Shoney's: The Poor Man's Buffet
Written: Aug 04 '03 (Updated Oct 28 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Prices are low
Cons: Buffet and menu options are too limited; No theme or atmosphere
The Bottom Line: Shoney's is a so- so restaurant with too few menu options and a boring atmosphere and decor.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Shoney's |
Shoney’s is a full- service family restaurant that was founded in 1947 by Alex Shoenbaum in Charleston, West Virginia. This restaurant chain has about 320 locations in 22 different states, mostly in the Southeastern U.S. and the Midwest.
Menu Selection:
This restaurant chain features a handful of selections from the following main options:
Burgers/Sandwiches- There are about five different burgers to choose from, ranging from one- quarter pound to one- half pound of meat. Sandwiches include grilled cheese, philly cheese, turkey club, chicken, fish, and sometimes one or two other choices.
Shoney’s Specialties- These include dinner options like country fried steak, fish and chips, pasta, chicken tenderloins, and others. Many of these include choice of potato and each of these meals comes complete with soup, salad, and vegetable buffet.
Great American Favorites- This is another section of meals and you can find such options here as chicken alfredo, catfish, shrimp, t- bone steak, sirloin, cod, and other main dishes with various sides. Each of these meals comes complete with buffet.
Buffet- Many people who choose to eat at Shoney’s forgo the main menu items and purchase just a buffet. The “Unforgettable” buffet can be purchased for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It includes unlimited trips to the buffet with a limited variety of food options.
Beverages include choices like iced tea, milk, Coke products, lemonade, assorted fruit juices, hot chocolate, tea, and coffee. There are no alcoholic beverages. They offer a few desserts, too.
Atmosphere:
Shoney’s is a family restaurant and it features a plain, unexciting atmosphere. There are usually smoking and non- smoking sections with tables and booths to choose from. There is no theme and there are few decorations. The only entertainment you will find (aside from the sometimes noisy crowd on Sunday afternoons) is the music, piped in from a continuous- play tape.
Pricing:
Shoney’s prices are a little lower than other full- service restaurants, but some of the prices are misleading. For example, many of the burgers and sandwiches are priced at $5.00 or less but you need to read the fine print to see what this includes. If the price is very low, it’s probably because there is nothing else included- the quoted price is for the sandwich only.
The buffet is reasonably priced, costing only about $7.99 per person. Beverages will cost you from 99 cents to about $1.39, which is average for this type of establishment.
Final Thoughts:
Shoney’s is typical of other family- style, full service restaurants in several ways. The atmosphere is drab and unexciting, with no theme or anything interesting. The food is ok, but nothing that will excite your senses or make you want to come back for more. In spite of these low marks, though, Shoney’s still manages to do a good amount of business, especially on Sunday afternoons. The same could be said of many other family restaurants.
The food offered at Shoney’s might be a little less expensive than other places, but it’s really not all that memorable. First of all, the menu selection offered here is not all that good. Each of the main sections on the menu contains only about 4 to 7 choices. Desserts are even more scarce, with just 3 or 4 to choose from. Second, much of the food is bland, with that mass- produced, tasteless flavor that's not uncommon among some of the larger chains. Or if it's not completely bland, it often has a funny flavor. An example here would include the cole slaw, which to me has a chemical- like flavor and doesn't seem very fresh.
Shoney’s likes to brag that its buffet is “unforgettable”. Well, if they mean this in a negative sense, then I suppose the customers cannot sue Shoney’s for false advertising. The truth is, the buffet is quite small and very limited (except, perhaps, for the breakfast bar which has more options). On a typical day, you will find only one beef dish to choose from (usually meat loaf), one chicken dish (usually fried/baked chicken pieces) and maybe one pork or fish. There might be (if you’re lucky) one type of muffin to choose from and there are no desserts at all (you have to purchase them separately). Even the vegetables are skimpy, with maybe three different ones to select from. This is unacceptable for a restaurant that promotes its buffet as one of its primary food menu options! It really is pathetic.
Shoney’s restaurant is like a combination of Denny’s and Golden Corral, with the quality of food leaning more in the direction of Denny’s. There’s really nothing special at Shoney’s and the prices, while low, generally reflect the quality of the food. The burgers and steaks are decent, I suppose, but when I have gone here, I have usually opted for the buffet. When you consider my feelings about the buffet, the fact that I would still choose the buffet over the other choices says a lot, I think, about the restaurant itself. Even though the buffet is small and limited, I still think its better than the main dishes and at least it’s inexpensive. I can usually scrounge around and find a few tasty tidbits of food on the buffet, like macaroni and cheese, whipped potatoes, meatloaf, cottage cheese, macaroni salad, and a few other things. The main dishes often include the buffet, but I still don’t think they’re worth it.
Overall, Shoney’s gets a below average grade of a D+ to a C-. It offers low prices, yes, but the food selection is too limited and the buffet is much too small. If Shoney’s wants to get serious and compete effectively with other restaurant buffets, it needs to at least double the size of the present buffet and add several new and expanded meat options, as well as desserts. Then, and only then, will Shoney’s restaurant be worthy of its self- proclaimed “unforgettable” title. Until that happens, if you’re in the mood for an all you can eat buffet, I suggest visiting Golden Corral or someplace else that offers a real dinner buffet, not some small walk- up countertop with a few meats and vegetables to choose from.
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews of Other Full- Service Restaurants:
American Style Food:
Denny’s
Hooters
Perkins
Waffle House
Damon’s
Steak ‘n Shake
Cracker Barrel
Frisch’s
Max & Erma’s
Golden Corral
Bob Evans
Hard Rock Cafe
Outback Steak House
Friendly’s
Red Lobster
Texas Road House
Bill Knapp’s
Ground Round
Fricker’s
Hops
Applebee’s
O’Charley’s
BW-3
Ponderosa
IHOP
Ruby Tuesday
Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q
Famous Dave’s
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Cafe
Ryan’s Restaurant
Italian:
Olive Garden
Carrabba’s
Romano’s Macaroni Grill
Mexican
Chi- Chi’s
Cozymel’s
Chipotle
Recommended:
No
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