HomeTown Buffet

I think this buffet is not good at all. (,) This buffet needs to be clean. The food is not so good. I really like waffle fries but many of the customers took all the waffle fries and I think they should be nice and allow the other customers to get some too. Sometimes I’m annoyed that the ice cream ran out.

I think the service here is excellent. From the cashier to the waiters and every one who works here. The food. IS great. There’s allot of varieties to choose from and it is fresh also. I went twice to this location. Will be returning again. Thanks HT for great Gr8 service.

The staff was nice. The food is okay. The selection of food has gone down hill a bit. Its not encouraging me to come back.

Definitely a disappointment! No plates, no silverware and little to no clean cups. After an adventurous day in San Diego, taking my family to a buffet would be sufficient. This place really needs management to step up to the plate with cleanliness, readiness on dishes, fresh foods (veggies/​fruits) and machines that don’t make you feel nervous because the food is struggling to get out (soft serve machine). The reason for the 2 stars was because of Luis and Andrea, the two staff workers taking care of our table. They were friendly and efficient workers, thank you kindly. Our visit was on Sunday ⁸⁄₉ between 3:55 — 4:40.

We came for dinner and we waited for 45min for the carving station to be refilled, nothing… When we complained about it and asked to get charged for lunch instead of dinner since the carving section is the difference from Lunch and dinner the associate Oscar Rodriguez denied us any money back and we want to recommend not to visit this location the salad bar did not look fresh and you pay for dinner but get only the lunch menu… Not coming back…

Went here last weekend for breakfast. I’ve enjoyed going to a hometown ever since I was a kid. It seems to me that the quality of the food continues to get worst. I know they’ve tried to push a newer, different menu but it hasn’t worked. The prices continually rise and it just isn’t worth the type of food you’re getting for it. I would rather go to a casino buffet, pay a little more and know I’m getting quality food.
For breakfast, they have the standard meat, eggs, potatoes, omelet, etc. When we first got there, they had a full batch of severely burnt bacon. For some reason they decided to put it out? Only until we were almost ready to leave and the last of the burnt bacon was gone, they decided to put a new batch out. Guess what? Completely under cooked this time. Bad at keeping food in stock was another low point. The only bright spot was the service with keeping our table clean and very friendly. I would not recommend this place to anyone and more than likely will not come back.

Very little food selection that one would consider fresh. Got a slice of roast beef that turned out to be mostly fat. For the price the meal left a lot to be desired. I will not be recommending nor will I be returning.

I know I shouldn’t have expected much and in all honesty, I’m a guy who loves a «gimmicky» meal — enter HomeTown Buffet.
I remember HomeTown Buffet as the place that the coaches would take the entire football team to eat as a reward. A place where growing boys, pumping pure testosterone, with high metabolism and an appetite for destruction could eat till they explode at a reasonable price. The good news is that it is still that place! The price is right, nobody is going to deny you seconds, thirds, fourths or tenths, but the bad news is that the quality is mediocre at absolute best.
The carving station was serving dry and crumbly meat, the salad bar offers only the creamiest of dressings, the fried chicken was crispy but overcooked and the general supply of the self-​serve buffet was low and not quickly replenished. The roasted chicken was the sole highlight of the meal but it ain’t being the top terd of crap mountain, if you know what I mean…
Will I be back? Not likely. My money is much better spent at Sizzler the next time I am in the market for a good ol’ fashioned «gimmicky» meal.

