The Plantation Restaurant (UPDATE!!!! NOW CLOSED!!!!)

JUST TO LET EVERYONE ONE KNOW THAT THIS PLACE IS NOW SHUT DOWN AND THE BUILDING IS FOR SALE. 

WOW...what a HORRIBLE experience! I usually try to find the bright side of bad things, but this one just doesn't have one. Please read this before going to this place!

 OK, first off it is a very old restaurant located centrally on the strip. They boast a buffet and you can find some great coupons. That is what lead us there in the first place. It was noon and we had a coupon for buy one get one half off the lunch buffet. I have learned though to call first and make sure that the restaurant is having their buffet on that day as some only have them on weekends..etc. Also I like to check the price per person. Buffets here in Branson can range from 5.99- 29.99 per person! So I called the number on the coupon. A man answered and I asked prices. He said that 4 and up was 7.99. Under that was free. That sure sounded reasonable especially with the coupon so we went in. There was only two other tables with people at them which was surprising as it was high noon and most places were packed. I should have took that as a warning! Stepping inside was like stepping back to my child hood. The front was a small store that sold all kinds of Branson themed items. That part was fine. Then we went to the podium that stated "Please wait to be seated". Well...we waited..and waited..and waited! After more than five minutes had gone by we were about to just leave. Finally an old man came from somewhere in the store area and told us to go find a table. He didn't lead us to one, or anything, just told us to go sit somewhere. So...we did. Now this place had the nostalgia going for it I guess. I don't think it had been updated in the last twenty years or so. Seriously...the curtains were ancient...the table we sat at had a big deep gash across it. The chairs were shabby and it was dark. A waitress came over with her hands full of dishes and said "Doing the buffet?" We were like..."Yes, I think so..." She walked off and entered the back without another word. She came back out a few min. later and asked what we wanted to drink. We told her just ice water and she left to get it. We went up to the buffet. Now I won't say that the selection was bad, but the food was hard and dry. The fish was way overcooked. The rolls were literally so hard you could tap them on the table and they made a crunching sound. I tried the fried shrimp and could not physically eat it. It was like chewing hard tack. It was like they had cooked everything at about 9AM and put it on the buffet, never bothering to change anything. I asked if they were going to put out something fresh and she glanced at the buffet and said..looks like everything is full to me.! I was getting really mad. Then, before we had even had a chance to take more than a few bites, the waitress brings our ticket. Normally I would think that was rude...which it is...but I was glad in this case. She charged us 6.99 for our 3 year old!! I figured that maybe she just made an error in judging how old she was so we mentioned it. She said that was the discounted price for kids ages 3 & 4 and kids 2 and under were 1.99. I told her we had called and talked to a guy about prices before we came in. She went into the shop and came back in with the rude older guy. He said "I am the only person that answers the phone round here and you didn't talk to me." I got out my cell phone and double checked the number. It was theirs. I sat there a moment longer and between the rude service, dirty place, terrible food and insane prices, we decided to leave. The waitress was walking by then and I told her that we were leaving, that the food was not fit to eat and even showed her the stuff on our plates. She said "Fine, but if your not planning on paying then don't be surprised if he calls the cops on you!" We got up and headed for the door. I was so mad right then that I would almost have welcomed the police getting involved. Jerry told the old man we were leaving and he said "I figured you were going to, you look like the type. Just go on get the hell out of here." I was glad that he didn't make a big deal out of it, but the whole thing was so terrible. It is hard to believe that Branson can have a place so terrible stay in business!
 Please understand that I don't normally write a bad review on a place. I take into consideration things like time of day, busyness and such, but this was lunch time with few patrons. NO reason to have terrible food, and certainly no reason to charge 7.00 for a 3 year old to eat! This is one place we will not be returning to EVER and I do not recommend this to anyone. We went to the Out Back and salvaged our lunch out..but that is another review!