Buffets for me are always planned events. Since I was a kid I always remember the preparation it took for my family to go to a buffet. Days of minimal eating so that we may be hungry enough to devour as much we can to get our money’s worth (all ten dollars of it..) REGARDLESS, there’s nothing quite as satisfying..and guilt filled as going to an all you can eat place and consume to your heart’s content.
Surprisingly, there are a bunch of all you can eat restaurant downtown. From make it yourself eateries to classic asian buffets, if you have a need to be fat than State College has you covered. We’ll get to what a make it yourself location is, but before we begin allow me to introduce you to our three contestants for the showdown.
SHOWDOWN CONTESTANTS
1. Green Bowl
131 W Beaver Ave, State College, PA 16801
About a half block behind the State College Theatre, Green Bowl is the first of one our make it yourself buffets. In order to avoid writing this twice, let me explain what make it yourself means with bold letters. Make it yourself restaurants are places that gives you the option to start off with a bowl and add whatever you want, they would then take the bowl and cook it in front of you. If you’ve ever had hibachi grill, it’s exactly like that. These places aren’t your traditional buffets, but it is all you can eat since you can get as many bowls as you want. Within walking distance, Green Bowl is a great thing to try out if you’ve never bad hibachi related food before, just be careful of what you put in to your own bowl.
2. Ni Hao Buffet
289 Northland Center, State College, PA 16803
Right next to the Giant north of campus, Ni Hao is your classic asian buffet. If you’ve ever been to an asian buffet, its exactly like that. The dinner prices are unusually high (13$) here but come for lunch and its only 10$.
3. Chen’s Mongolian Buffet
1880 S Atherton St, State College, PA 16801
This place is a little out of the way, about a 10 to 15 minute drive south of campus, Chen is our other make it yourself buffet. A hibachi style bowl buffet, Chen also has a variety of sushi buffet that is offered with your meal.
THE SHOWDOWN
This one was really fun for me to “research,” especially since I love all you can eat places. The only advice I can offer you is to NOT COMPETE WITH ANYONE IN A FOOD EATING CONTEST. The food at these places are actually extraordinarily good for buffets, weird for state college right?
1. Ni Hao Buffet (only during lunch, else it would be Chen’s mongolian)
The pricessssssssss…why does it have to be 13$…
But if you go during lunch than this place is awesome. Clean, delicious, and bountiful, Ni Hao blows most asian buffets out of the water. I couldn’t get over how nice the decor was and how clean everything it was. The attendees literally run around cleaning every inch of the place, and they are all really nice to the patrons. The food is good for a buffet place, with everything asian you could find (Fried rice, noodles, chicken, etc) and a variety of American cuisine (burgers, pizza, friend whatever). My favorite part is that I enjoyed the sushi here! Sushi is my favorite food, if you do a bad sushi I’ll hate it immediately. It even tasted fresh! Fresh seafood in State College can you imagine! But back to Ni Hao, take your girl out on a date or your parents here when they visit and no one would disappointed.
2. Chen’s mongolian buffet
I like make it yourself places, because I like to play chef and create either delicious or terrifying creations. Chen beats out Green Bowl because somehow the food tasted alot better. The added sushi bar here also might have helped my decision. It would probably beat out Ni Hao if the location was better, this place is FAR. Still the creative aspect and how good it tastes makes it a good contender on the list. One thing you have to know about make it yourself, you don’t have to follow the recipes they give you (as in what goes good with what, for example a particular sauce with onion beef and rice) but nine times out of ten if you don’t follow their recipes, its going to taste terrible. CREATE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
3. Green bowl
If you want to try make it yourself without driving all the way out to Chen’s (because you really just can’t walk there), Green Bowl is a good option to try. The decoration is very hipster and quite clean, the food however is not that delicious. It’s still very good, but I’m totally compare it Chen’s and that makes it lacking. This place is especially good if you are a vegetarian, they have an entire recipe list for vegetarians.
WELL GUYS, this is my last passion blog..for the semester. BUT I REALLY LOVE WRITING FOOD BLOGS, so idk, we’ll see if I can continue this.
Thank you professor Babcock, for a great year. Freshmen year had its up and downs, but I honestly want to say I loved honors english. It was fun, and it gave me a perspective on how college is going to work for writing classes. Please allow me the chance to take you to the faculty dinner next semester.