Ponderosa Steak House

So sad to see this place has closed. They had the best damn fried chicken wings on Earth. It was a Holiday tradition to order a boat ton to pick up, and my family and I enjoyed the good eats. Will miss and love you forever, Ponderosa.

Wow this was once a great place to your family. But for the prices it not even worth taken you self and the price you pay for the combo buffet. Still not worth the value

Please save your energy. I felt like I was eating at a bad truck stop. Lettuce was bad. Cucumbers were rotten. etc etc. Just was nasty and dirty. Not what it use to be,

No, it’s not the Ritz, but I think the management has changed in the last 6 months or so; it is much nicer and cleaner, and the staff is better then it was the last time I was there six months ago. The buffet is a decent, cheap lunch if you are in the 270 & Rock Rd. area, but I wouldn’t drive out of my way for it; one of the only remaining Ponderosa Steakhouses in the area; the others being Arnold and Collinsville. Seems unfortunately the chain is on life support.

The food is descent however the employees don’t seem to know anything about the products. I knew what was on the buffet before one of the kitchen workers when the customer asked. They have old salsa sitting on the side of the buffet and the other staff person said there was no cranberry sauce but low and behold it was behind the old salsa. The floors are sticky. I’m sure it would fail inspection today. I never come by choice!

Ponderosa advertises «all you can eat crab legs on Friday night» so we tempted our daughter all day getting her totally amped with anticipation on getting her most favorite food in the world…
too bad when we showed up at 6:30pm
THEY HAD RUN OUT!!!
Reminds me of Black Friday special deal discounts where they in actuality have 2 in stock! Total Rip Off!!!
When you advertise All You Can Eat on a special item. .. be prepared!

If you want a decent food at a cheap price and a buffett, this is your place. It is often crowded with lines out the door. The food is what you expect for what you pay for it. I prefer to just order the buffett without the steak. I do not care for quality of the meat. I enjoy the buffet.

Do not go there unless you want diarrhea and violent vomiting! Food on the buffet is not served at the correct temperature and the managers are oblivious to it because they hide behind a doorway eating the crap food they serve. I plan on calling the health department on Monday. You will get a food borne illness if you go there. Guaranteed explosive diarrhea and violent vomiting spells.

Ok, so you can probably predict how this was going to go, but I hadn’t had Ponderosa since I was a kid. So one day I asked my friend if he wanted to go. He said no. I told him I would pay for him. We went to Ponderosa.
Quickly, for the uninitiated: You can order the buffet, or you can order an entrée and also get the buffet. Always go with the latter. Or, just don’t go to Ponderosa at all.
I got a steak & shrimp entrée with the buffet included. It is cheap, greasy, Ponderosa food. Don’t really need to review that here.
We got there about 3:45pm. Not exactly prime-​time for restaurants right? Well, this place was absolutely RAMMED. Nearly every table was full, and the median age was probably 85. There was apparently some happy-​hour deal which made this incredibly cheap food even cheaper. Plus, you can always just eat the buffet and take the entrée home in a to-​go box! Being an old person sounds like so much fun!
When my friend and I ordered sodas, we were asked if we wanted to upgrade to a larger soda. Sure! Instead of the solid, clear plastic cups used by everyone else, we got huge, bright blue cups with «Pepsi» on the side. Note to anyone going to Ponderosa: DON’T UPGRADE YOUR SODA. We were literally the only two fools in the entire restaurant with the huge bright blue cups. We just as well could have had huge «Rookie» signs stapled to our backs. The elderly mass is guaranteed to look down upon you if you get the blue cup.
Ponderosa is what it is and probably a little bit less if you are going on a childhood memory. I give it two stars for how cheap it is. For those over 120 years old, I give it ten stars.