In Tim's Big Book of Restaurant Reviews, Ryan's Grill, Buffet and Bakery, in Middlesboro, Kentucky Has Earned an Over All Rating of 0.8 Out of 10

In Tim's Big Book of Restaurant Reviews I have and will be reviewing restaurants that I have visited. I won't review any place that I haven't visited at least twice, separated by at least a month or so, to be fair to them, in case they were having a bad day, which can happen. I also won't review any fast food place, only regular sit-down places, and I try to be as fair and objectionable to each place as I can be. Now having said that, I feel that Ryan's Buffet, Grill and Bakery of Middlesboro, Kentucky is absolutely the worst restaurant I have ever ate in.

I frequent Ryan's about once a month, due to the lack of any good restaurants in the area, and in the hopes that they will finally shape up. At first I thought that they were just in a slump, now almost 2 years later they have slipped to an all time low that is absolutely unacceptable for any restaurant. I feel that the general public should be aware of the food they eat. Remember, you have a choice of dinning at a particular place or not and hopefully my reviews will help you make a decision.

First off, the place is a disaster for a building that is only a little over 4 years old. The wallpaper is peeling off the walls. There is grease stains and nicotine on the walls in the smoking section. There is so much dust on the ceiling fans that it has clumped together and looks like spider webs. The tissue paper holders in the womens restroom are broke and fall down every time you touch them, which end up hitting you on the head while you are using the toilet. (Which in fairness to them, I was told they were in the process of making repairs).

They have a buffet all day everyday. There is never any main dishes on the bar, such as meat, with the exception of fried chicken. It is always mostly side dishes, such as mashed potatoes, green beans and corn. When they finally do have main dishes it is under cooked. The fired chicken is slimy in the middle and roast beef and steak they have on the bar in the evening is still pink. There is always food all over the place on the side of the bar and in the floor from lack of proper cleaning during the day.

The salad bar is nasty. The lettuce is brown, the onions are soaked in water until there is no taste left and the ham and turkey always tastes spoiled. The salad dressing, while not watered down like other places, is thick and lumpy and has a spoiled smell to them. They use uneaten dinner rolls from the day before to make cheese toast to put on the bar and there is a nauseating grease smell around the bars that will turn your appetite.

I do have to give then credit, they are now offer a breakfast buffet on Saturday and Sunday mornings which is better food quality than the lunch and dinner buffets. The dessert bar is never fully stocked. Nothing is labeled making your choice of desserts a chore. I can't stand lemon and yet almost everything on the dessert bar has a lemon taste. Lemon flavoring must be cheap versus peanut butter which they never use. They have two soft serve ice cream machine, of which, at least one will be broke down at any given time.

The waitresses and waiters are just about the worst of any restaurant I've ate at. On most visits you only see your server twice, once to get your drinks the first time and again 45 minutes later when they finally bring your grill order, which arrives at your table cold and almost always wrong. They sit in the smoking area on break, only getting up to check on people every 30 minutes or so and take up two of the only 14 smoking tables available making customers wait for a table to become available. The servers have to bus their own tables as well which they usually don't do. They move dirty dishes and trash from one table to another to make room for customers, which after awhile leaves almost no clean tables.

In building their parking lot they bulldozed down half a mountain and erected a wall made of rock encased in wire boxes. During inclement weather small rocks will slide down the wall and hit your cars. Sometimes large rocks about the size of softballs or a little bigger will fall as well.

In Tim's big book of restaurant reviews, Ryan's Grill, Buffet and Bakery, in Middlesboro, Kentucky has earned an over all rating of 0.8 out of 10. Individual ratings follow. Cleanliness: 1.1 - Service: 0.8 - Food Quality: 0.4