Restaurant Review : Old-Country-Buffet-Shawnee-Mission

This buffet has been around for many years. We were here awhile back but not lately. If I frequent a buffet I usually go to one of my favorite like Cinzettis or if I try a regular all you eat buffet, Golden Corral (Olathe). I usually like to sample many items but usually have one to three that are “killer items” that are reasons to return. I remembered that the food at this Shawnee Mission location and I wanted to see how it fared since then. I should have taken a cue from one of the words in the title (Old) though and gone elsewhere as it just is not to par with the other buffets in terms of taste, quality or quantity of items and "bang for your buck". I am sorry to say it does not “stack” up to the others that are in the same vein (Ryan’s, Old Country etc). The first thing I noticed is that the price ($11) includes the drink. A little more pricey then Golden Corral (I usually just get water) but I was “still game”. The food is bountiful but there are not as many selections compared to the other buffets. The only “killer” item was the saucy, sweet tomato Beef ribs which were meaty and excellent. I did try the salads and other items but nothing really thrilled me. The tastes just were not there. The desserts well the bread pudding (which I love and make my own) was a little runny and did not have a much flavor as I thought. I did however try a root beer float as did my wife . The Barque’s root beer was creamy and we tried the soft vanilla ice cream with it. We both agreed that hard ice cream is better with a root beer float. We also both agreed that there was not enough notable dishes on this spread for us to come back. Nice try but next time it will be one of my favorite buffets or a new one with a few more items that take eating to a different level of gusto.

Here is more about this root beer adventure, additional information from another posting which included some history about root beers, links to other pieces of interesting information and more.
http://cpmputergourmet.blogspot.com/2009/04/food-finds-root-beer-and-w-root-beer.html