What happened?!?
I had not intended to write an article but just make a comment on the last article about our third visit to Global Buffet but it just seemed that it needed to be set apart. We had not intended to dine at Global Buffet on this night but we were heading to another restaurant (we don't just eat at buffets) and realized as we got there that they were closed to host a special event, so we decided to go over to Global Buffet.
My experience, in particular, at this dinner shows that Global Buffet at this point is inconsistent. Because we had not planned to dine at an Asian buffet, I decided that I was going to eat primarily American - which has not been a problem on our past two trips. I had planned on sliced turkey with a few other American dishes.
The turkey as unlike it has been on either of our first two dinners here. It was hard to distinguish this turkey from ham. It is in a serving tray next to the ham - each labeled - and the ham had pineapple slices on it - and the turkey did not - though on the outside and the meat both resembled each other closely. If this was turkey it was a cheap, processed turkey breast - a ball that was roasted - evenly brown/black on the outside - the meat was less white than turkey and more the pink of ham. The flavor was slightly salty - like ham. I would just say that this was another ham put out in the turkey tray - but as I say it was not covered in pineapple slices as the ham was. It was not good at all. There was nothing wrong with it but it was not good. Even OCB Turkey which was never a great turkey breast was better than this. After the first slice I decided that I had to find something else to complete the meal.
As I was going around the buffet to see what I would eat, I saw that the pork spare ribs looked different - more like I expect Chinese Spare Ribs to look - and still not in thick red sauce - but definitely covered in some type of thin sweet sauce. I took one of those. I also took a small beef rib. The beef ribs were now sitting in a tray with a thin reddish gravy on them - that was not there the last time. I wondered as I saw the spare ribs if they are reading this site and tried to create the ribs I described in our last article that I find better than the ones I had here on the last visit. These, on this night, were not better - and maybe not as good as they had been. The beef rib was better without any sauce on them.
So onward, to the next trip up to the buffet and I went to a tried and true choice from visit one and visit two - beef stew. Oh boy! It looked right. One bite of beef and it was spicy. At best that I can identify the spice I would say the stew sauce was full of curry. In the past few years my stomach has become sensitive to anything that is spicy and I knew if I continued to eat this I was going to have a problem. I tried a piece of potato from the stew - same taste of curry. What did they do? Did they change the recipe? If so, why? One possibility - the beef stew and the chicken curry sit in trays next to each other. Did someone mix the sauce from the curry into the beef stew? There was too strong a taste of spice for it to have been just the curry serving spoon finding its way from one to the other. I went back to look at the beef stew tray. The sauce on the beef stew looked exactly the same as the sauce on the chicken curry. I hope that this was a one time mistake and not an intentional change in recipe because the beef stew had been the best dish here.
Lastly, and minor, I took a slice of pizza which looked good and looked pretty much as the pizza at another Asian buffet that we go to regularly. The cheese was nicely melted on the top, but under that layer of melted cheese was another layer of the same cheese that was not melted at all.
My wife was not as disappointed as I was but she had intended to have the beef stew also and when she found out that it was spicy, she was not going to take it. She eats more general Asian buffet and does not mind the usual pepper steak and chicken with broccoli. She was the one of us who described this meal as inconsistent.
To the positive, there were stone crab halves that I did not try. They were large and they had nutcrackers next to the serving tray. Global buffet has started putting discount coupons in the local major newspaper, Newsday and also in one of the mailer discount coupon books. The coupon is for $2 off adult dinner prices up to 10 at the table.
And for the OCB nostalgic about this location, the men's and ladies rooms are in the same location as they were when this was OCB but you will not believe the transformation. They are fancy with fancy plumbing fixtures. There are paper towels and hand dryers. And they are clean. Seems that everyone who walks into these has the same reaction - wow, are these so much better than they were!
I really want this restaurant to succeed. I want to go and have a nice "international" meal at a good price. They maybe still have to break themselves in more, but right now it is inconsistent. Inconsistent is not good. We will go back - but things will have to go back to where it was a week ago and what should not be spicy must not be spicy, if we will go back after the next try.
ADDENDUM:
We went back a week later. The turkey was a little better - at least it was white and looked more like turkey. It is cheap turkey roll/turkey breast. At least it was edible. The beef stew was moved away from the the curry chicken - that is behind the beef stew and two trays over now. The beef stew was now edible and no longer was spicy or tasted like curry.
I tried the hibachi bar. I added what looked like a steak to my plate of vegetables. When I took the steak I had second thoughts. it was grey, lacking in any marbling, and was frozen solid - the frozen part did not bother me any. It was good and I brought it back to the table. I cut a piece of "steak" off and tried to eat it. I could not chew it. It actually was like rubber. I tried cutting pieces off in various parts of the meat. None would chew. Each came back out of my mouth and on to the plate. I ate the vegetables which were fine.
My wife has been eating the pepper steak here - from the buffet table - since we started coming here. She took a bite at this meal and said it was so spicy that it was burning her mouth. She said it has never been like that before - and I, too, have had it here before and no, it was never spicy. I asked her what tray was it next to. We went to look. It was right next to Hot Pepper Chicken - a very hot and spicy dish. So just like the beef stew the last time, either the serving spoon or something from the Hot Pepper Chicken went into the Pepper Steak! This is very serious. If one were allergic to something in that other tray - and ate the pepper steak they could be in serious trouble!
Inconsistent is still the best way to describe this buffet! Each visit there have been surprises and only on our second visit were the surprises not unpleasant. I cannot recommend this buffet to anyone at this point until they get their act together!
Showing posts with label turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkey. Show all posts
Friday, September 15, 2017
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Global Buffet, Levittown, NY - SECOND VISIT
We went back to Global Buffet. (See our first article about this buffet.) They have made some positive changes in the past two weeks since they opened.
Either they read our article or someone there was told or realized that their steam tables were set at too low a temperature, but now the temperature of the food is correct. Nothing was cold or just warm. Everything that needs to be hot was properly hot.
When we were there the first time, we overheard someone ask the manager why there was no Egg Drop Soup. There is now Egg Drop Soup. The soups section has changed. Gone is the so-so chicken noodle soup and also the soup that was unidentifiable in the serving pot. The soups now are WonTon Soup, Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Miso Soup, and Clam Soup. They have also added in one of the spaces for a soup pot server, steamed Dim Sum filled with meat. I tried the WonTon Soup. It was good. I don't know if it was just chance but the wonton was the largest wonton that i have ever had. When I walked past later it may have just been chance as what I saw was standard sized. There is not much to do with wonton soup to make one different than another. The broth was better than most.
There was an additional meat on the American meat carving section. They added large beef ribs. They are big and long ribs with a lot of meet. The meet is stringy but that is how beef ribs are. They do not have a light sauce on them based on what was in the pan they are served in, but this did not add any different flavor to them. They were pretty good. Now, I know what some are going to think - just like OCB's long gone beef ribs - not really. These are cooked more like short ribs than OCB's beef ribs were - but they are something you rarely see anymore - and don't see at a buffet. In this section, they have made a place for the turkey gravy to sit in the steam table and it was kept properly hot. The turkey seemed more to be a roasted turkey breast - but it was juicy and good and the gravy makes it better.
My wife found a shrimp dish that she says was not there the last time. It was called Seafood Delight - which in other Asian buffets usually is a mix of shrimp and fish. This was just shrimp and that made her happy. She said it was very good.
I tried more Asian dishes this visit than I did the first - as I was focusing then on the American offerings. The sushi bar was full and there was a tray of large pieces of raw salmon - no rice. They were big and moist - and good. Then there were the usual sushi in addition. Next to the sushi bar there are Asian cold "appetizers" including peanut chicken with noodles. That was good - not spicy and that made it even better. I tried the pepper steak and the beef was not overcooked, a little chewy, but tasty. The sauce did not overwhelm it - as it often does in other Asian buffets. The Spring Rolls are standard - but not over cooked as they are in some other buffets. I tried stuffed fish - a roll of fish stuffed with more fish. It was fine. I tried their spare ribs. The spare ribs are close to Chinese restaurant spare ribs - not covered in sticky red sugar sauce, but just broiled under a hot broiler. Teh spare ribs were good - not as good as the spare ribs at Good Taste Buffer in Commack, NY which I have written about several times in the past that to me have the best Chinese Spare Ribs of any buffet. These at Global are close but not as good. I can only describe the ones at Good Taste as having sizzle - these lack the sizzle. BUT not bad - and better than most.
I did go back to the things I liked the first time - the turkey, the beef stew, and the baked clams. All still good! I even tried a french fry to see how it is - something very basic but not all Asian buffets that serve them do it well. Not much of an achievement but here it was good.
The ice cream machine is working and the soft serve ice cream was nice and creamy - not at all icy. There were a few different cakes including a chocolate cake with cheesecake on top and a coffee cake. I tried both of those and they were good. I had intended to take the hot apple strudel and took these instead. I was happy I did. My wife took the strudel and liked it.
The service was still good. The Senior price has gone down to $12.99 from $13.99. The adult price stayed the same. An effort was made to keep everything moist and also empty or near empty trays were refilled fairly quickly.
At the end of the meal my wife summed it up - "It's pleasant!". Yes it is. The food is fine. The decor is nice - not at all like it was as OCB. It is funny sitting in there after all of those years sitting in the same space as OCB. We were near the side door and my wife said to me, that we were near where the claw machine was - yes, we were!
They still don't have a web page but they do have a Facebook page. From the Facebook page I saw that they had a special dinner for Labor Day that included lobster and steaks and with on increase in price. There was a negative comment that there was no lobster while they were there - I don't know. I am looking at negative comments about this restaurant in view of what I am seeing for myself - especially now with the improvements I have seen in just two weeks. The restaurant across the street is trying hard to get their business back - which many of us know went down long before this new buffet opened - and I am not sure that some negative comments I have seen have not been planted.
At this point I will say, "Yes! Try it!"***. It is primarily an Asian buffet but it is not hard to sit down and not eat any Asian dishes for the entire meal with the meat carvings and other "American" dishes and sides. You could have corn on the cob, fries, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and any of the meats out to carve. We have not tried the hibachi grill - it is standard to what most are like. I looked closely at the grill area behind the counter - there is a flat grill and also a char flame grill. I don't know what they make on that grill but it is there. I know many were expecting an OCB like buffet and this is not it. Give it a chance for what it is. I will be going back.
Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. Here is the phone number (516) 605-1799. Hours on their Facebook page say they are open 11:00 am to 11:00 pm. Good for a late night dinner or if you are running late and all others have closed for the night.
***
READ THE NEXT ARTICLE AND IT'S ADDENDUM FOR AN IMPORTANT UPDATE BEFORE GOING TO THIS BUFFET!
Either they read our article or someone there was told or realized that their steam tables were set at too low a temperature, but now the temperature of the food is correct. Nothing was cold or just warm. Everything that needs to be hot was properly hot.
When we were there the first time, we overheard someone ask the manager why there was no Egg Drop Soup. There is now Egg Drop Soup. The soups section has changed. Gone is the so-so chicken noodle soup and also the soup that was unidentifiable in the serving pot. The soups now are WonTon Soup, Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Miso Soup, and Clam Soup. They have also added in one of the spaces for a soup pot server, steamed Dim Sum filled with meat. I tried the WonTon Soup. It was good. I don't know if it was just chance but the wonton was the largest wonton that i have ever had. When I walked past later it may have just been chance as what I saw was standard sized. There is not much to do with wonton soup to make one different than another. The broth was better than most.
There was an additional meat on the American meat carving section. They added large beef ribs. They are big and long ribs with a lot of meet. The meet is stringy but that is how beef ribs are. They do not have a light sauce on them based on what was in the pan they are served in, but this did not add any different flavor to them. They were pretty good. Now, I know what some are going to think - just like OCB's long gone beef ribs - not really. These are cooked more like short ribs than OCB's beef ribs were - but they are something you rarely see anymore - and don't see at a buffet. In this section, they have made a place for the turkey gravy to sit in the steam table and it was kept properly hot. The turkey seemed more to be a roasted turkey breast - but it was juicy and good and the gravy makes it better.
My wife found a shrimp dish that she says was not there the last time. It was called Seafood Delight - which in other Asian buffets usually is a mix of shrimp and fish. This was just shrimp and that made her happy. She said it was very good.
I tried more Asian dishes this visit than I did the first - as I was focusing then on the American offerings. The sushi bar was full and there was a tray of large pieces of raw salmon - no rice. They were big and moist - and good. Then there were the usual sushi in addition. Next to the sushi bar there are Asian cold "appetizers" including peanut chicken with noodles. That was good - not spicy and that made it even better. I tried the pepper steak and the beef was not overcooked, a little chewy, but tasty. The sauce did not overwhelm it - as it often does in other Asian buffets. The Spring Rolls are standard - but not over cooked as they are in some other buffets. I tried stuffed fish - a roll of fish stuffed with more fish. It was fine. I tried their spare ribs. The spare ribs are close to Chinese restaurant spare ribs - not covered in sticky red sugar sauce, but just broiled under a hot broiler. Teh spare ribs were good - not as good as the spare ribs at Good Taste Buffer in Commack, NY which I have written about several times in the past that to me have the best Chinese Spare Ribs of any buffet. These at Global are close but not as good. I can only describe the ones at Good Taste as having sizzle - these lack the sizzle. BUT not bad - and better than most.
I did go back to the things I liked the first time - the turkey, the beef stew, and the baked clams. All still good! I even tried a french fry to see how it is - something very basic but not all Asian buffets that serve them do it well. Not much of an achievement but here it was good.
The ice cream machine is working and the soft serve ice cream was nice and creamy - not at all icy. There were a few different cakes including a chocolate cake with cheesecake on top and a coffee cake. I tried both of those and they were good. I had intended to take the hot apple strudel and took these instead. I was happy I did. My wife took the strudel and liked it.
The service was still good. The Senior price has gone down to $12.99 from $13.99. The adult price stayed the same. An effort was made to keep everything moist and also empty or near empty trays were refilled fairly quickly.
At the end of the meal my wife summed it up - "It's pleasant!". Yes it is. The food is fine. The decor is nice - not at all like it was as OCB. It is funny sitting in there after all of those years sitting in the same space as OCB. We were near the side door and my wife said to me, that we were near where the claw machine was - yes, we were!
They still don't have a web page but they do have a Facebook page. From the Facebook page I saw that they had a special dinner for Labor Day that included lobster and steaks and with on increase in price. There was a negative comment that there was no lobster while they were there - I don't know. I am looking at negative comments about this restaurant in view of what I am seeing for myself - especially now with the improvements I have seen in just two weeks. The restaurant across the street is trying hard to get their business back - which many of us know went down long before this new buffet opened - and I am not sure that some negative comments I have seen have not been planted.
At this point I will say, "Yes! Try it!"***. It is primarily an Asian buffet but it is not hard to sit down and not eat any Asian dishes for the entire meal with the meat carvings and other "American" dishes and sides. You could have corn on the cob, fries, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and any of the meats out to carve. We have not tried the hibachi grill - it is standard to what most are like. I looked closely at the grill area behind the counter - there is a flat grill and also a char flame grill. I don't know what they make on that grill but it is there. I know many were expecting an OCB like buffet and this is not it. Give it a chance for what it is. I will be going back.
Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. Here is the phone number (516) 605-1799. Hours on their Facebook page say they are open 11:00 am to 11:00 pm. Good for a late night dinner or if you are running late and all others have closed for the night.
***
READ THE NEXT ARTICLE AND IT'S ADDENDUM FOR AN IMPORTANT UPDATE BEFORE GOING TO THIS BUFFET!
Monday, August 28, 2017
Global Buffet, Levittown, New York
We went for dinner to the just opened Global Buffet which is located in the space that Old Country Buffet last occupied. You enter through the entrance that you entered when this was OCB and going through a second set of doors (as you did before) you come into an area that will become a bar or wine bar. There is a long bar counter along the wall to the left, and a lot of glass shelves on the walls holding decorative wine bottles lying horizontally across the shelves. To the right is an opening and this is the entrance to the restaurant. To the right is the cashier but you do not pay as you enter. You pay at your table at the end of your meal. A host brought us to our table. You may just be able to make out the form of the OCB when you see the room but there has been extensive work done and a lot has been added.
There are mostly booths through the restaurant with a few tables. There are two party rooms - one in the back where the OCB party room had been and another area in the front that is separated from the rest of the restaurant by a wall with glass decorative etched windows looking into the restaurant and an open entrance - that did not seem to have a door. There is a very small stage in the back corner of that room for parties. The dining rooms are fancily decorated and are very nice. On the east side of the restaurant are the buffet tables (nine hot/cold, double sided buffet serving tables), a dessert bar that is along the front of the wall that is an L shape - the short leg of the L parallel on the front to the front party room, then a hot foods carving area, followed by a long hibachi grill. Moving back from the grill there is another L with a sushi bar.
Outside in the entrance area from the street there is a sign with prices. The prices are pretty good. There is a lunch price of $9.99 for adults ($8.49) for seniors) Monday to Friday - and a children's price. The dinner price is $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors plus a children's price which is for Monday through Saturday. There is a Saturday brunch price which I did not note. The Sunday lunch and dinner price is the same and is also $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors. Soft drinks are not mentioned on the sign but are $1.99 and you get refills.
Now I will tell you what so many have been waiting to hear. This is an Asian buffet. There is a carving section that has you carve yourself Roast Turkey, Roast Brisket, and Glazed Baked Turkey. With that there is turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, and chunk pan fried potatoes. Over on the buffet tables mixed in with a large variety of Asian dishes are pork chops with peppers and onions on top, lamb with cream sauce, corned beef and cabbage, chicken Marsala, macaroni and cheese, french fries, mashed sweet potatoes, and beef stew. There is fried chicken that has been cut up into pieces - I don't mean whole pieces of fried chicken, but those pieces cut up into pieces. There was Sausage with Peppers and Onions, seafood pasta, Italian-style baked clams and "Italian" shrimp. There were also several fish dishes including a rolled and stuffed fillet of fish that was baked. There was typical Asian buffet pizza. There is also a Taco Bar and a decent salad bar with both salad greens and toppings and also prepared salads - a little better than you usually see in this area. There were six soups: Won Ton Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Clam Soup, chicken noodle soup, and what appeared to be a seafood bisque of some kind. Most things are labeled, this soup was not.
