BUFFETS IN 2023

 Covid took its toll on buffet restaurants.  Many did not survive the pandemic. 

I will start with Golden Corral. Golden Corral has closed a number of its locations. Some were the result of Corporate's decsions. Others were the result of franchise holders who decided to close and never re-open their Golden Corral buffets. This is not to say that all Golden Corrals have closed. There are still Golden Corral buffets but they are much fewer and further between than they had been. 

One of the Golden Corral's we had been to many times is confirmed, gone forever. This was the Golden Corral in Freehold, New Jersey. It was closed by its franchise owner. It had been listed by Golden Corral on their website as "temporarily" closed.  I just learned that the building was sold and is being turned into a medical office facility. (As you will see as you read on this fate of buffet buildings is not that unusual.) 

This has all has effected the Pennsylvania Dutch buffets in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While a few are closed, those that have remained open have cut their hours and some have cut the days that they are open. 

One of the buffets I have written the most about in Lancaster over the years is Shady Maple Smorgasbord. They remain open for business but they now close every night at 7:00 pm. During the pandemic when they re-opened, they were open until 8:00 pm as always before but only on Friday and Saturday nights.  Other weeknights were 7:00 pm closing.  Not too long ago they changed the hours for Friday and Saturday to a 7:00 pm closing. They state on their website that they remain open after the last dinner sold at 7:00 pm for 45 more minutes.  In the past, the buffet was out until almost 9:00 pm before they removed the food from the buffet servers. 

Yoders Family Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland, PA remains open 6 nights a week but closes at 7:00 pm Monday to Thursday and at 8:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.  This buffet has always  started to remove the food from the buffet tables right at 8:00 pm in the past. It seems that now with the nights it closes at 7:00 pm - it is really closing at 7:00 pm and you have to be ready to go. 

One of our favorite buffets in Lancaster has been the buffet at the Dutch Way supermarket in Gap, PA.  The restaurant is still open BUT the buffet is gone. It is menu dining only. The restaurant is still open until 8:00 pm - just no buffet. 

Dutch Way now has four locations with a new supermarket location in Ephrata, PA. This location does not have a full restaurant. It has a cafe with a limited menu. The only other of their locations that has had a buffet has been Dutch Way in Meyerstown, PA.  Meyerstown is not in Lancaster County. It is further northwest and a considerable drive from Lancaster. They still offer a buffet in their restaurant. They have maintained their regular hours with an 8:00 pm closing time Monday to Saturday. On Friday and Saturday dinner you can add an all you can eat prime rib buffet upgrade for an additional $3.99. If it was not so far out of the way, this would be pretty good. 

Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord is closed on Mondays and the restaurant closes at 7:00 pm. In the past, when 8 pm was approaching the server would come to your table and announce that the buffet would be closing soon and if you wanted anything more you needed to go up to get it now.  I assume this still takes place. 

 Miller's Smorgasbord - a buffet that at one time was a favorite and then decided it would get "fancy" and attracted a lot of tourists. They are also the most expensive of the PA Dutch buffets. Many of the buffets we prefer have more local people than they have tourists (perhaps with the exception of Shady Maple - but Shady Maple will often have Amish families dining there). Miller's is closed Monday and Tuesday and is open until 7:00 pm Wednesday and Thursday with Friday and Saturday until 8:00 pm. They are open Sundays to 7:00 pm (the only PA Dutch buffet open on Sunday). 

Dienner's Country Restaurant has always had early closing hours for their restaurant and buffet. This very much a restaurant frequented by Amish and Mennonite local people. It is in Ronks, PA. As in the past, Monday through Thursday plus Saturday they close at 6:00 pm. Fridays they now close at 7:00 pm (in the past on Fridays the hours were until 8:00 pm). Other than Fridays in the past this was always just too early to get for dinner. 

Litiz Family Cupboard is in northwest Lancaster, County. Up until two days ago this restaurant and buffet was going out of business. They were not able to re-negotiate their lease with the property owners and they were having problems hiring staff for the restaurant. They had announced their closing  a month or so ago. They are a nice buffet with some very authentic PA Dutch items on tier menu and buffet including pig's stomach on one night a week.  They have been able to renegotiate their lease and are currently hiring - they are not going to close down as announced.  They are closed on Mondays and open until 8:00 pm as they have always been. The buffet is available on al open nights. The menu dining is only on certain days and this may change as they get themselves settled again. 

The restaurant and buffet at Oregon Dairy is open but closed on Mondays.  Tuesday through Thursday they close at 7:00 pm BUT prior to the winter they were closing at 8:00 pm. That may go back to 8:00 as the summer approaches. They are open until 9:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.  They are open Sundays until 2:00 pm with a breakfast buffet and a soup and salad bar buffet. 

Now - the sad news.   Good N' Plenty Family Style Restaurant is one of the very long operating PA Dutch restaurants in Lancaster. County. This was all you can eat served in platters to a long table where you sat with others.  The platters were passed around the table and when they were empty they would be refilled. This was a restaurant that I went to with my parents on trips to Lancaster many years ago. Due to the pandemic the owners decided to retire. They were not able to hire staff as the pandemic wound down and could not keep running the restaurant on their own. They had hoped to sell the restaurant as a going business to new owners who would continue the restaurant as it has always been. They received no offers to buy the business and they sold the building at auction. The building will no longer be a restaurant - and will become a community health and medical center (as noted with Freehold Golden Corral - all you can eat restaurant becomes a medical facility).  This medical center will be a not for profit organization focused on the local community and it is in the heart of an Amish and Mennonite area. 

Another buffet lost is the  Hershey Farm Restaurant (and Hotel). This was located south of Ronks and north of Strasburg.  A fire destroyed the restaurant and the complete complex that included a hotel and gift shop. The fire was the result of a torch setting the roof of the restaurant on fire during repairs.  All buildings burned to the ground. News crews recorded the event and a number of fire companies responded to fight the fire including Amish men who were in some of the fire companies.  This was not a favorite buffet but it is sad to see it go! 

