>The big buffet chains that once dotted the Midwest have been hit the hardest: Old Country Buffet is down to 17 of its 350 original locations; HomeTown Buffet has closed 217 of its 250 eateries; Ryan’s Buffet has downsized from 400 to 16.
I am not surprised.
I went to an Old Country Buffet about two decades ago during the time I was working in a hospital kitchen. I recognized a lot of their dishes from work, they were serving the same lowest quality cheap food that we served to the patients.
Now Old Country Buffet has to compete with the variety of high-quality restaurants we have available today. Customer's tastes have changed and now eating a reasonable amount of higher quality food seems more desirable than eating unlimited hospital food.
There are high quality buffets thought, Indian buffets are the best thing ever. But the low quality ones are dying out.
That’s what I noticed too, it’s like no one working there even tastes the food, it’s just not good. Definitely not woRuth the price when you can a good meal for the same money at a lot of places.
They've been there for some years (at least 10-15 in Indiana) - I lived there, though I think it has been at least 10 years since I've been there. I remember being somewhat disappointed the last few times and it was generally difficult to get beverage refills often enough. I'm not sure they are "quality".
The best I've had was an Indian buffet in Indiana and a hotel's breakfast buffet in Amsterdam. I woke up to eat breakfast there.
I am not surprised.
I went to an Old Country Buffet about two decades ago during the time I was working in a hospital kitchen. I recognized a lot of their dishes from work, they were serving the same lowest quality cheap food that we served to the patients.
Now Old Country Buffet has to compete with the variety of high-quality restaurants we have available today. Customer's tastes have changed and now eating a reasonable amount of higher quality food seems more desirable than eating unlimited hospital food.
There are high quality buffets thought, Indian buffets are the best thing ever. But the low quality ones are dying out.