Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet - Connecticut

I had not realized that we had not been to Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet since 2013. That last visit was a disappointment and the year before that it has been as well. This had been a regular birthday dinner trip until then. I guess following that I took my own advice and we headed for Lancaster for my birthday buffet dinner. We have been trying to plan trips around rather poor weather reports and I saw that Thursday was going to be cool but nice and I wanted to go somewhere for a buffet. I started poking around to where to go. I decided that for another single day trip to Lancaster it really was too expensive and hopefully we will get there for several days at some point soon. I looked northward to Connecticut and started looking up the current pricing at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods for their buffets. Mohegan Sun is $30. Foxwoods is usually $24 but on Thursdays if you are 55 years of age or older - during a special they are having - the buffet at dinner from 6 pm to 9 pm when it closes is $9.99! I looked at my past articles. I felt things must have changed - maybe in the past five years. I looked around at reviews and they are mixed - some good and some terrible. For $10 each for dinner, a nice day out with a stop at a favorite spot in Connecticut before getting to the casino, and only one bridge toll - despite the recent jump in gas prices - we would go!

I could talk a lot about getting there. I will just say that the Waze app let me down and sent us out of the way and onto some rather dangerous roads that were single lane and twisted around high hills with one spot having a big sign reading "Dangerous Curve!"  That these roads brought us back to the same large main road it sent us off of - with no reported problems on that road convinced me that this is not an app to rely upon at all.

So we got to Foxwoods, later than we had planned and went straight to the buffet to have dinner. There was a line as I anticipated there would be but we only waited about fifteen minutes to get in. Needless to say, there were a lot of seniors also there for the regular $24 buffet for only $9.99 - but that is fine. 

Every night there is an option to a pay $10 extra for either a sirloin steak of snow crab legs. The week end buffet includes steak and snow crab legs at no additional cost - though I am not sure if you would be getting the same steak as the one you pay extra for. It is not right that they are charging the same every night (except Thursday nights for Seniors) and not including steak and crab legs as they do on weekends. It would be understandable if the price was higher on the weekends - but it is not. So that annoyance aside - onto our dinner.

Overall the selections and food stations are the same as they had been. There is a Seafood Station, a Carving Station, an "International" Station, an Italian Station, an Asian Station, and a Barbecue Station. There is a area in the middle of the dining room with soups and a salad bar with make your salad and prepared salads. The price includes unlimited soft drinks.

As usual, we started with soup. When we were seated my wife told me to go up for soup while she waited for the server to give our drink order. We had been sitting for about five minutes and no one had come over. As I was on my way back to the table with my soup, my wife was walking up to the soup area and she told me the woman server was very nice and took the drink order without any confusion. Plus one right there.

There are four soups - as there have been in the past. There were two thick soups and two thin soups. There was New England Clam Chowder, a red bean soup, a thin vegetable chowder, and chicken rice soup. In the past there were often all thick soups - this variety is much better. I chose the vegetable chowder. I was going to pick the New England Clam but decided on trying something different and I was not sure I wanted a thick heavy soup. The vegetable chowder was very good. It was a vegetable stock with a bit of a tang to it - either vinegar or a seasoning, There was a visible seasoning that looked like what is found in red clam chowder or minestrone. The soup was full of vegetables. As I got down to the bottom of the bowl I wondered if I should go and get more - but no, I decided that I would get on with the meal.  My wife took the chicken rice and felt it could have had more in it - but it tasted fine.

The salad bar was next - and we did not take much. Not that there was not a lot to take. We were not going to make big salads. We took a little of this and a little of that and not much at all, There was a really nice looking Caesar Salad but with the recent problems with Romaine lettuce and a national Ecoli scare I decided against that. Despite articles that say it has past, there was a report of four more cases including one in NY just the past week of when I am writing this. What we took from the salad bar was tasty. I tried some Tortellini salad with black olives. It was good. 

On to the main event! I walked around all of the stations deciding. I knew that at least once and more likely twice I was going to get the Prime Rib that was being carved. The other carving was pork roast with pancetta. What caught my attention were barbecue ribs in the Barbecue area, the sausage and peppers in tomato sauce, tortellini bruschetta (not sure why bruschetta as it just seemed to be thick tomato sauce), a macaroni in white cream sauce, and the Prime Rib kept calling me. And I took a little of each of this all - except the Prime Rib. When I was about to get  up to the carver from the line, he was left with a full half of a Prime Rib and a slice of Prime Rib from what he was carving from that was about an inch and a half thick. He was not carving thick slices. He cut that thick slice in half and he gave the woman in front of me that and gave me the other half. My first thought was that this was too much to start off with but I took it back to the table. It was supposed to be rare. It was pink and it was more medium rare, but as I have been writing, when I have been writing lately, I have a craving for beef, steak in particular but Prime Rib is a good second. The Prime Rib was mostly tender. Around the cooked edges there were some spots that had to be cut out as they were more grizzle than meat.  It was a little less than flavorful and I wound up adding salt which I rarely do. It was fine. The sausage was good. The tortellini was nice. The macaroni in white cream sauce, most would say was just right - but I am not a fan of  al dente macaroni. To me it is under cooked and hard to chew. I much prefer pasta/macaroni that has cooked to not quite soft but not at all hard. It tasted good but it was not as I like. I don't really get this passion for almost raw macaroni. The rib was tasty but I only took a small piece and there was no bone which I saw when I took it. It was covered in a pleasant barbecue sauce that was not too sweet and I liked what I ate. I put this on my get some more of list for the next trip up.

The Seafood Station has fried shrimp, fried calamari, a fried batter dipped snapper that looked dark and over fried, a cod fillet in a green curry sauce, and peel and eat shrimp. I passed all of it up. There were no fried clams on this night as they had been at least five years ago. I was not going to try anything in curry - I had an almost two hundred mile drive home after this dinner. I would have taken the snapper if it was not overdone.

I took two more full ribs. There were two focaccia to choose from- one with vegetables and cheese and the other with pepperoni and cheese, both with tomato sauce. I took the vegetable focaccia. There were crab clusters - but these were stone crab clusters - a half crab that were broiled or just put in a fryer. I took a half to try it. I took a meatball. I went over to the Barbecue Station and took some red skin potato salad. I went back to the table. My wife was up at the carving station. She is not a fan of beef and she was looking for turkey which has been here - again, at least in the long past. There was no turkey but the pork roast and she was not certain she would like the pancetta that was on it. Remember, my wife is a picky eater. When she came back without any carvings we had a discussion about this and she said the turkey was what she had always liked the most to take here. She does make do finding things.  These two ribs were good. They were almost fall off the bone ribs and they were very tasty. The focaccia was very tasty. The crab - well... When I got back to the table I was smelling the ocean which for raw fish is a good thing but it was the crab. OK. Stone crab is very hard to open, This seemed to be a bit brittle and it broke in half. I tried to pull out some of the white crab meat inside the cluster with a fork and came out with a little shreds of meat and a lot of a hard shell like substance that was over the open end of the cluster. It was then an effort to get these sharp little bits out of my mouth. I went back into the shell to try to get some actual crab meat and a little did come out - which I could taste - but again there was this shell. I stopped at that point and pushed the crab to the side of my plate. The potato salad was good.

What was to be my final trip up and you know it was going to be Primer Rib! There was no line and I could see the carver cutting up the rest of what he had out into small slices of well done beef. I said to myself - and my good wife - that I would wait. I wanted a new Prime Rib and it was still an hour and a half to closing so they would certainly bring another out. Rather than go back to the table with an empty plate - as my wife had already taken what she was going to have, I took some sliced beef in onion sauce. This was in a tray at the carving area. There was also a chicken dish there. I took just a little and some more vegetable focaccia and went back to the table to wait for Prime Rib. I finished what was on my plate and I saw people gathering at the Carving Station. My wife was not going to go up for more until dessert. The Prime Rib was red, rare and juicy! He cut one slice and I asked for two and he cut a second. He was cutting thin slices - more like one slices roast beef but at this point in the meal that was OK. I put some red skinned boiled potatoes on my plate and went back to the table and really enjoyed this beef.

There were other things to choose from and there were several vegetable dishes. I did not take any fried chicken but it did look good! 

During the course of the meal the server cleared the plates off the table each time we went up for more and she came and asked if we would like refills on our drinks which she brought promptly. She was an excellent server. In 2012 and 2013 my articles about Foxwoods talk about the poor service we had.

It was time for dessert and I went to look at what there was. The dessert area is a long counter with glass shelves going up full of baked goods. There were several things that looked good. Some labeling could have been better. There was a cheese cake that was topped with something - maybe caramel but there was no sign. There was a Boston Cream cake. There was a chocolate chip cookie cake that tempted me. I have to note this about the desserts - the Sugar Free desserts were the nicest looking desserts that were out - nice looking iced and cream layer cakes. I don't eat sugar free because one never knows what they have been sweetened with and some common sweeteners are sugar alcohols which are laxatives - fast working laxatives. There was a soft serve sundae bar - the soft serve ice cream looked icy. I went down to the very end and found bread pudding! I took that - thought about also taking the chocolate chip cookie cake - but didn't and headed back. The bread pudding was a little on the sweet side but fine. (Not as good as the bread pudding at Golden Corral which is my favorite.)

