Hong Kong King Buffet, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The last time that I was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was about five years ago. At that time I found one of the very few western-themed buffet restaurants that was part of the Old Country Buffet family at that time (it no longer exists.) I knew that this buffet had gone out of business but was curious as to what may have taken its place. On this trip "South" I went back to the location and found the Hong Kong King Buffet. So what am doing eating in a Chinese buffet in North Carolina when I should be eating the local version of barbecue (shredded, slow cooked pork in a vinegar sauce)? Well, I could not resist seeing how an Old Country Buffet (even under another name) converted over to a Chinese buffet.

I must say it was interesting to see the entire OCB layout inside the restaurant. The usual OCB curtain-topped walls along the booths are now topped with glass partitions with Oriental designs etched into them. The pictures on the wall that were once western themed are now pictures of Hong Kong.

So how was the Hong Kong King Buffet? It was good and for the price of $8.99 per adult was exceptional in what is offered. Let me begin as I usually do in telling you about this buffet.

As I said this space once was an OCB and all of the booths, all of the tables, and some of the serving areas are the same. This is a really big restaurant. We went on a Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm and there were diners spread through all of the dining areas. Had this been a more conventionally sized restaurant for a Chinese buffet it would have appeared very busy, but because of the size and layout, it looked sparse (but wasn't). Now this is North Carolina - the home of most of the tobacco and cigarette companies and smoking is not so frowned upon in these here parts. So this restaurant has a smoking section - which for a buffet is very unusual. We asked for a non-smoking table only to find later on that we were sitting on the edge of the smoking section - and the smoking section is right at the edge of the buffet serving area - well, this is North Carolina.

This restaurant had six double sided buffet servers plus a Mongolian grill. There was also a server along one wall. Prices at this buffet are very reasonable - Dinner is $8.99 per adult and $6.99 for children ages 6 to 10. There is also a younger child price from age 3 to 5 at $4.99. Now, there are king crab legs on the buffet, BUT if you want these there is an additional $5.00 charge for all you care to eat. On their website there is a current weekend offer that adds unlimited lobster to that same $5.00 additional charge- which is not bad (I am not sure how they serve the lobster (whole or pieces).) There is a lunch menu for $6.99, $4.99, NS $2.99 , respectively. Now all of these prices are from Monday to Thursday for dinner and to Friday for lunch. Saturday AND Sunday lunch is $7.99, $4.99, and $3.99. Lunch ends at 3:45. Dinner prices on Friday to Sunday are adults $9.99, children 5 to 10 $6.99 and children 3 to 5 $4.99. The crab leg charge at dinners is always $5.00. There is a clear sign over the crab legs on the buffet table that if you take crab legs on your plate you will be charged $5.00. There is a ten percent discount for seniors over 65 at all times. Soft drinks are $1.50 with unlimited refills - all Pepsi products. Hours for this restaurant are from 11:00 am until 9:30 pm and !0:30 pm Friday and Saturday.

To start off there is an extensive salad bar with greens, dressings, and toppings, along with prepared salads. There were four soups - the usual wonton, egg drop, hot and sour, and an unusual vegetable seafood tomato based soup with a Chinese name that I have never encountered before. I tried the hot and soup soup and it was good - not too hot and spicy. My wife tried the wonton soup and the broth was very good but the wontons were just fair - when she first went for soup there were no more wontons in the broth in the server - it took about twenty minutes for more wontons to be brought out - she felt it was not worth the wait. There is sushi with a good assortment of raw fish on rice and raw fish rolls. The rolls looked as usual,but instead of avocado rolled with the tuna it was cucumber. Looked the same but not what I expected as I bit down and crunched the cucumber. There were steamers for dumplings but no dumplings. Instead there were steamed rolls and steamed cake in the steamers. There were no dumplings of any kind.

There was a broad assortment of entrees. Some of them very unusual if you are used to Northern US, Midwest, or Western US Chinese buffets. This buffet offered steamed crayfish and frogs legs made salt and pepper style. Crawfish down South are known as "bugs" and they look like a cross between tiny red lobsters and bugs. You eat them by biting off the heads and sucking out the meat in the body and tail. I find them very fishy and salty. They are not bad. It is more of a get used to how it looks and how you eat it than anything else. If you like 'em you can have all that you want here. I did not try the crawfish or the frogs legs here. I have had them elsewhere and yes, frogs legs do taste like chicken (so does rabbit). There was plenty to eat without them. There were crab halves (included in the regular buffet price). There was a lot of shrimp and seafood dishes. There were several fried fish dishes and there was a steamed white fish in a light sauce. There were several chicken dishes - many hot and spicy and the hot sauce was very evident when you looked in the serving pan. There were beef ribs and boneless pork spareribs (that looked over done). There was Peking Duck - mostly carved duck pieces but these looked much too greasy - perhaps sitting in the tray too long and the duck fat melting into the pan. There were fried scallops but these also were overdone and hard when I tried to eat one. There were some dishes that were very good. The shrimp with scallions was great. This is one of the House Specialties on the take out menu. There was a good chicken in peanut butter sauce - thin strips of lightly fried chicken with a liquid peanut sauce on the side to pour on as you wish.I have had peanut chicken before but this one was much better. Of course there was General Tso Chicken, chicken with broccoli, and pepper and beef. There were several American dishes including fried potatoes several ways. There was also pepperoni pizza.

If you could not find something that you like among the claimed 180 buffet items, there is also the Mongolian Grill. Here there was a large assortment of raw vegetables including three types of mushrooms including the black mushrooms that are usually in the most expensive Chinese dishes. There were several types of noodles to add including the hair thin rice noodles that make up Mai Fun dishes. Of course there is meat and here it included beef, chicken, pork, crab, and shrimp. You mix what you want on a plate and hand it to the chef at the large flat round grill. He asks what sauce you would like added and rather than put it on at the beginning as is done at all of the other Mongolian grills that I have been to, here they put it on after the mix has mostly cooked through. There is a sign on the counter explaining exactly what is in each sauce which is a great idea! The chef was very nice and accidentally dropped my mix on the counter as he took it from me - he appologized in limited Chinese English a million times and with no problem I made a new mixture which he took and excellently cooked- handing it to me still apologizing with me saying, "No problem."

If you still want dessert after all of this there was a great assortment of the usual Little Debbie type Chinese buffet cakes, puddings, fruit, jello, and soft serve ice cream.

Service was very good. The dirty dishes were removed quickly enough and soft drinks were refilled regularly. An interesting aside to the drink area is that it is the old OCB drink island - two sided, with all of the equipment from the former tenant. They do not want you to go up and get your own drinks - they will bring them to you - and they do.

The restaurant was clean and nicely decorated. Restrooms were fine. The atmosphere was very pleasant (except for the cigarette smoke - BUT THIS IS CAROLINA!)

When the check comes the tax is added to the individual amounts so they don't look like the prices listed - but they are with the sales tax (for our UK readers this is the VAT) The check came with a fortune cookie for each of us - these were commercially baked cookies with the plastic sealed wrapper around them - the fortunes inside however were a bit unusual - a little nasty actually (I guess to bring a smile). Mine said,"You laugh now, wait until you get home." Oh boy! Not what you want to read after a meal!!!

The owners advertising claims that this is the largest "international" buffet and grill in "town". On the website they say that they are from Hong Kong and that is why they called the restaurant the Hong Kong King Buffet. That normally would imply Cantonese cuisine, but there was a broad mix of Oriental cuisines served here.

Do I recommend this restaurant? Yes. Would I go back? Probably, though I might want to go looking for one of those North Carolina barbecue restaurants (no buffets like that unfortunately). If you live in this area give it a try.

The address is 1237 Silas Creek Parkway, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27127. There is a website and that is listed on the side of this site. The phone number is 336-725-9788. The restaurant is located in a shopping center next door to an Office Depot store. (Exit 192 on I40)

One other thing- restaurants are inspected by health officials everywhere, but in North Carolina those health inspection reports are on the internet. If you search for this restaurant you will find the latest year's reports. Maybe you don't want to read these. This restaurant got a score of 94 out of 100 on its last report. This is good. The violations were not significant. I think that I would not want to see the reports on many of the restaurants that I enjoy.

Sweet Tomatoes / Souplantation

On my recent trip to North Carolina I was able to try a Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation restaurant. On June 15, 2007 I wrote about the Souplantation chain. The furthest north the chain has restaurants is North Carolina. The chain spreads across the country to California, where they originated. The specialty at Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation is salads, soups, and bakery!

The Cary, North Carolina location is a Sweet Tomatoes. The names Sweet Tomatoes and Soup Plantation seem to be interchangeable and dependent on the location. Regardless of which name the location has it is the same. In fact I thought that I was looking for a Souplantation in Cary based on the website located. I almost missed the restaurant driving around the shopping center that corresponded to the address when my wife spotted the Sweet Tomatoes sign and asked if that was what we were looking for. I certainly was!

We went on a very hot day – predicted to be 99 degrees and it felt hotter. We went for lunch on a Monday at around 12:45 pm. It was one of those days that you really do not feel like eating because of the heat – especially a large meal. Well, that did not discourage the Sweet Tomatoes patrons because the restaurant was almost full. This is a place for business people to have lunch as well as families and shoppers. The restaurant is large – perhaps about three quarters the size of an Old Country Buffet, Golden Corral, or Ryans.

Entering the restaurant we were a bit confused. As we entered we were faced with the beginning of the salad bar stretching out down the entrance with the cashiers at the other end. The salad bar had rails for trays along each side and each side was either the same or easily accessed the other side. An employee standing inside the door handed each person who entered a tray and directed them onto the line that went down the salad bar. There was a large sign to explain things but basically it said to take a tray, take a plate, and create your salad. We took plates and followed along the line wondering to each other how one would go back to the salad bar if the cashier is at the end and it is necessary to come through the line if you were to come back for more salad. I started wondering if this was really a buffet or all you care to eat restaurant – but the signs inside all did say buffet and all you can eat. We went along and took salad.

