Desi's Downtown Restaurant — Restaurant in Crestview

Desi's in downtown Crestview is "cafeteria-style" dining with plenty of positive features and very few negatives. The first positive? The place is "all-you-can-eat" with a great variety of items to choose from. One negative might be that they're closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday and the open days are for lunch only hours (11 -1:30) except that they do have a dinner buffet from 530 to 8 pm on Fridays. Another positive is that the food was super fresh, hot enough to make you wait for it to cool off a bit plus the taste and quality is spot on. When I visited for lunch they were serving fried chicken, baked spaghetti and meatloaf as part of their "mains". Each was delicious. The several side dishes available were standard country-cooking fare but certainly elevated in quality and taste. These included rutabagas, stewed cabbage, cheesy broccoli, baked beans, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, macaroni and cheese (super cheesy), rolls, and cornbread hoecakes. (This is not a complete list, so your results may vary...) Another negative is parking... with on-street and behind-the-building parking available it's limited due to the fact that Desi's is always busy (be patient as there can be a line, but it moves quickly - a positive!) and it shares downtown with several other businesses. Don't forget that dessert area, which is serve-yourself simple and is included with your meal. The bread pudding was great and the several dessert dishes appeared to be made in-house. The service was great, both in the dining room and on the serving line. They post their offerings daily on their Facebook page so you can see ahead of time what's on the rotating menu. The menu includes family recipes that look and taste great, so be sure to watch for your favorite dishes. The price is reasonable (based on quality and what's included (your drink too!) for $16.99 + tax. (Edit on 9/12/2023... as with everything nowadays, the price at Desi's has increased recently to $18.99 + tax. Still a good deal but...

I've eaten at this place since they've been on the scene. But the last time I was there, what I didn't know was that the lunch buffet was $16 per person. In what world is that ok? It's the same food that has always been. I am aware of inflation, but that is overkill. Our server was Ms. Cathy, she was a wonderful person and a terrific server. The time before this myself, my husband and our 7 yr old daughter ate there, and our daughter is very picky, so we got her something to eat and brought it in while we ate the buffet. Well, my husband ended up getting a piece of carrot cake from the dessert bar and ate most of it and gave the last bite or two left to our daughter. The owner Desi comes to the table saying how my daughter had just beautiful hair and whatnot. It seemed nice enough but was random and weird. Come to find out, she only did that to get a closer look at my daughter eating those last 2 bites of that dessert. When we got up to pay, we were charged for a whole dessert for those two bites. I just wished we'd gotten her a full dessert since we paid for one. We do not mind paying for anything, but it was literally one adult bite and two small bites for a child her size that my husband was throwing away because of being so full. And the sneaky way she went about it was rather disturbing. Super Christian ✝️....

Just visiting Crestview for the day and a few people told us to eat here. However, when we arrived, it was unclear whether we should seat ourselves, if we should pay before we got our food, or pretty much how this place worked. I was immediately disappointed and stunned to see that this place uses styrofoam plates and plastic straws. They are not even trying. My friend couldn’t believe there was no fried chicken on the buffet. Guess we showed up on the wrong day. I asked for a wing from the baked chicken. There were none, so they gave me a neck. A neck? Who would even serve that to a customer? It had a little bit of breast meat on it, so I ate that. I could have asked for another piece, but would have had to stand in a long line and let my other food get cold. Every selection was bland, heavy on sauces and gravies, and tasted like the cheapest cuts of everything. And it was almost $20! I wouldn’t even consider the salad bar—it looked like it had been picked over, only a few items to put on your salad (nothing that I liked), and the “dessert bar” was so bland as to be laughable. Just an awful experience with the food—the service was good, however. Just too bad the food...