Top Asian Buffet 2015 - Yummy Asian Buffet, East Meadow, New York

OUT OF BUSINESS IN 2016


Yummy Buffet is our choice for Top Asian Buffet for 2015. We have, of course, written about Yummy before.

Yummy is a small, local Asian buffet on Long Island in the town of East Meadow. This has been the location of a Chinese restaurant for many years and a few years ago it was bought and re-done by a family who have brought excellent Asian cooking to this restaurant. It does not compete in this area in size. It is smaller than the rest in physical size and the amount of food that can be out at any one time on the buffet. It more than make up for this in the quality of the food that is cooked and the "menu restaurant" taste of what is served - which is something that generally cannot be said about usual Chinese/Asian buffet food.

This buffet, in addition, to the foods on the buffet tables, also has a small hibachi grill and a sushi chef that will make you whatever sushi rolls or sashimi that is on an extensive menu posted at the sushi station - to order. Both the hibachi grill - you choose the meats and vegetables and noodles - and give them to the chef (who is also the Sushi chef) who will cook them for you to order. I like what I have grilled a certain way and I have never been disappointed - and the sushi bar are included in the price of the buffet.

This restaurant more than meets our top buffet requirements of quality and taste. It also has excellent service. If the young women who come to your table are not family they work as if they are - I suspect that they are. They are there to take away your used plates and refill your beverage - always.

The other criteria that we look at is value and this meal has been $13.99* - 7 days a week for dinner. Less at lunch. This is equivalent to the formerly local chain "country" buffet (formerly as the nearby OCB is now closed) - and far exceeds what you got there. There are also discount coupons in local advertising publications and also on their website. This makes the value of this buffet even better. (Unfortunately, I have to make note that the price on Saturdays and Sundays plus holidays changed to $15.99 in 2016. As this award is given for 2015 that does not effect our decision on the exceptional value that you get here. If this price remains for 2016 for weekend dinners we will re-evaluate when looking at our 2016 awards. The value on weeknights including Fridays is still very much there. When it gets even two dollars higher without any changes on the menu, when we look at a buffet for a Top Award we have to take that into consideration. The restaurant will tell you that for the higher price there is lobster and crab legs on the buffet on the weekends. From past visits on weekends when it was $13.99 there has been lobster and crab legs on the weekend dinner buffet. On a 2016 Friday visit there was lobster on the $13.99 Friday dinner buffet. Lobster on an Asian buffet on Long Island means lobster pieces in the shell in ginger sauce - and generally the result is whoever can get there first will empty the tray.  Every restaurant does what it needs to do for business reasons, and this has been their decision for 2016.)

This buffet never seems to be crowded - despite the good food and everything else good. It can be almost empty when other buffets have lines to get in. We have never been able to understand this and when those who we have recommended this buffet to have gone, they have been pleased. If you go and it looks empty - go in anyway. The food is always fresh and if there are few people dining they just put less in the trays to keep the food from drying out and refill as needed. They "tend" this buffet very well - making sure that everything is being served as it should be. Ordinarily, if I go to a buffet for the first time and there is no one inside dining, I will walk out. While our visits here now are not a first time visit, we do not hesitate to go in and dine.

So - this is our choice for 2015 for Top Asian Buffet. Try it on a weeknight including Friday or if you don't mind the extra two dollars try it on a Saturday or Sunday for dinner. Lunch is less but do not expect the same foods that might be found at dinner on the lunch buffet - taste and quality will still be there but some of the foods found at dinner will not be on the lunch buffet.

TOP BUFFET - DUTCH-WAY RESTAURANT, GAP, PA

Dutch-Way Restaurant in Gap, PA has been an absolutely go to on every trip that we are in this area. We have been there on various nights of the week and have never been disappointed. This is one of the buffets that are unique to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that are located in supermarket buildings. The buffet is not in the supermarket but is owned by the supermarket and is in the same building. The decor is very much like most of the family restaurants in Lancaster - pleasantly decorated with tables and booths scattered through two areas of the restaurant. The buffet is offered breakfast, lunch, and dinner Mondays to Saturday.

So what makes Dutch-Way Gap a Top Buffet?

The food is very, very good and the dishes vary from night to night and from visit to visit. There is a featured theme every night that focuses around what is served from the grill/carving station and this carries over to the entrees on the buffet tables. Each time that we have gone, in addition to specific features on the grill and carvings, there has been at least one dish that we have never had before and each has been something good. Food is a mixture of PA Dutch/Amish dishes and continental entrees and side dishes.

The food is consistent in proper preparation, kept at the correct temperatures on the buffet, and in taste when the same dish is served. There are some things that I look to find each time we go on the salad bar and they are there. They make an exceptional chicken salad and it is one of the prepared salads found on their salad bar. It is so good that I have thought to just order the Soup and Salad Bar as I could easily make a meal of their chicken salad. (I have not done that yet, because they I would miss out on the rest of the buffet.) The foods on the buffet are properly maintained and not allowed to dry out and are replenished before the tray is empty. The buffet tables, the buffet area, the dining rooms are consistently clean and well maintained. So are the restrooms - which are located in the lobby of the restaurant.

There is great value here. The price of the buffet is comparable and perhaps even less than the chain buffets. There are children's and senior prices as well. The price is a little higher on the Friday and Saturday as there is Prime Rib at the carving station. Thursday nights are higher as this is the Seafood Buffet. This is a very affordable family restaurant at family prices - and if you have some at your table who do not wish to have the buffet that is no problem at all. There is a full menu here along with the buffet and some at the table may have the buffet and some may order from the menu - please don't give anything from the buffet to someone ordering from the menu (that is this site saying that).

