Back 40 Junction Restaurant

I’m not a buffet lover at all. But I’ve continued to go to this one because someone is always behind the serving area keeping an eye on it. They’ve had issues with food being cold in the past but seem to have that under control. For the most part. We went for crab leg Friday. Around $ 30 per person including drink. Had just one serving of crab legs. They were very cold. Didn’t go back for more. I did, however, go back for the beef brisket. Incredible flavor and it melted in my mouth. So tender. Everything else was hot and fresh as well. I’ll go back for regular buffet, but don’t have plans to go for the crab legs again. All in all, good meals and service. I recommend it.

A good variety of food and above average taste. Not your average buffet. Very unique interior and exterior

Better than franchise buffets. We went during a dead time. Food wasn’t as fresh and some of it was real bland. But if your a buffet person (I’m not) than you’d probably really dig it!

My family and I were on a road trip from Ohio to Michigan and were coming through Decatur around lunchtime. As I normally do when I’m on the road, I went to Unilocal for suggestions. We decided to stop here because of the good reviews and because it sounded like such a unique place.
My first reaction when we arrived was delight at how cute the placed looked from the outside. The delight continued when we entered and saw the amazing décor on the inside. We were seated immediately and I started to think about how it seems that usually, when a restaurant goes to such lengths to achieve good décor and ambience, they forget they are in the business to make good food. I was prepared to be disappointed. I was distracted from that thought as I read a very interesting menu. Without delay, our waitress stopped by and took our drink orders. She asked if we had been there before, and when we said no, she led us to the buffet area and gave us a little tour. She seemed very proud of her place of employment.
Our party had five people in it and we all enjoyed our meals very much. The food was excellent. I think I tried a little bit of just about everything and the only thing I didn’t like was the pub cheese. To be honest, I don’t think that’s the restaurant’s fault. I think there was just an ingredient in it that I don’t like. If you like pub cheese elsewhere, I’m going to guess you would like this.
The woman at the carving station was very friendly, helpful, and interesting. I commented about the vintage stove in the area and found out it used to be in her house. The lady dishing up the ice cream was also very friendly. Overall, from my experience and based on the comments of my family, I think it’s safe to say this was one of the best dining experiences any of us have ever had.

Super cool interior – like an antique store and Americana museum in one! It’s an all buffet restaurant so be sure you go hungry as the prices reflect expectations of a hearty appetite.
We stopped here for lunch on a Sunday when the buffet is unfortunately more expensive so lunch for 2 was around $ 40 which felt exorbitant considering that I only got the soup & salad bar and my husband got the full buffet (+ 2 soft drinks). This is not the right place to get soup & salad – for one thing, the options are somewhat limited (only 1 soup and no protein/​meat options on the salad bar) and for $ 12.95, it’s kind of a rip-​off. That said, my husband really enjoyed his full buffet meal for $ 16.95 including fried chicken, brisket, and mashed potatoes. Still a steep price for lunch, but the hot buffet is apparently pretty tasty.
I really enjoyed looking around the place and would recommend it for a weekday lunch ($ 10.95 for full buffet), but I don’t think the Sunday prices are worth it.

I was visiting family nearby for Thanksgiving and they chose this restaurant for our Thanksgiving meal. I was not very excited about it because I don’t like some of the traditional thanksgiving food, and I’m a vegetarian and feared that everything would have meat in it. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience though!
Walking in, it’s like an explosion of tschotskes and old photos/​posters. Every inch is covered in… stuff. Junk? There was an explanation of some of their things and their significance on the placemat and it didn’t look cobwebby or dirty but I’m sure there was more dust around than I saw because there was so much stuff.
Our waitress was great the whole time. Friendly, quick to refill things. Since it’s a buffet, she didn’t serve us food but we did appreciate her working on that day for us to eat. We were a group of 12 so that was a lot of drinks!
The buffet was HUGE. There were 4 different large areas of food: one salad bar with greens and tons of toppings (as well as other assorted salads like ambrosia, cole slaw, and potato salad); one hot bar with all the Thanksgiving staples and more. sweet potatoes, creamed corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, vegetables, prime rib, turkey.; one bar with assorted cold and hot appetizer items like cheese cubes, pickles, soups, tarts, stuffed mushrooms, and rolls; and one massive dessert bar with cookies, cakes, pies and ice cream.
I took the approach that I prefer at a place like this and took a little of several things at a time to see what I liked in case I wanted to go back. The lines were a bit long, and slow only on the meat carving station (I don’t eat meat but the hot bar was the same bar, so I had to wait for my mashed potatoes there). It wasn’t too bad though. I had a salad, tried a few appetizers, and a few things from the hot bar. One thing that really turned me off was that there were some items on the hot bar that were dripped/​spilled all over — for example, I couldn’t even get au gratin potatoes because they were covered in the drippings of some meat. The mashed potatoe