Anyone who reads this site regularly knows that I would not pay for a buffet that costs $90 for two, but we were invited to one and we went with relatives. I have written of this annual Christmas Eve excursion before but this year the price is higher and the meal was just not good. The restaurant is not a buffet normally. It is a menu restaurant with a catering hall on the side that has been around for many, many years. As a boy I came here with my family to the menu restaurant. My parents when I got older but still at home would come here for special occasions and Christmas Eve. They liked it for Christmas Eve because it had a very festive holiday atmosphere, though even then they would be disappointed in the food. Were I not invited - and understand this is more a command appearance than anything else (though I do enjoy seeing the children) - I would not go there. The restaurant is the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, New York and the buffet is served on several holidays during the year. The buffet is served in the catering building (seen a year ago on an episode of the television show, "Royal Pains", (which films locally) as where the brother's wedding took place.
The restaurant and the buffet was crowded. It surprised me given the cost of the dinner, but around here income (to many - not me) seems irrelevant when it comes to spending money. By accident, we stumbled across the price of this dinner as we were waiting for the people who invited us to arrive, as they were arriving late. Their arriving late had caused a problem for the restaurant. This was the last seating. They called me and asked me to inform the restaurant that they would be there a half hour late. I was told by the hostess that the restaurant closed at 9 and those who were coming late should be told that. OK. About ten minutes later, she came over to me and said she was about to give away all reservations who had not arrived - I looked around and saw no one waiting and empty tables inside now not being filled - and that in a few minutes there would be no reservation for our group unless we sat now - pretty much in their attitude therefore guaranteeing them payment for at least two. We had preferred not to go in without our hosts but if we did not go in then without them, there would be no table for anyone when they arrived. We reluctantly went in and were seated. We did not eat anything or touch anything on the table until they arrived - as it was my intention to walk out the door if the party had not arrived by 8:00 pm and not pay for anything. Anyway, the price - while we were standing in the lobby next to one of the reception desks and there printed on a paper, not visible to the public, it said $45.00 per adult. Later I learned that children are charged at $19.99 per child, seemingly regardless of age as a three year old at our table who consumed a few spoonfuls of fruit salad and not much else was charged $19.99 as was a 12 year old. On top of this tax and gratuity are added by the restaurant to the bill along with any beverages - soft or hard - that are ordered with the exception of hot coffee or hot tea. So here are four adults and two children with a dinner bill coming to over $220 plus soft drinks charged at bar prices, tax, and tip (tip amount added by the restaurant) - no alcohol ordered. As I overheard, the total was near $300!
For that kind of money I wish the meal had been good. Everything was tasteless. Items were mislabeled. The choices to select from were extremely limited - and most entrees were sweetened in some form or other.
There was an appetizer section of prepared salads - Italian cold cuts, julianned and mixed with Italian dressing, small mozzarella balls with grape tomatoes, pasta salad with seafood - scattered bits of shrimp and tiny scallops, one or two other pasta salads, and shrimp out of the shell on ice with cocktail sauce. Sounds good, but tasteless - every dish out in this section was tasteless. There was a salad of mixed greens with one dressing served on the side of the salad serving bowl.
There was a "kids'" section consisting of cut up hot dogs wrapped in dough, chicken fingers, french fries, and macaroni and cheese. I tried the mac and cheese - tasteless.
The entrees went around two sides, repeated. Salmon in teriyaki sauce, Veal scallopini (which on one side was the label on a second server of the next dish which was) chicken in barbecue sauce with pineapple, beef and broccoli, penne with vodka sauce, mashed potatoes, spaghetti and clam sauce, and steamed vegetables that were swimming deep in butter sauce. There were three carvings - turkey breast, ham, and a roast beef that was presented as if it were something better. It all sounds nice, right? But everything that I took was tasteless - even that which was overly sweet. I guess it had a generic sweet taste. The turkey gravy was thin and seemed to be from a mix. And with each unsatisfying bite, I was thinking what a waste of money. When I went up and asked for roast beef the chef who was carving after putting the meat on my plate, grunted and pointed at me with his carving knife and then pointed the knife at the beef gravy sitting in serving dish next to him and grunted again. How pleasant!
By the time our group was ready for dessert several servers rushed to the table with coffee pots and one had a clear glass water pitcher full of boiling water for tea. As there was only one teabag in the sugar dish, had anymore than one wanted tea, as things were going they would have been out of luck. While we were dining I had heard a number of desserts being offered by servers to tables around us. One dessert to a person - no dessert buffet. When we asked what they had for dessert the selection was down to chocolate mouse cake which the 12 year old told me was overly sweet, coconut cake, and cheesecake.
I have had more enjoyable meals at Old Country Buffet. I have had more enjoyable meals at buffets that are just fair at less than one-fourth the price. For the money spent for an hour and a half dinner for six, the two of us could eat at buffets for about three months two or so times a week. It was such an incredible waste of money. I am not often effected after a buffet meal but as I write this I have been burping some odd tastes for more than an hour and a half now. This is not going to be a very good night.
