Olive Garden's Never Ending Pasta Bowl

The Olive Garden is a chain of Italian restaurants with locations across the United States. The Olive Garden is not a buffet restaurant but every so often it does run an all you care to eat special. In addition, they always have an unlimited soup and salad offering on the menu. At the current time there is an all you care to eat special that they are calling the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. This is a limited time offer, but it has been brought back through the years.

I never have had much regard for non-buffet restaurant chain all you can eat special offers. I have tried them in years past at both this chain and also the Red Lobster, a seafood chain across the U.S. that frequently offers specials of all you can eat shrimp, crab legs, etc. How this works is that yu order from the menu and your waiter or waitress brings you the first dish and when y9u want more the server must bring you another plate, and so on. My experience always has been that the first serving is brought and then when you are ready for more you can try to find your server who is avoiding your table, and when and if you find the server and ask for me, it is a big surprise - I recall the scene from the play/movie, Oliver - "Please, Sir, may I have some more?" "SOMEMORE...the boy wants somemore?" And then a song and dance number starts about how never before has a boy wanted more. Well, once you get past the - yes, bring me somemore!- the server comes back after a considerable amount of time with a few pieces of whatever it was you asked for on a small plate. Yes, this has happened consistently to me in the long past at both of these chains - and I have not gone back for one of these specials since. Until now.

The television commercial for the Olive Garden's Never Ending Pasta Bowl tempted me enough to bring me back to the Olive Garden after oh so many years for one more try. I have to say that I was pleasingly surprised.

The offer is this - order a bowl of pasta in one of six pasta shapes covered in one of six different sauces. As their advertising states, there are forty two different combinations. You can keep asking for as many of these combinations as you would like. With the pasta you will also get unlimited breadsticks (more like long, narrow garlic bread rolls) and a choice of unlimited soup of your choice from the soups on the menu OR unlimited salad. The amazing price for all of this is just $8.95. If you enjoy your pasta with Italain meatballs or sausage, for an additional $1.95 you can order unlimited meatballs or sausage to accompany your pasta. You can order unlimited softdrinks - but there is no price for this on the menu. We decided on just water, but certainly it could not be much more than another $2 each, if you are inclined to soda. Right at this point, the price is good. If you are inclined to dessert you are going to pay over $6.00 or more for ONE piece of cake. Add single serving appetizers and you are getting into serious money. But the pasta is unlimited so you don't really need much more - much to our waiter's chagrin. One other word before I continue on - they are big on wine here and it is the first thing the waiter offered while holding a bottle in his hand ready to pour into the glasses on our table before offering the special menu choices. If you are so inclined, it is not cheap.

Now, we went to one of the two local Olive Gardens in our area and there was a short wait top get in - they said fifteen minutes, it was more like ten or less. I am not sure why there was a wait aother than to show off the fancy electronic pager system - not sure why they have that either as there was no place to go but the parking lot or the lobby of the restaurant. Once we were seated there were a number of vacant tables. The restaurant was not empty, but other than staggering server assignments, there was no reason to have anyone wait. But the wait was not bad - though one family came in, heard about the wait and left (I am not sure what other restaurant they were going to get to in the fifteen minutes they were told they would have to wait). Any way, we were tyaken into one of the several dining rooms and seated. Very nice, faux-rustic Italain decor. On the table was a special menu and on the front of that was the Never Ending Pasta Bowl and all of the choices for it. They did not hide the special, and while it was not the only thing we saw people at other tables ordering, it was one of the more popular choices. As I said, you order your "first" bowl of whatever combination you would like and also order soup or a salad.

Ok - the pastas - spagetti, whole wheat spagetti, linuini, fettachini, penne, and orechiette (ear-shaped pasta, similar to shells). The sauces - marinara, five cheese marinara, alfredo, meat sauce with beef and sausage within, and two new sauces introduced with this offer - Roasted Portabello Pomadoro and Creamy Parmesean Florentine. You order a pasta and a sauce. When yu want more you order any pasta and any sauce, and you can change as many times as you order another bowl. There are a nice selection of soups and you are ordering these from the standard menu - these include minnestrone, chicken and gnocci, macaroni and beans, and a spicy sausage soup. I have not used the Italian names that these soups have on the menu. If you roder salad you get a very large bowl of greens served family style to all those who order it. If you would like more soup or salad, it will be brought to you.

Together, my wife and I tasted an assortment. We went for the soup instead of the salad. I had the Chicken and Gnocci and she had the Minnestrone. The chicken soup was a cream of chicken soup that contained small chunks of chicken and a few gnocci. Gnocci is potato dumpling pasta - little balls of potato dough that is boiled like pasta to cook. My first experience with gnocci was wwhen my father made it when I was young using my Grandmother's recipe. The gnocci in the soup was not quite like Dad's, but they were not bad - though there were maybe four in the whole bowl. Of course, if I wanted more I could have asked for another bowl - which was offered when we had finished our bowls of soup. The Minnestrone was the usual tomato based, Italian vegtable soup. This one was fine, yet again, not as full of vegetables as some. All in all, the soups were good, We saw salad served on other tables and they bring a VERY large bowl for those who ordered it to share - or a similarly large bowl for one. And again, you can get more if y9u wish.

We did not get more soup - the attraction for the evening is the pasta and why get full on soup or salad - or the breadstick/garlic bread. The waiter brought out two bowls of pasta. The bowls were large in size - perhaps as large as a dinner plate about ten inches. The bowl was full of pasta but not overflowing. The pasta was covered in sauce. All was very hot when it came out - and stayed close to that throughout. I started with the fetticini with the specail roasted portobello pomadoro sauce and my wife had the whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce,. Each pasta was good. The whole wheat pasta was actually too good to be whole wheat - so much so that my wife doubted that it was - though the waiter said that it was when he put it in front of her. The Roasted Portobello Pomodoro was a chunky tomato sauce with regular mushroom slices mixed in and on the top were a few strips of portobello mushrooms. It was tasty. My wife felt that the marinara was spicy. It should not have been. I tried some of hers and did not find it that. It seemed mild to me. It is possible that she was just feeling whatever spice had been in the Minnestrone. When the pasta is served you are offered freshly grated cheese which is ground over your bowl by your server. I enjoyed my first bowl eager to see what was to come. Would the waiter dissappear?

As we were coming to the bottom of our bowls of pasta the waiter appeared. To my pleasant surprise he asked if we wanted then to order the next bowl or would we want to finish our bowls and then order another - as they come out quickly, he said. We said we would wait. When we had finished, in a few minutes the waiter reappeared and asked if we were ready to order more. This time I ordered the little ear pasta and the creamy parmasean florentine sauce adn my wife ordered the penne with meat sauce. True to form for these types of specials in this type of restaurant, when the next bowls were served, gone where the large, dinner plate sized bowls and now the pasta was served in a smaller bowl - perhaps six or seven inches across. Ok, less pasta - or at least the suggestion of less pasta, but you can still ask for more. The creamy parmasean florentine is described as an alfredo sauce with spinich. What they do not say is that this is raw spinach leaves torn up and put over the top of the pasta and alfredo sauce. The taste was nice but I had expected cooked spinach and did care as much as I would have liked. The meat sauce was not heavily loaded with meat but the meat was evident. My wife says that she did not notice if there actually was sausage meat mixed in with the beef. I tasted it and it was not bad.

Let's face it - and this is what Olive Garden is counting on for a $9 all you care to eat dinner - there is just so much pasta one can eat at one meal. By the end of the second bowl my wife was ready to stop and I was not far from it. But, of course, I had to go on to at least one more bowl. Again, the waiter did not dissapoint and appeared in a timely manner to ask if we would like another bowl. I had the penne in five cheese marinara sauce. This sauce was much like an ala vodka sauce with9ut the vodoka - a creamy red tomato sauce that was thick with cheese - which may have been what made it creamy in the first place. It was a very nice sauce. Again, this pasta arrived in the small bowl. I made it through three quartes of the bowl before I had to call it quits. Unlless you intend to marathon eat this meal, there is not much more than three bowls that the average preson is going to eat.

I was full, but I also wanted to see something involving my left over pasta. At every other table, there servers were rushing to bring take out boxes and bags for people to take their left overs hoke with them including the garlic rolls. Would I be offered to take my left over pasta home and the almost full basket of garlic bread breadsticks? The answer is no.

I found the $8.95 Never Ending Pasta Bowl to be a very satisfying meal. The value was great, the food was good, and there was plenty to eat without any real effort to get the refills. If you like pasta and can eat your fill of it - this is the dinner to go for.

Olive Garden restaurants are all over in many states. This offer is for a limited time and in a few months or even less, call first to see if it is still offered (if you are no longer seeing the commercials). If it is gone, it will come back at some point. The hours at the Olive Garden may vary by location but many are open until 10 on weeknights and 11 on Friday and Saturdays.

Stomach Staples and Buffets

What an odd association - stomach staples and buffets. It has got to be a stretch for this medical weight loss procedure and buffet restaurants to have something in common. But, believe it or not, they very much do.

It seems that many people who have undergone the stomach staple operation, a procedure in which the stomach is made smaller (with surgical staples) in order to restrict the amount of food that may be passed through the stomach at a time and that one is made to feel full with (actually uncomfortable), want to continue to eat at buffets after their surgery. Well, why not?, you may ask. The problem comes about that they not only want to still eat at buffets - they want to eat at them at a discount. Yes, a discount. Why? Because they cannot eat all that they would like to eat, so they should be entitled to a discount or better yet come in and eat free.

I am sure that anyone who is reading this who has undergone vertical banded gastroplasty, the medical name for the stomach staple surgery, is going to be angered by this opinion, but going to the buffet is a choice - and the price is the price for all. If a very thin and small person goes to the buffet, should they be entitled to a discount? If I like to go to amusement parks - just for the entertainment of the shows and the atmosphere but do not like to go on the roller coaster, should I be able to ask for a discount at the admission gate and expect to get it? I guarantee that I would not get it.