This was a good meal for $9.99! Was it a good meal for $24? Hmm. Nothing was bad. Nothing was wrong with anything I took. I enjoyed everything that I ate - but I can compare this to other $24 buffet meals that I have had and this was just OK - in comparison. I am looking strictly at value. Again nothing wrong. I would certainly go back on a Thursday night for $9.99 each and I am driving a distance for this!  We are not gamblers. I love casinos - the atmosphere, the money risked. But I can't afford to be a gambler. We go strictly to eat and walk around.  If it was not Thursday - that may be a dilemma in deciding.  There are two buffet choices - one is Mohegan Sun which we were at a year ago but I never got around to writing about. It was OK - but now it is $30. There is also now a Golden Corral in Connecticut which I have not yet been to. It opened with some difficulties and a reader wrote and told me to avoid it for awhile - and I have still not yet gone. When I do go, you all will know about it. But $12.99 or whatever this Golden Corral is charging (another article will talk about recent price increases) is a lot better than $24 and $30 each - and just about every Golden Corral I have been to has had good steak.  Ah yes - children are allowed in the building and in the buffet. They cannot go onto the casino floor where there is gambling.

I can say confidently that the negative reviews that I saw on Yelp and Trip Advisor was not the experience I had. It was pretty much all positive!  I wish I was close by - without the trip we have to get there - as I would be there most Thursday nights! The special is not on holidays - so Thanksgiving is out! 😄

Disappointing Dinner at Foxwoods Casino's Festival Buffet, CT

As I wrote a week ago, we delayed our day trip to Connecticutt a day because of the weather to go to dinner at the Festival Buffet at Foxwoods Casino. This has been one of my favorite buffets and it was given a Top Buffet award for 2012. I have always liked this buffet best on its extended menu night on Fridays and Saturdays and while the weeknight buffet has been good, it has always been better on the weekend.

Well we drove north to Connecticut, getting stuck in traffic on the Connecticut Turnpike as usual, made a stop during the afternoon at Cabellas Outdoors store - a destination store, and then drove east to Foxwoods for dinner. We don't gamble, but we do go to casinos for the buffets.  We arrived for dinner at about 7:00 and there was a long twisting line of people waiting to get into the buffet. We decided to walk around for a half hour and when we returned the line was longer. We got on the line and waited about twenty five minutes to get up to the register to pay for dinner and go in. Once you pay you get on another line to be seated. We were offered a table in the "patio" area which is a dining area outside the buffet room that is supposed to be like sidewalk cafe seating in the space where people are walking to go through the casino building to the various casino rooms, restaurants, shops, etc. There is a bar across from this with music. The music is loud and outside the buffet room smoking is permitted. We did not want to eat with cigarette smoke all around so we waited for a table in the buffet dining room. It was not a long wait.

We were seated and the hostess looked at the table for two that she was seating us at and told us that she had to get a cloth to clean the table. She said it first before I did. She came back a few minutes later while we stood next to the table and cleaned it. As we sat down she told us to go right up to the buffet as it would be some time before the waiter would get to our table. This was a concern right off though it did not prove to be a problem as dinner progressed.

This buffet is divided into serving counters with different theme foods - seafood, international, Italian, Chinese, and BBQ. In the center there is a soup and salad island. I always look around the counters before going to the soup section because there are often other soups at the theme counters. The only soup like that on this night was wonton soup, so I headed over to the soup bar. I chose what turned out to be the best thing that I had at this meal - sausage and broccoli rabe soup. My wife took chicken rice soup. There were two other soups - both cream soups - one was New England clam chowder and the other was corn chowder.  The sausage soup was excellent. It was crumbled sausage meat in a broth with broccoli rabe all cooked down together. It had a pleasant taste and was not greasy at all. My wife's chicken rice soup was terrible. It was very dark yellow in color - and she had commented about that to me when she took it.  It tastes as if someone took a box of salt and emptied it into the bowl. It really was inedible - and she did not eat it - could not eat it.

Soup was followed by salad and they have a very nice and extensive salad bar. They have one section to create Cesar salad and another section to create a tossed salad with various choices in greens, many toppings and dressings. Also at the salad bar were salad/meat wraps as well as pickles and marinated olives - both green and black.

We set out then to the buffet counters. I went first to the BBQ counter. There I found pork barbecue, St. Louis ribs, and steak. They also had tacos, taco chopped meat, and toppings. I took some pork barbecue, two St. Louis ribs, and a piece of steak. The steak is being cooked on a flame grill behind the counter but not to order. It was strip steak and small pieces were out on a warming tray to take. There was no way to tell how it was cooked and, as usual, it was all well done. The steak was tough - tough enough not to want to go to the trouble of trying to chew it. The pork barbecue was good though on the sweet side. The St Louis ribs were so over done that they were difficult to eat and for the most part had little meat to try to get off to eat. The steak is part of the weekend appeal - the steak was not good. The St. Louis ribs were consistently burnt, small ribs.

I went over to the Italian counter next and there was a sign that said sausage and peppers but in their place were meatballs. The meatballs here have been and were good. There was a chicken dish served on individual small plates. Each had a piece of broiled chicken cutlet on it with tomato sauce, and overabundance of garlic cloves, and pieces of eggplant hidden under the mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce on top. The little plates of chicken were sitting on a hot plate and while the sides when picking them up with your fingers off of that hotplate were not very hot, the bottom of each plate was and I remembered how hot a similar chicken served in a dish here last year was.  I came close to burning my fingers until I got that small plate onto the dinner plate I had in my other hand. The chicken was dry underneath what was on top and not very tasty.

The main attraction on the weekend buffet and what is the reason for the increased price is the snow crab legs. There is a sign outside the buffet that says add a portion of crab legs to your buffet - $10. On the weekend buffet all you care to eat snow crab legs are included. On this night the crab legs on the buffet were not snow crab legs. At best I can identify the crab as dungeonese crab, as that is the closest crab that looks like the half steamed crabs that were being served. I took one of the halves to try. I had seen people with nut crackers and looked around for them at the counter with the crab. There were none. Asking the man behind the counter for some came back with an answer sending us to the salad bar for crackers - the eating kind. There was no nut cracker to be had and our waiter never came around to ask him for one. I attempted to break this rock hard crab shell with my fingers. I was only able to obtain some of the meat in the claw this way. It tasted bitter and that was the end of my finding a way to break open the crab shells - I did not like the taste of what was inside. So this was another disappointment of the night. There has been in the past a long line to get to the snow crab legs. On this night there was no line.

I tried little bits of things looking for one thing that I would settle on and make the meal. There was the usual Prime Rib being carved and a ham. I always take the Prime Rib, get a slice that fills the plate, and then regret later that it was far too much to have with the rest of the buffet - so I did not go for any on this night. I should have. There was a meat dish called "Hunters Stew" that was very tasty but I am uncertain what the dense cubes of meat in the stew were. Most likely they were pork. The dense meat did not allow the stew sauce to soak through so while the stew liquid, potatoes, carrots, etc. were very tasty, the meat was bland.  I went to the seafood counter and took some fried clam strips and a piece of batter fried fish. The fried clams were good - as they have been. The fish was very greasy and I wound up pulling the coating off of it and just eating the fish inside. Some side dishes were duplicated from one counter to another.

There is a large assortment of desserts and as it was my birthday celebration buffet I took a piece of cheesecake. The cheesecake was swirled with chocolate syrup. It was good but far to sweet for my palate that is no longer used to eating very sweet things.

This was not the meal I had anticipated - and I have been here to dine many times before. I felt very let down by this meal as my "birthday" buffet diner. I regretted not driving the additional distance to Shady Maple in Pennsylvania instead for the day where the meal would have been better and free for my birthday. 

Looking back at my "birthday dinner" here in 2013 I had much the same disappointing experience though then for other reasons. Perhaps I should have read back before we went, but sometimes a restaurant - any restaurant has a bad night so I tend not to rule out going back unless that happens more than once. This was that more than once.  More than likely we will not be coming back for my next birthday dinner.

I can't say that I recommend this buffet any longer. If you are at Foxwoods it is the best deal as far as dinner is concerned even with the over $20 price. It was better in the past. Maybe it will get better again.

The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page.

Festival Buffet at Foxwoods Casino, CT - Hmmm...

The Festival Buffet at the Foxwoods Casino and Resort in Mashantucket, CT is one of our picks for top buffets in 2012. I have been to this buffet many times over a number of years and was there twice in 2012. It was just my birthday and each year on my birthday we will travel within a certain radius to a buffet that I very much enjoy. In past years this has included Shady Maple, a now closed buffet at one of the casino's in Atlantic City, NJ, and the Festival Buffet at Foxwoods. This year it was between Shady Maple (where my meal would have been free on my birthday) or Foxwoods. I decided on Foxwoods for several reasons - one, I have been looking forward to going back, two, I was recently at Shady Maple, and three, the expense in tolls and mileage is a lot less. We make a day of it, do some things I like to do in the area and then go on to dinner.

I particularly like this buffet when they have the "enhanced" menu on the weekend but my birthday was on a Thursday so that was the day we were going. The basic difference in the buffet menu is that for an increase in price of two dollars they include steak and crab leg clusters. The rest of the buffet is pretty much the same.  We arrived at the buffet at 7 pm and there was no line to get in. The dining room was busy but not overwhelmingly so. We were sat at a table near the buffet. I was anticipating a great dinner.

