Since my last article about Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA this past June, we have been there again several times. We have found another favorite to add to our list of must eat at when we are in Lancaster County. The food is good and the selection is always fine, even on their feature nights.
One thing that is nice is that the offerings on the buffet always seem to include something different each time in addition to items that they always have. It is good to mix in some variety and they do this well.
After a minor disappointment at the Meyerstown location of the Dutch-Way Family Restaurant, I wanted to go back to Gap for the Friday/Saturday night weekend buffet. The feature on these nights is the carvings – Prime Rib and Ham. I actually have been back twice for the weekend buffet. Actually, my second ever visit there had been on a Saturday night. Was that great meal just a one time occurrence – or was there really a big difference between the two locations?
Yes, there is a big difference between the two locations – in ambiance and in how the food is presented. The cooking is close but I feel that the food is better at Gap – in terms of taste. Everything that was my first and second impression of this buffet in Gap continues to hold true visit after visit.
This is a buffet located as part of a supermarket complex – like Yoders Restaurant/Buffet in New Holland, PA but with a different ambiance. While Yoders – where the food and selection are also excellent – has a more casual dining room with hard backed booths, Dutch-Way in Gap has a more formal dining room arrangement. Not shi-shi fancy, but comfortably nice. (Please do not take this as any slight to Yoder’s dining room – they are just different.
What you will find at Dutch-Way is a nice combination of Pennsylvania Dutch Amish cooking and American fare. There may be chicken bot boi in one serving tray and next to that will be a fancy fish dish in a sauce. There may be a dish that is spicy ala Tex-Mex next to plain farm cooking.
The salad bar is extensive. There are four soup selections. The buffet area is extensive and includes some very interesting prepared desserts along with many other temptations like nice slices of layer cakes. Service at Gap has always been good – very good.
I should mention that the feature on Thursday nights is Seafood and includes crab legs and a large selection of seafood dishes. I know many of my readers like all you care to eat crab legs and seafood. The price on Thursday nights is more than other nights.
Again, I highly recommend Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, PA. I think sometimes that I should not share these hidden treasures, but I must share this one. Go there – it is off the beaten path at the border of Lancaster County and while it is not hard to find, getting into the entrance can be tricky.
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Friday, November 09, 2012
Family Cupboard, Lancaster, PA Up For Sale
I have written about the Family Cupboard Restaurant and their buffet many times on this site. The owner of the restaurant has announced that he has the restaurant up for sale. I have commented that there is a connection between the family that owns and runs Family Cupboard and the family that owns and runs Dienner’s Restaurant, also in Lancaster. It turns out that the father of the man who owns Family Cupboard is the owner of Dienner’s and this connection leads to the reason why Family Cupboard is up for sale.
The owners of Family Cupboard are John Dienner and his wife. John’s brother has been working with their father and mother to run Dienner’s Restaurant on Route 30 in Lancaster. John’s brother will be leaving the business and John has said that he feels that it is only right for him and his wife to leave Family Cupboard and go and help run Dienner’s. So, Family Cupboard has been listed for sale.
One thing that John Dienner is looking for is someone that will buy the restaurant and keep it running as it is – including keeping all of the employees. This restaurant has a very close family feel and one reason for that is that the employees are treated like family. For that matter their guests are treated the same. I do hope that they find a buyer who is willing to do this. So many new owners have their own ideas and want to do things their own way. On one level you cannot blame them, but when buying a successful operation, as this is, it is a road to failure if they do not continue what made the location successful before.
Some of you who are regular readers will recall, that a number of years back Family Cupboard was the “new name and location” of a restaurant called Harvest View – owned and operated by John Dienner and his wife and many of the employees who you will find at Family Cupboard now. They wanted to move the restaurant to a location that would be more visible than the back road location in the middle of the farm fields. Harvest View was taken over by an absentee owner who was not from this area and had no idea about what would make this restaurant/buffet work – and allowed it to slip until it went out of business. And it went out of business with good reason. (See some old articles here that will show you why.) My fear is that will happen again here at Family Cupboard. It is extremely important that the new owner be a local and someone who appreciates this restaurant for what it is – as it is. Sadly, with business, you often get into a position when you have to sell that you just sell. I hope that this does not happen here. There is another restaurant, unrelated to Family Cupboard, that was the Leola Family Restaurant which also had a small buffet. That restaurant was sold to Greek owners from the “big city” who ran this country farm cooking restaurant with a semi-Greek menu and while it took some time for the restaurant to close – it did close and is sitting empty after quite some time.
I have written about Dienner’s. The buffet menu is close, if not sometimes, just the same as Family Cupboard. My personal preference has been Family Cupboard but Dienner’s is good. The only problem at Dienner’s is their hours. They are only open until 6:00 pm for dinner except for one day – Friday when they are open to the same 8:00 pm as all of the other local and buffet restaurants. My great hope is that John Dienner when he comes to Dienner’s increases the dinner hours to 8:00 pm Monday to Saturday – as they were at Family Cupboard. This would certainly get me there more often – and while Dienner’s is always crowded, it would increase income from customers who find dinner before 6:00 pm just too early – and that income is nice for the owners too.
I have an idea for John Dienner and I hope that he reads this article. Don’t sell Family Cupboard. Hire an operating manager who you can trust to run the restaurant and buffet just as it is. While the restaurant continues in the family it is almost a guarantee that their employee family and the good food and service that Family Cupboard is known for will continue.
John Dienner will start full time at Dienner’s Restaurant in January 2013. This Thanksgiving will be the last Thanksgiving Buffet served at Family Cupboard as it is now – and that Thanksgiving buffet, I hear, is fabulous.
I also hope that John Dienner continues his seasonal newsletter only now to the customers of Dienners. I look forward to seeing this and read it right away when it arrives by email. It used to be mailed out until postage got expensive. It really does give a feeling of family and often contains news and tidings about the employees and their families. This is something that you just don’t get at most restaurants – in fact, in my experience, at any restaurant!
It was very sad news for me to learn that Family Cupboard is up for sale. I wish John Dienner all of the best and I know he will bring greater things to Dienner's.
Family Cupboard is located at 3029 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505 and the phone is (717) 768-4510. There is a website and it is linked at the side of this page. There is also a link there for Dienner’s which is located at at 2855 Lincoln Highway East in East Ronks, Pennsylvania (This is US Route 30). Their phone number is 717-687-9571.
The owners of Family Cupboard are John Dienner and his wife. John’s brother has been working with their father and mother to run Dienner’s Restaurant on Route 30 in Lancaster. John’s brother will be leaving the business and John has said that he feels that it is only right for him and his wife to leave Family Cupboard and go and help run Dienner’s. So, Family Cupboard has been listed for sale.
One thing that John Dienner is looking for is someone that will buy the restaurant and keep it running as it is – including keeping all of the employees. This restaurant has a very close family feel and one reason for that is that the employees are treated like family. For that matter their guests are treated the same. I do hope that they find a buyer who is willing to do this. So many new owners have their own ideas and want to do things their own way. On one level you cannot blame them, but when buying a successful operation, as this is, it is a road to failure if they do not continue what made the location successful before.
Some of you who are regular readers will recall, that a number of years back Family Cupboard was the “new name and location” of a restaurant called Harvest View – owned and operated by John Dienner and his wife and many of the employees who you will find at Family Cupboard now. They wanted to move the restaurant to a location that would be more visible than the back road location in the middle of the farm fields. Harvest View was taken over by an absentee owner who was not from this area and had no idea about what would make this restaurant/buffet work – and allowed it to slip until it went out of business. And it went out of business with good reason. (See some old articles here that will show you why.) My fear is that will happen again here at Family Cupboard. It is extremely important that the new owner be a local and someone who appreciates this restaurant for what it is – as it is. Sadly, with business, you often get into a position when you have to sell that you just sell. I hope that this does not happen here. There is another restaurant, unrelated to Family Cupboard, that was the Leola Family Restaurant which also had a small buffet. That restaurant was sold to Greek owners from the “big city” who ran this country farm cooking restaurant with a semi-Greek menu and while it took some time for the restaurant to close – it did close and is sitting empty after quite some time.
I have written about Dienner’s. The buffet menu is close, if not sometimes, just the same as Family Cupboard. My personal preference has been Family Cupboard but Dienner’s is good. The only problem at Dienner’s is their hours. They are only open until 6:00 pm for dinner except for one day – Friday when they are open to the same 8:00 pm as all of the other local and buffet restaurants. My great hope is that John Dienner when he comes to Dienner’s increases the dinner hours to 8:00 pm Monday to Saturday – as they were at Family Cupboard. This would certainly get me there more often – and while Dienner’s is always crowded, it would increase income from customers who find dinner before 6:00 pm just too early – and that income is nice for the owners too.
I have an idea for John Dienner and I hope that he reads this article. Don’t sell Family Cupboard. Hire an operating manager who you can trust to run the restaurant and buffet just as it is. While the restaurant continues in the family it is almost a guarantee that their employee family and the good food and service that Family Cupboard is known for will continue.
John Dienner will start full time at Dienner’s Restaurant in January 2013. This Thanksgiving will be the last Thanksgiving Buffet served at Family Cupboard as it is now – and that Thanksgiving buffet, I hear, is fabulous.
I also hope that John Dienner continues his seasonal newsletter only now to the customers of Dienners. I look forward to seeing this and read it right away when it arrives by email. It used to be mailed out until postage got expensive. It really does give a feeling of family and often contains news and tidings about the employees and their families. This is something that you just don’t get at most restaurants – in fact, in my experience, at any restaurant!
It was very sad news for me to learn that Family Cupboard is up for sale. I wish John Dienner all of the best and I know he will bring greater things to Dienner's.
Family Cupboard is located at 3029 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505 and the phone is (717) 768-4510. There is a website and it is linked at the side of this page. There is also a link there for Dienner’s which is located at at 2855 Lincoln Highway East in East Ronks, Pennsylvania (This is US Route 30). Their phone number is 717-687-9571.
Friday, November 02, 2012
Another Try at Peking Restaurant, Williamsburg, Virginia
In October 2011 and then again in February 2012, I wrote about an Asian buffet restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia that had been one of our favorites. It is the Peking Restaurant and in 2007 it received a Best Buffet award from this site. Before October 2011 we had not been back to this area in several years and when we returned we expected to find this favorite buffet just as it always had been. It was not. You can go back and read the articles in October and February. I am not linking them here because I want to associate this article with the negative experiences that we had in those articles. I will say that after the last visit written about in February we decided that we would not go back to the Peking Buffet.
Since then I have learned what happened there. The general manager who had been there all along was no longer there - apparently, not by his choosing. He did go to open another buffet restaurant in the area which I have written about - Wasabi - and that buffet was very good. I have said on this site many times that the manager can make or break a restaurant - and especially a buffet! We are experiencing this with another buffet that we frequent whose excellent manager was let go for unknown reasons and the good buffet has nose-dived to barely a fair buffet. Others who liked Peking Buffet also noticed what I did last year and agreed with me. Things were not good there anymore.
We found ourselves in Williamsburg, Virginia again recently - as those of you who are regular readers know from the recent Williamsburg buffet articles. We had intended to have more than one dinner at Wasabi - the restaurant that the former Peking Buffet manager opened. We we got there we found Wasabi closed. There were advertisements everywhere for Wasabi. The building was dark and a sign on the door indicated renovations were being done. What I later learned was that the owner - the man from Peking Buffet - was made an offer by a Virginia "name" chef to buy him out, which he did and the owner left the US to go to Taiwan. Perhaps good for him, but not so great for those of us who really liked his buffet. The new restaurant that has opened at Wasabi's location is not a buffet and an up-scale Oriental menu restaurant with high prices.
So, I told you all that to get to this. We got to a point that we did not know where to go for dinner. We had been to the other buffets enough and could not really afford the menu restaurants around town other than the chains and did not want to do that. My wife, with reluctance, said to me do you want to try Peking Buffet again? My first response was no. I thought about it and found myself driving to Peking Buffet. I knew that nothing really would have changed there, but perhaps someone there read one of my more recent articles and maybe it might be different.
In terms of layout and serving areas, everything is the same. One of the things to understand about the food here as I, personally, am concerned, is that on the buffet now there are an overwhelming number of items on the buffet that are either very sweet or extra hot and spicy. There are dishes that I can take at other Chinese buffets and not have a problem with, that I cannot take here because they are over-spiced. Some may find this as a good thing. I want to taste the food and not the spiced heat. Going up to the buffet for food, I had to be sure to select things that I was going to be OK eating. My wife, as the regular readers know, only eats "plain" foods - not just not spicy but beyond that. I decided that I would follow what she was taking and eat similarly - and perhaps I would have a better experience here than I have had on my last two visits.
We started with the noodle soup station which will create a soup to your order using any of several noodle types. This has always been good here - and was equally good on our last two visits. We like Vietnamese pho soup and that is what we had the soup chef at the counter make for us. It was good - it always has been good. It still is.
I moved on to the "Sushi Train" which in my last two articles I explained is a moving counter with sushi on plates that move past you and you take the plates that you want. This concept does not work well at a buffet. First, you can stand there an overly long time waiting for something that went past to come back around again. Second, if you want five pieces of sushi, you are picking up five small plates. How are you supposed to carry all of these small plates back to your table. There are no trays. I went up with a large plate. I had decided that I would do one of two things. I would either take a small plate and dump the contents onto my large plate - and then have to get rid of the small plate - or I would use the large plate as a tray to carry the small plates stacked up. I went with the plate as a tray idea as I decided it would be rude to stack the little plates up on their counter and leave them. It would make a statement to how this idea does not work, but I would not do that. I took several plates of sushi and carried them back carefully on top of a dinner plate. The variety of sushi is broad. It is not well labeled and it is often a surprise when you find out that what you thought you were taking is not at all that. They have enough area to make a nice sushi serving area - but they continue with this "train" idea.
I went on to main courses and side dishes. I completely skipped the Thai section. These are beyond hot and spicy. The Japanese hibachi area is serving teriyaki and that is also made spicy. I am not sure why. I skipped that as well. There were some dumplings, noodle dishes, and rice dishes there that were fine. On the main buffet server between the Mongolian BBQ and the Japanese hibachi, there was a mix of standard Chinese dishes such as chicken and broccoli, pepper steak, and the like and then a number of hot and spicy dishes, and then a number of sweet dishes. As I said, I watched my wife and chose dishes that were plain to mild. One dish looked plain enough until you saw that the pan was lined with chili peppers. But there at least were things this time that were there to take that were not spicy. If you like sweet, there were a number of dishes cooked in sweet sauces.
I also went over to the Mongolian BBQ and remembering my last visit I made my plate up of meat - I took chicken - there was also beef, pork, lamb, and shrimp - and raw shredded vegetables and bean sprouts and put none of the sauces that were there on top. The sauces - even those that should not be - are spicy. This was cooked for me and when I got back to the table I added soy sauce to moisten it. As I had it made, it was fine for me. Again, if you like hot and spicy, you can go to town with mixing the sauces that are out to have your meat and vegetables cooked in.
On one side of the round Mongolian grill serving counter there is a cold section and there were steamed shrimp on ice there. These shrimp are served with the heads on. This is how they would be served in the Orient. Most Americans don't like to see shrimp with the heads on. If you break off the head, it is just the same as the cocktail shrimp you usually fine.
The desserts here are typical Asian buffet desserts - little squares of cake, fruit, ice cream. One does not go to an Asian buffet for the desserts.
The restaurant is clean. Service is fine. At this meal we both had enough to eat. I did not feel hungry after we were through and we were both fine. I was able to find enough to eat this time even being careful in what I was choosing. Overall, this was a much better experience than we had on the last two visits and meals eaten here.
Would I go back? On this experience, I would go back and likely, will. Do I recommend Peking Restaurant? After your reading what I have written here in regard to the level of spice used and the types of foods that you will encounter, if you like spicy and/or sweet - or if you have no problem with picking and choosing to find what you can that is on the plain side, then yes, try it. I eat at a lot of Asian buffets. I have not had to pick carefully at any other as I find I have to here. Again, this is me - and there are others out there just like me. If you have food restrictions, it gets a little harder. I do miss the Peking Restaurant that I once knew. There was a far wider variety of foods and the emphasis did not used to be on spicy and sweet.
The price of dinner here is $11.99. Lunch is $7.99. Thai food is only brought out after 4;30 pm. Sushi is served after noon. Soft drinks with refills are additional. The restaurant is open 7 days a week. Unlike many family buffets, there is a full service liquor bar.
The Peking Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia is located at 120 Waller Mill Road in the Big Kmart Shopping Center. (Kingsgate Green Shopping Center – Bypass Road (Rt.60)). There is a website and that is listed at this side of the page.
Since then I have learned what happened there. The general manager who had been there all along was no longer there - apparently, not by his choosing. He did go to open another buffet restaurant in the area which I have written about - Wasabi - and that buffet was very good. I have said on this site many times that the manager can make or break a restaurant - and especially a buffet! We are experiencing this with another buffet that we frequent whose excellent manager was let go for unknown reasons and the good buffet has nose-dived to barely a fair buffet. Others who liked Peking Buffet also noticed what I did last year and agreed with me. Things were not good there anymore.
We found ourselves in Williamsburg, Virginia again recently - as those of you who are regular readers know from the recent Williamsburg buffet articles. We had intended to have more than one dinner at Wasabi - the restaurant that the former Peking Buffet manager opened. We we got there we found Wasabi closed. There were advertisements everywhere for Wasabi. The building was dark and a sign on the door indicated renovations were being done. What I later learned was that the owner - the man from Peking Buffet - was made an offer by a Virginia "name" chef to buy him out, which he did and the owner left the US to go to Taiwan. Perhaps good for him, but not so great for those of us who really liked his buffet. The new restaurant that has opened at Wasabi's location is not a buffet and an up-scale Oriental menu restaurant with high prices.