Going on to other areas where there have always been a lot of buffets. I have recently learned that there are no longer any buffets at the Las Vegas casinos.  With slow business during the pandemic and what one report claimed - they were not making the casinos' money, they have closed. 

Some of the Atlantic City casinos still have buffets. Prices are high. 

The two casinos in Connecticut - Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun - no longer have their buffets open. Whether this is permanent or will change is unknown to me. 

 What buffets seem to have been able to remain. For the most part, the Asian buffets are still in business and reopened back to their regular hours. Prices have gone up - but prices of everything have gone up.  We still go to a few of these- one fairly regularly. 

So what is going on and why are all of these buffets closing or cutting back open hours and open days?  The common answer each gives (and I have asked several with them not knowing who was asking) is that they cannot get employees to come back and work now that the pandemic is winding down. This makes no sense to me - but it is a reality.  

I keep hoping - in particular with the Lancaster buffets that they will see as this coming Summer gets near that they will see that they need to go back to the usual 8:00 pm closing and reopen the days they are closing.  This is a busy tourist area and they will get busy again and local people will be coming back as well this year. When visiting this area, with the number of people who typically dined at these restaurants - just two to three years ago - when you got there at 6:45 or 7:00 there were lines and you might not get seated until after 7:00 pm. With a 7:00 pm closing I see the need to be at the restaurant no later than between 5:00 to 5:30 pm. Local people who work don't get out of work until 5 - so if they want to go to the restaurant on a weeknight they rush home to get the family to travel then to the restaurant - it just does not work. And it will not work with visitors to the area either. The non-buffet restaurants are open. They have their regular hours. It is not like the buffets and all other restaurants are closing early.  If they don't go back to their usual hours and days it is going to hurt them even more than the pandemic hurt them. 

Wild, Wild West Casino in Atlantic City, NJ Buffet Closes

In June 2012, the Virginia City Buffet located in Bally's Wild, Wild West Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey was closed permanently. There is no intention to have another buffet in this casino and Bally's is looking at redeveloping the space toward entertainment. If you are a regular reader of this site you know that this was my buffet of preference among the casino buffets in Atlantic City and I have been dining at it since it opened years ago.

It was quite a surprise to me to learn that it closed. I have not been there in a year - but usually, I don't travel to Atlantic City more than once a year - and that is primarily to walk on the Boardwalk, take in the atmosphere, and have dinner at a buffet. When I was there last August (2011) there was a line to get into the buffet and when we finally got into the restaurant there were a good number of people having dinner there. From what I have been able to learn about the reasons behind the buffet's closing was that it was financial - that those who frequent buffets are not coming to Atlantic City - which I find hard to believe. I have also read related articles that the focus of the Atlantic City casinos is to no longer cater to the "day trip gambler" but to go after the high rollers - who don't eat in buffets. (Why would they when half the menu can be comped (given to them free) and brought to their table in any restaurant in the casino?)

A new casino opened this year in Atlantic City that did not open with a buffet and likely will not add one. This casino has several restaurants with name chefs. Will this be the trend in Atlantic City?

There are articles in New Jersey publications that say the "day trippers" are going to casinos in Pennsylvania instead of coming to Atlantic City. When other states started allowing casino gambling along with the Native American-run casinos opening there had to be a drop in visitors to what was the only East Coast place to gamble - Atlantic City. But doing things like closing the casino buffets in Atlantic City is not going to attract those gamblers back - and while they will not put thousands down on the tables, they lose a considerable amount that goes into the casino's coffers by the time they leave at the end of the day.

I, myself, admit that I have gone to Connecticut rather than Atlantic City. Would I have gone to AC instead if the two Connecticut casino buffets were not there? Maybe, maybe not. Will I be heading back to AC anytime soon? I will have to think about that and decide what buffet I would be going for. A few years ago we went to several of the other buffets in Atlantic City - just to see if there was one that I would like more or just as well as the Virginia City Buffet at Wild, Wild, West. I was disappointed with each one. The articles are here for each one we tried. I did not like the buffet at Caesars which is also owned by Bally's and those employees from the Virginia City Buffet were reassigned there now. Several suggested the buffet at Showboat and I was very disappointed there. That one fell down on keeping what was put out to eat fresh, among other things.

I like Atlantic City. I liked it before there were casinos there. Long ago there was a great restaurant outside of the city called Zaberras. It was not a buffet but it was very unique and the food was good. It was an experience just sitting in one of the several dining rooms and just walking through the restaurant. It is long gone. It closed not long after the casinos and the buffets opened. It was fun. Before I was told the news - in a comment on this site - that the Virginia City Buffet was closed, and then researched what was happening, I had been thinking that I really would like to go down to Atlantic City. Well, when I got this news that did not happen. Sometimes change is good. This change was not.

VIrginia City Buffet - Bally's Wild, Wild West Casino, Atlantic City,NJ

I have liked the Virginia City Buffet in Bally's Wild, Wild West Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey for a long time. The last several trips to Atlantic City I wanted to try other buffets and as I went along I have written about them on this site. I still like the Virginia City Buffet the best of all the casino buffets I have tried in Atlantic City. I has been almost three years since I have been there last - perhaps longer and on a recent trip down through New Jersey, I went back again to see if it still holds up.

Every casino in Atlantic City, and there are a number of them, has a buffet. They vary greatly in what they offer. Weekend buffets tend to emphasize seafood and on the weekends the buffets stay open later. The Wild, Wild West Casino is one of the casinos in the Bally's group in Atlantic City. This casino has no hotel. The hotel is at the Bally's casino next door, but this casino has always offered its own buffet. I am sure you can figure out that the theme of this buffet - like the casino - is the cowboy Old West. And while there is a large variety of types of cuisines served at this buffet the emphasis is on meat and potatoes. I will tell you right here, before you read on - if you don't eat meat and potatoes then this is not the buffet for you. I will elaborate why as we go along.

We went to the buffet on a Thursday night. To get to this buffet's entrance you must walk through the casino floor. For many years, no children were able to dine in this buffet because children were not permitted on the casino floor. There has been a change here sometime within the last three years and now children are allowed into this casino accompanied by an adult and you will now find children dining with their parents at the Virginia City Buffet. For families I am sure this is great. Personally, I feel that a casino is not a place for children to be in - and there were children running around in the casino near the buffet entrance not all that well supervised by any adult. The same was true in the buffet, though most were well supervised and under control.