So how does this work? How is the buffet supposed to know if someone really has the surgery? The people who get the surgery get notes from their willing surgeons a testing to that the person had the surgery and can only eat a small amount.

Does this work? At many buffets, no it does not work. Most are going to tell you that the price is the price and you are welcome to eat as much or as little as you can. Remember that the actual definition in the word "CAN" as in All you Can Eat is "ABLE" so it is All you are ABLE to Eat. We were at a pizza buffet where a woman (a thin woman) came in with a young girl, presumably her daughter. She went up to the cashier and flashed her note from her doctor expecting to be let in for free. The buffet manager came over and an argument from the woman ensued. She was not going to eat more than some salad, her daughter was going to be eating the pizza, not her. She was indignant when they told her that if she was coming in she had to pay the full price just like everyone else. She tried to say they were punishing her daughter because she could not eat. They told her she was welcome to come in, just pay the cost of the meal. Now, this was a buffet where you paid first before you eat. I would hate to see the scene that would ensue if this was tried after the meal was consumed and then you pay.

Now, there is a buffet that I know of that willingly gives a discount when a valid note from an M.D. is presented attesting that the person has had the stomach staple operation. Yes, we were recently at none other than Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, Pennsylvania and saw a sign on the cashier's counter that said that a ten percent discount would be given off the meal price to the person with medical proof. Our very own, three year in a row, Best Buffet anywhere winner has come through again. If anything is going to be given, I guess ten percent seems fair.

I have heard from buffet managers who say that many try this who don't have proper proof and want them to take their word for it or better yet, present notes that clearly are not from doctors. One manager called this a recent and frequent scam.

The bottom line is that the price of the meal is set and applies to everyone equally. It is not based upon how much you eat, it is an offer for you to eat what you care to eat - or are able to eat, in the extreme. Everyone can or cares to eat a different amount from anyone else. In the buffet "game", that is just how it is.

Gatti's Pizza - A Pizza Buffet

When I think Pizza Buffet, I think Cici's but that is only because that is the chain most local to me - if local is 200 miles. There are other pizza buffet chain restaurants as well. We wrote about a new, small, two location chain in Pennsylvania a year ago. I recently found another chain that is much more wide-spread across the country. That chain is Gatti's Pizza.

Now, as always, I tell you right up front when I am writing about a restaurant or chain that I have not been to and this is another of those. I have not eaten at Gatti's Pizza, but I will share with you all that I have learned.

Gatti's presentation is very much like Cici's - a buffet comprised of pizza, salad bar, pasta, and dessert. There are also chicken wings - though it appears that these are not included on the buffet, . There is a take out option and there is also the ability to internet order from some of the locations, particularly those in Texas.

Locations are across the US as far west as Texas. There are Gatti's Pizza locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Most states listed have several locations with the most in Texas. This is not surprising as this is the state where the chain was founded in 1964 with a pizza restaurant called The Pizza Place. In 1969 the founder moved to Austin, Texas and renamed the restaurant using his wife's maiden name, it the restaurant became Mr. Gatti's. The restaurant prided itself on using all natural ingredients to make the best tasting pizza possible. In the 1980's the restaurant expanded to a chain of game rooms that included a pizza buffet. Interestingly, Cici's also began its pizza buffet restaurants in Texas in 1985. (So, who came first?) There are now 140 + locations of Gatti's Pizza. Locations are franchises.

So what types of pizza will you find on the buffet? This is another of the every combination you can think of assortment of pizzas. There is a Sampler pizza, a Bacon Double Cheeseburger pizza, BBQ Chicken pizza, Meat Market pizza, Vegetarian Sampler pizza, Superoni (pepperoni) pizza, Gatti's Deluxe pizza, Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Veggi Sicilian, and Meat Sicilian. There is a separate list of toppings so we can presume that other combinations are possible. Personally, I like to try the exotic when I go to pizza buffets but I am usually happier when I find basic cheese pizza also available.

The salad bar is what you would expect. Salad greens, tomatoes, and toppings with a variety of dressings. The pasta is spagetti with tomato sauce. There is a mention of macaroni and cheese as well. Most locations have a website and these tend to get a little more specific as to what you might find at that location.

The dessert choices are apple pizza and cinnamon bread sticks (what appears to be pizza dough baked with cinnamon). Of course there are soft drinks and it is stated that these vary by location.

To find prices you need to look at the websites of the individual restaurants which are linked on the locations page. For an example over 12 at the West Virginia location the buffet is $7.99. Not bad, but two to three dollars higher than Cici's. Kids over 6 pay $6.49. Only children under 2 are free and there is a senior discounted price of $6.49.

Each restaurant features a game room and large screen TV's in the dining room. There are larger locations call GattiTown which have party rooms and are listed as "destination" locations. Generally, destination means "shoppertainment" - an attraction location offering entertainment, food, etc. These are stand-alone restaurants meaning that they are not inset into other stores, etc. but a larger facility all on its own.


The food looks good. That is no recommendation. If I am in Virginia, West Virginia, or one of the Carolinas I will try it. The corporate website is linked at the side of this page. It is light on buffet information but if you go to the locations page and click on a location's website you will see much more about the buffet, prices, hours, etc.

If you have been to a Gatti's Pizza please leave a comment and tell us all about it!

Time for the Rules - Again!

With all that I have been seeing lately at buffets, it really is time to drag out that list of Rules of the Buffet again! Even if your first thought is not again, give them a read once more. Maybe there is still something you could learn.

1. All you can eat is not a challenge. It is an offer!

2. There is no limit to the number of times that you can go up and get food.

3. Take your food in courses - as you would be served if ordering from a menu.

4. Everyone must pay!

5. No food is permitted to be taken out of the restaurant.

6. Take only what you will eat - do not waste food.

7. For a more social meal, it is polite to wait for the others at the table to finish their plates and then go up together to get more.

8. Take a clean plate every time that you go up to the buffet tables.

9. If you put it on your plate, leave it there. Never return food to the serving tray.

10. Never eat at the buffet tables!

11. Children under 12 should not be going up to the buffet tables alone.

12. The buffet table is not a cafeteria line.

13. Tip the server.

14. Never take a serving piece from one item and use it for another item.

15. Never place your dirty plates on someone else's table.

16. Never use your silverware to serve yourself from the buffet trays.

17. Once you have gotten what you want, don't stand around the buffet tables. Move on back to your table.

18. Children should remain seated through the meal.

19. Do not fill community plates for the "table". Each should take their own plate of what they wish to eat.

20. If you cough or sneeze into your hand, please do not use that hand to pick up the serving utensils.

21. In the buffet, as in any restaurant, children (and adults) should use their inside voices.

22. Don't talk on your cell phone while you are getting your food at the buffet tables.

23. Never bring an animal into the buffet. (this is not referring to medical guide dogs)

24. Never put your hands into a serving tray.

25. Tell your children not to put their hands into a serving tray - and make sure that they do not!

26. Do not carry on a conversation throughout dinner with the people at the tables around you.

27. Do not put anything back into a serving tray that has dropped onto the serving counter - and never put anything back into a serving tray (whether from the counter or your dish) with your fingers.

Children at a Buffet

Most buffets are family restaurants and of course, children are at the heart of most families. So it is most common to find children at buffets. As with many things that happen for the negative with children, it is not the child to blame but the parent who is not paying attention to what the child is doing. I have written an article about this same subject in what seems is the long past, but this absolutely needs repeating.

Now don't get all crazy that I don't like children at buffets. That is not true. What I don't like are children who are unsupervised when they are sent up by themselves to the buffet servers. Here are two recent occurrences.

At a certain buffet, not to be named, a boy about the age of nine or ten was up at the buffet server putting rice into his plate with the large serving spoon. He went to drop the rice into his plate and it would not release from the spoon. His first response was to put the spoon over the serving tray full of rice and with his other hand scoop the rice out of the spoon and back into the pan. He seemed to realize that this was not the thing to do, so he moved the spoon back over his plate - and then with this other hand scooped the rice out of the spoon and onto his plate. Of course, he then put the spoon - the serving end just rubbed out by his hand - back into the serving tray. Ycch.

At another buffet, again not to be named, another boy about the age of eleven or twelve, was serving himself from the entrees and sides into bowls. He filled a bowl full of mac and cheese - which is a reasonable amount for a child to eat. He then filled a bowl to overflowing with pieces of fried fish - more fish than two tables of adults could consume in a meal. Certainly, this young lad did not eat all of that fish!

So where were the parents? Good question. Too often children - at all ages of childhood - are up at the buffet server alone. Sometimes taking things on a buffet are not as simple as scooping a spoonful up and onto a plate. Sometimes the pizza needs to be cut apart to get a piece - as the restaurant did not quite cut it through all of the way. Sometimes, like our young boy above, the food does not release from the spoon all that easily. At these times many kids are at a loss for what properly to do - and they improvise. Those improvisations are not always with the best result.

Some buffets post signs. "No one 12 or under are to be at the buffet server unescorted." If only the kids cared or the parents bothered to make sure to follow that simple request.

I have brought a child to buffets myself, and when it is your child or one who is close to you, you will naturally believe that the child is far more capable than perhaps may be. I know that the child that I have brought will want to take everything for himself. At 7 years old, you want to believe that is ok, but I have seen kids take one serving spoon from one tray and go from tray to tray taking food. Sometimes it is a struggle when the child is insistent, but you know what, sometimes you have got to be the adult. Children's eyes are truly bigger than their stomachs - a kid will take far more than he/she can possibly eat. Is it so hard to teach the child to take a little and then go back for more? So silly of me, many adults never learned this.

There have also been problems with kids running around a buffet - especially around the serving area where people are walking with full and hot plates and do not always notice the the little ones scurrying by - alone or with similar aged siblings. I have seen kids just narrowly being missed by a knocked cup of hot coffee. And you know that if the child had been burned the person knocked into would be blamed. Why are the kids running around? Well, where are the parents?

