
Paula Deen’s buffet just goes on and on and on and on.
I’ve had so many readers ask me about the gargantuan buffet over at Harrah’s Tunica, I figured it was worth a check-out.
Now, before you get to wondering why my photos don't really show the glory of the restaurant, I have to share with you this simple fact: shooting in a casino is prohibited.


Anyway, as I was saying... I’ve had a lot of readers ask me about the Paula Deen Buffet over at Harrah’s Resort in Tunica. It’s not too far from Little Rock, and many people have headed all the way over there to sample and consume mass quantities of stuff. So eventually you knew I had to go.


There is something, though, that a lot of people are missing. The restaurant’s name is featured here and there as PAULA DEEN’S buffet -- with the word buffet printed much smaller than the name. Thing is, no matter how hard you try to use the lady’s name as an incantation, it is still a buffet. Which means you’re going to have to go get your food yourself and potentially stand in line to do so.
Many readers insisted I try the “Graze All Day” for $25. That's a thing of the past. I can understand this on both sides. Of course it was likely killing the casino. On the other hand, really folks -- grazing all day is one thing if you’re eating fresh veggies at a salad bar. Rich butter-laden food like this? While tasty, the chance for an epic cholesterol collapse increases greatly with the length of stay at a buffet.







So, what do you get there? The short answer is a lot of very rich food. Yes, there is a salad bar -- but it's the one area that while I was there never had a line.
The breakfast is $8.99, and it's massive. There are all your regular favorites such as bacon and ham and sausage and scrambled eggs and biscuits and even an omelet station. But for the pork-challenged like me, there were a lot of non-pork options, such as the rather sweet Cheese Blintzes, the spicy Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict, the hearty but meat-free Grit Cakes topped with fried eggs and cheese gravy, the turkey sausage links.
They also had a whole section dedicated to meats like summer sausage and fried pork chops.
Of course there were several breakfast type casseroles -- hash brown casserole, egg casserole, some casserole with whole fresh spinach leaves in it.
My family bragged on the gravy -- apparently not your average made-from-a-mix preparation.
There were also plenty of fresh fruits and cottage cheese -- my daughter tried to wipe them out of fresh blueberries.



Out came the famous macaroni and cheese at two different stations, along with cheeseburger meatloaf and yams in the thickest syrup I’ve ever seen.
I counted four different sorts of gravy (white, brown, sausage and onion/pepper) and a towering pile of mashed potatoes. And of course there were fried green tomatoes.


(which wasn't so spectacular in my eyes, but to each his own), stuffed bell
peppers, hot wings and
barbecue chicken, wet
and dry pork ribs,
fried chicken and fried
catfish and a whole lot
of other fried things.
Lots of fried things.
This is not the place
to go when you're on
a diet.


One thing the buffet does especially well is its dessert station. Rather than being a completely serve-yourself mishmash of small plates and frosting-laden crusted pie servers like so many place I have been, desserts are doled out on an individual basis.
Ice cream (eight varieties) is hand dipped by a clerk.

Cakes are pre-plated on appropriately sized perfect little square plates.
The only self-serve comes in a few items that call for self-serving, such as cookies and yogurt covered pretzels.
Now, I usually have two problems with buffets -- the potential for cross-contamination (yes, even though you may love gravy on your macaroni and cheese, there are some folks who can’t have that certain meat protein) and the freshness of the food.


However, when my mom went a few minutes later, same thing happened -- except it was right when they changed over breakfast to lunch, and she didn’t get a chance to try one of those Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict.







You'll find Paula Deen's Buffet at Harrah's Casino Resort Tunica, off Highway 61 some distance south of Memphis. The phone number there is (800) WIN-4-WIN. Have a good time.





I thought it was a top-notch buffet. Do they still give away the recipe cards? I got several when I was there, including her recipe for mac and cheese, which is awesome when made at home too.
ReplyDeleteI really hated that buffet, as did the hubs and our couple companions. Everything was soggy and gross. The only thing we found edible was the crab legs, because really, how can you mess up boiled crab legs? We all said that if the casino hadn't comp'd the meal in the first place, we would have been very angry over wasting our money. It came highly recommended.
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