Sizzler888 S Brookhurst St
Anaheim
714-772-0010
Why is The New Diner doing a review of Sizzler? To be honest, I'm not really sure. In the early to mid 90's I went to Sizzler quite often. They had decent food, a buffet, and had pretty decent prices. This may surprise people but at the time, there were not many buffets; no Hometown buffets, no Chinese buffets, or any all you can eat options, other than Sizzler's salad bar and shrimp. Of course over the years many Sizzlers have closed down.
But recently I saw an ad for a special at Sizzler, $11.99 steak and malibu combo with a salad bar. So when I passed a Sizzler on Brookhurst in Anaheim, I decided to stop in.
The salad bar was pretty impressive. They had a huge salad selection, many fresh veggies and dressing. I got a simple salad with iceberg lettuce and sunflower seeds and ranch dressing. The salad was fresh and cold. The ranch dressing was very good because unlike other places they didn't delude it with water.
I also wanted to try something hot and got the chicken wings. The wings are a fried wings, not a buffalo wing. The wings were very meaty and moist. But the batter was very salty, it reminded me of the frozen fried chicken from Banquet.
Now why two pictures of the clam chowder? The first picture was from the bottom of the clam chowder container. It was very thick, as if there was a ton of corn starch in it. It was also very salty and didn't have much clam flavor.
The second picture was after they finally refilled the clam chowder. The chowder was much less thick, had a ton of potatoes, clams, and flavor. This was like a masterpiece, while the first bowl was like a 5 year old's drawing!!!
Now for the steak and Malibu chicken. The steak, I wanted a medium rare, I got medium rare. This is one interesting thing about Sizzler, I have always gotten my steak cooked correctly!!! I have been to other steakhouses where the steak was either under or over cooked. The steak was OK, of course it wasn't dry aged prime but a good steak, though a bit small. It was well seasoned and had nice flavor.
Malibu chicken is a fried chicken pattie topped with ham and swiss cheese. The best part if the Malibu sauce which is mostly a mixture of mustard and mayo but Sizzler puts something else in there, because it takes different at Sizzler than when I've tried to make it at home. Anyways the chicken has gotten smaller over time and I'm sure by now, is frozen instead of freshly made. Anyways it was still pretty good. Moist chicken, not rubbery, ham is hot and cheese is melted.
Service by the server was below average. While she was nice and friendly, she wasn't always around, I had to wait a long time for drink refills, new plates and bowls for the salad bar, and napkins. The place wasn't too busy, sure there were people there but it wasn't crowded.
What is worse is that the salad bar wasn't always refilled. It took them a ton of time to even have soup spoons!!! The clam chowder took at least 20 minutes to refill. The chicken wings about the same. Ok the salad portion of the salad bar was quickly refilled. I saw a little girl who must be the daughter of one of the workers in the area where the servers pick up the orders from the cooks. Not only is that dangerous for the little girl, it slows down the server.
I haven't been to Sizzler in a long time. The food is about the same as I remember. I don't have a need to go back to Sizzler for a very long time.