I am not going to belabor this, but I hope that I have made my point. If you take a child to a buffet you need to be with that child when the child goes up to the serving bars - and when you are there fill the plate for a younger child and assist an older one, paying attention to what the child is doing.

I Love CiCi's Pizza Buffet, BUT...

I have written about CiCi's Pizza Buffet many times. I have always recommended it and I still do but I have an ongoing problem with Cici's that I have written about from my first article about the chain a few years back. I know that Cici's corporate is very responsive and they have followed my articles and responded to some in the past. I am hoping that they read this article and maybe make some changes.

My problem - actually two related problems - have to do with the system for table clean up in the restaurant. A cleaning person travels around the restaurant with a cart and picks up dirty dishes from tables and cleans tables when the dinners are finished and leave. In this lies my major problem. This person has no idea if anyone is coming back to the table so any empty table is totally cleared away. I know that my wife and I are not the only ones who will go up together for more food at any buffet that we go to, leaving the table empty. Most buffets have some type of sign or paper saying that the table is occupied. Not Cici's. More than once we have gone up for more pizza only to return to our table to find our cups of soda (half full when we left them) and everything else cleaned away. Once we came back to find people sitting at our table. This has not just happened once but on several visits and at different Cici's.

On this most recent visit my wife had an idea. She wore a sun hat into the buffet and set it down on the table - the idea was that the cleaner would see the hat and then know that we were still occupying that table. I am not going to mention which Cici's we were in but this was one of the most absurd occurences yet. No one had come around to our table for quite some time and the empty dishes were stacking up. We both got up to get more food and the hat was left on the side of the table. We were only gone a few moments when we returned to find - once again - the table was completely cleaned away AND THE HAT WAS GONE. We found the cleaner who said "oh, you are still here." "Were is the hat that was on the table?". we asked. "Oh, its over here by the cash register." We asked why did he clear away the table if the hat was still there showing that we were still there as well. "Huh?", was the reply. Just by coincidence a manager hda come by and asked how everything was going. We told him. His only response was to laugh. (Are you reading this Corporate?) The lesson is quickly leanred just like rats in a Skinner Box, don't get up from the table together and always leave someone behind. Maybe this is fine for others and for those with a lot of people in their family, but it is just the two of us and we like to eat together - not once getting up while the other waits.

So what could Cici's do to fix this? A simple sign that says "occupied" on one side and "open" on the other on each table - a bit of cardboard printed on computer printer would do it. Simple lamination for a few cents would preserve it. Or even more simply, a paper from the cashier that says leave up on table while occupied - just like OCB and so many buffets do. Why is this so hard for Cici's to realize?

My other complaint also has to do with the cleaning cart. The top of the trash bin sits at about face hieght and this cart rolls close to the tables up and down each aisle. As it goes by your nose in in the traah. This is one of the most unappetizing things that any restaurant could do - and it is standard practice at Cici's.

As I state in my title, I love Cici's but the table problem is enough to keep me from going to Cici's. When I dine out I want to relax and I want to be able to pace my meal with my partners. I do not want to be concerned that when we return to our table all will be gone. If this happened once, well, we would chaulk it up to an employee who did not know what he was doing - but this happens 9 out of 10 visits and that is just to much. My wife asked me if it would help if we brought our own sign, but you know, I do not think that would make any difference, because if the system is not changed - and the cleaning staff do not know to be aware if someone is still using the table, nothing is going to work.

So Cici's, I begging you, come up with a system to show a table is occupied. Get over whatever makes you feel that this is not necessary. It is VERY NECESSARY.

Back to Dienners - Lancaster, PA

A little less than a year ago I wrote about a nice. little buffet and menu restaurant located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania called Dienners Coutry Restaurant. At the time I raved about this wonderful little restaurant. I had the opportunity to be in this area again on a Friday evening and I knew where I had to go - a trip back to Dienners.

What buffet is well worth a forty-five minute wait? This was is. I went back on the night before the Fourth of July. This areas is hopping with tourists and this restaurant is located on one of the busiest routes through the heart of the tourist area. Yes, there was a crowd to get in - but the crows was not only comprised of tourists but also locals and Old Order Amish and Mennonites as well. Why? As I have said in the past this restaurant is authentic in its cooking of Pennsylvania Ductch food and the older gentlemen and older woman who were cooking in the kitchin and bringing food out to refill the serving trays were both Amish. I need note also that while Dienners is open from Monday to Saturday (closed Sunday as many local restaurants are in this area) the restaurant is only open until 6:00 pm, except on Friday nights when it closes at 8:00 pm.

Six o'clock is a bit early for my dinner. I had not been to Dienners though I have known about it for years because of its early closing hour. With the eight o'clock Friday a new opportunity opened. While the restaurant posts these hours, if you are inside and eatting at closing time no one rushes you out and the buffet tables continue to be refilled.

Now, for the past year I have been thinking about Dienners fried fish. I kept thinking that I had to have this. On the buffet on this Friday night it was there and I was not dissappointed. It was wonderful. I am not sure what make it so special as it is just a small, thick chunks of a white fish battered in a light (not breadcrumb) batter and fried. but to me it is great. I also feel that fried fish is made or broken by the tartar sauce that is available for it and here the tartar sauce, off on the side in a tub to scoop out, has just the right tang, is white in color and not yellow as some are, and is the perfect compliment to the fish. Also available is red cocktail sauce. Needless to say most of my meal was comprised of the fried fish - but, of course, I had to fit in some of the other good entrees and several of the sides. This is one of those buffets that I have to make a consious effort not to overeat. It was difficult.

Over all nothing has changed in the past year including the price Adult dinner is still $10.75. Refill softdrinks are $1.30. The ice tea is great - sweet or unsweet (unsweet i s my preference).

I have got to mention the dessert. In my last article I mentioned the Chocolate Applesauce Cake. This year I tried it. This is a slice your own slice of a full size cake. The cake is chocolate applesauce and you can feel the texture of the applesauce in the cake as you eat it - through the chocolate flavor. On top of the cake is a frosting of soft chocolate cream with a vanilla cream on top of that. These two cream layers are the consistency of whipped cream. It was devine.

As I did before I highly recoonmend Dienners Country Restaurant. There is buffet and menu service and they will allow both to be served at one table. Dienners is located at 2855 Lincoln Highway East in East Ronks, Pennsylvania (This is US Route 30). It is next to the big windmill so you cannot miss it. Their phone number is 717-687-9571. There is a website and that is listed at the side of this page.

China Buffet - East Meadow, NY One More Time

In October 2006 and again in June 2007 I wrote about a Chinese buffet restaurant on Long Island in New York called the China Buffet. On my last visit - which was that night in June 2007 - it was not the best of experiences and we have not been back since. The restaurant never gave an impression of confidence that everything was clean - from the dining room to the buffet servers. And there was the overuse of MSG in the food.

We have talked about going back a number of times - as I wrote in the first article they are very close to us. Whenever the discussion would come up we would decide to go someplace else. Recently we decided that we would give it another try - as we are growing tired of the usual Chinese buffet that we have been going to for awhile. On this night, I said let's go there and see. And we did.

I must say right off that my first impression walking through the door and sitting down at the table is that the restaurant is definately cleaner - the dining room at least. The buffet area had some spills on the counters that a diligent restaurant employee would have wiped up right away - no one did. But overall in the two years, they are cleaner than they were - which is a good thing.

The price of the meal is now $11.99 every night for adults and unlimited soda is $1.00. The soda glasses say RC - Royal Crown. This is neither Coke nor Pepsi - not even close. It is fine enough though. The price is one of the lowest for a Chinese buffet in this area for many miles around - if not on the entire Island.

We started with the soup - wonton soup in broth. The wontons are served separately in a steamer next to the broth. There was nothing to add to the soup - no chopped scallions as you usually find for wonton soup at Chinese Buffets. The wontons were very light. The broth, however, was so salty that it was inedible. It tasted like sea water had been used to make the soup - maybe even saltier than that. We both ate the wontons and left the broth in our bowls. I was not encouraged from the start of this meal.

There have been some minor changes in the restaurant over the past two years. This buffet had a large, round Mongolian grill in the rear. In its place now is a small fry grill and a small char grill. I am not sure what the char grill is there for as there was nothing to charbroil. On the sign that says grill is a sign that says Sushi Bar. There always had been some sushi on the buffet - previously located next to the soups and it was there with cold peel and eat shrimp. Now there is a larger area on which Sushi can be spread out to serve. There is a small sign listing a number of different sushi rolls - but all that was out was a vegetable sushi, tuna rolls, and California rolls. I had some concern as what should have been a cold surface that they were sitting on was not cold. I took a few pieces to see how they were. Next to this was a tray with a little ice at the bottom and peel and eat shrimp in the tray. Behind that tray were raw clams on the half shell - also sitting on a little ice (though there was more ice under the clams than there was under the shrimp). I took some shrimp, trying to get some nearer the ice. The sushi, as suspected, was just about room temperature. I like to be very careful when it comes to eating raw fish and like to know that it is kept properly chilled to avoid bacteria. I had my concerns here. The same thing with the shrimp. A few shrimp - those that were right on the ice were cold enough; the rest were room temperature.

Most of the appetizers on the hot buffet were as I have described them in the past. I want to say that the entrees were limited and keep thinking what was missing. The problem is that much of what was out was either something sitting in a lot of oil or something that was made hot and spicy. I rarely have a hard time finding something. I walked around the server twice and had nothing on my plate. I decided to head over to the grill and see what I could put together myself from the mini-Mongolian grill. This option is always a good one when you can't find what you like as you can usually create something good.

When I started thinking about how I was going to start this article the phrase that kept coming to mind was "I wish I was a health inspector." A good start for a poor review, but I said to myself be fair and go slow. But here it is.

