SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, EAST EARL, LANCASTER, PA IN A NOT QUITE POST COVID TIME

What I thought of most in terms of restaurants and buffets during the past over a year and a half remaining at home during Covid-19 were the buffets in Lancaster, PA.  A number of the Lancaster buffets had reopened in a modified basis mid-2020 and I published an article on this site at the time about what they were doing to keep their customers and employees safe.  At the current time the only Lancaster buffet that has resumed full operation with their regular hours and buffet menu is Shady Maple Smorgasbord.  They are open until 8:00 pm Monday to Saturday. As always they are closed on Sunday.  The others close early at 7 or earlier. We have been looking to return to Lancaster and see for ourselves what is happening and we chose Shady Maple as the one we would go to first. 

At the end of June, Pennsylvania's Governor ended all requirements in the state to wear a mask. How wide this was in terms of the active numbers remaining and increasing in Pennsylvania remains for someone else to judge, but I will say that it made us very cautious about going to Pennsylvania and into a buffet. From what I was able to research before we went, we were not certain that there were any precautions being taken at Shady Maple - while just a month ago, masks were required when walking around the restaurant - they could be removed, of course, at your table, and gloves were required to be worn - provided by the restaurant when going up to the buffet to handle plates, cups, glasses, and serving utensils.  It appeared that none of this was still being required.  We were apprehensive but we went making the three hour one way trip plus return, for the day to Lancaster and dinner at Shady Maple. We went on a Friday night.  We arrived at the restaurant at about 6:15 pm and the parking lot was crowded. In addition there were buses of people coming to the buffet for dinner.

 The entrances and exits at the lobby are marked in large letters. One set of doors are Entrance Only and the other set of doors are Exit Only.  Walking to the restaurant from the parking lot we saw very few wearing masks.  Entering the lobby, we saw two cashiers open and two moderately long lines of people waiting to pay and have dinner.  Few wore masks. There was a standing sign at the back of each line - "This is a TOUCHLESS buffet" and it went on to say that gloves were provided but optional to use when going up to the buffet to serve yourself. It also said that everyone must take a clean plate, clean drinking glass, and clean cup each time they went up to the buffet.  We were very pleased to see this and it made us much more comfortable going in. Social distancing is something that some did and some did not while waiting to go in.

We waited on the line and the process was the same as it always has been. There was a plexiglass screen between the cashier and the customers. Once you pay, you can go to a line that seats you in the front, booths only dining room, or you can go around to the middle of the restaurant following the aisle - as there always have been.  We went to the middle of the restaurant - as is always our preference and waited on the line there that moved fairly quickly. The prices are about or just slightly higher than what they have been in the past. The tip - as it always has been - is included in the price. Soft drinks and coffee/tea are included in the price. We were escorted to a table near the buffet and were asked if we had ever dined at Shady Maple before. I never like to seem to be a tourist -and we have dined there hundreds of times, but I my reply was "Not since Covid - but many times before." We were told that everything is the same. She pointed to a small table at the entrance of the buffet and showed us where the gloves were if we wanted them and that they were optional.  On that same table was a pump bottle of disinfectant and behind the table was a tall square trash can for the disposal of the gloves. A new set of gloves should be taken each time you go up - if you are using gloves. It surprised me that more were taking and using gloves than not using them. But those wearing a face mask were in the minority (as was true in places we had visited during the day). We do and we were going to use the gloves. The tables in the dining room were widely spread apart. You were not sitting right next to the tables around you.