There is quality in what is served here. The meats and vegetables are coming fresh from the food market on site. The baked goods are bakes on premises. Items on the grill are cooked to order.

Service is very good and the best - I mean the BEST - waitress in any restaurant works here. I have written about her before and there is no better. Whenever we are there, we look for her and ask for a table in her section.

Sadly, the last time that we were going to have dinner at Dutch-Way, it was closed for the employee Christmas party. I looked forward to this for a week. We were in the area for business during the day and in the evening we went to the restaurant and got right up to the door to see the sign that said that they were closed for their party. Well, they deserve a party for a job consistently well done! I do wish that they had been open, as we could both taste that dinner as we walked up to that door. Just writing about this buffet I can taste my favorites there! Soon, soon...

This buffet is not in the main tourist area of Lancaster. It is off to the edge of the county and not far from Delaware. You will not find tourists dining here. You will find local families here - Amish, Mennonite, and the English (as the Amish refer to the rest of us). These are the people who shop in the supermarket or just come here for dinner. There is a shed for horse and carriages to be tied up outside in the parking lot.

The Dutch-Way Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The dinner buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. The restaurant is closed on some holidays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.

TOP BUFFETS OF 2015

We struggle with the notion of best buffet over top buffets every year. We go to many great buffets - all of which I write about here. We also go to some not so good buffets, and you all hear about those as well. Then it comes to the end of the year and we look at all of the buffets we have been to during that year and try to rank them - and there are some that we had gone back to during the year from years past that consistently come to the top of the list of the best. The problem is deciding which one really is the best. This is not the first time that we came to the conclusion that there are several top buffets that really need to hold a place of honor and that is true this year again. There is no BEST buffet for 2015, but there are four TOP buffets. These are the buffets that are at the top of the list and that have each met the criteria that we set for Best Buffet. And since Lancaster County, PA hosts the most buffets of anywhere, three of this year's buffets are in Lancaster County, PA and one is near home.

The TOP BUFFETS for 2015 named by "Art of the Buffet" are (and in no specific order) - Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA, Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA, Yoder's Restaurant at Yoder's Country Farm Market in New Holland, PA and Yummy China Buffet which is calling itself Yummy Super Buffet now in East Meadow, NY which is named as Top Asian Buffet of 2015.

The criteria for Top Buffet - or Best Buffet - are simple but not easy to meet. The buffet must give excellent value. The buffet must serve quality food. The food must be prepared properly and taste very good to excellent. The restaurant must be managed properly. The service must be good. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible. There must be something that sets the buffet apart (in a superior way) to all the rest. We have been to many who don't even come close and then there are some very good buffets that are on their way to meeting all of this. While no one criteria is more important than the others - and they all must be met - the idea that this is a buffet that I cannot wait to get back to is very much in focus when we decide on which buffet makes the cut. And I must say that there is one small buffet in PA that is coming up to this.

Over the next two months (four buffets - four articles) we will talk about each of these buffets and what makes them stand out beyond the rest. We will feature each in its own article.

Each buffet that is a Top Buffet of 2015 will receive a certificate declaring that fact. Some buffets display their certificates proudly - and we are thrilled when we see that they do - but there is no requirement to do so. Look to the coming articles to see why these buffets hold this site's special designation for the year 2015!

The Best of the Best

Our pick for the Best Buffet for 2014 was Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA. We have been there a number of times this year and find that the night that I like the best at the Best Buffet is Tuesday nights. All of the nights are good - but I particularly enjoy dinner there on Tuesdays the best.

This is the night when I find the most Pennsylvania Dutch foods mixed in with always good standards. We were the area again recently - and picked Tuesday for the night that we would go to Dutch-Way. The feature on Tuesday nights is not fancy - it is burgers made to order topped the way you like them and also hot wings, both at the Grill. On the buffet on Tuesday's there tends to always be Chicken Bot Bie (Chicken Pot Pie - stewed with large noodles, not baked in a pie shell), Dutch Loaf, Ham Balls, Pork and Kraut, and more. Simple. Plain food which this region is known for - Pennsylvania Dutch cooking of the Plain People. The burgers are an extra thrown in for a very enjoyable meal.

Now, I can't talk about the Wings from personal tasting, as I don't care for hot wings and small chicken legs and wings tossed in sauce and spice don't interest me - or my palate. But I have watched people go up to the Grill on a Tuesday night and order platefuls of these. The chef behind the counter puts the cooked and hot chicken in a bowl and tosses it in the sauce or seasoning that you request from a list - and if you want more than one "flavor", he just tosses more in other bowls - and then all goes onto your plate. Watching them eaten at other tables, I am certain that they are good from the reactions of the dinners. But for me, I don't care for them in general.

The burgers always interest me. You order your burger by filling out a paper at the Grill Counter. There is a sign listing specifically put together burgers each with a different combination of toppings, but you can just ignore that list and put together on the paper by checking off boxes of ingredients exactly what you want. Of course, there is bacon - lately a burger has to have bacon - but if you don't care for that leave it off. There is even a fried egg that can top your burger. You order it cooked the way you like it from rare to well done. You can top the toppings with sauces, lettuce, and tomatoes. It all gets cooked for you and put on a bun. I order mine without the bun. I would rather leave room for more interesting things from the buffet tables than a burger bun.  On the menu here - and in other restaurants - one of these burgers could easily cost you the price of the buffet - and here you could order as many as you like for just one price and have the entire buffet to go along with it.

