The Spread

Hi. Well after a long wait to finally get a replacement for Paula Deen’s buffet Ceasars finally opens The Spread
and a spread it is… at least a 40 plus variety of foods to load up on… anything from Asian pot stickers to pizza to
chicken, and even a large assortment of seafood dishes if you visit on a friday night which is what I did
recently. Let me start off by stating that if you were a fan of Paula’s shorts ribs, corn, mashed potatoes, dressing
and brown gravy then you need not worry as those items are the same as before if not better. But, if you were a seafood fan then I feel you’ll be disappointed as I was on this visit. Btw, they only serve seafood on friday nights.
First of all, the crab was all served at one central station and you did not serve yourself as before… they serve you and depending on when you. The crab is served out of big plastic containers and depending on where your crab is (at the top was the best) determines how
watered down they were… after getting a mediocre plateful from the middle (somewhat soggy, mushy even)
I quickly ditched those and went for other items and was pleasantly surprised by the breaded shrimp, oysters,
and calamari as they all were nicely cooked — not overly breaded and not cooked to death. Unfortunately, the plain shrimp were watered down and were a big disappointment as was the fact that they no longer offered steamed oysters as this was a hit at the former Deens buffet.
I tried nearly all of the main items including brisket (so-​so), prime beef (had a nicely done cut) pot stickers (ok
but overcooked a bit) mussels (really nicely cooked in a Italian based tomatoe sauce) chicken (was ok… not
great) and came away feeling as if I was in a tug of war between rating this place a 3 star or 4 star but what
tipped it for me was dessert. Although plentiful and varied as the desserts were I always went for the bread pudding when it was Paulas… well the bread pudding was the biggest disappointment of the night and i swear
they eveidently just neglected it it seems. It was waaaay overcooked to the point of you having to really
dig in with your spoon to get it out and it resembled more of a hardened meatloaf in texture and the bourbon
sauce was as thick as cold ketchup. One bite and i was on to something else. Luckily, the cookies and ice cream did the trick and satisfied my sweet cravings for the evening and off i went to gamble.