HomeTown Buffet

If you want a cheap salad bar or cafeteria food quality, this is the place to go. Nothing fancy. I use to go there a dozen times for fried chicken, mash potato, fired shrimp, and fish/​chips. It was good. Now they replace a lot of the seafood with cheap corn dogs or fillers, so I probably won’t be going back. I would be happy to pay another buck or so to have that menu back, but times are tough for businesses. Every time I go back, it gets downgraded. Their desserts and ice cream taste weird, watery, or waxy.
I remember when home town buffet first open. There was line for blocks. They had nice cuts of beef, real baked desserts with butter, and everything was pretty fresh. Thank you for the good old days.

Their drinking water fountain has being broken for years. They don’t even care to fix it. What do you think their food quality would be?
My family has being dining in this HomeTown Buffet for over 15 years. This restaurant is in the worst condition I have ever seen. Torn seat covers, sticky floor, dirty plates/​cups, and the drinking water fountain has being broken for at least two years. We will not come back.

Me, my aunt and my kiddos went here yesterday. After paying we walked through to our table, got them situated and went for our food. Upon grabbing a plate, I see there is a stack of plates that are untouched. Probably because there is jalapeños that weren’t washed off and was stuck in the top plate! Gross! This place has been here for as long as I can remember and for a long time it had a great selection of food that was fresh and always hot! That is a far cry from how it is now. The place was deserted! Granted it was a Monday night, I remember this place being packed all the time. My son had to use the restroom and there was LITERALLY fecal matter all over the walls and floor!!! It smelled so so bad that I didn’t even want to touch the sink to wash our hands! We used paper towels to touch stuff. I am very dissatisfied! And for as expensive as it was, I would expect fresh food. Not dry and over cooked!!!

Under new management and you can really see a change. Cleaner here than the last time I came .They keep the food supplied, so I will come back

This is an update from my previous review of 9÷19÷2013. I went there today with my mom for lunch. All that I can say is how is this place surviving? The food was average nothing special. I admit that the salad bar has improved since my previous review. No more brown lettuce or bad smell around it.
Their was no regular coffee during today’s visit just decaf which was half cold. The special flavor coffee machine was out of order.
We paid $ 23.00 for lunch and now are very sorry that we did. NEVER AGAIN.

We’ve been going here every Thursday night since our kids were old enough to eat solid food, they love the bumble bee and balloons. The desserts were great and the food were abundant with many tasty flavors. We went back there again, the place is deserted, the bumble bee was gone, still balloons, but not many children and families, it’s so sad, but things changed after time. The food were no longer tasty and hot, the tables were not cleaned due to lacking waiters and waitresses. The prices are still good compare to other restaurants, but the food quality is down. The atmosphere is not very happy. It used to be a good family restaurant. I don’t know how long this restaurant will last with so few clienteles.

Broken Telephone line.
Picked this place so that I can use their phone while in here. But in my dismay, the phone was broken and I can call my family ate home.
Dessert were mediocre, not my kind of thing.

I really rate this place «no stars», but needed to chose an actual amount in order to post. How is this place still in business? Came here for dinner, walked in at about 5:30pm and everything looked like it was made yesterday– literally. Everything was crusted over, the drink and slush machines were filthy. There was no activity going on in the restaurant, but it still took 5−7min for someone to show up and seat us. You’d think someone would at least stir the food every so often to keep things heated evenly and not crusted over. Nope. Poor excuse of a restaurant, I hope they change things around for the better or close down so people who want to excel and be praised for great work can find and achieve that elsewhere.

I was the only person in line and took 10 minutes to pay, cashier was like giving people a tour. Lousy customer service. Lady that bused our table was nice. they suck!

Complete Mess !! Tables And Floors Filthy. Not even exaggerating when i say this BUT THERE WAS NO FORKS SPOONS PLATES NAPKINS OR SODA. Health inspection the city or someone needs to come in and stop this. not worth your time i grew up eating here came back to try it such a disappointment so much better 9 – 10 years ago

I came to have dinner w/​my family wow super dirty only one person taking orders same person cleaning tables. you guys need to hire more people. otherwise yOu loosing business.

What do you expect? Its Hometown Buffet. Came here tonight for dinner since I havent been to one in 10 years! I remember their fried chicken and mashed potatoes were awesome! Its open seating after you pay. My son is a year and half so he was free only 2 years and up you pay based on their age. I had to knock down a star cause drinks are not included in your meal which makes no sense since its a buffet. It ran about $ 16 pp with a drink and tax for dinner. Knocked down another star since food wasnt replenish often for a buffet. Especially during dinner rush on a Sunday i think they should replenish food items quick. I went about 3 rounds and dishes were not being replenished except chicken, mashed potatoes, & sides. I was on the look out for salisbury steak but no luck. Fried chicken is still awesome and mashed potatoes. The corn bread was actually really good also. Craving station was good also. The ham was tender and juicy but the roast beef was too well done. Place is super run down and old and needs to be updated but i guess with our time not a lot of healthy people go to buffets anymore. So if you just want a quick bite where you and your family doesnt want to figure out what to eat I suggest buffets but for a sunday there wasnt many food options. I think ill check out the one at southland mall that one always seem to be more packed than this location.

