CONGRATULATIONS TO SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, EAST EARL, Pa. AS A TOP BUFFET FOR 2016!
The one buffet that has been consistently named as a Top Buffet or Best Buffet is Shady Maple! Whenever we are asked by someone who has never been there or who is going to Lancaster County for the first time and wants to know what buffet they should go to, this is the one that we tell them. The reason is that Shady Maple is an experience. It is likely the largest buffet - maybe one of the largest restaurants in the Country - maybe in the world. This is not like any other restaurant or buffet in this area. Located in the middle of the farm lands and surrounded by farms, the restaurant inside is not what one would expect in this area. It is lavishly decorated. It has crystal chandeliers. It is big. The buffet section runs the length of the large restaurant on one side and you enter in the middle and it spreads down each side with buffet serving tables, flanked in the front by four cooking stations serving more foods. Some will get the impression that if you go down both sides you will just find the same things - but that is only partially true. Many of the dishes on one side are different dishes on the other. This buffet is overwhelming - in a good way. You can easily eat far too much here - and start to get the idea that it is a challenge! Well, we have covered that idea since this site has started. It is not a challenge - it is an offer and one must need to know when to stop - especially if one plans to save room for dessert.
Each night is a featured food night. Monday is steak night. Tuesday is seafood. Wednesday is Prime Rib. Thursday is BBQ night. Friday and Saturday are a combination of the best - Saturday includes New York Strip Steak, Friday includes Beef Brisket. Prices do vary by night. You are not going to pay the same every night. Prices include local tax and a small service fee for the server so there is no tipping. Your beverage is included in the price of the buffet and you serve yourself your beverages from one of the largest assortment of beverages in any buffet. There is a senior discount. There is a free buffet on your birthday with proof and the purchase of a dinner for someone else.
The food has always been and is excellent. The food is prepared properly and kept at correct temperatures. There is an assortment of soups, an extensive salad bar, more entrees and sides than any other buffet including carving stations and grills. Desserts are coming from Shady Maple's Farm Market - on another part of the property - which is known for their baking. Foods include PA Dutch favorites along with a large variety of "American food".
I have said this before - several times - you can be anywhere in Lancaster and overhear people talking about Shady Maple. I have been in other states and have heard people talking about Shady Maple. When you go you will be with locals, tourists, the Amish, and the Mennonites. Everyone goes to Shady Maple.
During the winter, they have special menu weekends - and when I read what is coming, I am so tempted to battle the weather on a winter trip to get there for these.
We went several times in 2016 (and we have been there already in 2017) just to make sure all is the same and good. Of course it is.
Go hungry. Don't go after having a "big" lunch!
There is no question that this is a top buffet!
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA.
Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. There
is lots of parking (free, of course). The
phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website
and it is listed at the side of this page. Like most other local buffets
and restaurants in Lancaster County, Shady Maple is closed on Sundays -
and some holidays, but not all. Dinner ends at 8:00 pm.
Showing posts with label Top. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top. Show all posts
Friday, June 16, 2017
Friday, June 02, 2017
Top Buffet of 2016 - Bird-In-Hand Restaurant and Smorgasbord, Bird-In-Hand, PA
CONGRATULATIONS TO BIRD-IN-HAND RESTAURANT AND SMORGASBORD FOR BEING A TOP BUFFET OF 2016!
Bird-In-Hand Restaurant and Smorgasbord has been a well known restaurant and buffet in Lancaster County, PA for a very long time. I have had dinner and lunch there many times over many years. We have watched this buffet grow from a small counter along a wall with hot trays to a completely renovated restaurant with a good sized, dedicated smorgasbord section. The restaurant's building continued to grow to what it is today that includes the restaurant with two full sized dining rooms and on a lower level a theater featuring entertainment and local themed plays. With the theater the restaurant/buffet became part of a dinner theater package (which has not (in our experience) interfered with diners who are there for dinner only. The restaurant is owned and operated by the same family for generations and the property across from the restaurant is the family farm.
As prices have increased in a number of the buffets in this area, the price of this buffet has now come more in line with the others. In the past this buffet has offered sporadically offered coupon savings on the price of the buffet. It now has a coupon included in the Visit Lancaster County Guide which is available free all over Lancaster County - and will be sent to you on request from the tourist board. There is a price difference on Friday and Saturday night dinners which add carvings to the buffet. This buffet definitely gives value for what you pay and what you get.
The food here is excellent. This restaurant offers not only a buffet but also menu dining. One can also just opt for the Soup, Salad, and Bread Bar alone or with a menu item. One can also go just for the Desert Buffet. All is included with the full smorgasbord and the price includes a beverage with unlimited refills which is not included at many buffets in this area. Regular readers have read my raves about my favorite items on this buffet. I love, and have always loved, the Chicken Corn Soup prepared and served here - it is the best anywhere - and different from most. There is a secret to this soup that after many years of attempting to duplicate it at home, I cannot figure out. Another of our favorite items here is there turkey - served in a tray in liquid that keeps both white and dark meat moist and full of flavor. Of course, there is a wide assortment of other foods on the buffet. On some nights there will be a local dish called Chicken Bot Bei or Chicken Pot Pie to the tourists - which is not like a chicken pot pie in other areas. This is one of the better Chicken Bot Bei's which is not served often enough at other buffets. It is regularly here on certain nights. Another Lancaster County favorite - which is served at many PA Dutch buffets - is Pork and Sauerkraut. There are other soup choices and also a salad bar and a large dessert section. Deserts are full of choices and you will find whoopie pies - a local favorite of cake rounds with cream in the middle, a variety of pies including shoofly pie, chocolate shoofly pie - and a pie that I discovered two years ago that I have only seen in this area, Lemon Sponge (wonderful!). There is soft serve ice cream and a frozen soft drink machine. There is fruit and a number of prepared deserts as well! The baking here comes from the well known Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop which is also owned by this family. The food has been consistently good. That does not mean that you will not find something that you don't care for because you just don't like that food or seasoning, but it does mean that you will enjoy here the foods that you like.
For the children! There is a children's buffet bar that features kid favorites - hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, spaghetti, etc. There this is only available Fridays and Saturdays until 7:30 pm. (The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm.)
If someone at a table does not want the buffet and wants to order of the menu they are welcome here to do that. Some buffets do not allow this. Here they do.
Service is good here. The wait staff are attentive. Dishes are cleared regularly and when it is time for a refill of your beverage, it is easy to spot your table server and ask.
When we come to this area there are so many buffets to choose from. Bird-In-Hand comes to mind often as a top choice to go to.
One of the things that we like about Bird-In-Hand Restaurant is that you are going to encounter a good number of local people including Amish and Mennonites dining here. Of course, you are going to encounters tourists also - this restaurant is located on a main route - Route 340 - that goes through the heart of Amish and Mennonite farm lands.
If you have never been this is a must try. If you have not been in awhile go back. If you are a regular then you know what we are talking about.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
Bird-In-Hand Restaurant and Smorgasbord has been a well known restaurant and buffet in Lancaster County, PA for a very long time. I have had dinner and lunch there many times over many years. We have watched this buffet grow from a small counter along a wall with hot trays to a completely renovated restaurant with a good sized, dedicated smorgasbord section. The restaurant's building continued to grow to what it is today that includes the restaurant with two full sized dining rooms and on a lower level a theater featuring entertainment and local themed plays. With the theater the restaurant/buffet became part of a dinner theater package (which has not (in our experience) interfered with diners who are there for dinner only. The restaurant is owned and operated by the same family for generations and the property across from the restaurant is the family farm.
As prices have increased in a number of the buffets in this area, the price of this buffet has now come more in line with the others. In the past this buffet has offered sporadically offered coupon savings on the price of the buffet. It now has a coupon included in the Visit Lancaster County Guide which is available free all over Lancaster County - and will be sent to you on request from the tourist board. There is a price difference on Friday and Saturday night dinners which add carvings to the buffet. This buffet definitely gives value for what you pay and what you get.
The food here is excellent. This restaurant offers not only a buffet but also menu dining. One can also just opt for the Soup, Salad, and Bread Bar alone or with a menu item. One can also go just for the Desert Buffet. All is included with the full smorgasbord and the price includes a beverage with unlimited refills which is not included at many buffets in this area. Regular readers have read my raves about my favorite items on this buffet. I love, and have always loved, the Chicken Corn Soup prepared and served here - it is the best anywhere - and different from most. There is a secret to this soup that after many years of attempting to duplicate it at home, I cannot figure out. Another of our favorite items here is there turkey - served in a tray in liquid that keeps both white and dark meat moist and full of flavor. Of course, there is a wide assortment of other foods on the buffet. On some nights there will be a local dish called Chicken Bot Bei or Chicken Pot Pie to the tourists - which is not like a chicken pot pie in other areas. This is one of the better Chicken Bot Bei's which is not served often enough at other buffets. It is regularly here on certain nights. Another Lancaster County favorite - which is served at many PA Dutch buffets - is Pork and Sauerkraut. There are other soup choices and also a salad bar and a large dessert section. Deserts are full of choices and you will find whoopie pies - a local favorite of cake rounds with cream in the middle, a variety of pies including shoofly pie, chocolate shoofly pie - and a pie that I discovered two years ago that I have only seen in this area, Lemon Sponge (wonderful!). There is soft serve ice cream and a frozen soft drink machine. There is fruit and a number of prepared deserts as well! The baking here comes from the well known Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop which is also owned by this family. The food has been consistently good. That does not mean that you will not find something that you don't care for because you just don't like that food or seasoning, but it does mean that you will enjoy here the foods that you like.
For the children! There is a children's buffet bar that features kid favorites - hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, spaghetti, etc. There this is only available Fridays and Saturdays until 7:30 pm. (The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm.)
If someone at a table does not want the buffet and wants to order of the menu they are welcome here to do that. Some buffets do not allow this. Here they do.
Service is good here. The wait staff are attentive. Dishes are cleared regularly and when it is time for a refill of your beverage, it is easy to spot your table server and ask.
When we come to this area there are so many buffets to choose from. Bird-In-Hand comes to mind often as a top choice to go to.
One of the things that we like about Bird-In-Hand Restaurant is that you are going to encounter a good number of local people including Amish and Mennonites dining here. Of course, you are going to encounters tourists also - this restaurant is located on a main route - Route 340 - that goes through the heart of Amish and Mennonite farm lands.
If you have never been this is a must try. If you have not been in awhile go back. If you are a regular then you know what we are talking about.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
Friday, May 19, 2017
TOP BUFFETS FOR 2016
It is later then usual in getting this post out and I am sorry for that. Things just seem to happen that keep one from doing what they know needs to be done.
I have seen a few articles on restaurant sites with lists of the best buffets. I am sure that many of these buffets are very nice, but the one thing that all of them seem to have in common are big price tags on their buffet meals. As my regular readers know while this site is focused on all types of buffets at all price ranges, we try to keep a focus on buffets that are affordable for a working individual's family - one that you can go out to for a nice nice dinner with a few kids and not feel a pinch in the budget that week. Just because a buffet is inexpensive does not mean it is not a quality place to eat. And when it is not serving quality, I am the one who is going to make that clear right away. In choosing our top buffets we look to those affordable buffets - and not ones that are going to set you back over a hundred dollars for dinner for two.
For a top buffet, a buffet needs to meet certain criteria. The buffet must give excellent value. The buffet must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly and taste very good to excellent. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible. There must be something that sets the buffet apart (in a superior way) to all the rest.
Last year right after our Top Buffets for 2015 article came out, a local buffet named in that article as a Top Buffet raised its prices and changed the quality of the food that they were serving. That buffet has since gone out of business. They lost our business after two visits with these changes. I am sure that others felt the same way that we did.
