Asian buffets in our area are getting fewer and fewer. A favorite out in Suffolk County recently closed. We have been going to two on a semi-regular basis - both of which are OK but I was curious to see what Chen's is now like after not going for quite a long time and also how it is attempting to compete with it's directly across the street competition, Global Buffet.
Chen's no longer has a website. I was able to find out that dinner price at Chen's is now $11.99, Monday to Friday, and $13.99 on Sundays. There are no longer any coupons in their advertising but there is a 10% discount for Seniors. We went on a Friday night.
It was not crowded. At one time this buffet was jammed on Friday nights.
We were seated and we went up to the buffet for soup. The wonton soup has the liquid in one hot pot and the wontons in a steamer. I opened the wonton steamer and they looked dry and yellow. I took one and some chicken broth. The broth was very hot - which is a good thing as this buffet in the past had problems with food not being kept hot enough while out. The broth had little taste. I bit into the wonton and it was like biting into a small rubber ball. (This was my experience with several things I chose to eat here.) A lot of chewing of the hard outer noodle wrapper and it went down. My wife had egg drop soup and said it was OK - at least it was the correct color (she noticed the color of the wontons too).
I went up for sushi. The sushi was OK. There was not a large assortment - mostly it was salmon and tuna in various forms. The fish was cut thick. The soy sauce that was put out for it was excessively salty - far more so than regular soy sauce - even from other buffets. There was not much of each choice out - but there was a man at the counter making it to refill. I normally would have taken more of one or another but I did not want to empty the dish of any one of them.
Let's see... I took a dumping. I thought the wonton was like a rubber ball - this was more so. It was thick with hard spots that were impossible to chew. That found its way out of my mouth to the side of my plate. A grilled skewer of chicken was hard. Most of that got left. A scallop on the shell was not a scallop or even pieces of scallop. I would say it was chopped up fake crab = Krab. At least it was chew-able.
Shrimp out of the seafood delight was OK. Chicken out of the Chicken and Broccoli was rubbery. Teriyaki Chicken was OK. I was going to take Pepper Steak but the beef in this looked like dry, hard beef jerky chips (which likely is not something that really exists) but this was not anything one would want to try to bite - and no one was taking any. There were mushrooms in oyster sauce that was dried out. Along the way, someone from the buffet stirred it and it did not look as bad. I took two small mushrooms and they were really sweet from having sat too long in the sauce. I took lo mein and that was the most normal thing I had. It tasted pretty good but again it was sweet - which lo mein is not usually. I was tempted by a roast beef. I started to slice it and the large serrated carving knife was not cutting it. I walked away without taking any. I took some fried rice - it was OK.
I next went up to the grill. There was thick slices of beef - thick enough to be a steak though about three inches (maybe) around. I took two and had them grilled. It was somewhat tasty though it needed salt and I don't usually put salt on food (unless it needs it) but it was tough and chewy. I had to cut it into small pieces to be able to chew it.
Well - one thing that looked tempting when we had walked around the buffet were flat, hot apple pie sealed pockets. I had planned on that for dessert. When we went up to take them they were dried out and burned all around. We went to the dessert bar and took cookies. I also took a small rolled cake - commercial out of the commercial serving package. It was not good and I did not eat it.
I am not sure how they stay in business other than they are less expensive from what is across the street which has gone up in price since it opened. There I find things to eat that are tasty and edible (most of the time). Before I left I could feel the MSG headache coming on - so something I ate had to have been loaded with it. I wondered if it was the steak as it came on shortly after.
SO - Chen's - No. I was hopeful - and disappointed in that.
Chen's Buffet is located at 3056 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, NY 11756.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Friday, July 06, 2018
IKEA Summer Smorgasbord - All IKEA stores
We regularly go to the four time a year IKEA Smorgasbord special dinners. These take place four times a year. There is a pre-Christmas dinner, a pre-Easter dinner, a Mid-Summer dinner (in June) and a dinner in September that features Crayfish. These are all all you care to eat dinners laid out on Smorgasbord tables and they have seatings twice on a Friday - one 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm and one 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm and they take place in the restaurant in IKEA stores. We go to all but the crayfish dinner. We have written about these dinners before.
I am writing this right after attending and enjoying the Mid-Summer Smorgasbord. Usually the menu is pretty much the same from one dinner to the next with some seasonal changes. This year the Mid-Summer dinner had different entrees than any of the dinners have had in the past. The menu from IKEA store to store is generally the same at all locations for these dinners - so the changes here should have been the same at the dinners at the other IKEAs as the advertising for these dinners goes out from all IKEA stores.
The many of the usual were included - and consider the price of these items if you were to go to a restaurant and order them - and for some - if you went to a store to buy them and bring them home to eat. There was three kinds of pickled hearing, Gravlax (in the US - Lox, outside the US - smoked salmon), poached salmon, and hot smoked salmon. There was shrimp salad - small shrimp in a mayonnaise based dressing. There were shrimp stuffed hard boiled eggs. There was the usual Swedish Meatballs. There was tossed salad. There was redskin potato salad. Other than the potato salad this all has been at IKEA smorgasbord dinners before. The usual meat entree at these dinners is ham, but at this dinner there was no ham. There were St Louis Ribs and Bratwurst. Never before has there been St. Louis Ribs and Bratwurst! Both absolutely seasonal - not very much Swedish - but a nice change!
The ribs were fall off the bone. We were told during the dinner that the Food Service Manager cooked the ribs - and he was very proud of it. There were sections of three and sections of four ribs - take as much as you want, of course. They were dry seasoned - no barbecue sauce. I would have preferred barbecue sauce on them but they were meaty and good even without the sauce. Several years past IKEA would serve in their restaurant half racks of baby back ribs in a thick barbecue sauce that were pretty good - but they no longer offer that. These ribs were different - much more meat but no sauce. I enjoyed them!
The bratwurst was also a new entree and these were cooked with onions and cut in half to serve. Large serving platters of brats were put on the two serving tables. The brats has a slight beer taste underlying and they were either cooked in beer - as brats often are - or these were beer brats as sold in some meat markets. They were good! Even my picky eater wife tried them and liked them - I did not tell her there was most likely beer in them or they were cooked in beer until we were leaving. She knew there was a different taste than she expected.
The deserts included fruit salad, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, red velvet cake, and a strawberry filled cream cake. There were two types of IKEAs excellent sandwich cookies - one jelly filled and the other chocolate filled. The deserts do change from Smorgasbord to Smorgasbord and are usually seasonal.
Of course, there is unlimited soft drinks, a non-alcoholic seasonal cider drink and now this IKEA has a computerized coffee dispenser that makes lattes, cappuccino, espresso, and Americano coffee. Put your cup under the spout and push on the screen for your choice and it is made in the machine and dispensed into the cup complete with a head of milk foam.
As I have reported in the past this IKEA store goes all out to make these dinners a party and here there is music from a live band that plays both Swedish Music and Country/Cajun music - interesting combination and they are excellent. During the dinner they stream live on Facebook. We were speaking to the manager during dinner and he said that there are very few IKEA stores that have live music at the Smorgasbord dinners and he has booked this specific band for several years into the future to be sure they are available. The band was talking about jobs they play all over the country - not for IKEA.
There is always a seasonal presentation at the dinners. These dinners coincide with traditional smorgasbord celebrations in Sweden. Mid-Summer does take place in Sweden and the people eat all night on the Summer Solstice celebrating the midnight sun. At this dinner tonight at IKEA there was a circle dance done around a tree as done in Sweden for this holiday - and they get children and adults to come up and join in the dance - which is always a simple dance and easy to do. All night they also had a craft table going on for children - and adults - to make a traditional Swedish head wreath with flowers - which is worn at these celebrations in Sweden - no real flowers but some nice paper flowers adorned many heads on this night.
