The Complainers

Last night at the OCB we are sitting next to a table of two couples - around their mid to late fifties.Their entire dinner conversation were complaints. First it was about the food at OCB which they did not seem to hesitate to heap upon their plates. "The barbecue chicken is like shoe leather - how could you eat that? I had it the other night it was terrible." "Oh yes!" shoveling it in.This went on through the entire meal. It reminded my wife and me of an old joke that used to be told in the resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains (For those of you unfamiliar, these resorts were the incubators of new comedians and the final hurrah of vaudavilians.)The joke goes like this - Two people meet in a restaurant. One says to the other - "The food in this place is terrible." The other replies, "Yes, and such small portions!" That was how the night went at the table next to us. When they were finished bashing the OCB - at which, again, they had no hesitation to keep filling their plates - they began bashing a diner that they recently went to. Another couple - regulars at this OCB - came over that they seemed to know and they engaged them in the diner complaints.

So why were we ease dropping? Unfortunately, we could not help it - they were loud enough to hear at every table in the area. Why is it that people at buffet restaurants have a need to hold loud diner conversations. This is not the first time we have had to listen to the conversations at the tables around us for the entire meal. For some reason - and perhaps one of you has a theory or explanation about this - many people eating at buffets do not feel a need to speak quietly - just loud enough to speak to the people at their table - as one might expect in another restaurant (and as I might add, is what happens at other restaurants.)Over our buffet meals we have gotten to hear about disease, diarrhea, bugs, disagreements over estate settlements, and oh so many other things that we really would rather not have listened to.

Our friends, The Complainers, then went on to speak about two immensely huge women who were sitting at a table on the aisle. Now, these women were large - they were sitting at a table for four and, believe me, if even a child wanted to sit in the chair at the place at the table next to either one there would not have been room. (They must have exceptionally strong chairs at buffet restaurants.) Now, I noticed these ladies and frankly, it is none of my business, nor anyone else's how they look. But The Complainers had to make conversation (loud conversation) regarding the two ladies. The ladies ignored them.

So should there be a new rule - When having dinner conversation, speak softly only to those at your table, and not loud enough to be heard at every other table - perhaps this will show up in my next update of the rules of buffets.

SITED AT A BUFFET -

Ok, I have got to share this with you. It was seen at a Ryan's a few weeks ago. This was the all time topper of taking everything to eat on one plate - a woman had a steak on her plate. She then took that plate to the ice cream machine and swirled out a large portion of ice cream - not on the steak, but next to it. She then went to the whipped cream and placed whipped cream on the ice cream, which by now was dripping over and running under the steak. Steak ala mode! Oh my!

We've Been Robbed!!!

I am sitting in front of the TV and flipping through the cable channels and I see a commercial for The Learning Channel and their new line of Life Lessons figurines. These are cute little statues with cartoon-like figures in a variety of comical "life" situations. They go through the collection - which are offered for sale on their website when WOW - did I just hear what I think I heard? One of the figurines is entitled "ALL YOU CAN EAT IS NOT A CHALLENGE". Excuse me. I do not recall getting an email or any contact from The Learning Channel asking my permission to name one of their figurines after the title of my web blog. Yet there it is - and offered for sale no less.

A week ago I am at the movies. Commercials come on the screen - yes, in this country you pay $10 for a ticket to see a movie that lasts less than 90 minutes and you get to watch commercials before the movie starts - I do not mean previews of other movies (those are great). I am talking about product selling commercials. So the commercials start and SPLAT - across the screen is the same TLC commercial for these figurines and there we are again! Right up there on the big screen. A thrill if I got any credit for it - but no credit given.

This blog site was titled and established at the beginning of August 2005. Just scroll down to the beginning articles to see. This ad campaign started no earlier than March 2006. This blog site is my copyright under the laws of the United States. It is published and available to the general public. I've been robbed!

So what am I going to do about it? Well, for a start I will be contacting The Learning Channel and let them know that they have infringed on my copyright. I happen to know a copyright and patent attorney and I know an attorney that likes to fight for the underdog. What do I want? Well, I never started this expecting to make a buck, but hey, I have readership and I put a lot of effort into this to make it both informative and entertaining. From my readers I only ask for your continued visits to the site. From these fatcats in big industry that stole from this humble, little guy... Well, we shall see. We shall see.

Buffets in Hagerstown, Maryland

We take an annual trip down to the Hagerstown, Maryland area. This is in northwestern Maryland near the Pennsylvania border and interestingly, an hour from Washington, D.C. and an hour in a different direction to Baltimore. It is also near the point where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. Lots of history in the area - which is why we go. Anyway - as you near the Pennsylvania border into Maryland there is a billboard that is two sided - seen from both directions on the road (Route Interstate 81)- for a restaurant called the Antrim House. It is a huge billboard with buffet very prominently displayed. It is about 20 minutes from our destination in Hagerstown, Maryland. It has caught our attention for three years now, and this year I decided that it was time to check it out. So why isn't this review called The Antrim House - because we did not go. Here's why.

We first decided to do an Internet search to find the exact location and see what it has to offer. The restaurant is in the town of Greencastle, PA. We found a website that featured The Antrim House - Restaurant and Coffee Shop. For anyone out of the US - when something here is a "coffee shop" it usually denotes a small restaurant with a counter at which you have lunch. The website had a small photo of a portion of a dining room. It looked like a nice "little" restaurant. BUT nowhere on the website did it ever mention buffet. Nothing in the photo looked like a buffet table would fit in to both the size of the room and the decor - as it appears. Now, as I have said, the billboard is HUGE and the word BUFFET is prominent. So why doesn't the website which had a restaurant menu even mention buffet - or salad bar for that matter - which also was on the billboard. It was all too odd to chance dinner on. With the price of gasoline, even the drive back twenty minutes up to PA was not worth the chance. We did not go. If anyone has ever eaten at the Antrim House Restaurant in Greencastle, PA and knows about the buffet - please share it with us! I am still intrigued.

So with the Antrim House out of the running for dinner last Friday night, we needed to find something else. We looked in the phonebook and found Richardsons Restaurant in Hagerstown,which also has a buffet. I have passed this on the road and it never looked like a fancy restaurant on the outside. We started our Internet search for this restaurant and found not only a website, but some reviews on other sites. The reviews were mixed. Some liked it and some said it was just fair. There is a featured buffet on Friday and Saturday nights - Friday is Seafood and Saturday is Prime Rib. One of the reviews raved about the prime rib. I asked my good wife to call and find out the price. (it was Friday night - my wife is not found of seafood. I enjoy it. She will only eat shrimp.) If we were going on Friday night I wanted to find out a little more - there was no price for the buffet on the website. She asked how much the buffet was this night - $24 - she then asked how much, she called it roast beef and not prime rib,was on Saturday night (perhaps a better choice if she was not going to eat the seafood for $24) and she was told that the "roast beef" buffet was that night - not Saturday night. Now we were confused - and my wife hung up the phone without clarifying what that meant - no seafood, seafood with a roast beef choice, or a very confused restaurant - or perhaps due to my wife's not stating PRIME RIB, this led to the confusion. Never the less - we did not go! Oh why? you ask. Because $24 is a very high price to pay for a buffet. Some of the most complete buffets that I have been to are around that price - but I know that I am going to get great value for that cost. Let's face it, your humble author is not getting paid to eat in these buffet restaurants nor is the check picked up by blogger. I have to pay out of my pocket - times two (can't leave the wife at McDonald's) and I am not taking too many chances past $12 to $15 per person. ESPECIALLY, when one of my FAVORITE buffet chains is just down the road.

We went to Ryan's! There is a Ryan's in Hagerstown. There is also a Ryan's in Chambersburg, PA which is just off I81 on the way to Hagerstown - and we ate there on the way down the night before. Ryan's two nights in a row? you may question. There are no Ryan's near where I live. In fact, the Chambersburg Ryan's is the closest Ryan's to my home - and that is about 200 miles each way.

Ryan's seem to vary a bit from restaurant to restaurant - not in the menu but in how they are maintained and how the layout of the restaurant is. Some are larger. Some have different, but similar decor. Some are great. Some are not kept well.(There is a recent comment on the Ryan's article on this site that talks about a bad experience in a Ryan's in Michigan - Sorry about that!) My wife finds the Ryan's in Hagerstown nicer and better than the one in Chambersburg. The decor is different - the metal work railing that decorate the room are black in Chambersburg and my wife feels that the restaurant is dark as a result - not bright and cheery. The railing are brass in Hagerstown. She likes this one because it is brighter. She also commented to me that the food was better kept at Hagerstown - I found nothing wrong with the food at Chambersburg, but she noticed that things at Hagerstown were a bit moister and fresher. (Have I ever shared that my wife is ALWAYS right? - and she reminds me of this often. As a matter of fact, with a few small exceptions, she is. I will not tell you now how she once got us lost in the woods in our car. She blames the map.)

I like Ryan's. I like the steak. At Chambersburg, I hit it lucky perhaps, but my rare steak was perfect and tasty. The inside was not raw and the outside was charred. This is just the way I like it. In Hagerstown, the steak was also good, but not as properly cooked as that first piece the night before. I will not go into a description of Ryan's again - read the previous article. But, we ate in Ryan's two nights in a row. It will be August before I get to one again - in Virginia (stay tuned!)

The third night we ate in the restaurant that I reviewed in last week's article. Read about that one - I still say it has the BEST dessert bar anywhere!

So if you are heading toward Hagerstown, you know now what your buffet choices are. If you get to any of the ones we did not go to, please share it with us. I am going back to the area in a year and I will go to one of those if I know more about them.

Mountain Gate Family Restaurant - Waynesboro, PA and Thurmont, Maryland

The advertising of this restaurant is “When you think of buffet, think of Mountain Gate". The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant has two locations, one in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania and the other in Thurmont, Maryland. I happen to be in Maryland, but dined at the restaurant in Pennsylvania. I dined at the Mountain Gateway in Waynesboro – closer to Hagerstown, Maryland than Thurmont. The restaurant is located on Route 16 east of Rt. I81 at 10530 Buchanan Trail Road in Waynesboro, PA. In Thurmont, Maryland the restaurant is located on Route 15 at 122 Frederick Road. The name of the restaurant comes from rhe “Gateway to the Catoctin Mountains”.

