HomeTown Buffet

Decent food, good work staff, to bad they closed, but if your willing to drive to lakewood…

We came in for breakfast and it was not good at all, the pankackes were cold, my girlfriend spent our whole visit waiting for sugar so she had to her coffee with no sugar, there were no forks, one the soft drink machines didnt work and the other one only had root beer and strawberry soda, shortly there after they ran out of cups, forks and plates, the waiter didnt come by to pick up the plates until i piled them on the edge of the table, the mac n’ cheese was flavorless, the pizza i get at my local grocery store probably looks and tastes better than what they had. I probably wont ever ber coming back to this or any Hometown Buffet. Im sticking to Golden Corral.

Great Service
My Daughter was trying to get a Santa Claus in the machines and the Manager in PM shift Ernest was awesome he got his own Money and played the machine until he got 3 teddy bears 1 for each of my children that’s was more servicemen we expected. Not only that but he sure made us feel welcome as soon as we walk in. That’s what you call customer Service and since I work in that department. I know most people don’t care to put a good comment only bad ones well Inam taking my sweet time to share this will all the people who Reads this I had an awesome day thanks to him. Ernest you are the best!!! Thank you so much. From Clara Gaeta

Food is good with discount deal. Servers are very friendly especially cashier Michele. Ice cream section is messy, but I think customers do. Still I could have ice cream. Plenty of parking.

Place is great. Food is awesome. Friendly people. Great birthday wishes. They are amazing. I especially loved their bread and beaf. It was a great experience eating there. I would recommend the place to anybody who wants to have good time and great food. I love it and I am going back.

I live close to this hometown buffet and i love the way you can pay a small price for all you can eat!

Came here with my two kiddos and it was pretty good. I usually get sick right after I eat at a hometown buffet. But not this location. Well done!

Dirty, manager floating around slow as if there’s no urgency to get dishes of food replaced! No cups for beverages! Obviously understaffed! Our dirty plates sat at our table an hour. Waitress arrived after we were literally done eating to sign off on our receipts! Food spilled all over food and beverage area. Nobody wiping off the counters! Chairs are even dirty! I will never return! Not to eat!!! With the looks of things, I don’t even want to imagine what the kitchen looks like and who doesn’t wash their hands.

We celebrated a quick birthday brunch for my father before he left to play the congos. (Which hebdomad every Saturday and Sunday.
Lunch started at 11:00am and we arrived at such time. So everything was nice, warm and fresh. I had fried chicken which was season perfectly.. The string beans weren’t seasoned that well, but that’s what you have salt and pepper for. The bbq bake beans where mmm good.
Service was good. They kept checking on our table and bought a slice of cake with a candle and sang happy birthday to pops. How cool is that and we were at Hometown.

Had dinner there with my wife and daughter, last night. Wife had the roast beef from the carver and liked it. I had the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, it wasn’t bad. Daughter had pizza and spaghetti, and corn, her favorites. Perfect for a 4 year old, but adults pretty much leave those items alone. No real complaints about the dinner, however, the unsweetened ice tea was disturbing. I didn’t use lemon this time, just ice and tea. It had a sulphur smell and flavor. I don’t know what the cause was but the dispenser should be out of commission until the issue is resolved. I’m guessing the dispenser needs a thorough cleaning.
The food was fine, the waitress was friendly, the manager seemed cool, they just need to fix the iced tea machine, fast!

Don’t be there early for breakfast the food was reheated like it was yesterday’s leftovers. Biscuits were hard and hash browns were refried gross!

