It was last November when I first found Dutch-Way Family Restaurant located on the far end of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Like Yoders, this is another restaurant that is part of a supermarket. Also like Yoders, the restaurant is in the same building but separated by a hallway, and in this case, that hallway has a snack bar with some very tempting treats. But it is wise to pass the snack bar and keep going to the restaurant - in fact, just enter from the parking lot to the door for the restaurant.
This buffet is fancier than Yoders. There are tables and booths and a carpet on the floor. The dining room is divided in sections by low level walls and the buffet servers are at the rear of the room along with a large grill area.
This restaurant is well out of the tourist area and it is unlikely that you are going to encounter anything but locals here - though I must say that the night we were there a bus group was just leaving. Happily, we missed the bus group. There are also two banquet rooms that are off to the side of the buffet area. We were there on a Saturday night and the restaurant was only moderately busy. As I have noted, this is out of the tourist area. Like almost every other buffet restaurant in Lancaster County, Dutch-Way is closed on Sundays. Monday to Friday they are open from 6 am to 8:00 pm.
Dinner here varies by the night and we were there on a Saturday night. The price of the dinner buffet was $12.99. Unlimited soft drinks are an additional $1.39. Dinner price was two dollars more than it had been during the week in November.
The feature for Saturday night is Prime Rib and ham at the grill. Thursdays is seafood night. Tuesday is now make your own burgers at the grill and wings. In addition to the feature there are two hot buffet servers filled with entrees and side dishes. While this restaurant is larger than Yoders, it does not feature as many selections, but there is plenty here to choose from.
There are four soups and on this night these included chicken corn chowder, vegetable beef, chile, and chicken noodle. I tried the chicken corn chowder, as I have not had this before. It was full of potatoes and a thin white cream base with chicken and corn. It was tasty. My wife had the vegetable beef and she enjoyed it.
There is a very large salad bar here and you can make a tossed salad with a wide variety of toppings. There are also a number of local prepared salads and in addition there was a very excellent chicken salad. This chicken salad would have made a satisfying meal on its own. To top your salad there were small pieces of real fried bacon strips. Very different from the usual bacon on a salad bar. Everything was fresh.
Walking around the hot buffet servers I spotted a local dish that is different in Lancaster from how it is served in soul food restaurants - chicken and waffles. This is not fried chicken on top of a waffle. This is a creamed chicken put over waffles. I took this along with meat loaf on my first plate. The chicken and waffles was very tasty - but unlike others that I have had in this area - there were no chunks of chicken. The chicken was blended into the cream sauce. It made for a very tasty and interesting dish. The meatloaf was thick and rather than the usual ketchup that is put on top of meatloaf in many buffets this was covered in brown gravy. This is my wife's favorite type of meatloaf - and like everything else here - it was good. I also took a small spoon of potato filling - which I have described in articles about other buffets in this area. This one had a distinct potato taste and texture. It was like stuffing and mashed potatoes blended together into a unique dish. It delightfully surprised me when I put it into my mouth. I have had all different types of potato filling and not all have been the same. This one had a differently nice texture and taste.
Of course, there were a number of other dishes. There were ham balls in pineapple sauce - this is chopped ham made into meatballs - turkey in gravy, roast beef in gravy, Salisbury steak in brown gravy, seafood lasagna, pork and sauerkraut, Cajun haddock, and a very good fried chicken, in fact this was one of the better fried chickens that I have had and the sign called it "henny penny" fried chicken. I, later, looked up what henny penny fried chicken is. Henny Penny is the name of a company that makes chicken pressure friers. Similar to "broasting", the chicken is deep fried under pressure. I have had broasted chicken before. This was my first time having "Henny Penny" fried chicken.
There was supposed to be ham on the carving grill, there was only Prime Rib. Well, Prime Rib is not an only. I was cut a thick slice that was nicely cooked - a little medium rare and a little better done all on the same piece. Perhaps some who only like their beef one way or the other (as I usually do) would not like this, but I liked the contrast in tastes and textures. It was good.
Side dishes included mashed potatoes, carrots, macaroni and cheese - in a thick white cheese sauce, stewed tomatoes, mixed steamed vegetables, a mixed vegetables that was in a thick cream-like sauce, and there was string bean casserole - that was called green beans and bacon. The bacon was evident in taste and it was thick with cream sauce and covered in fried onion rings. This is very much like the popular Thanksgiving dish of creamed green bean casserole covered in fried onion rings, but much better. It was "kicked up a notch" as Emeril would say, but not spicy - kicked up a notch in taste and texture.
For the most part, this is local Amish and Mennonite country cooking. With this there are more worldly dishes mixed in so it is not all farm fare, but the blend is done well - and there is something for just about anyone.
There is a section near the soups that has an assortment of different breads. There was bread with cranberries swirled through, bread with blueberries, pumpkin bread and banana bread. There were also white and wheat rolls. On the hot buffet there were hot rolls. With the bread there were also half donuts covered in chocolate, coconut, and nuts. Dessert or bread? You decide.
There is a nice dessert bar here. In addition to those donuts, there were layer cakes including party cake, chocolate cake and yellow cake with chocolate frosting. There was an assortment of pies including sugar free pies - and then like all of the other buffets in Lancaster County there were the local prepared desserts - of which there was a very large selection. There was fresh fruit salad and grapes. Over on the hot buffet there was a tray of hot desserts in little foil cups. My wife tried one of these - a chocolate cake. She said that it was not really hot - it was warm - and it was nice. I, who should not eat dessert, could not resist one of the half donuts. It was very good - but then again, I really like donuts and I very rarely - if ever, any more, have them. There is also an ice cream sundae bar with soft serve ice cream. The ice cream looked really, really good - really creamy. I was tempted, but not after eating the donut - not to mention the chicken and waffles.
Service was very good. The young lady who was serving our table made sure the plates were taken away and kept offering and bringing refills of the drinks.
I have looked forward to coming back to Dutch-Way for a year and I was very happy that I went back and look forward now to the next visit. In fact, I keep thinking since this meal, that this has to become one of my regular dinners when in Lancaster County. I find it interesting that the restaurants that are the least presumptive stand out so highly. After all, this is a restaurant buffet in a supermarket- but it is one of the better buffets that I have been to.
As I did six months ago, I still highly recommend Dutch-Way Family Restaurant!
The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Return to Yoders, New Holland, Pennsylvania
When I am asked what the second best buffet is, I think Yoders. It has been a while since I have been to Yoders and with an extended visit to the Pennsylvania Dutch area in Lancaster County, PA, dinner at Yoders was definitely on the schedule.
Yoders is a restaurant and buffet that I have written about before, It is a bit unusual - though in this area it is not really out of the ordinary before - you see, it is located in a supermarket. In Lancaster County there are several supermarkets that have restaurants and a few of them have full buffets. The restaurant is actually in the building that the supermarket is located in but separated by a hallway that goes past gift shops and there is the restaurant. Of course, the supermarket is named Yoders as well.
From Monday to Thursday the dinner price at Yoders is $13.49. On Friday and Saturday nights the price for dinner is $14.49. Unlimited refill soft drinks cost $1.99. This may seem expensive to some used to the $10.99 buffets, but OCB also charges $1.99 for drinks. When compared to its neighbor buffet - Shady Maple, when you add the tax and tip at Yoders you come pretty close to the price that you pay there.
This is not a lavish buffet. There are no crystal chandeliers, there is no grand entrance lobby, and you do not have long buffet servers the length of the restaurant. What you do have is good food that is cooked from scratch and a nice selection with something for everyone. This visit was on a Friday night and this is Land and Sea night - as are Saturday nights - and the emphasis is on seafood.
This is a local restaurant that cooks to appeal to local tastes and this is a Mennonite and Amish area - when you are eating at Yoders, you will be eating at a table near Mennonite and Amish people. These are people who appreciate good, plain and fresh country cooking - and that is what you get at Yoders.
As usual, we started with soup. There were two soups - New England Clam Chowder and Stuffed Pepper soup. It is often the case at Yoders that the soups will be a bit out of the ordinary. I had the clam chowder. My wife skipped the soup - as you regular readers know - she is a picky eater who does not eat seafood other than shrimp, but there was plenty of non-seafood here for her to enjoy and she looks forward to coming back to Yoders. The clam chowder was thick and tasty - though a bit on the salty side. I lifted the lid on the tureen of the stuffed pepper soup and I was met with the strong and good smell of stuffed peppers. The soup was in a tomato base and was full of chopped meat and green peppers. (A day later I encountered freshly made, Stuffed Pepper Soup again at a food market - so apparently this is a local soup.)
There is a nice salad bar. It has several types of lettuce greens and also a large selection of prepared salads - some local to this area. There are toppings to make just about any type of mixed salad that you would like including Caesar Salad.
There is a large grill and on this night they were grilling marinated Delmonico steaks. You ask for your steak how you like it and that is how you get it. The steak was tasty. It did have the taste of what it had been marinated in which was slightly sweet, and, in my opinion, marinating is not necessary - but it was good. On weeknights there are other items served from the grill.
With the steak I chose potato filling - think of stuffing made of potatoes - green beans and stewed tomatoes. I also took a small amount of baked oatmeal. My good wife loves their baked oatmeal and it is good!
Thia may sound like an odd criticism of a restaurant, but portions at Yoders are large. I have said this in the past. When I eat at a buffet I like to take a tasting plate - small portions of things that I want to try and then have the ability to take a variety. When I finished the very good steak, I wanted to sample the seafood dishes that are offered Friday and Saturday nights. There were several that I had my eye on - one of which I have never had before. One other was the fried pollack and the pieces that were out where full size portions. Of course, you can take a little bit if you cut a piece of what is there but I don't like to do that. I feel that is wrong as it leaves a broken piece in the serving tray for someone else. So, I took a full piece.
The dish that I have never had before was Tuna Noodle Casserole. This was the butt of many jokes on 1960's TV comedy shows. The joke of "what is for dinner?" was always "tuna noodle casserole" and would be met with a frown. This may have been common at your house - we never had it in our family and my wife never had it on her house either - of course, she does not eat fish anyway. Well, there was tuna noodle casserole and I had to have some. It was actually very good. It was tuna - it seemed to be canned tuna which I suspect is how this is always made - and the tuna was blended with noodles, mushrooms and a cream sauce. It was thick and tasty. To this plate I also added a piece of the stuffed flounder. This was a flounder fillet that was rolled around a generic fish stuffing. It was all good. The flounder was tasty as was the pollack and the rest.
This is one of those buffets that you see things that tempt you to go back up and go a plate further. The fried chicken here is always good. I took a small piece. There was another fish dish that I wanted to try - baked haddock. This was thin fillets of haddock with a crumb and lemon topping. I could not take a whole piece and against my own desire not to cut off a piece from a larger piece there, I did just that. I did not take the fried shrimp but my wife did. There was also cocktail shrimp served both plain and spiced I passed on this too - though I have had this here before and it is good.
My wife was happy with ham loaf in pineapple sauce - chopped ham cooked into a meatloaf. She also took more than one portion of the baked oatmeal. She likes Yoders - no matter what night we are there and she was happy with the selections - which is saying a lot for any buffet on seafood night when my wife is there.
There is good reason to leave room for dessert here. They have a nice assortment of layer cakes, hot and cold prepared desserts - including many local favorites, fruit pies, shoo fly pie - of course, and a soft serve ice cream that is very good. There is a sundae bar to top the ice cream. Yoders complex includes a dairy and that dairy makes home style ice cream. It is a shame that this hard ice cream is not included on the buffet. It is served from the menu - and you can buy it in the attached supermarket. I have been told that it is excellent.
Yoders is a must try but if you go, as I said in the beginning, do not expect lavish. You do not go to Yoders for the atmosphere, you go for the food.
There is a website for Yoders listed at the side of this article. The restaurant is located at Yoder's Supermarket or perhaps, more properly, Yoder's Country Market, Route 23, New Holland, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 354-4748.
Yoders is a restaurant and buffet that I have written about before, It is a bit unusual - though in this area it is not really out of the ordinary before - you see, it is located in a supermarket. In Lancaster County there are several supermarkets that have restaurants and a few of them have full buffets. The restaurant is actually in the building that the supermarket is located in but separated by a hallway that goes past gift shops and there is the restaurant. Of course, the supermarket is named Yoders as well.
From Monday to Thursday the dinner price at Yoders is $13.49. On Friday and Saturday nights the price for dinner is $14.49. Unlimited refill soft drinks cost $1.99. This may seem expensive to some used to the $10.99 buffets, but OCB also charges $1.99 for drinks. When compared to its neighbor buffet - Shady Maple, when you add the tax and tip at Yoders you come pretty close to the price that you pay there.
This is not a lavish buffet. There are no crystal chandeliers, there is no grand entrance lobby, and you do not have long buffet servers the length of the restaurant. What you do have is good food that is cooked from scratch and a nice selection with something for everyone. This visit was on a Friday night and this is Land and Sea night - as are Saturday nights - and the emphasis is on seafood.
This is a local restaurant that cooks to appeal to local tastes and this is a Mennonite and Amish area - when you are eating at Yoders, you will be eating at a table near Mennonite and Amish people. These are people who appreciate good, plain and fresh country cooking - and that is what you get at Yoders.
As usual, we started with soup. There were two soups - New England Clam Chowder and Stuffed Pepper soup. It is often the case at Yoders that the soups will be a bit out of the ordinary. I had the clam chowder. My wife skipped the soup - as you regular readers know - she is a picky eater who does not eat seafood other than shrimp, but there was plenty of non-seafood here for her to enjoy and she looks forward to coming back to Yoders. The clam chowder was thick and tasty - though a bit on the salty side. I lifted the lid on the tureen of the stuffed pepper soup and I was met with the strong and good smell of stuffed peppers. The soup was in a tomato base and was full of chopped meat and green peppers. (A day later I encountered freshly made, Stuffed Pepper Soup again at a food market - so apparently this is a local soup.)
There is a nice salad bar. It has several types of lettuce greens and also a large selection of prepared salads - some local to this area. There are toppings to make just about any type of mixed salad that you would like including Caesar Salad.
There is a large grill and on this night they were grilling marinated Delmonico steaks. You ask for your steak how you like it and that is how you get it. The steak was tasty. It did have the taste of what it had been marinated in which was slightly sweet, and, in my opinion, marinating is not necessary - but it was good. On weeknights there are other items served from the grill.
With the steak I chose potato filling - think of stuffing made of potatoes - green beans and stewed tomatoes. I also took a small amount of baked oatmeal. My good wife loves their baked oatmeal and it is good!
Thia may sound like an odd criticism of a restaurant, but portions at Yoders are large. I have said this in the past. When I eat at a buffet I like to take a tasting plate - small portions of things that I want to try and then have the ability to take a variety. When I finished the very good steak, I wanted to sample the seafood dishes that are offered Friday and Saturday nights. There were several that I had my eye on - one of which I have never had before. One other was the fried pollack and the pieces that were out where full size portions. Of course, you can take a little bit if you cut a piece of what is there but I don't like to do that. I feel that is wrong as it leaves a broken piece in the serving tray for someone else. So, I took a full piece.
The dish that I have never had before was Tuna Noodle Casserole. This was the butt of many jokes on 1960's TV comedy shows. The joke of "what is for dinner?" was always "tuna noodle casserole" and would be met with a frown. This may have been common at your house - we never had it in our family and my wife never had it on her house either - of course, she does not eat fish anyway. Well, there was tuna noodle casserole and I had to have some. It was actually very good. It was tuna - it seemed to be canned tuna which I suspect is how this is always made - and the tuna was blended with noodles, mushrooms and a cream sauce. It was thick and tasty. To this plate I also added a piece of the stuffed flounder. This was a flounder fillet that was rolled around a generic fish stuffing. It was all good. The flounder was tasty as was the pollack and the rest.
This is one of those buffets that you see things that tempt you to go back up and go a plate further. The fried chicken here is always good. I took a small piece. There was another fish dish that I wanted to try - baked haddock. This was thin fillets of haddock with a crumb and lemon topping. I could not take a whole piece and against my own desire not to cut off a piece from a larger piece there, I did just that. I did not take the fried shrimp but my wife did. There was also cocktail shrimp served both plain and spiced I passed on this too - though I have had this here before and it is good.
My wife was happy with ham loaf in pineapple sauce - chopped ham cooked into a meatloaf. She also took more than one portion of the baked oatmeal. She likes Yoders - no matter what night we are there and she was happy with the selections - which is saying a lot for any buffet on seafood night when my wife is there.
There is good reason to leave room for dessert here. They have a nice assortment of layer cakes, hot and cold prepared desserts - including many local favorites, fruit pies, shoo fly pie - of course, and a soft serve ice cream that is very good. There is a sundae bar to top the ice cream. Yoders complex includes a dairy and that dairy makes home style ice cream. It is a shame that this hard ice cream is not included on the buffet. It is served from the menu - and you can buy it in the attached supermarket. I have been told that it is excellent.
Yoders is a must try but if you go, as I said in the beginning, do not expect lavish. You do not go to Yoders for the atmosphere, you go for the food.
There is a website for Yoders listed at the side of this article. The restaurant is located at Yoder's Supermarket or perhaps, more properly, Yoder's Country Market, Route 23, New Holland, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 354-4748.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Back to Cactus Willies Steak Buffet and Bakery - Lancaster, PA
I have not been to Cactus Willies since 2009. We have been to Lancaster, of course, since that time but not on a Sunday night when just about all of the buffets that I have recommended in this area are closed. We were leaving Lancaster on a Sunday and our choices for a buffet meal were Old Country Buffet, a Chinese buffet, Cici's Pizza (which would have been great if I could eat that much pizza any longer) or Cactus Willies. There was no question that it would be Cactus Willies.
Cactus Willies is a two state chain of restaurants that is now down to only two locations. One is in Essex, Maryland and the other is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
My last visit to Cactus Willies was fine but as I look back on what I wrote in 2009, it could have been better. This visit was definitely better. The hours on Sundays have gone back to closing at 8:30 pm. They are open until 9:30 on Friday and Saturday nights. Monday to Thursday they are open until 8:30 pm.