And then there is the price - and I save the best for last. This dinner - with an IKEA Family Club Card is $12.99 each for adults and $2.99 each for children! What you don't have an IKEA Family Club Card? They are free and you get one immediately at kiosks all over the store. Get the card. Buy your tickets in ADVANCE at the cashier in the IKEA restaurant (not the snack bar). These dinners often sell out - this one was sold out. People came to see if they could get in, not having bought tickets in advance, and were turned away. Tickets go on sale during the dinner before the next dinner - and if the next dinner was not the Crayfish dinner we could have bought tickets for that to be held in the Fall tonight. Signs for the dinners go up in the store and in the restaurant about two months or so before the dinner. Depending on the dinner they can sell out quickly.
I had said above about what you are getting here for the money you are paying compared to getting the same off a menu at non-buffet restaurants. Well, around here two slices of lox (smoked salmon) on a bagel with a little cream cheese in a dinner can cost you upwards of $15.99 and more. I had at least six slices of lox tonight along with everything else.
We very much look forward to each of these dinners. We have a lot of fun. We get there to be on line to be one of the first in - you pick your own table - and then we stay to the very end and the music plays all night! One thing we always take note of is how friendly and nice the IKEA employees are in the restaurant and at these dinners. They actually seem to enjoy their work.
I am writing this right after attending and enjoying the Mid-Summer Smorgasbord. Usually the menu is pretty much the same from one dinner to the next with some seasonal changes. This year the Mid-Summer dinner had different entrees than any of the dinners have had in the past. The menu from IKEA store to store is generally the same at all locations for these dinners - so the changes here should have been the same at the dinners at the other IKEAs as the advertising for these dinners goes out from all IKEA stores.
The many of the usual were included - and consider the price of these items if you were to go to a restaurant and order them - and for some - if you went to a store to buy them and bring them home to eat. There was three kinds of pickled hearing, Gravlax (in the US - Lox, outside the US - smoked salmon), poached salmon, and hot smoked salmon. There was shrimp salad - small shrimp in a mayonnaise based dressing. There were shrimp stuffed hard boiled eggs. There was the usual Swedish Meatballs. There was tossed salad. There was redskin potato salad. Other than the potato salad this all has been at IKEA smorgasbord dinners before. The usual meat entree at these dinners is ham, but at this dinner there was no ham. There were St Louis Ribs and Bratwurst. Never before has there been St. Louis Ribs and Bratwurst! Both absolutely seasonal - not very much Swedish - but a nice change!
The ribs were fall off the bone. We were told during the dinner that the Food Service Manager cooked the ribs - and he was very proud of it. There were sections of three and sections of four ribs - take as much as you want, of course. They were dry seasoned - no barbecue sauce. I would have preferred barbecue sauce on them but they were meaty and good even without the sauce. Several years past IKEA would serve in their restaurant half racks of baby back ribs in a thick barbecue sauce that were pretty good - but they no longer offer that. These ribs were different - much more meat but no sauce. I enjoyed them!
The bratwurst was also a new entree and these were cooked with onions and cut in half to serve. Large serving platters of brats were put on the two serving tables. The brats has a slight beer taste underlying and they were either cooked in beer - as brats often are - or these were beer brats as sold in some meat markets. They were good! Even my picky eater wife tried them and liked them - I did not tell her there was most likely beer in them or they were cooked in beer until we were leaving. She knew there was a different taste than she expected.
The deserts included fruit salad, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, red velvet cake, and a strawberry filled cream cake. There were two types of IKEAs excellent sandwich cookies - one jelly filled and the other chocolate filled. The deserts do change from Smorgasbord to Smorgasbord and are usually seasonal.
Of course, there is unlimited soft drinks, a non-alcoholic seasonal cider drink and now this IKEA has a computerized coffee dispenser that makes lattes, cappuccino, espresso, and Americano coffee. Put your cup under the spout and push on the screen for your choice and it is made in the machine and dispensed into the cup complete with a head of milk foam.
As I have reported in the past this IKEA store goes all out to make these dinners a party and here there is music from a live band that plays both Swedish Music and Country/Cajun music - interesting combination and they are excellent. During the dinner they stream live on Facebook. We were speaking to the manager during dinner and he said that there are very few IKEA stores that have live music at the Smorgasbord dinners and he has booked this specific band for several years into the future to be sure they are available. The band was talking about jobs they play all over the country - not for IKEA.
There is always a seasonal presentation at the dinners. These dinners coincide with traditional smorgasbord celebrations in Sweden. Mid-Summer does take place in Sweden and the people eat all night on the Summer Solstice celebrating the midnight sun. At this dinner tonight at IKEA there was a circle dance done around a tree as done in Sweden for this holiday - and they get children and adults to come up and join in the dance - which is always a simple dance and easy to do. All night they also had a craft table going on for children - and adults - to make a traditional Swedish head wreath with flowers - which is worn at these celebrations in Sweden - no real flowers but some nice paper flowers adorned many heads on this night.
And then there is the price - and I save the best for last. This dinner - with an IKEA Family Club Card is $12.99 each for adults and $2.99 each for children! What you don't have an IKEA Family Club Card? They are free and you get one immediately at kiosks all over the store. Get the card. Buy your tickets in ADVANCE at the cashier in the IKEA restaurant (not the snack bar). These dinners often sell out - this one was sold out. People came to see if they could get in, not having bought tickets in advance, and were turned away. Tickets go on sale during the dinner before the next dinner - and if the next dinner was not the Crayfish dinner we could have bought tickets for that to be held in the Fall tonight. Signs for the dinners go up in the store and in the restaurant about two months or so before the dinner. Depending on the dinner they can sell out quickly.
I had said above about what you are getting here for the money you are paying compared to getting the same off a menu at non-buffet restaurants. Well, around here two slices of lox (smoked salmon) on a bagel with a little cream cheese in a dinner can cost you upwards of $15.99 and more. I had at least six slices of lox tonight along with everything else.
We very much look forward to each of these dinners. We have a lot of fun. We get there to be on line to be one of the first in - you pick your own table - and then we stay to the very end and the music plays all night! One thing we always take note of is how friendly and nice the IKEA employees are in the restaurant and at these dinners. They actually seem to enjoy their work.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet - Connecticut
I had not realized that we had not been to Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet since 2013. That last visit was a disappointment and the year before that it has been as well. This had been a regular birthday dinner trip until then. I guess following that I took my own advice and we headed for Lancaster for my birthday buffet dinner. We have been trying to plan trips around rather poor weather reports and I saw that Thursday was going to be cool but nice and I wanted to go somewhere for a buffet. I started poking around to where to go. I decided that for another single day trip to Lancaster it really was too expensive and hopefully we will get there for several days at some point soon. I looked northward to Connecticut and started looking up the current pricing at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods for their buffets. Mohegan Sun is $30. Foxwoods is usually $24 but on Thursdays if you are 55 years of age or older - during a special they are having - the buffet at dinner from 6 pm to 9 pm when it closes is $9.99! I looked at my past articles. I felt things must have changed - maybe in the past five years. I looked around at reviews and they are mixed - some good and some terrible. For $10 each for dinner, a nice day out with a stop at a favorite spot in Connecticut before getting to the casino, and only one bridge toll - despite the recent jump in gas prices - we would go!
I could talk a lot about getting there. I will just say that the Waze app let me down and sent us out of the way and onto some rather dangerous roads that were single lane and twisted around high hills with one spot having a big sign reading "Dangerous Curve!" That these roads brought us back to the same large main road it sent us off of - with no reported problems on that road convinced me that this is not an app to rely upon at all.
So we got to Foxwoods, later than we had planned and went straight to the buffet to have dinner. There was a line as I anticipated there would be but we only waited about fifteen minutes to get in. Needless to say, there were a lot of seniors also there for the regular $24 buffet for only $9.99 - but that is fine.