At the grill area were the meats and vegetables to place on your dish to put together your creation. The meats were chicken, beef, and pork. As I said in 2006, the meats are supposed to be frozen and kept that way until you take them. They were completely defrosted and sitting in their raw juices - as they were back in 2006. As I was there the grill cook sliced a roll of frozen chicken and a roll of frozen beef and added it to the top of the defrosted meats. I took the frozen meats that did not touch what was on the bottom. As I also said in 2006, there is only one serving tongs to take the meats - no individual tongs for each meat tray. So when someone takes raw chicken - which is naturally full of salmonella - and then the tongs are moved to the beef or pork, those meats are contaminated. Not to mention any allergic reaction that might result if you can't eat chicken but can eat beef, thinking the two have not touched. Or if you don't eat pork for religious reasons and the same tongs that served your chicken have also served someone pork. Oh... this is not good on so many levels. Now, moving on to the vegetables. The set up is three trays of items in a row and three rows of items. And there was only one serving tongs per row. So again, one tongs cross-contaminates three items should there be a problem with any one of those items. Now, you say, that all of those items go on your plate and then onto the hot grill all mixed together. Well, maybe, but there is supposed to be one serving piece per tray. Ah, if I could only hand out summonses. They would have gotten several for this and the temperature of the sushi and shrimp.

Did I not eat anything? No, I managed to create a plate at the grill despite the tongs. There were no real grill sauces like you usually find at these things. There was some soy sauce in a tray (at least I think it was soy sauce) and I saw some garlic and hot red peppers. They were mixed in with the cocktail sauce for the shrimp and the condiments so it was hard to figure what really was intended to go on the grill dishes. It was ok. I would have cooked the chicken longer as what I took was really frozen but it was just cooked through.

I added to my plate what the sign said were crabs in ginger sauce. What this was were small parts of snow crab tops, some with a small part of the leg still attached woked in ginger sauce. There was barely any crab meat to pull from these and the sauce on the shell was not as good as expected, so even sucking them for taste did not work.

I went back around after this to see if there was anything else I might take. I did take some sauteed string beans and added to that some sauteed mushrooms and the beef from the beef and peppers. Gone were the whole fish, shrimp with lobster sauce, and most of the dumplings that I remembered from the visits past. There were tasty pan fried pork dumplings and steamed dim sum which had been sitting too long in the steamer. Crab Rangoon - a triangle of dough filled with crab and cream cheese and deep fried were good - but the filling was sweeter than it should be - but even so it was tasty.

Do I have anything really good to say? Wait, I have not gotten to desert yet. Dessert was a pleasant surprise. There were real restaurant made desserts and not the commercial "Little Debbie"- type cakes that seem to be the staple now in most Asian buffet restaurants. There was a chocolate sheet cake - obviously baked on premises. There was no icing but it was nice moist chocolate cake. There was something else on a tray that was interesting looking and I took one. This was what seemed to be a fried or baked egg custard. It had the shape of a squashed cupcake - but not cake at all but a solid custard. It was exceptionally good - moist with oil on the outside, soft but solid on the inside with the taste of baked custard and just sweet enough to please. This was the best part of the whole meal and I went back for a second one, which was as good as the first.

So - I was hoping for better. I was hoping for a close by Chinese buffet that I would want to go back to. I am going to put this one to the side of my list of buffets I want to go back to and wait maybe another two years to see if it gets any better.

Despite the good dessert, pass this one by - more for the health concerns than for the food (though they really are connected).

The China Buffet is located at 394 Merrick Ave, East Meadow, New York and the phone number is (516) 489-2525.

Sex on the Buffet

In Germany prostitution is legal. The brothels across Germany have been suffering in the economic downturn as most other businesses are across the globe. One clever brothel owner decided that the way to men's hearts is through their stomachs.

I have seen many things offered at buffets but I have never seen sex as one of the items on the buffet tables. The Planet Pussy Clubs in Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and Wuppertal, Germany have done just that. For one price of 70 Euros until 4 pm and then 100 Euros after 8 pm, one can have all the food one cares to eat, all the drink (alcohol included) ones cares to drink, and all the sex one cares to have. And this is not just for the men - women are free when accompanied by their husbands! If you thought that lobster was a draw at buffets, this one has got to top all of the buffets that we have come across.

This unique buffet has created quite a bit of media attention. The club manager is quoted as saying, "You've got to come up with creative solutions these days. Our offer might sound like it's too good to be true, but it's real. You can eat as much as you want, drink as much as you want and have as much sex as you want."

Now, needless to say, I have not been to either of these "buffets". But this is so different I just had to bring it to our readers attention. The website for the clubs has details of what is included - but all in German, of course. I do not speak German but can recognize some words and other words are in English. In addition to the food, drink, and sex there is entertainment as well that not only includes live sex shows but throws in "premier sport tv" as well. The sex that is all-inclusive, is all inclusive and offers just about anything that you can think of - yes, even in German most of this is easy to figure out. There is also a "wellness oasis" that includes a sauna - and all of this is included in the pay one price offer.

A fourth club located in Berlin just seems to offer all you can eat pizza rather than a whole buffet selection, but everything else is included. Interestingly, the Berlin club is the club identified in several news stories including one in Time Magazine.

If you would like to see this for yourself, and you are not able to drop everything right now and get on a plane to Germany, you can visit the website - WARNING! this is an adult oriented website - at http://www.pussy-club.eu/. If you are so inclined you can get the addresses of the two clubs there.

Now, back to our usually family oriented articles.

A Second Visit to Europa Buffet

In March of this year I wrote an article about a wonderful buffet find in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Since then I have been looking forward to going back again and business happily took us back near enough to travel the extra twenty minutes out of our way to have dinner in this great restaurant. If I can I always like to visit a new buffet find at least twice so that I can report to you all that what I found on my first visit is consistent over time. Europa Buffet did not disappoint the second time around.

I am not going to repeat the layout or details of things that were exactly the same. You can read the first article here and learn all about that. What I will tell you about now are the differences that I found dining there on a different night of the week. My first visit had been on a Friday night which according to the buffet's website is Polish Night. My second visit is on a Saturday night - which is said to be Italian Night. Overall, there were still some Eastern European/Polish dishes included on the buffet on Saturday night - the same as they were on Friday night, but more about that later.

This visit found the restaurant a bit busier than it had been on that cold Friday night in the early Fall when I went there last. I would have expected more people to be here on a Saturday night though there were consistently seven or more tables full through the time we were dining. Everyone but one table were having the buffet. One table that came in toward the end of our meal was ordering off the menu - but it seemed that the salad bar and the drink area were part of their meal (whether they were paying extra for this I do not know). With the buffet you get everything - buffet and soft drinks for $15.99. No coupons are accepted on Saturday night, but the coupons on the website are good for all other nights. I actually hoped to find more people there - perhaps a sign that people read my first article and started filling this gem. That would be great for the people who own and run this restaurant.

As I said in my first article everything in this restaurant is done by two people - the husband and wife who own the restaurant. A quick glance through the kitchen door revealed another man. So in total this is a three person operation and as I understand it all of the cooking is done by the husband and wife. She also takes care of the cash register, greeting and seating guests, making sure the buffet server is full, and clearing away plates from everyone's tables. She also takes your order should you want to order from the menu.

We started again with soup and there were the same two soups that were served on our first visit - chicken noodle and seafood bisque. They were as good as we remembered them to be. The seafood bisque was full of fish - I would say much of it was salmon but there were other seafood in there as well. I am not a big fan of cooked salmon but this was excellent.

The salad bar was just as it had been with one item that had not been there that Friday night. It was a spagetti pasta salad. It was cold spagetti in an oil based dressing and to me there was a taste of anchovy. There is an Italian dish rarely served in general American Italian restaurants that is spagetti or linguine sauteed with anchovies, garlic and olive oil. This cold pasta salad reminded me very much of the taste of that dish. It was very good.

The entrees and side dishes on the hot buffet featured a variety of food some Italian and, as I already said, some Eastern European. Still there were the great potato and onion perogies served next to a cold serving dish of sour cream to add to your liking. There, again, were chicken francaise, sauteed and grilled vegetables, pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce, penne with vodka sauce, kielbasa and fried white fish. This time the fried white fish was cut and fried in small pieces - not the almost whole fish pieces that were here on our first visit. I know that this buffet has read my first article (they now link us to their site for all to read my review). Perhaps my suggestion in that article that the portions of this fish were served too large resulted in this great change. This time I tried the fried whitefish and it was great.

There was more but I will get to that in a moment. As the last time there is a small carving station and this time there was a roast beef to carve and serve yourself, with au jus gravy in a hot server next to the meat. The last time we were here there was a loin of pork roast at the carving board.

Back to the hot foods - I am going to tell you what was not there on this night that we had the first time and then I will tell you what replaced it. Variety is the spice of life and it is good that the menu on the buffet here is varied. In fact, there were regulars here that as they went around the buffet were vocally noting what was different from other nights - and just as delighted with what they found. Gone was the poached fish, the cheese blintzes, the Swedish meatballs, the mashed potatoes (though a sign on the buffet top glass said mashed potatoes), and the stuffed cabbage. Taking the place of these dishes were spagetti alfredo, sliced roast pork, Italian meatballs in tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms, and rice pilaf. Each of these new found dishes were as good as those that they replaced (though I did miss those wonderful Swedish meatballs that I went on about in my first article). The Italian meatballs were small round meatballs that were about the same size of the Swedish meatballs but they were seasoned differently - Italian - and the tomato sauce that they were in was just right.

I only briefly mentioned the ribs in my first article. I paid a little more attention to them on this night and found them to be nicely meaty without a lot of fat in a pleasant tomato based barbecue sauce. They were fall off the bone tender and good. These are small pieces of ribs served in the sauce. I enjoyed the ribs, but I focused my meal - after tasting everything - more on the European dishes that one does not find at other buffets.

This time I tasted a little of everything - and everything was excellent - as I expected it would be. The problem with eating at a buffet where everything is SO GOOD is that you want to eat more and that was definately happening on this night. I have learned not to stuff myself beyond comfort and I had to hold myself back and not go up for more perogies, which I wanted so much to do. But I am glad that I left a little room because I came upon a dessert that was wonderful.