Well, if you are ever considering this restaurant - menu or holiday buffet - skip it! It is not good, has no value, and is not worth it. And with that, I wish you a Merry Christmas to all - and for those who did not eat here, to all a good night. as we who did dine here are going to be awake most of the night.
Showing posts with label Christmas Eve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas Eve. Show all posts
Friday, December 27, 2013
Friday, December 28, 2012
Christmas/New Year's Special Dinner at Best Buffet, Huntington Station, NY
I am pushing this article ahead of other articles that are scheduled to appear on this site, as I want to give those who would like to try this special dinner a chance to get there for New Year's Eve 2012 or New Year's Day 2013. We have been to the very special Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day dinner at Best Buffet located in Huntington Station, New York last year and the year before on Christmas Day. We returned there again this year and were very pleased. Last year, and prior, at this restaurant there had been temperature problems with the food. There was no such problem this year and everything that I tried was very, very good!
This is a Chinese/Asian buffet and it is one of the highest priced such buffets in this area. The price for this special holiday dinner is $33.99 per person - the same as it was last year. This is the most expensive buffet dinner that I have been to and written about. It is way above most of the buffets that I recommend. This price is just for this special holiday dinner, but it is not much more than their usual weekend dinner. For a holiday dinner- we are talking about the biggie holidays here - it is not that bad. If you want soda or tea you will be charged $1.79 each more. They will automatically add a 12% tip onto the bill in addition to sales tax. The children's price is $16.99! The bill for the two of us without beverages - just water - was over $84.00. For us that is a lot - but I enjoyed the meal and that is what is important!
There are usually over 180 items on their buffet at dinner. This special meal is adding a number of special items to this - you will find:
Special Seafood bisque - this was a very unusual soup and unlike any bisque that I have ever had. It was a dark brown similar to hot and sour soup but not spicy. It had chunks of seafood - not sure what but some had the consistency of shrimp and lobster. It also had gelatinous noodles which may be soybean noodles. It was interesting and good.
Tokyo Beef Shortrib - this was a large roasted beef rib carved at the carving station. It was carved off the bone and placed on your plate. It was very rare at the center and crispy at the edge. It was very good.
Lobster Salad with Tropical Fruit - this was on the cold bar with the salads and fruit. It was white in color and it was pieces of lobster and fruit. As I have to watch which raw fruit I eat due to allergies I did not try it. I wished I could have!
Roast Suckling Pig - they have had this each year. This year it was on the carving station and you took it yourself. It was inch wide strips of pork with a very crisp skin and each strip was about three inches long. Unlike year's past, it was hot and very good. The skin is very hard to bite. It is worth trying!
Grilled Stuffed Clam - this was a half calm that was grilled with bacon on top. It was overly salty to the taste and the clam was very, very chewy. I tried one but did not go back for another.
Fillet Mignon with Pepper Cone - this was a large roll of Fillet Mignon that was roasted with a pepper cream sauce on top. It was very good and very tender. It was served and carved at the carving station.
Alaska Jumbo Crab Legs - these were single legs - not clusters and not very jumbo. There were both hot and cold crab legs. Mixed in were also steamed lobster claws.
Fresh Oysters and Clams - raw oysters and clams on ice next to the sushi bar. The oysters were large and tasty. I added cocktail sauce. There were several types of sauce to top them with.
Grilled Lamb Leg with Rosemary Sauce - served on the carving station.
Pan Fried Fresh Scallop - these were served at the grill and they had a dark sauce on them and they were served on a large scallop shell. The scallop was tender and very tasty!
Grilled Lobster with Cheese - these were half lobsters - small with no claw. Mostly you are eating the tail as there was no meat in the rest of the half shell. The lobster was tasty. There was always a line when these lobsters came out and they were served at the carving station at one per plate. When these lobsters were not out, there was lobster in ginger sauce served to your plate in a good quantity. The lobster in ginger sauce was tastier.
Italian Seafood Platter - I have to say I have no idea what this is - I did not see anything there that would meet this discription, but there was seafood everywhere on the buffet!
Salmon Fish with Dijon Sauce - there was a large salmon on the buffet. I am not partial to cooked salmon so I did not try it.
Jumbo Shrimp Scampi- these were large shrimp in garlic sauce. They looked very good.
Teriyaki Chilean Sea Bass - this was on the buffet and was very popular, especially with the Oriental people who were dining. Large chunks of Chilean sea bass were covered in a thick teriyaki sauce.
Roasted Peking Duck - this is always offered at the carving station here. The duck was large and meaty - and surprisingly not very fatty. Duck was carved and put in a thick, doughy steamed pancake and there were the traditional toppings and sauce for you to add yourself. There was no problem just carving several good sized pieces of duck to your plate.
Japanese Sushi and Sashimi - there is always a sushi bar here and there was a good variety of fish being offered. While I was at the sushi counter, one gentleman was asking for a certain roll and they were making it for him.
Seafood Delight with X.O. Sauce - this was no the buffet. I did not try it.
Roasted Prime Rib - this was on the carving station and they were carving thick slices of prime rib. This was real prime rib - not just roast beef. There were slices on the bone. The meat looked moist.