Then, of course, there is the buffet. On this particular night, aside from the PA Dutch foods that I named above, there were ribs, lasagna, a pumpkin casserole, a vegetable casserole that was very good, fish, fried chicken, and more. As always there are five soups, a large salad bar, and a big dessert bar that spills over to one of the hot buffet servers where there are hot desserts.

I have my favorites on the salad bar also. They have the most wonderful chicken salad. I have sometimes considered just ordering the soup and salad bar for dinner as I could make a meal of this chicken salad. They also have chunks of Lebanon Bologna. This is a cured, dark pork meat with visible, tiny pieces of fat with a smokey, slightly sweet taste. This is a cold cut known in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country - originating in Lebanon County, PA. I have not found this on any other buffet in the area. It may be an acquired taste, but it is good. And if you go out to purchase this locally it is quite expensive for a cold cut. Here it is intended to go into a salad, but I just take the junks and eat them. The chicken salad and Lebanon Bologna are not limited to just Tuesdays.

We dined in a different buffet every night on this trip but this Tuesday night at Dutch-Way was a stand out meal. For Dutch-Way, which is the best, this is the best of the best. Other nights there are good selections also - Thursday is Seafood Night (at their highest price for the buffet) and Friday and Saturday feature Prime Rib, Ham, and Baby Back Ribs.

Service was excellent - and we knew it would be from the moment we were shown our table as our waitress/server was Marie who we have written about before as the BEST buffet server at any buffet anywhere.  This is a young woman who makes you feel welcome and appreciated as a customer and always comes across as enjoying her work.

So, Dutch-Way Family Restaurant on a Tuesday - best of the best. Try it. This is a local restaurant off and away from the main tourist areas and is there for local people including Amish and Mennonites who are seen dining here regularly. Nice decor. Very clean. It also gets excellent reviews from the usual restaurant review sites. Don't go looking for a touristy restaurant. You will not find it. To me that is a good thing and a very strong plus. Others seem to want the tourist hype.

 
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. The restaurant is closed on some holidays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.

TOP BUFFET 2014 - SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, East Earl, PA

Our pick for Top Buffet of 2014 goes to Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earle, Pennsylvania. Shady Maple has been on our picks for Top and Best Buffets since our annual awards began. Allow us to explain why Shady Maple is the Top Buffet this year. We get many requests from readers and those who just stumble upon this website asking what buffet would we recommend in various locations. When it comes to Lancaster County - where there are more buffets than anywhere else - and I am talking privately owned, local buffets and not casino buffets - the first recommendation that we always make is Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Shady Maple is at the top of our "recommend list". When people ask for such a recommendation, they want to be "wowed" and Shady Maple is going to wow them. And when we do send someone there we always hear back about how wonderful it was and that they could not believe it -and there is always the comment - "We will be going back!".

Going to Shady Maple is an experience and one that any visitor to Lancaster should not miss. This is a buffet that one would take a long trip just to (and only to) dine here. This is a large buffet with dining rooms and a buffet serving area that is overwhelming when one first sees it. I am not sure what restaurant is considered the largest in the world but this one has to be a contender. There are two huge dining rooms - three if you separate the first dining room's very large booth section from the very large table section, with more dining rooms along the side. Then there are the catering rooms and an entire menu restaurant in addition on the lower level.

The food is just as grand with a building long serving area of buffet servers and four - grill areas - and two of those grill areas are double-sided making this actually SIX grills working on most nights. There are often not duplicates from one grill to the next and the foods on the grill range, depending on the night, from steaks to real Prime Rib to Asian dishes to sausage to ham to brisket to fish to burgers to smoked sausage to their special "Smorgy Cheese Steaks" - and more. On the buffet, there are two huge salad bars - with some but not all duplication, eight different soups, and entrees and side dishes that include many Pennsylvania Dutch favorites along with American dishes and more. There is a rotation of dishes that may appear on the smorgasbord that go through the seasons. There are some items that seem to always be there, but there are others that you may not see for months and then they are there again. The food is well prepared, quality food that is properly maintained in the serving trays and replaced quickly when needed. If there is a substitution that substitution is of an equal dish - in other words, no one is replacing meat with rolls here. Food is constantly being brought out from the kitchen by a number of people working at the buffet servers. Now, I know that many of my readers want to hear about desserts and there are plenty of those to choose from - real cakes, pies, prepared desserts, hot desserts, sundaes - soft serve and on special occasions hand dipped, and sugar free desserts that actually taste good and you don't have to be concerned about what they have been sweetened with.

While this looks like the type of restaurant that is owned and operated by a big corporate conglomeration, it is in reality owned by the founding family (this started as a farm stand, grew to a market and grew to a buffet restaurant and grew to this much, much bigger buffet restaurant) and the owner is, at times, present in the restaurant and if he is not there, competent managers are visible. There is a large staff of employees to run this huge restaurant.

Even with the size of this restaurant it is often crowded - on season and off season. There is rarely a night when there is not a wait. And off season, they run special dinner menus on some weekends including a Hawaiian Luau with a whole roast pig. Tourist season, and that can be May to November, the restaurant is the busiest. You are going to encounter people from all over dining here but you may also find an Amish family sitting at the table next to you. By the way, if you come by buggy there is parking for your horse and buggy on the lower side of the building. This buffet is well known far and wide. We have met people hundreds of miles from Pennsylvania who are talking about Shady Maple. Recently sitting at lunch in a fast food restaurant 200 miles away from Lancaster there was a group of men having lunch together and we overheard one say to the rest how he just returned from Lancaster and then he told his friends all about Shady Maple - and some of them said they already knew about it as they have been there as well. We have been in local Pennsylvania farmers markets and have heard one PA Dutch farmer say to another - "Going down to Shady Maple tonight!"  See, this is what sets this buffet restaurant apart from all of the rest.

