Pizza Hut $6 Buffet

This offer's been available for years, but until last week it escaped me. A recent drive to Yucca Valley convinced me to change my mind, especially since it was over 100 degrees outside and my car's A/C fan stopped working. I needed to stay indoors awhile. And come on, it's Pizza Hut!

The basic propostion is simple. $6 covers unlimited access to all the pizza, salad, pasta, dessert (pudding and pizza) you could want. A drink is included so it's a great deal. It's a better bargain than KFC's $10 buffet in Banning though there you have more options overall and way more protein.

As far as pizza quality goes, my gut feeling is the buffet stuff is only slightly less tasty than the usual made to order pies. I detected two types of crust: thin and dusted with oil, and a thicker buttery crust. Both were enjoyable though the thinner crust would allow you to eat a lot more in one sitting.

They have 8 pizzas sitting in the station at one time. They alternate between 6 different types of pizza, it felt like, depending on customer request and actual demand. The only downside to this type of buffet are the slow moments when people aren't eating much and the food on the tray is getting old and cold. In terms of taste, I'd compare the Pizza Hut lunch buffet to Cici's Pizza. I prefer Cici's because they have more pies available at one time, more dessert pizzas, and their offer for all-you-can eat stands all day.

20 slices of pizza for $6 is an unbeatable deal. That seems to equate about two medium pizzas, and that more than sufficed for my food needs for the whole rest of the day. It also provided great fodder for my blog, which has gone lonely lately. It's nice to have something new to write about.

Sushi For Dessert

Haven't blogged at all this month, so here we go. Asian Palace Buffet in La Mirada, CA offers AYCE weekend dinner for $12.99 plus tax and tip.

The sushi was above average for the price range. I also appreciated the availability of crab items.

I'm possibly the only person who could mix sushi with a dessert plate. Well worth the price and I'd go back if I was in the area.

Incredible

Buffets don't have to be unhealthy experiences. Observe a recent lunch from John's Incredible Pizza (Victorville, CA), completely devoid of pizza.

Presentation isn't a strong suit in these photos. You can see it's really just a lot of vegetable mass and cottage cheese for protein. Not terribly calorie dense. No breadsticks, pasta, soup, pizza, or desserts. Not saying those things are bad. But, eating a lot of them isn't kind on the waistline.

I was good. Then I went bad. Turns out one of my weaknesses at the buffet is the soft serve frozen yogurt machine.

Dessert takes on a new meaning with me. It's like a meal unto itself, stretching on far longer than it should, like an uninvited guest who wants to tell you a hundred stories. I'm a sucker for a good story so I'll listen to one more.

And yes, those are red pepper flakes in the frozen yogurt. Simply awesome. The blend of heat, sweet, and cold is a nice kick to the head.

AYCE Chicken Done Right

KFC still operates a few locations as self-serve all you can eat restaurants. The nearest one to me is in Banning, just a few miles from Casino Morongo. You pay $9 for a meal and drink that supposedly never ends.

They have all the options on the table. Grilled and fried chicken, sides like macaroni, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and cole slaw, and desserts like banana pudding.

My visit was in October 2011, on a day after work. Unfortunately they ran out of grilled chicken as I went during meal hour. The rest of the fare was pretty good. Definitely worth the price and another visit soon.

Raising the Bar

The bar was set at 41 pancakes last night. Johnnie Excel and I have started this game of one-upsmanship recently, and it shows no signs of vanishing into the cold night.

It started a long time ago, really. We were curious as to who would win a capacity battle between the two of us. Unfortunately, differences in our skill sets made most comparisons impossible. Excel does well in speed contests, whereas I achieve my best in longer competitions.

We discussed meeting at a buffet. Nothing really came of that (yet). We clashed recently at Chick Fil A's nugget eating contest, but that really wasn't a fair test. Chicken nuggets aren't Johnnie's favorite food and the salt content deterred most participants from going for broke.

But pancakes are a whole other matter. We both love them. Luckily, Denny's runs a $4 promotion for all-you-can-eat pancakes. Finally, there's a potential proving ground for us.

Last year, I was featured in the local Yucca Valley newspaper for eating 33 pancakes at Denny's in 90 minutes. Now, Johnnie has raised the bar to 41 hotcakes in two hours. Can I push it to 45?

And yes, those are pictures of hot dogs up above. I will leave the symbolic meaning up to you.

Sushi in the High Desert

  

Daikoku Japanese Steak House in Victorville offers an incredible promotion for all-you-can-eat sushi and hand rolls. Some people may object to eating raw fish so far from a water source... but you'd be missing out on a bargain. $12 for lunch, $15 for dinner. I ate 12 rolls and survived. The hardest part was exercising right afterward.

 Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sample everything on the menu. Yet.

High Desert Home Town

Hometown Buffet in Victorville serves all-you-can-eat weekday lunch for $5.29. That's a steal.

They serve sliders on Tuesdays up here.

And tacos.

Shrimp carbonara. 

 And real ice cream, in addition to the usual soft serve.

A few things I've never seen at Hometown Buffet before... they've still got their charm. It may be an omen of things to come.

New China Buffet

This is unofficially my 100th post, but that includes a few edits. It's the 90th. Either way I decided to put up a post with lots of photos and less writing.

Last October I stopped by New China Buffet, another inexpensive all-you-can-eat establishment in San Bernardino. Lunch runs for $6.99 including soft drinks, tea, and coffee.

The wasabi was creamier than usual. I wouldn't go here for the sushi in any case.

At this point the wait staff became irritated with me and stopped collecting my empty plates. 

Some may debate the quality, but the quantity's certainly abundant.