There were salad greens to take at the beginning and several special prepared green salads that followed, I took two of these special salads – the Caesar and a Chinese chicken salad called Wonton Chicken Happiness Salad. I also took a prepared noodle salad that had the name tuna in it but no tuna listed on the ingredients. I had decided that I was not going to fill up on the tossed salad. Many were filling more than one plate full of salad and the many, many toppings and dressings that were offered. If you can think of a salad topping they had it. They had small cups of chicken to top salads but there was a sign under the cups stating that the chicken cost $1.25 extra for one small serving. This struck me as odd but my wife speculates that they do this so that someone does not make a meal of chicken (though if you take the chicken noodle soup – which I will say more about later – you could eat all the chicken you desired. As we got toward the end we were approaching the two cashiers – one on each side of the salad bar right on the bar. Just before you reach the cashier you are asked for your drink order. You are given glasses with ice. If you would like just water at no charge you are given a blue colored glass. All other glasses are clear. We paid for our lunches and my wife asked the cashier what to do if one wants more salad. We were told that you just come back through with your paid receipt. Fair enough!

Price for adult lunch is $7.29. Adult dinner is $8.69. Children’s prices at all times are $4.49 for age six to twelve and $1.49 for age three to five. Under age three is free. Drinks are $1.79 for all at all times. There is an extra charge for salad bar chicken at $1.25 and they were also selling bags of thirteen cookies for $1.69. While cookies are not on the dessert bar there were plenty of other dessert choices.

We sat down and discovered that on each table as part of the little advertising platform was a card to signal that the table is occupied. This is great and comical! It said “See you next thyme” on the back to signal that you have left the table. We set the card and went for drinks. The soft drink bar is extensive and there are signs encouraging you to mix the drinks to create your own. There were fruit juices, coke soda products, “sweet” tea, and “unsweet” ice tea, lemonade, etc. This was one of the best soft drink bars that I have ever seen in a buffet. We returned to our table with our drinks and saw that everyone around us took everything off their trays and put them on the side of the table. Soon someone came to pick them up.

The salad was good. The Chinese chicken salad was exceptional. I would swear that I was eating a Chinese entrée from the taste. It was greens with herbs, a light oil dressing, bits of fried wonton noodles (which are also on the salad bar to add to any salad), and pieces of chicken. It was wonderful! The noodle salad with tuna in the name did not taste like tuna but was very good. If there was not so much more to try I would have been back for more but because this was lunch, and because it was so hot outside, and I would be driving to my next stop four hours away, I decided to make this a tasting lunch and not one where I fill up on everything that I like. (The tasting lunch filled me to the brim!)

After the salad we headed up to the hot buffet bars which lined the wall at the front end of the side of the restaurant. There were seven soups to take. We discovered after we sat down that the chain is having an international feature week from the beginning of August to the end of September. We were there during the second feature which was Mexican. We had just missed Italian. To come will be Greek and then Asian. There is a little folder brochure that is available to take that says passport on the outside and has the features for each of these special weeks. Mexican is good but not on a hot day when you are going to be traveling in a car for five hours with little chance to stop. There were many soups that I would have tried had this visit been under different circumstances. What I did try was the chicken noodle and the cream of mushroom. I also had some of the vegetable soup that my wife took. Everything is clearly marked every where in this restaurant which is really good. You not only know what each item is but also what it is made with. If you are not sure about something there is sign explaining the whole recipe. Every thing that is vegetarian is marked that way. The chicken noodle soup was called big chunk chicken noodle and that was not an exaggeration. There were large pieces of white meat chicken – enough to eat a whole breast of chicken or more along with thick dough noodles. The broth was light. The soup was good. The cream of mushroom soup was thick and hearty. It had large pieces of mushrooms in a thick brown cream soup. This too was good. The vegetable soup had plenty of vegetables in a light tomato based broth – this was a thin broth unlike many vegetable soups. The other soups that were offered were spicy and part of the Mexican theme. They were Albondigas Locas soup, Posole soup with pork, a chile, and a chicken soup with lime that was spiced with chilies.

Moving along the hot bar there was a baked potato bar that included both baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes, each wrapped in foil. There were little bowls to put the potato in and there were hot and cold toppings. There was melted cheese and a light bean chili.

Following the potatoes there were two pizzas and a Greek style focaccia bread. The pizza was thick and loaded with cheese. One pizza was four cheese pizza and the other went along with the Mexican feature. This pizza had olives, peppers, chunks of tomatoes, cilantro, cheese, etc on top. It did have a mildly spicy taste. The cheese pizza was very good and if you like pan pizza or what is known as Sicilian style pizza you will love this. Moist, thick, and nicely seasoned – all making this a great item. Near the pizza there were fresh baked breads and muffins. This day there were corn muffins, blueberry muffins, double chocolate muffins, crusty bread, and others.

If you are still looking for something more, they have it. The hot bar ends with a pasta bar. Here were two prepared pasta dishes. There was fettuccine Alfredo and Macaroni and Cheese. There was also a hot bean dish (part of the Mexican feature) called (obviously) Hand Crafted Mexican Beans. It seems that they always have two pastas and then a bean of grain dish. When my picky eater wife saw the selections at the pasta bar she was disappointed. She likes things plain or basic and is avoiding high fat items. Behind the counter were trays of plain pasta and servers of sauces. I told her to ask for some plain pasta. The lady behind the counter was creating the pasta dishes out on the bar using these items and large skillets – right there at the counter. My wife asked for plain pasta and there was no problem! The lady scooped up some plain pasta and put it immediately into one of the skillets with some water to heat it. In moments she served my wife plain pasta and asked if she was sure she did not want some kind of sauce. My wife got a big bowl of pasta – more than she really wanted – but she was happy and her request was treated as if it happens all of the time, which given the kids eating here probably does happen all of the time, and all done with a smile. I tried the Fettuccine Alfredo and was a little disappointed. It was very bland and needed salt and pepper. With all of the spices in the Mexican themed dishes I expected this to be better than it was. It was nicely cooked but it should have been prepared with a little more salt and some pepper. I rarely add salt to anything but this pasta needed it.

All done – no, save room for dessert. There is soft serve frozen yogurt and a sundae bar with toppings. There was fresh fruit including grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, watermelon, sugar free chocolate mousse, and jello. Remember those double chocolate muffins on the bread bar? Those made a wonderful dessert – if you have room to eat it. They were rich and chocolaty. Really good, but I really had no more room. I had set out to just have a taste but I was full! (What I do for my readers!)

It was time to turn that little card over to the side that said, “See you next thyme!” and leave. We had a great lunch and this would have made an equally good and filling dinner. We really did not need to know how to get back to the salad bar because we had so much without a return trip, but had we wanted to it would have been no problem! Despite the change in price from lunch to dinner I believe that the menu remains the same all day.

Service was very good. Dishes were cleared regularly from the table. You get your own drinks and refills. The room, the tables, the buffet bars, the floors, and everything was clean. The room was very pleasantly decorated. There was no smoking in this restaurant (even though this is North Carolina). There was a choice of booths or tables spread through out the restaurant with the serving bars to the front end of the dining room.

I only wish there was one of these restaurants near to where I live in the northeast. I had a real surprise one evening watching a re-run of an episode of The Gilmore Girls. This show takes place in State of Connecticut. In the dialog of this episode the “girls” are talking about this great restaurant that they had just been to in a town nearby. They spoke of all you can eat salad, pasta, and soup! My ears picked up as I had been only half paying attention. Then they named it by name – Souplantation! A Souplantation in Connecticut! Not exactly in my backyard – unless you have a boat to cross the Long Island Sound and then you can reach Connecticut in 25 miles but a two to three hour drive taking the land route! I had to check the Souplantation website to see what I had missed. No luck! This was just a bit of Hollywood. Obviously the show is filmed in California and some Hollywood writer must have just discovered Souplantation – and just had to send the Gilmore Girls there even if the nearest one to them is almost 1800 miles away! Ah well!

Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation is a must try! I highly recommend it assuming that they are all like the one that I had the pleasure to try. If any of our readers have been to another location please share your experience in our comments. If you live in North Carolina there is also a location in Raleigh. The chain has a website with menus (they change regularly) and a location finder and it is listed on the side of this page.

Fire Mountain - Ryans Alter Ego

Ryans Buffet chain has several locations named Fire Mountain. They are scattered all over - some in the same state and can be found listed as Ryans with Fire Mountain included in the name. I am not sure why. There may have been another buffet chain that Ryans took over some time ago - or there was a conflict of some kind in using the Ryans name at that location. I have heard that Ryans is changing these Fire Mountain locations over to the Ryans name, but not all have been changed over yet. Never the less, I have always wanted to try a Fire Mountain just to see if there was any difference. I finally got and took the opportunity.

Searching for a buffet in the Hershey, Pennsylvania area (yes, the town where the chocolate comes from) I could only find Chinese buffets. I was looking for something different and knew that there is a Ryans in the Carlisle, PA area just about thirty miles away. Finding a hot spot we fired up the laptop and checked the Ryans site for the address. Yes, there was a Ryans listed in Mechanicsburg, PA just outside of Carlisle. We plugged the address into the GPS and off we went. As we arrived in the general locale we started looking for the Ryans' sign. My wife thought that she saw it up ahead but when we got close we did not see a sign that said Ryans but, rather, a sign that said Fire Mountain.

The outside of the restaurant was basically the same as Ryans. We entered and the lobby area and cashiers were basically the same, but as we got into the dining room there was a definite difference. Instead of the usual Ryans layout, there were two dining rooms, one on each side of the entrance. The buffet servers were differently arranged and split between both sides - cold and desserts on one side and hot on the other - with the grill in the middle. Another immediate difference was that we were told to seat ourselves - something that we have never been told in the many Ryans that we have been in. The decor was basically the same and at first glance the food was basically the same. Oh, and there were signs all over for "Steak, Steak, Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp" with Fire Mountain and the Ryans name small at the bottom. So, the Old Country Buffet owners of this corporation had spread their influence here- and, sadly, were featuring the "why bother?" feature. Here the feature is seven nights a week - at OCB it is only six nights.

We sat ourselves and the server came over to collect our receipt, see what soft drinks we ordered, and ask if we would like a basket of the same rolls that are served on the buffet table - just like at Ryans.

