter like substance).
This is Lancaster County - bountiful and plentiful This was not a typical Lancaster County buffet. There also were no local dishes on the buffet at all. None of the usual things that are found on many of the local buffet restaurants. My wife described the buffet well - it is a typical hotel restaurant buffet.
As I walked around deciding what to take I decided that with the little that there was I would take a tasting of some of the things that I could eat. I did not take the stuffed peppers or the stuffed cabbage. I did take the riblets and the pork barbecue. The riblets were dry and over cooked. The pork barbecue was too sweet. I passed on the dry looking bbq chicken. I did take a piece of fried chicken. It did not stand out in any way. It was OK but I have had better at OCB. The selection of pieces of chicken was limited. The ham was dry and the roast beef was well done.
The vegetables were all covered and drowning in butter (or as I say, some butter type substance). They were really not edible this way and rather than give them taste, this "butter" sauce just made them oily. The ziti in "butter" was the same way - too greasy to eat. The red potatoes were not only covered in butter but also some type of hot seasoning.
This is why I went back to the salad bar and took the chicken salad - which different from the rest of the meal was not bad - though at one point I was not sure if it was chicken salad or tuna salad - had some tuna salad found its way into this serving bowl - there was no tuna salad out to be served. I also took some macaroni salad and some potato salad as I could not take any more of the greasy side dishes.
My poor wife, as my regular readers know is a picky eater and she was trying to find things to eat. Her meal mostly consisted of ham, potato tots (which actually are her favorite- and saved the meal for her), and rolls. At one point she went back for more beef vegetable soup which must have been refilled because this time it tasted very spicy. I tried a taste and it was spicy and was seasoned like clam chowder is in NY.
As there were few diners, there was not much being taken - and no one was coming around to make sure that what was out was not drying out. No one was tending the buffet - and the food was looking like it was not tended.
I looked over the desserts and there was two types of layer cake, a few different pieces of pie, pudding, and jello. There was also soft serve ice cream with a big sign on the machine that said Turkey Hill. Turkey Hill ice cream is a large brand on the East Coast and originates in Pennsylvania. I thought that this might be the one good thing here. I tried a sample and it was custard-like rather than like soft serve - but not in a good way. The pieces of pie and cake that were out were all falling apart - all split in the center - not intentionally. I wondered how long they had been sitting out.
I have had better dinners at Old Country Buffet - and after this meal I wished I had gone instead to the Old Country Buffet in Lancaster. The dinner that we had here was not good. Aside from the cooking - even if it had tasted better than it did - there was no value. You should not be paying $19 each for McDonald's riblets, chicken nuggets, and fried chicken. This was not like this the last time we had come - the selection was much better and so was the cooking - but that was many years ago. Times change and so do restaurants.
Thank goodness I had the coupon so that the meal came down to $15 each - which was still to much to pay for what we got.
I should mention that service was fine. Our server made sure there were drink refills and some of the time did not let the plates pile up on the table.
We left and drove back through the city. Remember that I said that we had stopped coming here because the food made my wife's stomach upset. Well, it did not this time - it made my stomach upset - and it only took about half an hour after the meal to send me running.
No - I do not recommend Willow Tree Restaurant and Smorgasbord. Even on a Sunday there are much better places to go in Lancaster if you want a buffet.
I will list the location of this restaurant just so you know what to avoid. I will not link the website at the side of the page - though they do have one. Willow Tree Restaurant is located at 2416 Willow Street Pike, Lancaster, PA.
It has been a long time and we were in Lancaster County on a Sunday night. There are few buffets open on a Sunday in Lancaster. Willow Tree is open - as it is the hotel's restaurant (which recently started serving only buffet and on longer serves from a menu). We talked it over and figured that after so many years things must have changed and we would try it again - and hopefully, my wife would be fine after the meal.
We set out for the restaurant using the GPS and I saw that it had a way to go that did not go through the city. Interesting. OK, we started out and soon discovered that this route was taking us on mountain-like roads that were single lane. We came to one spot along the way with a single lane bridge. It was still daylight even though it was dinner time and we at least could easily see the road and where we were going. Of course, when we came to the road that the restaurant is located on it had us turn right instead of left - and before we could turn around we were in the city. Finally, we arrived at the restaurant. We decided right then that we would go back the usual way through the city after dinner.
There are now two hotels in the complex. One is a Double Tree and the older part of the complex is the Willow Valley Farm Inn and Resort. The restaurant is around the back of the building that is signed as the office for the hotel. You follow the parking lot around and you will see a very pretty pond with fountains. The restaurant is in the building facing the pond and there is a sign. You climb up a staircase to get to the restaurant from the parking lot.
I had vague recollections of what the restaurant looked like inside though my wife remembered it exactly as it is now. You enter past a cashier's desk and there is a hostess pedestal there. You are seated in one of two dining rooms. We were there on a Sunday night on Memorial Day weekend in one of the few buffet restaurants open. There was hardly anyone there dining. This should have told me something. I also should have walked around and looked at what was offered on the buffet before we sat down, but I rarely, if ever do this, and we were seated, ordered soft drinks and went up to start our meal. I still did not look at the hot buffet servers.
The buffet area is made up of two round, cold buffet servers, two small, double sided hot buffet servers, a wall with two soups and rolls, a small grill area, and another corner wall with desserts. The price of the buffet including beverages is $18.99, Sunday through Thursday and $22.99, Friday and Saturday. We had a coupon clipped from a visit Lancaster County magazine that gave $4.00 off each adult meal. There are coupons on the Lancaster County tourist website for $3.00 off each adult meal.
