Highlander House of Buffet & Steakhouse — Restaurant in Burnet

This is apparently a pretty popular place in Burnet. I arrived at 1pm. There was a large party trickling in before and after me that caught them by surprise. They were very forthcoming warning us that the buffet closed at 2 and no new food would be put out after 1:30. Several small groups who came in after 1:30 were encouraged to take a look at what was available before sitting down, but every group that looked liked the choices enough to stay. There was enough food there that I would have stayed faced with the same choice.

The fried entrees were excellent. I had fried chicken and chicken fried steak. Both were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The chicken was juicy and not over cooked. The steak was well seasoned and tenderized. I had multiple helpings of both.

The two "BBQ" pork offerings were ribs and pulled pork. But they were obviously made in an oven, because there was no smoke in the flavor of the meat. The ribs were well cooked, tender and moist, and well seasoned. They had good flavor, just no smoke. If you don't like fatty chunks in your pulled pork, then you'll definitely want to skip that dish.

The sides were acceptable but not special except for the fried okra, which was exceptional. The carrots, spinach and corn came out of a can. They probably added some butter, salt, and /or sugar, but they were otherwise obviously canned. The mashed potatoes came from a box. But the fried okra was perfect. Crunchy, well seasoned, served piping hot, I had several servings of that dish. The rolls were good.

The desserts were served in small covered single serving dishes. None were hot. The peach cobbler was fine, and I enjoyed it. The bread pudding had a strange texture, so I didn't finish the bowl I got. The ice cream machine was not working.

Everything there was served at a very good temperature. The food didn't sit long enough to get old, since there were plenty of diners to eat it up. There is a salad bar that I didn't try, but it looked fine.

I enjoyed it, and I will eat there again. The servers were very upfront about the schedule to make sure everyone knew what was going on. And the server I had was friendly. The other lady seemed a little put out by the large group who came in without a reservation. But I had a positive experience and will happily eat...

I am sad to inform that we had a bad experience at Highlander's. Although we liked their food, especially the breakfasts on the weekends, I was quite surprised to find out that ordering takeout is the biggest downfall for this restaurant. When we went to the Mexican night buffet to try to get our food the waitress not only followed us, but stayed there looking at us very uncomfortable and asked what food we wanted to get. I looked at her and asked for my box so that I could do that myself,and she said: "no, I have to do it" and I asked why, only for her to say: " because that's the way it is and that's the way I was trained". I was taken by surprise, and she just stood there waiting, looking at us, like a parole officer to a criminal. Since when do you go to a buffet and the waitress picks your food for you or stays there watching you like you're stealing food? That was very discriminatory because there were other costumers buying food and no one told them anything and they were grabbing their own food, without anyone watching over them, they just happened to be caucasian. I was so disappointed, especially because there are no signs or notifications at the buffet about what we can and cannot eat, or pick. The funny part is that they gave us a box to choose anything we wanted from the dessert and salad bar without looking over our shoulder, apparently they have to supervise you only on the entrees. I do find this hard to believe, as I have come with coworkers and friends, and they had never treated us this way. As much as my family and I liked coming here every week, after this discriminatory and unpleasant incident, we will NOT be back to the...

Small southern cooking buffet restaurant in a strange setting with dead animals all over the walls inside a tackle shop. The meatloaf was a slab of flavorless hamburger topped with pure ketchup, chicken fried steak is processed hamburger meat, fish is rubbery, pot roast is overly salty, I had to actually ask what the pot roast was, it looked like a bowl of vomit, the veggies are from a can and the potatoes are from a box. ALL of the food was cold straight off the buffet and I cannot imagine this place has a good health department rating because of it. The only saving grace was the wait staff who were VERY friendly but all of the kitchen help ran around handling food in filthy aprons, I am talking food CAKED on them, it was disgusting. The thing I found most concerning was the filthy bathrooms that you had to walk a ways to get to through a strange abandoned hallway that my 11 year old son described as "something from a horror movie". My young daughters were actually scared to go to the bathrooms, the walk was a mess of filthy walls, dirty carpet and strange smells that by the time we returned I had ZERO appetite left. Today, the day after my visit I am home puking my guts out with diagnosed food poisoning. I ate nothing else after this place so I know Highlander was the culprit. NEVER AGAIN and I urge everyone else to stay away. If you want a buffet drive the 9 miles up the road to Marble Falls and opt for the Chinese place where the food is always HOT, the interior is spotless and you won't walk away deathly sick...