This Pennsylvania Buffet Was Once Beloved. Local Diners Say It Turned Into A Pricey Tourist Trap

Like most stories, the one featuring this Pennsylvania buffet has two sides to it. For the owners, it's about living the American dream. For their patrons, it's slowly turning into a bit of a nightmare. The Shady Maple Smorgasbord grew from a small stall under a tree in the 1960s to America's largest buffet, set alongside a shopping experience spread across 44,000 square feet. Unfortunately, having scaled to such gargantuan proportions seems to have come at a cost, with many customers online complaining that in its current form, it is nothing more than a pricey tourist trap.

The Shady Maple's origin story can be traced back to 1962, when Henry Z. Martin and his wife set up a stall to sell fresh produce outside their house (under a Maple tree, hence the name). This would be passed on to their daughter's family — the Weavers. Within a decade, the Weavers had set up their first full-fledged grocery store. Within two decades, they had a cafeteria in the store. In 1985, they decided to launch a new business, an all-you-can-eat buffet serving Pennsylvania Dutch food. The 300-seater was an instant hit, and less than five years after they launched, they had expanded to a 500-seater. At the turn of the century, they had moved into a building spread over 11,000 square feet with 1200 seats. This made Shady Maple Smorgasbord one of the largest buffets in the US.

The problem is that largest and best don't always go together, and for a brand that was once beloved, a lot of the recent reviews are unflattering to say the least.

There are some people impressed by the sheer scale of the buffet at Shady Maple. One post on Reddit even refers to it as the Disney World of restaurants for its operational excellence and ability to keep the mass of people moving along. But a sampling of recent review titles on TripAdvisor is indicative of something not being right. From "Just Average" and "Save Your Money" to "Quality Went Downhill" and "My Biggest Food Disappointment Ever", the criticism covers a full spectrum, but is mainly about the food not being good enough for the money.

"This has to be one of America's most overhyped tourist traps," one reviewer wrote, listing out the disappointing fare: "The chicken pot pie, bland. Fried chicken was okay but nothing special. Baked cod, bland. Pot roast, under seasoned. Turkey, tough and flavorless." They did like the chicken corn noodle soup and the stewed cabbage. Another reviewer complained that "$45 for 2 seniors is way too expensive for less than average food."

Complaints aren't restricted to TripAdvisor either. "We're local, as in we live around the corner... we avoid Shady Maple like the plague", one Redditor posted, while another called it overrated, saying, "I have no idea why so many people are willing to pay insane prices for mediocre food." The all-you-can-eat buffet dinner is priced between $28 and $32 (plus a 12% service fee), and features "46 salad bar items, 3 soups, 6 homemade breads & rolls, 4 cheeses, 8 meats, 14 vegetables, 10 cold desserts, 3 hot desserts, 8 pies and 6 cakes" outside of the daily grills, and beverages. The good news is that there are other Pennsylvania Dutch buffets that are worth a trip to Amish country.