Smorgasbord/Cafeterias-Dallas

[Mike R.]

Are there any of the old-fashioned smorgasbords open in Dallas. If so, which one's the top? Any recommended, don't-miss items?

IIRC, I went to one in Abilene (Luby's???) back in 1975.

[irodguy]

If you are looking for Southern type food you should do Babe's Dinner House http://www.babeschicken.com/index2.ph....

They serve family style so while they are not your typical Smorgasbord, it's close enough. Just go there with a friend and one person order fry chicken and another chicken fried steak. There is no way you will finish and the veggies are better than any cafeteria around the area.

There are also several down home places in the Como neighborhood of Ft. Worth. You can easily eat yourself silly.

[otis]

Tragically, the Casa Linda cafeteria is gone. It shut down in late 1/07 and a sign posted in the window said it is "permanently closed". I discovered this last week on my regular visit to Dallas to check in on my parents. I'd been visiting the CL and previously the Highland Park Cafeteria for better than 40 years. A great tradition that seems pretty much irreplaceable.

[interference]

Did you know that the Highland Park Cafeteria has reopened in its original location? Blurb here: http://eats.beloblog.com/archives/200...

[adkim]

I went to the newly reopened casa linda/highland park cafeteria a couple of months ago. I was overly excited and eager to welcome back my long time favorite 'comfort food restaurant'. I got my usual plates (roast, deviled eggs, mac and cheese, broccoli, green beans, fish, etc) and was completely let down. Everything from the deviled eggs to the mac and cheese were horribly over cooked to the point of mushiness. (yeah, i understand it's cafeteria food, but still...) (and if you never have had a boiled egg extremely overcooked, well, that is something everyone must experience...cause I can't even fathom how long they let those eggs cook. the yolk for the deviled eggs were almost powdery)

My fondness for the restaurant will give the newly resurrected place a second chance, maybe a third, but I will let the cooks have some more time to figure out the recipes before I go back.

[pinotho]

adkim , I ate there on Aug 7th and it was up to its old standard , which was very , very good . Interestingly , I share your compulsion for the deviled eggs , and you will be happy to know that they were good . Fried chicken was up to snuff too . Remember the old days at the Highland Park Cafeteria on Knox when you would pickup Thangsgiving dinner....the long line of folks waiting on their dinners ? I had their current version of dressing (stuffing?) and it was not quite the same , but was still worth ordering . Anyway , hopes this helps , as I want to see them succeed since they have such good food .

[buck]

No cafeteria on earth is better than the Casa Linda Cafeteria in Dallas.

It's full of good home cooking. Also, there's a Sunday roadhouse buffet west of Fort Worth, Vance Godbey's Restaurant, with filet mignon, BBQ, catfish and southern veggies.

[Mike R.]

Looking for down-home stuff like hominy, okra, fried chicken...is Furr's just like Luby's...which is consistently better quality and what price range are we talking about?

Any of these near DFW?

[Kirk]

Luby's is better than Furr's. I've never seen hominy on the steam tables, though.

[jlawrence01]

Agree with you that Luby's is substantially better than Furr's, although Furr's fed me well through graduate school.

Being a northerner, I had never tried hominy until I had it at Furr's. And it was outstanding cooked in butter with a general hint of jalapeno to give it a little zing. I have to say that it makes my menu at home occasionally.

[cheryl29]

what kind of food are you looking for?

yes, plenty of luby's around as well as some Furr's locations. You can visit their websites for details.
Arlington has a Hometown Buffet...their website also has their details.
This southern home cookin buffet seemed to keep popping up on the net with good reviews:

http://cityguide.aol.com/dallas/resta...

I haven't eaten at an american/country buffet in years, so i can't give any particular recs.

[Kirk]

P.S. If you want to try a salad-bar smorgasbord on steroids (plus a parade of meats), check out one of the Brazilian riodizios/churrascarias..Texas de Brazil, Boi na Braza, Fogo de Chao, etc.

[Kirk]

I wouldn't call Luby's a smorgasbord. It's more of an old-fashioned southern cafeteria. There are still a few Luby's around Dallas, despite some financial hardships at the parent company in the past few years.

There are lots of buffets available, and some of them have smorgasbord-type setups. Weekend brunches are very popular, and a lot of the hotels have buffet lineups; Blue Mesa does a Southwestern/Mexican buffet on weekends; Indian and Chinese restaurants do buffets throughout the week.

A search for "buffet" on Guidelive.com just yielded 135 restaurants throughout DFW.