Anybody been lately? I went Thursday for the first time in months, the entire place has been renovated. New tables/chairs. New buffett setup and the food was pretty good. Plates and silverware are now self serve, no more waiting on the staff to bring clean plates to the table. Need to put in a self serve beverage area. Staff and manager were friendly and attentive. And...they went smoke free 10/1. I will be going back again.
Wow, we go all the time, but haven't een in probably 2 or 3 weeks, that must have been a fast renovation! It's one of the easiest places to go with 3 kids who don't have patience to wait for food! (we're a family that likes to eat) One time when my middle son was probably 2, he was upset because we were there and they didn't have french fries on the buffet. We weren't going to "cater" to him and go someplace just because all he would eat at that time was fries. The waitress came over and asked what was wrong, when we told her she went in the back and put in an order for fries for him and brought them out a few minutes later. I think that was the nicest thing any server had ever done for us. We always get great service there, the manager is always there helping anyone who needs it. I know some people think buffets are gross, but I've never had a problem at this one, and the food is good (especially their pot roast, yum!)
DH & I eat at Golden Corral in Smithfield almost every week. I finally told him last week that we were going to go to McCallsthat night & it was wonderful But seriously love the variety of Golden Corral.
I think they are gross but somehow I manage to put it out of my mind when I eat at one. :mrgreen: I saw a lady at McCall's put a hunk of some kind of eat on her plate, smell of it, then she dumped it back onto the buffet. :ack: I guess it's kind of like eating hotdogs. They taste great as long as you don't stop and think of what they're made from.
Have to watch out for those buffets. So much depends on the management of them. My family and I met my inlaws at a similar "chain" buffet one time. We had already paid for our meals, carried our drinks to the table and were at the bar when a young boy hurled on the buffet. Not a lot, but got the sneeze guard, around several of the food containers and possibly in the food containers. Employees wiped the sneeze guard and around the food containers...BUT did not remove the food. Needless to say, we paid for our teas and left. Surely, not the kid's fault and really wouldn't have mattered if the parents were supervising or not in that case. Another incident, however was a parental neglect. My wife and mother were having lunch when they saw a young girl go up to presumably to get a piece of cantalope from the fruit bar. Instead of just putting the slice on her plate, she put the whole slice in her mouth, suck the juice from it and PUT IT BACK on the bar!! Just last night, we were at CiCi's in Smithfield and a clean-cut, teenage boy apparently out on a date with his girl at pizza off his plate and carried his USED plate back to the buffet and I watched him put a piece of pizza on his dirty plate.
We swore off the place for a couple of years but we've found ourselves eating there 4 times within the last 6 months - once at 40/42, once in Roxboro, once in Mt. Airy, and today in Smithfield. The food hasn't been bad but I haven't been to the restroom yet in one of these joints that looked clean. That turns me off no matter what the rating is nor how good the food tastes. If the potty is nasty - the place is nasty !
My family swore off Golden Corral et al after we made the association between dining and ...ahem... dysentery. I wish it wasn't so: it's hard to argue with all-you-can-eat steak, but I have an iron gut (at least I like to think so) and my family doesn't.
My husband does all the cooking!! So, I give in when he wants to eat out once in awhile. Like today, after church he suggested we go out for lunch. I could hardly swallow my lunch. I looked around at the dirty floor and other not so clean things and almost threw up. I just do not like to eat out because I think most places are dirty. I know my kitchen is clean and my chef (my hubby) is also. The one place I enjoy eating is Mulberry On Main. The dining area is always clean and appealing. Other than that place, the others could close up as far as I'm concerned. I do enjoy Chic Felet' on occasion. JMHO Pat
I'm really surprised about the comments on Mulberry on Main. After seeing the great reviews on here, a group of 4 of us went this past Saturday night. 3 of us being Italian, we're no strangers to great Italian food. Each of us got a different dish...and every single one of us thought it was horrible. My husband's alfredo sauce was watery enough to be in considered a soup, way over peppered and was otherwise completely bland. Maybe they forgot to add the cheese. His tortellini was overcooked and mushy. I ordered the penne ala maria with cavetelli instead of penne because it is the only pasta they make in-house. I ordered this because I LOVE garlic. The sauce was so garlic-y that it was almost completely inedible. I did rinse off a few pieces of cavetelli and found them to be very good on their own. The couple we were with ordered spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parm. The meatballs were very bland and the sauce, although quite abundant, was overly acidic. The highlight of the meal was the olive oil dipping sauce that we got for the bread. I had asked for olive oil to dip my bread in and she brought out a small saucer with olive oil and a mixture of fresh and dried herbs. I typically only like plain oil, but it was seasoned so well that I was very impressed (although a bit surprised to see that they charged us for the it). So, all in all, we'll never go there again. I would be surprised if the owners are Italian, especially since they don't make their own pastas and spaghettis.
Thanks Mrs. Venero. :jester: It's a decent family owned Italian restaurant in downtown Clayton with a good atmosphere. Our other choices are Mexican, Mexican or Mexican. I'd like to see them succeed.
We went for the first time about a month ago, and were also with an Italian couple. We all liked our meal, wasn't the best ever but wasn't bad either. They ordered some kind of soup that they had growing up (can't remember name of it) and said it wasn't as good as homemade or other places they've had it, but it was still ok. I agree, it is just nice to have another place to go to around here. Not sure we'll go again, just because it's out of our way, but I wouldn't discourage people either. Maybe they had a new cook that night you were there or something?
You guys apparently don't remember the wise words from Al Bundy about how all that 'healthy eating' so many years caused the death of Jim Jupiter, the healthiest man in Chicago, after Peg poisoned him with all those bonbons. Al says that healthy people are like dinosaurs. They are destined to go extinct.