So if you want to know what restaurant to go to when you go to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to see the Pennsylvania Dutch - or you just want to experience a restaurant this large and this good - the top choice is Shady Maple Smorgasbord. They are closed Sundays and several holidays through the year. They serve buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food and selections are different at each of those meals. Each night there are themed offerings so look at their website for what night features what. The prices include a gratuity and sales tax. The meal price is complete including beverage. There are children's prices, a senior price, and you get a free meal on the day of your birthday with proof.

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.

BEST/TOP BUFFETS OF 2014

It is time once again to name this site's best and top buffets. The results this year will likely surprise many of our regular readers. The criteria for being a Best or Top Buffet are, as they have been, the buffet must give excellent value, it must serve quality food, the food must be prepared properly, consistently, the restaurant must be managed properly, and the service must be good to excellent. And all of this must be consistent - meal to meal, visit to visit.  Then it must be a buffet that comes to mind to go back to whenever possible. When the process gets narrowed down to a few choices, they get ordered in priority of the criteria - and what starts to be examined is how consistent were they. Consistency is an extremely important factor and in the end becomes the deciding factor. A few favorites every so often disappoint. Some never disappoint. Every restaurant considered for best or top buffet has been visited several times over the course of the year.

The BEST buffet of 2014 is Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, Pennsylvania. This honor goes to this specific location of the two Dutch-Way Family Restaurant buffets in Pennsylvania.

The TOP buffet of 2014 is Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earle, Pennsylvania.

The BEST ASIAN Buffet of 2014 is Yummy China Buffet, East Meadow, New York. This is the first time that a Long Island buffet has been given any award from this site.

In the coming weeks there will be an article about each buffet and what brings their designated award to it. We will, at this point, speak briefly to the "Top Buffet" award to Shady Maple. As many know Shady Maple has been a Best Buffet for many years. Shady Maple is as good as it has always been. It is a restaurant that it is hard to compare other buffet restaurants to. None can compare to the size of the restaurant or the quantity or variety of foods served. It is the first buffet that we recommend anyone to go to when in Lancaster County, PA - because it is just that different. But - and this is not a negative "but" - more and more if both this and Dutch-Way, Gap are considered for a meal, Dutch-Way is chosen. It is small, has pleasant but simple decor, and does not have anywhere near the quantities and variety of foods that Shady Maple offers in one night. Telling someone who is looking for a "experience" though is going to find that more at Shady Maple and that what puts it the TOP of the list. Yet, Dutch-Way has been proving to be the BEST when it comes to different and sometimes, more unique food choices. Both are great buffets and are must go tos. Designating Top or Best when it comes to these two buffets takes nothing away from either one. Read the articles that will follow in the next several weeks about each and you will better understand.

Congratulations to these exceptional restaurants. There are many other wonderful buffets that were dined at this year (and a few not so good ones) and some others came very close to being on this list.

THE BEST BUFFET OF 2013 - SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD, EAST EARLE, PA

We have yet to find any buffet restaurant in the US that tops Shady Maple Smorgasbord. I don't think that anyone can find another buffet that does when it comes to quality of food, quantity of offerings, value, consistency, size of the restaurant, and price. It is just that good and try as we can to find another buffet that even comes close, year after year, we always come back to Shady Maple as truly the best buffet.

It is not just this site that feels this way. I have said this before, people from all over know Shady Maple and will tell you how good it is. Not just people from Pennsylvania but I have been far, far away from Pennsylvania and have overheard people talking about Shady Maple and saying how wonderful it is. I have recommended many to go to dine at Shady Maple - not just on this site but face to face. Someone will say that they will be in Lancaster County and I will say then you must go to Shady Maple Smorgasbord and tell them where it is. The next time that I see these people they will rave about Shady Maple and thank me for sending them there! This happens over and over again. While it is common now for restaurants to have a Facebook page, the Shady Maple Facebook page is always busy and full of comments on how good the food is and how so many wish they could be there when a new feature is announced or a special is talked about.

So what makes this buffet so good and our choice for Best Buffet for 2013? When you walk into Shady Maple which is located surrounded in just about all sides by rolling farmland on the edge of what is called the Pennsylvania Dutch Country - populated by Amish and Mennonites who have settled this area for almost three hundred years - you see a huge and lavish lobby. This is not what you expect in an area where the people are known as the "Plain People". Shady Maple is far from plain. What you see you might expect in a big hotel in a big city or at a lavish casino. This is how the owner of Shady Maple - the same owner since it started - decided to build and decorate his buffet building when it moved from another corner of the property years ago. The old building is still there housing a furniture store. The original was much simpler in design and decoration and smaller. The old Shady Maple is more of what you might expect to find, but the new building was made grand and fitting what this famous restaurant should be to showcase its fine cooking and wonderful meals. The chandeliers follow into the dining rooms - there are many dining rooms. Some are private rooms that are opened to everyone when the crowds get too large for just the other immense dining rooms - and this is a regular occurrence in the summer months - and this happens then not just on Saturday nights. There is often a wait to get in - no matter what the season or the night of the week. (Except Sunday when Shady Maple is closed all day.) Along one entire side of the huge restaurant is a buffet area that goes the full length and curves around to add more room for desserts and beverages. (I have been in a restaurant that claims to be the largest restaurant in the world. I am certain that Shady Maple is larger.) But it is not just size that makes this buffet what it is. The food is as grand in quantity as the restaurant is large.

