310 4th St
Niagara Falls, NY 14303
Rating: 
Located near our hotel, at the Seneca Casino Casino Resort, the Thunder Falls Buffet serves up various types of food including Asian, Grill, Mediterranean, Pizza, and Dessert. Costing only $26 per person for a Saturday night, the price seemed fairly acceptable, especially having a buy one get one free coupon in hand. After paying, we were guided by a hostess to our table where our server took our drink orders. Oddly enough, the hostess asked if we wanted to sit in a smoking or non-smoking section, and I of course chose the non-smoking section not knowing that smoking sections even existed in restaurants still.
Having went around the buffet, we were able to try various types of food offered. The rice in the Asian station was quite hard and did not taste fresh. I avoided the remainder of the Asian station because all of the food looked old and unappetizing. The salmon was juicy with a nice crust. The fried chicken was one of the highlights of the meal as it was both juicy and fresh with a crispy crust. The mac and cheese did not have much cheese on them, and there was not much flavor except from the plain pasta. The pineapple BBQ chicken thighs were juicy and tender, but you could not taste any pineapple, only regular BBQ sauce. The swai fish was extremely dry and salty. The prime rib was available from the carving station with a pot of au jus on the side. There was a large chunk of fat from the prime rib received, but neither the au jus nor the meat itself had much of any flavor. I felt like the meat and au jus were not seasoned at all. The meatballs were dense and had simple Italian seasoning, but did not taste special at all. The penne pasta was plain, but the tomato sauce did taste fresh. The pepperoni pizza was doughy and you can taste a Cesar flavor in the sauce, but was plain tasting overall. The chicken noodle soup came with lots of tender chicken, but you can only taste the celery. The pasta bar was interesting, but there was a long wait with only one person cooking and quite a few people in line. I ordered a shrimp spinach Alfredo pasta, which came out tasting delicious, but extremely buttery and unhealthy. The soft-serve vanilla ice cream tasted very cold and was not completely white, but went well with the Oreo crumbs. Other than the ice cream, the cherry chocolate cake tasted moist, and various other options were available such as pie and creme brulee.
Overall, the food at the Thunder Falls Buffet was quite disappointing. There were hints of good tasting food amidst a large quantity of disappointing food. Having tried out much better casino buffets, I was quite disappointed in the quality at this establishment. While waiting for the pasta bar, I noticed staff taking food out of heating ovens where large trays of food were already cooked and ready to be dumped into the trays. Since the food was already prepared, most of the food did not taste fresh. If you are in the Niagara Falls, NY area and are looking for lunch or dinner, I advise you to look elsewhere if possible.
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