This year, our top buffets are all located in the Buffet Capital of the US- Lancaster County. Three of these buffets have been Top Buffets before - and continue to be. One is new to this designation of Top Buffet. The four Top Buffets of 2016 are (listed in random order) - Yoders Restaurant at Yoder's Country Farm Market in New Holland, PA, Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA, Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA, and - the newest Top Buffet - Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand, PA.
Bird-In-Hand is not a new buffet. It is one of the longest operating buffets in Lancaster County. There have been reasons in the past that has kept this buffet off the top list but after several meals there in 2016, it was a definite must include in the Top Buffets list.
Why are all the buffets in Lancaster? Non-Asian buffets are becoming few and far between. The one place that one can still eat out every night of the week at a different "American Food" or "Regional Food" buffet is Lancaster County, PA!
In the next several weeks we will update our articles about these buffets with Top Buffet of 2016 articles. We will try to keep to our usual schedule of a new article every two weeks on Friday nights posted at night.
I have seen a few articles on restaurant sites with lists of the best buffets. I am sure that many of these buffets are very nice, but the one thing that all of them seem to have in common are big price tags on their buffet meals. As my regular readers know while this site is focused on all types of buffets at all price ranges, we try to keep a focus on buffets that are affordable for a working individual's family - one that you can go out to for a nice nice dinner with a few kids and not feel a pinch in the budget that week. Just because a buffet is inexpensive does not mean it is not a quality place to eat. And when it is not serving quality, I am the one who is going to make that clear right away. In choosing our top buffets we look to those affordable buffets - and not ones that are going to set you back over a hundred dollars for dinner for two.
For a top buffet, a buffet needs to meet certain criteria. The buffet must give excellent value. The buffet must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly and taste very good to excellent. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible. There must be something that sets the buffet apart (in a superior way) to all the rest.
Last year right after our Top Buffets for 2015 article came out, a local buffet named in that article as a Top Buffet raised its prices and changed the quality of the food that they were serving. That buffet has since gone out of business. They lost our business after two visits with these changes. I am sure that others felt the same way that we did.
This year, our top buffets are all located in the Buffet Capital of the US- Lancaster County. Three of these buffets have been Top Buffets before - and continue to be. One is new to this designation of Top Buffet. The four Top Buffets of 2016 are (listed in random order) - Yoders Restaurant at Yoder's Country Farm Market in New Holland, PA, Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA, Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA, and - the newest Top Buffet - Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand, PA.
Bird-In-Hand is not a new buffet. It is one of the longest operating buffets in Lancaster County. There have been reasons in the past that has kept this buffet off the top list but after several meals there in 2016, it was a definite must include in the Top Buffets list.
Why are all the buffets in Lancaster? Non-Asian buffets are becoming few and far between. The one place that one can still eat out every night of the week at a different "American Food" or "Regional Food" buffet is Lancaster County, PA!
In the next several weeks we will update our articles about these buffets with Top Buffet of 2016 articles. We will try to keep to our usual schedule of a new article every two weeks on Friday nights posted at night.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Top Asian Buffet 2015 - Yummy Asian Buffet, East Meadow, New York
OUT OF BUSINESS IN 2016
Yummy Buffet is our choice for Top Asian Buffet for 2015. We have, of course, written about Yummy before.
Yummy is a small, local Asian buffet on Long Island in the town of East Meadow. This has been the location of a Chinese restaurant for many years and a few years ago it was bought and re-done by a family who have brought excellent Asian cooking to this restaurant. It does not compete in this area in size. It is smaller than the rest in physical size and the amount of food that can be out at any one time on the buffet. It more than make up for this in the quality of the food that is cooked and the "menu restaurant" taste of what is served - which is something that generally cannot be said about usual Chinese/Asian buffet food.
This buffet, in addition, to the foods on the buffet tables, also has a small hibachi grill and a sushi chef that will make you whatever sushi rolls or sashimi that is on an extensive menu posted at the sushi station - to order. Both the hibachi grill - you choose the meats and vegetables and noodles - and give them to the chef (who is also the Sushi chef) who will cook them for you to order. I like what I have grilled a certain way and I have never been disappointed - and the sushi bar are included in the price of the buffet.
This restaurant more than meets our top buffet requirements of quality and taste. It also has excellent service. If the young women who come to your table are not family they work as if they are - I suspect that they are. They are there to take away your used plates and refill your beverage - always.
The other criteria that we look at is value and this meal has been $13.99* - 7 days a week for dinner. Less at lunch. This is equivalent to the formerly local chain "country" buffet (formerly as the nearby OCB is now closed) - and far exceeds what you got there. There are also discount coupons in local advertising publications and also on their website. This makes the value of this buffet even better. (Unfortunately, I have to make note that the price on Saturdays and Sundays plus holidays changed to $15.99 in 2016. As this award is given for 2015 that does not effect our decision on the exceptional value that you get here. If this price remains for 2016 for weekend dinners we will re-evaluate when looking at our 2016 awards. The value on weeknights including Fridays is still very much there. When it gets even two dollars higher without any changes on the menu, when we look at a buffet for a Top Award we have to take that into consideration. The restaurant will tell you that for the higher price there is lobster and crab legs on the buffet on the weekends. From past visits on weekends when it was $13.99 there has been lobster and crab legs on the weekend dinner buffet. On a 2016 Friday visit there was lobster on the $13.99 Friday dinner buffet. Lobster on an Asian buffet on Long Island means lobster pieces in the shell in ginger sauce - and generally the result is whoever can get there first will empty the tray. Every restaurant does what it needs to do for business reasons, and this has been their decision for 2016.)
This buffet never seems to be crowded - despite the good food and everything else good. It can be almost empty when other buffets have lines to get in. We have never been able to understand this and when those who we have recommended this buffet to have gone, they have been pleased. If you go and it looks empty - go in anyway. The food is always fresh and if there are few people dining they just put less in the trays to keep the food from drying out and refill as needed. They "tend" this buffet very well - making sure that everything is being served as it should be. Ordinarily, if I go to a buffet for the first time and there is no one inside dining, I will walk out. While our visits here now are not a first time visit, we do not hesitate to go in and dine.
So - this is our choice for 2015 for Top Asian Buffet. Try it on a weeknight including Friday or if you don't mind the extra two dollars try it on a Saturday or Sunday for dinner. Lunch is less but do not expect the same foods that might be found at dinner on the lunch buffet - taste and quality will still be there but some of the foods found at dinner will not be on the lunch buffet.
Yummy Buffet is our choice for Top Asian Buffet for 2015. We have, of course, written about Yummy before.
Yummy is a small, local Asian buffet on Long Island in the town of East Meadow. This has been the location of a Chinese restaurant for many years and a few years ago it was bought and re-done by a family who have brought excellent Asian cooking to this restaurant. It does not compete in this area in size. It is smaller than the rest in physical size and the amount of food that can be out at any one time on the buffet. It more than make up for this in the quality of the food that is cooked and the "menu restaurant" taste of what is served - which is something that generally cannot be said about usual Chinese/Asian buffet food.
This buffet, in addition, to the foods on the buffet tables, also has a small hibachi grill and a sushi chef that will make you whatever sushi rolls or sashimi that is on an extensive menu posted at the sushi station - to order. Both the hibachi grill - you choose the meats and vegetables and noodles - and give them to the chef (who is also the Sushi chef) who will cook them for you to order. I like what I have grilled a certain way and I have never been disappointed - and the sushi bar are included in the price of the buffet.
This restaurant more than meets our top buffet requirements of quality and taste. It also has excellent service. If the young women who come to your table are not family they work as if they are - I suspect that they are. They are there to take away your used plates and refill your beverage - always.
The other criteria that we look at is value and this meal has been $13.99* - 7 days a week for dinner. Less at lunch. This is equivalent to the formerly local chain "country" buffet (formerly as the nearby OCB is now closed) - and far exceeds what you got there. There are also discount coupons in local advertising publications and also on their website. This makes the value of this buffet even better. (Unfortunately, I have to make note that the price on Saturdays and Sundays plus holidays changed to $15.99 in 2016. As this award is given for 2015 that does not effect our decision on the exceptional value that you get here. If this price remains for 2016 for weekend dinners we will re-evaluate when looking at our 2016 awards. The value on weeknights including Fridays is still very much there. When it gets even two dollars higher without any changes on the menu, when we look at a buffet for a Top Award we have to take that into consideration. The restaurant will tell you that for the higher price there is lobster and crab legs on the buffet on the weekends. From past visits on weekends when it was $13.99 there has been lobster and crab legs on the weekend dinner buffet. On a 2016 Friday visit there was lobster on the $13.99 Friday dinner buffet. Lobster on an Asian buffet on Long Island means lobster pieces in the shell in ginger sauce - and generally the result is whoever can get there first will empty the tray. Every restaurant does what it needs to do for business reasons, and this has been their decision for 2016.)
This buffet never seems to be crowded - despite the good food and everything else good. It can be almost empty when other buffets have lines to get in. We have never been able to understand this and when those who we have recommended this buffet to have gone, they have been pleased. If you go and it looks empty - go in anyway. The food is always fresh and if there are few people dining they just put less in the trays to keep the food from drying out and refill as needed. They "tend" this buffet very well - making sure that everything is being served as it should be. Ordinarily, if I go to a buffet for the first time and there is no one inside dining, I will walk out. While our visits here now are not a first time visit, we do not hesitate to go in and dine.
So - this is our choice for 2015 for Top Asian Buffet. Try it on a weeknight including Friday or if you don't mind the extra two dollars try it on a Saturday or Sunday for dinner. Lunch is less but do not expect the same foods that might be found at dinner on the lunch buffet - taste and quality will still be there but some of the foods found at dinner will not be on the lunch buffet.
Friday, April 08, 2016
TOP BUFFET - SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, East Earl, PA
For many years, Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has been a Best and a Top Buffet. There can be no list of top buffets in the United States without including Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Shady Maple is the most impressive and largest buffet restaurant not in a Casino or lavish hotel (and it has those beat too) in the country. Once again, Shady Maple Smorgasbord is a Top Buffet - and now for 2015.
In the land of the Plain People - Lancaster, PA - Shady Maple Smorgasbord serves the food of the Plain People along with a large and wide varieties of foods in a setting outside of rolling farmlands and inside in a large restaurant complex in a building with two floors, a lobby rivaling the finest restaurants with huge crystal chandeliers and one of the largest buffets - if not the largest - that you will ever enjoy. This is an experience that grew from simple roots under a shady maple tree as a farm stand years ago. The same owner is still there at the restaurant. Some days and nights he can be seen going through the dining rooms. The buffet menu has grown over the years but in addition to what has been added the same entrees and foods served when this was still a large but smaller buffet in a building that can be seen next door to Goods Department Store on the property and at the opposite end of the parking lot from Shady Maple's supermarket complex which is also quite large.
People seem to know Shady Maple all over the US. We will be hundreds of miles away and overhear conversations of people talking about a meal at Shady Maple. I don't know any other restaurant - much less buffet - that this happens with. I can understand when going through farmers markets in Lancaster and hearing local people discussing having just been there for dinner or planning on going there that night - "Going down to the Shady Maple tonight!", but this also happens so many, many, many miles away. Perhaps, needless to say, Shady Maple is an experience - and for some a destination location, coming to the area for a day or night just to go to this restaurant.
After the impressive lobby, and the often long waits in line (during "season" which can be just about all year except January to early March) to pay for your meal going in, and then another wait in line to be seated, you can find yourself sitting in one of two massive dining rooms or one of the several private dining rooms along the side of the large dining rooms that are opened to all on crowded nights. At tables (or booths) around you there will be tourists and local people including Amish and Mennonite families. All have come for one thing - and even with the impressive size of the restaurant and the elegant decor, that one thing is the food. The food is excellent. The variety of foods served at one time is overwhelming. The buffet serving area is as long as the restaurant's building - and this is a big building. You enter from the middle past several grill sections, and it goes down in two directions. Some people coming in assume that each direction of foods is the same as what will be found in the other direction, but his is a misconception due to some foods first seen being the same, but the two sides are not the same and what will be down one side will not be down the other and vice versa, increasing the number and variety of foods to choose from. Even the two salad and soup bars which are the first serving areas that you encounter are not the same with only some overlap.