We went up to the buffet. The gloves are extra large and thin clear plastic. There is a tub of gloves and you reach in and take them yourself. We got glove, managed to get them on as they were hard to peel open at the bottom, and went up to the buffet. The buffet was fairly crowded. Social distancing was just about non-existent.  We started with soup, brought our handled bowls of soup to the table and then went back in to get our soft drinks. The chicken corn noodle soup was as good as always. There were fewer soups than are usually out - but part of the soup serving area was take up with hot wings which have not been there in the past.  This might be part of the Friday dinner features.  While some of  the night to night features are the same they also do vary night to night. There is also a large variety of meats, side dishes, etc. on the buffet in addition to the features - that you are not seeing listed when you look at the menus on their website. Both sides of of the very long buffet tables were full - every section tray was filled with food to take.  All of the grills were also working with featured items on them. A feature each night is New York Strip Steak and it is served at one of the grill stations to order while other grill stations have a wide assortment of other fish and meats. 

I had to have the steak. After we finished the soup we went right to the entrees. We skipped the extensive salad bar, which is the past we would have gone to. It has been so long since we have been here, we wanted to go right to the good stuff! There were a few people waiting on line for steaks. When I got up to the grill I asked for a steak - rare!  The gentleman behind the grill looked over what he had cooking on the grill - paused to add more raw steaks on the grill and then said to me -  I have this steak that is rare and he cut it open to show me. It was perfect inside and outside. It also was about an inch and a half thick. I am not sure if my eyes popped out of my head or not, as this was the thickest steak that I have ever seen at Shady Maple - and he was giving me the whole thing. He asked if I wanted it and I said yes! The other steaks were a little less than half this thickness. I knew taking that large steak that I would probably not being coming back for a second steak as this was a lot of steak - but this was what I have been waiting a year and a half for. It is as if it was there just for me! (They do not know me there - or at any buffet I write about and I want it that way!) I added to the plate a deep fried crab cake and a couple of serving spoonfuls of dried corn (an Amish dish of sweetened, stewed dried corn). I headed back to the table. 

Each time we came back to the table we put the used gloves in the trash basket intended for them. At the table I started on the steak. It was red and juicy inside - but no raw. It was nicely brown on the outside.  The edges around the steak were seasoned and a bit tough. I just cut that off and ate the meat inside of it - and even with that there was plenty of meat there. The meat itself was not tough. It was very tasty - and just what I wanted. The dried corn was as good as always. The deep fried crab cake was very tasty. 

My wife had chosen ham balls, an Amish dish of ham meat balls that are sweetened with a pineapple glaze. She was happy with what she was eating. As you know, if you are a steady reader of this site, ths is a picky eater.

The problem with not having been here in so long with so many dishes to choose from and so much that is tempting and looks good, is that one can easily get carried away and take too much. While I was aware of this, on my second entree visit to the buffet tables, I was picking things that I had been missing and this second dish was a sampling of some of those - but more than it should have been. I have not had fried chicken on the bone for a long time and I took a piece of fried chicken. I saw that there were also crab cakes that were being cooked on the grill and I got one of those. I took some fall apart beef. I also took a perogie and I took some Amish potato filling.  I also spotted large fried shrimp and took two of those. After the big steak this was overdoing it. This plate was good but was not satisfying me as the first. The chicken part I took was dense. I should have take a leg that was in the tray opposite. The shrimp were the best thing on the plate. The shrimp inside the light breading were very large and very moist. The taste was great and very fresh. It was, in my memory, the best shrimp that I have ever had.  The perogie was deep fried and the center and filling was good and tasty. The crab cake was differently seasoned than the deep fried one I had with the steak and I did not like the grilled crab cake as much. The potato filling was good as always. The beef was tasty.  I suddenly found myself - for no reason related to the food on my plate - leaving some of it over.  I am not used to eating like this after such of long time of eating all meals at home.

I should have stopped with that last plate but my head got the better of me and I went up for a third plate and I went right back to the steak grill. This time I was given a nicely rare steak - not as thick as the first - but thicker than usual. I also went for a second deep fried crab cake and some more dried corn - duplicating my first plate. It was all good but my stomach was letting me know that with a more than three hour drive home - maybe in Friday night traffic - I better not over do it. I ate about half the steak, half of the crab cake and a few forkfuls of the dried corn. Thinking back, I should have skipped the steak and went back for a few more shrimp. I looked down at the plate and pushed it away from me.  This was not a challenge and we can come back again for more - with a lot less time in between from the last time we dined at this buffet. My wife who has more logic in how much she takes and what she takes enjoyed sliced turkey, sliced ham and some nice side dishes. 