This is a friendly, small family owned restaurant. Let me say immediately, as we drove into the parking lot from the road the first thing that we noticed on the changeable sign in the front of the restaurant = below the name – was a few sayings about praying for our troops and God’s love. Very nice. But understand that this was an introduction to a Christian restaurant – no problem, unless you have concern about the many crosses and little angel statues that decorate the restaurant including a larger cross and a Bible on the fireplace hearth. I have no problem with any of this – I thought that it was very nice. The rooms were all bright and pleasant. Nice décor. Don’t stop reading – there is a lot of reason to come here. Read on.

That said; let’s get on to the restaurant and the food. In one word, excellent. Good price, good value, good food. We went on a Saturday night. There are buffets every night. The food was a mix of Pennsylvania German and American home cooking. The Saturday night price is $11.95 per adult. The price is the same Friday and Sunday. Weekend hours are until 9. There are also lunch and breakfast buffets. Lunch buffet during the week is $6.50 until 3:30pm. Breakfast buffet is $5.50 weekdays (until 11am) and $6.25, Saturday and Sunday (until Noon). Dinner buffets Monday to Thursday are $8.99. Good prices. There are children’s prices. You can also order from a menu. You pay after you dine. Tips are not included. Service is good. Leave a good tip. Beverages are included and brought to you by your waitress.

There are booths and tables. The room that we were in was the banquet room and the tables were folding tables, a little unusual but more than adequate and comfortable. There were two dining areas with booths and there was another dining room at the opposite side of the restaurant. The buffet was in its own room situated in the center of the restaurant. Your silverware and napkins are on the table. You are seated and asked if you would like a menu or are selecting the buffet. Your waitress comes and takes your soft drink order. You are then on your own to go and get whatever you like.

You may start with a choice of two soups. There was vegetable and a crab vegetable. We tried them both and they were very good. I enjoyed the crab soup – real crab meat and good crab taste. Adjacent to the soup was home baked breads – a wide assortment.

There is a salad bar that fills a wall of the buffet room. There are two types of lettuce. There is every topping that you can think of and there is an assortment of prepared salads. I made a Caesar salad. You could have made any type of salad. You could skip the greens and enjoyed the prepared salads.

In the center of the buffet room is a double sided long buffet of entrees and vegetables. They claim to have seven vegetables. They do - there was string beans and ham (a local dish), corn, beats, peas, mashed potatoes, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, etc. There were several hot entrees here including fried chicken and what they call slippery pot pie which is actually PA Dutch Chicken Bot Bie = fresh dumpling noodles, chicken, carrots, and potatoes in a thick chicken stock sauce. There was also pork and sauerkraut. All in all, \plenty and kept properly hot and moist. There was also a carving station with THREE meats carved to your order - baked ham, turkey, and roast beef. There was beef and turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, and bread stuffing. There were also corn fritters, This was all home style food, simple and well prepared.

The highlight of this restaurant was the BEST dessert bar that I have ever seen The desserts were laid out on a large double sided buffet server that filled the side of the room. There were also more desserts filling the side wall. Think of a pie and it was there. There were also four sugar free pies. There was a variety of cakes. There were puddings. There was fruit. To top it all off there were 16 flavors of ice cream from a local dairy. Your waitress brought the ice cream to your table. All is fresh baked. I have been to a lot of buffet restaurants and many, many catering hall banquets; I have never seen as large a dessert offering as this. There were pies and cakes that I have never seen before. Three was Reeses pie. There was egg custard pie. There was pumpkin pie in April. They went on and on. For this reason alone this restaurant is an experience not to be missed. While you can order the soup and salad bar on its own, it does not appear that you can order the dessert bar alone –but the dessert bar is worth the price of the buffet.

Service was excellent. It was personal and consistent. The waitress came by many times to make sure that we had all that we needed. She refilled the drinks without our asking. She cleared the dishes as soon as we were through,

Getting to this restaurant seems like it goes on forever, but it is worth the trip. Once off I81 we drove through the town of Waynesboro and seemed to drive forever – actually it is only about 7 miles from I81 – and along the way we picked up the cheapest gas to be found within a hundred miles - $2.89 at a Sheetz station – almost ten cents less a gallon than other stations. This may not be the place for this information, but it the subject of conversation everywhere you go.

Anyway – if you are in northwestern Maryland or south – very central PA go to the Mountain Gate Family Restaurant. I am sure both locations are equally good. There is no website but the phone numbers are Waynesboro 717-765-6772 and Thurmont 301-271-4373. Hours in Thurmont are from 5 am to 10:30 pm, Sunday to Thursday and 5 am – 11 pm, Friday and Saturday. The hours in Waynesboro are 5 am to 10 pm every day.

A Week of Buffets

This has been a week of dining at my local buffets. This was a holiday week and we dined out through the week. We started with Easter dinner at Greenfield - the Brazilian all you can eat steak restaurant that I wrote about a few weeks back. I was able to convince my sister out of going to the Milleridge Inn holiday buffet - see my article around Christmas about this experience - and talked her into a restaurant of my choosing, and I chose Greenfield. The Easter dinner there was just as good as dinner has been any other time. The price was the same and the offerings were the same - with a few added seafood dishes in the hot entrees area. We were not rushed in any way and the service was excellent. (No one here seemed annoyed to be working on the holiday.) The restaurant was not crowded - but we ate late for a holiday dinner - not mid- afternoon which is customarily the busy holiday dinner time, but at 5:30 pm. It was fun. It was festive. We did not leave hungry. What more can one ask for?

The week progressed with dinner at the Asian Buffet in Hicksville, NY. This restaurant has been previously reviewed. They have a new "lower" price from Monday to Thursday - $11.99 per adult at dinner. Despite this attempt to make the meal more reasonable, this restaurant is pricing itself out - the restaurant is always empty with just a few tables occupied. The food is good - the price is not for this level of Chinese buffet. They want to be like the big international buffet restaurants but they do not offer anything on the buffet that compares. I am not saying that this is not a good restaurant. They have nice food. It is just too expensive for what it has.

We went to the Old Country Buffet on Wednesday. Nothing special to say about Wednesday except that we saw that the St. Louis Ribs and Steak Special has begun and is offered on Thursday - Saturday. Note the hyphen. That is how the sign is written - so does that mean that this is Thursday, Friday and Saturday - or is this Thursday and Saturday. Not sure. Since Shrimp and Salmon are still the special for Wednesday and Friday, suspect that there are no ribs on Friday. There is steak every night but Sunday.

I could not resist a chance to try the St.Louis Ribs so we went back on Thursday night. The ribs are good. They are similar to the baby back ribs that were featured in last summer's barbecue nights - probably the exactly the same. I am not sure what makes them St. Louis Ribs but they were small - served in pieces of three or four ribs. They just about fell off the bone - which is how they should be. They were not over-sauced. I suspect that this is their summer special this year. (Last year it was barbecue, the year before tex mex.) They were smart and had enough ribs to keep them coming out - they did run out of brisket and ham, but it was late.

Thursday night was prime for people watching at the OCB. A guy came in with a woman and sat at the table behind us. I could not see who was there as my back was to them, and only the guy was talking. They came in late and asked the server (at OCB this is actually the table cleaner) where he gets the hats. The Hispanic woman could not figure out what he was talking about - neither could I. He then must have pointed to a kid across the room wearing one of the bee masks that the character bee hands out to the children. The bee had been around earlier and was long gone. The server explained this to this guy - who had never been to OCB before. I figured that there must be kids with this guy - but I did not hear any. He wanted to know if he could go to the "box" and get some. The server tried to explain that you get them from the "Bee" and the Bee is gone. The server left them and I heard him explain to the woman - there were no kids - that the hats are to be worn in the restaurant - "You know, it's a fun thing," he explained. They were never at any OCB before. I do not think that they were ever at a buffet restaurant before. He had to stay at the table while the woman went up to get her food. When she came back, then he went up. He kept talking about the buffet as like a cafeteria. He was odd in many ways. My wife had a full view and told me that his underwear - royal blue - were sticking out of his pants - as was his butt crack. Very appetizing for all around. Well, anyway, don't you know that sometime along he got the "hats" (really the bee masks) and made the woman that he was with wear the bee mask. This was the first person over the age of 12 that I have ever seen at an OCB wearing a bee mask. He argued with her through most of the meal for making him come there. At the table next to us I got to hear a very loud lady talk about her diarrhea. How nice!

Tonight we went to the usual Friday night buffet - China Grand Buffet in Farmingdale, NY. It was as usual. There is an article reviewing this restaurant if you look in the archives. Service tonight was poor. The "Lobster Grabbers" were there - but it did not matter because they never put new lobster out while we were there - which is consistently a problem here.

So it has been a week of buffets. Next week I go back to work and it will be dining at home again.

Star Buffet and Grill

In the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country’s Lancaster County is the Star Buffet and Grill - another farm country buffet? No, actually, this buffet is Chinese. The Star Buffet and Grill is located on Route 30 east of Lancaster near the Dutch Wonderland amusement park at 2232 Lincoln Highway East. This is a typical Chinese buffet. The food is good and the atmosphere is pleasant.

The price of dinner is $9.95 for adults, Friday to Sunday and $8.85 Monday to Thursday. There are children’s prices and lunch prices are lower. The price does not include a beverage which is $1.00 with refills. You pay when you have finished your meal.

The selection at this Chinese buffet is pretty much like most other Chinese buffet restaurants with the addition of a Mongolian grill. There are four large, double-sided buffet islands in the center of the restaurant and the grill behind a counter on the back wall. In front of the grill is a serving counter with ingredients.

