There was an ad on cable television for this chain of restaurants. I quickly hit the Internet to find out where they were and discovered that this is a chain of over 600 restaurants primarily in the Southeastern United States. Looking on their locator map they are as far north in the east as Pennsylvania, and recently a restaurant opened in Chicago. Sadly, there is none near me, though there are several in areas that I travel through. I have not reviewed a restaurant that I have not eaten at, but I am going to tell you about what I have learned about this chain - and perhaps there is someone out there who has eaten at CiCi's Pizza who can post a comment and tell us all how it is.
Cici's Pizza is a pizza and pasta buffet. It is one of the cheapest buffet meals that I am aware of. The entire meal including pizza, pasta, salad, dessert, and soda is just $4.49. This seems to be the only price - lunch or dinner. There is no mention of a children's price. This is all you care to eat and there is a lot of variety.
They claim to have 16 different types of pizzas and "tons" of toppings. I am not sure what this means, but the implication is that you can add toppings to the pizzas that are on the buffet. The pizza's on the buffet are 12 inch pies cut into ten slices - it is all you want so the size does not really matter. There is pasta with two types of sauce - either marinara or alfredo. The claim is that the salad bar is "expansive". Desserts include chocolate and apple desserts and cinnamon rolls.
There are also take out pizzas which are larger, 15 inch pies. There is also dessert to go.
A pizza buffet is an interesting concept. Pizza Hut does a lunch buffet. It is not this cheap. The chain started in Texas in 1985, so the restaurant is long established. There are peel and win contests that make the price even cheaper and the website has a game page on which you play the games to win coupons and free meals. I would love to see one of these restaurants. If anyone has been to one please tell us about it!
There is a website which is posted at the side of the page. The website will tell you where the nearest restaurant is to you.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
China Buffet Restaurant - East Meadow, NY
The China Buffet Restaurant is located on Merrick Avenue in East Meadow, New York. Years ago this was a neighborhood regular Chinese restaurant. A number of years ago they became a buffet that includes a Mongolian grill.
This restaurant is just a mile from my home. About two years back we had gone to this restaurant regularly, but then stopped. At the time the dinner was $8.99. The reason that we stopped was that it never seemed to be kept as clean as it should be. One of their problems is a carpeted dining room floor and anything that falls or spills is very obvious. Tonight, we were looking for some place different and this restaurant was brought up. My wife said that in two years things could be very different. So we decided to give it another chance.
There is a primary difference in two years - the price has gone up two dollars. The dinner price is now $10.99. The lunch price is $5.99. The prices are the same seven days a week. Children under two eat free and under seven are half price. Soda, RC products, is $1.20 with free refills. The price is low compared to other local Chinese buffet restaurants, but the variety offered is limited.
The restaurant is one large room. The seating area of booths and tables is divided down the middle by one long buffet server and the Mongolian grill behind it.
I must say that many of the things that diners look for in a Chinese buffet are here for the price. There are crab legs - single legs, not clusters. There is sushi - California Rolls and salmon on rice. There is the Mongolian grill. At the grill there is chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork. The meat should be frozen and kept that way - here it was not. There is an assortment of vegetables, but the usual chopped cabbage that should be the filler vegetable was missing. There were noodles. There were two sauces - both unlabeled and both looked the same (soy sauce?). There was hot pepper and garlic to spoon on top. In addition there was crab in ginger sauce, fried dumplings, cocktail shrimp, egg foo young, several chicken dishes, sweet and sour pork that was made up with vegetables (not the usual fried chicken pieces with red sauce to pour on top) shrimp with lobster sauce, and the usual beef and peppers and chicken with broccoli. The chicken with broccoli was made with a nice brown sauce and was better than most. There are also the usual fried appetizers. There are three soups - wonton (with the wontons on the side to add in), egg drop, and hot and sour.
Most other Chinese buffets offer more variety in the dishes served. The Mongolian grill can make up for that here, as you can make yourself almost any combination.
There are NO knives to be found in this restaurant. Several of the dishes need to be cut - unless you have a very large mouth or extremely strong teeth. This was a problem two years ago and it is still a problem now.
The desert selection is very limited. There is pudding, soft serve ice cream, jello, orange sections, a non-labeled pie that could have been like a cheese cake pie, and bananas in a red sauce. There were none of the little cakes usually found at these restaurants.
If the price were still $8.99 I might be inclined to go back sooner than later, but for a few dollars more there are better Chinese buffets to be found. The cleanliness issue is still marginal. The same carpet holds the dirt on the floor and unless you are there when they open for the day you are not going to see a clean floor; the carpet is not cleaned until they close. The dishes seemed clean,and the table seemed clean. The food was refilled regularly and there was someone maintaining what was out on the server - stirring, etc.
There is no website. In summary I will say that this is a coin toss - not great, but not bad.
This restaurant is just a mile from my home. About two years back we had gone to this restaurant regularly, but then stopped. At the time the dinner was $8.99. The reason that we stopped was that it never seemed to be kept as clean as it should be. One of their problems is a carpeted dining room floor and anything that falls or spills is very obvious. Tonight, we were looking for some place different and this restaurant was brought up. My wife said that in two years things could be very different. So we decided to give it another chance.
There is a primary difference in two years - the price has gone up two dollars. The dinner price is now $10.99. The lunch price is $5.99. The prices are the same seven days a week. Children under two eat free and under seven are half price. Soda, RC products, is $1.20 with free refills. The price is low compared to other local Chinese buffet restaurants, but the variety offered is limited.
The restaurant is one large room. The seating area of booths and tables is divided down the middle by one long buffet server and the Mongolian grill behind it.
I must say that many of the things that diners look for in a Chinese buffet are here for the price. There are crab legs - single legs, not clusters. There is sushi - California Rolls and salmon on rice. There is the Mongolian grill. At the grill there is chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork. The meat should be frozen and kept that way - here it was not. There is an assortment of vegetables, but the usual chopped cabbage that should be the filler vegetable was missing. There were noodles. There were two sauces - both unlabeled and both looked the same (soy sauce?). There was hot pepper and garlic to spoon on top. In addition there was crab in ginger sauce, fried dumplings, cocktail shrimp, egg foo young, several chicken dishes, sweet and sour pork that was made up with vegetables (not the usual fried chicken pieces with red sauce to pour on top) shrimp with lobster sauce, and the usual beef and peppers and chicken with broccoli. The chicken with broccoli was made with a nice brown sauce and was better than most. There are also the usual fried appetizers. There are three soups - wonton (with the wontons on the side to add in), egg drop, and hot and sour.
Most other Chinese buffets offer more variety in the dishes served. The Mongolian grill can make up for that here, as you can make yourself almost any combination.
There are NO knives to be found in this restaurant. Several of the dishes need to be cut - unless you have a very large mouth or extremely strong teeth. This was a problem two years ago and it is still a problem now.
The desert selection is very limited. There is pudding, soft serve ice cream, jello, orange sections, a non-labeled pie that could have been like a cheese cake pie, and bananas in a red sauce. There were none of the little cakes usually found at these restaurants.
If the price were still $8.99 I might be inclined to go back sooner than later, but for a few dollars more there are better Chinese buffets to be found. The cleanliness issue is still marginal. The same carpet holds the dirt on the floor and unless you are there when they open for the day you are not going to see a clean floor; the carpet is not cleaned until they close. The dishes seemed clean,and the table seemed clean. The food was refilled regularly and there was someone maintaining what was out on the server - stirring, etc.
There is no website. In summary I will say that this is a coin toss - not great, but not bad.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Steakhouse Special at Old Country Buffet
Tonight we decided to try the new "Steakhouse" special at Old Country Buffet. The special menu is served from Thursday through Saturday nights. As many of OCB's special menus are, this one is disappointing.
The menu introduces several new items to the buffet. There are two types of "Steakhouse" steaks - garlic mushroom and peppercorn. There is rotissarie-"style" chicken. There is peel and eat shrimp. There is butterfly shrimp, and there is a "blooming" onion.
In actuality the two types of steak are just the same steak that OCB usually serves, fatty and overdone, with two different sauces served on the side. The garlic mushroom sauce is the same mushrooms with garlic that is always served at OCB with their steak. The peppercorn sauce tasted like a mushroom gravy with too much cracked pepper added. It was definitely not the French peppercorn sauce that I have had at restaurants before. Silly me, thinking that Old Country Buffet was actually going to serve steak au poivre.
The rotissarie-style chicken never came near a rotissarie. I guess that is why it is called "rotissarie-style". It was better than the usual OCB baked chicken. It was moister and had a good taste. Had it actually been a rotissarie chicken it would have been even better.
The picture at the door shows a "blooming" onion just like the one at Outback Steakhouse, a whole onion fried and open. The Outback has nothing to worry about. This was no where to be found on the buffet servers. What was there was breaded, fried onion sections and were called "onion chips" on the sign above them. The special sauce shown in the photo was also no where to be found.
The peel and eat shrimp, on first look, had promise. It was located on the salad bar and the shrimp were served in a large dish full of ice. The shrimp were nice sized, cocktail shrimp. Unfortunately, the shrimp mostly sat in the melted ice water and were soaked through with water. They had little taste. There was a serving dish of cocktail sauce next to the dish of shrimp, but it was empty. I asked one of the servers if it could be refilled and I was told that there was no more. This is Friday night - does this mean that tomorrow, at Saturday's dinner, there will be no cocktail sauce. And if there is, where will they get it? And if there is, why was it not put out tonight?
The butterfly shrimp were just small fried shrimp, butterflied and fried. Nothing special.
So overall, don't rush out for the steakhouse special. It is better than Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp - but, if they are going to do this - in obvious competiton with the steakhouse steaks now featured at The Golden Corral, why not do it right - serve steak that has in some similarity (other than that it is beef - I hope) to a steak that one would get in a steakhouse.
The Old Country Buffet that I go to most often - because of proximity - is the OCB in Levittown, NY. There is a continued problem at this location that has only to do with poor planning on the part of the management. They frequently run out of things or have long delays in refilling things. They never anticipate what the crowd might be - especially when the day is or is before a school holiday, when more families will go out to eat. A good manager would plan in advance that more needs to be on hand on those days. There is also inconsistency in the cooking at this location. I would think that things are precooked, heat and serve, but they do not seem to be. Some nights they are much more salty than other nights. Tonight was one of those salty nights.
When we arrived at the restaurant this evening we saw two large buses parked outside. With some regrets that we picked the wrong night to come, we went in to find that a college football team from Georgia was having dinner inside. A group this large must have made advanced arrangements - again, this was not planned into the preparation for the evening's business, and there was a lot empty at the buffet tables. They were a nice group of guys - all large and all hungry. The lines were long around the buffet servers. To top it all off, one of the two ice machines (that never have enough ice and are often quickly emptied) has been out of service for a week. So the line at the only ice machine went on and on. Usually the soda is cold on its own, but tonight it was warm out of the spout, perhaps related to the broken ice unit. When the team left things settled down and some (just some) of the trays got refilled. To go to the only other OCB on Long Island I would have to drive 30 miles. Not with gas prices as they still are. It is not so bad that I won't go there, but this location needs improving. So does the overall chain's special menu offerings.
The menu introduces several new items to the buffet. There are two types of "Steakhouse" steaks - garlic mushroom and peppercorn. There is rotissarie-"style" chicken. There is peel and eat shrimp. There is butterfly shrimp, and there is a "blooming" onion.
In actuality the two types of steak are just the same steak that OCB usually serves, fatty and overdone, with two different sauces served on the side. The garlic mushroom sauce is the same mushrooms with garlic that is always served at OCB with their steak. The peppercorn sauce tasted like a mushroom gravy with too much cracked pepper added. It was definitely not the French peppercorn sauce that I have had at restaurants before. Silly me, thinking that Old Country Buffet was actually going to serve steak au poivre.
The rotissarie-style chicken never came near a rotissarie. I guess that is why it is called "rotissarie-style". It was better than the usual OCB baked chicken. It was moister and had a good taste. Had it actually been a rotissarie chicken it would have been even better.
The picture at the door shows a "blooming" onion just like the one at Outback Steakhouse, a whole onion fried and open. The Outback has nothing to worry about. This was no where to be found on the buffet servers. What was there was breaded, fried onion sections and were called "onion chips" on the sign above them. The special sauce shown in the photo was also no where to be found.
The peel and eat shrimp, on first look, had promise. It was located on the salad bar and the shrimp were served in a large dish full of ice. The shrimp were nice sized, cocktail shrimp. Unfortunately, the shrimp mostly sat in the melted ice water and were soaked through with water. They had little taste. There was a serving dish of cocktail sauce next to the dish of shrimp, but it was empty. I asked one of the servers if it could be refilled and I was told that there was no more. This is Friday night - does this mean that tomorrow, at Saturday's dinner, there will be no cocktail sauce. And if there is, where will they get it? And if there is, why was it not put out tonight?
The butterfly shrimp were just small fried shrimp, butterflied and fried. Nothing special.
So overall, don't rush out for the steakhouse special. It is better than Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp - but, if they are going to do this - in obvious competiton with the steakhouse steaks now featured at The Golden Corral, why not do it right - serve steak that has in some similarity (other than that it is beef - I hope) to a steak that one would get in a steakhouse.
The Old Country Buffet that I go to most often - because of proximity - is the OCB in Levittown, NY. There is a continued problem at this location that has only to do with poor planning on the part of the management. They frequently run out of things or have long delays in refilling things. They never anticipate what the crowd might be - especially when the day is or is before a school holiday, when more families will go out to eat. A good manager would plan in advance that more needs to be on hand on those days. There is also inconsistency in the cooking at this location. I would think that things are precooked, heat and serve, but they do not seem to be. Some nights they are much more salty than other nights. Tonight was one of those salty nights.
When we arrived at the restaurant this evening we saw two large buses parked outside. With some regrets that we picked the wrong night to come, we went in to find that a college football team from Georgia was having dinner inside. A group this large must have made advanced arrangements - again, this was not planned into the preparation for the evening's business, and there was a lot empty at the buffet tables. They were a nice group of guys - all large and all hungry. The lines were long around the buffet servers. To top it all off, one of the two ice machines (that never have enough ice and are often quickly emptied) has been out of service for a week. So the line at the only ice machine went on and on. Usually the soda is cold on its own, but tonight it was warm out of the spout, perhaps related to the broken ice unit. When the team left things settled down and some (just some) of the trays got refilled. To go to the only other OCB on Long Island I would have to drive 30 miles. Not with gas prices as they still are. It is not so bad that I won't go there, but this location needs improving. So does the overall chain's special menu offerings.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Ramblings
Well, we are home again. We have been for a few weeks. The posts were written after dining at the restaurants and published one a week. It is time to start writing again.
Since returning we have been back to a few of the local buffets. Tonight we went back to the Good Taste Buffet in Commack, NY. (See July 22, 2006)Sometimes the second time around, things are different - or disappointing. The Good Taste Buffet was just as good this time. The food has a fresh taste - you can taste the shrimp as shrimp - not so in many restaurants, buffets or not. Sadly, this restaurant is not close by to us and we are not often in the area to dine there.
A few times in the past few weeks we have been back to the Old Country Buffet. I am very pleased to announce that Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp is GONE, GONE, GONE. That was one of the worst OCB specials that they have ever offered. The worst part was that it took the place of all of the regular offerings each night - despite the claim that it did not. The new special at OCB is Steak House Steak. This was something that Golden Corral did,and did well. I have not had the OCB special yet, but from the description on the signs and posters, it is not going to be great, why? - because the main center of attraction is OCB's poorly cooked steak. The other two major buffet chains cooked the steak to order on a flame grill. OCB's steak is broiled in an oven and served one way - tough and well done. There are a few things going along with the steak. There will be Outback-style blooming onions and peel and eat shrimp. The shrimp - if it is kept properly chilled - will be a nice feature. The steak is advertised in two styles - with garlic mushrooms or peppercorn. I will not comment until I try it - but..
One Saturday afternoon we needed a substantial lunch, anticipating a not so substantial dinner. We went to the OCB at about 3:00 pm. We were there in the midst of seniors having early dinners and Disabled group homes out for a meal field trip. There were a few odd guests - none of them part of the Disabled. There was one lady in flamboyant Sixties pants and top with hair to match. This was defiantly an aging hippy who was never told that the Sixties have been long gone. This was not someone in a fashion coming back - this was a lady who should not have been wearing this if it was 1968.
One good thing to know about showing up for lunch at OCB at about 3:00 pm. You pay lunch prices and for about 30 minutes the lunch menu is out on the buffet tables, but at 3:30 the buffet begins to change and the dinner features come out as the lunch features are taken away. So for less money you get both menus, lunch and dinner. Not bad. All of the carvings come out, as well as all of the dinner menu items.
One night at OCB we saw the largest man we have ever seen - not so much tall but round. I am not sure how he sat on the chair (but he did) or how he fit into a car. On another night we saw a family with two children - middle school age. The kids were eating ice cream and french fries - together on their plates. And they were dipping. Humm... Mom and Dad just watched without commenting. This is only topped by the lady that I told you about months ago at a Ryan's who had steak and shrimp on her plate topped with vanilla ice cream.
Enough rambling for now. If you have been to the OCB and had the new steakhouse special, let us know in the comments area how it is.
Since returning we have been back to a few of the local buffets. Tonight we went back to the Good Taste Buffet in Commack, NY. (See July 22, 2006)Sometimes the second time around, things are different - or disappointing. The Good Taste Buffet was just as good this time. The food has a fresh taste - you can taste the shrimp as shrimp - not so in many restaurants, buffets or not. Sadly, this restaurant is not close by to us and we are not often in the area to dine there.
A few times in the past few weeks we have been back to the Old Country Buffet. I am very pleased to announce that Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp is GONE, GONE, GONE. That was one of the worst OCB specials that they have ever offered. The worst part was that it took the place of all of the regular offerings each night - despite the claim that it did not. The new special at OCB is Steak House Steak. This was something that Golden Corral did,and did well. I have not had the OCB special yet, but from the description on the signs and posters, it is not going to be great, why? - because the main center of attraction is OCB's poorly cooked steak. The other two major buffet chains cooked the steak to order on a flame grill. OCB's steak is broiled in an oven and served one way - tough and well done. There are a few things going along with the steak. There will be Outback-style blooming onions and peel and eat shrimp. The shrimp - if it is kept properly chilled - will be a nice feature. The steak is advertised in two styles - with garlic mushrooms or peppercorn. I will not comment until I try it - but..
One Saturday afternoon we needed a substantial lunch, anticipating a not so substantial dinner. We went to the OCB at about 3:00 pm. We were there in the midst of seniors having early dinners and Disabled group homes out for a meal field trip. There were a few odd guests - none of them part of the Disabled. There was one lady in flamboyant Sixties pants and top with hair to match. This was defiantly an aging hippy who was never told that the Sixties have been long gone. This was not someone in a fashion coming back - this was a lady who should not have been wearing this if it was 1968.