So, I told you all that to get to this. We got to a point that we did not know where to go for dinner. We had been to the other buffets enough and could not really afford the menu restaurants around town other than the chains and did not want to do that. My wife, with reluctance, said to me do you want to try Peking Buffet again? My first response was no. I thought about it and found myself driving to Peking Buffet. I knew that nothing really would have changed there, but perhaps someone there read one of my more recent articles and maybe it might be different.
In terms of layout and serving areas, everything is the same. One of the things to understand about the food here as I, personally, am concerned, is that on the buffet now there are an overwhelming number of items on the buffet that are either very sweet or extra hot and spicy. There are dishes that I can take at other Chinese buffets and not have a problem with, that I cannot take here because they are over-spiced. Some may find this as a good thing. I want to taste the food and not the spiced heat. Going up to the buffet for food, I had to be sure to select things that I was going to be OK eating. My wife, as the regular readers know, only eats "plain" foods - not just not spicy but beyond that. I decided that I would follow what she was taking and eat similarly - and perhaps I would have a better experience here than I have had on my last two visits.
We started with the noodle soup station which will create a soup to your order using any of several noodle types. This has always been good here - and was equally good on our last two visits. We like Vietnamese pho soup and that is what we had the soup chef at the counter make for us. It was good - it always has been good. It still is.
I moved on to the "Sushi Train" which in my last two articles I explained is a moving counter with sushi on plates that move past you and you take the plates that you want. This concept does not work well at a buffet. First, you can stand there an overly long time waiting for something that went past to come back around again. Second, if you want five pieces of sushi, you are picking up five small plates. How are you supposed to carry all of these small plates back to your table. There are no trays. I went up with a large plate. I had decided that I would do one of two things. I would either take a small plate and dump the contents onto my large plate - and then have to get rid of the small plate - or I would use the large plate as a tray to carry the small plates stacked up. I went with the plate as a tray idea as I decided it would be rude to stack the little plates up on their counter and leave them. It would make a statement to how this idea does not work, but I would not do that. I took several plates of sushi and carried them back carefully on top of a dinner plate. The variety of sushi is broad. It is not well labeled and it is often a surprise when you find out that what you thought you were taking is not at all that. They have enough area to make a nice sushi serving area - but they continue with this "train" idea.
I went on to main courses and side dishes. I completely skipped the Thai section. These are beyond hot and spicy. The Japanese hibachi area is serving teriyaki and that is also made spicy. I am not sure why. I skipped that as well. There were some dumplings, noodle dishes, and rice dishes there that were fine. On the main buffet server between the Mongolian BBQ and the Japanese hibachi, there was a mix of standard Chinese dishes such as chicken and broccoli, pepper steak, and the like and then a number of hot and spicy dishes, and then a number of sweet dishes. As I said, I watched my wife and chose dishes that were plain to mild. One dish looked plain enough until you saw that the pan was lined with chili peppers. But there at least were things this time that were there to take that were not spicy. If you like sweet, there were a number of dishes cooked in sweet sauces.
I also went over to the Mongolian BBQ and remembering my last visit I made my plate up of meat - I took chicken - there was also beef, pork, lamb, and shrimp - and raw shredded vegetables and bean sprouts and put none of the sauces that were there on top. The sauces - even those that should not be - are spicy. This was cooked for me and when I got back to the table I added soy sauce to moisten it. As I had it made, it was fine for me. Again, if you like hot and spicy, you can go to town with mixing the sauces that are out to have your meat and vegetables cooked in.
On one side of the round Mongolian grill serving counter there is a cold section and there were steamed shrimp on ice there. These shrimp are served with the heads on. This is how they would be served in the Orient. Most Americans don't like to see shrimp with the heads on. If you break off the head, it is just the same as the cocktail shrimp you usually fine.
The desserts here are typical Asian buffet desserts - little squares of cake, fruit, ice cream. One does not go to an Asian buffet for the desserts.
The restaurant is clean. Service is fine. At this meal we both had enough to eat. I did not feel hungry after we were through and we were both fine. I was able to find enough to eat this time even being careful in what I was choosing. Overall, this was a much better experience than we had on the last two visits and meals eaten here.
Would I go back? On this experience, I would go back and likely, will. Do I recommend Peking Restaurant? After your reading what I have written here in regard to the level of spice used and the types of foods that you will encounter, if you like spicy and/or sweet - or if you have no problem with picking and choosing to find what you can that is on the plain side, then yes, try it. I eat at a lot of Asian buffets. I have not had to pick carefully at any other as I find I have to here. Again, this is me - and there are others out there just like me. If you have food restrictions, it gets a little harder. I do miss the Peking Restaurant that I once knew. There was a far wider variety of foods and the emphasis did not used to be on spicy and sweet.
The price of dinner here is $11.99. Lunch is $7.99. Thai food is only brought out after 4;30 pm. Sushi is served after noon. Soft drinks with refills are additional. The restaurant is open 7 days a week. Unlike many family buffets, there is a full service liquor bar.
The Peking Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia is located at 120 Waller Mill Road in the Big Kmart Shopping Center. (Kingsgate Green Shopping Center – Bypass Road (Rt.60)). There is a website and that is listed at this side of the page.
Friday, October 26, 2012
A Tale Of Two Golden Corrals - Virginia PART II
In Part I I wrote about our not so great experience at the Williamsburg, Virginia Golden Corral. That night we got on the computer and looked for Golden Corrals in that area. The next nearest Golden Corral is in Newport News, Virginia. After that the next one was in Hampton Roads. We had been to the Golden Corral in Hampton Roads many years ago. It was nice, but Newport News was closer and straight down I64 and right off the exit in a shopping center. We decided that we would go there on one of the nights of this trip.
The Newport News Golden Corral was easy to find. The trip from Williamsburg was not that long. It is located in the parking lot of a shopping center with several stores. The shopping center was quite spread out and there was plenty of parking for the restaurant which stands alone in a corner of one of the parking lots. You are pretty much out of the tourist areas here and you are at this restaurant with local people - which can be a very good thing.
We parked and went inside to find a Golden Corral with what I am going to describe as a "normal" Golden Corral layout. The dining rooms across one side of the restaurant and the buffet server in one long row spread out across the rear wall of the restaurant. We paid and seated ourselves. At Golden Corral you pay as you enter and you order your drink at the cashier who then gives you the drink to take to your table. Refills are done by your server.
The restaurant was large and the tables were nicely spaced - typical of most Golden Corrals with the exception of the Williamsburg location.We seated ourselves and went right up to the buffet. As I said, this is the typical Golden Corral buffet layout. The buffet spreads across the entire rear wall of the restaurant in one long line of serving areas. The salad bar starts at one end and the hot foods then carry along. Here - unlike Williamsburg - there was a Chinese station with four serving trays of Chinese food. The hot buffet continues along with a bump out for the grill and here the grill is out enough in the open that there is plenty of room to be able to wait for your steak to be cooked as you like it without holding up others who want their steak differently. The hot buffet continues around and along with the bakery next - a selection of hot breads and rolls - and then this connects to the dessert section with its broad variety.
Here there were no bottlenecks. There was no confusion. There was no waiting on lines just to get up to a serving tray of food.
The buffet also still had the seafood saute, but here it did not interfere with any other part of the buffet - including the grill which it is located next to. There were a few people getting that - and this does involve a wait on line because each person's dish is cooked to order and they can do one or two at the most at one time.
This Golden Corral also had the Tropical Grill feature - and just to see if it would be any different than my taste at Williamsburg, I took a very little bit to try. I did not like it here any more than I did there. I know that by now this feature is gone - as a new one has been announced -but if you did not like spicy or sweet, this was not for you (or me).
I just mentioned a new feature and that feature may have been getting its start in both of these Virginia Golden Corrals - though had I just gone to Williamsburg and not Newport News, I would not have realized that now. The new feature is Carvers - various meats being carved including a whole turkey. In Williamsburg, there had been the remains of what had been a whole turkey. What was left - and what had not been replaced with another turkey, was the carcass of a turkey with some remaining shreds of meat on the side. In Newport News there was almost a whole turkey to be carved - obviously recently brought out. They could have done a better job of having someone there to carve it but all it really took was getting someone's attention that was behind this counter near the grill and ask for a piece, and you would get a slice or a part like a drumstick if you asked for it. This seems to be what the new feature is all about - and if I can get to another Golden Corral before this feature ends, I will let you all know more about it.
I have to also mention that they had some really good ribs here. There were no ribs at the Williamsburg location. These were tasty and close to fall off the bone ribs. Also, like at another buffet that I wrote about in Virginia recently, there was baked spaghetti on the buffet here. I had said this about this dish at the other buffet - this must be something local because I have never seen it anywhere other than in these Virginia buffets. Baked Spaghetti is like baked lasagna using spaghetti. It is spaghetti mixed with tomato sauce and mixed with cheese and then covered with cheese and baked. It is actually quite tasty.
We had a very enjoyable and relaxed meal here. Service was good on this first night - it had been marginally fair in Williamsburg. I am not going to talk about price as prices seem to vary by area. It can be $9.99 and it can be $10.99. I do not believe it can be higher than that - price is something that Golden Corral advertises about. The soft drinks with refills are additional and this was a bit high for sodas - $2.09 per person.
We wound up making the trip a second time to Newport News to go to this Golden Corral again during this trip. I might have made a better choice than I did of tables as this server was just OK - and she wound up leaving during the middle of our meal - and her replacement was much better. And while she was still our server I could see other servers really hustling around doing their jobs and she was very casual about it spending more time on her cell phone hiding near the soda machine than working her tables. Her replacement was a pleasure.
We would have gone back a third time, but as I said in Part I, there was a storm that badly flooded Newport News that day, and we were not going to chance going into that.
Our next trip to Williamsburg - and we go there often - we will be making the drive to Newport News when we want to dine at Golden Corral. If you are in this area or going to this area, I suggest that you do the same!
The Newport News Golden Corral was easy to find. The trip from Williamsburg was not that long. It is located in the parking lot of a shopping center with several stores. The shopping center was quite spread out and there was plenty of parking for the restaurant which stands alone in a corner of one of the parking lots. You are pretty much out of the tourist areas here and you are at this restaurant with local people - which can be a very good thing.
We parked and went inside to find a Golden Corral with what I am going to describe as a "normal" Golden Corral layout. The dining rooms across one side of the restaurant and the buffet server in one long row spread out across the rear wall of the restaurant. We paid and seated ourselves. At Golden Corral you pay as you enter and you order your drink at the cashier who then gives you the drink to take to your table. Refills are done by your server.
The restaurant was large and the tables were nicely spaced - typical of most Golden Corrals with the exception of the Williamsburg location.We seated ourselves and went right up to the buffet. As I said, this is the typical Golden Corral buffet layout. The buffet spreads across the entire rear wall of the restaurant in one long line of serving areas. The salad bar starts at one end and the hot foods then carry along. Here - unlike Williamsburg - there was a Chinese station with four serving trays of Chinese food. The hot buffet continues along with a bump out for the grill and here the grill is out enough in the open that there is plenty of room to be able to wait for your steak to be cooked as you like it without holding up others who want their steak differently. The hot buffet continues around and along with the bakery next - a selection of hot breads and rolls - and then this connects to the dessert section with its broad variety.
Here there were no bottlenecks. There was no confusion. There was no waiting on lines just to get up to a serving tray of food.
The buffet also still had the seafood saute, but here it did not interfere with any other part of the buffet - including the grill which it is located next to. There were a few people getting that - and this does involve a wait on line because each person's dish is cooked to order and they can do one or two at the most at one time.
This Golden Corral also had the Tropical Grill feature - and just to see if it would be any different than my taste at Williamsburg, I took a very little bit to try. I did not like it here any more than I did there. I know that by now this feature is gone - as a new one has been announced -but if you did not like spicy or sweet, this was not for you (or me).
I just mentioned a new feature and that feature may have been getting its start in both of these Virginia Golden Corrals - though had I just gone to Williamsburg and not Newport News, I would not have realized that now. The new feature is Carvers - various meats being carved including a whole turkey. In Williamsburg, there had been the remains of what had been a whole turkey. What was left - and what had not been replaced with another turkey, was the carcass of a turkey with some remaining shreds of meat on the side. In Newport News there was almost a whole turkey to be carved - obviously recently brought out. They could have done a better job of having someone there to carve it but all it really took was getting someone's attention that was behind this counter near the grill and ask for a piece, and you would get a slice or a part like a drumstick if you asked for it. This seems to be what the new feature is all about - and if I can get to another Golden Corral before this feature ends, I will let you all know more about it.
I have to also mention that they had some really good ribs here. There were no ribs at the Williamsburg location. These were tasty and close to fall off the bone ribs. Also, like at another buffet that I wrote about in Virginia recently, there was baked spaghetti on the buffet here. I had said this about this dish at the other buffet - this must be something local because I have never seen it anywhere other than in these Virginia buffets. Baked Spaghetti is like baked lasagna using spaghetti. It is spaghetti mixed with tomato sauce and mixed with cheese and then covered with cheese and baked. It is actually quite tasty.
We had a very enjoyable and relaxed meal here. Service was good on this first night - it had been marginally fair in Williamsburg. I am not going to talk about price as prices seem to vary by area. It can be $9.99 and it can be $10.99. I do not believe it can be higher than that - price is something that Golden Corral advertises about. The soft drinks with refills are additional and this was a bit high for sodas - $2.09 per person.
We wound up making the trip a second time to Newport News to go to this Golden Corral again during this trip. I might have made a better choice than I did of tables as this server was just OK - and she wound up leaving during the middle of our meal - and her replacement was much better. And while she was still our server I could see other servers really hustling around doing their jobs and she was very casual about it spending more time on her cell phone hiding near the soda machine than working her tables. Her replacement was a pleasure.
We would have gone back a third time, but as I said in Part I, there was a storm that badly flooded Newport News that day, and we were not going to chance going into that.
Our next trip to Williamsburg - and we go there often - we will be making the drive to Newport News when we want to dine at Golden Corral. If you are in this area or going to this area, I suggest that you do the same!
Friday, October 19, 2012
A Tale Of Two Golden Corrals - Virginia PART I
We were in Williamsburg, Virginia and we decided to go back to a Golden Corral that we know has problems. Why were we going back? Because we were in this area for ten days and wanted to eat in buffets - as we usually prefer to do.
The Golden Corral in Williamsburg, Virginia has a problem in design. The hot serving section of the buffet forms a closed U and this U is surrounded on all sides. On one side there is a half wall just a few feet from the buffet counter that separates the cashier and entrance from the buffet. On the end of the U, where the grill is, there is the salad bar island just a few feet away. On the other side of the buffet is another half wall about six feet away from the buffet counter that separates the buffet from part of the dining room. What should be the open end of the U is accessed by kitchen and cooking staff and the inside of the U is for employees to refill serving trays and access the grill at the end. Get the picture? This is not the standard "new" Golden Corral layout. In most Golden Corral's the serving counters make one long and almost continuous line with plenty of room surrounding them to walk up. Here because the serving counters are boxed in, people form lines and these lines complicate the problem because you could wait a very long time just to go up and get some more mashed potatoes, or whatever.
If you go here on a Saturday night or you go here during the week during tourist season, the restaurant may not seem crowded, but there is a mob of people at the hot buffet counters. And with some waiting for steaks to be cooked to order and some waiting on another line for the seafood saute - yes, this is still around - it is just ridiculous to get anything onto your plate.
I have to admit that we went twice - and I will explain the second time as we go along in this tale. The first night was mid-week. It seemed to me that it should not be too bad. It was. Not the food, but managing the crowds at the counters of the hot buffet. I found myself waiting on a line just to see what was on the buffet on one side. After more than ten minutes and no where near to the food, I got off the line and just walked along the people on line - just to look. There was nothing there that I was interested in taking. I headed around the the other side. Because the dining room side is not as close to the dividing wall, I was able to walk around close enough to see what was there - and despite some people's need to have to create a cafeteria-like line, I just walked up to the trays that I wanted something from. (Buffets are not cafeterias - there are no lines - walk up to a tray, take what you want, and walk away to another spot.) One poor teen was so confused by the lines, that when I was just passing this area and he asked my permission to go over to the end and get something off a tray that no one was near. I looked at him and just said. "Of course!" I guess he figured he could blame me if the crowd attacked him. :) He was fine...
With all of the confusion here, the seafood saute station and the steak grill cause even more problems because here there are legitimately two lines - one going in one direction toward the seafood saute and the other going toward the steak. All of this with the salad bar right against it. And the two lines converge into one as you get further to the back - and no one really knows what line is which. Well, I got on the end of the line that finally separated toward the steak grill. Twenty minutes later I saw what the problem was. The steak chef would ask the three people at his end of the line what they wanted. They would say for instance "well done", "medium well", and "well done". OK, but he only had steaks that were rare and medium rare, and medium. Instead of calling over to the next several in line to see who would like steaks cooked that way, he would just wait until he had steaks cooked to those three at the front. Now. when you get up to him and want rare, medium rare, or medium, he is putting raw steaks on and cooking those to the doneness of those three. Do you see the problem? I have seen at other Golden Corrals that the chef will tell the people who want a more done steak than what is there at the moment to just step aside and he will take the next few to give the steaks he has - and cuts pieces of steak for those who are waiting to keep cooking. Here, there really is no place to wait to do this - the people waiting would be backed into the line coming around the cashier side of the hot buffet. But he could have taken some people that were right there looking for less done steaks. When I got up finally and asked for rare, he had to start a new raw steak on the grill. I had come that far, but my wife who was back at the table waiting for me, was not happy.
The sad thing is that the food is good. It is pretty much the same as any other Golden Corral. The salad bar has less on it than other Golden Corrals.