The first buffet island has dessert items on one side and salads and sushi on the other side. Sushi is salmon rolls. There is a bowl of lettuce with toppings and dressings. There is an assortment of Oriental prepared salads including Korean Kim Chi, a hot peppered cabbage, marinated in vinegar. There are cold, peel and eat shrimp here as well.

There are the usual three Chinese soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour soup. The hot and sour soup was spicy but not so spicy with red pepper seeds that it was not edible – as it can be in some places. The soup is found on the second island along with an assortment of dumplings and hot appetizers. The spring roll was crunchy without the soggy consistency that can happen when they sit in a serving tray too long. Fried dumplings were light and not overdone. There was plenty of dumpling sauce nearby. There were also sweet dumplings, steamed rolls, and shumai. There were also fried cheese wontons. There were very, very crispy fried shrimp - very good! This buffet table also had steamed snow crab legs, not whole clusters, but individual legs but there was plenty to take. (I have spoken of crab legs in other articles - take a few at a time, They are much better hot and will crack open with your fingers releasing the entire leg’s meat with a gentle pull. Once they get cool, they are hard to open, become flexible, and the meat sticks to the inside of the shell.) There were many other hot appetizers to be found.

The next island was Chinese entrees including whole, steamed flounder in ginger sauce. There was broiled salmon. There were good, meaty spare ribs, a variety of Chinese vegetable dishes, a good tofu and vegetables dish that was not spicy, the usual pepper steak and chicken with broccoli, salt and pepper shrimp, stuffed clams, stuffed mushrooms, boneless spare ribs, General Tso’s chicken, steamed clams, baked clams, fried rice, lo mein, and on and on. The restaurant’s brochure lists a variety of 50 items offered on the total buffet.

The last island had more Chinese entrees and also American dishes. There was French fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, cheese spinach, crab in cheese, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs rolled in dough, and other entrees. There were very good fried and lightly breaded zucchini slices.

If you had a hard time finding something that you liked on the serving tables you can create what you like at the grill. Here there were raw whole pieces of steak, sliced raw chicken, raw pork, and sliced raw beef. There are a number of raw vegetables and also noodles. You select what you like on a plate, add one of the eight sauces from mild to spicy, and hand the plate to the chef behind the counter. He cooks this on a small, round flat grill – the Mongolian BBQ. After cooking, he plates your creation and hands it to you right there. If you would like just steak you pick your piece and hand it back to cook to order. (A note – rare, medium, well – not much difference in how you get it. Despite this the steak was good and it was tender – no grizzle and no fat.) There is no reason that you cannot find something to enjoy here.

For dessert it was back to the first island where there were the usual Chinese buffet sheet cakes, an assortment of jellos and puddings including a good tapioca. There were jello squares that look creamy and like little cakes. There were fresh fruits, bananas in a strawberry sauce, fruit salad, and cut up melon. There was also a soft serve ice cream machine with creamy – not icy – ice cream.

Beverages are brought to you by your server and she was ready to ask to get you a refill when you needed one. The service is good and dishes were picked up from the table regularly. The silver ware is on your table and a pile of extra napkins are there too. If you want a knife, ask your server and you get one right away. There are shell crackers out for you to take next to the Mongolian counter (next to a microwave that is out toward the public – not sure what that is for, unless you want to make what is already hot, hotter.)

I always say that you can judge a Chinese restaurant by the number of Chinese people eating there and here there were a number of tables with Chinese families appearing to enjoy the food here. This to me is a good sign.

There is plenty of variety to find here. Meat lovers, seafood lovers, and vegetarians will all enjoy this restaurant. There is no website. There are brochures at tourist spots. There may also be coupons in the local tourist publications for discounts. The telephone number is (717) 393- 4866. The hours are Monday to Thursday from 11am to 10:30pm, Friday and Saturday to 11:00 pm and Sunday to 10pm. This is an area where many restaurants close at 8pm and are closed on Sundays. This is a good Sunday night choice if you are looking for all you care to eat. If you are in the area and you are tired of country cooking, then give the Star Buffet and Grill a try.

Greenfields Restaurant

Churrascaria - another type of all you care to eat. This is Brazilian smorgasbord. It means house of barbecue in Portuguese. Green fields Restaurant is located on Route 110 in Farmingdale, New York, on Long Island. This restaurant offers a variety of ways to dine - all included in one price. The highlight of this restaurant is the skewers of meats - many types of meats - that are carried by waiters around the room and brought to your table for you to take what you like. In addition there is a very extensive salad bar and a hot buffet. Filling an entire wall of the restaurant from floor to ceiling is the fire pit barbecue. It appeared that they are burning wood chips and the flames broil the meats on the sword skewers that hang over the fire across the the pit. You can see everything roasting and what is coming off the fire and heading for the tables.

This is not an inexpensive restaurant, but what you get is well worth the dinner price of $24.99. It is the same price seven nights, all week. There is a lower price for lunch and children over 4 are $9.95. For your money you get everything on the buffet tables and the Churrascaria meats that are carried to you. The price does not include any beverage and fancy desserts are extra. There is fruit on the salad bar which makes a fine dessert - if you are so inclined after this filling meal.

You can start with soup. There were two soups offered the night that we went. There was Black Bean and Chicken Vegetable. The vegetable soup was loaded with large pieces of chicken, but light on vegetables. The salad bar is extensive with many unusual prepared vegetable salads, many of which are Brazilian in origin. There was also Greek salad, Caesar salad, and a variety of greens and leaf spinach to make your own salad with many toppings and the usual dressings. There is also sliced ham and salami on the salad bar. There is cold, peel and eat shrimp. There is fresh fruit. You can make a meal of the salad bar, but do not fill up here. There is lots more to come.

The hot buffet area has hot chafing servers filled with potatoes, vegetables,and entrees. At past visits the entrees included many exotic meats such as ostrich, kangaroo, buffalo, and the like. The menu has recently changed and the theme of the hot entrees is now Texas BBQ. At our visit there was pulled pork barbecue that was as good as any I have had in the South. There was beef bricked, but it was served with horseradish sauce and not like barbecue smoked brisket. It was tasty but not what I expected when I saw the sign that read brisket. It was more like New York style pot roast. There was also a chicken dish and pene pasta with shrimp in a light tomato sauce. There is a bread basket out in the middle. Again, do not fill up here because the main attraction is to come.

Go to the buffet area and take potatoes and vegetables. If you do not care for the hot vegetables, there is cold corn and cold string beans on the salad bar. Take your plate back to the table. Now the fun starts. On your table you will find a little salt shaker like jar with a red cap on the top and a green cap on the bottom. Turn that over so that the green is on the top and the waiters will start coming to your table with the meats. The meats are fire cooked on long sword-like skewers and the whole sword is carried to your table - sometimes two at a time. Your server will tell you what the meat is and if you would like some he cuts you off a piece or slides a whole piece on to your plate. We were offered Italian sausage, chunks of white meat turkey wrapped in bacon, chicken with a Brazilian spiced taste, steak, top sirloin, beef loin, pork spareribs (with a good BBQ sauce cooked on - again part of the new Texas BBQ theme), duck, lamb, chunks of meaty beef ribs. As long as the green cap is up the meats keep coming. Turn it over to red and the waiter does not stop at your table. Ready for more - turn it back over to green. Feel like more salad or hot buffet - go back up and get some more.

The meat is not cooked to order but it is juicy and not dried out. The taste is excellent. The outside is charred crispy and the inside is just right on the medium side. I like rare beef but I enjoy the meat here done medium.

All of the wait staff are Brazilian (or at least appear to be) and the atmosphere with the meats traveling around the room is festive. There is Brazilian music piped in with a great beat. The decor is Brazil. There are a variety of animal heads on the walls - wild boar, deer, etc.

In the past there were more exotic meats and there was roast suckling pig. There was no pig on this night. We went on a Tuesday night (special birthday dinner - Happy Birthday to ME!) and there were not many diners, though there were tables filled through out the evening. The room was most full as we were leaving at 8:30. I had thought it best to get there early on a weeknight figuring that it would be slow and empty and that it was more likely to not be empty early. I was wrong. On the weekends the restaurant is crowded - though we have never had to wait long for a table on a Saturday night. We asked about Easter Sunday dinner and were advised to make reservations. The price is the same for the holiday - dinner is served all day on Sundays - no lunch prices.

There is a chain of these restaurants (Greenfields) - two in California, one in Queens, NY, one in Rockville, Maryland, and one in Boston. The interesting thing is that this one is not listed on the website as part of the chain - but the name is the same, the style is the same, and the menu is the same. Perhaps this once was a part of the chain and is not any more - but the name is the same. There is a website for the chain (do a search) but I am not listing the website on the side of the blog as it does not represent this particular recurrent. If anyone who reads this has been to one of the locations of the chain, please make a comment about the restaurant and your experience. I can recommend this particular restaurant - and the style of eating in general- but I have not been to any of the locations on the website. If you are able to visit this restaurant in Farmingdale, NY - Go for it! If you are a MEAT EATER you will not be disappointed! If you come across any restaurant labeled Churrascaria, it should be just like this. Try it!

Trying to Diet at the Buffet

A few weeks ago I discovered that my blood sugar levels were higher than they should be and my Type II Diabetes, despite a long standing medication, was out of control. I saw this as the end to my buffet hopping. I had to get my diet under control quickly and make sure that I got my blood glucose levels back where they were and where they should be. I tend not to eat desserts, but I do indulge at the buffet in potatoes, pasta, pizza, and at the Chinese buffet, dumplings. Not to excess, but even a small sampling can add up to the equivalent of cake and ice cream. All of which were contributing to my sudden problem. And yet, I enjoy those buffets and wanted to keep going.

I made up my mind that I could still go to the buffet - I just had to find better choices to eat. Was that possible? With will power to keep away from high carbohydrate items, it is - and there is still a variety to enjoy.