We went up to the dessert corner and in addition to the variety of pastries and cakes that were here on our first visit there was a tray this night of what definately was Tiramisu. Perhaps the cake I saw and thought was this on our first visit was another cake. This was it. I have never had Tiramisu before. Now I know what all of the fuss is about. It was equisite! It is a yellow cream - very creamy and light with two thin layers of yellow cake inside the cream - and on top a baked, dark brown crust. Often in Italian desserts there is a taste of cheese or liquour. There was none here - which is good. This was just so light and creamy. I stopped myself from getting a second piece because I knew, despite how light it was, it would put me over the top of how much I could eat.

The service, as it was on the first visit, was exceptional. The restaurant is spotless. Every dish is cleared away quickly. As tables are emptied they are washed and sanitized and set for the next guests. The buffet is well tended. Nothing goes empty for any longer than it takes to carry out a new tray of hot food to refill it. And all of this done by these same two people - and mostly by the very nice lady who is so well handling the whole dining room on her own!

There seemed to be several regulars dining here this evening. I am happy that there is a small following. I want to see this buffet get more business. These people deserve it for their efforts! I said this in my first article about Europa Buffet - this buffet is looking more and more to becoming our Best Buffet Restauant of 2009. Watch this site in early January 2010 to find out!

Again, as I recommended in March- you must go to Europa Buffet. I highly recommend it. This is worth a trip. The food - all of the food - is way beyond what you will get in most other buffets. Some say "home cooking" - this is really and truly European home cooking. Everything is fresh. Everything is as you would expect in what are considered "fine dining restaurants". This is so much more than a cut above the usual mass-cooked buffet food that is served at so many other buffets.

Buffet Europa is located at 1000 Arron Road, North Brunswick, New Jersey 08902. Their telephone number is 732-940-1122. They do have a website and the link is listed at the side of this page. Remember that they close at 9:00 pm and they are not opened on Sundays (unless you want to book the whole restaurant for a party).

Another Old Country Buffet - What a difference!

About twenty or more miles from me is another Old Country Buffet. We have been to this other location only once years ago, because it always seemed silly to make the trip when there is an OCB just a short way from our home. We have often talked about just going out there and finding out if the problems that we often find with Old Country Buffet is because of the particular one that we frequent or that which is general to all Old Country Buffets. Now, we have been to other Old Country Buffets in several other states over the years - but not since I have been writing this site. These other OCBs seemed in memory to be so much better than our local restaurant. On a recent holiday, we decided to make the trip east and find out what the other Old Country Buffet here is like.

The location that we visited is in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island. The restaurant is attached to a large, indoor shopping mall. The entrance to the restaurant is outside the mall. When we arrived for dinner there was a carnival going on just outside the restaurant in the parking lot. This really has nothing to do with the restaurant but I was interested to see how the crowds from the carnival plus the holiday shoppers from the mall would effect the operation, etc. of the restaurant. Going inside, the entrance and the layout of the restaurant was a bit different from the OCB that I usually go to. While this reataurant is slightly smaller in size, it appears much more open and bright. At the cash register the young lady took our money and asked if we had any coupons to redeem. No one ever asked me if I had coupons at the other OCB. We went into the dining room which was quite busy.

It was immediately obvious that this restaurant is much, much cleaner over all than the OCB in Levittown, NY. Remember that this is dinner on a holiday night. There are a number of people dining here this night as there had been all day. The floors were CLEAN. The open tables were all cleared and clean. Wow!

We started with soup and had the usual chicken noodle soup - and guess what? There were noodles in the chicken noodle soup. Why is that a surprise? Because in our usual OCB there is chicken noodle soup without noodles on a regular basis. The soup also was not salty. Generally, the chicken noodle soup that is served at that other OCB is so salty that it is barely palitable.

We went on to the salad bar and found that here it is spread across one whole double buffet server and half of another. There were several lettuce choices., prepared Ceasar salad that actually had dressing on it, and several items that we have not seen on that other OCB's salad bar.

When we returned to our table with our salads, the soup bowls were gone. How different! This remained throughout our meal. No dishes stacking up on the tables here!

Moving on to the entrees would be the real test. Would empty trays be refilled? Would main items be replaced with rolls? Would it be possible to communicate with the staff? Let me start with the communication question. The staff who operate the buffet tables and the carving station at that other OCB do not speak English. They all seem very nice and pleasant, but there is no way to communicate with them - they have no idea what you are asking or what you need. (Let's just say that I make a hopefull assumption that this is not intentional to ignor anyone's request.) Here at the Bay Shore OCB everyone clearly spoke and understood English.

Were empty trays refilled? Absolutely. And they were refilled with what they started out to be. Sausages ran out and in a few minutes new sausages came out. Chicken terriaki ran out - and it too was brought back out in a proper time frame. Everything went just as is expected.

There was a special holiday "picnic" addition to the menu - hot dogs and cheeseburgers. They were out on a half hot/half cold table next to the condiments which were nicely spread out, clean all around, and easy to reach. I have had hotdogs at the other OCB when they have been served at lunch. They were not as good as these.

Overall, the food was good. I had hoped that this OCB had an open grill area on the buffet floor. It did not. I have been told that at OCB's that do steak is grilled to order. Here they have the same set up as the OCB that we usually go to - a hot tray at the carving area where the person who carves takes the steaks out one at a time and cuts pieces off as people come up and ask for steak. The problem with this - as I have said before - is that the steak continues to cook in that hot tray and in a short time all steaks inside become well done. Unfortunately, here it was no different. What was different was that I was given - both times that I asked for steak - a small whole steak - and not the two inch square that I have gotten before. Yes, it was over done. If you like well done steak you would be very happy. The second time that I went up for steak there was no one at the carving station. I decided to stand there and see what would happen. At that other OCB you could stand there for an hour and never be noticed by staff. After a moment or two the manager walked passed and saw that I was standing there. He did not come over or say anything to me - he really should have acknowledge me to say that he could get the person who should be there. He did go right into the kitchen seeming to be looking for that person. A few minutes later he game out - saw I was still there and still no employee and went back into the kitchen again. This happened four times. The gentleman who should have been at the carving station did come back and served me a steak. Now, if I were the manager, after the second time I would have come over myself and start serving the customers. I did not wait forever - so as it was, it was, it was considerably better.

Other points about the food here. The pizza was brought out moist and with the cheese nicely melted. This was not the overcooked pizza that I am used to seeing and need to add tomato sauce to in order to make it moist enough to eat. My wife likes the chicken terriaki that is part of new additions that have appeared recently. The pieces were nice, large pieces of chicken and not the small bits that are served at that other OCB. Actually, these were much more like the pieces served in the same dish at the Ryans that we visited recently.

The restaurant went up twenty points in my esteem when I witnessed the following. At the top of the stack of clean dishes there was a dish covered in salad dressing. The dishes are stacked face down and this was across the exposed bottom of the plate. A customer came past and went right over to one of the young ladies tending the buffet area. The woman told her that there was a dirty plate on the stack. The employee stopped what she was doing, said, "oh, yes!", went to the stack of plates and immediately removed the dirty plate and took it away. Of course, you would say! Well, at that other OCB I have witnessed similar and when told of a problem the employees have starred at the customer and walked in the other direction. That dirty plate would have remained there all night.

Dinner at this Old Country Buffet was very enjoyable. We had a very nice dinner and a very nice time. I must say that all of my negative experiences at Old Country Buffet are truly the cause of the one OCB that I live near. How sad that this one really bad "apple" in the chain has to be near me. How sad that it is allowed to continue this way at all! When I wrote that the Levittown, NY OCB is the worst OCB in the country I was right on the button!

If you are on Long Island in New York and you want to go to Old Country Buffet, forget Levittown and make the trip east to the Bay Shore Old Country Buffet. It is located at 1701 Sunrise Highway, Bay Shore, NY 11706. The phone number is (631) 969-3943. One thing to know - this OCB has shorter hours than many. It closes on Monday to Thursday and Sunday at 8:30 pm instead of 9:00 pm and 9:00 pm on Friday and Saturday. For the summer these hours are extended from 8:30 to 9:00 and from 9:00 to 10:00 respectively. Perhaps the times coincide with the mall hours, but since there is no entrance from inside the mall, this should not make a difference.

Anyway, when I want to go to Old Country Buffet and I have the time and the gas to make the drive, this is the OCB that I am going to!

Best Buffet - Huntington Station, New York

First, this is not an article about a BEST buffet, but rather a buffet that cleverly named itself, "Best". Several times over the past few years I have written about an Asian buffet on Long Island, New York that WAS very popular by the name of EAST. East Buffet had a fire in its kitchen a little less than a year ago and the restaurant closed. The restaurant closing was very surprising to many as it appeared that the restaurant was doing quite well and, as I say, was very popular. There was always a crowd and on some nights a wait to get in. The restaurant was a destination for many Asian people who the buffet focused its unusual and authentic dishes toward. But just like that, it closed. The damage from the fire was not evident outside and news reports centered it on the kitchen. The owners of East also run a buffet in Queens, New York, a borough of New York City. At the time there was a big fuss and stories in the news that the remaining East restaurant would not honor gift certificates that had been purchased for the East restaurant that had closed. Time went by and then there were further news stories - yes, this buffet was so popular that it sparked news stories - that the Huntington Station location that had burned was being purchased by a new owner. Eventually it was learned that the restaurant would be called Best. Now, note, E A S T - B E S T, hmmm. And when the sign went up on the front of the building several months ago it looked like they just moved the letters around - same letters and took out the A and just added a B. If you drive by and do not look close you would say that East is still open.

Best opened its doors in April with little fan fare. There were no newspaper ads. No big Grand Opening signs. The only way anyone knew they had opened was a few lines in the major newspaper on Long Island that said that the restaurant opened and the reviewer ran in during the day to look around inside. It seemed odd that the reviewer did not eat there. Over the month two reviews surfaced. Neither raving about the restaurant. Both making excuses that they went on a weeknight and it should be better on the weekend. Comments were made about dried out dishes and empty trays left unfilled. What was made known was that while there are new owners, the kitchen staff and chefs were the same former employees of East - and that Best would accept those gift certificates from East - a generous offer considering the owners of East refused them at their other restaurant. In May, a full page advertisement was taken out in the newspaper by Best. They tooted their horn, as they should, about their "grand opening" (a month late) and offered a 10% off coupon to come and try the buffet.

