It has been awhile that we have been able to travel to Pennsylvania and have a chance to go to one of the Pennsylvania Dutch buffet restaurants. We choose Shady Maple for two reasons - one that it is the latest open buffet of any of the buffet restaurants in Lancaster County and two because it has been one of the leading buffets in this area that we have visited many, many, many times over the years and since the start of this site. We were only in the area for one night and this is where we dined.
It was a Wednesday night in early August. We arrived at about 5:45 pm which is very early for us to get to any restaurant for dinner, but because we did not know for sure what we would find in terms of crowds and the earlier hours of closing, we wanted to be sure - since we made the trip - that we would get in and have the time to enjoy the meal without being rushed because of their new hours. They stop letting diners in at 7:30 pm. This is one half hour earlier than their regular hours have been for years when they closed at 8:00 pm. They recently announced that they would serve until 45 minutes past that time. (Which is not bad - considering the others are open until 7:00 and seem to shut down at that time.) I had not expected a line as when they send out emails trying to increase business. There was a line when we arrived. Two lines at two cashiers (as always you pay when you enter) and the lines went back from the cashiers to the entrance doors. We waited on line at least ten minutes to pay. (They now are using the "Shady Maple Rewards Card" that their supermarket uses and the card is free - apply on their website". You hand the cashier the card and it is scanned and you earn rewards money with payment for your meals. If you have reward money coming to you, you are asked if you want to use it for the meals you are paying for. As always at Shady Maple, the tip is included in the price of the dinner. You do not tip at the table. After we paid we then went to the dining room and there was a another line to wait to be seated. That line was also long and it took another ten to fifteen minutes before we were at the front of the line and were seated at a table. (This all takes away from dining time when there are shorter closing hours - and while it was not as much as an issue here than it could have been - for those buffets closing at 7, it would make a difference.)
While "officially" Covid is considered over, there has been an increase in Covid cases so far this summer - equivalent to numbers a year or so ago. Some employees were wearing masks. Most were not. No one dining that we saw was wearing a mask (we were not) and the large dining rooms were crowded. They still put out disposable gloves to take - if you want to - to put on your hands when you handle the serving pieces. This is a good thing considering the number of people that are there and handling the serving spoons and clippers, etc. We saw no one wearing any. We thought about it and did not.
One of the reasons the buffet restaurants have all shortened their hours is that they cannot find new employees to work since Covid started and this has continued not that it has "ended". There seemed to be a good number of table servers, those at the grills, and those putting out refills at the buffet tables. I recognized a number of employees that I had seen in past visits - before Covid.
The grills were busy and crowded. The buffet tables were crowded with diners and at times it was hard to move down the aisle. Many did not look (or act) local though there were local people there as well and I saw two Amishmen at the buffet tables filling their plates. The day that we were there was the last of three days with dramatically different weather from the severe storms that this area has been having weekly since the start of July - these three days were sunny and cool in the 70s without high humidity. That is one of the reasons why we picked this day to go - and our visits to local places during the day - we saw the same large crowds. Apparently a lot of people decided to take this opportunity to go there. (Following days were to go back to hot and stormy!)
We started the meal with a cup of Chicken Corn Soup. This is a chicken stock soup with noodles, corn, and pieces of carrot. The soup tasty but it was salty - more so than it should have been or has been in the past here.
The Wednesday night grill special is Prime Rib. I have not had Prime Rib since before Covid started three years ago. I have looked forward to coming on a Prime Rib night at any of the buffets here that serve it one night a week and that was the first thing I went to get when we had finished the soup. You can ask for how you would like it done and they are carving from different pieces to slice you what you ask for. I always want beef rare and I got as a nice sized slice of rare Prime Rib rare. I ladled some Au Jus gravy from the hot container on the counter. I added to my plate some dried corn and baked apples with dumplings from the buffet tables. Then I tried to make my way through the crowd who were meandering between the grills and the tables. I was really looking forward to that slice of Prime Rib.
