Hometown Buffet is located at 4221 S H St Bakersfield, CA 93304. I’ve been to Hometown Buffet many times over the years. It is a restaurant that has a large buffet with a salad bar, different varieties of food, dessert bar and a drink (non alcoholic) bar. Hometown is not an overly impressive place but it is good places to go to if you want a decent meal with a wide selection of choices. This time though, I went to Hometown Buffet as a guest of a baby shower. How would Hometown Buffet be as a destination for a baby shower? Read on to find out.
I went to a baby shower at Hometown Buffet on June 11th, 2009 at 2 PM in the afternoon. My family got there five minutes early. We didn’t see anyone else from our group so we asked the clerk at Hometown Buffet where we were going to be seated. She knew nothing about it even though the baby shower was planned ahead of time with Hometown Buffet. She asked someone else who also knew nothing about it. Finally the manager came over and he knew about it. He said that it did start at 2. We pointed out that it was 1:55 and technically our group should have been here and thought to ourselves that the clerk at the front desk should have been informed about the baby shower because we were instructed to give the name of the baby shower when we arrived.
The manager led us to our tables. There were two tables reserved. We had a worker reserved to our area to clear away and help us with anything we needed. She was very nice and helped us with anything we needed. She brought a pitcher of tea with cups so we wouldn’t have to get up all the time to refresh our glasses. She went above and beyond helping the baby shower group. I wish I’d caught her name because she deserved a special recognition. She was friendly and never neglected the group. When we ran out of room and had no where to put the many presents that were for the mom to be, she let us have another small table that was solely for presents. There were about twenty people in our party.
As far as a location for a baby shower, it was only ok. It was really busy and even though the baby shower was reserved beforehand, they gave us two long tables towards the back middle of a room. I think it would have been better if we’d been at the very last section of the restaurant as there was quite a bit of traffic.
The food was ok. Nothing overly special but it was nice because everyone got to choose what they liked to eat.
The only thing that really grossed us out was the women’s bathroom. We went into the women’s bathroom and had to leave. One toilet had excrement smeared onto it and another one was full of excrement. I don’t know what was wrong with another stall but everyone in the bathroom was staying away from that one as well. In the bathrooms, there was only ONE working toilet that was safe to use. The smell of excrement was overpowering and we had to leave without even getting to use the bathroom. I told the hostess about it and another member of our party told the manager. They cleaned it up immediately and when we went into the bathroom again, it did not smell at all. So while it was very nasty, the problem was solved immediately.
If you have a group event, you can make reservations. Depending on what kind of event you’re having, it could or could not work for you.
Hometown Buffet is open Monday through Thursday 11 AM to 8:30 PM. Friday they close at 9 PM. Saturday they close at 9 PM and Sunday they are open for breakfast and open at 8 AM to 8:30 PM.
For more information about Hometown Buffet, call (661) 397-9363. If you sign up for their e-club online here, you can get a buy one get one free buffet coupon delivered to your email box.