Dinner on weeknights at the Virginia City Buffet is $21.99. On Saturdays they have a seafood feature and the price was higher. Soft drinks are included. Beer and wine is available but is paid by the glass at your table.

When you arrive at the buffet entrance which is on the first floor - the casino floor - there is a rope line to get into a small room where you pay. We waited over an hour on line to get up to the cashier. It always pays to have a casino comp card when you go to a casino buffet because there are often discounts or offers. It costs nothing to get the card in the casino. We had one card with us and while there was no discount on dinner we were given a coupon to gamble $10.00. If my wife had a card we would have received two coupons. More about this at the end. Once we paid we were moved along to another line of people waiting to be taken up the escalator to the second floor where the buffet is located. We waited on that line about ten minutes. They bring groups of people up in spurts to even out the flow of people in the restaurant. This is a good thing because it staggers the crowd and makes it easier for you to get up to the buffet stations with less of a crowd. We were taken up and shown to our table. The dining room is set at one end of the large room and the buffet stations are at the opposite end. Compared to some of the other Atlantic City casino buffets the dining room is on the smaller side. This may account for the long waits to get in.

Once you go to the buffet serving stations you will find that they surround the end of the room with the dessert station in the middle of the room. The first buffet station that you come to on the right is the soup station and there are a variety of soups offered. On this night they had matzo ball soup, sweet and sour cabbage soup, mushroom barley soup, and chicken vegetable soup. The matzo balls are served on the side so you may take chicken soup alone and it has thin noodles in it. Add to this, if you wish, as many or as few matzo balls as you like. It was a good solid broth and the matzo balls were properly light. Pass the soup and you come to breads and rolls. There were biscuits and next to them a hot pot of white biscuit gravy. There were dinner rolls as well.

I have to stop here and talk about the bread because there was something so odd here on this night and it had to do, not with the buffet, but with the people who were dining at the buffet. The bread area had the proper tongs to pick up a roll or biscuit and put it on your plate. There seemed to be a notion to ignore the tongs and just grab rolls with hands - mostly being done, not by children or younger people, but by little old ladies. And some even took rolls with their hands and then put them back into the basket! Really, now! My wife had wanted a roll. She did not take one because of this. Obviously, on this particular night the buffet was overwhelmed with people who have never read our Rules of the Buffet! And again, it was not that the tongs were not plainly and immediately there to use.

Alright, back to the buffet. After the soup and bread area along the same counter you come to the salad bar. Here was a mixed, assorted green lettuce bowl with salad toppings. There was also a similar bowl of mixed, assorted greens that was covered and tossed in some type dressing. At the opposite end of the ice filled server was a bowl of Caesar salad - pre-mixed with the dressing. There was also pasta salad here. Further along there were two large serving trays on ice of peel and eat shrimp. The shrimp were good sized shrimp. With the shrimp you could take cocktail sauce, seafood sauce, lemon, and/or chopped horseradish. The counter ends at the shrimp.

The shrimp was good and the Caesar salad was also good. My wife was not happy that they did not have regular lettuce as she does not care for the mixed, assorted greens. She skipped salad because of that and I know a few others that would as well. She made a point and she was right that there was no sense to have these mixed greens out plain and then again with a dressing, when you could easily add the dressing yourself and then they could have had a bowl of regular lettuce (by regular lettuce she means iceberg or romaine). I agree.

Moving through the serving stations, the next one that you come to is the Italian food station. They had stuffed shells, whole sausages and peppers, meatballs in tomato sauce, a fish of some unknown variety that was small, flat strips that were broiled, and a serving pot of pasta with a tray of tomato sauce next to it. There was also pizza. I tried a sausage and it was real Italian sausage and good. I also tried a stuffed shell - a semi-large macaroni shell stuffed with ricotta cheese and covered in tomato sauce and that was good too. During the meal the sausages were apparently running out, and they mixed what were remaining into the bowl with meatballs. They then replaced the sausage tray with a tray of veal cutlet parmigiana. I tried the veal cutlet. I liked this but I am sure some would not as it was not a peice of veal but rather a breaded, chopped veal patty. This is bery common to use in buffet restaurants and I find that much tastier than regular veal cutlets. It had a nice Italian seasoned taste and was covered in mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. My wife took some of what she thought was and appeared to be plain pasta. When she tasted it she said that it was covered in garlic and oil - so much garlic that it was overwhelming. This surprised me as macaroni like this is usually served plain for you to season and cover with sauce - and the sauce was right there next to the pasta bowl. So my wife skipped the salad, did not eat the pasta, and would not take a roll that others had their hands on. She was not that happy so far. I eat differently than she does and I was doing fine.

The next of the buffet stations is one that varies and I would say that if you come on a Saturday night this is where you will find the seafood. On this Thursday night it was "Deli". On this station there was a cook behind the counter and he was slicing corned beef - a stack of rye bread was next to it to make a sandwich. There were large, steamed or boiled hotdogs. There was a tray with NY style brisket. NY style brisket is very different from BBQ brisket or smoked brisket. It is a stewed meat with vegetables, more solid and sliceable than beef stew. There were also small, cubed fried potatoes. There was also a cold section with macaroni salad, potato salad, and coleslaw. At the side of the meats were mustard, relish, catsup, etc. to top your hotdog. My wife skipped this section entirely. I enjoy hotdogs and I don't often get corned beef. I took one slice of the corned beef to try. It was nicely flavored, though drier than a usual NY deli corned beef which is generally wet when it is sliced. Of course, I took a hotdog - no bun.

Moving around - next there is the Chinese Food station. Here are woks set out as serving trays. There was lo mein noodles, fried rice, General Tso Chicken, shrimp with bean pods, deep fried dumplings, and Spring Rolls. The dumplings eventually ran out and they were replaced with egg rolls.