We were there in August when the current feature was Tropical Island Grill which I had an article about in August, but had not tried it yet. I believe it is past now, and you did not miss much. Everything was either too spicy or overly sweet. I tried a few of things from this - the teriyaki steak, the key west chicken, and the talapia and I have to say they were terrible. I only took a very small taste of each and did not finish any of it - even the less than a forkfull that I took.
They also had the new Cotton Candy feature and this was served off the dessert bar and unlike the chocolate fountain, which is still there, it is not a do it yourself item. There is someone behind the counter making up the paper cones of cotton candy and either handing them to you directly or placing them in a serving tray. Cotton candy is a sticky thing and if a small child rubs against you with it - which happens, you will get full of sugar. It was a big hit with the kids - and considering all of the pitfalls of the chocolate fountain, cotton candy was a much better addition.
We left very unhappy and determined to find another Golden Corral that is not too far from Williamsburg. The closest one is in Newport News which is about twenty miles further east on the peninsula and if it was better than this one, the distance was OK with us. I will tell you more about that Golden Corral in Part II of this article which will appear next week.
Oh yes, we did go back to the Williamsburg Golden Corral before we left the area. There was a major storm that came through and Newport News was flooded with cars up to their windshields in water. We decided not to chance going there for dinner so we went back to the Williamsburg Golden Corral. (We had been to the various other buffets - primarily Asian buffets just too often that week.) Well, on that second visit there were the same problems. There were less people but the lines, the problems, were all still there.
End of Part I.
Part II next week.
The Golden Corral in Williamsburg, Virginia has a problem in design. The hot serving section of the buffet forms a closed U and this U is surrounded on all sides. On one side there is a half wall just a few feet from the buffet counter that separates the cashier and entrance from the buffet. On the end of the U, where the grill is, there is the salad bar island just a few feet away. On the other side of the buffet is another half wall about six feet away from the buffet counter that separates the buffet from part of the dining room. What should be the open end of the U is accessed by kitchen and cooking staff and the inside of the U is for employees to refill serving trays and access the grill at the end. Get the picture? This is not the standard "new" Golden Corral layout. In most Golden Corral's the serving counters make one long and almost continuous line with plenty of room surrounding them to walk up. Here because the serving counters are boxed in, people form lines and these lines complicate the problem because you could wait a very long time just to go up and get some more mashed potatoes, or whatever.
If you go here on a Saturday night or you go here during the week during tourist season, the restaurant may not seem crowded, but there is a mob of people at the hot buffet counters. And with some waiting for steaks to be cooked to order and some waiting on another line for the seafood saute - yes, this is still around - it is just ridiculous to get anything onto your plate.
I have to admit that we went twice - and I will explain the second time as we go along in this tale. The first night was mid-week. It seemed to me that it should not be too bad. It was. Not the food, but managing the crowds at the counters of the hot buffet. I found myself waiting on a line just to see what was on the buffet on one side. After more than ten minutes and no where near to the food, I got off the line and just walked along the people on line - just to look. There was nothing there that I was interested in taking. I headed around the the other side. Because the dining room side is not as close to the dividing wall, I was able to walk around close enough to see what was there - and despite some people's need to have to create a cafeteria-like line, I just walked up to the trays that I wanted something from. (Buffets are not cafeterias - there are no lines - walk up to a tray, take what you want, and walk away to another spot.) One poor teen was so confused by the lines, that when I was just passing this area and he asked my permission to go over to the end and get something off a tray that no one was near. I looked at him and just said. "Of course!" I guess he figured he could blame me if the crowd attacked him. :) He was fine...
With all of the confusion here, the seafood saute station and the steak grill cause even more problems because here there are legitimately two lines - one going in one direction toward the seafood saute and the other going toward the steak. All of this with the salad bar right against it. And the two lines converge into one as you get further to the back - and no one really knows what line is which. Well, I got on the end of the line that finally separated toward the steak grill. Twenty minutes later I saw what the problem was. The steak chef would ask the three people at his end of the line what they wanted. They would say for instance "well done", "medium well", and "well done". OK, but he only had steaks that were rare and medium rare, and medium. Instead of calling over to the next several in line to see who would like steaks cooked that way, he would just wait until he had steaks cooked to those three at the front. Now. when you get up to him and want rare, medium rare, or medium, he is putting raw steaks on and cooking those to the doneness of those three. Do you see the problem? I have seen at other Golden Corrals that the chef will tell the people who want a more done steak than what is there at the moment to just step aside and he will take the next few to give the steaks he has - and cuts pieces of steak for those who are waiting to keep cooking. Here, there really is no place to wait to do this - the people waiting would be backed into the line coming around the cashier side of the hot buffet. But he could have taken some people that were right there looking for less done steaks. When I got up finally and asked for rare, he had to start a new raw steak on the grill. I had come that far, but my wife who was back at the table waiting for me, was not happy.
The sad thing is that the food is good. It is pretty much the same as any other Golden Corral. The salad bar has less on it than other Golden Corrals.
We were there in August when the current feature was Tropical Island Grill which I had an article about in August, but had not tried it yet. I believe it is past now, and you did not miss much. Everything was either too spicy or overly sweet. I tried a few of things from this - the teriyaki steak, the key west chicken, and the talapia and I have to say they were terrible. I only took a very small taste of each and did not finish any of it - even the less than a forkfull that I took.
They also had the new Cotton Candy feature and this was served off the dessert bar and unlike the chocolate fountain, which is still there, it is not a do it yourself item. There is someone behind the counter making up the paper cones of cotton candy and either handing them to you directly or placing them in a serving tray. Cotton candy is a sticky thing and if a small child rubs against you with it - which happens, you will get full of sugar. It was a big hit with the kids - and considering all of the pitfalls of the chocolate fountain, cotton candy was a much better addition.
We left very unhappy and determined to find another Golden Corral that is not too far from Williamsburg. The closest one is in Newport News which is about twenty miles further east on the peninsula and if it was better than this one, the distance was OK with us. I will tell you more about that Golden Corral in Part II of this article which will appear next week.
Oh yes, we did go back to the Williamsburg Golden Corral before we left the area. There was a major storm that came through and Newport News was flooded with cars up to their windshields in water. We decided not to chance going there for dinner so we went back to the Williamsburg Golden Corral. (We had been to the various other buffets - primarily Asian buffets just too often that week.) Well, on that second visit there were the same problems. There were less people but the lines, the problems, were all still there.
End of Part I.
Part II next week.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Return to Wood Grill Buffet, Charlottesville, Virginia
It has been six years since I have been to the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville, Virginia. The only reason for this long absence is my schedule when I travel. This is one of my favorite buffets and has been since we first found it many years ago when it was in a different location. Wood Grill Buffet is still part of the Western Sizzln' chain but appears to be run as a separate entity with only four locations - all in Virginia. There are locations in Harrisonburg, Norwalk, Hesperia, and this one in Charlottesville.
The layout is just as it was when I described it six years ago, so I am not going to repeat that here. You can read the link above to get an impression what the buffet looks like. The decor is western and pleasant. We returned this August and were there on a weeknight. There was a small group at the door coming in before us but we really had no wait. The restaurant inside was crowded. We were taken to our table and our server actually took some time to come over to our table and take our drink orders. I will put that up to the crowded dining room. The price of the buffet is now $10.59 for dinner Monday to Thursday and $10.99 for dinner Friday to Sunday. There is a $1.00 discount for seniors. Soft drinks with refills are $2.09 for adults and $1.39 for children up to age 12. The children's price is based on age and they charge $0.60 per year of age from age 4 to 12. Over 12 pays adult price. Soda price is a bit high compared to most similar buffets, but only by a dime. Compared to other chain American food buffets, the value here is exception for what the buffet offers.
We started as usual with soup. There were two soups and they are located on the counter that sits directly in front of the grill. The soups this night were Chicken Gumbo and New England Clam Chowder. Both soups are soups that my picky eater wife does not care for so she went on to the extensive salad bar and I took the Chicken Gumbo. The soup was hot, good and tasty though it was slightly spicy. If you only know Chicken Gumbo from Campbell's in a can the taste is similar but there is more heat in the real thing.
The salad bar is split between two cold servers at opposite sides of the buffet area. One has a variety of lettuce and greens and a lot of toppings and dressing. There were also cold meats to add to your salad. There was also everything you would want to make a Caesar salad. On the other there was a variety of prepared salads including the usual potato salad with large pieces of potato, macaroni salad, pasta salad, and coleslaw, but there was more. There were deviled eggs, chicken salad with large chunks of chicken, tuna salad, cucumber salad, and three bean salad among others. There was also a crab salad with real crab (not the fake stuff). The chicken salad was very good and I could not resist the crab salad. There was so much more to come, but it would have been easy to stay with the salad bar.
The hot entrees and side dishes are extensive and they are served both from hot buffet servers and from the counter that is in front of the grill which takes up just about all of the back wall. There are chefs cooking on the grill and continually replenishing the serving trays on the counter. This buffet serves steak and while it is not cooked to order, it is cooked in various stages of doneness and placed out on a hot tray on the counter. There is rare, medium, and well done for the taking. In my last review six years ago I had found the steak that I took to be dry - but not this time. The steak was nicely medium rare, juicy, and tasty. At another end of the grill counter there is a taco and burrito bar with soft flour tortillas, fried corn tortillas, nacho chips, and all of the makings for tacos and burritos. Next to the steak were ribs- real, fall off the bone, barbecue ribs. These were excellent and close to what I had at a smoker pit barbecue non-buffet place several nights later in another part of Virginia. They were moist and properly sauced.
There was so much on the hot servers and at the counter I will just list what there was for you. There were in addition to what I have already told you about - meatballs, riblets, fried chicken (very good fried chicken and better and more Southern than any other chain buffet), pot roast, ham, roast beef, hot dogs, chicken teriyaki, fried shrimp, fried fish, grilled chicken pieces, grilled chicken breasts off the grill, two types of wings, chicken livers, meatloaf, cheeseburgers, crab cakes, lasagna, baked spaghetti and cheese (something local to Virginia perhaps because we encountered this in other buffets) and pizza that was at the bakery counter.
There was a multitude of side dishes as well. These included mashed potatoes, kernel corn, corn on the cob, Lima beans with ham, wild rice, white rice, sauteed green beans, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, turnip greens with ham and onions, green beans with bacon, onion rings, fries, hot carrots, fried apples (so good!), fried green tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, broccoli casserole, potato casserole, broccoli, and sweet potato souffle.There was also a baked and sweet potato bar with toppings.
You are in the South and a lot of what is on this buffet is southern cooking with dishes that you will rarely see anywhere but the South. Yes, fried green tomatoes is not just the name of a book and a movie made from the book. You can eat them here.
I tried little bits of things and took more of what I know that I enjoy and I was stuffed at the end of the meal. Everything that I tried was good with one exception. The pizza looked good but it had been sitting too long and the crust had dried out and I ate only a taste. The steak was good and better than many. The ribs, as I have said, were exceptional. There was no pork barbecue as there had been six years ago but that may appear on another night. Selections do change from night to night at some buffets. My wife was just as happy with her plainer selections. There was more than enough to please most.
There is a large bakery counter which is a large half circle with bakers inside replenishing desserts, bread, and pizza. There were several breads including corn muffins, large rolls, and cheese rolls. I know that many of my readers want to hear about the dessert selection and they have a very good selection of sweets. There was fresh pineapple, fresh oranges, melon, and fresh grapes, and mandarin oranges over on the cold buffet server. There was carrot cake, several types of cream pies, chocolate cake cupcakes with vanilla icing and yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate icing, a variety of cookies,coconut cake, banana pudding, strawberry shortcake, pecan pie, Oreo pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie (in August!), lemon meringue pie, and three different cobblers including blackberry. There was soft serve ice cream and a sundae bar with ice cream toppings, There was also a chocolate fountain right in the middle of the bakery counter within view of the people working behind the counter. I will not get into my feelings about chocolate fountains at buffets again, but this one was subject to the same problems as all of them are.
I am getting hungry and wanting to go back again just writing about all of this.
Service was OK - she could have paid a little more attention to our table, but it was not bad.
I want to talk about the people eating here. I have been to many buffets as you know and all types of people come to eat at buffets. It has been primarily in New York, however, that I have seen the most immensely large people eating at buffets. What surprised me here - and different from other buffets that I have been to an went to recently in Virginia - that there were a good number of immensely large people eating here. No problem - everyone is welcome everywhere and I don't care who is sitting at the table next to me, but it just struck me as interesting here seeing this. I only share it because it is interesting.
Well, I am sorry that it took me six years to get back here and I will be sure to schedule more time in this area when I return so that I am in Charlottesville at dinner time. They are open on weekends to 11:30 pm. I recommend this buffet. Go there! There is a lot to see and do in this city including the University of Virginia and you can eat at this great buffet!
The Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville is located at 576 Branch Lands Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22901 and their phone number is (434) 975-5613. They now have a website and that is linked at the side of this page in our listing of buffet links.
The layout is just as it was when I described it six years ago, so I am not going to repeat that here. You can read the link above to get an impression what the buffet looks like. The decor is western and pleasant. We returned this August and were there on a weeknight. There was a small group at the door coming in before us but we really had no wait. The restaurant inside was crowded. We were taken to our table and our server actually took some time to come over to our table and take our drink orders. I will put that up to the crowded dining room. The price of the buffet is now $10.59 for dinner Monday to Thursday and $10.99 for dinner Friday to Sunday. There is a $1.00 discount for seniors. Soft drinks with refills are $2.09 for adults and $1.39 for children up to age 12. The children's price is based on age and they charge $0.60 per year of age from age 4 to 12. Over 12 pays adult price. Soda price is a bit high compared to most similar buffets, but only by a dime. Compared to other chain American food buffets, the value here is exception for what the buffet offers.
We started as usual with soup. There were two soups and they are located on the counter that sits directly in front of the grill. The soups this night were Chicken Gumbo and New England Clam Chowder. Both soups are soups that my picky eater wife does not care for so she went on to the extensive salad bar and I took the Chicken Gumbo. The soup was hot, good and tasty though it was slightly spicy. If you only know Chicken Gumbo from Campbell's in a can the taste is similar but there is more heat in the real thing.
The salad bar is split between two cold servers at opposite sides of the buffet area. One has a variety of lettuce and greens and a lot of toppings and dressing. There were also cold meats to add to your salad. There was also everything you would want to make a Caesar salad. On the other there was a variety of prepared salads including the usual potato salad with large pieces of potato, macaroni salad, pasta salad, and coleslaw, but there was more. There were deviled eggs, chicken salad with large chunks of chicken, tuna salad, cucumber salad, and three bean salad among others. There was also a crab salad with real crab (not the fake stuff). The chicken salad was very good and I could not resist the crab salad. There was so much more to come, but it would have been easy to stay with the salad bar.
The hot entrees and side dishes are extensive and they are served both from hot buffet servers and from the counter that is in front of the grill which takes up just about all of the back wall. There are chefs cooking on the grill and continually replenishing the serving trays on the counter. This buffet serves steak and while it is not cooked to order, it is cooked in various stages of doneness and placed out on a hot tray on the counter. There is rare, medium, and well done for the taking. In my last review six years ago I had found the steak that I took to be dry - but not this time. The steak was nicely medium rare, juicy, and tasty. At another end of the grill counter there is a taco and burrito bar with soft flour tortillas, fried corn tortillas, nacho chips, and all of the makings for tacos and burritos. Next to the steak were ribs- real, fall off the bone, barbecue ribs. These were excellent and close to what I had at a smoker pit barbecue non-buffet place several nights later in another part of Virginia. They were moist and properly sauced.
There was so much on the hot servers and at the counter I will just list what there was for you. There were in addition to what I have already told you about - meatballs, riblets, fried chicken (very good fried chicken and better and more Southern than any other chain buffet), pot roast, ham, roast beef, hot dogs, chicken teriyaki, fried shrimp, fried fish, grilled chicken pieces, grilled chicken breasts off the grill, two types of wings, chicken livers, meatloaf, cheeseburgers, crab cakes, lasagna, baked spaghetti and cheese (something local to Virginia perhaps because we encountered this in other buffets) and pizza that was at the bakery counter.
There was a multitude of side dishes as well. These included mashed potatoes, kernel corn, corn on the cob, Lima beans with ham, wild rice, white rice, sauteed green beans, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, turnip greens with ham and onions, green beans with bacon, onion rings, fries, hot carrots, fried apples (so good!), fried green tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, broccoli casserole, potato casserole, broccoli, and sweet potato souffle.There was also a baked and sweet potato bar with toppings.
You are in the South and a lot of what is on this buffet is southern cooking with dishes that you will rarely see anywhere but the South. Yes, fried green tomatoes is not just the name of a book and a movie made from the book. You can eat them here.
I tried little bits of things and took more of what I know that I enjoy and I was stuffed at the end of the meal. Everything that I tried was good with one exception. The pizza looked good but it had been sitting too long and the crust had dried out and I ate only a taste. The steak was good and better than many. The ribs, as I have said, were exceptional. There was no pork barbecue as there had been six years ago but that may appear on another night. Selections do change from night to night at some buffets. My wife was just as happy with her plainer selections. There was more than enough to please most.
There is a large bakery counter which is a large half circle with bakers inside replenishing desserts, bread, and pizza. There were several breads including corn muffins, large rolls, and cheese rolls. I know that many of my readers want to hear about the dessert selection and they have a very good selection of sweets. There was fresh pineapple, fresh oranges, melon, and fresh grapes, and mandarin oranges over on the cold buffet server. There was carrot cake, several types of cream pies, chocolate cake cupcakes with vanilla icing and yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate icing, a variety of cookies,coconut cake, banana pudding, strawberry shortcake, pecan pie, Oreo pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie (in August!), lemon meringue pie, and three different cobblers including blackberry. There was soft serve ice cream and a sundae bar with ice cream toppings, There was also a chocolate fountain right in the middle of the bakery counter within view of the people working behind the counter. I will not get into my feelings about chocolate fountains at buffets again, but this one was subject to the same problems as all of them are.
