HomeTown Buffet

Gross my food tasted like a plastic bag, they probably just heat up the food in bags and dump it containers. Used to go here as a kid, not ever again don’t like eating plastic

Decent fare for a decent price. Always a catch when you can’t decide where to eat. Set expectations correctly and you won’t disappoint. The management and employees have gotten better and show a great deal of attention and care (as compared to years ago). My kids love the place and we come about once a month.
We had an incident today where food was bad and the manager came and apologized in person. They brought out replacements from the kitchen promptly. Definitely the best service I’ve ever gotten from a buffet place before.
Two biggest complaints:
1. Dirty restrooms. They could use a good remodel in the restrooms and regular cleaning.
2. Some guests are straight up ghetto and obnoxious. Rude. Loud. Make messes for everyone else. Kids run amuck unsupervised. Fight and cause scenes. Not really the business’ fault — but it impairs the experience anyway.

I’m a renewed fan due to the companies major upgrades since 2008 when i unequivocally thought i got food poisoning but couldn’t prove it. Grrrrr but Moving forward… They have an abundant selection of good tasting foods, decent customer service & clean establishment but the only downfall is the MSG added in the food. Overall pretty good buffet food for $ 13.95 per person & kids $ 1.99 on family nights. P. S. sign-​up for Crave Connections via e-​mail or text & receive buy one dinner get one free.
NO COMPLAINTS!!!

Staff was rude, came on family night and they wouldn’t take my coupon and coupon didn’t say can’t be used. Food was bland and not ready when we arrived. Ugh won’t be coming back

There’s no such thing as a no star review. If there was, I might have given it. In all fairness though, our server was sweet and prompt. The pulled pork was pretty tasty, and there was nothing wrong with our beverages.
Now let’s start over.. . rant to follow I’m sure.
We walked in the door and up to the young lady at the register. I greeted her how I greet most people «Hi there, how are you?!». She answered, «About ready to rip someone’s head off». Well alright then, what do you say to that?.
She’s human, I laughed it off, and made a little small talk, thought i’d see if I could cheer her up. We were charged for dinner, then charged for our drinks (Hmm, that’s new!) then. up-​sold steak!!! Now we’re paying extra for meat?! Boy I hope this trend doesn’t catch on!
So we’re at 14.95 for the meal, plus approx $ 3 for drink, and I don’t know how much the steak would have been, i passed.
We headed to our table, and sat down, met our server who as I mention above was sweet, and helpful, even a little funny. We heard someone holler. «last pizza of the night»!
Well that was worrisome, it was a good 45 minutes to close, and most buffet’s closing time is really last entrance time. So we went about bringing the buffet right to our table. We gathered ¾ plates each of anything we might want to have before leaving.
Absolutely loved the individual sized pulled pork pans! What a neat idea, hiding there under the pulled pork are potatoes and other goodies. It was great and unusual for a buffet!
We made it back to our table. I was pretty worn out, here’s a tip. if you’re charging me $ 3 for beverages, and you’re wanting a tip, how about offering to go get the beverages?! Hmmm.
Anyway, while we’re eating, unbeknownst to us, MUCH to close to the kitchen, we hear the person that seems to be in charge of making sure that all of the food is stocked negotiating almost to the point of begging with the cooking staff to make more food.
When he asked them for pizza they said they’d already made it clear there would be no more pizza. He apologized to them, and said «but we do still need it».
Next was chicken… again with the resistance, this time though, after the apologetic coercion came I’m NOT MAKING ANYMORE FUCKING CHICKEN.
Well alright then. I’m glad at this point we got all our food much earlier, because if he did make chicken, I’m all but sure he’d spit in it.
During all of this, that original hostess, or whatever her title might have been that was ready to rip someone’s head off was wandering around the restaurant, eating, talking on her phone. She was laughing a lot so I guess she’d cheered up some.
At the end of our meal, I went to the restroom. OMG. There was toilet tissue strewn about, a clogged toilet, a full dustpan with a broom next to it, as though it had occurred to someone to clean something, but they hadn’t quite accomplished it.
In all fairness, I stopped and chatted with two managers on my way out and they did offer me a free meal coupon. I didn’t want to take a coupon becuase I really didn’t want to take away from what I was saying to tehm about their staff, and the overall uncleanliness of the entire place.
I shared pictures of the restroom’s with them. When I talked about the individual that didn’t want to cook chicken, they both at the same time said his name. So clearly it had been a problem in the past. I posted the pretty bathroom pix here on Unilocal for all to see as well.
Hometown Buffet is a special place for many, so I do hope they clean up their act, lower their prices, and stop up-​selling the meat for goodness sake, it’s not a swap-​meat!