Now you come to what they call "the Chuck Wagon" and this is where the entrees, grill and side dishes are. The highlight of the charcoal flame grill is steak and they are grilling strip steaks to order. The line up to the steaks can dominate this whole serving area. You may return for steak as often as you like - they no longer limit the steak to one per customer. In the long past the steaks that were served here were sirloin steaks and were excellent. The steak here now is still excellent even though it is a different cut. The steak was juicy and thick. It was cooked perfectly to how I asked for it. I eat rare steak - which means an unaccomplished chef will either hand it to you raw or over the line to medium. Not here. Here rare was correctly red but not raw and not quite pink that is medium rare. I was given a nice sized piece of steak.

There is more than steak here. There was a carver slicing turkey by request. There was fried chicken. There was a tray of BBQ smoked sausage pieces. There was a tray of sweet potato fries. There was mashed potatoes. There was a tray of mixed sauteed mushrooms and onions to top your steak. There were baked potatoes and a potato bar to top your baked potato.

Have you noticed that in all of the stations, other than salad, I have not really mentioned any vegetables? Well, that is because there were not any. Well, there was, on the Chuck Wagon station, a tray of mixed vegetables - the kind that you buy frozen in the supermarket - you know, corn, peas, tiny carrot cubes, and lima beans. This was the one vegetable side dish on the whole buffet. Do you see why now that I say that if you are not a meat and potatoes eater this is not the buffet for you?

If you are a meat and potato eater there is a lot that you will enjoy. I had so much to choose from because I like meat and potatoes that I could have lost my restraint and eaten more than I knew I should eat. Next to hotdogs and steak, I can't resist smoke sausage. It was all here. Now, my poor wife - who would eat vegetables and a small amount of meat was getting by with sliced turkey and cucumber slices from the salad bar. We did not really get our money's worth that night on her meal. I more than got mine.

OK, in the center of the buffet serving area is a large circlular serving counter with desserts. There was a very nice looking chocolate cake. There was cheesecake with a graham cracker bottom, there were cream pies, there were fruit pies, there was bananas foster, there was puddings and a selection of "diet" sugar free deserts. (Please do not believe that "sugar free" means diet - there are just as many carbohydrates in sugar free deserts and sometimes more than there are in regular deserts - plus the sugar substitute often used is a sugar alcohol which is a laxative.) There were two types of ice cream. There was a soft serve machine with vanilla and chocolate and there was hard scooped ice cream that the lady behind the counter will serve you. Near the hard ice cream were sundae toppings including a whipped cream machine. Near the sugar free desserts was a tray of cut up fresh fruit but it was clearly in some type of juice. My wife decided that she would taste this before taking some of the melon that was in the mix and found out that it was in fresh pineapple juice. Fresh pineapple juice is better than what it could have been in, but a number of medications do not mix well with pineapple and that left this out as well for my poor wife who more than struck out on this meal. I took a bit of the soft serve chocolate ice cream. There were small bowls and cones to put it in. The soft ice cream was creamy and custardy. It was very good! Now, wouldn't you know it - I am waiting on line to get some ice cream and the lady ahead of me is an older lady who fills her cone with ice cream. She still stands in front of the machine blocking the way and starts licking and eating down the ice cream on the top of the cone. Don't you know that she stops and lifts her cone to the machine and is about to fill it again - on top of the ice cream that she is eating. I clenched my whole body and if she had pulled that handle I was going to let her have it. She seemed to pause and then she walked away. Perhaps she felt the vibes. Would anyone want to go here just for the desserts? Certainly not. Not at this price and not for the desserts that were offered. These are not the desserts that you were going to get in the "fine" menu restaurants in the other casinos.

Service was fine. If I had not caught her eye we would not have been offered refills on the drinks but our plates were always cleaned away each time that we went up.

I am going to say it again so the meat haters don't come and leave comments about why was there so much meat that I described here. There was predominantly meat here. There were no vegetables. I will emphasize this a last time - If you are not a meat and potatoes eater do not come to this buffet!

If you eat everything, especially meat, then you will enjoy this buffet. I always have and a I still do. I have been to other buffets on the Boardwalk and I still feel that this is better than the others - some of which were terrible as I have written. Some say the buffet at the Borgatta Casino which is off the Boardwalk at the Marina is very good. I have seen mixed reviews about that and it is VERY expensive. I will say that this is the best steak that I have had at any buffet - it has been and it still is.

The Virginia City Buffet is located at the Bally's Wild, Wild West Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There is a website link at the side of this page. For phone numbers you are going to have to do a search for Bally's Casinos and Hotels as they are all connected on one website. I was not able to locate a phone number to list here.

Oh yes, that $10 gambling coupon - I am not much of a gambler. I would love to be but I don't have the money to just risk like that. I played the $10 coupon in a poker machine. I won $9.35 in coins which means I lost 65 cents of the $10. So I walked away with dinner costing us $9.35 less. In case you are wondering why I just did not feed the coupon into the machine and then cash out walking away with the whole ten dollars. Well they figured that one out and all that you could cash out was the money that you won aside from the $10 that you put in. Yes, I tried - and kept playing then until the original ten was gone.

Desserts at Buffets

I have recently had readers ask me to be more descriptive of the dessert offerings at buffets. The problem is that desserts at many of the buffets are not much to write about. Now, that is not to say that there are some buffets with fabulous dessert offerings, but these are few and far between.

I have been to many buffets and over the years I have written about a few buffets that offer a great variety of good desserts. Just about every buffet in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has a decent dessert bar included with their buffet. This is the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country and the Amish and the Mennonites are known for specialty desserts among which are Shoo Fly Pie, Apple Dumplings, Cracker Pudding, Funeral Pie (raisin pie), Funny Cake, and more. Of these you will find Shoo Fly Pie in each of the buffets in the area. The other desserts mentioned will be found at various times at various buffets. Shoo Fly Pie is a pie shell filled with a wet and gooey mixture of molasses and table syrup (sugar syrup or corn syrup) that is thickened and poured into the shell. That is then covered with cake crumbs. The traditionally favorite of Shoo Fly Pie is called wet bottom and that means that the molasses syrup mixture is moist. It has been a long time since I have seen dry bottom Shoo Fly Pie - and never at a buffet. This version tends to be more cake-like at the bottom. As I say, you can go to any buffet in Lancaster and find Shoo Fly Pie. It is best served warm but few buffets do this. Top it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Another variation is Chocolate Shoo Fly Pie. This replaces the molasses with chocolate and is a real treat. The Bird in Hand Restaurant buffet has been known to serve this but don't expect to find it on every visit.