The layout of the buffet servers was different - as I said, but it was also smaller. Where at Ryans there are servers that are three trays deep and double-sized, here (at this location at least) the servers were two trays deep and single-sized. Hmm, less serving space - less to serve? Actually, yes. As we began to select entrees and sides we noticed that many of the items that are standard on the buffet at other Ryans (and we have been to these at all different nights of the week) were missing. Where the taco bar at Ryans is always next to the grill - here it was on an end of one of the hot servers taking space that would have been filled with more food items at Ryans. There is usually a baked potato bar with toppings - none here (there were baked potatoes and you could certainly find toppings at the salad bar - but there was a definite difference. I rarely have a problem finding a large selection to choose from of meats and prepared hot dishes, but here at Fire Mountain, while there was a generous assortment, it was not Ryans assortment given the missing items. A minor example - usually there are French fries - here none. Usually, there are garlic mashed potatoes - here just regular mashed potatoes. Usually, at the grill there is smoked sausage - not here. All that was on the grill was steak. Now, the steak was up to Ryans standard and very good. Both pieces that I had were properly cooked and very tasty. There is usually a noodles dish - or several, here none, with the exception of spaghetti.

The salad bar and soups were the same and there was the same good assortment as is found at Ryans.

The bakery/dessert area had less as well. Ryans usually has two different chocolate cakes - here none. There were several cakes, hot desserts, cookies, fruit, soft serve and the same candy toppings that Ryans puts next to the ice cream section. There are more cakes and pies at Ryans.

This all seemed to be a mini-Ryans or a pseudo-Ryans. It was good, but it needed more on the hot buffet. So is the difference between the two names a difference of what is offered - or how much is offered. The price seemed the same - though this varies by Ryans locations - though this restaurant may have been a dollar less. I would rather pay the extra dollar and get the larger assortment.

As to the layout of the restaurant, my wife wondered if this had once been a Golden Corral because the dining room layout was very similar, The grill area was distinctly Ryans, though, and I feel that this was Ryans or Fire Mountain built. Looking at a Golden Corral since dining at this Fire Mountain, I am still not sure.

There are not many Fire Mountain restaurants - and they are listed interchangably with Ryans on the same Ryans website. We were in South Carolina and found a Fire Mountain listed and went there only to find that it is now named Ryans -and it was very much like other Ryans that we have been to. If you have a choice head for Ryans. If Fire Mountain is what there is where you are at the moment then it is the next best thing - just a smaller good thing.

SOUPER! SALAD!

One of our readers asked me if I had ever heard of this restaurant chain. I had not, but the question came at a very opportune time as when I searched the chain on the Internet I discovered a location in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Now while South Carolina is about 1500 miles from my home, I happened to be on the road heading for that very city to visit two nearby Revolutionary War historic battlefield sites. On Saturday night in Spartanburg we decided that we would give Souper! Salad! a try, and we are VERY GLAD that we did.

This is a chain of restaurants located in the Southeast Untied States and the Western United States from Texas to Las Vegas, Nevada. Souper! Salad! features just what the name states - soup and salad served on an all you care to eat buffet. In addition to the soup and salad, there is pizza, pasta, baked potatoes, breads, and dessert. This is very similar to Soup Plantations.

The Spartanburg, SC location is in a shopping center. It is a relatively small restaurant filling the space of three store fronts. The restaurant has large windows that look out onto the parking lot. You enter at the cash register and pay as you go in. This is an EXTREMELY REASONABLE restaurant. The adult price at all times is $6.29. The children's price from ages 5 to 12 is $2.99 and children to age 4 are free. The soft drink price is high at $1.69 with children's drinks for $0.99. Regular soft drinks are refillable. There are "special" flavored lemonades that cost $1.99 and are not refillable.

After you pay you come right to the beginning of the salad bar which is a long double sided cold buffet server that runs most of the length of the restaurant. You take a tray, your silverware, and napkins and start to assemble your salad - if you wish to start with that. There were two different salad greens plus a "featured" mixed salad. This night the featured mixed salad was a mango cranberry salad which was very good. There is every imaginable topping and dressing for your tossed salad and when I got to the croutons and dry toppings there were even small cookies to put on the salad. That was a first for me to see. You then come to several prepared salads that change by the day. There was California chicken salad, a pasta seafood salad, a fetticine pasta salad, tuna salad, a special pasta and tuna salad, edame (soy beans) salad, mustard potato salad and a few others. At the end of this bar was the dessert bar, which we will get to later.

As you pass through the salad bar you are into the dining room for the first time and you seat yourself at tables and booths. We were there on a Saturday night and the restaurant was not crowded but there were a number of people and families dining. I suspect that this is most crowded at lunch time when the shopping center is busy. The atmosphere in the restaurant is informal and the decor is very pleasant. The room was bright and clean. We chose a booth and sat down with our salads. A few moments later a waitress came over and asked what we ordered to drink. She brought large, full drink glasses to our table. Looking around most people had their receipts out on their tables to signal that the table was still occupied - but no one said to do this. We did (as we have had our table cleaned and reset in mid-meal when we went up to the server several times in other buffets recently - this was NOT a problem here!).

After our salad we went up to try the soups. There are five soups served and these also change every day. This night there was chicken noodle, vegetable beef, Santa Fe chicken soup, tomato basil, and double baked potato soup. I am a SOUP LOVER! I had to try each one. All of the soups were good, but I liked the double baked potato soup the best. It was thick and seasoned just right with pieces of potato and bits of potato skins in this hearty soup. The Santa Fe chicken was thick and spicy - it had a mild chili flavor. The tomato basil was a semi-thick soup with chunks of tomato. This had a bit of an acid taste - but it was good. The vegetable beef was a thin broth with vegetables and tiny meatballs. The chicken soup was good but it had too many herbs that overpowered the broth. The noodles were not the thick dumpling like noodles but more like pasta noodles. All of the soups are made from scratch at the restaurant.

So there you have the soup of the Souper! and the salad of the "Salad" but that is not all! At the rear of the restaurant is a wall of hot spots including the soup bar. There is pasta that changes by the day to either ziti or spagetti and two sauces of meat marinara and alfredo. As an Italian-American on both sides of my family I grew up with very high expectations of tomato sauces. I can be very critical of tomato sauce - called "gravy"in my family. Well, I usually have low expectations of tomato sauce in most buffets, but I must say that the meaty marinara sauce here is very good. It is not acidy and it is not sweet. It is not overloaded with meat or greasy. For a buffet restaurant it passed my test with a B+. Following the pasta on the server are two types of pizza - cheese and pepperoni. The pizza was odd compared to most buffet pizzas (and most pizzas). The pizza is more like cheese and sauce on a cracker. The crust is as thinner than a cracker, flat, and cooked hard and crispy. The taste was pleasant - the cheese and tomato sauce were standard but it was like eating a pizza cracker. I would not hold this against the restaurant but if you are looking for "real" pizza you are going to be disappointed. If you think of this as a unique pizza-like treat you will be more satisfied. Further along on the hot server are whole baked potatoes wrapped in foil. There are several toppings for the potatoes including hot cheese, hot chili, cold cheese, bacon, sour cream, butter, and chives. There is also everything on the salad bar to put on your potato if you wish. It did not seem like it from the descriptions that I read of this restaurant but there is a lot of filling food here. I went in thinking that just eating salad and soup for dinner I would be hungry - but I was stuffed when I walked out!

As if all of this is not enough there is fresh baked breads which also change by the day. There were garlic bread sticks, cheese biscuits, corn bread, and wonderful blueberry bread. The blueberry bread looked like a pan of corn bread but it had pure blueberry taste in every bite!

Had enough? You did not save room for dessert? There is lots of good things for dessert. There were the fixing to make a strawberry cream dessert - a try of cake to top with strawberries in sauce and whipped cream. There were peaches in syrup. There was fruit salad. There was pudding. There were fresh grapes and oranges plus cantelope, watermelon, and honeydue melon. And, of course, there is the ice cream sundae bar - soft serve vanilla ice cream with toppings and cones.

Those who wish to eat vegetarian can easily do so here as all vegetarian dishes are clearly labeled as such. Labeling was excellent all around - there was no guessing. The prepared salads and the soups were not only labeled but the ingredients were clearly listed below the name on each label. No guessing and no surprises.

The service was excellent. Your server comes and takes dirty plates away - and there are a lot of plate changes here and just about every item gets its own plate - salad plates, soup bowls, pasta plates, bread plates, dessert plates. The server also refills your drinks and there was no waiting for a refill.

Tables when empty are cleaned quickly and this restaurant was very clean - tables, seats, walls, and floors. The room was bright and restrooms were clean and well supplied.

This is a great restaurant for families. The food is inexpensive (actually, cheaper than eating at home) and there is something for everyone unless you have someone who wants lots of meat. There were several families enjoying the restaurant. There are signs saying that children under 12 must be accompanied at the food servers - which is great. On Sunday there is a family special and all kids over 5 are $1.99.

All of the food was good. The experience was nice and very pleasant. The staff were friendly and welcoming. I would highly recommend this particular restaurant and if it is a good example of the others I would highly recommend this chain. There is a website that is linked at the side of this page. The website will give you the locations and each location has a way to see the menu for any particular day on the calendar. As I have said many dishes change by the day and there are many, many dishes listed on the website for each restaurant to put on the menu. If you are lucky enough to be in a state with a Souper!Salad! give it a try for dinner or lunch. You should be as satisfied as I am. If you have been to one of these restaurants leave a comment and tell us about your experience.

Changes at Ryans

We were recently at a Ryans in Virginia and just at a Ryans in South Carolina and noticed several changes that are definitely Old Country Buffet ownership influences. I had hoped that the influence would go the other way and the superior chain of Ryans would influence their new owner's, not quite up to par chain, Old Country Buffet. But it seems to be going the opposite way.

There have been some changes at the salad bar and not for the better. In the past the Ceasar salad at Ryans was a make it yourself salad. There was Romaine lettuce, dressing to top it with, cheese, and croûtons. Now, the Caesar salad is pre-made - just like at OCB, premixed and tossed with dressing (actually too much dressing in this case). Also on the salad bar they have now added the Greek salad that is served at OCB. Just the same.

As was mentioned in a previous article, the special features at Ryans are just the same as OCB - they had the rancher steak, riblets, and ribs - with the exact same sign on the table promoting it and now there is the same Steak Steak Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp. I did have an opportunity this time to taste the Rancher Steak at Ryans - which is also served at OCB. What a difference! The steak at Ryans is very good! The Rancher Steak at OCB is tough, over-cooked, greasy, and generally one to avoid. Steak is still served at Ryans seven days a week - not the six days at OCB. With the end of the barbecue feature, Ryans has taken on Steak, Steak, Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp, the why bother feature from OCB. Here at least the steak is decent, but again, all of these so called "feature" items are on the buffet anyway.