While I could not eat much more, I did want to have some desert. I chose a small slice of pie. It was a raspberry pie and it was very good. My wife put together an ice cram and apple cobbler desert for herself.The last seating for the buffet is 8:00 pm and the buffet is shut down at 8:45 pm. We had been there for over an hour and a half eating dinner.

When we left I was stuffed.  The gift shop that fills the lower level is open until 9:00 pm and we walked around in there to walk off some of the too much I had eaten. I broke one of my own rules - a buffet is not a challenge. It should not be - and I have to regain the control I had two years ago. 

We will definitely go back again. I hope very much that they continue the Covid precautions they currently have in having the gloves available.  We are not out of it yet and we don't want to return to where we were a year and a half ago. It was not long ago that it was said by many media sources that buffets were dead and will never return after Covid-19. They are not dead - and if they proceed with caution they will be fully back and thriving again. 

Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. There is lots of parking (free, of course). The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page. Like most other local buffets and restaurants in Lancaster County, Shady Maple is closed on Sundays - and some holidays, but not all. Dinner ends at 8:00 pm.

FLAMING GRILL BUFFET IN BALDWIN, NY IN THE NOT QUITE POST COVID NEW NORMAL

It has been one year since I wrote my previous post on this site. It has been almost two years since I ate last at a buffet.  This all changed earlier tonight. We went to the Flaming Grill Buffet in Baldwin, New York, the last buffet we ate at when Covid was just starting and cautions had to increase.  

We are both fully vaccinated but we have been very cautious. We have slowly started to do things out of the house that we have not done for a very long time. We have been a couple of times to a fast food restaurant for lunch.  We are planning a summer trip to Pennsylvania and we do plan to eat at the buffets there that we had always enjoyed before. I decided that before we do that we need to try eating at a buffet locally.

Flaming Grill in Baldwin, NY during the height of Covid had reopened as a take out or delivery Cajun seafood menu restaurant. A new location that had opened recently then in Brooklyn, NY also became a Cajun seafood menu restaurant. The Facebook page for the Baldwin Flaming Grill still to this day describes the restaurant as Cajun seafood, but their website talks about it as the buffet it had always been in the past. I had tried contacting them through the Facebook page to ask about whether they were a buffet again or still a Cajun seafood restaurant but never got any response.  Finally it was time to call and yes, we learned that they are once again the Asian buffet that they had been pre-Covid. 

We were not certain what protective measures they would be taking and were a little hesitant even though many restrictions have been removed in this state - and other states, but it is no uncommon here to still find many people wearing masks but inside and outdoors, and many are still approaching the "new normal" with caution, as we are.  When we got there we were very pleasantly surprised! The sign on the entrance door says that "masks must be worn at all times when in the restaurant" (only exception being when eating at your table). To us that was excellent.  There were many people in the restaurant especially for a Thursday night but it was not jammed and you were not nose to now (or mask to mask) going around the buffet.

The prices have gone up by one dollar each adult meal. Where Friday dinner in the past was priced the same as Monday to Thursday, now Friday is in the price group with Saturday and Sunday - so Friday dinner has gone up two dollars. The website has a coupon for dinner maximum two to get $1.00 off on dinner. 

During the past two years without going to any buffet there were several dishes from specific buffets that I was missing A LOT. Two of those dishes were from Flaming Grill. One was their seafood soup. This is a thick broth soup with shrimp, fish, and egg whites. The other was Flaming Grills barbecue spare ribs. I was looking forward to those and hoping I would find them on the buffet.