I grew up going to Hometown Buffet in Mira Mesa and have always loved it, but this Rolando location was seriously subpar and the worst I have been to.
The food was overly salty over all, and the fried chicken was overly cooked. I’m used to eating HTB fried chicken that is still juicy and with delicately crispy skin.
Despite being salty, some of my favorite items here were a bit bland. The macaroni and cheese — usually the best thing at HTB — tasted watered down with not much cheese flavor. The brown gravy for the mashed potatoes was lumpy and salty but not really flavorful with that nice beef stock taste I’ve enjoyed before. I did enjoy the chicken pot pie, which wasn’t on the menu when I was growing up.
Also, I have always enjoyed EXCEPTIONAL service at Mira Mesa, where the workers are friendly and come to your table often to clear your plates. I was surrounded the whole evening with all my plates because no one was coming to pick them up until the very end.
Additionally, Family Nights are Thursdays 5−8pm, and whenever I’ve gone to the other HTB location, the H.T. Bee mascot comes out and passes balloons to the kids, but there was nothing like that at this location. We had little kids in our group and I know they would have loved this.
I was disappointed that Dan’s first exposure to HTB was this although he actually said it wasn’t too bad and that he’d go again. If we took him to the Mira Mesa location, it would be a much better experience.

Trying to be fair on this review I give one star for service and 1 star for halfway decent food place is falling apart and the options are minimal desserts are very weak salad is decent but the food gets here has been sitting for awhile generous 2 stars did not go to this location $ 16 Sunday with drink… overpriced

UYE for Danimal brought me here. Groupon made it budget friendly. $ 1.99 Kids night Thursday’s was a bonus.
Good meetup over cafeteria casual eats with fine company and thoughtful discussions about current topics and world events while the kiddos quietly played on their electronic devices. This evening’s Roll Call:
B-​rad
Chris
Danimal
Diego
Jazmin
Lesley + lil Dude
PJ
Wifey + mini me + Me
I am not an HTB apologist. Any place can be as good as the employees make it and how well team leaders manage resources. Service tonight was good overall. The friendly cashier greeted us and had no problems ringing up Groupon vouchers. Easy peasy.
We were able to push some tables together and sit in Luis’s reserved section. He did an excellent job of clearing off tables and checking up on us. I noticed that he even stopped to help out with singing happy birthday with the staff for a group sitting at different section. Thumbs up.
I thought it was going to be mayhem for Family Night, but it wasn’t awful. Bummer that they didn’t have any balloons left for Mini-​me or Lesley’s lil Dude. When making the rounds through the buffet stations you need Matrix-​like reactions and flexibility to dodge little ones darting by. We cool as long as they’re using tongs and utensils and not putting their grubby little paws all over the food. In addition to the usual sweets at the dessert station, they were also spinning cotton candy. Just a bit more in case Icee wasn’t enough sugar.
Nice menu options for dinner. Fried chicken was very good. Rotisserie chicken was good. The chicken & dumplings were good. Mashed potatoes & gravy were good. Green beans were good. Carrots were ok. The corn was overcooked. My fried okra portion already died under the heat lamp. The dinner rolls looked pretty, but mine was dry and I nearly broke a tooth. Salad was ok since I got a couple of wilted leaves. I didn’t partake in desserts and they looked good, but I opted for Icee as my sweets.
This HTB gets a bad rep for its location, and maybe when quality suffers it might be deserved, but on this Family Night Thursday, both the staff and customers were dandy. Unfortunately, I have no tale this time of ghetto fab people rolling in with shower caps or pajamas and bunny slippers this time. Just a garden variety casual dinner with friends and family. Cheers!

Why is this place still in business? Everything is cold and disgusting. I feel like vomiting from every bite. I can’t believe I put my body through this kind of shit.
Corn muffins tasted like fish. Fried chicken was cold. The pizza was soggy.
HOW DO YOU MESS UP WHITE RICE!!!

This was one of the worst places I’ve ever eaten in my life. The food not only taste bad, it looked awful. Everything was overcooked and some of it was even sticking to the steamer pots. I picked up a piece of pecan pie that look like snot in between two layers of crust. The fried chicken was not bad but that’s the only thing I found in the building that was edible. Most of the serving pans were half empty or nothing in them at all. Honestly, I left the place wondering if I was going to be sick later. I’ve been to other Home Town Buffets that were quite nice. NOT THIS ONE.
It was very disappointing. I wish I had taken pictures but trust me, they would have just made you sick.

