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| - I went for brunch this morning, and was surprised to find almost a complete lack of other customers. When we walked in, there was only one person at the bar, and one other couple at a booth. But hey, we were hungry - no waiting in line for the buffet sounded great for us.
The buffet itself is about 8 chafing dishes, as opposed to the traditional salad bar-esque type. There were also some fruit shortcakes and strawberry lemonade off to the side, and a made-to-order omelet and waffle station at the front. The dishes this week (we were told that the menu changes weekly) were biscuits & gravy, grits, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs with cheese and ham, baked french toast, roasted potatoes with onions and peppers, crustless chicken pot pie, and a mixed vegetable succotash. I tried a bit of the biscuits and gravy, a couple slices of bacon, potatoes, the shortcake, french toast, and the strawberry lemonade. The gravy for the biscuits was quite good, and the potatoes had a nice flavor, but were cut a big too large. The french toast was very eggy, but was good overall, and the thick cut bacon also had a nice flavor, but had become soggy in the chafing dish. My boyfriend tried the pot pie, and said he that liked it. The strawberry lemonade was cloyingly sweet.
Everything was very close to room temperature, which was a tad disappointing, but I suspect that has to do with the fact that the chafing dishes were not labeled - you had to pick up the lid to find out what each was. With that said, everything we had was good - better than I expected, honestly. The recipes used were thoughtful (I appreciate the under salting of the dishes), honest and accessible. The buffet isn't trying to be fancy, it's trying (and succeeding) to be good.
My only real complaints are the sort of misleading advertisement of a "Bloody Mary bar," where in actuality, you could just order a Bloody Mary from the bar, and that I feel it is slightly overpriced. Brunch for two people who each had a beverage was $40 with tip. Not terribly expensive, but certainly a bit more than it should be. Those two relatively minor complaints aside, we will definitely be returning for brunch again, and bringing others along.
Unrelated to the food, the restaurant was also very clean, as were the restrooms. The serving and kitchen staff were pleasant and helpful. Overall good job.
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