At Cactus Willies, like the other chain buffets of this type, you pay as you enter. We were told to sit anywhere. You choose your soft drinks which are $1.69 with refills. You are given a slip with your drink order on it to give to your server at your table. There were a good number of people dining in the restaurant for a Sunday night in at the end of April. We sat down.
The prices at Cactus Willies are very good. Weekdays dinner is $10.29. Weekends, including Sundays, dinner is $10.79. There is a senior discount of a dollar off, and of course there are children's prices.
Our server came over to us and took the slip with our drinks and went off to get them. We went up to the buffet and went over to the soups. There have always been - and there still are - three soups to select from. One soup was missing. It did come out later. There was vegetable beef and Maryland crab. Maryland crab is a red stock crab soup that is seasoned with Old Bay seasoning. My wife took the vegetable beef. When we got back to the table I looked at her soup and asked what she had taken as it looked exactly like my Maryland crab soup. Since I know she does not eat crab, I knew that this could not be. She told me it was vegetable beef. Again, it looked exactly like my crab soup - so much so that I got up and went back to the soups to look that I did not take the beef soup. In the serving pot they did look the same. This was odd. There in my crab soup I was certain that there were the same chunks of beef as in the beef vegetable. I tasted the soup. It was definitely seasoned as Maryland crab. I could also feel the strings of crab meat slurried through the soup. But there were cubes of beef. It made me wonder if the two soups had been accidentally mixed together. It tasted good and I enjoyed it. Why it had beef in it I don't know and this really could be a problem for someone who has any reason not to eat beef. My wife's vegetable beef soup was exactly that - no taste of crab or crab seasoning at all.
We were up next to the salad bar and there are the fixings for regular salad with a variety of dressings and toppings. There is also an assortment of local-styled prepared salads. The prepared salads are "home-style" and several are Pennsylvania Dutch area salads.
Cactus Willies has a large, char-flame grill off to the side of the buffet area. There they are char-grilling steaks. There is a carving. On this night it was ham. There has been turkey and Roast Beef. There are also barbecue ribs. I went up to the grill and asked for a steak rare. The chef picked a steak - not a full steak, but a good size piece - cut into it and showed it tome. It was rare and not raw - which is good. I also took a three rib piece of ribs. The ribs are covered in barbecue sauce. The steak was very tasty and I enjoyed it. The ribs were almost fall off the bone which is what I look for in ribs. This piece was meaty and while I would have preferred less sauce, many would say the sauce was just right.
On the hot buffet servers there was my wife's favorite Cactus Willies dish, Turkey Pot Roast. This is a pot roast made from turkey thigh meat in a rich brown/red gravy with potatoes, carrots, and celery. She loves this dish here and has looked for recipes to make it. Locally to us, we have not been able to find turkey thigh meat and for the texture of this dish to resemble its beef counterpart turkey thigh meat is necessary - it gets stringy like a well cooked beef pot roast. I took some on another trip up to the buffet servers and it is very good. Also on this night on the hot buffet servers there was meat loaf, fried chicken, fried shrimp, baked fish, fried fish, lasagna, spaghetti, pork chops, and pizza. There is also a taco station where you can make both tacos and nachos. Vegetables were the usual- string beans, corn, cabbage, sweet potatoes, a baked potato bar, french fries, brussel sprouts, rice, mashed potatoes, and stewed tomatoes. There is plenty to eat here.
Desserts are not elaborate but there is a nice selection of baked goods. There are puddings, jello, prepared desserts. There are cakes and pies. There are hot fruit cobblers. I did try the soft serve and this was a little disappointing as it was icy. A lot of soft serves are icy. It would have been better if it was creamy. There is a sundae bar and ice cream cones for the ice cream. There were some nice looking cupcakes that were out.
The food is good. It is not one of the best buffet meals you will ever have but it is satisfying. This last visit made me feel that this was a place to come back to more often - and with future trips to the area that will involve Sunday nights, I am pretty sure that I will be back here soon. If it is not a Sunday, in Lancaster there are so many other buffets. Reserve this one for when those are closed.
There is one funny problem with Cactus Willies. When I want to recall what the name of the restaurant is I always come up with Wild Willies and then cannot find it - of course, since the name is CACTUS Willies. Even as I sat down to write this article I stared out with Wild Willies. So remember "C A C T U S Willies".
Cactus Willies is located in a strip mall not far from the city of Lancaster. It is located at the Regency Mall, 101 Rohrerstown Rd, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 390-7060. There is a website (for both locations) and that is linked at the side of this page.
Cactus Willies is a two state chain of restaurants that is now down to only two locations. One is in Essex, Maryland and the other is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
My last visit to Cactus Willies was fine but as I look back on what I wrote in 2009, it could have been better. This visit was definitely better. The hours on Sundays have gone back to closing at 8:30 pm. They are open until 9:30 on Friday and Saturday nights. Monday to Thursday they are open until 8:30 pm.
At Cactus Willies, like the other chain buffets of this type, you pay as you enter. We were told to sit anywhere. You choose your soft drinks which are $1.69 with refills. You are given a slip with your drink order on it to give to your server at your table. There were a good number of people dining in the restaurant for a Sunday night in at the end of April. We sat down.
The prices at Cactus Willies are very good. Weekdays dinner is $10.29. Weekends, including Sundays, dinner is $10.79. There is a senior discount of a dollar off, and of course there are children's prices.
Our server came over to us and took the slip with our drinks and went off to get them. We went up to the buffet and went over to the soups. There have always been - and there still are - three soups to select from. One soup was missing. It did come out later. There was vegetable beef and Maryland crab. Maryland crab is a red stock crab soup that is seasoned with Old Bay seasoning. My wife took the vegetable beef. When we got back to the table I looked at her soup and asked what she had taken as it looked exactly like my Maryland crab soup. Since I know she does not eat crab, I knew that this could not be. She told me it was vegetable beef. Again, it looked exactly like my crab soup - so much so that I got up and went back to the soups to look that I did not take the beef soup. In the serving pot they did look the same. This was odd. There in my crab soup I was certain that there were the same chunks of beef as in the beef vegetable. I tasted the soup. It was definitely seasoned as Maryland crab. I could also feel the strings of crab meat slurried through the soup. But there were cubes of beef. It made me wonder if the two soups had been accidentally mixed together. It tasted good and I enjoyed it. Why it had beef in it I don't know and this really could be a problem for someone who has any reason not to eat beef. My wife's vegetable beef soup was exactly that - no taste of crab or crab seasoning at all.
We were up next to the salad bar and there are the fixings for regular salad with a variety of dressings and toppings. There is also an assortment of local-styled prepared salads. The prepared salads are "home-style" and several are Pennsylvania Dutch area salads.
Cactus Willies has a large, char-flame grill off to the side of the buffet area. There they are char-grilling steaks. There is a carving. On this night it was ham. There has been turkey and Roast Beef. There are also barbecue ribs. I went up to the grill and asked for a steak rare. The chef picked a steak - not a full steak, but a good size piece - cut into it and showed it tome. It was rare and not raw - which is good. I also took a three rib piece of ribs. The ribs are covered in barbecue sauce. The steak was very tasty and I enjoyed it. The ribs were almost fall off the bone which is what I look for in ribs. This piece was meaty and while I would have preferred less sauce, many would say the sauce was just right.
On the hot buffet servers there was my wife's favorite Cactus Willies dish, Turkey Pot Roast. This is a pot roast made from turkey thigh meat in a rich brown/red gravy with potatoes, carrots, and celery. She loves this dish here and has looked for recipes to make it. Locally to us, we have not been able to find turkey thigh meat and for the texture of this dish to resemble its beef counterpart turkey thigh meat is necessary - it gets stringy like a well cooked beef pot roast. I took some on another trip up to the buffet servers and it is very good. Also on this night on the hot buffet servers there was meat loaf, fried chicken, fried shrimp, baked fish, fried fish, lasagna, spaghetti, pork chops, and pizza. There is also a taco station where you can make both tacos and nachos. Vegetables were the usual- string beans, corn, cabbage, sweet potatoes, a baked potato bar, french fries, brussel sprouts, rice, mashed potatoes, and stewed tomatoes. There is plenty to eat here.
Desserts are not elaborate but there is a nice selection of baked goods. There are puddings, jello, prepared desserts. There are cakes and pies. There are hot fruit cobblers. I did try the soft serve and this was a little disappointing as it was icy. A lot of soft serves are icy. It would have been better if it was creamy. There is a sundae bar and ice cream cones for the ice cream. There were some nice looking cupcakes that were out.
The food is good. It is not one of the best buffet meals you will ever have but it is satisfying. This last visit made me feel that this was a place to come back to more often - and with future trips to the area that will involve Sunday nights, I am pretty sure that I will be back here soon. If it is not a Sunday, in Lancaster there are so many other buffets. Reserve this one for when those are closed.
There is one funny problem with Cactus Willies. When I want to recall what the name of the restaurant is I always come up with Wild Willies and then cannot find it - of course, since the name is CACTUS Willies. Even as I sat down to write this article I stared out with Wild Willies. So remember "C A C T U S Willies".
Cactus Willies is located in a strip mall not far from the city of Lancaster. It is located at the Regency Mall, 101 Rohrerstown Rd, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 390-7060. There is a website (for both locations) and that is linked at the side of this page.
Friday, June 08, 2012
Buffets, Inc. To Close More Restauants
In May, Buffets, Inc. filed their plan to come out of bankruptcy. Their plan includes closing more restaurants as the company tries to build more traffic. There will be a confirmation hearing on the plan on June 13, 2012.
As regular readers know, Buffets, Inc. is the corporation that owns and manages the Old Country Buffet chain and the Ryan's Buffet chain. When the company filed this second bankruptcy since 2008, the company closed 81 restaurants - most of them closed overnight with no warning to unit managers or employees. Since these initial closures we have been made aware of a number of other locations that were closed following this - again, with no warning and done overnight.
The plan just announced to come out of bankruptcy that was filed in court stated: "“The financial projections also assume the closure of underperforming stores over time as it remains within the normal course of business to periodically determine which restaurant leases should be renewed as such leases come up for renewal or extension.”
This all comes following two million dollars in bonuses given at the corporate level to management who put the corporation into bankruptcy. It also comes following an announcement that Buffets, Inc. will be doing dramatic renovations in decoration to the interiors of Old Country Buffet restaurants. From the look of a sample of this new "concept" interior, there is no way that these renovations could be done on current locations without some period of closing down the unit - the changes will be that dramatic - and, frankly, in my opinion, will add nothing to increase business. And with every unit under scrutiny for performance - how could any unit afford the time to be closed for renovation? Again, Buffets, Inc. demonstrates a lack of good leadership, management, and business practice.
From a National Restaurant News article about this plan to exit bankruptcy - "For fiscal 2012, which ends June 27, Buffets expects restaurant sales to decline 13 percent from a year earlier to $1.03 billion, compared with $1.18 billion in fiscal 2011. The company cited the closure of 105 company-owned units during the fiscal year and lower guest counts at remaining restaurants for the drop-off."
Is this incredible? The company blames their drop in sales on not having the restaurants that they closed! This company counted on people traveling a distance to another location when the location near them was closed. From comments on Old Country Buffet's Facebook page from customers - there is no way they are going out of their way to travel to another Old Country Buffet. There are other reasons why there are fewer customers. The menu is tired. While there are some staples that need to remain, they have dropped too many of the things that people enjoyed coming to OCB for. OCB also serves almost the same things every night with little variation. There was a time, years ago, that there was a distinctly different menu every night of the week. Not any longer. They also dropped their seasonal or monthly features. Summer barbecue was always popular and brought people in with real barbecue ribs and brisket. Not the same pork loin that is cut into different shapes and served with barbecue sauce that they call "ribs" now - along with several other names for the same meat and sauce.
This is a company doing nothing to help what it calls "under performing stores" and is just waiting for their leases to end before they put all of these employees out of work and annoy more customers at the same time. The reader who was first to inform me about this most recent news called Buffets, Inc, "A slowly dying company."
We will watch and see.
As regular readers know, Buffets, Inc. is the corporation that owns and manages the Old Country Buffet chain and the Ryan's Buffet chain. When the company filed this second bankruptcy since 2008, the company closed 81 restaurants - most of them closed overnight with no warning to unit managers or employees. Since these initial closures we have been made aware of a number of other locations that were closed following this - again, with no warning and done overnight.
The plan just announced to come out of bankruptcy that was filed in court stated: "“The financial projections also assume the closure of underperforming stores over time as it remains within the normal course of business to periodically determine which restaurant leases should be renewed as such leases come up for renewal or extension.”
This all comes following two million dollars in bonuses given at the corporate level to management who put the corporation into bankruptcy. It also comes following an announcement that Buffets, Inc. will be doing dramatic renovations in decoration to the interiors of Old Country Buffet restaurants. From the look of a sample of this new "concept" interior, there is no way that these renovations could be done on current locations without some period of closing down the unit - the changes will be that dramatic - and, frankly, in my opinion, will add nothing to increase business. And with every unit under scrutiny for performance - how could any unit afford the time to be closed for renovation? Again, Buffets, Inc. demonstrates a lack of good leadership, management, and business practice.
From a National Restaurant News article about this plan to exit bankruptcy - "For fiscal 2012, which ends June 27, Buffets expects restaurant sales to decline 13 percent from a year earlier to $1.03 billion, compared with $1.18 billion in fiscal 2011. The company cited the closure of 105 company-owned units during the fiscal year and lower guest counts at remaining restaurants for the drop-off."
Is this incredible? The company blames their drop in sales on not having the restaurants that they closed! This company counted on people traveling a distance to another location when the location near them was closed. From comments on Old Country Buffet's Facebook page from customers - there is no way they are going out of their way to travel to another Old Country Buffet. There are other reasons why there are fewer customers. The menu is tired. While there are some staples that need to remain, they have dropped too many of the things that people enjoyed coming to OCB for. OCB also serves almost the same things every night with little variation. There was a time, years ago, that there was a distinctly different menu every night of the week. Not any longer. They also dropped their seasonal or monthly features. Summer barbecue was always popular and brought people in with real barbecue ribs and brisket. Not the same pork loin that is cut into different shapes and served with barbecue sauce that they call "ribs" now - along with several other names for the same meat and sauce.
This is a company doing nothing to help what it calls "under performing stores" and is just waiting for their leases to end before they put all of these employees out of work and annoy more customers at the same time. The reader who was first to inform me about this most recent news called Buffets, Inc, "A slowly dying company."
We will watch and see.
Friday, June 01, 2012
Mountain Gate Family Restaurant, Thurmont, Maryland
The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant has two locations owned and managed by the same family. The location in Thurmont, Maryland is the original location and restaurant and began as a truck stop. It evolved into a full restaurant serving both menu and buffet meals and has a gift shop. I had never been to the Thurmont location until recently and I went the night after I had dined at the Waynesboro, PA location - which is reviewed in the last article.
Thurmont, Maryland is one of those famous, but unknown places. It is at the foot of the Catoctin Mountain and on that mountain, hidden away, is Camp David, the retreat for Presidents of the United States since Eisenhower. I have written about another buffet in this area - Cozy Restaurant - that has a hotel where the White House Press Corp would stay and dine when the President was at Camp David. The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is just down the street from that restaurant.
Getting here can be quite an experience depending upon the direction that you come from. If you come west from Pennsylvania, you are not far from Gettysburg. If you come north from Maryland your GPS will likely route you through the Catoctin Mountain Park which is a roller coaster ride of narrow roads that wind around the mountain and in some places come very close to the edge. I went that way once, and I will never go that way again. We actually drove south and then east to travel on interstate highways to get to Thurmont to have dinner at the Mountain Gate. This was out of the way and longer in miles but actually about the same time as going the more direct but daunting route.
We arrived at the Mountain Gate Family Restaurant on a Saturday night at about 6:30 pm. There was no line to get in when we arrived but shortly after a line began to form. It is evident right away that this is the older of the two restaurants. I have spoken about the Christian decor that had been at the Waynesboro location and it is evident here. This is not any problem for us. I have read reviews where some people were troubled by it.
We were seated at a booth in what seemed to be the smaller dining room. There are three dining rooms with the buffet area located in the middle. Prices are the same at both locations. There is a noticeable difference in the tax - one restaurant is in Maryland and the other is in Pennsylvania.
I have been to the Pennsylvania location on a Saturday night and anticipated the same menu on the buffet. The buffet serving area is large - larger than in Pennsylvania, but as we went through the meal I had the impression that there were less choices being offered. The food here is, as expected, American Country and Pennsylvania Dutch. There are two soups - beef vegetable and chicken with dumplings, and a salad bar with an assortment of prepared salads, lettuce and romaine lettuce, and a large array of toppings for your salad. There were the makings for a Caesar Salad, and unlike the night before in Pennsylvania, the Caesar salad dressing was the creamy type. I tried the chicken with dumplings soup and it was very good. I made myself a Caesar salad and enjoyed that. I also took some chicken salad and some ham salad on my salad plate to taste. Both were excellent. Ham salad may be common in some areas but it is not common near us. I have had it in Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants and some (but rarely) buffets. If you have an opportunity to try it, do. It is little more than chopped ham with seasonings and mayonnaise, but it is good.
There were four carvings being sliced. The night before there had been only three. There was turkey, ham, pork, and roast beef. This roast beef was not like the beef that I had the night before in their other location. This was pretty much sliced roast beef. See my last article for my description of the one the night before. I did try the turkey and the ham. The turkey, while a turkey breast was pure turkey meat and not a turkey breast with fillers that is sometimes served. The ham was a basic sliced ham and it was good.