One good thing to know about showing up for lunch at OCB at about 3:00 pm. You pay lunch prices and for about 30 minutes the lunch menu is out on the buffet tables, but at 3:30 the buffet begins to change and the dinner features come out as the lunch features are taken away. So for less money you get both menus, lunch and dinner. Not bad. All of the carvings come out, as well as all of the dinner menu items.
One night at OCB we saw the largest man we have ever seen - not so much tall but round. I am not sure how he sat on the chair (but he did) or how he fit into a car. On another night we saw a family with two children - middle school age. The kids were eating ice cream and french fries - together on their plates. And they were dipping. Humm... Mom and Dad just watched without commenting. This is only topped by the lady that I told you about months ago at a Ryan's who had steak and shrimp on her plate topped with vanilla ice cream.
Enough rambling for now. If you have been to the OCB and had the new steakhouse special, let us know in the comments area how it is.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Green Olive Buffet and Grill - Arlington, Virginia
Driving to our hotel late at night in Alexandria, Virginia we drove past a restaurant that we had known to be a seafood buffet in the past. A number of years ago we had called the restaurant to find out the price and was told a ridiculously high price – with the reason that lobster was being served. We laughed at the price and never tried the restaurant. When we saw the sign for the restaurant now it still said seafood buffet but it now had a different name. At the hotel there was a local tourism magazine that had an ad for this restaurant. My wife said to me that the ad says that dinner is $12.99 per adult seven days a week. We also discovered that while the restaurant is a seafood buffet, it is also an oriental buffet.
The name of this restaurant is the Green Olive Buffet and Grill and we had dinner there the next evening. The restaurant is located on US1. The address is 7405 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia. The prices for dinner are $12.99 per adult (every night) with children’s prices based upon height. Children under 36” are free and under 5’4” are half price. My wife is 5’1” but she had to pay full price. There is a lunch buffet for $6.99 Monday to Friday and $8.99 on Saturday and Sunday. Soft drinks are $1.49 and are refillable.
The restaurant is large with two large dining rooms on each side of a large room of buffet servers. One room is smoking; the other is non-smoking. There are five double sided buffet servers, a one sided buffet server, a counter with five soups, and a large grill and sushi bar. There is great variety in this restaurant and you can easily just eat seafood, just eat meat and potatoes, or just eat oriental – OR mix as you like. You enter and you are seated (paying when you leave). The server takes your soft drink order and you start going up for your meal. Silverware is placed on your table and your server brings extra napkins. Knives are available near the grill. Plates are at the end of each buffet server.
There are five soups. The featured soup on the night we went was lobster bisque. There was also New England clam chowder, wonton soup, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup. The lobster bisque was a light, creamy soup with chunks of lobster meat (and some chunks that seemed to be sealegs and not lobster – but there was definitely a good amount of lobster in there. The wonton soup had a nice broth with good, meat filled wontons.
There was a salad bar with greens, toppings, and dressings, as well as prepared salads including a cold shrimp in a spiced sauce. On this server there was also raw clams, raw oysters, and peel and eat shrimp that were a good size.
There were a variety of steamed dumplings and also pan fried dumplings. There were all the usual Chinese appetizers – egg rolls, fried wontons, cheese and crab wontons, fries crab claws, etc. There was a sushi bar with a sushi chef standing behind it the whole time that we were there and he was preparing sushi. There were many different types including salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, several fish that I did not recognize (but I am sure those who know sushi would), and California rolls that were big and full.
There were many types of seafood, both fried and “steamed”. There were steamed blue crabs, steamed, spiced shrimp, salmon, stuffed crab shells, crab cakes that were full of crab meat and very good, steamed flounder, crab and cheese casserole, fried shrimp, fried scallops, mixed seafood, fried clam strips, two types of mussels, seafood and noodles alfredo, fried frog legs, steamed clams, and on the chargrill whole shrimps (complete with heads).
Meats include carved prime rib, Peking duck, a variety of Chinese meat dishes including chicken and mushrooms, chicken and broccoli, beef and peppers, roast chicken, and other changing meats. On the chargrill they will grill steak to your order, as well as teriyaki beef sticks. There were barbecue spareribs that were a combination of Chinese spareribs and American bbq spareribs. They had a thick sauce on them that tasted more oriental than barbecue sauce.
There are many vegetables and side dishes, both oriental and American. There were mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sautéed string beans, and corn on the cob. There was rice, fried rice, and lo mein.
For dessert there was banana pudding, chocolate pudding, jello, canned fruit, fresh fruit, and the usual assortment of “Little Debbie”-like cakes. Next to the soup counter is a freezer chest with four flavors of ice cream cups. The ice cream is Hershey’s ice cream and was very good. (Did you know that Hershey’s ice cream has nothing to do with the Hershey’s chocolate company?)
The restaurant was clean and well maintained. The food was good and there were a significant number of Asian diners – which is one of my clues that an Asian restaurant is good. Service was good and dishes were cleared quickly. There was one minor thing regarding the service that was certainly just a mistake, but could have caused a serious problem. We were drinking Diet Coke (coke products are served here) and when the server came with a pitcher to refill the glasses, she said, “Diet Coke” and poured. When I drank the soda, I am certain that it was real Coke – as a Diabetic this is a problem. Now my wife insists that it was Diet Coke – but it had that sugar jolt that only a Diabetic who does not get real Coke often can taste. I could have gotten the server over right away to change the soda to change it. That aside, the service was great. They even kept coming over to make sure that all was well.
There are a few buffet choices in the Arlington area. This one is definitely worth a visit. If you are just looking for seafood this one has more than most seafood buffets. If you want Chinese, Sushi, or American – this one has it all. The inside décor is very nice – nicer than you might expect from the road house look of the outside. There is also a liquor bar in the buffet room with seats at the bar and large screen TVs with sports. I recommend the Green Olive Buffet and Grill. The phone number is 703-765-5899. There is a website which is listed at the side of the page.
Try this one!
The name of this restaurant is the Green Olive Buffet and Grill and we had dinner there the next evening. The restaurant is located on US1. The address is 7405 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia. The prices for dinner are $12.99 per adult (every night) with children’s prices based upon height. Children under 36” are free and under 5’4” are half price. My wife is 5’1” but she had to pay full price. There is a lunch buffet for $6.99 Monday to Friday and $8.99 on Saturday and Sunday. Soft drinks are $1.49 and are refillable.
The restaurant is large with two large dining rooms on each side of a large room of buffet servers. One room is smoking; the other is non-smoking. There are five double sided buffet servers, a one sided buffet server, a counter with five soups, and a large grill and sushi bar. There is great variety in this restaurant and you can easily just eat seafood, just eat meat and potatoes, or just eat oriental – OR mix as you like. You enter and you are seated (paying when you leave). The server takes your soft drink order and you start going up for your meal. Silverware is placed on your table and your server brings extra napkins. Knives are available near the grill. Plates are at the end of each buffet server.
There are five soups. The featured soup on the night we went was lobster bisque. There was also New England clam chowder, wonton soup, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup. The lobster bisque was a light, creamy soup with chunks of lobster meat (and some chunks that seemed to be sealegs and not lobster – but there was definitely a good amount of lobster in there. The wonton soup had a nice broth with good, meat filled wontons.
There was a salad bar with greens, toppings, and dressings, as well as prepared salads including a cold shrimp in a spiced sauce. On this server there was also raw clams, raw oysters, and peel and eat shrimp that were a good size.
There were a variety of steamed dumplings and also pan fried dumplings. There were all the usual Chinese appetizers – egg rolls, fried wontons, cheese and crab wontons, fries crab claws, etc. There was a sushi bar with a sushi chef standing behind it the whole time that we were there and he was preparing sushi. There were many different types including salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, several fish that I did not recognize (but I am sure those who know sushi would), and California rolls that were big and full.
There were many types of seafood, both fried and “steamed”. There were steamed blue crabs, steamed, spiced shrimp, salmon, stuffed crab shells, crab cakes that were full of crab meat and very good, steamed flounder, crab and cheese casserole, fried shrimp, fried scallops, mixed seafood, fried clam strips, two types of mussels, seafood and noodles alfredo, fried frog legs, steamed clams, and on the chargrill whole shrimps (complete with heads).
Meats include carved prime rib, Peking duck, a variety of Chinese meat dishes including chicken and mushrooms, chicken and broccoli, beef and peppers, roast chicken, and other changing meats. On the chargrill they will grill steak to your order, as well as teriyaki beef sticks. There were barbecue spareribs that were a combination of Chinese spareribs and American bbq spareribs. They had a thick sauce on them that tasted more oriental than barbecue sauce.
There are many vegetables and side dishes, both oriental and American. There were mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sautéed string beans, and corn on the cob. There was rice, fried rice, and lo mein.
For dessert there was banana pudding, chocolate pudding, jello, canned fruit, fresh fruit, and the usual assortment of “Little Debbie”-like cakes. Next to the soup counter is a freezer chest with four flavors of ice cream cups. The ice cream is Hershey’s ice cream and was very good. (Did you know that Hershey’s ice cream has nothing to do with the Hershey’s chocolate company?)
The restaurant was clean and well maintained. The food was good and there were a significant number of Asian diners – which is one of my clues that an Asian restaurant is good. Service was good and dishes were cleared quickly. There was one minor thing regarding the service that was certainly just a mistake, but could have caused a serious problem. We were drinking Diet Coke (coke products are served here) and when the server came with a pitcher to refill the glasses, she said, “Diet Coke” and poured. When I drank the soda, I am certain that it was real Coke – as a Diabetic this is a problem. Now my wife insists that it was Diet Coke – but it had that sugar jolt that only a Diabetic who does not get real Coke often can taste. I could have gotten the server over right away to change the soda to change it. That aside, the service was great. They even kept coming over to make sure that all was well.
There are a few buffet choices in the Arlington area. This one is definitely worth a visit. If you are just looking for seafood this one has more than most seafood buffets. If you want Chinese, Sushi, or American – this one has it all. The inside décor is very nice – nicer than you might expect from the road house look of the outside. There is also a liquor bar in the buffet room with seats at the bar and large screen TVs with sports. I recommend the Green Olive Buffet and Grill. The phone number is 703-765-5899. There is a website which is listed at the side of the page.
Try this one!
Friday, September 22, 2006
Grand Shanghai Restaurant – Williamsburg, Virginia
The Grand Shanghai Restaurant is a new Chinese buffet in Williamsburg, Virginia. The restaurant is in the location of the former Peking II buffet. That restaurant closed to become the larger Peking Buffet that I reviewed one year ago. The site remained vacant for a while and now the Grand Shanghai has opened. Many of the dishes used here still say Peking on them as used at the other restaurant.
This restaurant has a lot of competition in the Peking Restaurant that is just down the road. Reading my review of the Peking you will know that I consider that restaurant the best Chinese buffet that I have been to. We went into this new restaurant with a comparison in the back of our minds which is really not fair to the Grand Shanghai – yet, with the proximity of this competition comparisons cannot be overlooked. If you have a choice of the two, you need to know which one to choose.
The price of this restaurant is excellent at $8.99 per adult dinner. Soft drinks were $1.20 and there are free refills. There were no prices posted or in any literature so I cannot tell you what the children’s price is or what the lunch buffet costs. This restaurant is smaller than Peking. It has two dining areas - one with all booths at the side of the restaurant and one with a mix of both tables and booths. The décor is expectedly oriental and very nice. It is evident right at the door that this is a family run restaurant as even a young child was working seating guests and also working at the cash register – for an elementary age young lady she did an excellent job. Father and mother were working as was older sister (it seemed).
There are three short double-sided buffet servers at the side of a Mongolian grill (which is actually a small fry grill and not the large round griddle that is usually found). At each side of this grill was a mix of salad and toppings and Mongolian BBQ items on one side and grill items on the other side along with pan fried dumplings and dim sum. There was also a tray of “sushi” which is featured in the advertising but was nothing more than avocado rolls and cold shrimp on top of rice. This is really not sushi = there was no raw fish and no variety.
There were the three usual soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The wonton soup had a light, good broth and the wontons were full, well cooked and had a light, but solidly good skin. There were two types of dumplings offered- pan fried and steamed. Both were good and full. There also was dim sum with a nice flavor.
We went into this restaurant on a Tuesday night at about 6:30 pm which is definitely dinner time. The restaurant was not crowded, but filled more as we sat there dining. When we went up to the servers there were several trays that were empty. No one seemed to be paying attention and they remained empty for a while. A short time later the owners and the little girl went around and took note of what was empty. Things started to be refilled in a short time after that. So my first impression of “hmm, who is watching these tables?” was proved wrong by mid-meal.
The food was all good. There were a number of entrees and vegetable dishes. Some of the offerings were Beef and Zucchini, grilled shrimp on a skewer, fried spicy shrimp, popcorn shrimp, General Tso’s chicken, Chicken and Broccoli, Hong Kong Beef, mussels, a wide variety of chicken dishes,and duck. All of the usual were there including peel and eat shrimp, fried wontons, egg rolls, fried rice (with both shrimp and pork), lo mein, spare ribs (with overly sweet sauce cooked on), chicken on a stick (though this was much lighter than the usual),etc.
To all of this there was also the Mongolian barbecue. The offerings for this are limited. There are three meats – chicken, pork, and slices of beef ribs. The vegetables were next to and mixed into the salad bar. There was some confusion here as to what went with what – and for the most part did not matter. My wife and I both took what we saw as zucchini and it turned out to be cucumbers. It did not go well on the grill – well, it was ok, but it was not zucchini. All of the hot entrees were well labeled. The Mongolian BBQ items were not labeled except for the several sauce choices. These sauces were a bit unusal with red wine, a lo mein sauce, and then the usual hot sauce, Mongolian sauce, and garlic. I tried a mix of the wine and the lo mein sauce and it was good. There is a bell to ring to get the cook to come out and put your choices on the grill. He was there when we went up and did a good job including cleaning the grill (scraping it down) between each dish that he cooked.
There is a limited selection of desserts. There were fried dough balls, little éclairs, and sugar flaky dough pretzel shaped cookies. There was also fresh and canned fruit, pudding, and jello. At the side of the grill area there was a freezer case with scoop yourself hard ice cream.
By now you have heard me refer to “cookie cutter” Chinese buffets where one is almost a total duplicate of another. This was only a partial cookie cutter restaurant. Some dishes were the same as at other buffets, but many were different and had a distinct flavor at this restaurant.
The service was excellent. Dishes were removed promptly by one of two young ladies working the dining room. Soda was refilled promptly – once while we were up at the buffet table. We were continually asked if we would like more. The check was put on the table mid-meal but I do not think thatthere was anything intended by it and the young lady kept coming back and asking if we wanted more soda as we continued to go to the servers and return to the table to eat.
There is great value here. If we must go back to the comparison, then I must say that the choices here are much more limited than at the Peking Restaurant. Then again, the price here is a about two dollars less per adult and for what you are paying you are not going to leave hungry or unhappy. If I could only go to one, I would still pick Peking first, but this is a nice alternative. I recommend it.
The restaurant is located at 5601-12 Richmond Road in the Ewell Station Shopping Center (strip mall) in Williamsburg, Virginia. The shopping center is adjacent to the Prime Outlets. There is no website. The phone number is (757) 565-1212. There are ads in the local tourist magazines but no discount coupons.
Try it!
This restaurant has a lot of competition in the Peking Restaurant that is just down the road. Reading my review of the Peking you will know that I consider that restaurant the best Chinese buffet that I have been to. We went into this new restaurant with a comparison in the back of our minds which is really not fair to the Grand Shanghai – yet, with the proximity of this competition comparisons cannot be overlooked. If you have a choice of the two, you need to know which one to choose.
The price of this restaurant is excellent at $8.99 per adult dinner. Soft drinks were $1.20 and there are free refills. There were no prices posted or in any literature so I cannot tell you what the children’s price is or what the lunch buffet costs. This restaurant is smaller than Peking. It has two dining areas - one with all booths at the side of the restaurant and one with a mix of both tables and booths. The décor is expectedly oriental and very nice. It is evident right at the door that this is a family run restaurant as even a young child was working seating guests and also working at the cash register – for an elementary age young lady she did an excellent job. Father and mother were working as was older sister (it seemed).
There are three short double-sided buffet servers at the side of a Mongolian grill (which is actually a small fry grill and not the large round griddle that is usually found). At each side of this grill was a mix of salad and toppings and Mongolian BBQ items on one side and grill items on the other side along with pan fried dumplings and dim sum. There was also a tray of “sushi” which is featured in the advertising but was nothing more than avocado rolls and cold shrimp on top of rice. This is really not sushi = there was no raw fish and no variety.
There were the three usual soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The wonton soup had a light, good broth and the wontons were full, well cooked and had a light, but solidly good skin. There were two types of dumplings offered- pan fried and steamed. Both were good and full. There also was dim sum with a nice flavor.
We went into this restaurant on a Tuesday night at about 6:30 pm which is definitely dinner time. The restaurant was not crowded, but filled more as we sat there dining. When we went up to the servers there were several trays that were empty. No one seemed to be paying attention and they remained empty for a while. A short time later the owners and the little girl went around and took note of what was empty. Things started to be refilled in a short time after that. So my first impression of “hmm, who is watching these tables?” was proved wrong by mid-meal.
The food was all good. There were a number of entrees and vegetable dishes. Some of the offerings were Beef and Zucchini, grilled shrimp on a skewer, fried spicy shrimp, popcorn shrimp, General Tso’s chicken, Chicken and Broccoli, Hong Kong Beef, mussels, a wide variety of chicken dishes,and duck. All of the usual were there including peel and eat shrimp, fried wontons, egg rolls, fried rice (with both shrimp and pork), lo mein, spare ribs (with overly sweet sauce cooked on), chicken on a stick (though this was much lighter than the usual),etc.
To all of this there was also the Mongolian barbecue. The offerings for this are limited. There are three meats – chicken, pork, and slices of beef ribs. The vegetables were next to and mixed into the salad bar. There was some confusion here as to what went with what – and for the most part did not matter. My wife and I both took what we saw as zucchini and it turned out to be cucumbers. It did not go well on the grill – well, it was ok, but it was not zucchini. All of the hot entrees were well labeled. The Mongolian BBQ items were not labeled except for the several sauce choices. These sauces were a bit unusal with red wine, a lo mein sauce, and then the usual hot sauce, Mongolian sauce, and garlic. I tried a mix of the wine and the lo mein sauce and it was good. There is a bell to ring to get the cook to come out and put your choices on the grill. He was there when we went up and did a good job including cleaning the grill (scraping it down) between each dish that he cooked.
