Global Buffet, Levittown, NY - SECOND VISIT

We went back to Global Buffet. (See our first article about this buffet.) They have made some positive changes in the past two weeks since they opened.

Either they read our article or someone there was told or realized that their steam tables were set at too low a temperature, but now the temperature of the food is correct. Nothing was cold or just warm. Everything that needs to be hot was properly hot.

When we were there the first time, we overheard someone ask the manager why there was no Egg Drop Soup. There is now Egg Drop Soup. The soups section has changed. Gone is the so-so chicken noodle soup and also the soup that was unidentifiable in the serving pot. The soups now are WonTon Soup, Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Miso Soup, and Clam Soup. They have also added in one of the spaces for a soup pot server, steamed Dim Sum filled with meat. I tried the WonTon Soup. It was good. I don't know if it was just chance but the wonton was the largest wonton that i have ever had. When I walked past later it may have just been chance as what I saw was standard sized. There is not much to do with wonton soup to make one different than another. The broth was better than most.

There was an additional meat on the American meat carving section. They added large beef ribs. They are big and long ribs with a lot of meet. The meet is stringy but that is how beef ribs are. They do not have a light sauce on them based on what was in the pan they are served in, but this did not add any different flavor to them. They were pretty good. Now, I know what some are going to think - just like OCB's long gone beef ribs - not really. These are cooked more like short ribs than OCB's beef ribs were - but they are something you rarely see anymore - and don't see at a buffet. In this section, they have made a place for the turkey gravy to sit in the steam table and it was kept properly hot. The turkey seemed more to be a roasted turkey breast - but it was juicy and good and the gravy makes it better.

My wife found a shrimp dish that she says was not there the last time. It was called Seafood Delight - which in other Asian buffets usually is a mix of shrimp and fish. This was just shrimp and that made her happy. She said it was very good.

I tried more Asian dishes this visit than I did the first - as I was focusing then on the American offerings. The sushi bar was full and there was a tray of large pieces of raw salmon - no rice. They were big and moist - and good. Then there were the usual sushi in addition. Next to the sushi bar there are Asian cold "appetizers" including peanut chicken with noodles. That was good - not spicy and that made it even better. I tried the pepper steak and the beef was not overcooked, a little chewy, but tasty. The sauce did not overwhelm it - as it often does in other Asian buffets. The Spring Rolls are standard - but not over cooked as they are in some other buffets. I tried stuffed fish - a roll of fish stuffed with more fish. It was fine. I tried their spare ribs. The spare ribs are close to Chinese restaurant spare ribs - not covered in sticky red sugar sauce, but just broiled under a hot broiler. Teh spare ribs were good - not as good as the spare ribs at Good Taste Buffer in Commack, NY which I have written about several times in the past that to me have the best Chinese Spare Ribs of any buffet. These at Global are close but not as good. I can only describe the ones at Good Taste as having sizzle - these lack the sizzle. BUT not bad - and better than most.

I did go back to the things I liked the first time - the turkey, the beef stew, and the baked clams. All still good! I even tried a french fry to see how it is - something very basic but not all Asian buffets that serve them do it well. Not much of an achievement but here it was good. 

The ice cream machine is working and the soft serve ice cream was nice and creamy - not at all icy. There were a few different cakes including a chocolate cake with cheesecake on top and a coffee cake. I tried both of those and they were good. I had intended to take the hot apple strudel and took these instead. I was happy I did. My wife took the strudel and liked it.

The service was still good. The Senior price has gone down to $12.99 from $13.99. The adult price stayed the same. An effort was made to keep everything moist and also empty or near empty trays were refilled fairly quickly.

At the end of the meal my wife summed it up - "It's pleasant!". Yes it is. The food is fine. The decor is nice - not at all like it was as OCB. It is funny sitting in there after all of those years sitting in the same space as OCB. We were near the side door and my wife said to me, that we were near where the claw machine was - yes, we were!

They still don't have a web page but they do have a Facebook page. From the Facebook page I saw that they had a special dinner for Labor Day that included lobster and steaks and with on increase in price. There was a negative comment that there was no lobster while they were there - I don't know. I am looking at negative comments about this restaurant in view of what I am seeing for myself - especially now with the improvements I have seen in just two weeks. The restaurant across the street is trying hard to get their business back - which many of us know went down long before this new buffet opened - and I am not sure that some negative comments I have seen have not been planted.

At this point I will say, "Yes! Try it!"***. It is primarily an Asian buffet but it is not hard to sit down and not eat any Asian dishes for the entire meal with the meat carvings and other "American" dishes and sides. You could have corn on the cob, fries, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and any of the meats out to carve. We have not tried the hibachi grill - it is standard to what most are like. I looked closely at the grill area behind the counter - there is a flat grill and also a char flame grill. I don't know what they make on that grill but it is there. I know many were expecting an OCB like buffet and this is not it. Give it a chance for what it is. I will be going back.

Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. Here is the phone number (516) 605-1799. Hours on their Facebook page say they are open 11:00 am to 11:00 pm. Good for a late night dinner or if you are running late and all others have closed for the night.

***
READ THE NEXT ARTICLE AND IT'S ADDENDUM FOR AN IMPORTANT UPDATE BEFORE GOING TO THIS BUFFET! 

Global Buffet, Levittown, New York

We went for dinner to the just opened Global Buffet which is located in the space that Old Country Buffet last occupied. You enter through the entrance that you entered when this was OCB and going through a second set of doors (as you did before) you come into an area that will become a bar or wine bar. There is a long bar counter along the wall to the left, and a lot of glass shelves on the walls holding decorative wine bottles lying horizontally across the shelves. To the right is an opening and this is the entrance to the restaurant. To the right is the cashier but you do not pay as you enter. You pay at your table at the end of your meal. A host brought us to our table. You may just be able to make out the form of the OCB when you see the room but there has been extensive work done and a lot has been added.

There are mostly booths through the restaurant with a few tables. There are two party rooms - one in the back where the OCB party room had been and another area in the front that is separated from the rest of the restaurant by a wall with glass decorative etched windows looking into the restaurant and an open entrance - that did not seem to have a door. There is a very small stage in the back corner of that room for parties. The dining rooms are fancily decorated and are very nice. On the east side of the restaurant are the buffet tables (nine hot/cold, double sided buffet serving tables), a dessert bar that is along the front of the wall that is an L shape - the short leg of the L parallel on the front to the front party room, then a hot foods carving area, followed by a long hibachi grill. Moving back from the grill there is another L with a sushi bar.

Outside in the entrance area from the street there is a sign with prices. The prices are pretty good. There is a lunch price of $9.99 for adults ($8.49) for seniors) Monday to Friday - and a children's price. The dinner price is $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors plus a children's price which is for Monday through Saturday. There is a Saturday brunch price which I did not note. The Sunday lunch and dinner price is the same and is also $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors. Soft drinks are not mentioned on the sign but are $1.99 and you get refills.

Now I will tell you what so many have been waiting to hear. This is an Asian buffet. There is a carving section that has you carve yourself Roast Turkey, Roast Brisket, and Glazed Baked Turkey. With that there is turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, and chunk pan fried potatoes. Over on the buffet tables mixed in with a large variety of Asian dishes are pork chops with peppers and onions on top, lamb with cream sauce, corned beef and cabbage, chicken Marsala, macaroni and cheese, french fries, mashed sweet potatoes, and beef stew. There is fried chicken that has been cut up into pieces - I don't mean whole pieces of fried chicken, but those pieces cut up into pieces. There was Sausage with Peppers and Onions, seafood pasta, Italian-style baked clams and "Italian" shrimp. There were also several fish dishes including a rolled and stuffed fillet of fish that was baked. There was typical Asian buffet pizza. There is also a Taco Bar and a decent salad bar with both salad greens and toppings and also prepared salads - a little better than you usually see in this area. There were six soups: Won Ton Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Clam Soup, chicken noodle soup, and what appeared to be a seafood bisque of some kind. Most things are labeled, this soup was not.

The Asian foods are just about all that you generally find in an Asian buffet. There is a sushi bar and then there is an hibachi grill. The hibachi grill is a long row of raw vegetables and cut up pieces of various meats that you assemble yourself on a plate and hand it to the chef behind the grill at the end. This is the extent of the grill. Do not expect whole steaks or anything like that.  The majority of dishes here are Asian.

How was the food? I am writing based on the second night they are open. Let's say that what I am going to report is opening shake out issues which hopefully will improve. There is a problem with serving temperatures. Many things were not hot enough. When something is first put out it is hot. Sitting on the steam table, even with hot warming lights over it - in the middle of the table covering both sides and not directly over each tray, the some of the food that I took was cold. I focused my meal on American food items, as at this point, I am "Asian buffeted out". For soup I took the chicken noodle soup. It turned out to be a thin watery cream soup with pieces of chicken and bowtie noodles. It had little flavor.  I took corned beef and cabbage. Corned Beef is a favorite of mine and I was excited to find it. I understand that corned beef varies a great deal and there are many cuts. Some cuts of corned beef are very tough - almost difficult to chew. I took two pieces of corned beef - one from the bottom of the liquid in the tray and the other nearer the top. Both were cold. Both were so chewy and tough they were impossible to eat. I left most of both of them - trying each just in case one piece was better. It wasn't. I carved myself turkey twice during the dinner. The first piece I took was sufficiently warm. There was a small tray of gravy in the turkey tray and I took some gravy and put it on top. Together on that first try it was all fine. Later in the meal I went back for more turkey and this time when I ate the turkey it was near cold - and the tray of turkey gravy had been taken out of the turkey tray and put on the side of the counter and left there - with no heat under it or over it. I was not going to take the gravy this time. I took some of the ham - it was fine and warm enough. I took a pork chop which is more a slice of pork cooked like a pork chop. It was also cold, did not have much taste, and it was very tough - also hard to chew - to the point that I left over some of that as well. I tied chicken salad from the salad bar - real mayonnaise style chicken salad as opposed to Chinese Chicken Salad. It was also hard to chew. I tried the seafood and pasta - the pasta was underdone and chewy.

