Before continuing, I want to say that I’ve had several very nice experiences at the Omni Grove Park Inn watching the sunset with friends (usually, visiting), but I think it’s legend and bona fides—did you know Obama stayed here?—(not to mention its prices) led me to believe that it’s a bit fancier than it is. The reality is that—to me, at least—the Omni is less for legitimately fancy people, but for people who want to project the illusion of fancy. It’s novea riche, although I think, in many cases, without the actual wealth.
I say this because I was invited to the Grove Park’s Friday seafood buffet last Friday, and actually thought to myself—because I’m someone who gets fooled once, twice, three times, often—”you should dress up,” so took care to throw on a nice sweater, some chinos, and wore my nice peacoat (one that frankly doesn’t see alot of play in Asheville, since Asheville’s version of dressing nice is like, your most expensive fleece). We skirted valet parking for the more affordable garage, took the elevator up to the restaurant, and I was immediately reminded that the fancy of the Grove Park is, as I said, more a projection than reality. The man getting off the adjoining elevator—and also headed straight for the buffet line—was wearing Hokas and a Jurassic Park sweatshirt (not the sequels… the OG goat-on-the-sunroof version; I had a similarly branded backpack back in 1993). Similarly, the family seated next to us had a patriarch who was dressed exactly how you’d expect someone who frequented seafood buffets, all-you-can-eat crab-leg specials, and perennially orders surf ‘n turf from chain steakhouses to look: an American-flag bedecked performance polo, Salt Life baseball hat, jeans, and snakeskin cowboy boots (I have a feeling that the buffet that night was maybe the only restaurant in Asheville where the majority of the folks were voracious ICE supporters…).
Anyway, the seafood at the seafood buffet was…decent. It was buffet seafood. I liked having my choice of as much shrimp cocktail as you could eat (and probably ate my price worth there), and having as many oysters as you wanted was nice (though you could only get four at a time), but the fried shrimp was fried shrimp under a heatlamp, the fish n chips was fine, and the grouper was a little dry—I just think seafood specifically isn’t necessarily built for buffet-style dining (and I’m just not a crab legs person). It wasn’t a bad meal, but Jettie Rae’s is going to be much fresher, tastier, and actually more affordable if you want seafood in Asheville.
That said, I would go back to this buffet again SPECIFICALLY for the dessert selection. It was glorious. I had an amazing raspberry tart, a fantastic bourbon pecan tart, amazing cookies, and truly out-of-this-world bread pudding. I sampled some great limoncello cake, some great pecan pie, a pound cake situation, and had probably the best key lime tart I’ve ever had, and I’m typically of the mindset that, like most buffets, key lime anything is always good but never great, but whoever baked these proved me wrong. I also liked that everything was sample-size, so, writing this the morning after, I don’t feel disgusting the way I do when I have, like, full servings of 10 desserts after Thanksgiving dinner. 10/10 would 100% do again.
AshevilleExplorer 