I am getting hungry and wanting to go back again just writing about all of this.
Service was OK - she could have paid a little more attention to our table, but it was not bad.
I want to talk about the people eating here. I have been to many buffets as you know and all types of people come to eat at buffets. It has been primarily in New York, however, that I have seen the most immensely large people eating at buffets. What surprised me here - and different from other buffets that I have been to an went to recently in Virginia - that there were a good number of immensely large people eating here. No problem - everyone is welcome everywhere and I don't care who is sitting at the table next to me, but it just struck me as interesting here seeing this. I only share it because it is interesting.
Well, I am sorry that it took me six years to get back here and I will be sure to schedule more time in this area when I return so that I am in Charlottesville at dinner time. They are open on weekends to 11:30 pm. I recommend this buffet. Go there! There is a lot to see and do in this city including the University of Virginia and you can eat at this great buffet!
The Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville is located at 576 Branch Lands Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22901 and their phone number is (434) 975-5613. They now have a website and that is linked at the side of this page in our listing of buffet links.
Friday, October 05, 2012
Prime Buffet, Williamsburg, Virginia
In September 2011, I wrote about a Chinese buffet in Williamsburg, Virginia called Rainbow Buffet. We were in Williamsburg this August and we went to have dinner at Rainbow Buffet and discovered a new name on the front of the restaurant- Prime Buffet. Looking in through the window, everything looked exactly the same. We went in for dinner. We actually went to this buffet twice in one week and my article will reflect both visits.
I am not certain that this buffet is not run by the same people who ran Rainbow Buffet and have just changed the name. There are some differences and the price has been lowered. That is correct - the price at Rainbow Buffet for dinner was $9.50 which is extremely good. The price at Prime - all nights for dinner is $7.99! Unlimited soda is an additional $1.89. This is an exceptionally good price considering what you are getting at this buffet. In the local tourist give away magazines found at all of the hotels and gift shops, the advertisement for this buffet includes a coupon - 10% off! Imagine $7.99 to start with and then 10% off! There is also a local app for your smartphone with restauant coupons and Prime is included on that app - all you do is show them the ad on your smartphone display at the cashier and get your 10% off.
I will tell you up front that gone are the snow crab legs (which were an additional $5.00). There are no crab legs. There is however a great deal to eat at this buffet.
Let's start with soup - there were the three basic Chinese restaurant soups - Wonton, Egg Drop, and Hot and Sour. I tried the egg drop and my wife had the wonton. She felt that the wontons were seasoned on the spicy side. The egg drop soup was standard with large pieces of egg in a semi-thick soup. The egg drop soup was good.
There is a salad bar but frankly most people skip the salad bar at a Chinese buffets and we did. It was the standard greens, toppings, and dressings. It all looked fresh and crisp.
There is a sushi bar and there was a man behind the sushi bar making sushi to put out. The selection was small and was mostly varieties of vegetable sushi. There were some tuna and salmon rolls with small pieces of fish in them. The sushi was fine, the selection was limited.
I am going to list the dishes that we found on one night and then tell you the different dishes that were there when we went back. Since going I have read internet reviews that criticize this buffet for having a limited selection. You judge that for yourself from this list. On the buffet were pan fried dumplings, steamed peach buns (they look like peaches - these are steamed dough with a sweet filling), fried cheese wontons, steamed founder, stuffed shrimp, egg rolls, wings, steamed small clams in the open shells, seafood delight served in a shell, sauteed mushrooms, vegetable mei fun (thin rice noodles with vegetables), American macaroni and cheese, fried crab cakes, shrimp with onions, peas, and carrots, tofu in a sweet sauce, cut up barbecue chicken pieces, chicken on a stick with teriyaki sauce, ground meat taco (this looked to me like pizza, but was labeled as a taco which was cut into wedges), Krab (not crab but the fish substitute that is common in almost every Chinese buffet that I go to), fried frogs legs, fried scallops, fried shrimp, chicken and broccoli, curry chicken, "vegetable delight", brown rice, white rice, fried rice, lo mien, honey chicken, pepper chicken, General Tso chicken, beef and broccoli, chicken in garlic sauce, beef in garlic sauce, barbecue spare ribs (the type in sweet red sauce), Mongolian pork, sesame balls, rib tips, fried potatoes with onions, sweet and sour chicken, half baked potatoes with cheese, Chinese green vegetable, yam slices, garlic bread, AND peel and eat shrimp. On the second night there was coconut ham, steamed crayfish, corn nuggets, chicken nuggets, and corn on the cob taking the place of five of the items that were there on the first night. Other than that everything on the second night was the same on the main buffet servers.
Now, if all of that is not enough, there was also an hibachi grill. This was a large counter grill next to the sushi bar, both of which took up a wall at the rear of the buffet area. The food for you to select for the grill was one of the cold buffet servers that was next to the grill. There was no one at the grill but there was a bell to ring. The kitchen door was next to the grill and there was no problem on either night for someone to come right away. The items to select for the grill were raw beef, raw chicken, raw pork, and fish. There were noodles to add to this along with vegetables like bean sprouts, onions, mushrooms, etc. There were two sauces to choose - garlic sauce and teriyaki sauce. I had the hibachi grill on both nights. The first night, the man at the sushi bar came over to cook for me. I had picked chicken and a variety of vegetables. I did not want garlic sauce or teriyaki sauce and I asked him to just put soy sauce on it while he cooked it. This was no problem for him. He cooked it and placed it on a plate and handed it to me and it was good. On the second night, a woman came out from the kitchen to cook for me. She was very pleasant and took my dish of the same things that I had chosen on the first night. I asked her for just soy sauce and this seemed to confuse her. I am not certain that there was a problem understanding English. That is fine - I would rather a real Chinese chef than someone who is not Chinese cooking at the Chinese hibachi grill. I tried to help her to understand but it was not getting very far - there were, after all two sauces on the sign - garlic sauce and teriyaki sauce. She was pleasant throughout. I just said, I will have it plain. This caused her concern - in a nice way. She understood this - she could not understand how I could eat it plain off the grill. She had to be a mom because that is how she reacted and kept asking me if I was sure. I said yes and tried my best to explain that I cannot eat the sweet teriyaki sauce and I don't care for garlic sauce. She seemed to understand that and proceeded to cook my grill plain. It too was good and I added my own soy sauce at the table. It really was not a problem. Sometimes you should just not stray from the menu.
There was an assortment of desserts - nothing elaborate, but more than adequate. There was fresh fruit, pudding and prepared desserts, tarts, home baked almond cookies, fried donuts, and hot apple pie served from a hot tray in the hot buffet server. There was also hand-dipped Hershey ice cream. On the second night there were also bananas in sweet red sauce.
The food was good. It was not the best Chinese buffet food that I have had, but it was cooked properly, well tended on the buffet - nothing was dried out, and it tasted good. It was no different in quality from most of the other Chinese buffets that I have been to all over. Food that needed replacing was replaced. If it had not been good we would not have gone back a second time!
The servers were pleasant and the plates from the table were removed promptly. Sodas were refilled, though on the second night, the table next to us with a rather unusual and large crowd kept the server so busy that at one point I did have to wait until she was finished making them happy before she could get back to us. She was not to blame.
One of the things that I look for in an ethnic restaurant and especially an ethnic buffet is to see if people of that culture and background are eating there. On both nights there were several tables of Asian people eating.
We almost went back a third time. We decided to give another buffet that we were uncertain about a try - which I will write about in another article.
If you are in this area and you want to eat very inexpensively in a decent Chinese buffet with a lot of choices, then try Prime Buffet. Prime Buffet is located at 3044 Richmond Road (Patriot Plaza), Williamsburg, Virginia 23185. The phone number is 757-220-1666 . There is no working website.
I am not certain that this buffet is not run by the same people who ran Rainbow Buffet and have just changed the name. There are some differences and the price has been lowered. That is correct - the price at Rainbow Buffet for dinner was $9.50 which is extremely good. The price at Prime - all nights for dinner is $7.99! Unlimited soda is an additional $1.89. This is an exceptionally good price considering what you are getting at this buffet. In the local tourist give away magazines found at all of the hotels and gift shops, the advertisement for this buffet includes a coupon - 10% off! Imagine $7.99 to start with and then 10% off! There is also a local app for your smartphone with restauant coupons and Prime is included on that app - all you do is show them the ad on your smartphone display at the cashier and get your 10% off.
I will tell you up front that gone are the snow crab legs (which were an additional $5.00). There are no crab legs. There is however a great deal to eat at this buffet.
Let's start with soup - there were the three basic Chinese restaurant soups - Wonton, Egg Drop, and Hot and Sour. I tried the egg drop and my wife had the wonton. She felt that the wontons were seasoned on the spicy side. The egg drop soup was standard with large pieces of egg in a semi-thick soup. The egg drop soup was good.
There is a salad bar but frankly most people skip the salad bar at a Chinese buffets and we did. It was the standard greens, toppings, and dressings. It all looked fresh and crisp.
There is a sushi bar and there was a man behind the sushi bar making sushi to put out. The selection was small and was mostly varieties of vegetable sushi. There were some tuna and salmon rolls with small pieces of fish in them. The sushi was fine, the selection was limited.
I am going to list the dishes that we found on one night and then tell you the different dishes that were there when we went back. Since going I have read internet reviews that criticize this buffet for having a limited selection. You judge that for yourself from this list. On the buffet were pan fried dumplings, steamed peach buns (they look like peaches - these are steamed dough with a sweet filling), fried cheese wontons, steamed founder, stuffed shrimp, egg rolls, wings, steamed small clams in the open shells, seafood delight served in a shell, sauteed mushrooms, vegetable mei fun (thin rice noodles with vegetables), American macaroni and cheese, fried crab cakes, shrimp with onions, peas, and carrots, tofu in a sweet sauce, cut up barbecue chicken pieces, chicken on a stick with teriyaki sauce, ground meat taco (this looked to me like pizza, but was labeled as a taco which was cut into wedges), Krab (not crab but the fish substitute that is common in almost every Chinese buffet that I go to), fried frogs legs, fried scallops, fried shrimp, chicken and broccoli, curry chicken, "vegetable delight", brown rice, white rice, fried rice, lo mien, honey chicken, pepper chicken, General Tso chicken, beef and broccoli, chicken in garlic sauce, beef in garlic sauce, barbecue spare ribs (the type in sweet red sauce), Mongolian pork, sesame balls, rib tips, fried potatoes with onions, sweet and sour chicken, half baked potatoes with cheese, Chinese green vegetable, yam slices, garlic bread, AND peel and eat shrimp. On the second night there was coconut ham, steamed crayfish, corn nuggets, chicken nuggets, and corn on the cob taking the place of five of the items that were there on the first night. Other than that everything on the second night was the same on the main buffet servers.
Now, if all of that is not enough, there was also an hibachi grill. This was a large counter grill next to the sushi bar, both of which took up a wall at the rear of the buffet area. The food for you to select for the grill was one of the cold buffet servers that was next to the grill. There was no one at the grill but there was a bell to ring. The kitchen door was next to the grill and there was no problem on either night for someone to come right away. The items to select for the grill were raw beef, raw chicken, raw pork, and fish. There were noodles to add to this along with vegetables like bean sprouts, onions, mushrooms, etc. There were two sauces to choose - garlic sauce and teriyaki sauce. I had the hibachi grill on both nights. The first night, the man at the sushi bar came over to cook for me. I had picked chicken and a variety of vegetables. I did not want garlic sauce or teriyaki sauce and I asked him to just put soy sauce on it while he cooked it. This was no problem for him. He cooked it and placed it on a plate and handed it to me and it was good. On the second night, a woman came out from the kitchen to cook for me. She was very pleasant and took my dish of the same things that I had chosen on the first night. I asked her for just soy sauce and this seemed to confuse her. I am not certain that there was a problem understanding English. That is fine - I would rather a real Chinese chef than someone who is not Chinese cooking at the Chinese hibachi grill. I tried to help her to understand but it was not getting very far - there were, after all two sauces on the sign - garlic sauce and teriyaki sauce. She was pleasant throughout. I just said, I will have it plain. This caused her concern - in a nice way. She understood this - she could not understand how I could eat it plain off the grill. She had to be a mom because that is how she reacted and kept asking me if I was sure. I said yes and tried my best to explain that I cannot eat the sweet teriyaki sauce and I don't care for garlic sauce. She seemed to understand that and proceeded to cook my grill plain. It too was good and I added my own soy sauce at the table. It really was not a problem. Sometimes you should just not stray from the menu.
There was an assortment of desserts - nothing elaborate, but more than adequate. There was fresh fruit, pudding and prepared desserts, tarts, home baked almond cookies, fried donuts, and hot apple pie served from a hot tray in the hot buffet server. There was also hand-dipped Hershey ice cream. On the second night there were also bananas in sweet red sauce.
The food was good. It was not the best Chinese buffet food that I have had, but it was cooked properly, well tended on the buffet - nothing was dried out, and it tasted good. It was no different in quality from most of the other Chinese buffets that I have been to all over. Food that needed replacing was replaced. If it had not been good we would not have gone back a second time!
The servers were pleasant and the plates from the table were removed promptly. Sodas were refilled, though on the second night, the table next to us with a rather unusual and large crowd kept the server so busy that at one point I did have to wait until she was finished making them happy before she could get back to us. She was not to blame.
One of the things that I look for in an ethnic restaurant and especially an ethnic buffet is to see if people of that culture and background are eating there. On both nights there were several tables of Asian people eating.
We almost went back a third time. We decided to give another buffet that we were uncertain about a try - which I will write about in another article.
If you are in this area and you want to eat very inexpensively in a decent Chinese buffet with a lot of choices, then try Prime Buffet. Prime Buffet is located at 3044 Richmond Road (Patriot Plaza), Williamsburg, Virginia 23185. The phone number is 757-220-1666 . There is no working website.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Ryan's Buffet - Fredericksburg, Virginia
I wrote in the Spring about a Ryan's that we were at in Hagerstown, Maryland. That Ryan's had made a significant change since I had been there previously (before the takeover by Buffets Inc.) to become much more an Old Country Buffet with little left from its former Ryan's identity.
In August we returned to a Ryan's that we have been to probably more than any other Ryan's. This is the Ryan's Buffet in Fredericksburg, Virginia. This Ryan's also has become much more like Old Country Buffet, but it has retained many of the things that made the original Ryan's chain the best of the buffet chains. For those reading who are not aware, several years ago the parent company of Old Country Buffet bought out the Ryan's chain and quickly thereafter started to close Ryan's restaurants in mass - in the usual way that Buffets, Inc. does business - they arrive in the morning as the doors are opening for business for the day and announce to everyone, including the management - that this restaurant is closed and you do not have a job anymore - go home. The company then started to make those remaining Ryan's restaurants into clones of Old Country Buffet restaurants and, rather than taking the best of Ryan's and introducing that to OCBs, they took the worst of OCBs and introduced that into the Ryan's restaurants. Some Ryan's have managed to still maintain what made them good - and the Ryan's in Fredericksburg, VA is one of those.
One major difference from OCB, and what was always good at Ryan's, is the salad bar. In Fredericksburg they still have the large salad bar with its extensive selection that Ryan's was known for. Here there is a make-your-own Caesar salad with all everything there for you to put together and the salad dressing at the side for you to add to your liking. This is not the pre-made Caesar salad that is found at OCB, and the dressing here is much better. The seafood salad was very different from that at OCB as well. While it was not using real crab meat but what is called "Krab" meat, it was using large chunks of that made into a salad and not the shredded "seafood" and macaroni salad found at OCB. There were also three types of lettuce to choose from and (perhaps because of the location) there was nothing spilled from one serving tray to the next.
On the hot buffet server there were many more selections than you find at OCB. There were large pieces of smoked sausage that were not served in the sweet sauce that OCB puts smoked sausage in. There were whole sides of catfish - not the little chunks that are served at OCB. Many of the dishes that Ryan's was known for were still on the buffet. I recently wrote about the Mandarin Stir Fry that Buffets, Inc. introduced this year. This was here at the grill area and took up the griddle next to the char-flame grill. I actually did see one person walk up and have it, but as I have said this is not very popular at any OCB or Ryan's that I have been in that have it. This was the only time that I have seen anyone have it. (This opposed to Golden Corral where there are still lines after a year and a half for their seafood stir fry.)
Now, the steaks! The steaks here are made on a char-flame grill and they are made to order - if they already do not have a steak that is cooked to your request. And what is given to you is a significantly sized piece of steak and not a small two inch chunk as is often served to you at OCB. More than once, I have been to this particular Ryan's, where a rare steak was not there when I asked, and the grill chef put one on just for me and then came to my table with the steak or call me over to get it when it was ready. So different from any other buffet! And I must say, this is something particular to the very good employees at this particular Ryan's. They actually seem happy to be working. The steaks are being seasoned to Buffet's Inc.'s idea of steak seasoning which contains way too much pepper, but they are cooked on the grill properly and much of this seasoning can be scraped off. I smile when I eat the steak here. I can't say that often.
Now, over to the dessert section. You know the little squares of sheet cake that you find at Old Country Buffet. How would you like a large wedge of a round, double-layer, chocolate cake? Well, that is exactly what was being served here. It looked great and was so tempting!
Well, I have to say that this is the best Ryan's we have ever been to and my picky eater wife agrees. When coming to this area, I always check before to make sure that this Ryan's has not fallen victim to Buffets, Inc.'s axe, because they have no idea what a good thing is. If you are near Fredericksburg, Virginia - and there is a lot of history to be found there, as well as a huge shopping center which this Ryan's is located at - try this Ryan's.