Fried Oysters with Wasabi - this was on the buffet. While I like raw oysters, I do not care for cooked oysters. If you like cooked oysters, these would be good.
Crispy Prawns with Mayonnaise - this was on the buffer. I did not try it.
Holiday Dessert - there was a variety of desserts with the most authentic being two Chinese dessert soups. There were cups of mango pudding, honeydew pudding, and chocolate pudding. There was a sign for creme brulee but there was no out. There were the usual Chinese buffet sheet cakes, a variety of cookies and macaroons, a coconut cake (which was gelatinous), kiwi fruit, something called Dragon Fruit which was red on the outside, white inside with black seeds, fruit salad, apple pie roll, and a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream. I tried a small piece of cheese cake which was not much more than the usual cheese cake found with the sheet cakes at many Chinese buffets. It was fine but not great cheese cake. I also tried something that looked like it should be a very thin chocolate cookie. A platter came out with very thin cookies in random shapes as a batter must have been poured out as liquid onto the baking sheet. There were the shapes of almonds (inside) bumped across the pieces. It looked like a chocolate cookie. It was hard to the bite and it did not really taste like chocolate. When you bit into the bump where the almond shape was it tasted like almond but no almond could be seen. It was very unusual - and without the chocolate taste was not really worth finishing.
These were the holiday features. In addition there were many other things to eat - some of which is found on their regular and weekend buffet and some not. There were two soup pots on the side near the carving station. One had duck soup. The other had spare rib soup. There were a variety of meets and seafood coming off the grill - beef, chicken, shrimp, octopus, and more. There were three dumplings - traditional shumai, a shumai stuffed with wild black rice, and pan fried pork dumplings. There were non-Asian foods like Fettuccine Alfredo (which was very good) and Chicken Marsala. They also have an hibachi grill now that they did not have in the past and there were raw meats and vegetables for you to choose and give to the chef to grill for you. There were many, many good things to choose.
The only problem is that there is so much, it is not possible to take even a small amount of everything that you would like to try. I tried to just take a little of what I wanted to try and still could not include everything that caught my eye. One thing that I had that is worth mentioning - along with so much else - was sweet and sour cod fish. The tray had a whole fried cod including head with bared teeth. There were large chunks of fried cod that were continually added to this tray and they were covered in a light sweet and sour sauce that was not the usual red sweet and sour sauce you usually get in a Chinese restaurant. This was very good. So much was very good.
When we were almost finished, my wife asked if I felt (pertaining to value) if this meal here or the meal at Captain George's Seafood Buffet in Virginia was better. That was a hard question to answer and she choose that buffet to compare to as it is the closest (though cheaper) to the price of this buffet. My answer was this meal and I based that answer on the carving station. Here you could make a meal of Prime Rib, Leg of Lamb, Fillet Mignon, Short Rib, Duck, and two types of lobster. And not include anything else. There is no place (at least locally) that you can do that for $34.00 - and the food was quality.
I do this holiday buffet once a year. It was a nice holiday dinner. I recommend that you try it and as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is next week you still have an opportunity to go here and also enjoy this meal. Otherwise you have to wait until next year's holidays.
Best Buffet is located on Route 110 North - 179 Walt Whitman Road in Huntington Station, New York on Long Island. Their phone number is 631-385-0800. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.
This is a Chinese/Asian buffet and it is one of the highest priced such buffets in this area. The price for this special holiday dinner is $33.99 per person - the same as it was last year. This is the most expensive buffet dinner that I have been to and written about. It is way above most of the buffets that I recommend. This price is just for this special holiday dinner, but it is not much more than their usual weekend dinner. For a holiday dinner- we are talking about the biggie holidays here - it is not that bad. If you want soda or tea you will be charged $1.79 each more. They will automatically add a 12% tip onto the bill in addition to sales tax. The children's price is $16.99! The bill for the two of us without beverages - just water - was over $84.00. For us that is a lot - but I enjoyed the meal and that is what is important!
There are usually over 180 items on their buffet at dinner. This special meal is adding a number of special items to this - you will find:
Special Seafood bisque - this was a very unusual soup and unlike any bisque that I have ever had. It was a dark brown similar to hot and sour soup but not spicy. It had chunks of seafood - not sure what but some had the consistency of shrimp and lobster. It also had gelatinous noodles which may be soybean noodles. It was interesting and good.
Tokyo Beef Shortrib - this was a large roasted beef rib carved at the carving station. It was carved off the bone and placed on your plate. It was very rare at the center and crispy at the edge. It was very good.
Lobster Salad with Tropical Fruit - this was on the cold bar with the salads and fruit. It was white in color and it was pieces of lobster and fruit. As I have to watch which raw fruit I eat due to allergies I did not try it. I wished I could have!
Roast Suckling Pig - they have had this each year. This year it was on the carving station and you took it yourself. It was inch wide strips of pork with a very crisp skin and each strip was about three inches long. Unlike year's past, it was hot and very good. The skin is very hard to bite. It is worth trying!
