America's Biggest Steakhouse Chain In The '80s (People Remember It For The Salad Bar)

Restaurant chains rise and fall in the blink of an eye. One moment, there are so many locations that it's routine for your family to eat out every Thursday for "kids eat free" night, and the next, there's not even a single location left in your state. That's exactly the case with Ponderosa Steakhouse, a once-booming steakhouse chain that offered fairly cheap filets and other tasty dishes. When most people remember this '80s fad, however, they mostly think of its incredible salad bar.

While there are plenty of chain restaurant buffets that no one remembers anymore, people certainly recall Ponderosa's all-you-can-eat fresh salad bar with fondness, lamenting its loss following location closures. "My parents used to take us for the super cheap salad bar in the '80s. Loved it," wrote a nostalgic Facebook user. "I loved going as a kid, we weren't allowed to get anything other than the salad bar, but that's all I wanted," reminisced one fan on Reddit. Another Redditor agreed that they loved Ponderosa's salad buffet so much as a kid that they "tried to convince [their] mom to convert a peninsula in our kitchen into a salad bar." A former employee on Reddit even shared that, once upon a time, the salad bar was so popular that the food would be "gone in seconds," especially "when some items came out, like the hot rolls."

During the height of its popularity in the '70s and '80s, and even into the 2000s, Ponderosa Steakhouse's salad bar offered a wide assortment of foods such as vegetables, fruits, cheeses, crackers, and dressings. It even featured noodles, rice, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and so much more. "I'd make unholy abominations out of taco meat, ham, bacon bits, French dressing, nacho cheese, onions, and pickles," shared one Redditor, adding that they would "scoop it up with breadsticks or chips." The salad buffet was often included with the price of an entree, and many customers saw this as a big appeal of the chain. In an ad from the '80s, Ponderosa offered a ¼-pound hamburger and access to the all-you-can-eat salad bar for just $1.99. Though prices aren't what they used to be, it still has some of the best all-you-can-eat deals at a popular chain restaurant.

Ponderosa Steakhouse used to be the name on everyone's lips, operating over 700 restaurants at the peak of its popularity, but the fame didn't last. Ponderosa first opened in 1965 and merged with Bonanza Steakhouses in 1989 to form one gigantic steakhouse brand. Over the next twenty or so years, the brand changed ownership several times and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2008 — in case you're wondering what happened to the Ponderosa Steakhouse restaurant chain. It was purchased by FAT Brands Inc. in 2017, which still owns the chain today, but finding an open location is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.