We have been going here since I was little, at least 20 years. If you are looking for an upscale atmosphere, you will be a little disappointed. If you are looking for good food, you will certainly be pleased. read more

Mediocre food. I come to enjoy southern food since moving to florence and this place is kinda blah. The fride chicken, a favorite of mine, was like trying to eat leather or stale jerky. The baked chicken ok with decent flavor once you got rid of the bland and tasteless skin. The mac and cheese was surprisingly delicious, as was the apple cobbler. I would give them another star if it wasnt for the sticky and slippery floors, half cleaned tables and lack of actual service. That is unless you bring in a cute baby then you have 2 servers at your beck and call. read more

I Love this place. My husband and I always stop here on the way down to Florida. I love their fried chicken and they have the best macaroni and cheese I ever ate. If you are on a diet don't come here, but they do have a nice salad bar with fresh vegetables. Reasonably price. If you think you are stopping to eat at a fancy restaurant this is not the place. The motel does look like a dive, but I'm not staying at the motel. read more

Me and my husband ate here today for lunch..it was terrible.we have lived in Florence all our life and use to go for Sunday lunch every week. Have not been in awhile, so decide to try it today. Wrong move. 1ST they use to be well known for there stew beef. ,my husband got it today and it didn't even look like real meat. It looked like something out of a can. The gravy looked like brown water. It would not even stay on the rice. They had apple salad.the apples were very brown VERY INVITING..THEY HAD SAUSAGE that looked like it was left from breakfast.? We asked our waitress if they had a new cook. And she said no, and why. We told her how bad the food was and she just walked away. PLEASE get your food back like we remember...also you might need to have a staff meeting , they all look like they hate their joB.. read more

If you want southern food at its best, you have to try this place. My in laws and I have been there so often that the folks there know us. Whenever I am home in SC, it is a must that we stop in. By the way, don't look for any dishes with a low calorie count. I did say southern food! read more

My family & I stopped for a simple, Sunday dinner after visiting a sick relative. As we entered, we noticed the restaurant/hotel was doing some remodeling. Although the restaurant was messy, we decided to stay. When my grandmother went to sit down after fixing her plate from the buffet, she saw a bug on the table. We decided to stay considering the food looked good. However, after a few minutes, we noticed another person killing a bug with a napkin that was crawling on the wall in the booth next to them. When my mother reported this incident to the manager, the manager stated, "everyone has bugs!" REALLY?? My mother explained that my grandmother works in a restaurant and they DO NOT have roaches! Do not eat here! They need to clean, exterminate, disinfect, and sanitize EVERYTHING! read more

This place had mediocre food, out-dated interior and no atmosphere at all. It is a pay-first, seat yourself establishment. $11.00 for the Adult buffet seemed a bit high, but as I am not from the area, I don't know if that price is the norm. The wait staff did not seem to be enthused by their job....took awhile for our server to greet us and to clear dishes away. It was a little odd that when she took our drink order she had the vacuum in one hand. (It was 5:00 pm) and somewhat gross to watch them scrape the cleared dishes in sight of everyone. There was no music and it was so quiet in there. It reminded me of an old cafeteria room before they had sound systems available. Somewhat twilight zone-ish. The sweet tea was excellent. The salad bar was pretty good other then the shredded lettuce that was served. Loved that there were a variety of pickles on the salad bar as well as several salads such as tuna, chicken, and turkey salad. There were also delicious deviled eggs which seemed quite popular as the guy in front of me took six. The main buffet bar had pinto beans and rice which were very good. Real cooked cabbage, none of that steamed stuff. Liver and onions which was a little over cooked but good, green beans, okra and some type of potato dish. Rounding out the meats was pot roast and fried chicken. There was also fat back which I've never seen on a buffet before. Lastly there was a dessert bar with banana pudding, two kinds of cobbler with vanilla soft serve and a variety of cakes and pies (banana cream, carrot, lemon merengue, pumpkin, Boston crime, chocolate and vanilla cake) I only tried the cobbler which was good. This place is good if you want to fill up and are not too worried about calories or ambiance. It is close to the 95 exit so is convenient for travelers. The bathroom was clean with plenty of stalls. Personally, Based on this visit, I would not return and would not recommend it to a friend. read more