A new addition at Ryans is carvings. There was a REAL turkey being carved in the Ryans in Virginia and a turkey breast in South Carolina. In Virginia it was not the turkey breast of unknown origin at OCB, but a whole turkey. It was nicely cooked. This was the only positive OCB influence evident (though there is little if any positive influence that OCB could have over Ryans).

Ryans once had great labeling on their buffet servers. You used to know exactly what you were taking. The signs were clear and usually in place. Now, there are few labels on items - just like OCB.

The general public does not know that there is any connection between these two chains. All they will know is that things are not exactly the same at Ryans - and some of these things are not for the better. I still like Ryans - perhaps it is still the best of the chain buffets. (I have to visit a Golden Corral again to make a new comparison.) I just wish OCB would leave well enough alone.

That all said I want to give some recognition to the young man who was the grill chef at the Ryans in Spartanburg, South Carolina located on Route 29 named Ken. When I went up for some steak Ken told me that there was nothing that was medium rare but if I came back in six minutes he would cook one for me. He did. Later in the evening I went back for another piece and as he saw me coming he told me that if I came back in eight minutes he would have cooked a medium rare for me. And again, he did. I did not mind the wait. As we were having desert he came around the dining room to see if anyone wanted more steak - he approached our table with a smile and asked me if I wanted another one. I told him that he was great and that the steaks were excellent! So here is another outstanding buffet employee that I have come across in my buffet adventures!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

This is it! Our two year anniversary of this site! We have grown quite a bit in our US and international readership. We average 1500 readers a week. I would love to multiply that by ten but I am satisfied! Plus we show up toward the top of most search engine searches for buffets.

Thanks to all of you for keeping coming back. Keep reading! Lots of great articles to come!!!

What Employees Should Not Say...

There are things in business that should not be done in front of the public and that holds for buffet restaurants as well. Recently I observed three episodes in three different buffet restaurants of things that should not have taken place in front of the customers. They all involved conversation involving managers or employees. Now, I am sure that there are a lot of things that happen in all restaurants that the public should not see (I have heard some stories.) but there are things that the public should not hear or unavoidably overhear.

The first story takes place in a Ryans. In one of the sections there are two servers seemingly working together. The usual course in Ryans is that each table has one server who brings drinks, clears away dirty plates, etc. This night at our table two servers introduced themselves working together. One is an experienced employee who has been there for at least the several years that I have gone to this particular Ryans. The other must have been a new employee who was training with this experience server - that is how it appeared, anyway. The trainee is a young lady and the experienced employee is a man (who in my experience is always a bit gruff and annoyed - which is also not a good thing to communicate to the customers in manner and service). The young lady came and introduced herself, very politely, and was very pleasant. About twenty minutes into our meal, as I am walking back to my table, the man is talking to a supervisor - loudly - and saying that he does not want to ever work with this young lady again. He complained that she was "taking" his tips and was not sharing tips equally. He actually then said that she claimed that one customer handed the tip to her and told her that it was for her. He took exception to this with the supervisor. The conversation was loud and clear to anyone nearby, including our table and anyone at the serving bars. The supervisor was pacifying him - but NEVER once said, "Let's take this conversation into the back where no one will hear."

Shortly later, after the discussion had ended, a manager came out and called the young lady over to him - again, in the dining room in front of customers. There in front of everyone he confronted her and then, as all could hear, he told her to leave and not come back. He fired her in front of everyone. Not only is that humiliating to her but also a bit embarrassing for all the customers who listened to it and then watched her leave through the exit crying. What a relaxing meal! I sure hope that there had been other problems with her than this one employee's complaint. That, thankfully, we will never know.

The next story took place in my very own neighborhood's Old Country Buffet (you know the one that I have said is probably the worst OCB in the country). This is actually two stories in one night involving the same Restaurant Manager. We start out on the line to pay on the way in. As the family in front of us get to the cash register the manager comes out from his office and walks up to the cashier. There is some problem with an over-ring and she needs him to help her fix it. He looks at the receipt and listens to her story (in broken English) and then he starts yelling at her about what she did wrong and what does she want him to do about it. She remains calm and meekly tells him again what happened. He begins yelling again. In the meantime there are customers now waiting on line out the door. She has the sense to ring up the family ahead of us standing and waiting to pay. They move on into the dining room and we move up to the register. Now the yelling - him to her- starts again. The same things go back and forth for another five minutes - with all on line listening to every word - and the line getting longer and longer. He finally starts yelling in mockingly, pseudo-Spanish (she is Hispanic, he is not) and then he tells her that she must go into the dining and find the people who had the over ring and get their receipt back from them so that whatever needed to be done finally by him would be done. Off she went to look, and then he had the mind to look up at us and allow us to pay for our meals.

Later that same evening, while we were at our table, this same restaurant manager came over to the soft serve ice cream machine, that needed to be refilled. There was a line of people waiting for ice cream. A few of them impatiently asked what was wrong with the machine and would there be ice cream. His direct answer to them was, "I am just the manager, I am not the technician!" He did this again later on when the machine again needed refilling. "I am JUST the manager, I am NOT the technician!" Well, it does not take a technician to pour ice cream mix into the machine. It does take a manager to apologize for the delay and leave with the customer smiling. This OCB goes through a lot of managers. None but the first one really ever got it right. That first one knew how to keep customers satisfied and did a pretty good job of running the restaurant (probably because he was trained at the home office). An example of what to do - one night, a very long time ago, the pizza ran out and did not come out for quite some time. This original manager spoke to a table who were complaining about the lack of pizza. When the pizza did come out to the buffet table, he made sure another whole pizza was brought to this customer's table. That is how a manager should react.

My final "opps, that shouldn't have been said in front of the customers story" I actually have told in an article before - just a few weeks ago, but it is worth repeating. This took place at the Pennsylvania buffet that I have advised the readers not to go to. There when there were several problems with the food that was being served, the server told the table of customers - who were telling her that there were problems, "I am just the waitress, I don't cook it!" Yes, well that may be true, but that is not something that you say to the customers.

I have a fourth story that is not mine and I am going to relate here word for word as it was posted on this site as a comment -

"I had a very bad experience in Old Country Buffet in Levittown today. It was 2:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon and the restaurant was very crowded.When I went up to take some food, I noticed that there were several empty serving trays.I asked every employee who walked by, to please bring out food.They looked past me as if they did'nt see me. When I went to the manager, Roberto, he told me that they don't speak English. I said this is an American restaurant, and maybe they should have a few associates who do speak English. Roberto got very nasty and abusive and told me that this is a Spanish speaking restaurant and if I didn't like it,too bad.They don't mind taking Americans money, but we are really not welcomed there.I have never been treated so poorly by a manager.There were a few other customers who were also waiting for food to be brought out, and they heard what he said to me.Everyone standing there was horrified. One couple said they wanted their money back and everyone said they would never come back again.If the manager has no respect for the customers, then the employees won't either. This is the worst restaurant I ever ate in.Then I made the mistake of going into the bathroom. It was filthy, and there were 2 backed up toilets. The smell was unbelievable.There were no paper towels and no soap. This restaurant should be sited by the Board of Health.As far as Roberto goes, he should be fired. He is a terrible representative of this restaurant. If they really don't want Americans in their restaurant, they should reconsider OCB as a business."

• This reader should be outraged! And this manager should be fired! Ths is a second service manager for the Levittown, NY OCB. The other manager is the subject of the ice cream machine incident above. Let me tell you a little bit about the community of Levittown, NY. This is the famous town created when the soldiers came home from World War II so that they could buy affordable housing. The make up of the community is basically the same now as it was then. This is far from being a Spanish community. Recently we have had a few "anonymous" comments from someone who is presenting him/herself to be from Buffets, Inc., the corporate owner of OCB. If there is someone who is reading this from Buffets, Inc. you need to know that you have a serious problem in management and operation in the Levittown, NY OCB - and now it is not just me saying so!

A note to all buffet managers (and employees)- if you have something critical to say to an employee, take the employee into your office. It is bad form to discipline an employee in front of anyone - another employee OR your customers!

Got any stories you have witnessed? Share them with us in a comment.

Old Town Buffet - A Small Buffet Chain in PA and NJ

I found this small buffet chain from a comment made to one of my articles. I had listed the Old Town Buffet as one of the various name incarnations of the Old Country Buffet corporate run restaurants and was corrected that no, this was not one of their restaurants. Hmm. I thought that I had seen this name somewhere, but had no idea where. I did a search and low and behold - there is a chain of four restaurants located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The website called these buffets "international" and showed carvings and steaks being charbroiled on a grill in the middle of the restaurant. They also spoke about sushi. I had the feeling that this was a chain of Chinese buffets, but that was not what their website was describing. The feeling that I was getting looking at the photos and reading the description was an all around buffet.

Now, finding a buffet chain in New Jersey (other than OCB) was exciting. I am in New Jersey several times during the year on business related trips and have looked for buffets to try. I have not found any - other than one not so good Chinese buffet that I have written about - and usually we just head back to New York at the end of the day and eat locally near home. I have figured that other than the buffets in the casinos in Atlantic City there must be buffets in New Jersey. So now I have found a chain. There are actually two locations in the State of New Jersey and two locations in Pennsylvania. The two in New Jersey are not exactly near the areas that I travel to - but it was encouraging to see on this Internet site that there was something.

On this trip to eastern Pennsylvania I decided to find one of these restaurants. We drove one hour away from where we are staying (with gas at $3.00 per gallon) to eat at The Old Town Buffet in Abington, Pennsylvania. I am going to write this article with the assumption that one location of these four restaurants is the same as any other.

The Old Town Buffet, despite website descriptions, is just another Chinese buffet. It does have an extensive variety of foods, but when all is put together, this is a chain of Chinese buffets. So is it good? It is ok. Not great, not bad, better than some but not as good as many.

This particular restaurant is located in a shopping center. It is part of the ground floor of a Target store that occupies the floor above. The restaurant is under the store. The restaurant is large (not as large as Target) and is entered from a long hallway that runs along the side of the dining room. The door to the hall is from the parking lot and the hall is lined with an odd assortment of chairs and benches - including two bench seats from a van. The implication from this is that at times there is a significant wait to get into this restaurant and this is the seating area for those who are waiting. At the end of the hall, in the hall is a reception desk and this is where you are greeted and get your table. We went on a Thursday night and we got to the restaurant late for a weeknight at 8:00, though the restaurant hours every night are claimed to be to 10:30 pm. We were seated right away and the restaurant was not empty. Other diners came in after we were seated.