There is a limited selection of desserts. There were fried dough balls, little éclairs, and sugar flaky dough pretzel shaped cookies. There was also fresh and canned fruit, pudding, and jello. At the side of the grill area there was a freezer case with scoop yourself hard ice cream.
By now you have heard me refer to “cookie cutter” Chinese buffets where one is almost a total duplicate of another. This was only a partial cookie cutter restaurant. Some dishes were the same as at other buffets, but many were different and had a distinct flavor at this restaurant.
The service was excellent. Dishes were removed promptly by one of two young ladies working the dining room. Soda was refilled promptly – once while we were up at the buffet table. We were continually asked if we would like more. The check was put on the table mid-meal but I do not think thatthere was anything intended by it and the young lady kept coming back and asking if we wanted more soda as we continued to go to the servers and return to the table to eat.
There is great value here. If we must go back to the comparison, then I must say that the choices here are much more limited than at the Peking Restaurant. Then again, the price here is a about two dollars less per adult and for what you are paying you are not going to leave hungry or unhappy. If I could only go to one, I would still pick Peking first, but this is a nice alternative. I recommend it.
The restaurant is located at 5601-12 Richmond Road in the Ewell Station Shopping Center (strip mall) in Williamsburg, Virginia. The shopping center is adjacent to the Prime Outlets. There is no website. The phone number is (757) 565-1212. There are ads in the local tourist magazines but no discount coupons.
Try it!
Friday, September 15, 2006
Wood Grill Buffet, Charlottesville, Virginia
Whenever I am in Charlottesville and there at dinner I go to the Wood Grill Buffet. This was one of the first large scale buffet restaurants that I ever went to. It was found by accident and we went to it because of the huge crowd at the door to get in. Since our first visit it has moved down the road to a larger location. The first time we were very impressed and we have not been disappointed since. We had an unintentionally memorable experience and we still laugh about it years later. When we were seated our server came over - a large man with a heavy German accent. He introduced himself to us as our "Servant" Hans. I am sure that he meant to say "server", but we still remember that night when for about an hour and a half we had a "servant". Well, Hans has since gone, but we still enjoy this restaurant each time that we can manage to get there. We found out on that first visit that folks travel over a hundred miles one way from North Carolina to get to this restaurant.
So, The Wood Grill Buffet is located at 576 Branch Lands Blvd. off Route 29 in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is in the corner of the parking lot of part of a shopping center that also has a Courtyard Marriott hotel. The sign for the Courtyard Marriott is the most noticeable landmark for the turn off of Route 29. This is north of the City of Charlottesville. The restaurant is affiliated with the Western Sizzlin chain and the Western Sizzlin name appears with Wood Grill Buffet. I must say right here that THIS restaurant is NOTHING like the terrible Western Sizzlin buffet restaurants - we had one of our worst buffet experiences at a Western Sizzlin in Hagerstown, Maryland two years ago. It is a good thing that we had been here before because if it had been the other way we never would have gone to the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville. This restaurant is great - NOTHING like the Western Sizzlin.
There is always a crowd to get in, but the wait is just ten minutes or so and you give your name to be seated so you are not standing on line. The price is comparable with the other chains when you add the soda and meal together. The price every night is $9.29 for adults and $8.29 for seniors. The children's price is $0.50 per year of age for children 4 to 12. There is a lunch buffet priced at $7.29 per adult and $6.79 for seniors. Children pay he same as at dinner. Soft drinks are $1.59 for unlimited refills. You pay after the meal. When your table is ready you are called and seated.
Our server came over immediately and introduced himself and took our soft drink orders. This time he was just our server and not our "servant". The restaurant seating area is very large and there are tables and booths. The buffet serving area consists of four double-sided serving tables, a large, long grill area with grills behind and trays of grilled food set out, and a large three sided baked goods area including all of the desserts, breads, and pizza.
At the middle of the grill are two soup choices. One was New England Clam Chowder (the white cream kind) and chicken noodle soup with thick broth and thick, soft noodles. The chicken noodle soup was excellent. I did not try the clam chowder, but it looked good and there were little oysterette crackers to put in it.
Two of the double-sided buffets were salads. One was mixed green salad with two types of lettuce greens to choose and a large variety of toppings and many dressings including Caesar. The other salad buffet table had many prepared, cold salads. The chicken salad was excellent with large chunks of chicken.
The other two double-sided buffet servers are hot entrees and vegetables. There was fried chicken, two types of fried shrimp, fried fish, hot wings, spaghetti, mac and cheese, meat balls in gravy, mashed potatoes, french fries, lima beans with ham, butter beans, collard greens (that did not look washed out and had big chunks of fatback), a spaghetti casserole, scalloped potatoes, kernel corn, mashed sweet potatoes, onion rings, fried apples, cabbage, hush puppies, and many other choices of vegetables and hot entrees.
There is a large three-sided area in the center that has desserts and baked goods. There is corn bread, rolls, and two choices of pizza - with meat and with just cheese. The pizza was over flowing with cheese and the crust was thick. It is good. For dessert there is a large assortment of baked goods, puddings, and ice cream. There were eight pies, six cakes and six different types of cookies. There were rice krispy treats. There were two ice cream machines with soft serve and sundae toppings. There was fresh fruit and canned fruit. There were excellent cherry fruit bars. The were two hot fruit cobblers.
At the grill there was peppers and sausage, broiled fish, pot roast, great spare ribs, steak (pre-cooked), meat loaf, chicken cordon blu, carved roast beef, carved ham, pork chops, pulled pork (with sauce on the side), cheeseburgers, hot dogs, taco meat and toppings with both corn and flour tortillas, chicken with bbq sauce, plain grilled chicken, and other grilled meats. There were also grilled mixed vegetables, corn on the cob, mushrooms, and grilled string beans that were really, really good.
Anyone should have no problem finding something to enjoy. When the meat is carved for you, the portion is large - ask for a small piece. If the roast beef looks too rare, tell the man carving and he will put it on the grill until it is done to your liking. The steak is the only disappointment as it is not grilled to order (though I have seen people ask for a piece off the grill and cooked to their liking). I took a piece from the tray, and while tasty, it was well done and a bit dry. There were so many other meats to choose from that the steak is not a problem - and it seemed that I could have just waited for one that was cooked rare. There are many who love well done beef - I am not one of them. The pulled pork was excellent and since it is served with the red sauce on the side it appeals to all - even my wife who has never tried pulled pork before because she does not like barbecue sauce. The sausage and peppers was good and was gone when I went back for a second serving. (It was replaced by a second type of broiled fish.) The pork ribs were very good and the meat fell off the bone as good barbecue should. They were cut along several ribs so that the strip had a lot of meat. They were served in barbecue sauce.
Service was EXCEPTIONAL! The plates were taken away as soon as we went up for more. Drinks were refilled at the same time. The server was always within sight and came over immediately if it even looked like we needed him (which we didn't because he did his job so well). He did something that was odd but quickly explained why he did it - he brought the check to the able just after we started eating. He came quickly over to explain that he did this so that the busboy would not clear the table when we got up for more - he would see the check and know we were coming back. This was great and no other server seemed to be doing this. Many times at buffets we have had our table cleared in mid-meal by an over-eager busperson - everything gone -silverware, drinks, etc. It is less of a problem in the colder months because your coat is on the chair and is a signal that you are still there, but in the summer this can become a problem. Even in the pre-pay restaurants where you get a slip to leave on the table while you are dining this has been a problem because so many people leave without turning over the slip or taking it away when they leave. Well it worked here thanks to this great idea by this server.
So, I highly recommend the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlotteville, Virginia. It is a must stop if you are in that area - hey, it is worth a detour. The phone number for this restaurant is 434-975-5613. There is no website, except for the location listing on the Western Sizzlin site- which I will not post because of my experience with their other restaurant(s). (Some day I will write about that one if I can recall all of the terrible details. Don't go to one of those restaurants thinking that it will be like this one.)
Go to the Wood Grill Buffet.
So, The Wood Grill Buffet is located at 576 Branch Lands Blvd. off Route 29 in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is in the corner of the parking lot of part of a shopping center that also has a Courtyard Marriott hotel. The sign for the Courtyard Marriott is the most noticeable landmark for the turn off of Route 29. This is north of the City of Charlottesville. The restaurant is affiliated with the Western Sizzlin chain and the Western Sizzlin name appears with Wood Grill Buffet. I must say right here that THIS restaurant is NOTHING like the terrible Western Sizzlin buffet restaurants - we had one of our worst buffet experiences at a Western Sizzlin in Hagerstown, Maryland two years ago. It is a good thing that we had been here before because if it had been the other way we never would have gone to the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlottesville. This restaurant is great - NOTHING like the Western Sizzlin.
There is always a crowd to get in, but the wait is just ten minutes or so and you give your name to be seated so you are not standing on line. The price is comparable with the other chains when you add the soda and meal together. The price every night is $9.29 for adults and $8.29 for seniors. The children's price is $0.50 per year of age for children 4 to 12. There is a lunch buffet priced at $7.29 per adult and $6.79 for seniors. Children pay he same as at dinner. Soft drinks are $1.59 for unlimited refills. You pay after the meal. When your table is ready you are called and seated.
Our server came over immediately and introduced himself and took our soft drink orders. This time he was just our server and not our "servant". The restaurant seating area is very large and there are tables and booths. The buffet serving area consists of four double-sided serving tables, a large, long grill area with grills behind and trays of grilled food set out, and a large three sided baked goods area including all of the desserts, breads, and pizza.
At the middle of the grill are two soup choices. One was New England Clam Chowder (the white cream kind) and chicken noodle soup with thick broth and thick, soft noodles. The chicken noodle soup was excellent. I did not try the clam chowder, but it looked good and there were little oysterette crackers to put in it.
Two of the double-sided buffets were salads. One was mixed green salad with two types of lettuce greens to choose and a large variety of toppings and many dressings including Caesar. The other salad buffet table had many prepared, cold salads. The chicken salad was excellent with large chunks of chicken.
The other two double-sided buffet servers are hot entrees and vegetables. There was fried chicken, two types of fried shrimp, fried fish, hot wings, spaghetti, mac and cheese, meat balls in gravy, mashed potatoes, french fries, lima beans with ham, butter beans, collard greens (that did not look washed out and had big chunks of fatback), a spaghetti casserole, scalloped potatoes, kernel corn, mashed sweet potatoes, onion rings, fried apples, cabbage, hush puppies, and many other choices of vegetables and hot entrees.
There is a large three-sided area in the center that has desserts and baked goods. There is corn bread, rolls, and two choices of pizza - with meat and with just cheese. The pizza was over flowing with cheese and the crust was thick. It is good. For dessert there is a large assortment of baked goods, puddings, and ice cream. There were eight pies, six cakes and six different types of cookies. There were rice krispy treats. There were two ice cream machines with soft serve and sundae toppings. There was fresh fruit and canned fruit. There were excellent cherry fruit bars. The were two hot fruit cobblers.
At the grill there was peppers and sausage, broiled fish, pot roast, great spare ribs, steak (pre-cooked), meat loaf, chicken cordon blu, carved roast beef, carved ham, pork chops, pulled pork (with sauce on the side), cheeseburgers, hot dogs, taco meat and toppings with both corn and flour tortillas, chicken with bbq sauce, plain grilled chicken, and other grilled meats. There were also grilled mixed vegetables, corn on the cob, mushrooms, and grilled string beans that were really, really good.
Anyone should have no problem finding something to enjoy. When the meat is carved for you, the portion is large - ask for a small piece. If the roast beef looks too rare, tell the man carving and he will put it on the grill until it is done to your liking. The steak is the only disappointment as it is not grilled to order (though I have seen people ask for a piece off the grill and cooked to their liking). I took a piece from the tray, and while tasty, it was well done and a bit dry. There were so many other meats to choose from that the steak is not a problem - and it seemed that I could have just waited for one that was cooked rare. There are many who love well done beef - I am not one of them. The pulled pork was excellent and since it is served with the red sauce on the side it appeals to all - even my wife who has never tried pulled pork before because she does not like barbecue sauce. The sausage and peppers was good and was gone when I went back for a second serving. (It was replaced by a second type of broiled fish.) The pork ribs were very good and the meat fell off the bone as good barbecue should. They were cut along several ribs so that the strip had a lot of meat. They were served in barbecue sauce.
Service was EXCEPTIONAL! The plates were taken away as soon as we went up for more. Drinks were refilled at the same time. The server was always within sight and came over immediately if it even looked like we needed him (which we didn't because he did his job so well). He did something that was odd but quickly explained why he did it - he brought the check to the able just after we started eating. He came quickly over to explain that he did this so that the busboy would not clear the table when we got up for more - he would see the check and know we were coming back. This was great and no other server seemed to be doing this. Many times at buffets we have had our table cleared in mid-meal by an over-eager busperson - everything gone -silverware, drinks, etc. It is less of a problem in the colder months because your coat is on the chair and is a signal that you are still there, but in the summer this can become a problem. Even in the pre-pay restaurants where you get a slip to leave on the table while you are dining this has been a problem because so many people leave without turning over the slip or taking it away when they leave. Well it worked here thanks to this great idea by this server.
So, I highly recommend the Wood Grill Buffet in Charlotteville, Virginia. It is a must stop if you are in that area - hey, it is worth a detour. The phone number for this restaurant is 434-975-5613. There is no website, except for the location listing on the Western Sizzlin site- which I will not post because of my experience with their other restaurant(s). (Some day I will write about that one if I can recall all of the terrible details. Don't go to one of those restaurants thinking that it will be like this one.)
Go to the Wood Grill Buffet.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Almost... And Then The weird Part
My article on January 13, 2006 was about buffets that are now gone, but not forgotten. Well, about four weeks ago when making advanced dinner reservations at the colonial restaurants in the Colonial Williamsburg restoration my wife was told by the reservation clerk that the "special dinner" at Shield's Tavern was once again available. My wife asked if this was the all you can eat dinner served in colonial style. Absolutely - it was! This was the dinner that I wrote about and was discontinued about a year ago. The dinner was brought back as a summer special and was now called the "summer feast". It was only available Friday and Saturday nights. My wife made the reservation for the Friday night of Labor Day weekend at 8:00pm - seating time specified by the reservation clerk.
Oh boy! This was the meal that I wrote about. This was one of the best! No longer gone - definitely not forgotten! We anxiously awaited this meal.
The Friday before Labor Day in southeastern Virginia was the day that Tropical Depression (no longer hurricane) Ernesto hit. Roads were flooded. Electricity went out - including at our hotel and in Colonial Williamsburg. Heavy rains and winds hit the area hard. So badly that we had to move to a different hotel or remain sitting in the dark (which at almost $100 for the night is not the thing to do). We managed to get through the day, carried our luggage down four stories in the dark in a hotel staircase that had no emergency lights, and hoped that electricity would be restored to the restaurant in time to open for the night. At 5:00 pm we called the reservation line for the restaurant. We asked if the restaurant had electricity and would be open for our reservation at 8 and we were told definitely. At 7:20 pm we headed over the mile or so to the restaurant. We walked in the rain from the parking lot and found a large crowd coming out of the restaurant. We went inside and thought it curious that the usual person greeting people coming in and checking in with their reservations was no where to be found. We found a young lady and made our presence known. She was confused and told us that they had served the dinner at 5:30 pm and it was done for the night. "Oh no", I said, "we have 8:00 reservations for tonight - Friday night." She said that she would find a manager and she disappeared down a staircase. We stood waiting wondering where we were going to eat in at such a late hour when most restaurants were closing - especially on a day of a storm.
In a short while a gentlemen wearing an apron came up and greeted us by name. He introduced himself as a manager and explained that the restaurant had been sold out to a party for the night. He said that it had been an error regarding our reservation and that they could not contact us because of the storm. Before smoke started to come out of my ears he said that to make up for the error, he would buy us both dinner at the colonial restaurant next door. I looked at my wife and we followed him out the door into the rain and over to the restaurant next door. Once there we were greeted by name, escorted to our table like VIP's and once seated the waiter came over and also greeted us by name.
While we could order anything on the menu (yes, here we had to order from a menu), we did not take advantage and ordered as we normally would. When the meal was over - it was a great meal - the waiter came over and told us good night and all was taken CARE OF. All right! The meal should have cost about $65.00 plus the 10% tax charged at Virginia restaurants. Of course, I tipped the waiter what I would have if I had paid for the meals.
Alas, though, this was not the anticipated - all you can eat - best meal that I was waiting for. It occurred to me that if the large party that had been booked for the night was leaving when we got there at 7:45, and we had 8:00 reservations, what was going on - really? Could it be that we were the only 8:00 reservations and given the storm, they did not want to serve another "special" meal just to one couple? When we had dined at one of the other colonial restaurants earlier in the week whey didn't they tell us then that our reservations for Friday had a problem? Why didn't they ask if we could come back the next night - it is supposed to be served Friday AND Saturday? No mention was made of Saturday. All good questions - right? But we did eat for free.
Now for the weird part -
It is Saturday night and we have reservations at 7:30pm in one of the other colonial restaurants. We get to the parking lot and notice that the lot is almost empty - just two or three cars. This lot is usually packed on Saturday night of Labor Day weekend. We get out of the car and walk to the front of the building. There are people in front of the restaurant and we go up to the reception desk, give our name - and then... we are told that this restaurant has no electricity (Odd - there were electric lights on behind the restaurant leading the way from the parking lot and in the service building adjacent to the restaurant there were loud fans running.). Then they say... we are having everyone with a reservation go over to Shield's Tavern for dinner tonight at 8:00pm. Did I hear that right? Perhaps I should not get my hopes up and they are serving this restaurant's menu over at Shield's due to the circumstances. She asks if this is ok with us and as a consolation we will receive 10 percent off on our dinner. OK! We head over to Shield's Tavern. Outside there is a menu board and the "special summer dinner" is listed as what is being served. Oh my!
We approach the door and we are seated. A menu is given to us that explains the "Special Summer Dinner". Yes! The dinner is $29.99 per adult and is listed as all you care to eat. The offerings are definitely different than they were when we had been here for the all you care to eat dinner two years ago - the one that was discontinued. There no longer were skewers of grilled shrimp, baby back ribs, and fried chicken. This new meal featured roast turkey, root beer glazed ham, a stew of braised beef, mushrooms, vegetables, and wine, served along with tossed salad, real mashed potatoes with the skin mashed in, turkey dressing, string beans, stewed fruit, and bread rolls. For dessert there was a choice of sweet potato bread pudding with a custard sauce or an apple cobbler (or both if you wanted). A beverage of coffee, hot or iced tea, or lemonade is included in the price. All of the food was good. The stew is exceptionally good and it changes from time to time to a different stew. This stew, again, was great - and I ate two crocks. The beef was in large pieces - not small chunks like usual beef stew. The sauce had just the right hint of red wine. The turkey and ham were not really different from what you would expect. The mashed potatoes were very good. The desserts were excellent. We each tried a different one. There really was no room to want a second - though it was available for the asking.