The Bird in Hand Restaurant has a dessert only buffet as an alternative to the full buffet and if you like to skip the "real" food that your mother wanted you to eat before you could have your dessert and get to the good stuff, you can go all you care to eat with desserts alone.

The ultimate dessert buffet is in Boston where you can have an entire meal of chocolate desserts. This has been featured in my article on Cafe Fleuri at the Langham Hotel. This is for the extreme dessert eater. I know I could not do it. I know that many do. And it is all done with elegance in one of Boston's top hotels.

The best dessert selection at a buffet that I have been to - and I have written about this several times - is at a small buffet in an out of the way town called Waynesboro in Pennsylvania. This is just above the Maryland border and the restaurant is called Mountain Gate Family Restaurant. The buffet at Mountain Gate is good and the food is American/Pennsylvania German. The desserts are given a section of the room all to themselves and there were more varieties of good cakes and pies than just about any other buffet that I have been to - and included with the buffet at a good price. There was nothing fancy here but the baking was good and there was just about every kind of pie and cake that one can think of. This is an out of the way place to go and there is little around it except a lot of nice scenery, but if one were on a trip to the meccas of dessert - this is the place to include. Of course, there was puddings, fruits, and ice cream, but with all of the things to try... well...

Casino buffets tend to go big on dessert offerings but they are not always so good. They may dazzle you with presentation, but the taste does not always stand up to the show. There are some that are very good. The two casinos in Connecticut - Mohegan Sun (with two buffets) and Foxwoods Casino - both have large and good dessert offerings. Both offer hot desserts and crepes filled with ice cream are the most tempting. Top that with syrups and whipped cream and eat it before it melts! At both you will find cheesecake, layer cakes, fruit pies, ice cream, pastries, and, of course, fresh fruit. While I have not been impressed by the taste of the Atlantic City casino buffets' desserts - I really can not say that any one of those have stood out and there are several casino buffets in the casinos in Atlantic City - the desserts at both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun deliver taste along with the presentation.

I wish that I could say that desserts are not to be missed at so many of the other buffets that I have written about and been to. When something stands out I do write about it - but too often they do not excel when it comes to dessert. The Chinese/Asian buffets are the worst when it comes to dessert and almost everyone - no matter where it is - serves the same or close to the same little, overly sweetened and commercially baked squares of cake. I have referred to these many times as the "Little Debbie" cakes. "Little Debbie" is a discount brand of snack cakes sold in supermarkets throughout the US. They are small squares of cake - and if you are in need of a sugar rush, well they fill that need quite well. The cakes at the Chinese buffets are just like that. And I have found out that they come from commercial, wholesale bakeries that cater to Chinese/Asian buffets. They are boxed sheet cakes that are cut into those little squares. I have yet to be at a Chinese/Asian buffet - all along the East Coast of the US that has not had these same cakes. Some of these cakes pretend to be something that they are not. If it says cheesecake it is yellow cake with a light spread of cheese and sugar on top. Not cheesecake.

I should note that the Japanese buffet chain - Minado (in NY and other locations) - does have hot crepes made to order with ice cream and toppings. They are good and a pleasant change from the sweet little cake squares that they also serve. Many Japanese buffets also serve green tea ice cream and that is something different to try. It is very refreshing after the meal.

Now, the chain buffets - Old Country Buffet, Ryans, and Golden Corral. Frankly, the desserts are not that great. At one time the desserts at Ryans were pretty good but since the take over by Buffets, Inc. that then turned Ryans into a carbon copy of the other buffet chain that it owns, Old Country Buffet, the desserts took a downturn. Golden Corral is not much different though I have on occasion have had a nice cupcake at Golden Corral. These are not always offered. There is always soft serve ice cream at all of them and with that a section of syrups, nuts, and candies to put on top. Golden Corral has fresh fruit - mostly melons of various types cut up and without syrup added. You will also find hot bread pudding at all three and some form of hot fruit cobbler - fruit filling in a pan with pie crust on top and kept hot in the steam server. At Old Country Buffet right next to the fruit cobbler you will find a hot chocolate dessert that is brownies mixed with hot chocolate syrup. While this sounds tempting, it is overly sweet. It is a good thing to mix in with vanilla ice cream. Do avoid the "haystacks" at OCB - these are canned Chinese snack noodles covered in chocolate and allowed to harden Not good at all though they look good and are tempting until you try one.

When the desserts merit talking about, I always talk about them. I just wish they were worth talking about more often. As I say, you really have to go out of your way to find a really good dessert selection at a buffet. The standard is fine to fill a sweet tooth and I know that many fill plates to the brim with more dessert than a family of six should eat together - and devour the whole thing, and if they enjoyed it then good. Keep in mind though that as I do with everything that I eat at buffets - take a small sample of what appeals to you and if you really want to, you can always go back and have a little more of what you really liked.

A Buffet for Thanksgiving

There are a lot of people without a large family 0r with no family at all who would like to dine on a holiday like Thanksgiving with people around. One way to do this is to go to a buffet. This is different from a menu restaurant because - buffet dining tends to be more social. Go to a menu restaurant and you sit at your table and have no interaction with the people at the tables around you. At buffets, however, you get up, you encounter people around the buffet servers, and, interestingly, people seem to interact from table to table - not always, but it is common. Some people just don't like to cook the whole holiday meal, so a buffet is also a way to have that meal and enjoy the day away from the kitchen.

We have been thinking about going to a buffet this Thanksgiving. The trick is in finding one - and one that is going to orient its menu to the typical holiday fare. In some locales there are many good possibilities. In others the possibilities are slim.