We went to the Old Country Buffet - haven of southern country, high fat, and high carb cooking. This time I paid more attention to the salad bar, but keeping in mind that the salad dressings can have a higher fat content (a glucose and calorie raiser - it is not just sugar when it comes to controlling Diabetes by diet). What I found and fell in love with is the Caesar salad. It is pre-made of romaine lettuce, a thin Caesar dressing, and croutons. The number of croutons in the whole serving tray are not that significant to raising the carb count to a plateful of the salad. And it is good. I add a little grated cheese from the condiment table and a few extra croutons from the salad bar. I have also discovered that I am not the only one that likes this salad - the trays empty quickly and hopefully, are refilled regularly. There are two trays of it out on the salad bar. Romaine lettuce is easier on the digestive system than iceberg lettuce and it is chopped up in the preparation of the salad. This salad is filling and tasty.

If you are at the buffet you are going to be tempted to more than salad. Over at the entree tables there are plenty of choices which vary with the night at OCB. At the carving station you will find meats and, six out of seven nights, steak. There is broiled or BBQ chicken some nights and broiled fish. You can even enjoy the fried shrimp- just peel off the fried breading and just eat the shrimp inside. Avoid the mac and cheese, the French fries, the spaghetti, the pizza, the augratin potatoes, all of the deep fried and tempting meats and move on to the vegetable selections. The vegetables at OCB have low calorie and fat counts. (See our earlier article on "Nutrition at the Buffets") They are filling and if you don't find something that you like you can always head back for another plate of the Caesar salad as a side dish. Add a little gravy or a little barbecue sauce to the meat and even the overly done piece of beef is tasty. Limit your beverage from Coke to Diet Coke or the unsweetened ice tea. Deserts need to be passed by. There are some "sugar-free" puddings, a "sugar-free" cake, and a "sugar-free" softserve yogurt, but these have problems. One of which is the sweetener used. Many commercial "sugar-free" items are sweetened with sorbitol, malitol, or one of the other sugar alcohols. Nice and sweet with minimal aftertaste, HOWEVER, these sweeteners are LAXATIVES - some of them are prescribed as laxatives when such an effect is needed. Eat them when you don't need their intended effect and you get the runs and some pretty distressing stomach pains. Not fun and not worth the dessert. I am not saying that the OCB contains these, but you don't know - they are so commonly used in these products that unless the item is labeled otherwise, assume that it is in there. The other problem is that if you take a carb count of these items and a carb count of the real thing with sugar, there is VERY LITTLE difference - hardly worth the discomfort and both will have the same effect on your glucose level or your calorie count. So skip the dessert.

At the Chinese buffet, there is usually a salad bar, but you can make a pretty good low carb meal with variety out of the entree selections. The meat and vegetable dishes will make a great Chinese meal. Just avoid any rice and any noodles. There is also usually peel and eat shrimp and sometimes steamed crab legs. An overflowing plate of shrimp and crab - doesn't seem like a diet does it? (Don't overflow your plate - take some and go back for more. You will eat less and you will find that steamed crab legs are much better when they are hot - they come out of the shell much easier and they taste better. On your plate they cool down pretty quickly, so take a small amount and go right back for more hot ones!) Do not take the butter sauce! If you need to add to the taste, take the cocktail sauce - it is as good on crab as it is on shrimp too. I think people eat crab and lobster just to be able to dip it into the butter sauce - which, you know, if far from butter. Yes, it is good - sorry, it is not good for you. It is not really good for anyone.

So with this change in my buffet habits, how am I doing? Combined with a small increase in my daily exercise routine, my Diabetes is well in control. The numbers are now great. Now, I am not so interested in doing this for weight loss, but that will be a result too. And this same approach to the buffets is going to work for someone who wants to (or needs to) diet to lose weight.

Gotta lose weight. You can still enjoy.

Children at the Buffet

Buffets are family friendly restaurants. Perhaps I should say most buffets, as there are some of those "fine" dining buffets with linen table clothes and a price to go with them. Never the less, children are not a problem at buffets, but sometimes their parents are. This may be indicative of parenting in 2006, but when the kids are up from the table on their own and moving around the restaurant there are many problems.

I have taken children to buffets - my nieces and my nephew. They were expected to sit and eat their meal, as they would be expected in any restaurant. When they wished something from the buffet, an adult went with them, helped them get what they wanted and then escorted them back to the table. Yet all too often what you see and have to dine with are children - as young as 6 and 7 (maybe younger) up from the table at the serving table on their own. They can barely reach the serving spoon. They can't hold or balance their plate as they reach into the tray with the spoon. They don't know not to take a taste and then put the food back into the tray. Have you seen a child put his whole hand into the tray? I have. That is why they are kids. Not their fault, really. But their parents should know better.

Children also like to roam around the restaurant. The parents don't seem to mind - they probably relish the time without the kids at the table. There seems to be an idea that because you get up to serve yourself, you also can just get up to wander around - and in the case of the kids - play. The buffet makes a great playground. There are tables to visit. Things to see. Lots of room to run around. Right? No, wrong. I watched two pre-teen girls moving back and forth across the buffet room the other night. They were from two different tables at opposite sides of the restaurant. They had met there that night - I guess, over the serving table and became instant companions for the evening. The problem was that they moved back and forth from each others table across the room. You would get up to go to the serving table and there they were, walking across - constantly. This went on for over an hour - and along the way they ate as they traveled. I like kids. I work with kids. But kids need structure and they need limit setting - in fact, I can share, professionally, that they crave it. They need parents to tell them that they are in a restaurant and they need to sit down and eat.

If you take your kids to a buffet - children and adolescents - teach them some dining out decorum. Keep them with you at the table and accompany them up to the food. Please don't let them wander. Please don't let them go up on their own. There are too many ways for them to get hurt -walked over by the adults who pay attention to nothing more than their plate as they walk around, burned by a hot tray, tripped over by wait staff clearing dishes, etc., etc., etc. AND it is annoying to everyone who is just out to enjoy their meal. Enough said. Any comments?

Family Style Dining

Family style restaurants are a different type of all you care to eat restaurant. These are restaurants that seat their guests together at large tables and waiters bring large platters of food to the table. The platters are passed around and shared by all at the table. It is supposed to be like eating at home with your family - it tends to be more like eating at a rooming house (as they are depicted in the movies).

These restaurants usually serve in courses. They will bring out an appettizing course. There might be bowls of prepared salads, breads, etc. These are passed around and plates are filled (usually a mistake - Everyone always takes bread. They want you to fill up on the bread so that you will not take the real food that is still to come.). After everyone has finished with this first course, platters of meats, side dishes, and vegetables are brought out. This is the heart of the meal and as each platter is emptied, it is taken away and refilled.

Following the entrees, the platters are cleared from the table - when everyone is done - and desserts are brought out in the same manner. Bowls of puddings, pies, slices of cake are brought to the table and passed around.

Beverages are served by the waiters and depending on the restaurant this may be soda and soft drinks brought by the glass or ice tea and lemonade brought by the glass and refilled by the pitcher. Usually coffee and tea is brought for the dessert course.

The nature of this type of serving usually results in plates being filled to the brim. The idea that there will be more on the platter later on does not occur to people and the grab it all as it comes around. Also people tend to be shy when sitting with strangers and if a platter ends up at the opposite end of the table, people don't always like to ask to have it passed down - interupting everyone who is eating in between. When sitting with strangers people tend to be more conservative in how much they take - and when everyone else has finished and you feel like you want to take some more, you will hold up the serving of the next course for everyone. So at a family style restaurant social and peer pressure come into play. There is the opportunity to eat all that you care to eat - but there are going to be factors that may prevent that from actually happening. For me, the idea is not to eat all that you can 0r even care to - I am more interested in having the variety that a buffet or a family style restaurant offers. In that, a family style restaurant can be very satisfying. One thing to keep in mind that is that you are eating at the pace of the table - not your own pace. There is no opportunity here to sit and linger over your meal. Also, in many of the restaurants the rooms are noisy with conversations. It is not a place to go with the family or friends to sit and talk. You do get to meet people from all over. This is not a place for the shy.

I have encountered two cuisines that have been served family style. One is Italian and the other is Country (Pennsylvania Dutch or Southern). Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has several of these restaurants. One of the oldest is called - The Family Style Restaurant located on Rt. 340. This is one of the originals - however, it was purchased by another restaurant a number of years ago and is now owned by Millers Smorgasbord Restaurant. They rebuilt the restaurant and the complex of gift shops that have always surrounded it. Here the style of cooking is Pennsylvania Dutch.

Another Pennsylvania Dutch family style restaurant is the Good 'N Plenty Restaurant on Rt. 896 in the village of Smoketown in Lancaster, PA between Rt 30 and Rt 340. This was always one of the better family style restaurants in the area. The restaurant was remodeled several years ago and it is a large complex of dining rooms. Tables hold 20 or more people. What was always amazing here was the spped and precision in clearing and cleaning a table for the next group to come in. The entrees usually include fried chicken, sliced beef, sometimes fish, sometimes sausage. The food here is good.

So, for a different experience in dining, try a family style restaurant.

Buffets on TV and in the Movies

Last week's episode of Las Vegas featured a storyline around the new buffet opened at the fictional casino in the show - The Montecido. The story involved a finger found in the shrimp cocktail. Gross, but it could happen! Around the story, the corporate operations manager is upset about how much everyone is eating at the buffet - and how they are sure to lose money. One quick scene to illustrate this is an obese family of four devouring everything in front of them. (A common site to many of us who frequent these restaurants.)

A long time back on one of the popular police shows, the squad was called to come to a local buffet, where a diner pulled a chair up to the buffet table and started to eat directly from the serving trays. The detectives responded and were confronted by an obese man who insisted that he paid for all he can eat and he was going to do that right at the steam table. As I recall there was quite a struggle to get him away.

There is a very funny scene in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation where Clark and Cousin Eddie go to the casino buffet. They are moving along the serving line and there are two trays - one blue goop and one yellow goop. Cousin Eddie makes a comment about chicken and the server behind the counter looks at the two trays and says that signs are mixed up - the blue is not the chicken, the yellow is the chicken! A following scene shows them eating and Eddie brings out plastic bags and starts filling them from his plate.