The server came over to the table and very pleasantly asked what we would have for beverages. I ordered an unsweetened ice tea and my wife, a diet soda. We went up for soup. There were four soups  - two thin and two cream  - and all were good choices. I choose the New England Clam Chowder over the Tomato and Cheddar soup. As it has been in the past the soup was nicely thick and creamy and you could see and taste the fresh clams in the soup. So far so good. When we came back to the table our drinks had arrived. I always take a sip first before I add any artificial sweetener, just in case there was a mistake made and the tea was sweetened to start with. Good thing because this glass of ice tea was sweetened. My wife sipped her diet soda and said it tasted too sweet. I tried it and it was not diet. We looked for the server. She was around but ignoring our table. She even went by twice tending to other tables but never looked in our direction and never acknowledged either of our attempts to get her over. At one point she was standing on the side having what appeared to be a meeting with someone in authority. Never the less, it was until we finished our salads that she actually saw the dishes stacking up on our table and came over to get them - and that was when she was told that the drinks were wrong. She insisted that the soda was correct and was uncertain about the ice tea. She picked up the glasses and went off to get us new drinks. When they came back, this time they were correct. It happens - and with an attentive table server it is no problem at all - he/she comes over as they should to pick up plates or see that all is well, you tell them of the problem, and they whisk away the glasses and bring new ones. But this can't happen if the server does not come by. I had medication to take and I am swallowing pills with clam chowder with the potatoes wanting to go down with the pills. She only minorly got better for the rest of the meal. The servers we have experienced here in the past have always been good.

As I mentioned we had salad. The salad bar items were fine, but the signs over the dressings that were attached to the glass sneeze guard above looked like someone had shuffled them randomly before sticking them on. All of the dressings on the signs were down there but which was which? Obviously, the colors are a give away from some, but the three white dressings - Ranch, Blue Cheese, and Caesar were anyone's guess. I guessed wrong. I had a Caesar salad with Ranch dressing.

I will not go into the details of the food items on the vast buffet. You can read about this buffet in the article naming it a Top Buffet of 2012. I expect items to change from visit to visit and in many sections they do. I went around to all of the sections and looked at what there was before I started selecting. My wife later commented that she thought that there was less out than usual - and it did appear that this was so. Not a lot less, but less.  I went over first to the barbecue section which is separated from the other sections by a wall and a door into a side dining room where the barbecue section can be found. There were barbecue ribs and pulled beef barbecue. There was also baked chicken and fried chicken. The same fried chicken was repeated on another section.  I choose the ribs and some of the beef barbecue to try it. The beef barbecue was strings of beef in a nice pulled sytle barbecue sauce. I had a hard time finding ribs in the half full tray of ribs. Most looked burnt and dry. I found one nice looking rib with a lot of meat on it, and I took a smaller rib that had lost its bone that was the better of the overdone looking ribs. The nice looking rib was very nice. The other was tough and chewy and not worth trying to bite through. Later when I went back to look the rib tray was just as I had left it - no more had been put out - I had hoped of finding another good one.

Many of the entrees that were being served in various sections were very oily. Even the fried cod - batter dipped pieces of cod that has always been good before was sitting in grease in the pan. As regular readers know, I take a little and try it and if I really like it, the item becomes one of the things I will go back for more of. One dish was a beef in a wine sauce with mushrooms. The beef was chewy but the sauce was nice. Another dish was sliced pork sorentino- slices of pork loin in an oily onion sauce. That was tough and way too full of oil. In the Italian section there was small plates of individual chicken parmigiana - these small ceramic plates were sitting on a hot metal warming plate that was so hot that picking up one of the small plates of chicken I burned my finger as it brushed the metal below. Also in the Italian section there was sausage and peppers in tomato sauce. The sausage was also tough - it is not easy to make sausage tough. I will also mention the Asian section. Most dishes there were spicy. There was something that I decided I would try a little of - thin noodles with squid. I do not like squid or octopus and I do not eat it. This goes way back for me to when I was a child - and both were popular dishes served on Christmas Eve by my family. Popular with everyone except me. Anyway, I was intrigued by thin Asian noodles with squid so I took a spoon of it. There was no visible squid. The noodles were a very, very dark brown. I suspect that this was made with squid ink and not pieces of squid. I did try it - more than one bite. I was bitter and otherwise not all that worthwhile to keep eating - and my reaction to the taste had nothing to do with my aversion to squid. Perhaps someone who has had noodles with squid would have thought this was very good, but it did not seem like something to waste the carbs eating. I also took an ear of corn from the barbecue section. This was a small half ear of corn and in the serving tray the corn was sitting in a white liquid which I believed to be milk to give the corn some sweetness or it could have been liquid butter like substance. Whatever it was, the corn kernals on the cob were mushy and off color - a whitish brown. I believe it was the corn that gave me stomach distress shortly after the meal...

I tried other things - the fried clams were as they always have been and good. The carved beef - Prime Rib? - was tender and tasty. The two pasta dishes - one in an Carbonara sauce and the other in tomato sauce were just OK. The meal was not living up to my expectations of a great birthday buffet. (And it has in the past.)

It was my birthday and I was going to have something for dessert. I was not going to over do it but something small. We both went up to look. There were a few hot desserts - bread pudding and a cobbler. There was apple pie. There was coconut cream cake. I like cupcakes and they had mini chocolate and mini vanilla cupcakes - both with a large pink swirl of frosting. I took one of the chocolate ones. I also eyes some chocolate chip cookies that looked good. I took one of those. My wife went over to take the bread pudding but there was no serving spoon. There was a woman behind the bakery counter and my wife pointed this out to her. The woman bent down to a bucket on the floor and pulled out a serving spoon that was not exactly clean. She took a cloth and wiped it off and handed it to my wife. The woman then took her gloved hand - the same one that was just in this bucket of dish water and put her hand into the tray of bread pudding and pushed what was in the back of the tray forward. My wife gave me a disgusted look and put the serving spoon down into the tray and walked away. My wife did stop by the salad bar to take some fresh melon. When she got back to the table and tasted it, the liquid it was in was sugar syrup. She did not eat it. I scraped the frosting off the top of my cupcake. It came off in one lump and the lump rolled on the plate. It was almost solid and it was not supposed to be. The cupcake was dry and overdone- and had little taste of chocolate. The chocolate chip cookie was full of chips but was hard to bite into - and not worth finishing.

This was not a meal or service that I expect from a Top Buffet. Was this a one time off night or has this buffet gone downhill since I was here last. Perhaps, it has.  At some point I am sure I will go back and see again, but not very soon. It is likely that the award we gave this buffet for 2012 will be the last it receives. And we looked for the certificate - so far every buffet that has received an award certificate from us has posted it prominently. Not here. The certificate was no where to be seen. My wife said maybe it is on the wall in the "office". More likely it went into the trash. Maybe that is better as no one should see that certificate after my experiencing the meal on this particular night. Well, I had a fun day for my birthday despite the dinner - but I should have headed south to Pennsylvania instead of north to Connecticut and had a really great birthday meal and any one of several "Top Buffets" there!

Top Buffet of 2012 - Festival Buffet at Foxwood's Casino and Resort

The Festival Buffet is the buffet at the Foxwood's Resort and Casino in Connecticut and is names as one of our Top Buffets of 2012. I have been to this buffet a number of times and have reviewed and written about it several times - and each time that I have written about I need two weeks to say everything that needs to be said - and all good too! That alone tells you that there is something special about this buffet.

Foxwoods is a very large complex and consists of two hotels, several casinos, shops, night clubs and lounges, and a lot of restaurants. The Festival Buffet is the only buffet in the complex. When you come to dine at this buffet, it will be different on Monday to Thursday nights from Friday to Sunday nights. On Friday to Sunday they feature what they call an enhanced menu. Both weeknight and weekend buffets are great. The enhanced menu on the weekend adds steak, crab clusters, and more - at a slightly higher dinner price.

The buffet is located in what is called Rainmaker's Square in the complex. There are three dining areas for this buffet. One of these dining areas is actually outside the restaurant on the promenade separated by a low wall from those walking by. If you like the feel of a "sidewalk restaurant" this is what you will get outside. Be aware that this section is a smoking section. Of course, this areas has open access into the main dining room and the buffet area.

The food is set up in "stations" that follow the wall around the room and each station has a theme with food coordinating with that theme. The first thing you will see as you come in through the entrance is the dessert station and this is long and extensive. You are tempted as soon as you enter!

Following along the wall, there will be a station with seafood, a station with continental foods including entrees, carvings, and side dishes, a station with Italian food, a station with Asian food, and a station with both Tex-Mex and Barbecue. When the enhanced menu is in effect there is a station with crab clusters. The salad bar and the soups are on an island in the middle of the dining area.

There is a vast amount of food to choose from here and that makes wanting to try everything difficult. There is a lot to tempt you and there is way to much to be able to try - even taking small tasting portions. Starting with the salad bar, there are two sides to the salad bar with the soups on an end. On one side there are the makings for a Caesar Salad plus a pre-mixed special salad. On the other side is everything necessary to make an great tossed salad plus a variety of prepared salads. The salad is great but there is so much more to eat and I sometimes wonder why I did not just skip the salad and move on to all the rest. There were four soups to choose from when we went this past year - increased on the buffet from two soups before that. And if you go to the Asian station you may also find an Asian soup there as well. The New England Clam Chowder is excellent. Even the chicken rice soup tasted homemade!