The last place I expected to be reviewing would be Hometown Buffet. I was car-​less for a good spell and was hungry. After passing several places I thought I’d give them a try. First time in a while… a long, loooong while. I’m sure I don’t need to run down what they were serving. Mini burgers, mini corn dogs, potato wedges, pizza etc. I started with a salad. Everything was cold and fresh. I moved on to the dinner part. Much to my surprise, everything was quite good. Hot AND fresh. No dried out chicken or mini burgers. Ok, I know. It’s Hometown Buffet. They open boxes of cheap food and cook them. Not too review worthy. I and everyone else knows what they’re gonna get at HB. If it’s hot and freshly… served, mission accomplished on HB’s side. The real reason I felt the need to review my HB experience was the extra activities provided by the manager who had the batman paint on his face. Apparently there were no less than three birthday celebrations happening. The manager made it eventful by engaging everyone in the dining room with witty dialogue with the patrons. He was then able to get (almost) everyone to join in on THREE happy birthday songs. Doing all of this while people have their mouths filled with tacos and pizza is quite an accomplishment. Capped it off with a brownie square and an oatmeal raisin cookie. Quite good experience.
Food — 3.5÷5
Atmosphere — ⁵⁄₅

When will I ever learn. Back in November of last year I wrote a 3 star review. Went there once since then and it was ok. Had a BOGO coupon so I convinced my wife we should give it a try as it had been a long time since we ate there. What a mistake.
The original premise of the company was to cook small portions of foods and cook a lot so it would always be fresh and hot. Not here.
The soup was warm, clam chowder would have been nice if there were some clams in it and I still don’t know what the other soup was. It was a yellow green color with shreds of white meat and some orange and green things in it. Salad
There were two black pieces of Jalapino corn bread on the tray on one side and a insert of corn bread that had been destroyed by some kids. I asked if there was any more of the Jalapino corn bread and got a dirty look from the woman that was stirring some of the food.
The watermelon had a few scraps and stayed that way all the time I was there. Krab salad almost empty as was coleslaw and potato salad.
Wife took a white fish and a slice of ham and some green beans. The fish and the ham were cold and had no taste. The green beans were out of the can and almost warm. Tried for some roasted chicken but the skin was white so I didn’t want to take a chance.
I was able to make a salad and then went for a piece of pizza as they had just brought one out. No meat just cheese and not even warm. One customer asked if there was any new fried chicken as what was being served looked old. I had a chicken fried steak with the white gravy. The meat was hard to cut and then I couldn’t chew it so it went into the trash. Went to get some roast beef but it was grey so not for me. Tried a deep fried pork chop. Was able to eat about three bites of that before the grease got me. Wanted to try the salmon but someone had destroyed it. It was all shredded on the serving board so I passed on that.
The ice cream/​frozen yogurt was ok. Nothing special. Vanilla only.
Had a piece of chocolate pie that had a crunchy crust that tasted ok. Very limited deserts, a couple of pieces of cake and pie.
I like the Hometown Brand and I try to go to this one every once in a while hoping they have improved but in the last year they have only gotten worse. I am about to give up. I am getting to believe the only salvation for this store, I will not call it a restaurant, is to close it, tear it down and start all over.

Worst experience in my life the restaurant is nasty dirty & disgusting now about the food everything was cold & disgusting me & my husband gave them one last time never again so bad we asked for are money back! Wouldn’t recommend this place if it was the last restaurant on earth!

This place is pretty good, clean, food is so far always available. I didn’t have to wait at all and this was Memorial Day weekend and on a Saturday. The manager is Awesome!!! His name is Ernest I believe and the cashier Amanda that helped me she was nice. Just when I walked up she didn’t say she would be right with me but then again I think because she was counting money but still she could have said it. Either way my transaction was smooth quick and at the end Amanda was great! The music is relaxing and family orientated. The staff amongst each other are like family. Sets the atmosphere as «family style».
This review is the second time I went. OMG! The food was everywhere and it was not clean at all. I don’t know what happened I don’t know if it was because we went near closing but it was not good. Either way they should still be clean. My daughter said she seen the manager flick a piece of food back in its tray… Ewwwwww!!! I will not return in the evening I’ll tell you that much.

I come to this particular one at lease once a week, has the best service in the South Bay Area, the food is excellent, and the cleanest is good.

This place is a hit and a miss. From food to employees it really depends on the day. But overall ive had good experience here and continue to come back.