After what I had read about the weeknight buffet, I was reluctant to go on a week night, but then I decided that if this restaurant is going to survive it better be good any night of the week - and at the prices they are charging - they better not be short changing weeknight diners. So on a Thursday night, we took our coupon and went to Best Buffet.

The building is exactly the same as it was when the restaurant was named East and as I said the logo sign outside is identical with the substitution and interchange of the letters. The inside also has not changed at all with the possible exception of new table tops, though it is very possible they are the same and we just did not take notice before. The arrangement of the buffet servers is the same - the buffet servers are the same ones. There is still a counter around the back wall with chefs behind making char grilled appetizers, sushi and sashimi, slicing Peking Duck, and carving Prime Rib.

What is different is now you pay as you enter. The cashier - what she always was - takes your money and then seats you at your table. There is a floor sign board next to cashier's desk that has the prices. I wish we had read this board closely when we were going in, but it had not occurred to either of us that this board would hold any surprises and we just went up to the cashier who was beckoning us over to pay her. When I was told the price it seemed a bit high to me - almost $50 - considering the coupon and that the dinner price was supposed to be just $21.99. With the coupon that made the price $19.99 each. It was all a bit of a rush and we were escorted to our table. HAD WE READ THE SIGN FIRST we would have known that a 12% tip is automatically added to all checks. I did not know this. I generously tipped the server when we finished our meal. There was nothing said when we paid. The note on the sign was not obvious. I never figure that I need to look for the "fine print" when entering a restaurant. The price does include unlimited soft drinks or hot tea. The soda was neither Coke nor Pepsi but rather some off brand.

The price of the dinner is $21.99, Monday through Thursday nights, with lunch on those days plus Fridays at $11.99. Lunch is until 3, dinner starts at 5. Children's prices at those times are $9.99 and $6.99 respectively. Children's prices are for any child under four and one half foot tall. Children under three feet are free. Dinner on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is $26.99 with children at $12.99. Lunch Saturday and Sunday is $16.99 with children at $9.99. There is a very obvious sign at the cash register that if you would like a lobster one will be brought ot you at the additional price of $5.99 each. All of these prices will have 12% added to them for a service charge (tip) when you pay. This is the most expensive Chinese/Asian buffet on Long Island. East was an expensive buffet restaurant as well, but it was not this expensive. East had always been a special occaison favorite so if this was as good or better, then the money might be worth the increase. Read on and see.

We started with soup. There are four soups offered. There was wonton broth with wontons in a steamer next to it, hot and sour soup, seafood soup, and New England (white) clam chowder. Over in the dessert section there are two additional soups, both traditional Chinese delicacies which are eaten with dessert - red bean soup and a sweet peanut soup. I took some of the hot and sour soup and I took a bowl of the wonton soup. The hot and sour soup was very good. It was flavorful but it was not too spicy. Too often hot and sour soup is overloaded with red pepper flakes and black pepper making it overwhelmingly spicy hot. This soup was seasoned so that you could taste the flavors of the ingredients in the soup. The wonton broth was basic and the wontons were bland. I wondered if they were filled with chopped chicken rather than pork, but the sign over the steamer identified them as pork wontons. They were too bland for pork - or at least not seasoned as wontons usually are. The wontons were bland and dissappointing.

I moved on next to the Sushi Bar. The fish offered on the sushi bar consisted of salmon, eel, and whitefish in various combinations and styles. It was good, but not knock me over wonderful sushi. I don't care for eel, not a fan of whitefish, so salmon was the thing. I tried dried salmon skin sushi, spicy salmon sushi, salmon rolls, salmon on rice, salmon alone, a smoked salmon rolled with cream cheese and salmon in combination with whitefish.

While I was eating sushi my wife had moved ahead to dumplings and appetizers. She picked grilled chicken charred on a stick. She gave me a taste and it was almost cold - just room temperature to say the least. She had taken tempura also and it was also just room temperature. Hmm. I went up to take appetixers and dumplings. This is where the old East excelled. There were always excellent appetizers off the grill. I took an assortment - pan fried dumpling, a shrimp ball, grilled short rib slice, grilled pork chop, a shrimp tempura, and a fixed for me by the chef Peking Duck with self added sauce, shredded cucumber and scallion. I also went over to take a look at the cold buffet that had a variety of prepared salads, salad bar, and several cold Chinese dishes. I took from the cold buffet a rolled tofu pancake filled with mushrooms, a braised slice of tofu, and a small ball of mozzerella cheese from an Italian appetizer salad. The items on the grill were all sitting on top of vegetables and this all was sitting on hot serving trays - each with a heating control at the side. Each of the items from the grill were just room temperature. I purposely took pieces toward the bottom nearest the supposedly heated tray just to be sure I was getting hot food. As it sat on my plate it got colder. Had each been hot it would have been good. As it was, it was just fair and dissappointing because it should have been hot and would have been good. The cold items that I took were also dissappointing. The rolled tofu pancake had an odd filling that did not resemble mushrooms. The piece of mozzerella cheese that I took was hard and bland. The Peking Duck was very good though the duck was very salty. It was warm and tasty. The pan fried pork dumpling also came from the grill and was just warm. The shrimp dumbling was from the steamer so it was hot. It was very unusual with several whole shrimp mixed with corn kernals in a batter and seemed to be fried before it was steamed. It was not as good as it seemed it should be. It was ok.

Entrees here, as they were when this was East, are varied and very unusual. There are two double buffet servers that are filled with double rows of trays with many different items. On top of each set of trays going along and down the middle are additional ceramic dishes with more items. Now, before I go further let me say to those who are asking - is it fair to compare Best to East, which is gone forever? You can't help but compare the two. They may call this Best but this is East under new management. Even all of the dishes still say East. Many of the selections are those that were found at East. The average guy walking in who had been to East who did not look close at the sign would tell you that this was still East. (Just not as good.)

So the entrees - what makes them unusual? How about quail? Ever had baked pumpkin with 5 spices? There were many dishes with seafood. Scallops in black pepper sauce. Chinese style steak. Fillet mignon in a semi-sweet sauce. Dried sauteed string beans. Peking pork chops. There were several variations of crab including large snow crab legs (pieces and not clusters - but big pieces), half stone crabs, stuffed crabs (at the grill), and a whole cold crab at the cold buffet server. There were so many Chinese entrees that you don't find on the usual Chinese buffet that it is impossible to list them all without going on forever. Along with all of this there were common items as well - fried rice, lo mein, spare ribs, boneless spare ribs, fried fish, mixed oriental vegetables, fried sections of flounder, shrimp with lobster sauce, and on. And this is only the oriental offerings. There was chicken marsalla, seafood lasagna, fettichini alfredo, fried potatoes, and chef carved prime rib - along with other dishes. Was there enough choices - absolutely. Were they good?

The temperature of the food from the hot buffet servers varied greatly - and again, too many dishes were just warm and got cooler as they were on my plate. This was not just the dishes that were added on top down the middle but the food in the trays in the hot steam table. Everything was tasty, but it need to be hot. Some items that had just been placed out from the kitchen were nicely hot, but this was too few and far between. And it just should not be. If the steam serving table is set properly everything should remain hot. It does in the majority of buffets - why not here? Some things I purposely went to the bottom of the tray to take so that it would be hot. It made a difference for some dishes but not for all. At one point hot shrimp tempura came out of the kitchen and I purposely took some just to see if it was different from the cool piece I had earlier - and it did!

One of my favorites from the old East was the Italian eggplant Parmasean and the fettichini alfredo. Odd that these would be found at a Chinese buffet and be good, but they were. They were here on the buffet as well. The fettichini was close. The eggplant was covered with cheese that was hard (again, mozzerella) and did not have much flavor. Ah well.

It is important to mention that just because something is labeled it does not mean here that what it says is what it is. There was a hot tray labeled chicken terriaki. My wife likes chicken terriaki and took some. She took a bit and looked at me. She took another bite and said to me, "I don't think this is chicken. It does not taste like it or feel right in my mouth." I tried a bit and it was not chicken but fish. My wife does not eat fish. She does not like its taste or what it feels like eating it. This fish was particularly stringy. Wrong labels is not a good thing in a world full of people with alergies.

Let's move along to dessert. Now, dessert here, as it once was at East, is the most unusual of all of the Chinese buffets. I mentioned earlier about the two Chinese dessert soups. There was a hot tray half full of boiling water with egg custard cups in the water. There are a variety of cookies. One was a winter melon cake. There are a number of small cakes - each just a small sample. But, of course, you take all that you care to. I tried what was called "small cheesecake". It did not taste at all like cheese cake but was very good. It was like a ball of coconut covered gelatin. A cake called Chocolate Mouse Cake was actually a thin layer of chocolate cake with a thick layer of chocolate mouse gelatin on top. I tried a blueberry cheese pastry that had no cheese but was good with blueberries in a pastry bowtie. A lemon cake was two small layers of cake with no lemon on top but rather apricot. Despite the names, it was all good and a very far step from the usual "Little Debbie" cakes that all Chinese buffets are serving lately. There was also fresn fruit, melon, puddings, jello including one called grass jelly, and soft serve ice cream. Dessert was very good.

Service was very good. Plates were cleared quickly and soda glasses were refilled. Oddly, the servers were not oriental but hispanic, as were many of the people behind the counter at the grills.

Was the food not hot because it was sitting too long because this was a slow week night. No. The restaurant was not full but it was busy. There were many people dining and there were tables full throughout the time we were there.

What I learned about this buffet is to watch what is being put out and go right over to get it. Take it while it is hot because if it stays - even in the hot servers - it will not remain hot very long.