As you go past the various stations and look at the entrees and side dishes you can be overwhelmed by all you see. At the seafood station there is mounds of fried cod, broiled seafood entrees, fried shrimp, fried clams, peel and eat cold shrimp, french fries, and more. I will come back to the continental station with its carvings and move you along to the Italian station. Behind the counter there are chefs preparing the dishes that you see laid out in front of you and these include not only hot entrees, but cold antipasto items as well. The dishes change here but I have had lasagna of various types, tortellini, pasta and a variety of sauces to put on, sausage and peppers, meatballs in tomato sauce, and more. At the Asian station there are also chefs behind the counter preparing and woking the dishes that are put out on the buffet counter.These have included dumplings, chow mien, various Chinese entrees, fried rice, noodles of various types - hot and cold, egg rolls and more. The barbecue/Tex-Mex station changes from weeknight to weekend and is more barbecue than Tex-Mex on the weekend. On the weekend they are charbroiling steaks here along with everything else. There have been very good ribs served, taco and burrito fixings, pulled pork, chili, riblets, BBQ chicken, beef brisket, beans both barbecue beans and Mexican beans, and more. Again, at each station, items change night by night and there is more on the weekend "enhanced" buffet at the stations. It is almost impossible to say what you will find on a visit - or the next visit after that.

Now, let's go back to the Continental station in the middle. I call this "Continental" as that seems to me the best way to describe it. Here there are a variety of entrees, side dishes, and vegetables. There have been Swedish meatballs, beef strognaoff, chicken with mushrooms, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, potatoes of various types, and various vegetables. The carvings may include several among which may be an excellent Prime Rib, pork loin, ham, tritip beef, turkey, and others. Portions are carved large.

As I have said, more than once - you cannot possibly try it all in one meal. But you want to!  

Still want dessert. The dessert counters are almost as long as the food stations. There are hot desserts. Cold desserts. Pies, cakes, pastries, diet desserts, crepes, cookies, cupcakes, soft ice cream. I will repeat what I wrote in my last article about the Festival Buffet's desserts -

"There was a lot of very tempting desserts and a wide variety from hot cobblers, hot bread pudding, an assortment of puddings including tapioca, rice pudding, etc. There were many different cakes. The apple cake caught my eye. It was a large slice of brown cake with apples very visible in the slice. There was coconut cake - yellow cake with white frosting super-filled with coconut. As I stood next to the serving counter, I could smell the sweet coconut call to me. There were brownies, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, sundae fixings, and an area where crepes were cooked and filled to order. There is also a section of sugar-free desserts - mostly cakes."

Service has been excellent. The table staff are attentive and make sure your plates are picked up and your drinks are refilled (soft drinks are included in the price of the buffet).

I have been to casino buffets in Atlantic City and casino buffets at another resort/casino in Connecticut. This has consistently been the best. Others have been good. This is the one that I think about going back to - and do when I make the trip to Connecticut. There is no question that by the standards that has been set by this site, this is a Top Buffet. There is value for your money. The food is of excellent quality. It is prepared well and tastes great. Plus the staff are equally good. If you are in Connecticut, go to Foxwoods and have a great meal at the Festival Buffet. 

 The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page.

TOP BUFFETS OF 2012

Every year, in the past, we have named the Best Buffet for the year. Every year, without question, one buffet is named - and many agree. Shady Maple in East Earle, Pennsylvania gets top honors. But, there are so many other great buffets that don't get named because they are not as large and not as extensive as Shady Maple. This has bothered me for awhile. It is like waiting for the new cowboy to show up in Dodge to take down the old top cowboy. Someday it might happen - and then again, maybe not.

We decided mid-year that we were going to name Top Buffets instead of "Best" buffet just to put some of these other really great buffets into the limelight. We are listing these buffets in no ranking order - don't assume that the buffet at the start of the list is any greater than the one at the end of the list.

The TOP BUFFETS FOR 2012 are:

Dutch-Way Family Restaurant (and Buffet) - Gap, Pennsylvania

Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet - Mashantucket, Connecticut

Yoders Restaurant (and Buffet) - New Holland, Pennsylvania

Wood Grill Buffet, Charlottesville, Virginia

Shady Maple Smorgasbord, East Earle, Pennsylvania

To be considered for the honor of Top Buffet, the buffet must show consistency of cooking, quality, value, and service and come out above all of the rest. There are many buffets that we have been to that don't even come close to making this list. There are some that should have made the list but the service staff are the reason why they did not. You may note that three of the buffets on the list are in Lancaster County, PA which has so many buffets it should be considered the buffet capital of the US. The buffets on this list are also the ones that we consistently look forward going back to and with the three in the same area, it is a tough decision as to which one to go to when we are near there for just a day.

Over the next five weeks, I will be writing and posting articles about each of these buffets and telling you about them. Each has been reviewed in articles already on this site - some several times. Each buffet manager will be receiving in the mail a certificate of Top Buffet. We hope, as other buffets have done who have been given Best Buffet certificates in various categories from us in the past, that the manager will post the certificate for all of their patrons to see.

Congratulations to the Top Buffets! You deserve the designation and honor!

Return to the Festival Buffet, Foxwoods Casino Resort, CT PART II

PART II

The problem here is that it all looks so good - and most of it is quite different from what I see at the usual buffet offerings. It is hard here not to see something and take it - and this buffet requires some - perhaps a lot of - willpower. One way that I deal with this is I try to take just a little bit. It looked good - and most of it was good.

I will start with the really good. The beef brisket in barbecue sauce was good. The meat was tender and the sauce was mild with a nice flavor and not too sweet. The sweet potato fries were good. The manicotti was nice - not the best that I have had, but probably one of the best that I have had at a buffet - and the tomato sauce was nice as well. The sausage was Italian hot sausage - meaning it is spiced with peppers. It was in the server with peppers and onions all together in tomato sauce and the sausages were cut in half. The sausages were nicely thick. The taste was good - authentic - and while I prefer what is known as Italian sweet sausage (with no peppers), this was good. The Japanese noodles with seafood were pan fried broad noodles (likely rice noodles) stir-fried with small shrimp, red and green pepper, onion, bean sprouts and some other oriental vegetables. These were very good! What was not as good as I had hoped? The stir-fry string beans were in a red oil, spicy sauce. They may have been good if you like spicy oriental food, but I was not taking any chances with the long ride home that would eventually follow this meal, as spicy and my stomach do not always get along. I did not finish the green beans after a taste. That leaves the St. Louis ribs. I had very much enjoyed the ribs here on my last two visits. These ribs were cut short and with three bones side by side. There was little to no meat and what meat there was, was not coming off without a struggle. I worked at them for a while to get more than just a taste. I gave up. The rest in the serving tray had looked pretty much the same as these, and I did not go back to try those again. Too bad, too. I really like barbecue ribs - and like them best when the meat just falls off the bones. Not these. But there is so much more to eat here that it was a minor loss.

I went back up to try some more. At the seafood station there were cold peel and eat shrimp - nice large shrimp (I passed those by as I can always get shrimp at a buffet). There were also broiled cod, fried cod, fried clams, french fries, and two types of rice. There were also hot mussels and also jambalaya.

Cod. Before the "evil" talapia became the inexpensive fish to serve, there was cod. There was a time when every menu - at least in the Middle Atlantic and Northeast - had cod. (Now the "new" cod is talapia. Talapia more resembles flounder fillet. The problem with talapia as most is farm raised and it is a fact that farm raised talapia takes away from your body the good Omega nutrients that other fish put in. Why is it so popular? It is cheap.) It set these statements off because I don't want you to think that there is any talapia served here. It is COD. And cod is good and good for you. Cod is a fish of New England and it is no wonder it is still served at this buffet.

I took one piece of the fried cod (I really like fried fish!). I also took a few of the fried clams. The cod was very good. It was thick and pure white. The batter was a beer batter which is a light fried batter. With a bit of tartar sauce, it more than satisfied my taste for fried fish. The fried clams were also good. They were sweet and the batter was a breaded coating. I have probably said this before, but I always compare fried clams to the best fried clams that I have ever had and those were the ones you got at the Howard Johnson's Restaurants of my youth (not the frozen in the supermarket ones that had the Howard Johnson name on them). I have not really found ones to compare. But these were good - not like those, but good.

There was so much that was good that I am losing track of what I had with which trip up. The Italian station had individual bowls of meat lasagna. I did not take that but it looked good. There were three pasta dishes including one that had a pesto sauce, one that had marinara sauce, and a third, that I tried that were little ear shaped macaroni with a bolognese sauce. This was good. They also had meatballs in tomato sauce. I took one of these meatballs on the same plate that I took one of the Swedish meatballs that were in the general section. The meatballs were exactly the same - the sauce was different, of course. The meatball with the tomato sauce was actually better than the Swedish meatball, though that was fine too.

The big mistake that I made - and I always seem to make this same mistake - was to go up to the carving station and get a slice of the Prime Rib that they were carving. The mistake was not that there was anything wrong with meat. The meat was very good. The mistake was that the serving that is given fills a plate. This is like a slice of Prime Rib that you get in a menu restaurant. And asking for a "thin" slice or a "small" slice does not really make any difference. The carver sliced down a nice, large portion of the meat and placed it on my plate. That could have sufficed for dinner all on its own. I decided that I would eat as much as I felt comfortable eating, and leave over what I did not want. And I did exactly that.