This Ryan's Buffet is located in the Central Park Shopping Center/Complex off of I-95 in Fredericksburg, VA. Its address is 1780 Carl D Silver Parkway, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 and the phone number is (540) 548-0051. There is a link at the side of this page to Ryan's chain webpage.
In August we returned to a Ryan's that we have been to probably more than any other Ryan's. This is the Ryan's Buffet in Fredericksburg, Virginia. This Ryan's also has become much more like Old Country Buffet, but it has retained many of the things that made the original Ryan's chain the best of the buffet chains. For those reading who are not aware, several years ago the parent company of Old Country Buffet bought out the Ryan's chain and quickly thereafter started to close Ryan's restaurants in mass - in the usual way that Buffets, Inc. does business - they arrive in the morning as the doors are opening for business for the day and announce to everyone, including the management - that this restaurant is closed and you do not have a job anymore - go home. The company then started to make those remaining Ryan's restaurants into clones of Old Country Buffet restaurants and, rather than taking the best of Ryan's and introducing that to OCBs, they took the worst of OCBs and introduced that into the Ryan's restaurants. Some Ryan's have managed to still maintain what made them good - and the Ryan's in Fredericksburg, VA is one of those.
One major difference from OCB, and what was always good at Ryan's, is the salad bar. In Fredericksburg they still have the large salad bar with its extensive selection that Ryan's was known for. Here there is a make-your-own Caesar salad with all everything there for you to put together and the salad dressing at the side for you to add to your liking. This is not the pre-made Caesar salad that is found at OCB, and the dressing here is much better. The seafood salad was very different from that at OCB as well. While it was not using real crab meat but what is called "Krab" meat, it was using large chunks of that made into a salad and not the shredded "seafood" and macaroni salad found at OCB. There were also three types of lettuce to choose from and (perhaps because of the location) there was nothing spilled from one serving tray to the next.
On the hot buffet server there were many more selections than you find at OCB. There were large pieces of smoked sausage that were not served in the sweet sauce that OCB puts smoked sausage in. There were whole sides of catfish - not the little chunks that are served at OCB. Many of the dishes that Ryan's was known for were still on the buffet. I recently wrote about the Mandarin Stir Fry that Buffets, Inc. introduced this year. This was here at the grill area and took up the griddle next to the char-flame grill. I actually did see one person walk up and have it, but as I have said this is not very popular at any OCB or Ryan's that I have been in that have it. This was the only time that I have seen anyone have it. (This opposed to Golden Corral where there are still lines after a year and a half for their seafood stir fry.)
Now, the steaks! The steaks here are made on a char-flame grill and they are made to order - if they already do not have a steak that is cooked to your request. And what is given to you is a significantly sized piece of steak and not a small two inch chunk as is often served to you at OCB. More than once, I have been to this particular Ryan's, where a rare steak was not there when I asked, and the grill chef put one on just for me and then came to my table with the steak or call me over to get it when it was ready. So different from any other buffet! And I must say, this is something particular to the very good employees at this particular Ryan's. They actually seem happy to be working. The steaks are being seasoned to Buffet's Inc.'s idea of steak seasoning which contains way too much pepper, but they are cooked on the grill properly and much of this seasoning can be scraped off. I smile when I eat the steak here. I can't say that often.
Now, over to the dessert section. You know the little squares of sheet cake that you find at Old Country Buffet. How would you like a large wedge of a round, double-layer, chocolate cake? Well, that is exactly what was being served here. It looked great and was so tempting!
Well, I have to say that this is the best Ryan's we have ever been to and my picky eater wife agrees. When coming to this area, I always check before to make sure that this Ryan's has not fallen victim to Buffets, Inc.'s axe, because they have no idea what a good thing is. If you are near Fredericksburg, Virginia - and there is a lot of history to be found there, as well as a huge shopping center which this Ryan's is located at - try this Ryan's.
This Ryan's Buffet is located in the Central Park Shopping Center/Complex off of I-95 in Fredericksburg, VA. Its address is 1780 Carl D Silver Parkway, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 and the phone number is (540) 548-0051. There is a link at the side of this page to Ryan's chain webpage.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Old Country Buffet, Alexandria, Virginia
I have not been to an Old Country Buffet in another state for quite some time. We were in Virginia and decided to try the OCB there outside of the city of Alexandria on a Sunday night. We frequently eat at OCB locally on Sunday night so I knew I would have a good night for comparison.
Locally, the OCB is generally crowded on a Sunday evening - around 6:30 pm. In fact, we tend to arrive later after 7:00 pm to avoid the crowds. This was not so in this Old Country Buffet. There were people inside having dinner but it was relatively empty. The menu offerings at Old Country Buffet are set from night to night. On Sundays there will be carvings of turkey, ham, and roast beef. With the recent addition of steak every night, there is also steak. I will not go into the side dishes but everything that is at our local OCB on a Sunday was there in Alexandria.
This Old Country Buffet did have the "skillet" special, that OCB sent an email to its email list customers about several months back saying that it would be at many OCBs. The two OCBs near me do not have it. The skillet feature is a copy of the skillet seafood special at Golden Corral. I have seen it before at two Ryans and the interesting thing is that no one dining there was having it. No one here was having either. The Ryan's are set up for it as they have a permanent grill area. In this OCB there were two hot plates at the end of a counter. You can select beef or chicken, add noodles or rice, and add a sauce. The way it was set up, the skillet chef did all this for you, and then cooks it in front of you. The sauce selections were sweet or spicy.
So, how did this Old Country Buffet compare to the local Old Country Buffet that I eat at in New York. For one thing there was a very different employee attitude in Virginia. It was far more positive and friendly. There is generally a more positive employee attitude in many places outside of New York. The people working did not come across as if you are intruding upon their time. Another difference was that the seasoning of the food in the Virginia OCB was less salty and less over peppered with black pepper.
A number of years ago, when char-grilled items were introduced on the menu at OCB, I was told that some OCB's would have grills in the dining area at the buffet section and cooked steak to order as Ryan's and Golden Corral do. I was also told when I inquired where, that this Alexandria OCB was one. It is not. They were bringing the steak out from the kitchen already cooked as they do here. But here is a difference. I went up for a piece of steak. There was one piece out on the cutting board and when I asked for steak the carver said to me, "Let me go into the kitchen and get more steak. This piece is all fat and grizzle." He went into the kitchen and came out with several steaks, discarded the piece that has been on the board and I asked him for steak on the rare side. "Of course", was the reply and he carved one of the less well done steaks. He also cut off for me a piece that was almost half the steak - not the two inches that I get at the OCB at home. At home this would have gone down with me or whoever had gone up at that moment being given that inedible piece of steak.
I also saw that the salad bar was much larger in the Alexandria OCB with more things on it and also the taco bar had much more on it, including fajita chicken which has not been at the OCB near me in a few years.
This all may be what you are used to when you go to OCB. It is not for me in New York where there are two OCBs and they both are not at all like this OCB in Virginia. The dinner price was less, as well. Dinner was $10.99.
I do have to note that the men's room was in exactly the same condition as the one's at home. Why is it that when you step up to a urinal at an OCB men's room you are standing in a puddle of piss? The rest rooms have a sign on them that they are checked regularly. Is the puddle acceptable in the inspection?
If you are looking for an Old Country Buffet and you are near Alexandria, Virginia - perhaps having just visited Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington which is near by- then try this OCB. It is nice - as OCB's go.
This Old Country Buffet is located at 7820 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA 22306. The phone number is (703) 619-9557. The general Old Country Buffet chain website is listed at the side of this page.
Locally, the OCB is generally crowded on a Sunday evening - around 6:30 pm. In fact, we tend to arrive later after 7:00 pm to avoid the crowds. This was not so in this Old Country Buffet. There were people inside having dinner but it was relatively empty. The menu offerings at Old Country Buffet are set from night to night. On Sundays there will be carvings of turkey, ham, and roast beef. With the recent addition of steak every night, there is also steak. I will not go into the side dishes but everything that is at our local OCB on a Sunday was there in Alexandria.
This Old Country Buffet did have the "skillet" special, that OCB sent an email to its email list customers about several months back saying that it would be at many OCBs. The two OCBs near me do not have it. The skillet feature is a copy of the skillet seafood special at Golden Corral. I have seen it before at two Ryans and the interesting thing is that no one dining there was having it. No one here was having either. The Ryan's are set up for it as they have a permanent grill area. In this OCB there were two hot plates at the end of a counter. You can select beef or chicken, add noodles or rice, and add a sauce. The way it was set up, the skillet chef did all this for you, and then cooks it in front of you. The sauce selections were sweet or spicy.
So, how did this Old Country Buffet compare to the local Old Country Buffet that I eat at in New York. For one thing there was a very different employee attitude in Virginia. It was far more positive and friendly. There is generally a more positive employee attitude in many places outside of New York. The people working did not come across as if you are intruding upon their time. Another difference was that the seasoning of the food in the Virginia OCB was less salty and less over peppered with black pepper.
A number of years ago, when char-grilled items were introduced on the menu at OCB, I was told that some OCB's would have grills in the dining area at the buffet section and cooked steak to order as Ryan's and Golden Corral do. I was also told when I inquired where, that this Alexandria OCB was one. It is not. They were bringing the steak out from the kitchen already cooked as they do here. But here is a difference. I went up for a piece of steak. There was one piece out on the cutting board and when I asked for steak the carver said to me, "Let me go into the kitchen and get more steak. This piece is all fat and grizzle." He went into the kitchen and came out with several steaks, discarded the piece that has been on the board and I asked him for steak on the rare side. "Of course", was the reply and he carved one of the less well done steaks. He also cut off for me a piece that was almost half the steak - not the two inches that I get at the OCB at home. At home this would have gone down with me or whoever had gone up at that moment being given that inedible piece of steak.
I also saw that the salad bar was much larger in the Alexandria OCB with more things on it and also the taco bar had much more on it, including fajita chicken which has not been at the OCB near me in a few years.
This all may be what you are used to when you go to OCB. It is not for me in New York where there are two OCBs and they both are not at all like this OCB in Virginia. The dinner price was less, as well. Dinner was $10.99.
I do have to note that the men's room was in exactly the same condition as the one's at home. Why is it that when you step up to a urinal at an OCB men's room you are standing in a puddle of piss? The rest rooms have a sign on them that they are checked regularly. Is the puddle acceptable in the inspection?
If you are looking for an Old Country Buffet and you are near Alexandria, Virginia - perhaps having just visited Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington which is near by- then try this OCB. It is nice - as OCB's go.
This Old Country Buffet is located at 7820 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA 22306. The phone number is (703) 619-9557. The general Old Country Buffet chain website is listed at the side of this page.
Friday, September 14, 2012
KFC Buffet, Williamsburg, VA
Yes - KFC - Kentucky Fried Chicken - Buffet. This is something that KFC does not make well known. There is nothing on their website that some of the KFC locations have a buffet in addition to their usual take out or take from the counter and sit down menu. I have only seen a few of these and the ones that I have seen have all been in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I have seen comments through various searches from people who have gone to a KFC buffet, but there is little to no information out there. Right away, you should know that this is an All You Care to Eat Buffet.
There is a KFC Buffet in Williamsburg, Virginia. We were recently in the area and we had a number of nights to try buffets and we decided that we would see what the KFC buffet is all about and how it is. We went for dinner, and in this location it was only available at dinner hours and not all night. The sign here said 4 to 8 pm for the buffet. The restaurant was open much later.
We walked into a usual looking KFC. There was a counter in the front with people behind taking orders and a line of people waiting to give their food orders. One end of the front counter were two small buffet servers. One had hot foods and one had cold foods. You go up to the counter with everyone else and order the buffet. It includes your drink, which is unlimited from the soda machine that is there in the dining room. There is no special area to sit for the buffet. You are sitting in the regular KFC dining area. The price for the buffet is $7.99. And as I just said this includes your beverage. The price is the same for children.
When we got to the counter we ordered two buffets and were each handed one foam, divided plate, a small foam bowl, and a soda cup. Plasticware is out on the condiments counter with napkins and straws. You are given ONE plate. You are to go back up to the counter and ask for additional plates when you are going back up to the buffet for more. The only drawback to this is if there is a line of customers, you are waiting on that line - if you are going to be civil and polite - to ask the person behind the counter for another plate. There was no problem getting as many plates as we needed.
The food in the two buffet servers is a selection from the KFC menu. IF YOU DON'T LIKE KFC FOOD THEN YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LIKE THE KFC BUFFET. No need to comment here that you don't like it. It is just not for you - your choice. The food is KFC food - nothing more and nothing less.
As I understand it from comments that I found through internet search, what is being put out from the KFC menu varies. I will tell you about what there was on this night. I do not know if it changes from night to night.
On the hot server there was Original Recipe fried chicken, Extra Crispy fried chicken, chicken with biscuits which was a variation of chicken pot pie with biscuits on the side instead of a pie crust, mashed potatoes, gravy, kernel corn, green beans, black eyed peas, cooked carrots, and stewed tomatoes. That was all there was on the hot server. On the warm/cold server there was a mixture of prepared salad and dessert items. These were pickles, coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, peppers, pea salad, cottage cheese, jello, fruit crisp, pudding, frosted buns, canned peaches, and banana whipped chiffon. The fried chicken was a variety of all of the different parts - breasts, legs, thighs, and wings. All on the bone.
I have heard that people have had the KFC grilled chicken on the buffet, and I have also read that a make a salad was at one location. I don't think that there are any more items at any other location but there certainly could be different selections from the menu than what I have listed.
I have not had KFC in a very long time. In fact, the last time I had it, it was still called Kentucky Fried Chicken on the sign outside and not "KFC". I have always liked it and after this meal, I found that I still do. Now, my picky eater wife - you all know about her - she does not really like fried chicken. She does like chicken and grilled chicken and she came in with the intention of just pealing the fried coating off the chicken meat. She was happy to see the chicken and biscuits and she mostly ate that and was fine with it.
The food was as I remembered KFC and good. I tried the two different types of chicken and the chicken with biscuits (but I did not take any biscuits). The chicken with biscuits was good size pieces of chicken meat in a light gravy with peas, carrots, and potatoes. It was a good chicken stew. I did find the Extra Crispy better than the Original Recipe chicken. The Original Recipe Chicken seemed to me to be a bit over cooked - at least the color was darker than the light tan that I remembered it to be - but this was so long ago. I tried the vegetables and the mashed potatoes and gravy. It was all as I anticipated it would be and I enjoyed it. Again - if you don't like KFC, this is no different than what they are serving over the counter or in the bucket to take home.
There is no service at your table - obviously. When you finish a plate, you throw it away yourself in the trash bins all around the restaurant. As, I said, new plates are at the counter for the asking. You fill your own soda cup at the machine. When you are done, you throw away everything that is on your table.
The service at the counter was very good and the people that were filling the buffet from behind them - accessing directly into the food prep and kitchen area - were doing a very good job at keeping the trays full and fresh. There was nothing that looked dried out or that needed attention.
The restaurant itself was clean and we were there for dinner in August in a tourist area where it had to have been a busy day. There were several tables other than ours having the buffet.
I do not think that there would be any problem ordering the buffet for one or some and not for everyone that you are with. BUT - I am sure that they will spot you handing food over to anyone who has not purchased the buffet, so don't try it! These are very open dining areas and are in full view of the employees who are behind the counter and around the dining area keeping it clean.
Do I recommend the KFC Buffet? If you like KFC food and can eat more than a couple of pieces of fried chicken, then yes. I plan to go back the next time I am South in this area. If you are a small eater, then just order from the menu - but I suspect it will not be quiet as economical as the buffet. There was a good meal here for a total of $7.99 and tax.
This KFC Buffet is located at 1545 Richmond Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185. Their phone number is(757) 229 - 7212. There is no mention of the buffets on the KFC website so I will not post a link to that on the side. And the locations are NOT identified as having buffets when they do.
There is a KFC Buffet in Williamsburg, Virginia. We were recently in the area and we had a number of nights to try buffets and we decided that we would see what the KFC buffet is all about and how it is. We went for dinner, and in this location it was only available at dinner hours and not all night. The sign here said 4 to 8 pm for the buffet. The restaurant was open much later.
We walked into a usual looking KFC. There was a counter in the front with people behind taking orders and a line of people waiting to give their food orders. One end of the front counter were two small buffet servers. One had hot foods and one had cold foods. You go up to the counter with everyone else and order the buffet. It includes your drink, which is unlimited from the soda machine that is there in the dining room. There is no special area to sit for the buffet. You are sitting in the regular KFC dining area. The price for the buffet is $7.99. And as I just said this includes your beverage. The price is the same for children.
When we got to the counter we ordered two buffets and were each handed one foam, divided plate, a small foam bowl, and a soda cup. Plasticware is out on the condiments counter with napkins and straws. You are given ONE plate. You are to go back up to the counter and ask for additional plates when you are going back up to the buffet for more. The only drawback to this is if there is a line of customers, you are waiting on that line - if you are going to be civil and polite - to ask the person behind the counter for another plate. There was no problem getting as many plates as we needed.
The food in the two buffet servers is a selection from the KFC menu. IF YOU DON'T LIKE KFC FOOD THEN YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LIKE THE KFC BUFFET. No need to comment here that you don't like it. It is just not for you - your choice. The food is KFC food - nothing more and nothing less.
As I understand it from comments that I found through internet search, what is being put out from the KFC menu varies. I will tell you about what there was on this night. I do not know if it changes from night to night.
On the hot server there was Original Recipe fried chicken, Extra Crispy fried chicken, chicken with biscuits which was a variation of chicken pot pie with biscuits on the side instead of a pie crust, mashed potatoes, gravy, kernel corn, green beans, black eyed peas, cooked carrots, and stewed tomatoes. That was all there was on the hot server. On the warm/cold server there was a mixture of prepared salad and dessert items. These were pickles, coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, peppers, pea salad, cottage cheese, jello, fruit crisp, pudding, frosted buns, canned peaches, and banana whipped chiffon. The fried chicken was a variety of all of the different parts - breasts, legs, thighs, and wings. All on the bone.