The way this meal works is that everything is brought to your table for you to share and then asked if you would like any or all items refilled. There is a skillet brought with the turkey in gravy, dressing, and mashed potatoes. To start there was a slice of turkey for each. We asked for more turkey when we had those two slices and three more were brought. Ask for more and you get more. There is a platter also brought with two slices of ham, string beans, and stewed fruit (peaches, pears, and plums). We asked for another whole platter and that was brought. A crock of stew is brought to the table filled to near the top. It is enough for two - I asked for another crock and it was brought. To start the meal a large bowl of tossed salad greens with a vinaigrette dressing is brought to the table tossed and served. The remainder is left for you to take more. The greens were the fussy, fancy varieties. The salad was good, and I had some - but later I thought that if I had skipped the salad I could have eaten more of the good stuff. (If you are not thinking healthy skip the salad and get right to the entrees. I do not say this in particular for this restaurant but in general.)
The service was excellent and there is entertainment in the form of colonial music and a gentleman portraying the 18th Century tavern owner. With the check we each received souvenir pins that sell for $3 each normally.
So after all, I got to eat the all you care to eat special dinner at Shield's Tavern. I believe that now that the summer has almost ended so has this offer, It may be back again. And we heard that the special all you can eat seafood buffet at the Lodge (which is under re-construction) may also return when the Lodge opens again. That was another meal written about in the January article. If you get down to Colonial Williamsburg, ask dining reservations if the Special All You Care to Eat Dinner is available at Shield's. As we found out, you never know!
Now, a little more weird. At different times ghostly things have happened in these restored 18th century taverns to us (actually, mainly my wife) and this night at Shield's was another one. Skeptics will scoff, but these things have happened and one may explain them away as one will. Tonight, my wife put the giblets from the turkey gravy of the end of her large, colonial knife - the type with the large round end. She was about to move them to the side of her plate on her right side. She looked down to place the little bits of meat and they were gone. They were not on her plate and she certainly did not eat them. She does not like them, which is why she was doing this in the first place. When the meal was over and her dinner plate was removed they were under - I say, under - the rim of her plate on the opposite side of where they had ever been. We can't explain it.
Oh boy! This was the meal that I wrote about. This was one of the best! No longer gone - definitely not forgotten! We anxiously awaited this meal.
The Friday before Labor Day in southeastern Virginia was the day that Tropical Depression (no longer hurricane) Ernesto hit. Roads were flooded. Electricity went out - including at our hotel and in Colonial Williamsburg. Heavy rains and winds hit the area hard. So badly that we had to move to a different hotel or remain sitting in the dark (which at almost $100 for the night is not the thing to do). We managed to get through the day, carried our luggage down four stories in the dark in a hotel staircase that had no emergency lights, and hoped that electricity would be restored to the restaurant in time to open for the night. At 5:00 pm we called the reservation line for the restaurant. We asked if the restaurant had electricity and would be open for our reservation at 8 and we were told definitely. At 7:20 pm we headed over the mile or so to the restaurant. We walked in the rain from the parking lot and found a large crowd coming out of the restaurant. We went inside and thought it curious that the usual person greeting people coming in and checking in with their reservations was no where to be found. We found a young lady and made our presence known. She was confused and told us that they had served the dinner at 5:30 pm and it was done for the night. "Oh no", I said, "we have 8:00 reservations for tonight - Friday night." She said that she would find a manager and she disappeared down a staircase. We stood waiting wondering where we were going to eat in at such a late hour when most restaurants were closing - especially on a day of a storm.
In a short while a gentlemen wearing an apron came up and greeted us by name. He introduced himself as a manager and explained that the restaurant had been sold out to a party for the night. He said that it had been an error regarding our reservation and that they could not contact us because of the storm. Before smoke started to come out of my ears he said that to make up for the error, he would buy us both dinner at the colonial restaurant next door. I looked at my wife and we followed him out the door into the rain and over to the restaurant next door. Once there we were greeted by name, escorted to our table like VIP's and once seated the waiter came over and also greeted us by name.
While we could order anything on the menu (yes, here we had to order from a menu), we did not take advantage and ordered as we normally would. When the meal was over - it was a great meal - the waiter came over and told us good night and all was taken CARE OF. All right! The meal should have cost about $65.00 plus the 10% tax charged at Virginia restaurants. Of course, I tipped the waiter what I would have if I had paid for the meals.
Alas, though, this was not the anticipated - all you can eat - best meal that I was waiting for. It occurred to me that if the large party that had been booked for the night was leaving when we got there at 7:45, and we had 8:00 reservations, what was going on - really? Could it be that we were the only 8:00 reservations and given the storm, they did not want to serve another "special" meal just to one couple? When we had dined at one of the other colonial restaurants earlier in the week whey didn't they tell us then that our reservations for Friday had a problem? Why didn't they ask if we could come back the next night - it is supposed to be served Friday AND Saturday? No mention was made of Saturday. All good questions - right? But we did eat for free.
Now for the weird part -
It is Saturday night and we have reservations at 7:30pm in one of the other colonial restaurants. We get to the parking lot and notice that the lot is almost empty - just two or three cars. This lot is usually packed on Saturday night of Labor Day weekend. We get out of the car and walk to the front of the building. There are people in front of the restaurant and we go up to the reception desk, give our name - and then... we are told that this restaurant has no electricity (Odd - there were electric lights on behind the restaurant leading the way from the parking lot and in the service building adjacent to the restaurant there were loud fans running.). Then they say... we are having everyone with a reservation go over to Shield's Tavern for dinner tonight at 8:00pm. Did I hear that right? Perhaps I should not get my hopes up and they are serving this restaurant's menu over at Shield's due to the circumstances. She asks if this is ok with us and as a consolation we will receive 10 percent off on our dinner. OK! We head over to Shield's Tavern. Outside there is a menu board and the "special summer dinner" is listed as what is being served. Oh my!
We approach the door and we are seated. A menu is given to us that explains the "Special Summer Dinner". Yes! The dinner is $29.99 per adult and is listed as all you care to eat. The offerings are definitely different than they were when we had been here for the all you care to eat dinner two years ago - the one that was discontinued. There no longer were skewers of grilled shrimp, baby back ribs, and fried chicken. This new meal featured roast turkey, root beer glazed ham, a stew of braised beef, mushrooms, vegetables, and wine, served along with tossed salad, real mashed potatoes with the skin mashed in, turkey dressing, string beans, stewed fruit, and bread rolls. For dessert there was a choice of sweet potato bread pudding with a custard sauce or an apple cobbler (or both if you wanted). A beverage of coffee, hot or iced tea, or lemonade is included in the price. All of the food was good. The stew is exceptionally good and it changes from time to time to a different stew. This stew, again, was great - and I ate two crocks. The beef was in large pieces - not small chunks like usual beef stew. The sauce had just the right hint of red wine. The turkey and ham were not really different from what you would expect. The mashed potatoes were very good. The desserts were excellent. We each tried a different one. There really was no room to want a second - though it was available for the asking.
The way this meal works is that everything is brought to your table for you to share and then asked if you would like any or all items refilled. There is a skillet brought with the turkey in gravy, dressing, and mashed potatoes. To start there was a slice of turkey for each. We asked for more turkey when we had those two slices and three more were brought. Ask for more and you get more. There is a platter also brought with two slices of ham, string beans, and stewed fruit (peaches, pears, and plums). We asked for another whole platter and that was brought. A crock of stew is brought to the table filled to near the top. It is enough for two - I asked for another crock and it was brought. To start the meal a large bowl of tossed salad greens with a vinaigrette dressing is brought to the table tossed and served. The remainder is left for you to take more. The greens were the fussy, fancy varieties. The salad was good, and I had some - but later I thought that if I had skipped the salad I could have eaten more of the good stuff. (If you are not thinking healthy skip the salad and get right to the entrees. I do not say this in particular for this restaurant but in general.)
The service was excellent and there is entertainment in the form of colonial music and a gentleman portraying the 18th Century tavern owner. With the check we each received souvenir pins that sell for $3 each normally.
So after all, I got to eat the all you care to eat special dinner at Shield's Tavern. I believe that now that the summer has almost ended so has this offer, It may be back again. And we heard that the special all you can eat seafood buffet at the Lodge (which is under re-construction) may also return when the Lodge opens again. That was another meal written about in the January article. If you get down to Colonial Williamsburg, ask dining reservations if the Special All You Care to Eat Dinner is available at Shield's. As we found out, you never know!
Now, a little more weird. At different times ghostly things have happened in these restored 18th century taverns to us (actually, mainly my wife) and this night at Shield's was another one. Skeptics will scoff, but these things have happened and one may explain them away as one will. Tonight, my wife put the giblets from the turkey gravy of the end of her large, colonial knife - the type with the large round end. She was about to move them to the side of her plate on her right side. She looked down to place the little bits of meat and they were gone. They were not on her plate and she certainly did not eat them. She does not like them, which is why she was doing this in the first place. When the meal was over and her dinner plate was removed they were under - I say, under - the rim of her plate on the opposite side of where they had ever been. We can't explain it.
Friday, September 01, 2006
The Captain's Galley, Williamsburg, Virginia
In August 2005 I wrote about a small buffet located in Williamsburg, Virginia called the Country Harvest Buffet. Returning to that area a year later the restaurant has changed names and focus. It is now called The Captain’s Galley. They say that they feature two buffets in one – in reality they feature a bit of confusion for those who enter to dine. There are now two buffets in this restaurant – one is just a portion of the other and there are two different prices depending on the buffet that you choose. There is a buffet that features seafood and another that closely resembles the buffet that was here before featuring “country food”. The seafood buffet is $19.99 for each adult and the country buffet is $12.99 per adult – two dollars higher than a year ago (and this past December when I dined here last). Before you are seated the two buffets are explained and you chose then which you are going to have. At first we thought that where we were seated would keep them reminded of which buffet we were having, but as others were seated this no longer seemed to be the case. We could hear that many were confused about all of this and one family insisted that they were told that the seafood was $12.99 – I am not sure how that was resolved. I must say that when we were explained what was offered and how much it was, it was explained very definitely. This is a vacation area and a tourist based restaurant so perhaps no one wants to have to think that hard while they are on vacation.
The restaurant is run by the same senior couple. The interior has been slightly remodeled with a little airier appearance. There is now a small double-sided buffet server in one of the dining rooms adjacent to the larger buffet area. This newly added server features crab leg clusters and fried and broiled seafood entrees. If you eat from this buffet server you may also eat from the other as you will pay $19.99 and you are having the seafood buffet. If you chose to have the country buffet you may not go to the seafood server.
The country buffet is very close to how it was before in regard to what is offered and if you read the article found in our August 2005 archive you will find out all about it. The main difference now is that the QUALITY HAS DECREASED and that the buffet tables drastically need tending throughout the night. Many of the entrees – which were chicken of one form or another- had no identification and you really could not tell what they were. Different from before is the absence of all seafood from this serving area with the one exception of fried catfish. Now, when I first took a piece I thought this was chicken nuggets. It looked like fried bits of chicken and when I ate a piece it had the texture and toughness of a well done lump of fried chicken. Later, when more was put out it was very obviously catfish. Many of the meat entrees were drying out in the serving trays. The short ribs which are pork now and no longer beef were so tough that it was difficult to get any meat off of the bone. Pork barbecue was in a tomato sauce that could easily have been used for pasta. The pasta dish resembled lasagna but was so mashed in the serving tray that it was not a choice I wanted to try. Sadly, many things were like this. There was a listing on the table of what was on both buffet servers, but there were several items missing – and several uncertain as to what they were when you looked at them.
I have been to this restaurant a number of times in the past. This time I was disappointed and probably will not return again. It was difficult to find anything appetizing. We had the country buffet because there are much better value seafood buffets in this area for not much more money than $19.99. Things that we selected were tasty, but it was difficult to select things due to there appearance.
One of the points I made about this restaurant last year was the deserts that were offered and those same desserts are offered and on both buffets. (It is not really two buffets as you get the country buffet area along with the seafood area if you have the seafood buffet and on the country buffet only the seafood table is restricted. The dessert area is shared as is the salad bar and the two soups – which seemed to be home made and were still good.
Drinks are self=serve and are included in the total price of the buffet. The soft serve ice cream machine is still in the corner of the room not working – as it was not working a year ago. You take your own plates and silverware. You no longer pay as you enter, but as you leave. They are very trusting (I guess) because we were asked at the cashier which buffet we had and were charged accordingly. So – no one is checking if you take seafood or not. There is a ten percent discount in the local tourist magazine that is free at all of the hotels and tourist spots. They serve a breakfast buffet – but no price was visible. There was also no posting of children’s prices – I hope they had them because there were several kids eating seafood and that would have been some bill.
Service was very good and plates were cleared regularly. This is the one thing that has improved here as they seem to have more clearing staff working. Unfortunately, they did not have enough eyes on the serving trays and, seemingly, no one making sure that the serving trays were keep moist and palatable.
I recommended this restaurant a year ago in its incarnation as The Country Harvest Buffet. As The Captain’s Galley I can no longer recommend this to any of you. There are many other much better buffets in this area to try including the still good Peking Buffet, Golden Corral, and others.
The Captain’s Galley is located at 1425 Richmond Road in Williamsburg, Virginia. They have no website. The phone number is (757) 220-8270.
Final words – skip this one.
The restaurant is run by the same senior couple. The interior has been slightly remodeled with a little airier appearance. There is now a small double-sided buffet server in one of the dining rooms adjacent to the larger buffet area. This newly added server features crab leg clusters and fried and broiled seafood entrees. If you eat from this buffet server you may also eat from the other as you will pay $19.99 and you are having the seafood buffet. If you chose to have the country buffet you may not go to the seafood server.
The country buffet is very close to how it was before in regard to what is offered and if you read the article found in our August 2005 archive you will find out all about it. The main difference now is that the QUALITY HAS DECREASED and that the buffet tables drastically need tending throughout the night. Many of the entrees – which were chicken of one form or another- had no identification and you really could not tell what they were. Different from before is the absence of all seafood from this serving area with the one exception of fried catfish. Now, when I first took a piece I thought this was chicken nuggets. It looked like fried bits of chicken and when I ate a piece it had the texture and toughness of a well done lump of fried chicken. Later, when more was put out it was very obviously catfish. Many of the meat entrees were drying out in the serving trays. The short ribs which are pork now and no longer beef were so tough that it was difficult to get any meat off of the bone. Pork barbecue was in a tomato sauce that could easily have been used for pasta. The pasta dish resembled lasagna but was so mashed in the serving tray that it was not a choice I wanted to try. Sadly, many things were like this. There was a listing on the table of what was on both buffet servers, but there were several items missing – and several uncertain as to what they were when you looked at them.
I have been to this restaurant a number of times in the past. This time I was disappointed and probably will not return again. It was difficult to find anything appetizing. We had the country buffet because there are much better value seafood buffets in this area for not much more money than $19.99. Things that we selected were tasty, but it was difficult to select things due to there appearance.
One of the points I made about this restaurant last year was the deserts that were offered and those same desserts are offered and on both buffets. (It is not really two buffets as you get the country buffet area along with the seafood area if you have the seafood buffet and on the country buffet only the seafood table is restricted. The dessert area is shared as is the salad bar and the two soups – which seemed to be home made and were still good.
Drinks are self=serve and are included in the total price of the buffet. The soft serve ice cream machine is still in the corner of the room not working – as it was not working a year ago. You take your own plates and silverware. You no longer pay as you enter, but as you leave. They are very trusting (I guess) because we were asked at the cashier which buffet we had and were charged accordingly. So – no one is checking if you take seafood or not. There is a ten percent discount in the local tourist magazine that is free at all of the hotels and tourist spots. They serve a breakfast buffet – but no price was visible. There was also no posting of children’s prices – I hope they had them because there were several kids eating seafood and that would have been some bill.
Service was very good and plates were cleared regularly. This is the one thing that has improved here as they seem to have more clearing staff working. Unfortunately, they did not have enough eyes on the serving trays and, seemingly, no one making sure that the serving trays were keep moist and palatable.
I recommended this restaurant a year ago in its incarnation as The Country Harvest Buffet. As The Captain’s Galley I can no longer recommend this to any of you. There are many other much better buffets in this area to try including the still good Peking Buffet, Golden Corral, and others.
The Captain’s Galley is located at 1425 Richmond Road in Williamsburg, Virginia. They have no website. The phone number is (757) 220-8270.
Final words – skip this one.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Kings Buffet - International Foods - Fredericksburg, Virginia
I am on the road again and am in Virginia. I have found the first of the buffets that I have discovered this trip. It is the Kings Buffet in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The restaurant is located just east of I-95 on Route 3 or Plank Road which is exit 130East from I-95. This is a Chinese buffet, though the sign says International Foods right after the name.
This is a large restaurant and as I entered it looked remarkably like the restaurant on Long Island, NY that I reported on one week ago – China Buffet City. There were the many buffet tables in the center, the sushi bar, the Mongolian bbq, and the private party room at the side – just like at the other restaurant. When you enter this restaurant you are greeted at the door and seated. Prices here are remarkably low and for what you are getting they are really good. Dinner is $9.99 per adult every day and all day on the weekend. The children’s prices are $3.99 for ages 3 to 6 and 5.50 for ages 7 to 11. There is a lunch buffet during the week and the prices are $6.49 for adults and $2.95 and $4.25 for children. Soft drinks are $1.25 and are unlimited. There is an extra charge for crab legs with the buffet for $2.99 per pound served to your table. There is not much crab in a pound of legs so skip this – you won’t miss it. The hours of the restaurant are Sunday to Thursday from 11am to 9:30pm and n Friday to Saturday until 10:30pm. We visited on a Monday night at 7:00pm. The restaurant was not empty.
There is a sushi bar at the side next to a Mongolian BBQ grill with a counter in front of it with raw vegetables and meats. The entire time that we were in the restaurant no one went to the Mongolian BBQ and there was no chef at the grill – perhaps which was why no one went to it. The first buffet table is a double long table and it was double-sided, It had salad greens and toppings, fresh fruits cut up, prepared salads including a crab salad and a seafood salad, caned fruits, puddings, in fact all of the cold dessert selections, and at the end sushi. The sushi was not served from the sushi bar. It was a good assortment of sushi. The fish was on rice, not rolls, and there were several types of fish including tuna and salmon. There were several vegetable rolls and California rolls.