Every night there is an option to a pay $10 extra for either a sirloin steak of snow crab legs. The week end buffet includes steak and snow crab legs at no additional cost - though I am not sure if you would be getting the same steak as the one you pay extra for. It is not right that they are charging the same every night (except Thursday nights for Seniors) and not including steak and crab legs as they do on weekends. It would be understandable if the price was higher on the weekends - but it is not. So that annoyance aside - onto our dinner.
Overall the selections and food stations are the same as they had been. There is a Seafood Station, a Carving Station, an "International" Station, an Italian Station, an Asian Station, and a Barbecue Station. There is a area in the middle of the dining room with soups and a salad bar with make your salad and prepared salads. The price includes unlimited soft drinks.
As usual, we started with soup. When we were seated my wife told me to go up for soup while she waited for the server to give our drink order. We had been sitting for about five minutes and no one had come over. As I was on my way back to the table with my soup, my wife was walking up to the soup area and she told me the woman server was very nice and took the drink order without any confusion. Plus one right there.
There are four soups - as there have been in the past. There were two thick soups and two thin soups. There was New England Clam Chowder, a red bean soup, a thin vegetable chowder, and chicken rice soup. In the past there were often all thick soups - this variety is much better. I chose the vegetable chowder. I was going to pick the New England Clam but decided on trying something different and I was not sure I wanted a thick heavy soup. The vegetable chowder was very good. It was a vegetable stock with a bit of a tang to it - either vinegar or a seasoning, There was a visible seasoning that looked like what is found in red clam chowder or minestrone. The soup was full of vegetables. As I got down to the bottom of the bowl I wondered if I should go and get more - but no, I decided that I would get on with the meal. My wife took the chicken rice and felt it could have had more in it - but it tasted fine.
The salad bar was next - and we did not take much. Not that there was not a lot to take. We were not going to make big salads. We took a little of this and a little of that and not much at all, There was a really nice looking Caesar Salad but with the recent problems with Romaine lettuce and a national Ecoli scare I decided against that. Despite articles that say it has past, there was a report of four more cases including one in NY just the past week of when I am writing this. What we took from the salad bar was tasty. I tried some Tortellini salad with black olives. It was good.
On to the main event! I walked around all of the stations deciding. I knew that at least once and more likely twice I was going to get the Prime Rib that was being carved. The other carving was pork roast with pancetta. What caught my attention were barbecue ribs in the Barbecue area, the sausage and peppers in tomato sauce, tortellini bruschetta (not sure why bruschetta as it just seemed to be thick tomato sauce), a macaroni in white cream sauce, and the Prime Rib kept calling me. And I took a little of each of this all - except the Prime Rib. When I was about to get up to the carver from the line, he was left with a full half of a Prime Rib and a slice of Prime Rib from what he was carving from that was about an inch and a half thick. He was not carving thick slices. He cut that thick slice in half and he gave the woman in front of me that and gave me the other half. My first thought was that this was too much to start off with but I took it back to the table. It was supposed to be rare. It was pink and it was more medium rare, but as I have been writing, when I have been writing lately, I have a craving for beef, steak in particular but Prime Rib is a good second. The Prime Rib was mostly tender. Around the cooked edges there were some spots that had to be cut out as they were more grizzle than meat. It was a little less than flavorful and I wound up adding salt which I rarely do. It was fine. The sausage was good. The tortellini was nice. The macaroni in white cream sauce, most would say was just right - but I am not a fan of al dente macaroni. To me it is under cooked and hard to chew. I much prefer pasta/macaroni that has cooked to not quite soft but not at all hard. It tasted good but it was not as I like. I don't really get this passion for almost raw macaroni. The rib was tasty but I only took a small piece and there was no bone which I saw when I took it. It was covered in a pleasant barbecue sauce that was not too sweet and I liked what I ate. I put this on my get some more of list for the next trip up.
The Seafood Station has fried shrimp, fried calamari, a fried batter dipped snapper that looked dark and over fried, a cod fillet in a green curry sauce, and peel and eat shrimp. I passed all of it up. There were no fried clams on this night as they had been at least five years ago. I was not going to try anything in curry - I had an almost two hundred mile drive home after this dinner. I would have taken the snapper if it was not overdone.
I took two more full ribs. There were two focaccia to choose from- one with vegetables and cheese and the other with pepperoni and cheese, both with tomato sauce. I took the vegetable focaccia. There were crab clusters - but these were stone crab clusters - a half crab that were broiled or just put in a fryer. I took a half to try it. I took a meatball. I went over to the Barbecue Station and took some red skin potato salad. I went back to the table. My wife was up at the carving station. She is not a fan of beef and she was looking for turkey which has been here - again, at least in the long past. There was no turkey but the pork roast and she was not certain she would like the pancetta that was on it. Remember, my wife is a picky eater. When she came back without any carvings we had a discussion about this and she said the turkey was what she had always liked the most to take here. She does make do finding things. These two ribs were good. They were almost fall off the bone ribs and they were very tasty. The focaccia was very tasty. The crab - well... When I got back to the table I was smelling the ocean which for raw fish is a good thing but it was the crab. OK. Stone crab is very hard to open, This seemed to be a bit brittle and it broke in half. I tried to pull out some of the white crab meat inside the cluster with a fork and came out with a little shreds of meat and a lot of a hard shell like substance that was over the open end of the cluster. It was then an effort to get these sharp little bits out of my mouth. I went back into the shell to try to get some actual crab meat and a little did come out - which I could taste - but again there was this shell. I stopped at that point and pushed the crab to the side of my plate. The potato salad was good.
What was to be my final trip up and you know it was going to be Primer Rib! There was no line and I could see the carver cutting up the rest of what he had out into small slices of well done beef. I said to myself - and my good wife - that I would wait. I wanted a new Prime Rib and it was still an hour and a half to closing so they would certainly bring another out. Rather than go back to the table with an empty plate - as my wife had already taken what she was going to have, I took some sliced beef in onion sauce. This was in a tray at the carving area. There was also a chicken dish there. I took just a little and some more vegetable focaccia and went back to the table to wait for Prime Rib. I finished what was on my plate and I saw people gathering at the Carving Station. My wife was not going to go up for more until dessert. The Prime Rib was red, rare and juicy! He cut one slice and I asked for two and he cut a second. He was cutting thin slices - more like one slices roast beef but at this point in the meal that was OK. I put some red skinned boiled potatoes on my plate and went back to the table and really enjoyed this beef.
There were other things to choose from and there were several vegetable dishes. I did not take any fried chicken but it did look good!
During the course of the meal the server cleared the plates off the table each time we went up for more and she came and asked if we would like refills on our drinks which she brought promptly. She was an excellent server. In 2012 and 2013 my articles about Foxwoods talk about the poor service we had.
It was time for dessert and I went to look at what there was. The dessert area is a long counter with glass shelves going up full of baked goods. There were several things that looked good. Some labeling could have been better. There was a cheese cake that was topped with something - maybe caramel but there was no sign. There was a Boston Cream cake. There was a chocolate chip cookie cake that tempted me. I have to note this about the desserts - the Sugar Free desserts were the nicest looking desserts that were out - nice looking iced and cream layer cakes. I don't eat sugar free because one never knows what they have been sweetened with and some common sweeteners are sugar alcohols which are laxatives - fast working laxatives. There was a soft serve sundae bar - the soft serve ice cream looked icy. I went down to the very end and found bread pudding! I took that - thought about also taking the chocolate chip cookie cake - but didn't and headed back. The bread pudding was a little on the sweet side but fine. (Not as good as the bread pudding at Golden Corral which is my favorite.)
