Magills Famous Pizza and Buffet

We have celebrated my daughter’s birthday here for the last 3 years in a row. I love it because when you plan your party around a date when there’s no tour groups, you pretty much get the whole place to yourself. We usually have 100 — 150 guests every year. The kids are happy because of the video games and the separate room where we usually have a magician. As for the food, it’s your normal buffet quality stuff, the parents are happy as well. It’s better than just having chips and dip right? Seriously though, everyone who tries the fried chicken loves it (including me). I’ve always had nothing but excellent service from the owner /​manager /​employees. This place has always been perfect for my specific needs, hence the 5 star review.

Guys, it’s greasy, disgusting, and dirty. Don’t go here unless your forced by your tour guide

I’m giving a weighted average of three stars to Magills. Five stars if you are one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who has fond memories of a long-​closed local Shakey’s pizza parlor. Three stars if you want to go out with family or friends on a weekend and have a leisurely AYCE buffet at a moderate price. One star if you are interested in haute cuisine; the nature of Magills primary business won’t achieve it. As a framed newspaper clipping at the entrance explains, Magills’ sales come primarily from tourists on bus tours to Washington, DC. This is a very price-​sensitive industry and like rest areas on toll roads, the food served needs to have a long holding time.
Magill’s used to be a Shakey’s franchise, and like a lot of other franchisees, went independent when the franchisor stopped providing services. There are fascinating accounts in the restaurant business press about the demise of the Shakey’s chain. Like many similar ex-​franchisees, Magills made clones of Shakey’s menu items since the original ingredients were no longer available to them. The remaining genuine Shakey’s restaurants, primarily on the west coast, tout pizza, seasoned potatoes and fried chicken as signature items. Well, Magills’ seasoned potato wedges taste just like the seasoned potato slices at Shakey’s. The fried chicken is pretty good. The pizza is a low hydration original California thin crust type, somewhat like Shakey’s, Straw Hat, Me’n Eds, and Round Table. It is made with conventional low moisture mozzarella cheese rather than the pizza cheese used by the delivery chains. Magill’s still maintains the Shakey’s custom of making a particular pie for you if it is not already on the buffet table. They also offer parties with a pie-​making exercise for kids, and have a family-​style breakfast at Christmas and Easter. Some grandparents bring their children and grand children to these special events as a reminder of the «good old days».
For people who frequented Shakey’s in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, Magill’s is a museum. They were not forced to remodel like the Shakey’s restaurants were. They still are dark inside and have the same hardwood tables, chairs, and woodwork. If you look closely at the area behind the present soda dispensers, you can see the doors to the walk-​in cooler in which chilled glasses were kept. Unlike McDonald’s with their 30 minute time limit signs, you can go there on a weekend afternoon or evening and hang out for an hour or two. No one will bother you.
I’ve found the best time to go is at 5 PM on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The buffet is refreshed for the evening hours, and you will have to ask for a fresh pizza to be made for you. They have special entrees on these days. The pollo guisado on Saturdays is excellent. If the pizza is older than 90 minutes, it is stale. Ask for a new one. If you find about 8 buses in the parking lot, you will experience what is was like in overcrowded high school cafeterias back in the day. While the store fixtures are old, they are clean. I wouldn’t want them to modernize them; I couldn’t show my grandkids how things were before the fast food joints took over everything.
About the «famous» claim, at one time Shakey’s included the adjective «famous» in their corporate print and broadcast advertising campaigns. This is a holdover.

I have been going to this place for years. The food is great. The owner is always helpful and polite. If they do not have a pizza up that you would like they will always make it for you right away.

Gross. Total tourist trap. I came for bfast. Everything was greasy, even the things that shouldn’t have been. The apple juice was an outrage. Save yourself the cash and the stomachache and go anywhere else.

Big enough to hold the groups, but not good enough to please them. Similar to other reviewers, I was on a large group trip to DC so this place was convienent. The food here stinks! Its obviously microwaved and all of it had NO FLAVOR. Overall, location is fine but the place sucks so much, its not even worth it. STAY AWAY

Stopped here on my school trip to Washington dc wasn’t impressed. Basic food a little dirty but alright for a group gathering.

Ok… so it was expensive for what was offered.. but i just had to try it.. Very strange buffet selection… pupusas, french fries, make ur own tacos with chili meat, pizza worse than chuck e cheese or cicis, weird pasta thing, fried plantains, buffets need some sort of theme.. This was all over the place. .$ 10 for 12 buffet items… golden corral crushes this. .but the amazingly strange atmosphere makes it awesome. And did I mention video games. Not the best buy my boy was entertained. Actually I was more with this stupid throw a ball in a milk jug game. but if you want buffet go to golden corral, pizza? Cicis. Games chuck e cheese… If they’re all closed come here. Worth it for the experience.