The buffet never really shines in the movies or on television. It is used to show people stuffing themselves or is illustrated of low class dining. They never show a really nice restaurant as a buffet - which we know there are. The buffet generally is depicted as the depths of dining out - not even fast food gets as low a play as buffets. Sadly this is the association. Then again with some of the things that are actually seen at buffets this is not so far off the mark. (If only more people with read and follow the rules, we could really change this image!)

Western Night at the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord

I have written about the Bird In Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord before. It is good. It is located on Route 340 in Bird in Hand in south central Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. Usually I have been there on Friday nights. I had an opportunity to try it on a Thursday night and found out that Thursday night is Western Night at the Smorgasbord table. This and the entrees were clearly posted in the lobby,

The entrees that make this Western Night were barbecue ribs (which are also featured on Friday nights), pot roast, ham balls, Mexican rice, and a taco bar. I mistakenly assumed that the regular entrees would be found as well, and I was mildly disappointed. There was no problem with what was there. The food was a good as usual.

The ribs are sweet and off the bone. They tend toward the chewy side. These are not the usual ribs – not baby backs or Kansas City style or Chinese style. They are rib meat and the tips, The pot roast was tender and came apart with a fork. It was not in any sauce, but was cooked with onions – seemingly in a pot in liquid, as it should be. The ham balls are small meatballs made from ham – like ham loaf (a local dish). They are served in a sauce with a pineapple base. The sauce did not make them overly sweet. There was also Pork and Sauerkraut – pulled pork cooked in sauerkraut, another local dish. The taco bar offered taco meat, melted cheese, taco shells, salted tortilla chips, and flour tortillas (that were hard and were not coming out of the serving dish). At the side were the usual toppings of tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, taco sauce, etc. I made my way over to the salad bar and added shredded cheese, There was also fried chicken and baked fish fillets,

There were a variety of sides including steak fries, hush puppies, real mashed potatoes, string beans, corn, stuffing (called filling in this area), buttered noodles, and Mexican rice which was spicy but not hot. There were several other side dishes as well.

The soup bar includes the more than excellent chicken corn soup that with this restaurant’s recipe, I consider the best soup that I have ever had. There was also beef barley soup with a tomato base and tomato soup.

For the kids = and anyone else I suppose, there is a children’s smorgasbord table that had hot dogs, spaghetti, fish sticks, chicken nuggets and other kid oriented dishes. This is set aside from the regular smorgasbord tables and is s kid height.

The dessert bar was a usual and offers a good assortment of cakes, puddings, and soft serve ice cream.

The service was a good as always. The waitress was very attentive, friendly, and made sure that we had full soft drinks.

My wife is a picky eater. She does not like barbecue or western themed entrees. She was happy with the ham balls and she had plenty to eat. For the diet conscious the soup and salad bar is a good alternative here at dinner as there is plenty for the offering on the salad and soup tables. I was more than satisfied at the end of the meal. Dinner was $13.99 per person. There is a web link to this restaurant at the side of the articles. There is also a more extensive article about this restaurant in an earlier article.

Family Cupboard at their New Location

On September 8, 2005 I reviewed a buffet restaurant in Lancaster County, PA called the Family Cupboard. At the time I knew that they were moving location after the first of the new year. I have just gotten back to them at their new location. The restaurant is still located in Lancaster County at the former site of The Amish Barn Restaurant on Route 340, east of Lancaster between Bird In Hand and Intercourse, PA.

Before the move was made the former Amish Barn came under the management of the Family Cupboard. Despite the ownership and the similar menu the Amish Barn was not so good. Now that the actual move has been made the "new" Family Cupboard at the new location is still as good as it was at it's former location. The size of the new location is smaller than the old location by at least half the size. Many of the employees moved with the restaurant - mostly women who were waitresses and some of the front end and back end people. There was one recognizable face - a man - from the Amish Barn - who was not so good before - perhaps he is better now. He was not our server so I cannot pass judgment. The service staff were always friendly at the old location and they still are here. In fact, there is a sign outside looking for service staff and it says "Wanted Friendly Employees".

The new location is on a main tourist road and there will be a strong tourist trade here once the season starts. The former location catered to a local clientele including the Amish. There were Amish dining here tonight, but this is way off season, and they may not come once the tourists appear.

All of the same entrees and sides were offered that were there at the old location. The feature is, as it was, spit roasted chicken. There was also meatloaf, beef in gravy, fried chicken, and broiled cod. The salad bar and desert bars are smaller but the same items are out in smaller serving dishes. There is now a soft serve ice cream machine, but you may also ask your server to bring you the same hand dipped ice creams that were available before. The food is still good. I tend to like the non-tourist locations in this area but this one now is touristy in decor - old timey things on the walls. There is a view of the farmlands out the back windows.

The price is still right - $11.75 per person and $1.25 for unlimited soft drinks. Ask for a frequent diner card and you will get a $10 gift certificate for every $100 in meals spent. If you are in this area, this is a good dinner. The restaurant is open Monday to Saturday until 8:00 pm. It is closed on Sundays. There is a full menu in addition to the buffet. ON the upper floor there is a gift shop and in the lobby there is a bakery counter. There is now a website which is linked at the side of the articles.

Having Valentine's Day Dinner at the Old Country Buffet

I took my wife to dinner to the Old Country Buffet for Valentine's Day. Now, you are thinking, what a romantic - he brings his wife to the OCB for Valentine's Day when there are such good restaurants out there for an evening of love. Well, she did not mind. We don't go in much for the pomp and overexpense of "fancy" restaurants. Believe me, we have been to them - we have been to some of the best. But, when I want to enjoy myself I want basic and comfort. I have some health - eating - concerns and I find that at a buffet I can pick and choose a little of what I like, and then I can eat an enjoyable variety..

We did not go early. We arrived at the restaurant at about 7:45 pm. There was a small line and some confusion about seating. There was no sign, "Wait to be Seated", so it was assumed to seat yourself, but there was a seemingly confused hostess/manager who was sending groups to specific tables - without much thought as to how to fit the groups that were there with the available open tables.

There were advertised promotions for Valentine's Day. There were to be photos taken of couples or families and your would take the photo home with you. Well, the only thing that made this Tuesday night different from all other Tuesday nights were three heart shaped balloons near the cashier. Other than that, nothing. No photographs. No special dishes except for a pink cake where the chocolate cake should have been. What there was, was a crowd bigger than usual for a Tuesday night -with, as usual at the OCB - no pre-planning to deal with a large group. This is a continual problem here on nights that one would expect and anticipate the needs of a larger crowd - school holidays, for example. They never seem to get the idea that more folks will be coming so let's make sure we have more food available and get it out to the buffet tables quickly. Not at the Old Country Buffet. They always seem surprised to have more diners than usual on a "special" day.

The confused hostess seated us a table with no sugar bowl. She then tried to seat a group of six at a table for four next to us. She could have seated us two rows back at an open table and then pushed our table and the next table together to make a table for the six. They decided to move off on their own to find two tables together. Smart move on their part. I had to solve the sugar bowl problem myself by taking one from an empty (YES, I made sure it was EMPTY) table.

Dinner was the usual Tuesday night Italian entrees. They were fine. It is now the Steak and Shrimp every night (but Sunday) and that took the place of the usual assortment of carvings - there was steak and there was ham. In a short while when we were there, suddenly, there was no more steak. It had to be cooked and everyone was turned away with the promise of three minutes - it was more like ten or fifteen minutes (which by then no one came back for it - except me). I should not have bothered because the steak that is made in a broiler is tough and overdone. This is nothing like the steak found in Ryan's or Golden Corral which is flame broiled to order. It is hardly worth the effort. To start the meal I felt like a Caesar salad - but the two trays of that salad were empty. It took almost forty minutes before they were filled again - another example of not keeping up with an anticipated big crowd.

Not just tonight but every night now, OCB has eliminated the taco bar - not that it was much more than tack meat, some shells, maybe some flour tortillas, and melted cheese. It is now gone. When the taco meat was not oozing with grease it was quite tasty. I heard several diners make comments that it was gone. In its place are puddings (as it used to be located at the end of the dessert section). When you had a taste for a taco it used to be good - and the fixings were there on the salad bar and condiments bar to make it good.

So, the next promotion holiday at the OCB is St. Patrick's Day. The green signs proclaim corned beef and cabbage. Nice if you like it. But don't expect much more than a green baleen. And you can expect that they will not anticipate any extra guests so things will run out.

Variety at the Golden Corral

The Golden Corral is featuring a different theme every night of the week. This is a special promotion and may or may not be continued, but it is worth a visit while it lasts. Each day of the week is a different theme feature.

Sunday is Carver's Night and the feature is carved meats - turkey, ham, chicken, roast beef, and then they add seafood, ribs, and smoked sausage. Monday is Shrimp Night with shrimp prepared in many ways. Tuesday is Family Night and the menu is hotdogs, steakburgers, three kids of pizza, meatballs, and Italian sausage. Wednesday night is Mexican Favorites Night and that means tacos, enchiladas, tomalles, fajitas, and chipolte chicken. Thursday night is BBQ Night with pork and beef ribs, brisket or pulled pork, smoked sausage, pork chops, and BBQ chicken. Friday is Fish Fry Night. There is breaded and fried fish, shrimp, and clams. Saturday ends out the week with Steak and Steak Night. Of course, there is steak, but there is also pork steak, chopped steak, and chicken fried steak. If you don't like steak there is also turkey.

Old Country Buffet and Ryan's both vary their menus nightly, but not with this theme idea. When OCB has a featured theme it is usually for a month or two with the season - and that means summer at OCB. They have had barbecue themes and tex-mex themes. This new promotion at Golden Corral is putting it all together in the week - every week. It may not last long, but it does look good right now. (Too bad the nearest Golden Corral is about 400 miles away from me.)

A VALENTINE'S DAY ASIDE --

Old Country Buffet is having special promotions for Valentines Day. There will be photos taken of you and your Valentine (or your whole family). There is a special vacation drawing and a free lunch for married couples of 50 years or more (not so out of the ordinary if you have ever had lunch at an OCB and seen who is eating then.)