Looking around at the entree choices I was not seeing as much as I expected - and this surprised me. There were so many choices the night before - yes, they were seafood and it was seafood night, but I would have expected other entrees to take their place on a Saturday night. There was fried chicken, pork and sauerkraut, and chicken bot bie - a PA Dutch stew of chicken and large dumpling noodles with potatoes, carrots, and celery in a thick chicken stock. All of these are excellent. The vegetables and side dishes were very much the same as there had been at the other location - kernel corn, green beans and ham, beets, sweet peas, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, carrots, stewed tomatoes, and stuffing. There was gravy for the turkey and gravy for the roast beef. There was cranberry sauce also. All of the food was good. I just expected there to be more - though there was the fourth carving. The chicken bot bie was just as good as I expected. The fried chicken is home sytle. The stewed tomatoes are very good. The macaroni and cheese - like the one the night before - is thick with cheese and crusted with a heavy layer of melted cheddar on top. I have said it before and I will say it again - wonderful!
The dessert selection equaled the Pennsylvania selection and this was also a dessert feast with a large assortment of cakes, different fruit pies, nut pies, cream pies, pudding pies, prepared desserts, puddings, fruit, jello and on. Here it was spread out more around two serving counters that went around a wall so the presentation is not as overwhelming as it is in the smaller area at their other restaurant, but it is all here. I wanted to take something and chose a small piece of chocolate cake with white frosting. It was good.
Your meal includes soft drinks and they serve Pepsi products. They have fresh brewed ice tea and this is very good!
Our server was very good and she took the soiled plates off our table each time we got up to get more and came around with drink refills. She also came by at dessert to offer some of their in-house made ice cream.
The food was good. The service was good. I like the Pennsylvania location better. I am not really certain why that is - perhaps atmosphere. Perhaps that coming to this location is really out of the way - at least from the area that we visit when we are close enough by to come here or to the Pennsylvania location. If I were in Gettysburg, I might make the trip over to this location.
I certainly recommend that you come here. But do so only if you are already coming to this area or are very nearby. As I say, it is not easy to get to and very much out of the way. If you happen to be on the White House staff, of course, you are right near by when the President is at Camp David so you certainly should come down the mountain for a good meal.
There was a time that this restaurant was not opened on Sundays. It is now. This Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is located at 133 Frederick Road, Thurmont, Maryland 21788. The phone number is 301-271-4373. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.
Thurmont, Maryland is one of those famous, but unknown places. It is at the foot of the Catoctin Mountain and on that mountain, hidden away, is Camp David, the retreat for Presidents of the United States since Eisenhower. I have written about another buffet in this area - Cozy Restaurant - that has a hotel where the White House Press Corp would stay and dine when the President was at Camp David. The Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is just down the street from that restaurant.
Getting here can be quite an experience depending upon the direction that you come from. If you come west from Pennsylvania, you are not far from Gettysburg. If you come north from Maryland your GPS will likely route you through the Catoctin Mountain Park which is a roller coaster ride of narrow roads that wind around the mountain and in some places come very close to the edge. I went that way once, and I will never go that way again. We actually drove south and then east to travel on interstate highways to get to Thurmont to have dinner at the Mountain Gate. This was out of the way and longer in miles but actually about the same time as going the more direct but daunting route.
We arrived at the Mountain Gate Family Restaurant on a Saturday night at about 6:30 pm. There was no line to get in when we arrived but shortly after a line began to form. It is evident right away that this is the older of the two restaurants. I have spoken about the Christian decor that had been at the Waynesboro location and it is evident here. This is not any problem for us. I have read reviews where some people were troubled by it.
We were seated at a booth in what seemed to be the smaller dining room. There are three dining rooms with the buffet area located in the middle. Prices are the same at both locations. There is a noticeable difference in the tax - one restaurant is in Maryland and the other is in Pennsylvania.
I have been to the Pennsylvania location on a Saturday night and anticipated the same menu on the buffet. The buffet serving area is large - larger than in Pennsylvania, but as we went through the meal I had the impression that there were less choices being offered. The food here is, as expected, American Country and Pennsylvania Dutch. There are two soups - beef vegetable and chicken with dumplings, and a salad bar with an assortment of prepared salads, lettuce and romaine lettuce, and a large array of toppings for your salad. There were the makings for a Caesar Salad, and unlike the night before in Pennsylvania, the Caesar salad dressing was the creamy type. I tried the chicken with dumplings soup and it was very good. I made myself a Caesar salad and enjoyed that. I also took some chicken salad and some ham salad on my salad plate to taste. Both were excellent. Ham salad may be common in some areas but it is not common near us. I have had it in Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants and some (but rarely) buffets. If you have an opportunity to try it, do. It is little more than chopped ham with seasonings and mayonnaise, but it is good.
There were four carvings being sliced. The night before there had been only three. There was turkey, ham, pork, and roast beef. This roast beef was not like the beef that I had the night before in their other location. This was pretty much sliced roast beef. See my last article for my description of the one the night before. I did try the turkey and the ham. The turkey, while a turkey breast was pure turkey meat and not a turkey breast with fillers that is sometimes served. The ham was a basic sliced ham and it was good.
Looking around at the entree choices I was not seeing as much as I expected - and this surprised me. There were so many choices the night before - yes, they were seafood and it was seafood night, but I would have expected other entrees to take their place on a Saturday night. There was fried chicken, pork and sauerkraut, and chicken bot bie - a PA Dutch stew of chicken and large dumpling noodles with potatoes, carrots, and celery in a thick chicken stock. All of these are excellent. The vegetables and side dishes were very much the same as there had been at the other location - kernel corn, green beans and ham, beets, sweet peas, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, carrots, stewed tomatoes, and stuffing. There was gravy for the turkey and gravy for the roast beef. There was cranberry sauce also. All of the food was good. I just expected there to be more - though there was the fourth carving. The chicken bot bie was just as good as I expected. The fried chicken is home sytle. The stewed tomatoes are very good. The macaroni and cheese - like the one the night before - is thick with cheese and crusted with a heavy layer of melted cheddar on top. I have said it before and I will say it again - wonderful!
The dessert selection equaled the Pennsylvania selection and this was also a dessert feast with a large assortment of cakes, different fruit pies, nut pies, cream pies, pudding pies, prepared desserts, puddings, fruit, jello and on. Here it was spread out more around two serving counters that went around a wall so the presentation is not as overwhelming as it is in the smaller area at their other restaurant, but it is all here. I wanted to take something and chose a small piece of chocolate cake with white frosting. It was good.
Your meal includes soft drinks and they serve Pepsi products. They have fresh brewed ice tea and this is very good!
Our server was very good and she took the soiled plates off our table each time we got up to get more and came around with drink refills. She also came by at dessert to offer some of their in-house made ice cream.
The food was good. The service was good. I like the Pennsylvania location better. I am not really certain why that is - perhaps atmosphere. Perhaps that coming to this location is really out of the way - at least from the area that we visit when we are close enough by to come here or to the Pennsylvania location. If I were in Gettysburg, I might make the trip over to this location.
I certainly recommend that you come here. But do so only if you are already coming to this area or are very nearby. As I say, it is not easy to get to and very much out of the way. If you happen to be on the White House staff, of course, you are right near by when the President is at Camp David so you certainly should come down the mountain for a good meal.
There was a time that this restaurant was not opened on Sundays. It is now. This Mountain Gate Family Restaurant is located at 133 Frederick Road, Thurmont, Maryland 21788. The phone number is 301-271-4373. There is a website and that is linked at the side of this page.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Return to Mountain Gate Family Restaurant, Waynesboro, PA
I have not been back to the Mountain Gate Family Restaurant in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania since 2009. I have always liked this buffet but I have not been in that part of Pennsylvania since then. A trip back there meant a visit back to Mountain Gate was a must.
The Mountain Gate Restaurant is a combination menu restaurant and buffet. The buffet is a combination of American Country and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, though you are quite some distance hear from the area generally considered the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. We come to Mountain Gate when we are traveling in Maryland, as it is just across the border. As I have said before in my reviews the restaurant is really off the beaten path. It is at the foot of a mountain area and to get to it, I always feel like I am driving more than I should be from east I-81 before I get to it. It is a large restaurant with several dining rooms. The buffet is set right in the center.
I have mentioned in the past that the decor at this restaurant has a religious theme. On this most recent trip it was not as obvious as it has been in the past. The owner is a very religious man and this is a very Christian area. This has never had anything to do with the food. Just what is hanging on the walls, but as I say, if this had been my first time here on this last trip I would not have noticed.
We went on a Friday night. The buffet was primarily various seafood mixed in with meat entrees. Fried shrimp seemed to be the most popular item on the buffet, as people were filling plates with fried shrimp and not much else. The fried shrimp was very good. But there were so many other things to try. What is served on the buffet varies by the night of the week with certain mainstay items on most nights.
There were three carvings being served and there was a gentleman who would come over right away when you stepped up to the carving station to carve for you. The carvings were ham, roast pork, and a very well done, but fall apart roast beef that was delicious. I like rare beef but this was slow cooked until it fell apart and was moist and almost melted in the mouth.
As I say, this was Friday and there were several seafood entrees on the buffet. There was broiled haddock that was very good. There were fried clams that were excellent. There was a seafood casserole that was very good. Those of you that read this site regularly know that my wife does not eat any seafood other than shrimp. She had no problem finding plenty of things to eat including the fried shrimp, the roast pork, and ham. There are plenty of side dishes. Freshly mashed potatoes, a Pennsylvania Dutch side dish of green beans and ham, another Pennsylvania Dutch dish of pork and sauerkraut. And of course, there is always fried chicken and the fried chicken here was especially good. There were plain vegetables like kernel corn, hot beets, stewed tomatoes, sweet peas, and carrots. They have the most wonderful macaroni and cheese. This mac and cheese is covered in and has mixed through a thick layer of cheddar cheese and is crusted on the top. I should not eat this - I could not resist this and I had to go back for more. I want to also make note of the Green Beans and Ham. This is a simple dish of chunks of ham cooked by boiling together with fresh green beans. In some places it can be a very bland dish. Here there was a rich smokey flavor that came from the ham and permeated the green beans. This was one of the best green beans and ham that I have had.
There are two soups and a long salad bar with the makings for salad, as well as prepared salad. There were the fixings for Caesar salad but the dressing that was out for it was the oil type of Caesar dressing as opposed to creamy Caesar which I prefer. I skipped the Caesar dressing and used a very good Ranch dressing instead. There are also a number of prepared salads. I was tempted by the macaroni salad and I took a little. It was very good! The soup I took was Maryland Crab and it was excellent. My wife had the vegetable soup and enjoyed that.
All of the food here is very good. It has been on every one of my visits. This is home cooking and farm cooking. The buffet might not be considered large when compared with some, but there is plenty to eat and to choose from. You will easily eat all that you care to eat and enjoy it - but do not eat too much because what sets this buffet apart is the dessert area.
This is one of the more bountiful dessert sections (if not the most bountiful) of any buffet that I have been too - and it is all home baking. There is a section with a variety of layer cakes. There is another section with a variety of cream pies, meringue pies, pudding pies, nut pies. And there is yet another section of fruit pies. Name a pie - you will likely find it here. Then there are puddings, fruits, jello, prepared desserts, and if you want ice cream - your server will ask you which of the seemingly countless flavors of ice cream that they make would you like to have. It would be easy, if you are so inclined, to make a meal just of desserts here and you would feel that you got your money's worth.
Our service was good. The waitress cleared our plates promptly and refilled our soft drinks.
This is one of those buffets that most people don't know about. This is a local restaurant and the people that come are primarily local families. This is a buffet not to be missed if you are even remotely in this area. If you are a dessert fanatic, this is absolutely a must.
The restaurant is located on Route 16 east of Rt. I81 at 10530 Buchanan Trail Road in Waynesboro, PA. There is now a website and that site is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 717-765-6772.
Mountain Gate Family Restaurant has two locations. This one and there is one in Thurmont, Maryland. In our next article, I will tell you all about my first visit ever to the Thurmont Mountain Gate Family Restaurant. On this trip I was determined to try them both!
The Mountain Gate Restaurant is a combination menu restaurant and buffet. The buffet is a combination of American Country and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, though you are quite some distance hear from the area generally considered the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. We come to Mountain Gate when we are traveling in Maryland, as it is just across the border. As I have said before in my reviews the restaurant is really off the beaten path. It is at the foot of a mountain area and to get to it, I always feel like I am driving more than I should be from east I-81 before I get to it. It is a large restaurant with several dining rooms. The buffet is set right in the center.
I have mentioned in the past that the decor at this restaurant has a religious theme. On this most recent trip it was not as obvious as it has been in the past. The owner is a very religious man and this is a very Christian area. This has never had anything to do with the food. Just what is hanging on the walls, but as I say, if this had been my first time here on this last trip I would not have noticed.
We went on a Friday night. The buffet was primarily various seafood mixed in with meat entrees. Fried shrimp seemed to be the most popular item on the buffet, as people were filling plates with fried shrimp and not much else. The fried shrimp was very good. But there were so many other things to try. What is served on the buffet varies by the night of the week with certain mainstay items on most nights.
There were three carvings being served and there was a gentleman who would come over right away when you stepped up to the carving station to carve for you. The carvings were ham, roast pork, and a very well done, but fall apart roast beef that was delicious. I like rare beef but this was slow cooked until it fell apart and was moist and almost melted in the mouth.
As I say, this was Friday and there were several seafood entrees on the buffet. There was broiled haddock that was very good. There were fried clams that were excellent. There was a seafood casserole that was very good. Those of you that read this site regularly know that my wife does not eat any seafood other than shrimp. She had no problem finding plenty of things to eat including the fried shrimp, the roast pork, and ham. There are plenty of side dishes. Freshly mashed potatoes, a Pennsylvania Dutch side dish of green beans and ham, another Pennsylvania Dutch dish of pork and sauerkraut. And of course, there is always fried chicken and the fried chicken here was especially good. There were plain vegetables like kernel corn, hot beets, stewed tomatoes, sweet peas, and carrots. They have the most wonderful macaroni and cheese. This mac and cheese is covered in and has mixed through a thick layer of cheddar cheese and is crusted on the top. I should not eat this - I could not resist this and I had to go back for more. I want to also make note of the Green Beans and Ham. This is a simple dish of chunks of ham cooked by boiling together with fresh green beans. In some places it can be a very bland dish. Here there was a rich smokey flavor that came from the ham and permeated the green beans. This was one of the best green beans and ham that I have had.
There are two soups and a long salad bar with the makings for salad, as well as prepared salad. There were the fixings for Caesar salad but the dressing that was out for it was the oil type of Caesar dressing as opposed to creamy Caesar which I prefer. I skipped the Caesar dressing and used a very good Ranch dressing instead. There are also a number of prepared salads. I was tempted by the macaroni salad and I took a little. It was very good! The soup I took was Maryland Crab and it was excellent. My wife had the vegetable soup and enjoyed that.
All of the food here is very good. It has been on every one of my visits. This is home cooking and farm cooking. The buffet might not be considered large when compared with some, but there is plenty to eat and to choose from. You will easily eat all that you care to eat and enjoy it - but do not eat too much because what sets this buffet apart is the dessert area.
This is one of the more bountiful dessert sections (if not the most bountiful) of any buffet that I have been too - and it is all home baking. There is a section with a variety of layer cakes. There is another section with a variety of cream pies, meringue pies, pudding pies, nut pies. And there is yet another section of fruit pies. Name a pie - you will likely find it here. Then there are puddings, fruits, jello, prepared desserts, and if you want ice cream - your server will ask you which of the seemingly countless flavors of ice cream that they make would you like to have. It would be easy, if you are so inclined, to make a meal just of desserts here and you would feel that you got your money's worth.
Our service was good. The waitress cleared our plates promptly and refilled our soft drinks.
This is one of those buffets that most people don't know about. This is a local restaurant and the people that come are primarily local families. This is a buffet not to be missed if you are even remotely in this area. If you are a dessert fanatic, this is absolutely a must.
The restaurant is located on Route 16 east of Rt. I81 at 10530 Buchanan Trail Road in Waynesboro, PA. There is now a website and that site is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 717-765-6772.
Mountain Gate Family Restaurant has two locations. This one and there is one in Thurmont, Maryland. In our next article, I will tell you all about my first visit ever to the Thurmont Mountain Gate Family Restaurant. On this trip I was determined to try them both!
Friday, May 18, 2012
IKEA's Midsummer Swedish Smorgasbord in June
Ikea store's restaurants will be offering another of their seasonal Swedish Smorgasbord dinners on June 15, 2012. This one is the Midsummer Swedish Smorgasbord and features summer dishes from Sweden.
The meal is offered during two seating's on Friday, June 15, 2012 only. One seating is from 4 pm to 6 pm and the second seating is from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. (Check your store - locations may be serving he second seating from 6:30 to 8:30) The menu includes:
Assorted varieties of Herring
Hard boiled Eggs with Shrimp
Gravad Lax with Mustard Sauce
Smoked Salmon w/Horseradish Sauce
Whole Poached Salmon
Tossed Green Salad
Cucumber Salad
Rhode Island Salad
Midsummer Fruit Salad
Assorted Swedish Cheeses
Boiled Dill New Potatoes
Meatballs with Lingonberries
Swedish Ham (served cold) w/Mustard
Prinskorv Sausage (sautéed)
Crispbread, Thin bread, Dinner rolls
Strawberries and Whipped Crème
Ice Cream
Assorted Desserts
Coffee, Tea, Fountain Beverage
The all you care to eat meal is just $9.99 per adult. Tickets must be purchased in advance and they do sell out. If you want to go do not hesitate to purchase your tickets now.
I was at the Easter Smorgasbord this year and the food and the selection was excellent. You can read about that dinner here. The menu offered in June is similar with slight variations. We are planning on going back for the June smorgasbord and we have our tickets. I suggest that you go as soon as possible for your tickets if you would like to try this different experience. If you miss it, the next seasonal smorgasbord will be in the Fall. Tickets are sold in the restaurant at the cashier. Call your local Ikea store for details and to verify that they are offering this dinner. They should be, as it appears that all of the Ikea store restaurants do.