I feel silly writing a review for Home Town, but I try really hard to Unilocal every place I go.
My husband works on Sundays, so my mother and I wanted something low-​key to enjoy a simple Easter Brunch. We live near Mall 205 and we thought «why not try Home Town’s brunch!?» Afterall, it’s close by and cheap.
When we got there, there was a pretty lengthy line. It went fast though. The place was packed, which we expected, but everything seemed to move effortless along.
Our «waitress» was great. She was quick and knowledgeable and didn’t show any signs of annoyance that my 2yr was enjoying making a mess — Sorry :)
The food was so, so. I make better breakfast… There was a pretty basic selection of eggs, pork products, breads/​biscuits/​waffles but ultimately that’s it. I’m not complaining. I will say that when I went for my 2^nd round, no judging, each pan of eggs were wet — eggs should NOT be wet… so I passed.
Ultimately, not impressed and will not return, but am not upset we went. My mother and I enjoyed the experience and it meet our expectations.

I can’t believe I just changed my review of Hometown Buffet to four stars. I will probably get up in the middle of the night and change it back…
I will admit that I am not a fan of OCB. I have never been a fan, and I will never be a fan. I eat here because some of my family members like it, and in order to spend time with them, I need to go here, and they are worth it.
Sometimes it is crowded, and usually I expect it to be packed on holidays, but on Easter it was not packed shortly after they opened. One advantage to going early is that all the food is very fresh. So even if the food isn’t great, it’s as good as its going to get, and it wasn’t too bad.
The parking lot looks pretty ghetto, but its SE Portland, so that’s to be expected. Unexpectedly, when I opened the door to go in, there was no line at all, but the entryway REEKED of B.O. and urine. Maybe someone forgot to lock the front door and a bunch of homeless people camped out overnight? If my family wasn’t already inside I would have turned around and left right then. But instead I held my breath and walked up to the register as quickly as I could. The stench was still there, but after paying and heading into the dining room the smell faded. I wasn’t sure if the nausea would go away but after a few minutes I did feel like I would be able to eat.
They have a pretty good selection of food, none of it particularly photo-​worthy. (OK, actually I started eating and forgot to take pictures.) Poached eggs, toasted english muffins, hollandaise, scrambled eggs, bacon sliced as thinly as humanly possible, sausage, german sausage, hashbrowns, hashbrowns with veggies and cheese, every kind of cold cereal imaginable, bagels, plenty of bread options for toasting, (but the one person I saw trying the toaster couldn’t get it to work.) They also had plain, chocolate chip, and blueberry pancakes, waffles, french toast, and custom made omelets.
They had full salad, taco, and dessert bars set up, but it was too early for those.
The service was really surprisingly good. Every server was polite, helpful, and friendly. Every time my plate was empty, someone swooped in from behind me and snatched it up before I put my fork down. Maybe having an empty plate in front of me for a bit would have kept me from eating so much… but the food servings are kind of small, and there were so many different things to try, so I went back for more about a half a dozen times.

Excellent food, clean. Comfortable. Quick and great food. Awesome deserts. Will return

l love all the food, the dinner special price I don’t theres no savings either 8.99or2for17.99 where’s the saving:(

I love this restaurant, so I have to dig deep to find anything to improve on! The food is awesome at the Washington St. location! Sometimes its hard to find the 57 sauce and the hot sauce bottles and don’t seem to be enough to go around! The Bathrooms seem to be dirty almost every time I go there and are smelly! Other than that… Keep up the good work!

Great buffet food! Most buffet’s seem to have sub par food. Home Town Buffet has pretty good quality food and a good selection. I wouldn’t necessarily choose it over another restaurant, but it was a good buffet.

I feel bad for the employees here. They have to put up with the fattest and cheapest low class portlanders who don’t tip. The food is pretty good comfort stuff but I can’t stand the atmosphere. The place is usually over crowded with gluttons and the restaurant is under staffed. Counters are dirty, kids are running around everywhere, dishes are constantly being dropped and broken, etc. A lot of this isn’t the restaurant’s fault though. The price is very cheap for what you get so naturally the place will be busy and understaffed.
This place feels like a mix of a Mexican flea market, inner city high school cafeteria and Alabama obesity.

Average buffet restaurant with average food… pretty typical of the chain. It’s pretty much what you expect… nothing exceptional and nothing terrible. They do have an excellent selection of desserts,…and the chocolate brownie pudding cake is very tasty.
I have never experienced any of the issues that some of the negative reviewers have. I did have one miserable Mother’s Day there a couple of years ago. We had 88+ degree weather, the place was hugely crowded and the manager decided that no one needed the air conditioning on. I had complained to the wait staff regarding the intense heat, and was politely told that everybody working that day had complained, and he had refused their requests.
The manager decided to start heading around and checking tables… he stopped at mine and asked how it was going. I gave him a Charles Manson style glare and said «VERY VERY WARM» Interestingly, he left and in about two minutes the ducts were blowing cold air.
Overall, if you want some okay food for a good price and lots of it, it’s a pretty good place to go. If you want atmosphere and anything other than «meat and taters» style food… keep looking.