This was a good meal for $9.99! Was it a good meal for $24? Hmm. Nothing was bad. Nothing was wrong with anything I took. I enjoyed everything that I ate - but I can compare this to other $24 buffet meals that I have had and this was just OK - in comparison. I am looking strictly at value. Again nothing wrong. I would certainly go back on a Thursday night for $9.99 each and I am driving a distance for this! We are not gamblers. I love casinos - the atmosphere, the money risked. But I can't afford to be a gambler. We go strictly to eat and walk around. If it was not Thursday - that may be a dilemma in deciding. There are two buffet choices - one is Mohegan Sun which we were at a year ago but I never got around to writing about. It was OK - but now it is $30. There is also now a Golden Corral in Connecticut which I have not yet been to. It opened with some difficulties and a reader wrote and told me to avoid it for awhile - and I have still not yet gone. When I do go, you all will know about it. But $12.99 or whatever this Golden Corral is charging (another article will talk about recent price increases) is a lot better than $24 and $30 each - and just about every Golden Corral I have been to has had good steak. Ah yes - children are allowed in the building and in the buffet. They cannot go onto the casino floor where there is gambling.
I can say confidently that the negative reviews that I saw on Yelp and Trip Advisor was not the experience I had. It was pretty much all positive! I wish I was close by - without the trip we have to get there - as I would be there most Thursday nights! The special is not on holidays - so Thanksgiving is out! 😄
I could talk a lot about getting there. I will just say that the Waze app let me down and sent us out of the way and onto some rather dangerous roads that were single lane and twisted around high hills with one spot having a big sign reading "Dangerous Curve!" That these roads brought us back to the same large main road it sent us off of - with no reported problems on that road convinced me that this is not an app to rely upon at all.
So we got to Foxwoods, later than we had planned and went straight to the buffet to have dinner. There was a line as I anticipated there would be but we only waited about fifteen minutes to get in. Needless to say, there were a lot of seniors also there for the regular $24 buffet for only $9.99 - but that is fine.
Every night there is an option to a pay $10 extra for either a sirloin steak of snow crab legs. The week end buffet includes steak and snow crab legs at no additional cost - though I am not sure if you would be getting the same steak as the one you pay extra for. It is not right that they are charging the same every night (except Thursday nights for Seniors) and not including steak and crab legs as they do on weekends. It would be understandable if the price was higher on the weekends - but it is not. So that annoyance aside - onto our dinner.
Overall the selections and food stations are the same as they had been. There is a Seafood Station, a Carving Station, an "International" Station, an Italian Station, an Asian Station, and a Barbecue Station. There is a area in the middle of the dining room with soups and a salad bar with make your salad and prepared salads. The price includes unlimited soft drinks.
As usual, we started with soup. When we were seated my wife told me to go up for soup while she waited for the server to give our drink order. We had been sitting for about five minutes and no one had come over. As I was on my way back to the table with my soup, my wife was walking up to the soup area and she told me the woman server was very nice and took the drink order without any confusion. Plus one right there.
There are four soups - as there have been in the past. There were two thick soups and two thin soups. There was New England Clam Chowder, a red bean soup, a thin vegetable chowder, and chicken rice soup. In the past there were often all thick soups - this variety is much better. I chose the vegetable chowder. I was going to pick the New England Clam but decided on trying something different and I was not sure I wanted a thick heavy soup. The vegetable chowder was very good. It was a vegetable stock with a bit of a tang to it - either vinegar or a seasoning, There was a visible seasoning that looked like what is found in red clam chowder or minestrone. The soup was full of vegetables. As I got down to the bottom of the bowl I wondered if I should go and get more - but no, I decided that I would get on with the meal. My wife took the chicken rice and felt it could have had more in it - but it tasted fine.
The salad bar was next - and we did not take much. Not that there was not a lot to take. We were not going to make big salads. We took a little of this and a little of that and not much at all, There was a really nice looking Caesar Salad but with the recent problems with Romaine lettuce and a national Ecoli scare I decided against that. Despite articles that say it has past, there was a report of four more cases including one in NY just the past week of when I am writing this. What we took from the salad bar was tasty. I tried some Tortellini salad with black olives. It was good.
On to the main event! I walked around all of the stations deciding. I knew that at least once and more likely twice I was going to get the Prime Rib that was being carved. The other carving was pork roast with pancetta. What caught my attention were barbecue ribs in the Barbecue area, the sausage and peppers in tomato sauce, tortellini bruschetta (not sure why bruschetta as it just seemed to be thick tomato sauce), a macaroni in white cream sauce, and the Prime Rib kept calling me. And I took a little of each of this all - except the Prime Rib. When I was about to get up to the carver from the line, he was left with a full half of a Prime Rib and a slice of Prime Rib from what he was carving from that was about an inch and a half thick. He was not carving thick slices. He cut that thick slice in half and he gave the woman in front of me that and gave me the other half. My first thought was that this was too much to start off with but I took it back to the table. It was supposed to be rare. It was pink and it was more medium rare, but as I have been writing, when I have been writing lately, I have a craving for beef, steak in particular but Prime Rib is a good second. The Prime Rib was mostly tender. Around the cooked edges there were some spots that had to be cut out as they were more grizzle than meat. It was a little less than flavorful and I wound up adding salt which I rarely do. It was fine. The sausage was good. The tortellini was nice. The macaroni in white cream sauce, most would say was just right - but I am not a fan of al dente macaroni. To me it is under cooked and hard to chew. I much prefer pasta/macaroni that has cooked to not quite soft but not at all hard. It tasted good but it was not as I like. I don't really get this passion for almost raw macaroni. The rib was tasty but I only took a small piece and there was no bone which I saw when I took it. It was covered in a pleasant barbecue sauce that was not too sweet and I liked what I ate. I put this on my get some more of list for the next trip up.
The Seafood Station has fried shrimp, fried calamari, a fried batter dipped snapper that looked dark and over fried, a cod fillet in a green curry sauce, and peel and eat shrimp. I passed all of it up. There were no fried clams on this night as they had been at least five years ago. I was not going to try anything in curry - I had an almost two hundred mile drive home after this dinner. I would have taken the snapper if it was not overdone.
I took two more full ribs. There were two focaccia to choose from- one with vegetables and cheese and the other with pepperoni and cheese, both with tomato sauce. I took the vegetable focaccia. There were crab clusters - but these were stone crab clusters - a half crab that were broiled or just put in a fryer. I took a half to try it. I took a meatball. I went over to the Barbecue Station and took some red skin potato salad. I went back to the table. My wife was up at the carving station. She is not a fan of beef and she was looking for turkey which has been here - again, at least in the long past. There was no turkey but the pork roast and she was not certain she would like the pancetta that was on it. Remember, my wife is a picky eater. When she came back without any carvings we had a discussion about this and she said the turkey was what she had always liked the most to take here. She does make do finding things. These two ribs were good. They were almost fall off the bone ribs and they were very tasty. The focaccia was very tasty. The crab - well... When I got back to the table I was smelling the ocean which for raw fish is a good thing but it was the crab. OK. Stone crab is very hard to open, This seemed to be a bit brittle and it broke in half. I tried to pull out some of the white crab meat inside the cluster with a fork and came out with a little shreds of meat and a lot of a hard shell like substance that was over the open end of the cluster. It was then an effort to get these sharp little bits out of my mouth. I went back into the shell to try to get some actual crab meat and a little did come out - which I could taste - but again there was this shell. I stopped at that point and pushed the crab to the side of my plate. The potato salad was good.
What was to be my final trip up and you know it was going to be Primer Rib! There was no line and I could see the carver cutting up the rest of what he had out into small slices of well done beef. I said to myself - and my good wife - that I would wait. I wanted a new Prime Rib and it was still an hour and a half to closing so they would certainly bring another out. Rather than go back to the table with an empty plate - as my wife had already taken what she was going to have, I took some sliced beef in onion sauce. This was in a tray at the carving area. There was also a chicken dish there. I took just a little and some more vegetable focaccia and went back to the table to wait for Prime Rib. I finished what was on my plate and I saw people gathering at the Carving Station. My wife was not going to go up for more until dessert. The Prime Rib was red, rare and juicy! He cut one slice and I asked for two and he cut a second. He was cutting thin slices - more like one slices roast beef but at this point in the meal that was OK. I put some red skinned boiled potatoes on my plate and went back to the table and really enjoyed this beef.
