SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD - 2023

 It has been awhile that we have been able to travel to Pennsylvania and have a chance to go to one of the Pennsylvania Dutch buffet restaurants. We choose Shady Maple for two reasons - one that it is the latest open buffet of any of the buffet restaurants in Lancaster County and two because it has been one of the leading buffets in this area that we have visited many, many, many times over the years and since the start of this site. We were only in the area for one night and this is where we dined.

It was a Wednesday night in early August. We arrived at about 5:45 pm which is very early for us to get to any restaurant for dinner, but because we did not know for sure what we would find in terms of crowds and the earlier hours of closing, we wanted to be sure - since we made the trip - that we would get in and have the time to enjoy the meal without being rushed because of their new hours.  They stop letting diners in at 7:30 pm. This is one half hour earlier than their regular hours have been for years when they closed at 8:00 pm.  They recently announced that they would serve until 45 minutes past that time. (Which is not bad - considering the others are open until 7:00 and seem to shut down at that time.)   I had not expected a line as when they send out emails trying to increase business. There was a line when we arrived. Two lines at two cashiers (as always you pay when you enter) and the lines went back from the cashiers to the entrance doors. We waited on line at least ten minutes to pay. (They now are using the "Shady Maple Rewards Card" that their supermarket uses and the card is free - apply on their website". You hand the cashier the card and it is scanned and you earn rewards money with payment for your meals.  If you have reward money coming to you, you are asked if you want to use it for the meals you are paying for. As always at Shady Maple, the tip is included in the price of the dinner. You do not tip at the table. After we paid we then went to the dining room and there was a another line to wait to be seated. That line was also long and it took another ten to fifteen minutes before we were at the front of the line and were seated at a table.  (This all takes away from dining time when there are shorter closing hours - and while it was not as much as an issue here than it could have been - for those buffets closing at 7, it would make a difference.) 

While "officially" Covid is considered over, there has been an increase in Covid cases so far this summer - equivalent to numbers a year or so ago. Some employees were wearing masks. Most were not. No one dining that we saw was wearing a mask (we were not) and the large dining rooms were crowded. They still put out disposable gloves to take - if you want to - to put on your hands when you handle the serving pieces. This is a good thing considering the number of people that are there and handling the serving spoons and clippers, etc. We saw no one wearing any. We thought about it and did not. 

One of the reasons the buffet restaurants have all shortened their hours is that they cannot find new employees to work since Covid started and this has continued not that it has "ended". There seemed to be a good number of table servers, those at the grills, and those putting out refills at the buffet tables. I recognized a number of employees that I had seen in past visits - before Covid. 

The grills were busy and crowded. The buffet tables were crowded with diners and at times it was hard to move down the aisle.  Many did not look (or act) local though there were local people there as well and I saw two Amishmen at the buffet tables filling their plates. The day that we were there was the last of three days with dramatically different weather from the severe storms that this area has been having weekly since the start of July - these three days were sunny and cool in the 70s without high humidity. That is one of the reasons why we picked this day to go - and our visits to local places during the day - we saw the same large crowds. Apparently a lot of people decided to take this opportunity to go there. (Following days were to go back to hot and stormy!)

We started the meal with a cup of Chicken Corn Soup. This is a chicken stock soup with noodles, corn, and pieces of carrot.  The soup tasty but it was salty  - more so than it should have been or has been in the past here. 

The Wednesday night grill special is Prime Rib.  I have not had Prime Rib since before Covid started three years ago. I have looked forward to coming on a Prime Rib night at any of the buffets here that serve it one night a week and that was the first thing I went to get when we had finished the soup. You can ask for how you would like it done and they are carving from different pieces to slice you what you ask for. I always want beef rare and I got as a nice sized slice of rare Prime Rib rare.  I ladled some Au Jus gravy from the hot container on the counter. I added to my plate some dried corn and baked apples with dumplings from the buffet tables. Then I tried to make my way through the crowd who were meandering between the grills and the tables.  I was really looking forward to that slice of Prime Rib. 

The beef was tough and hard to chew. There was grizzle through the meat and there was a hard coating of what was put around the outside of the Prime Rib when it was roasted.  I cut around the grizzle and removed that and the thick fat there was in the slice.  I looked for the grain that seemed to be going in different directions in the meat. I managed my way to get small pieces cut to put in my mouth that I could chew through - but I was not really enjoying it.  I had been expecting much better - figuring that Shady Maple's beef would be more tender than the closest thing I have had to steak in some time which has been sliced beef, a quarter inch thick served at a local Chinese buffet cooked on a flat grill at the Hibachi counter - which  is barely chewable.  While the soup had been salty, the Prime Rib needed salt and I added a little.  A lot of grizzle, fat, and hard outer shell was left over on my plate when I had eaten the meat that I had cut away from that.

The two side dishes I picked - the dried corn was good as it always has been here. The baked apples and dumplings are small slices of apple cooked in a sugar sauce with dumplings. In the Pennsylvania Dutch language this is called "Snitz and Knepp"- though Snitz are dried apples that are reconstituted before cooking these apples were more like sliced apples that were cooked.  The apples were very sweet and the dumpling I took was underdone and hard. 

Near the soup was a pot of Chicken Pot Pie - which is not the baked chicken pie you get in other areas that is in a pie crust. The Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch make chicken pot pie as a stew of boiled chicken and large, flat, soft, square noodles with potatoes and carrots and some herbs in the broth.  In the Pennsylvania Dutch language this is a called "Hinkel (chicken) Bot (pot) Boi (pie).  It is one of my favorite PA Dutch dishes. I filled a plate with it.  This was good. There was a little more salt than I would have liked but not so much that it put one off.  The chicken was tender. The bot boi noodles were soft and moist and the seasoning was classic for this dish. This was not a disappointment to me at all!  When I finished this plate I should have gotten more.

Another grill feature that now is on every night is New York Strip Steak cooked on the flat grills at more than one grill station.  Instead of getting more Hinkel Bot Boi,  I had my sights on a real steak! They are cooking raw and unseasoned steaks - as they would come from a butcher on the grills. Again - as always with their steaks - you can ask for it cooked as you like it.  Of course, I ordered a rare steak, I was given a thick and large steak served onto my plate. The steak was almost an inch thick. It was nicely charred on the outside off the grill and being as thick as it was I knew it would be rare inside - as it was - nice and red but not raw!  To the steak I added some stewed tomatoes to my plate and some mashed potatoes. 

I cut into the steak cutting around the small amount of fat. The meat was moist and I put a piece from my fork into my mouth and it was tough and chewy! (What the heck?!) It was tasty.  I managed to cut it small enough to chew and finished the steak.  But again tough and chewy steak was not what I have had at Shady Maple in the past! The mashed potatoes were good and fresh made, as were the stewed tomatoes. 

 My wife who does not like steak took some sliced ham and had looked for sliced turkey that was not out.  It was brought out later.  She - as always - is a picky eater- and is happy with not overdoing it at buffets.

I have gotten to the point not having been in many buffets for some time other than a Chinese buffet that is local that I can't eat like I could in the past - so I take care not to over do it.  The steak plate was it for my main courses. 

I went to the dessert buffet area and took a nice piece of chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. The cake was good but a few bites of the cake and suddenly my stomach felt very sick.  I took off quickly for the restroom and just made it in time and I was in there for a long time and had to find another restroom shortly after. Clearly I had food poisoning. What did it I am not sure. It could have been the excessive amount of salt in what I had eaten or the grease and fat in the beef. All I know is this was the worst experience I have ever had a Shady Maple and most of the buffets we have dined at.  My wife ate different things than I did and she was fine!

 It was about a quarter to eight when we were back in the car.  We could have gotten there a little later and not had any problem with the 8:15 closing time - and I heard an announcement that they would close at 8:30 but I could not hear if that was for the building or the buffet. There is a large gift shop on the lower level of the very large restaurant that used to close at 9 - so perhaps that was what the announcement was for. 

This was not the good review I anticipated writing before having this meal at Shady Maple. It is, without a doubt, the worst review I have ever written for this restaurant over the years.  Is it that everywhere beef has gotten so expensive that the quality of the meet that is available is just not up to what it once was and is tough and chewy?  Buffets are not fine steak houses with the best cuts at $50 to $100 dollars and more!   I am thinking so! If I had not had the Prime Rib and the steak would I have had a better experience on this visit? If I just had the Hinkel Bot Boi I know I would have. I just don't know about the beef or the large quantity of salt that was in the foods I ate!  My wife liked what she had. 

Go, don't go? It has been better. I has rarely been this crowded on any week night - even in the summer - but this has been a very unusual summer! I have rarely been disappointed in anything I have eaten here in the past! This buffet is the largest buffet in the world! That is true!  This site has awarded our Best Buffet of the Year award many times. It would not get that award - which we have not given in a number of years to any buffet - this year based on this meal.  Will I go back? Probably - at some time - but I will choose what I eat more wisely! BUT it will be a long time before I forget this experience and it may be a long time before I go back.

SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, EAST EARL, LANCASTER, PA IN A NOT QUITE POST COVID TIME

What I thought of most in terms of restaurants and buffets during the past over a year and a half remaining at home during Covid-19 were the buffets in Lancaster, PA.  A number of the Lancaster buffets had reopened in a modified basis mid-2020 and I published an article on this site at the time about what they were doing to keep their customers and employees safe.  At the current time the only Lancaster buffet that has resumed full operation with their regular hours and buffet menu is Shady Maple Smorgasbord.  They are open until 8:00 pm Monday to Saturday. As always they are closed on Sunday.  The others close early at 7 or earlier. We have been looking to return to Lancaster and see for ourselves what is happening and we chose Shady Maple as the one we would go to first. 