The Asian foods are just about all that you generally find in an Asian buffet. There is a sushi bar and then there is an hibachi grill. The hibachi grill is a long row of raw vegetables and cut up pieces of various meats that you assemble yourself on a plate and hand it to the chef behind the grill at the end. This is the extent of the grill. Do not expect whole steaks or anything like that. The majority of dishes here are Asian.
How was the food? I am writing based on the second night they are open. Let's say that what I am going to report is opening shake out issues which hopefully will improve. There is a problem with serving temperatures. Many things were not hot enough. When something is first put out it is hot. Sitting on the steam table, even with hot warming lights over it - in the middle of the table covering both sides and not directly over each tray, the some of the food that I took was cold. I focused my meal on American food items, as at this point, I am "Asian buffeted out". For soup I took the chicken noodle soup. It turned out to be a thin watery cream soup with pieces of chicken and bowtie noodles. It had little flavor. I took corned beef and cabbage. Corned Beef is a favorite of mine and I was excited to find it. I understand that corned beef varies a great deal and there are many cuts. Some cuts of corned beef are very tough - almost difficult to chew. I took two pieces of corned beef - one from the bottom of the liquid in the tray and the other nearer the top. Both were cold. Both were so chewy and tough they were impossible to eat. I left most of both of them - trying each just in case one piece was better. It wasn't. I carved myself turkey twice during the dinner. The first piece I took was sufficiently warm. There was a small tray of gravy in the turkey tray and I took some gravy and put it on top. Together on that first try it was all fine. Later in the meal I went back for more turkey and this time when I ate the turkey it was near cold - and the tray of turkey gravy had been taken out of the turkey tray and put on the side of the counter and left there - with no heat under it or over it. I was not going to take the gravy this time. I took some of the ham - it was fine and warm enough. I took a pork chop which is more a slice of pork cooked like a pork chop. It was also cold, did not have much taste, and it was very tough - also hard to chew - to the point that I left over some of that as well. I tied chicken salad from the salad bar - real mayonnaise style chicken salad as opposed to Chinese Chicken Salad. It was also hard to chew. I tried the seafood and pasta - the pasta was underdone and chewy.
My wife was choosing a mix of Asian and American foods and she liked what she was having. What did I like? The beef stew was both hot, tender, and tasty both times I went up for it. I liked that a lot. The carved ham was fine. The cut up fried chicken was fine. The mashed potatoes tray had been empty for awhile and when it finally was refilled I took some mashed potatoes and it was fine. The mashed sweet potatoes were fine. The turkey the first time around was fine. I liked the baked clams a lot.
The desserts here include several cut up fresh fruits, puddings, jellos, etc. along with the usual Asian buffet little pieces of commercially baked cakes and a big assortment of cookies. Some of the cookies look beyond usual buffet cookies - but I tried one expecting it to be soft to the bite but it was not. I looked really good. They have hot bread pudding on one of the buffet tables. It is a mixture of egg custard and slices of bread baked on top and it was tasty. Not as great as some bread puddings but good. They also have apple strudel cut into slices and hot. This is found at some other Asian buffets. My wife had it and liked it. They have a soft serve ice cream machine but it is not yet working. It will be shortly. The waitresses were talking about it at a near by table and it will be a few days before they can get it into service.
I don't want you to come away from this article thinking that the food here or dinner here is not good. They need to progress a bit from their first two days being open. All the time we were there, there were Asian men who worked there going around to all of the food trays making notes on forms on clip boards. They need to get the temperatures of their steam tables adjusted, go around and stir the dishes so that they heat evenly and at the same time don't dry out. We certainly found things to eat - some of it could have been better. We did not leave hungry. The quality of the food seems fine. The price is decent. No coupons - or any advertising at all has shown up yet in the local newspaper for this restaurant - which is surprising. We will see if any start to show up. There were many people around us that seemed very happy.
Service was very good. Our empty dishes were taken away as soon as we were finished with them. Drinks were refilled with our waitress asking several times if we would like more - and it was promptly brought. There were a few moments of confusion by the waitress which were promptly corrected - no big deal. Everyone working was very polite and nice.
Will we go back? Yes. While it is a couple of dollars more than the Asian buffet we have been going to in Baldwin, it is much closer. If I am in the mood for Asian, it has all that I would expect and then there is the added benefit of the American dishes - which most of my readers know have been sorely missed in this area. (Maybe someone could introduce them to a good meat loaf recipe?) So I recommend it? If you are eager to see it for yourself and try it - sure. Just understand that there are some improvements needed which they will pick up on and fix. If you want to wait and give them some time to shake out the wrinkles, we hope that giving them some time will bring it up a notch or two. And is they are smart and read this article they will know exactly what they need to look closer at.
As we go along we will let you know what happens. As I say, we will be going back - and when there is something to write about, we will write it.
There are mostly booths through the restaurant with a few tables. There are two party rooms - one in the back where the OCB party room had been and another area in the front that is separated from the rest of the restaurant by a wall with glass decorative etched windows looking into the restaurant and an open entrance - that did not seem to have a door. There is a very small stage in the back corner of that room for parties. The dining rooms are fancily decorated and are very nice. On the east side of the restaurant are the buffet tables (nine hot/cold, double sided buffet serving tables), a dessert bar that is along the front of the wall that is an L shape - the short leg of the L parallel on the front to the front party room, then a hot foods carving area, followed by a long hibachi grill. Moving back from the grill there is another L with a sushi bar.
Outside in the entrance area from the street there is a sign with prices. The prices are pretty good. There is a lunch price of $9.99 for adults ($8.49) for seniors) Monday to Friday - and a children's price. The dinner price is $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors plus a children's price which is for Monday through Saturday. There is a Saturday brunch price which I did not note. The Sunday lunch and dinner price is the same and is also $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors. Soft drinks are not mentioned on the sign but are $1.99 and you get refills.
Now I will tell you what so many have been waiting to hear. This is an Asian buffet. There is a carving section that has you carve yourself Roast Turkey, Roast Brisket, and Glazed Baked Turkey. With that there is turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, and chunk pan fried potatoes. Over on the buffet tables mixed in with a large variety of Asian dishes are pork chops with peppers and onions on top, lamb with cream sauce, corned beef and cabbage, chicken Marsala, macaroni and cheese, french fries, mashed sweet potatoes, and beef stew. There is fried chicken that has been cut up into pieces - I don't mean whole pieces of fried chicken, but those pieces cut up into pieces. There was Sausage with Peppers and Onions, seafood pasta, Italian-style baked clams and "Italian" shrimp. There were also several fish dishes including a rolled and stuffed fillet of fish that was baked. There was typical Asian buffet pizza. There is also a Taco Bar and a decent salad bar with both salad greens and toppings and also prepared salads - a little better than you usually see in this area. There were six soups: Won Ton Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Clam Soup, chicken noodle soup, and what appeared to be a seafood bisque of some kind. Most things are labeled, this soup was not.
The Asian foods are just about all that you generally find in an Asian buffet. There is a sushi bar and then there is an hibachi grill. The hibachi grill is a long row of raw vegetables and cut up pieces of various meats that you assemble yourself on a plate and hand it to the chef behind the grill at the end. This is the extent of the grill. Do not expect whole steaks or anything like that. The majority of dishes here are Asian.
How was the food? I am writing based on the second night they are open. Let's say that what I am going to report is opening shake out issues which hopefully will improve. There is a problem with serving temperatures. Many things were not hot enough. When something is first put out it is hot. Sitting on the steam table, even with hot warming lights over it - in the middle of the table covering both sides and not directly over each tray, the some of the food that I took was cold. I focused my meal on American food items, as at this point, I am "Asian buffeted out". For soup I took the chicken noodle soup. It turned out to be a thin watery cream soup with pieces of chicken and bowtie noodles. It had little flavor. I took corned beef and cabbage. Corned Beef is a favorite of mine and I was excited to find it. I understand that corned beef varies a great deal and there are many cuts. Some cuts of corned beef are very tough - almost difficult to chew. I took two pieces of corned beef - one from the bottom of the liquid in the tray and the other nearer the top. Both were cold. Both were so chewy and tough they were impossible to eat. I left most of both of them - trying each just in case one piece was better. It wasn't. I carved myself turkey twice during the dinner. The first piece I took was sufficiently warm. There was a small tray of gravy in the turkey tray and I took some gravy and put it on top. Together on that first try it was all fine. Later in the meal I went back for more turkey and this time when I ate the turkey it was near cold - and the tray of turkey gravy had been taken out of the turkey tray and put on the side of the counter and left there - with no heat under it or over it. I was not going to take the gravy this time. I took some of the ham - it was fine and warm enough. I took a pork chop which is more a slice of pork cooked like a pork chop. It was also cold, did not have much taste, and it was very tough - also hard to chew - to the point that I left over some of that as well. I tied chicken salad from the salad bar - real mayonnaise style chicken salad as opposed to Chinese Chicken Salad. It was also hard to chew. I tried the seafood and pasta - the pasta was underdone and chewy.
My wife was choosing a mix of Asian and American foods and she liked what she was having. What did I like? The beef stew was both hot, tender, and tasty both times I went up for it. I liked that a lot. The carved ham was fine. The cut up fried chicken was fine. The mashed potatoes tray had been empty for awhile and when it finally was refilled I took some mashed potatoes and it was fine. The mashed sweet potatoes were fine. The turkey the first time around was fine. I liked the baked clams a lot.
The desserts here include several cut up fresh fruits, puddings, jellos, etc. along with the usual Asian buffet little pieces of commercially baked cakes and a big assortment of cookies. Some of the cookies look beyond usual buffet cookies - but I tried one expecting it to be soft to the bite but it was not. I looked really good. They have hot bread pudding on one of the buffet tables. It is a mixture of egg custard and slices of bread baked on top and it was tasty. Not as great as some bread puddings but good. They also have apple strudel cut into slices and hot. This is found at some other Asian buffets. My wife had it and liked it. They have a soft serve ice cream machine but it is not yet working. It will be shortly. The waitresses were talking about it at a near by table and it will be a few days before they can get it into service.
I don't want you to come away from this article thinking that the food here or dinner here is not good. They need to progress a bit from their first two days being open. All the time we were there, there were Asian men who worked there going around to all of the food trays making notes on forms on clip boards. They need to get the temperatures of their steam tables adjusted, go around and stir the dishes so that they heat evenly and at the same time don't dry out. We certainly found things to eat - some of it could have been better. We did not leave hungry. The quality of the food seems fine. The price is decent. No coupons - or any advertising at all has shown up yet in the local newspaper for this restaurant - which is surprising. We will see if any start to show up. There were many people around us that seemed very happy.
Service was very good. Our empty dishes were taken away as soon as we were finished with them. Drinks were refilled with our waitress asking several times if we would like more - and it was promptly brought. There were a few moments of confusion by the waitress which were promptly corrected - no big deal. Everyone working was very polite and nice.
Will we go back? Yes. While it is a couple of dollars more than the Asian buffet we have been going to in Baldwin, it is much closer. If I am in the mood for Asian, it has all that I would expect and then there is the added benefit of the American dishes - which most of my readers know have been sorely missed in this area. (Maybe someone could introduce them to a good meat loaf recipe?) So I recommend it? If you are eager to see it for yourself and try it - sure. Just understand that there are some improvements needed which they will pick up on and fix. If you want to wait and give them some time to shake out the wrinkles, we hope that giving them some time will bring it up a notch or two. And is they are smart and read this article they will know exactly what they need to look closer at.
As we go along we will let you know what happens. As I say, we will be going back - and when there is something to write about, we will write it.
Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. I have seen three different phone numbers on two different phone listings - one with one number and another with two different numbers from each other and the one on the other listing. As a result I am not listing any phone number. There were no hours listed that we could see at the restaurant. There is no website and there is no Facebook page. Anything that you find about Global Buffet on the Internet if it does not say Levittown, NY it is not them. There was a Global Buffet that closed in Oswego, NY a year ago and there is a Global Buffet in Canada - that is definitely not related to this one. At some point there should be a website and a Facebook page - but that is only a guess based on standard operating procedure for restaurants for this day and age.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Holiday Dinner at Flaming Grill Supreme Buffet, Baldwin, New York
We have been dining fairly regularly at the Flaming Grill Supreme Buffet in Baldwin, New York (Long Island). We have written about this buffet when we first went there when it had recently opened in 2014. It is one of the few decent affordable Asian buffets in this area. We have learned - seeing another of this restaurant in Pennsylvania, that they are part of a chain.
This year they had a "special" dinner for both Christmas Day and also New Year's Day - no reservations necessary and a price only $3 more than their regular Saturday/Sunday dinner price of $12.99 (less one of their regular $1.50 off coupons). For the holidays there were no coupons accepted but they did offer their Senior price. At $15.99 (plus $1.69 for unlimited soft drinks) is the best that can be found in this area on a holiday where holiday buffets offered in non-buffet restaurants start at $50 and go up from there. We went and were happy with what we found.
This buffet included several items not offered at other times - lobster with shell in ginger sauce, cold snow crab legs (small clusters), whole flounder in ginger sauce, and a full roast turkey that you carve yourself. All of their usual buffet items were also there along with the large sushi bar, hibachi grill, the raw oysters and clams, dessert bar and chocolate fountain.
This buffet has changed a little in the past four years on regular nights. Weeknight prices have gone up only a dollar to $11.99. The several dumplings once offered are now down to just fried meat dumplings. There are no longer egg rolls but only spring rolls. Small things that do not really matter as there is still so much.
We had a great meal. The usual problem that takes place at Asian buffets with lobster took place here as well - they bring out a full tray of lobster to a crowd of people waiting like vultures for it to appear and then descend on it and strip it clean in a few minutes. The thing though was that once the dinner time crowd has diminished, the tray of lobster would come out and no one ran for it. I was able to fill my plate several times with good lobster pieces. The roast turkey was very good. As I say it was a whole turkey and it clearly was not the first one that went out that evening. There was a carving knife and fork in the tray with the turkey and it carved off easily. It was very good - no turkey gravy, but, after all, this is an Asian buffet. The crab legs were on ice which means they are hard to get the meat out of the shell, but they were tasty and there was hot butter sauce in a tray on the counter next to them. The flounder in ginger sauce went at first almost as quickly as the lobster, but they kept bringing it out and it was possible to get servings of it with patience.
While we had been there a few nights before for a regular dinner, we found enough different added to the things we generally like to eat here, that we were happy. Service here is good and for a very busy buffet they keep up well with replacing empty trays - with the same item - and keeping everything fresh and at the correct serving temperatures.
We had a nice all you care to eat, holiday meal for little money compared to what this could have cost. I am not sure which other holidays they do this for but if you are in this area and don't want to stay home for Christmas or New Year's Day dinner this is a buffet to consider.
The Flaming Grill and Supreme Buffet is located at 1773 Grand Avenue, Baldwin, New York 11510. The phone number is 516-544-2222. There is a website and it is listed on the right side column of this page.
This year they had a "special" dinner for both Christmas Day and also New Year's Day - no reservations necessary and a price only $3 more than their regular Saturday/Sunday dinner price of $12.99 (less one of their regular $1.50 off coupons). For the holidays there were no coupons accepted but they did offer their Senior price. At $15.99 (plus $1.69 for unlimited soft drinks) is the best that can be found in this area on a holiday where holiday buffets offered in non-buffet restaurants start at $50 and go up from there. We went and were happy with what we found.
This buffet included several items not offered at other times - lobster with shell in ginger sauce, cold snow crab legs (small clusters), whole flounder in ginger sauce, and a full roast turkey that you carve yourself. All of their usual buffet items were also there along with the large sushi bar, hibachi grill, the raw oysters and clams, dessert bar and chocolate fountain.
This buffet has changed a little in the past four years on regular nights. Weeknight prices have gone up only a dollar to $11.99. The several dumplings once offered are now down to just fried meat dumplings. There are no longer egg rolls but only spring rolls. Small things that do not really matter as there is still so much.
We had a great meal. The usual problem that takes place at Asian buffets with lobster took place here as well - they bring out a full tray of lobster to a crowd of people waiting like vultures for it to appear and then descend on it and strip it clean in a few minutes. The thing though was that once the dinner time crowd has diminished, the tray of lobster would come out and no one ran for it. I was able to fill my plate several times with good lobster pieces. The roast turkey was very good. As I say it was a whole turkey and it clearly was not the first one that went out that evening. There was a carving knife and fork in the tray with the turkey and it carved off easily. It was very good - no turkey gravy, but, after all, this is an Asian buffet. The crab legs were on ice which means they are hard to get the meat out of the shell, but they were tasty and there was hot butter sauce in a tray on the counter next to them. The flounder in ginger sauce went at first almost as quickly as the lobster, but they kept bringing it out and it was possible to get servings of it with patience.
While we had been there a few nights before for a regular dinner, we found enough different added to the things we generally like to eat here, that we were happy. Service here is good and for a very busy buffet they keep up well with replacing empty trays - with the same item - and keeping everything fresh and at the correct serving temperatures.
We had a nice all you care to eat, holiday meal for little money compared to what this could have cost. I am not sure which other holidays they do this for but if you are in this area and don't want to stay home for Christmas or New Year's Day dinner this is a buffet to consider.
The Flaming Grill and Supreme Buffet is located at 1773 Grand Avenue, Baldwin, New York 11510. The phone number is 516-544-2222. There is a website and it is listed on the right side column of this page.
Friday, November 04, 2016
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord, BIrd-In-Hand, Lancaster County, PA, PA
With Old Country Buffet now long gone from where I live and no other country/American buffets anywhere close to this area, the only buffets that I have gone to have been Asian buffets. While they are fine, no matter what the assortment of foods they serve, they are not the same as a good country-style buffet. I have been going through buffet withdrawal. On a recent trip to Pennsylvania I had a chance to scratch a very bad itch and dine at good Pennsylvania Dutch buffets!
