Outback Steakhouse All You Can Eat Event

Every year on the Thursday before the Fourth Of July, the Outback Steakhouse hosts a charity event for the Boomer Esiason Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis. It is a tailgate party for a high school all stars football game held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. This is not a pull a grill out of the car trunk and cook some burgers before the game tailgate party. This is a full blown, Outback Steakhouse buffet! Seating is under a tent and the Outback sets up two buffet lines - they serve you from the line, but you get whatever you want. The cost is a donation to the Foundation - about $150 per ticket. (We get free tickets because our living history group is part of the entertainment at the football game.) The website used to talk about the dinner and the price - this is missing from the current website. It is possible that this is now by invitation only. This special dinner runs for two hours from 4pm to 6pm - just before the game.

If you love eating at the Outback this is your dream come true. Many of the specialties on the Outback menu are there - all for the taking and as much as you wish. The serving line starts off with honey wheat rolls. There is Caesar Salad. The hot trays start next. The salt-encrusted baked potatoes are there with sides of butter and sour cream. There is shrimp off the "barby" and the famous - and scrumptious - fried coconut shrimp. There are hot wings. There is grilled chicken breast. There is steak! There is rack of lamb. Special sauces for the shrimp are on hand. At the end of the line are the "Bloomin' Onions". Take one back to share with your table - or take one all for yourself! It is served with a spicy Russian dressing. The entire buffet line is repeated so there is very little wait.

For dessert, the Outback girls come around to all of the tables with slices of cheesecake - with and without raspberry sauce. Cans of soda - cocacola products - and bottled water are unlimited, as is beer.

The food is the same as it is at the Outback Restaurants - everything is spiced. It is good, but it has a distinct spice and a slight heat. It is cooked on large flame grills behind the buffet table and keeps coming out to fill the serving trays.

I do not think that this is repeated anywhere else. There are other sponsored charity events for this organization with Outback involvement all over the US. It is an experience. The money goes to a worthwhile charity. You can reach the Boomer Esiason Foundation at www.esiason.org.

New Look at the Old Country Buffet

The OCB near me in Levittown, NY has just had a renovation of the interior of the restaurant including some small changes in the buffet tables. The work took only a few weeks and with little interference to the operation of the restaurant. I suspect that all of the Old Country Buffet restaurants are getting or will be getting this "face-lift".

The new look has replaced the brass rails with fabric curtains that topped the dividers in the room with wooden posts and an semi-opaque Plexiglas that has dried weeds inside. It allows some light through but you cannot see through. For a few visits in mid-renovation the tops of the dividers were bare and I thought that this made the room much more airy and open. My wife said that she did not like that people on line could look across the room and watch you eat, but I said to her that I did not see how that mattered, as once you were inside you could see the tables anyway. With the new wood and glass tops to the dividers the room is closed in again, but the wood is much heavier and darker in appearance than the brass was and I think that the room now looks too closed in.

The walls used to be a light beige. Now the wallpaper is a medium pale green with a textured finish to look like stucco. (Wait until a kid splashes food on that and see how well it can be cleaned!) It adds to the new darkness of the room. Despite the spotlights in the ceiling the room is dark. The booths have new hanging light fixtures - no longer large, white glass fixtures, but narrow, green glass fixtures. Not so bright. The sticker visible inside the glass says, "maximum 100 watt bulb". The bulb in the light said 75 watts but gave light much more like 40 watts. So, in my opinion - and everything here is mostly my opinion - the room is now dark.

The walls are now decorated with poster-size, framed, black and white photos from the 30's, 40's, and maybe 50's. Each looks like a depression-era photo. The theme of each photo is related in some way to food. There is a picture of a butcher shop and another of a lunch counter. All dark - rather depressing, actually. All in all, it adds to the darkness of the room.

OK, already, the room is dark.

