Country Buffet

We were invited to go try the new and improved Country Buffet this week. Pro tip: Don't go on Thursday! Apparently kids eat for $0.99 which means everyone in town goes out for dinner to save a few dollars. The line took about an hour.

After waiting longer than we have ever waited to get into any restaurant, we finally made it to the counter and were seated. I was impressed with all the food options! They also had a lady making balloon animals and another making cotton candy! How fun?! I especially loved the extensive drink buffet that includes an Icee machine, milk, chocolate milk and two of the new computerized soda machines that allow for endless possibilities. 

They have a taco bar with all your typical toppings. There are jalapenos, cheese, salsa, corn chips, tortillas and what my husband described as "home made tasting ground beef". Since Country Buffet's new thing is "it's not like it's home made, it is home made" we were impressed it seemed to be true with Gary's taco. 

Like any buffet there is a salad bar with more salad toppings and dressings than you could ever want! They have a bread bar with two kinds of rolls and two buckets (yes buckets) of honey butter.  

The two areas with the most food options both offer typical buffet foods. They have fried popcorn shrimp, country fried steak, cross cut fries, corn dogs, macaroni and cheese, riblets, fried chicken, gravy, corn, green beans, carrots, stuffing, soups, pot pies and more. 

I tried a bite of most food items to help write a more thorough review. I didn't like most of it. The corn dog I was feeding my toddler was under cooked with oozing dough seeping out. The rib was only gristle and bone so I just set that aside. The macaroni and cheese and corn were both colder than room temperature. She ended up just eating off my husband's plate because she was in love with the country fried steak and gravy!

I post about pizza more often than any other food, I think. It's my favorite! I didn't even want to eat the pizza that was offered here. It was flavorless and it wasn't even warm. The only options were cheese pizza and pepperoni, which was unavailable until we were walking out. That might have been fine if they didn't have a whole buffet table just for pizza!

The grill was a really neat idea! I love that there is a cook behind the counter ready to cut you off whatever meat you'd like. You are getting fresh, hot meat, how neat!  Gary loves his steak medium and even medium rare will work if that's what he is offered. Unfortunately, the steak he was given was rare. It was cold, red and un-safe to eat. The huge ham they had cooking looked good.

My experience at Country Buffet made me seriously concerned for my whole family's health. I expected us all to have stomach issues the next day. The cold food, under cooked side dishes and uncooked meat really had me concerned.

I really wish I could have given Country Buffet a good review. Everyone loves a good buffet, home style cooking and the balloon and cotton candy making were awesome! I love the effort put into making the experience fun for kids. 

I will say their pumpkin pie was really tasty. I meant to only eat a bite but I ended up eating half the slice. The snicker doodle cookie I had really did look home made and it was delicious! Gary loved the country fried steak. The Icee machine miraculously pumped out perfect Icees all night long. The salad bar was fine. My biggest suggestion is this: Don't go on a Thursday! My hope is that our disaster of an experience was due to the fact that it was insanely busy that night!

Melting Pot

For our anniversary, my husband treated me to a fancy dinner at the Melting Pot. I have wanted to go to the Melting Pot since I heard it existed years ago. It just a little pricey and we'd been waiting for a special occasion. We thought our anniversary was just the occasion to check it out.

Since it was a special occasion we went all out and ordered the "Big Night Out". I highly suggest ordering this since it comes with pretty much all the Melting Pot has to offer. You get a starter, a salad, main meal and a chocolate fondue for desert. Now that's heaven! It's $100 for two. It may sound a little expensive I promise it's worth it.

We started out with our cheese fondue (the starter). Their special at the time was a cheddar cheese with bacon. The cheese fondues come with veggies, apples and bread to dip. Oh how I wish they offered this particular cheese fondue all the time; but that just would be too much of a temptation to handle so it's just as well.

The entree is a broth, oil or wine base. We went with a chicken broth with herbs. It was great but it wasn't nearly as awesome as that cheese fondue was. When the waiter brings out each of the fondues it takes quite a while to heat them to the appropriate temperatures so you have a little time to chat with your significant other or friends and also to digest your previous course. I like that. Finally, when the fondue is warm enough you get to dip in your choice of entree. We got chicken, shrimp, lobster, sirloin and pork. You would think we'd favor the lobster as lobster lovers but you'd be wrong. We were shocked to find that the pork was on the top of our list. It was divine!

They also bring you so many sauces to dip your food in! We were overwhelmed with the choices that lay before us. With the meat options, veggies options and the combo of sauces everyone is guaranteed to be happy.

Finally, once you think you are about to burst at the seams it is time to dig into the greatest, more decadent, delicious desert you will ever experience. You get a choice of chocolate fondues. My husband is crazy. He really doesn't like desert and he especially doesn't like chocolate so I let him pick which fondue to try since I'd love them all. He picked Cookies and Marshmallow Dream. It was an excellent choice. It had milk chocolate and marshmallow cream with with Oreo cookies sprinkled in. It was so good I could have poured the leftovers in a designer bag to save for later and not even regretted the mess. As if that wasn't good enough, you get an awesome variety of goodies to dip into the fondue. We had marshmallows, rice crispy treats, cheese cake, pound cake, brownies, strawberries, and bananas.

I had a great time! I loved the environment. We were seated in our own private little space with curtains. The waiter was a great teacher and was an awesome help. My only complaint is that I asked him if would take a picture of us and he said "later". It never happened unfortunately. I really would have loved to have a picture to go with such a fun memory.

I'm not sure that we'll go back for the whole meal again since we've already experienced it. I would however, highly recommend everyone try it for a special occasion. It's not even a question as to whether or not I'll go back. The answer is a resounding yes! But we'll be going for just the chocolate fondue next time as a special treat. If I remember correctly, the chocolate and the cheese fondues are only $16 each for two people. That's a great deal in my opinion!

Del Taco

Del Taco sent me a really neat package requesting I try their new Crunchtada.  Fast food isn't really our thing and the last time I had fast food, I got food poising so I was a little nervous about this endeavor.  My husband, being a typical boy, was excited for free food!

We had a $5 gift card and 3 people to feed so we went with the dollar menu. Since we were asked to try the Crunchtadas we each got one of those and I then let my husband pick whatever else he wanted off the dollar menu. We've never been to a Del Taco so we were excited to try a few of their items.

We started by eating our simple, dollar menu Crunchtadas. We didn't realize at this point that they had fancy ones that come with chicken or beef so the ones we ordered didn't have meat. If you are like me, you are wondering what in the world a Crunchtada is. It's a toastada but with a nicer shell. So, you start with their tasty, crunchy shell and top it with beans, a sauce, lettuces and tomatoes. It's simple. At first I thought it was a little too simple, lacking a depth of flavor but I kept going back for another bite. I really like that shell! I'd order one again  but next time I'd order the chicken one.

We also tried their bean and cheese burrito which was just as you'd expect it to be. We had beef soft tacos which were also right on par with Taco Bell.

The items we were most impressed with were number one, the chicken taco. The chicken has just the right amount of flavor. It's real chicken and it's cooked to perfection. This chicken taco isn't anything fancy, it's even on the dollar menu but I feel like it's quality is above average fast food quality.

The other item we were impressed with is their Premium Shakes. If you sign up for the Del Taco emails you receive a free Premium Shake on your birthday! We of course had to make a second trip out for the free shake! I ordered strawberry. We were yet again impressed with the quality Del Taco had to offer.  It felt and tasted like real ice cream! They even top it off with whipped cream. It was so yummy and it was big enough for our family of three to share and enjoy a special birthday treat. If I were you I would go sign up for that free Birthday shake right now! It's so worth it!