At the end of June, Pennsylvania's Governor ended all requirements in the state to wear a mask. How wide this was in terms of the active numbers remaining and increasing in Pennsylvania remains for someone else to judge, but I will say that it made us very cautious about going to Pennsylvania and into a buffet. From what I was able to research before we went, we were not certain that there were any precautions being taken at Shady Maple - while just a month ago, masks were required when walking around the restaurant - they could be removed, of course, at your table, and gloves were required to be worn - provided by the restaurant when going up to the buffet to handle plates, cups, glasses, and serving utensils.  It appeared that none of this was still being required.  We were apprehensive but we went making the three hour one way trip plus return, for the day to Lancaster and dinner at Shady Maple. We went on a Friday night.  We arrived at the restaurant at about 6:15 pm and the parking lot was crowded. In addition there were buses of people coming to the buffet for dinner.

 The entrances and exits at the lobby are marked in large letters. One set of doors are Entrance Only and the other set of doors are Exit Only.  Walking to the restaurant from the parking lot we saw very few wearing masks.  Entering the lobby, we saw two cashiers open and two moderately long lines of people waiting to pay and have dinner.  Few wore masks. There was a standing sign at the back of each line - "This is a TOUCHLESS buffet" and it went on to say that gloves were provided but optional to use when going up to the buffet to serve yourself. It also said that everyone must take a clean plate, clean drinking glass, and clean cup each time they went up to the buffet.  We were very pleased to see this and it made us much more comfortable going in. Social distancing is something that some did and some did not while waiting to go in.

We waited on the line and the process was the same as it always has been. There was a plexiglass screen between the cashier and the customers. Once you pay, you can go to a line that seats you in the front, booths only dining room, or you can go around to the middle of the restaurant following the aisle - as there always have been.  We went to the middle of the restaurant - as is always our preference and waited on the line there that moved fairly quickly. The prices are about or just slightly higher than what they have been in the past. The tip - as it always has been - is included in the price. Soft drinks and coffee/tea are included in the price. We were escorted to a table near the buffet and were asked if we had ever dined at Shady Maple before. I never like to seem to be a tourist -and we have dined there hundreds of times, but I my reply was "Not since Covid - but many times before." We were told that everything is the same. She pointed to a small table at the entrance of the buffet and showed us where the gloves were if we wanted them and that they were optional.  On that same table was a pump bottle of disinfectant and behind the table was a tall square trash can for the disposal of the gloves. A new set of gloves should be taken each time you go up - if you are using gloves. It surprised me that more were taking and using gloves than not using them. But those wearing a face mask were in the minority (as was true in places we had visited during the day). We do and we were going to use the gloves. The tables in the dining room were widely spread apart. You were not sitting right next to the tables around you.

We went up to the buffet. The gloves are extra large and thin clear plastic. There is a tub of gloves and you reach in and take them yourself. We got glove, managed to get them on as they were hard to peel open at the bottom, and went up to the buffet. The buffet was fairly crowded. Social distancing was just about non-existent.  We started with soup, brought our handled bowls of soup to the table and then went back in to get our soft drinks. The chicken corn noodle soup was as good as always. There were fewer soups than are usually out - but part of the soup serving area was take up with hot wings which have not been there in the past.  This might be part of the Friday dinner features.  While some of  the night to night features are the same they also do vary night to night. There is also a large variety of meats, side dishes, etc. on the buffet in addition to the features - that you are not seeing listed when you look at the menus on their website. Both sides of of the very long buffet tables were full - every section tray was filled with food to take.  All of the grills were also working with featured items on them. A feature each night is New York Strip Steak and it is served at one of the grill stations to order while other grill stations have a wide assortment of other fish and meats. 

I had to have the steak. After we finished the soup we went right to the entrees. We skipped the extensive salad bar, which is the past we would have gone to. It has been so long since we have been here, we wanted to go right to the good stuff! There were a few people waiting on line for steaks. When I got up to the grill I asked for a steak - rare!  The gentleman behind the grill looked over what he had cooking on the grill - paused to add more raw steaks on the grill and then said to me -  I have this steak that is rare and he cut it open to show me. It was perfect inside and outside. It also was about an inch and a half thick. I am not sure if my eyes popped out of my head or not, as this was the thickest steak that I have ever seen at Shady Maple - and he was giving me the whole thing. He asked if I wanted it and I said yes! The other steaks were a little less than half this thickness. I knew taking that large steak that I would probably not being coming back for a second steak as this was a lot of steak - but this was what I have been waiting a year and a half for. It is as if it was there just for me! (They do not know me there - or at any buffet I write about and I want it that way!) I added to the plate a deep fried crab cake and a couple of serving spoonfuls of dried corn (an Amish dish of sweetened, stewed dried corn). I headed back to the table. 

Each time we came back to the table we put the used gloves in the trash basket intended for them. At the table I started on the steak. It was red and juicy inside - but no raw. It was nicely brown on the outside.  The edges around the steak were seasoned and a bit tough. I just cut that off and ate the meat inside of it - and even with that there was plenty of meat there. The meat itself was not tough. It was very tasty - and just what I wanted. The dried corn was as good as always. The deep fried crab cake was very tasty. 

My wife had chosen ham balls, an Amish dish of ham meat balls that are sweetened with a pineapple glaze. She was happy with what she was eating. As you know, if you are a steady reader of this site, ths is a picky eater.

The problem with not having been here in so long with so many dishes to choose from and so much that is tempting and looks good, is that one can easily get carried away and take too much. While I was aware of this, on my second entree visit to the buffet tables, I was picking things that I had been missing and this second dish was a sampling of some of those - but more than it should have been. I have not had fried chicken on the bone for a long time and I took a piece of fried chicken. I saw that there were also crab cakes that were being cooked on the grill and I got one of those. I took some fall apart beef. I also took a perogie and I took some Amish potato filling.  I also spotted large fried shrimp and took two of those. After the big steak this was overdoing it. This plate was good but was not satisfying me as the first. The chicken part I took was dense. I should have take a leg that was in the tray opposite. The shrimp were the best thing on the plate. The shrimp inside the light breading were very large and very moist. The taste was great and very fresh. It was, in my memory, the best shrimp that I have ever had.  The perogie was deep fried and the center and filling was good and tasty. The crab cake was differently seasoned than the deep fried one I had with the steak and I did not like the grilled crab cake as much. The potato filling was good as always. The beef was tasty.  I suddenly found myself - for no reason related to the food on my plate - leaving some of it over.  I am not used to eating like this after such of long time of eating all meals at home.

I should have stopped with that last plate but my head got the better of me and I went up for a third plate and I went right back to the steak grill. This time I was given a nicely rare steak - not as thick as the first - but thicker than usual. I also went for a second deep fried crab cake and some more dried corn - duplicating my first plate. It was all good but my stomach was letting me know that with a more than three hour drive home - maybe in Friday night traffic - I better not over do it. I ate about half the steak, half of the crab cake and a few forkfuls of the dried corn. Thinking back, I should have skipped the steak and went back for a few more shrimp. I looked down at the plate and pushed it away from me.  This was not a challenge and we can come back again for more - with a lot less time in between from the last time we dined at this buffet. My wife who has more logic in how much she takes and what she takes enjoyed sliced turkey, sliced ham and some nice side dishes. 

While I could not eat much more, I did want to have some desert. I chose a small slice of pie. It was a raspberry pie and it was very good. My wife put together an ice cram and apple cobbler desert for herself.The last seating for the buffet is 8:00 pm and the buffet is shut down at 8:45 pm. We had been there for over an hour and a half eating dinner.

When we left I was stuffed.  The gift shop that fills the lower level is open until 9:00 pm and we walked around in there to walk off some of the too much I had eaten. I broke one of my own rules - a buffet is not a challenge. It should not be - and I have to regain the control I had two years ago. 

We will definitely go back again. I hope very much that they continue the Covid precautions they currently have in having the gloves available.  We are not out of it yet and we don't want to return to where we were a year and a half ago. It was not long ago that it was said by many media sources that buffets were dead and will never return after Covid-19. They are not dead - and if they proceed with caution they will be fully back and thriving again. 

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.

FLAMING GRILL BUFFET IN BALDWIN, NY IN THE NOT QUITE POST COVID NEW NORMAL

It has been one year since I wrote my previous post on this site. It has been almost two years since I ate last at a buffet.  This all changed earlier tonight. We went to the Flaming Grill Buffet in Baldwin, New York, the last buffet we ate at when Covid was just starting and cautions had to increase.  

We are both fully vaccinated but we have been very cautious. We have slowly started to do things out of the house that we have not done for a very long time. We have been a couple of times to a fast food restaurant for lunch.  We are planning a summer trip to Pennsylvania and we do plan to eat at the buffets there that we had always enjoyed before. I decided that before we do that we need to try eating at a buffet locally.

Flaming Grill in Baldwin, NY during the height of Covid had reopened as a take out or delivery Cajun seafood menu restaurant. A new location that had opened recently then in Brooklyn, NY also became a Cajun seafood menu restaurant. The Facebook page for the Baldwin Flaming Grill still to this day describes the restaurant as Cajun seafood, but their website talks about it as the buffet it had always been in the past. I had tried contacting them through the Facebook page to ask about whether they were a buffet again or still a Cajun seafood restaurant but never got any response.  Finally it was time to call and yes, we learned that they are once again the Asian buffet that they had been pre-Covid. 

We were not certain what protective measures they would be taking and were a little hesitant even though many restrictions have been removed in this state - and other states, but it is no uncommon here to still find many people wearing masks but inside and outdoors, and many are still approaching the "new normal" with caution, as we are.  When we got there we were very pleasantly surprised! The sign on the entrance door says that "masks must be worn at all times when in the restaurant" (only exception being when eating at your table). To us that was excellent.  There were many people in the restaurant especially for a Thursday night but it was not jammed and you were not nose to now (or mask to mask) going around the buffet.