I have heard that people have had the KFC grilled chicken on the buffet, and I have also read that a make a salad was at one location. I don't think that there are any more items at any other location but there certainly could be different selections from the menu than what I have listed.
I have not had KFC in a very long time. In fact, the last time I had it, it was still called Kentucky Fried Chicken on the sign outside and not "KFC". I have always liked it and after this meal, I found that I still do. Now, my picky eater wife - you all know about her - she does not really like fried chicken. She does like chicken and grilled chicken and she came in with the intention of just pealing the fried coating off the chicken meat. She was happy to see the chicken and biscuits and she mostly ate that and was fine with it.
The food was as I remembered KFC and good. I tried the two different types of chicken and the chicken with biscuits (but I did not take any biscuits). The chicken with biscuits was good size pieces of chicken meat in a light gravy with peas, carrots, and potatoes. It was a good chicken stew. I did find the Extra Crispy better than the Original Recipe chicken. The Original Recipe Chicken seemed to me to be a bit over cooked - at least the color was darker than the light tan that I remembered it to be - but this was so long ago. I tried the vegetables and the mashed potatoes and gravy. It was all as I anticipated it would be and I enjoyed it. Again - if you don't like KFC, this is no different than what they are serving over the counter or in the bucket to take home.
There is no service at your table - obviously. When you finish a plate, you throw it away yourself in the trash bins all around the restaurant. As, I said, new plates are at the counter for the asking. You fill your own soda cup at the machine. When you are done, you throw away everything that is on your table.
The service at the counter was very good and the people that were filling the buffet from behind them - accessing directly into the food prep and kitchen area - were doing a very good job at keeping the trays full and fresh. There was nothing that looked dried out or that needed attention.
The restaurant itself was clean and we were there for dinner in August in a tourist area where it had to have been a busy day. There were several tables other than ours having the buffet.
I do not think that there would be any problem ordering the buffet for one or some and not for everyone that you are with. BUT - I am sure that they will spot you handing food over to anyone who has not purchased the buffet, so don't try it! These are very open dining areas and are in full view of the employees who are behind the counter and around the dining area keeping it clean.
Do I recommend the KFC Buffet? If you like KFC food and can eat more than a couple of pieces of fried chicken, then yes. I plan to go back the next time I am South in this area. If you are a small eater, then just order from the menu - but I suspect it will not be quiet as economical as the buffet. There was a good meal here for a total of $7.99 and tax.
This KFC Buffet is located at 1545 Richmond Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185. Their phone number is(757) 229 - 7212. There is no mention of the buffets on the KFC website so I will not post a link to that on the side. And the locations are NOT identified as having buffets when they do.
Friday, September 07, 2012
Wild, Wild West Casino in Atlantic City, NJ Buffet Closes
In June 2012, the Virginia City Buffet located in Bally's Wild, Wild West Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey was closed permanently. There is no intention to have another buffet in this casino and Bally's is looking at redeveloping the space toward entertainment. If you are a regular reader of this site you know that this was my buffet of preference among the casino buffets in Atlantic City and I have been dining at it since it opened years ago.
It was quite a surprise to me to learn that it closed. I have not been there in a year - but usually, I don't travel to Atlantic City more than once a year - and that is primarily to walk on the Boardwalk, take in the atmosphere, and have dinner at a buffet. When I was there last August (2011) there was a line to get into the buffet and when we finally got into the restaurant there were a good number of people having dinner there. From what I have been able to learn about the reasons behind the buffet's closing was that it was financial - that those who frequent buffets are not coming to Atlantic City - which I find hard to believe. I have also read related articles that the focus of the Atlantic City casinos is to no longer cater to the "day trip gambler" but to go after the high rollers - who don't eat in buffets. (Why would they when half the menu can be comped (given to them free) and brought to their table in any restaurant in the casino?)
A new casino opened this year in Atlantic City that did not open with a buffet and likely will not add one. This casino has several restaurants with name chefs. Will this be the trend in Atlantic City?
There are articles in New Jersey publications that say the "day trippers" are going to casinos in Pennsylvania instead of coming to Atlantic City. When other states started allowing casino gambling along with the Native American-run casinos opening there had to be a drop in visitors to what was the only East Coast place to gamble - Atlantic City. But doing things like closing the casino buffets in Atlantic City is not going to attract those gamblers back - and while they will not put thousands down on the tables, they lose a considerable amount that goes into the casino's coffers by the time they leave at the end of the day.
I, myself, admit that I have gone to Connecticut rather than Atlantic City. Would I have gone to AC instead if the two Connecticut casino buffets were not there? Maybe, maybe not. Will I be heading back to AC anytime soon? I will have to think about that and decide what buffet I would be going for. A few years ago we went to several of the other buffets in Atlantic City - just to see if there was one that I would like more or just as well as the Virginia City Buffet at Wild, Wild, West. I was disappointed with each one. The articles are here for each one we tried. I did not like the buffet at Caesars which is also owned by Bally's and those employees from the Virginia City Buffet were reassigned there now. Several suggested the buffet at Showboat and I was very disappointed there. That one fell down on keeping what was put out to eat fresh, among other things.
I like Atlantic City. I liked it before there were casinos there. Long ago there was a great restaurant outside of the city called Zaberras. It was not a buffet but it was very unique and the food was good. It was an experience just sitting in one of the several dining rooms and just walking through the restaurant. It is long gone. It closed not long after the casinos and the buffets opened. It was fun. Before I was told the news - in a comment on this site - that the Virginia City Buffet was closed, and then researched what was happening, I had been thinking that I really would like to go down to Atlantic City. Well, when I got this news that did not happen. Sometimes change is good. This change was not.
It was quite a surprise to me to learn that it closed. I have not been there in a year - but usually, I don't travel to Atlantic City more than once a year - and that is primarily to walk on the Boardwalk, take in the atmosphere, and have dinner at a buffet. When I was there last August (2011) there was a line to get into the buffet and when we finally got into the restaurant there were a good number of people having dinner there. From what I have been able to learn about the reasons behind the buffet's closing was that it was financial - that those who frequent buffets are not coming to Atlantic City - which I find hard to believe. I have also read related articles that the focus of the Atlantic City casinos is to no longer cater to the "day trip gambler" but to go after the high rollers - who don't eat in buffets. (Why would they when half the menu can be comped (given to them free) and brought to their table in any restaurant in the casino?)
A new casino opened this year in Atlantic City that did not open with a buffet and likely will not add one. This casino has several restaurants with name chefs. Will this be the trend in Atlantic City?
There are articles in New Jersey publications that say the "day trippers" are going to casinos in Pennsylvania instead of coming to Atlantic City. When other states started allowing casino gambling along with the Native American-run casinos opening there had to be a drop in visitors to what was the only East Coast place to gamble - Atlantic City. But doing things like closing the casino buffets in Atlantic City is not going to attract those gamblers back - and while they will not put thousands down on the tables, they lose a considerable amount that goes into the casino's coffers by the time they leave at the end of the day.
I, myself, admit that I have gone to Connecticut rather than Atlantic City. Would I have gone to AC instead if the two Connecticut casino buffets were not there? Maybe, maybe not. Will I be heading back to AC anytime soon? I will have to think about that and decide what buffet I would be going for. A few years ago we went to several of the other buffets in Atlantic City - just to see if there was one that I would like more or just as well as the Virginia City Buffet at Wild, Wild, West. I was disappointed with each one. The articles are here for each one we tried. I did not like the buffet at Caesars which is also owned by Bally's and those employees from the Virginia City Buffet were reassigned there now. Several suggested the buffet at Showboat and I was very disappointed there. That one fell down on keeping what was put out to eat fresh, among other things.
I like Atlantic City. I liked it before there were casinos there. Long ago there was a great restaurant outside of the city called Zaberras. It was not a buffet but it was very unique and the food was good. It was an experience just sitting in one of the several dining rooms and just walking through the restaurant. It is long gone. It closed not long after the casinos and the buffets opened. It was fun. Before I was told the news - in a comment on this site - that the Virginia City Buffet was closed, and then researched what was happening, I had been thinking that I really would like to go down to Atlantic City. Well, when I got this news that did not happen. Sometimes change is good. This change was not.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Dutch Way Family Restaurant, Myerstown, PA
I have been writing about a buffet that has been new to me for less than a year. It is the Dutch Way Family Restaurant in Gap, Pennsylvania. The three Dutch Way Markets in Pennsylvania each have a restaurant but only two of those restaurants have a buffet - Gap and Myerstown. Since being so happy with the buffet in Gap, I have been looking forward to an opportunity to try the buffet in Myerstown.
Myerstown is north of Lancaster. It is just south of Route 78 which cuts across Pennsylvania in the north to Route 80. I am not often in this part of Pennsylvania and while a trip up to this area is not out of the question if I am in Lancaster, I have been waiting for an event that we attend that is not far from Myerstown. The day of this event arrived and I looked forward to dinner with great anticipation.
The restaurant, like the restaurant in Gap, is part of a supermarket - located off to the side in a connected building. We went on a stormy Saturday night at the end of July. There were forecasts of severe but scattered thunderstorms and we drove in and out of heavy downpours as we headed south from Route 78. We arrived as rain was just stopping at about 6:45 that night.
The restaurant is to the left of the supermarket entrance. On first impression the look of the restaurant was that it was smaller than the restaurant in Gap and for lack of a better way of describing it, less formal (more casual?) than the interior in Gap. Here there are rows of tables and booths down the length of the restaurant. At the back there are two private dining rooms that are there for parties but likely would be opened if there was a crowd in the main dining. There were a number of tables filled when we went in, but through the course of our dinner the restaurant emptied out. The feature menu nights at both restaurants are the same and as this was Saturday night the feature is Prime Rib and Ham - which is the feature also on Friday nights.
The serving staff here and pretty much all of the staff here was made up of young women - some in high school. I know this because I overheard a conversation about one about to start college in the Fall but would still be working there on Saturdays. Our server was a mature woman but the people at the buffet and the carving counter and the cash register were all young women. This was also different at Gap where the staff were more mature. I will speak on this more as I go along.
The decor is very nice. The prices are the same as they are at Gap. Dinner on Friday and Saturday are $12.99. Soft drinks are $1.39. Weeknights except for Thursdays are $10.99. Thursdays are a special seafood buffet and the price is $18.99.
The buffet was almost the same. There is a much smaller serving area at this location. There is not a large grill/carvings counter but a small setup in the corner that seemed to be able to be moved away. There were fewer and smaller buffet servers and there was not the selection that I found at Gap. Let me say this right off- had I come to this location first, I would not be as enamored with Dutch Way as I was and am about the Gap restaurant. This would have been a pleasant buffet that was not much different than some other nice buffets that I have been to. It would not be in contention for best buffet of the year this year. The food was fine - so read on.
I can only make direct comparisons to describe what I am talking about. There are four soups at Gap and there are four soups here. The soups at Gap are in hot soup tureens along a counter top set up for soup. Here in Myerstown, there were still four soups - chicken rivel, ham and bean, chile, and beef vegetable. The soups were served from trays in one of the hot buffet server - not soup tureens set in, as are at other buffets - but in the usual serving trays. The chile had pretty much dried out and needed tending- stirring, moistening - or just taken away as it did not look very nice. The other three soups looked and were fine. But tending is something that was lacking and not just at this buffet server. I had the chicken rivel and this was very good. Rivels are long, narrow dumplings. My wife had the vegetable and that was fine.
We went up after soup to the salad bar. The salad bar had the basics - two types of lettuce, standard toppings, a nice selection of dressings. There were also some prepared salads. There were items missing from the salad bar that were out at Gap - and there was just no room to have added these in. Some of the prepared salads were not there. There were no chunks of Lebanon bologna - interesting as we were just north of Lebanon. Would you miss these items if you did not know they were offered at the other location? No. The salad bar was plenty adequate for a salad bar. But all being equal- price the same - things should be close to the same. Again, the salad was great and I enjoyed it very much. There were chunks of real, fried bacon and I made myself a Caesar Salad with bacon.
In the Gap restaurant there was a large selection of fancy breads. Here there was just one fancy bread and a limited selection of plain breads and rolls. The one it did have - raisin bread - was dry.
There was one and a half small but double hot buffet servers with entrees and side dishes. Again, less than at Gap. My wife felt that there were just as many dishes out but in smaller serving trays - which is sometimes better. What struck me- as we had been to Gap recently on a Friday night when the same buffet menu should have been served was the lack of local dishes here. We are north of the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country here though we did pass horse and buggies along the rode on the drive here - and there were Mennonite ladies sitting at a table nearby us. Since the Gap restaurant does not gear toward tourists, those dishes are served there for the local diners, as I would think, would be done here too. The only local dish here was pork and sauerkraut - which was very close to the very good one that I have had at Gap. Here is what was on the hot buffet - meatloaf, fried chicken (which was not labeled "Henny Penny", pork and kraut, sausage stew, corn pie, turkey in gravy, fish sticks, baked chicken, barbecue ribs (no bone formed ribs), ham balls, chicken croquet, corn, green beans, harvard beets, carrots, broccoli casserole, stewed tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, potato filling, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes with ham, and mixed vegetables. There were two carvings which are the Saturday and Friday night feature, Prime Rib and ham. There was chicken gravy and beef gravy.
I went right to the sausage stew. It was made with smoked sausage slices in a thin broth with potatoes and shredded celery and carrots. It was fine but the sausages stewed like this lost most of their taste. The The pork and kraut was good and as I mentioned earlier was much like that at Gap. I later went up for a slice of Prime Rib and the prime rib was tender and nice. I tried the chicken croquet and these breaded and fried balls of chicken and filling had a good amount of chicken in them and clearly, you knew these were chicken. This is not always so in some other buffets. I had not noticed the sign over the barbecue ribs when I first went up and when I saw them I had to try them. I did not notice also until I took a section from the pan that these were formed, boneless ribs - much like is served at McDonald's - and which I complained about at another, much fancier buffet. At that fancy, high-priced buffet these were inappropriate to serve - on the adult buffet. Here in a much less expensive and more casual buffet, they were not out of place. They did have too much sauce on them, and frankly at this point I was filling up and I left some of this over. There are better choices here than these - unless you really love these.
My wife tried the meatloaf and said it was good. It was in a thin tomato sauce. She also tried the ham balls - served in a pineapple sauce - and these too were good. She also had some of the turkey in gravy and she liked that as well. Remember, she is a picky eater. She had no problem eating here and enjoying it.
We both tried the corn pie and found it missing something. It was corn cooked with a pie shell topping mixed with potatoes. It was a bit bland and both of us commented that it should have been been for how it looked.
The dessert area is much abbreviated from the one at Gap. There was a small counter with some pies and cake slices. There was a soft serve machine with two flavors of ice cream. There was a section with fixings to make sundaes. There was also a small hot section with hot desserts in cups - similar to what there is a Gap, but less so. There was a cold section on the salad bar with a small selection of prepared desserts. Over by the breads, there had been donuts and pastries out the entire time we were there along with small wrapped muffins and little square pieces of what looked like cake with chocolate icing. When we went for dessert, I went past the donuts to see what was on the dessert area. When I walked back - in a very short time - all of the donut halves and pastries were gone. The trays had been taken away for the night. I did try the chocolate cake squares which turned out to be chocolate peanut butter cake squares. Pennsylvania loves things with chocolate and peanut butter together.
For the most part the food was good - and there was plenty to eat. It just did not come up to the selection, the tending, or the service around the buffet tables that the much better location of this same restaurant in Gap came to.
Our table server was good and she cleared our dishes promptly and refilled our beverages. As I had noted above, she was a mature woman. There were times around the buffet server that two young women working were more involved talking to each other than to get out of the way of the customers who were trying to get to the serving trays that they were standing in front of.
The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm - as do most Pennsylvania buffets that I write about. From some time after 7:00 pm the young women started cleaning. Nothing was being taken away but they were clearly shutting down the buffet. As I mentioned - the donuts were taken away -well usually before doing this - especially with only a few guests in the dining room you make an announcement - "anyone wish to have XYZ should come get it because we are taking it away." Here is was clear that they wanted to close this buffet down as soon as possible to go home. Many buffets - including Gap - say "we close at 8" but keep things going at the buffet tables until 8:30 or later. They may not seat anyone but they never take anything away.
Will I go back? Yes, if I am in this area I would go back. This is an area with not many buffet choices. There is a Golden Corral in Lebanon, but I would prefer this over Golden Corral. Had I never been to Gap - same restaurant, owner, etc. - I would be writing about the nice buffet we went to in Myerstown. It was nice. It was just nothing special. Dutch Way Gap is special.
I do recommend the Dutch Way Family Restaurant in Myerstown, PA. Just take note of some of the things I have commented on. Again- nothing was wrong. Nothing was not worth going for. The food was good. I enjoyed my meal and so did my wife. I just had expected more from this buffet based on its sister restaurant. My wife thinks that this is the original and Gap is a newer location and designed for greater ambiance and a larger dining room. This very well could be. I had that impression also. I had this same impression of another pair of sister restaurants that I wrote about recently that did not match.
The Dutch Way Family Restaurant in Myerstown, PA is located at 649 East Lincoln Avenue, \
Route 422 East in Myerstown, PA 17067. The phone number is 717-866-5758. There is a website for the three locations (only two are buffets) at the side of this page.
Myerstown is north of Lancaster. It is just south of Route 78 which cuts across Pennsylvania in the north to Route 80. I am not often in this part of Pennsylvania and while a trip up to this area is not out of the question if I am in Lancaster, I have been waiting for an event that we attend that is not far from Myerstown. The day of this event arrived and I looked forward to dinner with great anticipation.
