Old Country Buffet

Has really changed over the years, become old.
Food is usually dried out looking, not very appetizing, employees look bored and get put out when asked something.
Prices too high for what you get.
Revamp, change your attitude or close.

I find this place very clean than others, the food was not too exciting, but otherwise this place is not too bad.

Food is decent for the price. It’s not terrible and not the best but you get what you pay for.
But the reason for this review is the condition of the bathrooms. DISGUSTING. The men’s bathroom was so disgusting that my 11-​year old son came back and said he didn’t want to use it. We had to take him to the store next door. And the women’s bathroom was not much better. The floors were wet and there was toilet paper on the floor, not to mention the nasty stench that hit you when you first open the door. After our visit to the bathroom, I honestly lost my appetite. Restaurant management should know that the cleanliness of the restaurant is crucial.

It’s kind of disgusting. How is this worth $ 15? It’s a mish mash of low quality food. Even the pico de gallo was made poorly. Entire pieces of jalapeño, including the stem?
Disgusting.
And then there’s sad tables of guys eating alone. I’d rather buy a bucket of fried chicken and wet naps for my couch.

Ugh Old. Country. Buffet.
The place I love to hate. And the place I hate to love.
This is not the place where I walk out of saying, «YUM Glad we ate here!»
It’s a meal. But it’s more like a buffet of food recipes from your old public school lunches.
But it’s a place we go time and time again. It’s good for families. And even better for our kid. If our daughter could rate this she would give it 10 out of 5 stars. And so we return time and time again.
The place used to be better. They have cut costs a lot recently and it shows. It wasn’t so bad when they offered stir fry, steaks, and shrimp more often. They have less staff now too.
We have days where the food trays sit empty for too long, plates are not available, dirty dishes sit around too long. Management half asses it most days. The prices go up and up and up. They now try to trick you by advertising a lower cost but not including the drink price with it.
A few weeks ago a miracle happened. We came in, the food was all fresh and filled. I even think the carver smiled at us! Turn around, and their was a manager I’ve never seen going around with the health inspector. Ahhhh I see!
At the end of the day this place isn’t horrible. Years from now I’ll be dead but this place will probably still be chugging along. They have a good crowd still showing up. They can do better but I guess they think, «Why bother? We are still getting asses in the seats.»

The sorbet machine was full of old, hard congealed parts in the sorbet. Making me think it was expired or had at least gone bad. We noticed before we ate it, or else we would have gotten sick.
The food is terrible.

This place is good if you’re a dude and real hungry. You could get some decent value for your $ 12. If you got kids, they will not get their $ 6.49’s worth. My kids gave their mac n cheese a thumbs down. Better off getting them several things from McD’s dollar menu.
The best and most memorable items for me was their white white mashed potatoes and the dark brown gravy. Reminded me of the mash from those CPS hot lunches!
Note– they hide their milk machines in the back drink station.

Our favorite OCB was in Northbrook but it closed many years ago! Too bad.
In rating this type of buffet, you have to look at value for money. The idea is you pay a fixed amount for basically an unlimited amount of food. Then you ask: is the food good enough to make it worthwhile? Usually it has been just good enough but not exceptional. Now, it seems maybe the OCB here changed owners because we did not like it as much in last 3 or 4 months as previously. Employees seem highly unmotivated. Last time, on a Sat night, no one even came to our table to introduce themselves as our server!
The food was decent, like I said. The OCB is worth it IF you can get a discount coupon. Otherwise it is getting expensive, almost $ 25 for two for dinner, NOT including drink.
But… recenty we haven’t even received any discount coupons through email. So we are disappointed at OCB latest version. We prefer something lke Sweet Tomatoes for the buffet experience.

Old Country Buffet is exactly what you would picture it to be: a second home. Okay, maybe not. Today was my first time in a while visiting this location and I will say that the reason I like OCB so much is because I have a lot of good memories of going when I was a small child (most likely because of the ice cream bar). Today I was able to enjoy a couple mini chicken sandwiches, along with some corn and mashed potatoes. My second plate was full of macaroni and to end my dining experience, of course I got frozen yogurt. As a few others stated, for the price of $ 8.50 a person and an extra ~$ 2.00 for unlimited drinks, you really can’t go wrong. Not only do they have ice cream and assorted foods, they do offer breakfast and have a great salad bar. OCB is nice for those days that you really don’t feel like cooking, but you still want a nice, «home-​cooked» meal.

Absolutely disgusting. It is so dirty that should’ve turned around and walked out. Repeatedly picked up plates, bowls and silverware that was dirty with caked on food. Gross. Portions of the food buffet were empty and never refilled. I was so disgusted thinking my silverware was contaminated that I hardly are anyway. It was filthy.