There is a breakfast buffet, a lunch buffet, and a dinner buffet every day and none are the same each day. There are themes with specific foods featured on each weekday - for example steak is a feature on the grills on Mondays, Seafood is a feature on the buffet and grills on Tuesdays, Prime Rib on Wednesdays, and so on. At different times of the year and on different nights some specialties are served such as Smorgy Cheesesteaks - a variation of the famous Philly Cheesesteaks made the Shady Maple way. On some nights you will find house-made, local style, country sausages. There is just so many things and so much to name, it is impossible. Local Pennsylvania Dutch foods and entrees will vary on different nights - Chicken Bot Bie - a locally famous dish of flat doughy dumpling noodle squares with chicken, carrots, potatoes, and celery in a rich broth sauce, Pork and Sauerkraut (locally a dish served on News Year's Day) and served every day at Shady Maple, Pigs stomach - surprisingly good, just so much! And then, of course, the end section of each side is the dessert area with cakes, pies, prepared desserts and puddings, shoo fly pie, apple dumplings, apple crisp, softserve Turkey Hill ice cream and sundae bar, low sugar and no sugar desserts, again - overwhelming. The only problem is that if you eat all that you see and want, dessert may just push you over the top of eating more than you can eat. But from the look on so many faces, holding their stomachs and smiling as they walk out to the parking lot - it is worth it. (As I have learned over the years - here and at other irresistibly buffets - eat what you like but know when to stop and you will be much happier and enjoy it more - particularly during that walk to the car at the end of the meal.)
So - quality - yes. Value - yes - the meals here are priced including the local tax and a gratuity (tip) of not a large percentage for the servers and staff plus the meal includes all including the beverage - so it may look like the prices are more than some other buffets but all together they are not. Consistency from visit to visit - yes. Clean and well maintained - absolutely yes. Good service staff - yes. Top Buffet - no question.
If someone asks me what buffet should I go to when visiting Lancaster, I tell them Shady Maple - and you know we know other Top Buffets in this area. I tell them Shady Maple for the overwhelming experience. And when I see or hear from them after they have been there, they always thank me. This is a must go to.
Shady Maple is not located in the main tourist area of Lancaster County. It is not on Route 30 or on Route 340. It is off almost out of the county but people still come. Try it.
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. There is lots of parking (free, of course). The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page. Like most other local buffets and restaurants in Lancaster County, Shady Maple is closed on Sundays - and some holidays, but not all. Dinner ends at 8:00 pm and you will not get in past 8 and the dining room will close down at 9 so don't go there late - get there early enough to not rush through the experience.
In the land of the Plain People - Lancaster, PA - Shady Maple Smorgasbord serves the food of the Plain People along with a large and wide varieties of foods in a setting outside of rolling farmlands and inside in a large restaurant complex in a building with two floors, a lobby rivaling the finest restaurants with huge crystal chandeliers and one of the largest buffets - if not the largest - that you will ever enjoy. This is an experience that grew from simple roots under a shady maple tree as a farm stand years ago. The same owner is still there at the restaurant. Some days and nights he can be seen going through the dining rooms. The buffet menu has grown over the years but in addition to what has been added the same entrees and foods served when this was still a large but smaller buffet in a building that can be seen next door to Goods Department Store on the property and at the opposite end of the parking lot from Shady Maple's supermarket complex which is also quite large.
People seem to know Shady Maple all over the US. We will be hundreds of miles away and overhear conversations of people talking about a meal at Shady Maple. I don't know any other restaurant - much less buffet - that this happens with. I can understand when going through farmers markets in Lancaster and hearing local people discussing having just been there for dinner or planning on going there that night - "Going down to the Shady Maple tonight!", but this also happens so many, many, many miles away. Perhaps, needless to say, Shady Maple is an experience - and for some a destination location, coming to the area for a day or night just to go to this restaurant.
After the impressive lobby, and the often long waits in line (during "season" which can be just about all year except January to early March) to pay for your meal going in, and then another wait in line to be seated, you can find yourself sitting in one of two massive dining rooms or one of the several private dining rooms along the side of the large dining rooms that are opened to all on crowded nights. At tables (or booths) around you there will be tourists and local people including Amish and Mennonite families. All have come for one thing - and even with the impressive size of the restaurant and the elegant decor, that one thing is the food. The food is excellent. The variety of foods served at one time is overwhelming. The buffet serving area is as long as the restaurant's building - and this is a big building. You enter from the middle past several grill sections, and it goes down in two directions. Some people coming in assume that each direction of foods is the same as what will be found in the other direction, but his is a misconception due to some foods first seen being the same, but the two sides are not the same and what will be down one side will not be down the other and vice versa, increasing the number and variety of foods to choose from. Even the two salad and soup bars which are the first serving areas that you encounter are not the same with only some overlap.
There is a breakfast buffet, a lunch buffet, and a dinner buffet every day and none are the same each day. There are themes with specific foods featured on each weekday - for example steak is a feature on the grills on Mondays, Seafood is a feature on the buffet and grills on Tuesdays, Prime Rib on Wednesdays, and so on. At different times of the year and on different nights some specialties are served such as Smorgy Cheesesteaks - a variation of the famous Philly Cheesesteaks made the Shady Maple way. On some nights you will find house-made, local style, country sausages. There is just so many things and so much to name, it is impossible. Local Pennsylvania Dutch foods and entrees will vary on different nights - Chicken Bot Bie - a locally famous dish of flat doughy dumpling noodle squares with chicken, carrots, potatoes, and celery in a rich broth sauce, Pork and Sauerkraut (locally a dish served on News Year's Day) and served every day at Shady Maple, Pigs stomach - surprisingly good, just so much! And then, of course, the end section of each side is the dessert area with cakes, pies, prepared desserts and puddings, shoo fly pie, apple dumplings, apple crisp, softserve Turkey Hill ice cream and sundae bar, low sugar and no sugar desserts, again - overwhelming. The only problem is that if you eat all that you see and want, dessert may just push you over the top of eating more than you can eat. But from the look on so many faces, holding their stomachs and smiling as they walk out to the parking lot - it is worth it. (As I have learned over the years - here and at other irresistibly buffets - eat what you like but know when to stop and you will be much happier and enjoy it more - particularly during that walk to the car at the end of the meal.)
So - quality - yes. Value - yes - the meals here are priced including the local tax and a gratuity (tip) of not a large percentage for the servers and staff plus the meal includes all including the beverage - so it may look like the prices are more than some other buffets but all together they are not. Consistency from visit to visit - yes. Clean and well maintained - absolutely yes. Good service staff - yes. Top Buffet - no question.
If someone asks me what buffet should I go to when visiting Lancaster, I tell them Shady Maple - and you know we know other Top Buffets in this area. I tell them Shady Maple for the overwhelming experience. And when I see or hear from them after they have been there, they always thank me. This is a must go to.
Shady Maple is not located in the main tourist area of Lancaster County. It is not on Route 30 or on Route 340. It is off almost out of the county but people still come. Try it.
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. There is lots of parking (free, of course). The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page. Like most other local buffets and restaurants in Lancaster County, Shady Maple is closed on Sundays - and some holidays, but not all. Dinner ends at 8:00 pm and you will not get in past 8 and the dining room will close down at 9 so don't go there late - get there early enough to not rush through the experience.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Top Buffet 2015 - Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet, New Holland, PA.
As was stated in our last article, the Top Buffets for 2015 (there are four of them) are not listed in any particular order. There is no ranking position. All are equal Top Buffets for 2015. With that we start our Top Buffet 2015 articles with Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
We have written about Yoder's many times over the years. There were some physical changes at Yoders in 2015. A new dining room was designed and installed in the restaurant. In the area that was once rows and rows of booths, the room was turned into a more formal dining room atmosphere. Gone are most of the booths (but new booths not what was there) and scattered around the floor are free standing tables. The walls have been redecorated also with large photographs of the same scene of Yoder's farm in each of the seasons. The dining room has gone from a cafeteria/fast food look to a restaurant dining room. We were very impressed when we first walked in during 2015 to find this change. There does not seem to be any loss in their ability to accommodate as many diners as they always have.
Yoder's is not a big, sprawling restaurant. The buffet is bigger than some and small than others. There is always plenty of foods and a variety. Plus the building can accommodate very large groups for meetings, programs, etc. and often these include dinner at the buffet. Large groups coming in off the street can be accommodated as well in another dining room. This is a family restaurant and buffet.
The food at Yoder's is good. There is a different theme feature each night and the themes reflect the types of foods on the buffet. While Saturday night's feature has not changed, for some reason we "discovered" it this past year - and Yoder's became our go to buffet on Saturday nights when we are in Lancaster County. Every night is good, but compared to other buffets in Lancaster, Saturday gives the selections we are looking for at just the right price. If for no other night Saturdays makes Yoder's a Top Buffet for 2015. The theme for Saturday is Pennsylvania Dutch but this does not necessarily mean you will find the usual PA Dutch foods found at some of the other Lancaster buffets. You may find some of those but the two featured entrees - among the other entrees are Marinated Steak and BBQ Baby Back Ribs.
Let's talk a little about Saturday nights in Lancaster. There is no one time of the year that would be considered "Tourist Season" in Lancaster. It is more crowded with tourists in the summer months but it can be just as crowded with tourists in the Spring and Fall. During the winter after Christmas, things slow down until the Spring, but you can still walk into a buffet restaurant during that "off time" and find a lot of tourists. Are tourists a bad thing? No, but I would much rather be dining with local people in a local atmosphere without bus groups and the tourists. Yoder's is a local restaurant - and if you have read this site before and read one of our Yoder's articles you already know that it is located inside a supermarket building - which as I have said before - is not uncommon in this area. This is not the type of restaurant/buffet that attracts tourists. It also is not priced for tourists and the price for the buffet at Yoder's - especailly on a Saturday night is quite good.
I like steak. Saturday night, as said, features marinated steak. This steak is served to order and cooked on a char-grill. The marinating gives the steak a nice flavor and more than once I have had this steak exactly how I like it - charred crisp on the outside and still red, juicy and rare on the inside. You are getting a whole steak - not a piece of steak cut off from another. If you happen to miss being at Yoder's on Saturday night, the marinated steak shows up on Monday night too!
There are always some interesting entrees and sides on the buffet at Yoders, and we have some favorites here. It is not often that you find Baked Oatmeal at any buffet - including in this area. This is not a breakfast dish - this is a side dish or a dessert. Here there is generally two types - one plain and one with fruit such as blueberries baked in. The macaroni and cheese is thick and gooey and good with a crumb crust on the top that just makes it right. There is often a combined casserole dish of some type - one was smoked sausage with potatoes in cream sauce. Some have been unusual and tasty.
There are two soups - some unusual. Ham Vegetable soup was particularly good. There is a nice salad bar with several types of lettuce and all of the toppings, plus a good assortment of prepared salads. For bacon lovers, try hot bacon dressing which is always on the salad bar. Desserts are plentiful and are located at several spots - an entire double sided buffet of prepared desserts, a wall of cakes and hot desserts including hot shoo-fly cake, a rotating glass case of pies, a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream and if you go to the opposite side of the room along the wall where the soups are, a hot counter follows along with hot sticky buns, iced cinnamon rolls, the baked oatmeals,
Service is always good. The buffet is open until 8:00 pm but don't get there at the last minute as they do start closing down the buffet at closing time. Yoder's is open from Monday to Saturday with their regular buffets - and unlike most other buffet restaurants in Lancaster, is open on Sundays until 2:00 pm with a Breakfast Buffet Brunch. The restaurant closes on Sundays at 2:00 pm.