One of those was Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand in the middle of the heart of the "Amish Country". We have been there many times and I have written about it before. It has always been good and the only thing that has kept this buffet as an "always go to" has been the price, which some years varies by the season, but has been at $19.99 per adult for dinner on Monday to Thursday and more on Friday and Saturday. While this is not an exorbitant price for a dinner buffet - especailly considering that this price includes unlimited soft drinks and coffee, which can add as much as almost $3 per person at some buffets - in this locale it tends to be a little higher than prices at other good PA Dutch buffets. We discovered this past summer that all through 2016 in the Visit Lancaster County tourist guide there has been a coupon for this buffet - "Buy One Adult Smorgasbord and Get One Half Price". This brings a $40 plus tip and tax dinner for two down to $30 plus tip and tax and really that is a great price for this dinner.
I have been coming to his restaurant since before it started serving buffet meals. I remember when they first started to have a very small buffet and then some time ago, they redid the interior of the restaurant and made a very large smorgasbord within the restaurant. Over the years they also have added a theater into the lower level of the building that feature local performances of local themed musical plays and stage shows. One can see the show and have the Smorgasbord or just see the show. I have to admit that we have never seen one of their shows, but have heard very good things from local people who have. The restaurant continues to have a menu and if someone at your table wants to order from the menu while others have the buffet that is OK - as long as there is no sharing with the person ordering from the menu. They also have a special buffet for children with kid-appealing foods on it.
The one thing that I love the most at this buffet is their chicken corn soup which is like no other that I have had anywhere else and is truly the best. It is thickened with a secret that I have not been able to duplicate at home and sets this soup apart from all other chicken corn soups. They have sold a restaurant cookbook in their small gift shop for many years and the chicken corn soup recipe in the book is NOT the recipe for the soup served. That is OK - and when I come I cannot get enough of it. I could just order the soup and salad bar for dinner but, of course, I don't. I order the whole buffet and I do have more than one cup of this soup. This soup is always there on the menu and on the buffet. I had this soup last night and as I write about it my mouth is watering. The sell some of their foods packaged from a refrigerator case in the lobby and I know now, as I thought about then, that I should have bought a quart of this soup to take home with us.
On Mondays to Thursdays the buffet does not feature any carvings. The Friday and Saturday buffet do. What is on the buffet each night varies some and at one time they would list on their website what was on the buffet each night. They do not do that any longer but there is a calendar up at the cashier that says what will be served what night - and these do change. Some things they always include and one of those is my favorite turkey - served from a buffet tray - one tray of white meat and one tray of dark meat - each kept moist and wet in their own juices. I know that I have written about this turkey here before. I love turkey and this is my favorite. Put a scoop of Amish bread filling on your plate, put this turkey on top and cover it in thick turkey gravy. Mix this together and you have created a dish referred to locally as "Amish Wedding Dinner". On the buffet also on this night were country sausages, roast beef, fried chicken, chicken "bot bie" (local favorite), chicken in mushroom sauce, chicken and pasta Alfredo, scalloped potatoes and ham, pork and sauerkraut, baked cod, fried butterfly shrimp, and more. All that we had was very good.
There is a salad bar with a nice variety of prepared salads plus lettuce and salad fixings. There has been a meat salad on some nights - ham salad, chicken salad, tuna salad. This night there was turkey salad - good! There is a bread bar with a variety of artisan breads and rolls.
All of the baking comes from the Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop which is also owned and operated by the same family who owns the restaurant - though located further down on Route 340. They have been known for their cakes and pies for many, many years independent of the restaurant. Dessert at the buffet is made up of baked goods from this bakery and there is a very large assortment. It is possible just to order the dessert bar and have your total fill of these wonderful pies and pieces of cake. There are also prepared desserts, fruit, soft serve ice cream and sundae bar, and a frozen soda machine. All are included. You can try shoofly pie or a whoppie pie. They have added a pie that has become a favorite of mine - Lemon Sponge pie. I had never had this before this past year and it is wonderful. It is a thin layer of cake on the top with a lemon custard below in a pie shell - all baked as one. Terrific! Since it is just November, I wanted pumpkin pie and they had it - made with pumpkins grown on their farm using their own recipe. It very much satisfied my desire for pumpkin pie - and that may be the only really good pumpkin pie I get this season.
The service here is very good. The restaurant is very clean. The people who frequent this restaurant are locals, Amish families, Mennonite families, and tourists. The same family - the Smuckers (not the jelly Smuckers) - has owned and operated this restaurant from the beginning.
We have been going to this buffet more this past year than we have in recent previous years. That coupon has been a great incentive - besides the good food and abundant meal that you get here. Do I recommend this buffet? Yes. Will I go back? Definitely.
It is November and there is no OCB to go to for Thanksgiving dinner. We have been contemplating the four to four and a half hour drive each way to this restaurant through Thanksgiving Day traffic in three states to go here for their special Thanksgiving Grand Smorgasbord. The price is only $29.99 each which for a Thanksgiving buffet of this caliber is very good. Reservations are required and you are making a commitment with payment in advance to come. Seating's are limited and often sell out early. The problem is that if the weather is bad we would not be able to make the trip. One more reason why moving to this area sounds so good to a buffet maven.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
One of those was Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand in the middle of the heart of the "Amish Country". We have been there many times and I have written about it before. It has always been good and the only thing that has kept this buffet as an "always go to" has been the price, which some years varies by the season, but has been at $19.99 per adult for dinner on Monday to Thursday and more on Friday and Saturday. While this is not an exorbitant price for a dinner buffet - especailly considering that this price includes unlimited soft drinks and coffee, which can add as much as almost $3 per person at some buffets - in this locale it tends to be a little higher than prices at other good PA Dutch buffets. We discovered this past summer that all through 2016 in the Visit Lancaster County tourist guide there has been a coupon for this buffet - "Buy One Adult Smorgasbord and Get One Half Price". This brings a $40 plus tip and tax dinner for two down to $30 plus tip and tax and really that is a great price for this dinner.
I have been coming to his restaurant since before it started serving buffet meals. I remember when they first started to have a very small buffet and then some time ago, they redid the interior of the restaurant and made a very large smorgasbord within the restaurant. Over the years they also have added a theater into the lower level of the building that feature local performances of local themed musical plays and stage shows. One can see the show and have the Smorgasbord or just see the show. I have to admit that we have never seen one of their shows, but have heard very good things from local people who have. The restaurant continues to have a menu and if someone at your table wants to order from the menu while others have the buffet that is OK - as long as there is no sharing with the person ordering from the menu. They also have a special buffet for children with kid-appealing foods on it.
The one thing that I love the most at this buffet is their chicken corn soup which is like no other that I have had anywhere else and is truly the best. It is thickened with a secret that I have not been able to duplicate at home and sets this soup apart from all other chicken corn soups. They have sold a restaurant cookbook in their small gift shop for many years and the chicken corn soup recipe in the book is NOT the recipe for the soup served. That is OK - and when I come I cannot get enough of it. I could just order the soup and salad bar for dinner but, of course, I don't. I order the whole buffet and I do have more than one cup of this soup. This soup is always there on the menu and on the buffet. I had this soup last night and as I write about it my mouth is watering. The sell some of their foods packaged from a refrigerator case in the lobby and I know now, as I thought about then, that I should have bought a quart of this soup to take home with us.
On Mondays to Thursdays the buffet does not feature any carvings. The Friday and Saturday buffet do. What is on the buffet each night varies some and at one time they would list on their website what was on the buffet each night. They do not do that any longer but there is a calendar up at the cashier that says what will be served what night - and these do change. Some things they always include and one of those is my favorite turkey - served from a buffet tray - one tray of white meat and one tray of dark meat - each kept moist and wet in their own juices. I know that I have written about this turkey here before. I love turkey and this is my favorite. Put a scoop of Amish bread filling on your plate, put this turkey on top and cover it in thick turkey gravy. Mix this together and you have created a dish referred to locally as "Amish Wedding Dinner". On the buffet also on this night were country sausages, roast beef, fried chicken, chicken "bot bie" (local favorite), chicken in mushroom sauce, chicken and pasta Alfredo, scalloped potatoes and ham, pork and sauerkraut, baked cod, fried butterfly shrimp, and more. All that we had was very good.
There is a salad bar with a nice variety of prepared salads plus lettuce and salad fixings. There has been a meat salad on some nights - ham salad, chicken salad, tuna salad. This night there was turkey salad - good! There is a bread bar with a variety of artisan breads and rolls.
All of the baking comes from the Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop which is also owned and operated by the same family who owns the restaurant - though located further down on Route 340. They have been known for their cakes and pies for many, many years independent of the restaurant. Dessert at the buffet is made up of baked goods from this bakery and there is a very large assortment. It is possible just to order the dessert bar and have your total fill of these wonderful pies and pieces of cake. There are also prepared desserts, fruit, soft serve ice cream and sundae bar, and a frozen soda machine. All are included. You can try shoofly pie or a whoppie pie. They have added a pie that has become a favorite of mine - Lemon Sponge pie. I had never had this before this past year and it is wonderful. It is a thin layer of cake on the top with a lemon custard below in a pie shell - all baked as one. Terrific! Since it is just November, I wanted pumpkin pie and they had it - made with pumpkins grown on their farm using their own recipe. It very much satisfied my desire for pumpkin pie - and that may be the only really good pumpkin pie I get this season.
The service here is very good. The restaurant is very clean. The people who frequent this restaurant are locals, Amish families, Mennonite families, and tourists. The same family - the Smuckers (not the jelly Smuckers) - has owned and operated this restaurant from the beginning.
We have been going to this buffet more this past year than we have in recent previous years. That coupon has been a great incentive - besides the good food and abundant meal that you get here. Do I recommend this buffet? Yes. Will I go back? Definitely.
It is November and there is no OCB to go to for Thanksgiving dinner. We have been contemplating the four to four and a half hour drive each way to this restaurant through Thanksgiving Day traffic in three states to go here for their special Thanksgiving Grand Smorgasbord. The price is only $29.99 each which for a Thanksgiving buffet of this caliber is very good. Reservations are required and you are making a commitment with payment in advance to come. Seating's are limited and often sell out early. The problem is that if the weather is bad we would not be able to make the trip. One more reason why moving to this area sounds so good to a buffet maven.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Return to Epic Buffet, Hollywood Casino, Grantville, PA
In August 2015 we reported on our visit to the Epic Buffet in the Hollywood Casino which is in Grantville, PA just outside of Hershey. This is a casino and racetrack with table games, slot machines and the racetrack. The casino is off limits to children - naturally - but the buffet is inside the casino and there is no way to the buffet but walking through the casino - so if you are planning to visit with children or anyone under 21, don't make the trip. I had mixed feelings about our dinner there a year ago - this visit I was happier.
We went on a Wednesday night in August and there was racing scheduled that night - not that this impacts on the buffet, but the dining room we were seating in had a television on the wall that showed the races that were in progress on the track. Perhaps this needs repeating as I have said this with other casinos that we have gone to for the buffet - we are not gamblers - we go to dine at the buffet and don't bet. We did enjoy watching the horse races last year and we were looking forward to that again after dinner - and while we don't generally like a television on in any restaurant while we are eating, watching the races that we would have otherwise missed was nice. The price for dinner on Wednesday and Thursday nights is $14.99. The buffet is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Dinner on Friday nights now includes Crab Legs in addition to the Saturday night features of Prime Rib and Seafood. The two nights are priced accordingly with the Friday night dinner now at $32.99 and the Saturday night dinner now $26.99. The Sunday night dinner buffet is $16.99. Hours are important to take note of - Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday the buffet closes at 8:00 pm. The Saturday and Friday night buffets close at 9:00 pm. The Wednesday and Thursday price of $14.99 includes beverages - and this is a very good price for a buffet these days. I have paid that much on weekends - PLUS paid for soda - at two Golden Corrals on their weekend "special" at Golden Corrals that have a weekday price of $13.99.
I will not go through all of the dishes on the buffet on this Wednesday night - there was quiet a selection from seafood entrees - both broiled and fried, to Asian, to Continental, to Italian which included "gourmet" type pizzas. The carving was Roast Turkey Breast and this was very good. There was also ham. There was not a great deal of difference from the weekend buffet that we had here a year ago for a lot more money. There was no Prime Rib but I was not impressed with then. Some of the "appetizer" style dishes that were there last year were not there on this Wednesday, so I would say that those go along with the weekend diner. There was no peel and eat shrimp. The salad bar on this trip was very basic - make a salad with a limited number of toppings and not much in the way of prepared salads. The "grape" tomatoes on the salad bar were dried out and not edible. Those were the only thing on the buffet that night that I took objection to. There are several small pizza's out cut into slices. For some reason there is a need to make pizzas with a very thin crust and this is supposed to make them "gourmet" - this is my description, they were not calling their pizzas that. They were tasty little slices and if you like a cracker like crust you will love these. I am not complaining - we had a good and satisfying dinner
Desserts are just as I had described last year. They are in small portions but that is a plus as you can try several or take more than one of the one you want. There is also fruit and two hot desserts.
It was a fluke that we were in this area on a Wednesday night. I am glad that we were because I am not sure I would have been as happy paying $32.99 had be been there on a Friday night. Will we go back again? Yes. Would I even try it on a Friday night again if that is how our itinerary takes us to this area next year - likely, but I will think twice.
The Epic Buffet at the Hollywood Casino is located at the Penn National Race Course at 777 Hollywood Blvd, Grantville, PA 17028. There is plenty of free parking. The phone number is 717-469-2211. There is a website for the casino and buffet and that is linked at the side of this page. Take note of the hours and days open as noted above. Also - your GPS may not take you to the entrance of the complex. For some reason our GPS sent us to the entrance to the stables on the opposite side of the grounds.
We went on a Wednesday night in August and there was racing scheduled that night - not that this impacts on the buffet, but the dining room we were seating in had a television on the wall that showed the races that were in progress on the track. Perhaps this needs repeating as I have said this with other casinos that we have gone to for the buffet - we are not gamblers - we go to dine at the buffet and don't bet. We did enjoy watching the horse races last year and we were looking forward to that again after dinner - and while we don't generally like a television on in any restaurant while we are eating, watching the races that we would have otherwise missed was nice. The price for dinner on Wednesday and Thursday nights is $14.99. The buffet is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Dinner on Friday nights now includes Crab Legs in addition to the Saturday night features of Prime Rib and Seafood. The two nights are priced accordingly with the Friday night dinner now at $32.99 and the Saturday night dinner now $26.99. The Sunday night dinner buffet is $16.99. Hours are important to take note of - Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday the buffet closes at 8:00 pm. The Saturday and Friday night buffets close at 9:00 pm. The Wednesday and Thursday price of $14.99 includes beverages - and this is a very good price for a buffet these days. I have paid that much on weekends - PLUS paid for soda - at two Golden Corrals on their weekend "special" at Golden Corrals that have a weekday price of $13.99.
I will not go through all of the dishes on the buffet on this Wednesday night - there was quiet a selection from seafood entrees - both broiled and fried, to Asian, to Continental, to Italian which included "gourmet" type pizzas. The carving was Roast Turkey Breast and this was very good. There was also ham. There was not a great deal of difference from the weekend buffet that we had here a year ago for a lot more money. There was no Prime Rib but I was not impressed with then. Some of the "appetizer" style dishes that were there last year were not there on this Wednesday, so I would say that those go along with the weekend diner. There was no peel and eat shrimp. The salad bar on this trip was very basic - make a salad with a limited number of toppings and not much in the way of prepared salads. The "grape" tomatoes on the salad bar were dried out and not edible. Those were the only thing on the buffet that night that I took objection to. There are several small pizza's out cut into slices. For some reason there is a need to make pizzas with a very thin crust and this is supposed to make them "gourmet" - this is my description, they were not calling their pizzas that. They were tasty little slices and if you like a cracker like crust you will love these. I am not complaining - we had a good and satisfying dinner
Desserts are just as I had described last year. They are in small portions but that is a plus as you can try several or take more than one of the one you want. There is also fruit and two hot desserts.
It was a fluke that we were in this area on a Wednesday night. I am glad that we were because I am not sure I would have been as happy paying $32.99 had be been there on a Friday night. Will we go back again? Yes. Would I even try it on a Friday night again if that is how our itinerary takes us to this area next year - likely, but I will think twice.
The Epic Buffet at the Hollywood Casino is located at the Penn National Race Course at 777 Hollywood Blvd, Grantville, PA 17028. There is plenty of free parking. The phone number is 717-469-2211. There is a website for the casino and buffet and that is linked at the side of this page. Take note of the hours and days open as noted above. Also - your GPS may not take you to the entrance of the complex. For some reason our GPS sent us to the entrance to the stables on the opposite side of the grounds.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Epic Buffet, Hollywood Casino at Grantville, PA
The Epic Buffet is the casino buffet at the Hollywood Casino in Grantville, Pennsylvania. The casino is located at the Penn National Race Course. Grantville is located just outside of Hershey, PA where the chocolate comes from and where the Hershey amusement park is. The Hollywood Casino is a place for adults to go when the kids are asleep with a babysitter after a long day on the rides.
The buffet is located off the casino floor and no one under the age of 21 can walk through the entrance of the casino. Unlike casino buffets in many of the Atlantic City casinos and the casinos in Connecticut, you cannot get into the buffet without being inside the casino.
We went on a Friday night. Also unlike all of the other casino buffets that we have been to, this one closes early - 9:00 pm every night. THE ENTIRE BUFFET IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS AND TUESDAYS. Dinner price Wednesday to Thursday and Sunday is $14.99. Dinner price Friday and Saturday is $24.99. Ten dollars is a big jump from the weekday price to the weekend price and I am not sure how much would have been left off other than the two features of the weekend buffet - Prime Rib and Shrimp. The meal price includes soft drinks. At the table you can order beer and wine at an additional cost.
The decor of the casino is Hollywood and the buffet is decorated in an Art Deco style as would fit the "golden age" of Hollywood. The room was very nice as was the decor. For a Friday night in the middle of the summer, there was no line. We paid before we went in - as we have always done at all of the casino buffets that we have been to and were seated right away.
