HomeTown Buffet

This business has closed. It was closed on Sunday ³⁄₆ and I just called and confirmed it’s permanently closed.

Food was very good, restaurant was clean and comfortable. And the staff were nice and engaging! ! Absolutely love the salad bar!

Very mediocre food for $ 30+ for two. It’s not terrible, just… mediocre. The salmon was smelt very fishy (which is a sign it’s either low quality or it sat a while), the «Mexican» and «Chinese» variations were casually tossed in (the white rice looked almost under done and the Mexican food looked like a nacho-​cheese/​Pace Picante spectacular), and overall bland flavors. The best foods, in my opinion, were the mashed potatoes and gravy, mandarin chicken, and bread rolls, all cheap things you can either buy or cook better at home for a lot less. The other upside was the dessert, but again, it’s very cheaply made.
If you want all-​you-​can-​eat Banquet meals for $ 13 a person (plus $ 2.50 if you want a drink), this would be the place. Otherwise, I don’t think I would go again.

The only time I would hit up this place is when the local coupons are sent to my mail, which has $ 5.99 lunch deal, it is a great price if you are a bodybuilder/​weight lifter that is bulking up and require cheap calories.
The employees here are very friendly. They are able to hold a fun conversation. +1 star
The food here is meh. Sometimes they sits out for so long, when you take the first bite, you be like: wtf am I even chewing?
Tip: keep your heads out, look around to see the food trays they just bring out kitchen.

Blah. Haven’t been here in probably 4 years and they even seemed to start stepping it up back then. So when I went in the other day I had high expectations. There was hardly any options, pizza was mushy n had weird flavor. As soon as we get there the lady at the front says «we close at 9 just to let you know», and it was like 8:25…we’re like uhh okay. No good cinnamon rolls like they use to have. The best thing was probably the mashed potatoes and chicken gravy which is just plain sad. Hometown get it together you have/​had? potential. Smh.

Y’know, it’s a bit far from all the student population but I highly doubt they’re catering to students.
This is an chain American version of Kwandos that serves more variety of food which includes Tex-​Mex and I love that. The lady at the front desk, Whitney, was nice and chill. Cracking jokes with her started the lunch in a positive light. It looked decent, like any American diner décor across the North State.
Their salad options are, in my opinion, their best. A lot of different salad styles to make that I end up eating their fresh produce more than the others. Their potatoes are well made, but their Mashed Potatoes are the gem outside of the salads.
Beyond that, there is nothing special about this particular Hometown Buffet, so if you’re looking to celebrate some occasion or you want to take some relaxing break, this may not be it. However, if you want to have some lunch with friends and/​or very hungry, I’d recommend Hometown Buffet. Yes, I will consider returning whenever I’m in the mood for a buffet, or if I get coupons in the mail convincing me to chow there more often.

I am surprised that they have increased more baked, non-​greasy options such as sweet potato, fresh veggies, steamed veggies, and roasted meats. You don’t have to pork out here if you don’t want to. There were even sugar free ranger cookies as an option for dessert. One evening, the manager came around with samples of new items and drinks they were trying. They wanted customer feedback. Friday evenings are REALLY busy, but during the week is a much slower pace. Foods I notice that go quickly: waffle fries, & sweet rolls.. Public restrooms are generally kept clean and maintained. My dad loves this place (not my first pick by a long shot). He takes our girls there and gives them quarters for the machines. About the only machine that’s worth anything is the gum ball machine. It’s not unusual for it to spit out two at a time. They usually will get a green gumball, which gets a kid a free meal. There are always coupons in the local flyers (newspaper and mail) for discounts or free kids meals, as well.

I’ve been eating here since my daughter was in her car seat (and she’s in college now). Overall I like the food, especially the salad bar.
Recently I haven’t been here as often (we used to come here at least once a week) because I stopped eating meat. I wish they would serve more seafood or tofu dishes.
I don’t care for the cheese ravioli because it’s too soft and over covered with Alfredo sauce.
Some days the soup were perfect, but usually it’s too thick and salty.
The price is reasonable, especially now the minimum wages have gone up.

We eat at the Chico Hometown 2 or 3 times a month and seldom need to ask for salad bar items to be refreshed. Nice quite complete salad bar. Sorry to see the drinks being added to the bill now at $ 2.50. We feel we can find a good variety of nourishing tasty foods. From the checkers to the table attendants and managers we have found cheerful and helpful on every visit. We like being able to go in and not have to wait for our meal and can choose the amount we want. Wonderful pot roast and bacon green beans on certain days.

I’m pretty grateful for this place. My elderly mother loves for me to bring her here — they have a large assortment of items and she enjoys the food quite a lot. That’s about all I can ask for in keeping her happy. Plus the young people who work here are really kind to her — they all recognize her now as a regular. To me its not what I would call really good dining, but the food is perfectly fine for what it is (buffet).

I think this place is great. It’s not a fancy resturaunt but if you have kids and their fussy. It’s easy if you don’t like what you got don’t eat it and get something else. And the staff was very nice. They have an amazing salad

If you want to gorge on cheap, low quality food where a lot of it is clearly from frozen or from a box this is your place to go. The orange chicken clearly had been out for a long time under a heat lamp, the pizza reminded me of another I haven’t had in years (and still can’t place), the ice cream machine was out of order and a rather portly gentlemen said that he «couldn’t believe it», the salad bar looked rather fresh and we were offered steaks cooked to order.
Which if I was a steak person would’ve been great. Lot of overweight people in there. Cute girls do work here.