As said this is a must go on Saturday nights for us and we have heard from a number of others who feel exactly the same. With that and all of the rest of this buffet meeting this site's criteria for a top buffet, Yoder's is a Top Buffet for 2015!
Yoders is located at Yoder's Country Market, Route 23, New Holland, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 354-4748. There is a website posted at the side of this page.
We have written about Yoder's many times over the years. There were some physical changes at Yoders in 2015. A new dining room was designed and installed in the restaurant. In the area that was once rows and rows of booths, the room was turned into a more formal dining room atmosphere. Gone are most of the booths (but new booths not what was there) and scattered around the floor are free standing tables. The walls have been redecorated also with large photographs of the same scene of Yoder's farm in each of the seasons. The dining room has gone from a cafeteria/fast food look to a restaurant dining room. We were very impressed when we first walked in during 2015 to find this change. There does not seem to be any loss in their ability to accommodate as many diners as they always have.
Yoder's is not a big, sprawling restaurant. The buffet is bigger than some and small than others. There is always plenty of foods and a variety. Plus the building can accommodate very large groups for meetings, programs, etc. and often these include dinner at the buffet. Large groups coming in off the street can be accommodated as well in another dining room. This is a family restaurant and buffet.
The food at Yoder's is good. There is a different theme feature each night and the themes reflect the types of foods on the buffet. While Saturday night's feature has not changed, for some reason we "discovered" it this past year - and Yoder's became our go to buffet on Saturday nights when we are in Lancaster County. Every night is good, but compared to other buffets in Lancaster, Saturday gives the selections we are looking for at just the right price. If for no other night Saturdays makes Yoder's a Top Buffet for 2015. The theme for Saturday is Pennsylvania Dutch but this does not necessarily mean you will find the usual PA Dutch foods found at some of the other Lancaster buffets. You may find some of those but the two featured entrees - among the other entrees are Marinated Steak and BBQ Baby Back Ribs.
Let's talk a little about Saturday nights in Lancaster. There is no one time of the year that would be considered "Tourist Season" in Lancaster. It is more crowded with tourists in the summer months but it can be just as crowded with tourists in the Spring and Fall. During the winter after Christmas, things slow down until the Spring, but you can still walk into a buffet restaurant during that "off time" and find a lot of tourists. Are tourists a bad thing? No, but I would much rather be dining with local people in a local atmosphere without bus groups and the tourists. Yoder's is a local restaurant - and if you have read this site before and read one of our Yoder's articles you already know that it is located inside a supermarket building - which as I have said before - is not uncommon in this area. This is not the type of restaurant/buffet that attracts tourists. It also is not priced for tourists and the price for the buffet at Yoder's - especailly on a Saturday night is quite good.
I like steak. Saturday night, as said, features marinated steak. This steak is served to order and cooked on a char-grill. The marinating gives the steak a nice flavor and more than once I have had this steak exactly how I like it - charred crisp on the outside and still red, juicy and rare on the inside. You are getting a whole steak - not a piece of steak cut off from another. If you happen to miss being at Yoder's on Saturday night, the marinated steak shows up on Monday night too!
There are always some interesting entrees and sides on the buffet at Yoders, and we have some favorites here. It is not often that you find Baked Oatmeal at any buffet - including in this area. This is not a breakfast dish - this is a side dish or a dessert. Here there is generally two types - one plain and one with fruit such as blueberries baked in. The macaroni and cheese is thick and gooey and good with a crumb crust on the top that just makes it right. There is often a combined casserole dish of some type - one was smoked sausage with potatoes in cream sauce. Some have been unusual and tasty.
There are two soups - some unusual. Ham Vegetable soup was particularly good. There is a nice salad bar with several types of lettuce and all of the toppings, plus a good assortment of prepared salads. For bacon lovers, try hot bacon dressing which is always on the salad bar. Desserts are plentiful and are located at several spots - an entire double sided buffet of prepared desserts, a wall of cakes and hot desserts including hot shoo-fly cake, a rotating glass case of pies, a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream and if you go to the opposite side of the room along the wall where the soups are, a hot counter follows along with hot sticky buns, iced cinnamon rolls, the baked oatmeals,
Service is always good. The buffet is open until 8:00 pm but don't get there at the last minute as they do start closing down the buffet at closing time. Yoder's is open from Monday to Saturday with their regular buffets - and unlike most other buffet restaurants in Lancaster, is open on Sundays until 2:00 pm with a Breakfast Buffet Brunch. The restaurant closes on Sundays at 2:00 pm.
As said this is a must go on Saturday nights for us and we have heard from a number of others who feel exactly the same. With that and all of the rest of this buffet meeting this site's criteria for a top buffet, Yoder's is a Top Buffet for 2015!
Yoders is located at Yoder's Country Market, Route 23, New Holland, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 354-4748. There is a website posted at the side of this page.
Friday, January 29, 2016
TOP BUFFETS OF 2015
We struggle with the notion of best buffet over top buffets every year. We go to many great buffets - all of which I write about here. We also go to some not so good buffets, and you all hear about those as well. Then it comes to the end of the year and we look at all of the buffets we have been to during that year and try to rank them - and there are some that we had gone back to during the year from years past that consistently come to the top of the list of the best. The problem is deciding which one really is the best. This is not the first time that we came to the conclusion that there are several top buffets that really need to hold a place of honor and that is true this year again. There is no BEST buffet for 2015, but there are four TOP buffets. These are the buffets that are at the top of the list and that have each met the criteria that we set for Best Buffet. And since Lancaster County, PA hosts the most buffets of anywhere, three of this year's buffets are in Lancaster County, PA and one is near home.
The TOP BUFFETS for 2015 named by "Art of the Buffet" are (and in no specific order) - Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA, Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA, Yoder's Restaurant at Yoder's Country Farm Market in New Holland, PA and Yummy China Buffet which is calling itself Yummy Super Buffet now in East Meadow, NY which is named as Top Asian Buffet of 2015.
The criteria for Top Buffet - or Best Buffet - are simple but not easy to meet. The buffet must give excellent value. The buffet must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly and taste very good to excellent. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible. There must be something that sets the buffet apart (in a superior way) to all the rest. We have been to many who don't even come close and then there are some very good buffets that are on their way to meeting all of this. While no one criteria is more important than the others - and they all must be met - the idea that this is a buffet that I cannot wait to get back to is very much in focus when we decide on which buffet makes the cut. And I must say that there is one small buffet in PA that is coming up to this.
Over the next two months (four buffets - four articles) we will talk about each of these buffets and what makes them stand out beyond the rest. We will feature each in its own article.
Each buffet that is a Top Buffet of 2015 will receive a certificate declaring that fact. Some buffets display their certificates proudly - and we are thrilled when we see that they do - but there is no requirement to do so. Look to the coming articles to see why these buffets hold this site's special designation for the year 2015!
The TOP BUFFETS for 2015 named by "Art of the Buffet" are (and in no specific order) - Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA, Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA, Yoder's Restaurant at Yoder's Country Farm Market in New Holland, PA and Yummy China Buffet which is calling itself Yummy Super Buffet now in East Meadow, NY which is named as Top Asian Buffet of 2015.
The criteria for Top Buffet - or Best Buffet - are simple but not easy to meet. The buffet must give excellent value. The buffet must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly and taste very good to excellent. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible. There must be something that sets the buffet apart (in a superior way) to all the rest. We have been to many who don't even come close and then there are some very good buffets that are on their way to meeting all of this. While no one criteria is more important than the others - and they all must be met - the idea that this is a buffet that I cannot wait to get back to is very much in focus when we decide on which buffet makes the cut. And I must say that there is one small buffet in PA that is coming up to this.
Over the next two months (four buffets - four articles) we will talk about each of these buffets and what makes them stand out beyond the rest. We will feature each in its own article.
Each buffet that is a Top Buffet of 2015 will receive a certificate declaring that fact. Some buffets display their certificates proudly - and we are thrilled when we see that they do - but there is no requirement to do so. Look to the coming articles to see why these buffets hold this site's special designation for the year 2015!
Friday, February 28, 2014
THE BEST BUFFET OF 2013 - SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, EAST EARLE, PA
We have yet to find any buffet restaurant in the US that tops Shady Maple Smorgasbord. I don't think that anyone can find another buffet that does when it comes to quality of food, quantity of offerings, value, consistency, size of the restaurant, and price. It is just that good and try as we can to find another buffet that even comes close, year after year, we always come back to Shady Maple as truly the best buffet.
It is not just this site that feels this way. I have said this before, people from all over know Shady Maple and will tell you how good it is. Not just people from Pennsylvania but I have been far, far away from Pennsylvania and have overheard people talking about Shady Maple and saying how wonderful it is. I have recommended many to go to dine at Shady Maple - not just on this site but face to face. Someone will say that they will be in Lancaster County and I will say then you must go to Shady Maple Smorgasbord and tell them where it is. The next time that I see these people they will rave about Shady Maple and thank me for sending them there! This happens over and over again. While it is common now for restaurants to have a Facebook page, the Shady Maple Facebook page is always busy and full of comments on how good the food is and how so many wish they could be there when a new feature is announced or a special is talked about.
So what makes this buffet so good and our choice for Best Buffet for 2013? When you walk into Shady Maple which is located surrounded in just about all sides by rolling farmland on the edge of what is called the Pennsylvania Dutch Country - populated by Amish and Mennonites who have settled this area for almost three hundred years - you see a huge and lavish lobby. This is not what you expect in an area where the people are known as the "Plain People". Shady Maple is far from plain. What you see you might expect in a big hotel in a big city or at a lavish casino. This is how the owner of Shady Maple - the same owner since it started - decided to build and decorate his buffet building when it moved from another corner of the property years ago. The old building is still there housing a furniture store. The original was much simpler in design and decoration and smaller. The old Shady Maple is more of what you might expect to find, but the new building was made grand and fitting what this famous restaurant should be to showcase its fine cooking and wonderful meals. The chandeliers follow into the dining rooms - there are many dining rooms. Some are private rooms that are opened to everyone when the crowds get too large for just the other immense dining rooms - and this is a regular occurrence in the summer months - and this happens then not just on Saturday nights. There is often a wait to get in - no matter what the season or the night of the week. (Except Sunday when Shady Maple is closed all day.) Along one entire side of the huge restaurant is a buffet area that goes the full length and curves around to add more room for desserts and beverages. (I have been in a restaurant that claims to be the largest restaurant in the world. I am certain that Shady Maple is larger.) But it is not just size that makes this buffet what it is. The food is as grand in quantity as the restaurant is large.
The food at Shady Maple varies from night to night. There are featured foods on different nights of the week, but other than the features you never know what you might find on the buffet. Yes, there are some things that you can just about to expect to always find, but there is so much here that just what changes every night is more in selection than other buffets have as all of their selections. There are four grills - one of which now has a chargrill in addition to a grill top. There are carvings, there are cooked to order items, and there are features filling these grills - every night (and day as they are open for lunch and breakfast too). Each grill is not cooking just one food but several different foods. When you walk to the buffet servers you approach from the middle of the length of the buffet serving area. The buffet servers go in both directions. Now, at first glance it will look like one side is a duplication of the other, and for some items that is true, but both sides have many different foods offered to you to select from than the other and this includes the salad bar, the soups, and the dessert area.
The foods served are not just Pennsylvania Dutch but many are local Pennsylvania Dutch favorites. But you will also find continental dishes, Italian dishes, Oriental stir-fry on one of the grills on some nights, and local favorites that are not PA Dutch. Smorgy Cheesesteaks are made to order at one of the grills. These are wonderful! The country sausage - made at the restaurant - and cooked on one of the grills is a favorite of mine (and many others). The steaks that are featured on Monday nights but show up on other nights are great! On Prime Rib Wednesday at dinner they are not just carving one Prime Rib - cooked just one way - but several Prime Ribs cooked to please those who enjoy rare up to well done. What is put on your plate is in size what you would expect to get in a menu restaurant when you order Prime Rib. You begin to wonder how you are going to fit everything else that you cannot resist into your stomach!