I came here for breakfast with one other person. We had a buy one meal, get the 2^nd for $ 2 so breakfast came out to about $ 10 for the two of us! Talk about CHEAP! Everything was about average: food, service, wait time.
That being said, this place isn’t good enough where I’d be a regular. Last time I went to a HomeTown was probably about 5 years ago and I’m good for another 5.

That was the wharf restaurant that I’ve been to the restrooms were guilty of food was terrible they ran out of lettuce no selection of food it was terrible I recommended not to never go there I give it zero star

The frustration starts from when you’re in line at the cashier. They take so long to process their ever tricky coupons and people are constantly caught off guard. If you want to let people use coupons, just take them gracefully. This coupons confusion always makes the processing for each customers so long!
Fried chicken seems to be the only good food around. Everything else is so so. Even the dessert bar seems loaded… but really not appealing. The ice cream machine is always so messy.
They really need cleaners. We have to bring our plates to the dirty dish bay most of the time as the bust boy would not come and clear them.
Do something and clean up your act Hometown Newark!

I haven’t had a good buffet in the while and this seem to be taking care of my satisfaction. I don’t usually frequent places much but I think I’ll have to add it to the list. The staff is nice. The atmosphere is very nice and relaxing and set up right foot family or groups. I will recommend this place for anyone who’s looking for a nice buffet.

During our dining, we had an enjoyable time until the end. The food was good and I liked the individual portions. The price was really high even with a coupon (when it first opened it was under $ 6 per person with a drink) and the restaurant was empty at dinner time.
At the end, after I ate my meal, I had to skip dessert because as I was getting dessert, a cockroach was crawling up the wall. I did notify the manager, he apologized but that was it.

Came here on a whim because I had nowhere else to eat and only half an hour left of my lunch break. Full of old people during lunch and employees that weren’t doing their job, the girl at the cash register couldn’t even count my change properly.
Food was terrible, greasy, overcooked. The best thing at that place was their brownies.

Came here because it was my birthday and haven’t been to a HomeTown Buffet since I was very little.
This is one of the lasting tenants here in the Newpark Plaza, right across from Newpark Mall. Both, Toys R US and TJ Maxx moved out to the Pacific Commons Shopping Center in Fremont, and now it’s really just HomeTown Buffet and 24 Hour Fitness.
We came here for dinner, using my birthday coupon which was purchase one adult meal, and get another for FREE. There were a few people ahead of us waiting in line to pay for their meal before we could starting buffeting.
After we paid, we found a booth to sit at and then a waitress came out to assist us and poured water into our cups since they don’t offer water in the soda machines. They offer soda, coffee, even slushies /​slurpees!
The food selections were practically the same throughout the entire meal. They had Roast Beef, Ham, and Fried Chicken for your meats. They had like tiny pieces of Pot Roast in little silver bowls but they were mostly filled with potatoes…
They had bread rolls, mac n cheese, pepperoni pizza, sweet and sour chicken, clam chowder soup, spaghetti, and then a section for making a salad.
For desserts, they had like baked goods, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, chocolate chip fudge brownie, apple crips, chocolate cupcakes, tiramisu, chocolate fudge cake, ice cream from the machine etc.
There was also only 1 waitress working around the entire buffet, like what is up with that?! How is she uspposed to work the entire buffet by herself?!
This cannot be called a buffet when it’s the same stuff throughout the entire meal. I’m sorry but I don’t think I would be returning here. I mean the only thing good was the Fried Chicken, and probably because that was the most popular thing and so they kept putting out fresh chicken.
Their competitor, Golden Corral is much better, they serve more and better quality food than this place. Too bad the closest one is all the way in Tracy.

A little disappointed this time. I came for lunch with friends the other day, we had lunch coupons for all of us, so the price was right. But this review is for 2 things mainly:
1. employee training
2. the potatoes are never consistent
When we went to get our beverages, the milk was completely out. I reported it, and no one did anything. Minutes later, I report it again, this time to the cashier. I said «the milk has been out for 20 min. now». Then I overheard a worker being told, please change the milk now, and i over heard the worker say «I know it’s out, I don’t know how to change it».
So the worker doesn’t know how to change it, so just let’s it be. Lovely. But eventually and before my meal was finished I finally got my milk. This is actually the SECOND time this place has opened for lunch at 11am with the milk dispenser completely empty.
Now for the mashed potatoes. It’s more than obvious that they’re made from potato flakes and not fresh potatoes. I used to work in a restaurant and I know that if you at least read the directions and add the right amount of milk and butter, they will come out reasonably well. This time they tasted dry and pastey. Gross.
However the Beef Pot Roast is superb and is what keeps me coming back.