I remember when Home Town Buffet opened in Chico, CA, and at that point in time for years to come every Thursday and Saturday night, it would draw a line out the door. The food was terrific, people dressed nicely to go there, the service was excellent.
I went there 9÷28÷2013 for a quick dinner with the girlfriend since she wanted a salad and I wanted something to hit the ribs. Worst decision ever. I literally ended up sampling every dish they had available to find something worth eating.
I started off with a salad, to realize half way through that the mushrooms and lettuce were bad, it made me almost wanted to puke. I pushed that aside and grabbed a warm plate. I figured good ol’ macaroni and cheese, they can’t mess this up! Wrong. It tasted like flour, even the backed fish had a sour taste.
In all honestly all of the food there seemed either dried out, over cooked or made at 6am, it was plain disgusting. They couldn’t even make good mash potatoes. I mean really? How do you mess that up! The mashed potatoes were lumpy, dry, and the beef gravy (you could tell) was once a powder and whoever made it couldn’t even whisk it to the point of consistency. I think the best thing that was on the menu was the semi frozen strawberries and the Minute Maid lemonade.
I was so disappointed by the experience (sometimes spitting out food) that I doubt I’ll ever eat at another Hometown Buffet or any part of it’s chain companies. YUCK!

A buffet that makes you pay for soda? Really?
The foods already over priced as it is and not very good.
Careful not to grab a soda thinking they are included or the buffet nazi girl will yell at you and force money out of your wallet. I even offered to pour it out but nope.

I wondered why this place was so empty during the middle of lunch. I found out. The food all of it was completely tasteless. It was either undercooked, overcooked and soggy. I got one plate and couldn’t even eat it. I got an icee beverage and it was melted and had some strange brown flecks in it. The iccream was labled chocolate but vanallia came out also with strange browns flecks. The bathroom stunk and the table was sticky. Will go to the kwando buffet in Chico from now on.

First off is the mens bathroom. It smelled exactly like an outhouse. The salad bar was ok but I wanted fruit like grapes, watermelon and strawberries but the only two choices were semi-​ripe cantaloupe and banana slices slathered in some red too sweet sauce. I wanted fruit mostly. I had some bourbon chicken that was pretty salty but pretty par for the course. The corn was cold as if straight out of a can.
If I were really hungry for heavy food it would have been ok but as a diabetic, macaroni and cheese, potatoes and fried shrimp was not for me at the time.
I seriously doubt I will be going back. It seems to be a restaurant for those on a fixed income who are satisfied with salad or don’t care what they eat.
Oh I forgot to mention. I liked their fried chicken. It tasted like KFC used to taste about 25 years ago. So I guess if I get a hankering for fried chicken I know where to go.

So gross! My boyfriend and I went here, because we were super hungry one night and just were in the mood for a buffet, but it was awful. just horrible quality food. it was a buffet, but we left still hungry because we didnt want to eat anymore.

The food is mediocre at best. We went yesterday and it was a little over $ 27 for two people! That was in the middle of the afternoon, so I’m not sure if we got the lunch or the dinner price, but either way it was way too much money. If I’m going to spend that much for a late lunch, I’d rather be somewhere else where the food is amazing.
They charge about $ 2 extra per person if you want to have anything other than water. Tip: Bring one of those little Mio water flavor enhancers with you and skip the expanded drink to save $$.

This is probably one of the most depressing HomeTowns that I have been to. The selection of food is poor. Plus what they do offer as a buffet selection is laughable. I’ve only gone during lunch, so maybe they put something better out on the buffet at dinner besides your choice of wrapped or unwrapped hot dogs.
Most of the food is pretty flavorless as well. I don’t really expect much from your typical feeding trough, but it would have been nice to like ANYTHING when I have the occasional lunch with my grandparents here. Maybe that’s why my grandparents can tolerate it along with the rest of the senior citizens who come here. Their taste buds no longer work.

My parents divorced when I was very young, my father stayed in Massachusetts, and my mother fled as far away as possible: California.
Technically, they had joint custody of my sister and me. By «joint,» I mean Mom had us all year and then Dad paid for back-​to-​back-​to-​back summer camps and spelled my name wrong on birthday cards. At the end of one summer, exhausted from archery, canoeing, horseback riding, memorizing bible quotes and marching in front of flag poles with rifles, I still had two weeks of «joint custody» remaining. The solution? Since the military doesn’t enlist 16 year-​olds, my parents sent me on a senior citizen gambling bus, from a small coastal town in NorCal all the way to the promised land a.k.a. Reno.
As the only person on the Greyhound bus tour under 75, I sought solace in my seat neighbor, turned bosom buddy, Irma. Irma’s daughter and son-​in-​law had stuck her on this bus to both cheer her up and to get rid of her for the weekend. As prisoners in an overly cheerful 15-​hour death march to Reno, we bonded. She told me her family members were waiting for her to die, and I told her my friends didn’t think 4-​H was cool anymore — we were kindred spirits.
Sure, the line to the bathroom at the back of the bus was long, and the women got really vicious at lap BINGO, but other than that, the trip was a lot of fun.
Around 4pm, I started feeling claustrophobic. But then some guy who looked like Jesus (maybe his brother?) suggested we stop at Hometown Buffet for supper. At the mention of a buffet, faces lit up, dentures were inserted, and spirits were lifted.
The food looked delicious. It took me an hour to actually get any dinner, because I had to let my elders go first, and then the line moved really slowly because they were digging quarters out of their purses, and then a couple guys needed me to walk them around to the different sections and tell them what food they were scooping.
Someday, when I’m alone in a house filled with cats and old newspapers, I hope someone will send me on a gambling bus so we can stop at Hometown Buffet and I can get the Senior Citizen discount. I love me a bargain and I can’t wait.