This is a big family oriented holiday and many buffets close on Thanksgiving to allow their employees to spend the day with their families. Some of the best buffets that I know of are closed on that day. But there are a number that are open and have special Thanksgiving buffets. In the area with probably more buffet restaurants than any other place -Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, two of the better buffets will be serving Thanksgiving dinner buffets - Family Cupboard and Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant. Both require reservations in advance because they sell out quickly before the holiday.

Old Country Buffet is open on Thanksgiving until 7:00 pm and though they have not stated that there will be any special menu, I would hope that they will be featuring turkey in addition to their usual Thursday dinner menu. On a personal note, to me this would be a last choice - only because the meal is going to be pretty much like all other days at OCB - nothing against them - just that processed turkey is not my idea of Thanksgiving. OCB has no mention of Thanksgiving on their website, but there is notices about it at the restaurants. (Old Country Buffet is closed on Christmas.)

I cannot find anything about Golden Corral and do not have one near to visit to find out. It is likely that they too will be open for Thanksgiving. Actually, the Golden Corral website is a bit disappointing with no details about individual restaurants at all other than location - and nothing about hours or days closed.

Casino buffets do tend to have holiday oriented meals on holidays. Most casino buffets have chefs that will go a little beyond the usual for a holiday meal. Of course, going to a casino is not everyone's idea of a family holiday, but the meal (depending on the buffet) should be lavish.

I have found that local to me a number of menu restaurants are having a buffet meal on Thanksgiving. If we do decide to go buffet for Thanksgiving, this would likely be what we would do - go to one of these restaurants (the four plus hours each way to PA is not a good idea on any holiday, nor is a trip up to Connecticut or Atlantic City to a casino). How good these meals are will depend upon the restaurant, their employees, and the value of what is being provided. These meals are priced high and there is little advertised before hand as to what will be included on the buffet. There are several drawbacks when a menu restaurant offers buffet. They may or not may know how to do this properly - keep up with the demand, refill serving stations, and anticipate what they will need for the meals to be sold. There can also be a problem with employees who are not used to the idea of making sure that tables are kept cleared of used plates, drinks are refilled, and that tables cannot be ignored. We have encountered problems with employees who just don't want to be working on the holiday (we used to buffet on Christmas Eve and a few times on Easter) and have the attitude that you need to hurry and leave so that they can go home. These are chances that you take. Those coming to these restaurants for the buffet will also tend to be more formal and less casual than people you will find in one of your usual buffet favorites - so the social aspect also may be missing (which is the reason you may have chosen to go to a buffet for the holiday in the first place).

Do a web search for Thanksgiving buffet and pages and pages come up. Many places that you might not even think of are having Thanksgiving buffets including museums, attractions, conference centers, catering halls, and restaurants. Take a look and you may find something that will be very special for Thanksgiving.

There are still two weeks to Thanksgiving and I have published this article with this timing so that you may respond. If you know of a Thanksgiving buffet that you may recommend please leave a comment here. Let us all know - no matter the location. There may be someone near there who will thank you for the suggestion!

FRENCH QUARTER BUFFET- Showboat Casino, Atlantic City, NJ - PART 2

Part 2

As I had said in Part 1, the entrees and side dishes were scattered all along the various stations and mixed into each other without much regard for type of cuisine. I went for the crab legs next. These were located, not with the seafood but at the far end of the buffet next to the fried chicken. Ok. There was a large tray of crab legs and these were full clusters. I took two large clusters and went back to the table. I need to comment here about the climate in the room. This was not a very hot day despite the month of July - and we had been having some scorchers at that time. But this was a fairly pleasant day in temperature. The air conditioning in the restaurant was cranked up all the way to high. It was not uncomfortable to sit there but it made everything on one's plate cold in no time at all. The crab legs may have been hot or at least warm when I took them but by the time I got back to the table and started on the first leg of a cluster they were rapidly cooling down to cold. Perhaps they were not hot enough to start with. The problem is that when crab legs get cold they become a struggle to get the meat out of the shell. A properly hot crab leg only requires a snap in the middle and the section of crab meat slides out whole. Once the crab cools off, that same piece of meat breaks with the shell and the pieces need to be dug out - if they come out at all. So what should have been very nice crab legs were not worth the struggle. The tops of the clusters that should have nuggets of meat in them were pretty much empty too. So that was enough for the crab legs to not bother going back for more.

My wife - as those of you who read this site regularly know - does not eat seafood except for shrimp and while there was a variety of shrimp she was having a problem finding anything else to take. She resorted to eating salad and string beans (one of the vegetables for the night) and not much else. Besides the money, I felt bad that she was not finding much to eat. She had tried several dishes that she said were too highly spiced for her - and indeed, just about everything served had some seasoning and spice. There really was nothing plain. I thought that I would not have the same problem but I too was walking back and forth trying to find something that was worth eating.

One of the things that I had heard about being served at this buffet was good steak. I had been led to believe that it was cooked to order but it was not. There was steak - flat iron steak. It was served in a serving tray pre-cooked. I picked around the steaks until I found one that appeared that it might be at least medium rare - and it was when I cut into it. The steak had a crust of seasonings on it. I have had flat iron steak before but it had not been like this. This was nicely charred outside and then as I say crusted with seasoning. Inside the steak was red to pink which is how I like it. So what was wrong? The side of the steak was grizzle from end to end. You had to be careful cutting around it or you were chewing and chewing on something that was not going down easily. The taste was fine but for this money compared to other Atlantic City casino buffet steaks I have had (at less money) it should have been a better cut of meat.

In addition to the steak there was beef tri tip at the carving station. Tri tip is a cut of meat used for smoking barbecue but this not smoked. It looked like it had been baked or broiled and was not very inviting. It looked more like roast beef sliced at a deli counter than a fine beef meant for carving. It may be a fancy cut of meat but they did not do it justice here. I passed on that and I passed on the baked salmon that was also at the carving station.