I’m not a food trough kind of person, and prefer quality over quantity. It seems to me Hometown has kicked the quality up a notch recently, making it an occasional go-​to place when I’m in the mood for massive meat product.
There are several items I now like here. The baked chicken is perfectly done, juicy, and covered with coarsely ground spices. The pot roast is tender, flavorful and rich. Delicious.
Surprisingly the steak isn’t bad, either. You can get grilled sirloin every night, cooked to order. Clearly the meat is injected for tenderness and flavor, but it always comes out hot and fresh with consistent texture. I’ve had worse tasting and tougher at expensive steak places.
Another surprising item is the freshly sauteed green beans which are available only some of the time, with sauteed onions and whole strips of bacon. When those are gone, the cooks open a can of regular green beans that are unseasoned and boiled. Not so good.
The atmosphere is what you’d expect for a food trough, compete with human visual appetite suppressants waddling around you. It’s enough for me to ratchet down the quantities I consume while still enjoying a few of the more quality items.
Dinner is $ 10.99 and it’s worth adding a drink for $ 2. Drink choices now include a guilty assortment of Icees with my favorite, cherry pomegranate. It’s surprisingly good for a childhood dessert beverage.
If you’re in the mood to shovel decent meat in your face once in a while, give HomeTown Buffet a try again. I’m glad I did.

OK food for an OK price. If you’re hungry and cheap, go here. You may stuff yourself silly, but you won’t spend a fortune. For all the haters who can’t handle good old fashioned American obesity and lots of kids, what else do you expect at a buffet?!

Honestly, this place is one of the worst places to eat. The only reason I have put two stars, is because if their dessert. Thats the only thing they can’t screw up, aside from fruit (you idiots have watermelon). I honestly rather go get food at dollar tree than come to this place. It’s always filled with gross obese families followed by tons of Mexican families with like ten kids. I feel like I’m in a McDonald’s. Too many screaming kids!
I also think the money you charge us is too expensive for the quality of the food we’re eating. I find it really hard to come here on a good day where the food is actually good.
Advice? Get better cooks, better quality ingredients, stock up, and clean this place!

Absolutely the worst hometown. I have eaten at several other hometown buffets (Seattle, Chico, Sacramento) and they were all pretty much as expected but the Portland location is beyond disgusting and should be shut down. Unfortunately it took three trips to this hell hole for my girlfriend to agree with me. On our first visit we were greeted by a horrific odor coming from the bathroom and were told it was a leak that was, and I quote, going to be repaired soon. That was as followed by the milk being overly warm with chunks in it. On our second visit we were treated to a lunch that included burnt spaghetti, pizza crust that was uncooked (not just undercooked but literally raw) and pieces of the plastic bagging in the mashed potatoes. I at this point vowed I would never return but the manager gave my gf a complimentary dinner for the «mistakes» made at lunch that day.
That brings us to today where we witnessed a server/​waitress literally pick their nose before going and cleaning off a table using the same cloth she wiped her nostril findings on. In addition to that my gf and I have spent our evening taking turns on the big white throne… our first guess is the «boiled» chicken was undercooked or we infected some snot from the server either way she has finally agreed to never eat there again.

Lots of food at a low price. Variety is a huge factor at this place. I see alot of negative reviews on here but I have never had a bad trip to this buffet, weird. I have found that there are always some food at buffets that has set out to long and that is why I avoid it. No real servers except the ones who come by and grab you plates after you have cleared them. $ 10 dinner, $ 9 lunch plus I think kids are like real cheap. i’m gonna go back.

Don’t waste your money. Even if you’re trying to relive the nostalgia of childhood past, don’t waste your money. You’ll only come out with a leaner pocketbook and stomachache.
Did I mention it was a waste of money?
Don’t do it. If you want to throw your money away, send it to me via paypal. I’m an artist and student — and could therefore use the money.

Home of «high school cafeteria» food
Actually, some of the stuff they serve in our schools looks better than what they shovel out into the troughs at this place.
Salads have that fresh-​out-​of-​the bag look and taste; the entrees measure up to a TV Dinner; their hot vegetables are direct from the 55-​gallon can and cooked to mush.
They do serve a LOT of food to a LOT of people who like it. I’m just not one of them.