Yani’s Steak House

FOOD

Fried catfish and fried shrimp give the Friday buffet its seafood focus. Both have been offered in the same all-you-can-eat lunch, with soup and changing additions alongside them. Fish and shrimp make a familiar pairing for a Friday meal, while the rest of the buffet leaves room for the kitchen’s American and Italian cooking.

Soup is worth considering alongside that seafood. Cream of poblano and loaded baked potato soup have both featured, offering a pepper-based option on one menu and a potato soup on another. These are examples of the changing selection, so neither is a standing promise for every visit. The day’s soup can be part of the reason for choosing lunch here.

Spaghetti has also shared a buffet with fried catfish and shrimp. It gives the meal a pasta option alongside the seafood and connects the lunch buffet with the restaurant’s broader Italian menu. It is a useful dish to notice if your interest in lunch extends beyond the fried mains.

Fried chicken provides another example of the weekday buffet’s home-cooking side. Chicken Monte Carlo appears more occasionally, with the kitchen making it infrequently rather than treating it as a weekly fixture. These chicken dishes help explain why Yani’s buffet is better understood as a changing weekday lunch, with a familiar Friday seafood occasion, than as one identical spread served every day.

The separately ordered menu gives a fuller picture of the kitchen. Regular lunch specials have included meatloaf and cream of baby squash soup, while the wider menu covers steaks, seafood and Italian dishes. Those specials and the plated dishes that follow are separate menu choices; their presence does not make them part of the all-you-can-eat buffet.

Pecan-crusted flounder comes with rice and mixed vegetables, topped with scampi sauce. It offers a complete fish plate for someone choosing from the regular menu, with a nut crust and sauce in place of the buffet’s fried-seafood pairing. The rice and vegetables belong to that plated dish and should not be assumed to be buffet sides.

Cheese ravioli with grilled chicken breast and Sicilian sauce is one of the regular menu’s Italian combinations. Chicken Romano puts grilled chicken over fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms, onions, bell peppers and ham. The two show how much of the broader menu combines poultry and pasta, giving diners another reason to consider Yani’s beyond a fish lunch.

Steak and shrimp brings a 12-ounce ribeye together with shrimp and a side on the separately priced menu. It gives the steakhouse name a straightforward expression, while the buffet remains the option for a changing all-you-can-eat midday meal.