There is so much of everything. There are a number of soups to choose from and some are soups that I have only seen and had at Shady Maple. Wonderful seasonal soups along with more common soups but there just is not anything common here as basic gets a little extra which makes it only better.
I know our readers like to hear about desserts. Shady Maple has the widest assortment of dessert choices now than any other buffet that I have been to that is still in business. There are slices of layer cakes, all types of pies, Shoofly pie is always available as are apple dumplings and so much more! There is fruit, puddings, prepared desserts, sugarfree desserts, soft serve ice cream, sundae toppings, cookies, hot desserts... There are just too many to name. If you have a sweet tooth then moderate how much you take to eat during the meal because you will have so much dessert to choose from that you will not be able to resist. It is very easy to stuff yourself here - even if you don't take any dessert! This is the buffet that our slogan and sub-title was made for - "All you can eat is not a challenge!" It is very easy to forget that here. (Don't forget it, however, and you will enjoy your meal here so much more!)
The off season in this area are the months of January, February, and March and during those months, Shady Maple features very special weekend (Friday and Saturday night) features. Our article about the 2014 "off season specials" is here.
Now, with all of this food there must be a real big price for the meal, right? Well, no. The price is in line with most of the other buffets in this area and when you see the price, it includes the sales tax, an included gratuity (tip), and all meals include unlimited beverages which have a selection that also seems unlimited. The price of the meal varies by the night and the features with Tuesday's Seafood Night being the highest priced of the six nights that they are serving. The seafood on that night is plentiful - just like everything else at Shady Maple. Thursday nights are the lowest priced nights for dinner. At one time, Thursday was called "Family Value Night". The other nights vary in between. I am not going to give specific prices because in today's economy prices may change - though Shady Maple's prices have held where they are for some time now.
This is the one and only Shady Maple Smorgasbord. There is none better. This is the BEST! And once again is our BEST BUFFET OF THE YEAR!
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.
It is not just this site that feels this way. I have said this before, people from all over know Shady Maple and will tell you how good it is. Not just people from Pennsylvania but I have been far, far away from Pennsylvania and have overheard people talking about Shady Maple and saying how wonderful it is. I have recommended many to go to dine at Shady Maple - not just on this site but face to face. Someone will say that they will be in Lancaster County and I will say then you must go to Shady Maple Smorgasbord and tell them where it is. The next time that I see these people they will rave about Shady Maple and thank me for sending them there! This happens over and over again. While it is common now for restaurants to have a Facebook page, the Shady Maple Facebook page is always busy and full of comments on how good the food is and how so many wish they could be there when a new feature is announced or a special is talked about.
So what makes this buffet so good and our choice for Best Buffet for 2013? When you walk into Shady Maple which is located surrounded in just about all sides by rolling farmland on the edge of what is called the Pennsylvania Dutch Country - populated by Amish and Mennonites who have settled this area for almost three hundred years - you see a huge and lavish lobby. This is not what you expect in an area where the people are known as the "Plain People". Shady Maple is far from plain. What you see you might expect in a big hotel in a big city or at a lavish casino. This is how the owner of Shady Maple - the same owner since it started - decided to build and decorate his buffet building when it moved from another corner of the property years ago. The old building is still there housing a furniture store. The original was much simpler in design and decoration and smaller. The old Shady Maple is more of what you might expect to find, but the new building was made grand and fitting what this famous restaurant should be to showcase its fine cooking and wonderful meals. The chandeliers follow into the dining rooms - there are many dining rooms. Some are private rooms that are opened to everyone when the crowds get too large for just the other immense dining rooms - and this is a regular occurrence in the summer months - and this happens then not just on Saturday nights. There is often a wait to get in - no matter what the season or the night of the week. (Except Sunday when Shady Maple is closed all day.) Along one entire side of the huge restaurant is a buffet area that goes the full length and curves around to add more room for desserts and beverages. (I have been in a restaurant that claims to be the largest restaurant in the world. I am certain that Shady Maple is larger.) But it is not just size that makes this buffet what it is. The food is as grand in quantity as the restaurant is large.
The food at Shady Maple varies from night to night. There are featured foods on different nights of the week, but other than the features you never know what you might find on the buffet. Yes, there are some things that you can just about to expect to always find, but there is so much here that just what changes every night is more in selection than other buffets have as all of their selections. There are four grills - one of which now has a chargrill in addition to a grill top. There are carvings, there are cooked to order items, and there are features filling these grills - every night (and day as they are open for lunch and breakfast too). Each grill is not cooking just one food but several different foods. When you walk to the buffet servers you approach from the middle of the length of the buffet serving area. The buffet servers go in both directions. Now, at first glance it will look like one side is a duplication of the other, and for some items that is true, but both sides have many different foods offered to you to select from than the other and this includes the salad bar, the soups, and the dessert area.
The foods served are not just Pennsylvania Dutch but many are local Pennsylvania Dutch favorites. But you will also find continental dishes, Italian dishes, Oriental stir-fry on one of the grills on some nights, and local favorites that are not PA Dutch. Smorgy Cheesesteaks are made to order at one of the grills. These are wonderful! The country sausage - made at the restaurant - and cooked on one of the grills is a favorite of mine (and many others). The steaks that are featured on Monday nights but show up on other nights are great! On Prime Rib Wednesday at dinner they are not just carving one Prime Rib - cooked just one way - but several Prime Ribs cooked to please those who enjoy rare up to well done. What is put on your plate is in size what you would expect to get in a menu restaurant when you order Prime Rib. You begin to wonder how you are going to fit everything else that you cannot resist into your stomach!
There is so much of everything. There are a number of soups to choose from and some are soups that I have only seen and had at Shady Maple. Wonderful seasonal soups along with more common soups but there just is not anything common here as basic gets a little extra which makes it only better.
I know our readers like to hear about desserts. Shady Maple has the widest assortment of dessert choices now than any other buffet that I have been to that is still in business. There are slices of layer cakes, all types of pies, Shoofly pie is always available as are apple dumplings and so much more! There is fruit, puddings, prepared desserts, sugarfree desserts, soft serve ice cream, sundae toppings, cookies, hot desserts... There are just too many to name. If you have a sweet tooth then moderate how much you take to eat during the meal because you will have so much dessert to choose from that you will not be able to resist. It is very easy to stuff yourself here - even if you don't take any dessert! This is the buffet that our slogan and sub-title was made for - "All you can eat is not a challenge!" It is very easy to forget that here. (Don't forget it, however, and you will enjoy your meal here so much more!)
The off season in this area are the months of January, February, and March and during those months, Shady Maple features very special weekend (Friday and Saturday night) features. Our article about the 2014 "off season specials" is here.
Now, with all of this food there must be a real big price for the meal, right? Well, no. The price is in line with most of the other buffets in this area and when you see the price, it includes the sales tax, an included gratuity (tip), and all meals include unlimited beverages which have a selection that also seems unlimited. The price of the meal varies by the night and the features with Tuesday's Seafood Night being the highest priced of the six nights that they are serving. The seafood on that night is plentiful - just like everything else at Shady Maple. Thursday nights are the lowest priced nights for dinner. At one time, Thursday was called "Family Value Night". The other nights vary in between. I am not going to give specific prices because in today's economy prices may change - though Shady Maple's prices have held where they are for some time now.
This is the one and only Shady Maple Smorgasbord. There is none better. This is the BEST! And once again is our BEST BUFFET OF THE YEAR!
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.
Friday, February 07, 2014
BEST BUFFET AND TOP BUFFET OF 2013
This is the latest that we have ever taken to naming the Best Buffet for the year. This year was difficult. I go to a lot of really good buffets. A number of those stand out and just a few are ones that I think often about going to. All of those are not local and when I can get to them they are must go tos - even at the expense of trying something new. I went to a number of buffets in 2013. Some were first time for me and others were ones that I have been to before.
When we pick a Best Buffet - and last year we picked several and named them all Top Buffets for 2012, we start with certain criteria. They must give excellent value. They must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible.
When the process gets narrowed down to a few choices, they get ordered in priority of the criteria - and what starts to be examined is how consistent were they. A few favorites every so often disappoint. Some never disappoint. In the year 2013, there were two that did not disappoint and they are the choices for this year. This year there is a Best Buffet and a Top Buffet. Best and Top are not the same thing and in our decision for this year neither one of the other is considered higher. In other words, Top Buffet is not Number Two or the runner up.
Let me explain. There can be a best - the restaurant that pleases every time. There can also be a top - the restaurant that is at the top of the list to go to. It has appeal, it pleases, but it is not share in characteristics that can be compared to the other - things that it may not be able to compete against but that should not be held against it. If this is confusing, you now know why it has taken this long for this decision to be made this year.
So without further ado, the Best Buffet for 2013 is Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earle, Pennsylvania. The Top Buffet of 2013 is Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA. I am sure it is no surprise to any of our readers who have been to Shady Maple that it is again named as Best Buffet. It has been for as long as this site has been giving this award. Dutch-Way in Gap was one of our Top Buffets in 2012. It really is the buffet at the top of the list to go to when possible.
There will be articles about both of these buffets coming in the next weeks. We will be sending a Best Buffet certificate to Shady Maple. They have consistently from the start honored our award by displaying it in a glass case in their lobby, and we hope that they will place the new certificate there as well. If you go there please go and see it. It has been displayed in the case next to the last cash register on the left in the glass case on the column. When you see it tell them that you have read about them on this site. If you agree that it is the best, let them know. They appreciate the recognition.
Congratulations to Shady Maple Smorgasbord and to Dutch-Way Family Restaurant, Gap!
When we pick a Best Buffet - and last year we picked several and named them all Top Buffets for 2012, we start with certain criteria. They must give excellent value. They must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible.
When the process gets narrowed down to a few choices, they get ordered in priority of the criteria - and what starts to be examined is how consistent were they. A few favorites every so often disappoint. Some never disappoint. In the year 2013, there were two that did not disappoint and they are the choices for this year. This year there is a Best Buffet and a Top Buffet. Best and Top are not the same thing and in our decision for this year neither one of the other is considered higher. In other words, Top Buffet is not Number Two or the runner up.
Let me explain. There can be a best - the restaurant that pleases every time. There can also be a top - the restaurant that is at the top of the list to go to. It has appeal, it pleases, but it is not share in characteristics that can be compared to the other - things that it may not be able to compete against but that should not be held against it. If this is confusing, you now know why it has taken this long for this decision to be made this year.
So without further ado, the Best Buffet for 2013 is Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earle, Pennsylvania. The Top Buffet of 2013 is Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA. I am sure it is no surprise to any of our readers who have been to Shady Maple that it is again named as Best Buffet. It has been for as long as this site has been giving this award. Dutch-Way in Gap was one of our Top Buffets in 2012. It really is the buffet at the top of the list to go to when possible.
There will be articles about both of these buffets coming in the next weeks. We will be sending a Best Buffet certificate to Shady Maple. They have consistently from the start honored our award by displaying it in a glass case in their lobby, and we hope that they will place the new certificate there as well. If you go there please go and see it. It has been displayed in the case next to the last cash register on the left in the glass case on the column. When you see it tell them that you have read about them on this site. If you agree that it is the best, let them know. They appreciate the recognition.
Congratulations to Shady Maple Smorgasbord and to Dutch-Way Family Restaurant, Gap!