There are also some changes to the buffet tables and the beverage area. The greatest change is to the salad bar. The main salad fixings bar has now been divided to include a taco bar in the center. The taco bar is something that had been a regular feature and then disappeared several months ago. This is a welcome addition and it includes not just taco fixings, but also nachos, chicken taco filling, and beans. The toppings for the tacos are all right there- sour cream, cheese, salsa, olives, lettuce, peppers. What is missing is taco sauce and the meat needs it. A mild and a spicy sauce would be welcome additions. To do this taco set up, however, resulted in the salad bar being cutback on that table and spread to the second salad table. At the second salad table the very popular, pre-mixed Caesar salad that used to be set out in two serving dishes has been moved into one larger serving dish - but not as large as the two combined. There is now croutons and cheese on the side. A week ago it was grated Parmesan cheese. Tonight that was gone and was replaced with shredded yellow American cheese and another container that looked to be shredded Romano cheese - but when I put it on my salad and tasted it, it turned out to be rather bland Swiss cheese (not good on a Caesar Salad). Tonight there was also an equally large bowl of Greek salad with additional Greek dressing right at the side. I had been hoping for additional Caesar dressing on the side - but no such luck. The Greek salad had regular black olives, not Greek olives, and feta cheese. It pretty much looked untouched - where the Caesar bowl was mostly empty during the night.

The beverage area has been re-arranged. Gone are the water spigots. They are replaced with filtered, bottled water in a cooler. There is one on each side of the beverage table. The ice tea containers have been replaced with ice tea machines - seemed like a good idea as they should make more tea as it is needed automatically - they do not and the unsweetened ice tea, as usual, was empty at 7:30 pm. The order of things has also been rearranged with the new problem of getting ice - if there is any, and then having to move back on the line to get ice tea. You would think that with the changes there would have been a change to a self-filling, ice making machine. No - same old ice containers on top of the soda machines that must be refilled by hand and are often left empty for a long while once the ice runs out.

There is also now a poster in the lobby that talks about being polite standing on line and following some rules of standing on line - it starts off by saying that there are no rules for the buffet. Well, I guess, they have not paid heed to this site. There are rules for a buffet - and OCB diners would certainly benefit from them.

A message for the Old Country Buffet chain - you are welcome to post in your lobby the web address for this site = buffets. blogspot.com. Your customers need to see the rules. You may not print these rules, however, without my permission first - with recognition and a fee.

There are signs on the tables advertising a new five shrimp special coming in July. I am hoping that this will not replace the St. Louis Ribs, which are still the best of the chain buffets.

So, if your OCB makes renovations, let us know. Post a comment and tell us about them.

Let's Talk Turkey

In last week's article I listed that the best turkey may be found at the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania (located on Route 340 in Lancaster County). To explain why I like this turkey so much I have to relate a little story.

My wife and I are living historians - reenactors of the American revolutionary war period (the 18th Century). A few years ago we were at the reenactment of the Battle of Monmouth - this is Monmouth, New Jersey. The event was the 225th anniversary of this battle. We were in an encampment that we were sharing with our unit and a "sister" unit. The ladies from the "sister" unit were cooking with the help of my wife. Dinner was being cooked over a large, open camp fire. On the menu were rolls of beef and turkey. The turkey was cooked in a large pot over the fire. In the pot was a whole, large turkey and some vegetables. When it was time to eat and I went over to the turkey expecting a roast-looking turkey. What I found was a turkey floating in a full pot of liquid- as if it had been boiled. Oh my, I thought. This is not going to be good. I like turkey, but I do not think that I will like boiled turkey. I reached into the pot with a serving fork and poked at the turkey. The meat came falling away from the bone. I took several chunks and put it on my plate. With a bit of reluctance I tasted it. OH MY! This was delicious. This was the best turkey that I have ever had and I really like turkey. It was moist. It was tasty. It was tender. I went to my wife and asked how was the turkey made? She said that as far as she saw it just cooked in the pot for the afternoon. I asked her if it was boiled and she said that she did not think so. I pointed out that the pot was full of liquid. I told her that she must talk to the other women and ask what the recipe was.

Well, it took a while for my wife to find out how that turkey was cooked - and when she found out (almost a year later) it turned out that the lady who cooked it really did not know herself. She said that it definitely was not boiled. She recalled just putting the turkey in the pot with cabbage and some other vegetables and letting it cook. Apparently, the vegetables put out the liquid - as no other liquid had been added to the pot. She said that she just put it all in and hoped for the best - well the best is what we got - but as to duplicate this - not so much a recipe but a recollection. Now why did I tell you this long, non-buffet related story? I figured that I would never have that good turkey again.