I can’t help but to think that I’m getting overcharged for food that is obviously a lesser and cheaper product from what they use to use. Maybe it’s the location? Or the Gardena water? But whatever it may be food definitely has changed in taste over the last couple of years I’ve got to say I don’t think I’ll be coming back food is greasy deserts are hard (Cinnabon) I almost regret it but I’m glad I came so I can make and easy decision of where to eat next time’ (burp) tummy hurts now or maybe I’m over reacting because of my menstrual lol

Don’t go. Turn around go back out the door. Save your money go to Wienerschnitzel. The food is terrible, the place is disgustingly dirty, the service was good but the cook needs to learn how to cook. Terrible, terrible, terrible I do not recommend this place.

2 stars … 1 because the meal was paid for by someone else
and…1 because I found enough food that I got full.
First off, there was a meeting that my husband & I went to and we were all in the sectioned off room with 2 doors that closed. Our meals were provided to us for attending.
I deducted a star because as we walked in, I started to take pictures, and then was approached by the manager and nicely told «Photography inside the restaurant is not allowed». Um, okay, he’s the manager, it’s his prerogative, and I stopped taking pictures. I only have the 3 pictures to show. He later came up to me and explained that photos aren’t allowed because people come in here and take pictures and then go and open up their own buffets. Oh well… I’m amazed they even have 32 pictures on their business page!
I didn’t really see a whole lot of options that I liked for my meal. I appreciated the greens, but they were bitter. There was pizza, some asian chicken, a taco bar, mashed potatoes & gravy, meatloaf, corn, and lots of other foods you’d see at an American type of buffet. (IF ONLY I had pictures to help recall the foods I saw but didn’t eat!) I don’t remember seeing any seafood, unless there was a fish stick that my husband brought to us and attempted to take a bite out of and it didn’t break off, so he set the thing aside on his plate. The selection was really so dismal, it is so disappointing. There were lots of trays of foods in the warmers, but I guess not much seemed very appealing or memorable (that’s why I need the photos to help me out!).
The salad bar is usually a hit, but why would I want to fill up on salad when I pay for a buffet? My husband got the first salad and I got more when I went looking for more options. I got a «fresh off the grill» piece of steak and it was really quite tasty! I had some green beans, black-​eyed peas, macaroni & cheese, and grilled squash, and they were all pretty good. I have to admit, the steak & fried chicken were the only items worth the price of the buffet.
Another complaint is that later, I came by to take another look around, I saw a hunk of ham and a slab of roast beef and no carver. I saw people trying to cut some for themselves. I don’t trust myself with a knife, so I didn’t even attempt. LAWSUIT! Okay, so I went snooping around at the other foods while waiting a little longer for the person to come tend to the meats. Finally, when I decided to get a little more of what I already had eaten earlier, and walked back to the secluded room, I saw her there at the carving station. A little too late for me now! The foods I chose to put on my plate were good choices for me. I just would have liked to taste the ham & roast beef.
On top of all that, maybe because we were in the secluded room, my husband became the busboy and cleaned up quite a few plates. The actual guy did come and clean up, but I think he didn’t want to interrupt our meeting, so I’ll give him credit for doing his job.
Unfortunately, the dessert selection was minuscule! We shared a sliver of the chocolate cake and it was quite moist and rich! I also tried the coconut pie which was okay. The soft serve ice cream machine must have either been getting low or had gotten an air pocket. When I pulled the lever up, ever so gently, I got one forceful burst and a little plop of ice cream. I quickly put the lever back down and called it a night… and we left.
One suggestion for all Hometown Buffets… you should really incorporate the drinks into the price of the buffet. Seriously, even if people only ask for water cups, you know they’re going to get sodas, icees, or coffee. Guests don’t like the upcharge of an added drink to their meals. Plus, I know when my family eats at an All You Can Eat buffet, we never ever eat our money’s worth!!!
We usually go to the Hometown Buffet in Torrance and it is way better. Still not the best buffet, but it beats this one in a heartbeat! When I get another meal treated at this location, I will return and hope for it all to be better.