The prices have gone up by one dollar each adult meal. Where Friday dinner in the past was priced the same as Monday to Thursday, now Friday is in the price group with Saturday and Sunday - so Friday dinner has gone up two dollars. The website has a coupon for dinner maximum two to get $1.00 off on dinner. 

During the past two years without going to any buffet there were several dishes from specific buffets that I was missing A LOT. Two of those dishes were from Flaming Grill. One was their seafood soup. This is a thick broth soup with shrimp, fish, and egg whites. The other was Flaming Grills barbecue spare ribs. I was looking forward to those and hoping I would find them on the buffet.

After we paid - you pay here in advance of being seated - we went up to the person who seats you and he handed us four clear gloves - two for each of us and then he brought us to our table - a table, by chance that we had sat at multiple times in the past. The gloves are to be worn any time one goes up to serve themself at the buffet tables. In this way the serving utensils are only touched by gloved hands. (Another EXCELLENT!). This was something that had concerned us before going. This is something that was being done at the Lancaster, PA buffets when they reopened when they were allowed to - and something that from what I have been reading about those buffets, may not be being done still (we shall see when we finally get there).  The difference, however, was that at the Lancaster buffets you received a new pair of gloves every time you went up to the buffet. Here you get one pair each and use the same ones each time you go up to get food.  We were glad to see that all in the restaurant were complying with putting their masks back on and putting their gloves on each time they left their table to go up to get food. The buffet tables were no different in their protection than they had been in the past. Each has the usual cough glass in angled down over the serving trays. Each serving tray has a pair of tongs. 

SO - the meal!!! Donning out masks and gloves, we went up for soup. The seafood soup was not there. There was wontons in broth, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup. I took two wontons and broth.  We have been taking in Chinese take out from a local take out store front over the past several months - I have had wonton soup almost weekly since we started doing that. The soup here was as good as always. After the soup I was off to see what sushi there would be out. 

Half the sushi counter was empty. The other half had salmon and avocado rolls with shrimp, tuna and avocado rolls, shrimp and cream cheese rolls, and some vegetable sushi rolls. That was it. This is much less than they had in the past BUT I have not had sushi of any kind for two years so I took half a plate of salmon roll pieces and tuna roll pieces. I took a small condiment cup and filled it from the dispenser with soy sauce that was on the counter where it has always been. Before I headed back to the table I took a piece of cold tofu with a sauce on top from the end counter that has had Asian salads.  My wife looked there for seaweed salad which she has liked here - sweet and not spicy - but there was none. That was brought out later. I enjoyed that sushi! Was it the best sushi I have ever had?  I don't care! It was a delightful texture in my mouth and a taste I have missed for too long! Walking back to the table I looked for the spare ribs. OH YES! They were there! 

There was no question about what I was going for next. The tray was completely full - just having been refilled. I chose three ribs that looked to have the most meat on them.  All I added to that plate to go with the ribs was hibachi rice.  I looked at those ribs on my plate all the way back to the table. Off came my glove, off came my mask, and I started on those ribs. I could feel the smile that my mouth was forming as I chewed that first bite.  They were just as I had been thinking about for so long a time.  There had been nights that I could not fall asleep and I cleared my head by thinking about these ribs - and a few other favorites from other buffets. I was not disappointed! They were what I was hoping for and have been waiting for.  I, suppose, that I could have just gone back up and gotten more, but I wanted to get more of the things I liked at this buffet. 

Something that I have not had in two years has been steak. Regular readers will know that I really like steak. There is steak here on the hibachi grill. You can combine it with shrimp or meats, and vegetables and noodles from the raw foods selection leading up to the grill to give to the chef behind the grill to mix together into a dish of your design. I just wanted the steak. I knew that the steak here has always been very tough and so thin that it cooks to well done in a few minutes. What was there were steaks cut to over a 1/4" thick that were semi-frozen and I was encouraged to the idea that if timed correctly it might come off the grill with some semblance of rare. I took two pieces. They filled a little more than half the plate. The grill was very busy and I waited with others for a time for what was on the grill to be cooked and come off to those waiting, and for my steak, and the others around me food selections, to go on the griddle top. There is no flame grill here despite the name of the restaurant. The chef (cook) behind the grill took each plate and briefly listened for any instructions from the person handing it to him. I said, "RARE!" - he acknowledged that and before I could say "Nothing on it!", he was taking the next plate. I stood close by watching my steaks cooking. He had five plates of food on the grill at the same time and kept going back and forth. After he turned my steaks over I knew that if they were to be actually rare they would have to come off the grill very soon. As he came back toward the end of the grill where my steaks were cooking I got his eye and indicated for him to give me the steaks then.  He went over to my steaks and picked up a squeeze bottle of teriyaki sauce and started to squeeze some on my plate. Through my mask, and shaking my head, I said "NO! No sauce - plain. I will take them now." He understood and scooped them up with a spatula and put them on a plate and handed it to me. Through the glass and my mask, as I took them I thanked him clear enough so that he could hear me. With a mask on, you can smile all you want and know one knows. This has been a time to speak up and extend one's pleasure verbally.  I took the plate with the steak to the buffet table and took some mushrooms in a brown sauce and put that next to the steak. I added some more hibachi rice - which is very good here. 

The steak was tough - as I expected it would be - but the taste of it in my mouth was STEAK! That really satisfied what I was looking for.  If one has been in the desert and finally drinks water the water tastes like nectar. The steak was medium done, but that too was OK. It was steak!

After the steak - I went around for some of the dishes I would get in the past. I did not take much. I was eating a lot more, already, than I have eaten in awhile. At some points during Covid at its height - and we are in an area that was hit very hard - leading some areas within this state and other states in case totals and deaths - we were conserving the food we had and we could get. We ate half portions. While some gained weight during Covid we both lost weight to the point of needing to take in some waistbands. But I took some broiled talapia (fish), an egg roll, a large deep fried and breaded slice of zucchini, and, one pan fried dumpling,  some fried rice.  While we could have gotten egg rolls while we were taking in meals in the past several month, we hadn't.  The egg roll I took was just fine! It was small, but it was filled with a nice mixture of vegetables and pork and it hit the spot (that I have been thinking of egg rolls lately helped at that moment of enjoying this one).  There was a lot more that I could have gone back for. I did not take the cold cocktail shrimp or the crab in the shell, or any of the chicken dishes that they did have, or other things that I might have gone for in the past. This was enough for our long awaited return to buffet dining. As this site has in its name, "All you can eat is NOT a challenge!"

There were some dishes that we expected to see from the past that were not there. There is a chicken dish with strips of chicken fried in a light breading with a peanut sauce that were missing. There was no seafood soup as I have already mentioned. My picky eater wife was looking for a few things and not seeing them - one of which was that chicken dish.  We wondered if what was not there is what makes the difference now between the Monday to Thursday dinner buffet and the Friday/Weekend buffet for a dollar more. We know that when Friday was the same price as the weekdays before it in the past these dishes were there - and there were other dishes that we knew were only on the weekend buffet back then. We don't really know. 

There was not much in the way of cakes for dessert. The large layer cakes they had in the past were not there. The lemon meringue pie was not there. What I call the "Little Debbie" squared of cakes that are cut from a sheet cake - which are not "Little Debbie" at all - were out. There were full trays of both fresh and canned fruits. puddings, a small cheesecake, and a freezer full of ice cream bars, ice cream sandwiches, and ice cream cups. My wife decided not to have dessert. I was thinking about mandarin oranges when my wife pointed out to me that two new pizza's were just put out. That I could not resist and I took some pizza and that was the pie I ate for dessert. Some might question Chinese restaurant pizza - but the pizza here, especailly when it first comes out is soft and full of cheese that just pulls away in long strands - and tasty.  

When we were done, I pushed the plate away from me and just opened my eyes wide and smiled! My wife said to me, "Happy? !". "OH YES!" was my answer.  I just sat there like that for awhile. I realized that I have not used or carried much cash with me in almost two years and, of course, we had to leave a tip. Between us we had the right amount. We had a larger bill that we could have asked the cashier to break for us, but we had a good tip to leave on the table.  I put the tip down on the table. We put on our masks and left. 

Will we go back! Yes we will. Eventually we will try a Friday or Sunday night. Our concern is only that the restaurant generally on the weekend and Fridays was always much more crowded. 

Now, I know that some of our readers go to buffets that I write about their dinner buffets for lunch. I cannot say how the lunch buffet will differ. It is lower in price and there is also a one dollar coupon for lunch on the website.  We rarely have eaten at a buffet for lunch - unless the circumstances required that we leave an area that we wanted to try a buffet before it was time for dinner, but those occurrences are few and far between. 

Some people and news reporters said that Covid killed buffets. Many are coming back! Many are already back. They found ways to make buffets safe and reopened and people are going again!  There is one  local buffet that we thought was closed forever and it just reopened. 

And we are back! Keep an eye on this site and have patience. There will be more articles coming over the summer about the "new normal" at other buffets - some that we and many readers have loved for a long time! And all the time we were in the house, I spent a lot of time watching great looking things to eat being enjoyed by hosts of shows on The Food Channel! It was great to be back in a restaurant again!

ADDENDUM

Two weeks later we went back to Flaming Grill Buffet, Baldwin on a Friday night.  When we were her two weeks ago, Friday nights were included on the weekend price of 14.99. Prior to Covid, the Friday night price was the same as the weekday dinner price. When we got there we were surprised to see that once again, Friday nights are priced at the weekday price of $13.99.

There was nothing different or added to the buffet from what was there on the Thursday weeknight dinner buffet two weeks before. This time we were each handed two gloves each with the requirement to wear a glove on each hand when going up to serve yourself at the buffet. The majority did, some wore one glove, a very few wore no gloves at all. All did still wear masks when leaving their table to go to the buffet tables. 