Food is better than it was in the past but ice empty — using paper cups for sodas — 3 of 16 soda dispensers out of syrup — 2 more out of order — water dispenser broken (easily fixed with a pivot pin) — bathroom was not cleaned at all — basically the manager should stop walking around asking if everything is alright and lol at what’s wrong and fix it!!!

Ok to start with I’m not a big Home Town Buffet guy but this one is the best one I’ve been too & I liked it & would come back if I’m in the area. I came across this one while visiting someone & the fam wanted to eat here so we did. First the service was great. From beginning to end, the young lady at the register was real polite & inviting. Our server Mina was very attentive & fast & very friendly. What I liked a lot was the manager a middle age woman came & checked on us twice to see if we were all good & she was helping clean, pickup dishes & bring out food. I loved that!
Most Home Towns I go to are pretty messy & the food ain’t all that. But this one was pretty clean & most of the food looked & tasted fresh! The Orange Chicken was on point & was my fav & probably better then some Chinese places I’ve been too. The Turkey & Roast beef were very tender & moist & good. Baked Fish well I had 2 pieces so that tells you it was good. The salad bar was a bit smaller then other Home Towns but over all it was a good experience & very friendly staff. Tho I only spend $ 28 & it is only Home Town Buffet I still tipped Mina $ 7 cuz she was good & friendly.
One of the only things that I felt bad about was some of the workers seem they had dirty stained uniforms but they still looked happy. They should get more or newer uniforms. This place might be in a bad area but don’t worry the staff inside are nice & friendly. I never thought I give a Home Town Buffet 4 or more stars but this one deserves it!

I bought a Groupon for 5 $ 10 coupons, so I thought this would be a good deal for the kids and I. The staff are friendly and for the most part the food was decent. What’s upsetting to me is that a server never cleared our table for the whole time we dined, i grabbed a fork out of the utensil area, and it had dried on food, and my very first bite of broccoli was frozen! I notified a staff member about the broccoli, but it wasn’t changed out. Overall, I’m not impressed.

As a child everyone loves going to hometown buffet but as you grow up you will soon realize how disgusting the food is
Came today on a Thursday and kids under 8 eat for $ 1.99. Good deal I suppose. They upped their prices for adults I think about almost $ 20 a person.
Yes the inside looks way better than years ago and the food has more option but is it good? The answer is no. The only thing here that is close to good is the chicken pot pie and the fish. Everything else was either too dry, burnt, salty, flavorless or just damn nasty.
The staff was really nice and they also have a cotton candy machine now for the kids! It was really hectic tonight with kids running around with their cotton candy and balloons.
I won’t be back unless someone else is paying and every other buffet in SD is closed.

This restaurant has been here since I was a child and still continues to serve food. Porque why?
I came for dinner the other day since I haven’t been here in a while and it hasn’t change much.
For the price, the food is not that great and is borderline satisfactory. The food seems like it has been sitting in the warmer for weeks… even the salad does taste «fresh». You’re better off grabbing a sandwich from subway or wings across the street. Not really worth it. Nothing spectacular
The décor is at least decent but keep in mind that they use to have a problem with rats. The place doesn’t look that sanitary but everything seems organized.
The staff here is great. They are friendly and polite.

Roast beef was perfect medium rare. Mashed potatoes were hot and perfect. Mac n cheese wasn’t soupy. Even the same manager seemed to be rested and in a decent mood. Stuffing was sweet and had chunks of dark caramelized onions, buttery and salty. Salad bar was clean and well stocked. Maybe they got lucky tonight. Who knows but it was worth the gamble. I left very pleased.

Where do I even start… DISGUSTING FOOD!!!
I just had dinner tonight, it’s expensive for the quality, selection and stale food you get. I heard about their remodel and saw their CEO in a commercial saying it’s good but it’s honestly not and I can’t believe I even paid to eat there. I highly recommend going to souplantation or one of the casino buffets instead.
How is it that corporate allows this business to stay open? Do they not monitor the reviews? I was shocked by the amount of people inside the restaurant and how many people were able to pay so much money for such bad food. I filed a complaint with corporate requesting a refund. I plan to never eat there again. I think everyone here should complain to corporate.