My wife was choosing a mix of Asian and American foods and she liked what she was having. What did I like? The beef stew was both hot, tender, and tasty both times I went up for it. I liked that a lot. The carved ham was fine. The cut up fried chicken was fine. The mashed potatoes tray had been empty for awhile and when it finally was refilled I took some mashed potatoes and it was fine. The mashed sweet potatoes were fine. The turkey the first time around was fine. I liked the baked clams a lot.

The desserts here include several cut up fresh fruits, puddings, jellos, etc. along with the usual Asian buffet little pieces of commercially baked cakes and a big assortment of cookies. Some of the cookies look beyond usual buffet cookies - but I tried one expecting it to be soft to the bite but it was not. I looked really good. They have hot bread pudding on one of the buffet tables. It is a mixture of egg custard and slices of bread baked on top and it was tasty. Not as great as some bread puddings but good. They also have apple strudel cut into slices and hot. This is found at some other Asian buffets. My wife had it and liked it. They have a soft serve ice cream machine but it is not yet working. It will be shortly. The waitresses were talking about it at a near by table and it will be a few days before they can get it into service.  

I don't want you to come away from this article thinking that the food here or dinner here is not good. They need to progress a bit from their first two days being open. All the time we were there, there were Asian men who worked there going around to all of the food trays making notes on forms on clip boards. They need to get the temperatures of their steam tables adjusted, go around and stir the dishes so that they heat evenly and at the same time don't dry out. We certainly found things to eat - some of it could have been better. We did not leave hungry. The quality of the food seems fine. The price is decent. No coupons - or any advertising at all has shown up yet in the local newspaper for this restaurant - which is surprising. We will see if any start to show up. There were many people around us that seemed very happy.

Service was very good. Our empty dishes were taken away as soon as we were finished with them. Drinks were refilled with our waitress asking several times if we would like more - and it was promptly brought. There were a few moments of confusion by the waitress which were promptly corrected - no big deal. Everyone working was very polite and nice.

Will we go back? Yes. While it is a couple of dollars more than the Asian buffet we have been going to in Baldwin, it is much closer. If I am in the mood for Asian, it has all that I would expect and then there is the added benefit of the American dishes - which most of my readers know have been sorely missed in this area. (Maybe someone could introduce them to a good meat loaf recipe?) So I recommend it? If you are eager to see it for yourself and try it - sure. Just understand that there are some improvements needed which they will pick up on and fix. If you want to wait and give them some time to shake out the wrinkles, we hope that giving them some time will bring it up a notch or two. And is they are smart and read this article they will know exactly what they need to look closer at.

As we go along we will let you know what happens. As I say, we will be going back - and when there is something to write about, we will write it.

Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. I have seen three different phone numbers on two different phone listings - one with one number and another with two different numbers from each other and the one on the other listing. As a result I am not listing any phone number. There were no hours listed that we could see at the restaurant. There is no website and there is no Facebook page. Anything that you find about Global Buffet on the Internet if it does not say Levittown, NY it is not them. There was a Global Buffet that closed in Oswego, NY a year ago and there is a Global Buffet in Canada - that is definitely not related to this one. At some point there should be a website and a Facebook page -  but that is only a guess based on standard operating procedure for restaurants for this day and age.

Want A Golden Corral Near You?

For many of us the only buffet restaurants left anywhere near us are Asian buffets, and while they are fine, the loss of OCB, Ryan's, or Hometown Buffet has left a large gap in buffet choices in many places. For some that gap is filled by a Golden Corral that was not too far off to go to. For the rest of us - nothing!

Golden Corral's posts on Facebook are often responded to with requests for a Golden Corral to open some time soon nearby. Golden Corral does respond to these with the suggestion to go to their website and contact page and let them know where you want a Golden Corral. To make this easy for our readers to do here is a link that will take you directly to that page. There will be a drop down subject menu and BE SURE to pick this Subject - "I Would Like a Golden Corral In My City"

http://www.goldencorral.com/contact/


Golden Corral has announced that they have obtained some OCB, Ryan's and HomeTown closed location to make them Golden Corrals. They are not coming anywhere near us - and I know many in my area who keep asking where to go that OCB is gone. I have no answer - until now that I can share that we all need to let Golden Corral know that there is a lot of business waiting for them here!

Think Twice...

Just a short article before the holidays!

A popular holiday gift has been a gift certificate or gift redemption card for one of the chain buffet restaurants. I have been getting emails and see Facebook posts from Old Country Buffet, Golden Corral, Sweet Tomatoes. and Bonanza Steakhouse offering gift certificates with a bonus. With OCB it has been Buy a $25 gift certificate and get a bonus $5 gift certificate for yourself. When I saw that I recalled the many people who had received gift certificates for an OCB or a Ryan's or a Hometown buffet this past year and then found themselves with a gift certificate and no longer any restaurant to use it in.

Think twice if you are considering giving an OCB, Ryan's, or Hometown Buffet gift certificate this year. With the way that the restaurants are there one day and gone the next, you may be spending money on a worthless gift. The corporation would not refund the gift certificates when this had taken place before.

And my thoughts go out to all those OCB, etc. employees who thought last Christmas that they would still have a job this Christmas.

OCB's New Thing Is Take Out Family Holiday Dinners

It seems like Old Country Buffet is trying something new. You could always go in and take out a Styrofoam container of items you selected yourself from the buffet. Now OCB is trying to get you to come in and buy an entire holiday dinner of your family. With the few locations left, they will try anything...

If it keeps the remaining locations open - it is OK with me!

I would rather have it dining in at an OCB! I always enjoyed holiday dinners at OCB. At one of the local OCBs (there used to be two) there was always a very festive holiday feeling dining at the restaurant on a holiday which was a result of good management, a staff who did not appear to be disgruntled about working on a holiday, and the people who were there with their families to have an nice time!


INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: 

This promotion is also being offered - same photo - by Furr's Fresh Buffet, a small chain of buffets located in the Southwest US and owned by OCB's new owners, Food Management Partners - from before they bought OCB and the rest of the OCB related buffets. This chain's Facebook page and website shows all recent promotions that have been offered by OCB, Ryan's, and Hometown since the takeover. Evidently Furr's has been rolled into the OCB mix. Furr's Fresh Buffet menus are not like OCB's offerings. The entrees look much better and are better in variety. Furr's website is www.furrs.net .

Another Old Country Buffet Set to Close - And Maybe More...

We had a big shock tonight when we arrived at the last remaining Old Country Buffet in downstate New York (there are two others in upstate NY) when we saw a sign on the door that said "New Hours" and then listed breakfast and lunch hours and then said - "No longer doing Dinner hours".  This was computer printed - not from Corporate but from the location. There was a handwritten sign under this that said no dinner after August 8. What? Huh? This was a Sunday night. Inside the restaurant was buzzing with customers. We were there just three nights ago - there were no signs - it was business as usual.

I tried to find out.  "What is going on with no more dinner?" Employees were not talking. I don't know was the response. "I don't know anything." Well, we were able to find out. The restaurant is set to close permanently on September 12, 2016. The employees have been told. Some will lose their jobs now as there is no need for those who worked during dinner. Some of these employees have been working here for 18 years. Everyone will be fired in September. Of course, the problem when it has been announced to employees - which is should and needs to be - that they will soon be losing their jobs, they go off to find new jobs. The dinner cook has quit - and no one wants that job. They have tried and cannot hire anyone. Of course! So as you are reading this the dinner has been discontinued since Monday, August 8. The employees were told the reason is "the economy". What a crock! Golden Corral is booming. The Asian buffets in this area do very well - especailly from Fridays to Sundays. It is easy to blame the economy but we, who have been following what seems to be an intentional dissolution of this company by its new owners since they obtained it less than a year ago. They have been setting these restaurants up to fail all along! It is not the economy. The company has been in bankruptcy three times - though tonight we learned four times. Each due to mismanagement at the corporate level. This company was bought out less than a year ago and claims that they learned after the sale that the company that they bought was in a lawsuit over food poisoning. No corporation buys or takes over another corporation without full investigation by their law team of any and all litigation past and present.

Now - here is some speculation and I have no source for this - it is just a possible scenario for what is happening. There is a Federal Labor Law that says that when a company is going to close (not a location but the whole company) employees must be given X number of days notice that they will be losing their jobs. That X is 50 or 60. (Not sure which.) It is not like whatever name corporate is calling itself now - and I have heard three names for this company used interchangeably - has in its history walked in on the morning that they are closing a restaurant and hang a sign on the door. No notice. A big surprise to all who work there including management.  Now we have an Old Country Buffet that has been given notice of a close date - September 12. The employees have been notified. Could this indicate that all remaining restaurants will be closed on or about that date? I don't know - but it sounds very plausible. How sad!