Friday, February 15, 2013
Top Buffet of 2012 - Shady Maple Smorgasbord, East Earl, PA
Shady Maple Smorgasbord has been our "Best Buffet" in the last four years. It is one of our Top Buffets of 2012 - not because it is not as great as it has been in the last four years, but as explained in our article naming the Top Buffets for 2012, no buffet really competes with Shady Maple Smorgasbord. We would be naming Shady Maple as best year after year after year until a giant killer came along - and I do not see that happening any time soon. Now, is this fair to Shady Maple? I believe so and it is important to let our readers know that there are other buffets out there that excel to the top. With that stated, let me tell you about Shady Maple - if you have not already read one of our many, many articles about this buffet.
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where there are many other buffet restaurants. Shady Maple is family owned and operated. It is also the largest buffet restaurant that we have ever been in or seen. It fills a large building built by and for Shady Maple. The single building is two floors and contains the smorgasbord and several connected very large dining rooms, catering rooms and a gift shop - and another restaurant - that takes up the entire lower level.This building is part of the Shady Maple complex which also includes a large supermarket that also has its own restaurant (though not a buffet).
When you walk into the doors you are in a restaurant that is beyond what you would expect in this Amish/Mennonite community of Plain People. Shady Maple, inside, is anything but plain. There is a large and lavishly decorated lobby and sitting area with a fireplace and large crystal chandeliers. The large crystal chandeliers carry into the dining rooms which are also well decorated and not at all "country". The dining rooms are enormous and so is the buffet serving area. In fact the buffet area goes in two directions the length of the building.There are some items on each "end" that are the same but there are always items that will be different from one "end" or half to the other. In addition to the long, long, long row of buffet servers, there are three grilling and carving stations in the middle.
The food that is served is a combination of local dishes of the Pennsylvania Dutch and Continental/American fare. There is something here for everyone and no one should ever leave Shady Maple feeling hungry. In fact, just the opposite happens. It is too easy to leave Shady Maple after a meal and feel that you ate too much. It is all tempting and it is all good. It is hard to pass something by and there are so many choices.
This is a restaurant that seems to be known by everyone for counties around this area. I have heard Shady Maple mentioned in overheard conversations in Philadelphia. I have heard Shady Maple mentioned in conversations between Amish at Farmers Markets. And the comments are always positive. Out of Pennsylvania, someone mentions Lancaster County and the next thing I hear is "Shady Maple". This is a family restaurant that everyone comes to - locals and tourists.
What makes Shady Maple stand out? The food is great! The service is consistently good. The prices are in the moderate range and vary each night by what the night's feature is - but there is value for your money. They do include a reasonable gratuity with the price and the sales tax so the price you see listed is the price that you pay in total. The beverages are included with the meal. They make accommodations for people who have had a stomach staple - as long as a current doctor's note is presented. They have a senior price. And they give you a free meal on your birthday.There are buffets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each night there is a different theme with set featured items. Dishes change by season. And in the colder months of January and February when things are slower, there are special one weekend features such as Prime Rib Weekend, Hawaiian Luau Weekend, Pork Bonanza Weekend and a very special Valentines Day smorgasbord. Each year there is also an anniversary feature in March.
I have written so many good reviews about Shady Maple I don't want to keep repeating myself. This is my first choice in this area - and as I have written there are many good choices in this area when it comes to buffets including two other Top Buffets for 2012. I particularly enjoy the Pennsylvania Dutch dishes that are served occasionally such as Chicken Bot Boi, Apples and Dumplings, and Pig Stomach, but there are steaks of several cuts, carved roast beef, carved ham, lasagna, oriental stir fry on the grill, there own Philly Cheese Steaks - here called Smorgy Steaks, country sausage, smoked sausage, Polish sausage, pork loin, ham, chicken in many varieties, smoked pork chops, seafood, catfish, Prime Rib, ribs, beef brisket, veal patties, pizza, and on and on. If I named everything that I ever saw and/or tried at Shady Maple this article would go on for weeks.There are generally eight different soups. There is a salad bar that has anything you would like to create a salad plus local prepared salads. And then, of course, there is the desserts. There are hot desserts. There are apple dumplings. There are cakes and pies. There are prepared desserts and puddings. There is fruit. There is soft serve ice cream and all that you want to make a sundae. The dessert selection here is extensive - and good! Maybe too good - because after you have eaten yourself full during dinner, those desserts will call and tempt you to eat more than you had intended.
Top Buffet of 2012 is most deserved by Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Coming here is an experience and it should not be missed. This restaurant is not located in the middle of the common tourist area of Lancaster County. It is off to the edge of the area in the northeast of the county. It is not far from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and is easy to find and to get to. Expect a crowd and a wait during the summer months on a weekend - and even during the week. Expect a crowd during the Fall and before the holidays. It is quietest during the week during the winter. It is always good.
Congratulations to Shady Maple for consistently coming up at the top of our list - and for its award of Top Buffet of 2012!
Just to note - I just learned that Shady Maple just added a Charbroiler Grill and this makes for something to look forward to on my next trip in 2013! Char-grilled steaks are the perfect addition to this buffet!
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East from Lancaster or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. (Put the name in your GPS and it will know it.) The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. They are closed on Sundays and certain holidays. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.There is also a very active Facebook page!
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where there are many other buffet restaurants. Shady Maple is family owned and operated. It is also the largest buffet restaurant that we have ever been in or seen. It fills a large building built by and for Shady Maple. The single building is two floors and contains the smorgasbord and several connected very large dining rooms, catering rooms and a gift shop - and another restaurant - that takes up the entire lower level.This building is part of the Shady Maple complex which also includes a large supermarket that also has its own restaurant (though not a buffet).
When you walk into the doors you are in a restaurant that is beyond what you would expect in this Amish/Mennonite community of Plain People. Shady Maple, inside, is anything but plain. There is a large and lavishly decorated lobby and sitting area with a fireplace and large crystal chandeliers. The large crystal chandeliers carry into the dining rooms which are also well decorated and not at all "country". The dining rooms are enormous and so is the buffet serving area. In fact the buffet area goes in two directions the length of the building.There are some items on each "end" that are the same but there are always items that will be different from one "end" or half to the other. In addition to the long, long, long row of buffet servers, there are three grilling and carving stations in the middle.
The food that is served is a combination of local dishes of the Pennsylvania Dutch and Continental/American fare. There is something here for everyone and no one should ever leave Shady Maple feeling hungry. In fact, just the opposite happens. It is too easy to leave Shady Maple after a meal and feel that you ate too much. It is all tempting and it is all good. It is hard to pass something by and there are so many choices.
This is a restaurant that seems to be known by everyone for counties around this area. I have heard Shady Maple mentioned in overheard conversations in Philadelphia. I have heard Shady Maple mentioned in conversations between Amish at Farmers Markets. And the comments are always positive. Out of Pennsylvania, someone mentions Lancaster County and the next thing I hear is "Shady Maple". This is a family restaurant that everyone comes to - locals and tourists.
What makes Shady Maple stand out? The food is great! The service is consistently good. The prices are in the moderate range and vary each night by what the night's feature is - but there is value for your money. They do include a reasonable gratuity with the price and the sales tax so the price you see listed is the price that you pay in total. The beverages are included with the meal. They make accommodations for people who have had a stomach staple - as long as a current doctor's note is presented. They have a senior price. And they give you a free meal on your birthday.There are buffets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each night there is a different theme with set featured items. Dishes change by season. And in the colder months of January and February when things are slower, there are special one weekend features such as Prime Rib Weekend, Hawaiian Luau Weekend, Pork Bonanza Weekend and a very special Valentines Day smorgasbord. Each year there is also an anniversary feature in March.
I have written so many good reviews about Shady Maple I don't want to keep repeating myself. This is my first choice in this area - and as I have written there are many good choices in this area when it comes to buffets including two other Top Buffets for 2012. I particularly enjoy the Pennsylvania Dutch dishes that are served occasionally such as Chicken Bot Boi, Apples and Dumplings, and Pig Stomach, but there are steaks of several cuts, carved roast beef, carved ham, lasagna, oriental stir fry on the grill, there own Philly Cheese Steaks - here called Smorgy Steaks, country sausage, smoked sausage, Polish sausage, pork loin, ham, chicken in many varieties, smoked pork chops, seafood, catfish, Prime Rib, ribs, beef brisket, veal patties, pizza, and on and on. If I named everything that I ever saw and/or tried at Shady Maple this article would go on for weeks.There are generally eight different soups. There is a salad bar that has anything you would like to create a salad plus local prepared salads. And then, of course, there is the desserts. There are hot desserts. There are apple dumplings. There are cakes and pies. There are prepared desserts and puddings. There is fruit. There is soft serve ice cream and all that you want to make a sundae. The dessert selection here is extensive - and good! Maybe too good - because after you have eaten yourself full during dinner, those desserts will call and tempt you to eat more than you had intended.
Top Buffet of 2012 is most deserved by Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Coming here is an experience and it should not be missed. This restaurant is not located in the middle of the common tourist area of Lancaster County. It is off to the edge of the area in the northeast of the county. It is not far from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and is easy to find and to get to. Expect a crowd and a wait during the summer months on a weekend - and even during the week. Expect a crowd during the Fall and before the holidays. It is quietest during the week during the winter. It is always good.
Congratulations to Shady Maple for consistently coming up at the top of our list - and for its award of Top Buffet of 2012!
Just to note - I just learned that Shady Maple just added a Charbroiler Grill and this makes for something to look forward to on my next trip in 2013! Char-grilled steaks are the perfect addition to this buffet!
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East from Lancaster or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. (Put the name in your GPS and it will know it.) The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. They are closed on Sundays and certain holidays. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.There is also a very active Facebook page!
Friday, February 08, 2013
Top Buffet of 2012 - Festival Buffet at Foxwood's Casino and Resort
The Festival Buffet is the buffet at the Foxwood's Resort and Casino in Connecticut and is names as one of our Top Buffets of 2012. I have been to this buffet a number of times and have reviewed and written about it several times - and each time that I have written about I need two weeks to say everything that needs to be said - and all good too! That alone tells you that there is something special about this buffet.
Foxwoods is a very large complex and consists of two hotels, several casinos, shops, night clubs and lounges, and a lot of restaurants. The Festival Buffet is the only buffet in the complex. When you come to dine at this buffet, it will be different on Monday to Thursday nights from Friday to Sunday nights. On Friday to Sunday they feature what they call an enhanced menu. Both weeknight and weekend buffets are great. The enhanced menu on the weekend adds steak, crab clusters, and more - at a slightly higher dinner price.
The buffet is located in what is called Rainmaker's Square in the complex. There are three dining areas for this buffet. One of these dining areas is actually outside the restaurant on the promenade separated by a low wall from those walking by. If you like the feel of a "sidewalk restaurant" this is what you will get outside. Be aware that this section is a smoking section. Of course, this areas has open access into the main dining room and the buffet area.
The food is set up in "stations" that follow the wall around the room and each station has a theme with food coordinating with that theme. The first thing you will see as you come in through the entrance is the dessert station and this is long and extensive. You are tempted as soon as you enter!
Following along the wall, there will be a station with seafood, a station with continental foods including entrees, carvings, and side dishes, a station with Italian food, a station with Asian food, and a station with both Tex-Mex and Barbecue. When the enhanced menu is in effect there is a station with crab clusters. The salad bar and the soups are on an island in the middle of the dining area.
There is a vast amount of food to choose from here and that makes wanting to try everything difficult. There is a lot to tempt you and there is way to much to be able to try - even taking small tasting portions. Starting with the salad bar, there are two sides to the salad bar with the soups on an end. On one side there are the makings for a Caesar Salad plus a pre-mixed special salad. On the other side is everything necessary to make an great tossed salad plus a variety of prepared salads. The salad is great but there is so much more to eat and I sometimes wonder why I did not just skip the salad and move on to all the rest. There were four soups to choose from when we went this past year - increased on the buffet from two soups before that. And if you go to the Asian station you may also find an Asian soup there as well. The New England Clam Chowder is excellent. Even the chicken rice soup tasted homemade!