And then I went to the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord. On their buffet table are two serving trays of fresh turkey. One is dark meat and the other is light (white) meat. It is covered in a liquid broth. Hmm, you might think - wet turkey. Not so good. Well, let me tell you that this turkey tastes just like the one at the encampment - wonderful! It is moist. It is fresh. Is is not some carved, dry turkey breast. It is not sliced turkey layed dry in a tray. It is a real turkey, less the bones and every good part of the turkey. It is better than a whole roast turkey carved from the frame to your plate. It is the best! There is gravy on the side of the buffet for the turkey - it adds to it, but it is really not necessary.

If you are in the Lancaster County area, make an effort to get to Bird-In-Hand (quaint name, right- very Pennsylvania Dutch!) and go to this restaurant. Choose the buffet just for the turkey. Of course, there are lots of other good things to find there - as I have reported before.

The Best

This week I am going to name some of the best - all related to buffets and all you can eat restaurants. The comparisons are of these type of restaurants only - so for example, choosing the best steak is the best steak at a buffet - there may be better steaks at regular restaurants but that is not what this site is about. So anyway, with that out of the way - the best...

The BEST STEAK at a buffet chain - This is goes to Ryan's. The chains compared are Ryan's, Golden Corral, and Old Country Buffet. The steak at Ryan's has better taste, is cooked to proper order, and is tender.
THE BEST STEAK at any buffet - This definitely goes to the buffet at the Wild, Wild West Casino Buffet in Atlantic City. This steak is cooked to order on a char-grill and is as good as any restaurant steak. I have traveled 150 miles each way just for this steak.
The BEST CAESAR SALAD - This goes to Ryan's. This was a tough one. I am very partial to the Caesar salad at the Old Country Buffet, but then I had the one at Ryan's. At Ryan's you assemble the salad yourself, add the Caesar dressing, the croutons, and the cheese. It was terrific. Not too salty - as it was at Golden Corral - and because you make it, it always comes out right. At Old Country Buffet it is pre-made and if not enough dressing is added to it by the person who makes it, it is watery and weak.
The BEST DESSERT BAR - This goes to The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. This obscure, little, family-run buffet had the absolutely most complete dessert bar of any buffet restaurant, catering hall, or restaurant for that matter. See our review of this little find on April 30, 2006.

The BEST TURKEY - This goes to The Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. This is going to sound odd, but the taste is what is important here - this is not turkey at a carving station. It is not a turkey breast, sliced and laid out. It is pieces of turkey cut from the bone - separate trays of light and dark meat - and served in a clear broth to keep it moist. This is never dried out. It tastes great. One of these weeks I intend to do an article just about this turkey. Keep a look out for the article.

The BEST SOUP at a chain buffet - This goes to Ryan's for their chicken noodle soup. The noodles are plump and fresh. The broth is not too salty.

The BEST SOUP at any buffet - This goes to Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. The soup is the Chicken Corn - a local specialty made here just a bit differently - thick and cream-like, but not a cream soup. It is excellent.

The BEST RIBS - This goes to the Kansas City Barbecue Pork Ribs at the Old Country Buffet. These are a summer only feature (now available Thursday nights to Saturday nights). They fall off the bone and are sauced just right. There is sauce on the side to add if you like.

The BEST COMPLETE BUFFET - This goes to Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This may also be the largest buffet. It has an extremely large assortment of entrees, side dishes, cooking grills, salad bar, and dessert bar. See my review of this great buffet on September 10, 2005. It more than doubled in size both in seating and the double length buffet serving area several years ago making this the place to go for both locals and tourists, and there is still a wait to get in on Saturdays all year and then during the "season" on week nights. Come Monday for Steak Night. Of all the buffets that I have been to this one is my favorite.

The BEST SEAFOOD BUFFET - This goes to Captain George's Seafood Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia and a few other Virginia and North Carolina locations. The crab and seafood dishes go on and on along several schooner ship serving bars. See my review on September 1, 2005.

The BEST SUSHI at a non-sushi only buffet - This goes to the International Buffet in Carle Place (Westbury), New York. There is a large variety of sushi served here. It is fresh and the sushi chef is behind the counter refilling and taking requests. There may be other restaurant buffets that serve only all you can eat sushi, but this restaurant has this great sushi and a large variety of other non-sushi and non-Asian choices.