There was a large selection and the buffet was set up with a large oval that went around the middle of the room and the rest of the buffet filling the rear wall of the room. On the oval were salads, soups, and desserts.
As we always do, we started with soup. We picked the chicken corn soup which I expected to be similar to the chicken corn soup in nearby Lancaster County. It was chicken broth with a lot of chicken meat and no corn. The soup was fresh made. Fresh made chicken soup has a good taste different from soups made from a mix or from a can. The soup was good and would have been even better had there actually been corn in it other than a kernel here and there.
There was a salad bar to create your own salad from a variety of fresh ingredients. My wife takes not of salad bars that make sure what is out is fresh, crisp, and as it is supposed to be. Here she said it was all fresh. There were a variety of prepared salads including a few with an ingredient that one might say stands off from just the ordinary. But here that ingredient was in the minority of what was in the prepared salad. For example - there was a dish of tomatoes and mozzarella balls. There were lots of tomatoes and very few mozzarella balls and the dish looked to have been recently put out and not picked through. There was also shrimp pasta (part of the weekend shrimp feature?) and it was very good BUT there were very few shrimp to be found in the dish. At $24.99 there should not be skimping like this. The tomatoes and mozzarella was tasty. So was the shrimp pasta - but essentially I was eating tomatoes in dressing and pasta salad.
There was a lot on the buffet and I am sure things will change from night to night but I will share all together what there was and then I will critique what we took sharing what was good and the not so good. OK - here is what was on the buffet:
Crab Tomato Bisque and Chicken Corn Soup, Sushi (a small selection of rolls sections), Peel and Eat Shrimp (for weekend shrimp feature?), Rolls, Rye mixed grain bread, Cheese Puffs, Pepperoni in Crescent Rolls, Roast Turkey carving, Turkey Legs, Prime Rib carving, Fried Garlic Jasmine Yellow Rice, Pot Stickers, Egg rolls, Mandarin Orange Chicken, Spiced Shrimp, Sesame Green Beans, Honey Ginger Carrots, Summer Squash, Stewed Tomatoes, Potato Wedges, French Fries, Chicken with Vegetables, Sauteed Onions and Peppers, Garlicky Broccoli, Fried Shrimp (must have been part of the shrimp feature as there was only one other shrimp entree), Creole shrimp and Noodles, a selection of pastas and sauces, Roasted Half Tomatoes, Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Baked Cod with Lemon Sauce and Arugula Salad, Pulled Pork Sliders with Jack Cheese. Roast Potatoes, Fried Chicken, Sweet Corn, Wax Beans and Carrots, Old Bay Salmon with Lemon Capers, Tilapia with Mushrooms and Spinach, Seafood Marinara, Corn on the Cob, Sweet Pea Pods with Red Peppers, Brussels Sprouts, and three Pizzas including one topped with BBQ Chicken.
I am very mixed about this dinner. There was a lot to choose from. I enjoyed it but there were several disappointments. Hot food was set out grouped in theme - appetizer type dishes, Asian dishes, fish, meats including carvings, Italian, and a pizza section. So, I took pot stickers that looked good but were hard and over cooked. It was tough to bite into them and chew them. The pulled pork sliders that should have been good. They were on the buffet each wrapped in tin foil - which they should not have been. The bottom of the roll had dried out and impossible to bite into while the top of the roll remained soft. The pulled pork inside was good but there was supposed to have been jack cheese in there also according to the sign and there was no cheese. This would have been something I would have gone back for more of if it had been good. I ate the pork out from the roll and that was it.
I started out with Prime Rib and the first slice of rib that I had was excellent. It was moist and juicy and on the edge of rare. The outside crust was very tasty as was the meat. The slice that was carved for me was the equivalent of what would be carved in a sit down restaurant. I thoroughly enjoyed that first slice of Prime Rib and I should have stopped with that one piece and not gone back for another later in the meal. When I went up for the second slice there was a new Rib out being carved. When I took the slice back to the table and put the first piece into my mouth I found out quickly that this one was not hot - it bordered on cold to the point that the fat was congealing. What had been melting, soft, translucent fat on the first piece was cold, hard, and white on this slice. As I say, had I stopped at that first slice I could rave about the Prime Rib here - but a solid hit and a solid miss a half hour later - not good.
There was carved turkey and next to the turkey breast on the carving board was a stack of turkey legs. My wife had the turkey breast and she says that it was very good. So the turkey was a hit. I should have taken one of the turkey legs instead of the second slice of Prime Rib.
I tried the Baked Cod with Lemon Sauce and Arugula Salad. This was pieces of cod sitting in the lemon sauce with Arugula salad next to it in the serving tray, also sitting in the lemon sauce. It took the cod and skipped the salad. I tried to spoon some of the lemon sauce up with the fish but the serving spoon was a slotted spoon so very little sauce came to my plate. A few more attempts at just the sauce added little. The fish was bland. Perhaps had it been possible to ladle the sauce up with the fish it might have been better.
There were two different shaped pastas and different sauces to put over them. I took some of the linguine pasta and put Alfredo sauce on top. This was very good. I also took a slice of the cheese pizza which were being made fresh there behind the counter. There was cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, and bbq chicken pizza. The cheese pizza was good. It had a very thin crust with fresh cheese and a good tomato sauce.
I took a piece of the chicken with vegetables. This was charbroiled chicken breast rounds cooked served with vegetables around the chicken. Each piece of chicken was charred and there were grill marks showing that it did come off a char-grill. It tasted great, but it was overdone and the chicken was hard.
The roasted half tomatoes were good with a crust of breadcrumbs on the top. The stewed tomatoes were very good and they were not overly sweet as stewed tomatoes can sometimes be. Also good was the macaroni and cheese which was very thick and gooey.
Everyone always wants to hear about the desserts and the desserts here looked terrific. There was a wide assortment of cakes, pies, pastries, and cookies out. Walking around the dessert table it was hard to decide. And the cake that I choose was OK - but it looked much better than it was. There was also fresh fruits around the salad bar and and a sundae bar with ice cream.
Service was very good. Our server was quick to take away used plates and made sure our drink glasses did not become empty. She was attentive and did not disappear. For a casino buffet, that is refreshing.
So - the meal was hit and miss. There were some really good things and some just so things. The big disappointment was that second piece of Prime Rib - which for anyone coming in at that point this was what they were getting. Other dishes as noted should have been better. The extra ten dollars was for Prime Rib and shrimp and there hardly was enough shrimp dishes that should have constituted a high price feature. This buffet is 30 miles from Lancaster County - home of some great buffets - most of which are less than the price of this meal. But of course, if you are in Hershey or at this casino for the evening you are not going to leave and drive 30 miles for dinner.
Do I recommend this buffet? Really tough question. Had my food choices been different I might be quick to say that I would, but with the number of dishes that I found lacking in one way or another, I am going to leave the decision to try it or not up to you.
Will we go back? Maybe. We are in this area once a year - generally on a Friday night so if we do go back it will be on the same night for the same $24.99 meal. I was not put off enough not to try this buffet for a second time and in a year we shall see if things are the same or better.
Keep in mind that if you are traveling with the kids - forget this one! There is no one allowed under 21.
The Epic Buffet at the Hollywood Casino is located at the Penn National Race Course at 777 Hollywood Blvd, Grantville, PA 17028. There is plenty of free parking. The phone number is 717-469-2211. There is a website for the casino and buffet and that is linked at the side of this page. The casino is open 24/7 but the buffet closes at 9:00 pm and is only open five days a week. REMEMBER THE BUFFET IS CLOSED EVERY MONDAY AND TUESDAY. There is a lunch buffet every day and also a Champagne Brunch on Sundays ($19.99) from 11 am to 3 pm.
The buffet is located off the casino floor and no one under the age of 21 can walk through the entrance of the casino. Unlike casino buffets in many of the Atlantic City casinos and the casinos in Connecticut, you cannot get into the buffet without being inside the casino.
We went on a Friday night. Also unlike all of the other casino buffets that we have been to, this one closes early - 9:00 pm every night. THE ENTIRE BUFFET IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS AND TUESDAYS. Dinner price Wednesday to Thursday and Sunday is $14.99. Dinner price Friday and Saturday is $24.99. Ten dollars is a big jump from the weekday price to the weekend price and I am not sure how much would have been left off other than the two features of the weekend buffet - Prime Rib and Shrimp. The meal price includes soft drinks. At the table you can order beer and wine at an additional cost.
The decor of the casino is Hollywood and the buffet is decorated in an Art Deco style as would fit the "golden age" of Hollywood. The room was very nice as was the decor. For a Friday night in the middle of the summer, there was no line. We paid before we went in - as we have always done at all of the casino buffets that we have been to and were seated right away.
There was a large selection and the buffet was set up with a large oval that went around the middle of the room and the rest of the buffet filling the rear wall of the room. On the oval were salads, soups, and desserts.
As we always do, we started with soup. We picked the chicken corn soup which I expected to be similar to the chicken corn soup in nearby Lancaster County. It was chicken broth with a lot of chicken meat and no corn. The soup was fresh made. Fresh made chicken soup has a good taste different from soups made from a mix or from a can. The soup was good and would have been even better had there actually been corn in it other than a kernel here and there.
There was a salad bar to create your own salad from a variety of fresh ingredients. My wife takes not of salad bars that make sure what is out is fresh, crisp, and as it is supposed to be. Here she said it was all fresh. There were a variety of prepared salads including a few with an ingredient that one might say stands off from just the ordinary. But here that ingredient was in the minority of what was in the prepared salad. For example - there was a dish of tomatoes and mozzarella balls. There were lots of tomatoes and very few mozzarella balls and the dish looked to have been recently put out and not picked through. There was also shrimp pasta (part of the weekend shrimp feature?) and it was very good BUT there were very few shrimp to be found in the dish. At $24.99 there should not be skimping like this. The tomatoes and mozzarella was tasty. So was the shrimp pasta - but essentially I was eating tomatoes in dressing and pasta salad.
There was a lot on the buffet and I am sure things will change from night to night but I will share all together what there was and then I will critique what we took sharing what was good and the not so good. OK - here is what was on the buffet:
Crab Tomato Bisque and Chicken Corn Soup, Sushi (a small selection of rolls sections), Peel and Eat Shrimp (for weekend shrimp feature?), Rolls, Rye mixed grain bread, Cheese Puffs, Pepperoni in Crescent Rolls, Roast Turkey carving, Turkey Legs, Prime Rib carving, Fried Garlic Jasmine Yellow Rice, Pot Stickers, Egg rolls, Mandarin Orange Chicken, Spiced Shrimp, Sesame Green Beans, Honey Ginger Carrots, Summer Squash, Stewed Tomatoes, Potato Wedges, French Fries, Chicken with Vegetables, Sauteed Onions and Peppers, Garlicky Broccoli, Fried Shrimp (must have been part of the shrimp feature as there was only one other shrimp entree), Creole shrimp and Noodles, a selection of pastas and sauces, Roasted Half Tomatoes, Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Baked Cod with Lemon Sauce and Arugula Salad, Pulled Pork Sliders with Jack Cheese. Roast Potatoes, Fried Chicken, Sweet Corn, Wax Beans and Carrots, Old Bay Salmon with Lemon Capers, Tilapia with Mushrooms and Spinach, Seafood Marinara, Corn on the Cob, Sweet Pea Pods with Red Peppers, Brussels Sprouts, and three Pizzas including one topped with BBQ Chicken.
I am very mixed about this dinner. There was a lot to choose from. I enjoyed it but there were several disappointments. Hot food was set out grouped in theme - appetizer type dishes, Asian dishes, fish, meats including carvings, Italian, and a pizza section. So, I took pot stickers that looked good but were hard and over cooked. It was tough to bite into them and chew them. The pulled pork sliders that should have been good. They were on the buffet each wrapped in tin foil - which they should not have been. The bottom of the roll had dried out and impossible to bite into while the top of the roll remained soft. The pulled pork inside was good but there was supposed to have been jack cheese in there also according to the sign and there was no cheese. This would have been something I would have gone back for more of if it had been good. I ate the pork out from the roll and that was it.
I started out with Prime Rib and the first slice of rib that I had was excellent. It was moist and juicy and on the edge of rare. The outside crust was very tasty as was the meat. The slice that was carved for me was the equivalent of what would be carved in a sit down restaurant. I thoroughly enjoyed that first slice of Prime Rib and I should have stopped with that one piece and not gone back for another later in the meal. When I went up for the second slice there was a new Rib out being carved. When I took the slice back to the table and put the first piece into my mouth I found out quickly that this one was not hot - it bordered on cold to the point that the fat was congealing. What had been melting, soft, translucent fat on the first piece was cold, hard, and white on this slice. As I say, had I stopped at that first slice I could rave about the Prime Rib here - but a solid hit and a solid miss a half hour later - not good.
There was carved turkey and next to the turkey breast on the carving board was a stack of turkey legs. My wife had the turkey breast and she says that it was very good. So the turkey was a hit. I should have taken one of the turkey legs instead of the second slice of Prime Rib.
I tried the Baked Cod with Lemon Sauce and Arugula Salad. This was pieces of cod sitting in the lemon sauce with Arugula salad next to it in the serving tray, also sitting in the lemon sauce. It took the cod and skipped the salad. I tried to spoon some of the lemon sauce up with the fish but the serving spoon was a slotted spoon so very little sauce came to my plate. A few more attempts at just the sauce added little. The fish was bland. Perhaps had it been possible to ladle the sauce up with the fish it might have been better.
There were two different shaped pastas and different sauces to put over them. I took some of the linguine pasta and put Alfredo sauce on top. This was very good. I also took a slice of the cheese pizza which were being made fresh there behind the counter. There was cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, and bbq chicken pizza. The cheese pizza was good. It had a very thin crust with fresh cheese and a good tomato sauce.
I took a piece of the chicken with vegetables. This was charbroiled chicken breast rounds cooked served with vegetables around the chicken. Each piece of chicken was charred and there were grill marks showing that it did come off a char-grill. It tasted great, but it was overdone and the chicken was hard.
The roasted half tomatoes were good with a crust of breadcrumbs on the top. The stewed tomatoes were very good and they were not overly sweet as stewed tomatoes can sometimes be. Also good was the macaroni and cheese which was very thick and gooey.
Everyone always wants to hear about the desserts and the desserts here looked terrific. There was a wide assortment of cakes, pies, pastries, and cookies out. Walking around the dessert table it was hard to decide. And the cake that I choose was OK - but it looked much better than it was. There was also fresh fruits around the salad bar and and a sundae bar with ice cream.
Service was very good. Our server was quick to take away used plates and made sure our drink glasses did not become empty. She was attentive and did not disappear. For a casino buffet, that is refreshing.
So - the meal was hit and miss. There were some really good things and some just so things. The big disappointment was that second piece of Prime Rib - which for anyone coming in at that point this was what they were getting. Other dishes as noted should have been better. The extra ten dollars was for Prime Rib and shrimp and there hardly was enough shrimp dishes that should have constituted a high price feature. This buffet is 30 miles from Lancaster County - home of some great buffets - most of which are less than the price of this meal. But of course, if you are in Hershey or at this casino for the evening you are not going to leave and drive 30 miles for dinner.
Do I recommend this buffet? Really tough question. Had my food choices been different I might be quick to say that I would, but with the number of dishes that I found lacking in one way or another, I am going to leave the decision to try it or not up to you.
Will we go back? Maybe. We are in this area once a year - generally on a Friday night so if we do go back it will be on the same night for the same $24.99 meal. I was not put off enough not to try this buffet for a second time and in a year we shall see if things are the same or better.
Keep in mind that if you are traveling with the kids - forget this one! There is no one allowed under 21.
The Epic Buffet at the Hollywood Casino is located at the Penn National Race Course at 777 Hollywood Blvd, Grantville, PA 17028. There is plenty of free parking. The phone number is 717-469-2211. There is a website for the casino and buffet and that is linked at the side of this page. The casino is open 24/7 but the buffet closes at 9:00 pm and is only open five days a week. REMEMBER THE BUFFET IS CLOSED EVERY MONDAY AND TUESDAY. There is a lunch buffet every day and also a Champagne Brunch on Sundays ($19.99) from 11 am to 3 pm.
Friday, July 03, 2015
Bird-In-Hand Restaurant and Smorgasbord, Bird-In-Hand, PA
The Bird-In-Hand Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand, PA is a restaurant and buffet that has been around for many years. It is a buffet that we go to perhaps once a year just to see how it is again - and also when it is the only buffet worth going to that is open when others are closed. This past Memorial Day this was the buffet we had dinner at. It was one of the few that was not closed at dinner time for the holiday. Another buffet that is one of the top on our list of buffets in this area was also open (which we learned by surprise) but we had been there two nights before and decided to give Bird-In-Hand a try again and I was happy that we did.
One thing about this buffet is the price tends to vary a lot from season to season and year to year. The current price is $16.99 for dinner and this includes the beverage which makes it the equivalent of other buffets priced at $14.70 that don't include the beverage.At this price it is not bad. It has been as high as $19.99 (maybe even more) in the past and as low as $14.99 with coupons offered for money off. There was no coupon available for the buffet when we just went there for dinner. *** Note: The price for this buffet went up three dollars to $19.99 for Summer 2015! We dined here on Memorial Day 2015 and the price was $16.99. This is typical of this buffet - the price goes high in the summer and that price is every day.
A year ago the meal here disappointed me, especially at the $19.99 that they charged then. The food was inconsistent from previous visits - with some of it not up to par and others good as usual. This year it was all good.
The night that we were there, as I said, was Memorial Day Monday at dinner. At this point the tourists are on their way home and the restaurant was not crowded and those who were there were mostly locals. You can order from the menu or the buffet. You can also order the soup and salad bar alone and you can order the dessert bar alone. We, of course, ordered the full smorgasbord that includes all of that plus the hot entrees and side dishes.
