This used to be one of our frequently visited and absolutely favorite restaurants. There are several other locations of this restaurant chain in our area, but this one is by-far the best. They had the best steak around and it was an all you can eat buffet. Lets just put it this way -- we usually always had the same waitress and she knew what we drank with our meal and always had it ready and waiting on our table when she would see us coming toward her section. Well, I had some health issues and ended up having a major surgery and I was unable to be out in public for a few months (because of my risk of getting an infection). As you can imagine, when I got the green light from my physician to slowly start integrating back into some level of normalcy, the first thing I wanted to do was go out and eat to one of our favorite places.
We got there and the entire atmosphere had changed. I know the food service industry has also taken a hit during this economic "depression" and I noticed they had closed one of the other locations in our area - but its a buffet for crying out loud. The waitresses work their butts off - no doubt because they have lots of tables, but honestly though its not like its a full-service scale restaurant (which those waitresses probably have the same amount of tables). The waitresses don't have to take your order, bring you your food, or even bring you plates for the buffet - the plates are located at the end of the buffet lines -- They only have to bring drinks and hot rolls and take away the used plates when appropriate.
To my surprise, when we sat down to eat, we didn't have any silverware (as we always had before). No longer was the silverware rolled and on your table (with a napkin), but it was in a bucket (along with the napkins - which used to be on every table) in the middle of the restaurant and you had to get it yourself. The waitress didn't even tell us where they were, we had to ask. The condiments normally on the table -- gone too, they were at a condiment "station" at the end of one of the food bars. I was shocked to even see salt and pepper on the tables to be honest with you! The prices were higher than we remembered and our usual waitress has switched shifts and doesn't work the dinner shift anymore except on Fridays and I think we were there on a Monday or Tuesday night.
Even the recipes for lots of the dishes seemed to be different. The texture of the mac and cheese was gritty and not creamy like I remember. Most of the vegetables were either frozen and deep-fried or from a can and just warmed through. How hard is that to mess up? The only thing cooked fresh in-front of you is your steak -- which their steaks are sirloin (a decent cut of meat), usually fairly tender, and cooked to order which is fabulous, however they seem a bit over-seasoned for my taste. I like to taste the richness of the meat itself (if that makes sense). The one thing though that did not disappoint me, was the one thing I can always count on -- fresh, hot, buttered rolls! Yummers! They are sweet yeast rolls and are served with honey butter. The rolls on the buffet line were so hard you could not even bite them, but the ones the waitress brought were amazing (even if she would only bring 2-3 at a time, which were gone in NO TIME FLAT). They did have two kinds of shrimp on the bar, butterflied deep-fried with tails on and the smaller ones with the tails off, battered and deep-fried. The smaller ones were a bit fishy for me but the bigger butterflied ones were cooked perfectly and were the only other highlight of the meal -- other than the star (the rolls). Coffee is supposed to come with our meal too (complimentary) and our waitress didn't even offer!
The restaurant (I guess trying to expand their horizon) had started serving breakfast a few months before my surgery and it wasn't their best effort even then. They have an omelette station, but if you're allergic to eggs, you're pretty much out of other options. Honestly, the selection was poor and I have frankly had better at Shoneys and Golden Corral both and all three are basically the same price.
One Knife & Fork (Forgettable)Dinner: In my opinion, the only things worth eating there were the rolls (when they were fresh - brought hot out of the oven), the steak - cooked to order, and the butterflied fried shrimp. If I had not have filled up on rolls, I probably would've left the restaurant hungry, and that's a shame as expensive as it has gotten.
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