I always thought that buffets were breeding grounds for infectious disease, where you are eating food that has potentially been handled by a great number of people and stored, for a long time, at optimum temperatures for bacteria growth. Maybe their decline in popularity is connected to the same increased concern about cleanliness that gave rise to hand sanitizer.
My aunt and (former) uncle owned an independent buffet when I was young–this would be sometime in the 80s and into the 90s. I think the restaurant was a casualty of their divorce but I don’t know how it was doing financially up to that. I could ask my mother if she could tell me anything if people in this thread are interested. I don’t think it’s the kind of topic I’d want to bring up with my aunt.
For an $85 buffett, the server better bring me a plate with as much of what I tell them I want on it. As often as I want it.
The most that I have ever paid of a buffet was $50 per plate, it was a brunch buffet with unlimited mimosas and it was some of the best food that I have ever eaten.
We’ve still got a ton of buffets, but now they’re building casinos around them. 
Despite the reputation of Golden Corral, I actually found their quality to be pretty darn good, as buffets go. Of course, I’ve only been to one, once, and it was very busy, so maybe it was an anomaly.
Old Country Buffet has served awful food for at least two decades. But I went to one two weeks ago because my husband insisted and we had a coupon. It was…not quite as awful as it’s been.
Then I realized why…there are now 10 Golden Corrals within an hour’s drive of Chicago. Still none in Chicago, but one as close as Tinley. OCB must be feeling threatened. Good. Maybe I’ll be able to eat more than a salad. (And I am not a food snob. Like the OP, I actually enjoy cafeteria grub. But OCB has a lot of room to continue improvement before they rise to the level of a hospital cafeteria.)
pulykamell, have you been to Red Apple? I’ve been wanting to try it.
Yep. That was one of our Sunday late lunch/early dinner go-tos when I was a junior and senior in college, precisely for the buffet. It’s a perfectly good Polish buffet (at least it was back then–it’s been about 10-15 years since I’ve last been there. Since I come from a Polish family, I get Polish food pretty much whenever I want when I visit my parents. 
) I really don’t think you can go wrong, though. I can’t think of a Polish buffet I’ve been to that was particularly bad.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been to a Polish buffet, so as long as you didn’t post something about rats or drunken owners in the dining room, it’s all good.
Thanks!
Edit: Tell your mom I’ll be over next Saturday. 
Allow me to touch up your language a little…
There. All better.
Oh, yes, you could be correct, too. Much better to have all the extensive food handling occur back in the kitchen full of minimum-wage undocumented workers and teens who think flicking boogers in the salad and spitting in the mashed potatoes is a fun way to get even with cranky patrons.
Oh, you got to my post before my edit, but same thing phrased differently. Yes, it’s a fine establishment. I’d recommend it.
ETA: Although it seems you now did get to the edit. Anyhow, for those playing the home game, this was my original quote that Why Not was responding to:
“Yep. That was one of our Sunday dinner go-tos when I was a junior and senior in college, precisely for the buffet. It’s a perfectly respectable Polish buffet. I honestly can’t say I’ve encountered that much difference between one Polish buffet and another. All the ones I’ve ever been to have been pretty decent.”
On a similar tip, one type of restaurant that has definitely exploded here in the US in the last decade is the churrascaria, or Brazilian steakhouse. Basically, you sit at your table and men in leggings bring beef, pork, sausage, and all manner of other meats to you on skewers, carving from the skewer directly to your plate. It has all the gluttony of the buffet restaurant, without the inconvenience of having to stop eating when you’re too stuffed to stand and walk.
Yum. 
The GC’s in Bolingbrook and Merrillville,IN are probably closer than Tinley to most of the people in Chicago, if not equidistant. I just don’t see the chain as being a good “fit” for the city itself.
Evergreen Park, Burbank,Oak Lawn,Melrose Park or even Countryside would be ideal locations if they want to get closer, but not too close.
I’m a little surprised the thread has gone on this long without a John Pinette reference, but I just saw this: Comedian/Actor John Pinette RIP. 
I’ve only been to Chinese food buffets recently. There’s a Golden Corral down the road, but I find their food inedible.
When I was a kid, we used to go to Pancho’s Mexican Buffet whenever the grandparents came to visit.
Raise the flag!
I love polish buffets.
There was one in Arlington Heights IL back when I worked there that I had to hit at least twice a month (only problem is no one would go with me so I ended up there alone).
Well, honk you very much for your opinion. 
Funny, today my family and I went to one of the few Chinese Buffets left in the city. There were signs on the wall advertising 99 cents for a 16 oz. beer with the price of the buffet. We assumed if you were going to fill up on beer, you would probably put less food on your plate.
The food at Golden Corral had some decent items, but most of it was mediocre food for the Sunday church crowd.
After I finally caught a 4-5 yr old sneezing onto a buffet table there once, I stopped going to buffets. The sneeze guards only prevent adult sneezes from contaminating the food, but not the rugrats’.
Here in the Midwest, it’s not just buffet restaurants that have disappeared, but also “salad bars” as part of sit-down restaurants. Even very fine restaurants had them - they were a staple of “supper clubs” and good steak houses.
After the waitress took your order (it was always a waitress), you were invited to take a plate (or two) and build your own salad. Usually there was soup choices as well, but it was all self-service. Although you could make more than one pass, most people didn’t.
Like buffets, they had to keep lots of food stocked, but it was almost always cold food, so freshness wasn’t much of a problem. I think the problems are similar for buffets - people have gotten more health conscious and don’t gorge themselves anymore (even on salads).
I think another reason is that customers have gotten used to being served and don’t want to make the effort themselves. My mother detested having to get up out of her chair, balance a plate, figure out what was laid before her, and try to find her way back to her table. It’s not that people have gotten lazy - I think the expectations have gone up a bit.
I think we had a Panchos in Little Rock. You went through a line and servers filled your plate. You raised the flag for refills. I’m pretty sure their name was Panchos.
We ate there several times a year. They closed about 10 years ago.
There are two Chinese buffets near me. One has fairly decent food, with a sparse number of customers. Even at obvious mealtimes, they’re never more than 20% occupied. The other has virtually inedible food and is always packed. I wish someone would tell me how both of them stay in business.
We haven’t been for a while but the Golden Corral near us was fairly good. Not great, but we’d return every now and then for breakfast. With a toddler, it was great to be able to grab him something to eat as soon as we sat down rather than have him hungry and bored. Talking to other people though I get a distinct YMMV feeling on the quality from location to location. We never did lunch/dinner though and I never wanted to eat chocolate strawberries for breakfast to worry about kids sticking their fingers in the fountain thingie.
There’s a few Chinese buffets fairly close and a Japanese buffet which is a bit pricey by local buffet standards but cheaper than a sit-down sushi restaurant. Oh, and Cici’s Pizza Buffet in case you want to load up on all the cheap pizza you can hold for $6.