I have written about the different foods served here. This is Pennsylvania Dutch cooking and food. Their website lists what is featured each night on the buffet for dinner and lunch (lunch varies from dinner). There may be substitutions. This restaurant serves the best Chicken Corn Soup in Lancaster County and it can easily be made a meal in itself. It is full of chicken meat, has a consistency unlike any other Chicken Corn Soup, and is delicious. I, of course, had this soup and when I saw that on the salad bar there was chicken salad (which is not always on the salad bar) I realized that I could have ordered just the Soup and Salad Bar at almost half the price of dinner and been happy for dinner just making a meal of Chicken Corn Soup and chicken salad on rolls from the bread selection. While I could have changed my order at that point, I saw what was on the hot foods and decided to stay with the whole deal - taking, of course, the soup and chicken salad as well.
The hot foods that were featured were turkey, roast beef, ham balls, meatloaf, chicken pot pie (PA Dutch chicken Bot Bie), broasted chicken, baked fish, pork and sauerkraut, filling, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans, baked lima beans (as in bbq baked beans made with limas) corn, carrots, baked corn pudding, and more. The turkey and roast beef are pre-carved and served from a buffet tray. The turkey is served in a tray of dark meat and a tray of light meat and I prefer this turkey to any other - and I like turkey a lot. It is served in its juices and is very moist and dripping when you put it on your plate. There is turkey gravy and beef gravy to put on your meat if you wish. The mashed potatoes are fresh. The vegetables are fresh. The meatloaf was served with a ketchup glaze and was good. The ham balls - as ham balls often are - are served in a sweet sauce. The chicken pot pie - this is like a chicken and dumpling stew and not baked chicken pie - had too many potatoes added and the large flat and thick dumplings were a bit too dense. They should be lighter. It was tasty, never the less. The food was good.
While we were eating we overheard the waitress at the next table tell the people that the dessert of the day was fresh strawberry pie. My ears perked up at hearing this and I expected to find that on the dessert bar which is extensive in selection. When it was time for dessert there was no fresh strawberry pie on the dessert bar and it did not seem as if it had been earlier. Evidently, the featured dessert is for the menu only - at least on this visit. There were all types of pies, some cakes, quartered chocolate whoopie pies, several prepared desserts, fruits, and puddings, including something called pretzel jello that seemed to be jello, whipped cream and pretzels mixed together. There is soft serve ice cream and also "Slurpee" type drinks at the dessert bar. I had a piece of shoo fly pie which sould have been better - and their baking comes from their very popular bakery that has a bake shop all on its own.The crumb topping on the pie was more of a crust that was difficult to bite through. Perhaps it had been out too long. I have had their shoo fly pie before and it has been very good.
Service was excellent. The server was there to take away plates and refill our beverages.
So - will I go back - yes, but when will depend on circumstances and price. If I had only one buffet meal to have on a visit to this area, it would not be this one - if there were the other buffets that I have written about available - unless I was looking toward having something that only this buffet has. You can get the chicken corn soup at large and they do make good platters and sandwiches so this restaurant can make a good lunch stop - the buffet is available at lunch also. So if I was craving the soup and I had other buffet choices for dinner I might stop in for lunch.
Should you go - yes! You decide if you have been to the others if you will choose this one over anther - cop out on my part - not really. This is a nice buffet. There are better ones and for less money. If the price goes back up to $19.99 and there are other places to go - go to them. If you can find a coupon in one of the tourist magazines for a few dollars off dinner then it gets to be a whole lot easier to decide to go here - under the circumstances of where you can go. Let me put it this way- you should not be disappointed if you come here for dinner for the buffet. The food is good and fresh.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm. There is a dinner theater located in another part of the same building and the dinner is served in the restaurant at the smorgasbord for the theater. Performances at the theater are area related musical comedies.
One thing about this buffet is the price tends to vary a lot from season to season and year to year. The current price is $16.99 for dinner and this includes the beverage which makes it the equivalent of other buffets priced at $14.70 that don't include the beverage.At this price it is not bad. It has been as high as $19.99 (maybe even more) in the past and as low as $14.99 with coupons offered for money off. There was no coupon available for the buffet when we just went there for dinner. *** Note: The price for this buffet went up three dollars to $19.99 for Summer 2015! We dined here on Memorial Day 2015 and the price was $16.99. This is typical of this buffet - the price goes high in the summer and that price is every day.
A year ago the meal here disappointed me, especially at the $19.99 that they charged then. The food was inconsistent from previous visits - with some of it not up to par and others good as usual. This year it was all good.
The night that we were there, as I said, was Memorial Day Monday at dinner. At this point the tourists are on their way home and the restaurant was not crowded and those who were there were mostly locals. You can order from the menu or the buffet. You can also order the soup and salad bar alone and you can order the dessert bar alone. We, of course, ordered the full smorgasbord that includes all of that plus the hot entrees and side dishes.
I have written about the different foods served here. This is Pennsylvania Dutch cooking and food. Their website lists what is featured each night on the buffet for dinner and lunch (lunch varies from dinner). There may be substitutions. This restaurant serves the best Chicken Corn Soup in Lancaster County and it can easily be made a meal in itself. It is full of chicken meat, has a consistency unlike any other Chicken Corn Soup, and is delicious. I, of course, had this soup and when I saw that on the salad bar there was chicken salad (which is not always on the salad bar) I realized that I could have ordered just the Soup and Salad Bar at almost half the price of dinner and been happy for dinner just making a meal of Chicken Corn Soup and chicken salad on rolls from the bread selection. While I could have changed my order at that point, I saw what was on the hot foods and decided to stay with the whole deal - taking, of course, the soup and chicken salad as well.
The hot foods that were featured were turkey, roast beef, ham balls, meatloaf, chicken pot pie (PA Dutch chicken Bot Bie), broasted chicken, baked fish, pork and sauerkraut, filling, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans, baked lima beans (as in bbq baked beans made with limas) corn, carrots, baked corn pudding, and more. The turkey and roast beef are pre-carved and served from a buffet tray. The turkey is served in a tray of dark meat and a tray of light meat and I prefer this turkey to any other - and I like turkey a lot. It is served in its juices and is very moist and dripping when you put it on your plate. There is turkey gravy and beef gravy to put on your meat if you wish. The mashed potatoes are fresh. The vegetables are fresh. The meatloaf was served with a ketchup glaze and was good. The ham balls - as ham balls often are - are served in a sweet sauce. The chicken pot pie - this is like a chicken and dumpling stew and not baked chicken pie - had too many potatoes added and the large flat and thick dumplings were a bit too dense. They should be lighter. It was tasty, never the less. The food was good.
While we were eating we overheard the waitress at the next table tell the people that the dessert of the day was fresh strawberry pie. My ears perked up at hearing this and I expected to find that on the dessert bar which is extensive in selection. When it was time for dessert there was no fresh strawberry pie on the dessert bar and it did not seem as if it had been earlier. Evidently, the featured dessert is for the menu only - at least on this visit. There were all types of pies, some cakes, quartered chocolate whoopie pies, several prepared desserts, fruits, and puddings, including something called pretzel jello that seemed to be jello, whipped cream and pretzels mixed together. There is soft serve ice cream and also "Slurpee" type drinks at the dessert bar. I had a piece of shoo fly pie which sould have been better - and their baking comes from their very popular bakery that has a bake shop all on its own.The crumb topping on the pie was more of a crust that was difficult to bite through. Perhaps it had been out too long. I have had their shoo fly pie before and it has been very good.
Service was excellent. The server was there to take away plates and refill our beverages.
So - will I go back - yes, but when will depend on circumstances and price. If I had only one buffet meal to have on a visit to this area, it would not be this one - if there were the other buffets that I have written about available - unless I was looking toward having something that only this buffet has. You can get the chicken corn soup at large and they do make good platters and sandwiches so this restaurant can make a good lunch stop - the buffet is available at lunch also. So if I was craving the soup and I had other buffet choices for dinner I might stop in for lunch.
Should you go - yes! You decide if you have been to the others if you will choose this one over anther - cop out on my part - not really. This is a nice buffet. There are better ones and for less money. If the price goes back up to $19.99 and there are other places to go - go to them. If you can find a coupon in one of the tourist magazines for a few dollars off dinner then it gets to be a whole lot easier to decide to go here - under the circumstances of where you can go. Let me put it this way- you should not be disappointed if you come here for dinner for the buffet. The food is good and fresh.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm. There is a dinner theater located in another part of the same building and the dinner is served in the restaurant at the smorgasbord for the theater. Performances at the theater are area related musical comedies.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Lititz Family Cupboard, Lititz, PA
We very much miss the Family Cupboard Restaurant and Buffet that was located in Bird-In-Hand, PA. That restaurant is now a Colman Store and the owner has gone to help run his parent's restaurant in Lancaster, Dienners. Dienners is nice but it is not open past 6:30 pm on any night but Fridays. Several years back we found another restaurant that had been in this family - and sold to the Fisher family that retained the name and much of the buffet menu that it had when owned by the Dienner family. The Fishers are from Amish and Mennonite backgrounds and well know local cooking. That restaurant is the Litiz Family Cupboard.
We had not been back there in a number of years. I thought that it was worth a try to see how it is now and we actually went back twice over the course of two trips to this area. Both meals were good but we lost the notes that we took on that first trip and went back for a second experience to be able to write this article.
The restaurant serves both menu and buffet meals. The restaurant is located off a main route and is not obvious unless you are looking for it. The building is only this restaurant and they have a bakery on one end of the building and their restaurant that is the rest of the building. You enter though a small lobby and there is a cashier and reception area where you will be taken to your table. The restaurant has been redecorated since our visit years ago. The decor is very nice and very much a family restaurant in appearance. There are two dining rooms and on the side is the buffet area. The buffet is small with one double long buffet server, one dessert buffet server, and one salad buffet server with soups on the front end.
The buffet is not big but it has a good assortment of foods and everything that we tried was good. There are two soups. On the second night that we were there the soups were Creamy Chicken Soup and Chili. When the chili ran low, it was replaced by ham chowder. The salad bar was small but everything that was on it was very fresh. This is important to note because too often buffet salad bars sit and the vegetables become dried out or limp. The salad bar here - again - was very fresh.
One of the features at the other Family Cupboard and also at Dienners as well as here is Rotisserie Chicken, cut up on the bone and served in prices. This is very good. It is nice and moist and flavor full. It is one of the things that I was missing and I had it here on both visits. One of this restaurant's menu features is a dish that many will think is not something to run to have but I like it very much - stuffed pig's stomach. I had this at this buffet on our first visit and since it is a feature on their regular menu, I assumed it was on the buffet every night. I discovered on our second visit that it is not. Stuffed pig's stomach is a popular dish in this area. It is pig's stomach stuffed with chunks of cut up sausage and bread stuffing. The sausage and stuffing are cooked first and then stuffed into a well cleaned pig's stomach and baked. It is then chopped up into small pieces and served. If you did not know what this is and if there was no sign identifying it, it just looks like stuffing mixed with chopped sausage. It is actually hard to tell the stomach meat from the sausage and only by a slightly sharp taste of the pig's stomach do you know it is something different. It really is good and I recommend that you try it if you come to this buffet and it is being served that night. I was a bit disappointed not to find it on that second visit.
There were lots of other good things to eat on the buffet on that second night as well. There was Ham with Pineapple Sauce, Beef and Gravy, Dark meat Turkey, Pork with Sauerkraut, and the Rotisserie Chicken. Side dishes included Rice, fresh made Mashed Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts,Potato Filling, Green Beans, Corn, Cheesy Potatoes, Stewed Tomatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, Baked Beans, and Buttered Noodles. There was beef and turkey gravies and also potato rolls. The entrees are all Pennsylvania Dutch dishes cooked in the Amish/Mennonite way. The turkey was very good. The pork and sauerkraut was traditional. Beef and gravy in this area is not slices of roast beef but chunks of slow cooked beef cooked in beef gravy. This is not a large buffet with many offerings but what is here is good.
What is very important at any buffet is that what is out on the buffet is well maintained - this means that nothing is allowed to dry out, that food is stirred when needed to keep it hot and moist, and that there is attention to anything that needs to be removed. All of that happens properly here. When any dish runs low it was quickly replaced. As we saw with the soup, when something is gone and there is no more of it, something equal takes its place.
Dessert was mostly puddings and prepared desserts. There are also pies and there was one type of cake. There is soft serve ice cream. I would have expected more baked goods on the dessert buffet with the bakery on the premises. The dessert that we had was good. The dessert was an adequate end to a good meal but you will not be overwhelmed by the assortment of desserts - but that is OK because what is here is good.
We had excellent service on both of our visits. The servers that we had took good care of us. All used dishes were taken away promptly and our soft drinks were kept refilled.
Friday night is Seafood Buffet. Saturday night is BBQ Buffet. I have not mentioned prices because prices are always changing at all of the buffet restaurants, but prices were very reasonable- lower than the chains. There is also a senior discount and, of course, kid's prices.
We were very happy to have gone back - on both times. It was busy on both nights but we were seated right away. My picky eater wife had no problem finding things to eat which is not always the case at some of the buffets we have gone to. I will eat a broader selection of things than her and I rarely have a problem finding plenty. This is not always the case with her - she had NO problem here. We will certainly be putting this into our selection of "go back to" buffets in Lancaster - and if you are a regular reader you know that there are many buffets already on that list. This one is a trip out of the main tourist area, but worth a trip and Lititz has a lot of history and things to see, not to forget the Wilbur Chocolate Factory. This restaurant is located north of the actual "town section" of Litiz and as I say it needs to be looked for.
We recommend Lititz Family Cupboard. Try it!
Lititz Family Cupboard is located at 12 West Newport Road in Lititz, Pennsylvania 17543. The phone number is 717-626-9102. There is a website and it is linked on the side of this page. They are open until 8:00 pm. They are closed on Sundays. To get there take Rt. 501 North to West Newport Road and turn left then make a left on Toll Gate Road and then a left into the parking lot of the restaurant.
We had not been back there in a number of years. I thought that it was worth a try to see how it is now and we actually went back twice over the course of two trips to this area. Both meals were good but we lost the notes that we took on that first trip and went back for a second experience to be able to write this article.
The restaurant serves both menu and buffet meals. The restaurant is located off a main route and is not obvious unless you are looking for it. The building is only this restaurant and they have a bakery on one end of the building and their restaurant that is the rest of the building. You enter though a small lobby and there is a cashier and reception area where you will be taken to your table. The restaurant has been redecorated since our visit years ago. The decor is very nice and very much a family restaurant in appearance. There are two dining rooms and on the side is the buffet area. The buffet is small with one double long buffet server, one dessert buffet server, and one salad buffet server with soups on the front end.
The buffet is not big but it has a good assortment of foods and everything that we tried was good. There are two soups. On the second night that we were there the soups were Creamy Chicken Soup and Chili. When the chili ran low, it was replaced by ham chowder. The salad bar was small but everything that was on it was very fresh. This is important to note because too often buffet salad bars sit and the vegetables become dried out or limp. The salad bar here - again - was very fresh.
One of the features at the other Family Cupboard and also at Dienners as well as here is Rotisserie Chicken, cut up on the bone and served in prices. This is very good. It is nice and moist and flavor full. It is one of the things that I was missing and I had it here on both visits. One of this restaurant's menu features is a dish that many will think is not something to run to have but I like it very much - stuffed pig's stomach. I had this at this buffet on our first visit and since it is a feature on their regular menu, I assumed it was on the buffet every night. I discovered on our second visit that it is not. Stuffed pig's stomach is a popular dish in this area. It is pig's stomach stuffed with chunks of cut up sausage and bread stuffing. The sausage and stuffing are cooked first and then stuffed into a well cleaned pig's stomach and baked. It is then chopped up into small pieces and served. If you did not know what this is and if there was no sign identifying it, it just looks like stuffing mixed with chopped sausage. It is actually hard to tell the stomach meat from the sausage and only by a slightly sharp taste of the pig's stomach do you know it is something different. It really is good and I recommend that you try it if you come to this buffet and it is being served that night. I was a bit disappointed not to find it on that second visit.
There were lots of other good things to eat on the buffet on that second night as well. There was Ham with Pineapple Sauce, Beef and Gravy, Dark meat Turkey, Pork with Sauerkraut, and the Rotisserie Chicken. Side dishes included Rice, fresh made Mashed Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts,Potato Filling, Green Beans, Corn, Cheesy Potatoes, Stewed Tomatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, Baked Beans, and Buttered Noodles. There was beef and turkey gravies and also potato rolls. The entrees are all Pennsylvania Dutch dishes cooked in the Amish/Mennonite way. The turkey was very good. The pork and sauerkraut was traditional. Beef and gravy in this area is not slices of roast beef but chunks of slow cooked beef cooked in beef gravy. This is not a large buffet with many offerings but what is here is good.
What is very important at any buffet is that what is out on the buffet is well maintained - this means that nothing is allowed to dry out, that food is stirred when needed to keep it hot and moist, and that there is attention to anything that needs to be removed. All of that happens properly here. When any dish runs low it was quickly replaced. As we saw with the soup, when something is gone and there is no more of it, something equal takes its place.
Dessert was mostly puddings and prepared desserts. There are also pies and there was one type of cake. There is soft serve ice cream. I would have expected more baked goods on the dessert buffet with the bakery on the premises. The dessert that we had was good. The dessert was an adequate end to a good meal but you will not be overwhelmed by the assortment of desserts - but that is OK because what is here is good.
We had excellent service on both of our visits. The servers that we had took good care of us. All used dishes were taken away promptly and our soft drinks were kept refilled.
Friday night is Seafood Buffet. Saturday night is BBQ Buffet. I have not mentioned prices because prices are always changing at all of the buffet restaurants, but prices were very reasonable- lower than the chains. There is also a senior discount and, of course, kid's prices.
We were very happy to have gone back - on both times. It was busy on both nights but we were seated right away. My picky eater wife had no problem finding things to eat which is not always the case at some of the buffets we have gone to. I will eat a broader selection of things than her and I rarely have a problem finding plenty. This is not always the case with her - she had NO problem here. We will certainly be putting this into our selection of "go back to" buffets in Lancaster - and if you are a regular reader you know that there are many buffets already on that list. This one is a trip out of the main tourist area, but worth a trip and Lititz has a lot of history and things to see, not to forget the Wilbur Chocolate Factory. This restaurant is located north of the actual "town section" of Litiz and as I say it needs to be looked for.