The BEST CHINESE BUFFET - Without question this is the Peking Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia. This is a very inexpensive, but very complete Chinese buffet offering a variety not found in most others. The food is excellent. See my review on August 30, 2005.

In a future article I will continue the list. I wish that I could name the best service at a buffet, but it varies from server to server, and from visit to visit at almost all of the buffets. There are good servers and there are not so attentive servers - at all of the restaurants.

I have not been to them all - some of you may have been to some I have not yet gotten to. If you have another BEST buffet, tell us about it in a comment to this article. If you disagree with my humble opinions (this whole thing is my humble opinion), then let's hear from you as well in a comment.

Golden Corral - Winchester, Virginia

With the dissappointment of the buffet that we found in Stephens City, Virginia (see last week's article) we headed for the Golden Corral for our next night's dinner. I have reviewed the chain in general - look in the archives of this site in August 2005. I will focus this article on the Golden Corral in Winchester, Virginia.

We went on Sunday night - the night before Memorial Day - and guess what? There were people there - unlike the empty restaurant the night before in Stephens City. There was actually a line to get in. We did not have to wait long and we were through the line to a restaurant that was busy, not overly packed, but a good crowd. So this was where everyone headed when they want buffet in the town of Winchester. The crowd seemed to be a mix of locals and weekenders.

At Golden Corral you pay as you enter and you get a tray with a dish and your beverage. You pick your table (at least here you did - others you are seated by a hostess). When you get to your table a server comes over and introduces him/herself and leaves a card with his/her name on it. The server here is VERY important - much more so than in the other chains, because not only does the server bring your drink refills but also your clean plates. And this is the main problem with the Golden Corral. An attentive server will bring you a stack of plates and keep bringing them. An inattentive server will bring an extra plate each and when he/she notices - if he/she notices that you might need another clean plate brings one - maybe. This was one of those nights that looked promising. He brought a stack of four plates - two for each of us - right at the start, but then getting more was an effort to find him. In fact he came by once and asked if all was good - I looked down at the dirty plates - which he had not picked up for awhile and had to tell him we need some clean plates. They came - but you should not have to ask. I have wondered if this is their way of metering what you take - no clean plate means no trip back to the serving counter. Or perhaps it is just a poor server. This accomplishes nothing as it pushes one to break the rules (my rules) and overload the plate that you have.

On this night perhaps it was the server. When we went for soup (I like soup and the soup here that is good is the chicken noodle - tasty broth with thick, homemade noodles) there were no soup spoons in the container. We went back to the table and looked at the teaspoon - which we would later need for dessert - and decided to ask for soup spoons. We asked our server. At first he was confused - "You mean that there were none up by the soup. They are up by the soup." "No, there were no more there." "Oh." It took a moment. Yes, we want you to find us two - not a hard thing to do. Check in the kitchen at the dishwasher or alert someone who washes things and get two clean soup spoons. Finally, he said that he would go look for some. He never did come back with any - just sought of ignored that we had ever asked. We gave up and used the teaspoons - no big deal, if you don't mind eating ice cream with a spoon used for chicken soup. I gues that is what extra napkins are for.

The food was good. The first peice of steak - they are carving large steaks from a charbroiler right there on the carving station - was ok. Not too tasty and needed steak sauce (a good steak never needs steak sauce). When I went back for another peice the cook carved a peice from a very, very thick steak - almost two and one half or three inches thick. It looked great, but had a liver taste (no, it was not liver). This absolutely needed steak sauce to mask that taste and I did not finish it because of the underflavor.

This was carving night on the special menu. There were not many carvings - turkey, ham, steak, and a cajun sausage that was too spicy to enjoy - hot and spicy lovers would like it. There were many other meat choices on the buffet including baked chicken, meat loaf, fried chicken, and other meats, shrimp, and fish. No complaining that there was not enough to be found.

The pizza is has a flat, cracker-like crust. It is not as good as some found (but not all) at OCB and that found at Ryans. There was no taco bar. There have been at others or perhaps none of them have it any longer. The salad bar is extensive with many prepared salads - chicken salad with large chunks of meat - and a variety of salad greens and toppings. There was a Ceasar salad bar that had Romaine lettuce pre-tossed with dressing with more dressing to take at the side and shredded parmasean cheese and croutons to top it off with. It was very good (but on the salty side).