None of the dishes that appeared to be "regular" dishes were "regular". There were meatballs - but not beef meatballs - they were beef and chicken meatballs. These were in a spiced tomato sauce. There was Italian sausage with peppers and onions. The sausage was off in taste - nothing wrong with it but an unusual seasoning. One of the dishes that people seemed to be lining up for was grilled skewered shrimp. There were four large shrimp with the shell split on a wooden skewer. I did not at first notice what the sign above them said and went back to the table with a skewer to try. The shrimp were not well cooked for grilled shrimp - moist but they could have been grilled more to give that grilled flavor. They tasted like they were seasoned with butter and lemon - which if that was the case would have been fine. But when I went back up to the counter the next time I read the sign and these grilled shrimp were Pineapple Chile grilled shrimp. Ok, but there was no taste of pineapple (or was that the lemon taste) and certainly no taste of chile - so now what should have been seasoned wasn't. Also up by the shrimp was fried codfish. I took a piece and it was fine. Nothing special but it was nicely batter breaded fish.

At the Italian area there was a large selection of pizzas. There was pepperoni, cheese, what looked like sausage, white pizza, and white pizza with broccoli. I took a slice of the cheese. The slice was about half the width of a street slice of NY pizza - thin but also a thin crust. The crust was disappointing. The pizza, itself, was nice. I know for a fact that Atlantic City knows what NY pizza is - the Boardwalk outside the casino is full of pizza stands selling real NY pizza. The crust on this pizza was flat. There was also a thick pizza. And when I went back I took a small square of that to try. This one was very dissappointing and perhaps was what they want to call Foccachia now instead of pizza. There was cheese and sauce on top but the dough was dried out - nothing like thick pizza that I have had anyplace before. I was sorry that I took that and not another slice of the thin pizza. Also at the Italian area was a pasta dish that looked like Penne ala Vodka. It was called penne something else. It tasted like penne ala vodka but without the vodka taste. There was also plain penne with a butter over it to keep it moist and a tray of Italian red sauce. There was another dish at the Italian area. It was macaroni and cheese with lobster and crab. I am not sure what this was doing in the Italian area but maybe because it was macaroni it some how fit. It was basic American mac and cheese with some lobster and crab meat chopped in - enough to stop any kid from taking their favorite mac and cheese.

The Chinese dishes consisted of General Tso's Chicken, Shrimp with Soy Beans, Shrimp Fried Rice, and Lo Mein. I tried the Lo Mein and it was not very good - not anywhere near what is found at every Asian buffet or restaurant. There was a large bowl of steamed dumplings and one sign above this single bowl that said Chicken Dumplings on top and then under that it said Fish Dumplings. All of the dumplings in the bowl looked the same - so which was which - and my wife who takes no chances on eating fish took none because she could not know if they were chicken or fish.

There was a desert bar behind the salad bar in the middle of the buffet area. There was hard ice cream scooped for you with a sundae bar. There was a very nice assortment of cakes and tarts and puddings. There was also a sugar free section at one end.

Our server was quick to take away our dirty plates and empty the shell bowl that was on each table - nicely providing shell crackers and cocktail fish forks along with a good supply of wet-naps. The server brings your drinks and she promptly took our soft drink order when we sat down and brought the drinks right away. But through the meal when my wife had emptied her soda glass, the server came and went and never refilled it. Several times with us sitting there she looked directly at the empty glass and before we could say anything was off somewhere else. It was not until the end of our meal when I finished my ice tea did she come over and ask me if I would like another - still ignoring my wife's empty soda glass. I had to tell her to bring both another soda and an ice tea or my wife would never have gotten a refill. You have to wonder about this and my wife later heard another diner complaining about this server to the manager.

Had this dinner cost the $20 that most other Atlantic City buffets cost would I have been so put off? Probably not, and it is not the extra money as long as you get value and a decent meal for that value. I have had better meals at Golden Corral and for under $10. After dinner we took a walk to a few other casino's to check out the prices of the buffets. All Friday night buffets and this was the highest priced. At what I consider still to be the best AC Casino Buffet - the buffet at Bally's Wild Wild West, the price was $20.99 and they too had a special feature which was Prime Rib. Plus there you get all of the international stations and the steaks. Value and the quality of the food means a lot. This was what was lacking here. With the sales tax and tip you are putting down almost $70 for a meal for two that offered little more than most $14.99 Chinese buffets that offer a raw bar and crab legs and lower priced chain restaurants.

I was so hoping to recommend this buffet to you all. I wish that I could but I can't.

The French Quarter Buffet is located on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in the Showboat/House of Blues Casino Hotel.Their website is listed at the side of this page. Parking at the casino is an additional $10 per day - one price no matter how long you stay in the garage for the day. If you have a casino comp card the parking is $5.00.

FRENCH QUARTER BUFFET- Showboat Casino, Atlantic City, NJ - PART 1

When I started writing this I had intended it to be one single article, but it grew to be so long that I have split it into two parts -

Part 1

For two years I have been told that the best casino buffet in Atlantic City, New Jersey is at the Showboat Casino. When the casino first opened many years ago, I went to the Showboat's buffet a number of times. They were known THEN for their all you can eat lobster buffet and way back then it was served every night. I guess there were a lot more lobsters around then and they were more affordable because at the time the buffet's price at that time was not higher than any of the others. Now, you may ask - how could they do that? Well, the answer is they couldn't and the every night lobster buffet became history at the Showboat. After that the buffet at the Showboat became just so, so. Nothing really to brag about and there were better at other casinos.

Flash forward several years later and the buffet at the Showboat moved from one part of the second floor to another. It became a little more open - though the view that you had of the ocean in its original location was gone. But the offerings remained just average and after trying it again, I was not all that impressed and looked to other casino buffets.

Now we come to the present and as I said, I have been told by a number of people that the best buffet in a casino at Atlantic City is at the Showboat. It had to be really good to top what I consider to be the best Atlantic City casino buffet which is at the Wild, Wild West Bally's Casino. We recently went to Atlantic City pretty much just to have dinner at the French Quarter, Buffet at the Showboat Casino.

