Golden Corral, Pancho's and Other Low-Brow Eateries of Your Youth

[Guest]

2 hours ago, pearlandhorn said:

I’ll still eat the shit out of a pizza buffet but I will no longer eat CiCi’s. Mr. Gatti’s is the destination for pizza buffets for my family if I’m going. My wife will take our 5 year old there without me if I’m out of town but I will no longer eat that nasty shit.

Man, can't do it. I'm now at the point where if I don't watch what I eat, then the pounds would start adding. If I ate a lunch pizza buffet, then it means no dinner.

[Spaulding Smails 1552]

Not sure if it fits the topic, but I have fond memories of my two visits to UR Cooks (once in Austin, once in Houston) when I was a kid.  As a kid from the poor side of Corpus Christi, picking out my own steak and grilling it myself was peak dining experience.  

[pearlandhorn 3269]

27 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Man, can't do it. I'm now at the point where if I don't watch what I eat, then the pounds would start adding. If I ate a lunch pizza buffet, then it means no dinner.

I only eat pizza for “cheat” meals. This is typically once every two months or so. I eat once a day otherwise. I went from 310+ to 180 lbs. I can splurge every once in a while. My typical diet is chicken/lean beef/venison and veggies.

[LosIllini 91]

Worked with a bunch of old NASA engineers in Clear Lake right out of school.

Their weekly routine would be Ryan's, Mr. Gatti's, CiCi's, Pancho's (they'd occasionally skip this for Grandy's or double up on Mr. Gatti's, or Ryan's every other week), Oasis (for the all you can eat shrimp), and Genghis Grill.  Ryan's was always the safe goto.  Rinse and Repeat.

Edited November 21, 2021 by LosIllini

[RPM 26318]

On 11/19/2021 at 2:39 PM, dcbc said:

So on the BBQ side of this thread, is this where we talk about Luther's and Tony Roma's?

Back in the late 80's I wandered into a Tony Roma's in Buffalo, NY at 9pm after driving 12 hours nonstop. They treated us like kings even though we looked like beggars. I will never say anything bad about TR's.

[Mo Horn 8833]

Growing up our fancy celebration place was Magic Time Machine. Always a mystery what character the waitperson would be. 

[Underdog 28620]

First Roma’s I remember hitting up was out in Vegas early 80s at the Stardust IIRC, wife and I loved it.  We were excited when one opened on the Riverwalk in SA.  Used to be one just north of NYC but it was rather disappointing.  

[4th&Five 41526]

1 hour ago, Spaulding Smails said:

Not sure if it fits the topic, but I have fond memories of my two visits to UR Cooks (once in Austin, once in Houston) when I was a kid.  As a kid from the poor side of Corpus Christi, picking out my own steak and grilling it myself was peak dining experience.  

My dad’s favorite place ever. When he dies I may keep his ashes in one of those big ass plastic mugs. 

[tx 3 putt 76928]

1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Man, can't do it. I'm now at the point where if I don't watch what I eat, then the pounds would start adding. If I ate a lunch pizza buffet, then it means no dinner.

I eat the toppings and a big salad. Huge glass of tea 

[956 Worldwide 34706]

One thing that always grossed me out at the buffet places- shit getting mixed together at the salad bar. Especially bad was contrasting colors, like a splatter of French dressing splashed across the blue cheese. Rationally, it shouldn’t have bugged me to have food in my food, but it did.

Also at a Golden Corral I once saw someone pour a bunch of ranch on a salad and then a ladle full of Thousand Island, which is behavior I’m confident FBI serial killer profilers watch out for. 

[Brisketexan 105106]

2 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

One thing that always grossed me out at the buffet places- shit getting mixed together at the salad bar. Especially bad was contrasting colors, like a splatter of French dressing splashed across the blue cheese. Rationally, it shouldn’t have bugged me to have food in my food, but it did.

Also at a Golden Corral I once saw someone pour a bunch of ranch on a salad and then a ladle full of Thousand Island, which is behavior I’m confident FBI serial killer profilers watch out for. 

Y'all remember the Wendy's Superbar?  Soup and chili, baked potatoes, and salad bar with all the usual stuff you'd see in a full salad bar, all for something like $4-5 back in the late 80s?  When that first started, a bunch of us hit it for off campus lunch in high school.  One of my not-so-bright friends made a big-ass salad, sat down, and started to eat it.  He stops and says "man, this salad dressing tastes weird."  We all look at his plate, and at him.  For a long time.  Then one of us says "you fucking dumbass.....that's chocolate pudding."

[Tylerocks 2553]

Steak and Ale was our "nice" birthday/celebratory dinner when I was a kid.  That changed to Texas Land and Cattle as I got a little older.