Also on what I am calling the general station, as American food station does not really describe everything that was there, was a baked chicken in mushroom gravy. My wife tried this and she said it was very good. There was also fried chicken that looked good. Mixed in with the meat dishes were plain broccoli, macaroni and cheese, the Swedish meatballs that I mentioned before, another rice dish, and carved ham. My wife also tried the ham and she said that was good also.

The Chinese/Oriental station had several spicy dishes including the string beans that I spoke about, as well as fried rice, the Japanese noodles with seafood talked about earlier, and a tray of a thin soup with chicken dumplings in it. There were bowls above the counter. I decided that I would like to try one of the dumplings and took a bowl, scooped one out and drained the soup back into the serving tray with the ladle before I brought the ladle near the bowl. The chicken dumpling was mildly seasoned. It was nice.

There were a lot of side dishes though other than the broccoli, they were carbohydrate based - potatoes of various types - mashed, french fries, sweet potato fries - plus four or so different rice dishes, and then a number of macaroni dishes. There was also kernel corn. I can't say why I feel that there needed to be something different, but my wife took more salad as a vegetable side dish, and at one point, rather than take broccoli, I opted for a slice of half-sour pickle from the salad bar.

Even with tasting sized portions - and the more than plentiful Prime Rib - I was overfull. This is not something that I let happen at most buffets, but this buffet, perhaps because it is different and we get here so rarely, draws me to that.

There there is dessert which takes up a long counter in the front entrance of the buffet. There was a lot of very tempting desserts and a wide variety from hot cobblers, hot bread pudding, an assortment of puddings including tapioca, rice pudding, etc. There were many different cakes. The apple cake caught my eye. It was a large slice of brown cake with apples very visible in the slice. There was coconut cake - yellow cake with white frosting super-filled with coconut. As I stood next to the serving counter, I could smell the sweet coconut call to me. There were brownies, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, sundae fixings, and an area where crepes were cooked and filled to order. There is also a section of sugar-free desserts - mostly cakes. (Understand that sugar-free cakes and desserts have just as many and sometimes more carbohydrates as their non-sugar twins. So calling them sugar-free really does not make them any better.) This was a special occasion for me and I had decided before dinner that I would have a small dessert. I looked from cake to cookie to cupcake and all along the counters and cases deciding what to take. I was like a kid in a candy shop with just enough money in his hand for one treat. And I picked a small chocolate cupcake with a light chocolate swirl of frosting on the top. Why? I am not sure but it was a small portion and easier to choose than the apple cake which I could not eat all of or that wonderfully tempting slice of coconut cake. The baking is pretty good here. I tasted some of the frosting and it was very nice. I then removed the rest of the frosting and set it aside and ate the little chocolate cupcake. It tasted just like chocolate cake should - it was good. Was it spectacular? Not really, but it was to me. And if you are fortunate enough to be able to eat spectacular desserts there were those there to have.

The server that we had was excellent. She was very attentive to her tables. At the table next to us, the people must have asked her to make them chocolate egg cream drinks (this is soda water mixed with just the right amount of milk and chocolate syrup). I would have never imagined requesting such a thing. It certainly can be made on your own at any buffet with a self-serve beverage bar, but to ask the server to make one - well, she did and seemed very happy about doing it. They were discussing how good they were at the next table with her and she had a lot of pride in having made a good one. For us, she refilled out beverages promptly, brought my wife tea when she no longer wanted soda at the end of the meal, and removed all of our soiled plates immediately. She was one of the best servers that I have ever had at any buffet, and I tipped her accordingly.

The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page. As I talked about in my article last year, use a GPS to find the casino. It is in the middle of the woods - as a good Native American casino should be.

Return to the Festival Buffet, Foxwoods Casino Resort, CT PART I

About a year ago I wrote about a return trip to the Festival Buffet at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. We recently went back again.

This is one of the buffets that comes to my mind when I think, "what buffet would you really like to go to". From my experience with casino buffets it so one of the nicer of those that I have eaten at. As I pointed out in the March 2011 article (linked above), there are two different experiences to be had there - the weekend or as they call it, the enhanced, buffet and the weeknight buffet. This trip was made for business in the earlier part of the day that had to be done mid-week, so we went on a Wednesday night in April. The weather was nice and the trip to Connecticut as usual was miserable with traffic and construction along the way - there and back. The Connecticut Turnpike always seems to be under construction - and there is never anything to notice that has changed (though I am sure if you live there, you can tell the difference). Anyway, we got there after our business appointment. It was just 6:30 pm and seemed too early to eat. We walked past the buffet and there was no line so we walked around the casino complex for about an hour. The buffet serves until 10:00 pm on weeknights. When we went back to the buffet there was still no line - though it was not empty inside. We paid and walked right in and were seated.

The price of the buffet since a year ago has gone up two dollars per adult on the weeknight price. This does include soft drinks. The price is now $18.99 each.

The dining tables are in three locations within the buffet. There is a section that is actually on the promenade outside the restaurant, separated by a low, decorative wall. There is a section that fills the room with the buffet stations all around it. There is a section next to that room that is separated from a hall off the promenade, though not as much out in the open as the front area is. The seating area on the promenade is a smoking section. This is also adjacent to a bandstand with a music show that starts around 8:30 - 9 pm or so and the music is LOUD. Even if this was not the smoking section I would still not want to sit there - though if you want to Rock while you buffet, you might enjoy it. We asked for a table in the center dining room and there was no problem.

Our meals usually start with soup and there was a surprise - where there were two soups last year, there were four soups on this night. And they were not all cream soups which was a criticism that I had last year. There was chicken rice soup, minestrone soup, a bean soup, and New England Clam Chowder. We later discovered that there was a fifth soup - Chinese chicken dumpling soup at the Chinese area. My "like it simple and plain" wife chose the chicken rice soup and I choose the New England Clam Chowder.

You likely know that New England Clam Chowder is the white cream version and not the red thin version, which is called Manhattan Clam Chowder. The chowder was good. It was thick and full of clams and potatoes. It was nicely seasoned and the clams were cut into chewable pieces, as were the potatoes. My wife said that the chicken rice soup tasted "homemade" and not what would come from a can. The soups (on this visit) started us off happily.

There is an extensive salad bar with two sides - one side had romaine lettuce for Caesar salad and a pre-mixed lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing on it. There was a variety of dressing next to these bowls including creamy Caesar dressing. There were also toppings including real bacon bit pieces. There was also a servers full of mixed olives in a dressing, half sour pickles, sweet pickles, hot peppers, and chunks of chicken. Around the other side of the salad bar were bowls of lettuce, dressings, salad toppings and fixings, cottage cheese, and prepared salads including pasta salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, etc. I made myself a Caesar salad and my wife fixed her usual, salad with vegetable toppings but no dressing. We both enjoyed the salads. I have had Caesar salads in many buffets. I like them most when you put your own dressing on, which you do here. The dressing was nicely flavored and not too sharp, as it can be.

The entrees and side dishes are set up in sections or stations. There is a seafood station, a large general station of various hot entrees and side dishes that includes two carvings, an Italian station, a Chinese/Oriental station, and a Barbecue station. On Fridays and Saturdays, the large general station is divided to include snow crab legs. There are not more dishes at this section on the weeknights - just a duplication of dishes on both sides of the carvings.

I went straight to the Barbecue section. There were fixings to make tacos and there was barbecue which included barbecue brisket, Kansas City ribs, and barbecue chicken. On the weekends you will also find steak here. I took a piece of the brisket and a piece of the ribs. There were sweet potato french fries that I could not resist and I took a very small sampling of those. I went around to the other sections and added a piece of Italian sausage from the Italian station with a small sampling of the baked manicotti. Passing the Chinese section, I spotted a wok server with Japanese noodles with seafood and took a small spoon of that. I had not seen any vegetables that appealed and at the Chinese station there was a wok of string beans sauteed with tofu. A small spoon of that went on my plate. My plate was beginning to resemble an international platter and I went back to the table.

END OF PART I - Part II NEXT WEEK

Midweek at the Festival Buffet at Foxwoods Casino Resort - CT.

Back in September I wrote at two part article on the Festival Buffet located at the Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Since then I have been thinking a lot about this buffet. I have been thinking when are we going back and looking for a reason to take the almost four hour drive just for dinner. The occasion recently presented itself - a museum exhibition in Connecticut that both my wife and I wanted to see. I decided that we needed to go mid-week - not on a weekend - so that I could see what this buffet was like on a weeknight. When we were last there it was a Friday night and on the weekends, which always seem to include Friday nights, the buffet is considered "enhanced" - meaning it is a special weekend buffet with extra offerings - and here that means an emphasis on seafood, particularly crab legs. I loved that meal. What would I think about the meal at this buffet mid-week?

We went on a Thursday night. The buffet is three dollars less than the weekend - $16.95 and with a casino card that to get all you need is ask for, register, and walk away with on the spot you get $1.00 off the price of the meal. This time we each got a card and headed off to the buffet.

This is winter - cold - and mid-week. The buffet was not crowded though there were many people inside. There was a line of only a few people ahead of us to get in.

Everything inside is as I described it to you in September so I will not repeat the layout of the buffet. Since there were not the crowds that had been there in late summer, there was no need for the roped lines at each buffet serving station, though there was still such at the carving station.