We are very upset. The employees are VERY upset! You can see it in their faces. Regulars were going up to employees that they have come to know well and were saying goodbye to them. We dine there sometimes twice a week. This was THE ONLY non-Asian buffet for maybe a hundred miles. Maybe more. We have spent several Thanksgiving dinners here - a nice place to go when it is just the two of you and you have people all around you enjoying the holiday along with you. Now that is to be no more. I remember my first meal in an Old Country Buffet so long ago - it was in an OCB in Fredericksburg, VA - gone for some time now - perhaps because of a nearby Ryans - though it was gone before the merger. This was very likely my last meal in an Old Country Buffet - simply because there won't be one to have a meal in. Another loss.

I am going to ask you, Readers, to contact us if you know anything about other OCBs, Ryan's, or Hometown Buffets that have been given notice of closing. Perhaps you are an employee, a manager, or a customer. Let's get this out there. No names will be used in any reports that you share with us. Contact us - not by comment - but by email to artofthebuffet@gmail.com

We also welcome reactions of employees at all levels whose lives are being turned upside down by this company. Use the same email link above. We understand how upset you are but if you leave a comment please do not use any profanity - or we can't approve the comment to go to the article. If you use the email we can put a few *** instead of what is really what you want to say and post all of these comments in an article.

We are so sorry that employees and managers are being treated this way. You are (were) the backbone of the company and you deserve a lot more respect!

The Pie Nobody Seems to Want

For the past three months Old Country Buffet, Ryan's, and Hometowm Buffet, at least all those who are still open, have been trying to sell strawberry pies. This is an odd offer that Corporate has been pushing on the restaurants, sending emails out about it, emailing coupons, and prominently featuring a pie in a glass pie display with a sign on the counter of the cashier. "Take Home a Strawberry Pie! - $9.99"  I have gotten emails with coupons that say - "Buy any adult or senior dinner and take home a Strawberry Pie for $X." I say "$X" because X started out as $8.99, and then another coupon came that said $7.99, and most recently the coupon is for $6.99. At the cashier desk we caught a glimpse of "rules" for the cashier to follow in dealing with customers. One of those "rules" was sell the strawberry pie. Interestingly, we have never been asked to buy a strawberry pie by the cashier.

Now, why do I say this is odd. Certainly other restaurants and buffets have offered their baked goods for sale to take home - those they are well known for, those that customers can't get enough of. Well, the odd thing here is that they don't serve this pie in the restaurant. It has never been on the buffet and customers have never had an opportunity to taste it. When we asked if the pie is on the buffet when we first saw it at an OCB a few months ago, we were told that it would be on the buffet dessert bar in June. June came and went  - no strawberry pie.

You also have to wonder what are they looking to feature with this pie. Their great baking? It is not so great. In fact in all of the OCBs, etc. that I have been in over the years the baking is just fair. Often cakes are dry, baked goods are either over baked or under cooked, and frankly, their baking is nothing to brag about. I have taken and not eaten almost raw corn bread, crunchy stale chocolate cake, and other desserts that were not good at all. Where did they get the idea to sell pies that they don't serve? I wish I knew. But with this Corporation nothing makes sense.

Does the pie look good? I am not sure if what is on display is a real pie. I wonder if it is then at the end of the day what happens to it? It certainly is not cut up and put out on the dessert counter before closing - at least not when I have been there at that time. Is it the same pie sitting there day after day? I hope not, but it does not look like it is not fresh - yet it has sat there from opening to closing - with its dabs of whipped topping around the edge and its strawberries in glaze filling the pie shell. I say whipped topping because what OCB, etc.  put out on the dessert bar as whipped cream is a thickened artificial whipped topping that is not good. This has also shown up on other desserts.

And the price! I know bake goods sell at high prices these days - but I have bought some really excellent pies at bake shops for less than $9.99. I recently bought an exceptionally good Lemon Sponge Pie for $8.00. Selling an untasted Strawberry Pie for $9.99 where the baking is just fair is not a great sales idea. Now, had that pie been out on the buffet and people had a chance to have a slice - and they liked it, this would be different. 

I also have to wonder what happens if someone actually buys a pie. Do they run into the kitchen and start baking a fresh pie? Is it ready when you leave? Are they keeping a stock of pies in the kitchen that never seem to sell? I have never seen anyone buy a pie - and we have been in remaining OCBs since this pie feature has been introduced. Are the pies frozen and sold that way? I don't know. I certainly hope that these pies are not made each day and sit in the kitchen for as long as it takes to sell them - because I doubt they ever sell.

I hope that selling the pies is not a test of which locations they keep open. It would be terrible if not being able to sell these pies meant your restaurant was no the list to go next! Is selling pies no one has ever tasted going to bring the company out of yet another bankruptcy or boost income to the point that restaurants show a profit? I don't think so. It is all just so bizarre!

Here is a clue Ovation Brands or Food Management Partners or Buffets, LLC or whatever you are calling yourselves these days - if you want to sell a pie in a buffet that costs the ridiculous price of $9.99 - put it out on the buffet and let your customers find out that they like it - maybe then you will sell a few pies!

Just as this article was about to publish, it was learned that they have given up on selling the pies. As I suspected, no one bought them. It was said that more time was made in making the display pie each day than it was worth as the pies did not sell. So apparently that display pie every day was the real thing. I wonder who ate it - or after sitting under glass all day it was likely tossed.

BBQ Featured At Old Country Buffet

Yes, there are still Old Country Buffets, Ryan's and Hometown Buffets out there somewhere. You may have to travel far to get to one or you may be one of the lucky ones to have one of these restaurants nearby. It has been a long time since OCB and the rest have had a special feature and they are currently having one now, though if you go to their website you would never know it. They call it "Backyard BBQ". As all features, it is for a limited time. They do not say how long it will be available.

We had an opportunity to try it. It is served on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday at the dinner buffet with some items also at lunch.  When one hears BBQ in most of the US they think smoked meats in sauce while in some places - for example the Northeast, BBQ is what you cook on the backyard grill. This is neither. What you will find on the buffet with this feature is meats in sauce - not smoked meats - meats. OCB, many years past did BBQ well in summer month features. Like most of the restaurant chain now, those days are gone.

What we found - and what is noted on the poster at the cashier about "Backyard BBQ" - was "BBQ" Brisket, "BBQ" chicken" (available all day), Boneless pork ribs, Pulled Pork, and Smoked sausage (available all day). The poster shows corn on the cob cooked on a grill - complete with charred kernels - there was none of that to be found. It would be better to describe this feature as "BBQ-style" if one is going to be honest in advertising. Nothing here has been cooked for hours and hours in a smoker. You will find no smoke ring around the edge of the brisket. Nothing is fall off the bone tender. The brisket was baked in an oven and then the outside was covered in BBQ sauce after it was cooked. The chicken was baked with BBQ sauce over the skin. The Boneless Pork Ribs were baked in a pan with BBQ sauce. The Pulled Pork is made without sauce. The smoked sausage is the usual OCB smoked sausage cut up and baked in a pan with onions and green peppers in a overly sweet sauce (not really BBQ sauce) which they have been serving on and off for years.  While they are not mentioned anywhere on the poster, they threw in the honey riblets that they have also been serving for a long time.

I love BBQ. When I saw the poster, I was anxious to get to OCB to try this. I have eaten real BBQ in a  number of restaurants in the South and have always enjoyed it. I have also had some of OCB's BBQ in the past including their Baby Back Ribs which at one time were excellent - though the last time around - about a year ago that they came back onto the buffet - they were not good at all. We had a chance to go and we went - me, with great anticipation, and my picky eater wife who does not eat BBQ at all hoping that some of the regular buffet items that she eats would be there.  We were both disappointed.

Let's start with the "BBQ" Brisket. I know that corned beef and brisket are the same cut of meat prepared differently. The brisket that was served to me at OCB looked more like a cut of corned beef than any BBQ brisket that I have ever had. It was baked to a hard crust on the outside - it seemed that within that crust were the spices and herbs used when cooking a corned beef. It was 75% fat and 25% meat. When I cut a piece and put it in my mouth I could not chew it. It was like rubber. I chewed as long as I could and it went down eventually, perhaps whole. I decided later to go back for another try just in case the next brisket that was brought out might be a better piece of meat and cooked better than the first one that I sampled. There was less fat, and it chewed a little better. I added more BBQ sauce from the squeeze bottle that was at the taco bar, to give it more "BBQ" flavor. Both times, despite the fat, the meat was dry. The second try was a minor improvement over the first. At least it was slightly easier to chew.

The Boneless pork ribs - these have been at OCB in the past. They are not really pork ribs. They are a pork roast cut up into strips, put in a pan with BBQ like sweet sauce and baked. There is no resemblance in any way to a BBQ pork rib - not in taste, texture, or appearance. I cut a piece of the "rib" and put it in my mouth. The meat was hard, dry, and again difficult to chew. It was not tasty.