Behind this long bar were four more regular-sized serving bars. Three were double-sided. Finally, there was a dessert bar with 8 types of cakes and pastry, nuts, and soft serve ice cream with sundae toppings. This night the ice cream machine was only working with vanilla. The ice cream was not as icy as some buffet soft serves can be. Of course, the cakes were the Little Debbie type.
There was a great assortment to be found. There were the usual three soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The wontons were served next to the broth in a steam server. The wontons were a yellow in color and were doughy (perhaps undercooked). The broth was salty. It was good though. There were the usual Chinese fried appetizers. There were spare ribs that were not overly sweet, but they were fatty with little meat. There were boneless spareribs also. There was only one type of dumpling – pan fried, and they were good. The American part of the menu included carved roast beef, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pieces of hot dogs wrapped in dough, and pizza. There was a great deal of seafood, cold to hot. There were raw oysters that were served on ice. They were tasty but gritty – a sign that the sand was not rinsed from them very well. There was good peel and eat shrimp. There were raw mussels also. There were hot mussels, steamed crayfish, half crabs with a lot of meat in them, salmon, flounder (that was full of bones and hard), frogs legs, mixed seafood, octopus, a variety of shrimp dishes, something called fried pomfeti (don’t know what that is), crabmeat and cheese, mussels with cheese on top, mixed seafood, and fried scallops (these were too tough to cut into and eat). Meat dishes included honey chicken, roast chicken pieces, chicken on a stick, Gen. Taos chicken, pineapple chicken, chicken and broccoli, pepper steak, chunks of pork prepared like a Peking pork chop (spicy and good), sweet and sour chicken, little meat balls, and others. The vegetable dishes included lo mein, chow mei fun noodles, fried rice, mixed stir fry vegetables, string beans, and excellent mushrooms. There was corn on the cob, but it was sitting in butter and it looked dried out,
The desserts were a good variety of the desserts that are found at Chinese buffets. There was something that looked like whipped cream in a dish with sprinkles on top. There was no lacking of desserts.
The service was excellent. The dishes were cleared regularly and refills of drinks were offered several times during the meal. The restaurant was clean. The one odd thing is that they bring the check mid=way through the meal. I do not think that it was intended as a message or a hint to leave – they seemed to do this to every table and they kept coming back to clear dishes and refill drinks.
Mainly the food was very good. There were a few not so good items, as I have noted, but the majority of what was served was good, especially for the price. There are several buffet choices in this area including Ryans, OCB, and Golden Corral, along with other Chinese buffets. I would definitely recommend this as a “try it”. This is one of the better Chinese buffets that I have been too. Interestingly, the other best Chinese buffet is also in Virginia (Peking in Williamsburg). If you are in Fredericksburg, which is just 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., come to the Kings Buffet. The address is 2388 Plank Road, Fredericksburg, Virginia. The phone number is 540-374-1322. There is no website.
This is a large restaurant and as I entered it looked remarkably like the restaurant on Long Island, NY that I reported on one week ago – China Buffet City. There were the many buffet tables in the center, the sushi bar, the Mongolian bbq, and the private party room at the side – just like at the other restaurant. When you enter this restaurant you are greeted at the door and seated. Prices here are remarkably low and for what you are getting they are really good. Dinner is $9.99 per adult every day and all day on the weekend. The children’s prices are $3.99 for ages 3 to 6 and 5.50 for ages 7 to 11. There is a lunch buffet during the week and the prices are $6.49 for adults and $2.95 and $4.25 for children. Soft drinks are $1.25 and are unlimited. There is an extra charge for crab legs with the buffet for $2.99 per pound served to your table. There is not much crab in a pound of legs so skip this – you won’t miss it. The hours of the restaurant are Sunday to Thursday from 11am to 9:30pm and n Friday to Saturday until 10:30pm. We visited on a Monday night at 7:00pm. The restaurant was not empty.
There is a sushi bar at the side next to a Mongolian BBQ grill with a counter in front of it with raw vegetables and meats. The entire time that we were in the restaurant no one went to the Mongolian BBQ and there was no chef at the grill – perhaps which was why no one went to it. The first buffet table is a double long table and it was double-sided, It had salad greens and toppings, fresh fruits cut up, prepared salads including a crab salad and a seafood salad, caned fruits, puddings, in fact all of the cold dessert selections, and at the end sushi. The sushi was not served from the sushi bar. It was a good assortment of sushi. The fish was on rice, not rolls, and there were several types of fish including tuna and salmon. There were several vegetable rolls and California rolls.
Behind this long bar were four more regular-sized serving bars. Three were double-sided. Finally, there was a dessert bar with 8 types of cakes and pastry, nuts, and soft serve ice cream with sundae toppings. This night the ice cream machine was only working with vanilla. The ice cream was not as icy as some buffet soft serves can be. Of course, the cakes were the Little Debbie type.
There was a great assortment to be found. There were the usual three soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The wontons were served next to the broth in a steam server. The wontons were a yellow in color and were doughy (perhaps undercooked). The broth was salty. It was good though. There were the usual Chinese fried appetizers. There were spare ribs that were not overly sweet, but they were fatty with little meat. There were boneless spareribs also. There was only one type of dumpling – pan fried, and they were good. The American part of the menu included carved roast beef, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pieces of hot dogs wrapped in dough, and pizza. There was a great deal of seafood, cold to hot. There were raw oysters that were served on ice. They were tasty but gritty – a sign that the sand was not rinsed from them very well. There was good peel and eat shrimp. There were raw mussels also. There were hot mussels, steamed crayfish, half crabs with a lot of meat in them, salmon, flounder (that was full of bones and hard), frogs legs, mixed seafood, octopus, a variety of shrimp dishes, something called fried pomfeti (don’t know what that is), crabmeat and cheese, mussels with cheese on top, mixed seafood, and fried scallops (these were too tough to cut into and eat). Meat dishes included honey chicken, roast chicken pieces, chicken on a stick, Gen. Taos chicken, pineapple chicken, chicken and broccoli, pepper steak, chunks of pork prepared like a Peking pork chop (spicy and good), sweet and sour chicken, little meat balls, and others. The vegetable dishes included lo mein, chow mei fun noodles, fried rice, mixed stir fry vegetables, string beans, and excellent mushrooms. There was corn on the cob, but it was sitting in butter and it looked dried out,
The desserts were a good variety of the desserts that are found at Chinese buffets. There was something that looked like whipped cream in a dish with sprinkles on top. There was no lacking of desserts.
The service was excellent. The dishes were cleared regularly and refills of drinks were offered several times during the meal. The restaurant was clean. The one odd thing is that they bring the check mid=way through the meal. I do not think that it was intended as a message or a hint to leave – they seemed to do this to every table and they kept coming back to clear dishes and refill drinks.
Mainly the food was very good. There were a few not so good items, as I have noted, but the majority of what was served was good, especially for the price. There are several buffet choices in this area including Ryans, OCB, and Golden Corral, along with other Chinese buffets. I would definitely recommend this as a “try it”. This is one of the better Chinese buffets that I have been too. Interestingly, the other best Chinese buffet is also in Virginia (Peking in Williamsburg). If you are in Fredericksburg, which is just 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., come to the Kings Buffet. The address is 2388 Plank Road, Fredericksburg, Virginia. The phone number is 540-374-1322. There is no website.
Friday, August 18, 2006
China Buffet City - North Babylon, New York
I past this restaurant on the road several months ago and since it is a distance from my home I did not try it. Tonight I wanted to go somewhere different so we headed to North Babylon and visited the China Buffet City.
From the name you expect something big - after all it is a "City" - and not to be disappointed, big it was. This is a very large restaurant with one of the biggest buffet areas of many restaurants - Chinese or otherwise, that I have been to. The buffet area was almost as big as the seating area and that was big. In addition to the dining room there is a private dining room for parties.
We went on a weeknight. As we entered we were encountered with a board with the prices - $12.99 per adult. For a week night that is expensive for a Chinese buffet, but we were there and we were going to see if it was worth the price. Friday to Sunday the price is $13.99 for dinner. Children's prices are from 2 to ten and under five feet tall and they are $7.99 and $8.99 for dinner respectively. There is a lunch buffet for $7.99 with children $5.29. Sunday is dinner price all day. The sign said nothing about beverages and we ordered two sodas. At that point my wife asked me if they were included. I did not know. She felt that if they were, the dinner price was comparable to other restaurants. They were not. Sodas were $1.25 each and there are free refills. So with a beverage this restaurant gets even more expensive. For a Tuesday night the restaurant was not full but there were a good number of tables filled. They are open to 10 pm on weeknights and 11 on weekends. We got in around 7:30 pm.
The restaurant bills itself as Chinese, Japanese, American, Italian, Mexican International cuisine. I say no Mexican on the buffet - unless fried bananas are Mexican. They claim they have over 300 items daily - and that is possible. There are 8 - yes, that is right EIGHT double sided buffet tables and there is a grill and sushi bar in the rear. The advertising flyer handed out in the front of the restaurant has a photo and speaks of a Mongolian Bar but there was nothing like that to be found - I wonder where the picture came from, because there was nothing that looked like that here. But there were 8 buffet tables so who is to complain.
There were five soups to start with - wonton, egg drop, hot and sour, miso soup, and seafood soup. The grill has meats including skewered beef, skewered pork, Chinese pork chops, grill chicken and peppers, and other meats. The sushi bar had a very large assortment of raw fish and vegetable sashimi, sushi, and rolls. Unfortunately, at 7:30 pm when we were there the sushi chef stopped working and once something was gone on the sushi bar it was not replaced. This was one of several MINOR problems at this restaurant.
There was a salad bar with lettuce, toppings, and dressings. There were prepared salads. All on ice. There was raw clams, muscles, and oysters - not on ice, but in a cold tray in the server. I have a problem trusting raw shell fish that is not opened on the spot and put directly on ice, so I passed on these. Had they been on ice, I might have tried them. There were hot crab leg clusters, hot muscles, and many seafood dishes, mostly shrimp and "crab" (It is not really crab but is an incredible simulation.) There was salmon and some type of white fish. This brings me to the second minor problem - signage. Some items had identifying signs over them but many of these signs were in front of the wrong thing - it said chicken, it was beef. One sign went with an item that was across on the other server. Then many items had NO signs and it was anyone's guess what they were. Some looked good, but was it pork, beef, or chicken- couldn't tell. Does it matter? It might to some! I tried what the sign said was Japanese Chicken - it was not chicken, but (I hope) beef.
There was a large selection of fried appetizers such as egg rolls, spring rolls, cheese wontons, etc. There were only two dumpling choices - pan fried dumplings and dim sum. The dim sum was one of the better that I have had. Most of the entree dishes were meat or seafood - and primarily meat or seafood alone prepared in different ways - not meat or seafood in vegetables, which to me is traditional Chinese restaurant food - and lately hard to find a Chinese buffets. This may be why the price is high - you are getting high priced items in meat and seafood. The ad flyer says no MSG is used - and it seems so. There were some pasta dishes and also Lo Mein and Mei Fun noodles. As I walked around the many buffet tables I actually had a little bit of a hard time picking out entrees to eat. I did not want to eat an entire meal of meats and seafood without mixing in something lighter. I did not go home hungry as I gave in to the meats and seafood.
There was a dish that they called "smoke pork ribs". These were little rib ends that were served in a dark brown sauce that tasted like American barbecue sauce. They were very tasty but there was very little meat on each one. At the grill the grilled chicken and peppers was good. Like the sushi bar, there was no chef at the grill - everything was cooked and out on trays with the grill in the back, but no one cooking. Once it was gone it was gone. (This may be different on the weekends, but hey, the price was no discount for a weeknight, regardless of the time!) My last complaint was that there were no knives anywhere to be found. I did not ask for one, and perhaps one would have been brought but many of the meat dishes had pieces too big not to cut with a knife to eat easily.
There was a large dessert assortment including hot apple pie that looked like turnovers. There was an ice cream machine. There was fresh and canned fruit. There were four colors of jello. There were puddings, fruits in syrup, hot cherries, hot apples, cookies, and the typical little Debbie-like cakes that are the mainstay of Chinese buffets across the country. (I would love to go to the Chinese Buffet Trade Show- there must be one - that presents all these same items that are found from Chinese buffet to Chinese buffet.)
Now, the restaurant was clean and the food was good. The service was good. Dishes were taken away and drinks were refilled.
Was the restaurant worth the price? Well... Let's say that if you like a lot of meat and seafood, as well as Chinese appetizers, you will be happy. For a few dollars more on mid-Long Island on a weeknight there is better value - see my review of International Buffet. On a weekend, this may be the better choice, as the price rises more at International from Friday to Sunday. Actually the weekend price here is just fifty cents above some of the others and below others too. Weeknights at other Chinese Buffets come in around $11.99 with the drink. Here with the drink on a Tuesday night we paid $14.24 plus sales tax.
There is no website for this restaurant. The address is 1114-1116 Deer Park Avenue in North Babylon (just north of the Southern Parkway) The restaurant shares a building with a Bennigans and the buffet is toward the back. The telephone number is 631-274-0888. They also do buffet and menu takeout.
From the name you expect something big - after all it is a "City" - and not to be disappointed, big it was. This is a very large restaurant with one of the biggest buffet areas of many restaurants - Chinese or otherwise, that I have been to. The buffet area was almost as big as the seating area and that was big. In addition to the dining room there is a private dining room for parties.
We went on a weeknight. As we entered we were encountered with a board with the prices - $12.99 per adult. For a week night that is expensive for a Chinese buffet, but we were there and we were going to see if it was worth the price. Friday to Sunday the price is $13.99 for dinner. Children's prices are from 2 to ten and under five feet tall and they are $7.99 and $8.99 for dinner respectively. There is a lunch buffet for $7.99 with children $5.29. Sunday is dinner price all day. The sign said nothing about beverages and we ordered two sodas. At that point my wife asked me if they were included. I did not know. She felt that if they were, the dinner price was comparable to other restaurants. They were not. Sodas were $1.25 each and there are free refills. So with a beverage this restaurant gets even more expensive. For a Tuesday night the restaurant was not full but there were a good number of tables filled. They are open to 10 pm on weeknights and 11 on weekends. We got in around 7:30 pm.
The restaurant bills itself as Chinese, Japanese, American, Italian, Mexican International cuisine. I say no Mexican on the buffet - unless fried bananas are Mexican. They claim they have over 300 items daily - and that is possible. There are 8 - yes, that is right EIGHT double sided buffet tables and there is a grill and sushi bar in the rear. The advertising flyer handed out in the front of the restaurant has a photo and speaks of a Mongolian Bar but there was nothing like that to be found - I wonder where the picture came from, because there was nothing that looked like that here. But there were 8 buffet tables so who is to complain.
There were five soups to start with - wonton, egg drop, hot and sour, miso soup, and seafood soup. The grill has meats including skewered beef, skewered pork, Chinese pork chops, grill chicken and peppers, and other meats. The sushi bar had a very large assortment of raw fish and vegetable sashimi, sushi, and rolls. Unfortunately, at 7:30 pm when we were there the sushi chef stopped working and once something was gone on the sushi bar it was not replaced. This was one of several MINOR problems at this restaurant.
There was a salad bar with lettuce, toppings, and dressings. There were prepared salads. All on ice. There was raw clams, muscles, and oysters - not on ice, but in a cold tray in the server. I have a problem trusting raw shell fish that is not opened on the spot and put directly on ice, so I passed on these. Had they been on ice, I might have tried them. There were hot crab leg clusters, hot muscles, and many seafood dishes, mostly shrimp and "crab" (It is not really crab but is an incredible simulation.) There was salmon and some type of white fish. This brings me to the second minor problem - signage. Some items had identifying signs over them but many of these signs were in front of the wrong thing - it said chicken, it was beef. One sign went with an item that was across on the other server. Then many items had NO signs and it was anyone's guess what they were. Some looked good, but was it pork, beef, or chicken- couldn't tell. Does it matter? It might to some! I tried what the sign said was Japanese Chicken - it was not chicken, but (I hope) beef.
There was a large selection of fried appetizers such as egg rolls, spring rolls, cheese wontons, etc. There were only two dumpling choices - pan fried dumplings and dim sum. The dim sum was one of the better that I have had. Most of the entree dishes were meat or seafood - and primarily meat or seafood alone prepared in different ways - not meat or seafood in vegetables, which to me is traditional Chinese restaurant food - and lately hard to find a Chinese buffets. This may be why the price is high - you are getting high priced items in meat and seafood. The ad flyer says no MSG is used - and it seems so. There were some pasta dishes and also Lo Mein and Mei Fun noodles. As I walked around the many buffet tables I actually had a little bit of a hard time picking out entrees to eat. I did not want to eat an entire meal of meats and seafood without mixing in something lighter. I did not go home hungry as I gave in to the meats and seafood.
There was a dish that they called "smoke pork ribs". These were little rib ends that were served in a dark brown sauce that tasted like American barbecue sauce. They were very tasty but there was very little meat on each one. At the grill the grilled chicken and peppers was good. Like the sushi bar, there was no chef at the grill - everything was cooked and out on trays with the grill in the back, but no one cooking. Once it was gone it was gone. (This may be different on the weekends, but hey, the price was no discount for a weeknight, regardless of the time!) My last complaint was that there were no knives anywhere to be found. I did not ask for one, and perhaps one would have been brought but many of the meat dishes had pieces too big not to cut with a knife to eat easily.
There was a large dessert assortment including hot apple pie that looked like turnovers. There was an ice cream machine. There was fresh and canned fruit. There were four colors of jello. There were puddings, fruits in syrup, hot cherries, hot apples, cookies, and the typical little Debbie-like cakes that are the mainstay of Chinese buffets across the country. (I would love to go to the Chinese Buffet Trade Show- there must be one - that presents all these same items that are found from Chinese buffet to Chinese buffet.)
Now, the restaurant was clean and the food was good. The service was good. Dishes were taken away and drinks were refilled.
Was the restaurant worth the price? Well... Let's say that if you like a lot of meat and seafood, as well as Chinese appetizers, you will be happy. For a few dollars more on mid-Long Island on a weeknight there is better value - see my review of International Buffet. On a weekend, this may be the better choice, as the price rises more at International from Friday to Sunday. Actually the weekend price here is just fifty cents above some of the others and below others too. Weeknights at other Chinese Buffets come in around $11.99 with the drink. Here with the drink on a Tuesday night we paid $14.24 plus sales tax.