The meal is offered during two seating's on Friday, June 15, 2012 only. One seating is from 4 pm to 6 pm and the second seating is from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. (Check your store - locations may be serving he second seating from 6:30 to 8:30) The menu includes:
Assorted varieties of Herring
Hard boiled Eggs with Shrimp
Gravad Lax with Mustard Sauce
Smoked Salmon w/Horseradish Sauce
Whole Poached Salmon
Tossed Green Salad
Cucumber Salad
Rhode Island Salad
Midsummer Fruit Salad
Assorted Swedish Cheeses
Boiled Dill New Potatoes
Meatballs with Lingonberries
Swedish Ham (served cold) w/Mustard
Prinskorv Sausage (sautéed)
Crispbread, Thin bread, Dinner rolls
Strawberries and Whipped Crème
Ice Cream
Assorted Desserts
Coffee, Tea, Fountain Beverage
The all you care to eat meal is just $9.99 per adult. Tickets must be purchased in advance and they do sell out. If you want to go do not hesitate to purchase your tickets now.
I was at the Easter Smorgasbord this year and the food and the selection was excellent. You can read about that dinner here. The menu offered in June is similar with slight variations. We are planning on going back for the June smorgasbord and we have our tickets. I suggest that you go as soon as possible for your tickets if you would like to try this different experience. If you miss it, the next seasonal smorgasbord will be in the Fall. Tickets are sold in the restaurant at the cashier. Call your local Ikea store for details and to verify that they are offering this dinner. They should be, as it appears that all of the Ikea store restaurants do.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Ryan's Buffet - Hagerstown, Maryland
I have been to the Ryan's Buffet in Hagerstown, Maryland before but it has been at least three years since I have been back and this is the first time after the Buffets, Inc. takeover. This past December I was at a Ryan's in Virginia and that had been my first experience at a Ryans under Buffets, Inc. rule. I was curious to see how this one compared.
I have to say that I was not pleased with what this Ryans has become. While the Virginia Ryan's just six months or so ago had not been very much different from what that Ryan's had always been, this Ryan's was noticeably under the influence of Buffets, Inc./Old Country Buffet. Other than very few of Ryan's signature dishes, most of what was on the buffet servers were very much the same as what is on the Old Country Buffet servers.
There was a special feature at this Ryans that I am assuming may - or may not - show up at Old Country Buffets who have grills on the buffet serving floor. They very well may be there now. There was a grill saute feature. You choose chicken or fish, choose rice or noodles, and choose your sauce - spicy or mild - and the chef at the grill cooks this to your order. This is just like the disastrous seafood saute feature at Golden Corral. Here at this Ryans the same chef cooking steaks was also in charge of the saute grill. While at Golden Corral the problem with this is the massive backup of people waiting while each individual order is cooked, here at this Ryan's there was NO ONE getting this saute. I watched to see. I was minorly tempted to try it but I cannot eat rice, did not want sauteed noodles and did not want spicy sauce so I passed. So did everyone else. As I looked around the dining room no one had this on their plate.
Throughout the time we were there, the restaurant was having a dish washing problem. Every stack of plates that were put out had a good number of crusty and dirty dishes in the pile. It was quite evident from the stacks and stacks of dishes that were taken off the piles in an attempt to find a clean dish and placed on the side of the dish counter. I went down the stack through several dishes before I found one that was clean. Everyone else was doing the same. At some point about an hour and a half later some employee or manager noticed this and suddenly new stacks of dishes started coming out, steaming from the dish washer that were actually- for the most part - clean. This is not good. This is how you lose customers and with the current hunt by Buffets, Inc. to close more Ryan's and Old Country Buffets based upon sales, losing customers is not something that you want to do.
My wife likes Ryan's chicken pot pie and they did have that. It was just fair and not up to that just tasted at the Ryan's six months ago in Virginia. I have always liked Ryan's char-grilled steak. I went up to the grill and the grill chef had a rare steak both times that I went up. The first piece of steak that I had was good in taste but the steak was literally half fat and grizzle - not on the side, as one might expect, but on the bottom of the steak (or top depending on which side was up). There were spots that would not cut with a knife. I wound up eating what I could of it by cutting into the thickness of it as if filleting the meat, and peeling away what was edible. The second piece was like this and was edible meat throughout, but the taste was just bland and it was tough. I will say that as both of these pieces of steak were, they were better than most of the steak that I have had a Old Country Buffet in taste and cooking. There was no smoked sausage on the grill as has been usual at Ryan's. There were chicken hotdogs out on the buffet which is another sign of the OCB influence. Hot dogs at OCB are chicken hotdogs.
The chicken noodle soup with thick doughy noodles was 100% Ryan's and was not a disappointment. The salad bar was very much OCB and very little Ryan's. They did have the romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing, shredded cheese and croutons separate and not per-mixed as at OCB, but the large selection of salad toppings and salads that Ryan's once had - and was there in Virginia - was not here.
Desserts were a combination of OCB and Ryan's with several of Ryan's full sized layer cakes out for serving. This Ryan's had a freezer case with hand-dipped ice cream in addition to one soft serve machine (Ryan's usually has two soft serve machines, one with yogurt), but in that case through the glass top I could see pre-scooped bowls of vanilla ice cream sitting on a tray with four tubs of hard ice cream below that must have been other flavors besides vanilla.
Service, on the other hand, was good and this server was quick to pick up plates from our table and also came by to offer refills of drinks.
I am in this area just once a year and if I am there again next year, I will go back to see if it is any better - or if it is there at all anymore. There is an alternative nearby in Golden Corral and there is another Ryan's about thirty miles north in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, also along Route 81. Should you go? I just gave you what I observed and experienced, I leave it up to you.
Ryan's Hagerstown is located at 17380 Garland Groh Blvd, Hagerstown, Maryland. The phone number is (301) 766-4440. This is a large outdoor shopping center and the Ryan's is near the Walmart end of the shopping center.
I have to say that I was not pleased with what this Ryans has become. While the Virginia Ryan's just six months or so ago had not been very much different from what that Ryan's had always been, this Ryan's was noticeably under the influence of Buffets, Inc./Old Country Buffet. Other than very few of Ryan's signature dishes, most of what was on the buffet servers were very much the same as what is on the Old Country Buffet servers.
There was a special feature at this Ryans that I am assuming may - or may not - show up at Old Country Buffets who have grills on the buffet serving floor. They very well may be there now. There was a grill saute feature. You choose chicken or fish, choose rice or noodles, and choose your sauce - spicy or mild - and the chef at the grill cooks this to your order. This is just like the disastrous seafood saute feature at Golden Corral. Here at this Ryans the same chef cooking steaks was also in charge of the saute grill. While at Golden Corral the problem with this is the massive backup of people waiting while each individual order is cooked, here at this Ryan's there was NO ONE getting this saute. I watched to see. I was minorly tempted to try it but I cannot eat rice, did not want sauteed noodles and did not want spicy sauce so I passed. So did everyone else. As I looked around the dining room no one had this on their plate.
Throughout the time we were there, the restaurant was having a dish washing problem. Every stack of plates that were put out had a good number of crusty and dirty dishes in the pile. It was quite evident from the stacks and stacks of dishes that were taken off the piles in an attempt to find a clean dish and placed on the side of the dish counter. I went down the stack through several dishes before I found one that was clean. Everyone else was doing the same. At some point about an hour and a half later some employee or manager noticed this and suddenly new stacks of dishes started coming out, steaming from the dish washer that were actually- for the most part - clean. This is not good. This is how you lose customers and with the current hunt by Buffets, Inc. to close more Ryan's and Old Country Buffets based upon sales, losing customers is not something that you want to do.
My wife likes Ryan's chicken pot pie and they did have that. It was just fair and not up to that just tasted at the Ryan's six months ago in Virginia. I have always liked Ryan's char-grilled steak. I went up to the grill and the grill chef had a rare steak both times that I went up. The first piece of steak that I had was good in taste but the steak was literally half fat and grizzle - not on the side, as one might expect, but on the bottom of the steak (or top depending on which side was up). There were spots that would not cut with a knife. I wound up eating what I could of it by cutting into the thickness of it as if filleting the meat, and peeling away what was edible. The second piece was like this and was edible meat throughout, but the taste was just bland and it was tough. I will say that as both of these pieces of steak were, they were better than most of the steak that I have had a Old Country Buffet in taste and cooking. There was no smoked sausage on the grill as has been usual at Ryan's. There were chicken hotdogs out on the buffet which is another sign of the OCB influence. Hot dogs at OCB are chicken hotdogs.
The chicken noodle soup with thick doughy noodles was 100% Ryan's and was not a disappointment. The salad bar was very much OCB and very little Ryan's. They did have the romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing, shredded cheese and croutons separate and not per-mixed as at OCB, but the large selection of salad toppings and salads that Ryan's once had - and was there in Virginia - was not here.
Desserts were a combination of OCB and Ryan's with several of Ryan's full sized layer cakes out for serving. This Ryan's had a freezer case with hand-dipped ice cream in addition to one soft serve machine (Ryan's usually has two soft serve machines, one with yogurt), but in that case through the glass top I could see pre-scooped bowls of vanilla ice cream sitting on a tray with four tubs of hard ice cream below that must have been other flavors besides vanilla.
Service, on the other hand, was good and this server was quick to pick up plates from our table and also came by to offer refills of drinks.
I am in this area just once a year and if I am there again next year, I will go back to see if it is any better - or if it is there at all anymore. There is an alternative nearby in Golden Corral and there is another Ryan's about thirty miles north in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, also along Route 81. Should you go? I just gave you what I observed and experienced, I leave it up to you.
Ryan's Hagerstown is located at 17380 Garland Groh Blvd, Hagerstown, Maryland. The phone number is (301) 766-4440. This is a large outdoor shopping center and the Ryan's is near the Walmart end of the shopping center.
Friday, May 04, 2012
SHADY MAPLE SMORGASBORD COMING INTO SEASON
Shady Maple Smorgasbord,located in East Earl, PA is in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country where the Amish live. Shady Maple, as our regular readers know, has been named Best Buffet of the Year for a number of years. This is a popular tourist destination and Shady Maple while a bit of a distance from where many of the attractions in this area are located, during the tourist season gets busy during the summer months and in the Fall following December. After December things slow down in this area and at Shady Maple. Some of the buffet restaurants have shorter hours. Shady Maple maintains its regular hours. To attract the locals it offers special weekend features on the buffet. Around April, Shady Maple returns to its usual menu.
I was just at Shady Maple at the end of April - there were no special features but the mid-week, Wednesday night buffet was featuring a number of Amish dishes that would mostly appeal to the local people who have grown up with them. This seems to be how Shady Maple transitions as it approaches the tourist season.
I will take the opportunity here to tell you that the Shady Maple website has a new look. Personally, I prefer the old look. This look is perhaps a little easier to navigate.
There has been one change at Shady Maple that I may have told you about. One of the minor things that has made Shady Maple unique is that it served both Coke and Pepsi. For some reason, and this reason may be pressure from one of these companies, Shady Maple only serves Pepsi products now. This is a bit of a disappointment - one which upsets my wife more than it upsets me, as I enjoy Shady Maple's brewed ice tea instead of soda with my meal.
At most buffets we start our meal with soup, but at Shady Maple we start our meal with salad. This is a throw back to the original Shady Maple building where the salad bar came first in the long, cafeteria type line that the original location had. There was something new on the salad bar. The sign said "Caesar Salad". They have had romaine lettuce before, but not Caesar dressing. This was a prepared Caesar Salad. I took some - and when I ate it I was surprised to find that it did not taste at all like Caesar Salad. It was much more like Cobb Salad. The dressing was a ranch type dressing. There was pieces of egg, chunks of real bacon, and cheese in the salad. These are all of the makings of a Cobb Salad. Later I checked at the other salad bar and it was there too - labeled the same, and exactly the same as what I had taken. This was a big surprise. Surely, Shady Maple knows the difference between Caesar Salad and Cobb Salad.
The feature on Wednesday nights is Prime Rib. This is served at the grill stations and there are several Prime Ribs that they are carving from - each cooked to a different wellness. Yes, they had rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done! They are carving full sized restaurant portions so if you want to have room for everything else that is good, you want to ask for a small slice. The Prime Rib was excellent. There is horseradish at the counter for those who enjoy that with their Prime Rib.
When I looked around the buffet servers - and remember - from what I have told you before - there are two sides of buffet servers and while SOME foods are the same on both sides there are a number of different foods on each side. Any way - when I looked around I found several local Amish dishes - Chicken Bot Boi, Snitz and Knepp, and Pig Stomach (around here called Souse0. I love all three. Before you say, how disgusting to eat pig stomach, don't knock it until you have tried it. Here it is prepared to look like a stuffing - which mostly it is. The pig stomach is cooked stuffed with potatoes, bread chunks, and pork sausage cut up. When done, all of that is chopped up so you never really see the pig stomach - it is just meat mixed in. The taste is pork - no different.
Snitz and Knepp is a mixture of stewed dumplings and apples. It is thick, gooey, and sweet. It is a side dish that you could eat for dessert. Delicious!
Chicken Bot Boi I have talked about before and it is a favorite of many of my readers who have come to the Amish area in Pennsylvania. It is stewed chicken with thick dumpling noodles, carrots, potatoes, and celery. The broth is cooked to be thick. It is also delicious and Shady Maple makes it right!
These are not dishes that you are likely to find here in June, July or August when the tourists are here.
I am not going to go into all of the other foods that were served. They were typical of other Shady Maple menus that I have written about. Desserts were out in their typical glory here. There was a chocolate layer cake with cherries on top that looked wonderful. There were a variety of cheesecakes. The sugar-free pies - and there is no artificial sweetener used in these pies, just fruit juice - were strawberry rhubarb and French apple.
There has been a change in table staff and I observed this last summer - and it had changed back again in the Fall. There are a number of servers who are Russian or Ukrainian women who maybe here on an exchange program. I have observed similar some businesses in Virginia during the summer. Our server was one of these women. She was just OK - she could have been better at getting plates off the table quicker - something that is not usually a problem at Shady Maple.
I enjoyed the meal - as always. And I recommend that if you have not been to Shady Maple and you are in this area it is a must go to.
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.
I was just at Shady Maple at the end of April - there were no special features but the mid-week, Wednesday night buffet was featuring a number of Amish dishes that would mostly appeal to the local people who have grown up with them. This seems to be how Shady Maple transitions as it approaches the tourist season.
I will take the opportunity here to tell you that the Shady Maple website has a new look. Personally, I prefer the old look. This look is perhaps a little easier to navigate.
There has been one change at Shady Maple that I may have told you about. One of the minor things that has made Shady Maple unique is that it served both Coke and Pepsi. For some reason, and this reason may be pressure from one of these companies, Shady Maple only serves Pepsi products now. This is a bit of a disappointment - one which upsets my wife more than it upsets me, as I enjoy Shady Maple's brewed ice tea instead of soda with my meal.
At most buffets we start our meal with soup, but at Shady Maple we start our meal with salad. This is a throw back to the original Shady Maple building where the salad bar came first in the long, cafeteria type line that the original location had. There was something new on the salad bar. The sign said "Caesar Salad". They have had romaine lettuce before, but not Caesar dressing. This was a prepared Caesar Salad. I took some - and when I ate it I was surprised to find that it did not taste at all like Caesar Salad. It was much more like Cobb Salad. The dressing was a ranch type dressing. There was pieces of egg, chunks of real bacon, and cheese in the salad. These are all of the makings of a Cobb Salad. Later I checked at the other salad bar and it was there too - labeled the same, and exactly the same as what I had taken. This was a big surprise. Surely, Shady Maple knows the difference between Caesar Salad and Cobb Salad.
The feature on Wednesday nights is Prime Rib. This is served at the grill stations and there are several Prime Ribs that they are carving from - each cooked to a different wellness. Yes, they had rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done! They are carving full sized restaurant portions so if you want to have room for everything else that is good, you want to ask for a small slice. The Prime Rib was excellent. There is horseradish at the counter for those who enjoy that with their Prime Rib.
When I looked around the buffet servers - and remember - from what I have told you before - there are two sides of buffet servers and while SOME foods are the same on both sides there are a number of different foods on each side. Any way - when I looked around I found several local Amish dishes - Chicken Bot Boi, Snitz and Knepp, and Pig Stomach (around here called Souse0. I love all three. Before you say, how disgusting to eat pig stomach, don't knock it until you have tried it. Here it is prepared to look like a stuffing - which mostly it is. The pig stomach is cooked stuffed with potatoes, bread chunks, and pork sausage cut up. When done, all of that is chopped up so you never really see the pig stomach - it is just meat mixed in. The taste is pork - no different.
Snitz and Knepp is a mixture of stewed dumplings and apples. It is thick, gooey, and sweet. It is a side dish that you could eat for dessert. Delicious!
Chicken Bot Boi I have talked about before and it is a favorite of many of my readers who have come to the Amish area in Pennsylvania. It is stewed chicken with thick dumpling noodles, carrots, potatoes, and celery. The broth is cooked to be thick. It is also delicious and Shady Maple makes it right!
These are not dishes that you are likely to find here in June, July or August when the tourists are here.
I am not going to go into all of the other foods that were served. They were typical of other Shady Maple menus that I have written about. Desserts were out in their typical glory here. There was a chocolate layer cake with cherries on top that looked wonderful. There were a variety of cheesecakes. The sugar-free pies - and there is no artificial sweetener used in these pies, just fruit juice - were strawberry rhubarb and French apple.
There has been a change in table staff and I observed this last summer - and it had changed back again in the Fall. There are a number of servers who are Russian or Ukrainian women who maybe here on an exchange program. I have observed similar some businesses in Virginia during the summer. Our server was one of these women. She was just OK - she could have been better at getting plates off the table quicker - something that is not usually a problem at Shady Maple.
I enjoyed the meal - as always. And I recommend that if you have not been to Shady Maple and you are in this area it is a must go to.