We sat down, ordered soft drinks (included in the buffet price) and went off to the soup area at the end of the salad bar. As I wrote last time, and again this time - there were two soups and both were cream soups. I really do not understand why this buffet does not offer a cream soup along with a clear/broth soup. Again, my good wife passed on the soup as she does not like cream soups. There were New England Clam Chowder and Cream of Chicken Soup. I took the cream of chicken. It was a thick white cream chicken based soup with rice in it. It was tasty but not what I would say as outstanding. Don't get me wrong but my expectations were set high from my first visit to this buffet and the cream of chicken soup was just fine. I am sure that had I taken the New England clam chowder as I had on the last visit I would have been just as impressed as I had been then - but I was intent on trying something different to get a broader picture of what the buffet has to offer.

A visit to the salad bar came next. I went over to the Caesar salad area - yes, it has it's own section on the salad bar. I seem to recall that on that first visit the Caesar salad was pre-mixed with dressing. It was not this time. There was a large salad bowl with romaine lettuce nicely cut up. I filled my salad bowl with the romaine and ladled on the Caesar dressing. I prefer when you can do this as you can control the amount of dressing on the salad. Last time, I had read before going about the special "grilled" Caesar salad and what I found when I got there was a bowl of cold chicken next to the lettuce to put on the salad. This time there was no chicken. There was a bowl of real bacon bits. I added some bacon and shredded cheese to the salad. I enjoyed this Caesar salad. I eat a lot of Caesar salad - out at buffets and at home. The dressing here was tasty and had a little pleasant bite. I actually thought about going back for more - but there was a whole buffet ahead of me.

I headed up to the different stations and like the first time here, I passed by all of the serving counters to see what there was to offer. Just to repeat the stations that are here - there is a seafood area, an international area, an Italian area, a Chinese area, and a barbecue area - all of entrees and side dishes. Missing from this mid-week buffet that you will see on the weekend were the crab legs (in their own area). There was a difference in dishes that were offered too - and perhaps there were less than there were on the weekend - not obvious by looking but there were repeats of several dishes in slightly different forms but close enough that if you took one you were likely not to take the other.

I did not read my first article before going back and I was only remembering parts of what I found and enjoyed on that first visit during this 0ne - what was memorable it seems was the over great experience on that first visit and that the food was sensational. I remembered some of the things that I had on that first visit - but mostly by seeing them again on this visit. I was not recalling the details - on things that were not out this time. I say this because I had a sense on this visit that there were things missing - or something was lacking - and coming back now and re-reading that first experience, I believe I know why - though that night I could not put my finger on it.

I remembered that the barbecue area particularly impressed me and I headed there first. There were barbecue ribs - but they were not the riblets that I had had the first time but rather ribs that were large, thick and meaty - in fact there was little bone except at the tip. They were in a thick red barbecue sauce. Missing was the pulled pork. Also not there were the grilled steaks and these are part of the weekend buffet only. There was fixings for tacos. There was chili. There was barbecue beans. There was taco beef and strips of grilled chicken. There was also a tray of broiled chicken which was labeled fried chicken. The broiled chicken - or perhaps it was some other type of chicken on the bone - was in an oil that was evident on the bottom of the serving tray. I took two of the ribs - as I say there was a lot of meat on each of these ribs - not really like one would expect of a rack of ribs. I added to that some of the Italian meatballs and some of the grilled Italian sausage that was served as Sausage with Peppers. I added a spoon of the Chinese sauteed string beans so that I could say that I was eating vegetables.

The ribs were good. The sauce was not too sweet as the riblet sauce had been on that first visit. The meat was tasty. I don't know why I should feel that there was too much meat on these ribs - after all the more of a good thing - but there was too much meat on the ribs and I did not have a "rib sensation" eating them. Sounds crazy but if you are a barbecue rib eater you should understand. The rest of the plate was good too - the meatballs were nice and the sausage was good. Some sausage lately is too highly seasoned - this was nice. The stir fried string beans were a bit on the spicy side but not too spicy.

So what next? On the last visit I had not taken much from the seafood area and I was drawn back there for the fried fish. Last time a lot was labeled cod - this time it was "fish". There was a seafood special of the day but that was all that it was labeled and the fish also was unidentified. The peel and eat shrimp were here as well but I passed on those to save more room for less common things. (Imagine considering shrimp cocktail common but when you go to buffets you will generally find it - other than at the chain buffets.) There were fried clams. There was a sign that said Jambalaya. Beneath it was a tray of what looked like fried rice. There was nothing evident in the tray but fried rice. Jambalaya is usually served with rice but it is usually seafood and sausage in a red sauce with peppers and such. This just looked like fried rice. I did not take any - I was not interested in fried rice. All together at the various buffet areas there were four different variations of rice. There were also fresh cut french fries with parts of the potato skin still on. It took some of that as well along with the fried fish and a some of the fried clams.

The fried fish was just OK - nothing wrong with it - just fried fish. The fish inside the batter fried coating was pure white and thick with no sign of bones - which is a good thing. The fried clams were chewy and tasty. I have to go off on a tangent here about fried clams. A long time ago there was a chain restaurant that was everywhere in the US called Howard Johnson's and Howard Johnson's had the best ever fried clams. There was nothing like them in texture or taste. And I tend to compare all fried clams to those - these were not those - but then again, neither are any other fried clams I have had since the last Howard Johnson's closed many years ago (replaced by the massive fast food industry). You may still find Howard Johnson's Fried Clams in the freezer case of your supermarket - they were around after the chain closed down and may have stuck around even until now - but you know what - the frozen ones are not like the real thing at all either.

Next - I know you are thinking - does this guy ever stop eating at one meal? Well - as I have said before I take a sampling plate when I take from the buffet - especially a buffet new to me. I take a small amount - enough to get a good idea of how it is and also in combination there is plenty to eat. (And I go back later for more of what I really liked.) I went next to the carving area or as they call it the "international" area - which has an assortment of entrees, potatoes, and the carvings. I went for the Prime Rib which was nice and rare. A large slab was sliced off and placed on my plate. Next to it in one of the hot trays were meatballs stroganoff. I took two of those. There were pirogi's and I took one of these. And again just to say that I had a vegetable I went to the Chinese area again and took some of the Shrimp Chow Mein.

The prime rib was excellent - as I remembered it. My wife took the other carving which was terriaki loin of pork. She said it was good. The meatballs - now these are another repeat - there were Italian meatballs and these meatballs strognaoff. Both were exactly the same meatballs - one was in tomato sauce and the other was in brown gravy - and it was just that - meatballs in brown gravy. The shrimp chow mein was good - it was good on the first visit too. It was nice because it was not thick and starchy but thinly covered in its semi-clear sauce. It made for a satisfying vegetable.

The last plate was a small sampling of some of the things I had taken earlier - two more Italian meatballs, another rib, and some green olives mixed with cold artichokes from the Italian area. That was very tasty- just a simple olive salad but well seasoned and the parts of artichoke were soft and tender.

Again on this visit there was no room for dessert but I went and looked and there were many really great looking desserts to take including crepes and hot desserts - and cheesecake! If you have been reading along with me for awhile you know that I can't really indulge in these any longer so it was hard not just giving in to temptation. But I was satisfied never the less with all that I did have.

Service was very good. The server at our table was there when we needed him. Empty plates disappeared when we went up for more and drinks were offered and refilled.

Was I disappointed at all that I went back? No. Was it the same experience as I had remembered? I have to say no. It was fine. It was good. Had I not been here before would I say that this was exceptional - as I had felt that first time. No. I would say that it is a cut above most but not memorable. Why? One thing is that this is way off season - this weeknight buffet in mid-summer may very well be very different. Another thing is that it just may be that the main effort is placed into the weekend buffet and that is what impressed that first time around. The quality of the food was the same - very good. Gourmet preparation? Yes, that first time - not really this time. Will this keep me from going back - midweek - again? I will be going back. As I write this a few days after the meal my mouth is watering. So maybe there was something there that is still drawing me back again - even mid-week.

Go and enjoy. If you go mid-week, take heed of this article. If you go on a weekend - take note of my first article.

Now getting there as I said back in September is a bit of a drive through the woods. We got there just fine this time with the help of our GPS, but going home in the really dark - with snow considerably still covering the ground from a recent heavy hitter storm was a bit of a story. We set the GPS for home and left the parking lot and came to the end of the driveway road into and out of the complex. The GPS said turn left when I-95 was to the right. Hmm. Maybe it new about traffic or such and we had come from the left though we had not come there directly form home but more north from where the museum we visited was. Ok - silly me we listened to the GPS voice and turned left onto what was a long and dark country road into the woods and out of the woods and into the woods again. In a while it said we were to turn left down a road that was no where yet near the main road we had come down on. Listen or not? We were not sure what to do if we went straight on ahead to parts unknown so we turned off onto the road it directed us on. I entered the road and went "NO WAY!" This was a narrow, single lane road into the woods that just went off into the darkness. Where? And as I said there was still snow on the ground and the roads were iced. I stopped in the middle of this road and said we are going back to the casino and going toward I-95. I managed to make a u-turn on this narrow dark road and headed back. Don't you know that every cross road we came to that GPS chirped turn here, turn at the next corner - make a u-turn. It was relentless. It was not until we were well past Foxwoods and heading to I-95 that it gave up and routed us on the main road. I expected it to come back and say - "All right already, we will do it your way!" By the way - this is a new GPS from the one I had on the first trip here.

Be prepared when you go to Foxwoods. Have an idea of where it is and how to get back home - without totally relying upon your GPS.

The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page.

