Barn Seafood Buffet

I recently saw an ad for a friday night seafood buffet at the Barn of Barrington. Think it was around $39.95 per. I'm not that fond of the Barn, but like the assortments that they had in their ad, e.g. caviar, lox, smoked fish etc. Has anyone been? Your comments would be appreciated.

If your willing to drive to the hinterlands for a seafood buffet, I highly recommend the Port Edward Friday night seafood buffet. You name it, it's probably there. They also feature all you can eat Maine Lobsters on Tuesdays and all you can eat snow crab on Thursdays. Not to mention that it is a great all around seafood resataurant regardless of the specials.

Port Edward
The Fox River and Algonquin Rd.(Rt. 62)
Algonquin, IL 60102
847.658.5441

How much does the Port Edward's Friday Seafood Buffet cost?

nghe, I just called Port Edwards and their buffet is $34.95 per person. They said that their buffet includes peel-and-eat shrimp and snow crab legs -- both of which are a pain to wrestle with, imho. No lobster.

Called Allgauer's regarding their Friday night seafood buffet. Buffet includes a carving station that has prime rib. No lobster tails. Somewhere on the Internet recently I read that the buffet at Allgauer's included lobster tails but the woman at Allgauer's said that they took the lobster off the buffet and reduced the price of the buffet to $29.95. She said they had crayfish instead of lobster. Not a substitute, imho! See my above feelings about wrestling with your crusty-asians in a restaurant setting. )

We are still looking for a celebration destination that involves a large quantity of seafood. Bob Chinn's works for the younger folks (boomer aged) in our crowd but the geezers hate the noise level. I am at the point where I am considering buying a case of Alaskan King crab legs from Sam's Club, splitting them myself with my trusty cleaver, mixing up a couple of gallons of Mai-Tais and serving on my patio! The only thing stopping me is the iffiness of the weather -- if it is 85 degrees at 7 pm, and humid, we will all be miserable.

The search continues! (Nice problems to have, huh?) --Joy

wow - Joy, thanks for the heads up re: Allgauer's lack of lobster @ their Friday night seafood buffet!

Port Edward buffets pricing:
- Fridays Seafood Buffet: $34.95/adult (like Joy says, no lobster)
- Tuesdays All-U-Can-Eat Maine Lobsters: $36.95/adult
- Thursdays All-U-Can-Eat Snow Crab: $22.95/adult

Barn of Barrington, Fridays Seafood buffet (adults $29.95; children 3 to 10 $12.00; under 3 complimentary)

- shrimp cocktail
- oyster on half shell
- clams
- mussels
- smoked fish
- lox peppered mackerel
- marinated herring
- seafood salad
- oyster's rockefeller
- clams casino
- seafood jambalaya
- coconut shrimp
- bass ale battered
- cod
- snow crab legs
- 2 kinds of fresh seafood presentations
- assorted sushi
- 2 types of pasta: marinara, alfredo, procuitto, basil, pesto
- broccoli shrimp
- chicken pine nuts
- mashed potato bar
- chocolate fountain
- assorted cakes, tartes and cheesecakes
- chef carved tenderloin of beef
- new england clam chowder
- clazed BBQ ribs
- macaroni & cheese
- chipoltle

It's not a buffet, but Pappadeaux has all-you-can-eat lobster on Thursdays. I haven't been there in a year, but the price then was $34.95.

An account of the lobster dinner is here.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen
847/228-9551, 798 W. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights

There is a second location in Westmont; I don't know if they have the lobster deal: 630/455-9846, 921 Pasquinelli Drive, Westmont

LAZ wrote:It's not a buffet, but Pappadeaux has all-you-can-eat lobster on Thursdays. I haven't been there in a year, but the price then was $34.95.

An account of the lobster dinner is here.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen
847/228-9551, 798 W. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights

There is a second location in Westmont; I don't know if they have the lobster deal: 630/455-9846, 921 Pasquinelli Drive, Westmont

As many of you know I used to work for both of these locations. I'm not sure if the AH location is still running the All you can eat special, but the Westmont location never has.

The AYCE special started with two 1lb 'chick' lobsters with 2 boiled red potatoes and a small ear of corn. Each subsiquent order would include one lobster at a time. Additional potatoes and corn by request.

On another note. My most memorable experience with a seafood buffet was in the days of my mispent youth. I must have been 5 or 6 years old while visiting a very old relative on Sanibel (sp?) Island. We went the the buffet, and while biting into what I thought was a hushpuppie was thoroughly disgusted at the greenish substance oozing out of it. Yes folks, I have not recovered from my first experience eating fried oysters.

Flip

Armed with Nghe's itemized list, we checked out the Barn's $29.95 seafood buffet last night. As usual at these sorts of buffets, we hit the cold seafood table so many times we barely got to the hot items. Next time.
Peeled tail on shrimp (about a 40 count) were well cooked but could have used a little flavor boost. The cocktail sauce with horseradish helped.
Red and black caviar were plentiful and had the required black bread, chopped onions, capers etc. Fair tasting.
The oysters were plentiful, but not to our tastes. Probably due to the season. Lox (smoked salmon?) and pickled herring were plentiful
Mussels were gritty - not a surprise. Sushi was pretty, but mediocre.
I think the best item was the poached salmon with a perfect texture. In all, the presentation of the entire table was excellent, while the quality was mediocre to good. No lobster.
In a separate room, the mashed/baked potato bar had all the 'fixins', but seemed strangely out of place. Cold cuts and a few nice looking salads were also available, but we took a pass. The crab legs were split in half for easy eating, well cooked and flavored but the steam table couldn't keep them warm. Nevertheless, we went back for seconds.
The last room had the main courses, but we only tried the Bass Ale battered cod and coconut shrimp, both well done. A full pasta cooking station also seemed out of place.
The beef tenderloin carving looked good, with rare available, but we needed space for the deserts. That table was back in the first room, complete with a milk chocolate fountain. Biscotti and strawberries were available for dipping. Some excellent pastries finished us off.
During the meal we were presented with complimentary oyster/vodka shooters.
All in all, a reasonable deal for the price, with friendly, efficient service.