This has been a long time coming.
For followers, the two of you out there, you know that on a base level, I am afraid of losing my mind someday. Hence the blog. Well even more important to me than not remembering my own birthday or remembering to put on underwear, I am far more concerned about making the same spending mistake on eating out that I have already made. So, this is for me. But perhaps you will find a nugget in there should you ever find yourself facing the opportunity to eat at one of the less than fine establishments that comprise the food blog. Well, that is not entirely true. I plan on sharing good places as well. Anyway, let's do away with the preposition and jump right in. Recently the wife and I have tried to consume the local cuisine and decipher the good from the bad. I think that no matter what city I am in, there is always something alluring about chinese buffets. Partly because of the type of food and partly because...well, it is a buffet and I have unlimited opportunity to both try things and to eat so much that I feel I have gotten my money worth. Be honest, who doesn't grab another plate or an extra dessert when you feel you haven't quite gotten your 12 bucks worth or whatever it is. In West St. Paul we were at Cub for some reason or another and right next to Cub is the Grand Buffet. Big place, looks like it could be good. But don't be so easily deceived. We walked in and before I even got into the damn place I had a problem. The entrance was weird. You have to go around to where you would think the exit is and it is a glass entryway meaning that people see you confused looking like an idiot. Where do I go? I even said to Di, "what the hell, seems like the exit." Whatever, we don't care about getting into the place, its the food that matters. Well, to keep it short, that sucked too. It seemed as though they were trying to save money by having empty trays out and the trays that were full had old, gross food in it. We were there 45 minutes or so and I saw them put out 1 new tray of food. For shame. I am really mad at myself because we should have left after I looked at the food. But we endeavored to try new places, so we did. Mistake. Now this was awhile ago so it is not as fresh in my mind all the issues but I remember not being impressed with the decor or the service. This is weird for me because I like food so much. However, when I pay good money for food I expect better than I can make at home and I expect excellent service. Zach tells me I am hard to please but I disagree. I would provide excellent service as a server because i have done so in every job. I would seem pleased to help even if I am not because I have done so in the past. I believe that it is absolutely criminal to charge people for something worse than what the average person would whip up at home. That is deplorable because that is the reason we go out to eat at a sit down place. I get conflicted when I have experiences like that because it was clear to me that the person who rung us up for our food was an owner or at the very least a manager. I wanted to tell him why I would not be returning. I wanted to itemize the reasons because, in truth, they are all fixable and sometimes as a business owner you become so subjective that you are blind to issues so you are left holding the debt wondering what went wrong. I dont want to see that happen. But I did not want to be "that" guy nor did I want to make anyone within earshot who was enjoying their meal to think that they should not be. Food is subjective. However, most people must agree with me since there were none too many diners at peak dinner hour. Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet Well we knew we would never go back to Grand Buffet but I had seen signs for this place and generally speaking Hibachi Grills are good. This place was what I expected, not a hibachi grill like Fuji or Benihana but really like a Mongo style where you pick the ingredients and they slap it on the grill. Can't go wrong there because if it is bad you only have yourself to blame. The selection was wide and varied. There was the grill, a massive buffet, and also sushi. I felt like this place was trying to be too many different things. Shouldn't you be awesome at one thing and then do that thing really well? Doesn't matter, I don't really care for sushi anyway so that part is up to you to decide. While the buffet had many offerings, nothing too impressive. I tried a lot of it too. So then I thought I would save room for the grill. Well that was terrible too. Everything had been frozen or from a can and you can tell when you taste it. The beef was tough and gross and Di hated the pineapple. That part made no sense because in one part of the restaurant they had fresh cut pineapple but in the line for the grill it was canned. Add to that we watched the guy make the potstickers on the grill which also came from the freezer. If you are using frozen potstickers at a chinese restaurant, there is something wrong but it is even worse to prepare that in front of a customer. I sure as hell did not eat another pot sticker after that. While there were plenty of open booths we were sat by the back wall that had chairs piled up. While I dont care too much about that, it seemed to be the exact area where all of the servers were sitting and talking. This was not a break area mind you because they all had tables but they decided to be there. This bothered me to no end. First off it was annoying to hear them talk and laugh while I as trying to eat but also because they came off as lazy and apathetic. My soda was empty for a good ten minutes before our server came to refill it. Why the wait? You were right damn there! It also really pisses me off as a former manager and a potential business owner, that you have people not working while on the clock. There is always something to do. You give good servers a bad name. God know the buffet was dirty why not clean that up? Or hell why not cut fresh pineapple for the grill line instead of jabbering away. Annoying. The thing is you have to be on point all the time because I will never go there again nor will I allow anyone I know to go there. Also, this place is located in the Signal Hills Shopping Center. It is part of a strip mall that is dying and decaying. I mean the big draw there is a Big K. Kmart for those of you not in the know. There are at least 6 spaces for rent and the parking lot is for shit. Right there you have a lot to overcome so my dining experience better be top notch. It was not. There is some hope though folks! Di and I tried a place awhile back called Super Moon Buffet. It is on a strip mall right off Robert Street and that place was great. It was hopping, quick service, good food. Hands down the best chinese buffet in West St. Paul. Funny story of why we went there. I love burgers and we stopped into JTs burgers which is pretty much right next door to Super Moon. It was 740 and JTs closed at 8. We walked inside and the guy said he was closing up so I could not get a burger but he would make me something fried. That pissed me off. In this world filled with options why are you trying to make it seem like you are doing me a favor when you are closing 20 minutes early. I have no experience with your food but I doubt it is so good that I will get "something fried" over the literally dozens of other places to spend my hard earned money. To this day I have not been back and tried a burger. I hope that guy was not the owner and i bet he wasn't. You don't turn away customers, first time ones at that because not only are you foregoing that money but all future monies from that diner, in this case me. A man who spends entirely too much money on restaurants. That Jerk. Okay that's it for now! Cheers! -Mitch |
AuthorsI live my life in a series of perpetual moments. That is what life is, an assortment of moments. I try to look for them, live in them, and then look for the next one. Sometimes I speak too soon and ruin moments. But then again, I suppose that just makes it a different kind of moment. Archives
December 2018
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