They'll Leave the Home-Like Fires Burning...
Written: Jan 15 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Family-friendly, attentive staff, wide variety of good food
Cons: Not easy to watch your waistline here!
The Bottom Line: Fire Mountain has become a staple in my family's restaurant repertoire, and is much easier on our budget than national chain steakhouses.
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| smaihlee's Full Review: Fire Mountain Grill |
Fire Mountain Grill
You may notice that this is my first "real" restaurant review (Krystal doesn't count). I feel pretty well qualified to write epinions on some restaurants based on a couple different factors. My husband has worked in restaurants since he was 14, and actually owned one for 3 years. Though my closest job to waitressing was popping and serving popcorn at a movie theater, I have learned a lot from my husband and from doing a lot of the "behind the scenes" when he was an owner/manager. What's more, our family eats out for just about every meal of the day (breakfast only on weekends), so we are getting our fill of all the restaurants in our seriously palate-depressed town. As a result, we have become very critical of the food and service we experience, and are more than willing to share both the positive and negative with anyone who will listen.
How it Started...
About a year ago, two big box retailers in my town were torn down and newer, better, and bigger boxes were built in mega-complexes less than a mile down the road from the originals. As the buildings were going up, we began hearing a buzz about this new restaurant called "Fire Mountain" that was being built nearby both stores. No one seemed to know any particular details about the restaurant, though one friend of ours said he heard that "you get to cook your own meat at the table". We laughed at the notion, but figured anything is possible these days. A couple months later, the doors to our first Fire Mountain finally opened. We decided to wait a couple weeks before trying it out, just to let the crowds die down a bit.
From what I understand, Fire Mountain is owned by Ryan's. I'm pretty ambivalent about that fact because I've never been a regular at Ryan's (though I know they have a pretty loyal following). Much like Ryan's, Fire Mountain is a combination steakhouse/grand buffet. The big difference is that you don't have to choose between steak dinner or buffet bar, because steak is included in the buffet at Fire Mountain.
What you see...
When you enter the restaurant, there is a large lobby area that filters into several register lines. There are large signs posted above the register that list the buffet and drink prices. The adult buffet runs around $8.50 on Monday through Thursday, and just shy of $9.00 on the weekends. The price for children is about 50 cents per year of age. Drinks for all are about $1.25. For my husband, myself, and our 5-year old, dinner totals between $24 - $26, depending on what day we eat there.
When you reach a register, you are greeted by a generally friendly person who asks how many are in your party, childrens' ages (if any), and what drinks each person would like. Your receipt is handed to a seater who goes about the task of finding a table for your party. Even when the restaurant is packed, we've never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table. The staff uses walkie-talkies to ensure efficient communication and turnaround of tables. I like the fact that the seating is controlled, mostly because it eliminates you having to trudge around trying to find a clean table.
As is probably the case with other locations, our Fire Mountains are huge. There are two large open areas, one on either side of the buffet lines, with seating at both tables and booths. There is also a glass-enclosed area in the back with tables that serves as flexible seating in that the tables can be moved around to accommodate large parties.
What you get...
Once you are seated, your server will greet you at the table, review your drink selections, and offer to bring you a basket of yeast rolls. Say "yes". Because the restaurant stays busy, the rolls are usually piping hot out of the oven (they kind of remind me of a fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut when they're really hot and dipped in butter). At that point, the server will direct you to help yourself at the buffet lines while he/she prepares your drinks. The primary function of the server is to keep your drink filled and clear your dirty plates from the table ASAP, but they are usually more than willing to fulfill any special requests you may have (i.e., non-standard condiments). Napkin dispensers are at each table, which I am always appreciative of considering the mess my 6-year old makes when eating. And the napkins are substantial, not those thin bumpy one-ply deals you get in some places.
This is where the fun begins. If I had any complaint to make about Fire Mountain, it would be that there's too much to choose from. I always start with the two Cold Bars. One holds more salad varieties than I even knew existed. There is an extensive selection of lettuces, fresh veggies, dressings, and toppings at Cold Bar #1. Along with that, they have several bowls of pre-tossed salad varieties on the bar--Caesar, spinach/strawberry/onion, and Greek are among those I have seen. I have tried nearly everything on this bar and love it all. Their dressings are very good and of high quality, and I have yet to see a wilted leaf of lettuce. Above that, they keep the salad bar CLEAN--heck, they keep all the bars clean for that matter.