The food at Shady Maple varies from night to night. There are featured foods on different nights of the week, but other than the features you never know what you might find on the buffet. Yes, there are some things that you can just about to expect to always find, but there is so much here that just what changes every night is more in selection than other buffets have as all of their selections. There are four grills - one of which now has a chargrill in addition to a grill top. There are carvings, there are cooked to order items, and there are features filling these grills - every night (and day as they are open for lunch and breakfast too). Each grill is not cooking just one food but several different foods. When you walk to the buffet servers you approach from the middle of the length of the buffet serving area. The buffet servers go in both directions. Now, at first glance it will look like one side is a duplication of the other, and for some items that is true, but both sides have many different foods offered to you to select from than the other and this includes the salad bar, the soups, and the dessert area.

The foods served are not just Pennsylvania Dutch but many are local Pennsylvania Dutch favorites. But you will also find continental dishes, Italian dishes, Oriental stir-fry on one of the grills on some nights, and local favorites that are not PA Dutch. Smorgy Cheesesteaks are made to order at one of the grills. These are wonderful! The country sausage - made at the restaurant - and cooked on one of the grills is a favorite of mine (and many others). The steaks that are featured on Monday nights but show up on other nights are great! On Prime Rib Wednesday at dinner they are not just carving one Prime Rib - cooked just one way - but several Prime Ribs cooked to please those who enjoy rare up to well done. What is put on your plate is in size what you would expect to get in a menu restaurant when you order Prime Rib. You begin to wonder how you are going to fit everything else that you cannot resist into your stomach!

There is so much of everything. There are a number of soups to choose from and some are soups that I have only seen and had at Shady Maple. Wonderful seasonal soups along with more common soups but there just is not anything common here as basic gets a little extra which makes it only better.

I know our readers like to hear about desserts. Shady Maple has the widest assortment of dessert choices now than any other buffet that I have been to that is still in business. There are slices of layer cakes, all types of pies, Shoofly pie is always available as are apple dumplings and so much more! There is fruit, puddings, prepared desserts, sugarfree desserts, soft serve ice cream, sundae toppings, cookies, hot desserts... There are just too many to name. If you have a sweet tooth then moderate how much you take to eat during the meal because you will have so much dessert to choose from that you will not be able to resist. It is very easy to stuff yourself here - even if you don't take any dessert! This is the buffet that our slogan and sub-title was made for  - "All you can eat is not a challenge!"  It is very easy to forget that here. (Don't forget it, however, and you will enjoy your meal here so much more!)

The off season in this area are the months of January, February, and March and during those months, Shady Maple features very special weekend (Friday and Saturday night) features. Our article about the 2014 "off season specials" is here.

Now, with all of this food there must be a real big price for the meal, right? Well, no. The price is in line with most of the other buffets in this area and when you see the price, it includes the sales tax, an included gratuity (tip), and all meals include unlimited beverages which have a selection that also seems unlimited. The price of the meal varies by the night and the features with Tuesday's Seafood Night being the highest priced of the six nights that they are serving. The seafood on that night is plentiful - just like everything else at Shady Maple. Thursday nights are the lowest priced nights for dinner. At one time, Thursday was called "Family Value Night".  The other nights vary in between. I am not going to give specific prices because in today's economy prices may change - though Shady Maple's prices have held where they are for some time now.

This is the one and only Shady Maple Smorgasbord. There is none better. This is the BEST! And once again is our BEST BUFFET OF THE YEAR!

Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.

TOP BUFFET OF 2013 - DUTCH-WAY FAMILY RESTAURANT. GAP, PA

We have announced a Top Buffet and a Best Buffet for 2013 and we will start here telling you about the Top Buffet. A top buffet is a buffet that is on list of must go to when traveling through where the buffet is. This is a buffet that we think frequently about returning to. It is a buffet that when we are not traveling in the area, we miss going to.

The TOP BUFFET for 2013 is Dutch-Way Family Restaurant located in Gap, PA. There are three Dutch-Way Restaurants in Pennsylvania. Two have buffets and we have been to both. The Gap Dutch-Way is the one that is TOP. (Not to say that the other Dutch-Way locations are not good - the other buffet location is just not as good as Gap.)

Some who visit this area - Lancaster County - Home of the Pennsylvania Dutch, a popular tourist region, may ask why they have not heard about this restaurant other than here.This restaurant is not on one of the more popularly traveled tourist routes. This restaurant is off the beaten path and most will drive right by and not even realize that there is a restaurant there at all. What you see is a supermarket from this road not often traveled by tourists. While it is off the main roads, it is just less than 3 miles from Route 30 - one of the major routes crossing Lancaster County. 

Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is one of several buffet restaurants located within or adjacent to a supermarket. I have spoken about this many times in the past and this seems to be something that happens in Pennsylvania. Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA shares a building with Durch-Way Farm Market, a large supermarket that is part of the Dutch-Way chain. There is a long hallway and doors separating the supermarket from the restaurant's lobby. Each have their own entrances, as well.  Inside either the restaurant or the market, one is not aware of the other. The restaurant features both buffet and menu dining.