There is no website for this restaurant. The address is 1114-1116 Deer Park Avenue in North Babylon (just north of the Southern Parkway) The restaurant shares a building with a Bennigans and the buffet is toward the back. The telephone number is 631-274-0888. They also do buffet and menu takeout.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
One Year Ago Today
This site was started one year ago today. For our anniversary I thought that I would go back to the beginning and relist all of the "Rules of the Buffet". We are even going to add one new one - about cell phones. Remember what we have said all along - these are common sense suggestions that will make your buffet or "all you can eat experience" much, much more pleasurable - and everyone else's too!
1. All you can eat is not a challenge. It is an offer!
2. There is no limit to the number of times that you can go up and get food.
3. Take your food in courses - as you would be served if ordering from a menu.
4.Everyone must pay!
5. No food is permitted to be taken out of the restaurant. (Saw a guy stuff a dozen cookies in his pocket just tonight!)
6. Take only what you will eat - do not waste food.
7.For a more social meal, it is polite to wait for the others at the table to finish their plates and then go up together to get more.
8. Take a clean plate every time that you go up to the buffet tables.
9. If you put it on your plate, leave it there. Never return food to the serving tray.
10. Never eat at the buffet tables!
11. Children under 12 should not be going up to the buffet tables alone.
12. The buffet table is not a cafeteria line.
13. Tip the server.
14. Never take a serving piece from one item and use it for another item.
15. Never place your dirty plates on someone else's table.
16. Never use your silverware to serve yourself from the buffet trays.
17. Once you have gotten what you want, don't stand around the buffet tables. Move on back to your table.
18. Children should remain seated through the meal.
19. Do not fill community plates for the "table". Each should take their own plate of what they wish to eat.
20. If you cough or sneeze into your hand, please do not use that hand to pick up the serving utensils.
21. In th buffet, as in any restaurant, children (and adults) should use their inside voices.
AND NOW A NEW RULE ...
22. Don't talk on your cell phone while you are getting your food at the buffet tables.
Please call back and pay attention to getting what you want to eat. More and more lately someone is up at the serving table with a phone at the ear and the plate in the other hand - leaving no hand for serving. So the guy or gal is first, distracted by the conversation and is just bumping around the serving table and second, trying to manuever the plate and the serving spoons without dropping the phone. It is bad enough having to listen to people's most intimate details while they carry on a cell phone conversation throughout the meal, but to continue the conversation when at the serving tables is just too much. We once were in a restaurant when a woman answered her cell and was told that the child of a very close friend had just been killed. Tragic - but then she spent the next hour having a breakdown at her table with the phone still pressed to her ear. Now, we did not know this woman - she was at her own table away from us, but the conversation became so vocal that everyone in the restaurant knew what happened, when and how.
So, there are the rules to date, all together in one place. If you want to read some of the explanations and details go back on the site's archives and check out the "rules" articles. There are two - with two other's each adding one additional rule.
After last week's article, I had hoped one of you might have left a comment of congratulations... ah, well. Still a chance now. Thank you all for reading and keeping coming back.
Next week we are heading off on the road hoping to fing new buffets to tell you about.
Happy Anniversary to US!
1. All you can eat is not a challenge. It is an offer!
2. There is no limit to the number of times that you can go up and get food.
3. Take your food in courses - as you would be served if ordering from a menu.
4.Everyone must pay!
5. No food is permitted to be taken out of the restaurant. (Saw a guy stuff a dozen cookies in his pocket just tonight!)
6. Take only what you will eat - do not waste food.
7.For a more social meal, it is polite to wait for the others at the table to finish their plates and then go up together to get more.
8. Take a clean plate every time that you go up to the buffet tables.
9. If you put it on your plate, leave it there. Never return food to the serving tray.
10. Never eat at the buffet tables!
11. Children under 12 should not be going up to the buffet tables alone.
12. The buffet table is not a cafeteria line.
13. Tip the server.
14. Never take a serving piece from one item and use it for another item.
15. Never place your dirty plates on someone else's table.
16. Never use your silverware to serve yourself from the buffet trays.
17. Once you have gotten what you want, don't stand around the buffet tables. Move on back to your table.
18. Children should remain seated through the meal.
19. Do not fill community plates for the "table". Each should take their own plate of what they wish to eat.
20. If you cough or sneeze into your hand, please do not use that hand to pick up the serving utensils.
21. In th buffet, as in any restaurant, children (and adults) should use their inside voices.
AND NOW A NEW RULE ...
22. Don't talk on your cell phone while you are getting your food at the buffet tables.
Please call back and pay attention to getting what you want to eat. More and more lately someone is up at the serving table with a phone at the ear and the plate in the other hand - leaving no hand for serving. So the guy or gal is first, distracted by the conversation and is just bumping around the serving table and second, trying to manuever the plate and the serving spoons without dropping the phone. It is bad enough having to listen to people's most intimate details while they carry on a cell phone conversation throughout the meal, but to continue the conversation when at the serving tables is just too much. We once were in a restaurant when a woman answered her cell and was told that the child of a very close friend had just been killed. Tragic - but then she spent the next hour having a breakdown at her table with the phone still pressed to her ear. Now, we did not know this woman - she was at her own table away from us, but the conversation became so vocal that everyone in the restaurant knew what happened, when and how.
So, there are the rules to date, all together in one place. If you want to read some of the explanations and details go back on the site's archives and check out the "rules" articles. There are two - with two other's each adding one additional rule.
After last week's article, I had hoped one of you might have left a comment of congratulations... ah, well. Still a chance now. Thank you all for reading and keeping coming back.
Next week we are heading off on the road hoping to fing new buffets to tell you about.
Happy Anniversary to US!
Friday, August 04, 2006
One Year Anniversary
We are a week away from the First Year Anniversary of this site. We started on August 13, 2005. The anniversary of this site just happens to coincide within a few days of my wedding anniversary (no, not my first wedding anniversary - actually my 27th wedding anniversary). Looking back at the posts at the beginning I see that I was quite ambitious posting new articles every few days. I later realized that to keep a quality article coming every week I needed to spread the posts to once each week - which now takes place late Friday nights (or later in the weekend if I have a new buffet stop planned).
Since registering this site with BlogTopSites in October 2005 we have had over 39,000 hits. That really impresses me. There is a link to that site on the side panel - if you search our site there you can add to our rating - which also is pretty good. On one of the tracking lists we are ranked 169 among food blogs with a five "star" rating. Considering that there are thousands that really impressed me.
Finding new buffets has gotten harder and harder. Searching for buffets on the Internet is not an easy task - Google "buffet" and you will get a multitude of returns for "Jimmy Buffet" and not so many, if any, for restaurants. I greatly appreciate finds from readers - and if I can get to them, I will write about them. If I can't get to them and I can find out information about them I will pass that along too.
When there are not new buffets to go to and there has not been anything significant at any of the restaurants that I frequent, writing gets harder and harder. I never want to skip a week and at the same time I do not want to get out the shovel and just put anything down (I am getting the feeling that I am doing that now). I try to find something interesting or strange at my most recent visits to the same places that I have reported on before - or find a topic that I have not covered or not covered enough. With this blog my writing has taken on an off the cuff style that I feel is what keeps my readers coming back. I tell it like I see it and get it down like I am talking to a friend. (So, if it sounds like I am going to milk this anniversary thing for two weeks of articles - well, you have to come back next week and see.)
The "rules" got started as a hope to spread the word on making the "all you can eat" experience more enjoyable for all. They are merely common sense and most come from observations at a variety of buffet experiences. The greatest thing to take away from the rules is that the buffet style restaurant is NOT A CHALLENGE to stuff as much as you can into your mouth at a meal. The art of the buffet is that you can taste a variety, eat what you care to, and know that you can always go back up for more of what you like.
We have had some great comments from readers. Every time that I review a buffet that has a website I email that restaurant to view the article and post a comment. In the year I have only had direct responses from three restaurants - all appreciative of the review. (One of these even invited me to introduce myself the next time I came in - I have been back several times and I have not let on as to who I am.) None of the big chains have responded. OCB does not seem to respond to anyone - even when a customer fills out their comment section on their website.
About mid-way through the year I added the Google ads to the side panel. I am supposed to get pennies for each time someone clicks on one of the boxes. (No, I cannot click on them myself and make a bundle - they follow where the click comes from and I would be kicked off the ad service.) The pennies are supposed to add up and originally when it got to $25.00 I would get a check. It was near that recently and I found out that they upped the minimum to over $100.00. Lots of luck before I get to that. Maybe someday... I have no control over who advertises - it is supposed to coincide with the theme of the site and other than the buffet table furniture ads that have shown up the sites are usually related. OCB has been there frequently. If you are so inclined click on a button and support this site, maybe the hundred bucks could become a reality. How nice.
Well, I want to thank everyone for visiting this site and reading my rambles. I really like when I get a comment - pro or con. (It shows that someone is paying attention.) Please keep coming back and I will try my best to keep you entertained. As always I invite suggestions, salutations, and comments.
Since registering this site with BlogTopSites in October 2005 we have had over 39,000 hits. That really impresses me. There is a link to that site on the side panel - if you search our site there you can add to our rating - which also is pretty good. On one of the tracking lists we are ranked 169 among food blogs with a five "star" rating. Considering that there are thousands that really impressed me.
Finding new buffets has gotten harder and harder. Searching for buffets on the Internet is not an easy task - Google "buffet" and you will get a multitude of returns for "Jimmy Buffet" and not so many, if any, for restaurants. I greatly appreciate finds from readers - and if I can get to them, I will write about them. If I can't get to them and I can find out information about them I will pass that along too.
When there are not new buffets to go to and there has not been anything significant at any of the restaurants that I frequent, writing gets harder and harder. I never want to skip a week and at the same time I do not want to get out the shovel and just put anything down (I am getting the feeling that I am doing that now). I try to find something interesting or strange at my most recent visits to the same places that I have reported on before - or find a topic that I have not covered or not covered enough. With this blog my writing has taken on an off the cuff style that I feel is what keeps my readers coming back. I tell it like I see it and get it down like I am talking to a friend. (So, if it sounds like I am going to milk this anniversary thing for two weeks of articles - well, you have to come back next week and see.)
The "rules" got started as a hope to spread the word on making the "all you can eat" experience more enjoyable for all. They are merely common sense and most come from observations at a variety of buffet experiences. The greatest thing to take away from the rules is that the buffet style restaurant is NOT A CHALLENGE to stuff as much as you can into your mouth at a meal. The art of the buffet is that you can taste a variety, eat what you care to, and know that you can always go back up for more of what you like.
We have had some great comments from readers. Every time that I review a buffet that has a website I email that restaurant to view the article and post a comment. In the year I have only had direct responses from three restaurants - all appreciative of the review. (One of these even invited me to introduce myself the next time I came in - I have been back several times and I have not let on as to who I am.) None of the big chains have responded. OCB does not seem to respond to anyone - even when a customer fills out their comment section on their website.
About mid-way through the year I added the Google ads to the side panel. I am supposed to get pennies for each time someone clicks on one of the boxes. (No, I cannot click on them myself and make a bundle - they follow where the click comes from and I would be kicked off the ad service.) The pennies are supposed to add up and originally when it got to $25.00 I would get a check. It was near that recently and I found out that they upped the minimum to over $100.00. Lots of luck before I get to that. Maybe someday... I have no control over who advertises - it is supposed to coincide with the theme of the site and other than the buffet table furniture ads that have shown up the sites are usually related. OCB has been there frequently. If you are so inclined click on a button and support this site, maybe the hundred bucks could become a reality. How nice.
Well, I want to thank everyone for visiting this site and reading my rambles. I really like when I get a comment - pro or con. (It shows that someone is paying attention.) Please keep coming back and I will try my best to keep you entertained. As always I invite suggestions, salutations, and comments.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Cactus Willies Steak Buffet and Bakery
On the recommendation of one of our readers I found this buffet chain that is currently celebrating it's tenth anniversary. One of our readers submitted a comment about this buffet chain to our site this past week. I went to the website that he listed and I discovered that the chain has six locations - five in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania. As the Pennsylvania location is in Lancaster and today I happened to be an hour from the restaurant, my wife and I made a special trip. I wish I could say that it was an entirely worthwhile trip, but I am going to have to give this buffet chain a mixed review.
We visited the restaurant on a Friday night. There was a short wait to get in and a man ahead of us made a comment that there had been no wait when he came in the middle of the week. The wait was no problem. You pay ahead of the meal and order your soft drinks. The price of the dinner buffet is $9.49 for adults. Children from 3 to 12 pay $.60 x age. There is a $1.00 senior (60+) discount. Drinks are additional at $1.49 for an unlimited soft drink. They serve Pepsi products. With the drink the price is slightly higher than meals at other chains. There is lunch and breakfast buffets. Adult lunch is $6.79 and breakfast is $7.69. Kids at lunch pay $.50 x age, There is no kids price listed for breakfast. A breakfast feature is steak and eggs. There are extras offered that are usually included at other buffets. There were ten steamed shrimp offered with the buffet for $4.99 - NOT unlimited shrimp for $4.99 plus the buffet price - but 10 shrimp on a plate. There was also a crab legs special similarly offered extra. This was two small crab leg clusters on a plate for $5.99 plus the buffet price. Don't waste your money - I saw both plates (at the cash register) and they are not worth it.
All of the seating was booths. We were seated promptly after paying. A hostess seats you and offers to explain the buffet. You leave your receipt on the table and a server picks it up and brings your drinks. Silverware is on the table with napkins. You get your own plates at the buffet tables. There are four double-sided buffet tables, a grill, and a L-shaped dessert bar. On the buffet tables are signs that say that children under the age of 9 are not allowed at the buffet tables without an adult - WONDERFUL! Though it should be age 12.
To start, at the end of one of the buffet tables were two soups and chili. The two soups this night were minestrone and Italian wedding soup. The minestrone had plenty of vegetables and was good. There is another full buffet table of salad greens, toppings, and dressings. There were prepared salads and a variety of dressings - three fat-free dressings which were the only fat-free offerings in the entire restaurant. All of the salad dressings are Ken's. There is an emphasis in this restaurant on the name brand items served.
The other hot buffet tables have entrees, sides, and vegetables. Here the problems started because there is very little choice of anything plain. Everything was fried, beef, or pork. There was fried chicken, fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried calimari, in fact if it can be fried it was there. There were barbecue pork ribs. They were well-sauced and tasty, but not as good as the St.Louis ribs were at OCB (when they had them). They were not fall off the bone good. They were meaty. The website talks about carvings - this night there were none - and therein lied the problem. My wife looks for plain - not fried - choices and as we were both told very recently to watch our cholesterol intake and this restaurant posed a problem. I felt bad for her that we came because she had a HARD time finding something to eat - which has never happened to her in any buffet restaurant. Many, many people these days must watch their cholorestrol and would be in this same predicament here. There is steak "grilled to order" but in reality is not grilled to order but grilled and set aside until you ask for a piece and then they try to find a piece done the way you want it. Now, a man ahead of me asked for a well done steak and was told that the crowd was too large to wait for a piece of steak well done. There was no one behind us so where was this crowd that prevented this man from getting his well done steak? There is also a sign that limits one steak at a time up at the grill. Ok, but you are not getting a full steak but a two inch by six inch strip. You may come back as many times as you like for another strip. The steak is cooked on a flame grill and the first piece I had was excellent. The second piece was good. The steak here is far better than that at OCB, somewhat better than at Golden Corral, but not as good as the steak at Ryans.
There is also grilled chicken - that is marinated in something and cooked on a flat grill. It was tasty, but not really plain enough to make my wife happy and qas greasy. Also at the grill was a hot dog broiler.
There is a taco bar with soft and hard tortilla shells, along with chips for nachos. There was a good assortment of toppings. The taco meat was tasty but a half hour later I was tasting that taco meat all over again and had some regret that I had eaten the taco. I have had tacos at OCB and Ryans with this never happening. Almost five hours later I am still belching taco. (Sorry to be so descriptive - but ya gotta know)
They claim to have a pasta bar with sauces and meatballs. All that I saw was spaghetti and tomato sauce next to it with shells on another buffet table that were swimming in butter or oil and were meant for the shrimp Alfredo next to it.
We were there on Friday night so perhaps the abundance of fried fish and fried foods was due to the night - but this is not seafood night according to the "special night" menus. There was baked salmon also - one of the few other dishes not fried.
There was a good assortment of vegetables - some plain and some in butter. There was mashed potatoes, French fries, mac and cheese, and sweet potatoes. There was a baked potato bar on the grill. Also at the grill were sauteed mushrooms and onions - for the steak. There was a sign over a vat proclaiming a special bourbon sauce for the steak and chicken.
At the dessert bar you can also find pizza, garlic bread, and rolls. The dessert selection was not bad with an assortment of pies, puddings, mixed puddings, custard, cake, cookies, hot cobblers, fresh fruit, canned fruit, sugar free jello, pudding, and hot apple cobbler, and soft serve ice cream with a sundae bar next to it.
The service was good. The server came readily to pick up plates and offered to bring more drinks. When he first brought a Diet Pepsi, on first taste it was not diet. As soon as we got his attention as he passed the table we told him and he immediately took it to get the right soda. When he brought it he assured us that this new one was correct. The restaurant was clean - I did get a soiled dish, but that happens in most restaurants of this type. The decor is Tex-Mex, but the food is not. The name is deceptive. I would have assumed that this was a Tex-Mex restaurant and not an all-around buffet. In fact, I must have passed this restaurant many times since it has been in this Lancaster location and I never knew that it was there. There is no local advertising that I have seen.(And while I am not a local, I am here many times during the year - for many years now.)
They are currently having a "Superman Returns" scratch off contest to win a year of free meals. We actually won a two dollar off our next dinner coupon. (But do I want to go back?)
Now, if you do not care about Cholesterol or your heart, I must say that the food was tasty and for the most part good. Many people in the restaurant around us appeared to be enjoying everything and some seemed to be "regulars". Had there been some sliced turkey, perhaps - or a few plainer choices that were not fried, we would have had a meal more of what we usually expect at a chain buffet. The interesting thing is that there was turkey gravy out, but no turkey. Let me put it this way, at almost every buffet that I have been to, there is always something to keep everyone satisfied. I could not say that about Cactus Willies. I could not expect my wife to just eat salad and vegetables. When she walked from hot table to hot table three times with an empty plate, I felt real bad. If we ever do go back (with our two dollar off coupon) it will not be on a Friday night - but then again, should I take that chance and disappoint her again (she is a real good wife and very good to me).