The pulled pork - oh boy!  It looks like pulled pork - it is baked pork pulled apart and it is close in appearance to what to expect pulled pork is without the sauce. It sits in a pan of grease - deep grease - likely the fat that has melted off the pork as it was re-heated after it was shred. There are burned, hard pieces mixed in with shreds of pork meat accompanied by pieces of pure fat. All of this is swimming in clear, yellow grease. I carefully picked pieces from the top that were just above the grease. It was not easy and despite great effort came up with shreds dripping in grease that also went on my plate.  I went to the same BBQ sauce squeeze bottle and covered the pulled pork so that it would become as close as possible to BBQ pulled pork. If this was not full of fat and swimming in grease it would be OK, but the grease and fat make this unappetizing in the serving tray as well as while eating it, and I was hesitant to eat it. I did pick through what I took to avoid the pieces of fat and the charred outside meat that was mixed in.

The "BBQ" chicken is the same baked chicken regularly served at OCB but with BBQ sauce put on the outside of the skin and baked. It is red on the outside. To be fair, we did not try it.

The smoked sausage - smoked only because that is how you buy this type of sausage - as I said earlier is the same as OCB has served for years. When I eat this I usually wipe the sauce off of it because it is not BBQ sauce and it is overly sweet. I am a smoked sausage fan, but not of this one. I would have much rather have this sausage grilled on OCB's chargrill and served dry. Even when it is boiled and served over sauerkraut it is better than this.

What can I say about Honey Riblets? I have said this before - in fact I even said this to the OCB regional rep who contacted our site a year ago for feedback on OCB and its menu. The Honey Riblets are short sections of flat pork bone (ribs, I suppose) connected by grizzle and a tiny bit of hard, overcooked meat. They are burned, overly sweet, not tasty, and not worth the effort of trying to scrape out the bit of meat with your teeth. For some reason, these ribs live on at OCB - too often served week after week for a very long time now.

There was one side dish on the buffet that I have not seen before. It had no label and it looked like baked corn bread - which it could have been, though there was another tray of baked corn bread out and this one was baked in a deep tray. I noticed a corn kernel in the pan so I took a small amount to try. I suppose it was supposed to be corn pudding. It was an underdone corn bread with a few corn kernels in the mix.

Along with all of this there were a few of the usual OCB menu entree items - popcorn shrimp, baked fish, orange chicken, fried chicken, and meatloaf. At the carving station aside from the brisket and the boneless ribs, there was the usual ham and dry roast beef. None of this really made my picky eater wife happy. She took some of the popcorn shrimp. She later took a slice of ham. And she also made a vegetable plate, for lack of anything else to take that she eats.  I too a variety of the "BBQ" items once, had meatloaf next (I like OCB meatloaf) and then took the second try of the brisket and nothing else.  As has happened on other occasions in which I bring my wife to a buffet where it turns out there is little for her to choose from of things she will eat, I felt bad for her. She pushes on, however, and goes along - even when she knows before that she will find little that she will eat.

It is hard to understand the current owners. They seem to be setting the rest of the locations to fail so that they will have an excuse to close them all down. They certainly could have done a BBQ feature much better. They certainly could provide better cuts of meat and better recipes to cook it. Wouldn't it have been nice if part of this feature was their famous, and much sought after Beef Ribs made with the original recipe! Those come up in so many discussions about what is missed at OCB! They could have provided better brisket, trimmed off the fat, and come up with a way to cook it slow and moist. I don't expect them to have a smoker, but there are ways to cook meat to be real close to smoked BBQ. This was not it. And don't let the photos in the poster fool you - what you get is not what it looks like on the poster.

Now despite all of this, my wife likes OCB - and I do also, depending on what is being served. I will continue to go to OCBs, Ryans, and even try a Hometown Buffet (if I ever come across one) but we won't be going on "Backyard BBQ" nights. "Backyard BBQ" gets an A for idea, C for effort, and D for execution.

The Survivors

I have been asked by readers to go back to a weekly format for this site during this crisis at Old Country Buffet, et.al. Since this is a breaking story that seems to have a lot of interest by our readers I will do that while there is anything new to report. I will return on the alternate weeks with our regular articles and when there is something to report about OCB, etc. I will put out an article on that in the week between. This is the first of those articles.  If you are one of the managers or employees who lost their jobs during this massacre in the past two months - or even if they relocated you and are willing to tell your story anonymously, please leave a comment on any of our articles relating to the closings or send us an email through the email link at the side of this page. Without further information or stories we have nothing to write about and report. We are happy to keep this story alive, but we need everyone's help to do so. My anonymous insiders are currently silent. (I would be too if my job was at stake.)

I have a list here of all of the restaurants that have survived so far in the closings of Food Management Partners'  Buffets LLC in the months of February and March 2016. What is most interesting to note is the counts of the restaurant brands that remain. There are 58 Hometown Buffets (45 of these are in California - all in California are Hometown Buffets), 41 Ryan's, 32 Old Country Buffets (the once leader of the chain), and 2 Country Buffets. Fire Mountain is gone completely.If I have added this up correctly there are 133 Survivors.

I am curious about the number of Hometown Buffets. At one time - years ago - I had learned that the Hometown Buffets were franchised - each being owned outside the Buffets, Inc (the corporate name at the time) by franchisees. More recently, I was told that all restaurants in the chain were owned by Buffets, Inc which became Ovation which became Food Management Partners which sub-grouped all into Buffets LLC. So - are these Hometown Buffets franchises - and safe from the whims of FMP or are they just lucky. And why so many in California, particularly that escaped closure?

I also find it interesting that Ryan's - the buffets that Buffets, Inc. purchased to destroy and turn the remainder into OCB clones has survived greater than Old Country Buffet - the flagship chain of the corporation! Since I have seen at least some Ryan's (sadly all gone now) maintained a good part of their former menu and did not change their menus to total OCB, this tells me that Ryan's had it right all along. At one time I saw Ryan's as the best chain buffet in the U.S. - better than Golden Corral and far better than OCB. Perhaps had the Ryan's menu - and grill in the dining room (many OCB's never got one) - been put in every OCB the whole chain would be thriving now rather than dying.

Well - for those who would like to see who survived, here are the buffets by state and town/city. Next to each is a letter - O for Old Country Buffet, R for Ryan's, H for Hometown, and C for Country Buffet.  If there are further closing we will try to update the list when we can.

Alabama

Foley R

Arizona

Glendale O
Mesa O
Phoenix O

California

Anaheim H
Bakersfield H
Bell H
Burbank H
Canoga Park H
Chula Vista H
Citrus Heights H
Clonis H
Concord H
Corona H
Downey H
Fairfield H
Fresno H
Fresno #2 H
Garden Grove H
Howard H
Hemet H
La Hambra H
Lakewood H
Loma Linda H
Modesto H
Montebello H
Moreno H
National City H
Newark H
Oxnard H
Palmdale H
Palm Desert H
Rancho Cucamonga H
Redding H
Rialto H
Salinas H
San Diego H

San Jose  H
Santa Ana H
Santa Clara H
Santa Maria H
Stockton H
Torrance H
Turlock H
Van Nuys H
Visalia H
Westchester H

Colorado

Colorado Springs C
Denver C

Connecticut

Manchester H

Delaware

Newark O

Florida

Crestview R
Pace R

Georgia

Athaus R
Commerce R
Rome R
Waycross R

Illinois

Chicago O
Effingham R
Mount Vernon R

Indiana

Highland O

Iowa

Cedar Rapids R

Kansas

Shawnee R

Kentucky

Bowling Green R

Louisiana

Lake Charles R
Ruston R

Maine

South Portland H

Maryland



Michigan

Burton O
Jackson O
Kalamazoo O
Saginaw O


Minnesota

Burnsville O


Mississippi

Columbus R
Corinth R
Picayune R

New Jersey

Edison H

New York

Bay Shore O
Buffalo O
Elmira O

North Carolina

Asheville R
Salisbury R
Sylva R

Ohio


Niles H
Sandusky H
Toledo H
Wooster R

Oregon

Beaverton H
Medford H
Portland H
Salem H
Springfield H

Pennsylvania

Hanover R
Harrisburg O

Philadelphia O
Whitehall O
York O

South Carolina

Anderson R
Greenville R

North Augusta R
North Myrtle Beach R
Summerville R

Tennessee


Greenville R
Lebanon R
Madison R
Union City R

Texas

Conroe R
Lake Jackson R
Waxahachie R

Virginia

Woodbridge O

Washington (State)

Bellevue O

Kennewick O
Kennewick #2 O
Puyallup O
Tacoma O
Union Gap O
Vancouver H

West Virginia


Charleston R
Clarksburg R
Princeton R

Wisconsin

Eau Claire O
Greenfield O
Jamesville H



TWO buffets were removed from this list that were closed on May 9, 2016. One more buffet was removed from this list that was closed on May 11, 2016. Eleven more buffets was removed from this list that were closed on June 14, 2016.

Buffets LLC Files AGAIN for Bankruptcy

What is going on in the world of buffets at this very moment is too crazy to not focus on right now despite that we were in the midst of our Top Buffets of 2015 series of articles. For the moment that those articles will be delayed for two weeks more.