After we paid - you pay here in advance of being seated - we went up to the person who seats you and he handed us four clear gloves - two for each of us and then he brought us to our table - a table, by chance that we had sat at multiple times in the past. The gloves are to be worn any time one goes up to serve themself at the buffet tables. In this way the serving utensils are only touched by gloved hands. (Another EXCELLENT!). This was something that had concerned us before going. This is something that was being done at the Lancaster, PA buffets when they reopened when they were allowed to - and something that from what I have been reading about those buffets, may not be being done still (we shall see when we finally get there).  The difference, however, was that at the Lancaster buffets you received a new pair of gloves every time you went up to the buffet. Here you get one pair each and use the same ones each time you go up to get food.  We were glad to see that all in the restaurant were complying with putting their masks back on and putting their gloves on each time they left their table to go up to get food. The buffet tables were no different in their protection than they had been in the past. Each has the usual cough glass in angled down over the serving trays. Each serving tray has a pair of tongs. 

SO - the meal!!! Donning out masks and gloves, we went up for soup. The seafood soup was not there. There was wontons in broth, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup. I took two wontons and broth.  We have been taking in Chinese take out from a local take out store front over the past several months - I have had wonton soup almost weekly since we started doing that. The soup here was as good as always. After the soup I was off to see what sushi there would be out. 

Half the sushi counter was empty. The other half had salmon and avocado rolls with shrimp, tuna and avocado rolls, shrimp and cream cheese rolls, and some vegetable sushi rolls. That was it. This is much less than they had in the past BUT I have not had sushi of any kind for two years so I took half a plate of salmon roll pieces and tuna roll pieces. I took a small condiment cup and filled it from the dispenser with soy sauce that was on the counter where it has always been. Before I headed back to the table I took a piece of cold tofu with a sauce on top from the end counter that has had Asian salads.  My wife looked there for seaweed salad which she has liked here - sweet and not spicy - but there was none. That was brought out later. I enjoyed that sushi! Was it the best sushi I have ever had?  I don't care! It was a delightful texture in my mouth and a taste I have missed for too long! Walking back to the table I looked for the spare ribs. OH YES! They were there! 

There was no question about what I was going for next. The tray was completely full - just having been refilled. I chose three ribs that looked to have the most meat on them.  All I added to that plate to go with the ribs was hibachi rice.  I looked at those ribs on my plate all the way back to the table. Off came my glove, off came my mask, and I started on those ribs. I could feel the smile that my mouth was forming as I chewed that first bite.  They were just as I had been thinking about for so long a time.  There had been nights that I could not fall asleep and I cleared my head by thinking about these ribs - and a few other favorites from other buffets. I was not disappointed! They were what I was hoping for and have been waiting for.  I, suppose, that I could have just gone back up and gotten more, but I wanted to get more of the things I liked at this buffet. 

Something that I have not had in two years has been steak. Regular readers will know that I really like steak. There is steak here on the hibachi grill. You can combine it with shrimp or meats, and vegetables and noodles from the raw foods selection leading up to the grill to give to the chef behind the grill to mix together into a dish of your design. I just wanted the steak. I knew that the steak here has always been very tough and so thin that it cooks to well done in a few minutes. What was there were steaks cut to over a 1/4" thick that were semi-frozen and I was encouraged to the idea that if timed correctly it might come off the grill with some semblance of rare. I took two pieces. They filled a little more than half the plate. The grill was very busy and I waited with others for a time for what was on the grill to be cooked and come off to those waiting, and for my steak, and the others around me food selections, to go on the griddle top. There is no flame grill here despite the name of the restaurant. The chef (cook) behind the grill took each plate and briefly listened for any instructions from the person handing it to him. I said, "RARE!" - he acknowledged that and before I could say "Nothing on it!", he was taking the next plate. I stood close by watching my steaks cooking. He had five plates of food on the grill at the same time and kept going back and forth. After he turned my steaks over I knew that if they were to be actually rare they would have to come off the grill very soon. As he came back toward the end of the grill where my steaks were cooking I got his eye and indicated for him to give me the steaks then.  He went over to my steaks and picked up a squeeze bottle of teriyaki sauce and started to squeeze some on my plate. Through my mask, and shaking my head, I said "NO! No sauce - plain. I will take them now." He understood and scooped them up with a spatula and put them on a plate and handed it to me. Through the glass and my mask, as I took them I thanked him clear enough so that he could hear me. With a mask on, you can smile all you want and know one knows. This has been a time to speak up and extend one's pleasure verbally.  I took the plate with the steak to the buffet table and took some mushrooms in a brown sauce and put that next to the steak. I added some more hibachi rice - which is very good here. 

