To WHAT do my wondering eyes appear....but wait!!!! It is a Western Steer Steakhouse! I had thought they were extinct.
I know that these restaurants were the "thing" back when I was growing up (70-80's). My family and I always went out once a week for that awesome "steak house" dining experience. Such fond memories as a kid of having my hamburger steak served up on those oval metal platters outlined in a wood shell!
As my husband and I entered the restaurant is was clean and inviting. We were greeted with a warm smile from the lady taking our drink and food order. They do sell individual meals other than buffet but we decided to take the buffet upon seeing all the wide variety of items they offered. We were there during the lunch hours. We were very pleased by the reasonable rate for the buffet of $8.99! So, with that being said there are so many good things I really need to figure out where to begin.....
For starters, lets talk about the warm up to a great meal....Salad Bar. The salad bar was not as large as I have seen at other restaurants but the items they offered were what you wish for on a perfect salad. They offered regular iceberg mix salad greens as well as spinach. What I need to mention is they have shredded carrots on the bar. In restaurants, I have noticed so many are going with cut stubby carrots on their salad bars instead of the shredded version. Who has the time and effort to cut up those hard stubby carrots? I don't! So to me this was a HUGE plus. They also have a quite impressive area of the salad bar with Macaroni Salad, Pepperoni, and (YES) egg salad. ****I have never seen egg salad on a salad bar. I tried all of these. It depends on your mayonnaise taste buds as to your liking of these items. They also have two select soups. (not sure if they switch from day to day) I chose the potato soup and added cheese and scallions from the salad bar. I was really pleased!
Main course, the Buffet! Wow, I took lots of pictures to try to give you an idea of the huge selections of choices with main course meats and vegetables. They had everything from fried and baked chicken, BBQ pork, hamburger patties in brown gravy, chicken wings, stew beef and gravy, and a few other main course dishes. Then in the side courses they had corn, collards, green beans, cabbage, macaroni and cheese, rice, mashed potatoes, gravy, blackeyed peas and snaps, and yams. Everything was fresh, hot and looking very appetizing.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: BBQ pork- Coming from Eastern NC, I like my BBQ to taste more with a vinegar based sauce. I did not put any sauce but the seasoning was right on and the pork was very juicy and tender! Stew Beef and gravy - again very well seasoned meat in a wonderful brown gravy. Egg Salad - not too mayo'ee (not a word) just right! Croutons - Any salad bar you go to basically you're not sure what you are going to get with croutons. This restaurant I would bet they make their own. They were seasoned well and somewhat soft to crumble with a fork. If they are not homemade then I'd be surprise. Again, just my style! Steamed Cabbage and blackeyed peas with snaps- not much to say except tasty and perfect! Last but not least...Yams- I saved the best for last, literally! These were so good. Honestly, I can say the best I have ever had!
After eating all the scrumptious listings above, hopefully you can find room for dessert. This restaurant has a huge dessert bar...selections are phenomenal! *** They have two styles of desert sections that are sugar free. This is a plus and hard to find in restaurants. They had fruits such as cantaloupe and red grapes. Cookies, cakes, and pies. And soft serve ice cream as well. They have cheese cake, strawberry short cake and banana pudding (A+). Plus I noticed in the cake slices about four varieties of pound cake! (Really?) Yummy double dose for us "pound cake" lovers!!!! All very moist, fresh.
I asked for permission to take pictures of the buffet before doing so. I noticed on Yelp most of the reviews are about the Breakfast buffet, which I hear is also pretty good too! I wanted to show Yelpers the other side of the coin when it comes to food served at this location. The Manager came over, spoke with my husband and I about this restaurant. He was very friendly and informative about how the restaurant strives for excellence in the food quality and dining experience. In my opinion, it shows! Our waitress was on top of everything. She also added to our already pleasant experience we had.
Folks bottom line, this place is, in my opinion, a gem of our long lost steak house restaurants that have gone away. Mine and the husband's experience is we dined having good quality food, great service at an even better price than the other "buffet" competitors. We highly recommend this restaurant, consider it a great find in our local dining experience and will definitely go back on many occasions in the future. read more