IF the food had been consistently hot we both would have been very happy. If the food was consistently hot and the price was less we would go back. I am sure that eventually, perhaps when there is a coupon, we might go back to see if this buffet can get its temperatures correct. I really want to tell you to make sure you do not miss the wonderful variety and unusual dishes that are here. I can't do that with the temperature of the food as it was. If someone of influence from Best Buffet is reading this please make note of this. Perhaps this too is what made those other reviewers warn about week nights - but you know, weeknight or weekend, there is no excuse or reason for cold food from hot buffet servers with temperature controls that can be raised or on hot tray servers. And a health inspector with a food thermometer would have a field day giving out fines.

Best Buffet is certainly not BEST. It is OK, but not best.

Best Buffet opens at Noon every day. There are a variety of conflicting signs about closing times. The best guess is that it closes at 9 every night except Friday and Saturday when it closes at 10. The address is 179 Walt Whiteman Road (Route 110 N) in Huntington Station in New York on Long Island - about a little less than half way to the Hamptons. Their business card shows a web site - http://www.best-buffet.com , however, while I am writing this it does not work. If it ever gets connected I will link it at the side.

Italian Buffet Nights at Saporito, Wantagh, New York

In my never ending quest to find buffet restaurants of different cuisines, I got very excited when I saw an advertisement in a community newspaper for the grand opening of an Italian pizzeria restaurant named Saporito in the village of Wantagh on Long Island in New York. At the top of the ad was a box that said "Dinner Buffet" on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and for the unbelievable price of $7.95. On the other side of the page was a box that said "Lunch Buffet" weekdays for $6.95. This ad was a page of specials and they appeared to be "grand opening specials". I had to find out more. A quick web search came up with a number of restauants around the country with the same name, though they did not appear to be part of a chain. Apparently this is a common name for Italian pizzeria restaurants. Translated saporito in Italian means "tasty". I did find a web site but it mentions everything about the restaurant but a buffet. Before it was gone I had to go and try it for myself.

This is a newly opened Italian take out restauant with booths and tables set up in the front of the restauant. Its main buisness seems to be pizza and some very nice looking pizza was being served at the counter to the number of people who were coming in for take out orders. There is a small parking lot in front of the restaurant with enough spaces to accomodate the few tables inside. The windows of the restaurant are covered in signs about their specials. Not one mentions "buffet". We went in and walked to one of the empty tables and sat down. There were a few tables occupied around the restaurant with more people at the counter ordering take out. In a short instant we were acknowledged and in a minute or two later we were asked if we needed menus or were we ordering the buffet. The buffet was located at the side of the restaurant between two soda cold cases on a shelf. There were five countertop hot servers and a soup server on the shelf. Small, but adequate. Drinks are from the soda fountain or bottles from the cases. Drinks are not unlimited and are not included with the buffet. There is a sign that says that they are waiting for their license to serve wine.

We went up to the buffet. There we found chicken soup, spagetti, tomato sauce (seperated from the spagetti in its own tray in the spagetti hot server), chicken francias, chicken with brocolli, meatballs, and sausage with peppers and onions. In front of the soup server there were short stacks of china plates, bowls, and silverware rolled in paper dinner napkins. There are also napkin dispensers on each table. The server brought a basket of garlic bread and very nice rolls to our table.

Of course, I tried everything. The food is what is expected at local Italian restauants. One of the best ways to judge an Italian restaurant is the tomato sauce. Is it too sharp? Is it to sweet? This tomato sauce was just right. The spagetti was kept in a light oil so that it would not stick together. You put the sauce on the spagetti yourself as you like. The chicken francias was good. The batter was not overly eggy and the sauce did not have a sharp taste of wine. The taste was good. I have had the dish made better in other restauants but it was good. The chicken mixed with brocolli was a sauteed dish of small chunks of chicken with sauteed down brocolli with a light garlic and oil sauce. This was another tasty dish. The pork sausage with peppers and onions was cooked in oil. There were both red and green pepper slices and these were cooked with strips of onion. The sausage was sliced into thin pieces and the dish was well cooked. It tasted very good. It is served with the oil that it is suateed in and there was a bit too much oil that the food sat in. This was fine for the taste, but I would have preferred that it had been less oily. The meat balls were the usual Italian take out restauant meatballs. They were served in tomato sauce and the perfect and quintessential complement to the spagetti. They were as good as any meatballs that I have had at similar restauants or in real Italian meatball hero sandwiches. (Hero sandwich = hoagie, poorboy, sub. In NY they are hero sandwiches.) There is no pizza on the buffet. Too bad because their pizza was very tempting. This was the Wednesday night buffet. On Thursday night the dishes will change - for example pasta ala vodka.

There is no dessert included with the buffet. I don't need it but if you have to have it there is a dessert menu that you can order from to supplement your buffet (at additional cost). There is also no salad bar - again, I did not need or miss that.

Keep in mind the price of this meal. It is $7.95 each - for all. Compare this to any other buffet price. Compare this to Cici's at $5.99 to which this excels for what you are getting. This is a small restaurant and they are new. By the size and the number of items, this is not what the average buffet goer is going to expect - but that is ok. For the money, you are getting a great meal. I have paid more for lunch at some menu restaurants.

The restaurant was very clean. The serving trays were kept an eye on. They were tended, refilled, and stirred. Dishes were eventually cleared from the table, but they seem to just be getting used to the idea of the buffet (and they are new). I think that a crowd of typical buffet diners would throw them. I have two suggestions to the management. One is that they need to make sure that more clean dishes need to be kept out next to the buffet 0r replaced more regularly. The other suggestion is that when new food is placed into a serving tray it cannot be poured on top of what is there or just be mixed into (which is what they did) but that the proper way to do this is to take what is in the current tray and put it on top of the new food that is going in.

I was very happy with my find. But the big question - is this just a special offer or will it remain? It will remain - every Wednesday and Thursday night. And weekdays for lunch! Wonderful!

I do not understand why - other than the ad in the community paper - that the buffet is a big secret. Why no sign? Why nothing inside the restauarant about it? Why nothing on the website? I can never understand why a restauant looking to bring in business in these difficult times does not make their great features well known. Yes, they ran an ad, but had I not seen the ad - and I am sure many have not - if I drove past the restaurant nothing outside (or inside for that matter) would say "BUFFET". To the observer, outside, it is just another pizza restaurant, of which, in this area there are many.

I will definitely be back! I recommend that you try Saporito Pizzeria Restaurant's buffet (either lunch everyday during the week or dinner on Wednesdays and Thursdays) if you are on Long Island or traveling through Long Island. (This is on the way to the Hamptons - not nearly as far east, but on the way!) Take note that the hours of the dinner buffet are from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm and hte lunch buffet is served from 11 am to 3 pm. The restaurant's address is 1378 Wantagh Avenue, Wantagh, New York. Their phone number is 516-221-7773. They have a website with no mention of the buffet but photos of the restauant and take out menus. The website is linked on the side of this page.

Finally, an Italian Buffet I can get too! Mangia!

Cactus Willies Steak Buffet and Bakery - Lancaster, PA

In 2006 and in 2007 I reviewed and re-reviewed a small buffet chain called Cactus Willies Steak Buffet and Bakery. At that time the chain had only six locations - five in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania. Since then two of those locations in Maryland have closed.

I recently passing through Lancaster, Pa on a Sunday night on my way back from a trip and wanted to stop there for dinner. As I have written many times before, Lancaster could be called the buffet restaurant capital of the country - if not the world, but the one problem is that 98% of them are closed on Sunday. Of course, Cici's is available, as are several Chinese buffets, but my good wife was not inclined on this night toward Cici's and I really did not feel like Chinese food. We then remembered Cactus Willies. It was good when we were last there so that was the place.

We arrived at 6:30 and saw on the door that they close at 7:30 pm. The last time that I was there the hours on Sunday nights were to 8:30 pm. Sometimes when you go to a buffet an hour before closing you can expect empty trays that will not be refilled and the buffet serving taken down some time before closing. I was a little hesitant, but we were there. As it turned out this was not to be a concern. You pay as you enter - as at most chain buffets - and you are escorted to a table. The layout of the room has not changed any since I was there in 2006 and in 2007 so I will not go into a description again of the room layout or the buffet servers. Read my two previous articles from July 28, 2006 and April 20, 2007 for that information. The price of the meal has gone up $1.50. It is now $11.99 with refillable soft drinks at $1.59.

My experience at this visit was actually a cross between my first visit and my second and my recommendation that you will read from 2007 is going to be a bit tempered down now. The food at Cactus Willies at this time at this Pennsylvania location on a Sunday night is fine. It is not great. It is not bad. It is ok. There was nothing wrong with it. All was well after the meal. It was just not up to the quality and taste of what you get at other brand chains. Many things were tasty. Some things were not.

There are three soups offered. This night one was vegetable soup, the other was called Manhattan Clam Chowder but was actually the white cream New England Clam Chowder, and the other was Minestrone. Since Minestrone is basically vegetable soup I wondered why two such similar soups would be offered. I tried the "vegetable" soup. It was thin with the usual canned vegetable soup bits of vegetable in it. Nothing spectacular and not what one might call "hearty". Had I re-read my 2007 review before going I should have chosen the Minestrone which I described then as good, savory, and thick. It did not look that way in the soup server.

The salad bar is quite extensive but you must look beyond the cold buffet server to the counter across the aisle because significant cold dishes are there - some that I first considered missing from the salad offerings. The salad bar included several local Pennsylvania Dutch prepared salads. As I noted in the past articles, this Cactus Willies includes some local specialties on the buffet. On this night they were on the salad bar. One was PA Dutch Chow Chow, which, unlike southern chow chow, is sweet pickled vegetables. Another is a combination of two things found on the salad bar - cottage cheese and apple butter. The cottage cheese is just your average cottage cheese, but you take a few spoonfuls of apple butter and dollop it over the top of the cottage cheese. Try it - it is very good. Way back when this area was first attracting tourism to see the Amish people who live today with no electricity and travel in horse and buggy, one of the things the restaurants would advertise was that the PA Dutch meal always includes 7 Sweets and 7 Sours. Chow Chow and Cottage Cheese with Apple Butter were always part of those 7 Sweets and 7 Sours. (These dishes are far from exclusive to Cactus Willies in this area and you will find them in almost every PA Dutch buffet here.)