The prices are clearly displayed on a sign on the wall over the cashier, but as you come in and brought to your table you may not notice it there. There are lunch and dinner prices. Weekday dinner is $11.95, adult, and $6.25, children. On Friday to Sunday, dinner is $13.75, adult, and $7.25, children. Lunch is $7.45, adult, and $4.25, children - Monday to Friday. On Saturday lunch is $8.45, adult, and $4.95, children. Sunday lunch is $10.95, adult, and $6.25, children - until 3pm. All other lunch hours stop at 3:30pm. The restaurant opens at 11 am. All prices for all meals include soft drinks (making the price a bit more reasonable than it appears). They have very specific definitions of children - children are from 3 years to 10 years and if the child is over four foot ten inches tall, you must prove the child's age. There is also a great rule that children under ten are not to go to the buffet tables unescorted by an adult. (Actually, there were a few children up at the buffet who should have been with an adult and no one said anything.) The website claims that there is a senior discount for 55 and over. There does not seem to be any indication of this in the restaurant.

So, as I said, the restaurant is large inside. There are booths and tables surrounding a large buffet area in the middle and the back of the restaurant. There are the equivalent of six double sided, double buffet tables plus a large island in the middle with a Mongolian barbecue, sushi bar, carving station, and charbroil grill. Yes, everything on the website is here in some form or another. Four of the double double servers are in the middle and two very long servers are along the wall - together, the equivalent of seven servers. When you are seated a large wooden bowl is placed on your table for crab leg shells and inside the bowl are a stack of napkins plus several wet-naps.

The server along one wall has five soup choices - all the usual Chinese soups including seafood soup. There is also clam chowder. There were also two rice steamers here for white and fried rice but these were empty with these items in trays on another table. Across the room was a cold table that was three quarters filled with salads and cold seafood, including raw clams and steamed cocktail shrimp. There was greens and toppings with several dressings along with several prepared salads including chicken salad and a seafood salad. The remainder of the table had fruits and puddings for dessert. Behind this table along the back wall was another cold table full of the usual assortment of Chinese buffet "Little Debbie"-type cakes, cookies, and an ice cream soft serve machine.

Jumping back to the front of the serving area is a large grill island surounded on all sides with hot and cold servers. On the front end is the sushi bar. There was an interesting assortment of sushi - a variety of raw fish and some interesting rolls including an Alaskan Roll that was mashed raw salmon with crab rolled in rice and seaweed with sesame seeds on the outside. These were pretty good. Two sides of the island have the incredients for the Mongolian barbecue - all the usual meats and raw vegetables including shrimp and noodles. There were two sauces to put on the mixture - one hot and spicy and the other mild. There was also chopped garlic to add. I began to spoon the sauce on and the bowl was taken from me for the grill chef to put it on. The grill is a round grill about a yard in diameter - smaller than some, but more than adequate (unless there is a crowd waiting). The grill chef did a good job and moved the mix of ingredients around the grill in a circle as it cooks. The raw mix is handed to the chef in metal or wood bowls and then when cooked are placed into a clean dinner plate. On the other side of the grill is the carving station which offered turkey breast, a very over done roast beef and a tray of spare ribs that were coated in that sweet red sauce that Chinese buffets like to pour ober their spare ribs. There were also trays of raw "New York' steaks, raw salmon steaks, and shrimp on skewers. You select these and give them to the grill chef to be charbroiled. The steak was far from "New York" steaks - they were more like beef round slice to less than half an inch thick. For some reason the steak did not char on the grill and barely browned. There was a layer of fat on the edge which would not cut with the steak when eating. There were no salmon steaks when we arrived and there were no salmon steaks when we left. There were large shrimp in the shell to be grilled.

On the hot buffet tables there was a wide assortment of Chinese appetizers to American side dishes. There were three types of potatoes - mashed, french fries, and potato wedges cooked in butter. There was corn on the cob. There was macaroni and cheese and there was a baked seafood dish covered in cheese. There were crab legs - just single legs and not clusters. There was also hot rock crab - the large hard-shell crabs that seemed baked. To round out the shell fish there were steamed crawfish. There was broiled salmon. There were several Chinese chicken dishes and seafood dishes.

It all sounds great and plentiful - plentiful, yes - tasty - well, it varied. Nothing was bad. BUT nothing stood out as terrific. I did not find anything that I would say that particularly stood out and that I could say I really, really liked of all of the hot foods. I tried the Mongolian barbecue and made a dish of noodles, cabbage, two types of mushrooms, beansprouts , shrimp and beef. It was all good but the beef -which despite the seasoned sauce was bland. The best thing that I had was the soft serve ice cream - which my wife agreed was the best thing that she had in the entire meal. It was creamy and tasty. If only the entrees were equally tasty.

Now, I did "eat my full" and I was more than satisfied after the meal. I just wish that it was better. Would I go back again? Only if I was in the locale of one of the four restaurants in the chain - it was not worth the 120 to 140 mile round trip from and back to my hotel. (Some buffets would be worth the trip!)

Something else that is very important to note - this restaurant hours every night are posted to 10:30 pm. At 9:00 pm with a good number of diners still in the restaurant they started to clean the restaurant to get ready to close. The tile floors in the service areas were washed with ammonia and bleach with an odor so strong that the smell came to our table and I was gagging. The Mongolian grill was washed down at 9:25 with no announcement asking if anyone cared for more. Essentially the restaurant was closing an hour earlier than posted. As we were leaving someone came to the door and asked if they were opened. He was told that he could come in but only what was still out would be available to him. If you post a 10:30 closing and you actually close an hour earlier then it should be posted that the last seating is X time. They do not do this.

The service was good. Plates were cleared from the tables quickly and drinks were offered without asking. At one point my soda glass was empty and I thought that the server was ignoring me as I tried to get his attention to let him know I wanted more. When I finally caught his eye as he was walking across the dining room he actually had another soda for me in his hand - before I asked. The restaurant was clean. The floors were clean. The room was pleasantly decorated. The logo for this restaurant is OTB and is on the servers shirts. (OTB - OCB?)

There are four locations - Abington, PA; Philadelphia, PA; Morristown, NJ; and Eatontown, NJ (near Monmouth). A fifth location is coming soon to New Brunswick, NJ. If you are near one of these towns or traveling through NEAR BY then try Old Town Buffet. It is a lot of different food for a reasonable price. You will not come out saying that it was the best buffet that you have ever eaten at, but you will be satisfied with the amount you are offered. If you are looking for great taste, keep going. There is a website for the chain and that is listed at the side of the page. If you have been to one of these Old Town Buffets, please share your opinion with us in the comments.

New Feature at Old Country Buffet - Whoopie!

Well, Old Country Buffet has done it again. They have come up with another "Why Bother?" dinner feature. This time they have brought back the worst dinner feature that they have ever had and combined it with the same bad steak that they serve all of the time. Introducing..."Steak, Steak, Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp"! I find it amusing that they have taken the mocking description that I gave to their last shrimp feature and used it to name this one- "Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp". Their website calls it Steak and Shrimp Feast, but the printed signs in the restaurant all say Steak, Steak, Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp.

So how is Steak, Steak, Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp. I ate it and I am actually not sure that I can say that it was even served. The steak and the two special sauces that are advertised with the feature is the same steak and the same two sauces that are always served (of course, the steak is now, "Rancher's Select" which it has been for the past several months - and just as overdone, tough, and dried out). The shrimp dishes seemed to get lost on the buffet. There are supposed to be three shrimp dishes (Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp)- fried shrimp, fried butterfly shrimp, and shrimp Alfredo. There was fried shrimp, but that is usually there any way. There was butterfly shrimp - smallish shrimp split open and fried, but there was no shrimp in pasta of any kind. Not even a spot for it - in case it ran out and was to be refilled. On another night there again was no shrimp Alfredo but there seemed to be a second tray of spaghetti. On close look there were a few small shrimp thrown into the pasta - no Alfredo sauce, it just seemed to be mixed in oil and parsley.

So again I ask, "Why do they bother?" A dinner feature is supposed to bring customers back and entice new customer in. One sampling of this and you will say, "so what!"

Other chains seem to get it right and they tend to rotate full featured menus through the week - one each night. Steak, Steak, Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp is offered every night, Monday to Saturday. For some reason Old Country Buffet feels that Sunday diners do not need specials. If the Sunday menu was special in itself,that would be understandable, but it is not.

In the past Old Country Buffet had some good features. Last year's barbecue feature with really good Kansas City style ribs was great! A few years back there was a Tex-Mex feature that was very good. This summer they have not had a winning feature yet!

Plainville Farms Restaurant, Cicero, New York

One of our readers suggested this buffet and while I am in New York, this restaurant is located near Syracuse at the top of the state, while I am down at the bottom of the state a good eight to nine hours away. While other state's interstate roadways and turnpikes can get you through most of the state directly, a trip "upstate" New York is a tiring journey from highway to side roads to streets and hopefully back to highways (but not always). From my home it is easier and quicker to get to and through three other states than it is to get to "upstate" New York - not to mention the high tolls. Anyway - back to the Plainville Farms Restaurant. If I ever have a need to head up to this part of New York, I definately want to try this buffet restaurant.

This restaurant is "Thanksgiving Dinner" everyday! They serve a full, real Thanksgiving dinner with all of the traditional American trimmings in their buffet daily and they serve the buffet in different ways. There is a regular, "all you care to eat" buffet dinner (and lunch) of the full turkey dinner that includes hand carved turkey, real mashed potatoes, a variety of vegetables including hubbard squash, stuffing, gravy, homemade soups, salad bar and all of the rest that you might expect. The lunch price until 4, Mondays through Saturday is $9.39. After 4:00 pm until closing at 9:00 pm the dinner costs $12.99 with as senior price of $11.29. Children six to twelve pay $5.99. For those who do not care for turkey you can enjoy the salad and soup bar (there is going to be homemade turkey soup - they are know for this and I will explain more about the turkey later). This is $7.59 all of the time. Maybe you want the Thanksgiving dinner but you don't care to eat a lot. You can get a one plate buffet - one trip and one plate up to the buffet to take what you can fill the plate with - and this costs just $8.39 Lunch and $10.39 Dinner. This is not available on Sundays or holidays. There is also a Sunday Breakfast buffet with all of your breakfast favorites until Noon on Sundays for $8.99. For those who want to have a menu meal instead, there is also menu service and you can add the salad and soup bar to the entree for just $2.99 extra.