There were more dessert choices out. Not all of the large cakes that were out in the past but the chocolate layer cake topped with whipped cream and the tiramisu cake were there. There was also more sushi choices including more rolls and also salmon on a bed of rice. Whether these were not out the last time because it was a weekend dinner priced night then OR that when we came in on the Thursday these had been taken and they had not yet replaced them or had not planned to replace them from earlier, I don't know.  Pre-Covid there were different foods out on weekends. There was a steamed ginger fish. This was a very tasty though full of bones fish that would replace the baked talapia.  The seafood soup that I was hoping to find was not there again. 

I will admit that I either ate more than I should have or my stomach has shrunk in the past year and a half when we stopped eating out at any restaurants. When we left the restaurant I was over stuffed and I had that overfull feeling over two hours later. Yes, all you care to eat is an offer - and not a challenge. I certainly was not taking it as a challenge but it has been so long, that I again had trouble resisting taking what appealed to me as I walked by it on the buffet. I did skip desert.  My good wife did take a piece of the chocolate layer cake with whipped cream which was a favorite for her in the pre-Covid dinners we would have here almost weekly. 

I did not mention serving staff in the first article above. The service was as good as it always was. On this night the young man who was our server had been our server for pre-Covid dinners here. He was prompt to clear dishes off the table and came over when my soda glass was empty and offered to bring more - which he did promptly. The service on our first visit was just as good. The gentleman who seated us, we knew from pre-Covid dinners here. I don't know if he recognized us with our masks on - but he greeted us as in the past and brought us to the area that we always liked to sit in without our asking.  The service at this restaurant has always been good. 

I am glad we went back to compare how the restaurant is on a Friday night even though it was not priced with weekend prices which we had wanted to see to find out if weekend priced nights had different choices. I was not very crowded but during this day, there was a severe storm that had passed hours before dinner and that might have kept people away. There were more people with take out containers than there had been two weeks ago.   They accepted the $1 off per adult dinner coupon (maximum two per coupon) from their website. The local community coupons that are mailed in the area have not had a coupon for Flaming Grill since Covid started. They may start to be sent out again.  Use of the coupon does require the purchase of a soft drink each. Whether the weekend buffet has the different dishes that it had in the past is still unknown. At this point we are unlikely to go there on a Saturday as we figure that Saturday night dinner will be much more crowded - as it always was in the past. It is possible that we may go back and try it on a Sunday night just to see if there is any difference.  At this point, weekday dinner is fine - and Friday night in the past had been our regular night to come.

Golden Corral, Freehold, NJ - A Hit and Miss Golden Corral

Yes, it has been a long time since the last article. I have not wanted to keep writing about the same places and there are so few buffets to write about any longer - in fact, even the old standbys seem to be closing.

I am often asked about the Golden Corral in Freehold, New Jersey. We have been there many times in the past and the one thing that holds true is that one visit can be great and another visit not so good. This Golden Corral opened with some problems and during that first year it was to be avoided - and that was some time ago. It got better - but it remains inconsistent.

We were just there again. We had not been there for a number of months. This is not near us. It takes two expensive bridge tolls and a lot of traffic to get to this Golden Corral - the closest Golden Corral to the NY Metro area.  We had business in the area and decided to spend time until dinner to have dinner at Golden Corral.

We had been to the Golden Corral in Whitehall, PA for dinner not too long ago. That was nice! Our experiences there have been consistently good. The price for dinner there was $13.99 - less for Seniors.  We walked into the Golden Corral in Freehold and the price for adults was $15.99 with a Senior price of $14.99!!! This was not on the weekend. This was a Wednesday night!  This Golden Corral has always been more expensive - but never this high! Drinks are almost $3.00. This is now quite an expensive meal with nothing really different from what they have ever served before.

I like Golden Corral, in general, for the steak. It is the best of the buffet steak - thick sirloin - and when there is a grill chef who knows what he is doing will cook to order as you request - and you get your piece of the steak the way you want it. The grill chef on this night at the New Jersey Golden Corral was one I have seen there before.  I like my steak rare - not raw - but red inside and crispy cooked outside - and often I get it this way just by asking for rare.  I asked for a rare steak. He took one off the side of the grill from a pile of steaks and started cooking it again - OK - he was going to heat it back up (I guess). He cut a piece off the steak - did not show it to me - as they usually do - and put it on my plate. It is best described as medium/well.  Tasty? Yes. Grizzly? No. Overdone? Yes - for me.

We start our meals with soup and we both like the chicken noodle soup that Golden Corral serves. Unlike other chicken noodle soups the noodles are thick and doughy - great. The soup has pieces of chicken, carrots, and celery in a nice chicken broth - USUALLY.  This chicken noodle soup tasted like someone in the kitchen dropped a full container of salt into the chicken noodle soup. It really was beyond edible for the salt. This is not usual in our experience with this soup - there or in other Golden Corrals.

My wife likes meatloaf - as do I. She likes brown gravy meatloaf - as opposed to tomato sauce/ketchup covered meatloaf. On this night it was brown gravy meatloaf - burned on the top. We both took some. This too was so salty it was hard to eat it. My wife says that the next tray they brought out - which was not burned on top - and she took some - was not salty. So what happened to that first one? Not good!

There are special features on the menu this month - the one most intriguing on the television commercial is Slow Smoked Sirloin. On the commercial this looks like steak. In photo ads it looks like sliced sirloin.  In each ad, it is pink and juicy looking - nicely pink and juicy looking! When I saw this I knew I had to get to a Golden Corral to try this - and was looking forward to this when we came in that night.  it was on the side of the grill counter - a large blackened chunk of beef to be sliced by one of the grill people. I went up for a piece and eventually someone came over to slice it - they had been slicing in advance before I came up. He sliced off about an inch thick slab of grey meat with a thick crust and a small pink ring around the edge under the crust. I figure that was the "smoke ring" and the crust was the "bark" - all smoked BBQ terms.  The nice pink and juicy smoked sirloin was just on the commercial and the photo ads. This was more pot roast than anything else. It was tender - at least while it remained hot. As I was getting to the end of the piece (reluctantly) it was fast becoming tough and not chewable. There was a seasoning on the outside - and on the meat - that was a bit overwhelming - and not good. I did not finish the piece I was given.  I just could not eat any more of it. Is this representative of this entree in all Golden Corral's - I hope not - but maybe it is. I regretted not taking another piece of steak instead of this not good featured slow smoked sirloin.

The other features are Peel and Eat Shrimp, Golden Fried Shrimp, and Cajun Shrimp Boil. Of these I only saw the peel and eat shrimp and that was on the side of the salad bar. My wife missed that completely and when I told her about it she thought I was talking about the tiny boiled shrimp that are always on their salad bar. The other two - ? - if they were there they were not obvious, but I was not looking for them.

Between the too much salt and the price and the not so properly cooked steak and the not so good slow smoked sirloin this was one of those better not happen too often OFF nights at Golden Corral, Freehold, New Jersey.

My wife was even more unhappy because for some reason they need to pour a thick butterish oil over the cornbread and rolls and soak it in - making that not very appealing. it is not butter - and there is plenty of butter available to put your own butter on the rolls and the cornbread.

Dessert - the selection is limited - and my wife likes to take the apple cobbler and put the vanilla soft-serve over it - which she says has been good at other Golden Corrals - and even at this one in the past.  The apple cobbler was fine but the soft-serve machine was putting out white ice and not vanilla soft-serve ice cream.  I had a small cube of chocolate frosted chocolate sheet cake - which was just OK.

Service here - in our experience - has mostly been good and it was good on this night. The server went out of his way to keep checking in with us and while it took him a little while to get to our table when we first sat down, he was good during the meal. He also was covering too many tables and was  constantly carrying more stacks of dishes than he should be expected to. Another server was needed in this section.   Many were not tipping him. I did - as always.

Cleanliness was just OK. There were too many dirty plates coming off the clean stack and when you pick you a plate check the top and bottom of that plate and the bottom of the plate that was under it.  Since plates are now out to take (and not brought to your table by your server as they were at Golden Corral in the past) there is a problem with finding a clean plate.

Will this be the last time we go to this Golden Corral?  No, it won't be. We will go back again as the next time could be very good.  Why was this time like this - there really is no explanation or excuse. It was not crowded. We did not arrive late - in fact we were earlier than we usually are at most buffets - just after 6 pm.  The price, however, will be a concern. For the cost of this dinner for two I could go to a non-buffet steak chain and save the gas and tolls.

Do I caution those who have never been there from going? Yes. Expect that it could be great or a bumpy meal!  But do definitely expect it to cost a lot.

Golden Corral, Middletown, NY

We are rarely in Upstate New York - this for those who are not familiar with New York is considered anything north or west of Manhattan by those who live in the Metro NY area. We were going to spend the day up along the Hudson for an event we wanted to attend and I started looking for where we might find a buffet - and I was in particular looking for a Golden Corral.  With the conversion to Golden Corrals of some Old Country Buffets, etc. that had closed I knew that there was at least one up in this area. The one that I searched for first was the Golden Corral that opened in a former OCB in Newburgh, New York. I had heard about this in early summer along with the opening of a similar take over location in Connecticut. When I had looked up the reviews for this new Golden Corral in Newburgh, the reviews were not good - in fact they were terrible. When I went back to look now I discovered that this Golden Corral had closed! It was not open a half a year. There was some problem between management at the buffet and the NYS Department of Labor - I don't know the details - and Golden Corral pulled their affiliation and closed the restaurant. So, what else might be near enough to make a detour on the way home worth the drive. What I discovered was that there is a new Golden Corral in Middletown, New York. I did not read any reviews - I wanted to see for myself.

We drove about an hour plus out of our way and in the wrong direction to get there on a Saturday night. It is the most unusual Golden Corral I have ever seen. It is not a free standing building but part of a strip mall in one of the store spaces. At first I thought that it must be another OCB conversion - as it just seemed that way from the outside. As we went through the door there was also an open entrance - no doors to a large and noisy game arcade. Odd! I have since found out that this was not an OCB or any other restaurant before but was built as an add on by the arcade.