What a disaster is happening right now with Old Country Buffet, Ryan's, Fire Mountain, Hometown Buffet and the other buffet restaurants that were once part of Ovation Brands that "merged" (read "taken over") by Food Management Partners less than a year ago in 2015! As we reported in our last article there were Ryan's that were being closed but it did not stop there. We then learned that 80 restaurants throughout the chain with the various "brands" - OCB, Ryan's, etc. were to be closed before opening on Sunday, March 6, 2016. We, at Art of the Buffet, were tipped off before it happened. We were not told which restaurants would close - and since then the media in the areas were restaurants were shut suddenly started reported restaurants that were closed by greeting the employees and managers at the door - not being allowed inside - and told go home you don't have a job anymore. This is how Ovation did it a few years ago - and it is how they have done it now. Our local OCB in Levittown, NY was one of the restaurants shut down. We have learned that the manager of that OCB was told at 10:00 am on Sunday when he arrived at work intending to open the store.  At one restaurant in Memphis, TN the local police were called in to remove the employees from in front of the restaurant - with local news crews watching!

We have learned since Sunday that Ovation Brands has filed for bankruptcy. This is the third bankruptcy that Ovation Brands formerly Buffet's Inc. has filed. This one since their take over by Food Management Partners who have been and are currently controlling everything now - making the  decisions to close the restaurants - and while Ovation Brands is the name on the bankruptcy the decision to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy is coming from Food Management Partners. The names of the companies gets a little confusing at this point. Apparently, Ovations Brands after the merger was renamed Buffets and was made a LLC - Limited Liability Corporation. Buffets. LLC is within Food Management Partners. So Buffets, LLC is what was once Buffets, Inc. and then Ovation Brands. Up until a week ago, the name Ovation Brands appeared on all coupons and such released for OCB, Ryan's, etc.

That 92 restaurants were closed on Sunday and 74 were closed in February. We had heard 80 - there were more. We had heard that 150 would remain open - another source says about 90 are still open. We have no confirmation on that. Another source says that before this rash of closings, there were 243 restaurants in the chain. Less the 166 restaurants just closed (92+74) leaves only 77 restaurants still remaining. Golden Corral must be thrilled as they are in many areas the only player in town now. And sadly, they are many areas were there is no Golden Corral and none for almost 100 plus miles or more.

This is what we know about the bankruptcy (from WHAM, Rochester Ch. 13). The story comes out of San Antonio, Texas. Buffets, LLC says now that its intent is to "restructure by closing certain weaker restaurants and recapitalize its business." Everything in the "stores" (restaurants) will be auctioned off by an online auction company. (We have heard from one of our readers that food in storage at the restaurants was picked up by employees of the nearest other restaurant in the chain and taken to that location. Of course if there was no other near location we can only assume that it was disposed of - my comment - I have no confirmation of this.)  The auctions have ended at this point.

According to WHAM, Rochester, NY at the Greece NY OCB - "A sign on the door stated that the location is "closed for asset inventory" until March 8. Employees were directed to report back for further instruction from 2-4 p.m. on March 8." At the Levittown OCB the sign on the door that we saw on Monday says just "CLOSED. GO TO BAY SHORE" - Bay Shore is another OCB 20 miles further east on Long Island. We went to Bay Shore this week - none of the employees from Levittown were there. We are not sure about management - though the general manager from Levittown was no where to be seen and if they lose him, they have lost someone who given the resources to do so would keep the restaurant full of customers. Continue to tie his hands - and there will be more closings.

Per WHAM, Rochester  - " "Buffets, LLC, was acquired by merger in August of 2015. The Chapter 11 filing is prompted by the discovery of liabilities, or alleged liabilities, that we believe were not disclosed in our negotiations," says Peter Donbavand, Vice President for Business Development. "We intend to investigate the propriety of the disclosures, and intend to consult with our counsel regarding any remedies we may have." This was also stated by Mr. Donbavand - "a "precipitous decline in sales" at some restaurants that was unusual."  These were called "weaker restaurants". There was also a law suit that Food Management claims not to have known about in Nebraska where a couple sued an OCB due to salmonella poisoning that led to kidney failure in the man after eating at an OCB in 2010. A Wyoming US District Judge awarded a judgement of $11.37 million after failed to respond to the lawsuit when it was brought in 2014. Now the dates here get a little screwy - Ovation says that this is after they were sold to FMP - we know that sale did not happen until September 2015. Ovation says it was not them that had to respond - even if they were called Buffets, Inc. in 2010, then a name change does not clear a corporation of responsibility for a law suit. Obviously, the judge thought this also - and gave a default judgement of a LOT of money. Law suits are public record. Don't tell me this was not known by FMP when they were buying out Ovation.

I have to respond to Mr. Donbavand's last comment - "precipitous decline in sales"? Why not be up front and say we did everything we could to have our buffets lose customers and make it nearly impossible to run a successful business. When Food Management Partners took over they cut salaries and benefits of employees and managers. They did nothing to improve the menu at any of the restaurants. And they cut back on the number of employees working at any one given time at the buffets so that there was one person carving and also trying to refill buffet trays, two to three employees taking care of all of the tables in the restaurant including have to remove plates when finished, keep the area clean, and then clean the restaurant for closing. How do I know this? I watched it as it was happening at two different OCBs  and a Ryan's - and only one of those survived - for the moment. These buffets were set up to fail by Corporate. I don't buy the story that financial liabilities "we believe" were not disclosed in negotiations. He has got to be kidding us! If this so called large food management corporation went into merger or take over with any company, you know that every page of the financial records were scrutinized before a dollar changed hands.

The story now is we have closed all of these buffets to keep the rest open. I would love to believe that - I see more closings coming and the end of existence of all of the OCB, etc. buffet restaurants.  I, truly, hope not.

My sincere best wishes to all those who lost their jobs at these buffets in the past two months. You all did the best that you could do given the meager resources you had to keep these restaurants running. No notice! I am guessing no compensation package. Just terrible! 

As we have offered in the past - if you - the employees and managers - wish to anonymously tell your story respond to this article by either comment or send us an email. If we get enough emails and responses we will put them together in an article all their own - or if not, we will put the emails here as comments preserving your anonymity.

 

Ovations Brands AKA Food Management Partners Is At It AGAIN!

I am sorry to interrupt our series on the Top Buffets of 2015, but this is just too major to not report on right now. I was recently informed by one of our readers "in the know" that a Fire Mountain Buffet (one of the Ovation Brands/OCB buffets) was recently closed in Chippewa Township, PA. It seemed to me that perhaps this was a random closing until just searching for our favorite Ryan's Buffet in Fredericksburg, Virginia. We looked at the Ryan's locations listings as we wanted to sign up at that location for Ryan's coupons through the "Crave Connection" club. When I searched the locations, no location came up for Fredericksburg. We have been there many times and as recently as August. It was then that I started to realize that Corporate is on the rampage again - and sure enough, I confirmed that the Fredericksburg, VA Ryans was closed.

I started to do a little more digging and not only were these two buffet restaurants closed but 74 buffets including Old Country Buffet, Hometown Buffet, Ryan’s, Fire Mountain and Country Buffet restaurants. This was reported on February 4, 2016 so this happened just prior. I was told that the closings were done in typical Ovation Brands fashion - employees and management arrived for work to find the doors locked shut and were told by Corporate representatives that they no longer worked there. Goodbye, farewell, no notice, you are gone! This is exactly what happened in 2008 and then again in 2011 and still again in 2012 when Ovation Brands, then called Buffets, Inc. went across the country closing buffet restaurants. This past August, 2015 Ovation Brands was bought by Food Management Partners and it was speculated as to what they would do with the chain of buffets that they acquired - all of the Old Country Buffet, Hometown Buffet, Ryan’s, Fire Mountain and Country Buffet restaurants. Well now we know. 

Quoting from The Free Lance Star - Fredericksburg.com -  “Since that time, we have continued to execute former management’s operating plan to stabilize and enhance the performance of the company,” Peter Donbavand, Ovation Brands’ vice president of business development said in a news release. “However, based on ongoing assessments of individual restaurants, it is necessary to shutter locations for the continued viability of the brands and our employees.”  He goes on to say that they will continue to operate the remaining buffets that they acquired as they are "financially viable".  From the same source he is also quoted as saying, “We know that these decisions are not easy, however, we strongly believe that this direction is best for the long-term health of all brands.”

There is indication that when Food Management Partners took over they cut salaries and benefits of both restaurant managers and employees. These guys came in with a heavy fist.

The Ryan's in Fredericksburg, VA was a favorite of ours. It was a must stop when going through that area - on the way south and then again when on the way back north. If I had to say what was the best Ryans we have ever been to it would be the Fredericksburg Ryans. It was a Ryans that maintained many of the featured entrees from the original Ryans menu and while it has to incorporate many of the dishes from OCB after the so-called merge of the chains, it kept serving Ryan's favorites. It had the best grill of any Ryans that we have ever been to - with people at the grill cooking who knew what they were doing. Ask for a steak rare - and if they did not have one they put a steak on and cooked it for you - with an apology that it would take several minutes. And then when it was done the person behind the grill would come out to your table with the steak on a plate and hand it to you. No other Ryans ever came close to that in our experience. We were so disheartened when we learned that it was closed. Table staff were good as well - as was management. We went into Ryans this past August with a Crave Connection email coupon. The cashier looked at the coupon and was confused - as it was offering dinner at a price higher than what they charged. She called over the management and we explained that the coupon came from out of Virginia. Not a problem - he took their current price and discounted it to the same percentage as the coupon would have come to had we used it at home. All with a smile. This specific restaurant will be sorely missed.  If they were not doing well, it can not be due to location - they were located in the middle of a major shopping center, and it cannot be due to competition - there is no OCB for many miles and the only other buffet chain - but not that close - is Golden Corral. As I have witnessed, Corporate seems to push these restaurants to the point that they cannot maintain adequate staffing which ultimately results in poor customer service and satisfaction - plus they push the OCB menu on the other restaurants that is not at all as good as, for example, the original Ryan's menu was.  Heck, they do this with OCBs as well!