Soft drinks and coffee are extra. Soft drink prices are high at a $1.89 and coffee is $1.39. Both are refillable.

The restaurant can seat 300 and looks very pleasant and welcoming. It is on the road and appears to be backed by farm fields - yes, there are farms in NY.

To understand why the emphasis on TURKEY here, you need to know about who owns and operates this restaurant (which is a single location and not a chain). Plainville Farms Restaurant is owned and operated by Plainville Farms, a family owned business that grows turkeys and produces several commercial turkey products including roasting turkeys, delicatessen slicing turkey breast in a variety of plain and seasoned selections, deli ham, bologna, and fresh turkey meat (chopped, cutlet, etc.). These products are available in stores across the country. People rave about these turkeys as the "best"! So it is not hard to understand why this turkey company would serve their finest in their own restaurant - and make Thanksgiving Dinner a daily occurrence. By the way, this is no small outfit - they also own a large feed company.

As I have said, I have not been to this restaurant and I have never tried one of their products. One of our readers wrote and told me that this is a MUST TRY. I take that readers word for it - and based upon the website, this buffet looks great, especially for a turkey lover which I am.

The address of the restaurant is 8450 Brewerton Road, Cicero, New York and their
phone number is (315) 699-3852. They have a website, which is included at the side of our site.

If you have been there or you try it, please post a comment and tell us all about it!

Old Country Buffets To Get Grills

Through a comment to one of our articles I have been informed that all of the Old Country Buffet restaurants will eventually have grills in the buffet serving area. This would allow steaks and other features to be cooked (hopefully) to order. If you have been a regular reader you know that this is one of my major complaints about the steak at OCB and why I rank Ryans and Golden Corral above Old Country Buffet in the buffet chain hierarchy.

This sounds great but then I started thinking while dining at the local OCB how this would work. Presently there is supposed to be always someone carving at the carving area. Well, that is not always so. It is not uncommon to have to find someone to come over to carve - and often who you may find has never done this before and does not carve very well. What will happen when there needs to always be a cook behind that new grill? Will he/she be there? Will it be another case of find someone?

Of course, the other chains manage this and do not have a problem. And as I have admitted in the past - perhaps the problems that I often see are the consequence of the particular management or the employees that they are able to hire - and perhaps, it is a New York thing - as things always seem to go differently in New York at restaurant chains and stores - and not for the better. A number of years ago we actually had a Golden Corral on Long Island in New York. That Golden Corral went out of business because it was poorly maintained, poorly kept clean, and most knew after one or two visits not to go back. Now, Golden Corrals seem to flourish everywhere else - in fact on financial criteria it is considered by business reporting sources to be the number one buffet chain. Not so here! (I am born and raised - and have lived all of my life in NY - so no criticism please that I am down on NY.)

Well, I actually cannot wait to see this new grill come to OCB. I am not sure how it will be fit in without a complete renovation - and the local OCB was renovated on a year or two ago. Since steak seems to be on the menu now (except Sundays), it can only get better on a grill.

Anniversary Coming!

One month to the day and we will be celebrating our SECOND YEAR anniversary of this site! We have grown to over a thousand readers each week. We come up near the top of most searches for buffets on most search engines. We certainly have something to celebrate.

Special thanks to all of our readers!

Harvest View Family Restaurant - REVISITED

THIS RESTAURANT HAS BEEN RE-REVIEWED ON JULY 11, 2008 AND HAS RECEIVED A POSITIVE REVIEW. PLEASE READ THAT CURRENT REVIEW FOR A CURRENT ASSESSMENT OF THIS RESTAURANT.

PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE CURRENT REVIEW -

CURRENT REVIEW.


A year ago in July 2006 I reviewed a restaurant in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania called the Harvest View Family Restaurant. The restaurant opened in the location of a former buffet restaurant that had the same name. At the time my review of this new restaurant was not great. Following the posting of my article, a comment was left by one of out readers stating that the restaurant had improved. I always meant to go back and find out and this night we decided to do so.

Man, did we make the wrong decision! The restaurant did not improve - it got worse. As we drove to the restaurant we passed two other buffets that we know and the parking lots were packed. We got to the restaurant parking lot and there were just a few cars. This is the day after the Fourth of July and this tourist area is buzzing. We walked into the restaurant and the reception area was deserted. There is a paper sign that says to enter the upper dining room and seat yourself. I look ahead toward the dining room and it looks empty. I asked my wife if we should even bother to go in. We were there so we went on. In the dining room a waitress approached us and told us to sit anywhere. There were four other tables occupied in the large room. We picked a table and realized that there was a large table fan behind us blowing. We moved to another table and saw one more similar fan blowing in the room. There was no air conditioning running - just these fans - on July 5th!

Once seated we were told by the same waitress to go and help ourselves and what did we want to drink. No menus - this has been and is advertised as having both buffet and menu dining. What is more - no prices visible anywhere for the buffet. Ok. We ordered our soft drinks and then went up to the serving bar for soup. There was one soup - beef vegetable and there was little of it in the serving tureen. I place soup in a cup and felt no heat coming through to my hand holding the cup. I knew right away that this soup was not hot. I also glanced over to the entrees and see a very washed out looking single piece of fried chicken and two pieces of pale barbecued chicken. All very unappetizing. Back at the table I tasted the soup and I was right - it was just room temperature - not a very healthy thing for soup that will grow bacteria if it is not kept hot (as any health inspector will tell you). Beyond the temperature, the soup was thin, weak, and watery with little, if any flavor of vegetable soup.

I now overhear a conversation between a woman at another table and the waitress. The woman ordered hot tea. She was brought a tea bag for decaffeinated tea. She told the waitress that she wanted regular tea and the waitress told her that they only have decaf tea. Odd. Usually you can only get regular tea and not decaf tea. This was presented as though all that is served here is decaf tea. The woman was not happy.

We followed the soup with the salad bar which had basic lettuce and toppings with a poor variety of dressings. Beyond its lack of variety the salad bar was ok - salads are supposed to be cold so they had no problem here.

We went up for our main course. There were seven vegetables - corn, wax beans, carrots, lima beans, and peas PLUS a mixture of the corn and limas to make succotash and all of the vegetables together to make mixed vegetables. Why mix what is already there? There were two types of potatoes - lumpy, pasty mashed potatoes (that were probably fresh and not from a mix, but not very well made) and small roasted potatoes. Meats came next and while what they were supposed to be, would be good - they were not. There was meatloaf that had to have been commercially made and they covered it in tomato sauce. It was much too dense and formed for a homemade or even restaurant made meatloaf and resembled what I have seen sold pre-cooked at local meat counters. There was a local dish called pork and kraut. This is supposed to be pieces of pork loin cooked and served with sauerkraut. This was not pork loin but chunks of sausage meat - not sausage, but the chopped meat inside, mixed with the sauerkraut. I have eaten this local favorite many times in many local restaurants and have never had one like this. Then there was turkey and roast beef. The turkey was a deli turkey breast - the formed, composite turkey ball found at some deli counters. It had been heated and put out in thick slices in a broth. The roast beef was paper thin slices of tasteless delicatessen roast beef - right from the deli counter and thrown in a beef broth. There were also barbecue meatballs - little meatballs in barbecue sauce. By now two new trays of chicken had been brought out - fried chicken and chicken covered in barbecue sauce. (I will get to these later.) Also in the meats was pieces of grilled steak sitting in a broth. I must say, that of everything these little pieces of steak were actually tasty.

Despite steam coming from the serving tables, NOTHING was hot. Everything was just warm or near cold. Now, about the chicken. At the table next to us the gentleman called the waitress over. He told her that the barbecue chicken was raw - bloody inside. She offered to get him another piece from the same serving tray and he told her that this was the second piece that he took and both were equally RAW. She offered to get the cook, who came out. He listened to the man's comment about the chicken and politely thanked him for telling him that the chicken was raw. The man was very well mannered and not angry. Yet, all he got was a thank you from the chef. No offer to cook it more. (No offer to make it right with dinner on the house or even a discount.) These people at the table next to us barely ate anything. The waitresses comment to them was that she doesn't do the cooking. Hearing all of this I was about to cut into my fried chicken drumstick. I did so cautiously and, yes, it was undercooked as well. Undercooked and bloody chicken can make you very, very sick! The cook did not take the tray of raw barbecue chicken away right off. He came back a short while later and whisked the tray back to the kitchen, perhaps finally realizing that he was about to poison everyone.

The vegetables were watery and there was an odd taste to the wax beans. I want to say it was some type of a cleanser taste - bleach??? I am not sure, but it was not good.

Taste and temperature aside, the variety was poor. Restaurants in this area often have noodles - none here - and some type of fish dish - again, none here. Yet, does that really matter with everything else so poor.

There is a dessert table that had three of the same chocolate cake, a few other cakes that were partially left, some fruit, puddings, and jello. There is a cold server with slices of pie and there is an ice cream freezer with Turkey Hill (name brand) ice cream. Other than the variety the dessert was ok.

Service was marginal. With practically no one in the room, this single waitress for the whole restaurant took a long time to clear the dirty plates off the table. She never offered refills of drinks and we never got any.

It seemed that there were four or five people working in the entire restaurant. They did come out and refill trays, but it never was hot. Most buffets have someone come around the serving trays with a thermometer and make sure the temperatures are properly hot. Someone needs to let this restaurant know about the practice. (Perhaps, I just did.) My wife kept saying to me that it is as if amateurs decided to try to run a restaurant - and not do it too well.

This restaurant location was always known for its farmland view and it still has that - that is all that it has. I am not sure how they are remaining in business. The couple at the table next to us left in disgust. When the waitress asked us how everything was I told her- and I, too, got an apology with a shrug.

I must say that the restaurant seemed clean. There were candle type electric chandeliers lighting the room and at least two were missing bulbs - not that there were burned out light bulbs - there were missing light bulbs. And there were the large fans blowing around the room.

DO NOT GO TO THE HARVEST VIEW FAMILY RESTAURANT. There are many other great buffets in this area. This was the second worst buffet meal that I have ever had. I am going to be specific about where this is so you will know what to avoid. The Harvest View Family Restaurant is located on Harvest Road in Intercourse, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is off Route 340 where you will see signs at the road to turn down. There are many ads in local tourist publications that would lead you to believe that this restaurant is many nice things that IT IS NOT!