Closing out 2010

Reflecting back on 2010 in the world of buffet restaurants, I can say that there have been some great meals and some not so great meals. For awhile this year I was finding more not so great buffets than really good ones. I was beginning to think that all of you would start looking at me as the "buffet killer" with not such good things to say about the restaurants I was reporting on. I would go into a restaurant with high hopes and come out with a list of things that were wrong. It got to the point that I was desperate to find good things about a restaurant to write - even if the experience at the restaurant was not totally good. We would come out after dinner and I would say - "Oh boy, now I am writing another critical article." Well, I tell it as I experience it and it would not be fair to all of you who are plunking down your hard earned - and hard to come by - cash for a meal or an experience that is not good. Happily, as the year progressed the restaurants got better and the articles became positive again - as I would like them to be (if the restaurant measures up).

This past year saw the closing of a very promising buffet - Buffet Europa in New Jersey. This was a small, couple owned and operated buffet that was exceptionally excellent. All of my readers who went to try it agreed. The food was excellent. The value was very good. So what went wrong? Why did this little gem go out of business? There was never anyone there. The dining room was very small and at that was never filled. At best, when I would be there, there would be maybe five tables filled. It was not because of the food. The most likely explanation is the location. This restaurant was just off a main highway but back enough in a tiny shopping center that it blended in with the several take out restaurants that were next door. There was no way to know that this restaurant was there from the main road. I know that the owners tried. They had a good website and made an effort to advertise, but this was not enough - at least in this economy - and they did not get the people that they needed to stay in business. What a shame! I understand that the owners moved to another part of New Jersey and maybe someday in a much better location they will open another restaurant like Buffet Europa.

Thinking back on my best new find this year - at least new to me - I have to say that the Festival Buffet at Foxwoods Casino/Resort in Connecticut is the meal I am most looking to go back for. This was a fine meal and I am eager to try it on a non-weekend night to see how the meal compares to the one that I had there on a Friday night (when the emphasis was on seafood). If only a bridge would be built across Long Island Sound, I would become a regular at this buffet. In a straight line the buffet is maybe forty or less miles from me - but because of a large body of water between us, it is necessary to drive west and around New York City and then north to Connecticut and then parallel back east to where this buffet is located. A trip of several hours each way and with a ridiculous cost in tolls. I will be going back - and it cannot be too soon! (And as I have mentioned before - I don't gamble. I go to casinos to eat at buffets.)

I would like to wish all of my readers a very Happy New Year! I look forward to some new buffet adventures in 2011. And I hope that you will keep coming back to this site to come along with me!

Our Best Buffet of 2010 will appear next week.

Happy New Year!

SEASONS BUFFET - MOHEGAN SUN CASINO, Uncasville, CT

This past June I published an article on this site about the Sunburst Buffet at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. What has made Mohegan Sun stand apart from most non-Las Vegas casinos is that it has had two buffet restaurants - Sunburst Buffet and Seasons Buffet. Before I go further let me say that since my visit this past summer, the Sunburst Buffet has closed. There is now only one buffet at Mohegan Sun and from what we could learn while there, the Sunburst Buffet will remain closed. It is no more...

While this was a surprise, it was not a disappointment, as you will understand if you read that article here from last June. We were heading for Connecticut again and the plan this trip was to have dinner at the Seasons Buffet at Mohegan Sun. Many of you must wonder why, when I place so much on value at buffets - do I go to so many casinos. Well, it is not for the gambling. I do not gamble. It is for the food - specifically for the buffet. Seasons has been at Mohegan Sun since the casino/resort complex first opened. It was always considered the lower priced buffet. It was considered the more basic buffet. Now that this is the only buffet at Mohegan Sun, it has borrowed a little of what had been at the Sunburst Buffet- a sample selection of items from the various menu restaurants in the complex. Let me start from the beginning so that you get the full flavor of this buffet.

The buffet is located just off of the floor of the Wolf Den casino - there are several casinos in the complex that closely resembles what a Native American theme park for adults would look like. You pay at the entrance way. The price of the buffet is $16.99 every day for lunch and dinner. There is also a breakfast buffet. Once you have paid you are directed down a short corridor where you are greeted by a hostess who escorts you to your table. The dinner room is large and the buffet serving area fills around the rear wall. The buffet is set up with two sides - both a mirror image of the other and when in full operation both sides serving the same things to accommodate the crowd. Since we were there in November on a weeknight, only half was in operation with the exception of the dessert area which was doubled (and serving the same desserts on both sides.

As always we start with soup and there were two soups. One was Manhattan Clam Chowder (the red clam chowder and interestingly unusual to find in a New England state). The other was something labeled Persian Meatball soup. Of course, I had to try that. As I was ladling it into my cup it looked very much like mushroom barley soup. When I got it back to the table and really could get a good look at it, it looked even more like mushroom barley soup. And that is exactly what it was. No meatballs - nothing Persian. I was minor-ly disappointed, but I do like mushroom barley soup and this one was good. I also went back for a cup of the clam chowder. The clam chowder was full of clam pieces with potatoes and peppers and onions in a thin red broth. The soup was spicy to the taste - the proper Manhattan Clam Chowder spices and herbs but perhaps a bit more seasoned than necessary - yet, again it was good even if my lips burned a bit.

We moved on to the salad bar. The salad bar was small, both in size and what it had to offer. It is split in half by a new cook to order pasta station in the middle of the two salad bar sides. There were three types of lettuce/greens. There were several toppings. The dressings were not labeled except for the Ranch and that was with a serving spoon that said "Ranch" on it. You could guess what the others were - orange color equals French, but then there were several cream color ones and one that may or may not have been creamy Caesar. My intention had been to create a Caesar Salad - but I was taking no chances and the only one to ask was the pasta chef who was very involved with a skillet making pasta dishes to order. So I took the Ranch and moved on. The other side of the pasta station, the salad bar continued with a few prepared salads which included cole slaw, pasta salad, and a very good mozzarella cheese salad with Mediterranean olives. I took some of the cheese and olive salad. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Greek black olives were pitted. The cheese consisted of small braided balls of mozzarella and were nicely fresh. I came back for more of that later on.

Before selecting my first entrees I took a walk along the buffet servers to see what there was. The first server was a flat grill and there were hotdogs cooking. A sign said Nathan's hot dogs. Those from the Northeast - and others with these hot dogs now sold in supermarkets - know that Nathan's Famous is the original Coney Island hot dog. It made the hot dog famous. The hot dogs being grilled at this buffet were the commercial variety of Nathans - in other words - what you find in the supermarkets - which are slightly different than the "real" Nathans sold at their restaurants. For $17, many do not want to eat hot dogs but I was not the only person getting a hot dog - complete with toppings for you to add yourself and served on a bun. I skipped the bun - I like hot dogs. During the meal I had two. Along the line there were buffalo wings, a carving station with roast loin of pork, a large steamship round of beef, and turkey breast, an area with Chinese dishes including sweet and sour chicken, shrimp and vegetable lo mein, and fried rice, an area with two large, square, thick pizzas - one cheese pizza and a white and spinach pizza, and then there were a row of hot chafing servers. Here there was garlic mashed potatoes, a Sicilian vegetable stew, fish Florentine, Pasta Carbonara, vegetables, macaroni and cheese, and more. Along the way there were baked beans, sauteed onions, and sauteed mushrooms. There was also an area with a variety of gravies to top the carvings. Of course, as mentioned, there was also the Pasta Station where you select the type of pasta and sauce and could add a variety of meats such as chicken and ham to your pasta dish. A chef was there cooking to your order. As everything here was made to your specification there was a short line leading up to the chef. On a crowded night this line could be much longer - though there is a second pasta station when the whole buffet serving area is open.

There was plenty to eat and it was good, solid food to choose from. At first it did not give the appearance that there was a lot to choose from. In fact I heard several people when first walking through make a comment that there was not a lot being offered for $17.00, but really there was and what is more - and what I could not say about the former Sunburst Buffet - the food was really good.

I always do a tasting selection - a little of everything of what I like and then go back for more of what I really enjoyed. The steamship round of beef is a large roast beef that has been cooked to offer a variety of doneness to the beef. I wanted rare and the carver carved me a slice from a section that was rare. Others asked for well done and medium and that was there too. The portions were generous and my wife had to tell the carver to give her less turkey than he was offering.

I tried the fish Florentine - what must have been flounder in a cream sauce with spinach garnish. The fish was a bit dry and while the sauce was tasty it did not add enough to the fish. This was the only dish that I passed up on when I returned. I also tried the Pasta Carbonara which was good. This is Pasta coal miners style. When I have had it in the past it usually is pasta in tomato sauce with bacon tossed with beaten eggs and cheese. Here it was not bacon but a chopped meat finding its way into the ear-shaped pasta in a thickened red sauce which did have cheese mixed in and I am sure beaten egg as well. The taste was good and it tempted me back for more.

The one dish that both my picky eater wife and I enjoyed a lot was the Sicilian Vegetable Stew. What looked like chunks of potatoes were actually yellow squash. There was also green squash, onions, and peppers in a spicy red sauce. The sauce was wonderful and we kept trying to guess what was in it (my wife thought she would like to try making this at home - it was that good). We both enjoyed this dish very much.

Over at the dessert area there were also biscuits and rolls to have with your meal. The dessert area was extensive and there was also a section with sugar free cakes, pies, and muffins. Of the regular desserts there were fresh strawberries with whipped cream near by to mound on top, puddings, bread pudding, jello, cakes, pies, cheesecake, and vanilla and chocolate soft-serve frozen yogurt. Over by the salad bar there were also trays of fresh fruits. Everything was tempting.