There were other things to choose from and there were several vegetable dishes. I did not take any fried chicken but it did look good!
During the course of the meal the server cleared the plates off the table each time we went up for more and she came and asked if we would like refills on our drinks which she brought promptly. She was an excellent server. In 2012 and 2013 my articles about Foxwoods talk about the poor service we had.
It was time for dessert and I went to look at what there was. The dessert area is a long counter with glass shelves going up full of baked goods. There were several things that looked good. Some labeling could have been better. There was a cheese cake that was topped with something - maybe caramel but there was no sign. There was a Boston Cream cake. There was a chocolate chip cookie cake that tempted me. I have to note this about the desserts - the Sugar Free desserts were the nicest looking desserts that were out - nice looking iced and cream layer cakes. I don't eat sugar free because one never knows what they have been sweetened with and some common sweeteners are sugar alcohols which are laxatives - fast working laxatives. There was a soft serve sundae bar - the soft serve ice cream looked icy. I went down to the very end and found bread pudding! I took that - thought about also taking the chocolate chip cookie cake - but didn't and headed back. The bread pudding was a little on the sweet side but fine. (Not as good as the bread pudding at Golden Corral which is my favorite.)
This was a good meal for $9.99! Was it a good meal for $24? Hmm. Nothing was bad. Nothing was wrong with anything I took. I enjoyed everything that I ate - but I can compare this to other $24 buffet meals that I have had and this was just OK - in comparison. I am looking strictly at value. Again nothing wrong. I would certainly go back on a Thursday night for $9.99 each and I am driving a distance for this! We are not gamblers. I love casinos - the atmosphere, the money risked. But I can't afford to be a gambler. We go strictly to eat and walk around. If it was not Thursday - that may be a dilemma in deciding. There are two buffet choices - one is Mohegan Sun which we were at a year ago but I never got around to writing about. It was OK - but now it is $30. There is also now a Golden Corral in Connecticut which I have not yet been to. It opened with some difficulties and a reader wrote and told me to avoid it for awhile - and I have still not yet gone. When I do go, you all will know about it. But $12.99 or whatever this Golden Corral is charging (another article will talk about recent price increases) is a lot better than $24 and $30 each - and just about every Golden Corral I have been to has had good steak. Ah yes - children are allowed in the building and in the buffet. They cannot go onto the casino floor where there is gambling.
I can say confidently that the negative reviews that I saw on Yelp and Trip Advisor was not the experience I had. It was pretty much all positive! I wish I was close by - without the trip we have to get there - as I would be there most Thursday nights! The special is not on holidays - so Thanksgiving is out! 😄
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Where Have We Been?!?
We have gotten some kind emails from some of our readers asking where have we been. There has not been an article for some time now. Well, the problem is not where we have been - it is that we have not been anywhere.
This past winter was a tough one and this Spring is not much better. The weather has kept us local and we were only able to get to a buffet out of this area four times from December to now. We made it down to Lancaster, PA three times, each for just part of a day - and all three times ate at the buffet at Dutch Way Restaurant in Gap, PA. Once we got to New Jersey and went to the Golden Corral in Freehold. All nice meals - but nothing really new to write about. It has been "Same old, same old" when it comes to buffets. I had a an article or two in mind from some of those meals but thinking about writing them, I felt that if writing them would bore me, they certainly would bore our readers. So this site has been quiet. The weather has gone from snow every week to rain just about every week. We plan trips to buffets and it has been just not worth dealing with the weather to get out of state to get to them.
Locally there have been a number of meals at Asian buffets - there only Asian buffets here now. There has been nothing special about them and they have been primarily in the same two restaurants - Flaming Grill and Global Buffet. We did have one dinner at International Buffet for an occasion. We did go to two IKEA Seasonal Smorgasbords - one before Christmas that was nearly snowed out. The other was before Easter. Both - as always - were very good. I have a regular reader who writes to me about the IKEA Smorgasbords he goes to at the IKEA store in Brooklyn, NY and they are run very differently from the dinners at the IKEA near us.
The other problem is buffets close rather than new buffets open. Old Country Buffet is gone from here - the closest still open is in New Jersey - and as much as it would be nice to go to an Old Country Buffet again, if going to New Jersey I will go to Golden Corral where I know I am going to have a nice steak - and likely more than one. (Steak deprivation seems to be at the center of most that I have written about in the recent past. 😃 )
I just wanted to let all of our readers know that we are not giving up! I may be writing about the same places but if there is something interesting or good to write about, I will write about it. With the Summer just about starting, we will get out and away more and I will write about what I find.
And why when we were in Lancaster, with several great buffets to go to, did I pick Dutch Way, Gap? Each of those trips were on a Friday night and Dutch Way was where I was going to find Prime Rib on the buffet - and while steak is best, Prime Rib is a close second.
So stick around and we will be here when there is something to be here for. And I am thinking that I really need to run the Rules of the Buffet again sometime soon! In the buffets that are still around - particularly around here - they are sorely needed!
This past winter was a tough one and this Spring is not much better. The weather has kept us local and we were only able to get to a buffet out of this area four times from December to now. We made it down to Lancaster, PA three times, each for just part of a day - and all three times ate at the buffet at Dutch Way Restaurant in Gap, PA. Once we got to New Jersey and went to the Golden Corral in Freehold. All nice meals - but nothing really new to write about. It has been "Same old, same old" when it comes to buffets. I had a an article or two in mind from some of those meals but thinking about writing them, I felt that if writing them would bore me, they certainly would bore our readers. So this site has been quiet. The weather has gone from snow every week to rain just about every week. We plan trips to buffets and it has been just not worth dealing with the weather to get out of state to get to them.
Locally there have been a number of meals at Asian buffets - there only Asian buffets here now. There has been nothing special about them and they have been primarily in the same two restaurants - Flaming Grill and Global Buffet. We did have one dinner at International Buffet for an occasion. We did go to two IKEA Seasonal Smorgasbords - one before Christmas that was nearly snowed out. The other was before Easter. Both - as always - were very good. I have a regular reader who writes to me about the IKEA Smorgasbords he goes to at the IKEA store in Brooklyn, NY and they are run very differently from the dinners at the IKEA near us.
The other problem is buffets close rather than new buffets open. Old Country Buffet is gone from here - the closest still open is in New Jersey - and as much as it would be nice to go to an Old Country Buffet again, if going to New Jersey I will go to Golden Corral where I know I am going to have a nice steak - and likely more than one. (Steak deprivation seems to be at the center of most that I have written about in the recent past. 😃 )
I just wanted to let all of our readers know that we are not giving up! I may be writing about the same places but if there is something interesting or good to write about, I will write about it. With the Summer just about starting, we will get out and away more and I will write about what I find.
And why when we were in Lancaster, with several great buffets to go to, did I pick Dutch Way, Gap? Each of those trips were on a Friday night and Dutch Way was where I was going to find Prime Rib on the buffet - and while steak is best, Prime Rib is a close second.
So stick around and we will be here when there is something to be here for. And I am thinking that I really need to run the Rules of the Buffet again sometime soon! In the buffets that are still around - particularly around here - they are sorely needed!
Friday, February 23, 2018
Dinner at DJ's International Buffet, Garden City, NY
With a holiday week that was not feeling very special - not that it should - I had thoughts of going off somewhere to have a better than our usual buffet. I thought about the casinos in Connecticut, a drive to New Jersey to Golden Corral, or even all the way to Lancaster, PA for a day. None of that seemed worth the tolls and gas. My wife suggested that we go to a buffet locally that we might only go for for a special celebration. There were two I thought about - one was going to cost over $80 for the two of us so I ruled that one out - and we decided to go to DJ's International Buffet which we have been to many times in the past, would cost half what that other buffet would cost, and we only go to for special occasions.