We recommend Lititz Family Cupboard. Try it!
Lititz Family Cupboard is located at 12 West Newport Road in Lititz, Pennsylvania 17543. The phone number is 717-626-9102. There is a website and it is linked on the side of this page. They are open until 8:00 pm. They are closed on Sundays. To get there take Rt. 501 North to West Newport Road and turn left then make a left on Toll Gate Road and then a left into the parking lot of the restaurant.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord, Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania
Less than a year ago we went back to Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand, Lancaster County, PA. We went then on a Wednesday night and I was impressed with the featured food for that night being very well prepared Pennsylvania Dutch favorites. I was also impressed that the price for this meal was $15.99 which included the beverage.
Fast forward to this year and we decide to go back to this buffet on a Wednesday night. We walk though the door, go up to the hostess counter and see a sign that dinner is now $19.99! Wow! One of the things that in the past had kept us infrequently going to this buffet was it's high price. At $15.99 the price last year had gone down. Now, at $19.99 it has soared back up. Even with the two dollar coupon compared to many of the buffets in this area, the price is high. Now, one can just walk right out the door again when seeing the high price and not feeling it is worth paying, but with Lancaster buffets, if you want to go then to another buffet, you had better gotten to the first one early. Buffet restaurants close here at 8:00 pm. We were set for a good buffet meal and we would not have made it any place else before it would have been too late to go in. We went on in.
The best thing at this restaurant in my opinion is the Chicken Corn Soup and they just about always serve this on the buffet. They make it very differently from other restaurants and in my opinion their thick and grainy version of this soup made of chicken and creamed corn is the best. It is not a thin chicken noodle soup with corn added that is served at the other restaurants in the area - whether buffets or menu restaurants. It is possible at this restaurant to have the soup and salad bar only. I still go for the full buffet - even though I could easily be happy with multiple bowls of this soup here. So, of course, my meal started with the chicken corn soup and my wife's meal started with the beef vegetable soup which is also very good.
The salad bar here is one full double sided buffet server with greens and salad toppings and prepared salads. At one time at this buffet the salad bar also had chicken salad or ham salad and then you actually could make a decent meal with just the soup and salad bar without the rest, but there are no meat salads now. The salad bar is good - not spectacular but decent as salad bars go.
The entrees and hot foods were some of the Pennsylvania Dutch specialties that I had a year back here and enjoyed so much then - but they were lacking some on this night. The Chicken Bot Bie was just OK. There were country sausages but when I cut into one, it did appear pink inside - a sign that the pork was not cooked through enough. I left that piece of sausage aside and the rest were better - but the sausage was lacking. Still good, but lacking. The Pork and Sauerkraut was good but not spectacular. I do like their turkey - which most people would probably not like. It is served - white meat and dark meat - cut up in a tray full of liquid. This keeps the turkey very moist and topped with gravy, if you choose to add it, this turkey is very good. They did have the turkey and I did have more than one serving.
There is a large dessert bar and one can order that alone. There are pies and cakes and puddings but, you know, we were in the mood for dessert and had trouble finding something - even with what was there - and some of what was there was the only piece left and was not replaced. There was a nice looking apple cake. We hesitated too long to take it and someone took it first while we were standing there deciding. It was not replaced. If you like whoopee pies - chocolate cake on top and bottom of thick, sweet whipped cream - they do have whoopee pies cut into pieces at the side of the dessert counter. There is soft serve ice cream and icees.
I remember - and wrote about - spectacular last year - and now, I was not feeling that. I have to wonder if that is because of the big price increase. I was feeling that night that it should have been better. Well, it always should be the best - and don't get me wrong, the food here is good but on this visit not memorable. Maybe the Amish cooks were off on this night? Who knows. Some restaurants do vary by who is cooking that night. I may be spoiled by finding the exceptional buffets in this area. And then again, if this one was spectacular we would have been going much more often over the years. There was a time that there were few buffets, more family style restaurants instead of buffets, and this one was one of our regular stops. That was long ago. We have been coming to this area for many, many years. It was also before this restaurant's owners built what seems now to be an empire. If you look on their website you will not only find this restaurant but also more than one hotel, a bakery complex, a campground, catering, and now dinner theater that uses this restaurant for the dinner and a stage auditorium on the lower level. And a lot of the focus in the restaurant - particularly the buffet - is on the theater guests. We did not leave hungry. There have been a few buffets that we have been to in our time that we did leave hungry. There is plenty of food here - it just should have been better than good.
Aside from the tourists who dine here - it is prominent on a major tourist route - Rt. 340 - there are many locals that do dine here - mostly from the menu that is an option if you don't wish the buffet or some members at your table do not want the buffet. They have no problem with the table mixing menu and buffet - just don't give buffet food to someone at your table who has ordered from the menu. This is a family restaurant - as are most of the restaurants in this area. It is not uncommon to be sitting next to a family of Amish or Mennonites at this restaurant. (Don't stare, be polite. This is there home and we are just visitors - perhaps more intruders.)
The price really got to me on this visit. I hope that they see a reason to put the price back down. As I say, they have done this before. Jack up the price, then the next year lower the price, and then jack it up again. There seems to be no pattern - it is not seasonal or holiday related. With the price back down, I would go back again. Is this the most expensive buffet in this area? No. I admit that Shady Maple has nights that are more than this in price - but Shady Maple includes the tax and tip in that price - and the drinks. Here you are adding the tax and tip on top of $19.99. Millers Smorgasbord is much more expensive - but I do not go there and you can look for my article as to why that is. Yes, there are coupons for Bird-In-Hand - only found in one tourist "magazine" that is free at most of the tourist sites - including the lobby of this restaurant and that will save you two dollars, but still it is expensive for what is here.
Should you not go here? I would not tell you not to go here but I will tell you that there is better for less money. If I had not place else that I was able to get to for whatever reason, I would go here. I put a lot on value - the value was missing the most at this price.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
Fast forward to this year and we decide to go back to this buffet on a Wednesday night. We walk though the door, go up to the hostess counter and see a sign that dinner is now $19.99! Wow! One of the things that in the past had kept us infrequently going to this buffet was it's high price. At $15.99 the price last year had gone down. Now, at $19.99 it has soared back up. Even with the two dollar coupon compared to many of the buffets in this area, the price is high. Now, one can just walk right out the door again when seeing the high price and not feeling it is worth paying, but with Lancaster buffets, if you want to go then to another buffet, you had better gotten to the first one early. Buffet restaurants close here at 8:00 pm. We were set for a good buffet meal and we would not have made it any place else before it would have been too late to go in. We went on in.
The best thing at this restaurant in my opinion is the Chicken Corn Soup and they just about always serve this on the buffet. They make it very differently from other restaurants and in my opinion their thick and grainy version of this soup made of chicken and creamed corn is the best. It is not a thin chicken noodle soup with corn added that is served at the other restaurants in the area - whether buffets or menu restaurants. It is possible at this restaurant to have the soup and salad bar only. I still go for the full buffet - even though I could easily be happy with multiple bowls of this soup here. So, of course, my meal started with the chicken corn soup and my wife's meal started with the beef vegetable soup which is also very good.
The salad bar here is one full double sided buffet server with greens and salad toppings and prepared salads. At one time at this buffet the salad bar also had chicken salad or ham salad and then you actually could make a decent meal with just the soup and salad bar without the rest, but there are no meat salads now. The salad bar is good - not spectacular but decent as salad bars go.
The entrees and hot foods were some of the Pennsylvania Dutch specialties that I had a year back here and enjoyed so much then - but they were lacking some on this night. The Chicken Bot Bie was just OK. There were country sausages but when I cut into one, it did appear pink inside - a sign that the pork was not cooked through enough. I left that piece of sausage aside and the rest were better - but the sausage was lacking. Still good, but lacking. The Pork and Sauerkraut was good but not spectacular. I do like their turkey - which most people would probably not like. It is served - white meat and dark meat - cut up in a tray full of liquid. This keeps the turkey very moist and topped with gravy, if you choose to add it, this turkey is very good. They did have the turkey and I did have more than one serving.
There is a large dessert bar and one can order that alone. There are pies and cakes and puddings but, you know, we were in the mood for dessert and had trouble finding something - even with what was there - and some of what was there was the only piece left and was not replaced. There was a nice looking apple cake. We hesitated too long to take it and someone took it first while we were standing there deciding. It was not replaced. If you like whoopee pies - chocolate cake on top and bottom of thick, sweet whipped cream - they do have whoopee pies cut into pieces at the side of the dessert counter. There is soft serve ice cream and icees.
I remember - and wrote about - spectacular last year - and now, I was not feeling that. I have to wonder if that is because of the big price increase. I was feeling that night that it should have been better. Well, it always should be the best - and don't get me wrong, the food here is good but on this visit not memorable. Maybe the Amish cooks were off on this night? Who knows. Some restaurants do vary by who is cooking that night. I may be spoiled by finding the exceptional buffets in this area. And then again, if this one was spectacular we would have been going much more often over the years. There was a time that there were few buffets, more family style restaurants instead of buffets, and this one was one of our regular stops. That was long ago. We have been coming to this area for many, many years. It was also before this restaurant's owners built what seems now to be an empire. If you look on their website you will not only find this restaurant but also more than one hotel, a bakery complex, a campground, catering, and now dinner theater that uses this restaurant for the dinner and a stage auditorium on the lower level. And a lot of the focus in the restaurant - particularly the buffet - is on the theater guests. We did not leave hungry. There have been a few buffets that we have been to in our time that we did leave hungry. There is plenty of food here - it just should have been better than good.
Aside from the tourists who dine here - it is prominent on a major tourist route - Rt. 340 - there are many locals that do dine here - mostly from the menu that is an option if you don't wish the buffet or some members at your table do not want the buffet. They have no problem with the table mixing menu and buffet - just don't give buffet food to someone at your table who has ordered from the menu. This is a family restaurant - as are most of the restaurants in this area. It is not uncommon to be sitting next to a family of Amish or Mennonites at this restaurant. (Don't stare, be polite. This is there home and we are just visitors - perhaps more intruders.)
The price really got to me on this visit. I hope that they see a reason to put the price back down. As I say, they have done this before. Jack up the price, then the next year lower the price, and then jack it up again. There seems to be no pattern - it is not seasonal or holiday related. With the price back down, I would go back again. Is this the most expensive buffet in this area? No. I admit that Shady Maple has nights that are more than this in price - but Shady Maple includes the tax and tip in that price - and the drinks. Here you are adding the tax and tip on top of $19.99. Millers Smorgasbord is much more expensive - but I do not go there and you can look for my article as to why that is. Yes, there are coupons for Bird-In-Hand - only found in one tourist "magazine" that is free at most of the tourist sites - including the lobby of this restaurant and that will save you two dollars, but still it is expensive for what is here.
Should you not go here? I would not tell you not to go here but I will tell you that there is better for less money. If I had not place else that I was able to get to for whatever reason, I would go here. I put a lot on value - the value was missing the most at this price.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord, Bird-In-Hand, PA
It has been about a year and a half since I have been to the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Lancaster County in the town of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. This buffet has not been one of the buffets in this area on my short list of where to go because it has been higher priced and at times has been inconsistent. We were in Pennsylvania recently and we discovered a coupon for $2.00 each off the dinner and decided to go back. As it turns out, the last time that we had been there was on a Wednesday night and this night there was also a Wednesday.
I was happily surprised to see that the price was only $15.99 and with the coupon it would be $13.99. The dinner smorgasbord price also includes the beverage which brings this meal to within a dollar of what I pay at OCB near home. The $15.99 is two dollars less than what this buffet was a year and a half ago - and I have found in the past that the price here does increase during the summer months. The price now on Friday and Saturday is $18.99.
The buffet menu here changes by the day and each day's menu may be found on the restaurant's website. The weekend buffet adds carvings and also a children's buffet section with "kid food" selections.
What struck me most on this visit - and something that I had not realized before - was that on Wednesday night here (providing they don't change the items offered) you are getting some of the most authentically traditionally cooked Pennsylvania Dutch food found at any of the area's buffets. Every Pennsylvania Dutch dish that I had on this night was just as I remembered it should be in taste, texture, and appearance. Now, all of these same dishes are served at many of the buffets that I have told you about - and they have all been good when I have indicated them as such at those other buffets - but here there were just a bit different - the best way to describe this is "more traditional".
These are all foods that you are most likely not going to find if you are not in this area of Amish and Mennonite Pennsylvania Dutch. I am talking about Chicken Bot Bie, Pork and Sauerkraut, Baked Country Sausage, Ham Balls, Chicken Corn Soup, string beans and ham, and the like. I have described Chicken Bot Bie before. It is a local version of Chicken Pot Pie but there is no pie and it does not have a cream sauce as Chicken Pot Pie has. It is pieced of boiled chicken with potatoes, carrots, and celery with squares of thick dough noodle dumplings in a broth. Often this is served at other local buffets in a thin broth. Here the broth is thick and richly amber in color. The noodles are properly thick and kitchen-made. The taste is exactly as it should be - just as I remember it from so many years ago when I first sampled it in this part of Pennsylvania. The Ham Balls are meatballs made of chopped ham and here are not overly sweet yet still served in the traditional pineapple sauce, but the sauce does not overwhelm the ham. The Pork and Sauerkraut is neither too sour or sweet. This dish is traditionally served on New Year's Day in this area. The Baked Sausage is Country Sausage - not Italian sausage. It is local and is seasoned to the taste of this area. Chicken Corn Soup is served at many restaurants around here but this one is, in my opinion, the best. It is often no more than a thin chicken stock with chicken and corn. Sometimes this soup will include chopped hard boiled eggs. Here this is not a thin soup but a thick soup with plenty of chicken, corn, and hard boiled eggs. I have tried to duplicate this soup at home and have tried various ways of getting it as thick as it is here. It is not a cream soup. The thickness is found in its texture which has slight grain feel to it. I believe that what is thickening this soup is a blended creamed corn. I don't know for sure, but what I do know is that it is exceptional. I could easily make a meal of just this soup alone.
At the end of this meal, I said to my wife that if we want a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch meal we have to come back here on a Wednesday night and she agreed. But these PA Dutch dishes were not all that was served to us on the buffet. I have written about this restaurant's turkey before. It is the best turkey that I have had and I have had a lot of turkey. This is not a carved turkey breast. This is both white and dark meat taken from the bones and placed in the serving tray in a turkey broth. This turkey is tender and juicily moist. There was also roast beef, Swedish meatballs, sliced ham, and broasted chicken.
There is a salad bar that has a nice selection of salad items to create a salad. It seemed lacking to me as it had not been in past visits. There were few prepared salads and no longer were there any of the meat salads that I have had here. There is a nice selection of bread and rolls on another server where you will also find a selection of cheeses. There is also apple butter to try with your bread - or put on top of a dollop of cottage cheese from the salad bar - another traditional Pennsylvania Dutch treat.
There is a large dessert bar. There are some cakes and assorted pies, a few prepared desserts including two hot cobblers, cookies, small pieces of whoopie pies (chocolate cake cookies with cream in the middle), and soft serve ice cream. For the size of this dessert bar there should be a lot more. The baking does come from the Bird-in-Hand Bakery which is part of the Bird-in-Hand complex and is good. There is a better variety of dessert selections at other area buffets. That is not to say that you will be disappointed with what you decide to take here.
Service was good. On the off-season, you are dining with local people at this restaurant including Old Order Amish and Mennonites. During the tourist season, the restuarant will be filled with tourists and you may have to wait on line to get in.
We had a great Pennsylvania Dutch meal - as I say - traditionally cooked. Would I be as pleased on another night when there were not as many PA Dutch dishes featured? Maybe not as pleased. The price, however, off-season and with the coupon which is only found in one of the local area tourist papers handed out free at many gift shops and tourist spots - and right at the restaurant in the Lobby before you go in for dinner, can't really be beat, at least on a weeknight. I will go back again if we are in the area on a Wednesday night - and the price remains the same.
As this article will appear right before Thanksgiving, there is Thanksgiving Dinner served both on the Smorgasbord and at your table family-style. Reservations for this, however, are needed months before, as it does sell out.
Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
I was happily surprised to see that the price was only $15.99 and with the coupon it would be $13.99. The dinner smorgasbord price also includes the beverage which brings this meal to within a dollar of what I pay at OCB near home. The $15.99 is two dollars less than what this buffet was a year and a half ago - and I have found in the past that the price here does increase during the summer months. The price now on Friday and Saturday is $18.99.
The buffet menu here changes by the day and each day's menu may be found on the restaurant's website. The weekend buffet adds carvings and also a children's buffet section with "kid food" selections.
What struck me most on this visit - and something that I had not realized before - was that on Wednesday night here (providing they don't change the items offered) you are getting some of the most authentically traditionally cooked Pennsylvania Dutch food found at any of the area's buffets. Every Pennsylvania Dutch dish that I had on this night was just as I remembered it should be in taste, texture, and appearance. Now, all of these same dishes are served at many of the buffets that I have told you about - and they have all been good when I have indicated them as such at those other buffets - but here there were just a bit different - the best way to describe this is "more traditional".