There were two soups. One was seafood chowder and the other was beef vegetable soup. I tried the seafood chowder. My wife had the beef vegetable. I found that the seafood chowder was overfull of potatoes. It was a white cream chowder with chunks of some type of fish and small, over cooked shrimp. The taste was more like a bisque (sharp) than a chowder. My wife found the beef vegetable soup to be salty.
The salad bar and cold servers had the makings for a lettuce salad with toppings and a few dressings. My wife commented to me that the "fresh" cucumbers that she took were just on the edge of going bad. There were prepared salads that were typical macaroni salad, potato salad, and coleslaw. There was a good tasting chicken salad, that I eventually took as part of my entrees. I will explain why as we go along. Up to this point we were pretty much fine.
We then went up to the hot servers for entrees and side dishes and we were in for a surprise. There was not very much to be had and what there was certainly did not justify the price that they were charging for this meal. Several of the dishes were almost duplicates of each other. There was stuffed cabbage and stuffed peppers - the same meat and rice stuffing in a tomato base in different casings. There were McDonalds-like boneless riblets - really, just like the boneless ribs that McDonalds serves on their rib sandwich. These were over done and were covered in a thick commercial barbecue sauce. There was pulled pork barbecue that was over sauced. There was barbecue chicken that were over done pieces of chicken covered and cooked the same commercial barbecue sauce. There was also fried chicken. Over on the side wall next to the desserts there was a small hot server with macaroni and cheese, potato tots, and chicken nuggets - obviously meant for the children. On the grill they were slicing ham with a pineapple glaze and roast beef. This was it as far as entrees. There was no fish of any kind (hot or cold). There were some side dishes and these included kernel corn, carrots, stewed tomatoes, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, red potatoes, baked beans, and what was labeled as buttered noodles but was actually ziti swimming in butter (or some butter like substance).
This is Lancaster County - bountiful and plentiful This was not a typical Lancaster County buffet. There also were no local dishes on the buffet at all. None of the usual things that are found on many of the local buffet restaurants. My wife described the buffet well - it is a typical hotel restaurant buffet.
As I walked around deciding what to take I decided that with the little that there was I would take a tasting of some of the things that I could eat. I did not take the stuffed peppers or the stuffed cabbage. I did take the riblets and the pork barbecue. The riblets were dry and over cooked. The pork barbecue was too sweet. I passed on the dry looking bbq chicken. I did take a piece of fried chicken. It did not stand out in any way. It was OK but I have had better at OCB. The selection of pieces of chicken was limited. The ham was dry and the roast beef was well done.
The vegetables were all covered and drowning in butter (or as I say, some butter type substance). They were really not edible this way and rather than give them taste, this "butter" sauce just made them oily. The ziti in "butter" was the same way - too greasy to eat. The red potatoes were not only covered in butter but also some type of hot seasoning.
This is why I went back to the salad bar and took the chicken salad - which different from the rest of the meal was not bad - though at one point I was not sure if it was chicken salad or tuna salad - had some tuna salad found its way into this serving bowl - there was no tuna salad out to be served. I also took some macaroni salad and some potato salad as I could not take any more of the greasy side dishes.
My poor wife, as my regular readers know is a picky eater and she was trying to find things to eat. Her meal mostly consisted of ham, potato tots (which actually are her favorite- and saved the meal for her), and rolls. At one point she went back for more beef vegetable soup which must have been refilled because this time it tasted very spicy. I tried a taste and it was spicy and was seasoned like clam chowder is in NY.
As there were few diners, there was not much being taken - and no one was coming around to make sure that what was out was not drying out. No one was tending the buffet - and the food was looking like it was not tended.
I looked over the desserts and there was two types of layer cake, a few different pieces of pie, pudding, and jello. There was also soft serve ice cream with a big sign on the machine that said Turkey Hill. Turkey Hill ice cream is a large brand on the East Coast and originates in Pennsylvania. I thought that this might be the one good thing here. I tried a sample and it was custard-like rather than like soft serve - but not in a good way. The pieces of pie and cake that were out were all falling apart - all split in the center - not intentionally. I wondered how long they had been sitting out.
I have had better dinners at Old Country Buffet - and after this meal I wished I had gone instead to the Old Country Buffet in Lancaster. The dinner that we had here was not good. Aside from the cooking - even if it had tasted better than it did - there was no value. You should not be paying $19 each for McDonald's riblets, chicken nuggets, and fried chicken. This was not like this the last time we had come - the selection was much better and so was the cooking - but that was many years ago. Times change and so do restaurants.
Thank goodness I had the coupon so that the meal came down to $15 each - which was still to much to pay for what we got.
I should mention that service was fine. Our server made sure there were drink refills and some of the time did not let the plates pile up on the table.
We left and drove back through the city. Remember that I said that we had stopped coming here because the food made my wife's stomach upset. Well, it did not this time - it made my stomach upset - and it only took about half an hour after the meal to send me running.
No - I do not recommend Willow Tree Restaurant and Smorgasbord. Even on a Sunday there are much better places to go in Lancaster if you want a buffet.
I will list the location of this restaurant just so you know what to avoid. I will not link the website at the side of the page - though they do have one. Willow Tree Restaurant is located at 2416 Willow Street Pike, Lancaster, PA.
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