We were there a year ago - and had I gone back to read my article from then, we might have just stayed home to eat, but I didn't check and we went. We went on a weeknight for dinner. The price of dinner on Monday to Thursday is $20.99 per adult. They often run coupons which get sent out in local advertising mailers and sometimes in newspaper supplements.
I thought that it would be empty - based on it was a weeknight - but it was fairly busy. We were seated right away and we went up to the buffet. I started with Udon Soup, which is not at the soup bar which still has a number of soups. The Udon Soup is right across from the soup bar at the grill. The bowls are out filled with udon noodles, a piece of broccoli and a piece of krab - not crab though it is supposed to be crab. If you don't know, krab is fake crab that looks like snow crab leg meat but is actually a piece of fish formed to look like that. There is a hot serving pot of soup for the Udon Soup that you ladle into the bowl yourself. I looked for other things that usually go into Udon Soup but I did not see any. The soup was good. It had the right flavor and the noodles were thick and long. (I will put this here so that it does not get lost later - there were several bowls of noodles out when we went up. When those were gone - not long after - none were brought out again.)
There is a large sushi bar that includes just fish with no rice and that is what I headed for. I took good size pieces of tuna and salmon. I also took some of the seared tuna that is covered on the edges with black pepper and is marinated. All of it was good.
I had a few appetizers - grilled beef on a stick, a grilled pork chop, a baked scallop, a small eggroll, and some mozzarella cheese from the tomato salad where the salads were. The beef on a stick was good. I have been craving steak and grilled beef and this was the start of what satisfied that - at least for this night. The pork chop was slightly sweet but tasty. The baked scallop which was a large scallop shell covered in baked cheese with small bits (barely evident) of scallops, corn, and shredded krab with corn kernels throughout - all in a mayonnaise based sauce. It was tasty but it would have been nicer had there been more evidence of scallops in it. The eggroll was all roll and very little filling. It was as if they took the wrapper for a full size eggroll and wrapped it around into this little eggroll. The cheese was bland.
In the past there has been steak grilled to order on a flame grill. I looked around the grill area and saw a sign for the steak that said to ask. I asked. A nice size but very thin steak was brought from the refrigerator at the end of the grill area and put on the flame grill for me. I asked for it rare - as I always do. This steak - as many Asian buffets that claim they have steak - was just a quarter inch thick. This steak should cook in a few minutes and rare should cook for no more than 60 to 90 seconds. It was turned after a minute when the flames started to come up around it. What set this steak apart form others at Asian buffets was the fat around it which was not a bad thing. I would have taken it off much sooner but he let it cook for several minutes before he took it off. I added some French Fries to the plate and a few large black Greek olives from the salad bar and took it back to the table. The char taste of the steak was just what I was craving. It was not rare - it was more a juicy grey inside. It was very juicy and it tasted like I had hoped it would taste - a steak off a flame grill. I even had a second one later on. Also not rare but tasty all the same. I wondered while I was eating the second one if I should just ask for it well done - and get the crunchy outside that I also like on a steak. (My perfect steak is charred and crunchy outside with a red rare inside - closest I get to that at a buffet is Golden Corral when the chef knows what he is doing.)
There are snow crab legs served at dinner on weeknights - hot. When we got to the restaurant the tray was empty. When I went up after the steak they brought out more that filled about a quarter of the tray- maybe 15 or so claws and single small legs - not clusters. I took two of the legs. Others were descending on the tray and they were all gone by the time I headed back to our table. (They were not filled again the rest of the night we were there.) They were not hot inside which with crab legs is a problem because that makes them difficult to get the meat out of the shell. They were tasty. It was a good thing I did not want more as there were no more to be had. We left a little after 9 pm (they close at 10 pm) and they still had brought out no more crab legs.
There are a lot of seafood dishes served on this buffet. A good number of them are spicy - and while there are signs over most of the trays some signs obviously did not match what was in the tray below. I can't eat spicy and "picky" eater wife does not eat seafood other than shrimp - and does not eat spicy, I tried only a few of the seafood dishes. There was a steamed halibut in ginger sauce. it was bland and was not as good as other steamed fish I have had at other Asian buffets (some at lower prices). There was tilapia with their "special" seasoning. It was better than the halibut, not spicy, and OK. Tilapia is the popular fish at Asian buffets. It is not a good fish to eat if one eats fish for the benefits of eating fish. Farmed tilapia is known to actually decrease benefits gained from other fish when consumed.
It came time for dessert and I decided to get one of their made to order dessert crepes. These are cooked on a round griddle at the grill counter. It was 10 minutes to 9:00 pm - they close at 10:00 pm. I caught the eye of one of the cooks as he walked by and asked for a crepe. He picked up a small container that had a coating of crepe batter on it and told me that there were no more crepes for the night because there was no more batter. There were other tables still occupied in the dining rooms that were not yet near ready for dessert. There was an hour and ten minutes until closing. If more batter was made at this point, it would certainly keep until the next day if there was any left over. No, there were no more crepes.
Just about all of the food that we had was good. On our last visit a year ago, I found things not kept hot enough. Almost all that I had was at the correct temperature - the crab legs should have been kept hotter. I felt that we had a good dinner - BUT it bothers me that there were three main items here that you are paying for in the $21.00 dinner price that they ran out of and did not replace - the Udon Noodle Soup, the Snow Crab Legs, and the Dessert Crepes. It is not as if they are going to make this up with a reduction in price - never will happen! You are paying for what you are not getting that you should be getting. This will, likely, not keep me from going back but we do not come here regularly because of the price and it will be some time before we return.
I will let you decide if this buffet is worth going to. It was fine. Long ago - even under this name and owner - International Buffet has a long history of changes - there was much more "international" in foods offered and more of a variety. That was then - this is now. If it matters there is lobster on Friday to Sunday at diner - the price per adult is then $25.
D.J.'s International Buffet is located at 1100 Stewart Avenue in Garden City, New York. There is a website, linked at the side in the right column. Beware that when you open the website it plays annoying music, which can be turned off, but if you turn it off and go to another page (except the price page) the music starts again.
We were there a year ago - and had I gone back to read my article from then, we might have just stayed home to eat, but I didn't check and we went. We went on a weeknight for dinner. The price of dinner on Monday to Thursday is $20.99 per adult. They often run coupons which get sent out in local advertising mailers and sometimes in newspaper supplements.
I thought that it would be empty - based on it was a weeknight - but it was fairly busy. We were seated right away and we went up to the buffet. I started with Udon Soup, which is not at the soup bar which still has a number of soups. The Udon Soup is right across from the soup bar at the grill. The bowls are out filled with udon noodles, a piece of broccoli and a piece of krab - not crab though it is supposed to be crab. If you don't know, krab is fake crab that looks like snow crab leg meat but is actually a piece of fish formed to look like that. There is a hot serving pot of soup for the Udon Soup that you ladle into the bowl yourself. I looked for other things that usually go into Udon Soup but I did not see any. The soup was good. It had the right flavor and the noodles were thick and long. (I will put this here so that it does not get lost later - there were several bowls of noodles out when we went up. When those were gone - not long after - none were brought out again.)
There is a large sushi bar that includes just fish with no rice and that is what I headed for. I took good size pieces of tuna and salmon. I also took some of the seared tuna that is covered on the edges with black pepper and is marinated. All of it was good.
I had a few appetizers - grilled beef on a stick, a grilled pork chop, a baked scallop, a small eggroll, and some mozzarella cheese from the tomato salad where the salads were. The beef on a stick was good. I have been craving steak and grilled beef and this was the start of what satisfied that - at least for this night. The pork chop was slightly sweet but tasty. The baked scallop which was a large scallop shell covered in baked cheese with small bits (barely evident) of scallops, corn, and shredded krab with corn kernels throughout - all in a mayonnaise based sauce. It was tasty but it would have been nicer had there been more evidence of scallops in it. The eggroll was all roll and very little filling. It was as if they took the wrapper for a full size eggroll and wrapped it around into this little eggroll. The cheese was bland.
