Izzy’s

This place has gone DOWN hill… they never have enough food out for the amount of people here. Too many tables, makes you feel like your eating on an airplane. The dishes were all hot, even the ones for ice cream and the salad bar. At 12.99 for dinner and 2.49 for soda this should of been a better experience!

Best salad bar in Salem-​variety and quality. Fresh, cut pineapple! Chicken and grilled vegetables very good. All other buffets in Salem pale in comparison! There’s only one reason I didn’t give it five stars. My hometown of Albany is where Izzy’s began. So, I can remember the days when the crust was homemade (not Sysco). Those were the days!

I had taken some people that were very close to my heart to this location this evening for a dinner due to them recently going through a house fire and which they lost almost everything. I had mentioned to the manager it was my friends sons birthday on Saturday and what had happened to them and they brought him cake and the manager and another worker said that our meal was free. I am so thankful for these people that helped us tonight. We need more people like you guys in this world. I wrote your headquarters and I want to make sure you both get the recognition that you deserve:) thank you so much !

As a new resident to the area, I trying out new places. The buffet is small, but the food was fresh and good. Much better then Hometown Buffet!

–very unclear and deceiving pricing
–steak was nearly raw
–pizza crust was sticky and chewy. Pizza was disproportionately more crust than topping.
–limited menu for a buffet
–everything was greasy
–fool me once, shame on you… We won’t be fooled again.

I have been here multiple times, service has always been good and the food has been good as well. Never had any real issues to talk about.

Absolutely do not eat here!!! This place boasts lots of variety of food, and some may taste good. But beware! They do not use proper or safe proper food handling. Dumping fresh salad dressing on top of old and not cleaning it up when it drips all over the ice or side of the container. Then, while they add more ice and rearrange the bowls, they stabbed each if the tongs into the ice, the dirty ice.
When i confronted the manager, which is the person that was refilling the salad bar without concern for sanitary practices, he said he didn’t think he did anything wrong. He did give me the corporate number and I will call. But I fear someone is going to get sick from their food handling.

The following is the story of the incident which happened at this buffet.
A family member and I recently had the opportunity to have lunch at this restaurant. While I would like to say it was a pleasant experience, it certainly was anything but. To begin with, it took exceedingly long to be seated. This struck us as odd seeing as how your establishment is a buffet and your staffs only purpose is to essentially seat people, come see how they are every once in a while and cash them out. This said, right of the gate, we were off to a poor start.
From there, the afternoon went downhill rather quickly. Within about 2 minutes of us sitting down, the family sitting behind us proceeded to allow their child to scream at the top of his lungs of and on for the entirety of our visit. The child was louder than my dog at full pitch and not only did the parents refuse to take care of this, but management, or the hostess (term used loosely) were absent. I’ve attempted to ask parents to please control their children politely in the past at restaurants and had the situation spiral out of control very quickly. We now live in an entitlement society and I wasn’t about to ask these people to grow manners. If that was acceptable to them, there would have been nothing I could have done which would have been productive.
However, as some who’s waited in the past, I do know how to deal with this as an employee and was amazed your staff never did. In fact, the yelling was so unpleasant, we decided to leave (not allowed to finish our lunch). This is when our already ruined lunch turned into a disaster. The hostess or waitress (whatever these employees are called) came to give us our bill and asked the typical rhetorical question of how was your meal. At that very second, the child screamed which made us all jump a bit. I pointed back and said, «Fine, if we were at Chuck E. Cheese.» She stated, «Oh, I’m sorry and walked away.» We looked at each other, laughed and went to checkout.
As we approached the register, we noticed an elderly couple (appeared to be in their 90’s) in front of us yet our waitress was nowhere to be found. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed our waitress stroll across the restaurant with a group of about 6 men which she was taking the opportunity to flirt with. As she approached the register, she intentionally avoided eye contact with us and the elderly couple.
What happened next was something I’ve never experienced and I truly feel lucky that I was with a family member who could keep me in check; because without her, we probably would have been in the following day’s paper. The whatever she is, allowed the 6 men to walk right in front of the elderly couple and my party and proceed to check them all out individually while talking and giggling like a 16 year old girl.
Needless to say, I was infuriated. I looked down at the elderly couple who were both looking at each and my blood began to boil. My family member leaned up in my ear and said it’s not worth it lets just go to the back of the new line. Still angry, I said «What go to the back of the line we are in the front of» all while making direct eye contact with one of the losers in this party. And so we did.
After the flirting was done, the elderly couple was sat and now it was now «our turn.» Without making any eye contact, the whatever she was grabbed our check out of my family members hand and stated the total due. At this point in time, I took the opportunity to ask her, and I quote, «Was there any particular reason why we were checked out last when we were first in line to pay?» She stated, «Because you weren’t.» I replied by saying, «Yes we were and I saw you looking at us while you were gallivanting your way to the register.»
At this point in time she shoved her hand about a foot from my face and said «Whatever, you can speak to the manager.» At this point in time, I feel fortunate that this was not a man. If a man had been that blatantly disrespectful to my face I probably would’ve broke their arm. My family member now holding my arm whispered go wait in the car and I will take care of this. Begrudgingly, I took their advice.
The end result was that I ended up leaving and writing a letter to management After their nonsensical replies, I stated:
«I wasn’t aware your staff was not trained in the everyday dealings of working at a restaurant. Customer service 101 seemed to have been missed by your entire staff at this location. As far as the waitress was concerned, she certainly never showed me any level of professionalism and only „apologized“ once she was confronted by my family member and manager. And apologizing with an excuse is a lot like a child saying: „Well I’m sorry I hit Bobby, but he took my toy.“ It’s insincere and preposterous.
I’m glad there’s someone within your organization with some sense and appreciate your time. This being said, the hand in my face and favoritism shown was enough for me. I won’t be returning.»

