On November 14, the 5101 restaurant hosted a Holiday Buffet to celebrate the upcoming holidays. The buffet was open for lunch and dinner and included a salad bar, a main course table, and a desert table. The restaurant was set up with many big tables scattered all over the floor, with the salad bar and desert table off to the side, but the main courses were located outside of the restaurant near the entrance way. To have a seat, most of the people waited in line even before the buffet opened, and others reserved seats for themselves before hand. Each table was full during the dinner buffet when I got there and I had to share a table with people I did not know, which turned out to be enjoyable in the end.
For the salad bar, there were many types of salads including potato salad, noodle salad, and coleslaw, with a variety of different toppings to go with. There was also squash soup at the salad bar, which was a lot better than it sounds, it was rather delicious and different than what I am used to. The soup only contained broth and had no chucks of other food in the soup so you could focus on what was important. I would gladly have it again if I was able to.
The main-course table contained typical foods from what is expected at a holiday dinner: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, and even prunes. The turkey was amazing: it was juicy and filling. The mashed potatoes were a little cold when I got to them, but they were good just the same.
My favorite part was the desert, of course. The desert table had a spread of selections, but barely any chocolate dishes, which I was disappointed about. However, that was all I was disappointed about when it came to the desert table. My favorite dishes were the pumpkin pie and cheesecake. Both of them had no crust on the sides but only on the bottom, which forced me to focus on the flavor of the pie. The crust on both the pie and cake were the same: soft, but crunchy and sweet. The pumpkin pie was very scrumptious – the spices, flavor, and texture blended together very well. The cheesecake was delicious as well; there was a right amount of raspberry sauce on top, which added to the flavor nicely.
The Holiday Buffet was rather enjoyable, especially because of the food. The atmosphere was pleasant and there was a lot of laughing and talking everywhere in the restaurant. The buffet seemed to be a hit – the waitresses were crazy busy and the room was packed with people.