Ryan's website also mentions Valentine's Day but specifies nothing special or any promotion.


All of the web sites for these restaurants are located at the side of this article.

Nutrition at the Buffets

Well, I wrote a very extensive article on Nutrition at the Buffets last Friday night and thought that I had posted it successfully. Apparently not! It does not seem to be here. I shall try to recreate it now.

The large buffet chains are now posting their nutrition facts on their websites. Each has a different method of conveying these facts - with the easiest to use at the Golden Coral site with a simple pop up window when you click on a menu item. The other two place their menu items in categories and when you click on the category you get a web page with the results at the Ryan's site and a PDF plug in file at the Old Country Buffet site. This new addition to the websites may be the result of new Federal regulations requiring nutrition information for restaurant chains.

When you see some of these numbers for the various menu items it may make you think twice about eating at the restaurant, but I am certain that if you saw the nutrition information for any restaurant you might have second thoughts about eating out anywhere. So if you like going out to eat and you do not want to stay home and cook everything from scratch you might as well go out and eat.

The numbers can be scary and there are some menu items to steer clear of. At the OCB the worse offenders are the Beef Ribs, the Spinach Marie, and a killer of a soup - the New England Clam Chowder. The fat counts on these items are way over the top when it comes to health. Many of the other entrees are significantly lower, but still near ten grams of fat per serving. At Ryan's 16 oz of steak is very high in fat. Trimming the visible fat will lower this somewhat, but not a lot. Golden Coral and Ryan's have some better health choices in entrees than OCB.

It is possible to eat healthy at the buffets and OCB and Ryan's both have web pages that address how. The most significant thing to note, looking at the counts, is that the vegetables are the best choices. If you eat like a vegetarian at the buffets you will eat healthy (EXCEPT FOR THE SPINACH MARIE AT OCB). Tossed salads are always a good choice, but watch out for the salad dressings. The fat counts on those make eating the meat entrees an equal alternative. I was really blown away seeing the salad dressing counts at these restaurants.

The web sites for all three chains are at the side of the articles. I really wish the original article was not lost as I had so much more detail then. Ah well.

The Lobster Grabbers

This is another one of those posts where I am going to bitch about an annoyance at a buffet. I would like to introduce to you The Lobster Grabbers. This is an older couple - perhaps in their sixties - who take all of the lobster at a Chinese buffet. They sit and wait - like a predator stalking its prey. One of them watches - the one facing the buffet tables. He or she is looking for a fresh tray of lobster to be carried out of the kitchen door. When it is spotted, instantly, one is up and hovering close to the spot that the tray will be set down into the steam table - dish in hand. Not seconds after the server places the tray in its spot, he (or she) scoops up the serving spoon and empties the entire tray into the dish. With nothing left to take, and no lobster for anyone who is waiting, the dish is whisked back to their table where it sits and is consumed, until the next tray is brought out.

The Lobster Grabbers come to the same Chinese buffet every week on Friday night. Every week they consume all of the lobster. Tonight they were there in mid-meal when we first sat down and they were there still eating when we were ready to leave. They are large people but not overly fat people. Over time they have done this same maneuver with sushi and tonight, the wife repeated the selfish act with a tray of fresh strawberries that were brought to the dessert table.

One of the difficulties with lobster served at a Chinese buffet is that it is brought out very sparingly - sometimes one tray every half hour regardless of the fact that the tray is emptied as soon as it is brought out. When lobster is served at a Chinese buffet it is usually a prepared dish such as lobster in ginger sauce (as is the case in this restaurant). The tray contains pieces of lobster in the shell that consists of two to three lobsters. These buffets charge a higher price on the nights that they serve lobster - usually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. With the Lobster Grabbers, they are getting more than their money's worth and everyone else is paying a premium for nothing. The management of the restaurant does not seem to care and complaining will result in an unpleasant meal, despite the annoyance of sharing a dining room with the Lobster Grabbers. We could just not go there anymore - but we like to go to the Chinese buffet for dinner on Friday nights and this is the one that we choose to go to.

It is quite rude at a buffet to fill a plate of one item and take it back to serve the table. It usually results in wasted food as it is rarely all consumed It puts a burden on the restaurant and it is terribly unfair to the other diners. A short while back at the Old Country Buffet a couple had a plate of fried chicken, a plate of mashed potatoes, and a plate of salad from which they both seemed to fill their plates. At the conclusion of their meal - after several refills there was a great deal that went uneaten. These were items that are normally refilled regularly and rarely run out. There is no reason not to take what you care to eat on your own plate and then come back for more. The next trip will reward you with hot food, rather than food that has been sitting and getting cold on your table.

So, don't be like the Lobster Grabbers.

Buffet at the Wild, Wild West Casino, Atlantic City, NJ

I have not reviewed casino buffets before. I will start with my favorite - the Buffet at the Wild, Wild West Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The casino is run by Bally's. The buffet is called the Virginia City Buffet. There is now a second buffet in the casino that I have not yet seen and just learned about.

The Virginia City Buffet is the casino's original buffet offering. It is located on a upper floor of the casino and is accessed only through the casino floor which means NO CHILDREN. Yes, this is an all adult buffet experience. No running kiddies. No hands in the serving trays (well, maybe, as I have seen quite a few adult hands in serving trays in the many buffets that I have been to). You purchase a ticket for your meal in advance. Soft drinks are included. Bar drinks are available. Your meal includes an extensive all you can eat buffet and a ticket for one chargrilled steak. Arrive early and purchase a ticket for the time that you wish to eat. The restaurant is open until 9 from Sunday to Thursday, until 10 on Friday, and until 11 on Saturday. If you arrive at dinner time you are going to find that tickets are being sold for late seatings - especially during peak tourist seasons. The price is in the mid-$20 range per person. When you arrive at the suggested 15 minutes before your seating you will wait on a line for a table. Those who have been "comped" for casino play will be seated first. The dining room looks like an old west town with western building facades.

The buffet is divided into cuisines. To start, there is a soup and salad area. There are more than four soups served. The cabbage soup is very good. You can also create matzoh ball soup or wonton soup - you may even mix the two. There are prepared salads and tossed salad with toppings. You will also find peel and eat shrimp here.

The next section is Italian. Here you will find pasta dishes being made behind the buffet counter and refilled regularly. There is a variety of sauces for pasta. There are Italian entrees and pasta dishes that are well prepared. The Italian food served is as good as any Italian restaurant.

The next section is Deli and here they are slicing hot pastrami and hot corned beef to your order. There are potato pancakes. There is a variety of deli salads. At one time there was sliced lox (smoked salmon) here, but in the past few years this has been replaced with a lox spread.

The next section is Chinese. There is a wok behind the buffet counter and a chef is preparing a variety of dishes to refill the serving trays. There are egg rolls. There is an array of Chinese entrees. The selection and preparation is as good as a good Chinese restaurant.

The next section is a potato and vegetable buffet bar. There is a variety of side dishes to be found here along with baked potatoes with toppings, mashed potatoes, and cooked vegetables.

Next to this section is the meats and entrees. There are sliced meats such as turkey and pork. There are prepared meat entrees. There is also a charcoal grill that is flame-broling steaks to your order. You give your ticket for your one steak and order your steak at the grill. It is prepared as you like it - and surprise! they get it right. This is one of the best steaks that I have had.( Oddly, the same lady chef is always cooking the steaks the many times that I have been there - does she never get a day off?) At times the steak area overwhelms the entree and carving area and my wife has complained that you cannot get the server to pay attention to you to get carved meat.

To complete your meal there is a dessert section that takes up the entire middle of the buffet area. There are cakes, pies, pastries, suger-free pies, soft ice cream and toppings, hot cobblers, puddings, fruit, jello, and others. The desserts are good. I do not find them as lavish as the meal, but there really is nothing lacking.

Your table is set with all utensils and your server brings your beverages. Dishes are usually collect promptly and the server is usually available to you if needed. There have been a few rare occasions when table service was not as good as it could have been. In the middle of the dining floor there is "house" with a porch. There are tables on the porch and inside the "house" is a parlor with dining tables. I find that service is not as good both on the porch and inside the "house" as it is on the dining floor.

There is a smoking section in the dining room - though NJ smoking laws may have changed this.

I wholly recommend a visit to the Virginia City Buffet. If you are with the family look elsewhere - or feed the kids first and sent them off to the arcade.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Over the years I have been to a few buffet restaurants that are no longer with us. I have great memories of wonderful offerings and fine meals. Two of the great places were part of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Both restaurants still exist, but neither serves a buffet.

The best of those two was short lived - about a year. It was at Shield's Tavern - one of the colonial dining experiences of the restored 18th Century living history museum town. It was in 2004. When it opened the restaurant's theme was to serve meals as they were served in the 18th Century. While part of the menu reflected choices to this theme, it was pretty much the same as any other restaurant. One thing of note was always small portions and high prices with no value - actually unlike the other colonial restaurants in the restored area. The others serve significant portions with value for what you are paying (which is high). In 2004 Shield's changed to try a bold experiment in dining. They charged one price (yes, it was a high price) and served an all you can eat meal served to your table "family style" with by two servers - one a "serving wench" in historical tradition. The meal was fabulous and worth every penny. The atmosphere was pure 18th Century with authentically dressed, character interpreters roaming the restaurant and interacting with the guests. You began your meal with soup - all that you cared for. The soups chosen for the menu were authentic 18th century recipes. This was followed by a large salad bowl. (Skip the salad and get to the good stuff.) Your table was next brought a cast iron skillet filled with pan fried chicken, baby back short ribs, vegetables, potatoes, and on the side a crock of stew. The server brought a large skewer of barbecued shrimp and pushed each succulent shrimp from the skewer on to a platter for your table. The servers came by frequently. If you wanted more of anything, you just asked and it arrived. More ribs, more shrimp, you got it! The food was tasty and well prepared. The ribs would fall off the bones cleanly. As I write about it I can see and taste it! Oh my! When you had enough it was time for desert. A sampling selection of cakes and pastries were brought to the table. Again, if you wanted more of one thing or everything, your "wench" brought it to you table. Soft drinks and coffee were included in the price. It was an experience and great entertainment. The meal cost about $40 or $45 per person including tax and tip, but it was more than worth everything that you got. We enjoyed this meal twice during our stay in the summer of 2004 and again when we returned in December 2004. When we returned in 2005 the meal was gone! In fact the restaurant changed to what is being called an 18th Century Coffee House during the day (more of an order sandwiches at a counter) and a cocktail lounge at night. What a waste! Of all of the restaurants that have gone - I miss this one most of all, and we hardly had time to get acquainted.