You can enter from the market hall or the restaurant's own entrance doors, and you come into a lobby area with restrooms and another set of large glass and wood doors that go into another lobby just for the restaurant. There is a host there to greet you and take you to your table. The dining room is very nicely decorated. It holds it own with any nice restaurant in decor and styling. There are tables and booths, two dining rooms (in addition to private dining rooms for parties) and a large buffet area with an extensive grill. 

We have never had a disappointing meal at Dutch-Way, Gap. We have not eaten anything there that was not good. The food here is a combination of local Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish country dishes and continental dishes. There are theme features that change with the day of the week. Friday and Saturdays focus on carvings - Ham and Prime Rib Roast. Thursday is Seafood Night with an extensive array of fish and seafood including crab legs. There is a build your own burger plus hot wings night. There is a western night. There is an Italian night. You will also find the PA Dutch and other dishes regardless of the theme.

The price is extremely reasonable - $11.99 for an adult buffet with an additional $1.99 for unlimited refill soft drinks. There is also a discount for seniors over 60. These prices are better than many buffets including chain buffets and the food that you are being served is quality. This is all made from scratch foods. This buffet more than meets our criteria of value and quality for a Top Buffet.

The foods do vary. The PA Dutch dishes - entrees like Chicken Bot Boi, Pork and Sauerkraut, Dutch Loaf are excellent, but you may not find these every night. The foods are rotated and we have found some dishes only once - though we are not there every night and cannot say that those dishes were not served again on a night that we were not there. One of the fun things about Dutch-Way is to be surprised by new dishes and to find favorites,

There is an extensive salad bar that one could make a meal of all on its own. Prepared salads, meats to top salads, a variety of lettuce varieties, and toppings and dressings fill a two sided server holding the salad bar. There is a soup bar with four soups. There is a dessert bar that extends from a selection of slices of cakes and pies, to soft serve ice cream (from Turkey Hill - a local dairy and popular commercial ice cream manufacturer), and a cold server with a variety of prepared desserts, pudding, fruits, etc. Then on the hot server with some of the entrees there are hot desserts. There is a bread station with a large variety of "gourmet" breads - such as fruit breads, pumpkin bread, rolls, muffins, and sometimes donuts. The grill changes with the theme night. There will be a chef behind the grill ready to carve for you on nights with carvings or cook for you on nights with cook to order foods on the grill. On build a burger night you choose the toppings for the burger that are cooked there on the grill with your hamburger. Add cheese of your choice and you are given a large burger piled high with toppings on a bun. This is a lot more than I can handle and eat everything else that I want on the buffet - but I have seen others do just that. I don't miss out- I have the burger built this way and just leave off the bun. (It is still a lot of food.)

As I write this I am wishing that I could get to Pennsylvania again soon! My mouth is watering for a Dutch-Way meal. I enjoy eating at a lot of buffets - but this one has stood out for us since the first time we went there a few years ago.

This is the buffet not to miss in Lancaster, PA. There will be two must go to's - as we have chosen for 2013 when in Lancaster County. This is one. We have come to the area for several days and gone back for dinner at Dutch-Way, Gap more than once on that trip. Do not miss it! Remember that it is not open on Sundays and a number of national holidays. There is a breakfast buffet Monday to Saturday, as well as a lunch and dinner buffet. When you go tell them that you read all about them on this site - Art of the Buffet!

The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.

Shady Maple at the Height of Tourist Seaon

We were at Shady Maple Smorgasbord, in East Earle, PA at the end of July on a Saturday night - and this is a Saturday night at the height of the summer tourist season in Lancaster, PA. I love Shady Maple, but I have to say that I love it much more when it is not overwhelmingly crowded with tourists.

There is usually some line and wait to get in and be seated but there were more people here on this night than there were on the Fourth of July when we had been there before this. And so many people that were here were on this night must never have been to a buffet before. And given the many places that people come from to visit this area and those that dine at Shady Maple - on this night some of the rudest people found there way here. To avoid waiting on the longest line, we opted to wait on a shorter line and sit at a booth. We very much always prefer to sit at a table no mater where we are dining. Well, the booth was fine but there was a man in the booth behind us that had to keep his arm over the back of the booth and next to me sitting there the whole time he was there (and there was absolutely nothing wrong with his arm). I am not sure how he could eat without this arm - though he did not seem to be doing much of that. Going around to the buffet servers was pretty much an exercise in avoiding those who wandered aimlessly perhaps in a daze from all the good food around them and those who had to line up cafeteria style at the end of one of the very long counters with the idea that everyone will just follow behind them as they go along tray by tray as they come. No - a buffet is not a cafeteria. You walk up to a tray, wait your turn if someone is there, and then take what you want and move to another part of the buffet and do the same.  Oh and the "plate pilers" - the ones that start filling the plate from the bottom up and keep stacking everything that they are going to eat until it is a foot high - they were all around on this night. One guy had a plate stacked high and from what I could see the foundation was potato salad and covering that for several inches was mashed potatoes. Another had a soup bowl of soup balanced on the edge next to the steak. It is really sad that people come to a buffet and forget that it is going to be there all night (at this buffet there is no doubt about that) and that you can take some and eat it like a person and come back and take another course or some more. Oh, and then there were the "touchers" - at the dessert area - who had to touch every piece of cake and pie that was out - picking the plate up, looking at it, and then putting it back.  And the guy as he is being seated who is saying loudly to the people he is with - "Do you think they will give us styrofoam containers so we can take it home with us?"

So what did I have? I have written about Shady Maple and its good food so much that it is a given that I will tell you about good things to be found at Shady Maple - at any time of the year. Well, even during tourist season this buffet shines like the brightest star. One of my favorite Shady Maple soups was on the buffet - Maryland Crab. This is a red tomato based crab soup with plenty of REAL crabmeat in it.