Speaking of Steak and Ale...a buddy of mine worked at the one in Austin.  Came home one day and told the story of how a fly landed on the ranch dressing thing at the salad bar.  instead of shooing it away he just dunked it to the bottom with the ladle.

 

[956 Worldwide 34706]

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Y'all remember the Wendy's Superbar?  Soup and chili, baked potatoes, and salad bar with all the usual stuff you'd see in a full salad bar, all for something like $4-5 back in the late 80s?  When that first started, a bunch of us hit it for off campus lunch in high school.  One of my not-so-bright friends made a big-ass salad, sat down, and started to eat it.  He stops and says "man, this salad dressing tastes weird."  We all look at his plate, and at him.  For a long time.  Then one of us says "you fucking dumbass.....that's chocolate pudding."

At a group work trip on the border of Yankee land (West Virginia), I came seriously hungover to breakfast. I marveled at my luck as I ladled a bunch of gravy over a couple biscuits, with sausage on the side. Sat down, took a couple of bites as coworkers stared at me and announced “this is the worst biscuits and gravy I ever had.”

”That’s not gravy it’s oatmeal.” 

[Brisketexan 105106]

At a group work trip on the border of Yankee land (West Virginia), I came seriously hungover to breakfast. I marveled at my luck as I ladled a bunch of gravy over a couple biscuits, with sausage on the side. Sat down, took a couple of bites as coworkers stared at me and announced “this is the worst biscuits and gravy I ever had.”
”That’s not gravy it’s oatmeal.” 

That’s fucking glorious and…..there but for the grace of god go I.

[Llewelyn Moss 210]

We grew up paycheck to paycheck lower middle class, so any trip out to eat with 4 kids was going to be Pancho’s, CiCi’s, or this place called Bluebonnet Cafeteria or something like that? No doubt a precursor to Golden Corral…I don’t remember exactly where it was, but it was in Garland in the early 90s…for his 9th birthday, my brother asked if he could be dropped off there at lunch and picked up after dinner. Parents heavily considered it but decided he might get kicked out, Homer Simpson-style. 

[tx 3 putt 76928]

1 minute ago, Llewelyn Moss said:

We grew up paycheck to paycheck lower middle class, so any trip out to eat with 4 kids was going to be Pancho’s, CiCi’s, or this place called Bluebonnet Cafeteria or something like that? No doubt a precursor to Golden Corral…I don’t remember exactly where it was, but it was in Garland in the early 90s…for his 9th birthday, my brother asked if he could be dropped off there at lunch and picked up after dinner. Parents heavily considered it but decided he might get kicked out, Homer Simpson-style. 

your brother definitely had a plan on his mind 

[dcbc 14477]

6 hours ago, RPM said:

Back in the late 80's I wandered into a Tony Roma's in Buffalo, NY at 9pm after driving 12 hours nonstop. They treated us like kings even though we looked like beggars. I will never say anything bad about TR's.

We used to get ribs and onion blossoms as take-out from there when I was growing up in Houston.  We loved it.  When I moved to east Texas, and my wife worked in Longview, her office was a couple of doors down from one and we got take out for my old time's sake.  It didn't live up to the memory, but it wasn't bad for what I wanted in that moment.

[Bevo&Pevo 5131]

Step in the "way back machine" , anyone ever eat at a Kmart cafeteria? 

[tx 3 putt 76928]

41 minutes ago, Bevo&Pevo said:

Step in the "way back machine" , anyone ever eat at a Kmart cafeteria? 

Yes 

[HeHateMe 884]

Anyone else remember Pizza Hut being a sit down brick and mortar place?  They did the book it program, give something like 4 book reports and get a free personal pan pizza.  It was the only thing that got 10 year old me to read.

[Brisketexan 105106]

Step in the "way back machine" , anyone ever eat at a Kmart cafeteria? 

Shit yeah. Wanna go older school? Woolworth’s lunch counter. 40+ years ago, we used to go to Santa Fe (tagged along with dad for work) before it got all fancy. He’d take the car for work, and mom and I would cover the whole town on foot. We ate breakfast all the time at the old Woolworths on the south side of the plaza. Loved it.

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

When he’d venture to the big city, my grandfather had a regular rotation of K-Bobs, Bonanza, the Sizzler and Western Sizzlin’. He could go into detail about their relative pros and cons. 

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

38 minutes ago, HeHateMe said:

Anyone else remember Pizza Hut being a sit down brick and mortar place?  They did the book it program, give something like 4 book reports and get a free personal pan pizza.  It was the only thing that got 10 year old me to read.

Yeah, Pizza Hut was fancy.  Salad bar, waitress, all dark like a steakhouse with those red glass candles at the table.  

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

8 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

Growing up our fancy celebration place was Magic Time Machine. Always a mystery what character the waitperson would be. 