WARNING: DO NOT GO HERE!!! You will have a messed up stomach. They say don't judge a book by the cover but even looking outside the restaurant you kinda think, WTF?! The food looks ok but it tasted very nasty and and your stomach will be boiling soon after. It made my boyfriend and I feeling bad all night! They need to close this place down. Save yourself a bad review and bad diarrhea. Not worth $5.00! But the people who work here are very nice:-) Stick with what you know... Ruby Tuesday is down the street. read more

My parents and I stopped here for lunch on our way back to Florida from DC via Raleigh. After having eaten out for eight days, we were all very happy to have a good meal that reminded us of home. We all enjoyed our lunch and the bill was only $29 and change for three of us! The fried chicken and the mac and cheese are the real deal, as was the lemon meringue pie. The deviled eggs were the best I've ever had at a restaurant. Among the items offered were meatloaf, stuffed green peppers, pot roast, mustard greens, keilbasa and another sausage. The staff was friendly and very good about drink refills. The only negative I can say is that I found the black-eyed peas a little salty. Overall, a great place to stop right off I-95 in Florence. read more

I went there last October for my mother's birthday and to visit Francis Marion for Open House. I enjoyed their country buffet very much so. It was almost as if my own family had cooked/prepared the meal themselves. I would recommend this restaurant for anyone that wants a down home southern meal. read more

Had the breakfast buffet. Great fresh pancakes, not those sweet ones from cake mix. Fresh toast perfects, great sausage, sausage gravy the bomb. Can get eggs to order. Large variety of fresh fruit. Definitely would come again. Not snazzy but who cares. Highly recommended read more

Worst buffet I ever had! None of the food was labeled, what we thought was steak and onions turned out to be liver and onions. The fried chicken tasted bettet at KFC than here. I love mac and cheese and the 45 minutes my husband and I sat there not once was it replaced with new mac and cheese. Don't waste ur time on dessert coz I can get a better one from 7 eleven. The service was fine and the people were nice but food was awful. read more

I really hate to give this place two stars because I think the food is really good. The salad bar was excellent, the wait staff was good, the main bar was pretty good as well. BUT the atmosphere is so awful. I really wanted it to be good, but I felt like I was in the middle of a really bad movie. The enclosed hotel is so seedy and the restaurant is in such bad shape. read more

The food was ok tea is the only thing with the buffet sodas are xtra .If you pay with a card it's extra per every person and we all know to use your card there's only one charge .So to charge per every person using the same card is just greedy and not fair . Find a Golden Coral and save yourself money and time . read more

OMG this was the filthiest place I've ever dined in. People coming out of the kitchen with mechanic shirts on, no hand washing, dirty plates, and the bathroom was horrific! Where is the health department...gesh! read more

A few times a year, my grandma has to go see a doctor in Columbia. She ALWAYS insists that we stop by the Thunderbird on our way home when we pass it on 95, and she ALWAYS gets a box of frozen sausage to go. I don't think they usually sell boxes of sausage out of their freezer (LOL) but they make an exception for my grandma and it is very sweet. She absolutely loves it. Great country buffet, too. We have been coming here for many years. read more

We were there 3/16/14 and all the food was very good. We would definitely go there to eat again. We are from Illinois, so are not southerners, but we loved the food, especially the cobblers! The review that stated he stayed 25 times and regretted every one, really?! Why would you stay more than once if you disliked it so much? read more

Nice little country buffet. Best peach cobbler ever.

Excellent l, clean and friendly buffet. I'm a traveling g professions and can be picky but this place was great. $10 lunch buffet with tax and drink included. Was next door from my hotel and so glad I popped in for lunch! Must try read more

Skip this breakfast! Well, the coffee was ok, but that's about it. Nice selection but none of it tasty. Disappointed.