Over the summer I was attending a meeting for work in Annandale. I am always eager to try new places and at the time Annandale was unfamiliar to me so I picked this place for lunch since I was hungry for pizza.
The smell of mildew that greeted me as I walked through the door should have told me to turn around and walk out. The first thing that strikes you about the place after its size is the dingy quality of everything. The carpet was old and dirty, the wooden baseboards were deteriorating from water damage, and looked like they were growing mold.
Lunch consists of a buffet and was $ 6 dollars, so my expectations were adjusted to these factors. Sometimes when people write Unilocal reviews they overuse the term «tasted like it came out of a can» or «looked like a frozen meal you buy at the grocery store,» but it this case the comment is definitely warranted. The buffet is small and consisted of pizza, taco fixin’s, mashed potatoes, salad fixin’s, and macaroni and cheese. For dessert there is an ice cream bar with soft serve ice cream. They have two draft taps if you are in the mood for beer over soda. Food is the worst I have seen in a restaurant and it looked as though it had been sitting out for a long time. The pizza itself was literally from a kit, which you could tell because the crust was dry throughout and resembled what you would see in a lunchable. I am not exaggerating when I say 7-​eleven has better pizza… by a wide margin.
When I visited at the height of lunch rush I only saw one other table of people eating. I am told the restaurant does a lot of business because of tour buses due to the location and inexpensive food. Honestly I do not see how the one virtue of the restaurant (it’s price) warrants stopping here. You could spend the same amount of money at a fast food restaurant and get much better food.
Bottom line: large, inexpensive restaurant in poor condition with food that is terrible even at this price point.

Shakeys, why have you foreseken us!
I used to love Shakeys pizza when I was a kid. I used to eat the buffet here at least once every few weeks, I think they must have had a ½ price day otherwise I am sure my parents wouldn’t have come. I moved away from Annandale a long time ago and kind of forgot about the place. I was kind of thrilled about 5 or 6 years ago or so when I rediscovered Magills. I stopped in and it was being run by the same guy that worked in Shakeys. The food tasted the same as I remembered it, I was thinking sweet, this is just like Shakeys. I went again maybe 2 or 3 years ago. It wasn’t quite what I remembered seemed kind of dirty inside or something.
Wasn’t a horrible experience that time, but definitely nothing to get excited about.
Well tonight I was in the area so I thought I would just get a pizza togo.
I was kind of surprised that it was 6pm on a saturday night and barely anyone was there.
Ugh, I really wished I had taken $ 12 out of my wallet and tried to eat it.
Seriously it was one of the worst pizza I have ever tried to eat.
I would have enjoyed a frozen grocery store more then this one.
Chuck E Cheese pizza is da bomb compared to this one.
Ketchup and card board I say.
The buffet food was gross looking too like it had been there for hours.
What a disappointment. Can’t say that enough.
C’mon Man.

The staff was decent, the manager seems calm and the buffet is decent but needs some work this is a spot you eat at when youre on a budget but I’m not going to bash this place up entirely it was clean and the food was good in this day and age when some americans know what its like to struggle you can’t hate a place like this

Seriously… Avoid this place… At all costs. I can’t believe they have the audacity to charge for this food. The «buffet» consists of about 40 items, 30 of which are the salad items. I like buffets and do not have unreasonably high expectations for them… However this place was the worst I have ever been too.
No selection at all. The gravy was 75% water. My boyfriend said it looked like brown water. The mashed potatoes were almost translucent. Their «taco bar» consisted of hard taco shells and some sort of meat soup… The baked ziti was abysmal. The cheese on it had to be imitation cheese.
The cupcake frosting tasted like they had just mixed water and a lot of powdered sugar together. Chalky tasting frosting. The cupcake was so dry it was inedible.
The pizza was ok when it was fresh. The crust was crispy and the toppings were fine.
Yuck… My boyfriend will eat almost everything and he even said we will never go there again… That says a lot…
To call themselves famous is almost a crime. False advertising. Maybe famous for being so terrible… And they are definitely giving kick backs to tour buses. Without the tour buses, I can’t imagine who would ever go to this place willingly.

Ummm… no thanks. I was here with a large group, and this dinner was part of a large pre-​planned tour. The food was nothing to even remember, the buffet slow to restock, and the place was just plain dingy. I never would have gone here on my own, and if I lived in the area, I wouldn’t go back either.
Their one saving grace — the macaroni and cheese was pretty awesome.

Ok breakfast buffet. Went in for a meeting, they have a separate room for meetings.

Definitely not the best food I’ve had, to say the least. There is not a large selection of food (as far as the the lunch buffet goes), and the food that is there tastes like it was it was frozen at some point. The décor is terrible, and they seem to be under some kind of renovation since there was a large tarp over a bunch of seats — it was awkward. Please, if you’re really looking for something cheap to eat, you’re MUCH better off just going to McDonald’s. Avoid this place!

Unless you are a hostage on a DC bus tour, this is not the place for you! Do not attempt to eat here, it could cause irreparable harm. Should be Magill’s INFamous Pizza and Buffet.

I would like to give this place 0 stars but can’t. NASTY food, for over $ 12. Stay the hell away unless you want to have a guaranteed bad experience.

If you want crappy pizza and a loud atmosphere, drive down to a CiCi’s pizza. I didn’t think pizza could be worse than CiCi’s. I wish I could go back a few weeks and deiced to have walked directly out. Food is horrible, frozen pizza in a $ 3 take and bake box at Safeway is better. The only reason this place is in business is for charter buses full of kids coming for Washington DC trips. I will say their fried chicken was okay, it must have been bused in!

Drove by during lunchtime and felt like pizza. The sign reads «Magill’s Pizza and Buffet» now; altho the buffet is just pizza, spaghetti, 2 more pasta entrees, salad bar, taco bar, assorted sides, and soup and chili. At $ 7.50, I’d say you’re better off with Old Country Buffet’s much wider selection, unless you really want to play outdated arcade games.
They do offer 5 different kinds of fruit juices, and the chili’s pretty good so you can make your own chili cheese fries.