Today I visited the Oasis Buffet at Victoryland in Shorter, Alabama. I must preface by saying that I am a waiter at another restaurant, and so I view the service in a different way.
Upon entering the restaurant you pay at the doorway. For me I payed the adult price of $12.95 for dinner, and with tax the total came to $13.92. My waitress' name was Erin, and her service was "par", not excellent but ok.
I started with getting a sweet tea (it wasn't all that sweet, but that's my personal taste). I got up to get a salad, and noticed that the ranch dressing was very "watered-down", this was not that big of a deal to me, but next time I would prefer it to be a little thicker. While I was going to the next [buffet]line, I saw that there were a lot of workers just standing around. I started to become uncomfortable only because the workers that were standing behind the line were just staring at me. They were not doing anything, and all I kept thinking was "is there something on my face?" Because of this, I ended up skipping this line and moved to the next. As a waiter/restaurant worker, I am taught that you must always find something to do, don't just stand around. These people were literally "getting paid to do nothing".
So anyway, I got macaroni & cheese, dressing(stuffing), collard greens, a piece of tilapia, a chicken finger, grapes, and two desserts - sweet potato pie, and some kind of "dry" chocolate cake. All of the food was pretty good, with the exception of the dry cake lol. I would have liked to get some meat on my plate other than the chicken finger and piece of fish, but remember the line that I told you the workers were standing around at, that was the line with most of the meat on it.
My server was (like I said) ok, she gave refills with out me asking which was good. In addition to a lot of line workers standing around, there were also two cashiers, and two servers. To me this is too many people worker in relation to the number of customers. There were a total of 4 parties(tables) with no more than 3 people each, including myself(party of 1). At the restaurant that I work at, if the same number of people were in the restaurant, there would only be one cashier, one server and one cook, working at the same time, and the service (I have to say) would be good. I think at the Oasis Buffet, this is wasted money! When you have workers just standing around, you are just wasting money.
I ended up sitting around for a while to see if my waitress would kind of rush me along (or turn over the table - even though the restaurant was empty), fortunatly she did not, so I left her a 20% tip, and rounded it to $3.
Overall I would go back to the restaurant, just to see if the service would be any better. Anybody considering to eat here should give it a try, only to see if you may like it. I don't really see the hype about this place that local people (and I am local myself) like about it. I didn't even feel comfortable, and the restaurant does not have that "cozy local" type feel. There is really nothing that sets this restaurant apart from any other buffet. I guess that's because I have been to quite a few restaurants, and my major is Hospitality Management, so I have had better restaurant experiences.
On a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the best, I give it a 3.
Upon entering the restaurant you pay at the doorway. For me I payed the adult price of $12.95 for dinner, and with tax the total came to $13.92. My waitress' name was Erin, and her service was "par", not excellent but ok.
I started with getting a sweet tea (it wasn't all that sweet, but that's my personal taste). I got up to get a salad, and noticed that the ranch dressing was very "watered-down", this was not that big of a deal to me, but next time I would prefer it to be a little thicker. While I was going to the next [buffet]line, I saw that there were a lot of workers just standing around. I started to become uncomfortable only because the workers that were standing behind the line were just staring at me. They were not doing anything, and all I kept thinking was "is there something on my face?" Because of this, I ended up skipping this line and moved to the next. As a waiter/restaurant worker, I am taught that you must always find something to do, don't just stand around. These people were literally "getting paid to do nothing".
So anyway, I got macaroni & cheese, dressing(stuffing), collard greens, a piece of tilapia, a chicken finger, grapes, and two desserts - sweet potato pie, and some kind of "dry" chocolate cake. All of the food was pretty good, with the exception of the dry cake lol. I would have liked to get some meat on my plate other than the chicken finger and piece of fish, but remember the line that I told you the workers were standing around at, that was the line with most of the meat on it.
My server was (like I said) ok, she gave refills with out me asking which was good. In addition to a lot of line workers standing around, there were also two cashiers, and two servers. To me this is too many people worker in relation to the number of customers. There were a total of 4 parties(tables) with no more than 3 people each, including myself(party of 1). At the restaurant that I work at, if the same number of people were in the restaurant, there would only be one cashier, one server and one cook, working at the same time, and the service (I have to say) would be good. I think at the Oasis Buffet, this is wasted money! When you have workers just standing around, you are just wasting money.
I ended up sitting around for a while to see if my waitress would kind of rush me along (or turn over the table - even though the restaurant was empty), fortunatly she did not, so I left her a 20% tip, and rounded it to $3.
Overall I would go back to the restaurant, just to see if the service would be any better. Anybody considering to eat here should give it a try, only to see if you may like it. I don't really see the hype about this place that local people (and I am local myself) like about it. I didn't even feel comfortable, and the restaurant does not have that "cozy local" type feel. There is really nothing that sets this restaurant apart from any other buffet. I guess that's because I have been to quite a few restaurants, and my major is Hospitality Management, so I have had better restaurant experiences.
On a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the best, I give it a 3.