The 1 star given was because the array of food/taste was slightly better than some other buffets I've attended. My mother, 6 year old daughter, & I were given two complimentary tickets for their continental breakfast buffet as hotel patrons. After passing the entrance to the restaurant where we gave our breakfast vouchers, we were approached while eating about paying for my daughter to eat a small box cereal that she had yet to open because she was busy doing a puzzle. I explained to our waitress that I was unaware that I'd have to pay a $3 fee for her, & inquired if I could charge it to our room or bring it down once we were finished. The waitress insisted in a very brash manner that I speak to her manager; a suggestion, I also thought would be best as I know first hand that lower rank employees sometimes feel pressure from management not to bend any rules. Once the manager approached us (about 5 minutes later) she became very irate at my request to charge our room or wait so I told her to simply take back the unopened cereal and I'd return for it later. She then snatched the cereal out of my hand and told me I shouldn't waste the restaurants food. I'm sure the difference in racial attributes made all the difference in my very uncomfortable experience here. These two sour apples will surely prevent me from ever supporting this establishment again. read more

Good as hell!! Great country food at a great price. The food is always consistently country ass good!! Enough said y'all!!

The food was okay. I really loved the chicken and dumplings. I will go back again, but I will really try to get there as soon as they first start serving lunch. read more

This was one of the worst places I've ever been to. First of all, these people charged way too much money for such a limited selection. Almost everything was either fried or fattening. The salad bar looked like no one touched it in a long time. The only things I could eat was the Lima beans and some BBQ baked chicken. The taste of the chicken wasn't a thrill. And to make things worse, I asked for a glass of water. The water wasn't clean and whoever left finger prints all over my glass. That's dirty and nasty! read more

The Thunderbird Buffet is a good country meal at a great Price. By no means is this place contemporary, and honestly, not the tidiest. But the food has a real country a real country cook ( black person) and they know what they're doin back there. I recommend this place!!! read more

This place is NOT fancy, BUT the people are friendly, the food is FABULOUS and the price is right. I would go there everyday if I lived closer! True Southern cooking at it's best! read more

I decided to take my grandmother up here to get something to eat so she wouldn't have to cook just to give her a break and relax. I should've paid attention to the parking lot because there wasn't many cars outside and I was always taught you can judge a business by how many cars they have outside. Anyways we proceed to go inside despite what the outside looked like. I pay for our food to sit down and eat, for one there wasn't a lot of options to choose from but I still was going to give it a shot until I went to grab a plate. The plate I picked up still had grits on it, so I decided to pick up another one, that one was dirty too. Not only was I experiencing dirty plates, so was my grandmother. So I told her we will eat out the to go containers (still trying to give this run down place a chance) and we started putting our food in the container. Then the lady who rung us up yelled to us as we were on the other side of the room. Now I understand if you did not want us to use the to go plates, however what you wont do is yell at us like we arent paying customers. When I asked who she was talking to she proceeded to point at me and the lady on the grill thought she was talking to her because aint no way in the world could she be talking to a customer like that. So before I could walk over there (b/c obviously the batteries in her feet died) she decided to yell out to tell us not to use the to go plates. So I kindly tried to tell her the plates were dirty, not trying to embarrass anyone. I nicely told the lady on the grill that I would like to talk to the manager. The manager comes out and I was trying to tell him what happened and he asked me to show him the dirty plate. I picked the plate up that still had the grits on it and gave it to him. The manager looked at it like oh thats nothing scrapped it off and was like where are the other ones. Right there I knew it was going to be a problem since that wasn't good enough and he needed more proof. I went ahead and went to the stack my grandmother had picked from. He felt some things on the bottom of the plate and acted like he couldnt see anything wrong with the other ones. Then the manager proceeded to tell me if they got rid of all those plates they wouldnt have nothing to eat off of.....thats what your revenue can go into to. Anyways that wasn't any of my problems b/c I do not stay here nor do I work for him. So I told him we didnt want to eat there and would like a refund. After he interrupted me trying to express my concern and yelling to the cashier I understand why they do NOT know what Customer Service is. Besides the poor customer service the manager snatched my to go box out of my hand and tried to snatch my grandmothers to go box out of her hand but I grabbed it from her and told him he does not have to snatch anything from us. Other than this poor customer service the breakfast food was not what people say it is. For just $2 dollars more save yourself the disappointment and poor service and head over to Shoney's (a little further up the street) where the plates are clean, the people are friendly and the food is good. read more