Grilled Stuffed Clam - this was a half calm that was grilled with bacon on top. It was overly salty to the taste and the clam was very, very chewy. I tried one but did not go back for another.
Fillet Mignon with Pepper Cone - this was a large roll of Fillet Mignon that was roasted with a pepper cream sauce on top. It was very good and very tender. It was served and carved at the carving station.
Alaska Jumbo Crab Legs - these were single legs - not clusters and not very jumbo. There were both hot and cold crab legs. Mixed in were also steamed lobster claws.
Fresh Oysters and Clams - raw oysters and clams on ice next to the sushi bar. The oysters were large and tasty. I added cocktail sauce. There were several types of sauce to top them with.
Grilled Lamb Leg with Rosemary Sauce - served on the carving station.
Pan Fried Fresh Scallop - these were served at the grill and they had a dark sauce on them and they were served on a large scallop shell. The scallop was tender and very tasty!
Grilled Lobster with Cheese - these were half lobsters - small with no claw. Mostly you are eating the tail as there was no meat in the rest of the half shell. The lobster was tasty. There was always a line when these lobsters came out and they were served at the carving station at one per plate. When these lobsters were not out, there was lobster in ginger sauce served to your plate in a good quantity. The lobster in ginger sauce was tastier.
Italian Seafood Platter - I have to say I have no idea what this is - I did not see anything there that would meet this discription, but there was seafood everywhere on the buffet!
Salmon Fish with Dijon Sauce - there was a large salmon on the buffet. I am not partial to cooked salmon so I did not try it.
Jumbo Shrimp Scampi- these were large shrimp in garlic sauce. They looked very good.
Teriyaki Chilean Sea Bass - this was on the buffet and was very popular, especially with the Oriental people who were dining. Large chunks of Chilean sea bass were covered in a thick teriyaki sauce.
Roasted Peking Duck - this is always offered at the carving station here. The duck was large and meaty - and surprisingly not very fatty. Duck was carved and put in a thick, doughy steamed pancake and there were the traditional toppings and sauce for you to add yourself. There was no problem just carving several good sized pieces of duck to your plate.
Japanese Sushi and Sashimi - there is always a sushi bar here and there was a good variety of fish being offered. While I was at the sushi counter, one gentleman was asking for a certain roll and they were making it for him.
Seafood Delight with X.O. Sauce - this was no the buffet. I did not try it.
Roasted Prime Rib - this was on the carving station and they were carving thick slices of prime rib. This was real prime rib - not just roast beef. There were slices on the bone. The meat looked moist.
Fried Oysters with Wasabi - this was on the buffet. While I like raw oysters, I do not care for cooked oysters. If you like cooked oysters, these would be good.
Crispy Prawns with Mayonnaise - this was on the buffer. I did not try it.
Holiday Dessert - there was a variety of desserts with the most authentic being two Chinese dessert soups. There were cups of mango pudding, honeydew pudding, and chocolate pudding. There was a sign for creme brulee but there was no out. There were the usual Chinese buffet sheet cakes, a variety of cookies and macaroons, a coconut cake (which was gelatinous), kiwi fruit, something called Dragon Fruit which was red on the outside, white inside with black seeds, fruit salad, apple pie roll, and a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream. I tried a small piece of cheese cake which was not much more than the usual cheese cake found with the sheet cakes at many Chinese buffets. It was fine but not great cheese cake. I also tried something that looked like it should be a very thin chocolate cookie. A platter came out with very thin cookies in random shapes as a batter must have been poured out as liquid onto the baking sheet. There were the shapes of almonds (inside) bumped across the pieces. It looked like a chocolate cookie. It was hard to the bite and it did not really taste like chocolate. When you bit into the bump where the almond shape was it tasted like almond but no almond could be seen. It was very unusual - and without the chocolate taste was not really worth finishing.
These were the holiday features. In addition there were many other things to eat - some of which is found on their regular and weekend buffet and some not. There were two soup pots on the side near the carving station. One had duck soup. The other had spare rib soup. There were a variety of meets and seafood coming off the grill - beef, chicken, shrimp, octopus, and more. There were three dumplings - traditional shumai, a shumai stuffed with wild black rice, and pan fried pork dumplings. There were non-Asian foods like Fettuccine Alfredo (which was very good) and Chicken Marsala. They also have an hibachi grill now that they did not have in the past and there were raw meats and vegetables for you to choose and give to the chef to grill for you. There were many, many good things to choose.
The only problem is that there is so much, it is not possible to take even a small amount of everything that you would like to try. I tried to just take a little of what I wanted to try and still could not include everything that caught my eye. One thing that I had that is worth mentioning - along with so much else - was sweet and sour cod fish. The tray had a whole fried cod including head with bared teeth. There were large chunks of fried cod that were continually added to this tray and they were covered in a light sweet and sour sauce that was not the usual red sweet and sour sauce you usually get in a Chinese restaurant. This was very good. So much was very good.
