HomeTown Buffet

i’m so sad that this location has closed! i’m not sure exactly when their last day was, but i was disappointed when i tried to visit tonight. it was consistently good, and the service was always great. we’ve been going there so long that the staff treated us like family. what will happen to benny? irma? if you guys are reading this, please keep us posted on where you are now — my family would love to visit you! wishing you all the best. we’ll miss you!!!

Disclaimer: I did not choose to come here, so don’t judge me! Have you ever had super low expectations, only to be blown away at how they exceeded your expectations by being even worse?! That’s what eating at Hometown Buffet feels like. Also sadness.
Lunch was about $ 8…money that should really be put towards something else. I was going to start off with a salad, only to be put off by how nasty everything looked. Welp… unhealthy carbs and fried chicken it is. The damn pictures on the wall of fresh salad and delicious looking entrees are false advertisement! The mashed potatoes were so smooth it was unnatural, the mac n cheese was soupy, the fish was sad and salty, and all the cooked vegetables were mushy. The best parts were the waffle fries and fried chicken. Not really saying much.
Dessert? No thanks. All the cakes/​pastries looked like they’ve been out for a good while; super dry and unappealing.
Really, I just ended up eating a bunch of unhealthy stuff because nothing else looked good. Oh, I guess it was cool that they have a slushie machine, but… not worth it.
Food: 1, Service: 3, Environment: 2, Price: 5

I haven’t been here in years and recently stepped foot inside because a friend wanted to ‘treat’ us to dinner. Man, never again. I don’t even care if it’s free. The food is terrible and it’s so uninviting. Nothing really looked appetizing. I stuck to the safe stuff: rice pilaf, veggies and chicken. I’m just glad I didn’t get sick afterwards. It’s kind of depressing if all I could think about was «but did you die??»

I went into Hometown Buffet with high hopes because it looked like a greater selection than Sizzler at a lower price (under $ 10).
Food selection was pretty good for proteins (chicken prepared several ways, fish, meatloaf, sausage) and had the typical Mexican bar selection. Dessert bar had decent variety with frozen yogurt, chocolate desserts, cookies, and some «healthier» options such as carrot cake. For beverages, it was cool to see a slurpee machine.
Food quality was decent but with a major flaw in the salad. For these cheap buffets, I most look forward to making a fresh salad with all the works. Unfortunately, the lettuce leaves were visibly wilting, so much so that it was difficult to grab a bunch without catching a withered leaf. Even all the toppings and dressing couldn’t hide the fact that the lettuce was old, dry, and flat.
Overall, despite the greater selection at Hometown Buffet, I would probably opt to go to Sizzler where the variety may be less, but I wouldn’t mind having two servings of the same thing.

I come here at least once a month. The service is great and food is good. I just wish there was different things on the menu. It’s always the same Olé same Olé.

The food here was pretty good. They had delicious pizza, ham, and chicken. The rest of the food was a little dry, they had a yellow carrot. I was satisfied and stuffed pretty fast. However, I got some apple pie and it tasted very old and dry. My mom thought the chicken was heavenly tender and juicy. She also thought the steak was well seasoned, soft, and tender. My dad on the other hand thought that most of the food was older than a rock. All in all it was pretty good. Your experience depends on how picky you are.
Ps. They offer military discount.

When this Hometown Buffet first opened it was a good place to eat and we went there often. Over the years we have watched it go downhill. we stopped going to this Hometown Buffet about a year ago. Tonight we decided to give it another try. Upon arrival we noticed that the restaurant was kinda empty for being dinner time. The second thing that we noticed was a funky smell. After paying, we walked further into the restaurant and discovered where the smell was coming from. Because it was cold outside, a bunch of homeless people were sitting in different areas of the restaurant. One lady had no shoes and kept touching food and dishes, and then puts the dishes and food back. Another guy smelled sooo bad that he gassed the area as he walked by. another guy took a stack of bowls and was stacking the bowls on empty tables. This guy also smelled to high heaven. Another man had a glass of water and a stack of napkins, and was wiping tables and chairs, over and over again, using piles of napkins. (He didn’t work there.) To top it off, there were 3 or 4 kids, (boys), messing around in the girls bathroom, and the self serve slush machine, where they would pour slush into their hands and lick it off. The parents didn’t care and the restaurant employees didn’t care. When we complained about the stench of the homeless people, the mentally ill people messing with the plates and bowls, and the unsupervised children, the employee told us that there was nothing that they could do.
I would like to make something clear. I have nothing against the homeless or people that are mentally ill. I don’t fault anyone for helping the homeless or mentally ill people, however, the owner and Managers of this Hometown Buffet need to decide if they are running a homeless shelter or a family restaurant. The two don’t mix. Having to hold your breath while you are trying to eat is unreasonable. Not being able to eat because a mentally ill homeless person touched the plates, bowls and food is also unreasonable. Confronting a smelly customer and insisting that they shower before being served is not unreasonable and good for all parties involved. Needless to say, we will not be going back, and from the look of things, a lot of other people are staying away also.