As we were parking two very large travel buses were parking in the parking lot near the restaurant. On the outside they had the name of a school in Georgia and they also had the name of a sports team. Oh boy!, I thought. and I commented that I hoped that they were on their way out and ont on their way in. It was about 7:00 pm and they were on their way in.

The area with the cashiers and where a line forms to go into the restaurant were very small. A big crowd here would be out the door. As we were on line one of the coaches from the bus was arranging for the team to come in. Looking at the crowded dining room we wondered where two bus loads of hungry athletes were going to be seated. It turns out there is a private dining room that they came into after we were seated.

The interior of the buffet is the smallest Golden Corral I have seen - which even more led us to thing that this had to have been an OCB. The buffet sections were smaller than usual and abbreviated in what they could hold. There was one section I have not seen before in a Golden Corral and that was an Italian foods section.

Now, this is still during the Smokehouse BBQ feature and it is a weekend night so the price is a dollar more - and for this you are supposed to get the Smoked Turkey (which they had for a while), Smoked Brisket (which they did not have), Pulled Pork BBQ (which they did not have) and several other specials for the feature. None of which they had. OK. So this was a weekend extra cost meal with nothing out that makes it special cost - except the small remains of a smoked turkey - that were pretty much totally gone during the time we were dining.

Because my rare opportunities to get to a Golden Corral now has to make up for no longer having regular buffet dinners weekly at the now gone two OCB locations that were near us, I am looking for particular things. One is steak - and they did have steak. After soup and a small salad, I went right for the steak grill - and did manage to get a piece - not a large piece as I expect to get at a Golden Corral of just about rare steak. The steak was not seasoned and pretty bland. It was also rather tough around the sides. My picky eater wife likes Golden Corral's meatloaf - as do I. She went to where the sign said Meatloaf and found a hot tray of some odd looking meat with some vegetables in a brown gravy or sauce - it was not pot roast - the pot roast was on the other side of the buffet section. This was not meatloaf - and we both were disappointed. This was not late. Something like meatloaf should not have run out - and this was before the sports team had come up to the buffet.  Some of the basics at Golden Corral were also missing which made my wife's choices very limited. She also likes the pulled chicken in gravy - there was no sign of that.

When we got up for the second plate, the fried chicken was gone. I waited awhile for it to come out - it did not come out. No fried chicken. As we were leaving several pieces of fried chicken were finally put out. I went looking for the pulled pork BBQ - a featured dish - and in the place with the sign for Pulled Pork BBQ was another tray of that same odd looking meat with vegetables and gravy. While I was there a man came over also looking for pulled pork and looked at that meat in the tray and asked me what it was - I said, "I have no idea, but it is not pulled pork!" He shrugged and put some on his plate. It did not look much better plated. Trays would empty and never get refilled. I went over to the Italian section and there were fried raviolis. I was interested and took a couple. I almost broke a tooth biting into one of them. It was not fried hard but fried too tough to chew and the edges were hard. So much for that. There was a baked ziti with cheese and that was fair, but nothing I go to Golden Corral for. I went back for another piece of steak and despite a "look" for rare, I was given what would more be described as medium - and this piece was tough and full of grizzle. I like the steak at Golden Corral - this was not it. This was not the thick cuts of steak that Golden Corral usually serves.

There is not much to go on further about in regard to the food. This is not up to Golden Corral standards - if Golden Corral cares about their locations following consistent standards - which seem to vary from location to location.

Service started out being good - and then went downhill and the server did not have a large section to cover. When it was time to refill our soft drinks I had to wait by the table until I saw him and go over to tell him to please bring us refills. When I got back to the table my wife was there and on the table next to our empty cups were two of the large take it with you plastic cups - that cost more than the regular soft drinks. My wife told me that the server brought these and said that they are "out of glasses" and he brought the refills in these. OK - a way around being out of glasses - but "out of glasses?!".   Our two glasses were on the table - no wonder they were out of glasses! In other Golden Corrals the server takes the glasses we have and refills them - either bringing a pitcher of soda to fill them with or taking the glasses to the soda dispenser and bringing them back. Not here. But OK. We had refills - and large ones at that - and the server had a chance to disappear again. So now a short while later we are going back up to find something more to put on our plates - not something that should be a problem at Golden Corral - but it was a problem here. We managed to find something. I went looking again for fried chicken - hoping to salvage something good from this meal. Still no chicken. I took a small slice of pizza that was under cooked - the cheese was not melted and the sauce was cold. I had such hopes after the experience we had just a couple of weeks before at the Golden Corral in New Jersey (see last article). Well, at least the food here was not overly salty - it was pretty much tasteless. Well - while we were up looking for food, when we got back to the table our silverware was gone, our charge receipt - which is all you are given to put on the table - and the server puts his name on the bottom and is to stay out - well that was taken away - but the empty soda glasses remained and the large cups that had been brought - still with plenty of drink still in them were still there. My wife saw this and asked me what happened. I had seen the server when I was getting up from the table and he saw me going over to the buffet - but he decided - I guess - that we had left - but why leave the cups then?  Everything here is beyond understanding.

So - another not good dinner at a Golden Corral. Before writing this article I went to reviews to see what others have had to say and it gets mostly only one or two stars and most say they will never go back. We will likely never be up that way again - so we are not going back. I would love to say that even a bad Golden Corral is better than no Golden Corral at all - but with this one - skip it! Outside in the parking lot there was a Carl's Jr. fast food restaurant - which we were surprised to see as we thought there were none in the North. We kidded driving in that maybe we should go there instead - since it is very rare that we eat on one of those due to location. We should have done that - we would have enjoyed it more and it would have been a lot cheaper.

This Golden Corral - if you care by now - is located at 360 Route 211 E, Middletown, NY 10940. On the way home I hoped that this meal would sit well as it was a long drive through the mountains and no rest areas. It did, but the trip home took a few hours and when I pulled into the driveway I was hungry. 

An Urge for Golden Corral

To start we will go back to August and I had a really big desire to go to Golden Corral for dinner. The nearest Golden Corral is about 70 miles away and requires taking two expensive toll bridges. I figured that between the tolls and the gas, I could just pick a restaurant that I cannot afford and just go there to have dinner, but the urge was specifically for Golden Corral and my wife knew this.

One afternoon while we were having lunch my wife asked if I would like to go to Golden Corral for dinner - despite the gas and tolls and ride. Yes! I really wanted to go and we started out at about 3:30 pm for the Golden Corral in Freehold, New Jersey.  according to the GPS we should be there in one and a half hours. Fine with me! The afternoon was bright and sunny.

I can never get around the idea that "rush hour" here starts that early and we should have been driving opposite to rush hour traffic but from the start we got caught up in heavy traffic.  I decided that until we came to the first bridge we could always just turn around and head back home so we kept going.

We crossed the first bridge and where at that at the point of no return. On the way to the second bridge we heard on the radio about traffic backing up along the route we were taking. I was using a GPS app on my phone that has traffic alerts but never seems to find a way to get one around it. So we continued along the route. Getting to the second bridge - a ride that should take less than twenty minutes took over an hour. The approach to the bridge was bumper to bumper. We moved along slowly and continued on in traffic. Now we were approaching "real" rush hour - it was after five and business were all letting out and the roads were filling even more. The thought of the prize at the end - and having already spent the money on the bridge tolls - kept me driving.

We finally got to the exit that would take us to Route 9 South which is what the Golden Corral is on - eventually. The exit ramp was stopped and cars were bumper to bumper and then the radio traffic report said that there was an accident on the Garden State Parkway which was backing up Route 9. We inched along. It was over a half hour sitting on the exit ramp and we were not getting anywhere.

Eventually we were able to get onto the actual road that much further south the Golden Corral is located on. It too was bumper to bumper and that was compounded by traffic lights. And then there was an alert on the radio. Not traffic this time but weather. There was a severe storm warning and they starting listing where it would hit and when and it would hit hard. There were recommendations to not be outside - take cover - the whole bit - and there we were sitting bumper to bumper and no way really to be able to even turn around and just give up.  I went on because I really did not want to have to come all this way just to give up. It was about 8:00 pm - not when we arrived at the restaurant but when the sky suddenly grew dark and looking at how far more we had to go it would be past 8:30 before we reached Golden Corral. Golden Corral on weekdays closes at 9:00 pm! I said to my wife that there was no point in going any further as we could not make it to the restaurant in time and I asked her to look for someplace to turn around and head back. We had been driving for four and a half hours for a trip that should only take an hour and a half.

We headed back and by the time we were home we had driven six hours. We could have driven one way to Virginia in six hours. By the time we got near home we headed for the Chinese take out that we go to and brought dinner home - no meatloaf, no steak, no Golden Corral.

We move forward now to October - a couple of weeks ago. The urge for Golden Corral was still there. The urge was even stronger. Earlier in the day we decided to try it again. This time we made it! Was the wait worth it? Well...

We have been to the Freehold, New Jersey Golden Corral many times before. It had started out just fair - sometimes poor to fair - and had improved somewhat over time. This is in the middle of their most recent feature - Smokehouse Grill - featuring on the weekends Smoked Brisket and Smoked Turkey and on weeknights pulled pork, baby back ribs, and smoked chicken - those also served on the weekend. This was a weeknight.