The other buffet, or rather smorgasbord, meal that was served in Colonial Williamsburg was at the Lodge hotel, one of the Foundation's hotels. It was served on Friday and Saturday nights. It was a spectacular array of appetizers, seafoods, and entrees. This meal had been served for many years up until a several years ago. It one time was billed as the meal that was served to the Queen of England when she came for a visit. The buffet tables were presented with elegance. There was a raw bar with clams on the half shell and oysters. There were both hot and cold, large crab leg clusters. There were thick seafood and clam bisques. The was carved smoked ham and prime rib with Yorkshire pudding. The entrees included meat and seafood dishes that would make an impression on the menu of any fine restaurant. Vegetable offerings always included spoon bread - a hot, soft corn meal cake with plenty of butter. This is a Southern specialty. The appetizer table included caviar, pates, a variety of smoked fish, and prepared salads. There was a dessert table with a variety of cakes and pastries including local favorites such as sweet potato pie and pecan pie. This was a step beyond most buffets and would definitely be considered fine dining. Price was not out of bounds - around $25.00 per person. About ten years ago the dinner was discontinued to the chagrin of many visitors and diners. By demand, it was brought back. A few years ago the dinner was discontinued and did not return - despite comment and demand. The hotel is currently under renovation. No one has spoken of the restaurant and what may happen when it reopens - but it seems unlikely that we will see this smorgasbord again.

There are other restaurants in my past that offered good buffets and have passed with the years. I will write about them in future chapters of Gone but Not Forgotten.

Buffet in the News

One of the best Chinese buffets on Long Island, NY is in the news. East Buffet is a large Chinese, fancy buffet in the town of Huntington, NY. Their employees are walking a picket line around the restaurant on a major Long Island highway (Route 110) to protest the restaurants practice of paying way below minimum wage and establishing a no tips policy. When I have been there, there was no mention of no tipping. Apparently, the management is collecting the tips that are being left and keeping them. The price of dinner at this restaurant is high and tips are significant. News reports state that some workers are paid $1.00 per hour and work 68 hours in a week. Charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The restaurant owners have been ordered to appear at the end of February. The manager at the restaurant refused to talk with reporters.

A later print report stated that the restaurant claims that employees earn upwards of over $10 per hour. The restaurant states that they have placed a 12% gratuity on all checks and that is divided amongst servers. They also say that if a customer leaves an additional tip on the tip the server is free to take it. (Of course, I wonder, since I have never seen any mention of an imposed gratuitiy on the check - nor seen it added there - perhaps diners are leaving tips on the table because no one knows of this 12% add on.) The servers state that they get nothing of the tips or any added gratuity, and they are paid below minimum wage. The story continues on and the workers are still walking a picket line. The restaurant is open -who is working?

I have not reviewed East yet. I was last there in August '05 and do not go there often for two reasons - one is the price which is near $20 on week nights and more on weekends. The other reason is that the restaurant closes at 9:00 pm and they mean it. There is always a long wait - so you may arrive at 6:30 and not get in until 7:30 and you have a sense of rush to finish by 9, so it does not matter if you get there early - unless you want to get to the restaurant in the afternoon to eat dinner at dinner time. We save this restaurant for special occasions - like anniversaries and birthdays. The food is very good and there is always a crowd. The diners are mostly Oriental and the menu is a mix of Oriental dishes and a few Italian thrown in. Many of the Oriental dishes are unusual and authentic - as opposed to American Chinese cooking. At some point, if they resolve their troubles I will get back there and write about. It really is good.

Buffets in Orlando, Florida

Heading for Disney and want a buffet without Disney pricing - here is a website of buffet restaurants in Orlando.

http://www.orlandotouristinformationbureau.com/
restaurants/familybudgetbuffets.htm

Buffets in Las Vegas

I have just found these two websites that will give you ratings of the buffets in Las Vegas - if you are heading there this is something to check out before you go!


http://www.a2zlasvegas.com/food/buf-list.php3


http://www.gayot.com/
restaurants/bestof/lasvegas_buffets.html

News from OCB

The Old Country Buffet has announced that they will be serving Steak, Shrimp, and Salmon six nights a week - Monday through Saturday. The start is stated only as "coming soon". It looks like they are trying to keep up with Ryans and Golden Corral who both serve steak every night. Of course, unlike Ryans and Golden Corral, the steak at OCB comes from a broiler and is not cooked to order on a flame grill. Often the steak at OCB is overdone and tough.

The shrimp is fried, breaded shrimp and is good. The salmon is "grilled". As I am not a fan of salmon I can not say if it is good or not. It does look good, however.

Buffet Discussion Group Created on the Web

A new discussion group that will coincide with this blog site has been created on the web at Yahoo. Come and join The Art of the Buffet and share your dining experiences and thoughts.




Click to join artofthebuffet

The Milleridge Inn - Christmas Buffet

The Milleridge Inn is a restaurant in an historic building that has now built itself into a large complex of the restaurant, quaint shops, and catering. This has been a Long Island staple for many, many decades. The restaurant is located on Route 106 in Hicksville, New York and is less than a mile north of the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State Parkway. It is immediately south of Route 25. The building was a stagecoach stop when New York was still a colony.

At Christmas and Easter the restaurant serves a buffet dinner in it's catering building. The restaurant usually only serves from a menu - this is a holiday exception. The main building of the restaurant - with long waits for a table on holidays, serves from a menu. The buffet dinner is expensive (especially for what you are getting). The prices include dinner, tip - at an undeserved 17.5% - and sales tax. The adult price was $43.95. The children's price was 16.95. The price does not include a beverage except coffee or tea served with desert. Reservations are required and they are only taken for tables of six or more - however, there always seem to be tables of less than six - even two. Reservations are made for "seatings" at specific times. We were at the last seating of the evening which was 7:30 pm. We were not seated until 7:45. There was a small sign on each table that said that the seatings were two hours long, and as I will later talk about - they really mean two hours or less.

The dining room is set as it would be for catering with buffet stations on tables with hot and cold trays on them. There are two duplicate setups on two sides of the room that meet at the carving station in the middle. The rooms were decorated for the holidays. In the past there were carolers who went through the restaurant entertaining the guests with holiday cheer. For several years now NO carolers. The dining room was dark - one member of our party could not tell one salad dressing from the other because the lighting was so low.

The buffet starts with three (only three) fancy prepared salads - a pasta salad with obscure pieces of seafood, a potato salad that was red in color and had quartered potatoes, and a platter of tomatoes and small balls of fresh mozzarella cheese; there was also a "fresh" fruit melon salad (which was terribly over ripe and not edible). This is followed by a raw bar of pre-opened, raw clams on the halfshell (little necks and cheerystones, for those who know clams) and raw oysters. In years past there had been cold shrimp and small, cold lobster tails. This year there was NO shrimp and NO lobster (of course, the price was NO lower). The raw bar was followed by rolls and sweet rolls. Toward the front of the first table there was another small table with a bowl of salad greens and two dressings. No toppings - just greens with some tomato and cucumber tossed in. There was a small table at the opposite end where there were two pasta dishes. There was a station in the middle of the two serving trays that had a burner and skillet - to look as if it was made to order - but no one was cooking there. The two pasta dishes were bowties and sausage in a sauteed oil spinach sauce and rigatoni in red tomato sauce. This followed along to the final table with entrees and vegetables. There were two entrees. One was a chicken stuffed with wild rice in a brown gravy. The other was salmon. There were three vegetable dishes - mashed carrots, small potatoes, and mixed steamed vegetables. Then came three carvings - ham, turkey, and a carved beef that they were calling steak but was more like a flat roast beef. For the carvings there was gravy, cranberry sauce, and mustard. You could go up as often as you like, but it was slim pickings of choices.

If you want a beverage, hard or soft, you are ordering from the bar. A carafe of soda was $8.00 with no refills. The carafe barely made five small glasses. At dessert you are offered hot coffee or tea, but if you wanted more you would have to find the server who never made an appearance at the table. As for dessert you are given a choice of an ice cream parfait, cheesecake, or a chocolate hazelnut cake. The parfait is a slim glass of overly frozen and too hard ice cream, with a spoon that cannot reach the ice cream two thirds of the way down the glass. The cheesecake was a very small slice. No one at the table had the chocolate cake. Two of us ran up to get some of the sweet rolls - which were quickly being cleared away by the serving staff. These were a better dessert than the desserts.

That was what was offered. The taste of most of the food was ok - some of it was bland. As stated, the fruit salad was sour and mushy. As for the service - terrible. When we were seated the table was set for eight - we were five. There were not eight chairs and not all of the settings had silverware. Evidently this was not just at our table as one rude diner came over to our table - said nothing - and picked up a fork that was sitting on the end of our table - while we were sitting there. (Do we need a new rule - don't take silverware from someone's table - at least, without asking.) At various points through the meal there were no clean plates. The server, while polite, basically ignored us. No concern if we were doing well or not. Dirty plates were intermittently picked up sometimes by the maitre'd, not the server who just walked by them. After all she had no reason to make sure that we were satisfied- her exorbitant tip was already built into the price. There seemed to be an unusual number of diners who knew someone who was working there - and those tables were getting extra attention. It was quite obvious that if you wanted to be taken care of, you had to know someone.

