Shoney's

Wow, this Shoney's needs some love... Service was friendly, and the buffet not too shabby. Lots of veterans in the restaurant, swapping war stories. Fancy hand-made quilts for sale on the wall... The regulars seem to be having a good ole time. I had the fried chicken and creamed corn. Both very tasty... The broccoli casserole was OK as well. Hubby enjoyed the fresh, hot rolls. Coffee was hot and drinkable. :) The fried fish was a little dry, but the hot fudge cake (not part of the buffet) seemed just as good as we remembered (lots o' fudge). Cutesy front entrance with lots of fun kitschy signs and other goodies for sale. On our return trip through this area (road trip), Hillsville signs were completely, I mean COMPLETELY, obscured by a giant fog bank. However, if you can see the exit, why not stop??

Grossly outdated. I think the menu is the original one from 1947. The food was terrible but the servers were extremely friendly. Although the server seemed upset that I did not eat all of my food! The onion rings lacked onions, the chicken strips were not cooked. The buffet looked like it may have been there for a few days or so. Altogether an extremely unsatisfying experience and not something that I would recommend to anyone that I actually like.

As someone who doesn't usually eat at too many chains, I was really reluctant to try Shoney's as it's been decades since I've been to one.  But, I was traveling with the wife and kid, and needed something close to the hotel and something that my kid would actually eat.  
Everyone here was very nice, and a couple of the other servers and staff stopped by to say hi to the kid.  Most people here seemed to be eating from the buffet, although they did have a menu as well.  We went with a kids spaghetti for the baby (too sweet but passable), my wife went with chicken fried steak (meh), and I got the chicken pot pie (few vegetarian options are available, so let it be known - best thing we got but overly salty and almost no veg).
So the kids meal comes with a side - we asked for the veg of the day.  What is the veg we asked?  "Whatever the kitchen decides" says the server.  OK...so TODAY what has the kitchen decided?  "They change it all the time" she says.  OK...so "I don't know let me check" is an appropriate response, but it took 2 or 3 minutes for us to get through this, and after she said we could get carrots as one of the steamed vegetables, we got shredded sprinkled on top of the broccoli and cauliflower that came.  Bizarre.
I don't think many people come to Shoney's with high expectations - so that works out just fine.