Augusta Eats: Little pink house's all-you-can-eat buffet feeds big appetites on Walton Way

"All you can eat” isn’t a phrase customers hear much these days at restaurants.

At The Chef’s House, 1729 Walton Way, all-you-can-eat is all there is. Chef George Darko and his wife, Tammie, run the small restaurant brightened with a pink coat of paint.

“This is truly a home away from home,” Mrs. Darko said. “Everyone – all races, all backgrounds – our whole goal is just trying to make everybody feel good about spending their hard-earned money with us. And it’s been working.”

So has Mr. Darko. Immigrating from his native Ghana in 1986, he rose in the culinary ranks to become the head chef at Doctors Hospital of Augusta and the head chef at Calvert’s Restaurant.

Not separately. At the same time. “He’d work at Doctors from 5 (a.m.) to 2 (p.m.), then go to Calvert’s and work from 5 until,” Mrs. Darko said.

Like most chefs, Mr. Darko aspired to run his own restaurant. About 20 years ago, while Mrs. Darko had lunch with their young son at Wendy’s on Walton Way, she found her car facing directly across the street from an older house dating to the 1920s. It had been a private home, a chiropractor’s office, a paint store, a real estate agency, a beauty salon, an interior design studio and a florist.

In 2005, it became The Chef’s House.

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With their budget-minded appeal, all-you-can-eat buffets have turned out to be an unlikely success story after the coronavirus pandemic temporarily shuttered the nation’s restaurants. Marketing research firm IBISWorld reported that buffets earned $5.5 billion in 2022, up 9% from 2022.

The Darkos soon learned about their new neighborhood and who lives and works there. One lesson: Close earlier. Instead of 6 p.m., Chef’s now closes at 4 p.m.

“This is truly a business district. We get more business people, so we had to learn when you all go home, we have to go home,” Mrs. Darko said.

Another lesson: Stick with what works. Chef’s started with a full menu and a buffet, “but we found out that 99% ate off the buffet because it’s quick. They’re punching timeclocks,” she said.

No menu is conspicuously posted, but the returning customers know what’s on the buffet. Beef, chicken and fish are on the buffet each day emphasizing quality over quantity. The chef’s baked salmon, honey-glazed or lemon dill, is a recurring customer favorite. So is the crunchy but delicately breaded fried chicken.

Mr. Darko’s institutional experience at Doctors allows him to concentrate more on health-conscious meals. Though they don’t taste like it, the entrees and sides are low- or no-sodium. He’s also careful to avoid cross-contamination of foods in the kitchen that might affect diners with allergies.

James McDaniel has been eating lunches at Chef’s almost since it opened.

“I can’t put a price on their food,” he said. “It’s simple but delicious.”

“George really takes his cooking seriously,” Mrs. Darko said. “It’s not just a profession to him. It’s an art. You feel his heart when you’re tasting his food.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta Eats: At all-you-can-eat buffet, friendliness always on menu