Shady Maple Smorgasbord is located at 129 Toddy Drive in East Earl, PA. Take Route 23 East or Route 322 South to get to the restaurant. The phone numbers are 1-800-238-7363 and 717-354-8222. There is a website and it is listed at the side of this page.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Return to the Festival Buffet, Foxwoods Casino Resort, CT PART II
PART II
The problem here is that it all looks so good - and most of it is quite different from what I see at the usual buffet offerings. It is hard here not to see something and take it - and this buffet requires some - perhaps a lot of - willpower. One way that I deal with this is I try to take just a little bit. It looked good - and most of it was good.
I will start with the really good. The beef brisket in barbecue sauce was good. The meat was tender and the sauce was mild with a nice flavor and not too sweet. The sweet potato fries were good. The manicotti was nice - not the best that I have had, but probably one of the best that I have had at a buffet - and the tomato sauce was nice as well. The sausage was Italian hot sausage - meaning it is spiced with peppers. It was in the server with peppers and onions all together in tomato sauce and the sausages were cut in half. The sausages were nicely thick. The taste was good - authentic - and while I prefer what is known as Italian sweet sausage (with no peppers), this was good. The Japanese noodles with seafood were pan fried broad noodles (likely rice noodles) stir-fried with small shrimp, red and green pepper, onion, bean sprouts and some other oriental vegetables. These were very good! What was not as good as I had hoped? The stir-fry string beans were in a red oil, spicy sauce. They may have been good if you like spicy oriental food, but I was not taking any chances with the long ride home that would eventually follow this meal, as spicy and my stomach do not always get along. I did not finish the green beans after a taste. That leaves the St. Louis ribs. I had very much enjoyed the ribs here on my last two visits. These ribs were cut short and with three bones side by side. There was little to no meat and what meat there was, was not coming off without a struggle. I worked at them for a while to get more than just a taste. I gave up. The rest in the serving tray had looked pretty much the same as these, and I did not go back to try those again. Too bad, too. I really like barbecue ribs - and like them best when the meat just falls off the bones. Not these. But there is so much more to eat here that it was a minor loss.
I went back up to try some more. At the seafood station there were cold peel and eat shrimp - nice large shrimp (I passed those by as I can always get shrimp at a buffet). There were also broiled cod, fried cod, fried clams, french fries, and two types of rice. There were also hot mussels and also jambalaya.
Cod. Before the "evil" talapia became the inexpensive fish to serve, there was cod. There was a time when every menu - at least in the Middle Atlantic and Northeast - had cod. (Now the "new" cod is talapia. Talapia more resembles flounder fillet. The problem with talapia as most is farm raised and it is a fact that farm raised talapia takes away from your body the good Omega nutrients that other fish put in. Why is it so popular? It is cheap.) It set these statements off because I don't want you to think that there is any talapia served here. It is COD. And cod is good and good for you. Cod is a fish of New England and it is no wonder it is still served at this buffet.
I took one piece of the fried cod (I really like fried fish!). I also took a few of the fried clams. The cod was very good. It was thick and pure white. The batter was a beer batter which is a light fried batter. With a bit of tartar sauce, it more than satisfied my taste for fried fish. The fried clams were also good. They were sweet and the batter was a breaded coating. I have probably said this before, but I always compare fried clams to the best fried clams that I have ever had and those were the ones you got at the Howard Johnson's Restaurants of my youth (not the frozen in the supermarket ones that had the Howard Johnson name on them). I have not really found ones to compare. But these were good - not like those, but good.
There was so much that was good that I am losing track of what I had with which trip up. The Italian station had individual bowls of meat lasagna. I did not take that but it looked good. There were three pasta dishes including one that had a pesto sauce, one that had marinara sauce, and a third, that I tried that were little ear shaped macaroni with a bolognese sauce. This was good. They also had meatballs in tomato sauce. I took one of these meatballs on the same plate that I took one of the Swedish meatballs that were in the general section. The meatballs were exactly the same - the sauce was different, of course. The meatball with the tomato sauce was actually better than the Swedish meatball, though that was fine too.
The big mistake that I made - and I always seem to make this same mistake - was to go up to the carving station and get a slice of the Prime Rib that they were carving. The mistake was not that there was anything wrong with meat. The meat was very good. The mistake was that the serving that is given fills a plate. This is like a slice of Prime Rib that you get in a menu restaurant. And asking for a "thin" slice or a "small" slice does not really make any difference. The carver sliced down a nice, large portion of the meat and placed it on my plate. That could have sufficed for dinner all on its own. I decided that I would eat as much as I felt comfortable eating, and leave over what I did not want. And I did exactly that.
Also on what I am calling the general station, as American food station does not really describe everything that was there, was a baked chicken in mushroom gravy. My wife tried this and she said it was very good. There was also fried chicken that looked good. Mixed in with the meat dishes were plain broccoli, macaroni and cheese, the Swedish meatballs that I mentioned before, another rice dish, and carved ham. My wife also tried the ham and she said that was good also.
The Chinese/Oriental station had several spicy dishes including the string beans that I spoke about, as well as fried rice, the Japanese noodles with seafood talked about earlier, and a tray of a thin soup with chicken dumplings in it. There were bowls above the counter. I decided that I would like to try one of the dumplings and took a bowl, scooped one out and drained the soup back into the serving tray with the ladle before I brought the ladle near the bowl. The chicken dumpling was mildly seasoned. It was nice.
There were a lot of side dishes though other than the broccoli, they were carbohydrate based - potatoes of various types - mashed, french fries, sweet potato fries - plus four or so different rice dishes, and then a number of macaroni dishes. There was also kernel corn. I can't say why I feel that there needed to be something different, but my wife took more salad as a vegetable side dish, and at one point, rather than take broccoli, I opted for a slice of half-sour pickle from the salad bar.
Even with tasting sized portions - and the more than plentiful Prime Rib - I was overfull. This is not something that I let happen at most buffets, but this buffet, perhaps because it is different and we get here so rarely, draws me to that.
There there is dessert which takes up a long counter in the front entrance of the buffet. There was a lot of very tempting desserts and a wide variety from hot cobblers, hot bread pudding, an assortment of puddings including tapioca, rice pudding, etc. There were many different cakes. The apple cake caught my eye. It was a large slice of brown cake with apples very visible in the slice. There was coconut cake - yellow cake with white frosting super-filled with coconut. As I stood next to the serving counter, I could smell the sweet coconut call to me. There were brownies, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, sundae fixings, and an area where crepes were cooked and filled to order. There is also a section of sugar-free desserts - mostly cakes. (Understand that sugar-free cakes and desserts have just as many and sometimes more carbohydrates as their non-sugar twins. So calling them sugar-free really does not make them any better.) This was a special occasion for me and I had decided before dinner that I would have a small dessert. I looked from cake to cookie to cupcake and all along the counters and cases deciding what to take. I was like a kid in a candy shop with just enough money in his hand for one treat. And I picked a small chocolate cupcake with a light chocolate swirl of frosting on the top. Why? I am not sure but it was a small portion and easier to choose than the apple cake which I could not eat all of or that wonderfully tempting slice of coconut cake. The baking is pretty good here. I tasted some of the frosting and it was very nice. I then removed the rest of the frosting and set it aside and ate the little chocolate cupcake. It tasted just like chocolate cake should - it was good. Was it spectacular? Not really, but it was to me. And if you are fortunate enough to be able to eat spectacular desserts there were those there to have.
The server that we had was excellent. She was very attentive to her tables. At the table next to us, the people must have asked her to make them chocolate egg cream drinks (this is soda water mixed with just the right amount of milk and chocolate syrup). I would have never imagined requesting such a thing. It certainly can be made on your own at any buffet with a self-serve beverage bar, but to ask the server to make one - well, she did and seemed very happy about doing it. They were discussing how good they were at the next table with her and she had a lot of pride in having made a good one. For us, she refilled out beverages promptly, brought my wife tea when she no longer wanted soda at the end of the meal, and removed all of our soiled plates immediately. She was one of the best servers that I have ever had at any buffet, and I tipped her accordingly.
The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page. As I talked about in my article last year, use a GPS to find the casino. It is in the middle of the woods - as a good Native American casino should be.
The problem here is that it all looks so good - and most of it is quite different from what I see at the usual buffet offerings. It is hard here not to see something and take it - and this buffet requires some - perhaps a lot of - willpower. One way that I deal with this is I try to take just a little bit. It looked good - and most of it was good.
I will start with the really good. The beef brisket in barbecue sauce was good. The meat was tender and the sauce was mild with a nice flavor and not too sweet. The sweet potato fries were good. The manicotti was nice - not the best that I have had, but probably one of the best that I have had at a buffet - and the tomato sauce was nice as well. The sausage was Italian hot sausage - meaning it is spiced with peppers. It was in the server with peppers and onions all together in tomato sauce and the sausages were cut in half. The sausages were nicely thick. The taste was good - authentic - and while I prefer what is known as Italian sweet sausage (with no peppers), this was good. The Japanese noodles with seafood were pan fried broad noodles (likely rice noodles) stir-fried with small shrimp, red and green pepper, onion, bean sprouts and some other oriental vegetables. These were very good! What was not as good as I had hoped? The stir-fry string beans were in a red oil, spicy sauce. They may have been good if you like spicy oriental food, but I was not taking any chances with the long ride home that would eventually follow this meal, as spicy and my stomach do not always get along. I did not finish the green beans after a taste. That leaves the St. Louis ribs. I had very much enjoyed the ribs here on my last two visits. These ribs were cut short and with three bones side by side. There was little to no meat and what meat there was, was not coming off without a struggle. I worked at them for a while to get more than just a taste. I gave up. The rest in the serving tray had looked pretty much the same as these, and I did not go back to try those again. Too bad, too. I really like barbecue ribs - and like them best when the meat just falls off the bones. Not these. But there is so much more to eat here that it was a minor loss.
I went back up to try some more. At the seafood station there were cold peel and eat shrimp - nice large shrimp (I passed those by as I can always get shrimp at a buffet). There were also broiled cod, fried cod, fried clams, french fries, and two types of rice. There were also hot mussels and also jambalaya.
Cod. Before the "evil" talapia became the inexpensive fish to serve, there was cod. There was a time when every menu - at least in the Middle Atlantic and Northeast - had cod. (Now the "new" cod is talapia. Talapia more resembles flounder fillet. The problem with talapia as most is farm raised and it is a fact that farm raised talapia takes away from your body the good Omega nutrients that other fish put in. Why is it so popular? It is cheap.) It set these statements off because I don't want you to think that there is any talapia served here. It is COD. And cod is good and good for you. Cod is a fish of New England and it is no wonder it is still served at this buffet.
I took one piece of the fried cod (I really like fried fish!). I also took a few of the fried clams. The cod was very good. It was thick and pure white. The batter was a beer batter which is a light fried batter. With a bit of tartar sauce, it more than satisfied my taste for fried fish. The fried clams were also good. They were sweet and the batter was a breaded coating. I have probably said this before, but I always compare fried clams to the best fried clams that I have ever had and those were the ones you got at the Howard Johnson's Restaurants of my youth (not the frozen in the supermarket ones that had the Howard Johnson name on them). I have not really found ones to compare. But these were good - not like those, but good.
There was so much that was good that I am losing track of what I had with which trip up. The Italian station had individual bowls of meat lasagna. I did not take that but it looked good. There were three pasta dishes including one that had a pesto sauce, one that had marinara sauce, and a third, that I tried that were little ear shaped macaroni with a bolognese sauce. This was good. They also had meatballs in tomato sauce. I took one of these meatballs on the same plate that I took one of the Swedish meatballs that were in the general section. The meatballs were exactly the same - the sauce was different, of course. The meatball with the tomato sauce was actually better than the Swedish meatball, though that was fine too.
The big mistake that I made - and I always seem to make this same mistake - was to go up to the carving station and get a slice of the Prime Rib that they were carving. The mistake was not that there was anything wrong with meat. The meat was very good. The mistake was that the serving that is given fills a plate. This is like a slice of Prime Rib that you get in a menu restaurant. And asking for a "thin" slice or a "small" slice does not really make any difference. The carver sliced down a nice, large portion of the meat and placed it on my plate. That could have sufficed for dinner all on its own. I decided that I would eat as much as I felt comfortable eating, and leave over what I did not want. And I did exactly that.
Also on what I am calling the general station, as American food station does not really describe everything that was there, was a baked chicken in mushroom gravy. My wife tried this and she said it was very good. There was also fried chicken that looked good. Mixed in with the meat dishes were plain broccoli, macaroni and cheese, the Swedish meatballs that I mentioned before, another rice dish, and carved ham. My wife also tried the ham and she said that was good also.
The Chinese/Oriental station had several spicy dishes including the string beans that I spoke about, as well as fried rice, the Japanese noodles with seafood talked about earlier, and a tray of a thin soup with chicken dumplings in it. There were bowls above the counter. I decided that I would like to try one of the dumplings and took a bowl, scooped one out and drained the soup back into the serving tray with the ladle before I brought the ladle near the bowl. The chicken dumpling was mildly seasoned. It was nice.
There were a lot of side dishes though other than the broccoli, they were carbohydrate based - potatoes of various types - mashed, french fries, sweet potato fries - plus four or so different rice dishes, and then a number of macaroni dishes. There was also kernel corn. I can't say why I feel that there needed to be something different, but my wife took more salad as a vegetable side dish, and at one point, rather than take broccoli, I opted for a slice of half-sour pickle from the salad bar.
Even with tasting sized portions - and the more than plentiful Prime Rib - I was overfull. This is not something that I let happen at most buffets, but this buffet, perhaps because it is different and we get here so rarely, draws me to that.
There there is dessert which takes up a long counter in the front entrance of the buffet. There was a lot of very tempting desserts and a wide variety from hot cobblers, hot bread pudding, an assortment of puddings including tapioca, rice pudding, etc. There were many different cakes. The apple cake caught my eye. It was a large slice of brown cake with apples very visible in the slice. There was coconut cake - yellow cake with white frosting super-filled with coconut. As I stood next to the serving counter, I could smell the sweet coconut call to me. There were brownies, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, sundae fixings, and an area where crepes were cooked and filled to order. There is also a section of sugar-free desserts - mostly cakes. (Understand that sugar-free cakes and desserts have just as many and sometimes more carbohydrates as their non-sugar twins. So calling them sugar-free really does not make them any better.) This was a special occasion for me and I had decided before dinner that I would have a small dessert. I looked from cake to cookie to cupcake and all along the counters and cases deciding what to take. I was like a kid in a candy shop with just enough money in his hand for one treat. And I picked a small chocolate cupcake with a light chocolate swirl of frosting on the top. Why? I am not sure but it was a small portion and easier to choose than the apple cake which I could not eat all of or that wonderfully tempting slice of coconut cake. The baking is pretty good here. I tasted some of the frosting and it was very nice. I then removed the rest of the frosting and set it aside and ate the little chocolate cupcake. It tasted just like chocolate cake should - it was good. Was it spectacular? Not really, but it was to me. And if you are fortunate enough to be able to eat spectacular desserts there were those there to have.
The server that we had was excellent. She was very attentive to her tables. At the table next to us, the people must have asked her to make them chocolate egg cream drinks (this is soda water mixed with just the right amount of milk and chocolate syrup). I would have never imagined requesting such a thing. It certainly can be made on your own at any buffet with a self-serve beverage bar, but to ask the server to make one - well, she did and seemed very happy about doing it. They were discussing how good they were at the next table with her and she had a lot of pride in having made a good one. For us, she refilled out beverages promptly, brought my wife tea when she no longer wanted soda at the end of the meal, and removed all of our soiled plates immediately. She was one of the best servers that I have ever had at any buffet, and I tipped her accordingly.
The Festival Buffet is at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The address is 350 Trolley Line Boulevard,
Mashantucket, CT 06338-3777. The phone number is 1-800-369-9663. There is a website with directions, etc. and that is listed at the side of this page. As I talked about in my article last year, use a GPS to find the casino. It is in the middle of the woods - as a good Native American casino should be.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Return to the Festival Buffet, Foxwoods Casino Resort, CT PART I
About a year ago I wrote about a return trip to the Festival Buffet at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. We recently went back again.
This is one of the buffets that comes to my mind when I think, "what buffet would you really like to go to". From my experience with casino buffets it so one of the nicer of those that I have eaten at. As I pointed out in the March 2011 article (linked above), there are two different experiences to be had there - the weekend or as they call it, the enhanced, buffet and the weeknight buffet. This trip was made for business in the earlier part of the day that had to be done mid-week, so we went on a Wednesday night in April. The weather was nice and the trip to Connecticut as usual was miserable with traffic and construction along the way - there and back. The Connecticut Turnpike always seems to be under construction - and there is never anything to notice that has changed (though I am sure if you live there, you can tell the difference). Anyway, we got there after our business appointment. It was just 6:30 pm and seemed too early to eat. We walked past the buffet and there was no line so we walked around the casino complex for about an hour. The buffet serves until 10:00 pm on weeknights. When we went back to the buffet there was still no line - though it was not empty inside. We paid and walked right in and were seated.
The price of the buffet since a year ago has gone up two dollars per adult on the weeknight price. This does include soft drinks. The price is now $18.99 each.
The dining tables are in three locations within the buffet. There is a section that is actually on the promenade outside the restaurant, separated by a low, decorative wall. There is a section that fills the room with the buffet stations all around it. There is a section next to that room that is separated from a hall off the promenade, though not as much out in the open as the front area is. The seating area on the promenade is a smoking section. This is also adjacent to a bandstand with a music show that starts around 8:30 - 9 pm or so and the music is LOUD. Even if this was not the smoking section I would still not want to sit there - though if you want to Rock while you buffet, you might enjoy it. We asked for a table in the center dining room and there was no problem.