Almost everything we took tasted as if someone had taken a salt shaker and dropped its full contents into the pot or the mixing bowl. I was there for steak and  meat loaf. The steak was fine and the grill chef understood what the meaning of rare is and served me a nice rare steak which did satisfy my urge for steak. The meatloaf was more salt loaf. And along with that the mac and cheese, the pulled pieces of chicken in gravy, and the rest of what I tried. My wife was also not happy.  I went over to see the pulled port and what they had out was a tray with dried out pork on the top that below was sitting in a pan of grease. There were three different BBQ sauces to squeeze on. Looking at the grease and the really unappetizing dried out pork, I decided to skip this. I then went to see the baby back ribs and on a carving board next to the grill was a six inch section of dried out ribs with a few bare bones sitting next to this on the board. Forget Roadhouse Grill. It all looked inedible and certainly not anything I was going to take. A second piece of steak - almost cooked right was the rest of my dinner. There was also less out than there usually is here on a weeknight plus there were two and even three trays with the same item. Some trays were filled with rolls that should have had entrees or sides.

There was bread pudding on the dessert bar and there was little else that was not "sugar free" - no pies were left, no cake. My wife decided to take some of the soft serve ice cream which was more ice than cream. It was not late and the restaurant would be open almost an hour after we had finished our dinner.

It was a long hard road for a disappointing meal.

The next article will be about another Golden Corral - one we have never been to before.

Finally a Buffet Dinner Not in an Asian Buffet!

Locally there are now only Asian buffets where we are. I have been craving a meal at what I will call an "American" buffet for about three months. I want meatloaf. I want steak. I want fried chicken! I have thought a few times of just taking the trip across two expensive toll bridges and driving the hour and a half to have dinner in the nearest Golden Corral (the nearest American buffet) several times in the past several weeks. Despite the cold and the snow storms, it seemed almost worth it - but to pay those tolls and then pay for dinner, we could have gone to a non-buffet and ordered meatloaf. Well, it is late February and we have annual business in New Jersey - weather permitting - and we went to Golden Corral!

I really was looking forward to this - even though this particular Golden Corral has not been one of our favorites and it is one of the Golden Corrals that charge more than most others - but I did not care. I needed to eat at a Golden Corral!

It is a Saturday night. Surprisingly warm weather all day. The line - as we have found before at this Golden Corral - was out the door and the length of the building outside. As we got inside on the line a large group that apparently had only a few of their party on the line ahead of us suddenly all arrived and went to join the rest of their party of perhaps twenty five or more at the front of the line. They were polite and apologized so it was fine. We finally got to the cashier. Premium weekend prices were in effect - $14.99 per person and $2.29 each drink. OK! I wanted steak, meatloaf, and fried chicken! My picky eater wife on the other hand was anticipating a hard time finding what she eats as she often does not find at any Golden Corral and with the current weekend feature of seafood, this was not helping as these features often remove some of the basic items on the buffet.

We were seated at an uncomfortable table for two that was stuck out in the aisle with another table for two - and the table had an uneven leg that rocked. One thing we both enjoy at Golden Corral is their chicken soup with thick, doughy noodles! That was first! A full heaping bowl of those noodles and broth with carrots and celery mixed in along with chunks of chicken! It is always good and now it was not wonton soup!

We skipped the salad and went right to the hot buffet. I went directly to the grill for steak. The chef at the grill understood what rare is and when I said "rare!", he picked up a steak, cut into it and saw it was red inside but not raw and cut me off a good chunk! It was charred and crispy outside and red inside - to me an almost perfect steak - only not perfect as there was a good amount of fat inside which is good in moderation. I went next with my plate with the steak looking for the meatloaf. The tray was empty! I eyed the fried chicken and took a breast (I should have taken something smaller). I added an onion ring to the plate, and then some mashed potatoes and gravy and fried okra! I passed my wife walking around with an almost empty plate. OK - there were things for her to eat and it was up to her to decide what she was  going to take. I headed back to the table as did she.

I cut into the steak, red juices ran out! It really was crispy outside and red inside! I took a forkful in my mouth and made a Galloping Gourmet face! (Galloping Gourmet - one of my favorite daytime shows as a kid in the late 60's. He was (is) an international chef from Canada who had his own syndicated show that played here in the US during the late afternoon. I learned to cook watching the Galloping Gourmet - still have two of his cookbooks - and when he bit into something wonderful his face lit up and a smile came across his lips!) I had the steak that I was craving. Thick and juicy and cooked just right. I cut around the excess fat - ate some, left some - but I ate every bit of meat. The chicken was OK. Not great - too big a piece and that was my fault for taking it - and the crust could have been more crispy. I ate most of it. The mashed potatoes were good. The gravy was good. The onion ring complimented the steak nicely!

Next plate. I went straight to the meatloaf. It had been put out again. I put a hunk on my plate. The special feature (that makes the weekend prices cost more) is scallops with garlic on a skewer, two types of fish, two types of shrimp, a honey teriyaki chicken breast, and carved sirloin steak with lemon and rosemary. Another steak to try! I went to the carving counter and the man behind the counter looked at the little piece of steak on the carving board, looked at me, and discarded it. Good! He went to the grill and took a large sirloin steak that looked too under cooked, even to me. He put it on the carving board, looked at it, picked it up and took it back to the grill. He came back with another - this one better done. He reached into a crock with a ladle and filled it with lemon rosemary sauce. He poured that over the top (less you think this steak is marinated in lemon and rosemary - it is not) and moved it around the steak with the ladle. He then cut it into pieces. He took one of the pieces and cut a section off and put it on my plate - it was red inside but now raw - good! I added some large cut fries and a hush puppy to the plate along with a big spoonful of mac and cheese and returned to our table. My wife was there with meatloaf also on her plate. The meatloaf was very good. I go back and forth between meatloaf with brown gravy and meatloaf with tomato gravy or catsup on top. My wife does not like meatloaf with tomato sauce or catsup and likes it with brown gravy. Golden Corral varies how they serve it - on this night it was with brown gravy. That was fine with me and that made my wife happy too. The meatloaf was good! It satisfied that craving well! The lemon rosemary steak was fine but not spectacular. It was rare and good in that respect. I feel that the lemon took away from the taste of the meat that would have been better just left alone - which means just as the steak is ordinarily served here charred on the grill.  The mac and cheese was thick and gooey and wonderful!

Just an aside about the weekend feature. The big feature of the added weekend pricing was that it would include Prime Rib carved at dinner. This is not so any longer - at least not with this feature. They seem to feel that scallops on a skewer brushed with garlic are equivalent to Prime Rib - and even though I have generally liked the Prime Rib that Golden Corral has served - the scallops are not the equivalent. I have read that scallops are expensive recently due to a shortage of them due to the temperatures of the ocean water, and perhaps that is why they replace the Prime Rib with this feature. I don't know. I did not try them. I do not like garlic all over what I eat so I passed. I saw them. There were maybe six or so small scallops on a skewer cooked on a flat griddle. They may have been very good.

Next plate. I did what I generally do at buffets. The third plate is a combination of the things I like best. I went back to the steak grill - "Rare, please!" - and got another piece of steak. I then went back to the meatloaf tray. I saw the pieces were cut very large, so I cut one in half with the serving spatula and took that. An onion ring when on the plate and then I realized that all I had eaten were meat and carbs so I took some string beans - and a small spoon of baked beans (more carbs). This steak was almost as good as the first. The meatloaf just as good. And during this plate the feeling of I have eaten too much meat hit me. I finished it all but knew that this was my last plate of meat for the evening. I can no longer eat as much as I once could. I find that I hit that wall a lot sooner. That is OK - as this site is called - it is not a challenge - and we will be doing more business in New Jersey in a couple of weeks so we will be back for more!

I finished the meal with a bowl of bread pudding. I love Golden Corral's bread pudding. This is something else you don't get in an Asian buffet!

The service was good, but the poor guy was way over worked. Two servers who also buss tables is not enough for a large section of tables. This man was running back and forth and doing his best. When you could get his attention - and that was not his fault - he dropped what he was doing and ran over. And I did not see other tables leaving a tip - a problem at buffets. I always leave the server a tip - unless the service is horrendous. He got a tip!

For the time being craving satisfied. You know OCB is gone - at least from here and none anywhere possible to get to just for dinner - and you don't know what you've got until its gone - to borrow from an old song!

We'll be back!

Grilling a Steak - An Article for the Buffet Grill Chefs

This is an article that will be appreciated by our buffet goer readers and is written for the information of all those buffet cooks that are cooking/grilling steak.  I like steak. I wish that I could afford to go to a great steak house and pay what they want for a "great" steak but somehow I know that it will not be cooked much better than the steaks that I get at buffets for a small fraction of the price. When a buffet has steak on the grill I will try it. More often than not I am disappointed and my disappointment lies in how it was cooked even when it is cooked to order. I suppose that those of you who like their steaks well done are never disappointed. I like my steak rare. I don't mind a steak medium rare. The problem is a steak at many of the buffets will go from raw straight to well done.

Now, the grill chef will often cut the steak when you order it a certain way and look at it and then decide for himself or even show it to you - from a distance so that you cannot really see what he/she is showing you and then plump it down upon your plate. Back at your table you look down at what is going to be a great steak and cut into it and if you ordered that steak rare, you will find totally raw meat inside or a well done steak. A problem contributing to this is that most steaks cooked in buffets are a thickness of 1/4" or less. The one buffet where the steak is a thick steak (which also can contribute to its doneness) is Golden Corral.

Here is what I have experienced lately - in some buffets that are excellent in other ways. I ask for a steak (where you can ask) "rare" and the steak goes down on the grill - whether a flat iron grill or a flame grill -  and sits for half a minute on each side - no iron plate on top - and what you have is a grey outside and totally raw meat inside.  That is how you get it. So the next time you ask for a steak "rare but not raw", and the steak goes down on the grill and after a minute or less, an iron weight goes down on the steak. With a quarter inch thick steak that iron weight is going to multiply the heat going into that steak and turn it to medium well within two minutes - and they leave it there cooking. That steak will be well done by the time it goes onto your plate (or by the time that you get your plate to the table as the heat in the meat keeps cooking it). Where I consistently get steaks with actually raw meat inside, I will try asking for "medium rare" with hopes that raw then goes to actual rare - but no, medium rare translates to medium or well done - the rare part not heard of ignored.

