This is not your standard Old Country Buffet, as they basically don't exist in PA anymore. This is a chinese buffet with all of the worst aspects, and none of the good ones, housed in an old Old Country Buffet space. I think the best thing I can say about the experience is that I didn't get sick,
First the good: The wait staff is very attentive, very nice, and will help you with anything you want. There is also an excellent salad bar with fresh salad fixings and fruit, and an unusually wide variety of salad dressings. Very tasty! But I'm not paying $16 for a salad bar experience...
The Food: Well, the food is a mixture of American, ""Chinese"" and Asian Grill food.
I will abstain from commenting on the ""Asian Grill"" aspect of the experience, except to say that having been to many quality asian grills, the selection on this one left a lot to be desired... I chose to go with the standard buffet. Boy, did I make a mistake..
I started with soup. There were the typical hot and sour, wonton, etc. asian soups. You basically chose your dumpling, then put your broth over top. You could also select a ""chowder"" and several other soups I couldn't identify. Each one had a ""skine"" over the soup that you had to mix out, and the wonton soup, which I chose as the safest, was completely tasteless, even after I dumped a half of a bottle of pepper into it..
I moved onto the appetizers. Big mistake. I chose the fried chicken wings, which had a spoiled taste (I took four and ate one,) the crab rangoon, which was filled almost completely with sour cream and no crab, the ""Pork Egg roll,"" which had no pork... It was very clear that these choices were store bought and heated in a microwave. I also had the ""Stuffed shrimp"" which tasted so spoiled that I spit it out.
Moving onto the buffet, I chose the fried rice (which was clearly again store bought and heated) with General Tso's Chicken, ""Beef Pepper Steak"" and Garlic Shrimp. I have to say that these choices were pretty good. The Genera Tso's was mall food court quality, as was the fried rice. The Garlic Shrimp was a little rubbery, but you get that when you put shrimp under a heat lamp.
The highlight was the ""Pepper steak."" This was actually a very tender beef dish, in an almost Hunan sauce with peppers. I was impressed, as this is a dish that's typically difficult to pull off as a dinner for one, let alone in a buffet.
After not-satisfying my chinese jones, I decided to see if I could do something with the ""American"" choices on the buffet - the Italian Sausage, the Pork Tenderloin, and the Roast Beef... Aside from the Sausage (which was quite a spicy delight) I shouldn't have bothered - the Pork was dry and inedible, as was the roast beef. The au jus/gravy, well, let's not go there.
I could go on about dessert, but you get the point.
I should have walked out on this meal, but I did tip the buffet waitress $4, since she kept my ice tea glass full, and she was cute.
There were many other people in the building, and as I ate, I noticed that they were enjoying themselves, but they seemed to focus on the Asian grill, the salad bar, and the couple of items I found edible... You live and learn. But at a $20 bill for this experience, I won't be back.
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