Isn’t that place still open in Addison?  Took my kids there like 6-7 years ago.  It still sucked the same foodwise, but that disco/swinging vibe had been replaced by a rundown, sad seediness. 

[SizzleChest 8283]

You haven't dined my friends until you have murdered the salad bar at K-Bob's because who could eat the steak?

[dcbc 14477]

For the Houston 80s Westheimer crowd, Circus Restaurant and Strawberry Patch were legit.

[Brisketexan 105106]

You haven't dined my friends until you have murdered the salad bar at K-Bob's because who could eat the steak?

Not only is there still a K-Bobs in fort Stockton, it is 100% the place that local movers and shakers go to see and be seen. I’m dead serious.

[SizzleChest 8283]

2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Not only is there still a K-Bobs in fort Stockton, it is 100% the place that local movers and shakers go to see and be seen. I’m dead serious.

By movers and shakers, these must be the bowel people.

[DallasHorn26 586]

Isn’t that place still open in Addison?  Took my kids there like 6-7 years ago.  It still sucked the same foodwise, but that disco/swinging vibe had been replaced by a rundown, sad seediness. 

I never got to go as a kid, took my kids a few years ago and how sad it was. It’s like childhood dreams went to die.

[Updawg 2266]

Not only is there still a K-Bobs in fort Stockton, it is 100% the place that local movers and shakers go to see and be seen. I’m dead serious.

I’ve stopped there a few times on the way back from west Texas.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2732]

Used to be a K Bobs in Vernon when I was in HS. We would always eat there on the way home after baseball games. Think it’s a mexican joint now.

[DougO 5245]

The main reason to go to Pancho's was the flautas with queso. 

Do they still have a KFC buffet in Austin? Used to hit that once in a while.

Feces pizza is basically like a paper plate with ketchup and cheese on it. Some things aren't even cheap enough to be worth it. Horrible excuse for consumables.

[DougO 5245]

Used to go to Bonanza for a steak with the salad bar. Once I put a big gob of dressing on my salet and I thought, man, it sure was thick. It turned out to be some kind of pudding. Didn't really blend all that well with fake bacon bits.

[Stunns38 3460]

Anyone remember Old Country Buffet? It was great before the mid 90s. It was popular in the Chicago area and I’m sure east coast. There were some in the Deep South as well.

[Catjuggler 14]

Kips Big Boy

[RPM 26318]

10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Y'all remember the Wendy's Superbar? 

What about Grandy's breakfast buffet?

[Zepol87 9185]

1 hour ago, RPM said:

What about Grandy's breakfast buffet?

I used to destroy that. Is that a not a thing anymore? Steak fingers on top of eggs with gravy and hot sauce was my shit. Anyone know if the KFC buffet in Rowlett is still a thing?I think I last went before 4 or 5 years ago, when my cousins from Wichita Falls and Munday would come visit I would take them there to kill a few hours. That place was awesome 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Zepol87

[Steel Shank 9424]

We used to hit Pancho’s on Oltorf between two-a-days. Pretty amazing.

[wd40 1976]

1 hour ago, Steel Shank said:

We used to hit Pancho’s on Oltorf between two-a-days. Pretty amazing.

Rebel?

Gatti's buffet in the same shopping center was our goto around there.  occasionally hit The Pit bbq, a block or so up Congress, but it usually took too long, and we would have to stop and grab donuts for the class on our way back.  

we did 99cent hamburgers on Riverside for a while, until one us unwrapped a burger from his bag-o' with a bite already taken. 

probably the favorite was to haul ass down to Ben White and hit Taco Cabana, back when it was all the rage.

[956 Worldwide 34706]

7 hours ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Used to be a K Bobs in Vernon when I was in HS. We would always eat there on the way home after baseball games. Think it’s a mexican joint now.

There's a K-Bobs in Calallen. There was never a reason consider eating there until Joe Cotten's burned down. I tried it, the salet was fine.  

Damn, I miss Cotten's though. BBQ served up in Robstown on butcher by a waiter with a bow tie and a maroon jacket, a dipping sauce almost like salsa but mixed with brisket drippings. Glorious. 

[956 Worldwide 34706]

14 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

That’s fucking glorious and…..there but for the grace of god go I.

This ole boy could not fathom why anyone would put a chafing dish of a viscous gray substance beside biscuits that wasn't gravy. The workings of the Yankee mind are mysterious. 

[hornian 5217]

Haven’t read the whole thread, but my parents used to take us to Shoney’s for the buffet when kids would eat for free, and they made us lie about our ages to stretch the free-ness. 
 