Our meals usually start with soup and there was a surprise - where there were two soups last year, there were four soups on this night. And they were not all cream soups which was a criticism that I had last year. There was chicken rice soup, minestrone soup, a bean soup, and New England Clam Chowder. We later discovered that there was a fifth soup - Chinese chicken dumpling soup at the Chinese area. My "like it simple and plain" wife chose the chicken rice soup and I choose the New England Clam Chowder.
You likely know that New England Clam Chowder is the white cream version and not the red thin version, which is called Manhattan Clam Chowder. The chowder was good. It was thick and full of clams and potatoes. It was nicely seasoned and the clams were cut into chewable pieces, as were the potatoes. My wife said that the chicken rice soup tasted "homemade" and not what would come from a can. The soups (on this visit) started us off happily.
There is an extensive salad bar with two sides - one side had romaine lettuce for Caesar salad and a pre-mixed lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing on it. There was a variety of dressing next to these bowls including creamy Caesar dressing. There were also toppings including real bacon bit pieces. There was also a servers full of mixed olives in a dressing, half sour pickles, sweet pickles, hot peppers, and chunks of chicken. Around the other side of the salad bar were bowls of lettuce, dressings, salad toppings and fixings, cottage cheese, and prepared salads including pasta salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, etc. I made myself a Caesar salad and my wife fixed her usual, salad with vegetable toppings but no dressing. We both enjoyed the salads. I have had Caesar salads in many buffets. I like them most when you put your own dressing on, which you do here. The dressing was nicely flavored and not too sharp, as it can be.
The entrees and side dishes are set up in sections or stations. There is a seafood station, a large general station of various hot entrees and side dishes that includes two carvings, an Italian station, a Chinese/Oriental station, and a Barbecue station. On Fridays and Saturdays, the large general station is divided to include snow crab legs. There are not more dishes at this section on the weeknights - just a duplication of dishes on both sides of the carvings.
I went straight to the Barbecue section. There were fixings to make tacos and there was barbecue which included barbecue brisket, Kansas City ribs, and barbecue chicken. On the weekends you will also find steak here. I took a piece of the brisket and a piece of the ribs. There were sweet potato french fries that I could not resist and I took a very small sampling of those. I went around to the other sections and added a piece of Italian sausage from the Italian station with a small sampling of the baked manicotti. Passing the Chinese section, I spotted a wok server with Japanese noodles with seafood and took a small spoon of that. I had not seen any vegetables that appealed and at the Chinese station there was a wok of string beans sauteed with tofu. A small spoon of that went on my plate. My plate was beginning to resemble an international platter and I went back to the table.
END OF PART I - Part II NEXT WEEK
This is one of the buffets that comes to my mind when I think, "what buffet would you really like to go to". From my experience with casino buffets it so one of the nicer of those that I have eaten at. As I pointed out in the March 2011 article (linked above), there are two different experiences to be had there - the weekend or as they call it, the enhanced, buffet and the weeknight buffet. This trip was made for business in the earlier part of the day that had to be done mid-week, so we went on a Wednesday night in April. The weather was nice and the trip to Connecticut as usual was miserable with traffic and construction along the way - there and back. The Connecticut Turnpike always seems to be under construction - and there is never anything to notice that has changed (though I am sure if you live there, you can tell the difference). Anyway, we got there after our business appointment. It was just 6:30 pm and seemed too early to eat. We walked past the buffet and there was no line so we walked around the casino complex for about an hour. The buffet serves until 10:00 pm on weeknights. When we went back to the buffet there was still no line - though it was not empty inside. We paid and walked right in and were seated.
The price of the buffet since a year ago has gone up two dollars per adult on the weeknight price. This does include soft drinks. The price is now $18.99 each.
The dining tables are in three locations within the buffet. There is a section that is actually on the promenade outside the restaurant, separated by a low, decorative wall. There is a section that fills the room with the buffet stations all around it. There is a section next to that room that is separated from a hall off the promenade, though not as much out in the open as the front area is. The seating area on the promenade is a smoking section. This is also adjacent to a bandstand with a music show that starts around 8:30 - 9 pm or so and the music is LOUD. Even if this was not the smoking section I would still not want to sit there - though if you want to Rock while you buffet, you might enjoy it. We asked for a table in the center dining room and there was no problem.
Our meals usually start with soup and there was a surprise - where there were two soups last year, there were four soups on this night. And they were not all cream soups which was a criticism that I had last year. There was chicken rice soup, minestrone soup, a bean soup, and New England Clam Chowder. We later discovered that there was a fifth soup - Chinese chicken dumpling soup at the Chinese area. My "like it simple and plain" wife chose the chicken rice soup and I choose the New England Clam Chowder.
You likely know that New England Clam Chowder is the white cream version and not the red thin version, which is called Manhattan Clam Chowder. The chowder was good. It was thick and full of clams and potatoes. It was nicely seasoned and the clams were cut into chewable pieces, as were the potatoes. My wife said that the chicken rice soup tasted "homemade" and not what would come from a can. The soups (on this visit) started us off happily.
There is an extensive salad bar with two sides - one side had romaine lettuce for Caesar salad and a pre-mixed lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing on it. There was a variety of dressing next to these bowls including creamy Caesar dressing. There were also toppings including real bacon bit pieces. There was also a servers full of mixed olives in a dressing, half sour pickles, sweet pickles, hot peppers, and chunks of chicken. Around the other side of the salad bar were bowls of lettuce, dressings, salad toppings and fixings, cottage cheese, and prepared salads including pasta salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, etc. I made myself a Caesar salad and my wife fixed her usual, salad with vegetable toppings but no dressing. We both enjoyed the salads. I have had Caesar salads in many buffets. I like them most when you put your own dressing on, which you do here. The dressing was nicely flavored and not too sharp, as it can be.
The entrees and side dishes are set up in sections or stations. There is a seafood station, a large general station of various hot entrees and side dishes that includes two carvings, an Italian station, a Chinese/Oriental station, and a Barbecue station. On Fridays and Saturdays, the large general station is divided to include snow crab legs. There are not more dishes at this section on the weeknights - just a duplication of dishes on both sides of the carvings.
I went straight to the Barbecue section. There were fixings to make tacos and there was barbecue which included barbecue brisket, Kansas City ribs, and barbecue chicken. On the weekends you will also find steak here. I took a piece of the brisket and a piece of the ribs. There were sweet potato french fries that I could not resist and I took a very small sampling of those. I went around to the other sections and added a piece of Italian sausage from the Italian station with a small sampling of the baked manicotti. Passing the Chinese section, I spotted a wok server with Japanese noodles with seafood and took a small spoon of that. I had not seen any vegetables that appealed and at the Chinese station there was a wok of string beans sauteed with tofu. A small spoon of that went on my plate. My plate was beginning to resemble an international platter and I went back to the table.
END OF PART I - Part II NEXT WEEK
Friday, April 13, 2012
Buffets Inc. Management Get Bonuses After Putting Company into Bankruptcy
I was led to this story by one of our readers, and it is true. The Bankruptcy Court approves bonuses for Buffets, Inc. executives. This follows the closing of so many Old Country Buffet and Ryan's Buffet restaurants owned by the corporation in January 2012 and putting thousands suddenly out of work - and these closings are still happening.
The recipients of these bonuses are the same executives that put the corporation into bankruptcy. One would think that these execs would be fired from their jobs - and join those that they forced out suddenly out of work at the restaurants - but no, they have been rewarded!
The sum to be split among the executives who will receive these bonuses (which includes the top two executives and sixteen other executives is $2.3 Million. How many restaurant employees' jobs could have been saved with $2.3 Million?
This is not the first time the Buffets, Inc. following bankruptcy has applied to the Bankruptcy Court for permission to issue executive bonuses. They did this following the first bankruptcy as well and the chief executive officer, Michael Andrews, and fourteen other top executives at that time received a split of a million dollar bonus. The same execs will be receiving the current bonus. The approval by the Bankruptcy Court is dependent upon the company meeting five specific financial criteria. You and I know that they will.
Lenders to Buffets, Inc. may object to the bonus plan and the court would take those objections into consideration - but so far there has been no report that they will.
Here is an article link that gives all of the details about the bonuses. I do not know how long this link will stay live.
If this company is closing its restaurants and putting its restaurant managers and employees out of work in these so very difficult economic times, where is this bonus money at the top coming from?
One thing that I want to say to my readers is that by taking your anger out on the company by not going to their restaurants will only hurt those at the lowest level - the manager and employees at the restaurant you boycott. This will not hurt the corporation, because they are continuing to close locations of Old Country Buffet and Ryans based upon individual restaurant income. Several additional restaurants have closed since the big January wipe out - maybe more than several. And it is always done the same way. No one knows anything including the manager when they come to work that morning and then the "suits" arrive and tell everyone - (paraphrasing) "Guess what, you are closed and all of your are fired." So if you boycott the restaurants you will hurt the people who don't even dream about bonuses and just hope day to day that they still have a job. You are not going to hurt the corporation or the people at the top - who will continue to be rewarded for destroying the lives of the people who work for them. It is all very sad and frustrating, but true.
Shame once again on Buffets, Inc.!
The recipients of these bonuses are the same executives that put the corporation into bankruptcy. One would think that these execs would be fired from their jobs - and join those that they forced out suddenly out of work at the restaurants - but no, they have been rewarded!
The sum to be split among the executives who will receive these bonuses (which includes the top two executives and sixteen other executives is $2.3 Million. How many restaurant employees' jobs could have been saved with $2.3 Million?
This is not the first time the Buffets, Inc. following bankruptcy has applied to the Bankruptcy Court for permission to issue executive bonuses. They did this following the first bankruptcy as well and the chief executive officer, Michael Andrews, and fourteen other top executives at that time received a split of a million dollar bonus. The same execs will be receiving the current bonus. The approval by the Bankruptcy Court is dependent upon the company meeting five specific financial criteria. You and I know that they will.
Lenders to Buffets, Inc. may object to the bonus plan and the court would take those objections into consideration - but so far there has been no report that they will.
Here is an article link that gives all of the details about the bonuses. I do not know how long this link will stay live.
If this company is closing its restaurants and putting its restaurant managers and employees out of work in these so very difficult economic times, where is this bonus money at the top coming from?
One thing that I want to say to my readers is that by taking your anger out on the company by not going to their restaurants will only hurt those at the lowest level - the manager and employees at the restaurant you boycott. This will not hurt the corporation, because they are continuing to close locations of Old Country Buffet and Ryans based upon individual restaurant income. Several additional restaurants have closed since the big January wipe out - maybe more than several. And it is always done the same way. No one knows anything including the manager when they come to work that morning and then the "suits" arrive and tell everyone - (paraphrasing) "Guess what, you are closed and all of your are fired." So if you boycott the restaurants you will hurt the people who don't even dream about bonuses and just hope day to day that they still have a job. You are not going to hurt the corporation or the people at the top - who will continue to be rewarded for destroying the lives of the people who work for them. It is all very sad and frustrating, but true.
Shame once again on Buffets, Inc.!
Friday, April 06, 2012
The Manager Can Make All The Difference
I have said on this site before that rather than go to the Old Country Buffet that is less than four miles away, we drive about 20 miles each way to another Old Country Buffet location - and we do this fairly regularly- at least once a week. The reason is that the closer OCB is terrible, has poor staff, and poor management - and has been this way for a long time no matter what change in manager takes place. A few weeks ago, we went to what is now our regular OCB, and the manager there that is one of the best buffet managers that we have ever observed, was no where to be seen. This was odd as it was one of his usually scheduled work nights. This is the manager that I referred to as "Mr. Smiley" in an article written some time ago. The next week he was still not there and someone else was evident as the manager. I asked one of the staff that we know and, with a chagrin on this employee's face, we were told that he was gone. Both my wife and I looked at each other and said, "Oh boy!" I should say that this is not the general manager of the location. This is the secondary manager but it is he who seems to have complete charge of running the floor and the kitchen, training the staff, and doing a far better job than the general manager does when he is the only one there. The employees here responded to the gentleman who has left - he commanded their respect and it is very evident in their work. It was also very obvious when he was not working - things did not run as smoothly. We, of course, were going to give the new manager the chance that he deserves, and we would keep going. It had to be better than the other OCB.
A week later we were there on a Saturday night. We have been there before on Saturday nights, but now there was a new manager. The restaurant was crowded (though not much more than other nights we have been here), but he seemed to be handling the waiting line well and was doing a good job in getting people seated. That night, seating was the last thing that he seemed to do right.
Several times that night there were no plates - at all - out. Of course, they were being washed in the kitchen but no one was directing the kitchen to continually make sure that plates were being washed and put out. At one point, there were only salad plates, and people were taking these for lack of dinner plates. During this, the new manager came out, pretty much ignored the comments of where are the plates, picked up a salad plate himself and filled it with food from the buffet, and then went back into the kitchen, presumably to eat. The former manager always ate in the dining room, keeping an eye on everything. At this point there were empty tables and there was no apparent reason for him to not be visible - as any good manager should always be. The plate situation got worse. He came out for a moment, but despite people coming up to ask where are the plates, he went back into the kitchen. After a short while the hostess, decided that someone had to get involved and came to the area where the plates should be, reassured people that plates would be coming out very soon and then went into the kitchen to confirm this, came right back out and kept talking to the guests who were getting more and more upset. She was doing what the manager should have been doing - but he was no where to be seen.
Then the food started running out on the buffet and nothing was being replaced. Again, he came out of the kitchen, looked around, said nothing to the people getting upset with the lack of what was out, and then went back into the kitchen. What was going on?!? This was the worst that we ever experienced this particular OCB. This would never had taken place before. The manager would never have allowed it to get this far. He was excellent at anticipating. He would stick only his head in the door and shout what was required out on the buffet, and wait out on the floor to be sure it was out and out fast. We looked at each other that night, and realized that our "oh boy" may have been justified that "Mr. Smiley" was no longer there.
We went back the next night. Yes, we did. I had to see what would happen. Things were a little better. There were plates. Most of the food was out and replenished, though the assortment was a bit odd for the usual Sunday night. But again he was no where to be seen on the floor. He did come out of the kitchen a bit more often. But over all, he was not visible.
The next Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and I enjoy the corned beef and cabbage buffet that OCB has on St. Patrick's Day. I was a little hesitant because again, this was a Saturday night, the crowd would be heavy due to the holiday meal being served and the coupons that were put on the OCB Facebook page for $3 off a meal, and I had our experience from the last Saturday here in mind.
When we arrived there was a long line to get in. We decided that since Saturday hours are a little later than weekday hours, we would wait a little before going in. We waited about a half hour and when we went back, the line was much shorter. We were seated by this new manager and the hostess that had come to everyone's aid the week before. I have to tell you that on this holiday night things were much better - and one of the reasons is that he was on the floor almost the whole time we were there - to the point that he had on rubber gloves and was helping at one of the cleanup stations. He had an eye on everything that was going on and for the most part, food was refilled and there was no shortage of dishes. I don't know if someone clued him in to what is necessary to run this type of restaurant well or he figured it out for himself.
As I have always said on this site - the manger can make all of the difference between a good buffet and a buffet that no one wants to go to. I have seen this many times at many different types of buffets. When a buffet is good, the manager is always visible - and active.
Hopefully the new manager will keep up with his change in management. There are a number of regulars at this particular OCB and we have yet to see him make any move to be friendly with them as his predecessor was. Maybe soon he will get the idea that you need to go out of your way to welcome your guests - regulars or first time visitors. We like this buffet and want to keep liking it. There are no other OCB's, or American buffets for that matter, for a hundred miles that involve a lot of money in tolls.
We wish all of our best to "Mr. Smiley", wherever he has gone. I certainly hope that it was his decision to leave. We do know that he would talk often about getting offers from other restaurants. He was that good. OCB and Buffets, Inc. lost one of the best when they lost him.
We went back another night... The manager was there and once again did a good job in getting tables seated. Following that he was nowhere to be seen on the serving/buffet floor. Part way through the meal, I saw our server go and fill a plate and on the other end of the dining room sit down to eat. Another server adjacent to her area was actively taking care of h
er tables. Our server is new - hired since the new manager started. She said nothing to any other server to cover her tables while she had her dinner break. I have no problem with her having her diner break, BUT her tables still needed to be covered. Proper management would have instructed her to make sure when she goes on a break, she alerts other servers to cover her tables for her - which she would do for them when they take their break. She did not do this. She was off for some time. Here is the result on our table- just one of several tables like this. Eventually she finished eating and then got around to the tables - but stopping first to clean unoccupied tables that were not needed for the rest of the night, due to the hour near closing. She then was off again, in an empty part of the dining room on her phone. I know from observation of past nights at this restaurant watching the former manager in action, that this would never have been tolerated, nor would any of it have taken place as he was always out on the floor and aware of what each of his staff were doing - and not doing. I have never had dishes stack up at this particular OCB like this. By the way, a fifth plate was added to the stack before she picked up the dishes. It is very evident that at this Old Country Buffet, things are starting to slip in operation.
A week later we were there on a Saturday night. We have been there before on Saturday nights, but now there was a new manager. The restaurant was crowded (though not much more than other nights we have been here), but he seemed to be handling the waiting line well and was doing a good job in getting people seated. That night, seating was the last thing that he seemed to do right.
Several times that night there were no plates - at all - out. Of course, they were being washed in the kitchen but no one was directing the kitchen to continually make sure that plates were being washed and put out. At one point, there were only salad plates, and people were taking these for lack of dinner plates. During this, the new manager came out, pretty much ignored the comments of where are the plates, picked up a salad plate himself and filled it with food from the buffet, and then went back into the kitchen, presumably to eat. The former manager always ate in the dining room, keeping an eye on everything. At this point there were empty tables and there was no apparent reason for him to not be visible - as any good manager should always be. The plate situation got worse. He came out for a moment, but despite people coming up to ask where are the plates, he went back into the kitchen. After a short while the hostess, decided that someone had to get involved and came to the area where the plates should be, reassured people that plates would be coming out very soon and then went into the kitchen to confirm this, came right back out and kept talking to the guests who were getting more and more upset. She was doing what the manager should have been doing - but he was no where to be seen.