The restaurant, like the restaurant in Gap, is part of a supermarket - located off to the side in a connected building. We went on a stormy Saturday night at the end of July. There were forecasts of severe but scattered thunderstorms and we drove in and out of heavy downpours as we headed south from Route 78. We arrived as rain was just stopping at about 6:45 that night.
The restaurant is to the left of the supermarket entrance. On first impression the look of the restaurant was that it was smaller than the restaurant in Gap and for lack of a better way of describing it, less formal (more casual?) than the interior in Gap. Here there are rows of tables and booths down the length of the restaurant. At the back there are two private dining rooms that are there for parties but likely would be opened if there was a crowd in the main dining. There were a number of tables filled when we went in, but through the course of our dinner the restaurant emptied out. The feature menu nights at both restaurants are the same and as this was Saturday night the feature is Prime Rib and Ham - which is the feature also on Friday nights.
The serving staff here and pretty much all of the staff here was made up of young women - some in high school. I know this because I overheard a conversation about one about to start college in the Fall but would still be working there on Saturdays. Our server was a mature woman but the people at the buffet and the carving counter and the cash register were all young women. This was also different at Gap where the staff were more mature. I will speak on this more as I go along.
The decor is very nice. The prices are the same as they are at Gap. Dinner on Friday and Saturday are $12.99. Soft drinks are $1.39. Weeknights except for Thursdays are $10.99. Thursdays are a special seafood buffet and the price is $18.99.
The buffet was almost the same. There is a much smaller serving area at this location. There is not a large grill/carvings counter but a small setup in the corner that seemed to be able to be moved away. There were fewer and smaller buffet servers and there was not the selection that I found at Gap. Let me say this right off- had I come to this location first, I would not be as enamored with Dutch Way as I was and am about the Gap restaurant. This would have been a pleasant buffet that was not much different than some other nice buffets that I have been to. It would not be in contention for best buffet of the year this year. The food was fine - so read on.
I can only make direct comparisons to describe what I am talking about. There are four soups at Gap and there are four soups here. The soups at Gap are in hot soup tureens along a counter top set up for soup. Here in Myerstown, there were still four soups - chicken rivel, ham and bean, chile, and beef vegetable. The soups were served from trays in one of the hot buffet server - not soup tureens set in, as are at other buffets - but in the usual serving trays. The chile had pretty much dried out and needed tending- stirring, moistening - or just taken away as it did not look very nice. The other three soups looked and were fine. But tending is something that was lacking and not just at this buffet server. I had the chicken rivel and this was very good. Rivels are long, narrow dumplings. My wife had the vegetable and that was fine.
We went up after soup to the salad bar. The salad bar had the basics - two types of lettuce, standard toppings, a nice selection of dressings. There were also some prepared salads. There were items missing from the salad bar that were out at Gap - and there was just no room to have added these in. Some of the prepared salads were not there. There were no chunks of Lebanon bologna - interesting as we were just north of Lebanon. Would you miss these items if you did not know they were offered at the other location? No. The salad bar was plenty adequate for a salad bar. But all being equal- price the same - things should be close to the same. Again, the salad was great and I enjoyed it very much. There were chunks of real, fried bacon and I made myself a Caesar Salad with bacon.
In the Gap restaurant there was a large selection of fancy breads. Here there was just one fancy bread and a limited selection of plain breads and rolls. The one it did have - raisin bread - was dry.
There was one and a half small but double hot buffet servers with entrees and side dishes. Again, less than at Gap. My wife felt that there were just as many dishes out but in smaller serving trays - which is sometimes better. What struck me- as we had been to Gap recently on a Friday night when the same buffet menu should have been served was the lack of local dishes here. We are north of the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country here though we did pass horse and buggies along the rode on the drive here - and there were Mennonite ladies sitting at a table nearby us. Since the Gap restaurant does not gear toward tourists, those dishes are served there for the local diners, as I would think, would be done here too. The only local dish here was pork and sauerkraut - which was very close to the very good one that I have had at Gap. Here is what was on the hot buffet - meatloaf, fried chicken (which was not labeled "Henny Penny", pork and kraut, sausage stew, corn pie, turkey in gravy, fish sticks, baked chicken, barbecue ribs (no bone formed ribs), ham balls, chicken croquet, corn, green beans, harvard beets, carrots, broccoli casserole, stewed tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, potato filling, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes with ham, and mixed vegetables. There were two carvings which are the Saturday and Friday night feature, Prime Rib and ham. There was chicken gravy and beef gravy.
I went right to the sausage stew. It was made with smoked sausage slices in a thin broth with potatoes and shredded celery and carrots. It was fine but the sausages stewed like this lost most of their taste. The The pork and kraut was good and as I mentioned earlier was much like that at Gap. I later went up for a slice of Prime Rib and the prime rib was tender and nice. I tried the chicken croquet and these breaded and fried balls of chicken and filling had a good amount of chicken in them and clearly, you knew these were chicken. This is not always so in some other buffets. I had not noticed the sign over the barbecue ribs when I first went up and when I saw them I had to try them. I did not notice also until I took a section from the pan that these were formed, boneless ribs - much like is served at McDonald's - and which I complained about at another, much fancier buffet. At that fancy, high-priced buffet these were inappropriate to serve - on the adult buffet. Here in a much less expensive and more casual buffet, they were not out of place. They did have too much sauce on them, and frankly at this point I was filling up and I left some of this over. There are better choices here than these - unless you really love these.
My wife tried the meatloaf and said it was good. It was in a thin tomato sauce. She also tried the ham balls - served in a pineapple sauce - and these too were good. She also had some of the turkey in gravy and she liked that as well. Remember, she is a picky eater. She had no problem eating here and enjoying it.
We both tried the corn pie and found it missing something. It was corn cooked with a pie shell topping mixed with potatoes. It was a bit bland and both of us commented that it should have been been for how it looked.
The dessert area is much abbreviated from the one at Gap. There was a small counter with some pies and cake slices. There was a soft serve machine with two flavors of ice cream. There was a section with fixings to make sundaes. There was also a small hot section with hot desserts in cups - similar to what there is a Gap, but less so. There was a cold section on the salad bar with a small selection of prepared desserts. Over by the breads, there had been donuts and pastries out the entire time we were there along with small wrapped muffins and little square pieces of what looked like cake with chocolate icing. When we went for dessert, I went past the donuts to see what was on the dessert area. When I walked back - in a very short time - all of the donut halves and pastries were gone. The trays had been taken away for the night. I did try the chocolate cake squares which turned out to be chocolate peanut butter cake squares. Pennsylvania loves things with chocolate and peanut butter together.
For the most part the food was good - and there was plenty to eat. It just did not come up to the selection, the tending, or the service around the buffet tables that the much better location of this same restaurant in Gap came to.
Our table server was good and she cleared our dishes promptly and refilled our beverages. As I had noted above, she was a mature woman. There were times around the buffet server that two young women working were more involved talking to each other than to get out of the way of the customers who were trying to get to the serving trays that they were standing in front of.
The restaurant closes at 8:00 pm - as do most Pennsylvania buffets that I write about. From some time after 7:00 pm the young women started cleaning. Nothing was being taken away but they were clearly shutting down the buffet. As I mentioned - the donuts were taken away -well usually before doing this - especially with only a few guests in the dining room you make an announcement - "anyone wish to have XYZ should come get it because we are taking it away." Here is was clear that they wanted to close this buffet down as soon as possible to go home. Many buffets - including Gap - say "we close at 8" but keep things going at the buffet tables until 8:30 or later. They may not seat anyone but they never take anything away.
Will I go back? Yes, if I am in this area I would go back. This is an area with not many buffet choices. There is a Golden Corral in Lebanon, but I would prefer this over Golden Corral. Had I never been to Gap - same restaurant, owner, etc. - I would be writing about the nice buffet we went to in Myerstown. It was nice. It was just nothing special. Dutch Way Gap is special.
I do recommend the Dutch Way Family Restaurant in Myerstown, PA. Just take note of some of the things I have commented on. Again- nothing was wrong. Nothing was not worth going for. The food was good. I enjoyed my meal and so did my wife. I just had expected more from this buffet based on its sister restaurant. My wife thinks that this is the original and Gap is a newer location and designed for greater ambiance and a larger dining room. This very well could be. I had that impression also. I had this same impression of another pair of sister restaurants that I wrote about recently that did not match.
The Dutch Way Family Restaurant in Myerstown, PA is located at 649 East Lincoln Avenue, \
Route 422 East in Myerstown, PA 17067. The phone number is 717-866-5758. There is a website for the three locations (only two are buffets) at the side of this page.
Friday, August 24, 2012
New Features at Golden Corral
Golden Corral has a new buffet feature. They have called it Tropical Island Grill. I have not been to a Golden Corral yet to sample this new feature, but I want to alert all of my readers to this - in case you have not seen the television commercials.
I am hoping that this feature has take the place of the seafood skillet feature that caused great backups at the buffet because they were cooking each skillet dish to your order. I have written about this several times in the past year and if you would like to read my experiences with this, just search our archives or look through the listings of articles in 2011.
So what does the Tropical Island Grill bring to the Golden Corral buffet? You will find marinated grilled Key West chicken breasts, breaded spicy Cozumel shrimp, grilled teriyaki sirloin steak, grilled Fiji lemon peppered talapia, and hot island pork ribs. They say that this is inspired by the best of island cooking. From what I can see it looks either very sweet or spicy. I am hoping that the standard Golden Corral steaks and barbecue ribs are still on the grill along with these new feature items.
This feature is served after four o'clock each day and Sundays after 11 am. You will not find it at lunch other than Sundays (lunch on Sundays is served at dinner prices).
Another feature has also started at Golden Corral. They have added Cotton Candy along with the chocolate fountain. I am hoping here that there is an employee putting the cotton candy on to the paper cones and that this is not a do it yourself. If it is I can just imagine the little fingers that will go into that hot spun sugar. As I have written, the chocolate fountain has been an attraction to hands and fingers and has had little employee supervision in the several Golden Corrals that I have been to and watched at. With cotton candy around the restaurant, look before you sit down. This stuff is sticky, though it can be good.
As with any feature, it is available for only a limited time. With Golden Corral, when one feature ends they usually follow it with a new feature.
I will get to a Golden Corral soon and let you know, first hand, about the Tropical Island Grill and the Cotton Candy.
I am hoping that this feature has take the place of the seafood skillet feature that caused great backups at the buffet because they were cooking each skillet dish to your order. I have written about this several times in the past year and if you would like to read my experiences with this, just search our archives or look through the listings of articles in 2011.
So what does the Tropical Island Grill bring to the Golden Corral buffet? You will find marinated grilled Key West chicken breasts, breaded spicy Cozumel shrimp, grilled teriyaki sirloin steak, grilled Fiji lemon peppered talapia, and hot island pork ribs. They say that this is inspired by the best of island cooking. From what I can see it looks either very sweet or spicy. I am hoping that the standard Golden Corral steaks and barbecue ribs are still on the grill along with these new feature items.
This feature is served after four o'clock each day and Sundays after 11 am. You will not find it at lunch other than Sundays (lunch on Sundays is served at dinner prices).
Another feature has also started at Golden Corral. They have added Cotton Candy along with the chocolate fountain. I am hoping here that there is an employee putting the cotton candy on to the paper cones and that this is not a do it yourself. If it is I can just imagine the little fingers that will go into that hot spun sugar. As I have written, the chocolate fountain has been an attraction to hands and fingers and has had little employee supervision in the several Golden Corrals that I have been to and watched at. With cotton candy around the restaurant, look before you sit down. This stuff is sticky, though it can be good.
As with any feature, it is available for only a limited time. With Golden Corral, when one feature ends they usually follow it with a new feature.
I will get to a Golden Corral soon and let you know, first hand, about the Tropical Island Grill and the Cotton Candy.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Summer Holidays at Lancaster Buffets
With Labor Day coming, I thought it was timely to talk about the Lancaster, PA buffets and the summer holidays. Lancaster, PA is a major tourist area and in any tourist area a great deal of business is done over the summer holiday weekends - Memorial Day, Fourth of July (not always a weekend) and Labor Day. But if you plan to go to some of the local buffets in Lancaster on those holidays, you may be disappointed.
Memorial Day and Labor Day are very significant holidays in this area and several of the buffets close or close early in the day following the breakfast or brunch buffet. Two of the buffets high on my "go to" list in Lancaster, Yoders and Dutch Way close on Memorial Day and Labor Day at about 1:00 pm. Shady Maple Smorgasbord is completely closed on both of those days. Several of the buffets in the main tourist areas - Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant, Family Cupboard, the chain buffets, and some others remain open. You really do need to call and check to be sure a buffet will be open.
Dutch Way also closes at 1:00 pm on July Fourth. Some of the buffets had been closed or closed early in the past on July Fourth such as Shady Maple, but a few years ago that changed and they have remained open regular hours - which means 8:00 pm closing.
Of course, the intent is to give their employees a holiday with their families and this area is all about families. You have to respect a business that will sacrifice a day of increased business for its employees.
So, just be aware. If you are heading to Lancaster and will be there on these holidays, you may not be dining in one of the buffets that I have highly recommended. You will still find a buffet - and there are still great choices, but just not as many.
Memorial Day and Labor Day are very significant holidays in this area and several of the buffets close or close early in the day following the breakfast or brunch buffet. Two of the buffets high on my "go to" list in Lancaster, Yoders and Dutch Way close on Memorial Day and Labor Day at about 1:00 pm. Shady Maple Smorgasbord is completely closed on both of those days. Several of the buffets in the main tourist areas - Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant, Family Cupboard, the chain buffets, and some others remain open. You really do need to call and check to be sure a buffet will be open.
Dutch Way also closes at 1:00 pm on July Fourth. Some of the buffets had been closed or closed early in the past on July Fourth such as Shady Maple, but a few years ago that changed and they have remained open regular hours - which means 8:00 pm closing.
Of course, the intent is to give their employees a holiday with their families and this area is all about families. You have to respect a business that will sacrifice a day of increased business for its employees.
So, just be aware. If you are heading to Lancaster and will be there on these holidays, you may not be dining in one of the buffets that I have highly recommended. You will still find a buffet - and there are still great choices, but just not as many.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Dienners Restaurant, Lancaster, PA
The only night that Dienners is open past 6:00 pm is Friday. On Fridays it is open to 8:00 pm. I am rarely near Dienners on a Friday evening to make it there. I recently was able to schedule in a visit to Dienners for dinner on a Friday night. The last time I ate at Dienners was three years ago.
When we got to Dienners it was 6:30 pm and there was a line to get in. Dienners is located on Route 30 very close to the area of Lancaster County that is the heart of the tourist trade. On a Friday night in the summer, Dienners attracts a mixed crowd of tourists and locals and on this night that we were there, there were also several groups of Mennonites that came in for dinner.
We were told that the wait would be from twenty to twenty five minutes and it was exactly that - twenty five minutes. You are given a pager to carry around so that you can visit the few shops next to the restaurant. This was an excessively hot night, and we went into the country gift shop next door just to avoid standing outside in the heat. The pager buzzes and lights and when it did we went inside and were seated.
It took about five minutes for our waitress to come over - and this was a foretelling of how she would be for the rest of the meal. I should say that she was not bad - but she was scarce to pick up soiled dishes off the table. She did eventually and she did bring drink refills.
The price of the buffet on Monday to Thursday for dinner is $10.25. On Friday and Saturday, the price is $11.50. The charge for children is 75 cents per year of age. It is actually better to order the buffet than to order off the menu here as the prices for the meals on the menu would add to more than the buffet. Soft drinks with refills are $1.49.
I have mentioned before that Dienners and the Family Cupboard restaurant are owned by members of the same family. The restaurants are operated separately, but much of the offerings on the buffet at both restaurants are the same. As I found on this visit, the recipes at each are slightly different. I am going to note here that I realized at this meal that I prefer the cooking at Family Cupboard. There is nothing wrong with Dienners, and the food is good. There is a bit more emphasis on adding a lot more butter to the recipes at Dienners.
There are two soups. One is always Chicken Corn Soup and the other varies. For Friday night, the other soup is New England Clam Chowder. The chicken corn soup is a thick chicken noodle soup with plenty of chicken, noodles, and corn - and some chopped hard boiled egg. The soup is thickened with creamed corn - not corn with cream, but corn that has been creamed - pulverized to a creamy consistency. This soup was good. On my prior visit it had been more like the one served at Family Cupboard. It is not really right of me to keep drawing comparisons to Family Cupboard, but if you have been to both you would clearly see why it lends itself so readily to do so.
The salad bar has most of what you want to create your own salad and there are a number of local recipe prepared salads. There are a several salad dressings for your salad, but just one type of lettuce.
What makes the dinner on Friday and Saturday night different from Monday to Thursday are the fried shrimp and fried cod that are on the buffet. I am guessing that these take the place of Fried Chicken and meat loaf. In addition to these two seafood dishes there were beef cubes in brown gravy, their signature rotisserie chicken, sliced ham, mashed potatoes, noodles in brown butter, green beans, beets, stewed tomatoes, kernel corn, baby carrots, bread filling, baked Lima beans, broccoli, white rice, macaroni and cheese, There is chicken gravy and brown gravy. There are also dinner rolls out with apple butter and Amish peanut butter (this is a local spread). The cooks here are Amish women and they are out at the buffet checking on what needs to be refiled and bringing more food out when needed.
I like fried fish - and one of the things I was looking forward to was the fish. The fish was strips of cod, fried in batter. It was good. The rotisserie chicken is just like that featured at Family Cupboard. I enjoy this chicken - both here and at Family Cupboard.