On Cold Bar #2, a tempting array of pasta and seafood salads awaits you. Traditional macaroni salad and crab meat salad are among the standards. They also have a couple platters of cheese cubes, as well as a variety of cut fresh fruit, canned fruit, and cottage cheese.
After eating salad and fruit, I usually take a few minutes to walk around and check out all the hot food selections before loading up a plate. Though I'm not on a diet, I should be, and so I try to choose carefully in a place like Fire Mountain where the food is good and abundant. There are basically four "Hot" Bars available, with some selections varying nightly.
The grill (which I'll refer to as Hot Bar #1 always features steaks, along with a couple other types of grilled meat (chicken, smoked sausage) and a grilled vegetable. You can probably guess that they're not serving filet mignon, but in all honesty the steak is pretty good. They start with large cuts and portion out about 4 to 6 ounces for each customer. Sometimes you'll get a pretty big chunk of fat on your meat. Before you go screaming for a manager, just remember that you can go back for more as many times as you wish. I would recommend asking for one step less done than usual (e.g., ask for medium instead of medium-well), because the steak is not going to be as tender as what you'd get at a steakhouse.
On to Hot Bar #2. I'll be honest in saying that I haven't really spent any time on Hot Bar #2, but the selections are usually of the more kid-friendly type of foods. Tacos, pizza, and hot dogs are things I recall seeing there during visits past. Oh, yeah. This is where the carving station is located. I got their roast beef once and swore I'd never get the steak again. Not as tender as what you'd get at the country club, but still really juicy and tasty.
Hot Bars #3 and #4 are in the middle of the restaurant, one at the end of each cold bar. This is where you'll find all the traditional buffet food, but if I say so myself, it's a little better than what you might be used to. They have fried chicken (out of this world), mashed potatoes, carrots, cabbage, fried okra--you name it. They keep it hot and fresh, and everything I've tried has been seasoned just right. They even have steamed broccoli that's actually crisp-tender, with a tray of hot melted cheese right next to it. Yum!
Like I mentioned before, I try to restrain myself when eating at a buffet. At Fire Mountain, this means that I usually get a salad, baked potato, steak, and vegetable. But no matter how much or little I load up on at the cold and hot bars, I always save room for dessert. The dessert bar at Fire Mountain is one of the most extensive I've ever seen. They have the requisite soft-serve ice cream available, along with sugar and cake cones and lots of sprinklings/toppings. Chocolate and vanilla (separately or swirled) are always available on one of the machines, while the 2nd soft-serve machine selection varies. Besides ice cream, there are probably 30 or more varieties of cake, pie, cookies, and spoon desserts (pudding, cobbler, etc.) available. Included are a plethora of sugar-free options for those who have to control their intake but just can't pass up the best part of dinner! My personal favorite is their cherry cobbler, with a nice dollop of vanilla soft-serve on top.
Random Comments...
When the restaurant is full, maneuvering around can get a little more difficult. However, I feel that Fire Mountain has done a much better job of laying out their restaurant than another popular buffet restaurant in town. Hot Bars #3 and #4, along with the cold bars and dessert station, are in the center of the restaurant-- so the distribution of people moving around is pretty good. "That other place" has all their bars lined up against the wall with the cooks/prep on the other side, which causes some serious traffic jams and confusion.
In Summary...
In my opinion, good food means nothing if a restaurant can't offer good service to back it up. I think I have established that the food at Fire Mountain is pretty darn good, and they certainly have the service angle covered. I think the folks at the grill "take the cake", so to speak, as you'll usually find at least one of them singing or putting on a little show while cooking and serving. The table servers we have had seem to be more mature and have previous experience, qualities I imagine work very well in a bustling buffet environment. We've never had a bad server, though we have had slightly s l o w e r service on nights when the restaurant is packed. Speaking of packed, you can bet that weekend nights and Sunday lunch bring people to Fire Mountain in droves.
With my family of 3 eating out most nights, as I mentioned before, I feel good when we can get a good meal and service to match for $25 or less. Fire Mountain fits this bill perfectly, and I would definitely recommend this restaurant to just about anybody whose taste in cuisine isn't overly snobby.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
smaihlee
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Location: Spartanburg, SC
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Sucker for anything - no more!
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