These are all foods that you are most likely not going to find if you are not in this area of Amish and Mennonite Pennsylvania Dutch. I am talking about Chicken Bot Bie, Pork and Sauerkraut, Baked Country Sausage, Ham Balls, Chicken Corn Soup, string beans and ham, and the like. I have described Chicken Bot Bie before. It is a local version of Chicken Pot Pie but there is no pie and it does not have a cream sauce as Chicken Pot Pie has. It is pieced of boiled chicken with potatoes, carrots, and celery with squares of thick dough noodle dumplings in a broth. Often this is served at other local buffets in a thin broth. Here the broth is thick and richly amber in color. The noodles are properly thick and kitchen-made. The taste is exactly as it should be - just as I remember it from so many years ago when I first sampled it in this part of Pennsylvania. The Ham Balls are meatballs made of chopped ham and here are not overly sweet yet still served in the traditional pineapple sauce, but the sauce does not overwhelm the ham. The Pork and Sauerkraut is neither too sour or sweet. This dish is traditionally served on New Year's Day in this area. The Baked Sausage is Country Sausage - not Italian sausage. It is local and is seasoned to the taste of this area. Chicken Corn Soup is served at many restaurants around here but this one is, in my opinion, the best. It is often no more than a thin chicken stock with chicken and corn. Sometimes this soup will include chopped hard boiled eggs. Here this is not a thin soup but a thick soup with plenty of chicken, corn, and hard boiled eggs. I have tried to duplicate this soup at home and have tried various ways of getting it as thick as it is here. It is not a cream soup. The thickness is found in its texture which has slight grain feel to it. I believe that what is thickening this soup is a blended creamed corn. I don't know for sure, but what I do know is that it is exceptional. I could easily make a meal of just this soup alone.
At the end of this meal, I said to my wife that if we want a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch meal we have to come back here on a Wednesday night and she agreed. But these PA Dutch dishes were not all that was served to us on the buffet. I have written about this restaurant's turkey before. It is the best turkey that I have had and I have had a lot of turkey. This is not a carved turkey breast. This is both white and dark meat taken from the bones and placed in the serving tray in a turkey broth. This turkey is tender and juicily moist. There was also roast beef, Swedish meatballs, sliced ham, and broasted chicken.
There is a salad bar that has a nice selection of salad items to create a salad. It seemed lacking to me as it had not been in past visits. There were few prepared salads and no longer were there any of the meat salads that I have had here. There is a nice selection of bread and rolls on another server where you will also find a selection of cheeses. There is also apple butter to try with your bread - or put on top of a dollop of cottage cheese from the salad bar - another traditional Pennsylvania Dutch treat.
There is a large dessert bar. There are some cakes and assorted pies, a few prepared desserts including two hot cobblers, cookies, small pieces of whoopie pies (chocolate cake cookies with cream in the middle), and soft serve ice cream. For the size of this dessert bar there should be a lot more. The baking does come from the Bird-in-Hand Bakery which is part of the Bird-in-Hand complex and is good. There is a better variety of dessert selections at other area buffets. That is not to say that you will be disappointed with what you decide to take here.
Service was good. On the off-season, you are dining with local people at this restaurant including Old Order Amish and Mennonites. During the tourist season, the restuarant will be filled with tourists and you may have to wait on line to get in.
We had a great Pennsylvania Dutch meal - as I say - traditionally cooked. Would I be as pleased on another night when there were not as many PA Dutch dishes featured? Maybe not as pleased. The price, however, off-season and with the coupon which is only found in one of the local area tourist papers handed out free at many gift shops and tourist spots - and right at the restaurant in the Lobby before you go in for dinner, can't really be beat, at least on a weeknight. I will go back again if we are in the area on a Wednesday night - and the price remains the same.
As this article will appear right before Thanksgiving, there is Thanksgiving Dinner served both on the Smorgasbord and at your table family-style. Reservations for this, however, are needed months before, as it does sell out.
Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm and is not open on Sundays. You will not be seated for the Smorgasbord after 7:30 pm.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Back to Golden Corral, Hagerstown, Maryland
I was first at the Hagerstown, Maryland Golden Corral when it had first opened. I was impressed them with this Golden Corral, and I still am. We recently went back for dinner on a Friday night.
The restaurant is in the back of the Valley Mall parking lot in Hagerstown. This was one of the Golden Corrals that started putting out the plates in racks for customers to take without relying on a server to bring clean plates when needed. This was a big deal, as a poor server at a Golden Corral in the past could be a real problem to the progress of your meal if there are no clean plates being brought to you. The plates out and available has now come to all Golden Corrals. This location also had the Asian Wok food area that has now come to many other - but not all - Golden Corral restaurants.
Since the take over of Ryan's by Buffets, Inc., I consider the Golden Corral chain as the top national buffet chain. What is served tends to be of a better quality and the presentation is certainly more grand than Old Country Buffet and what Ryan's has now become. One of my top reasons is the char-grill at the buffet and steaks served to your order. You want rare, you get rare. You want well-done, you get well done - providing the grill chef knows what he is doing. The meat is tasty and the steak generally is tender. When Golden Corral is carving turkey, as they were doing on this night, they are carving an actual turkey on the bone, and not a plumped up, reconstituted turkey breast.
There was one noticeable difference on this visit and that was that the salad bar was somewhat abbreviated from what it is at other Golden Corrals that I have been to - and this was not as it was the last time I was at this location. There were items on Golden Corral salad bars that my wife regularly takes, that were missing here - and no place for them to be. There was a good salad bar but it was not as complete as we expected it to be based on other Golden Corrals. It may be that they made room for the Chocolate Fountain which sits in this restaurant between the salad bar and the desserts along the same serving counter.
I was glad to see that the pan fried seafood that was the feature at Golden Corral restaurants for the past two summers is now gone. No more lines at the grill while one chef cooks one fry pan at a time for each customer waiting on line for fish cooked to order.
The feature that was current when we were there - and these features seem to change now at Golden Corral very frequently - was hot wings and they had several types of hot wings on the buffet with various sauces on them. This feature is called Wing Fest. There were barbecue wings, teriyaki wings, boneless wings, spicy garlic wings, Buffalo wings. While it lasts the feature is served every night of the week after 4 pm for dinner and on Sundays after 11 am. I am not a fan of wings and I did not try them but there were many guests taking them and enjoying them.
The only thing I was not happy with on this trip were the barbecue spareribs. They had little meat on them and they were cooked to long which dried out the meat that was on them rather than making them fall off the bone tender. The over done meat had to be scraped off the bone, and along with the meat came shards of bone. I usually like Golden Corral's ribs. Those on this night were a disappointment.
Ribs aside, I had a good meal. I enjoyed the steak. I enjoyed the turkey. There was plenty to choose from and the food was good. Desserts are more extensive than at other chain buffets.
The restaurant is still well maintained and clean. Our server was very good. Management was also making announcements that children under 10 should not be up at the buffet alone - if only the parents of the children who were up there paid attention to the announcements and did as they should and accompany their children.
I recommend this Golden Corral. There are not many buffet choices in Hagerstown any longer and this was a much better meal than our meal at Ryan's the previous night. The address is 17635 Valley Mall Road, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. The phone number is (301) 582-6209. There is a link to the chain's website at the side of this page. You will see whatever current feature they are offering on the webpage.
The restaurant is in the back of the Valley Mall parking lot in Hagerstown. This was one of the Golden Corrals that started putting out the plates in racks for customers to take without relying on a server to bring clean plates when needed. This was a big deal, as a poor server at a Golden Corral in the past could be a real problem to the progress of your meal if there are no clean plates being brought to you. The plates out and available has now come to all Golden Corrals. This location also had the Asian Wok food area that has now come to many other - but not all - Golden Corral restaurants.
Since the take over of Ryan's by Buffets, Inc., I consider the Golden Corral chain as the top national buffet chain. What is served tends to be of a better quality and the presentation is certainly more grand than Old Country Buffet and what Ryan's has now become. One of my top reasons is the char-grill at the buffet and steaks served to your order. You want rare, you get rare. You want well-done, you get well done - providing the grill chef knows what he is doing. The meat is tasty and the steak generally is tender. When Golden Corral is carving turkey, as they were doing on this night, they are carving an actual turkey on the bone, and not a plumped up, reconstituted turkey breast.
There was one noticeable difference on this visit and that was that the salad bar was somewhat abbreviated from what it is at other Golden Corrals that I have been to - and this was not as it was the last time I was at this location. There were items on Golden Corral salad bars that my wife regularly takes, that were missing here - and no place for them to be. There was a good salad bar but it was not as complete as we expected it to be based on other Golden Corrals. It may be that they made room for the Chocolate Fountain which sits in this restaurant between the salad bar and the desserts along the same serving counter.
I was glad to see that the pan fried seafood that was the feature at Golden Corral restaurants for the past two summers is now gone. No more lines at the grill while one chef cooks one fry pan at a time for each customer waiting on line for fish cooked to order.
The feature that was current when we were there - and these features seem to change now at Golden Corral very frequently - was hot wings and they had several types of hot wings on the buffet with various sauces on them. This feature is called Wing Fest. There were barbecue wings, teriyaki wings, boneless wings, spicy garlic wings, Buffalo wings. While it lasts the feature is served every night of the week after 4 pm for dinner and on Sundays after 11 am. I am not a fan of wings and I did not try them but there were many guests taking them and enjoying them.
The only thing I was not happy with on this trip were the barbecue spareribs. They had little meat on them and they were cooked to long which dried out the meat that was on them rather than making them fall off the bone tender. The over done meat had to be scraped off the bone, and along with the meat came shards of bone. I usually like Golden Corral's ribs. Those on this night were a disappointment.
Ribs aside, I had a good meal. I enjoyed the steak. I enjoyed the turkey. There was plenty to choose from and the food was good. Desserts are more extensive than at other chain buffets.
The restaurant is still well maintained and clean. Our server was very good. Management was also making announcements that children under 10 should not be up at the buffet alone - if only the parents of the children who were up there paid attention to the announcements and did as they should and accompany their children.
I recommend this Golden Corral. There are not many buffet choices in Hagerstown any longer and this was a much better meal than our meal at Ryan's the previous night. The address is 17635 Valley Mall Road, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. The phone number is (301) 582-6209. There is a link to the chain's website at the side of this page. You will see whatever current feature they are offering on the webpage.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Two Visits to Southern Smokehouse, Linden, New Jersey
I only get to Southern Smokehouse when I have something scheduled in New Jersey. While the restaurant is only a hour from my home, the trip involves tolls that amount to more than the cost of the meal. I do look forward to my annual two trips to this area and while there are other buffets to try around there, I go to Southern Smokehouse for dinner on both trips.
This is our third year back to Southern Smokehouse. This buffet restaurant is a bit out of the ordinary as it is a mixture of Southern barbecue and country cooking with Asian food. I have written mixed reviews of the restaurant in the past - generally good, but with some problems. The problems have always been about the service here. The food is exceptionally good!
The price of the meal is $12.99 for adults and $12.49 for seniors, and these are every night prices. (The price has gone down fifty cents from last year.) This price includes unlimited soft drinks, brought to your table by your server. The price is excellent - especially for what you are getting here.
Let me start off by talking about the service on these two visits - and, as it happened, we had the same server both weeks in a row. On the first visit the server was excellent. He was very attentive, came to our table a number of times to ask if all was well and when he saw that the drink glasses were low, asked if we would like refills. Dishes were picked up promptly. The restaurant was very busy - and very much so in the section that we were seated. This did not throw him at all. He deserved a decent tip and received one. On the second visit, he was still pretty good, BUT he was not as attentive, had to be asked for drink refills and the empty plates sat on the table for awhile before they were picked up. The restaurant on this night was not as crowed as it had been the week before. So - while, service was far better than it has ever been in any of of visits before, it still remains inconsistent. You can luck out with great service or not - even from the same person working your your table. Service, aside, this buffet is wonderful.
There was a delightful surprise when we came in the first night. A sign at the front announced that they now had added a smoker to the kitchen. A smoker is what makes barbecue good. It smokes the meat for hours to give it a great flavor, keeps in the moisture, and makes the meat just fall off the bone. The barbecue coming from the smoker was now served on the buffet and was also available on a platter basis. At the price, there is no reason not to go for all you care to eat barbecue, along with everything else. What they are serving primarily from the smoker are ribs and chicken.
I love barbecue. I love ribs. In the past the ribs here were OK. Now they are, what I consider, the second best buffet ribs that I have had. (The first best going to a buffet in Virginia.) The ribs are now what they should be. You can taste the smoke and the meat on the ribs can be eaten completely off the bone leaving clean bones behind. Why are they not the best ribs that I have ever had? In addition to the smoker they seem to be charring the ribs afterward. This creates a tougher outside layer on top that was a little chewier than I expected. While some would say that this is the "bark" that forms on the meat closest to the fire in the smoker, here it was consistent on each rib. This did not take away from the flavor but from the tenderness of biting into the rib. The ribs are very good. On my second visit, I decided that because I get smoked barbecue ribs so rarely, I would concentrate my meal around those ribs, and I did. In fact, I went one rib too far in the meal and hit that "meat wall" and could not finish the last one. And I struggled with myself to put it down on the plate and say that is all.
My wife, the picky eater, does not eat barbecue. She does like a lot of Southern dishes and there is plenty to choose from here that is not necessarily Southern. One of the other great things that they have here is a real roast, on the bones, turkey carved at the grill. This is not the usual turkey breast. This is a whole turkey, drumsticks and all. It has been awhile since we have had what I consider "real turkey". This is real turkey. Both of us - on both trips had this moist, carved from the bones in front of you, turkey.
Southern cooking involves a lot of fried foods and there are plenty of those to be found here too. The fried chicken is home-style fried chicken. This is not the broasted or the typical buffet fried chicken. This is fried chicken as it is served in the South as I have had it at Southern restaurants (not buffets) known for their home fried chicken. There was also fried fish - pieces of whole, thin fish fillets (there were a few small bones present) deep fried. The fish was good - a little chewy because it was thin. There were fried sweet potato "tots". Good. There was fried okra - also good.
I know out there there are the readers who say "fried food - terrible!" and are thinking there is nothing here for them. Well, there is barbecue chicken. There is meat loaf - which is served in a thin tomato sauce - not the usual ketchup covered meatloaf. It was good. There are the Asian/Chinese dishes. There is broiled salmon at the grill. There is also on the grill, steak. The steak here is a marinated skirt steak. They cook it on the grill and it is served from the grill. Skirt steak is known by a variety of names - some call it hanger steak, some call it Romanian steak. Skirt steak is not known to be a tender cut of beef. It is known for its flavor. It is cooked thin here and well charred on the outside but it remains moist and very flavorful - especially the char. There was bourbon chicken. There were hot wings. There was rotisserie chicken. There is cold peel and eat shrimp.
What else is there? There are a lot of side dishes - some also Southern cooking. I tried something for the first time on the first of these two visits - cooked plantains. I have seen plantains before and avoided them because I do not like the taste of bananas and plantains are a type of banana. I heard recently - on some food show - that plantains are not sweet like bananas and this gave me the thought that perhaps then they do not taste like bananas. Well, I found out by trying them here that they do not taste at all like bananas - at least when cooked - they are cut into pieces here and sauteed. They have a very pleasant flavor and texture. Of course, I had them again on the second visit and was just as delighted. There are collard greens. There is kernel corn. There is corn on the cob - which seems to be cooked in milk - it was very good! There are string beans, barbecue beans, and black eyed peas. There are mixed vegetables. There is plain rice. There was baked ziti in sauce. There was plain spaghetti with tomato sauce on the side. There were french fries - hand cut and lightly fried french fries. There are mashed potatoes. There are perogies - which taste good but are a bit tough on the outside. There were sauteed sliced potatoes. And then there is wonderful macaroni and cheese. This is not at all the commercial type of orange, wet, and drippy mac and cheese, but baked, thick, and full of white cheese that pulls when you spoon it out of the serving tray. This is homemade macaroni and cheese. I have written about it here before - it is a must try. And if you like this type of comfort food, you will have to then try and stop yourself from going back and back for more. There is also pizza baked in a brick oven behind the grill. There is more, too.
There is a large salad bar with both prepared salads and make your own lettuce salad with two types of lettuce plenty of toppings and vegetables. There is also cold fruits and cold desserts at the salad bar. There are two soups on the buffet. They were the same both nights we were there - both Friday nights. One soup was a cream of broccoli which I tried the first night and it was very good. The other was a turkey rice soup - which contained no rice (which for me is good as I can't eat rice) but was full of large pieces of turkey meat, celery, and carrots. The broth was thin and full of turkey flavor. There is no doubt that these two soups were made from scratch right here. The turkey soup reminded me of turkey soup that my grandmother served on Thanksgiving when I was a small child.
What about dessert? The desserts here are limited. There is a hard ice cream sundae bar with toppings. There are a couple of sheet cakes that look good and platters of cookies. Then on one of the hot buffet servers there is a hot apple pie/cobbler. There is fresh fruit and puddings over on the salad bar. The dessert is adequate to end a over-filling meal, but don't come here for the desserts. Come here for everything else.
Something that takes place often at buffets near home in New York is that people take spoons adn serving pieces from one serving tray and use them in another leave them there - transferring whatever sauce was in the first item into the other tray of food. This WAS NOT happening here. While this is not the fault of a buffet, it is a problem with the people who are eating at the buffet. One thing that we have observed on each of our visits to Southern Smokehouse is how nice the people seem who are dining there - mostly families and polite.
On the drive home after the second meal my wife was coming up with excuses to be in this area again - and I would love to go. Inconsistent service aside, I am going to look forward to my next visit to Southern Smokehouse. I recommend it highly (put up with the service) - if you like this type of cooking. I do, and even my picky eater wife - who avoids eating fatty things and doesn't when she is here - does.
Southern Smokehouse is located at Aviation Plaza Shopping Center which is at 611 West Edgar Road (Route 1 and 9) in Linden, New Jersey 07036. This restaurant is in the very far corner of the shopping center, off in a parking lot cut off from the main part of the shopping plaza. With Home Depot on one end of the plaza and Target on the other end, go past Target to where it looks like you are exiting the shopping center and you will see another parking lot to the side and this restaurant brightly lit on the far end. This shopping plaza is adjacent to an airport. The phone number is 908-862-1883. The hours on Friday and Saturday are until 10 pm. Weeknights and Sunday nights they are open until 9 pm. They open each day at 11 am for lunch. There is also a breakfast buffet. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.
This is our third year back to Southern Smokehouse. This buffet restaurant is a bit out of the ordinary as it is a mixture of Southern barbecue and country cooking with Asian food. I have written mixed reviews of the restaurant in the past - generally good, but with some problems. The problems have always been about the service here. The food is exceptionally good!