Noodles in brown butter are narrow noodles that have browned butter mixed thoroughly on them. To make browned butter you put butter on a stove in a pan and cook it down to almost burning to the point that brown flakes form in the butter and thicken it. It has a nutty flavor. There was a bit too much butter added. It was tasty but it really was more than it needed. The kernel corn was in a butter sauce also and that too could have had less butter and been just as good.
Don't get me wrong - it was all good. And for this area, authentic.
There is a dessert buffet server, a pie case, and a soft serve ice cream machine. There are a number of local desserts and these included egg custard, which is what I look for at PA Dutch buffet dessert bars. There were plenty of other things as well - shoo fly cake, hot fudge cake, hot apple crisp, pumpkin torte, chocolate eclair dessert, jello, cherry cheese delight, fruit salad, pistachio pudding, Oreo dessert, sugar free desserts, and much more. In the pie server there was shoo fly pie, cream pies, fruit pies, and lemon pie.
It was all good - no, I did not have all of what I have listed here and I limited my dessert to a small taste of the egg custard.
I would go back to Dienners but I would go to Family Cupboard before I would come back to Dienners. This is just my preference. I recommend Dienners but not as highly as I have in the past. If you dine early then you can go to Dienners any day. If, like many, you dine after 6:00 pm, then you can only have dinner at Dienners on Friday nights. For the same buffet menu and less butter - and open to 8 pm every night (except closed on Sundays, of course) - but with a higher meal price - go to Family Cupboard on Rt. 340.
Dienners is located in a building that at one time - many years ago - was a shoo fly pie bakery- in fact the best shoo fly pie in Lancaster. For some reason the acoustics in the dinning room are poor and it is very loud. Also for some reason the meal was not as relaxed as it should have been. It was crowded and it was warm - again, it was a record breaking heat day in July two days after July 4th.
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. I have told you the hours, remember that like the rest of the local buffets it is closed on Sundays. Their phone number is 717-687-9571. There is a sparse website and that is listed at the side of this page.
When we got to Dienners it was 6:30 pm and there was a line to get in. Dienners is located on Route 30 very close to the area of Lancaster County that is the heart of the tourist trade. On a Friday night in the summer, Dienners attracts a mixed crowd of tourists and locals and on this night that we were there, there were also several groups of Mennonites that came in for dinner.
We were told that the wait would be from twenty to twenty five minutes and it was exactly that - twenty five minutes. You are given a pager to carry around so that you can visit the few shops next to the restaurant. This was an excessively hot night, and we went into the country gift shop next door just to avoid standing outside in the heat. The pager buzzes and lights and when it did we went inside and were seated.
It took about five minutes for our waitress to come over - and this was a foretelling of how she would be for the rest of the meal. I should say that she was not bad - but she was scarce to pick up soiled dishes off the table. She did eventually and she did bring drink refills.
The price of the buffet on Monday to Thursday for dinner is $10.25. On Friday and Saturday, the price is $11.50. The charge for children is 75 cents per year of age. It is actually better to order the buffet than to order off the menu here as the prices for the meals on the menu would add to more than the buffet. Soft drinks with refills are $1.49.
I have mentioned before that Dienners and the Family Cupboard restaurant are owned by members of the same family. The restaurants are operated separately, but much of the offerings on the buffet at both restaurants are the same. As I found on this visit, the recipes at each are slightly different. I am going to note here that I realized at this meal that I prefer the cooking at Family Cupboard. There is nothing wrong with Dienners, and the food is good. There is a bit more emphasis on adding a lot more butter to the recipes at Dienners.
There are two soups. One is always Chicken Corn Soup and the other varies. For Friday night, the other soup is New England Clam Chowder. The chicken corn soup is a thick chicken noodle soup with plenty of chicken, noodles, and corn - and some chopped hard boiled egg. The soup is thickened with creamed corn - not corn with cream, but corn that has been creamed - pulverized to a creamy consistency. This soup was good. On my prior visit it had been more like the one served at Family Cupboard. It is not really right of me to keep drawing comparisons to Family Cupboard, but if you have been to both you would clearly see why it lends itself so readily to do so.
The salad bar has most of what you want to create your own salad and there are a number of local recipe prepared salads. There are a several salad dressings for your salad, but just one type of lettuce.
What makes the dinner on Friday and Saturday night different from Monday to Thursday are the fried shrimp and fried cod that are on the buffet. I am guessing that these take the place of Fried Chicken and meat loaf. In addition to these two seafood dishes there were beef cubes in brown gravy, their signature rotisserie chicken, sliced ham, mashed potatoes, noodles in brown butter, green beans, beets, stewed tomatoes, kernel corn, baby carrots, bread filling, baked Lima beans, broccoli, white rice, macaroni and cheese, There is chicken gravy and brown gravy. There are also dinner rolls out with apple butter and Amish peanut butter (this is a local spread). The cooks here are Amish women and they are out at the buffet checking on what needs to be refiled and bringing more food out when needed.
I like fried fish - and one of the things I was looking forward to was the fish. The fish was strips of cod, fried in batter. It was good. The rotisserie chicken is just like that featured at Family Cupboard. I enjoy this chicken - both here and at Family Cupboard.
Noodles in brown butter are narrow noodles that have browned butter mixed thoroughly on them. To make browned butter you put butter on a stove in a pan and cook it down to almost burning to the point that brown flakes form in the butter and thicken it. It has a nutty flavor. There was a bit too much butter added. It was tasty but it really was more than it needed. The kernel corn was in a butter sauce also and that too could have had less butter and been just as good.
Don't get me wrong - it was all good. And for this area, authentic.
There is a dessert buffet server, a pie case, and a soft serve ice cream machine. There are a number of local desserts and these included egg custard, which is what I look for at PA Dutch buffet dessert bars. There were plenty of other things as well - shoo fly cake, hot fudge cake, hot apple crisp, pumpkin torte, chocolate eclair dessert, jello, cherry cheese delight, fruit salad, pistachio pudding, Oreo dessert, sugar free desserts, and much more. In the pie server there was shoo fly pie, cream pies, fruit pies, and lemon pie.
It was all good - no, I did not have all of what I have listed here and I limited my dessert to a small taste of the egg custard.
I would go back to Dienners but I would go to Family Cupboard before I would come back to Dienners. This is just my preference. I recommend Dienners but not as highly as I have in the past. If you dine early then you can go to Dienners any day. If, like many, you dine after 6:00 pm, then you can only have dinner at Dienners on Friday nights. For the same buffet menu and less butter - and open to 8 pm every night (except closed on Sundays, of course) - but with a higher meal price - go to Family Cupboard on Rt. 340.
Dienners is located in a building that at one time - many years ago - was a shoo fly pie bakery- in fact the best shoo fly pie in Lancaster. For some reason the acoustics in the dinning room are poor and it is very loud. Also for some reason the meal was not as relaxed as it should have been. It was crowded and it was warm - again, it was a record breaking heat day in July two days after July 4th.
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. I have told you the hours, remember that like the rest of the local buffets it is closed on Sundays. Their phone number is 717-687-9571. There is a sparse website and that is listed at the side of this page.
Friday, August 03, 2012
Coming Back to Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant, Lancaster, PA
I have written about the buffet at the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant several times in the past. My last article about this buffet was a year ago. We went back this year on the Fourth of July. Not all of the local buffet restaurants are open on the Fourth of July, for example, Dutch-Way and Yoders are both closed (or are open only until early in the afternoon). When selecting a buffet to dine at in this area, as many of you know, there are several that are at the top of my list. This one is about mid-way down. At times in the past, it has disappointed, but it is more often very good than not.
For a holiday night, the restaurant was not crowded, but the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday night and those traveling to the area who could not have an extended Fourth of July weekend came on the weekend before or were coming on the weekend after. This was seen throughout Lancaster even at the tourist sites on July Fourth. The restaurant was not empty, but we have been here at this time of the year before and there have been waits to get in. We were seated right away.
The price for dinner has not changed since last year and it is still $17.99. The price of the dinner buffet includes the beverage. We had a coupon from their website - which is also found in the local tourist newspapers which are available all over the area for free - which gave $2 off the dinner price for each adult. This made the price not bad considering that drinks are usually 1.99 extra- so with the coupon this is equivalent to a 13.99 dinner at other buffets. It is a great value at the $13.99 equivalent - find a coupon before you come. The price may vary by the night. It may be higher on Fridays and Saturday nights.
My favorite thing at this restaurant is the chicken corn soup. It is unlike other chicken corn soups in the area. It is thick and rich. The soup is full of chicken, chopped hard boiled egg, and corn, and it is thickened with some type of grain. There is a slight vinegar taste to the soup. It is excellent. The other soups on the buffet on this night were vegetable beef and beef noodle. My wife had the vegetable beef soup - and as always here, liked it.
There is good salad bar here - and you can opt to just have the soup and salad bar as a meal. There is a good assortment of salad fixings for the lettuce that is out. There are also a number of prepared local salads. I had tried the Caesar Salad a year ago and I like it. I took Caesar Salad and it was just OK this time. There was nothing wrong with it, but I have had better. There is an excellent ham salad and this is something to try if they have it when you come. This salad seems to alternate with chicken salad - which is also very good here and tuna salad. I also took some cottage cheese and apple butter which is a local favorite. You have to put this together yourself - as for many years it is not often found talked about or even put out next to each other. Take a spoonful or more of cottage cheese and then put a spoonful of apple butter on top of it. This is really a taste treat - sweet, tart, and salty all at the same time. There is a small buffet server off to the side with white, wheat, and crispy rolls, raisin bread, wheat bread, white bread. There are also assorted cubed cheeses. Here you will find the apple butter also. The cottage cheese is on the cold server salad bar.
The buffet menu varies here by the night so what you may find one night, you may not find on another night of the week. The Friday and Saturday night offerings include more carvings. On this night on the hot buffet there was country sausage from New Holland Meats, chicken bot boi - very thick, full of large dumplings, chicken, and potatoes, fried shrimp, broasted chicken, pork and kraut- sweet and with plenty of pork, roast beef, turkey - two ways - in a tray and on the carving station, carved ham, Swedish meatballs, broiled pollack , pizza, zucchini casserole, red potatoes, corn on the cob, baked lima beans, bread filling, succatash, ham and scalloped potatoes, carrots, stewed tomatoes, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy and beef gravy.
I love the turkey here that is served per-carved in the tray. It is a whole turkey cut into pieces, both white meat and dark, and served in its own liquid. I find it has a great taste that is unlike carved turkey. I eat a lot of turkey. To me this is the best. The sausage was very good. This is local country sausage and I enjoyed it a lot. The chicken bot boi was very good because of how thick and full it was - no skimping on any ingredient. The pork and sauerkraut was outstanding. It was more sweet than tart. Generally, the tartness of sauerkraut can overwhelm this dish. Here the sauerkraut was sweetened and this really added to this local favorite. It was also full of chopped pork. The broiled pollack, however, was too salty. The zucchini casserole was good but it had an under taste of some seasoning that was OK but I did not care for. My wife did like it.
On Saturday nights, there is a separate buffet set up for kids. It was set up on this night also - perhaps because it was a holiday. They call it the Kids Corner. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, nacho chips with cheese sauce on the side, chicken nuggets, turkey, macaroni and cheese, smiley face potatoes, carrots, kernal corn, pretzals, potato chips, apple sauce, canned peaches, chocolate pudding, and cookies in little packages. The price for kids is 75 cents per year of age from ages 4 to 12. I don't think that they would mind if an adult having the buffet also sampled some of this.
There is a serving counter at the back wall that is the dessert area. There was shoo fly pie, custard pie, oatmeal pie, vanilla pie, fruit pies, shoo fly cake, sheet cake, whoopie pies, prepared desserts, pudding, canned fruit, softserve ice cream, and two flavors of Slushies. On this night there was no fresh fruit. The baking is good here. This restaurant is associated with the Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop. You can just order the dessert bar without a meal.
I very much enjoyed this meal at the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant. It made me wonder why I have not gone back as often. One thing had been in the past - longer than a year ago, the price here was higher - a lot higher. They seem to have realized that to bring in the families of tourists to compete in this area you need to be affordable - while serving a good and quality meal. They are doing that at the current pricing. I also liked the selections on this night more than what I have had here on Friday or Saturday nights. This is just a personal preference of my own.
I highly recommend that you try the buffet at Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant. I was asked recently by a friend where to dine in Lancaster and, of course, recommended the usual tops on my list but added that if they did not want to travel too far out of the central area for dinner to go here. Try it.
Like all of the other local buffets and restaurants they do close at 8:00 pm and they are not open on Sundays. There is a good chance when you come here there will be Amish and Mennonites dining here as well.
Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.
For a holiday night, the restaurant was not crowded, but the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday night and those traveling to the area who could not have an extended Fourth of July weekend came on the weekend before or were coming on the weekend after. This was seen throughout Lancaster even at the tourist sites on July Fourth. The restaurant was not empty, but we have been here at this time of the year before and there have been waits to get in. We were seated right away.
The price for dinner has not changed since last year and it is still $17.99. The price of the dinner buffet includes the beverage. We had a coupon from their website - which is also found in the local tourist newspapers which are available all over the area for free - which gave $2 off the dinner price for each adult. This made the price not bad considering that drinks are usually 1.99 extra- so with the coupon this is equivalent to a 13.99 dinner at other buffets. It is a great value at the $13.99 equivalent - find a coupon before you come. The price may vary by the night. It may be higher on Fridays and Saturday nights.
My favorite thing at this restaurant is the chicken corn soup. It is unlike other chicken corn soups in the area. It is thick and rich. The soup is full of chicken, chopped hard boiled egg, and corn, and it is thickened with some type of grain. There is a slight vinegar taste to the soup. It is excellent. The other soups on the buffet on this night were vegetable beef and beef noodle. My wife had the vegetable beef soup - and as always here, liked it.
There is good salad bar here - and you can opt to just have the soup and salad bar as a meal. There is a good assortment of salad fixings for the lettuce that is out. There are also a number of prepared local salads. I had tried the Caesar Salad a year ago and I like it. I took Caesar Salad and it was just OK this time. There was nothing wrong with it, but I have had better. There is an excellent ham salad and this is something to try if they have it when you come. This salad seems to alternate with chicken salad - which is also very good here and tuna salad. I also took some cottage cheese and apple butter which is a local favorite. You have to put this together yourself - as for many years it is not often found talked about or even put out next to each other. Take a spoonful or more of cottage cheese and then put a spoonful of apple butter on top of it. This is really a taste treat - sweet, tart, and salty all at the same time. There is a small buffet server off to the side with white, wheat, and crispy rolls, raisin bread, wheat bread, white bread. There are also assorted cubed cheeses. Here you will find the apple butter also. The cottage cheese is on the cold server salad bar.
The buffet menu varies here by the night so what you may find one night, you may not find on another night of the week. The Friday and Saturday night offerings include more carvings. On this night on the hot buffet there was country sausage from New Holland Meats, chicken bot boi - very thick, full of large dumplings, chicken, and potatoes, fried shrimp, broasted chicken, pork and kraut- sweet and with plenty of pork, roast beef, turkey - two ways - in a tray and on the carving station, carved ham, Swedish meatballs, broiled pollack , pizza, zucchini casserole, red potatoes, corn on the cob, baked lima beans, bread filling, succatash, ham and scalloped potatoes, carrots, stewed tomatoes, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy and beef gravy.
I love the turkey here that is served per-carved in the tray. It is a whole turkey cut into pieces, both white meat and dark, and served in its own liquid. I find it has a great taste that is unlike carved turkey. I eat a lot of turkey. To me this is the best. The sausage was very good. This is local country sausage and I enjoyed it a lot. The chicken bot boi was very good because of how thick and full it was - no skimping on any ingredient. The pork and sauerkraut was outstanding. It was more sweet than tart. Generally, the tartness of sauerkraut can overwhelm this dish. Here the sauerkraut was sweetened and this really added to this local favorite. It was also full of chopped pork. The broiled pollack, however, was too salty. The zucchini casserole was good but it had an under taste of some seasoning that was OK but I did not care for. My wife did like it.
On Saturday nights, there is a separate buffet set up for kids. It was set up on this night also - perhaps because it was a holiday. They call it the Kids Corner. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, nacho chips with cheese sauce on the side, chicken nuggets, turkey, macaroni and cheese, smiley face potatoes, carrots, kernal corn, pretzals, potato chips, apple sauce, canned peaches, chocolate pudding, and cookies in little packages. The price for kids is 75 cents per year of age from ages 4 to 12. I don't think that they would mind if an adult having the buffet also sampled some of this.
There is a serving counter at the back wall that is the dessert area. There was shoo fly pie, custard pie, oatmeal pie, vanilla pie, fruit pies, shoo fly cake, sheet cake, whoopie pies, prepared desserts, pudding, canned fruit, softserve ice cream, and two flavors of Slushies. On this night there was no fresh fruit. The baking is good here. This restaurant is associated with the Bird-In-Hand Bake Shop. You can just order the dessert bar without a meal.
I very much enjoyed this meal at the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant. It made me wonder why I have not gone back as often. One thing had been in the past - longer than a year ago, the price here was higher - a lot higher. They seem to have realized that to bring in the families of tourists to compete in this area you need to be affordable - while serving a good and quality meal. They are doing that at the current pricing. I also liked the selections on this night more than what I have had here on Friday or Saturday nights. This is just a personal preference of my own.
I highly recommend that you try the buffet at Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant. I was asked recently by a friend where to dine in Lancaster and, of course, recommended the usual tops on my list but added that if they did not want to travel too far out of the central area for dinner to go here. Try it.
Like all of the other local buffets and restaurants they do close at 8:00 pm and they are not open on Sundays. There is a good chance when you come here there will be Amish and Mennonites dining here as well.
Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505. The phone number is 1-800-665-8780. There is a website located at the side of this page.
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