We went on a Friday night which is called Seafood Festival. Sounded good on the signs around the casino. We also passed a sign that said - Saturday Night - ALL YOU CAN EAT WHOLE LOBSTER. So hey, they have brought that back too, at least for one night a week. Other nights of the week there are other features and I am assuming a lower price. The Seafood Festival was $27.99 per person and the Saturday Lobster is $29.99 per person. I am going to base this review on my experience at the Seafood Festival Friday night feature. The Lobster may be wonderful and more than worth every penny of the $30 per person (which is reasonable for all the whole lobsters that you can eat), but there was no value in what was paid for the Friday night Seafood Festival. Does the French Quarter Buffet hold up to the claims that it is the best casino buffet in Atlantic City - not in my opinion. Let me tell you about the whole night and I will tell you why.

The buffet is located on the second floor of the casino building, above the gambling area and in the middle of the floor that it shares with a theater, banquet rooms, and the House of Blues nightclub/bar. The second floor is reached by escalated at either end of the building. You walk down the hallway and you will see the buffet - a large open area along the middle of the hall. Getting in was confusing. There are three entrances - each for a different "comp" card holder - holders of the silver, gold, or platinum cards each go into a different entrance and those without cards enter where the silver card holders go in. All of this and all three entrances enter into the same cashier area with the same cashier desk. I am certain that when there is a crowd - on this Friday night on the last weekend of July there was surprisingly no crowd and no line at all (???) - you will wait much less time depending on which card you have in your hand. You have to earn that gold or platinum card with how much gambling that you do.

So, we finally find the right entrance opening and go to the same cashier that everyone else would go to and we pay - $27.99 each. If you do have a card it is swiped and "points" are added to it. The more points you have (from this or gambling- the more things you get from the casino - which are called "comps" for complimentaries). We go to the side of the cashier and are met by a young woman who escorted us to a table. A server came along almost as soon as we arrived and we were asked for our drink orders which are unlimited soft drinks included in the meal price. If you want wine or beer that is extra, but available with a per drink charge. They seem to be serving Pepsi products as that is what my wife thinks her diet soda was - Diet Pepsi - though she commented that she could not be sure it was not a no name brand.

The layout of the buffet is this - there is a dining room that forms an L around the very long serving area. The entire rear wall is the serving area with a salad and dessert island in front of that closest to the dining tables. Each type of cuisine is SUPPOSED to be in its own section along the serving area - Chinese in the Chinese section, meat in the carving section, Italian in the Italian section, seafood in the seafood section and so on. I say supposed because it was actually scattered all over the place with no sense or reason at all. What should have been in one was mixed into another area. It really was necessary to walk completely around and take note of what was offered to be able to find everything because if you skipped say the Chinese area because you were not in the mood for Asian food but you really wanted some plain string beans (NOT Chinese style string beans) you were not going to find them because they were next to the trays of fried rice and lo mein. Behind each serving counter was an open area for chefs to cook what was being served. Nothing was being cooked to order but they were cooking and refilling what needed to be out - at least as some stations - but not all.

We usually start our meal with soup and soup was scattered all around the different stations. Over by the raw bar and some of the seafood there was Manhattan Clam Chowder (the red kind). At the Chinese area there was egg drop soup. At the Italian area there was Minestrone soup. And then between the Italian area and the carving, hidden so well that I did not find this until mid-meal was another soup - Turtle and Snapper Soup. I took the clam chowder and it was fine - nothing much different than the clam chowder that is served every night at every diner on Long Island where I live (yes, in some areas there is always Chili offered, on Long Island in a diner there is always Manhattan clam chowder). Anyway, the clam chowder was nice - lots of clam pieces but nothing special. I will say here that later I went and had to try the Turtle and Snapper soup. I have had mock turtle soup before and I have had red snapper soup before - usually made with sherry. I have liked both when I have had them. The serving tureen of this soup was skimmed over with a thick layer of cooled soup. I took the ladle and stirred a lot to blend this thickened layer into the soup. I started to scoop and long, thick strands of soup hung from the ladle. Was this supposed to happen with this type of soup? None of those other soups that I have had - the mock turtle or the snapper did this. I scooped a half cup. It looked like brown gravy. I thought to myself that perhaps this was not soup at all but brown gravy for the beef. It was actually thicker than the thickest brown gravy would be. Back at the table I took a taste - the thick reddish brown soup clung to the sides of the cup and again, a long strand of something came up with the spoon and down into the soup. I bravely, broke the strand and tasted. It tasted like other snapper soup that I have had. There was the distinct subtle taste of sherry. The taste was pleasant - the consistency was odd. It was super thick and those strands kept coming up with the soup. There was no pieces of anything in the soup - just these stringy strands. I did finish most of the half cup, leaving behind what was clinging to all of the sides that the soup touched.

My wife visited the salad bar next and I went on to the raw bar. The salad bar was very extensive with a variety of salad toppings to go along with the greens and then a number of prepared salads including a Caesar salad that was prepared. I tried the Caesar salad later on and it looked a lot better than it was. The dressing - and most of what is Caesar salad is the dressing - was weak. My wife was upset that a number of the salad toppings contained drippings and pieces from other toppings containers. I commented to her that this was the fault of the people serving themselves moving one spoon to another container but she pointed out to me that at many salad bars at buffets - including the chain buffets - the employees come around and correct this when it happens - removing whatever does not belong or even replacing the container. Here this did not happen and the - let's call them "contaminated" containers remained that way the entire time that we were there. While eating her salad, my wife discovered that the slices of cucumber that she had taken were all spoiled.

As I said, while my wife had salad, I went to the Raw Bar and there were raw oysters and clams on the half shell. The oysters were large - perhaps too large to eat comfortably for raw oysters. I took three oysters and one clam. The oysters were not wet as they should be and instead of silvery grey in color they were a dry, pale yellow. I ate the first one and thought that it was slightly off in taste - not bad but not with that fresh ocean taste that raw clams should have. They were served on a large bed of ice so they should have kept fresh but it is hard to tell how often they are taken and replaced. I tried one more with more concern - and the last thing that I wanted on this night was raw shell fish poisoning. It did not have that fresh ocean taste and that was it for oysters for me that night. I did try the clam and it was OK - too large really to be very good. The Raw Bar also had shrimp in the shell - large shrimp that had been de-veined. The ones that I picked were fine. My wife took some later that she said were under cooked and not good. So far the Seafood Festival was not so festive.

END OF PART 1 - Come back next week for PART 2