At Golden Corral they also have this problem - even though the steak is an inch thick or more. Rare means raw or rare means grey on the inside. On a few occasions, I actually got a properly cooked rare steak at a Golden Corral. I should add that I pretty consistently got a properly cooked rare steak at one particular Ryan's in Fredericksburg, Virginia (Now Closed) where the grill chefs knew exactly hot to cook a rare steak and got it perfect almost every time. That Ryan's - even though about 500 miles away is very much missed! 

I like my steak crispy - even flame burnt (on a flame grill) - on the outside and red in the center. That is what a rare steak is supposed to be.

Let's look at what the designations are supposed to be - and I actually saw these on a menu once (not at a buffet but also not at a steak house) on how to order your steak.

RARE - cool, red and soft on the inside, crisped on the outside. NOT RAW!

MEDIUM RARE - warm, red, and a little firmer on the inside, crisped on the outside.

MEDIUM - pink on the inside with firm meat and crisped on the outside.

MEDIUM WELL - hot and slightly pink in the very center and crispy on the outside.

WELL - grey/brown completely on the inside and very firm meat with a very crispy outside.

INCINERATED - not a professional term and good steak restaurants will refuse to serve steak this way but it is burnt throughout with a charcoal exterior. (If you are in a charcoal crunchy mood and the steak has a decent amount of fat on it, this is not bad. As I found out when given one like this when it was supposed to be "medium rare" - rather crunchy - but not something you want to eat much of.)

Chefs - if you are working in the position of grill chef, if you are not cooking steaks like these when someone asks for one of these designations, you should not be in that job. Either you don't care or you don't know what you are doing. Unfortunately, sometimes I am sure it is because you just don't care. I know that you want to throw steaks on the grill, cook them through, and stake them up on the side of the grill where they may or may not stay hot and just serve them off from there. At grills where you are to be cooking to order - as some of these buffets state to their customers - then you need to be able to put a steak on when asked for and cook it to properly rare, medium rare or medium. Beyond that is where your pile of steaks fall. I and others are willing to wait. I will stand on the side and not rush you. I just don't want you to forget that my steak is being cooked and requires some of your attention until it is ready to put on my plate. I don't want to be made to feel that my order is not as important as anyone's. I paid the same price coming in.

Now the cuts of meat that are being used is another story all together and even in some of my favorite buffets that serve steak, I have had too many steaks that one cannot chew. I am also certain that you are slicing beef that should be a roast and cooking it as steak - which it is not.  I assume that is a question of economics - and you are not getting even decent cuts of meat. But we will leave that for mention about those buffets in their own articles.

Premium Weekends at Golden Corral

Early in 2016 Golden Corral instituted a new "promotional feature" - an increase in price to $13.99 on dinner from Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday all day. This promo actually ended and prices went back to usual but then recently it was brought back.  For the additional cost you get "Prime Rib", teriyaki steak, and fried butterfly shrimp. If you happen to unfortunately be in a Golden Corral that already has a $13.99 dinner price all of the time, your special promotional price is $14.99. On top of these prices you pay for your soft drink at well over $2.00. So your "affordable" buffet dinner with soft drink becomes over $16.50 or $17.50 each.  Add sales tax and tip and you are paying a lot for a dinner for two or more. Does this seem like a feature to promote? It does not to me.

I have been to Golden Corral's twice on a weekend night for this promo and just my luck both were the already $13.99 priced Golden Corrals. I wish that I could say that the addition of Prime Rib makes this "premium" price worth while, but I have to report that what they are presenting as "Prime Rib" is far from it. My first premium meal was at a Golden Corral that has been marginal in my past experiences there and I thought that perhaps it was just at that particular Golden Corral. The Prime Rib there was 90% fat with barely any edible meat on the slice and in between the fat was grizzle. This is not Prime Rib - a poor cut of roast beef perhaps, but not Prime Rib. 

The second Golden Corral that I went to on a weekend night was in a different state. I was hopeful that this experience with the Premium weekend price dinner would be better - it was a better Golden Corral in general and one I had dined in before. I cringed when I paid over $35 at the register for two. I looked at the Prime Rib at the counter and was uncertain if I was even going to try it again. I started with a steak - and steak at many Golden Corrals is done well (depending on who is cooking at the grill). The steak was good. I was going back for another when I decided that I would try the Prime Rib at this Golden Corral. The carver sliced off a thin slice - not much thicker than a slice of roast beef - and put it on my plate. No fat- good sign. When I sat down and went to cut off a piece to eat, it was hard cutting with the steak knife that had no problem shortly before with the thick cut of steak that I just had. I put it in my mouth and I could not chew it. Tough is too mild a term for this meat. I made an attempt but again, it could not be chewed. I tried cutting into another part of the slice - no better. I was able to get a few bits of meat that could be chewed and go down. IT was not tasty and overall again, this was not Prime Rib.

At this Golden Corral I get to try the teriyaki steak.  It was pretty much the regular Golden Corral steak pre-grilled and put out on the buffet server. This particular piece was red rare - just like I like my steak - but others passed it by as not cooked enough. The teriyaki sauce was not overly sweet and the steak was good. Did the teriyaki sauce and not being cooked to order as the regular steaks are justify an additional dollar for the meal?  Of course not.

My wife did have the fried butterfly shrimp - as she was going to try to get our money's worth out of her dinner - and she said that they were OK but no better or different from the fried shrimp served frequently at Old Country Buffet - at the regular dinner price. She was annoyed that several of the usual dishes that she often eats when we are at a Golden Corral were not being served as their place on the buffet now had the Prime Rib, the teriyaki steak, and the fried shrimp.

Overall - Premium Weekends at Golden Corral - big FAIL! As my readers should know by now that I very much like Golden Corral. I look forward to dining at a Golden Corral when I am somewhere near one. They have had some odd promotional features in the past - this one is one of the worst - and that is accentuated by the increase in price for something that is not what it is presented to be. So - Golden Corral, go back to regular price weekends - forget the not quite Prime Rib - move on to a real promotional feature at regular price or just stick with your regular menu as it is really good on its own.

Saturdays At Yoders

I have written about Yoders Restauant and Buffet in the Yoders Country Farm Market in New Holland, PA many times. The last time I wrote about it I said that things were inconsistent there. I have since have within one month had three very good meals at Yoders and they were all on Saturday nights.

In Lancaster I have tended to go to Shady Maple on Saturday nights - and when we are in Pennsylvania for just a day - often on a Saturday - we have gone to Shady Maple. But during the summer months when the tourists are everywhere, Shady Maple on Saturday night can be jammed with tourists. We go to Pennsylvania to relax and dealing with tourists at a buffet is just not relaxing. This occurred to me on the evening of the first of these three really good dinners at Yoders. We could not make it on time for dinner at any buffet but Yoders or Shady Maple. I thought about the crowds and who I would find at Shady Maple (no hit on Shady Maple as they can't help who comes there to give them business) and we decided to go to Yoders.

Yoders feature on Saturday nights is Pennsylvania Dutch. Now, at Yoders, this is not exactly what you might generally expect to find as Pennsylvania Dutch foods in this area at one of the other buffets. On the menu they say that there are two popular dishes of Lancaster County that are featured on the buffet on PA Dutch night - baby back ribs and marinated steak. I did not know that Lancaster is famous for baby back ribs but they served on the buffet at Yoders on Saturday nights and they are tasty. So is the marinated steak.

Let's talk about the marinated steak. I have had the best steak off a chargrill at Yoders at these three meals than I have had at any other buffet for a long time. First, there are two men cooking and serving at the grill (at the moment) who know what they are doing. Our regular readers know I like my steak rare - but that does not mean raw. It means crisped on the outside and red and juicy on the inside. And that is exactly what I got on request. The marinade that is being used is not overwhelming and the steaks are tender. They are also a decent thickness - not thin and not a thick lump of meat. I was recently there and I want to go back right now. There is only one problem - at each of these three dinners, I ate too much. I really could not resist even though I have learned over the years not to over eat at buffets.

The rest of what is served on Saturday night varies on the buffet. There have been different dishes each time. Items on the grill remain consistent on Saturday nights. In addition to the steak, there is chicken parmigiana cooked on the flat grill, corn fritters, salmon, fried zucchini, and more. On the buffet tables things have varied. Some of the better dishes have been a very tender pot roast, cut up smoked sausage cooked in a cream sauce with large peeled potatoes, the baby back ribs which are tasty and thick, ham balls, beef stroganoff (beef chunks in cream sauce with noodles), and others. There is a lot on this buffet and add that to the numerous items on the grill and there is a lot to choose from here. Side dishes like noodles in brown butter, a selection of plain in a good way vegetables, really good macaroni and cheese, good potato filling, and more are standard to this buffet on most nights. There are usually also a few fish entrees.

For PA Dutch Night the soups we have not always been very PA Dutch but there has been Ham Vegetable soup at two of these dinners and that is very good - loaded with vegetables and bits of ham in a tomato/ham base soup that is slightly sweet and good. Other soups have been Chessyburger soup, Minestrone, and others. There are always two soups served on the buffet.

There is menu serving here also but I figured out looking at prices on the menu and looking at what is on the buffet for the Saturday night price of $14.99 that one could quickly pass the buffet price ordering off the menu - and here if you order something that is on the buffet, the server goes over to those trays at the buffet and creates your platter. A slice of pie was $4 and this is the same slice of pie that is on the dessert section of the buffet - they go over and get one and bring it to you if you order it from the menu. So look carefully at the buffet if you are considering ordering from the menu and it may be worth your while to order the buffet and just don't get carried away. Though as I have been finding here lately, it is very easy to get carried away.

The change in night going here really made a difference. The restaurant can be crowded - all local people including Amish and Mennonite - and on one of the three Saturdays we waited in line for about ten minutes until we got in. It is a different crowd - not tourists. These are people who know this family restaurant and have been here before.