When we were almost finished, my wife asked if I felt (pertaining to value) if this meal here or the meal at Captain George's Seafood Buffet in Virginia was better. That was a hard question to answer and she choose that buffet to compare to as it is the closest (though cheaper) to the price of this buffet. My answer was this meal and I based that answer on the carving station. Here you could make a meal of Prime Rib, Leg of Lamb, Fillet Mignon, Short Rib, Duck, and two types of lobster. And not include anything else. There is no place (at least locally) that you can do that for $34.00 - and the food was quality.
I do this holiday buffet once a year. It was a nice holiday dinner. I recommend that you try it and as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is next week you still have an opportunity to go here and also enjoy this meal. Otherwise you have to wait until next year's holidays.
Best Buffet is located on Route 110 North - 179 Walt Whitman Road in Huntington Station, New York on Long Island. Their phone number is 631-385-0800. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Christmas Eve Buffet at Milleridge Inn, Jericho, NY
Every Christmas Eve my family gets together - my sister and her husband and little girl with my wife and me - and has dinner out. For a good many years the Milleridge Inn was a family tradition and a a number of years back, they began serving a buffet dinner. As time progressed, the special buffet dinner went down hill and a few years back we stopped going there. When it was time to find a restaurant for Christmas Eve 2010, my sister - and I discovered that the restaurants that we were going to either went out of business or were not going to be open on Christmas Eve. With a reluctance I suggested that she find out if the Milleridge Inn was serving the buffet again this year. We knew that they were serving a menu dinner, but that has not been good for a long time. I have actually written about the "special" buffets served at this restaurant before - not positively. I was pretty sure before we went that things had not really improved. So keep reading to find out...
The Milleridge Inn is a "landmark" restaurant on Long Island. It seems that it has been in business forever. It started in the late 18th/early 19th Century as a stagecoach stop and in the 20th Century the mansion became a restaurant. The building has been expanded many times so that the little stagecoach stop has been lost within the many constructions. Years back a little village of gift shops was added in the large parking lot and some time ago a catering building was built at the back of the property. This catering building is where the holiday buffets are held. There are similar buffets for Christmas Eve, Valentine's Day, and Easter.
The Milleridge Inn is not a buffet restaurant. It is a menu restaurant. The buffets are set up as a catered dinner would be set up for a party or a restaurant. I have said this before and I will say it again - the problem that comes up time after time when a menu restaurant tries to serve a buffet is that the staff are not willing or prepared to do what is necessary to take care of buffet diners and the restaurant is not used to dealing with a buffet set up. Here the problem is 95% the wait staff. In the past here we encountered waiters and waitresses that were upset with working on Christmas Eve and made that very obvious. On this night, the wait staff really wanted nothing to do with the tables that they were responsible for.
There were a lot of people dining at this buffet. We had a 7:30 pm reservation which was not the last of the night. We waited to be seated after arriving for our reserved time. We were a party of five - four adults and a child. We were escorted to a very small table that should have seated no more than two. We made a comment to the gentlemen who seated us that five could not fit at this time properly. He smiled and said, "Yes, this is your table." Then he walked away. OK. We sat down elbow to elbow, two on each side with the child at one end. We got up and went to the serving tables as it was quite clear that this was our table or there would be no table.
The spread of food is set out as it would be for a catered party - times two. There were two set ups that met in the middle, both exactly the same on each side. There was a long ice table with prepared salads and cocktail shrimp (already peeled and very large). There was a bowl of greens in the middle on a small table. My sister identified the greens in the salad as mescaline greens. There were two serving bowls of dressing - one that was Catalina French and the other some dark, oil and vinegar concoction. At the wall near the salad was a table with serving dishes of macaroni and cheese, pasta with a cream tomato sauce, and a single server with chicken fingers and french fries. Along the middle and meeting the other side in the center at a roast turkey breast carving were hot, covered serving dishes with entrees and vegetables. There were also stuffed roast pork and sliced steak carvings.
This poor quality photo taken with my cell phone camera will give you an idea of the setup of the buffet. You are looking at one of the sides with hot dishes. Not really visible to the left end of the table are the carvings.
There was no soup so we started with the prepared salads and cold shrimp. There were a variety of Italian style salads - this is not an Italian restaurant. There was a mixture of sliced salami and mixed olives. There were two pasta salads. There was an artichoke salad - which was tasteless and used more than the artichoke hearts making it pretty much artichoke leaves with nothing to eat. There was a nice tomato and mozzarella cheese salad that consisted of balls of semi-fresh cheese with chunks of fresh tomatoes in an oil and vinegar with chopped parsley dressing. There was a black bean salad and there was a string bean salad. At the end of this row was the cocktail shrimp. These were large shrimp peeled with the tail on - very much like the shrimp that would be served in a restaurant as shrimp cocktail.
