date: 10/8/06
location: st. paul
grade:b-

weirdly empty when we got there at around 10:15 am, a bit early for our reservation. there were only a few filled tables and i felt odd having reserved a place, but better safe than sorry. by the time everyone else was in, a few more tables were filled, but not many. turns out we had beat the after-church crowd or some such, as at around 11 there were queues for the buffet..

that's what we all had, though they do have other menu options in case you don't care to swing that way. their sunday brunch buffet is a mix of hot and cold items, and lunch and dinner items. it's arranged oddly- soup next to scrambled eggs, rice next to biscuits and gravy. perhaps the oddest thing is that one of the tables had pretty much all pale food on it.

i had some fresh pineapple and strawberries (lots of pineapple... ), the scrambled eggs (needed seasoning big time, though there was some fresh salsa next to them), cheesy potatoes, a pretty good chicken cranberry salad, cheese and rice blintzes, which weren't bad, and the artichoke heart quiche, though it wasn't quiche (not crust) and it needed more artichoke hearts in it, and the highly avoidable biscuits (hard) and gravy (no taste to it).

and the soup- the best thing on the buffet, oddly. not what one would think. it homemade, even. or restaurant made. you know what i mean. i didn't try the waffle bar part. and this matters to many people- good bacon here- not all greasy or overdone or underdone.

i also tried the caramel rolls, which were either underdone or overdone, or both. though the desserts weren't bad. we all sampled the chocolate bar, the citrus cake (lemon and orange, we think), and the lemon bar. the adults liked the lemon bar the best. the kids seemed to go more for the chocolate.

in case you all were wondering and even if you weren't, in some cases i just had a bite or two of the above, just to sample them.

anyway, all in all, it was decent enough, but not the best buffet ever or what not. nothing was cold, nothing was really rude and gross. the water glasses were filled at a good clip, too. at $13 (approx.) for an adult, it seemed spendy for what you get, but i'm cheap.