In past columns I’ve made no secret of the fact that I generally find the quality of buffet food a sacrifice to quantity. I’m certainly no foodie, and I may be a bit of a snob I admit, but my past experiences with these establishments have left me with an urgent desire to visit with my priest, as though I had committed some de-humanizing sin.
Unfortunately, most buffets serve what they consider ethnic food. I apologize to my students who absolutely love them but, it is impossible to have an authentic experience with cultural foods while eating at a buffet.
In spite of my views on buffets as expressed above, I do, on rare occasions visit them, I’m just selective about it; so here are the few that I actually like and why. Bye the way, there may possibly be another all you can eat restaurant that I like, but for the life of me I can’t think of any.
Double Dave’s
Although it’s not a round the clock buffet, (it runs about twelve to one) I’m including this bistro because the quality of pizza is among the highest in town. (I would probably put DD’s second to Bruno’s.) When it comes to pizza buffets, the pizza on the bar never seems to measure up to the pizza the customer receives when he special orders it. This is not true at Dave’s. The food is actually the same, and the all around flavor and freshness is clearly far superior to the other pizza joints in town. Also don’t forget about their fabulous pizza rolls. The environment includes several large screen televisions so patrons can enjoy whatever sporting event is going on at the time. I highly recommend this buffet. I give it a four out of five.
China Café
No Chinese buffet is going to be as good as fresh food. But if your crunched for time or determined to visit an all you can eat restaurant, I would suggest this one. The turn around on the dishes seems pretty good. Depending on the time of your visit, the food doesn’t sit under the lamps as long as some buffets, so it tends to be fresher. I don’t care for C.C.’s sushi, as it tastes sort of manufactured to me, (not that I’m an expert on sushi). I generally get takeout when I visit China Café; their hot and sour soup is worth the trip by itself. Overall I give China Café a three and a half out of five.
Ken’s Pizza
I include Ken’s more for nostalgic reasons than anything else. I like Ken’s because I remember going there as a kid on the first day of summer to eat lots of pizza and play video games. The food is decent, but I wouldn’t call it great. When put up against someplace like Cici’s however, Ken’s looks like four star dinning. The pizza sometimes sits on the bar a little long but overall it is passable. When grading Kens, I give it a three out of five.
If you’re a devotee of Tyler’s all you can eat establishments I won’t try to dissuade you from what you love. But at least consider the above restaurant establishments and try choosing a better buffet. Happy eating!