King Buffet - Nashville, Tennessee

 

 

King Buffet

1051 Murfreesboro Pike

Nashville, TN 37217

                The vacation, visiting with my brother in Tennessee, was coming to an end. A quick trip to Nashville and an overnight stay was in order for me to catch the very early in the morning flight back home. A bit of sightseeing in town done, we checked into our motel and asked the desk clerk where we could get something to eat. He pointed “that-a-way” and said to drive about a mile along the Pike and we would start to see restaurants. As strangers in a big city we were at the mercy of the local’s directions.

                It has been said that all good things must come to an end, so with that in mind one could say that portion of the Murfreesboro Pike and the establishments therein are doing just that.  While there is a smidgeon of rebuilding going on, mostly hotels, but the remainder of the businesses are dated and worn.  You can find the usual fast food eateries, some various ethnic cuisines are offered, a Mediterranean Kebab and a Greek Gyro to name a few  as well as a Mexican market complete with butcher and many smaller places offering fresh Carne Asada tacos.

                We found a rather dated but okay looking Chinese cafeteria and decided to give it a try, we were hungry and well “all you can eat” if it was good food, we won.  The young woman at the front was friendly and soon motioned to a young man at the back to take us to a table.  The décor is nothing fancy, plain table and chairs; separated down the length of the area by a wall with a partial decorative panel on top to offer light and a view out of the window.  A picture or two depicting an oriental motif was on the walls and at the front a smattering of oriental offerings.  There were about 6 self-serve tray lines set up each offering different menu options, but in no particular order. The back wall held the dessert section which had fresh fruit, pies, cakes and puddings.  Here too was found the sushi rolls which I found odd to have placed them there.

                A fresh salad bar offered the usual offerings for a small salad along with fresh fruit; there were two types of hot soup offered, egg drop and their special soup of unknown ingredients, neither of which I tried.  They had steam trays full of small cray fish, steamed shelled small shrimp, what appeared to be muscles topped with a yellow cheese, fried fish with a seasoned corn meal batter, white fish in a tomato type broth to name a few.  You had your usual offerings of all things Chicken, sweet & sour Chicken, Hunan Chicken, Szechuan Chicken, hot and spicy Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Chicken with vegetables and Chicken with mushrooms. 

                They offered tiny beef ribs (1”) Mongolian beef, beef with vegetables and so forth.  You had fried rice, but no white rice, an udon type noodle with seasonings but no broth.  Some fried eggplant coated again with a corn meal type crust.  Dumplings, spring rolls and egg rolls; then not to offend anyone they also offered macaroni and cheese, fried potatoes, taquitos and several other “American” type foods. You are served hot tea, soft drinks or sweet tea and refills are up to you.

                With plate in hand we set off to sample the offerings; some of the chicken dishes had a most familiar taste almost like you could purchase them frozen in your local store.  The Mongolian beef was a bit fatty and tough but had a nice flavor.  The fried white fish with corn meal batter was delicious, lightly seasoned and fried nicely.  The stir fried vegetables were just a bit more al dente that I like but none the less very tasty.  The fried eggplant was also excellent, golden brown and a delicate flavor.

                The egg rolls lacked for a dipping sauce but you got the dipping sauce for the dumplings which I found to be way too sweet.  The noodles were cooked but not mushy and had a nice seasoned coating on them.  I sampled two of the rolls and they were to my surprise very good. Sashimi with salmon and nori, sushi with avocado, white fish, ginger and carrot were both excellent.

                My brother and I both went back for a second plate in order to sample other menu items, when we sat back down I noticed the young man who seated us earlier was standing behind the back wall partition sort of watching our progress and when we were about ¾ done with the second plate he came around and gave us our bill.  This took us by surprise so much so that my brother felt he needed to offer a statement that he was not yet finished and was going back for dessert.  This ruffled my feathers quite a bit since neither one of us had filled our plates to excess, we only took small portions of items in order to taste them.

                So the burning question; would I go back if presented the chance?  I have given many establishments a second chance in the past but unfortunately this will not be the case for King Buffet.  On a scale rating the best at 10, I give them an overall rating of 4, some of the food was mediocre, some greasy and some was delicious but the overall factor in the scoring was the rudeness of the waiter who actually told us by his posturing, “…you go home now!”

Waffle House

2118 TN-115, Maryville, TN 37801

 (865) 233-0112 Open 24-hours a day

 

Two years ago while my youngest son was attending the Delta Flight Attendant School in Atlanta Georgia he happened to stumble across the Waffle House.  He raved about the waffles but sadly no such place existed in Idaho, I had to wait these few years until I visited my brother and sister in law in Friendsville Tennessee.

As a treat to me I was invited to breakfast at the local Waffle House; it was a gloomy dismal rainy day and I needed the distraction. This waffle house opened recently at the end of 2016 and is as I was informed slightly larger than most other Waffle House’s.  We were greeted by friendly server Laura and quickly shown to our booth, the waitress was very friendly and eager which is always a good sign.

I glanced at the “main” menu when my sister in law asked for the “$5.00 ”menu which is not on the table as a rule.  This special menu gives the diner a choice of 15 menu items which include your choice of drink.  A very good value based meal; I got a waffle, two scrambled eggs and coffee both my brother and sister in law ordered the waffle and two eggs over medium and coffee.  This is a lot of food and drink for just $5.00 per person.

The food arrived quickly and cooked to order, the waffle was golden brown and cooked through, my two scrambled eggs were cooked but more on the French style, the whites were just slightly from being completely done.  The over medium eggs were done to a T.  The coffee was nice and aromatic and not bitter nor too strong, as Goldie Locks would say, just right!

The waitress came around several times to refresh our coffee and ask how our food was; she was very attentive even though the place was packed.  If you like waffles and a few sides this is the place to try out, fast, good food, quality priced and friendly.