The steak was tough - as I expected it would be - but the taste of it in my mouth was STEAK! That really satisfied what I was looking for.  If one has been in the desert and finally drinks water the water tastes like nectar. The steak was medium done, but that too was OK. It was steak!

After the steak - I went around for some of the dishes I would get in the past. I did not take much. I was eating a lot more, already, than I have eaten in awhile. At some points during Covid at its height - and we are in an area that was hit very hard - leading some areas within this state and other states in case totals and deaths - we were conserving the food we had and we could get. We ate half portions. While some gained weight during Covid we both lost weight to the point of needing to take in some waistbands. But I took some broiled talapia (fish), an egg roll, a large deep fried and breaded slice of zucchini, and, one pan fried dumpling,  some fried rice.  While we could have gotten egg rolls while we were taking in meals in the past several month, we hadn't.  The egg roll I took was just fine! It was small, but it was filled with a nice mixture of vegetables and pork and it hit the spot (that I have been thinking of egg rolls lately helped at that moment of enjoying this one).  There was a lot more that I could have gone back for. I did not take the cold cocktail shrimp or the crab in the shell, or any of the chicken dishes that they did have, or other things that I might have gone for in the past. This was enough for our long awaited return to buffet dining. As this site has in its name, "All you can eat is NOT a challenge!"

There were some dishes that we expected to see from the past that were not there. There is a chicken dish with strips of chicken fried in a light breading with a peanut sauce that were missing. There was no seafood soup as I have already mentioned. My picky eater wife was looking for a few things and not seeing them - one of which was that chicken dish.  We wondered if what was not there is what makes the difference now between the Monday to Thursday dinner buffet and the Friday/Weekend buffet for a dollar more. We know that when Friday was the same price as the weekdays before it in the past these dishes were there - and there were other dishes that we knew were only on the weekend buffet back then. We don't really know. 

There was not much in the way of cakes for dessert. The large layer cakes they had in the past were not there. The lemon meringue pie was not there. What I call the "Little Debbie" squared of cakes that are cut from a sheet cake - which are not "Little Debbie" at all - were out. There were full trays of both fresh and canned fruits. puddings, a small cheesecake, and a freezer full of ice cream bars, ice cream sandwiches, and ice cream cups. My wife decided not to have dessert. I was thinking about mandarin oranges when my wife pointed out to me that two new pizza's were just put out. That I could not resist and I took some pizza and that was the pie I ate for dessert. Some might question Chinese restaurant pizza - but the pizza here, especailly when it first comes out is soft and full of cheese that just pulls away in long strands - and tasty.  

When we were done, I pushed the plate away from me and just opened my eyes wide and smiled! My wife said to me, "Happy? !". "OH YES!" was my answer.  I just sat there like that for awhile. I realized that I have not used or carried much cash with me in almost two years and, of course, we had to leave a tip. Between us we had the right amount. We had a larger bill that we could have asked the cashier to break for us, but we had a good tip to leave on the table.  I put the tip down on the table. We put on our masks and left. 

Will we go back! Yes we will. Eventually we will try a Friday or Sunday night. Our concern is only that the restaurant generally on the weekend and Fridays was always much more crowded. 