The dessert bar was good. There were cakes, pies, puddings, and ice cream. The soft serve ice cream is creamy and good.

So when in Winchester and you are looking for a buffet restaurant, head on over to the Golden Corral.

Stephens City Buffet - Stephens City, Virginia

Just south of Winchester, Virginia in the northern section of the Shenandoah Valley is Stephens City. We were looking for a buffet restaurant in the Winchester area and other than the Golden Corral and a buffet located at a truck stop, which at best that we could learn was only a soup and salad bar served with the menu, what we could find was a restaurant called the Western Steer Buffet and Bakery in Stephens City. I did a quick Internet search and learned that this was a chain buffet, but could not find anything about this specific one. We decided that we would head out the ten miles south on US I81 and take a look. If it appeared good on the outside - as if that is a way to know - we would give it a try. We took down the location of the Golden Corral, just in case. So off we went.

We got off the correct exit and drove in the direction of the restaurant, We saw a large sign, high over the road - "BUFFET". We turned toward the sign - but it did not say Western Steer. The top part was blank and on the changeable sign board below it said Stephens City Buffet and then lunch $4.99, dinner $7.99. We turned in to the parking lot and parked. There were several cars in the lot and an elderly couple coming out of the door. I looked into the window and it looked large inside. There was a large buffet set up. My wife looked through the glass and agreed that it seemed nice enough. We double checked the address and this was the place. We decided to go in. As we went into the entrance door I commented that it seemed big through the window and my wife then said, "unless that was a mirror." We got up to the cashier desk and yes, there was a mirror. It was still large enough, but not quite so as it seemed.

You pay here as you enter. It is $7.99 and this is a Saturday night. The price does not seem to change. Soft drinks are $1.59 each and are refillable by your server. At dessert you may convert your beverage to coffee. There is a dining room at the side of the large buffet area and there are two dining rooms in an adjacent area. One is a room for private parties. At the cashier on the wall are menu items that you may order with or instead of the buffet. The buffet is $5.99 with any entree. Mostly these were steaks and burgers. There was an all you can eat crab legs menu item - this was outrageously priced at $35.99. Oh my! So don't come for the crab legs.

The restaurant was very empty. There were a few diners but not many, especially for a Saturday night - or a holiday weekend in a tourist oriented area. We were in at 7:30 - too late? Later after 8 more people came in along with a large party heading for the private room.

You seat yourself at tables or booths. Your server greets you and brings you your drinks. She also brings a large stack of napkins. The servers here are VERY nice. This is the South, after all!

We went up for soup first which was at the end of one of two entree steam tables. There were four soups. Here I first began to wonder if we should have not come in. The soup tureens in the steam table were crusted at the tops with dried soup. All of them. There was a red soup, a brown soup, a cream soup, and what appeared to be chicken noodle soup. I took the ladle of the noodle soup and gave its contents a stir. It was very thick. After a bit of stirring it looked more like chicken noodle soup and I ladled it into a bowl. It looked ok. Back at the table, it was very salty. It had fresh made noodles that had broken down. Under the salt taste it was good. But I was still turned off by the crusty pots.

Next we were up to the salad bar. There was a long salad bar with greens and fixings, prepared salads, Caesar salad greens and fixings, ripe, wedged, whole tomatoes, peel and eat cold shrimp, and prepared salads. There was a section of cut up fresh fruit and whole apples. Some of the prepared salads at the end of the table looked dried out - chicken salad and two indeterminable salads all looked VERY unappetizing. I again said to myself, "Oh boy!" The greens. fresh vegetables, and toppings looked ok and I made a tomato salad with some pepperoni on the side and some olives. It was good. But those dried out salads lingered in my mind.

The hot entrees and sides were next. There were two buffet tables - one long and one short. There was an interesting assortment of meats. There was a large bbq pork shoulder. The meat fell off the large bone with the serving tongs - as it should and you could pull yourself off some pork bbq. There was a spread of bbq sauce over the shoulder, but none on the side and the pork needed some. The pork was warm, but not hot. (It should have been.) There was steak - pre-cooked and over done. Toward the end of the meal more steak was being cooked just behind that serving table in view. I went and got another fresh piece. It was not much better than the first - a little moister but just as over done. When I went for sides I took corn which was a mix of yellow corn and hominy - I know it was hominy because there were large cans of vegetables about as decoration - or quick grabs? - and one of them was hominy and it looked like what was in with the yellow corn. I went to take mashed potatoes and a large fly buzzed over the serving spoon as I lifted it out of the potatoes. The spoon went right back in. Again, oh boy! Now, my mind is running with the thought of flys and their offspring, maggots. I went to the other serving table and took some french fries.