One time I was at the buffet and I was past the age cutoff, I was loading up my plate with their “spaghetti” and some nosy kid said I was too old to be eating for free. I told him to mind his own business; but looking back, what a weird and dick move by that kid. I bet he grew up to be a Narc. 

[hornian 5217]

Oh and when I was in high school (late 90s) my hometown got big enough for a McDonald’s. Before that we were strictly Dairy Queen only town, so it was a step up (to a teenager). 
 

For a while they had a special where on one day of the week (Tuesday?) they had 29 cent hamburgers and another day of the week they had 39 cent cheeseburgers. Limit 10. My friends and I would go there after baseball practice with a $5 bill and just order a sack of hamburgers or cheeseburgers for each of us. 

Nothing like 10 McDonalds cheeseburgers and a cup of orange Hi-C (that we filled our water cups with on the sly) as an after school snack, and then still eat dinner later when our parents got home. 
 

Teenage boys are something else. 

Edited November 22, 2021 by hornian

[Player 4575]

 
Hits close to home
We had our rehearsal dinner at the Steak and Ale that was located at Hwy 290 and Mangum in May of 1991.  It is now an adult entertainment establishment.  Maybe I should take the rib there next year to celebrate our 31st anniversary.
And also, why no love for The Black Eyed Pea?  Our first apartment was right off Tidwell and Hollister and the BEP, Bennigans, Steak and Ale, and Luthers BBQ were our 290 goto’s until Papacita’s hit the area.  What was the steak place that turned into The Gold Cup?  It was pretty decent for that time.

I believe the Gold Cup started out as a Gallagher’s steakhouse.

[Brisketexan 105106]

3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

There's a K-Bobs in Calallen. There was never a reason consider eating there until Joe Cotten's burned down. I tried it, the salet was fine.  

Damn, I miss Cotten's though. BBQ served up in Robstown on butcher by a waiter with a bow tie and a maroon jacket, a dipping sauce almost like salsa but mixed with brisket drippings. Glorious. 

Cotten's is part of our family history, as we were S. Texas people for a long time.  We ate there the day after old man Cotten died.....the whole place was in mourning.  The lunch that day was almost a sacrament, eaten in reverence.  It was actually a damned profound experience.

We also ate there literally the weekend before it burned down -- I introduced my kids to Cottens, told them about the legend.  And then it was gone.

But IIRC, "Mike Cottens bbq" opened back up in Calallen, and I went a few years ago.  Same food, same routine.

[Steel Shank 9424]

3 hours ago, wd40 said:

Rebel?

Gatti's buffet in the same shopping center was our goto around there.  occasionally hit The Pit bbq, a block or so up Congress, but it usually took too long, and we would have to stop and grab donuts for the class on our way back.  

we did 99cent hamburgers on Riverside for a while, until one us unwrapped a burger from his bag-o' with a bite already taken. 

probably the favorite was to haul ass down to Ben White and hit Taco Cabana, back when it was all the rage.

Maroon

The Branding Iron in Bee Cave had (I believe) an AYCE crab legs and steak on Sundays(?) back in the day. Good stuff.

[The Ace of Aces 5182]

This thread reminded me of Cotton Patch. They were around East Texas, and you could get a chicken fried steak, two sides and a salad for like $6. It was heaven to us HS kids who were starving but low on funds. 

[UTPhil2006 3807]

4 hours ago, hornian said:

Oh and when I was in high school (late 90s) my hometown got big enough for a McDonald’s. Before that we were strictly Dairy Queen only town, so it was a step up (to a teenager). 
 

For a while they had a special where on one day of the week (Tuesday?) they had 29 cent hamburgers and another day of the week they had 39 cent cheeseburgers. Limit 10. My friends and I would go there after baseball practice with a $5 bill and just order a sack of hamburgers or cheeseburgers for each of us. 

Nothing like 10 McDonalds cheeseburgers and a cup of orange Hi-C (that we filled our water cups with on the sly) as an after school snack, and then still eat dinner later when our parents got home. 
 

Teenage boys are something else. 

Monday was 29 cent hamburgers, Wednesday 39 cent cheeseburgers.  Fueled many a summer days.

[RollLeft 5044]

14 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Not only is there still a K-Bobs in fort Stockton, it is 100% the place that local movers and shakers go to see and be seen. I’m dead serious.

I'm not certain but i think the K'Bob's there is now a newer expanded version, as of 2020.  I remember a smaller old one that had Selena's signature at the door by the cash register.   I also remember the locals telling me that the early 90's were big years that brought progress and change for that town.  Apparently, TDCJ was putting in a unit nearby and therefore the city water treatment and supply was thereby being upgraded.  I'm not joking.   

[Guest]

Used to eat K-Bob's in Brenham during regional UIL meets. Compared to normally eating McDonald's on school outings, we felt like kings.