The price of the meal is $12.99 for adults and $12.49 for seniors, and these are every night prices. (The price has gone down fifty cents from last year.) This price includes unlimited soft drinks, brought to your table by your server. The price is excellent - especially for what you are getting here.
Let me start off by talking about the service on these two visits - and, as it happened, we had the same server both weeks in a row. On the first visit the server was excellent. He was very attentive, came to our table a number of times to ask if all was well and when he saw that the drink glasses were low, asked if we would like refills. Dishes were picked up promptly. The restaurant was very busy - and very much so in the section that we were seated. This did not throw him at all. He deserved a decent tip and received one. On the second visit, he was still pretty good, BUT he was not as attentive, had to be asked for drink refills and the empty plates sat on the table for awhile before they were picked up. The restaurant on this night was not as crowed as it had been the week before. So - while, service was far better than it has ever been in any of of visits before, it still remains inconsistent. You can luck out with great service or not - even from the same person working your your table. Service, aside, this buffet is wonderful.
There was a delightful surprise when we came in the first night. A sign at the front announced that they now had added a smoker to the kitchen. A smoker is what makes barbecue good. It smokes the meat for hours to give it a great flavor, keeps in the moisture, and makes the meat just fall off the bone. The barbecue coming from the smoker was now served on the buffet and was also available on a platter basis. At the price, there is no reason not to go for all you care to eat barbecue, along with everything else. What they are serving primarily from the smoker are ribs and chicken.
I love barbecue. I love ribs. In the past the ribs here were OK. Now they are, what I consider, the second best buffet ribs that I have had. (The first best going to a buffet in Virginia.) The ribs are now what they should be. You can taste the smoke and the meat on the ribs can be eaten completely off the bone leaving clean bones behind. Why are they not the best ribs that I have ever had? In addition to the smoker they seem to be charring the ribs afterward. This creates a tougher outside layer on top that was a little chewier than I expected. While some would say that this is the "bark" that forms on the meat closest to the fire in the smoker, here it was consistent on each rib. This did not take away from the flavor but from the tenderness of biting into the rib. The ribs are very good. On my second visit, I decided that because I get smoked barbecue ribs so rarely, I would concentrate my meal around those ribs, and I did. In fact, I went one rib too far in the meal and hit that "meat wall" and could not finish the last one. And I struggled with myself to put it down on the plate and say that is all.
My wife, the picky eater, does not eat barbecue. She does like a lot of Southern dishes and there is plenty to choose from here that is not necessarily Southern. One of the other great things that they have here is a real roast, on the bones, turkey carved at the grill. This is not the usual turkey breast. This is a whole turkey, drumsticks and all. It has been awhile since we have had what I consider "real turkey". This is real turkey. Both of us - on both trips had this moist, carved from the bones in front of you, turkey.
Southern cooking involves a lot of fried foods and there are plenty of those to be found here too. The fried chicken is home-style fried chicken. This is not the broasted or the typical buffet fried chicken. This is fried chicken as it is served in the South as I have had it at Southern restaurants (not buffets) known for their home fried chicken. There was also fried fish - pieces of whole, thin fish fillets (there were a few small bones present) deep fried. The fish was good - a little chewy because it was thin. There were fried sweet potato "tots". Good. There was fried okra - also good.
I know out there there are the readers who say "fried food - terrible!" and are thinking there is nothing here for them. Well, there is barbecue chicken. There is meat loaf - which is served in a thin tomato sauce - not the usual ketchup covered meatloaf. It was good. There are the Asian/Chinese dishes. There is broiled salmon at the grill. There is also on the grill, steak. The steak here is a marinated skirt steak. They cook it on the grill and it is served from the grill. Skirt steak is known by a variety of names - some call it hanger steak, some call it Romanian steak. Skirt steak is not known to be a tender cut of beef. It is known for its flavor. It is cooked thin here and well charred on the outside but it remains moist and very flavorful - especially the char. There was bourbon chicken. There were hot wings. There was rotisserie chicken. There is cold peel and eat shrimp.
What else is there? There are a lot of side dishes - some also Southern cooking. I tried something for the first time on the first of these two visits - cooked plantains. I have seen plantains before and avoided them because I do not like the taste of bananas and plantains are a type of banana. I heard recently - on some food show - that plantains are not sweet like bananas and this gave me the thought that perhaps then they do not taste like bananas. Well, I found out by trying them here that they do not taste at all like bananas - at least when cooked - they are cut into pieces here and sauteed. They have a very pleasant flavor and texture. Of course, I had them again on the second visit and was just as delighted. There are collard greens. There is kernel corn. There is corn on the cob - which seems to be cooked in milk - it was very good! There are string beans, barbecue beans, and black eyed peas. There are mixed vegetables. There is plain rice. There was baked ziti in sauce. There was plain spaghetti with tomato sauce on the side. There were french fries - hand cut and lightly fried french fries. There are mashed potatoes. There are perogies - which taste good but are a bit tough on the outside. There were sauteed sliced potatoes. And then there is wonderful macaroni and cheese. This is not at all the commercial type of orange, wet, and drippy mac and cheese, but baked, thick, and full of white cheese that pulls when you spoon it out of the serving tray. This is homemade macaroni and cheese. I have written about it here before - it is a must try. And if you like this type of comfort food, you will have to then try and stop yourself from going back and back for more. There is also pizza baked in a brick oven behind the grill. There is more, too.
There is a large salad bar with both prepared salads and make your own lettuce salad with two types of lettuce plenty of toppings and vegetables. There is also cold fruits and cold desserts at the salad bar. There are two soups on the buffet. They were the same both nights we were there - both Friday nights. One soup was a cream of broccoli which I tried the first night and it was very good. The other was a turkey rice soup - which contained no rice (which for me is good as I can't eat rice) but was full of large pieces of turkey meat, celery, and carrots. The broth was thin and full of turkey flavor. There is no doubt that these two soups were made from scratch right here. The turkey soup reminded me of turkey soup that my grandmother served on Thanksgiving when I was a small child.
What about dessert? The desserts here are limited. There is a hard ice cream sundae bar with toppings. There are a couple of sheet cakes that look good and platters of cookies. Then on one of the hot buffet servers there is a hot apple pie/cobbler. There is fresh fruit and puddings over on the salad bar. The dessert is adequate to end a over-filling meal, but don't come here for the desserts. Come here for everything else.
Something that takes place often at buffets near home in New York is that people take spoons adn serving pieces from one serving tray and use them in another leave them there - transferring whatever sauce was in the first item into the other tray of food. This WAS NOT happening here. While this is not the fault of a buffet, it is a problem with the people who are eating at the buffet. One thing that we have observed on each of our visits to Southern Smokehouse is how nice the people seem who are dining there - mostly families and polite.
On the drive home after the second meal my wife was coming up with excuses to be in this area again - and I would love to go. Inconsistent service aside, I am going to look forward to my next visit to Southern Smokehouse. I recommend it highly (put up with the service) - if you like this type of cooking. I do, and even my picky eater wife - who avoids eating fatty things and doesn't when she is here - does.
Southern Smokehouse is located at Aviation Plaza Shopping Center which is at 611 West Edgar Road (Route 1 and 9) in Linden, New Jersey 07036. This restaurant is in the very far corner of the shopping center, off in a parking lot cut off from the main part of the shopping plaza. With Home Depot on one end of the plaza and Target on the other end, go past Target to where it looks like you are exiting the shopping center and you will see another parking lot to the side and this restaurant brightly lit on the far end. This shopping plaza is adjacent to an airport. The phone number is 908-862-1883. The hours on Friday and Saturday are until 10 pm. Weeknights and Sunday nights they are open until 9 pm. They open each day at 11 am for lunch. There is also a breakfast buffet. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.
Friday, June 01, 2012
Mountain Gate Family Restaurant, Thurmont, Maryland
The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant has two locations owned and managed by the same family. The location in Thurmont, Maryland is the original location and restaurant and began as a truck stop. It evolved into a full restaurant serving both menu and buffet meals and has a gift shop. I had never been to the Thurmont location until recently and I went the night after I had dined at the Waynesboro, PA location - which is reviewed in the last article.
Thurmont, Maryland is one of those famous, but unknown places. It is at the foot of the Catoctin Mountain and on that mountain, hidden away, is Camp David, the retreat for Presidents of the United States since Eisenhower. I have written about another buffet in this area - Cozy Restaurant - that has a hotel where the White House Press Corp would stay and dine when the President was at Camp David. The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is just down the street from that restaurant.
Getting here can be quite an experience depending upon the direction that you come from. If you come west from Pennsylvania, you are not far from Gettysburg. If you come north from Maryland your GPS will likely route you through the Catoctin Mountain Park which is a roller coaster ride of narrow roads that wind around the mountain and in some places come very close to the edge. I went that way once, and I will never go that way again. We actually drove south and then east to travel on interstate highways to get to Thurmont to have dinner at the Mountain Gate. This was out of the way and longer in miles but actually about the same time as going the more direct but daunting route.
We arrived at the Mountain Gate Family Restaurant on a Saturday night at about 6:30 pm. There was no line to get in when we arrived but shortly after a line began to form. It is evident right away that this is the older of the two restaurants. I have spoken about the Christian decor that had been at the Waynesboro location and it is evident here. This is not any problem for us. I have read reviews where some people were troubled by it.
We were seated at a booth in what seemed to be the smaller dining room. There are three dining rooms with the buffet area located in the middle. Prices are the same at both locations. There is a noticeable difference in the tax - one restaurant is in Maryland and the other is in Pennsylvania.
I have been to the Pennsylvania location on a Saturday night and anticipated the same menu on the buffet. The buffet serving area is large - larger than in Pennsylvania, but as we went through the meal I had the impression that there were less choices being offered. The food here is, as expected, American Country and Pennsylvania Dutch. There are two soups - beef vegetable and chicken with dumplings, and a salad bar with an assortment of prepared salads, lettuce and romaine lettuce, and a large array of toppings for your salad. There were the makings for a Caesar Salad, and unlike the night before in Pennsylvania, the Caesar salad dressing was the creamy type. I tried the chicken with dumplings soup and it was very good. I made myself a Caesar salad and enjoyed that. I also took some chicken salad and some ham salad on my salad plate to taste. Both were excellent. Ham salad may be common in some areas but it is not common near us. I have had it in Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants and some (but rarely) buffets. If you have an opportunity to try it, do. It is little more than chopped ham with seasonings and mayonnaise, but it is good.
There were four carvings being sliced. The night before there had been only three. There was turkey, ham, pork, and roast beef. This roast beef was not like the beef that I had the night before in their other location. This was pretty much sliced roast beef. See my last article for my description of the one the night before. I did try the turkey and the ham. The turkey, while a turkey breast was pure turkey meat and not a turkey breast with fillers that is sometimes served. The ham was a basic sliced ham and it was good.
Looking around at the entree choices I was not seeing as much as I expected - and this surprised me. There were so many choices the night before - yes, they were seafood and it was seafood night, but I would have expected other entrees to take their place on a Saturday night. There was fried chicken, pork and sauerkraut, and chicken bot bie - a PA Dutch stew of chicken and large dumpling noodles with potatoes, carrots, and celery in a thick chicken stock. All of these are excellent. The vegetables and side dishes were very much the same as there had been at the other location - kernel corn, green beans and ham, beets, sweet peas, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, carrots, stewed tomatoes, and stuffing. There was gravy for the turkey and gravy for the roast beef. There was cranberry sauce also. All of the food was good. I just expected there to be more - though there was the fourth carving. The chicken bot bie was just as good as I expected. The fried chicken is home sytle. The stewed tomatoes are very good. The macaroni and cheese - like the one the night before - is thick with cheese and crusted with a heavy layer of melted cheddar on top. I have said it before and I will say it again - wonderful!
The dessert selection equaled the Pennsylvania selection and this was also a dessert feast with a large assortment of cakes, different fruit pies, nut pies, cream pies, pudding pies, prepared desserts, puddings, fruit, jello and on. Here it was spread out more around two serving counters that went around a wall so the presentation is not as overwhelming as it is in the smaller area at their other restaurant, but it is all here. I wanted to take something and chose a small piece of chocolate cake with white frosting. It was good.
Your meal includes soft drinks and they serve Pepsi products. They have fresh brewed ice tea and this is very good!
Our server was very good and she took the soiled plates off our table each time we got up to get more and came around with drink refills. She also came by at dessert to offer some of their in-house made ice cream.
The food was good. The service was good. I like the Pennsylvania location better. I am not really certain why that is - perhaps atmosphere. Perhaps that coming to this location is really out of the way - at least from the area that we visit when we are close enough by to come here or to the Pennsylvania location. If I were in Gettysburg, I might make the trip over to this location.
I certainly recommend that you come here. But do so only if you are already coming to this area or are very nearby. As I say, it is not easy to get to and very much out of the way. If you happen to be on the White House staff, of course, you are right near by when the President is at Camp David so you certainly should come down the mountain for a good meal.
There was a time that this restaurant was not opened on Sundays. It is now. This Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is located at 133 Frederick Road, Thurmont, Maryland 21788. The phone number is 301-271-4373. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.
Thurmont, Maryland is one of those famous, but unknown places. It is at the foot of the Catoctin Mountain and on that mountain, hidden away, is Camp David, the retreat for Presidents of the United States since Eisenhower. I have written about another buffet in this area - Cozy Restaurant - that has a hotel where the White House Press Corp would stay and dine when the President was at Camp David. The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is just down the street from that restaurant.
Getting here can be quite an experience depending upon the direction that you come from. If you come west from Pennsylvania, you are not far from Gettysburg. If you come north from Maryland your GPS will likely route you through the Catoctin Mountain Park which is a roller coaster ride of narrow roads that wind around the mountain and in some places come very close to the edge. I went that way once, and I will never go that way again. We actually drove south and then east to travel on interstate highways to get to Thurmont to have dinner at the Mountain Gate. This was out of the way and longer in miles but actually about the same time as going the more direct but daunting route.
We arrived at the Mountain Gate Family Restaurant on a Saturday night at about 6:30 pm. There was no line to get in when we arrived but shortly after a line began to form. It is evident right away that this is the older of the two restaurants. I have spoken about the Christian decor that had been at the Waynesboro location and it is evident here. This is not any problem for us. I have read reviews where some people were troubled by it.
We were seated at a booth in what seemed to be the smaller dining room. There are three dining rooms with the buffet area located in the middle. Prices are the same at both locations. There is a noticeable difference in the tax - one restaurant is in Maryland and the other is in Pennsylvania.
I have been to the Pennsylvania location on a Saturday night and anticipated the same menu on the buffet. The buffet serving area is large - larger than in Pennsylvania, but as we went through the meal I had the impression that there were less choices being offered. The food here is, as expected, American Country and Pennsylvania Dutch. There are two soups - beef vegetable and chicken with dumplings, and a salad bar with an assortment of prepared salads, lettuce and romaine lettuce, and a large array of toppings for your salad. There were the makings for a Caesar Salad, and unlike the night before in Pennsylvania, the Caesar salad dressing was the creamy type. I tried the chicken with dumplings soup and it was very good. I made myself a Caesar salad and enjoyed that. I also took some chicken salad and some ham salad on my salad plate to taste. Both were excellent. Ham salad may be common in some areas but it is not common near us. I have had it in Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants and some (but rarely) buffets. If you have an opportunity to try it, do. It is little more than chopped ham with seasonings and mayonnaise, but it is good.
There were four carvings being sliced. The night before there had been only three. There was turkey, ham, pork, and roast beef. This roast beef was not like the beef that I had the night before in their other location. This was pretty much sliced roast beef. See my last article for my description of the one the night before. I did try the turkey and the ham. The turkey, while a turkey breast was pure turkey meat and not a turkey breast with fillers that is sometimes served. The ham was a basic sliced ham and it was good.
Looking around at the entree choices I was not seeing as much as I expected - and this surprised me. There were so many choices the night before - yes, they were seafood and it was seafood night, but I would have expected other entrees to take their place on a Saturday night. There was fried chicken, pork and sauerkraut, and chicken bot bie - a PA Dutch stew of chicken and large dumpling noodles with potatoes, carrots, and celery in a thick chicken stock. All of these are excellent. The vegetables and side dishes were very much the same as there had been at the other location - kernel corn, green beans and ham, beets, sweet peas, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, carrots, stewed tomatoes, and stuffing. There was gravy for the turkey and gravy for the roast beef. There was cranberry sauce also. All of the food was good. I just expected there to be more - though there was the fourth carving. The chicken bot bie was just as good as I expected. The fried chicken is home sytle. The stewed tomatoes are very good. The macaroni and cheese - like the one the night before - is thick with cheese and crusted with a heavy layer of melted cheddar on top. I have said it before and I will say it again - wonderful!
The dessert selection equaled the Pennsylvania selection and this was also a dessert feast with a large assortment of cakes, different fruit pies, nut pies, cream pies, pudding pies, prepared desserts, puddings, fruit, jello and on. Here it was spread out more around two serving counters that went around a wall so the presentation is not as overwhelming as it is in the smaller area at their other restaurant, but it is all here. I wanted to take something and chose a small piece of chocolate cake with white frosting. It was good.
Your meal includes soft drinks and they serve Pepsi products. They have fresh brewed ice tea and this is very good!
Our server was very good and she took the soiled plates off our table each time we got up to get more and came around with drink refills. She also came by at dessert to offer some of their in-house made ice cream.
The food was good. The service was good. I like the Pennsylvania location better. I am not really certain why that is - perhaps atmosphere. Perhaps that coming to this location is really out of the way - at least from the area that we visit when we are close enough by to come here or to the Pennsylvania location. If I were in Gettysburg, I might make the trip over to this location.
I certainly recommend that you come here. But do so only if you are already coming to this area or are very nearby. As I say, it is not easy to get to and very much out of the way. If you happen to be on the White House staff, of course, you are right near by when the President is at Camp David so you certainly should come down the mountain for a good meal.
There was a time that this restaurant was not opened on Sundays. It is now. This Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is located at 133 Frederick Road, Thurmont, Maryland 21788. The phone number is 301-271-4373. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.
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