We completed that course at varying times - one of the reasons that I do not like going to buffets with a group - they do not like my idea that we all eat together and once a plate is empty are up for more regardless of where the rest of the table is for that course. I know that many readers have said that this is the only way to dine at a buffet in a group - and perhaps that is practical, but it does not make for much of a family meal and certainly does not lend to dinner conversation with people bouncing up and down through the entire meal. As it was, three adults and the child finished together after the one of the adults had gone back up and had already come back and continued eating. When we returned with our salads, the plates from our first course were properly taken off the table. Why would I note such a thing? I never talk really about when plates are taken away - UNLESS - they are not taken away. Well, these were the only plates the entire meal that were taken away. Now, I have noted how small this table was. Barely room for the plates that we were eating from. There was certainly no more room to put soiled plates. But no one - after that first course - ever made an appearance to take away any soiled plates. This was not just our problem as other tables around us had the same situation. It got to the point that we were cleaning our own table between courses to remove the used plates. And what did we do with them? We broke a cardinal rule of buffets and stacked them on a small empty table not too far off from our table - as were others. Oddly, the stacks of plates every so often would disappear from that table. The waiter was aware enough to take the dishes from there - but never came near the dining tables to clear the plates away when necessary. OK - someone is going to say, why didn't you say something. Well, I did. I went over to two waiters who were standing on the side with a used plate in my hand. I put it down in front of them and said to them - "you are not taking the used plates off the tables" - I added, "I have never been anywhere that the soiled plates are left on the tables." I got a surprised look, a shrug, and a "huh?" I made my message known again. One of them followed me over to our table - with several soiled plates waiting to be picked up he took one, left the rest, and was not seen again. See, this is what I mean about restaurant that are not buffets doing buffet meals - and about staff on holidays. I have been to a number of buffets where the plates do not get cleared off the table promptly - mostly in the same chain. Sometimes the meal goes along for a while - but eventually every time before someone came and eventually cleared the table - and then returned to continue to do the same (at some point). This night was really a first.
At one point my sister got one of the waiters and asked for two things - this was after telling him about the plates - which he still did not come and take. She asked for a glass of ice and one of the loaves of bread that were on other tables but were never brought to our table - perhaps because there was no place to set it down. Again, she got a stare, a "huh?", and a total blank. Eventually, she got the message through and a loaf of bread showed up on the table - on a plate but without a knife to slice it with.
So back to the meal. The hot dishes were chicken Parmesan - not bad, sausage and peppers - much too greasy, eggplant rollatini (i did not try that), string beans and carrots - underdone (to my liking), salmon teriyaki - my brother in law said this was very good, mussels and shrimp in garlic sauce, red potatoes, and fried calamari - which ran out mid meal and were replaced with stuffing (some substitution!). The turkey that was being carved was a "real" turkey breast on the bone roasted with the skin on. There was a very thin turkey gravy for it. The steak was a thick, but narrow length of steak that was being sliced. When I went up for it, it was nicely rare and juicy. When I went back for more, what was left was well done and dry (so I did not take more). I did take, at that point, a slice of the stuffed pork loin. There was a thick gravy for the pork. Condiments including apple sauce were set out along the carving area.
On one side of the duplicated sides there was a hot dog cart serving steamed hot dogs on a bun and along side were very large soft pretzels. This may have been intended for the children along with the chicken fingers and french fries, but adults were getting this too. I took a hot dog (I love hot dogs) - this one was nothing to boast about. My little niece wanted one of the soft pretzels and brought it back to the table filling the plate. She took a few bites and was not happy. Asked why she said it was covered in butter - she did not understand why and evidently never had the buttered pretzels sold by some hot pretzel chains. She is used to NYC street pretzels which are more like the Philadelphia soft pretzels. I asked her how it was - other than the butter. She was very emphatic - "It tastes like NOTHING!" She even spelled out "n o t h i n g". Hmm, if you can't impress a kid with a giant soft pretzel...
Desserts are not on the buffet but were included with the meal. There were three desserts offered - a piece of cheesecake, what they called a little Christmas cake that was actually a cupcake with green frosting, and peppermint ice cream. One dessert was offered to each. They also brought a small serving dish of little pastries to the table. My brother-in-law said that they were very good.
Overall, the food was fine. My picky wife (regular readers know about how she eats) had a hard time finding things. She had planned to make salad and turkey the bulk of her meal but the salad was not to her liking. For the most part there was plenty of it, though as the night went on the carvings were getting down to the barest of remains and there was no intention on what we being brought out. Way back in the past, there were somethings in the cold seafood section that were not there this night - most notably clams and oysters on the half shell. I would just say that they have removed them from the menu, however, as we were first coming in I overheard someone talking about the oysters. Did the raw shell fish run out and was not replaced? If so, that was a big thing to be missed for the cost of this meal.
I cannot tell you how much this meal cost. I was the guest of my sister and her husband and it was not polite to ask. I am going to say that based upon the prices at this restaurant in general and other buffets that I have seen advertised here, the cost was $40.00 per person. I hope the child's price was less. That is a lot. Perhaps not for a holiday dinner, but it really was a lot for what was offered. No beverages were included in the price. And soft drinks were NOT refillable - without full charge.
Above all the worst part of this dinner was the service. We were clearing off our own plates! I turned to my little, 8 year old niece who was astounded at this too and I asked her, "Do you know what it means when the waiter does not take the dirty dishes off the table for the whole meal?" Then I answered when she said "what" - "No tip!" Her father chimed in - "That's right!" I always tip at a buffet provided the server actually does something - and at most buffets that means taking away the dirty plates promptly and refilling the beverages. I don't know if my brother-in-law left a tip or not - but had I been paying - I would not have. Gratuities should not be expected unless they are earned - in even the smallest way.