The first time I ever went here it was actually OK, but not great. The pizza is kind of like Pillsberry dough with some cheap cheese on it and weird meat. The fried chicken was pretty good though. I pretty much just stuck to the spaghetti and fried chicken. There was some steak but it was tough like a shoe sole but the salad was OK. However the next couple times I went I made a dash for the fried chicken and it was kind of tough and chewy and dry so all in all I try to avoid this place but in all fairness I’m not real big on buffets unless I’m in a hurry. I will say that it’s not in a bad location and the place is clean and it’s not like a Hometown buffet, it’s a little bit more mellow and quieter but nowhere near the selection.

I love going to izzys with my friends. There’s a little bit of everything. The food is delicious and the staff is amazing. Sean is the best waiter, he makes sure everything is okay without hovering. Super nice and very friendly. Price is reasonable and offers senior and kid discounts.

I went with my boyfriend & It was ok I expected it to be better. The waiter didn’t go once to get our plates out of the way. The food looked old just sitting there. There was like 4 pizzas except for pepperoni pizza, you’d expect there to be pepperoni since that’s a fav. I had to wait till I was on my second plate to get pepperoni once it came out. My boyfriend got fried chicken & said it was cold. Most likely no going back

I think the food is a great value for your money, the fried chicken is my favorite, and I can request a custom pizza if it’s not on the buffet. The salad bar is always well stocked, a great place to bring the whole family.

Went here once and it was actually really good… but this time was like a whole different place. The food was old and left out and just overall not fresh… my husband got the steak and he had to spit it out it was so rubbery and gross… I thought I would be safe with a salad but we both left with a seriously bad stomach ache… I’m not sure if since we ate towards closing time and they just stopped refreshing things but I’m not sure we will be going back… too bad too because I used to love izzys …

I went there with my fiancé and the food was fresh! the salad bar was amazing. I just loved the tiny kid ice cream cones and chocolate lava cakes. I was totally impressed. I would recommend this place to friends definitely.

We were taken here by family members and I have to say «Never ever again.»
The food was horrible. I could see that it was mass produced and appeared to be sitting out for hours. It just didn’t have that «fresh food shine» that you see in a healthy buffet.
Nothing tasted like it should. It was overly salty or sugary to cover up whatever it was supposed to be.
I ate salad mostly, thinking it was fresh food and you can’t go wrong.
It tasted bland and worse than hospital food. The meat was very dry, the pizza was weirdly rubbery and the salad bar… well, the salad bar was okay until I saw a kid putting a tomato and lettuce back in the bowl after he found it on the floor. The wait staff looked bored but they were polite.
The one thing that really bugged me was that the food areas had food dripped on it and there was nobody cleaning it up. There were kids running all over the place and it was noon on a Saturday during Salem market. I don’t know if they were short staffed but it wasn’t well kept up like a buffet should be.
There were tons of people and it was hard to get around. I’m a normal weight person and I had a hard time navigating areas that should have been open.
It’s like they stuffed all the tables in there without thinking of the people needing to eat. You either had a hard time getting around or you were moving your chair so people could fit in the table next to you or especially behind you.
My family members love this place but I just can’t bear going in there again. I would rather eat at McDonalds and I hate McDonalds.
I felt ripped off. The atmosphere and the food and the way things were not taken care of… if that was what I saw up front where all the people were and all the food was being served… then what was happening in the back?
I love my family but I’ll never eat here again.
Never again.

Its a buffet. I don’t think I can gave more than three stars unless the buffet is in Vegas or Disney World. OK pizza, great salad bar and average buffet items. Drink lots of water after you partake in this sodiom overload.

The wait staff is always so friendly. The food selection is not very big but the food they do have is always fresh, hot and new stuff is always coming out of the kitchen. Eventually the staff will learn your name and even your preferences. I love that! One of my absolute favorite places to visit– SVJ

VERY poor service. Creepy customers. I also found black hair in the food. Don’t use the restrooms!

Gross gross gross. If it’s not a long black hair you find in your corn, it’ll be the dried up fried chicken or the lack of pizza on the pizza buffet.
This place is a dump. Pure and simple. The pizza is really good, but they put out ONE every 30 minutes or so. And then they put out weird combos that no normal human being would eat. And they leave it there until you give up all sense of sanity and eat the weird combo just to get a new one put out. Meanwhile, the cooks in the back are laughing that you’re actually eating the weird combo.
This place COULD be good. I’m upset that the Izzy’s I knew and loved as a kid is no longer around. Perhaps this is why it’s never busy and the one on Commercial went out of business a year ago!

Pretty scary inside… décor is old and «stale». There are a lot of kids running around. The pizza for the buffet is never stocked well, especially with vegetarian options. The staff is good though, usually friendly. Same old food, every time I go. The salad bar is not good… pretty crappy quality.

Izzy’s On Lancaster used to be a première place for affordable family eats with great service and quality food. Now take all of that down a notch and you have affordable crap, with rude service, and trashy customers. The place has become in a sense run down and is very inconsistent with their food. Sometimes good, sometimes disgusting. I’ve had too many disatisfying experiences to give this place a solid recommendation. I would only recommend one comes here if they are totally desperate.