In the past there has been steak grilled to order on a flame grill. I looked around the grill area and saw a sign for the steak that said to ask. I asked. A nice size but very thin steak was brought from the refrigerator at the end of the grill area and put on the flame grill for me. I asked for it rare - as I always do. This steak - as many Asian buffets that claim they have steak - was just a quarter inch thick. This steak should cook in a few minutes and rare should cook for no more than 60 to 90 seconds. It was turned after a minute when the flames started to come up around it. What set this steak apart form others at Asian buffets was the fat around it which was not a bad thing. I would have taken it off much sooner but he let it cook for several minutes before he took it off. I added some French Fries to the plate and a few large black Greek olives from the salad bar and took it back to the table. The char taste of the steak was just what I was craving. It was not rare - it was more a juicy grey inside. It was very juicy and it tasted like I had hoped it would taste - a steak off a flame grill. I even had a second one later on. Also not rare but tasty all the same. I wondered while I was eating the second one if I should just ask for it well done - and get the crunchy outside that I also like on a steak. (My perfect steak is charred and crunchy outside with a red rare inside - closest I get to that at a buffet is Golden Corral when the chef knows what he is doing.)
There are snow crab legs served at dinner on weeknights - hot. When we got to the restaurant the tray was empty. When I went up after the steak they brought out more that filled about a quarter of the tray- maybe 15 or so claws and single small legs - not clusters. I took two of the legs. Others were descending on the tray and they were all gone by the time I headed back to our table. (They were not filled again the rest of the night we were there.) They were not hot inside which with crab legs is a problem because that makes them difficult to get the meat out of the shell. They were tasty. It was a good thing I did not want more as there were no more to be had. We left a little after 9 pm (they close at 10 pm) and they still had brought out no more crab legs.
There are a lot of seafood dishes served on this buffet. A good number of them are spicy - and while there are signs over most of the trays some signs obviously did not match what was in the tray below. I can't eat spicy and "picky" eater wife does not eat seafood other than shrimp - and does not eat spicy, I tried only a few of the seafood dishes. There was a steamed halibut in ginger sauce. it was bland and was not as good as other steamed fish I have had at other Asian buffets (some at lower prices). There was tilapia with their "special" seasoning. It was better than the halibut, not spicy, and OK. Tilapia is the popular fish at Asian buffets. It is not a good fish to eat if one eats fish for the benefits of eating fish. Farmed tilapia is known to actually decrease benefits gained from other fish when consumed.
It came time for dessert and I decided to get one of their made to order dessert crepes. These are cooked on a round griddle at the grill counter. It was 10 minutes to 9:00 pm - they close at 10:00 pm. I caught the eye of one of the cooks as he walked by and asked for a crepe. He picked up a small container that had a coating of crepe batter on it and told me that there were no more crepes for the night because there was no more batter. There were other tables still occupied in the dining rooms that were not yet near ready for dessert. There was an hour and ten minutes until closing. If more batter was made at this point, it would certainly keep until the next day if there was any left over. No, there were no more crepes.
Just about all of the food that we had was good. On our last visit a year ago, I found things not kept hot enough. Almost all that I had was at the correct temperature - the crab legs should have been kept hotter. I felt that we had a good dinner - BUT it bothers me that there were three main items here that you are paying for in the $21.00 dinner price that they ran out of and did not replace - the Udon Noodle Soup, the Snow Crab Legs, and the Dessert Crepes. It is not as if they are going to make this up with a reduction in price - never will happen! You are paying for what you are not getting that you should be getting. This will, likely, not keep me from going back but we do not come here regularly because of the price and it will be some time before we return.
I will let you decide if this buffet is worth going to. It was fine. Long ago - even under this name and owner - International Buffet has a long history of changes - there was much more "international" in foods offered and more of a variety. That was then - this is now. If it matters there is lobster on Friday to Sunday at diner - the price per adult is then $25.
D.J.'s International Buffet is located at 1100 Stewart Avenue in Garden City, New York. There is a website, linked at the side in the right column. Beware that when you open the website it plays annoying music, which can be turned off, but if you turn it off and go to another page (except the price page) the music starts again.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Island Buffet, Baldwin, New York
In 2014 we went to an Asian buffet in Baldwin, NY and walked out before we were seated. I wrote about that then in an article. Last week looking through an advertising mailer we saw an ad and coupon for a "Grand Opening" and it turned out to be the Island Buffet in Baldwin. We wondered if it was that same buffet and saw right away from the little map in the ad that it was. But "Grand Opening"? I did some searching and from everything that I saw it was the same as it was in 2014 and that it had remained in business from then to now.
The prices in the ad were interesting - $11.99 on Friday and Saturday nights. There was a coupon for $3.00 off. The ad said lobster or crab legs every night. They claimed to be the largest buffet in Baldwin and had great quality and quantity in what they offered on the buffet. It intrigued us enough to decide to go and find out for ourselves. Last time we never made it past the lobby. I wondered if that was going to be different on this visit.
We went. We walked right in. We were seated at a booth - I did not ask for anything specific in terms of seating. We were taken into the dining room and seated in front of the window. My wife commented that this was why we walked out the last time. We sat down. The window is large and on a cold night as this one was, it was not very comfortable - and being on display to anyone who walked past on the sidewalk was not great. There were other tables and booths away from the window - but it seems like they want to fill those window booths. We put up with it.
The buffet includes an hibachi grill, four double sided, double length hot and cold buffet tables and a counter of hard scooped ice cream and dessert cakes. On an L of the hibachi grill is a sushi bar. The restaurant is 1/4 filled with the buffet area. 1/4 filled with a dining room and 1/2 filled with large party rooms and a lobby. The party room seemed to have two parties going on - one with a rock band and another with small children. As we had walked into the restaurant we could hear the band as clearly as if we were next to them. As we were going up to the buffet several times the children had moved out of the party room for their party and were running through the restaurant. Later we could hear their party entertainment - across the restaurant - as clearly as if we were in the room with them. I had to wonder through this dinner why this restaurant does not just become a party catering venue and forget the restaurant which always seems to be an afterthought here.
The dishes to use at the buffet are located UNDER the buffet tables on near the ground shelf. If you have problems bending over you are going to have a hard time getting the dished to eat off of. Maybe this is minor but I know people who would have had a problem - and not that they are "fat" which might be the assumption.
So how was the meal. I was fairly happy at the start. The food here is tasty. I tried a number of things on the buffet. They have what they call barbecue beef. This is a slice of beef about a quarter inch thick with enough marbling to give it some taste. My first selections of this beef seemed to have been sitting out on the buffet for awhile and perhaps I should have skipped it at that point - but I took a couple of slices. I looked around the buffet for knives - this was not going to be easy to eat without cutting it. There were no knives. I tried spearing it and eating it that way. It was tough but it had a nice taste. So much so that I wanted to eat it but some of it came out into a napkin because after chewing and chewing it was not small enough to get down. I tried other things. There are crab cakes that are rather different - more cake than crab but again they were tasty. There was lobster - the usual buffet lobster in ginger sauce broken into chunks and pieces. There was not a lot out and about one tray and a half of the tray was put out during the time we were there. And the lobster was tasty.
I then had something happen about half way through the meal that I have had perhaps only once in all of the years that I have been writing about buffets and Asian buffets. I suddenly had a headache - and I knew right away from how it felt and how this type of headache has felt before - this was an MSG headache. MSG is a powdered substance (mono-sodium glutamate). used in some Oriental cooking that is a preservative and brings out the flavors of foods. It is not unusual to find this at Chinese restaurants and I am sensitive to it and get the common reaction to it - a headache. I eat at Asian buffets at least once a week and as I say, I can recall once many years ago that I got an MSG headache at an Asian buffet. This reaction to MSG is common - at take out Asian restaurants and at menu Asian restaurants one can request that it is left out. I know that the take out Asian restaurant that I go to uses this - and they do leave it out on request. You can't do that at a buffet - but Asian buffets that I have been at don't put it in the food. Here they must put it in quantity as I can usually get through a meal before I feel it. Quality foods and good cooking does not need MSG added.
