ponderosa steak houses

I have almost never been disappointed by a Ponderosa. There were a couple exceptions though -- the ones in Clare, Essexville, and Lansing, Michigan all have very small buffets with fewer choices than most. Essexville was especially pathetic, it was about 1/4 the size of a traditional Pondo buffet. (Lansing, for the record, is an ex-Bonanza with a massive dining room.)

Also, there's one in Bay City that's a former Bill Knapps, and it has a very strange layout plus a huge buffet. Good stuff.

I would like to take this time to say Golden Corral has very good banana pudding.

I remember my grandfather (who loves restaurants in general) loved to take us to Ponderosa in the late 70's early 80's. Remember how when you were waiting in line they had pictures of the steaks? I remember always wanting to get the filet mignon, but ending up sharing a ribeye with my mom. They didn't have the salad bar until later, and I do remember a discussion about whether or not to leave a tip. I could not have been more than 8 at the time. One of my aunts got the salad bar with her meal, or maybe we got it with ours, and I remember loving the croutons.

I don't think we have one around here anymore. If I want a good steak I go to the Machine Shed & order a medium rare delmonico ribeye.

I am in Saginaw, MI and our Ponderosa is doing GREAT; it is usually full, especially on F&S nights; they have a super huge and good buffet, great steaks, good staff, even a smoking room I tell you, what more can you ask for? We love going there with our family, it is a real treat, so from the sounds of it we are lucky. Dating myself here, but I am 50 now, and I can remember when I was about 13 or so our favorite place to go out to eat in the 'big city' was Jackson, MI and it was also a Ponderosa; they also had super good food, and a great buffet even back then! So lucky here, never run into a bad one, now I will know though to be very careful and check out any we run into out of state for sure! OR heck, even out of town in most cases, thaks you all....Pat

My very first job was at a Ponderosa, that was eventually shut down for severe health code violations. I worked there until the manager wanted me to clean up dead mice and roaches a couple of days later, then I quit, and didn't eat there again for many years, until I was drug there by some family members. At least it was cleaner than the one I worked at many, many years ago, but the food left much to be desired. The "Steak" had so much fat and gristle, I had to send it back, only to receive one that was even worse...The chicken wings on the buffet weren't too bad, so I filled up on those instead.

As I recall, Ponderosa was started by the guy who'd started the Sandy's Hamburger chain. He sold out that chain and used the money to start Ponderosa, taking the name from the TV then still new on the air.
The Bonanza chain was started by a different outfit. The main difference was Ponderosa operated cafeteria style for every item while Bonanza had a salad bar (once they got invented).
Sometime in the 80s the competitors merged, much as Burger King and Burger Chef did a decade earlier.

In Milwaukee the chain slowly slid into decline, closing about half their ops in the suburbs. But a couple years ago they built a new one
in the inner city. Hopefully more urban Ponderosas will follow. (I'm damn tired of everything being built out in the far suburbs where few folks actually live!)

Given a choice between MacD/Taco Bell/whatever and a Ponderosa, I'll take the Ponderosa. Same amount of money but a much better level of food.
Of course, given the choice between Ponderosa and Golden Corral (and assuming I can afford the gas for the 20 mile trip), I'll head down the highway to GC. I love their pot roast!

One thing Ponderosa is good for-- teaching kids how to eat in a restaurant setting. We've been taking Abby to places like Ponderosa and Old COuntry Buffet since she was 18 months. Now she's 3 and gets to pick out what she'd like on her plate (even if she still mostly just eats the mac-n-cheese!).