We visited the restaurant on a Friday night. There was a short wait to get in and a man ahead of us made a comment that there had been no wait when he came in the middle of the week. The wait was no problem. You pay ahead of the meal and order your soft drinks. The price of the dinner buffet is $9.49 for adults. Children from 3 to 12 pay $.60 x age. There is a $1.00 senior (60+) discount. Drinks are additional at $1.49 for an unlimited soft drink. They serve Pepsi products. With the drink the price is slightly higher than meals at other chains. There is lunch and breakfast buffets. Adult lunch is $6.79 and breakfast is $7.69. Kids at lunch pay $.50 x age, There is no kids price listed for breakfast. A breakfast feature is steak and eggs. There are extras offered that are usually included at other buffets. There were ten steamed shrimp offered with the buffet for $4.99 - NOT unlimited shrimp for $4.99 plus the buffet price - but 10 shrimp on a plate. There was also a crab legs special similarly offered extra. This was two small crab leg clusters on a plate for $5.99 plus the buffet price. Don't waste your money - I saw both plates (at the cash register) and they are not worth it.
All of the seating was booths. We were seated promptly after paying. A hostess seats you and offers to explain the buffet. You leave your receipt on the table and a server picks it up and brings your drinks. Silverware is on the table with napkins. You get your own plates at the buffet tables. There are four double-sided buffet tables, a grill, and a L-shaped dessert bar. On the buffet tables are signs that say that children under the age of 9 are not allowed at the buffet tables without an adult - WONDERFUL! Though it should be age 12.
To start, at the end of one of the buffet tables were two soups and chili. The two soups this night were minestrone and Italian wedding soup. The minestrone had plenty of vegetables and was good. There is another full buffet table of salad greens, toppings, and dressings. There were prepared salads and a variety of dressings - three fat-free dressings which were the only fat-free offerings in the entire restaurant. All of the salad dressings are Ken's. There is an emphasis in this restaurant on the name brand items served.
The other hot buffet tables have entrees, sides, and vegetables. Here the problems started because there is very little choice of anything plain. Everything was fried, beef, or pork. There was fried chicken, fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried calimari, in fact if it can be fried it was there. There were barbecue pork ribs. They were well-sauced and tasty, but not as good as the St.Louis ribs were at OCB (when they had them). They were not fall off the bone good. They were meaty. The website talks about carvings - this night there were none - and therein lied the problem. My wife looks for plain - not fried - choices and as we were both told very recently to watch our cholesterol intake and this restaurant posed a problem. I felt bad for her that we came because she had a HARD time finding something to eat - which has never happened to her in any buffet restaurant. Many, many people these days must watch their cholorestrol and would be in this same predicament here. There is steak "grilled to order" but in reality is not grilled to order but grilled and set aside until you ask for a piece and then they try to find a piece done the way you want it. Now, a man ahead of me asked for a well done steak and was told that the crowd was too large to wait for a piece of steak well done. There was no one behind us so where was this crowd that prevented this man from getting his well done steak? There is also a sign that limits one steak at a time up at the grill. Ok, but you are not getting a full steak but a two inch by six inch strip. You may come back as many times as you like for another strip. The steak is cooked on a flame grill and the first piece I had was excellent. The second piece was good. The steak here is far better than that at OCB, somewhat better than at Golden Corral, but not as good as the steak at Ryans.
There is also grilled chicken - that is marinated in something and cooked on a flat grill. It was tasty, but not really plain enough to make my wife happy and qas greasy. Also at the grill was a hot dog broiler.
There is a taco bar with soft and hard tortilla shells, along with chips for nachos. There was a good assortment of toppings. The taco meat was tasty but a half hour later I was tasting that taco meat all over again and had some regret that I had eaten the taco. I have had tacos at OCB and Ryans with this never happening. Almost five hours later I am still belching taco. (Sorry to be so descriptive - but ya gotta know)
They claim to have a pasta bar with sauces and meatballs. All that I saw was spaghetti and tomato sauce next to it with shells on another buffet table that were swimming in butter or oil and were meant for the shrimp Alfredo next to it.
We were there on Friday night so perhaps the abundance of fried fish and fried foods was due to the night - but this is not seafood night according to the "special night" menus. There was baked salmon also - one of the few other dishes not fried.
There was a good assortment of vegetables - some plain and some in butter. There was mashed potatoes, French fries, mac and cheese, and sweet potatoes. There was a baked potato bar on the grill. Also at the grill were sauteed mushrooms and onions - for the steak. There was a sign over a vat proclaiming a special bourbon sauce for the steak and chicken.
At the dessert bar you can also find pizza, garlic bread, and rolls. The dessert selection was not bad with an assortment of pies, puddings, mixed puddings, custard, cake, cookies, hot cobblers, fresh fruit, canned fruit, sugar free jello, pudding, and hot apple cobbler, and soft serve ice cream with a sundae bar next to it.
The service was good. The server came readily to pick up plates and offered to bring more drinks. When he first brought a Diet Pepsi, on first taste it was not diet. As soon as we got his attention as he passed the table we told him and he immediately took it to get the right soda. When he brought it he assured us that this new one was correct. The restaurant was clean - I did get a soiled dish, but that happens in most restaurants of this type. The decor is Tex-Mex, but the food is not. The name is deceptive. I would have assumed that this was a Tex-Mex restaurant and not an all-around buffet. In fact, I must have passed this restaurant many times since it has been in this Lancaster location and I never knew that it was there. There is no local advertising that I have seen.(And while I am not a local, I am here many times during the year - for many years now.)
They are currently having a "Superman Returns" scratch off contest to win a year of free meals. We actually won a two dollar off our next dinner coupon. (But do I want to go back?)
Now, if you do not care about Cholesterol or your heart, I must say that the food was tasty and for the most part good. Many people in the restaurant around us appeared to be enjoying everything and some seemed to be "regulars". Had there been some sliced turkey, perhaps - or a few plainer choices that were not fried, we would have had a meal more of what we usually expect at a chain buffet. The interesting thing is that there was turkey gravy out, but no turkey. Let me put it this way, at almost every buffet that I have been to, there is always something to keep everyone satisfied. I could not say that about Cactus Willies. I could not expect my wife to just eat salad and vegetables. When she walked from hot table to hot table three times with an empty plate, I felt real bad. If we ever do go back (with our two dollar off coupon) it will not be on a Friday night - but then again, should I take that chance and disappoint her again (she is a real good wife and very good to me).
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Good Taste Buffet - Commack, New York
Finding this restaurant was a lucky accident. We had intended to eat at another Chinese buffet in the Long Island town of Commack, but when we got there we found this other restaurant to be a single store front and a line just about out the door. We headed a little further east to look for a restaurant that my wife we sure she had seen driving past. It was right where she thought it should be and that restaurant was the Good Taste Buffet.
The Good Taste Buffet is located in a strip mall in the town of Commack, New York. It is on Route 25 in the Mayfair Shopping Center. The address is 200 Jericho Turnpike. It is a good size restaurant with pleasant decor. Large pictures of the Orient adorn the walls and in the center of the buffet area is a crystal chandelier. The prices are posted on the front door. You enter at the cashier's desk and we were seated immediately. There were a good number of diners for a Friday evening. The price on weeknights is $11.95 for adults for dinner and $12.95 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Children under 5 feet tall are $6.95 and under 3 feet tall are $2.95. There is a lunch buffet until 4:30 pm and this is $6.45 for adults on weekdays and $6.95 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lunch for children is $4.45 for kids under 5 feet and $1.95 for kids under 3 feet. Unlimited soda is extra at $.75 at lunch and $1.00 at dinner. You pay at the end of the meal at your table.
The buffet area is large. There are four double-sided buffet tables and a fifth table against the wall. Your drinks are brought to you by your server. You take your own plates. Silverware and plenty of napkins are on the table and knives and extra silverware is available at the buffet area. Soda are Pepsi products - which I suspected and later confirmed when the waiter answered my order for "two Diet Cokes" with "two diets".
The first of the buffet tables had salads, oriental prepared salads, and sushi. There were many different sushi rolls - a number of them I did not recognize. There was tuna and there was also salmon slices without rice, as well as another white color fish, next to the cocktail shrimp. I tried the salmon and the tuna and it was very fresh and cut easily with a fork - many at these restaurants do not cut that easily. Ice was piled high with the serving dishes sitting on top - so nothing was getting soggy sitting on the ice. Among the salads were various seafood salads and kim chee - Korean spiced cabbage. The next buffet table had soup and appetizers. There were three types of soup - the usual hot and sour, wonton, and egg drop. The wontons were large and well-filled. There were a number of steamed and fried dumplings. There were some unusual ones - a sweet potato dumpling stuffed with a peanut filling and a pork and seafood "Chinese ravioli" which was a large, round, flat dumpling about the size of a baseball. It was filled with meat, seafood, and vegetables. There were steamed shrimp dumplings, fried pork dumplings, steamed dim sum, and steamed chicken dumplings. The shrimp dumplings were excellent - you could taste the shrimp and it was a whole, fresh, plump shrimp cooked just right. It was not mushy or bland as these usually are in other restaurants. There are many types of dipping sauces all around the buffet tables but I could not find dumpling sauce. There was a squeeze bottle next to the dumplings on the counter. I took a portion of this in one of the little plastic cups that are available for sauces. I looked like a thick variety of what I was expecting - but it was not dumpling sauce when I tasted it - it was very thick and salty. I believe this is called fish sauce and is made with anchovies. The dumplings were all good - even with out dumpling sauce - so it was not really missed. It may very well be there and I did not see it. In addition to the dumplings there were fried cheese wontons, egg rolls and Spring rolls, fried shrimp, shrimp toast, vegetable tempura, and many other appetizers. Many items are placed with two different, but related appetizers in a serving tray - doubling the variety. The egg rolls were very greasy - oil came out when you cut into it -but that is what made it taste so good. It was not like the dry, small, barely filled egg rolls in other buffets. These were well stuffed and tasted like egg rolls should. (My wife still says they were too oily.)
There were also the BEST Chinese spare ribs that I have ever had at a Chinese buffet restaurant. These were perfectly cooked - well done and crispy with a good portion of meat on each rib. These ribs were not soaking in the red sugar sauce that ribs cook in and are served in at other restaurants. They were not sticky. They were wonderful! A meal of these alone is worth the price of dinner - and this is what I returned to several times during the evening - despite all of the other good dishes - because they were that good.
Entrees are spread across two double sided buffet hot tables. There were the usual dishes like chicken and broccoli, etc. but there was also chicken and cashew nuts, vegetable mei fun, several different shrimp dishes including salt and pepper shrimp that was not salty, had no tails under the batter, and tasted like good shrimp, pork and mushrooms, salt and pepper crabs (whole half crabs), shrimp in lobster sauce - again with excellent shrimp and a very light sauce, several vegetable dishes, and a large pie-like dish called Seafood lovers in Birds Nest - this was a large, baked noodle nest filled with seafood and vegetables. There was shrimp wrapped in bacon - not the sealegs and bacon usually found at these restaurants. At the end of one of the tables was Peking Duck, carved rib-eye steak, and baked ham. Next to this was Oriental pork chops and chunks of chicken that they called chicken cutlets - but these were fried chunks. There was also sweet and sour chicken. There are steamed crab legs, but frankly, there is so much more.
To finish off the meal there was fresh fruit, qumquats in syrup, pineapple with mandarin oranges in a marshmallow sauce, puddings, filled sweet dumplings, cookies, cakes, nuts, and something they call Chinese Peanut Butter Brittle - large cookie chunks. There is also soft-serve ice cream, but on this night the machine was not working when I went to try it - it had been working earlier.
All of the food was very, very good. This restaurant was a delightful find. The service was good. Dishes were taken away regularly and more soda was brought and offered throughout the meal. There is a great variety and lots of food - they claim 88 dishes daily.
For me this restaurant is a forty-five minute drive and with the price of gas I cannot become a regular, but when I am in this area it will become a definite must-stop. The restaurant is open seven days a week and the hours are until 10 pm on weeknights and 11 on Friday and Saturday. There is no website, but the telephone number is 631-543-9583. If you are in Suffolk County on Long Island in New York, try it!
The Good Taste Buffet is located in a strip mall in the town of Commack, New York. It is on Route 25 in the Mayfair Shopping Center. The address is 200 Jericho Turnpike. It is a good size restaurant with pleasant decor. Large pictures of the Orient adorn the walls and in the center of the buffet area is a crystal chandelier. The prices are posted on the front door. You enter at the cashier's desk and we were seated immediately. There were a good number of diners for a Friday evening. The price on weeknights is $11.95 for adults for dinner and $12.95 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Children under 5 feet tall are $6.95 and under 3 feet tall are $2.95. There is a lunch buffet until 4:30 pm and this is $6.45 for adults on weekdays and $6.95 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lunch for children is $4.45 for kids under 5 feet and $1.95 for kids under 3 feet. Unlimited soda is extra at $.75 at lunch and $1.00 at dinner. You pay at the end of the meal at your table.
The buffet area is large. There are four double-sided buffet tables and a fifth table against the wall. Your drinks are brought to you by your server. You take your own plates. Silverware and plenty of napkins are on the table and knives and extra silverware is available at the buffet area. Soda are Pepsi products - which I suspected and later confirmed when the waiter answered my order for "two Diet Cokes" with "two diets".
The first of the buffet tables had salads, oriental prepared salads, and sushi. There were many different sushi rolls - a number of them I did not recognize. There was tuna and there was also salmon slices without rice, as well as another white color fish, next to the cocktail shrimp. I tried the salmon and the tuna and it was very fresh and cut easily with a fork - many at these restaurants do not cut that easily. Ice was piled high with the serving dishes sitting on top - so nothing was getting soggy sitting on the ice. Among the salads were various seafood salads and kim chee - Korean spiced cabbage. The next buffet table had soup and appetizers. There were three types of soup - the usual hot and sour, wonton, and egg drop. The wontons were large and well-filled. There were a number of steamed and fried dumplings. There were some unusual ones - a sweet potato dumpling stuffed with a peanut filling and a pork and seafood "Chinese ravioli" which was a large, round, flat dumpling about the size of a baseball. It was filled with meat, seafood, and vegetables. There were steamed shrimp dumplings, fried pork dumplings, steamed dim sum, and steamed chicken dumplings. The shrimp dumplings were excellent - you could taste the shrimp and it was a whole, fresh, plump shrimp cooked just right. It was not mushy or bland as these usually are in other restaurants. There are many types of dipping sauces all around the buffet tables but I could not find dumpling sauce. There was a squeeze bottle next to the dumplings on the counter. I took a portion of this in one of the little plastic cups that are available for sauces. I looked like a thick variety of what I was expecting - but it was not dumpling sauce when I tasted it - it was very thick and salty. I believe this is called fish sauce and is made with anchovies. The dumplings were all good - even with out dumpling sauce - so it was not really missed. It may very well be there and I did not see it. In addition to the dumplings there were fried cheese wontons, egg rolls and Spring rolls, fried shrimp, shrimp toast, vegetable tempura, and many other appetizers. Many items are placed with two different, but related appetizers in a serving tray - doubling the variety. The egg rolls were very greasy - oil came out when you cut into it -but that is what made it taste so good. It was not like the dry, small, barely filled egg rolls in other buffets. These were well stuffed and tasted like egg rolls should. (My wife still says they were too oily.)
There were also the BEST Chinese spare ribs that I have ever had at a Chinese buffet restaurant. These were perfectly cooked - well done and crispy with a good portion of meat on each rib. These ribs were not soaking in the red sugar sauce that ribs cook in and are served in at other restaurants. They were not sticky. They were wonderful! A meal of these alone is worth the price of dinner - and this is what I returned to several times during the evening - despite all of the other good dishes - because they were that good.
Entrees are spread across two double sided buffet hot tables. There were the usual dishes like chicken and broccoli, etc. but there was also chicken and cashew nuts, vegetable mei fun, several different shrimp dishes including salt and pepper shrimp that was not salty, had no tails under the batter, and tasted like good shrimp, pork and mushrooms, salt and pepper crabs (whole half crabs), shrimp in lobster sauce - again with excellent shrimp and a very light sauce, several vegetable dishes, and a large pie-like dish called Seafood lovers in Birds Nest - this was a large, baked noodle nest filled with seafood and vegetables. There was shrimp wrapped in bacon - not the sealegs and bacon usually found at these restaurants. At the end of one of the tables was Peking Duck, carved rib-eye steak, and baked ham. Next to this was Oriental pork chops and chunks of chicken that they called chicken cutlets - but these were fried chunks. There was also sweet and sour chicken. There are steamed crab legs, but frankly, there is so much more.
To finish off the meal there was fresh fruit, qumquats in syrup, pineapple with mandarin oranges in a marshmallow sauce, puddings, filled sweet dumplings, cookies, cakes, nuts, and something they call Chinese Peanut Butter Brittle - large cookie chunks. There is also soft-serve ice cream, but on this night the machine was not working when I went to try it - it had been working earlier.
All of the food was very, very good. This restaurant was a delightful find. The service was good. Dishes were taken away regularly and more soda was brought and offered throughout the meal. There is a great variety and lots of food - they claim 88 dishes daily.
For me this restaurant is a forty-five minute drive and with the price of gas I cannot become a regular, but when I am in this area it will become a definite must-stop. The restaurant is open seven days a week and the hours are until 10 pm on weeknights and 11 on Friday and Saturday. There is no website, but the telephone number is 631-543-9583. If you are in Suffolk County on Long Island in New York, try it!
Friday, July 14, 2006
Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp at the OCB - Too Bad!
The Old Country Buffet has a new menu feature and it is served Monday through Saturday nights. It is Five Kinds of Shrimp. It consists of five shrimp dishes - though you might not notice. There was popcorn shrimp, shrimp scampi (shrimp mixed with spaghetti), shrimp Alfredo (shrimp mixed with bowtie noodles with cream and cheese), spiced fried shrimp , and coconut fried shrimp.
Not counted in the five was plain, old fried shrimp - which was just like the popcorn shrimp and the coconut shrimp with insignificant differences. The coconut shrimp sounded promising - as the coconut fried shrimp at the Outback is wonderful. This was mildly coconut flavored with no real appearance of coconut and barely the taste. The popcorn shrimp were just small shrimp minus the tails.
The sign says this joins the regular nightly features. I wish it had. The Thursday night St. Louis Ribs are gone. This is a shame as these were great. The usual Thursday night country fried steak and gravy was also gone. Another disappointment. I went on a Thursday night. I hate to think what is missing from the other night's menus, now that there is shrimp.
To be fair, we went back a second night - there was more of the regular menu items missing and the shrimp was just as disappointing. this shrimp feature is every night except Sundays. I will be going to OCB less until this feature has ended. I hope that it is soon.
All in all, the five shrimp feature is a heart doctor's nightmare - cholesterol galore! It is either fried, in oil, or in cheese sauce. And it is hardly worth it for the taste. This feature is the worst that OCB has ever offered. Bring back barbecue or tex mex - former summer features. Forget the shrimp!