Our condolences go out to all of the employees and managers who have lost their jobs. I am so sorry to learn that this has happened to all of you by this corporation once again. We invite any employee or manager who would like to leave a comment about what happened at your location and what went down that day that they showed up to tell you to go home (please be as civil as possible as we will not print anything that is defaming or vulgar - and I know that this is how you are all feeling right now).

Now I am off to find out what other Ryans that we have gone to are now gone too.

Top Buffets of 2015 will continue with the next article.

What is Going On at Old Country Buffet?

I have to wonder what has been going on at Old Country Buffet. We have been going fairly regularly to a local Old Country Buffet, one I recommended as improving not very long ago in Levittown, New York. Things there have been going down hill - again. The management has not changed. What is being served has changed. How the food is being maintained and put out on the buffet has changed drastically. I rarely get ill after eating at any of the many buffets that we have been to over the year. In the span of several weeks after a meal here, that is exactly what happened - and too soon after the meal for it to have been anything else. This I blame on how the food is being maintained once out on the buffet - and goes from soup to soft serve ice cream.

What I can attribute to this particular location is how the food is being put out and maintained on the buffet and I will get to that shortly> What I am not sure about is who is deciding on the choices of the entrees being served on the buffet - which now change very little from night to night and are greatly lacking. This I believe is coming from the new corporate entity that bought out Ovation Brands and has taken over ownership and stewardship of the Old Country Buffet restaurants. I know from discrete conversations with OCB restaurant managers that they are told by the company what items to serve on any one particular night - and it was implied that these are consistent throughout the chain. I have to wonder if  "new corporate" is going out of their way to make the restaurants fail.

What is happening with the food items chosen? For months now there has been no turkey carving at OCB. This has been a standard carving since the restaurants opened. I understand that there is a turkey "shortage" in the US due to bird flu - but this has not seemed to have effected any other buffet chain or buffet restaurant that we have been to for many months right to today. There is turkey at Golden Corral. There has been turkey at all of the Lancaster buffets. There has been turkey at casino buffets. The only place that seems to have had a need to remove turkey from their offerings is Old Country Buffet. Thanksgiving dinner at OCB was not advertised until a few days before Thanksgiving - no posters in the restaurants at all up to the night before - just a single email saying that there would be Thanksgiving dinner served and there would be turkey. They found turkeys to server for Thanksgiving - but that was it - just Thanksgiving. On some nights the turkey carving has been replaced with pork roast but on some of those same nights the main meat served at the buffet in all of the entrees except the roast beef and some chicken has been pork. I like pork, but how many pork dishes need to be on a buffet in the same night. The idea of eating at a buffet is having a variety. There is little variety now. Rarely do we find meatloaf. Certainly there is no shortage of meatloaf.

So what is there? Roast beef, baked chicken, fried chicken, some type of ribs - either baby back ribs (which had been an advertised feature for a time) or sweet sauce soaked riblets, ham, fried fish sticks or baked fish, sometimes spaghetti and then one or two things that are supposed to vary but often don't such as small burgers in mushroom sauce, pot roast, unlabeled chunks of possibly chicken in a mystery sauce, pulled pork without bbq sauce, sausage patties in a thick and sweet orange sauce, and chicken pot pies cooked and served in small ramekin dishes. And often if you come in more than once in a week you will find exactly the same thing that was there the night that you had been there just before.

Before the corporate buyout. in an anonymous conversation that I had with a then corporate representative of Ovation Brands, the move was to return the items to the menu that many had loved over the years at OCB in an effort to bring back customers who had stopped coming because what was good on OCB's buffet was no longer being served. Well, that never seemed to happen - and it has just gotten worse now that they are "under new ownership". 

Now, lets look at what is going on at the local restaurant. Regardless of the night now, from busy weekend dinner to slow but not empty weeknight, food is coming out way overcooked and allowed to sit and dry out. Tonight's meal was the ultimate. There is not much that can be done wrong with macaroni and cheese, tonight and other nights, the mac and cheese has been completely dried out on top. Get any of the top layer in what you spoon onto your plate and that is hard, rubbery, and not possible to chew. The sting beans were dried out. The ham was overdone and its meat darkened where it should have been pink. The tray of spaghetti was a tray of hard, dried out, crinkled spaghetti sitting in oil. The small tomatoes on the salad bar were mushy and their peels wrinkling and dry. The small burgers in what was once mushroom sauce were little pucks of meat with dried gravy over the surface. The tray of baked fish was dried out. The pizza had come out over done and burnt and only dried out more under the heat lamp. The topper was the piece of chocolate cake that I took for dessert was stale. There was no sign of a manager and no one working came around to stir a tray or remove a tray of food that just should not have been kept out to be served.

On other nights we have found pulled pork sitting in a tray deep with grease, pot roast that had been served that was either seasoned oddly or was just not right, fried chicken that was so overcooked that the outer crust was too hard to bite through to the point of risking breaking a tooth. The chicken noodle soup has been so salty on some nights that it was inedible. There have been nights that the soft serve ice cream has tasted sour - of course with one taste it was not eaten.

This meal costs $14.00 at local OCBs. In this area the only other buffets are Asian buffets but compared in price to the popular ones here, OCB is higher or the same price but those Asian buffets are giving a far better meal that is prepared and maintained correctly. If I compare what is being served with any of the Lancaster buffets - some of which are lower in price - there is no comparison to the quality food that is being served and well maintained on the buffet at those other buffets. Compare OCB to Golden Corral - oh how I wish there was a Golden Corral that did not involve a lot of money in tolls and gasoline to get to - Golden Corral is the far better buffet. There is something wrong here and it needs attention. Is there supervision from the new corporation? I have to wonder.  As I say, the problem is on two both ends -the local restaurant that has to cook and maintain what they put on the buffet properly, and the new owners who are directing the choices of the foods being served. Both are lacking terribly right now. Perhaps it is just here locally - perhaps it is chain wide. I don't know. I do know that this is no way to continue to stay in business - but perhaps that is exactly what the new owners want.

This troubled us so much tonight that I pushed another article scheduled for publication tonight to a future date and I have delayed writing the article I had intended to write next. I had so much hope for this particular OCB as the manager had been turning things around. As the downward turn has coincided with the corporate change I have to conclude that the two are connected. And I thought I was finished writing poor reviews of Old Country Buffets. Ah well. I am better off eating home that going to OCB - and despite good cooking at home - I really like going out to a buffet for dinner.

Lunch at Old Country Buffet

I do not often write about lunch at a buffet. We have been to OCB for lunch in the past a few times but that was a long time ago. One of the problems that I see with lunch at a buffet is that it is far too much to eat for lunch - unless you are not planning on having dinner afterward. Well, we had an event to be at that was going to go from early evening until after 10 pm and we decided that we would go to OCB for lunch and this would be a meal to keep us for the day until this event was over late that night.

I was a bit disappointed when I saw what was offered on the buffet at lunch. Much of the lighter fare items that we remembered on the buffet were gone. Perhaps some might see this as a good thing, but I really was not interested in repeating a dinner that we had a few nights before at OCB for lunch - minus the carvings. Lunch is $10.99 including beverage, of course. There is a senior price and there has also been a senior feature price of $7.99 which is one of the reasons why most of the people who you will find eating at OCB on a weekday at lunch are seniors.

I came expecting what I remembered at OCB for lunch - hamburgers, hot dogs, country fried steak, grilled cheese sandwiches, along with fried chicken and a few other entrees and the usual sides. Gone were most of these, other than the fried chicken and the grilled cheese sandwiches. Grilled cheese sandwiches are a rather odd thing to find at a buffet but they seem to have remained even after the long time since we had been in for lunch. What was there was most of what is on the buffet for dinner but, again, no carvings, and none of the little pots that they persist in serving.  There was meatloaf - but perhaps I should say meat crumble. I thought that the meatloaf had just been picked through to the point that what was left just fell apart, but shortly later another tray of it came out and it was just the same - crumbled chopped meat with ketchup over it - sitting in grease. I passed on that. There was chicken and dumpling which is found on the dinner buffets on and off, but the dumplings were huge - large balls of flour that were the equivalent of two, and perhaps three, of the usual OCB dumplings in chicken and dumplings (think of these "dumplings" as more Bisquick biscuits that have been dropped into the creamed chicken mixture with vegetables to cook). There was "BBQ" chicken that was dried out and did not look very appetizing. I had seen this when we had been there prior for dinner and at that time I could not tell what it was and had to ask - when I heard that it was bbq chicken, I responded, "you're kidding me".  There was fried chicken, there was baked chicken, and there was orange chicken. There was a small tray of smoked sausage in sauerkraut. I actually had a bit of a problem finding what to take to eat. Had the meatloaf been normal, I likely would have made most of my meal with that. I ate chicken and dumplings - trying to find the little amount of chicken that was in the tray and cutting the dumplings in half before taking them. I also had a little of the smoked sausage and a bit of the orange chicken which I should not have been eating as it is covered in sweet sauce. I even took a half of grilled cheese sandwich. All in all I would have been happier had I come in and found the burgers and hot dogs. Even though this was to be a meal to keep us going late into the night, what was on the buffet was just too heavy to have mid-day.