 I did something on this night I don't usually do. I ate mostly what was on the grills with little from the buffet tables. I have been to Shady Maple many times but I have not been there (not sure how) when they were serving their own Shady Maple made country sausage on the grill. This was wonderful and I went back several times for more - taking just one at a time. There was New York Strip Steak on the chargrill and while I prefer the Delmonico they also serve on Monday nights, I had a NY Strip. It is not my favorite cut of steak but the lady behind the grill had one rare and it was pretty good! There was also kielbasa on the grill and I have not had that before at Shady Maple. That was pretty good also but the country sausage was a winner for me on this night and that was the main focus of this meal.  I did take a few things from the buffet servers as side dishes but the only thing entree item I took from there was the cod cakes - which were not like the cod cakes that I had here on my last visit that were called Portuguese cod cakes and were made on the grill iron. Those were spicy. These were not spicy and very tasty. 

Service was excellent as always. The servers here are top notch!

You already know that I am going to say that the food and the meal itself was excellent - and it was. It was just the tourists - the buffet noobies - that I, for one, would rather avoid. Well, if you want an excellent meal in Lancaster County in the middle of the summer you have to put up with this almost everywhere - especially on a Saturday night!

Please take note - I am not mentioning prices because prices change but at Shady Maple always be aware that the  price listed is the price you pay in total at the register and it includes a pre-added tip and the local sales tax. It may look high but it already includes what would usually be added on top. There is always value here for your money and compared to other buffets and the overwhelming amount of good food you are offered here it is well worth the price!

Shady Maple is open from Monday to Saturday until 8:00 pm. They are closed on Sundays and certain holidays. Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East from Lancaster or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. (Put the name in your GPS and it will know it.) The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222.  There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.There is also a very active Facebook page!

A Trip to Shady Maple

Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA celebrated its anniversary again this year during the second week in March. We had an opportunity to make a trip into PA and without a doubt we were headed to Shady Maple for dinner that night.

When Shady Maple has its anniversary week it has contests and special menu items each night. We were there on a Wednesday night and the feature that night was Prime Rib which is the usual Wednesday night feature. As part of the celebration there was a special additional dessert area set up in the middle of the dining room floor with scooped hard ice cream and a supervised chocolate fountain. It had been several months since we had been to Shady Maple - weather and such preventing our travel. No matter what was on the menu, I was eager to get there for dinner.

Shady Maple, as I have written so many times before, has an overwhelmingly large amount of good  food offered on the buffet. For the anniversary dinners, there was even more, with what may be duplicate items on both sides of the long buffet serving area replaced with additional items. There were eight soups on the buffet on this night. All were tempting and I could not resist trying two of them that I had not seen at Shady Maple before. One was a vegetable tortellini soup and the other was scallop chowder. The vegetable tortellini was a thick tomato based soup with garden vegetables and large cheese filled tortellini pastas. There was a lot of tortellini in the soup. It was very good. The scallop chowder was like a thin New England (white) clam chowder but instead of clams there was scallops - whole, large scallops. This soup had a excellent taste of the sea with a buttery flavor as well. There were a lot more scallops in the soup than there appeared to be just looking, as the white scallops were masked by the white broth. This also was a good soup. My wife tried the beef barley soup which is a favorite soup of hers and she liked it here.

When Shady Maple serves Prime Rib they don't just put out one Prime Rib - cooked however it came from the kitchen. They put out several Prime Ribs - cooked rare, medium, and well. They slice a thick slice of Prime Rib for you - as it would be served at a menu restaurant - which fills your plate. There is au jus gravy to ladle on top there at the carving counter. There is no bone - you are getting all meat. The Prime Rib was tender and juicy. I chose the rare cut and it was perfect. As I say, if you wanted a medium or well done cut it was there for you.

At the carving station they were also carving ham. I got to see the new chargrill, though there was nothing cooking on it this night. This was the one thing missing from Shady Maple and it is now there on the end grill station nearest the entrance from the lobby. Now, when there are steaks, they will be chargrilled - to order. I can't wait to get there on a steak night to try this!  The steaks served this night were "Smorgy Cheesesteaks" on of Shady Maples signature items served on certain nights and special occasions. These are made on a fry grill as they should be - thin sliced steak is grilled with onions and covered with cheese. steaks without cheese are also available. I take mine without the hoagy roll (long bread roll) so that I not fill up on bread. There is tomato sauce that can be added on request on top. These are good - Shady Maple's version of the Philly Cheesesteak and they are very popular. In this area, they know cheesesteaks.

On this night there were several fish entrees on the buffet. The cod cakes were excellent - think broiled crab cakes substituting the crab with cod. There was also fried pollock - fried in a batter coating. There was also a  shrimp Alfredo. There was really so much that it can't all be named here.

I always look for the PA Dutch dishes when I am at Shady Maple. There always is dried corn - a sweet and nutty tasting dried corned kernals cooked moist and delicious. There are also always buttered noodles which here are thin, flat short noodles cooked in browned butter. Another regular PA Dutch dish at Shady Maple is Pork and Sauerkraut - shredded pork cooked with sauerkraut - and is locally served on New Years Day.  My attention immediately went to the Chicken Bot Bie - an Amish/PA Dutch specialty - that is often but not always found on Shady Maple's buffet. This is large, doughy flat noodle dumplings stewed with chicken, carrots, potatoes, and celery in a thickened chicken stock. This is a filling dish and those that know it usually cannot resist it.  With a smorgasbord or buffet meal, it is best to limit what you take or feel that you ate way too much at the end of the meal. I know some people who make this the centerpiece of their meal.