There was nothing that I could do at that point and continued with dinner. Several of the things I tried - like the bbq beef that did not chew (I have to say that I took more later that looked less dried out and that was better) - I had a few things in addition that went into my mouth and came out in a napkin. There was fish with bones that were not obvious. There was fried zucchini that - again - was tasty bu that had a overdone coating on it that almost broke a tooth.
There were things I would not take. The some of the sushi was off-color and dried out. There were raw clams that had an odd color and were dried out. Some of the food on the buffet needed to be hotter. When items first come out to the buffet table they are hot, but they cool off shortly after and that should not happen.
I did not go up to the hibachi grill but only because when I decided I would try it, there was no one there cooking. There had been earlier.
For dessert they have a variety of hard ice creams in a freezer case that you scoop yourself. There are the sheet cakes that you see at many of the Asian buffets. There were some fresh fruits and canned fruits. There was also hot apple wrapped pastry.
The service was fine. We did overhear a discussion between customers at a nearby table with the waitress about the coupon that offered three dollars off. We had seen the coupon but had forgot to bring it. The coupon said $3.00 - limit 2. The discussion at that table was that the two dining gave the coupon and only received $3.00 off and not $3.00 for each of the two. The waitress was telling them that the coupon was only for one $3.00 discount and there had to be two people to get it. This is clearly not what the coupon we saw said - and if this restaurant meant this then the coupon should have read $3.00 off - minimum 2 people for discount. This was not good. Other Asian buffets in this area offer coupons that include all adults who are dining - some specify no more than ten. Some reviews of this buffet that I read after our visit talk of a language problem here - maybe so and that extends to their coupons.
Will I go back? With the MSG issue here I don't think so. Yes, the food is tasty. I was able to find things that I liked but the headache was not worth it - especailly when less than a half mile away is Flaming Grill with a a larger buffet, better quality food, and almost the same price (especailly with a coupon which are put out in local papers and mailings often - and no headache. If you don't react to MSG then maybe you might like this buffet. There are things here though to be careful about - especially any raw seafood.
The prices in the ad were interesting - $11.99 on Friday and Saturday nights. There was a coupon for $3.00 off. The ad said lobster or crab legs every night. They claimed to be the largest buffet in Baldwin and had great quality and quantity in what they offered on the buffet. It intrigued us enough to decide to go and find out for ourselves. Last time we never made it past the lobby. I wondered if that was going to be different on this visit.
We went. We walked right in. We were seated at a booth - I did not ask for anything specific in terms of seating. We were taken into the dining room and seated in front of the window. My wife commented that this was why we walked out the last time. We sat down. The window is large and on a cold night as this one was, it was not very comfortable - and being on display to anyone who walked past on the sidewalk was not great. There were other tables and booths away from the window - but it seems like they want to fill those window booths. We put up with it.
The buffet includes an hibachi grill, four double sided, double length hot and cold buffet tables and a counter of hard scooped ice cream and dessert cakes. On an L of the hibachi grill is a sushi bar. The restaurant is 1/4 filled with the buffet area. 1/4 filled with a dining room and 1/2 filled with large party rooms and a lobby. The party room seemed to have two parties going on - one with a rock band and another with small children. As we had walked into the restaurant we could hear the band as clearly as if we were next to them. As we were going up to the buffet several times the children had moved out of the party room for their party and were running through the restaurant. Later we could hear their party entertainment - across the restaurant - as clearly as if we were in the room with them. I had to wonder through this dinner why this restaurant does not just become a party catering venue and forget the restaurant which always seems to be an afterthought here.
The dishes to use at the buffet are located UNDER the buffet tables on near the ground shelf. If you have problems bending over you are going to have a hard time getting the dished to eat off of. Maybe this is minor but I know people who would have had a problem - and not that they are "fat" which might be the assumption.
So how was the meal. I was fairly happy at the start. The food here is tasty. I tried a number of things on the buffet. They have what they call barbecue beef. This is a slice of beef about a quarter inch thick with enough marbling to give it some taste. My first selections of this beef seemed to have been sitting out on the buffet for awhile and perhaps I should have skipped it at that point - but I took a couple of slices. I looked around the buffet for knives - this was not going to be easy to eat without cutting it. There were no knives. I tried spearing it and eating it that way. It was tough but it had a nice taste. So much so that I wanted to eat it but some of it came out into a napkin because after chewing and chewing it was not small enough to get down. I tried other things. There are crab cakes that are rather different - more cake than crab but again they were tasty. There was lobster - the usual buffet lobster in ginger sauce broken into chunks and pieces. There was not a lot out and about one tray and a half of the tray was put out during the time we were there. And the lobster was tasty.
I then had something happen about half way through the meal that I have had perhaps only once in all of the years that I have been writing about buffets and Asian buffets. I suddenly had a headache - and I knew right away from how it felt and how this type of headache has felt before - this was an MSG headache. MSG is a powdered substance (mono-sodium glutamate). used in some Oriental cooking that is a preservative and brings out the flavors of foods. It is not unusual to find this at Chinese restaurants and I am sensitive to it and get the common reaction to it - a headache. I eat at Asian buffets at least once a week and as I say, I can recall once many years ago that I got an MSG headache at an Asian buffet. This reaction to MSG is common - at take out Asian restaurants and at menu Asian restaurants one can request that it is left out. I know that the take out Asian restaurant that I go to uses this - and they do leave it out on request. You can't do that at a buffet - but Asian buffets that I have been at don't put it in the food. Here they must put it in quantity as I can usually get through a meal before I feel it. Quality foods and good cooking does not need MSG added.
There was nothing that I could do at that point and continued with dinner. Several of the things I tried - like the bbq beef that did not chew (I have to say that I took more later that looked less dried out and that was better) - I had a few things in addition that went into my mouth and came out in a napkin. There was fish with bones that were not obvious. There was fried zucchini that - again - was tasty bu that had a overdone coating on it that almost broke a tooth.
There were things I would not take. The some of the sushi was off-color and dried out. There were raw clams that had an odd color and were dried out. Some of the food on the buffet needed to be hotter. When items first come out to the buffet table they are hot, but they cool off shortly after and that should not happen.
I did not go up to the hibachi grill but only because when I decided I would try it, there was no one there cooking. There had been earlier.
For dessert they have a variety of hard ice creams in a freezer case that you scoop yourself. There are the sheet cakes that you see at many of the Asian buffets. There were some fresh fruits and canned fruits. There was also hot apple wrapped pastry.
The service was fine. We did overhear a discussion between customers at a nearby table with the waitress about the coupon that offered three dollars off. We had seen the coupon but had forgot to bring it. The coupon said $3.00 - limit 2. The discussion at that table was that the two dining gave the coupon and only received $3.00 off and not $3.00 for each of the two. The waitress was telling them that the coupon was only for one $3.00 discount and there had to be two people to get it. This is clearly not what the coupon we saw said - and if this restaurant meant this then the coupon should have read $3.00 off - minimum 2 people for discount. This was not good. Other Asian buffets in this area offer coupons that include all adults who are dining - some specify no more than ten. Some reviews of this buffet that I read after our visit talk of a language problem here - maybe so and that extends to their coupons.
Will I go back? With the MSG issue here I don't think so. Yes, the food is tasty. I was able to find things that I liked but the headache was not worth it - especailly when less than a half mile away is Flaming Grill with a a larger buffet, better quality food, and almost the same price (especailly with a coupon which are put out in local papers and mailings often - and no headache. If you don't react to MSG then maybe you might like this buffet. There are things here though to be careful about - especially any raw seafood.
Island Buffet is located at 1874 Grand Ave., Baldwin, NY 11510 and their phone number is 516-868-2888. There is a website and that is listed in the right column of this page.
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