Countryside Family Restaurant

I hate to do this because I know that businesses are suffering in the current economy. However, I also do not understand the great reviews of this place so I thought I would add a little info on our experience. My bf and I traveled hundreds of miles to meet half way as we are in a long distance relationship. Upon checking into our hotel we decided to just eat at Countryside since they received good reviews and they were so close. We were greeted warmly by the hostess who asked if we wanted a booth or a table. I didnt care and BF said how about a booth so we were about to sit and I noticed food crumbs and a couple of long black hairs in the seat. I asked for a napkin so I could clean out the seat and the older woman seating us said "what's wrong" I said well there are crumbs and hair in the seat I just want a napkin to wipe them out. She said well I will get a rag. No apology no embarrassment...but I really would have just done it myself. I tried to make a joke out lf it and said well I have a bit of a strange hair phobia and as she was wiping booth she says...and I am not kidding "Well you'd be surprised what all you eat that you never saw or knew about" Now I take responsibilty from here for rest of evening. Bf was oblivious to everything as he was reading menu the enitire time this occurred. I should have said well no thank you and we be off. But i didnt. Our waitress who looked all of 18 maybe came to take our drink order she was nice. We both had water. She overheard the seat cleaning so i was wondering what her reaction would be. I noticed the table was dirty with some dried food particles but figured hey Im not eating straight off the table no big deal. Flatware was at least clean. Bf ordered BBQ pork roast in form of some pulled pork and two sides that came he chose brocolie and turnip greens. I ordered stir-fry chicken and vegetables with fried okra and mashed potatoes ans gravy. Waitress asked if we wanted rolls or cornbread we got cornbread. Two innocent looking cornbread muffins came out surrounded by what had to be 12 little packs of margerine spread all piled around them. Cornbread was cold and stale as if it were cooked days ago and tasteless. We pulled around on it to pretend we ate it. The food came out quick and my stir fry chicken with veg was four little thin strips of chicken with canned vegetables consisting of lima beans, corn, sliver of carrots, four tiny broccoli pieces and some green beans over white rice with smothered in some hideous sauce that I couldnt figure out if it was salad dressing mixed with bbq sauce. It was so gross I tried eating veggies out of it but gave up after awhile. The fried okra was ok hard to screw up fried okra. Mashed potatoes were glue-like with a sour wang amd the gravy was thick and gross gelatin like. I had one bite. Bf had one bite. He ate his pork. Said it wasnt great but not terrible. His broccoli was normal serving size for a side but seemed more raw than cooked. His turnip greens were so awful he asked to exchange them for another side. Bf asked waitress what side would she order as to try and find out what was good and she said well onion rings or french fries. Wise. Anyway he got onion rings which again were just frozen deep fried onion rings so how can u screw it up unless u burn them? The bill arived and waitress never once asked why a ton of uneaten food remained all on the table. I will chalk that up to young age. Also when the turnip greens were returned we heard the exchange between waitress and "cook" about how we didnt like them and wanted something else. At least they did an even exchange and did not charge us for onion rings.  All around me I saw customers going to the buffet and peoe around me eating so bf and i thought maybe it is just us? Maybe everyone else's food is good? Maybe buffet was better? We decided we would never be back to test the theory. Too many negatives. Neither of us had the energy to try and discuss with management about poor quality of food. We just paid the $20 bill and left 20% tip to the young waitress and hurried out quickly hoping what little we did eat would not make us sick later. Maybe this used to be a great place that got run down by bad evonomy or maybe buffet is the only thing they do well and we just ordered wrong.....but just be warned if you go in and have a bad experience with a dirty table and booth and you notice it maybe you ought to go someplace else even if it involves driving a bit. Safe travels everyone.

Quality homemade food. The buffet did not look so great but the dinner specials my wife and I had were great.

Enjoyed the hot buffet. Had a choice of soups, many salad items, at least half dozen selection of entrées and veggie choices. Desserts were also plentiful
Was a good choice for stopping in for an early lunch.