We both had a filling and satisfying meal. There was nothing that I would say that was missing from this buffet. It was not "fancy" as some casino buffets try to be, nor was it plain.

The meal includes soft drinks (which are refilled by your server) and you are offered coffee or tea with dessert (or more soft drinks if you prefer). We had a very good server who cleared dishes each time we left the table to get more and she offered refills of our drinks without our looking for her to ask for them. This was very different from our server at Sunburst.

What we were able to learn is that Sunburst will not reopen BUT this buffet - Seasons - will temporarily move into the space that Sunburst had been in - along with all of the Seasons staff, menu, and chefs, while the Seasons room gets some renovation, particularly the addition of rest rooms inside the dining room (now you have to leave the restaurant and use the restrooms near the casino. Once complete, Seasons Buffet will move back to where it is now. We could not find out when this will happen other than "soon".

It is important to note for those with children that there is a children's price - $9.43 - and that this casino complex is laid out so that children can move around all of the complex without entering a casino area. There is no problem bringing a child to get to the buffet. The complex includes a shopping mall and a children's game area. (Plus a crystal glass mountain and waterfall, and a wall of water.

I very much recommend Seasons Buffet at the Mohegan Sun Casino/Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut. Go and enjoy. If you gamble, you will enjoy that too - and there are FREE concerts in the middle of the Wolf Den casino with some big names on Friday and Saturday nights. There are free concerts every night but the names were not as big.

There is a web page listed at the side of this page for Seasons Buffet.

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!

FESTIVAL BUFFET at FOXWOODS CASINO, Connecticut - PART 2

PART 2 (SEE LAST WEEK FOR PART 1)

Ready for entrees I decided to walk around the entire buffet counter to see what was being offered and since there was so much out, to choose wisely. The buffet is divided into sections - dessert, seafood, International, Italian, Chinese, and Barbecue. The Barbecue section is easy to miss though there is a large sign over the entrance way to one of the patio dining areas and the barbecue counter is inside that area - still along the same and continuing wall. There was a lot to tempt me and the largest crowd was at the crab legs which are the Friday night feature. What was calling me was the Barbecue and that is where I went first. Here there were pulled pork, BBQ riblets, chicken, steaks, beans, taco meat and the fixings for tacos. I took some of the pulled pork and the riblets. On the way back to the table I went over to the seafood counter and took some peel and eat shrimp too. Odd combination but it just seemed right - spicy and smokey barbecue and cold shrimp. The pulled pork was nice. The riblets were small pieces of bone and meat in a thick and sweet red barbecue sauce. The rib tray could have used some attention and needed to be stirred. It was not dried out but was moving in that direction. I stirred it myself when I took my riblets. The ribs were tasty and good. The sauce could have been less sweet but perhaps that is just my palate. I enjoyed the first serving of them that I took. I later went back for more and struggled a bit to finish them as the sweetness of the sauce had gotten to me after a while. I am sure that many of you will love these - and when I go back, if they are there, I will have more.

I went back up to see what else I would take. There was a lot. On the Seafood area there were the peel and eat shrimp, a cod cooked with vegetables in an Asian sauce (the fish were whole sections of cod), fried shrimp, fried cod, and french fries. On the International section there was Chicken Tarragon with Asparagus and Shrimp, stuffing, potatoes, sliced beef in brown gravy, a carving station in the middle where they were carving ham and Prime Rib, mixed vegetables, and a section filled with crab leg clusters - whole, hot clusters. Along the line, next came the Italian area with vegetable lasagna, beef lasagna, tortellini in a creamy cheese sauce, sausage and peppers, meatballs in tomato sauce, and ziti with a tomato sauce to put on or a spicy marinara sauce to put on top. There were also cold marinated olives and marinated mushrooms. The Chinese area had General Tso Chicken, shrimp chow mien, fried rice, lo mien noodles, cold noodles with sesame sauce, fried dumplings , egg rolls, and a few other dishes. I have already described what I found at the Barbecue area.

The choices all looked good. I decided that this plate would be a sampling plate and I took a little of several items. I took some of the tortellini, a chunk of sausage, a meat ball, a piece of the Asian cod, a fried dumpling, and some marinated olives. The only thing that I would pass on was the fried dumpling as it was dry and the dough was chewy. The rest was very good. The sausage had a fresh made taste. The tortellini drew me back for a few more (though I should not be eating pasta in quantity).

My next plate was a mistake but only for the amount of food that it contained and it limited what more I would be able to fit in me afterward. I went to look at the steak. I always like steak. The steak here is grilled and put out in quantity in a serving tray. They are called club steaks - small, rounds of steak. In the tray they looked a bit dry and it was likely that they were well done. When steak is cooked and then allowed to sit it continues to cook so unless the steaks are constantly being replenished, if they are sitting they are likely to be well done. I decided to pass on the steak and go over to the middle of the counters to the carving station to see the Prime Rib. The Prime Rib that was being carved was not with bones but the meat was nicely red and medium rare. I went up for a slice and was given a thick, full cut of Prime Rib. This piece was as large as served as a full portion in a menu restaurant. It filled the plate. I added some au jus gravy to the meat. I also picked up some French Fries back at the seafood area, and added some of the shrimp chow mein just for a vegetable side. The Prime Rib was tender and very tasty. I very much enjoyed it and was glad that I chose that over the unknown steaks. But it was a lot of meat - if one was planning on eating more. It is probably best to direct the carver to cut a thin slice. For those who prefer a more well done beef, there was sliced beef in brown gravy on the buffet as well and this was much more well done.

Of course, after my Prime Rib I still had intentions of eating more (silly me) and it is usually at this point of my buffet meal in a buffet that I have not visited before to go back for some of the items that I really enjoyed. So back I went for bbq riblets, two more meatballs, and more tortellini. When I sat down with my plate I realized that I really had wanted to try the fried cod, but figured I would do so on the next plate. There was no next plate for me because with this all, I was full. No more room. (When at a buffet, heed that feeling and don't go one plate beyond, because afterward you will regret it.) I reached my limit and stopped wisely. Not even room for dessert.

I did, however, go to look at the dessert selections and there were many, many good ones. There were many types of pies and cakes - nice layer cakes. There was cheesecake. There were pastries. And there were hot waffles waiting for soft serve ice cream to be added on top with a variety of sundae sauces and toppings to join it. There was fruit, puddings, a few nice looking, hot bread puddings, and also a large selection of sugar free desserts (if you are so inclined). Had I taken dessert I would have regretted it, and I very reluctantly passed.

The food was very, very good. The quality of the food was very good. The cooking and maintenance of the food (with the few exceptions noted) was very good.

Was there anything that I did not like? One minor thing and that was the way the different buffet counter areas were roped off to create a line. When there was no one at an area, it was not problem to just walk up to the tray that you wanted and take some. BUT when there were others at that area, they were lining up - directed to by the ropes along the side - and it meant that you were walking behind others, cafeteria style along the entire line before you got to the tray that you wanted. If you had intention of going to all of the trays along the line 0r even some of them, this is not a problem, but if that one item that you want is at the end of the line, you were waiting until you got up to it behind what at some counters were long lines. I said, earlier, that I took some French Fries. They were in the last serving tray on the seafood line. There was a long line of people at that area. I slipped over to the end (where by the way no one was standing) and took some fries from the tray - without waiting on the line. A woman jokingly told me that I was "cutting" and then laughed. I made a joke back saying that all I wanted was a few fries and that I thought I would just slip in a grab a few. She laughed and made a point to say that she had been only joking. Good matured lady. Someone else might have made an unnecessary fuss. I had also said earlier that they had nice looking crab legs and you will note that I did not talk about eating any. Well, the line at the crab legs was consistent throughout the night, and I felt (with the many other good things to get) that it was just not worth the wait.

Service was also good and plates were taken off the table promptly and drink refills were offered without our asking.

Would I go back? Oh yes! In fact that is all I have been thinking about since leaving. This was a great meal and one that I look forward to repeating. The crazy thing is that if you drew a line from this buffet to my home it is about thirty miles away. The problem is that there is the Long Island Sound - part of the Atlantic Ocean - in the middle of that line. So to get to this great buffet I have to take the long way around, through NYC and into Connecticut and back in the direction of my home, but further north which is about a 300 mile round trip. A long time ago someone said let's build a bridge, but many people said "Not in my backyard!" ("NIMBY" is a popular expression in my area) and so there is no bridge.

Foxwoods is located pretty much in the woods. It is accessed by Route 2 in Connecticut which is a mix of highway and country road. Once you get to the complex of buildings it does get a bit confusing as there are three entrances and little explanation on the signs on the road. It is actually very simple if you know that all buildings are interconnected so if you go into any of the entrance drives and park - in one of the three self-park free parking lots or have your car valet parked - you will enter a building that will connect to all of the other buildings and areas. The buffet is in the "Rainmaker" area. A walk through the complex is very nice and the halls are made to look like a New England street with shops along the way, as well as casinos. So just pull into any of the entrances and park. Make note of which parking lot and level you are in. And the MGM Grand is part of the same complex and connected as well through a series of hallways and escalators.

The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page. A note about the address. My GPS did not recognize the town or the street. The casino did come up in a search of the list of points of interest and that is how we routed to it.

The Festival Buffet at Foxwoods is a must try!