Other than cost, one of my biggest concerns when going to a restaurant is size of portions. Having too small of a meal is enough to turn me off a restaurant entirely.
This is why buffet is the ultimate summit of restaurant greatness. It is the laissez-faire market of the restaurant eater's world. It is the direct democracy of food.
Yeah, buffets are great, but which are the best? I have endeavored on a months-long quest to find the best buffet in Knoxville, and I think I have found it.
Pizza Inn is a pizza lover's paradise and the best buffet around. This place is the true epitome of the buffet, and it shows. Taking the pilgrimage out to the location on Clinton Highway on a Friday night will end in battling for a parking space and waiting in line to get seated. And this is no small establishment, either. It's just that popular.
And unlike many buffets, like Golden Corral, that ring in at $10 for dinner, a customer can print out a glorious Pizza Inn website coupon, which promises two adult buffets and two fountain drinks for just $14. The cost is before tip, but it's still a better deal than the standard $10 per person.
Oh, and the choices! Pizza Inn's hallmark flavor is the bacon cheeseburger. This columnist has lured many a skeptical reader out to Pizza Inn for the prime purpose of trying this delectable slice of heaven. It actually is lathered in mustard and has a pickle on top. The result looks absurd, but one bite proves its perfection. It tastes just like a delicious bacon cheeseburger — just in pizza form.
This reviewer's favorite is the bacon cheeseburger, but others swear by the baked-potato pizza, a stellar addition to the Pizza Inn palate in its own right. Other specialties include bacon-cheddar-ham pizza, taco pizza and chicken-fajita pizza.
The place also has mouth-watering desserts, which they dub pizzerts. In particular, the chocolate chip and Bavarian crème flavors are outstanding and hard to stop munching on after just one slice.
For those who are not as inclined to try new things — mostly children who come along with families — there is also spaghetti, chili and traditional flavors like pepperoni pizza. The cheesy breadsticks the restaurant has are on par with Cici's excellent breadsticks.
If you have never been to Pizza Inn and you spend enough time on the UT campus to pick up a Daily Beacon, you really owe it to yourself to try it. You are too close in proximity to this Garden of Eden of Italian food to not do so.
The other true standout buffet — both in food quality and price — is Shoney's vegetable buffet. For a little more than half the price of getting the meat, Shoney's customers can have everything but the meat — including the plethora of vegetables, bread, salad and desserts.
Many a night it is easy to dine at Shoney's on a college student's budget because the vegetables are that good. The meat is not conspicuous by its absence when a plate is full of rolls, corn and homestyle mashed potatoes with brown gravy. It's food like Momma used to make.
Another worthy entry in the buffet hall of fame is the Kentucky Fried Chicken buffet out in Powell. For around $8 or $9, a customer is free to indulge in fried chicken — original recipe or the preferred extra crispy — plus KFC's excellent bouquet of side items, including cole slaw, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and plenty more.
Places like Bojangles in Powell and the late Sawyer's on Kingston Pike (God rest its soul) offer delectable buffets as well, but since the regular meals at those restaurants are so filling, getting a buffet that basically amounts to an unlimited amount of meals in one sitting is questionable.
Cici's Pizza is also a college student's best friend with its rock-bottom prices, the lowest prices of the establishments summarized here.
But, channeling Roger Ebert here if he were a food critic instead of a movie critic, if you can only go to one buffet this year, make it Pizza Inn. You will not regret it.
—Robby O'Daniel is a graduate student in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at rodaniel@utk.edu.