So! What will happen next Christmas Eve if other restaurants do not open for a holiday dinner? I don't know. Would I recommend to you to come to the Milleridge Inn for any buffet meal for any of the holidays on which they offer it - absolutely not! And I am really sorry to have to say that. I had hoped that in the several years since we had done this last that perhaps things had changed - attitudes had changed. No, sadly, they have not. I must say that I had a better Thanksgiving meal with a friendlier atmosphere and nicer employees at OCB than I had a Christmas Eve dinner at the Milleridge Inn buffet.
The Milleridge Inn is a "landmark" restaurant on Long Island. It seems that it has been in business forever. It started in the late 18th/early 19th Century as a stagecoach stop and in the 20th Century the mansion became a restaurant. The building has been expanded many times so that the little stagecoach stop has been lost within the many constructions. Years back a little village of gift shops was added in the large parking lot and some time ago a catering building was built at the back of the property. This catering building is where the holiday buffets are held. There are similar buffets for Christmas Eve, Valentine's Day, and Easter.
The Milleridge Inn is not a buffet restaurant. It is a menu restaurant. The buffets are set up as a catered dinner would be set up for a party or a restaurant. I have said this before and I will say it again - the problem that comes up time after time when a menu restaurant tries to serve a buffet is that the staff are not willing or prepared to do what is necessary to take care of buffet diners and the restaurant is not used to dealing with a buffet set up. Here the problem is 95% the wait staff. In the past here we encountered waiters and waitresses that were upset with working on Christmas Eve and made that very obvious. On this night, the wait staff really wanted nothing to do with the tables that they were responsible for.
There were a lot of people dining at this buffet. We had a 7:30 pm reservation which was not the last of the night. We waited to be seated after arriving for our reserved time. We were a party of five - four adults and a child. We were escorted to a very small table that should have seated no more than two. We made a comment to the gentlemen who seated us that five could not fit at this time properly. He smiled and said, "Yes, this is your table." Then he walked away. OK. We sat down elbow to elbow, two on each side with the child at one end. We got up and went to the serving tables as it was quite clear that this was our table or there would be no table.
The spread of food is set out as it would be for a catered party - times two. There were two set ups that met in the middle, both exactly the same on each side. There was a long ice table with prepared salads and cocktail shrimp (already peeled and very large). There was a bowl of greens in the middle on a small table. My sister identified the greens in the salad as mescaline greens. There were two serving bowls of dressing - one that was Catalina French and the other some dark, oil and vinegar concoction. At the wall near the salad was a table with serving dishes of macaroni and cheese, pasta with a cream tomato sauce, and a single server with chicken fingers and french fries. Along the middle and meeting the other side in the center at a roast turkey breast carving were hot, covered serving dishes with entrees and vegetables. There were also stuffed roast pork and sliced steak carvings.
This poor quality photo taken with my cell phone camera will give you an idea of the setup of the buffet. You are looking at one of the sides with hot dishes. Not really visible to the left end of the table are the carvings.There was no soup so we started with the prepared salads and cold shrimp. There were a variety of Italian style salads - this is not an Italian restaurant. There was a mixture of sliced salami and mixed olives. There were two pasta salads. There was an artichoke salad - which was tasteless and used more than the artichoke hearts making it pretty much artichoke leaves with nothing to eat. There was a nice tomato and mozzarella cheese salad that consisted of balls of semi-fresh cheese with chunks of fresh tomatoes in an oil and vinegar with chopped parsley dressing. There was a black bean salad and there was a string bean salad. At the end of this row was the cocktail shrimp. These were large shrimp peeled with the tail on - very much like the shrimp that would be served in a restaurant as shrimp cocktail.
We completed that course at varying times - one of the reasons that I do not like going to buffets with a group - they do not like my idea that we all eat together and once a plate is empty are up for more regardless of where the rest of the table is for that course. I know that many readers have said that this is the only way to dine at a buffet in a group - and perhaps that is practical, but it does not make for much of a family meal and certainly does not lend to dinner conversation with people bouncing up and down through the entire meal. As it was, three adults and the child finished together after the one of the adults had gone back up and had already come back and continued eating. When we returned with our salads, the plates from our first course were properly taken off the table. Why would I note such a thing? I never talk really about when plates are taken away - UNLESS - they are not taken away. Well, these were the only plates the entire meal that were taken away. Now, I have noted how small this table was. Barely room for the plates that we were eating from. There was certainly no more room to put soiled plates. But no one - after that first course - ever made an appearance to take away any soiled plates. This was not just our problem as other tables around us had the same situation. It got to the point that we were cleaning our own table between courses to remove the used plates. And what did we do with them? We broke a cardinal rule of buffets and stacked them on a small empty table not too far off from our table - as were others. Oddly, the stacks of plates every so often would disappear from that table. The waiter was aware enough to take the dishes from there - but never came near the dining tables to clear the plates away when necessary. OK - someone is going to say, why didn't you say something. Well, I did. I went over to two waiters who were standing on the side with a used plate in my hand. I put it down in front of them and said to them - "you are not taking the used plates off the tables" - I added, "I have never been anywhere that the soiled plates are left on the tables." I got a surprised look, a shrug, and a "huh?" I made my message known again. One of them followed me over to our table - with several soiled plates waiting to be picked up he took one, left the rest, and was not seen again. See, this is what I mean about restaurant that are not buffets doing buffet meals - and about staff on holidays. I have been to a number of buffets where the plates do not get cleared off the table promptly - mostly in the same chain. Sometimes the meal goes along for a while - but eventually every time before someone came and eventually cleared the table - and then returned to continue to do the same (at some point). This night was really a first.