Back to Cactus Willies - I went up to the steak grill for flame grilled steak. Now, on my last visit, the chef asked how I wanted the steak and then cooked a steak to order for me getting it just right. On my first visit, the chef looked around at what was on the grill and guessed which one had not been sitting there too long to be rare or medium rare. I order my steak rare or medium rare depending on the circumstance of how it is being cooked - if from what I can see rare will result in raw then I order medium rare. If it seems that the steak has just been sitting out, I order rare in hope of not getting well, well done. This night was just like that first night at Cactus Willies. The gentleman picked up one of the steaks that had been sitting on the side of the grill, cut into it and showed it to me - it was just pink on its way to gray well done. I told him that it was too well done and he picked out another one. This time the inside looked slightly pinker in the dark light near the grill. I did not want him cutting into every steak that was there so I took it. When I got back to my table I saw that it was more well done than the first one he showed me and it got thinner along the way which made the rest of it really well done - which if you enjoy well done steak is fine, but I don't. The steak did have a nice taste and it was not tough. While we were eating there was a family at the table across the aisle from us and the father was telling the grown son that he likes the steak at Cactus Willies much better than the steak at Old Country Buffet because the steak at OCB is always tough (which very, very often is true - so it is not just the OCB near my home). He really was enjoying the Cactus Willies steak and went back three or more times for more. Had it been cooked to my liking I would have also.

There were barbecue spareribs on the buffet that were cooked in a nice barbecue sauce. The ribs were good - though they had been sitting a bit in the server. They had the one dish that my wife loved at Cactus Willies when we were last there and we have not seen it at any other buffet or restaurant and that is Turkey Pot Roast. It is made with turkey thigh meat which looks like beef and is cooked in as sauce with potatoes, onions, carrots, etc. just like Pot Roast. She once contacted them for the recipe but could not get it. She and I both took some. She enjoyed it, but I did not think that it was near as good as I remembered. What I remember as a savory gravy was now thin and had an odd under-taste to me and a similar odor from some seasoning. It was not bad, but I did not like it this time.

Fried chicken was real fried chicken and not the broasted-style that is common in this area. It would have been better if it were crispy - rather it was on the soggy side. There is grilled chicken at the flame grill. Also at the grill were a tray with two remaining hot dogs. They had been either steamed or boiled and were a bit gray so I passed that by. There is a taco bar and you can create tacos, burritos, and nachos. There was also fried shrimp.

Side dish offerings included the usual assortment of vegetables - kernel corn, string beans, very good stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes, seasoned fries, and on. There was macaroni and cheese that looked more promising than it tasted as it was bland. There is pizza but this is another one of those items that you have to look for because it is part of the dessert counter. I missed it and by the time I saw it we were heading for dessert.

There is a wide assortment of desserts including hot cobblers, puddings, cakes, cup cakes, pies, cheesecake, and soft serve ice cream with sundae toppings. There was also several candies out including gummy worms. The cup cake was good. The soft serve was icy.

As it turns out the time that we arrived posed no problem at all. The trays remained full the entire time that we were there and they were seating new tables all the way to around 7:15 pm. The staff did start cleaning around the buffet servers but this did not interfere with getting more food. As we were eating dessert they actually came over and asked if we wanted anything more from the salad bar as they were going to close that down - not the other servers but just the salad bar. They asked and had we or anyone said yes, we want more salad they would have not closed it down.

Service this time and on our last visit was excellent. The young man who was our server was there quickly to take away dirty plates, bring more soft drinks, and make sure all was well. When he saw that I had taken ribs he brought packages of hand wipes. All excellent. When we were in the midst of dessert he brought a tip tray with mints in it - a reminder to leave a tip which is fine as many at buffets need this reminder. We actually did tip him more than we usually would because his service was that good.

So - as to my recommendation. Let me put it this way - if I have no other buffet to go to I would probably go back. If you are in this area on any day other than a Sunday there are so many excellent buffets to go to . If I had to rank this against the other buffet chains this was definately be number 4 - below Golden Corral, Ryans, and OCB (yes - even OCB). I have only been to this Pennsylvania location. There are three others in Maryland - I would try one of those to compare. Had this visit been more like my second visit, I would have been happier. I am not even sure that I would say that this was an off-night. There is nothing really wrong with the Lancaster Cactus Willies but there is so much better to enjoy just minutes away from here.

Ryans Buffet - Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

I know that there have been comments made on other articles that criticize my continuing to talk about Ryans and their recent takeover by Buffets, Incorporated. But the change is a reality and since I have just dined at an actual Ryans (and not a Fire Mountain) for the first time since the takeover is complete, I feel that it is only fair to tell you about the experience.

I have been to the Ryans in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania before. As I see, this is the furthest north Ryans on the East Coast - other than a Fire Mountain in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The restaurant is located on Route 30 just before it crosses I-81 which is a major north/south corridor.

I had read that some of the Ryans restauants were now including the beverage in the price of the meal as Old Country Buffet does. This was not so at this location. The meal was priced lower than OCB charges near me (though I suspect because of its Metro - NY location it is much higher than in other parts of the country) The adult price at this Ryans was $9.69 on a weeknight and the soft drink was $1.89. Added together this is still a dollar less than what I pay at OCB.

In the past at the restaurant even during the week someone would seat you at your table. Here we were neither told to wait or to seat ourselves. We sat ourselves, which was no problem as there were plenty of vacant tables throughout the restaurant. This was a Thursday night so that was not surprising - though weeknights at home at OCB are generally busy.

There were three soups and the homestyle chicken noodle soup has not changed. It is still made with thick, doughy noodles. If there were to be any influence from the Ryans chain to the OCB chain I wish it would be this soup.

There are still two buffet servers comprising the salad bar and the assortment of salads, prepared, salads, and toppings has not changed. The Ceasar salad is still a prepare it yourself area of romaine lettuce, dressing, and cheese. This is nice allowing you to determine how much or how little dressing you would like on your salad. There is chicken salad on the salad bar and on Fridays they add tuna salad. There is also a seafood salad, unlike that served at OCB. All of this is as it has always been in my experiences at Ryans.

The entrees and the side dishes are now a mix of what has been served at Ryans and what is served at OCB. The steaks are still cooked to order and served fresh off the flame grill. Other items that used to be served from the grill (smoked sausage and the like) were moved to a carving and serving area to the side of the grill. This was Thursday and that meant under the new nightly features (at Ryans and OCB) that it was Barbecue Thursday. According to the Ryans website that should have meant that I would find smoked sausage - which I did in two forms - and pulled pork barbecue. There was no pulled pork barbecue. There were some type of barbecue ribs but they did not look that appetizing. There was a smoked sausage ring that had to be carved - with no one around to carve it - and there was smoke sausage cut up in a tray with peppers and onions.

On the buffet servers, to my wife's delight, was a tray of chicken pot pie, made like it used to be (before it was discontinued, brought back in an odd form, discontinued again, and now back the way it was). There was broiled fish that looked exactly like the plain broiled fish at OCB. This had not been at Ryans before - at least not in this form. There was fried chicken. There was rotisserie chicken. There were cheeseburgers (not off the grill but in a tray on the steam table). There was a chicken terriaki with pineapple dish that was very much like the same dish at OCB but the pieces of chicken were much larger. There was no pizza which is something that you would always find at Ryans in the past. Spagetti is now improved and served as it is at OCB which means it no longer is sitting in a tray full of water causing the pasta to become overly soft. It now is served in a small amount of butter-like sauce that keeps it from sticking together.

Side dishes were much as they have always been as was the taco bar. Taco meat here is much less greasy than it is served at OCB.

I am certain that the cut of steak that is used at both chains is the same. Here it was not as highly seasoned as the steak that I have been served at OCB. It is just as tough.

The meal was not without its faults. Too many items were drying out in the serving tray. I took what looked like fluffy white rice and it turned out to be large hard lumps of dried out rice - inedible. There was no grill chef anywhere to be found for a while. I actually had some difficulty chosing entrees as I walked around the buffet. This is to my personal preferences, but I do not recall that problem at a Ryans before.

Dessert remains as it always has at Ryans. Full cakes are served sliced into wedges - no sheet cakes. There were pies and sugar free pies. There were several hot cobblers, puddings, etc. The dessert area was full and there are two soft serve ice cream machines - one with yogurts and one with ice cream.The ice cream was VERY icy and not creamy. (Another plus for OCB that has very good soft serve.) Missing from the ice cream area were the candies that were always out - gummy bears, and the like. Perhaps it was the night or perhaps they are no longer served.

The service was ok. Dishes tended to collect until they were noticed and then were taken. Drinks did get refilled.

Maintenance of the hot buffet servers was not what it should be. Items needed to be stirred and tended. This is an issue of management and employee supervision - and more than likely not due to the overall ownership of the chain. Chains and location owners - not just this one, but all of them - should be sending out "secret" inspectors who go into the restauant on several nights and dine. This is the only way to protect your brand name and your investment.

The restaurant was clean - the dining room, the serving areas, and the restrooms. The decor was no different than it has ever been and typical of other Ryans that I have dined at.

Was I not happy at Ryans? No. Is it up there with the best, as it had been The Best of the Chains? No. The best of the chains now is Golden Corral - and this is not just me saying so but also restaurant industry evaluations and surveys.

As a side note, I had an opportunity to go to another Ryans two nights later. Generally, I would have jumped at that chance. I passed and chose another buffet to have dinner at.

If someone has no idea that there is any connection between Ryans and OCB they will never be able to tell by dining here. Overall, it is pretty much the same. This particular location has been better in the past. We will chaulk it up to a slow night or an inattentive manager.