One thing about lunch at OCB is that trays are not emptied and not replaced. Another is that it is early enough in the day for the floors to remain clean (though that has not been as much of a problem as it had been in the past). Another plus, at least not when the kids are off for the summer, is that there are no, or at least very few, kids running around or up at the buffet with their hands in trays.

I have been to better buffets at lunch over the years (the few times we have done a lunch buffet) - the best being Shady Maple in PA which combines some of dinner with lunch items at a much reduced price from dinner, followed by Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation which was very nice for lunch. OCB is just OK at lunch - at least as it was on this experience. One other thing that did not happen on this visit that has happened on those past lunch visits for us - the dinner buffet starts at 3:00 pm and during the last forty-five minutes to a half hour before that, dinner items would begin to be brought out, replacing lunch items. Well, since it was mostly dinner items to start with, that did not happen. Nothing on the buffet changed past 3 - they even brought out more grilled cheese sandwiches.

Breakfast buffet is not served at OCB during the week and that ends about 11 am. That would likely have been more exciting.

Many Improvements at the Levittown, NY Old Country Buffet

I have said many times on this site that the manager and employees can make or break a buffet restaurant and that has been so true at the Levittown, New York Old Country Buffet since it opened many years ago. I have written many times about this buffet - mainly in the negative - but there have been some significant changes over this past winter and they coincide with a change in the general manager.

The general manager who is now at the Levittown OCB had been one of the secondary managers of the Bay Shore, New York Old Country Buffet. He had been there since at least when one of the best buffet managers we have ever encountered (I have written about that manager referring to him as "Mr. Smiley" in past articles) and it is my opinion that under that tutelage this manager, himself, became an excellent manager. He is now at Levittown OCB with his name on the front door as General Manager and he has taken what had been what has been referred to as the "worst OCB" to one that is improvingly good. 








I have said in the past that I would never go back to the Levittown OCB, but this rough Long Island winter made traveling to the Bay Shore OCB too difficult and I found myself one night deciding to go back to Levittown. What a surprise when we went inside - first seeing who was the manager and then seeing how things had changed. We have been back numerous times since then and have noted continued improvement. Now, I am not talking about the food selections as that is completely in the hands of Corporate that seems now to completely dictate the menu - and we spoke about this in our last article.




So what is different. For one thing there is a change in the cleanliness of the dining room. The floors (carpets) that were rarely kept clean in the past are now clean. Of course, a busy day can take its toll on the floors around and under the tables of the best buffet restaurants, but an effort is being made to keep these floors now clean.

In the past, food trays would sit empty for hours - and when something came out to replace the empty tray, it would often have a very dis-similar item, for example, rolls for a meat entree. We have seen fairly consistently that if a meat entree runs out, a different meat entree is brought out if the original is not available. We have seen ongoing supervision of the buffet tables and orders sent into the kitchen that items were about to run out and needed replacing. Some items still take a long time to come out, but eventually they do come out - and a few times we have seen another item that is ready come out quickly to that spot while the item to be replaced is being cooked and eventually is back out. This is a big improvement here.

One thing that we immediately noticed when we first came back was that many of the people who had been working here in the past were gone and replaced with workers that actually seemed to care about what they are doing - and made an effort to get their jobs done and communicate clearly with the customers (which had been a big problem here in the past). I often observed in the past that what the Levittown OCB needed was a clean sweep of staff and that is almost what has taken place here. One other thing is that one of the better table staff from Bay Shore was brought here and appears to be (though I do not know this for sure) to be overseeing the rest of the table staff while he is also taking care of tables. Good manager plus good employees equal good buffet.

A good manager needs to be seen in the dining room and around the buffet and that is now happening here. He talks with the guests. He pays attention to what is going on. All so very much needed here and happening now. 

Now, is all of this consistent? It is fairly consistent, but I have also observed that it is still somewhat dependent upon this manager being on duty - and, of course, the guy has to have a day or night off sometime. When he is not there, some things slip back - though not completely back. Also when new table people are starting, clearing of tables can get lax - but that now seems to be the exception and not the norm - as it once was. We have been here on extremely busy nights - and while it was an effort for the kitchen to keep up with getting more food out - the table was taken care of as it should be. But there has been the occasional night - our most recent, as a mater of fact was one - when the buffet was not crowded and a new table server was letting the dishes pile up on the table (ours and others) much too high - getting there eventually to clear what had become a tall stack way - but it should never have gotten to that point, especially given the few tables in this section with diners. We had never seen this server working here before - hopefully this server gets the idea, and if not, is gone. I rather hope this employee gets the idea, improves, and stays.

Things are definitely better at the Levittown OCB. We decided one night to go back to Bay Shore and were very disappointed that the food was not being replaced and the selections were less than what we have been experiencing in Levittown.While one time we would have felt going to Levittown was a mistake, on this return to Bay Shore we felt that going there was a mistake.

My hope is that Corporate recognizes how well improved this location is BUT does not take this great manager away and move him elsewhere - which has happened in the past. And secondary management here needs to learn from this man and follow both his manner with customers and attention to what is going on.

Congratulations to the new manager and his staff! Keep up the good work! (And I'll bet there are a lot of our readers who thought that they would never read that here about the Levittown OCB!)

What the Heck is Going on With Old Country Buffet?!?

There have been some big changes at Old Country Buffet over the past six months - perhaps longer in other areas of the country - and not for the better. I am not talking about any particular Old Country Buffet location but with the chain as a whole. I am talking about the change in menu and how some foods are not being served.

To start - and certainly, no surprise to anyone that regularly goes to an Old Country Buffet or has been to one since this past summer - there is no longer steak served. Steak was a regular feature every night - as it is (was?) at Ryans and as it is at Golden Corral. Now, I was never a big fan of OCB steak as in all of the OCBs that I have been to it was cooked on a grill in the kitchen and brought out to a steam table where it sat until each steak was carved and served. I know that there are OCB's with grills right out at the carving area and steaks are cooked to order, but that was not chain-wide. Well, it does not matter any more as steak every night - or any night - is gone.

In the place of steak, in the two OCBs that are local enough for me to go to, a buffet table was partially covered with a flat heat tray and little pots of meat - sometimes steak sitting on one type of potatoes or another are laid out. As it turned out these pots change every couple of months to what they are calling new features. So there has been pulled pork barbecue sitting on potatoes, pot roast - the same that used to be served on the buffet, chili, a variety of little pieces of steak seasoned in various ways and always overwhelmed by most of the little pot filled with potatoes. Then there has been just mashed potatoes with a little cheese and bacon bits put on top, and little pots of macaroni and cheese with bacon bits put on top. Why? And I have to say that these pots of food are the most unappetizing looking foods that I have ever seen. I have heard more than one guest say what I thought the first time I saw this - "Little pots of dog food!" The best of all of these little pots has been chicken pot pie which is actually very good and looks good too - covered with a pie crust. Unfortunately when you get under that crust you will find a few small cubes of chicken with a few small carrot squares, a few pieces of potato, and peas. It does taste good but this particular pot is popular and disappears as soon as it comes out and there is a long wait for more to come.

These little pots work to make a long standing problem at OCBs (almost all from what I hear from various employees and managers who write to us) even worse - taking an already occupied employee away from the buffet (sometimes even the person carving) and into the kitchen, not only to get these pots and bring them out, but also to assemble them. So with this each buffet is minus one employee needed at the buffet.

And the little pots are not just for the hot foods. They have found their way to the dessert area. Instead of a tray of bread pudding, there are now little pots of bread pudding. Instead of a tray of fruit cobbler, little pots of fruit cobbler. Instead of a tray of chocolate cake with fudge sauce, now a little pot of chocolate cake with fudge sauce. Often these are too hot to each and very much too hot to pick up and put on a plate to take to your table.

The benefit of a buffet is not only that you can eat all that you care to eat, but you can also eat as little of something that you would like to eat. Perhaps you might like to take a little pulled port to try it - you have to now take the whole pot. Perhaps you would like just a small treat of bread pudding or cobbler - now you have to take a whole pot of it. Then there is the waste - and I ma just as guilty of this as everyone else. I want to eat just so much of potatoes. I don't want to have to eat a pot of potatoes each time I take a little pot just to eat the meat. So I eat the meat and leave the potatoes to be taken away to the garbage. I felt like a couple of spoons of bread pudding and before I would have taken just that - a very small serving of bread pudding. Now I had to take the pot, eat the few spoons that I was allowing myself to have, and the rest was thrown out. I just don't get these little pots. The restaurants are told that this is how corporate wants it now and that is that.

The newest of the changes has been to the carvings and the two local OCBs now have areas set up away from the hot food buffet tables just for carvings - with a sign "Carvery" over it. Well in one this is the end of the dessert counter but that I guess makes sense to someone. The first time we encountered this we thought that they had eliminated carvings all together. It was not until well into the meal when we looked over toward the dessert area that we saw the sign and the carvings. And the carvings - there used to be ham and roast beef every night, but not any longer. Now there may be smoked sausage and what they call "chopped steak" that are thin hamburgers that are over cooked. There may also be turkey but no longer on Sundays are there the three - turkey, ham, and roast beef all together as there had been in the past. Then on some nights when there is smoked sausage (and I like smoked sausage) at the carving station, there has also been smoked sausage with sauerkraut and smoked sausage in barbecue sauce on the buffet table. How much smoked sausage should take up the buffet at one meal period? Certainly, not three kinds at once. One of the better things brought back - now as a carving though it is served in a tray on the buffet - are baby back ribs. Two summers ago, the OCB baby back ribs were terrific. They are not quite as good any longer - though it may just be that whoever is cooking them now here, does not know what to do with them.

