Filling Stations

If Farraddays’ Restaurant, the upscale dining room at the Isle of Capri Casino is a good bet for the money, then its sibling restaurant, the all-you-can-eat Calypso, may seem like a treasure trove at about $18 a person (including tax) for dinner. And it may be — for a hungry diner with a passion for crab legs and shrimp — but once you get past the seafood, the buffet doesn’t seem so glamorous.

There’s a lot to choose from at the five or six little food stations, which are divided into coastal “themes,” including the East Coast (which has the hot crab legs and a few mediocre Chinese dishes), the Gulf Coast, the West Coast and the Heartland. Diners load up their plates like there’s no tomorrow, but some of the stuff is barely edible. The “garlic toast” was so hard, I could have used several pieces as paving stones, and while the neon-orange cheese on the greasy-looking pizza was plenty unappetizing, the fact that it was stone cold didn’t help.

Granted, the fried shrimp was crispy and hot, but there’s something disconcerting about spooning up your own serving of cocktail sauce into disposable plastic cups. Equally disturbing were the chewy macaroni and cheese and the greasy, salty fried chicken. At the Mexican stop, taco shells and the accompaniments for whipping up tacos (shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped onion) shared space with a pile of cold shrimp, chilled crab legs and lukewarm taco meat. Dessert offerings were less than memorable too.

At Calypso, the napkins are paper, beverages come in plastic tumblers and the service, if you can call it that, is perfunctory at best, starting with the downright crabby cashier at the entrance. She treated each patron stepping up to her register with such ill-concealed contempt that I wasn’t sure whether I was walking into a restaurant or in front of a firing squad. Having tasted the food, I’m still not sure.

If you have a yen for buffets, there are friendlier, tastier — and cheaper — alternatives. You can’t beat either the soul food or the soulful value of the Peach Tree Buffet Restaurant (680 Eastwood Trafficway). For dinner and lunch, this tidy and tastefully appointed buffet brings out the best examples of classic Southern cooking. The menu changes every day, but there’s always crispy, juicy fried chicken, creamy baked macaroni and cheese, light homemade rolls, a lattice-crust peach cobbler as good as my late grandmother’s (the non-Italian one) and the best damn bread pudding on any local steam table.

I took a friend who wasn’t savvy to soul food; he nibbled at the cornmeal-dusted catfish fillets and the macaroni and cheese but wasn’t brave enough to chomp down on the less-familiar pork neckbones (which are tender, meaty — and tasty) and collard greens swimming in fragrant “potlikker” (the nutritious and slightly bitter juice of the greens, flavored with ham or fatback and onion). He missed out — Peach Tree’s cornbread is firm enough to sop up that delectable juice, making for a savory cornbread dressing to enjoy with some candied yams.

Each night features certain dishes, such as pork chops and gravy and meatloaf on Tuesday, red beans and rice with sausage on Thursday and barbecued ribs, baked chicken and sweet potato pie on Saturday. For adults, this lavish spread costs $8.30 on weeknights and a buck more on weekends; senior citizens get a nice discount — making Peach Tree a sure bet.