I wanted to like this restaurant - I like the view. Too bad!

Some Changes at the China Buffet - East Meadow, NY

In October 2006 I wrote about the China Buffet, located in the village of East Meadow in New York. This is a little neighborhood Chinese restaurant that turned into a buffet a long time back. I would love to love this buffet because it is so close to me.

On the evening that we went back to the China Buffet we had not been able to get into the local OCB as there was a line out the door. This was a Sunday night (Father's Day) and we decided to try the China Buffet once more.

When we arrived the dining room was near empty - does this say something? (OCB line out the door - China Buffet dining room empty) We were seated, ordered sodas (which we later learned are now extra according to a barely legible,handwritten sign, scotched taped to the door (not sure if this is a permanent change or just for "the holiday" - Father's Day)), and went up to the buffet server tables. We could see immediately that there had been some changes. One of the two serving tables was longer. Some items had been moved there and in their place on the other serving table were more dumplings than previously offered. Things looked a bit brighter and cleaner. As we went along there were several other new dishes added. There was a seafood mixture in butter sauce. There were stuffed crabs with "Krab" legs cut up with vegetables. There were whole fried fish. Instead of the usual buffet-style egg rolls there were large Spring rolls that were actually a cross between Spring rolls and egg rolls (tasty and crispy but dripping with oil). There now is also a fourth soup - a noodle soup. On the hot table was a hot apple strussel for dessert that is new.

The Mongolian grill remains in the back of the buffet area. This still makes up for the lack of main dishes - which despite the new additions is still a problem. The advantage of the Mongolian grill is that you can create just about any dish you would like using beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, noodles, and vegetables. When I am at a Mongolian grill I expect to find the meat frozen - a sign that it has not been sitting out long exposed to the air. All of the meat here on this night was not even close to frozen and because of that I did not take the chicken. There was also a lack of serving tongs to take the meat - one in the chicken and one in the beef. I took the beef and used those tongs for the shrimp. But I was not going to take a chance on the pork as surely the chicken tongs had been used to take it earlier by someone.

The added dumplings were nice. There were steamed shrimp dumplings that were actually rather good. There was dim sum. There were two steamed sweet dumplings - a bean paste dumpling that looked like a peach and a steamed cake. This is in addition to the fried meat dumplings that they have always offered. The dumplings were not bad. We tried the steamed cake for dessert and it was good.

One of my complaints in the past at this restaurant was that there were no knives. This night I decided to ask for one and see if they still said they had none. To my surprise - after a bit of translation two knives were brought to our table.

About three-quarters of the way through the meal I started to feel that lightheaded, MSG buzz. Something that I have not encountered in other Chinese buffets. MSG is a food additive that had been heavily used in Chinese cooking to make the meats and vegetables be more tender, be crisper and last longer in storage. I am sure that many Chinese restaurants still use it - menu restaurants always have an option for it to be left out - many do not use it at all any more because many people are sensitive to it and it can result in a headache. If other buffets that I have been to have used it I have not felt its effects. I know that if it is used heavily, I will feel it. I felt it here.

So, as I said at the beginning it would be great if this buffet were great - just minutes away! But sadly, no - not so great. In the front window there was a poster that said TOP in big letters with the name of this restaurant. There was a website listed and the sign told you to go and vote for this restaurant to be one of the "Top One Hundred Chinese Restaurants in the United States". Wishful, aren't they? This is not even close to the top one thousand. Ah, well.

Barnhill's Buffet

Continuing my search for small buffet chains around the country I came across another chain that looks great. It is Barnhill's Buffet and they have locations across the "Deep" South. You will find locations in Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Interestingly, other than Florida, they are not in any of the states along the East Coast. The chain is under "new management" and claims to have improved - not knowing about the "old" management I will have to take their word for it.

So what would you expect to find in a buffet chain anchored in the South - real Southern cooking, of course. They feature fried, grilled, and hickory smoked meats along with Southern Style vegetables and casseroles. While Old Country Buffet, Ryans, and Golden Corral tend to center their menus around country cooking - this buffet chain goes several steps further into Southern Cooking.

The main offerings start with a salad and fruit bar. Here you will find salad greens and toppings, prepared salads including tuna, chicken, and seafood as well as the usual macaroni salad and cole slaw. This all is complimented by fresh cut fruits. There is soup on the salad bar as well.

Grilled chicken and catfish are served every day. Some locations offer steak after 4:00pm. And then there are the Southern, hickory smoked favorites being carved such as pork ribs, beef brisket, smoked sausage, turkey, and ham. Then, of course, there has to be golden Southern fried chicken.

There is a vegetable and casserole selection for side dishes including chicken pot pie, macaroni and beef, corn soufflé, and lasagna (Southern-style?). The vegetables include corn, fried okra, limas, candied yams, turnips, as well as the more conventional vegetables.

Desserts here sound great. Cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, hot cobblers, banana pudding, pies, and, of course, ice cream and yogurt with toppings.

Selections of all of the offerings vary daily, but they also have features every weekday night - and a special kid's selection on Saturdays. The Monday night feature is the most unusual of all of the buffet chains. On Monday night, in addition to the usual offerings, you can have Breakfast Buffet! There is an omelet bar, eggs prepared, pancakes, and cinnamon rolls. This sounds so great and different. Usually you have to be an early riser or like to eat a really big breakfast to try the breakfast buffet in most chains. Here it is offered Monday night It is also served at some locations on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The other weeknight features are more or less the usual that you will find. Tuesday night is Taco Tuesday and Kids Night. There are Tex-mex features along with hot dogs, chicken tenders, and mac and cheese. On Wednesday the feature is Southern Style Supper when even more Southern favorites are brought out. Thursday night is Taste of Italy night and there are pasta stations. That is a bit different from the usual buffet Italian offerings. Friday night is, what else, Seafood Extravaganza with shrimp, clam strips, fried oysters, baked fish in several varieties, crayfish, and FROGS LEGS! (Yes, they do taste like chicken.)

The restaurants also do catering. They will do full service catering for an event and they also offer party packs of their menu selections. This also is different for a chain buffet.

The restaurants are open from 10:45 am, seven days a week, until 8:30 pm Sunday – Thursday and until 9:00 pm on Friday and Saturday nights. From Memorial Day through Labor Day they are open until 9:00 pm during the week and on Sundays, and until 9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday nights.

Their website, a link will be found at the side of this site, has special offers including money off coupons. (I love saving money with coupons!) I have not been to a Barnhill's Buffet. My travels has not yet taken me to where there is one located. It really sounds great and I would love to try it - especially on a Monday night!

If any of our readers have eaten at a Barnhill's Buffet please post a comment and tell us all about it. How is the food, the service, the maintenance? As I understand it they are trying hard to be good.

Sweet Tomatoes

There are a number of buffet chains across the United States other than Old Country Buffet (and its various incarnations), Ryans, and Golden Corral. I have made a search to find some of these chains and tell you about them. This week I am going to tell you about Sweet Tomatoes. Interesting name - interesting buffet concept.

Sweet Tomatoes is located across the western United States to the mid-west. There are also locations in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The company, which started in California, operates restaurants under the names of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes. Both are the same. The name Souplantation is much more descriptive of this buffet, because its main offerings are soup, salad, pasta, and dessert.

This is a health conscious buffet, though there is plenty on the menu for anyone to be satisfied. The menu offers an extensive selection of both non-vegetarian and vegetarian dishes. Let me start by saying that I have not yet had the pleasure of dining in a Sweet Tomatoes or Souplantation buffet. What I know I have learned second hand, but I think that you will find out enough to decide if you would like to try this buffet.

When you dine at a Sweet Tomatoes you will find a variety of soups and stews, pre-made tossed salads, prepared salads, hot pastas in a variety of sauces and combinations, breads (Focaccia) and muffins, and desserts. The tossed salads include such interesting offerings as Buffalo chicken salad, chicken tortilla, pesto orzo with pine nuts, spiced pecan & roasted vegetables with bacon, and many others. There are the more common Greek salad, Caesar salad, Cobb salad, and more. There are a number of salad dressings to make your own salad concoction.

There are also prepared salads - though the pre-made salads would seem to come under that same category - though I suppose that the difference is one features greens or lettuce and the other does not. Prepared salads include a selection from a variety (menus seem to change every day) including Ambrosia with Coconut, Chinese Krab, Field Corn & Very Wild Rice, Jalapeño Potato, Old Fashioned Macaroni with Ham, Poppyseed Coleslaw, Southwestern Rice & Beans, Tuna Tarragon, Turkey Chutney Pasta, and Zesty Tortellini. There are many others as well. All very different and not the usual buffet salad bar offerings.

While most buffets offer two or maybe three soups, Sweet Tomatoes offers eight at each meal. Soups also include stews, but you may not find stews included every day - as I said, the menus change daily by location. You may find Albondigas Locas (A Meatball Soup), Beef & Barley Stew, Cheese Stuffed Cappelletti Soup, Chesapeake Corn Chowder, Chicken Pot Pie Stew, Classical Shrimp Bisque, Cream of Mushroom (served every Monday), 8 Vegetable Chicken Stew, Arizona Chili, Creamy Herbed Turkey, Lemon Chicken Orzo, Mulligatawny, Ratatouille Provencale, and many more! There is also the simple (though nothing here seems simple) - chicken noodle, tomato, cream of broccoli, minestrone, vegetable (actual several vegetables), a variety of chili aside from the one included above, French Onion, cream of chicken and more. I am a soup fan and my mouth is watering just listing these! There are soups and stews with meat and there are vegetarian soups and chowders.

There are no entrees or side dishes but there is a variety of pasta dishes. There are eight at every meal. Some of the offerings are as good as entrees such as Beefy Meatball Stroganoff, Linguini with Clam Sauce, Spicy Italian Sausage & Peppers, Smoked Salmon & Dill, Tuscany Sausage with Capers & Olives, among others. Then there are pastas with sauces - Vegetarian Marinara with Basil, Southwestern Alfredo Pasta, Curried Pineapple & Ginger, Fire-Roasted Tomato Basil Alfredo, Cilantro Lime Pesto, Carbonara Pasta with Bacon, and many more. For the non-adventurous there is macaroni and cheese. All sound great!