As you go past the various stations and look at the entrees and side dishes you can be overwhelmed by all you see. At the seafood station there is mounds of fried cod, broiled seafood entrees, fried shrimp, fried clams, peel and eat cold shrimp, french fries, and more. I will come back to the continental station with its carvings and move you along to the Italian station. Behind the counter there are chefs preparing the dishes that you see laid out in front of you and these include not only hot entrees, but cold antipasto items as well. The dishes change here but I have had lasagna of various types, tortellini, pasta and a variety of sauces to put on, sausage and peppers, meatballs in tomato sauce, and more. At the Asian station there are also chefs behind the counter preparing and woking the dishes that are put out on the buffet counter.These have included dumplings, chow mien, various Chinese entrees, fried rice, noodles of various types - hot and cold, egg rolls and more. The barbecue/Tex-Mex station changes from weeknight to weekend and is more barbecue than Tex-Mex on the weekend. On the weekend they are charbroiling steaks here along with everything else. There have been very good ribs served, taco and burrito fixings, pulled pork, chili, riblets, BBQ chicken, beef brisket, beans both barbecue beans and Mexican beans, and more. Again, at each station, items change night by night and there is more on the weekend "enhanced" buffet at the stations. It is almost impossible to say what you will find on a visit - or the next visit after that.
Now, let's go back to the Continental station in the middle. I call this "Continental" as that seems to me the best way to describe it. Here there are a variety of entrees, side dishes, and vegetables. There have been Swedish meatballs, beef strognaoff, chicken with mushrooms, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, potatoes of various types, and various vegetables. The carvings may include several among which may be an excellent Prime Rib, pork loin, ham, tritip beef, turkey, and others. Portions are carved large.
As I have said, more than once - you cannot possibly try it all in one meal. But you want to!
Still want dessert. The dessert counters are almost as long as the food stations. There are hot desserts. Cold desserts. Pies, cakes, pastries, diet desserts, crepes, cookies, cupcakes, soft ice cream. I will repeat what I wrote in my last article about the Festival Buffet's desserts -
"There was a lot of very tempting desserts and a wide variety from hot cobblers, hot bread pudding, an assortment of puddings including tapioca, rice pudding, etc. There were many different cakes. The apple cake caught my eye. It was a large slice of brown cake with apples very visible in the slice. There was coconut cake - yellow cake with white frosting super-filled with coconut. As I stood next to the serving counter, I could smell the sweet coconut call to me. There were brownies, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, sundae fixings, and an area where crepes were cooked and filled to order. There is also a section of sugar-free desserts - mostly cakes."
Service has been excellent. The table staff are attentive and make sure your plates are picked up and your drinks are refilled (soft drinks are included in the price of the buffet).
I have been to casino buffets in Atlantic City and casino buffets at another resort/casino in Connecticut. This has consistently been the best. Others have been good. This is the one that I think about going back to - and do when I make the trip to Connecticut. There is no question that by the standards that has been set by this site, this is a Top Buffet. There is value for your money. The food is of excellent quality. It is prepared well and tastes great. Plus the staff are equally good. If you are in Connecticut, go to Foxwoods and have a great meal at the Festival Buffet.
The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page.
Foxwoods is a very large complex and consists of two hotels, several casinos, shops, night clubs and lounges, and a lot of restaurants. The Festival Buffet is the only buffet in the complex. When you come to dine at this buffet, it will be different on Monday to Thursday nights from Friday to Sunday nights. On Friday to Sunday they feature what they call an enhanced menu. Both weeknight and weekend buffets are great. The enhanced menu on the weekend adds steak, crab clusters, and more - at a slightly higher dinner price.
The buffet is located in what is called Rainmaker's Square in the complex. There are three dining areas for this buffet. One of these dining areas is actually outside the restaurant on the promenade separated by a low wall from those walking by. If you like the feel of a "sidewalk restaurant" this is what you will get outside. Be aware that this section is a smoking section. Of course, this areas has open access into the main dining room and the buffet area.
The food is set up in "stations" that follow the wall around the room and each station has a theme with food coordinating with that theme. The first thing you will see as you come in through the entrance is the dessert station and this is long and extensive. You are tempted as soon as you enter!
Following along the wall, there will be a station with seafood, a station with continental foods including entrees, carvings, and side dishes, a station with Italian food, a station with Asian food, and a station with both Tex-Mex and Barbecue. When the enhanced menu is in effect there is a station with crab clusters. The salad bar and the soups are on an island in the middle of the dining area.
There is a vast amount of food to choose from here and that makes wanting to try everything difficult. There is a lot to tempt you and there is way to much to be able to try - even taking small tasting portions. Starting with the salad bar, there are two sides to the salad bar with the soups on an end. On one side there are the makings for a Caesar Salad plus a pre-mixed special salad. On the other side is everything necessary to make an great tossed salad plus a variety of prepared salads. The salad is great but there is so much more to eat and I sometimes wonder why I did not just skip the salad and move on to all the rest. There were four soups to choose from when we went this past year - increased on the buffet from two soups before that. And if you go to the Asian station you may also find an Asian soup there as well. The New England Clam Chowder is excellent. Even the chicken rice soup tasted homemade!
As you go past the various stations and look at the entrees and side dishes you can be overwhelmed by all you see. At the seafood station there is mounds of fried cod, broiled seafood entrees, fried shrimp, fried clams, peel and eat cold shrimp, french fries, and more. I will come back to the continental station with its carvings and move you along to the Italian station. Behind the counter there are chefs preparing the dishes that you see laid out in front of you and these include not only hot entrees, but cold antipasto items as well. The dishes change here but I have had lasagna of various types, tortellini, pasta and a variety of sauces to put on, sausage and peppers, meatballs in tomato sauce, and more. At the Asian station there are also chefs behind the counter preparing and woking the dishes that are put out on the buffet counter.These have included dumplings, chow mien, various Chinese entrees, fried rice, noodles of various types - hot and cold, egg rolls and more. The barbecue/Tex-Mex station changes from weeknight to weekend and is more barbecue than Tex-Mex on the weekend. On the weekend they are charbroiling steaks here along with everything else. There have been very good ribs served, taco and burrito fixings, pulled pork, chili, riblets, BBQ chicken, beef brisket, beans both barbecue beans and Mexican beans, and more. Again, at each station, items change night by night and there is more on the weekend "enhanced" buffet at the stations. It is almost impossible to say what you will find on a visit - or the next visit after that.
Now, let's go back to the Continental station in the middle. I call this "Continental" as that seems to me the best way to describe it. Here there are a variety of entrees, side dishes, and vegetables. There have been Swedish meatballs, beef strognaoff, chicken with mushrooms, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, potatoes of various types, and various vegetables. The carvings may include several among which may be an excellent Prime Rib, pork loin, ham, tritip beef, turkey, and others. Portions are carved large.
As I have said, more than once - you cannot possibly try it all in one meal. But you want to!
Still want dessert. The dessert counters are almost as long as the food stations. There are hot desserts. Cold desserts. Pies, cakes, pastries, diet desserts, crepes, cookies, cupcakes, soft ice cream. I will repeat what I wrote in my last article about the Festival Buffet's desserts -
"There was a lot of very tempting desserts and a wide variety from hot cobblers, hot bread pudding, an assortment of puddings including tapioca, rice pudding, etc. There were many different cakes. The apple cake caught my eye. It was a large slice of brown cake with apples very visible in the slice. There was coconut cake - yellow cake with white frosting super-filled with coconut. As I stood next to the serving counter, I could smell the sweet coconut call to me. There were brownies, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, sundae fixings, and an area where crepes were cooked and filled to order. There is also a section of sugar-free desserts - mostly cakes."
Service has been excellent. The table staff are attentive and make sure your plates are picked up and your drinks are refilled (soft drinks are included in the price of the buffet).
I have been to casino buffets in Atlantic City and casino buffets at another resort/casino in Connecticut. This has consistently been the best. Others have been good. This is the one that I think about going back to - and do when I make the trip to Connecticut. There is no question that by the standards that has been set by this site, this is a Top Buffet. There is value for your money. The food is of excellent quality. It is prepared well and tastes great. Plus the staff are equally good. If you are in Connecticut, go to Foxwoods and have a great meal at the Festival Buffet.
The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Top Buffet of 2012 - Wood Grill Buffet, Charlottesville, Virginia
The Wood Grill Buffet located in Charlottesville, Virginia is one of the five TOP BUFFETS of 2012 named by this site. The Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville is one restaurant of four that are a small chain within a chain. The over-all restaurant chain is Western Sizzlin. This award is given to this specific buffet restaurant location in Charlottesville, VA. and no other in the chain. We have not been to the other locations and we have no idea if the great experience that we have had consistently over the number of times we have been to this buffet in Charlottesville, is any indication of the other restaurants in the chain.
This buffet is located in its own building sharing a parking lot with a store and a supermarket. The shopping center is located off Route 29. There is plenty of parking, but depending on the night you go to this buffet there may be a crowd to get in. All that this means is that there will be a short wait before you are seated. Even on a weeknight, when we were there last, the restaurant was crowded at dinner. There is a large dining room with both tables and booths. The buffet area takes up the entire rear and right side of the restaurant.
Dinner price for adults in 2012 was $10.59 on weeknights and $10.99 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Refillable soft drinks are $2.09. This is an incredible price for the variety of food that is served on this buffet! The food here is a blend of country, Southern, southwest, and just plain old good American cuisine. There is something for just about anyone to be satisfied with. On the weekends they are open until 11:30 pm which is also unusual for a buffet.
There is an extensive salad bar, split between two large, cold buffet servers. You will find everything including cold meats to create your salad, plus there is an extensive array of interesting and tasty prepared salads. The chicken salad with large chunks of chicken was particularly good. There is also real crab salad - not the fake crab that so many buffets use, but real crab meat filling the salad! As I have said in the past, it is easy to just come here and enjoy the salad bar and nothing more - BUT there is so much more to move on to at this buffet!
There are hot buffet servers with meat dishes, fish, crab cakes, lasagna, and so many entrees and side dishes. The fried chicken was the best that I have had at any buffet and it was good real Southern fried chicken! There is a counter with a grill behind that has steak being cooked and put out in various stages of how it has been cooked from rare to well done and they are grouped together for you to take. At this grill there are also ribs - real, fall off the bone, barbecue ribs. This is one of the few buffets that I know of where you can get good barbecue ribs. And in this area, they know how to cook ribs and those coming here know what to expect! There are also chicken breasts coming off the grill, and there were burgers, hot dogs, roast beef, ham, and more. Also at the grill counter was a taco and burrito bar. There is a bake potato bar on one of the hot buffet servers.
There is so much that one person could not possibly even try it all in a small amount and not be overly stuffed. You could come here several nights in a row and eat something different each night just in your choosing from what it there each night.
Desserts are found that bakery counter that takes up a side of the restaurant. At this counter there are breads, pizza and baked good desserts along with a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream, Fresh fruits, puddings, and the like are over on the cold buffet server. At the bakery counter are pies, cakes, hot cobblers, cupcakes and more. There is also a chocolate fountain which many enjoy.
What stands out about this buffet for me is the extent of good food and in particular the ribs. There is a lot to eat here and it is all good. There is a variety to eat here and even my picky eater wife finds plenty to enjoy of plainer cooked entrees.
This buffet is highly recommended. Our only regret is that this buffet is over 600 miles away and we cannot get here as often as we would like to. Go here and enjoy! We congratulations to the management and staff of the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville, Virginia. The award of Top Buffet of 2012 is well deserved!
The Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville is located at 576 Branch Lands Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22901 and their phone number is (434) 975-5613. Their website is linked at the side of this page in our listing of buffet links.
This buffet is located in its own building sharing a parking lot with a store and a supermarket. The shopping center is located off Route 29. There is plenty of parking, but depending on the night you go to this buffet there may be a crowd to get in. All that this means is that there will be a short wait before you are seated. Even on a weeknight, when we were there last, the restaurant was crowded at dinner. There is a large dining room with both tables and booths. The buffet area takes up the entire rear and right side of the restaurant.