Dessert is extensive and it is always worthwhile looking on both sides of the buffet area at both dessert sections to see more. There are always an extensive selection of cakes and pies, hot desserts, cold desserts, fruit, puddings, etc. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article in addition for their anniversary celebration meals there was also name brand, hard scooped ice cream (in addition to the usual name brand soft serve ice cream) and a chocolate fountain that was supervised by employees - a must for any chocolate fountain and rarely if ever done elsewhere.

I could go on and on. The Shady Maple meal never disappoints. We named them one of our Top Buffets for 2012 - and previously had been Best Buffet year after year. I was happy to see our Top Buffet certificate posted in the lobby with other commendation certificates awarded to this restaurant. The anniversary celebration is now passed but the meal will be wonderful here on any night.

Shady Maple is open from Monday to Saturday until 8:00 pm. The dining room is not shut down until 9:00 pm but do not arrive too close to 8:00 or you will not have time to really enjoy this buffet. They are closed on Sundays and certain holidays. Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East from Lancaster or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. (Put the name in your GPS and it will know it.) The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222.  There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.There is also a very active Facebook page!

Top Buffet of 2012 - Yoders Restauarant, New Holland, PA

There was no question that any list of top buffets had to include Yoder's Restaurant. I have been writing about Yoder's for years and those of my readers who have taken my suggestion to go and try Yoder's have written back to me to say - "Yes!".

Yoder's may not have the ambiance of some of the other buffets but it has what counts - great food, service, and value. Yoder's is one of the supermarket buffets that I have written about in Lancaster County, Pa - something that you don't generally see in other areas. Yoder's is located within a building that is Yoder's Farm Market which is a supermarket. The restaurant is separated from the food store and is located down a hallway. The facilities of this building also include a few shops and a catering hall.

When you go into Yoder's you will find laminated booths in rows across the room. At the rear is the buffet serving area. There is a room at the rear that has tables to accommodate groups of larger guests but for the most part, the restaurant is as you see it through the doors. Do not let this put you off. Go in, be seated, order the buffet and your beverage from one of the very friendly wait staff and then head up to the buffet.

You will encounter three, long, double sided, buffet servers in the middle. A full grill area at the rear. A dessert bar on the right wall of the room and a soup, bread, and hot servers on the left wall. In front of the grill there is a small server sticking out and inside you will find condiments and also when it is seafood night, peel and eat shrimp kept cold. You are in Lancaster County and you are surrounded by Amish and Mennonite farms. The food that is cooked from scratch at Yoder's is prepared to appeal to the local people who live in this area. This is Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. While I am sure you will find tourists here as well, this restaurant is a local restaurant and the food on the buffet very much follows local recipes. You will find good plain, country cooking and often something a little fancier as well.

There are always two soups and they tend to be out of the ordinary varieties - though you will also find old favorites as well. The salad bar has a nice selection to create a salad and also has a number of local prepared salads. Some of these will be similar to what you are familiar with but in Lancaster they are made a little bit differently and better.

What is served from the grill varies by night. There are nights with steak on the grill, nights with fish and seafood on the grill, and nights with carvings such as Prime Rib. When there is steak you are asked how you would like it cooked and it is cooked to your order. What you get off the grill will fill your plate. Portions at Yoder's are large - whether from the grill or portioned servings in the hot buffet trays. It is very easy to find yourself eating more than you may have intended. That is a good thing because it is all so good it is hard to resist going back for something else that caught your eye on your way back to your table. Use a little discipline though and try to take smaller servings because there will be things that you will want to go back and try.

One of our favorite's here is the Baked Oatmeal and it is served from trays set into the counter on the left wall. At one time there was just one type of Baked Oatmeal served here. Now there are several. They are all good but the plain is still the one we go for. I don't know any other buffet that includes Baked Oatmeal as one of the items during dinner - and it makes for a great side dish. There are many other dishes that we love here and they often vary night by night - week by week. Among other greats are ham loaf, BBQ ribs, stuffed flounder, marinated Delmonico steak, potato filling, sliced turkey, Prime Rib, fried chicken, and so many more. You will find different things and you may find some of these - it depends on the night.

Desserts are found on their own double buffet server as well as along the wall and in a revolving glass enclosed case that contains pies. There are plenty of desserts to choose from. There are cakes, pies, soft serve ice cream and a sundae bar, fresh fruit, canned fruit, puddings and prepared desserts. This is one of the few buffets in this area that still serves Cracker Pudding - cracker pudding is like rice or bread pudding but is made with saltine crackers - and shredded coconut. It is a local dessert and is very good!

What sets this buffet apart? The food is consistently extremely good. The quality of what is served is high. There is value for your money. The service has never been bad. There are no disappointments. These are the marks of a top buffet.

Yoder's well deserves to be among the 2012 awardees for  Top Buffet. It is highly recommended that you should dine there - and remember - you are going for the food not to sit under chandeliers - which you will not find here. Simple surroundings in a country restaurant is what you will find along with great food!

Yoders is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They open very early in the morning and close at 8:00 pm at night - as most other buffets in this area do. They recently started opening for Sunday brunch but other than that they are not open on Sunday's for lunch or dinner. If you are coming for the buffet that you have just read about come at dinner from Monday to Saturday. 

The restaurant is located at Yoder's Country Market, Route 23, New Holland, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 354-4748. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.