My wife commented that the food did not seem like restaurant food - that it was more like home cooking. And she was right. Actually, the food was not bad and most seemed to be home style, if not actual home cooking. The fried chicken was very good with a light home like crust. There was also baked chicken, which my wife says was ok. There was hot, spiced peel and eat shrimp. It was good with Old Bay seasoning on it. It was not overcooked and the spice was just right - not too heavy. There was liver - if you like that. There were fried chicken strips that we first thought was fried fish. There were fresh made biscuits that were very good. There was a taco bar, but the taco meat was mixed with beans and was dry looking. It needed stirring. I passed.

As more people came in, buffet staff seemed to realize that things needed tending. The tray of dry looking baked beans was removed, an empty tray put in its spot and then the beans were poured in. Now they looked as they should - no longer dried out. The temperature of the steam tables were turned up and water added under some of the trays. Now steam was visibly rising from the trays. Too late. This is apple country. A try of fried apples was brought out. My wife took some - they were good but not sweet.

Dessert appeared to be baked at the counter, but each item looked like it came from a box - the apple pie, mini-donuts, glazed cake donuts, and cookies. There were two dishes of cookies - both chocolate chip. One was chewy, the other seemed crisp and from a box. There were mini apple turnovers - these were dry. There were two trays of hot cake like puddings. Both looked dried out. There is an ice cream machine which was definitely ice milk and not good.

Service was attentive. Dishes were cleared readily and drinks were continutally brought to the table. The server kept checking in to make sure that all was well.

My opinion of this buffet is based on the maintenance of the food on the buffet tables and not the taste. What we took tasted good. But there were many things that I would not take because they were dried out, crusty, or looked like they sat too long. There was too much out for the number of people dining and not enough was taken to keep it fresh. Things needed to be stirred. Things needed liquid added to them. Frankly, I wondered if we were not going to feel sick after the meal - WE DID NOT. I want to repeat that - we were OK after the meal. But why should one have to wonder?

Evidently, this was once - not too long ago - part of the Western Steer chain (which has no website to find out about the chain, but I know that there is - or there was - one in Orlando, Fl and one in Elkin, West Virginia). Why is this no longer part of the chain - any number of reasons - and I do not know. Perhaps they did not keep the standards? I do not know. The restaurant was CLEAN. The ladies room was very good. The mens room was OK food was ok. It needed TENDING.

I will say in conclusion that this buffet is FAIR. It is not bad. It is not good. I would not recommend it. I might try it again (if I am in this part of Virginia again), but honestly, I have to say perhaps not.

An aside is that there were signs posted that say that Virginia State law requires that a clean plate be taken each time - how nice ! Perhaps the Stae of Virginia has read the rules of buffets posted on this site. Each should be a law in every state! There were also signs posted saying that they are required to check the temperature of the food three times a day and they must tell the patrons what it is supposed to be; this too was posted. Though I am not quite sure that it was accurate.

The restaurant is located at 131 Town Run Lane in Stephens City, Virginia. There is no website. The phone number is 540-869-6907. The buffet closes at 9:00 pm and the hot tables are closed down at 9:30 - this is posted and is fair notice. Should you try it? Maybe not.

The Complainers

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

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

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

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

SITED AT A BUFFET -

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

We've Been Robbed!!!

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

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

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

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

Buffets in Hagerstown, Maryland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week of Buffets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Star Buffet and Grill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greenfields Restaurant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trying to Diet at the Buffet

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gotta lose weight. You can still enjoy.

Children at the Buffet

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

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

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

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

Family Style Dining

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buffets on TV and in the Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Family Cupboard at their New Location

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

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

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

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

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

Having Valentine's Day Dinner at the Old Country Buffet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Variety at the Golden Corral

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

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

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

A VALENTINE'S DAY ASIDE --

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

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


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

Nutrition at the Buffets

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lobster Grabbers

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

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

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

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

So, don't be like the Lobster Grabbers.