Welp, so much for that hundred bucks! I took my family of five to Brick Oven this afternoon to celebrate my son's high school graduation, and man oh man, have things ever gone downhill at that joint. Here's what I got my for my $20/plate:

1. Between my family and a friend's, we had reservations for twelve, and the restaurant staff took that as a sign to book us for *two* of their cramped booths. Twelve people in two booths!
2. The upholstery was sticky and cracked, and the seat springs were shot, so our carcasses sunk to maybe ten inches above floor height. I'm 6'7", and the table was too high for *me*.
3. The rest of the place clearly has never been updated since I attended BYU in the early 90s. Felt like a well-worn Dennys in there.
4. Half of us ordered the $14 pizza/salad/soup buffet-ish thing, and the rest ordered the pasta/salad/soup buffet (yep, you can't get pizza *and* crappy pasta for $14/person; that would be outrageous! Pizza OR pasta, and an extra few bucks for a drink. Not terrible, IF they offered $20 value. Not. Even. Close.)
5. The pizza isn't actually available at the buffet - as it is insanely cramped already, with people jammed elbow-to-elbow in an effort to get access to a salad bar my daughter's junior high would be embarrassed to host - so the wait staff brings the pie offerings to your table, Tucano's-style. Except they only saunter by every 10 or 15 minutes, to tender a *tiny* slice of straight-from-Cici's-Five-Buck-Pizza-buffet pizza. I'm not kidding: That stuff was as generic as oxygen, but you had to take what you could get, because you first had to stare at an empty plate for five or eight minutes before the next tiny lottery ticket finally arrived. I brought this to my server's attention as gently as I could, but it made no difference; the pattern remained the same: Accept your minuscule, cardboard offering, finish it quickly, then wait for who-knows-how-long until the next disappointment wanders by.
6. My wife had the pasta, and it wadded together in a sticky, doughy clump. Ridiculously bland. Prego could give Brick Oven's kitchen lessons on Italian cuisine. She didn't make a second visit to the buffet.
7. I even turned to the soup in desperation, but my clam chowder - which any dipstick with a can opener can make - was a total fail. A few bites, and I was DONE.
8. But maybe the dessert pizzas! Yeah! Nobody could screw those up, right? Blah. More of the same.
9. And all of this for just $100!
10. EDIT: Oh. And it was hot.

I really got the feeling that the management has made a conscious decision to ride the tailwind provided by their reputation as far as it will take them, and not a week further. Are they scheduled to be bulldozed or something? Because that was just amazingly bad. Bad, bad, bad.

Bottom line, I've never been more disappointed in a dining experience. If they've thrown in the towel, as I sincerely suspect they have, then let this serve as your warning: Go to McDonald's, then burn the other $85.