Then the food started running out on the buffet and nothing was being replaced. Again, he came out of the kitchen, looked around, said nothing to the people getting upset with the lack of what was out, and then went back into the kitchen. What was going on?!? This was the worst that we ever experienced this particular OCB. This would never had taken place before. The manager would never have allowed it to get this far. He was excellent at anticipating. He would stick only his head in the door and shout what was required out on the buffet, and wait out on the floor to be sure it was out and out fast. We looked at each other that night, and realized that our "oh boy" may have been justified that "Mr. Smiley" was no longer there.
We went back the next night. Yes, we did. I had to see what would happen. Things were a little better. There were plates. Most of the food was out and replenished, though the assortment was a bit odd for the usual Sunday night. But again he was no where to be seen on the floor. He did come out of the kitchen a bit more often. But over all, he was not visible.
The next Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and I enjoy the corned beef and cabbage buffet that OCB has on St. Patrick's Day. I was a little hesitant because again, this was a Saturday night, the crowd would be heavy due to the holiday meal being served and the coupons that were put on the OCB Facebook page for $3 off a meal, and I had our experience from the last Saturday here in mind.
When we arrived there was a long line to get in. We decided that since Saturday hours are a little later than weekday hours, we would wait a little before going in. We waited about a half hour and when we went back, the line was much shorter. We were seated by this new manager and the hostess that had come to everyone's aid the week before. I have to tell you that on this holiday night things were much better - and one of the reasons is that he was on the floor almost the whole time we were there - to the point that he had on rubber gloves and was helping at one of the cleanup stations. He had an eye on everything that was going on and for the most part, food was refilled and there was no shortage of dishes. I don't know if someone clued him in to what is necessary to run this type of restaurant well or he figured it out for himself.
As I have always said on this site - the manger can make all of the difference between a good buffet and a buffet that no one wants to go to. I have seen this many times at many different types of buffets. When a buffet is good, the manager is always visible - and active.
Hopefully the new manager will keep up with his change in management. There are a number of regulars at this particular OCB and we have yet to see him make any move to be friendly with them as his predecessor was. Maybe soon he will get the idea that you need to go out of your way to welcome your guests - regulars or first time visitors. We like this buffet and want to keep liking it. There are no other OCB's, or American buffets for that matter, for a hundred miles that involve a lot of money in tolls.
We wish all of our best to "Mr. Smiley", wherever he has gone. I certainly hope that it was his decision to leave. We do know that he would talk often about getting offers from other restaurants. He was that good. OCB and Buffets, Inc. lost one of the best when they lost him.
We went back another night... The manager was there and once again did a good job in getting tables seated. Following that he was nowhere to be seen on the serving/buffet floor. Part way through the meal, I saw our server go and fill a plate and on the other end of the dining room sit down to eat. Another server adjacent to her area was actively taking care of h
er tables. Our server is new - hired since the new manager started. She said nothing to any other server to cover her tables while she had her dinner break. I have no problem with her having her diner break, BUT her tables still needed to be covered. Proper management would have instructed her to make sure when she goes on a break, she alerts other servers to cover her tables for her - which she would do for them when they take their break. She did not do this. She was off for some time. Here is the result on our table- just one of several tables like this. Eventually she finished eating and then got around to the tables - but stopping first to clean unoccupied tables that were not needed for the rest of the night, due to the hour near closing. She then was off again, in an empty part of the dining room on her phone. I know from observation of past nights at this restaurant watching the former manager in action, that this would never have been tolerated, nor would any of it have taken place as he was always out on the floor and aware of what each of his staff were doing - and not doing. I have never had dishes stack up at this particular OCB like this. By the way, a fifth plate was added to the stack before she picked up the dishes. It is very evident that at this Old Country Buffet, things are starting to slip in operation.
Friday, March 30, 2012
AT THE EASTER SMORGASBORD AT IKEA
This past February I wrote an article on this site telling all of you about a special one night holiday smorgasbord that would be served at the IKEA stores in their restaurant. That article was met with a barrage of comments from readers who I don't really believe understand what this site is all about, but those comments focused upon the quality of food at buffets in general. I am not going to go into that here - and such comments made to this article in that regard will not be published. This article is about my meal at the Easter Smorgasbord at IKEA on the one night it was served in 2012 - March 23, 2012.
We purchased our tickets four weeks in advance of the meal. Tickets must be purchased in advance, though I will tell you later about how you might be able to pay on the night of the dinner and maybe get in. We purchased tickets for the 7 to 9 seating. There was an earlier seating from 4 to 6. The tickets cost just $9.99 and the meal is all you care to eat and all inclusive. We went to the dinner at the IKEA store in Hicksville, New York.
We were not really certain what to expect. We were not sure how they would transform a cafeteria style restaurant with a not very large dining room into an all you can eat experience. I was also not sure how they could sell a limited number of tickets that would correspond to seating this many and that many at each table. In other words, if you have a table for four and three sit down, it is unlikely that the fourth seat at that table is going to be used - so if you have a potential of, say, 200 seats, you cannot really sell 200 tickets. That was not my concern, and as they have done this many times before, I was sure that they would know what to do - and they did. When we bought our tickets there was a serial number on each ticket. The cashier selling them to us recorded those numbers and took my name and phone number. We purchased them at the restaurant cashier.
The dinner was to start at 7. I figured that we should be there early - still not knowing what to expect. The regular restaurant had been closed all afternoon and only opened for the first smorgasbord seating at 4 pm. We left home to arrive at about 6:30. We actually got up to the second floor of the store to the area outside of the restaurant at 6:30 pm and found a line that stretched from the entrance to the restaurant back to almost the entrance stairs coming up from the first floor. We got on the back of the line with the rest of the people who got there early for the 7:00 seating. The line continued to grow behind us. My curiosity was getting the better of me and I walked up to the front in the children's furniture department to sneak a peak at the inside of the restaurant. There I saw all of the dining tables set with silverware, a glass and a brightly colored paper napkin in the glass. In the middle of the restaurant where other tables would be when the restaurant is open for regular meals, was two long tables set up with serving platters and hot chafing dishes of food. There were four sides to server from - but I was too far at that point to see any detail. There was a buzz of employees carrying out platters of food and preparing the serving tables for the waiting guests. On the line were couples, families, groups, parents with children and babies.
At just before 7:00 pm the line started to move forward at a good pace. There were two employees standing at the entrance taking tickets. No one said anything about where to sit and everyone was finding a table of their choice. We found a table near where we usually sit when we have dinner at this store's restaurant. It was a table set for four. We sat at the outer two seats and expected that at some point another couple would come to sit in the other two seats. The actual tables have a separation between them though they share the same legs and frame. It would be fine with us if others came to join us.
There was a gentlemen from the restaurant directing people into the winding, railed area that is used for the cafeteria line. The cafeteria counters were closed. They used the railed area to organize the line that went into the area with the buffet serving tables. From here we could see that each side of the tables had the same food on it as the other side. Desserts were off to the side in a cold server where soups and salads are usually served on regular nights and the usual drink area was where you got your beverage. The line moved steadily up to the serving tables and there was a very pleasant employee holding the front of the line until there was an opening at the rear of one of the sides of the serving table and then let your party up to take your food. It was extremely well organized. We reached this gentleman who greeted us and in a few moments he saw and opening and told us to step right in and enjoy the dinner. We went up to the serving table and started selecting what we wanted to try.
The menu for the dinner that was on the IKEA website is as follows:
Assorted Herring
Hardboiled eggs with mayo and shrimp
Hardboiled eggs with herring roe or tångkorn
Shrimp with cocktail sauce
Marinated Salmon with Mustard Sauce
Smoked Salmon with Horseradish Sauce
Poached Salmon
Assorted Cheeses
Tossed green salad
Cucumber salad
Red Beet Salad
Breads: Crispbread, Crisprolls, Dinner rolls
Swedish Meatballs
Mashed Potatoes
Boiled potatoes w/dill
Lingonberries
Swedish Ham with Mustard
Gratäng Jansson
Assorted Swedish desserts and cookies
Fountain Beverages, Hot beverages
What was served varied from this only slightly. I will tell you here that there were no shrimp with cocktail sauce, no mashed potatoes, and from what I have been able to find out what Gratang Jansson is (if I am not mistaken) there was no Gratang Jansson. There were other dishes that are not listed here.
I had been a bit concerned before we went that my picky eater wife would not find things to eat. I know that she does like the meatballs, she does eat ham, she does eat boiled potatoes, and she does eat salad, so I knew that she should be OK - as long as things are not covered in unknown, to her, sauces. They were not.
Looking at the crowd, and the line, and that it appeared that waiting on line again to go back - and not sure how long the crowds would be coming in - they still were at this point, I decided that it would be best to do what I never do and fill my plate with a mixture of things that I would ordinarily take in courses and go back up for. So on my first plate I took a small piece of each of the three types of herring - one in a cream sauce, one in a dark thin sauce, and one in a clear thin sauce. I also took some of each type of the smoked salmon - the marinated salmon and the smoked salmon. All sauces were in serving dishes at the sides of the main dishes. There was only one type of cheese - a white, mild cheese and I took one chunk of that to try. I took a spoon of the red beat salad (or perhaps it was a hot red cabbage salad - I am not really certain), and I also took a dinner roll. There was a large platter of sliced ham. I took a slice of that. I looked at a long hot serving dish and there were small sausages cut in half and baked. I took a couple of those and finished my plate with a spoon of their Swedish meatballs that were served in their cream gravy. As I say, I was not certain at this point what to expect coming back up and this was not a usual buffet set up where taking a little and coming back for another plate of different things. I later found that while there really was no problem going back up for more, it was really not conducive to my usual buffet dining strategy. Not a problem.
We went back to our table and set our plates down. For those concerned about saving your table while you go up to the buffet, we carried Spring jackets with us (which came in handy when we left for home in the cooler night air) and put them on the back of our chairs. We had also taken our napkins out of our glasses and the silverware set on the napkins before we went up to the serving tables. We then went up to get our beverages and there were all of the usual sodas plus ligonberry juice, coffee and tea - and there was a table set up serving a traditional Swedish holiday spiced beverage and sparkling apple and ligonberry drinks - all non-alcoholic, of course. There were still people first coming into the restaurant from the line outside the restaurant and there was still the line going into the serving tables.
The food was all very good. We later saw that much of what is served is the same as what is sold in the store's small Swedish food mart at very high prices. There was no question that the food was of quality.
I started on my plate following what I would usually eat in the order that I would have taken it if I went up at different times for several plates to make up this one. (Some people were taking several plates at a time and putting different items on them and taking them back to their tables. Since it is not in my nature at buffets to do this, this had not occurred to me, but I might do it that way next time.)
The three cold herring dishes were very good. I liked the one in cream sauce best - though it was a different cream sauce than what is usually found at NY deli counters which is more of a sour cream base mixed with raw onions. This was a yellow cream sauce and very good. I took a little more of that one on a later trip back. The marinated and smoked salmon were excellent. I liked the marinated a bit more than the smoked salmon. I had taken some type of sauce that was next to the salmon platters that was a yellow cream sauce with perhaps capers. I do not know if this was the mustard sauce or the horseradish sauce but it was a nice addition to the taste of both of the salmon that I took. One thing that they could have done better is label everything. I really had no idea what the items were that I had never seen before - or what was what beyond the obvious. The only label that I actually saw was a sign in front of the meatballs and there was no confusion at all about what those were without a sign. The cheese that I took for just a taste was pleasant and mild. I have no idea what type of cheese it was. I finished the cold fish dishes and moved on to the entree items. The little sausages were wonderful. I have no idea what they were. They looked like small hotdogs and had that consistency of meat in the casing but they did not taste like hotdogs. The Swedish meatballs were good as they always are here. The ham was mild in taste and served cold. It had more of a quantity of fat around the meat than hams usually found in the US and the outside was a thin rind which, unlike some hams served at buffets, could be eaten and enjoyed. There did not seem to be any sauce cooked on it or into it -and there was a rich, brown, spiced mustard in a serving dish next to the ham. The red beet salad was much like hot red cabbage that I have had before at other restaurants. I enjoyed it. The boiled potato was, what should I say - a boiled potato and nice. Again, everything was very good. My wife took what I expected that she would take. She is not an adventurous eater but she was very happy with her selections.
While we were eating we were joined at the table by another couple who asked if we minded them sitting at the second section of our table and we told them, of course not. They were very pleasant and we had a small exchange of dinner conversation with them without feeling intruded upon in talking between ourselves - as they seemed comfortable with as well.
When we went up for a second plate, there was still a line at the buffet tables - and still people coming in from outside with tickets. The line for the buffet tables was not as long. We were greeted again by the same pleasant gentleman who directed us to an open space in one of the serving lines. All of the four serving lines had exactly the same food to take. This time in addition to taking a few of the things that I had enjoyed the most, I took some of the poached salmon and some of the cucumber salad. We also took a disk of the crisp bread to share. They also had a flat bread that looked like a square wheat flour tortilla. We thought that we might go back to share a piece of that later. There was a serving bowl of something that looked like pink cream in the middle of the salads. I had no idea what this was, so I took a spoonful to find out.
I do not generally like cooked salmon of any type. I enjoy raw salmon sushi, salmon belly lox, smoked salmon, and gravlax. Cook salmon and I don't like the taste or consistency of it. The serving platter of the poached salmon was a long wooden board with a silver salmon fish head at one end and a silver fish tail at the other end. The poached salmon was laid out in between this decorative head and tail. It was covered in a sauce of sliced cucumbers. I could see from one platter that was nearly done and being taken away as it was replaced with another whole salmon that there were a large number of bones in this fish. As I scooped the spoon into the fish to take some, I could see long, thin fish bones come away from the salmon meat as I took the spoon up and out. The spoonful of fish that I put on my plate was very creamy in appearance, as if mixed with a sauce, but it was not - it was poached. Back at the table, I took a forkful of this salmon expecting to not like it as I don't like other cooked salmon. I was pleasantly surprised at the creamy texture and very mild cooked salmon taste. I finally found a cooked salmon that I would eat again.
The cucumber salad was exactly like cucumber salad that I have had in the Pennsylvania Dutch area. It is thinly sliced cucumber in a sweet sugared and dill vinegar. The vinegar taste is very mild and the taste is mostly but not overly sweet. Nice. Were I not concerned that I was already putting my blood sugar into a steady increase with the various things that I was trying - and intended still to try, I would have had more.
The crisp bread we later found out was a rye crisp bread. It is a baked disk of a cracker like bread with holes in it and this one was dark brown in color. It was nice. It was not something that I would go out of my way to have - though we found out later looking in the food mart that one disk is only 15 grams of carbohydrate including additional fiber which in the world of crackers and bread products is not bad.
The pink cream at first taste seemed to be a very creamy egg salad. The taste was definitely egg, but the pink color seemed to come from ligonberries and there was also very tiny potatoes in the mixture. It was an egg/potato salad and very good.
By 7:35 pm there was no longer a line coming into the restaurant. By 8:00 there was no longer any line to get up to the serving tables. You could now walk right up. This is just one hour into the two hour meal seating. Also just after 8:00 pm a few people came in to the restaurant and were taken to the cashier where they paid and came in to eat - without advanced tickets. By this time people had left and there were empty tables so it was no problem finding a table and employees were all around the dining room showing people where to sit if they were unsure throughout the night.
A third plate was looming in the back of my head and we both went back up for one. This time I took a small amount and just things that I especially enjoyed. I wanted more of those little sausages. The serving trays of sausages on both tables were empty. Platters and food were continually being brought out - everything was replaced as soon as it appeared like it soon would be empty - the best way to do it. I waited expecting more sausages to come out. Apparently they had been popular and there were no more. There was plenty of the rest and it all kept coming out. I did also notice that the beet/cabbage (?) hot salad was also gone, but in its place was a vegetable mixture that had not been out before that included zucchini, carrots, and broccoli. My wife was delighted at this and took some. Later those vegetables also took the place of where the sausages had been. There was also no more of the flat bread that we waited to try. SO - those that came in past 8 did not get the sausages, flat bread, or the beet/cabbage dish - they did get mixed vegetables. There was plenty of ham, meatballs, salmon, cold salmon, herring, rolls, crisp bread, and the rest. It occurred to me also that had we been at the first seating at 4:00 pm then nothing would have run out. But even those few things that did run out, did not detract from the overall dinner. As I say, there was plenty of what everyone came for.
I walked past the desserts several times during the meal. If I could eat them, I would have had one of each - as the lady at the table next to us had. There were large cream puffs full of whipped cream with the top of the cake that was sliced off to fill it with cream sitting on top of the cream, apple cake, and two chocolate cakes - one with caramel and such on top, and the other looked like a brownie but wasn't. There was also a tray of assorted cookies - all very thin cookies that looked real good. Again, I cannot eat dessert but I have heard a lot of about their apple cake and I had to try that. I took a small piece. All of the cakes are cut into small squares - except the cream puffs which were as big as a large fist. All were there to take and if you wanted a large piece, all you had to do was take several pieces. It is nicer to be able to take an assortment.
I took the apple cake. The cakes are the same as those sold in the store's Swedish Food Mart in the freezer case. The piece of apple cake that I took must have been just put out, because while the outside was soft and moist, the center of the apple section was still very cold from being frozen. It was not frozen hard, but very cold. The cake was nice. The cake part was a bread-like cake and the apple was seasoned with cinnamon. It was not too sweet and the apple was not tart. I finished the whole little piece. I may regret that later when I test my blood sugar, but that is OK for me on an occasional basis and I do not regularly eat desserts, though I would love to.
At this meal, just like anytime eating at an IKEA restaurant, you clear your own dirty dishes. There are racks put in sectioned off areas around the dining room to place dirty dishes. After each plate, we put the dirty dishes there. Not a problem. It is easy to do and the area to put the plates in is clean to walk into and place the plates down (on trays laid out for the purpose on carts).