At one point my sister got one of the waiters and asked for two things - this was after telling him about the plates - which he still did not come and take. She asked for a glass of ice and one of the loaves of bread that were on other tables but were never brought to our table - perhaps because there was no place to set it down. Again, she got a stare, a "huh?", and a total blank. Eventually, she got the message through and a loaf of bread showed up on the table - on a plate but without a knife to slice it with.
So back to the meal. The hot dishes were chicken Parmesan - not bad, sausage and peppers - much too greasy, eggplant rollatini (i did not try that), string beans and carrots - underdone (to my liking), salmon teriyaki - my brother in law said this was very good, mussels and shrimp in garlic sauce, red potatoes, and fried calamari - which ran out mid meal and were replaced with stuffing (some substitution!). The turkey that was being carved was a "real" turkey breast on the bone roasted with the skin on. There was a very thin turkey gravy for it. The steak was a thick, but narrow length of steak that was being sliced. When I went up for it, it was nicely rare and juicy. When I went back for more, what was left was well done and dry (so I did not take more). I did take, at that point, a slice of the stuffed pork loin. There was a thick gravy for the pork. Condiments including apple sauce were set out along the carving area.
On one side of the duplicated sides there was a hot dog cart serving steamed hot dogs on a bun and along side were very large soft pretzels. This may have been intended for the children along with the chicken fingers and french fries, but adults were getting this too. I took a hot dog (I love hot dogs) - this one was nothing to boast about. My little niece wanted one of the soft pretzels and brought it back to the table filling the plate. She took a few bites and was not happy. Asked why she said it was covered in butter - she did not understand why and evidently never had the buttered pretzels sold by some hot pretzel chains. She is used to NYC street pretzels which are more like the Philadelphia soft pretzels. I asked her how it was - other than the butter. She was very emphatic - "It tastes like NOTHING!" She even spelled out "n o t h i n g". Hmm, if you can't impress a kid with a giant soft pretzel...
Desserts are not on the buffet but were included with the meal. There were three desserts offered - a piece of cheesecake, what they called a little Christmas cake that was actually a cupcake with green frosting, and peppermint ice cream. One dessert was offered to each. They also brought a small serving dish of little pastries to the table. My brother-in-law said that they were very good.
Overall, the food was fine. My picky wife (regular readers know about how she eats) had a hard time finding things. She had planned to make salad and turkey the bulk of her meal but the salad was not to her liking. For the most part there was plenty of it, though as the night went on the carvings were getting down to the barest of remains and there was no intention on what we being brought out. Way back in the past, there were somethings in the cold seafood section that were not there this night - most notably clams and oysters on the half shell. I would just say that they have removed them from the menu, however, as we were first coming in I overheard someone talking about the oysters. Did the raw shell fish run out and was not replaced? If so, that was a big thing to be missed for the cost of this meal.
I cannot tell you how much this meal cost. I was the guest of my sister and her husband and it was not polite to ask. I am going to say that based upon the prices at this restaurant in general and other buffets that I have seen advertised here, the cost was $40.00 per person. I hope the child's price was less. That is a lot. Perhaps not for a holiday dinner, but it really was a lot for what was offered. No beverages were included in the price. And soft drinks were NOT refillable - without full charge.
Above all the worst part of this dinner was the service. We were clearing off our own plates! I turned to my little, 8 year old niece who was astounded at this too and I asked her, "Do you know what it means when the waiter does not take the dirty dishes off the table for the whole meal?" Then I answered when she said "what" - "No tip!" Her father chimed in - "That's right!" I always tip at a buffet provided the server actually does something - and at most buffets that means taking away the dirty plates promptly and refilling the beverages. I don't know if my brother-in-law left a tip or not - but had I been paying - I would not have. Gratuities should not be expected unless they are earned - in even the smallest way.
So! What will happen next Christmas Eve if other restaurants do not open for a holiday dinner? I don't know. Would I recommend to you to come to the Milleridge Inn for any buffet meal for any of the holidays on which they offer it - absolutely not! And I am really sorry to have to say that. I had hoped that in the several years since we had done this last that perhaps things had changed - attitudes had changed. No, sadly, they have not. I must say that I had a better Thanksgiving meal with a friendlier atmosphere and nicer employees at OCB than I had a Christmas Eve dinner at the Milleridge Inn buffet.
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