Service was good on each of these three nights. It had not been on the meal I reported on in the last article I wrote about this buffet. Again - a different night or just three times luck (not bad odds). Whatever it was - we were happy.

I can't wait for another Saturday night opportunity to get back here.

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.

A New Golden Corral - And In of All Places, Lancaster, PA

A year ago we were in Lancaster and saw construction starting on Route 30 in the middle of hotels, restaurants, and Dutch Wonderland amusement park for small children. On the next visit to the area there was a sign announcing the coming Golden Corral restaurant! This area, if you regularly read this site you already know, has more buffets than any place else. There are many local buffets, there are Asian buffets, there are buffets that serve fancy and there are buffets that serve plain - "plain" in the sense of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking of the Plain People. There is also a OCB. The nearest Golden Corral has been in Lebanon, Pa and now Lancaster has its own.

We were in Lancaster on a Sunday night recently. With all of these buffets here, few are open on Sunday. This is a religious community and the local buffets employ a lot of Amish and Mennonites and these restaurants close of Sundays. We tend to avoid this area on Sundays because of this. I could think of no better a choice for this particular Sunday than to try the new Golden Buffet.

We went with a pre-understanding that since this was Sunday of Memorial Day weekend we might be walking into a big crowd with a restaurant buffet overwhelmed by tourists. What we actually found when we got there - despite a completely full parking lot - was that there was no line and the restaurant while crowded was handling the crowd extremely well.

The price was $12.99 for dinner - no difference in price weekdays or weekends. This is one dollar more than the Golden Corral advertised price of $11.99 and one dollar less than the weekend price at the Golden Corral that I have written about that opened a year ago in New Jersey. There is a senior discount. The price for soft drinks is $2.29.

We were shown our table promptly and our server - a young man came over to introduce himself. He was very good - and came around frequently to ask if all was well and if we needed anything. The food featured promotion going on was ribs with KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce. The food on the buffet was properly kept - well maintained, as I say. Nothing was left to dry out. Trays were replaced as needed. The food on the buffet was pretty much standard in selection to Golden Corral with one exception. There was a tray of a local PA Dutch dish - Chicken Pot Pie - not baked chicken pot pie - but chicken stewed with dumplings and vegetables in a thick sauce. This was a surprise and other than being over salted was good.

I like the steak at Golden Corral. It is thick and you are served an individual steak - while not a full size cut, quite sufficient especially when you can go back for more. There was no wait at the grill and the grill chef asked how I wanted my steak - "Rare". He cut into one - it was nicely red inside and charred outside - just as I like it. He put that on my plate and I was very happy. My second trip up for steak resulted in a steak slightly more done but very good as well. I tried the meatloaf which was moist and while my picky eater wife prefers meatloaf with brown gravy, this one was covered in tomato sauce. Golden Corral varies how they top their meatloaf. They had a nice assortment of potatoes including steak fries, hashed browns, and also housemade potato chips. The chips were seasoned with a slightly sweet seasoning. I would have preferred just salt as they have been at other Golden Corrals - but these were tasty but I was concerned that there was sugar in the seasoning (which with everything else that was good to have there, I did not need).

There was no rotisserie chicken as there has been in other Golden Corrals and this may be due to the space being taken up with two carving sections for ribs. I asked for a rib in regular, and not spicy sauce, and was told they only had regular sauce as the others had run out - which was fine with me. The ribs were better than I had recently at the Golden Corral in New Jersey. They were moist and really well cooked.

Perhaps since people who live in this area are used to eating at buffets but there was no chaos around the buffet counters. The meal was rather relaxed and despite the great meals I had at other PA Dutch buffets during this trip (five buffets in five days) this one held its own and was very good and satisfied my taste for steak. 

Desserts were all out and their bread pudding held up to the Golden Corral bread pudding I have enjoyed at other locations. And nothing ran out!

I mentioned at the beginning that the parking lot was full when we got there. We saw this on the road as we passed and we just went to where we were staying to park which happened to be practically next door. The walk there and back was good exercise for this meal.

I enjoyed this Golden Corral. It was one of the better Golden Corral meals that I have had. The restaurant is clean, inside and outside. The food is properly prepared and hot when it should be hot. There was really nothing wrong. Hopefully, it will stay this way and it is not just new opening enthusiasm.

I recommend this Golden Corral - it is where to go for a buffet in Lancaster on a Sunday. I will go back when I am there on a Sunday. If not a Sunday, there are too many great local buffets to choose from already Monday to Saturday. If you are local and have had your fill of PA Dutch cooking, then try it anytime.

The Lancaster Golden Corral is located at 2291 Lincoln Hwy E, Lancaster, PA 17603. The phone number is (717) 208-3984. The hours on Sunday - Thursday are to 9:30 pm. On Friday and Saturday they are open until 10:30 pm. There is a general website for all Golden Corral's located at the side of this page.

Golden Corral, Freehold, NJ - Revisited

In December 2014, I wrote about the new Golden Corral located in Freehold, New Jersey. This is the closest Golden Corral location to the Metro NY area. Our experience there was not the greatest and if this was a first time to any Golden Corral I likely not go back. We found ourselves in that area in April and other than Asian buffets, there are no other buffets in this area. I thought that despite that first visit, we would go back again and see if things were the same or if they have improved.

We were there again on a Saturday night and when we arrived at 6:45 pm for dinner there was - again - a line out the door. We waited about fifteen minutes to get in and up to the cashier. We were seated about five minutes later. The restaurant was crowded but the crowd did not seem as maddening as it had the first time that we were there. In December I talked about the price at this Golden Corral being more expensive than other Golden Corrals that we have been to and they have raised that price. The weekend dinner price is now $13.99 with another $2.29 added to that if you want a beverage. The weekend dinner is called "Premium" but like the first time there it is "premium" only in price. What is on the buffet is exactly the same as is there at any other Golden Corral on any night. There was a sign advertising Mother's Day dinner for $14.99 - plus the price of the beverage which would make this buffet dinner for Mom $17.28 plus tax and tip. That is a lot for a meal at Golden Corral. (As an aside, OCB's local price of $13.99 includes the beverage and their Mother's Day meal is also $14.99 but includes the beverage - and OCB has a current coupon for $2.00 of Mom's dinner on Mother's Day.) This Golden Corral remains the most expensive Golden Corral that we are aware of. 

The current feature was (perhaps still is if you are reading this currently) baby back ribs made with a variety of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauces. One sauce is daily after 4 and after 11 am on Sundays. I tried the ribs with the basic sauce. The other ribs that were out had chipotle sauce. These were the only two being served that night. I found the ribs to be dry and not as good as I had hoped that they would be. I have had Golden Corral baby back ribs before and they have never really been very special. Since this was a big feature with a promotion for the BBQ sauce, I had hoped that they would be better. The ribs, however, were popular and they were carving ribs all night. These ribs were served at the carving station, about three ribs at a time.

I have not had a decent steak in a long time and I like Golden Corral steak. I decided pretty much going in that it was the steak that I was there for and this is what I mainly would have - and I did. All together I went up three times for steak - now if you wonder how or why anyone would eat three steaks in one meal, understand these are not full steaks but are about three or so inches around in size and about an inch or less thick. The three steaks together were the equivalent of one full steak. The first two that I had were very good. The gentleman cooking and serving steaks at that time new exactly what he was doing and knew what a rare steak looks like before he serves it. I like steak that is rare in the middle and charged on the outside and those steaks were just this way (with the first one perfect and the second close to perfect. This was what led me back for the third and perhaps I should have stopped at those two. When I went up, the same chef was there and I asked for a steak rare and he told me that all of the steaks had to go just a little longer and he then walked away. He did not come back. A while later another chef came up and started asking those standing there all over again. I asked him for a steak rare and what I got was a steak medium well - which he did not recognize even after he cut into it before serving it to make sure it was rare. Well, he made sure it was medium well and that is what I got. The steak was still tasty. The Golden Corral steaks are seasoned and they do tend to be slightly on the salty side - which some would not like but I don't mind as long as it is not overly salty.

My picky eater wife found more choices here than she did the last time we were here and she did not wind up eating the cold salad chicken from the salad bar for the entire meal. She had meatload which she said - this time - was good. She also had a piece of the rotisserie chicken which she usually does not take but this time was not dripping with grease and was not seasoned, as it had been before. I was actually surprised at the variety she found for herself.

As trays emptied they were being replaced - though not always with the same thing. The dessert section was fairly well stocked and the bread pudding is still the best dessert there - which I indulged in though I am not supposed to.

Our server was a "serving trainer" and she was good. She was attentive to our table despite the crowd and she made sure our used plates were taken away and our drinks were refilled. She was one of the better servers that we have had at a Golden Corral.

The buffet was crowded but getting around the buffet and to the serving counters was manageable. The continuing problem that occurs in many Golden Corrals - especially ones where people have never been to a buffet before - is that people think that they are at a cafeteria and insist on starting a line at one end of the long winding counter and moving along. We heard one woman at a table nearby ask the server for a tray so that she could get on the line. A buffet is not a cafeteria and you go up to whatever tray you want, wait politely for the person there to take what they want, and then you take some. This cafeteria mentality is what results in plates piled so high that one cannot recognize what is at the bottom with the entire meal layered over it! I just go up and go to what I want. I am not walking the entire buffet to get what I want that is at the other end of the room.

We had anticipated another disappointing experience but had quite the opposite. We were both complimentary of the meal and the restaurant when we were finished. The wait outside to get in seems like it will never go away. I am curious if this also happens on weeknights.

So, other than the price, if you are in or near Freehold, New Jersey this Golden Corral is worth a try. This Golden Corral is located at 3520 US Highway 9 in Freehold, New Jersey 07728. The phone number is 732-400-8600.