Hopefully, the little pots will go the way of the stir fry - that was a failed and short lived idea of Corporate. The not so new anymore CEO either has poor advisers or bad ideas on his own.

My wife wondered if Corporate was looking to put themselves into bankruptcy again. We have seen people come in, look at what is on the buffet and walk out. We have seen people who have paid, come in and go back and ask for their money back. All within this period since this past summer.  If you needed to find a way to lose business intentionally, what has been going on is it. We do not see the crowds that we saw on weekends at OCB that we saw just a year ago. Another problem now is also with a price for dinner of $13.99, it is just too much for many couples and families.

Well, I don't know what the heck is going on with Old Country Buffet now, but it is not good. If anyone on the "inside" wants to share it with us, please leave a comment.  We have not been to a Ryan's since this started, so I don't know if this foolishness has extended to there - but I suspect it has.

RULES OF THE BUFFET

It has been a while since we have listed our "Rules of the Buffet". These are the rules that everyone who dines at a buffet - from old to young - need to know and follow. From what we have seen lately at a few buffets, these are sorely needed to be seen again.




RULES OF THE BUFFET

1. All you can eat is not a challenge. It is an offer!

2. There is no limit to the number of times that you can go up and get food.

3. Take your food in courses - as you would be served if ordering from a menu.

4. Everyone must pay!

5. No food is permitted to be taken out of the restaurant.

6. Take only what you will eat - do not waste food.

7. For a more social meal, it is polite to wait for the others at the table to finish their plates and then go up together to get more.

8. Take a clean plate every time that you go up to the buffet tables.

9. If you put it on your plate, leave it there. Never return food to the serving tray.

10. Never eat at the buffet tables!

11. Children under 12 should not be going up to the buffet tables alone.

12. The buffet table is not a cafeteria line.

13. Tip the server.

14. Never take a serving piece from one item and use it for another item.

15. Never place your dirty plates on someone else's table.

16. Never use your silverware to serve yourself from the buffet trays.

17. Once you have gotten what you want, don't stand around the buffet tables. Move on back to your table.

18. Children should remain seated through the meal.

19. Do not fill community plates for the "table". Each should take their own plate of what they wish to eat.

20. If you cough or sneeze into your hand, please do not use that hand to pick up the serving utensils.

21. In the buffet, as in any restaurant, children (and adults) should use their inside voices.

22. Don't talk on your cell phone while you are getting your food at the buffet tables.

23. Never bring an animal into the buffet. (this is not referring to medical guide dogs)

24. Never put your hands into a serving tray.

25. Tell your children not to put their hands into a serving tray - and make sure that they do not!

26. Do not carry on a conversation throughout dinner with the people at the tables around you.

27. Do not put anything back into a serving tray that has dropped onto the serving counter - and never put anything back into a serving tray (whether from the counter or your dish) with your fingers.

28. Never put the serving utensil, whether it a spoon, fork, or tongs, up to your nose to smell the food that you have taken out of the serving tray.

29. Do not eat while walking with your plate back to your table.

30. If you take a plate, bowl, cup, or piece of silverware and you decide you don't want it, do not put it back on the stack of clean dishes or back with the clean silverware. Take it back to your table or put it on the side of the stack where it will not be taken as clean.  

Breakfast for Dinner at Old Country Buffet

We had a coupon for OCB good on a weeknight only. We usually avoid Thursday nights at OCB because it is Kids Eat for $1.99 night and while we like kids, we don't like kids running wildly around the restaurant completely unsupervised by their parents, but in the last several weeks - maybe longer Old Country Buffet has been sending emails saying that they serve breakfast at dinner on Thursday nights. This has intrigued me. We have never been to OCB for breakfast - pretty much because we don't eat a breakfast meal and the thought of a heavy breakfast buffet meal that early in the day just does not appeal to either of us. I do like breakfast foods and I thought that this would be an opportunity to get at least of sampling of the OCB breakfast buffet.

So we went on a Thursday night - to the good OCB a distance away. We arrived to balloons for Kids' Night and a lot of children but they were - for the most part controlled and behaved. This OCB has a griddle station that was specially built for the wok feature that has been gone now for about a year. It has been used for breakfast in the mornings but has sit empty at dinner. For Breakfast for Dinner the griddle station - two fry pans on portable conduction cook tops, a cold section of omelet fixings, a big bowl of whole eggs, and on the side kept warm a small try of bacon and a small tray of breakfast sausage. There was a young man behind the grill and every so often he was cooking eggs - mostly for kids. Out on the buffet, mixed in with much of the usual OCB dinner menu items which do not seem to change much from night to night any longer. (No matter what night and which of the two local locations, we find the same foods out each night - and one night when asked, the manager told another guest that he is told each day by corporate what food to serve that day and he has no control (unless, it seems if they run out of something and make a substitute - hopefully), anyway - out on the buffet three was a tray of pancakes, a tray of quarter round waffles, a tray of hot syrup, and a tray of hot what could be - butter sauce. I looked for some form of breakfast potatoes. I have seen these on the poster for breakfast in the morning. There were none. On the poster they talk about Country gravy for omelets, there was none. There were no muffins, breakfast pasteries, or anything else breakfast. Eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, and waffles is what Breakfast for Dinner consisted of here.

Here it the surprise. I liked it! It was not necessary to order eggs to get breakfast sausages or bacon from the chef at the griddle. He was happy to give me all that I asked for and offered more. The waffles were not bad - thick and a little dry. I don't use syrup and I was trying not to add the melted butter. I went over to the cold condiments table and found a tray of butter that had been well scooped through and was full of extraneous other condiments so I skipped on that butter. The first pancake - these are small pancakes about three inches in diameter - was OK. I took another two later and these had been sitting for some time on the hot tray and dried out. One was edible, the other was solid and would not cut with a knife. I liked the sausages and went back for more of those - and again, the young man wanted to put more on my plate - which I actually gave in to as I was not resisting as I should. The bacon for the most part is good - it is real bacon, after all, but it is cooked in a fryer - like fried chicken which is a common way to cook bacon in bulk. The problem is that some of the bacon over cooks this way and burns so some of the bacon that I had could not be eaten. What I could eat was good. (I don't recommend overindulging in bacon unless you want to put a cardiologist's kid through college.)  The sausage was distinctly breakfast sausage in flavor and mild - slightly mealy but I liked them.

I added to the sausage, etc. some of OCB's usual meatloaf, mashed potatoes, string beans and such. This was certainly not a typical breakfast but more like a brunch but I was pretty happy at the end of dinner. My wife who does not eat any of this for her own various reasons, made do with the usual dinner entrees and sides. Gone were the Kid's Night foods - corn dogs and such. The ice cream mix banana split station - right next to the egg fry pans was serving the kids. I am not sure that Breakfast for Dinner - at least on this night at this location - was a big draw for the crowd who was there. I did not seen any adults getting any omelets or eggs. A few got sausages, as I was.  

Kid's Night features like the ice cream mix in ends at 8:00 pm at night and before that my wife asked if that meant that the breakfast would end then too - and at 8:00 pm the eggs were taken away and the griddle station was shut down - but the sausage and bacon trays were brought to the buffet table which is much better as now it was out for you to take yourself. They also refilled the pancakes and waffles.  

This was certainly not a carb-friendly meal and not something that I can do too often but I would like to go back. If you have no reason to watch carbs or fat, you can go all out. I would have liked to see more breakfast items out. We started to figure out what was missing from the usual dinner menu to make room on the buffet table for the breakfast items. There was no pasta in creme sauce. That was the most evident item not usually seen at dinner.  There was fried chicken, roast chicken, meatloaf, carved ham, steak, and roast beef. The usual side dishes and vegetables were out - mac and cheese, pizza, string beans, corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, the french fried potatoes that look like waffle fries but are too hard to bite into... And the usual desserts were out.

They don't say how long this will stay available on Thursday nights. I do miss Thursday BBQ nights that had beef ribs, etc. so many years ago in the long gone and long past. If you are partial to breakfast you might like this. I suspect that you get a lot more breakfast foods at the regular morning breakfast buffet. Years ago we used to go to a breakfast buffet that would start at midnight at a truck stop along Route 222 in Pennsylvania. We would be there on line waiting for it to open - having skipped dinner for only a snack earlier. That too is long gone. Even the building is gone! The OCB breakfast buffet was not as good as that but it was enough to remind me of it. My favorite item from that gone breakfast buffet is something that many find disgusting and many GIs from wars long ago found disgusting too and had a special name for it - abbreviated SOS - creamed chipped beef which there, I would serve myself over home fries. (Another cardiologist's delight!) Oh my. I half imagined before we walked into this OCB that it would be there - of course, it wasn't. This is not something in this area that you will find even in a regular restaurant or diner for breakfast. (I have seen it on menus in Pennsylvania. I should not eat it and especially not a full restaurant order of it.)

I leave it up to you to try or skip Breakfast for Dinner at OCB. I may find myself going back at some point, if it is still offered.