When we first walked in, we were welcomed by a nice employee. We then got our seats ad started eating. The food was not that good. The mashed potatoes were very salty and the ground beef was very dry. For dessert i got a brownie in fudge. It had a strange taste to it so i put it to the side and grabbed something else. As i walked to the ice-​cream machine, another person was trying to get vanilla ice cream out of the machine. It wouldnt come out at all, so i grabbed some cookies instead. The snickerdoodle cookies were nice an soft. But the chocolate chip cookies were hard and very bland. After we ate i went to the mens restroom. As i walked in, a strong unpleasant odor filled the room. The floors were dirty and the mirror was dirty too. I would not come here again.

The manager at this location is rude. The food is not flavorful and is bland. Children under 5 should be free, as most buffets are. I would rather eat Wendy’s fast food which is more flavorful than this — in fact, they should get a chef to design the recipes of their menu and to train their cooks.

Overall OCB isn’t a bad choice for the money. It’s clean, well stocked, and had a nice assortment of food for everyone. The grilled chicken was tasty, as was the fish. I also enjoyed the salad bar and it’s wide variety of choices. Lot’s of good fruit and desserts.
I will definitely return with my wife. Best to get there on the early side, as they sometimes can run out of certain items.

I went there for lunch yesterday and I can tell they must be in trouble financially. The meat dishes was only one and it was in a cup with about 2 ounces of meat, a bunch of potatoes and gravey. Other than that it was chicken, fish or salads. I was very disappointed. I guess it will be Golden Corral for me now if I want to go to a buffet that has meat.

Got dragged here by friends. Horrible food, slow cashier people, 2 $ up charge for drinks are you kidding! This place is a joke never coming back!

It’s a Monday night at 7:30pm and decided to get dinner at OCB. What a mistake! There’s an hour left before closing time but that’s no excuse! I picked up a plate and the back of the next plate below still had food on it. I picked up the next 3 plates with the same result. Either the dishwasher sprinkled some water on the plates and deemed it clean or decided to shove aside a pile of dirty dishes to be taken back out to be reused. Before I realized who he was, a 50ish — 60ish gray-​haired gentleman whom I am going to assume was the manager quickly disappeared to the back kitchen with a length of paper register tape in his hand around 7:55pm and no name tag. If this OCB closes down like the other surrounding OCB’s… (ie. Niles, Vernon Hills, Northbrook & Rolling Meadows all closed) it would be no surprise. My recommendation to you is to skip this place and go elsewhere.

Our favorite OCB was Niles, and that closed. So for many a time we were going to the one on Lincoln avenue. We finally stopped going there. It was getting dirty and it’s very dark inside. It just felt OLD.
Today, Easter, we decided to try the one in Arlington Heights. And it was very nice! Their special was Prime Rib, and it was excellent. Since it was the holiday, I’m sure they raised the price a few bucks. We had nowhere to go, so we tried it. The selections were very good and, as always, the salad bar was fresh.
We will probably make this one some place where we might go often.

Wrong day to go to a marginal restaurant.
Went after a day at the museum. Turned out to be kids eat free Thursday, buy one, get one coupon day and Spring Break.
Result — a line out the door and screaming kids EVERYWHERE.
Food stations were backed up, steak line was 25 people long, and kids were spilling food all over the place. I am a parent, and I could NEVER let my kids act the way these kids acted. The parents (most of whom did not speak English) paid no attention to their kids and were busy trying to fill 3 plates each — for themselves. The dessert station was so gross that the health dept would have shut it down instantly if they had seen it. No attempt was made to clean up the mess while we were there.
I have been here before — always because my kids wanted it — and I have never liked this place.
Drinks are NOT included in the prices and food is marginal at best, dirty, undercooked and cold at worst.
Avoid this place.

Food is dead. Terrible! Drinks not included. Makes Burger King around the corner a better choice. You can also get fresh and great food for about the same price at Olive Garden across the street.
Blan food, potatoes made from a box, sauces are watered down, stuff is old. Pizza has no pizza taste and out of microwave.
Nasty!
I made the mistake of eating there so you don’t have to.

Disgusting…
Yucky yuck yuck. Saturday night after having a few drinks with friends in the burbs I thought it would be a good idea to wake up and go get brunch. I suggested OCB. What a mistake. I don’t know if I was confused or if the last time I was here I was a child but this place is pure junk. This doesn’t even fit the hangover cure meal that I was looking for. We should have just gone to Original Granny’s. There are so many better places to go than here.
No no no