To go with the soup and pasta you need bread! Here the bread is in the form of muffins and Focaccia (pizza-like breads). There si a long list of unusual muffins - all sweet and different. There is also an assortment of Focaccia - some sweet and some with meats or cheese or vegetables - or a mixture of all three. The muffins and "breads" could easily take the place of dessert - but there are desserts here too!

Desserts are an assortment of fruit cobblers, puddings, cakes, jello, fat free and sugar free desserts, cookies, chocolate frozen yogurt, and vanilla soft-serve. In addition there are sundae toppings to add to your ice cream or yogurt - or anything else that you like.

Hours for each restaurant may vary by location - as may price. I actually have not been able to find the price of the meal listed (but that is not unusual as most of the chains do not list prices except at the restaurant). The restaurants all offer lunch and dinner. Most open at 11am and close at 9:00 pm on Sundays through Thursdays and at 10:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. There is also a take out menu. You can get large portions of all that is offered or this combo -
a reate your own single-serving salad from the salad bar, plus two 8-oz. cups for either soup,
hot pasta, or loaded baked potato, and a bakery bag for your choice of muffins, foccacia and bread - all for the lunch price.

The closest Sweet Tomatoes to the Northeast US is in North Carolina. There is one in Raleigh, and the next time I am in that area I am going to try Sweet Tomatoes. If anyone has eaten at a Sweet Tomatoes please post a comment and tell us all about it. Is it as good as it sounds?

There is a web site and a link will be found at the side of this site. The web site includes extensive nutritional information for all of the menu items and there is a restaurant locater to find a Sweet Tomatoes or Souplantation near you or near where you are traveling.

Traditional Smorgasbord

We have reviewed many buffet restaurants, but none of them would be considered "true" smörgåsbord in Sweden. The grandfather of all buffets is the traditional smörgåsbord as it is served in Sweden. It has its similarities to the buffet restaurants that we are familiar with, but it is quite formal - and is not approached with the "all you can eat" attitude as many have when they enter a buffet in the United States.

Traditional smörgåsbord is served both in Swedish homes and in restaurants. The word smörgåsbord literally translates to "open sandwich table" but while you may find open sandwiches or food that you create open sandwiches with, the traditional smörgåsbord offers so much more. There is a special smörgåsbord dinner that is served during the Christmas season called julbord. This is an extra festive dinner served in the same manner as smörgåsbord and is eaten in the same way. Smörgåsbord in Sweden goes back to the 1700's when it was served as an appetizer before an even larger meal.

Smörgåsbord is served on a regular table in small platters and dishes. The table is set out with food that is meant to be approached in three or four courses (depending upon whether there is dessert included - which is not always the case). It is definately not the mix everything you can on one plate as high as you can, as some are familiar with.

Dinners come up to the table for "Plate One" or the first course and take selections of cold fish dishes. The "take as much as you want" concept still applies - but it is done with more discretion. After the cold fish is eaten, diners return to the buffet table for other cold dishes which may include salads, cold cuts of meat, cheese, pate, etc. This is "Plate Two" or "the second plate". When this has been eaten, diners come back for the hot entrees, of course, all Swedish delicacies and dishes. This would conclude the meal unless dessert has been included. For the julbord, dessert is almost always included.

Foods found will usually include a number of herring dishes, both hot and cold, and, of course, Swedish meatballs. The cold selections will include fish and meats that can be spread or placed on a piece of bread and eaten as an open sandwich.

What a difference from the buffets that we are accustomed to. ! When I was younger my parents would speak of a traditional smörgåsbord restaurant in New York City, but I am sure in over forty years it is no longer there. Anything that I have been able to find in the U.S.A. that calls itself a smörgåsbord is just a regular buffet restaurant with all that that implies. If anyone knows of any, please share them with us. They certainly do exist in Sweden. In search of one n the U.S., several sources led to a small part of Chicago called Andersonville, which is dubbed, "Little Sweden". While these direct you to where to find the foods to create your own smörgåsbord dinner (especially a julbord for the Christmas season), none have named a restaurant that one can go to for the traditional experience. Cities with significant Swedish populations do seem to have local events that feature a traditional Smorgasbord - as one found in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but these are one time (or perhaps annual) dinners. If you want to taste an approximation of Swedish foods - Swedish meatballs, lingonberries, etc. try an IKEA furniture and home store. This discount warehouse of knockdown furniture is based in Sweden and are now located all over the United States and most of their stores have a restaurant serving Swedish foods - no buffet, all you can eat, or smörgåsbord but you do get to try the food.

Of course, any buffet could be approached like a traditional smörgåsbord, as all of the elements are there. Anyone up for trying the Three Plate approach at Old Country Buffet? It would take a lot of discipline for most buffet lovers.

Old "Friends" Turn Up Everywhere!

Way back I wrote two - or maybe three - articles about a couple that I named, "The Lobster Grabbers". (Check back in the archives for a good read.) These are two actual people, presumably a married couple - older - who would run up to the buffet server in a particular Chinese buffet when they would see the tray of lobster come out from the kitchen and fill multiple plates with every bit of lobster that they could grab. In this particular restaurant the lobster would be served hourly (if the owner decided he wanted it to come out). This would leave ZERO lobster for everyone else - often for the rest of the dinner. Not only is this a blatant breaking of our rules of buffet dining (which I am sure they know nothing about) but is also incredibly RUDE. Obviously, they ticked me off. Week after week they would be at this same restaurant at the same time that we would be there. Week after week the same thing. After a while the restaurant discontinued lobster on the buffet, but this did not stop our "friends". They switched this behavior from lobster to sushi, taking every piece of sushi in the serving tray.

I did not stop going to that restaurant, but I did go there much less often. Not just because of the Lobster and Sushi Grabbers, but that was part of it. We have been going to a nicer Chinese buffet (usually on Friday nights) a bit further away - one that I have written about, but will not name - but if the Turkey Incident comes to mind you have a clue. With the price of gas this is not such a good thing - but the sushi is great (if you get there early enough) and the variety is better than at the closer restaurant - which is not so close (about fifteen miles, one way). Anyway, it seemed far away had the advantage that the Lobster/Sushi Grabbers would not be there - as not many are crazy like me that would drive a distance for a buffet. And besides there is no lobster there.

Well, wrong - last Friday night we are just sitting down to dinner at this farther away buffet, and my wife said to me, "Your friends are here." "What friends?" I asked. "Just at the table behind us - your friends the Lobster Grabbers." "No." "Yes!" And there they were.

We had just stared our soup and I had not gotten up to the Sushi yet - and it was reaching the time that at this restaurant they make the sushi for the rest of the night and put it all out - with no replacement. I finished my soup and headed for the sushi bar, before they could get up there.

Now, I did something that I should not have done and justified it in my head by reasoning that if I wanted sushi tonight I better take what I will want now - and not do the proper and polite thing and take some and go back for more. Yes, I broke a rule! I went to the sushi counter and I filled a plate - taking what I anticipated would be all that I would want. I got back to the table just as the couple descended on the sushi counter. Each filled three plates overflowing.

As they used to do with the lobster - and as they do with everything else that they take - they spread the six plates out on their table and ate from them scattered. Of course, as we have written about before - and not just about the infamous Lobster Grabbers - when people do this they tend not to eat all that they take. This is wasteful to the restaurant besides being terribly unfair to the other people dining at the same time.

Now, I have my own plate full of sushi - much more than I would take at one time - and I, alone, ate every piece - my wife does not eat fish, much less raw fish. Was I correct to do this under the circumstances? Absolutely! When I went past the sushi bar again - most of it was gone.

Through the meal they moved on to filling plates with entrees, side dishes, if it was there they took it and spread the overflowing plates around on their table. A lot was left over and not eaten. It surprises me that the restaurants do not say anything to them - but looking at them they do not look the trouble maker type - so they get away with it. I was so tempted to take out my cell phone camera and sneak a photo of both them and the table full of plates. Including it here like a Wanted poster. My wife advised against it. Well, anyway, they left the turkey alone - which by the way IS worth fighting over as it is the second best turkey that I have ever had in a restaurant.

Will I go back again soon to see if they are there again? I will go back, but when depends on the gas prices (isn't that terrible?).

Ryan's and the Old Country Buffet - Evidence of Takeover

I have not been to a Ryan's Buffet since I found out about the buyout by the investment corporation that owns the Old Country Buffet. I am not local to any Ryan's and I only am able to get to one when I traveling - and at that only when I get further south than usual.

I recently had an opportunity to go to Ryan's in Chambersburg, PA (just on the other side of the Maryland border) and was a bit surprised when I walked in the door and found a large display with the recent feature. This floor sign was the same colors and print as the current feature at the Old Country Buffet and featured the same items. There they were - Rancher's Select Steak, Pork Riblets, and BBQ Ribs. And what is the feature now at OCB? The very same!

I was not at Ryan's on a night when this was being served. It is offered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. (I actually may go there on one of those nights in the next few days.) One thing that I am certain is that the preparation at Ryan's will be far superior to Old Country Buffet. The main reason - as I have noted in the past - is that Ryan's has a char grill out in the open kitchen in view of the dining room. Steaks are cooked and served to order. At OCB the steak is made in a broiler in the kitchen and brought out in a pan where it continues to cook before it is served - always tough, dry, and overdone.

More important than the steak is the evidence here of the buyout. Never before were the menus linked in any way. Not only are the features now the same, but they are named the same - "Rancher's Select" steak - and the advertising in the restaurants are identical.

If there were going to be any influence of one restaurant over the other, I would have hoped that it would have been Ryan's influencing the OCB and not the other way around. It has always been my opinion that Ryan's is the superior chain. Now, perhaps I am making an incorrect assumption. Maybe the feature came from Ryan's and was sent over to OCB (where they ruined it). This I am not sure. What I am sure of is that there is now a tangible connection.

If I can get back there I will let you know how these dishes are served at Ryan's. I have been to OCB since I saw the sign at Ryans and low and behold - the signs are exactly the same - same printing, different restaurant names!

Vote For Art of the Buffet for BEST FOOD BLOG

See the picture link at the top right of the page that says Bloggers Choice Awards. We have been nominated for Best Food Blog. Please follow that link and when you get to the site enter "Buffet" into the search at the top of the page. You should be taken to the spot where you can vote for us as BEST FOOD BUFFET! Very exciting. Easy to do too!

With my most appreciative and humble thanks!