Dinner price for adults in 2012 was $10.59 on weeknights and $10.99 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Refillable soft drinks are $2.09. This is an incredible price for the variety of food that is served on this buffet! The food here is a blend of country, Southern, southwest, and just plain old good American cuisine. There is something for just about anyone to be satisfied with. On the weekends they are open until 11:30 pm which is also unusual for a buffet.
There is an extensive salad bar, split between two large, cold buffet servers. You will find everything including cold meats to create your salad, plus there is an extensive array of interesting and tasty prepared salads. The chicken salad with large chunks of chicken was particularly good. There is also real crab salad - not the fake crab that so many buffets use, but real crab meat filling the salad! As I have said in the past, it is easy to just come here and enjoy the salad bar and nothing more - BUT there is so much more to move on to at this buffet!
There are hot buffet servers with meat dishes, fish, crab cakes, lasagna, and so many entrees and side dishes. The fried chicken was the best that I have had at any buffet and it was good real Southern fried chicken! There is a counter with a grill behind that has steak being cooked and put out in various stages of how it has been cooked from rare to well done and they are grouped together for you to take. At this grill there are also ribs - real, fall off the bone, barbecue ribs. This is one of the few buffets that I know of where you can get good barbecue ribs. And in this area, they know how to cook ribs and those coming here know what to expect! There are also chicken breasts coming off the grill, and there were burgers, hot dogs, roast beef, ham, and more. Also at the grill counter was a taco and burrito bar. There is a bake potato bar on one of the hot buffet servers.
There is so much that one person could not possibly even try it all in a small amount and not be overly stuffed. You could come here several nights in a row and eat something different each night just in your choosing from what it there each night.
Desserts are found that bakery counter that takes up a side of the restaurant. At this counter there are breads, pizza and baked good desserts along with a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream, Fresh fruits, puddings, and the like are over on the cold buffet server. At the bakery counter are pies, cakes, hot cobblers, cupcakes and more. There is also a chocolate fountain which many enjoy.
What stands out about this buffet for me is the extent of good food and in particular the ribs. There is a lot to eat here and it is all good. There is a variety to eat here and even my picky eater wife finds plenty to enjoy of plainer cooked entrees.
This buffet is highly recommended. Our only regret is that this buffet is over 600 miles away and we cannot get here as often as we would like to. Go here and enjoy! We congratulations to the management and staff of the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville, Virginia. The award of Top Buffet of 2012 is well deserved!
The Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville is located at 576 Branch Lands Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22901 and their phone number is (434) 975-5613. Their website is linked at the side of this page in our listing of buffet links.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Top Buffet of 2012 - Dutch-Way Family Restaurant, Gap, PA
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, Pennsylvania is one of the unique to this area, supermarket restaurants. There are three Dutch-Way Markets in Pennsylvania. All three of them have restaurants, but only two of those restaurants have buffets. We found the Gap location a year and a half ago and have enjoyed the buffet at that restaurant very much from the beginning. It has become one of our must go to buffets when we are in the area. We also visited the other Dutch-Way location that has a buffet but we were disappointed in that buffet - and this award - TOP BUFFET OF 212 goes exclusively to the buffet in the restaurant in Gap.
When you enter this restaurant you have no feeling at all that you are in a restaurant that is part of a supermarket. The room is finely decorated and the atmosphere here equals any stand-alone restaurant and buffet. The seating is comfortable and dining here is very pleasant. There are two dining rooms that are connected to each other. There is a mixture of tables and booths throughout. There is also a private dining room for parties or catered events that is separated from the main restaurant by a door.
When you enter the restaurant from its own lobby that is connected to the market by a hallway, you are entering through double glass doors into an inner restaurant lobby where you will be seated by a hostess. At your table your server will take your soft drink order and you then go up to the buffet area at the rear of the room. The buffet is arranged along the wall where you will find soup choices - there are always four soups in hot soup servers. At one end of the soup area there is a breads server and if you follow the soup section around you come to the baked desserts, which follows along to the soft-serve ice cream machine and then along to the rest of the many desserts that are offered. Out on the floor are three double sided buffet servers. One an extensive salad bar with a variety of create your own salad fixings and also prepared salads that include items unique to the Pennsylvania Dutch area. There are two buffet servers with hot foods. There is also a permanently set up, large grill and carving section with one or two chefs behind the counter to carve or create to order one of the special features of that particular night.
There are features most nights and they follow a theme. These themes have changed from time to time so I will not name nights and features. The one consistent feature that I will share is an extensive Seafood Night which takes place every Thursday night and does have a higher dinner price than other nights. Seafood Night does include crab legs.
Some of the recipes here are unique to the restaurant and the chefs here have taken some standard entrees of the Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish area and given them a unique slant in taste which is very good! Not all of the cooking is Pennsylvania Dutch and there is a nice variety of entrees that will appeal to most. Some of what is served could be considered "continental" and those dishes are great too. I have not had anything - at this location - that I would not consider good. And we have enjoyed every meal here - and think about going back often (which can be a problem when you are four hours away).
Price of the meals do vary by night, but on some nights the meal is just $10.99! Soft drinks have been $1.39 and are refillable. If you are 60 or over, tell the cashier and you receive a "Senior" discount when you pay your meal check.
Service - here - has consistently been excellent. The serving staff is attentive. The staff at the buffet makes sure the trays are filled and the food that is out is well tended and not permitted to dry out.
The food is quality. There is great value to be had here, even on Seafood Night when the price has been $17.99. The restaurant has been consistent from visit to visit and we have been here several times in 2012. There was no question in our minds that this was going to be a Top Buffet.
We congratulate Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in GAP, PA - their staff - and their management on being one of this site's TOP BUFFETS OF 2012!
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site for the chain and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.
When you enter this restaurant you have no feeling at all that you are in a restaurant that is part of a supermarket. The room is finely decorated and the atmosphere here equals any stand-alone restaurant and buffet. The seating is comfortable and dining here is very pleasant. There are two dining rooms that are connected to each other. There is a mixture of tables and booths throughout. There is also a private dining room for parties or catered events that is separated from the main restaurant by a door.
When you enter the restaurant from its own lobby that is connected to the market by a hallway, you are entering through double glass doors into an inner restaurant lobby where you will be seated by a hostess. At your table your server will take your soft drink order and you then go up to the buffet area at the rear of the room. The buffet is arranged along the wall where you will find soup choices - there are always four soups in hot soup servers. At one end of the soup area there is a breads server and if you follow the soup section around you come to the baked desserts, which follows along to the soft-serve ice cream machine and then along to the rest of the many desserts that are offered. Out on the floor are three double sided buffet servers. One an extensive salad bar with a variety of create your own salad fixings and also prepared salads that include items unique to the Pennsylvania Dutch area. There are two buffet servers with hot foods. There is also a permanently set up, large grill and carving section with one or two chefs behind the counter to carve or create to order one of the special features of that particular night.
There are features most nights and they follow a theme. These themes have changed from time to time so I will not name nights and features. The one consistent feature that I will share is an extensive Seafood Night which takes place every Thursday night and does have a higher dinner price than other nights. Seafood Night does include crab legs.
Some of the recipes here are unique to the restaurant and the chefs here have taken some standard entrees of the Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish area and given them a unique slant in taste which is very good! Not all of the cooking is Pennsylvania Dutch and there is a nice variety of entrees that will appeal to most. Some of what is served could be considered "continental" and those dishes are great too. I have not had anything - at this location - that I would not consider good. And we have enjoyed every meal here - and think about going back often (which can be a problem when you are four hours away).
Price of the meals do vary by night, but on some nights the meal is just $10.99! Soft drinks have been $1.39 and are refillable. If you are 60 or over, tell the cashier and you receive a "Senior" discount when you pay your meal check.
Service - here - has consistently been excellent. The serving staff is attentive. The staff at the buffet makes sure the trays are filled and the food that is out is well tended and not permitted to dry out.
The food is quality. There is great value to be had here, even on Seafood Night when the price has been $17.99. The restaurant has been consistent from visit to visit and we have been here several times in 2012. There was no question in our minds that this was going to be a Top Buffet.
We congratulate Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in GAP, PA - their staff - and their management on being one of this site's TOP BUFFETS OF 2012!
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site for the chain and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.
Friday, January 11, 2013
TOP BUFFETS OF 2012
Every year, in the past, we have named the Best Buffet for the year. Every year, without question, one buffet is named - and many agree. Shady Maple in East Earle, Pennsylvania gets top honors. But, there are so many other great buffets that don't get named because they are not as large and not as extensive as Shady Maple. This has bothered me for awhile. It is like waiting for the new cowboy to show up in Dodge to take down the old top cowboy. Someday it might happen - and then again, maybe not.
We decided mid-year that we were going to name Top Buffets instead of "Best" buffet just to put some of these other really great buffets into the limelight. We are listing these buffets in no ranking order - don't assume that the buffet at the start of the list is any greater than the one at the end of the list.
The TOP BUFFETS FOR 2012 are:
Dutch-Way Family Restaurant (and Buffet) - Gap, Pennsylvania
Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet - Mashantucket, Connecticut
Yoders Restaurant (and Buffet) - New Holland, Pennsylvania
Wood Grill Buffet, Charlottesville, Virginia
Shady Maple Smorgasbord, East Earle, Pennsylvania
To be considered for the honor of Top Buffet, the buffet must show consistency of cooking, quality, value, and service and come out above all of the rest. There are many buffets that we have been to that don't even come close to making this list. There are some that should have made the list but the service staff are the reason why they did not. You may note that three of the buffets on the list are in Lancaster County, PA which has so many buffets it should be considered the buffet capital of the US. The buffets on this list are also the ones that we consistently look forward going back to and with the three in the same area, it is a tough decision as to which one to go to when we are near there for just a day.
Over the next five weeks, I will be writing and posting articles about each of these buffets and telling you about them. Each has been reviewed in articles already on this site - some several times. Each buffet manager will be receiving in the mail a certificate of Top Buffet. We hope, as other buffets have done who have been given Best Buffet certificates in various categories from us in the past, that the manager will post the certificate for all of their patrons to see.
Congratulations to the Top Buffets! You deserve the designation and honor!
We decided mid-year that we were going to name Top Buffets instead of "Best" buffet just to put some of these other really great buffets into the limelight. We are listing these buffets in no ranking order - don't assume that the buffet at the start of the list is any greater than the one at the end of the list.
The TOP BUFFETS FOR 2012 are:
Dutch-Way Family Restaurant (and Buffet) - Gap, Pennsylvania
Foxwoods Casino Festival Buffet - Mashantucket, Connecticut
Yoders Restaurant (and Buffet) - New Holland, Pennsylvania
Wood Grill Buffet, Charlottesville, Virginia
Shady Maple Smorgasbord, East Earle, Pennsylvania
To be considered for the honor of Top Buffet, the buffet must show consistency of cooking, quality, value, and service and come out above all of the rest. There are many buffets that we have been to that don't even come close to making this list. There are some that should have made the list but the service staff are the reason why they did not. You may note that three of the buffets on the list are in Lancaster County, PA which has so many buffets it should be considered the buffet capital of the US. The buffets on this list are also the ones that we consistently look forward going back to and with the three in the same area, it is a tough decision as to which one to go to when we are near there for just a day.
Over the next five weeks, I will be writing and posting articles about each of these buffets and telling you about them. Each has been reviewed in articles already on this site - some several times. Each buffet manager will be receiving in the mail a certificate of Top Buffet. We hope, as other buffets have done who have been given Best Buffet certificates in various categories from us in the past, that the manager will post the certificate for all of their patrons to see.
Congratulations to the Top Buffets! You deserve the designation and honor!
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