Now, I know that some of our readers go to buffets that I write about their dinner buffets for lunch. I cannot say how the lunch buffet will differ. It is lower in price and there is also a one dollar coupon for lunch on the website.  We rarely have eaten at a buffet for lunch - unless the circumstances required that we leave an area that we wanted to try a buffet before it was time for dinner, but those occurrences are few and far between. 

Some people and news reporters said that Covid killed buffets. Many are coming back! Many are already back. They found ways to make buffets safe and reopened and people are going again!  There is one  local buffet that we thought was closed forever and it just reopened. 

And we are back! Keep an eye on this site and have patience. There will be more articles coming over the summer about the "new normal" at other buffets - some that we and many readers have loved for a long time! And all the time we were in the house, I spent a lot of time watching great looking things to eat being enjoyed by hosts of shows on The Food Channel! It was great to be back in a restaurant again!

ADDENDUM

Two weeks later we went back to Flaming Grill Buffet, Baldwin on a Friday night.  When we were her two weeks ago, Friday nights were included on the weekend price of 14.99. Prior to Covid, the Friday night price was the same as the weekday dinner price. When we got there we were surprised to see that once again, Friday nights are priced at the weekday price of $13.99.

There was nothing different or added to the buffet from what was there on the Thursday weeknight dinner buffet two weeks before. This time we were each handed two gloves each with the requirement to wear a glove on each hand when going up to serve yourself at the buffet. The majority did, some wore one glove, a very few wore no gloves at all. All did still wear masks when leaving their table to go to the buffet tables. 

There were more dessert choices out. Not all of the large cakes that were out in the past but the chocolate layer cake topped with whipped cream and the tiramisu cake were there. There was also more sushi choices including more rolls and also salmon on a bed of rice. Whether these were not out the last time because it was a weekend dinner priced night then OR that when we came in on the Thursday these had been taken and they had not yet replaced them or had not planned to replace them from earlier, I don't know.  Pre-Covid there were different foods out on weekends. There was a steamed ginger fish. This was a very tasty though full of bones fish that would replace the baked talapia.  The seafood soup that I was hoping to find was not there again. 

I will admit that I either ate more than I should have or my stomach has shrunk in the past year and a half when we stopped eating out at any restaurants. When we left the restaurant I was over stuffed and I had that overfull feeling over two hours later. Yes, all you care to eat is an offer - and not a challenge. I certainly was not taking it as a challenge but it has been so long, that I again had trouble resisting taking what appealed to me as I walked by it on the buffet. I did skip desert.  My good wife did take a piece of the chocolate layer cake with whipped cream which was a favorite for her in the pre-Covid dinners we would have here almost weekly. 

I did not mention serving staff in the first article above. The service was as good as it always was. On this night the young man who was our server had been our server for pre-Covid dinners here. He was prompt to clear dishes off the table and came over when my soda glass was empty and offered to bring more - which he did promptly. The service on our first visit was just as good. The gentleman who seated us, we knew from pre-Covid dinners here. I don't know if he recognized us with our masks on - but he greeted us as in the past and brought us to the area that we always liked to sit in without our asking.  The service at this restaurant has always been good. 

I am glad we went back to compare how the restaurant is on a Friday night even though it was not priced with weekend prices which we had wanted to see to find out if weekend priced nights had different choices. I was not very crowded but during this day, there was a severe storm that had passed hours before dinner and that might have kept people away. There were more people with take out containers than there had been two weeks ago.   They accepted the $1 off per adult dinner coupon (maximum two per coupon) from their website. The local community coupons that are mailed in the area have not had a coupon for Flaming Grill since Covid started. They may start to be sent out again.  Use of the coupon does require the purchase of a soft drink each. Whether the weekend buffet has the different dishes that it had in the past is still unknown. At this point we are unlikely to go there on a Saturday as we figure that Saturday night dinner will be much more crowded - as it always was in the past. It is possible that we may go back and try it on a Sunday night just to see if there is any difference.  At this point, weekday dinner is fine - and Friday night in the past had been our regular night to come.