Not counted in the five was plain, old fried shrimp - which was just like the popcorn shrimp and the coconut shrimp with insignificant differences. The coconut shrimp sounded promising - as the coconut fried shrimp at the Outback is wonderful. This was mildly coconut flavored with no real appearance of coconut and barely the taste. The popcorn shrimp were just small shrimp minus the tails.
The sign says this joins the regular nightly features. I wish it had. The Thursday night St. Louis Ribs are gone. This is a shame as these were great. The usual Thursday night country fried steak and gravy was also gone. Another disappointment. I went on a Thursday night. I hate to think what is missing from the other night's menus, now that there is shrimp.
To be fair, we went back a second night - there was more of the regular menu items missing and the shrimp was just as disappointing. this shrimp feature is every night except Sundays. I will be going to OCB less until this feature has ended. I hope that it is soon.
All in all, the five shrimp feature is a heart doctor's nightmare - cholesterol galore! It is either fried, in oil, or in cheese sauce. And it is hardly worth it for the taste. This feature is the worst that OCB has ever offered. Bring back barbecue or tex mex - former summer features. Forget the shrimp!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Harvest View Family Restaurant and Buffet
When the Family Cupboard Restaurant moved from Harvest Drive to the main route of Route 340 in Lancaster, PA the building remained empty for about five months – then there was an announcement in one of the tourist newspapers that a new restaurant was coming to that location very soon – a new buffet restaurant. The story is that a man in Philadelphia had heard about the empty restaurant and the spectacular view that it had of the farm fields from it’s windows. He came to see the building and decided that he would open a new buffet restaurant there and feature not only local food but also the view. The restaurant is now open, It is the Harvest View Family Restaurant and Buffet. The advertising highlights that it is a “Meal with a View”. It is located on Harvest Drive adjacent to the Harvest View Motel. To find this restaurant you take Route 340 to Clearview Road (there is a large sign on 340 at the turn. You take this road to the end at Harvest Drive and turn right. The restaurant (and motel) is just ahead on the left.
We went to this restaurant with great anticipation of a new buffet. We already knew the location from the former occupant, so the view was not what we were going for; it was the food. We went on a Sunday night – oh yes, this restaurant is open on Sundays – very few local restaurants in this area are. We arrived a normal dinner time – about 6:oo pm. The parking lot had two cars – the motel lot had a few more. Entering the lobby, there is a sort of gift shop with a few items on the counters and display tables left over from the former restaurant. In the corner still trickles the fountain from the other restaurant. There was no one in the lobby and no one at the cash registers. As we approached the dining room entrance, a young lady came out from the restaurant and seated us. The first impression of a desserted room was not a good first impression. The dining rooms are just as they were before, as are the buffet tables in the upper dining room – the room with the VIEW. This is July and this is the beginning of tourist vacation season. The restaurant was empty with a few tables occupied – each with a window to the view. I generally do not sit with my back to the dining room but here the view is the thing and we were seated facing the window, I enjoy the view and that is enough to put my back to the open room. Our waiter came over promptly. He told us that they feature the buffet and, of course, that was what we were having. Soft drinks are extra at $1.50. The meal is $12.99. Young children seemed to be free for the buffet. There is also a soup and salad bar option – as well as menu dining.
Silverware and napkins are on the table with placemats. The beverages are brought to your table by your server and they are refilled regularly with no hesitation. The soup cups and soup spoons along with the desert plates are up at the buffet tables, as are the dinner plates. At first there were no soup cups. We asked for them and they were brought immediately.
We went up to the buffet. It was obvious that an effort has been made to keep much of the look and the buffet close to the former restaurant that was here, and is still in business just a few miles down the road on Route 340. The room has been repainted to a pleasant orange with red trim.
We started with soup. There were two soups offered – located where they always had been at the end of the salad bar. One soup was chicken corn soup and the other soup was potato and bacon cream soup. We thought that the chicken corn soup was tomato vegetable soup because when we looked into the tureen, the soup was red. Chicken corn soup usually looks like chicken soup. We stirred the soup with the ladle to find that there was a layer of red spice on the top and once mixed, the appearance was more of what was expected. I am a chicken corn soup fan. I filled my cup. There was plenty of chicken pieces and corn. There is often a dumpling like noodle (called rivels) or a fresh noodle in this type of soup. There was neither in this soup.
Back at the table I tasted the soup. It was not like any other chicken corn soup that I have ever had. The red spice must have been paprika or chili powder. The soup was spicy and disappointing. Uh oh, Not a good start. At least not what I had expected and I have been eating the local food in this area for over 45 years (I travel to this area a lot.) Beyond the spice and the expectation – as a soup all on its own it was ok, but overly spiced.
We next went to the salad bar. There is chopped lettuce and vegetable toppings. There were a few prepared salads, but nothing local = no chow chow, no apple butter, no cottage cheese. There were a number of dressings that were a good assortment. There were chopped hot peppers and again I wondered if this new restaurant owner thought that he was in a area that likes hot and spicy, rather than “plain and fancy”. The salad was fine. Nothing special but it was fine.
Next came the main course and the selection of entrees and vegetables. The main buffet table starts off with a selection of vegetables. In fact the almost half of the large buffet table was vegetables. There was corn and corn on the cob, string beans, carrots, lima beans, lima beans in barbecue sauce to make baked beans, and broccoli. There also was noodles, stuffing, and mashed potatoes with brown gravy on the side. Moving along to the meats, there was “rotisserie” chicken. It was not rotisserie chicken as it was named but rather more like broiled chicken. It did not look good – it may have been but it did not look it. I passed. There was liver and onions that was a brown liquid in appearance. I don’t eat liver so I passed, but someone who eats liver would also probably pass. There was chicken bot bie (which they called chicken pot pie and later I heard a waitress describe to a diner that it is not like the one most expect at home - a pie shell full of chicken and vegetables. Had it been named properly – bot bie – as it is called locally, that might not have been a problem to have to explain. There was also fried flounder with fried shrimp. There was fried chicken. There was chicken stew (a yellow liquid with chicken floating in it). There were meatballs in a tomato sauce. There were also chunks of ham with a pineapple sauce. At the end of the hot buffet was meat loaf. Next to the hot buffet were rolls and a sweet bread that we think was zucchini bread. It was very good – whatever it was. Wrapped pats of butter could be found here,
Ok – how was the food? It varied. The assortment was great, but the recipes need attention. The vegetables were good, but they were frozen vegetables. Perhaps this is early in the growing season, but we are in farm country and surrounded by corn fields. Perhaps there is no corn on the stalks yet, They are definitely the next best thing to fresh. While spice seemed to dominate some of the dishes, the meat loaf was basically tasteless. Even with brown gravy poured over the top, the meat loaf had no taste. My wife, who likes everything plain, put pepper on the meat loaf in an attempt to give it some flavor. The chicken pot pie was lacking in vegetables that would have given it some flavor - and there was an underlying spice taste, that is not usually in this dish. The recipe usually calls for carrots and celery to be cooked into this stew-like dish. There were neither. The dish was chicken, which was hard to find, with potatoes and dumplings. The chicken stew had an odd tasting spiced sauce with large pieces of chicken and nothing else – stew? I took some of the noodles with my first plate. They were thin and yellow. Eating them, they were like rubber. Later, fresh noodles were put out and I took them because these looked like they should. They tasted fine and were properly cooked. The stuffing tasted like boxed stuffing mix – it was not bad, but it was not what I expected in a restaurant in this area where stuffing is called filling and a significant part of local meals.
Ok – let me get to what was GOOD, There were some very good dishes to be found here. The fried flounder was very good and the fried shrimp that were mixed in were excellent. These shrimp were huge. The breading was tasty – perhaps a corn meal breading on the shrimp and fish. The fried chicken was also excellent. It was perhaps one of the best of the fried chicken that I have had at a buffet restaurant. When I went back for more I went back for shrimp, flounder, and fried chicken. The mashed potatoes were fresh and real. I mentioned the sweet bread earlier and this was very good (and not usually found at a buffet). I did not try the ham, but my wife did and she says that it was good.
The dessert selection is fair. There were pies including shoe fly pie. There were some puddings. What I thought was egg custard was actually rice pudding. It was ok. There were watermelon and orange wedges. There were two cakes. There was also a shoe fly cake that I tried. It was dry and lacked the taste that would have come had it been moister. The ice cream freezer case from the former restaurant was still there and it was filled with Turkey Hill ice cream, which is locally made (the same is found at many supermarkets). It is scooped to your request,
The service was excellent. The servers were attentive and available. They were equally friendly. The restaurant was clean. The view is terrific – as long as you like farms – and, after all, that is what you are in this area for,
Most of the business – on this night – seemed to be coming from the motel. There were few tables filled, but they did keep turning over while we dined, so people were coming in. This restaurant could corner the market on Sunday night dinner for the tourist trade, as very few restaurants with local food are open. Where was everyone?
As I have said the recipes need some attention and the buffet tables need some regular tending. The noodles should never have been allowed to dry out. The liquid liver and onions needed to be stirred up so perhaps it might have looked like liver and onions – which is not a stew, but appeared to be here. The chicken corn soup should never have looked red. The recipes need also to be brought into line with the local tastes – this is supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch home cooking – not tex mex. Perhaps the local chef does not work on Sunday nights and the cooking was not as usual. At some time in the future I will try it on another night.
I was not unhappy hear – but it did not meet my great anticipation. The food was ok – some of it was excellent, but some disappointing. There is promise here. It is only open a short while and I will hope that it remains open to attract a local and tourist clientele AND better recipes. I would recommend this on a Sunday when there is not much else, I might not recommend this yet on any other night (yet) when you can find better very close by. One other advantage here is that is open until 9:00 pm every night. Most local restaurants here close at 8:00 pm – so if it is getting too late for the other restaurants, you will be able to get a decent meal here.
There is a breakfast buffet until 11 am at $4.99 from Friday to Sunday only. There is a lunch buffet on weekdays for $8.95 and Saturday and Sunday for $10.95. The lunch buffet is available every day until 4:00 pm. There are coupons with $1.00 off each dinner up to 4. These are in the local tourist papers – I found one in the Amish Country News, a free paper found in hotels and tourist locations. I did not see one in the other tourist free papers.
There is a website – www.harvestviewpa.com. There will be a link found in out links listing. The phone number is 717-768-7953. Hmm, just tried the website and got a message that the account for this domain has been suspended - what does that mean? Well, the restaurant is open, so perhaps the website will someday work.
We went to this restaurant with great anticipation of a new buffet. We already knew the location from the former occupant, so the view was not what we were going for; it was the food. We went on a Sunday night – oh yes, this restaurant is open on Sundays – very few local restaurants in this area are. We arrived a normal dinner time – about 6:oo pm. The parking lot had two cars – the motel lot had a few more. Entering the lobby, there is a sort of gift shop with a few items on the counters and display tables left over from the former restaurant. In the corner still trickles the fountain from the other restaurant. There was no one in the lobby and no one at the cash registers. As we approached the dining room entrance, a young lady came out from the restaurant and seated us. The first impression of a desserted room was not a good first impression. The dining rooms are just as they were before, as are the buffet tables in the upper dining room – the room with the VIEW. This is July and this is the beginning of tourist vacation season. The restaurant was empty with a few tables occupied – each with a window to the view. I generally do not sit with my back to the dining room but here the view is the thing and we were seated facing the window, I enjoy the view and that is enough to put my back to the open room. Our waiter came over promptly. He told us that they feature the buffet and, of course, that was what we were having. Soft drinks are extra at $1.50. The meal is $12.99. Young children seemed to be free for the buffet. There is also a soup and salad bar option – as well as menu dining.
Silverware and napkins are on the table with placemats. The beverages are brought to your table by your server and they are refilled regularly with no hesitation. The soup cups and soup spoons along with the desert plates are up at the buffet tables, as are the dinner plates. At first there were no soup cups. We asked for them and they were brought immediately.
We went up to the buffet. It was obvious that an effort has been made to keep much of the look and the buffet close to the former restaurant that was here, and is still in business just a few miles down the road on Route 340. The room has been repainted to a pleasant orange with red trim.
We started with soup. There were two soups offered – located where they always had been at the end of the salad bar. One soup was chicken corn soup and the other soup was potato and bacon cream soup. We thought that the chicken corn soup was tomato vegetable soup because when we looked into the tureen, the soup was red. Chicken corn soup usually looks like chicken soup. We stirred the soup with the ladle to find that there was a layer of red spice on the top and once mixed, the appearance was more of what was expected. I am a chicken corn soup fan. I filled my cup. There was plenty of chicken pieces and corn. There is often a dumpling like noodle (called rivels) or a fresh noodle in this type of soup. There was neither in this soup.
Back at the table I tasted the soup. It was not like any other chicken corn soup that I have ever had. The red spice must have been paprika or chili powder. The soup was spicy and disappointing. Uh oh, Not a good start. At least not what I had expected and I have been eating the local food in this area for over 45 years (I travel to this area a lot.) Beyond the spice and the expectation – as a soup all on its own it was ok, but overly spiced.
We next went to the salad bar. There is chopped lettuce and vegetable toppings. There were a few prepared salads, but nothing local = no chow chow, no apple butter, no cottage cheese. There were a number of dressings that were a good assortment. There were chopped hot peppers and again I wondered if this new restaurant owner thought that he was in a area that likes hot and spicy, rather than “plain and fancy”. The salad was fine. Nothing special but it was fine.
Next came the main course and the selection of entrees and vegetables. The main buffet table starts off with a selection of vegetables. In fact the almost half of the large buffet table was vegetables. There was corn and corn on the cob, string beans, carrots, lima beans, lima beans in barbecue sauce to make baked beans, and broccoli. There also was noodles, stuffing, and mashed potatoes with brown gravy on the side. Moving along to the meats, there was “rotisserie” chicken. It was not rotisserie chicken as it was named but rather more like broiled chicken. It did not look good – it may have been but it did not look it. I passed. There was liver and onions that was a brown liquid in appearance. I don’t eat liver so I passed, but someone who eats liver would also probably pass. There was chicken bot bie (which they called chicken pot pie and later I heard a waitress describe to a diner that it is not like the one most expect at home - a pie shell full of chicken and vegetables. Had it been named properly – bot bie – as it is called locally, that might not have been a problem to have to explain. There was also fried flounder with fried shrimp. There was fried chicken. There was chicken stew (a yellow liquid with chicken floating in it). There were meatballs in a tomato sauce. There were also chunks of ham with a pineapple sauce. At the end of the hot buffet was meat loaf. Next to the hot buffet were rolls and a sweet bread that we think was zucchini bread. It was very good – whatever it was. Wrapped pats of butter could be found here,
Ok – how was the food? It varied. The assortment was great, but the recipes need attention. The vegetables were good, but they were frozen vegetables. Perhaps this is early in the growing season, but we are in farm country and surrounded by corn fields. Perhaps there is no corn on the stalks yet, They are definitely the next best thing to fresh. While spice seemed to dominate some of the dishes, the meat loaf was basically tasteless. Even with brown gravy poured over the top, the meat loaf had no taste. My wife, who likes everything plain, put pepper on the meat loaf in an attempt to give it some flavor. The chicken pot pie was lacking in vegetables that would have given it some flavor - and there was an underlying spice taste, that is not usually in this dish. The recipe usually calls for carrots and celery to be cooked into this stew-like dish. There were neither. The dish was chicken, which was hard to find, with potatoes and dumplings. The chicken stew had an odd tasting spiced sauce with large pieces of chicken and nothing else – stew? I took some of the noodles with my first plate. They were thin and yellow. Eating them, they were like rubber. Later, fresh noodles were put out and I took them because these looked like they should. They tasted fine and were properly cooked. The stuffing tasted like boxed stuffing mix – it was not bad, but it was not what I expected in a restaurant in this area where stuffing is called filling and a significant part of local meals.
Ok – let me get to what was GOOD, There were some very good dishes to be found here. The fried flounder was very good and the fried shrimp that were mixed in were excellent. These shrimp were huge. The breading was tasty – perhaps a corn meal breading on the shrimp and fish. The fried chicken was also excellent. It was perhaps one of the best of the fried chicken that I have had at a buffet restaurant. When I went back for more I went back for shrimp, flounder, and fried chicken. The mashed potatoes were fresh and real. I mentioned the sweet bread earlier and this was very good (and not usually found at a buffet). I did not try the ham, but my wife did and she says that it was good.
The dessert selection is fair. There were pies including shoe fly pie. There were some puddings. What I thought was egg custard was actually rice pudding. It was ok. There were watermelon and orange wedges. There were two cakes. There was also a shoe fly cake that I tried. It was dry and lacked the taste that would have come had it been moister. The ice cream freezer case from the former restaurant was still there and it was filled with Turkey Hill ice cream, which is locally made (the same is found at many supermarkets). It is scooped to your request,
The service was excellent. The servers were attentive and available. They were equally friendly. The restaurant was clean. The view is terrific – as long as you like farms – and, after all, that is what you are in this area for,
Most of the business – on this night – seemed to be coming from the motel. There were few tables filled, but they did keep turning over while we dined, so people were coming in. This restaurant could corner the market on Sunday night dinner for the tourist trade, as very few restaurants with local food are open. Where was everyone?
As I have said the recipes need some attention and the buffet tables need some regular tending. The noodles should never have been allowed to dry out. The liquid liver and onions needed to be stirred up so perhaps it might have looked like liver and onions – which is not a stew, but appeared to be here. The chicken corn soup should never have looked red. The recipes need also to be brought into line with the local tastes – this is supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch home cooking – not tex mex. Perhaps the local chef does not work on Sunday nights and the cooking was not as usual. At some time in the future I will try it on another night.
I was not unhappy hear – but it did not meet my great anticipation. The food was ok – some of it was excellent, but some disappointing. There is promise here. It is only open a short while and I will hope that it remains open to attract a local and tourist clientele AND better recipes. I would recommend this on a Sunday when there is not much else, I might not recommend this yet on any other night (yet) when you can find better very close by. One other advantage here is that is open until 9:00 pm every night. Most local restaurants here close at 8:00 pm – so if it is getting too late for the other restaurants, you will be able to get a decent meal here.
There is a breakfast buffet until 11 am at $4.99 from Friday to Sunday only. There is a lunch buffet on weekdays for $8.95 and Saturday and Sunday for $10.95. The lunch buffet is available every day until 4:00 pm. There are coupons with $1.00 off each dinner up to 4. These are in the local tourist papers – I found one in the Amish Country News, a free paper found in hotels and tourist locations. I did not see one in the other tourist free papers.
There is a website – www.harvestviewpa.com. There will be a link found in out links listing. The phone number is 717-768-7953. Hmm, just tried the website and got a message that the account for this domain has been suspended - what does that mean? Well, the restaurant is open, so perhaps the website will someday work.
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