Old thread I know.....

But does anyone have any insight to as if they will ever bring back the buffet at Ricks? It was one of the most popular and best value food offerings at the park imo. 

3 hours ago, Brendo88 said:

Old thread I know.....

But does anyone have any insight to as if they will ever bring back the buffet at Ricks? It was one of the most popular and best value food offerings at the park imo. 

They don’t intend to bring back the Buffet from what I have heard. Last school holidays it operated as restaurant again. 

Edited May 8, 20224 yr by Park Addict 93

9 hours ago, Park Addict 93 said:

They don’t intend to bring back the Buffet from what I have heard. Last school holidays it operated as restaurant again. 

Honestly that really sucks, and that menu sucks because its just the same sort of foods elsewhere in the parks. If its going to be a set menu at least offer something different than Burgers, Hot Dogs and Chips...

Yeah, that's a very ordinary menu. Rick's used to be what made eating at the park tolerable.

As long as it's open regularly, I don't care what they do lol. Would be nice for the buffet to be back, though.

Maybe off topic, but does anybody find it really difficult to justify a sit down meal at our parks just mainly because of how short the operating hours are? The buffet was a great choice because you could eat as much as you needed and then go, but if it's restaurant style then I feel I'd be fretting constantly and watching the clock. 

I would agree with that in a situation where the service was a bit slower than expected. For buffet there’s not really a wait, but if you order and are waiting a while, then it could become annoying for some 

So for me I hate buffet’s. There are only bad buffets and mediocre buffets, and they’re just not for me. 
So I’d love for them to open as an A la carte restaurant (FWIW I’ve said for years SW should have a broadwater facing Seafood restaurant also open for non park guests and make a fortune). 
However I agree it should have it’s own unique quality menu, much like they did with Dirty Harry Grill. 
 

And I think the courtyard bar should be open with a more snack style menu. 

If you're ever northside of Brisbane, try Jayliano's Strathpine or the sister restaurant Ariala at Kippa-Ring. They might change your mind on buffets. 

Ive been to every ‘good’ buffet ever been mentioned around the world to me.  From $20 a head to $150 a head. 
They all suck compared to a real restaurant. 
 

But again, in my opinion only

2 hours ago, red dragin said:

If you're ever northside of Brisbane, try Jayliano's Strathpine or the sister restaurant Ariala at Kippa-Ring. They might change your mind on buffets. 

Ariala is also at Springwood now, haven't tried it yet but have heard good things.

 

I love buffets - but there certainly are not many good ones around these days. The Star GC one used to be quite good, but i havent tried it out since it re-branded a couple of years ago.

 

I used to regularly eat at Ricks when at MW and also at Billabong at DW - hope they do return one day - and given its popularity with the asian tour operators, i'd like to thing Billabong will with the return to normal of international tourism in the next 12 months

I used to love Bazaar pre-covid times. I went there around 2015 and it was amazing. Went back a few weeks ago and was very disappointed. I tend to like the "experience" buffet style more. I'd highly recommend Brazilian Flame if your on the Gold Coast (it's in surfers) or Navala if your in Brisbane. You may go into a meat coma though, but overall I tend to agree most buffets these days are not that good anymore.  For me it's always Dirty Harry if I'm having a meal at Movie World

Don't get the hype of buffets. I do feel I don't fit into their target audience though as the idea of going somewhere and eating a stupid amount of food to get "value for money" isn't high on my list of places to go. A decent priced restaurant will get me any day over "I cbf choosing so this will do"

Im happy with Al La Carte style dining at Ricks Café but man that is a pretty uninspiring  menu. Not really enough real food there to entice me to waste an hour of my day in the dining experience. 

On 09/05/2022 at 7:25 AM, Naazon said:

Honestly that really sucks, and that menu sucks because its just the same sort of foods elsewhere in the parks. If its going to be a set menu at least offer something different than Burgers, Hot Dogs and Chips...

Can confirm they have brought back the all you can eat buffet now.

12 hours ago, Tim Kerr said:

Can confirm they have brought back the all you can eat buffet now.

For now…..

 

it does say limited time only on it. Hopefully they change their mind and leave it open 

If they’re still worried about covid, they could adapt a similar system to what Sizzler did.
And that’s have customers order what they want on an order sheet, and have staff get it for them.

4 hours ago, Ashley said:

If they’re still worried about covid, they could adapt a similar system to what Sizzler did.
And that’s have customers order what they want on an order sheet, and have staff get it for them.

That system destroyed sizzler… 

 

it’s not a health issue, it’s simply a cost v revenue issue as to its viability in non-peak times 

22 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

That system destroyed sizzler… 

 

I personally loved it, the other problem was, (at least here in Toowoomba), was hardly anyone was there, people only went when they announced their closure.

So since very few visited very few would have aware of their new system. How I said, customers only came when they were closing down, they didn't support them when they needed it.

And it can't have been, just because of the non self service part of it, for Toowoomba at least.

On 24/9/2022 at 7:45 PM, Brad2912 said:

That system destroyed sizzler… 

 

it’s not a health issue, it’s simply a cost v revenue issue as to its viability in non-peak times 

Sizzler's closure was planned before COVID was a thing. It was just a convenient excuse. The eventual demise of the brand was planned as far back as 2015 when they started closing stores and announced that they wouldn't be investing further in the brand to focus on other ventures. Collins Food Group also briefly owned Snag stand as well, but within months of owning it entirely shut the entire business down.

Well ricks wasn’t open yesterday when I went to I’m guessing it was indeed only for school holidays. Really disappointed they aren’t brining it back full time.