Ole’west Steak House

Old West Steakhouse has officially closed. It was a staple in Athens for many many years. Unfortunately the last few years the quality has gone down there. I guess they just decided to hang it up with the increased competition from the newly installed Cotton Patch restaurant and the fact that the very elderly like to eat there but as many of them are dying off, their customer base is decreasing. At one point in the life of this restaurant, you couldn’t get a parking space because of the crowd. RIP Old West.

We visited around 2:00 in the afternoon on a Friday. Our entire group opted for the all-​you-​can-​eat buffet. The salad was okay, but lacking in options. Most of us had seafood and the fish was good and crispy. All the sides seemed very good. Kids had ice cream after the meal and enjoyed that as well.
The wait staff was fast and efficient. They were very friendly and even adjusted the price of the buffet because of the size of our group and the number of small children with us.
The décor is outdated, but the restaurant is going for the «Old West» feel so it works for them. If we are in the area, we will stop again.

Overpriced buffet for the quality of the food. Ordered off of the menu for a change, ordered a ribeye, it came out rancid, rotten. The smell was absolutely horrific. Last time I will visit. Yuck!

Meat was overdone, inch of water in the bottom of the lettuce bowl, and they had an all you can eat buffet. On the plus side, the waitresses were very good. Seems popular with the locals.

Went there with friends and order steak for 4. Came back and told me that they were out but would substitute NY strips. Flavor ok, but not a very good cut for a strip. Then our server sat down at a table next to us with the rest of the staff to eat. I guess she forgot we were there because we didn’t get any service unless we asked for it. While eating, she got up to get the tea pitcher to give us refills after we had to ask for them and did not wash her hands. Informed the owner about our issues and he seemed very unconcerned. He was rude and my perception of his attitude was that we had the audacity to complain about his perfect little restaurant. This is a dump, dump, dump.

Back on February the 17^th of 2012, my wife and I drove from Cedar Creek Lake to eat at the Olé’west Steak House in Athens. The 1^st thing we noticed inside was how dirty it was. We decided to order the buffet because the chicken fried steak looked good. Were we disappointed — the chicken fried steak was dry, gravy was cold and bland, I did not eat the ice cream because the scooper holder was filled with dirty water. The fries were soggy the rolls were hard and by the time we left, there were many warmers that haven’t been replaced with fresh food. Not only will we ever eat there, we are telling all our friends to do the same.

Had a New York Strip here tonight and it was very good. It was cooked as ordered and had a great flavor.
They have a buffet that looked okay, though we chose to order off the menu. Service was very good.
The place could be cleaner — looks like it has been there a looong time.

We always try to stop @ Olé’ West on our way to our lake house in Palestine. The food is always hot & fresh. The Buffet has 6 – 8 meat selections… CFS, Fried Chicken, Baked Chicken, Fried Fish, BBQ Ribs, Brisket & Hamburger Steak to name a few… and 8 – 10 vegetable selections. My husband really enjoys the Hamburger Steak w/​grilled onions & mushrooms. The Salad bar is large & is very fresh… I always check out the lettuce… if it’s yucky… I don’t even bother with the rest of it… this salad bar is Always Good! The Chicken Soup is delicious! The dessert is usually a cobbler, banana pudding & an assortment of different ice creams.
The past two times I’ve eaten @ Olé’ West, I ordered the 6 oz. filet… medium. It is prepared perfectly.
The décor is definitely 1970’s …they haven’t updated & probably don’t plan to. I like it… it’s clean and the wait staff is always fast and friendly. Just good old home cookin’ at it’s best!

ARe you kidding? They call this a steakhouse? More like a grissel house. The meat at the butcher at Walmart is better quality than this. I couldn’t eat half of my ribeye, it wasn’t marble, it was fat. And I’m a Registered Black Angus Breeder, I know a good steak and this place is a far cry from Angus quality — believe me! Eat the Chicken fried steak, you’ll be more satisfied.

My wife said the ribs we had from the buffet were the best she’s ever had. At $ 13.99 for all-​you-​can eat steak, ribs, brisket, salad bar, and desert, it is pretty good even if it is in a time warp… hence the name!

Love this place. Went there for lunch and had the buffet and was pleasantly surprised with everything. I first had a salad. Nothing amazing but fresh and good. I am wary of buffets at places without a lot of people, but Olé West was packed even for a late lunch so I felt good about it.
I went with the fried chicken with mac and cheese and corn from the buffet as my main meal. They also offered steaks, catfish, and chicken fried steak in the buffet. Had it been dinner time, I might have been more aggressive in my eating and tried some of the other entrees.
For dessert they had a variety of ice creams that were all included with the buffet, but I am a sucker for banana pudding so I went with that. It was very good.
Basically good home cooking in a fun wood historic building. Next time I am in Athens, I am definitely making a point of going back.

Stepping into this restaurant is like stepping back in time. In all the wrong ways.
The first thing you notice when you walk through the door is that this is not a smoke-​free restaurant. Not only that, but the smoking section of the restaurant is located right by the door and cash register so that everyone entering the restaurant or waiting to pay must walk right through the highly offensive smoke. And once you get through to the dining rooms, it’s your visual senses that are offended. The ancient dull red carpet and bright red naugahyde chairs are a hideous combination. The tables are cheap formica and the dishware is plastic. Everything is worn and tired looking.
The night we were there, the restaurant had an all-​you-​can-​eat buffet. We checked it out and decided to pass. Well-​done steak sitting in a steam tray for who-​knows-​how-​long? Hoping to get something better off the menu turned out to be a misplaced hope. I ordered the rib eye medium rare, and what I got was a cut somewhat less than 1/​8″ thick and unevenly cooked. Part was medium, part was medium rare, and part was rare. The steak was also very fatty, even for a rib eye. The French fries were under-​cooked and under-​seasoned. The salad bar and the Blue Bell ice cream were the only parts of the meal that were of adequate quality.
The restaurant chooses not to serve alcohol. There’s no state, county, or city prohibition on alcohol service. Want to enjoy a glass of red wine or a beer with your steak? Apparently, you can’t do that at the Olé’ West.
Most of the tables in the restaurant will see a lot of foot traffic going right by them. This is partly due to the layout of the dining room and partly due to the self-​serve buffet, salad bar, and dessert station in the center of the restaurant. It can be very distracting and negatively impacts the dining experience.
In short: the food is awful, the dining room is dated and very ugly, there is no wine service, and you are forced to walk through tobacco smoke just to dine here. This restaurant fails in every way that matters to me.