The beef was tough and hard to chew. There was grizzle through the meat and there was a hard coating of what was put around the outside of the Prime Rib when it was roasted. I cut around the grizzle and removed that and the thick fat there was in the slice. I looked for the grain that seemed to be going in different directions in the meat. I managed my way to get small pieces cut to put in my mouth that I could chew through - but I was not really enjoying it. I had been expecting much better - figuring that Shady Maple's beef would be more tender than the closest thing I have had to steak in some time which has been sliced beef, a quarter inch thick served at a local Chinese buffet cooked on a flat grill at the Hibachi counter - which is barely chewable. While the soup had been salty, the Prime Rib needed salt and I added a little. A lot of grizzle, fat, and hard outer shell was left over on my plate when I had eaten the meat that I had cut away from that.
The two side dishes I picked - the dried corn was good as it always has been here. The baked apples and dumplings are small slices of apple cooked in a sugar sauce with dumplings. In the Pennsylvania Dutch language this is called "Snitz and Knepp"- though Snitz are dried apples that are reconstituted before cooking these apples were more like sliced apples that were cooked. The apples were very sweet and the dumpling I took was underdone and hard.
Near the soup was a pot of Chicken Pot Pie - which is not the baked chicken pie you get in other areas that is in a pie crust. The Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch make chicken pot pie as a stew of boiled chicken and large, flat, soft, square noodles with potatoes and carrots and some herbs in the broth. In the Pennsylvania Dutch language this is a called "Hinkel (chicken) Bot (pot) Boi (pie). It is one of my favorite PA Dutch dishes. I filled a plate with it. This was good. There was a little more salt than I would have liked but not so much that it put one off. The chicken was tender. The bot boi noodles were soft and moist and the seasoning was classic for this dish. This was not a disappointment to me at all! When I finished this plate I should have gotten more.
Another grill feature that now is on every night is New York Strip Steak cooked on the flat grills at more than one grill station. Instead of getting more Hinkel Bot Boi, I had my sights on a real steak! They are cooking raw and unseasoned steaks - as they would come from a butcher on the grills. Again - as always with their steaks - you can ask for it cooked as you like it. Of course, I ordered a rare steak, I was given a thick and large steak served onto my plate. The steak was almost an inch thick. It was nicely charred on the outside off the grill and being as thick as it was I knew it would be rare inside - as it was - nice and red but not raw! To the steak I added some stewed tomatoes to my plate and some mashed potatoes.
I cut into the steak cutting around the small amount of fat. The meat was moist and I put a piece from my fork into my mouth and it was tough and chewy! (What the heck?!) It was tasty. I managed to cut it small enough to chew and finished the steak. But again tough and chewy steak was not what I have had at Shady Maple in the past! The mashed potatoes were good and fresh made, as were the stewed tomatoes.
My wife who does not like steak took some sliced ham and had looked for sliced turkey that was not out. It was brought out later. She - as always - is a picky eater- and is happy with not overdoing it at buffets.
I have gotten to the point not having been in many buffets for some time other than a Chinese buffet that is local that I can't eat like I could in the past - so I take care not to over do it. The steak plate was it for my main courses.
I went to the dessert buffet area and took a nice piece of chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. The cake was good!
It was about a quarter to eight when we were done. We could have gotten there a little later and not had any problem with the 8:15 closing time - and I heard an announcement that they would close at 8:30 but I could not hear if that was for the building or the buffet. There is a large gift shop on the lower level of the very large restaurant that used to close at 9 - so perhaps that was what the announcement was for.
This was not the good review I anticipated writing before having this meal at Shady Maple. It is, without a doubt, the worst review I have ever written for this restaurant over the years. Is it that everywhere beef has gotten so expensive that the quality of the meet that is available is just not up to what it once was and is tough and chewy? Buffets are not fine steak houses with the best cuts at $50 to $100 dollars and more! I am thinking so! If I had not had the Prime Rib and the steak would I have had a better experience on this visit? If I just had the Hinkel Bot Boi I know I would have. I just don't know about the beef! My wife liked what she had.
Go, don't go? It has been better. I has rarely been this crowded on any week night - even in the summer - but this has been a very unusual summer! I have rarely been disappointed in anything I have eaten here in the past! This buffet is the largest buffet in the world! That is true! This site has awarded our Best Buffet of the Year award many times. It would not get that award - which we have not given in a number of years to any buffet - this year based on this meal. Will I go back? Probably - at some time - but I will choose what I eat more wisely!
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