The selection is slim pickins. Under par quality of food. The only decent thing are the chocolate chip cookies. We won’t be back. Luckily we did the text for crave connections so we had a bogo deal.

$ 5 Breakfast with coupon from the mail… can’t beat that deal… cheaper than buying raw eggs at the supermarket!!! hahaha…
Food is good during breakfast… we got there like 20 mins before 11am, so we were still able to get breakfast food… when they switched to Lunch… nahhh… it wasn’t that good… very ordinary food… so we preferred breakfast food… lot’s of people on Saturday morning…

This place is DIRTY and no one cared
GROSS. I told one of the workers and he just said :yes it is”. SMH

Very rude service. We showed them a photo of the coupon and the waitress was like «where did you get this» «we dont accept this». She’s making her own rules since we’ve been doing this all time. The supervisor came in and allowed but damage done. She embarrassed us already.

5 stars for MARLENE! She gives GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!
3 ½ for the food. Pretty basic cafeteria food. But for $ 5.99 lunch coupon what do you expect?

Been ages since my last visit to hometown… especialyl this one in Cerritos.
1. New menu items aren’t bad… pot roast is ok… the meat is tender but flavor is not exactly on point. The chicken pot pie, however, is pretty decent.
2. This restaurant has cleaned up nicely. A bit tidier and cleaner than I remember.
3. Service is the same. It’s friendly but not terribly on point.
4. Prices have gone up a bit. $ 12.99 or so for a regular adult dinner.
Can’t get too excited but its better than it was before.

This review is from awhile back but im sure its still the worst location ever!!!
Im a hometown buffet lover and go all the time. different locations almost everyone near my town. but this one is the WORST! my boyfriend and i went for lunch and OMG. the cashier was rude «MARLENE» she asked us if we were having drinks with our lunch. i asked just for a water and a reg drink. now. ive never in my entire life going to hometown buffet have been asked «whos drinking the water and who has the drink??? ummmm what? =/​
so … we sit down to enjoy our meal. the food wasnt great at all. to top it off. she kept passing by our table not to pick up dirty plates. to make sure we werent sneaking drinks. WTF! this is one of worse locations ever! we even complained to the manager and its funny. he knew the exact girl without us even telling him!!! so shes had several complaints already. if you read this MARLENE. your lousy and you need to stop taking your job so seriously! Get a life they are just drinks that only cost like 5cents to make. Jerk!

I go this place time to time because of my son like this place.
I’m a chef and Cooking Instructor myself.
My impression as a chef for this place is one of the worst place you can go pay and eat.
They seriously need to improve every way as a restaurent.
1. They need to wipe water from their dishes.(It is most basic thing restaurent must do)
2. They seriously need new guide line for their cook.
Most of their food is overcooked either undercooked.
They made garbage out of their ingredients.
Somewhat staffs are kind. but as a restaurent they need to keep the place clean and food eatable.
Hometown Buffet is one of the worst restaurent that needs serious management.

I’ve been here many times, and I always get what I’ve paid for. I eat the green beans, roast beef, some mashed potatoes with gravy mainly and a little bit of everything else. I usually use a coupon, which makes it super cheap, and I can’t complain given the prices I’m paying. I’ve never found the salad bar to be anything other than fresh.
It’s not Lawry’s, but I don’t pay over $ 60 a person. I’ve been to Carrows, Cocos, Denny’s, Polly’s, etc., and I find Hometown pretty much on par.
Hometown is far better than Souplantation. I don’t think there is anything worth eating eating there.
I’ve never found this place dirty or so unappetizing.

Salad Bar:
–lettuce is always wilted whether it be the leafy greens, lettuce, or romaine lettuce.
–fruits are not fresh
Hot Food Bar:
–many of the dishes have pools of oil bubbling on top
–grilled fish always has a smell to it that deems it not fresh and possibly overdue
–fried food: not always to perfection, breading of the fried food (chicken) is stale
Dessert Bar:
–ice cream has a certain texture to it that makes it seem like thick cream, like fake ice cream
–cookies are stale
–cakes are dry
Soda Machine:
–sometimes the combination of the syrup and carbonated water is unbalanced
Soup:
–ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS over seasoned. Tastes worse than the Pacific Ocean.

I haven’t been to Hometown since I was a little kid.
Came here on a weekday with coworkers during lunch time.
Fried Chicken was the only dish that was «good».
I was waiting for the fish dish to come out. I guess they went fishing for it.
(waited literally 30min+. I got tired of checking up on it. looking like a creep).
Ice cream machine was partially broken.
This place just looked unsanitary.
NEVER coming here again.

Really sucked, out of food! The girl in, that worked in the, fruit section that waa suppose to, be filling it up just walked around. Silver wear was, empty
Ice, cream, gotten except for vanilla. Come on meat always gone what are we paying for???

Very disappointed with this HomeTown Buffet.
They took out the Coca Cola freestyle drink machine. I’m not happy with that. Customers really love that freestyle drink machine.
The food was alright, not great. It used to be great years ago. The last 2 visits of this Hometown, It’s been going downhill. This is getting very ridiculous.
I don’t think i’m coming back to this place.