No one who was working seemed to want to be working. (This is a consistent problem at this restaurant on holidays - perhaps they should close on holidays to keep their employees happy. It is quite evident that they are not happy working.) At about 8:45 the service staff started to break down one side of the buffet - not too surprising as the remaining side would be adequate - but by 9:00 the other side was quickly taken away as well - remember I said that the seating was for two hours - well, it was not going to be two hours if you wanted to continue to take from the buffet. It was gone in a matter of moments. There is an old expression - "given the old, heave ho!" Well, that how it seemed - by 9:00 there was nothing more to take. Now, no one said you had to leave - but what was there worth staying for. In many good buffets, as closing time approaches, your server will come and ask if you would care for anything more from the hot offerings or the salad bar - and then they will be taken away. Not here. If you thought that you might supplement the meager dessert with some sweet rolls or the terrible fruit salad, you were out of luck. HO! HO! Heave HO!

I was been dining at this restaurant for over forty years. My family took me there when I was a kid and we continued to dine there on holidays and special occasions. The restaurant has gone through several new owners since then. The current management has taken the restaurant to the lowest point that it has been. We actually switched to dining at the buffet dinner a number of years ago following a Christmas Eve menu dinner that was so sparse that as a diabetic, I ate my dinner, part of my wife's dinner, and two meager desserts, and my sugar level was so low that I had to eat again when we got home. Why do we continue to go to the Milleridge Inn on Christmas Eve - because my sister thinks that it is a tradition. Well, it has gotten to the point that we will be starting a new tradition.

The buffet dinner is repeated on other holidays - yes, my sister dragged us there last Easter - the buffet dinner then was even worse - as so much ran out before our seating that there was even less to eat than stated here - and, of course, with no reduction in price - just a slim apology.

Would you like a festive holiday dinner to celebrate? Well, SKIP the Milleridge Inn! They do have a website but I am not going to bother listing it at the side, as you really don't want to go there.

Saturday Night at the Old Country Buffet - What a Freak Show!

So Saturday night we were going to do some late night holiday shopping and I thought that the Old Country Buffet would be a pleasant addition to the evening. I was in the mood for barbecue and in this area OCB's beef ribs was the closest I was going to get.

We got there about 7:30 and there was a short line that consisted of one large group who were paying separately. Ok, they got through quickly enough and we followed behind and paid at the register. This was still early enough for the "hostess" to seat you so we had to wait behind this large group while two hostesses decided where they were going to put this large group in the already crowded restaurant so that they could sit together. This took almost ten minutes and while one of the two hostesses could have attended to the groups of two and four that were waiting, both walked around looking for large tables. Behind us on the line was another couple and behind them was a family of four consisting of an English woman, and American man and their three American little girls. The English lady decided that everyone should go to the restroom and loudly announced this for all to hear - only she went; the girls stayed behind. We are all waiting behind the large group to be seated. At some point the couple behind us disappeared. They must have decided to seat themselves. The three little girls behind us kept whining that they wanted to eat. They were upset with the large group in front. The littlest of the three girls went off and headed for the nearest food bar -one of the food bars is adjacent to the line. Neither parent went after her. She got to the opposite end and started eating - with her fingers out of one of the fruit trays. A few comments from the parents to stop that went unheard and neither parent went to get her. Eventually she wandered back to where we were waiting. Then the father decided that the girls should eat bread while they are waiting on the line for a table and he went to the buffet bar and took pieces of bread, gave them to the girls - which they did not want. There was an approach to place to bread back on the server - by the father, but thankfully one of them - perhaps one of the little girls told him not to put it back now that he has handled it. (There will be a new rule coming about not taking food while waiting for your table.) I thought at that point that it might be a good idea to turn around back to the cashier, get our money back, and leave. But no, I waited for a table.

When one of the hostesses finally came back from seating the large group, my wife stepped up and told her that we were a party of two. Comments now came from the English lady - "Oh, I guess they think they are next." Well, since we came in two ahead of her, I guess we were, and would a table for two, seat five? We ignored the comments and said nothing. The hostess directed us into a side dining room and pointed to a table in the middle of many other tables - she did not walk us to it as there was little, if any, access. We took the table and managed to make our way to it The table for four had five chairs - one at an end. (Ah, perhaps this was meant for the English lady and her family?) Boxed in as we were there was nowhere to put that extra chair but where it sat. We put down our tickets and our coats and headed back out through the maze to get some soup. When we returned my wife asked where I was going to sit. Now that seemed odd as I had placed my coat over the back of a chair - and I had intended to sit there. Then I noticed that directly behind me - in the space of two chairs was this immensely fat woman. I looked behind my wife with the idea to push the table forward and there behind her was another huge fat woman. (A word to excessively fat people at buffets - if you need the cane to walk, you should not be eating at the buffet or at least not eating further than the salad bar.) We managed to move the table enough so that we both could sit. We ate our soup to the sounds of one of these fat ladies complaining about what people were bringing her to eat - they thought she should be eatting vegetables (wise), she thought she should be getting fried chicken. They were bringing it to her because she was too fat to walk to get it herself (SAD). (This may sound like a rip on fat people - believe me, I am not thin, and I know that some folks are fat and there is not much that can be done about it, but these ladies were a category all onto themselves - they were loud and annoying.) Here we were trapped at this table with little way to get out and I was more and more annoyed that I should not have come to the OCB for dinner this night. We got up to get our salad and made our way again through the maze.

I got to the salad bar and saw an empty table right on the aisle in the main dining room. There was no line and no one looked as if they were about to be seated there. I said to my wife to go get the coats and the ticket. She got the idea and headed for our table. I went right over to the table but as I got there two women were walking to the table and looked like they were going to sit down. Too late! With a grump, I went back to the table where my wife was picking up the coats and told her to leave them - we were still trapped.

We went back out to the salad bar and low and behold the table is empty again - no ticket, no coats. Aha! I sat my wife down and got the coats and ticket. Free! We were now at decent table and looked toward continuing the meal in comfort. But the strangeness of the evening was not over.

It was a restaurant full of people who went up to the buffet bar and stood and stared. Mesmerized, maybe? They did not take anything. They just stood holding an empty plate and stared. Zombies at the OCB?

All around there were plates with food taken, but not eaten and abandoned on the counters of the buffet bars . A hotdog on a bun with ketchup sat for almost an hour before someone took it away to dispose of it.

There was an infant that screemed so deeply that it could not be consoled. It did not want to eat. Nothing the large family that was passing it around could do would stop the screaming. One woman holding the baby suddenly got up and walked away from the table to the middle of the dining room and told the baby, "Now you have done it. We are going to have to leave!" As if this three month old really cared about staying.

All through dinner the English lady, the man and the three girls wandered around, eating while they stood at the buffet servers. A lot of people decided Saturday night that it was ok to stand at the buffet and eat. It was the thing to do!

One more - we are finishing dinner. There are two people who recently sat down behind us. I had a full view of the lady. The man brings her a plate full of brisket - (oh yes, they had barbecue brisket! That was a treat making the evening almost worth the effort. Remember I went because I had a taste for barbecue!) she cut off half of a slice of brisket and put the whole thing in her mouth. A moment later half of it came back out and hung there. Just like a circus seal with a fish in it's mouth, she chewed and chewed on the half still in her mouth and then slurped the rest up and in. She must have chewed for five minutes to get this down. But this was not just a chance occurrence. The next peice was cut and when in - and out the same way. It was time to leave.

We had thought Napkin Man was the oddest person that we had seen at the OCB. He was normal compared to many of these people. (By the way, he has disappeared, never to be heard from or seen.)

I hope that this is not a typical Saturday night at the OCB. Maybe it was the holiday shoppers out for a meal. I hope so!

Leola Restaurant Revisted

A short time ago I wrote a post about the Leola Restaurant in Leola, Pennsylvania on Route 23. I found the buffet to be very disappointing, though I have always liked the restaurant's menu offerings. I made note that the ownership of the restaurant has recently changed.

I visited the restaurant again this week in the afternoon on a Wednesday at lunchtime. I ordered off the menu but I very carefully observed those dining from the buffet and I checked out the buffet bar very closely. What I saw was what I had expected that Sunday night that I had the buffet here. There were the usual buffet items that I was expecting - moist and crisp looking fried chicken, ham balls, and other typical Pennsylvania Dutch-style buffet items. Nothing was dried out. Nothing was sitting in oil or grease. Had this been there that night I would have been delighted.

What is the reason for the difference? It may be that the chef and staff on Sunday are not the same as during the week. This is an area where most local restaurants - buffet restaurants - are closed. This is a very religious area. Also the weekly clientele of this restaurant most likely do not go out to eat on Sunday nights. During the week this restaurant is full of local business people and seniors. Many have been dining and lunching here for years on a regular basis and expect certain things. Those things were missing that Sunday night. They were not missing when I visited here this week - during the week.

The buffet menu also changes from lunch to dinner and at dinner on Wednesday there seemed to be some changes to less common dishes - baked chicken was a feature. It may be that this is a buffet to go to for lunch and not dinner.

I still believe that the new owners who are Greek are a large factor. I overheard a waitress speaking with a customer. She was asked about the cakes in the display case in the lobby. She told them about the usual layer cakes, etc. but then said that she could not even pronounce the names of some of the pastry there - "they are Greek", she said and then made a face. Not too many of these pastries are going to be sold when even the wait staff are not familiar with them or would recommend them. I do not give this owner long to seek to sell this restaurant. It will not be what I believe he would like it to be and that is a dinner-style restaurant. He has now filled the lobby - which was always a very pleasant, homey country atmosphere with gumball machines. (I saw an elderly lady and a four year old girl bring one of the little toy capsules that comes from the machine up to the register and complain about what or the lack of what was inside. She wanted her quarter back. She got it from the nice cashier (not one of the owners or a relative). These are the Pennsylvania Dutch. They do not allow themselves to be taken advantage of and they want what they want.)

By the way, the menu items that we had were just as they always have been - very good. This is another possible indication that the chef during the week is very different than the chef on Sunday.

Well, I revise my comments in my last post about the Leola Restaurant. Give the buffet a try - but only for lunch and during the week or Saturday. If you do, post a comment and let us know how it is.