The employees throughout the night were exceptional. Everyone was pleasant and very welcoming. Three times during the meal someone came to our table - and all of the tables, to ask if everything was fine, if there was anything that we needed, and once we were given coupons to use in the Swedish Food Mart in the store - in case you wanted to take home some of the things that you ate or serve them yourself at your own Easter dinner. It appeared that some of the employees around the dining room were management. There was a certain air about them and they were very attentive to everything going on. The line staff were just as attentive. As I said, no platter went empty before it was replaced.
The whole meal and experience was delightful. The people that sat at our table with us said they have been to these dinners before and came from a distance to come here. They told us that they come to these dinners four times a year. We did not know there were any others than Christmas and Easter. We were told by one of the gentlemen who came around to the tables that there will be another special smorgasbord dinner served in June. I do not know what occaision that is for, but I certainly will keep an eye out for it and tell you all about it in advance so that you will be sure to be able to purchase tickets. There is no mention yet that I can see on their website.
For the nay-sayers - Is this "authentic" Swedish cooking? I have no idea. I am not Swedish and I have never had a Swedish meal cooked for me by someone who is. I can tell you this - no international restaurant - no matter what class, what cuisine, or what price range - is going to match the food prepared at home by a native cook of that country. I am 100% Italian American. One set of my grandparents' parents were born in Italy and one set of my grandparents themselves were born in Italy. I grew up with the best of authentic Italian home cooking and no Italian restaurant that I have ever been to is as good as the food prepared by either grandmother or my mother. I have been to what are considered great Italian restaurants - some world famous. Some have come close. Many have been excellent in taste. I have enjoyed most and would recommend many, because I know that they will appeal to the American taste. So, I say this. If it tastes good, I eat it - and not worry about how authentic it is. There is no room for food snobs here.
I have now shared with you the experience of eating at one of IKEA's special smorgasbord dinners. You now know what to expect. I can only assume that it is the same set up at all of the IKEA restaurants. Just about everything else is consistent at their stores so I would see no reason why this would not be the same all over. I enjoyed it and I had a good time. It was fun. That is a lot to get for $10. If there is another in June, I will be going back. I know there will definitely be one in December and again next Easter. I recommend this meal for a different experience in buffet cuisine.
We purchased our tickets four weeks in advance of the meal. Tickets must be purchased in advance, though I will tell you later about how you might be able to pay on the night of the dinner and maybe get in. We purchased tickets for the 7 to 9 seating. There was an earlier seating from 4 to 6. The tickets cost just $9.99 and the meal is all you care to eat and all inclusive. We went to the dinner at the IKEA store in Hicksville, New York.
We were not really certain what to expect. We were not sure how they would transform a cafeteria style restaurant with a not very large dining room into an all you can eat experience. I was also not sure how they could sell a limited number of tickets that would correspond to seating this many and that many at each table. In other words, if you have a table for four and three sit down, it is unlikely that the fourth seat at that table is going to be used - so if you have a potential of, say, 200 seats, you cannot really sell 200 tickets. That was not my concern, and as they have done this many times before, I was sure that they would know what to do - and they did. When we bought our tickets there was a serial number on each ticket. The cashier selling them to us recorded those numbers and took my name and phone number. We purchased them at the restaurant cashier.
The dinner was to start at 7. I figured that we should be there early - still not knowing what to expect. The regular restaurant had been closed all afternoon and only opened for the first smorgasbord seating at 4 pm. We left home to arrive at about 6:30. We actually got up to the second floor of the store to the area outside of the restaurant at 6:30 pm and found a line that stretched from the entrance to the restaurant back to almost the entrance stairs coming up from the first floor. We got on the back of the line with the rest of the people who got there early for the 7:00 seating. The line continued to grow behind us. My curiosity was getting the better of me and I walked up to the front in the children's furniture department to sneak a peak at the inside of the restaurant. There I saw all of the dining tables set with silverware, a glass and a brightly colored paper napkin in the glass. In the middle of the restaurant where other tables would be when the restaurant is open for regular meals, was two long tables set up with serving platters and hot chafing dishes of food. There were four sides to server from - but I was too far at that point to see any detail. There was a buzz of employees carrying out platters of food and preparing the serving tables for the waiting guests. On the line were couples, families, groups, parents with children and babies.
At just before 7:00 pm the line started to move forward at a good pace. There were two employees standing at the entrance taking tickets. No one said anything about where to sit and everyone was finding a table of their choice. We found a table near where we usually sit when we have dinner at this store's restaurant. It was a table set for four. We sat at the outer two seats and expected that at some point another couple would come to sit in the other two seats. The actual tables have a separation between them though they share the same legs and frame. It would be fine with us if others came to join us.
There was a gentlemen from the restaurant directing people into the winding, railed area that is used for the cafeteria line. The cafeteria counters were closed. They used the railed area to organize the line that went into the area with the buffet serving tables. From here we could see that each side of the tables had the same food on it as the other side. Desserts were off to the side in a cold server where soups and salads are usually served on regular nights and the usual drink area was where you got your beverage. The line moved steadily up to the serving tables and there was a very pleasant employee holding the front of the line until there was an opening at the rear of one of the sides of the serving table and then let your party up to take your food. It was extremely well organized. We reached this gentleman who greeted us and in a few moments he saw and opening and told us to step right in and enjoy the dinner. We went up to the serving table and started selecting what we wanted to try.
The menu for the dinner that was on the IKEA website is as follows:
Assorted Herring
Hardboiled eggs with mayo and shrimp
Hardboiled eggs with herring roe or tångkorn
Shrimp with cocktail sauce
Marinated Salmon with Mustard Sauce
Smoked Salmon with Horseradish Sauce
Poached Salmon
Assorted Cheeses
Tossed green salad
Cucumber salad
Red Beet Salad
Breads: Crispbread, Crisprolls, Dinner rolls
Swedish Meatballs
Mashed Potatoes
Boiled potatoes w/dill
Lingonberries
Swedish Ham with Mustard
Gratäng Jansson
Assorted Swedish desserts and cookies
Fountain Beverages, Hot beverages
What was served varied from this only slightly. I will tell you here that there were no shrimp with cocktail sauce, no mashed potatoes, and from what I have been able to find out what Gratang Jansson is (if I am not mistaken) there was no Gratang Jansson. There were other dishes that are not listed here.
I had been a bit concerned before we went that my picky eater wife would not find things to eat. I know that she does like the meatballs, she does eat ham, she does eat boiled potatoes, and she does eat salad, so I knew that she should be OK - as long as things are not covered in unknown, to her, sauces. They were not.
Looking at the crowd, and the line, and that it appeared that waiting on line again to go back - and not sure how long the crowds would be coming in - they still were at this point, I decided that it would be best to do what I never do and fill my plate with a mixture of things that I would ordinarily take in courses and go back up for. So on my first plate I took a small piece of each of the three types of herring - one in a cream sauce, one in a dark thin sauce, and one in a clear thin sauce. I also took some of each type of the smoked salmon - the marinated salmon and the smoked salmon. All sauces were in serving dishes at the sides of the main dishes. There was only one type of cheese - a white, mild cheese and I took one chunk of that to try. I took a spoon of the red beat salad (or perhaps it was a hot red cabbage salad - I am not really certain), and I also took a dinner roll. There was a large platter of sliced ham. I took a slice of that. I looked at a long hot serving dish and there were small sausages cut in half and baked. I took a couple of those and finished my plate with a spoon of their Swedish meatballs that were served in their cream gravy. As I say, I was not certain at this point what to expect coming back up and this was not a usual buffet set up where taking a little and coming back for another plate of different things. I later found that while there really was no problem going back up for more, it was really not conducive to my usual buffet dining strategy. Not a problem.
We went back to our table and set our plates down. For those concerned about saving your table while you go up to the buffet, we carried Spring jackets with us (which came in handy when we left for home in the cooler night air) and put them on the back of our chairs. We had also taken our napkins out of our glasses and the silverware set on the napkins before we went up to the serving tables. We then went up to get our beverages and there were all of the usual sodas plus ligonberry juice, coffee and tea - and there was a table set up serving a traditional Swedish holiday spiced beverage and sparkling apple and ligonberry drinks - all non-alcoholic, of course. There were still people first coming into the restaurant from the line outside the restaurant and there was still the line going into the serving tables.
The food was all very good. We later saw that much of what is served is the same as what is sold in the store's small Swedish food mart at very high prices. There was no question that the food was of quality.
I started on my plate following what I would usually eat in the order that I would have taken it if I went up at different times for several plates to make up this one. (Some people were taking several plates at a time and putting different items on them and taking them back to their tables. Since it is not in my nature at buffets to do this, this had not occurred to me, but I might do it that way next time.)
The three cold herring dishes were very good. I liked the one in cream sauce best - though it was a different cream sauce than what is usually found at NY deli counters which is more of a sour cream base mixed with raw onions. This was a yellow cream sauce and very good. I took a little more of that one on a later trip back. The marinated and smoked salmon were excellent. I liked the marinated a bit more than the smoked salmon. I had taken some type of sauce that was next to the salmon platters that was a yellow cream sauce with perhaps capers. I do not know if this was the mustard sauce or the horseradish sauce but it was a nice addition to the taste of both of the salmon that I took. One thing that they could have done better is label everything. I really had no idea what the items were that I had never seen before - or what was what beyond the obvious. The only label that I actually saw was a sign in front of the meatballs and there was no confusion at all about what those were without a sign. The cheese that I took for just a taste was pleasant and mild. I have no idea what type of cheese it was. I finished the cold fish dishes and moved on to the entree items. The little sausages were wonderful. I have no idea what they were. They looked like small hotdogs and had that consistency of meat in the casing but they did not taste like hotdogs. The Swedish meatballs were good as they always are here. The ham was mild in taste and served cold. It had more of a quantity of fat around the meat than hams usually found in the US and the outside was a thin rind which, unlike some hams served at buffets, could be eaten and enjoyed. There did not seem to be any sauce cooked on it or into it -and there was a rich, brown, spiced mustard in a serving dish next to the ham. The red beet salad was much like hot red cabbage that I have had before at other restaurants. I enjoyed it. The boiled potato was, what should I say - a boiled potato and nice. Again, everything was very good. My wife took what I expected that she would take. She is not an adventurous eater but she was very happy with her selections.
While we were eating we were joined at the table by another couple who asked if we minded them sitting at the second section of our table and we told them, of course not. They were very pleasant and we had a small exchange of dinner conversation with them without feeling intruded upon in talking between ourselves - as they seemed comfortable with as well.
When we went up for a second plate, there was still a line at the buffet tables - and still people coming in from outside with tickets. The line for the buffet tables was not as long. We were greeted again by the same pleasant gentleman who directed us to an open space in one of the serving lines. All of the four serving lines had exactly the same food to take. This time in addition to taking a few of the things that I had enjoyed the most, I took some of the poached salmon and some of the cucumber salad. We also took a disk of the crisp bread to share. They also had a flat bread that looked like a square wheat flour tortilla. We thought that we might go back to share a piece of that later. There was a serving bowl of something that looked like pink cream in the middle of the salads. I had no idea what this was, so I took a spoonful to find out.
I do not generally like cooked salmon of any type. I enjoy raw salmon sushi, salmon belly lox, smoked salmon, and gravlax. Cook salmon and I don't like the taste or consistency of it. The serving platter of the poached salmon was a long wooden board with a silver salmon fish head at one end and a silver fish tail at the other end. The poached salmon was laid out in between this decorative head and tail. It was covered in a sauce of sliced cucumbers. I could see from one platter that was nearly done and being taken away as it was replaced with another whole salmon that there were a large number of bones in this fish. As I scooped the spoon into the fish to take some, I could see long, thin fish bones come away from the salmon meat as I took the spoon up and out. The spoonful of fish that I put on my plate was very creamy in appearance, as if mixed with a sauce, but it was not - it was poached. Back at the table, I took a forkful of this salmon expecting to not like it as I don't like other cooked salmon. I was pleasantly surprised at the creamy texture and very mild cooked salmon taste. I finally found a cooked salmon that I would eat again.
The cucumber salad was exactly like cucumber salad that I have had in the Pennsylvania Dutch area. It is thinly sliced cucumber in a sweet sugared and dill vinegar. The vinegar taste is very mild and the taste is mostly but not overly sweet. Nice. Were I not concerned that I was already putting my blood sugar into a steady increase with the various things that I was trying - and intended still to try, I would have had more.
The crisp bread we later found out was a rye crisp bread. It is a baked disk of a cracker like bread with holes in it and this one was dark brown in color. It was nice. It was not something that I would go out of my way to have - though we found out later looking in the food mart that one disk is only 15 grams of carbohydrate including additional fiber which in the world of crackers and bread products is not bad.
The pink cream at first taste seemed to be a very creamy egg salad. The taste was definitely egg, but the pink color seemed to come from ligonberries and there was also very tiny potatoes in the mixture. It was an egg/potato salad and very good.
By 7:35 pm there was no longer a line coming into the restaurant. By 8:00 there was no longer any line to get up to the serving tables. You could now walk right up. This is just one hour into the two hour meal seating. Also just after 8:00 pm a few people came in to the restaurant and were taken to the cashier where they paid and came in to eat - without advanced tickets. By this time people had left and there were empty tables so it was no problem finding a table and employees were all around the dining room showing people where to sit if they were unsure throughout the night.
A third plate was looming in the back of my head and we both went back up for one. This time I took a small amount and just things that I especially enjoyed. I wanted more of those little sausages. The serving trays of sausages on both tables were empty. Platters and food were continually being brought out - everything was replaced as soon as it appeared like it soon would be empty - the best way to do it. I waited expecting more sausages to come out. Apparently they had been popular and there were no more. There was plenty of the rest and it all kept coming out. I did also notice that the beet/cabbage (?) hot salad was also gone, but in its place was a vegetable mixture that had not been out before that included zucchini, carrots, and broccoli. My wife was delighted at this and took some. Later those vegetables also took the place of where the sausages had been. There was also no more of the flat bread that we waited to try. SO - those that came in past 8 did not get the sausages, flat bread, or the beet/cabbage dish - they did get mixed vegetables. There was plenty of ham, meatballs, salmon, cold salmon, herring, rolls, crisp bread, and the rest. It occurred to me also that had we been at the first seating at 4:00 pm then nothing would have run out. But even those few things that did run out, did not detract from the overall dinner. As I say, there was plenty of what everyone came for.
I walked past the desserts several times during the meal. If I could eat them, I would have had one of each - as the lady at the table next to us had. There were large cream puffs full of whipped cream with the top of the cake that was sliced off to fill it with cream sitting on top of the cream, apple cake, and two chocolate cakes - one with caramel and such on top, and the other looked like a brownie but wasn't. There was also a tray of assorted cookies - all very thin cookies that looked real good. Again, I cannot eat dessert but I have heard a lot of about their apple cake and I had to try that. I took a small piece. All of the cakes are cut into small squares - except the cream puffs which were as big as a large fist. All were there to take and if you wanted a large piece, all you had to do was take several pieces. It is nicer to be able to take an assortment.
I took the apple cake. The cakes are the same as those sold in the store's Swedish Food Mart in the freezer case. The piece of apple cake that I took must have been just put out, because while the outside was soft and moist, the center of the apple section was still very cold from being frozen. It was not frozen hard, but very cold. The cake was nice. The cake part was a bread-like cake and the apple was seasoned with cinnamon. It was not too sweet and the apple was not tart. I finished the whole little piece. I may regret that later when I test my blood sugar, but that is OK for me on an occasional basis and I do not regularly eat desserts, though I would love to.
At this meal, just like anytime eating at an IKEA restaurant, you clear your own dirty dishes. There are racks put in sectioned off areas around the dining room to place dirty dishes. After each plate, we put the dirty dishes there. Not a problem. It is easy to do and the area to put the plates in is clean to walk into and place the plates down (on trays laid out for the purpose on carts).
The employees throughout the night were exceptional. Everyone was pleasant and very welcoming. Three times during the meal someone came to our table - and all of the tables, to ask if everything was fine, if there was anything that we needed, and once we were given coupons to use in the Swedish Food Mart in the store - in case you wanted to take home some of the things that you ate or serve them yourself at your own Easter dinner. It appeared that some of the employees around the dining room were management. There was a certain air about them and they were very attentive to everything going on. The line staff were just as attentive. As I said, no platter went empty before it was replaced.
The whole meal and experience was delightful. The people that sat at our table with us said they have been to these dinners before and came from a distance to come here. They told us that they come to these dinners four times a year. We did not know there were any others than Christmas and Easter. We were told by one of the gentlemen who came around to the tables that there will be another special smorgasbord dinner served in June. I do not know what occaision that is for, but I certainly will keep an eye out for it and tell you all about it in advance so that you will be sure to be able to purchase tickets. There is no mention yet that I can see on their website.
For the nay-sayers - Is this "authentic" Swedish cooking? I have no idea. I am not Swedish and I have never had a Swedish meal cooked for me by someone who is. I can tell you this - no international restaurant - no matter what class, what cuisine, or what price range - is going to match the food prepared at home by a native cook of that country. I am 100% Italian American. One set of my grandparents' parents were born in Italy and one set of my grandparents themselves were born in Italy. I grew up with the best of authentic Italian home cooking and no Italian restaurant that I have ever been to is as good as the food prepared by either grandmother or my mother. I have been to what are considered great Italian restaurants - some world famous. Some have come close. Many have been excellent in taste. I have enjoyed most and would recommend many, because I know that they will appeal to the American taste. So, I say this. If it tastes good, I eat it - and not worry about how authentic it is. There is no room for food snobs here.
I have now shared with you the experience of eating at one of IKEA's special smorgasbord dinners. You now know what to expect. I can only assume that it is the same set up at all of the IKEA restaurants. Just about everything else is consistent at their stores so I would see no reason why this would not be the same all over. I enjoyed it and I had a good time. It was fun. That is a lot to get for $10. If there is another in June, I will be going back. I know there will definitely be one in December and again next Easter. I recommend this meal for a different experience in buffet cuisine.
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