Or Souper Salad, which is still alive and well. Mostly, I had clearer recollections of other buffets - those of the Chinese-food variety made for hangovers and the 'healthy' versions, like the Colorado-proud, totally early '90s Healthy Habits, which is now a liquor store on Colorado Boulevard. Trying to remember what it was I enjoyed about Furr's in the first place was a bit of a childhood blur, though I'm sure it had a lot to do with Jello and macaroni and cheese, staple foods of any American buffet looking to target toddlers and senior citizens. Or as a piece of my own family's lore can attest, getting your money's worth means an infamous evening at the NCO Club where my grandfather made my aunt put a baked potato from the buffet in her purse, because they had 'paid for it, so it was rightfully theirs.' Now that's getting your money's worth. Now it seems like the ideas of getting one's money's worth and satiating our palate only come together on a dollar menu. Like a throwback to a time when 'getting your money's worth' was actually something people said when discussing food that was shovel-able. Other than the illusion of decadence and high life that come with a gaudy culinary spread, the regular old buffet is a screaming relic of the past. It also helped amp up the buffet situation that we were in a restaurant with a three-story aquarium running through the middle of it, because we carnivorous humans like to see the animals we eat while they are simultaneously alive in a tank and dead on our plates. Like the last buffet with which I overloaded my system on New Year's Day, which was a celebratory gorging of crab legs, sushi, ribs, mango salad, eggs Benedict and frilly desserts served in tiny martini glasses.

In modern times, the buffet only seems to serve a purpose if it involves a shitload of fancy food you wouldn't be eating otherwise. See also: Furr's Cafeteria: Memories should stop at the buffet's edge Long before that, though, I knew the magic was gone.īut that's the problem with a place like Furr's Cafeteria - it is celebrated for what it used to be, a place frozen in a time when jello is still considered a side item (not just a thing you eat when you're sick and your body can only process red dye #40-colored collagen from pigs). A few things deterred me, like my home Furr's location at the Buckingham Mall being long gone, and fellow Westword writer Jenn Wohletz's harrowing account of a contemporary visit to a newfangled Furr's in Wheat Ridge, which finally closed this month. Furr's had become a place I always talked about visiting as an adult - mostly to see if it was as good as it was when I was a five-year-old regular there in 1985 - but I never seemed to make the trip happen. But only in the nostalgic-for-something-I-haven't-been-nostalgic-for-in-a-long-time kind of way. I also like that the delivery driver is all taken care of beforehand, so all they have to do is knock and hand me the bag when I open the door.When I heard that the last Furr's Cafeteria in Colorado had closed, I was sad.

This meal didn't take 30 minutes even, so that was nice. It normally takes 45 minutes to an hour to get a delivery. Overall though, with the one exception, the food was warm and tasty when we got it and ordering online really seems to expedite matters. Thankfully between what was edible, the egg roll, (which we wish was the same as the one that comes with my meal, btw) and the fried rice, he had enough to eat, but it could easily have been the other way around. However, my son said to me 'Dad, my chicken is hard!' So I had a bite of his Sesame Chicken and while the batter and sauce on the outside was good, the actual chicken meat actually WAS hard and chewy and less than appetizing. I really like the egg roll and roast pork that comes with it too. The make your own combo with Mongolian Beef was good as always.

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