1st- world buffet, apple valley
5th- the dakota, minneapolis
6th- tuttle's, hopkins
13th- houlihan's, chanhassen
18th- el toro, shakopee
20th- dino's gyros, edina
24th- the scoreboard, minnetonka
27th atlantic buffet, bloomington
1st- world buffet, apple valley (d)
jack of all trades, master of none.
though i did enjoy the complete randomness of the buffet, most of the stuff on it was bad. for every plate i took, about three-fourths or more remained uneaten (take one bite, discover it was something i didn't want to eat any more of ever in my life, put it in the 'rejection' area...).
a few things weren't bad, though. the cream cheese puffs were better than d. fong's (not saying much), their sesame chicken and walnut shrimp weren't bad, ditto the seafood pancake.
everything else was iffy to very bad. i can't say this strongly enough- avoid anything with cheese here. they use extremely untasty cheese here.
well, avoid going here, really.
maybe it is the randomness... deviled eggs sat on the salad bar next to garlic bread and sushi. they had pizza and donut-type things on the mostly chinese appitizer area area. they used frozen mixed veg (pea and carrot combo) in the egg foo yong. fried chicken wings competed for attention next to vegetarian lo mein. even the dessert bar was sad- bins of canned fruit, weird baked goods. even soft serve was ice milk that melted in seconds instead of ice cream.
they had a stir-fry station where you can have someone cook that up for you (this is the the only area that appeared normal), though i didn't get to that.
most people were sticking to the seafood selections without cheese- crab legs, salmon, that kind of thing. as these were mostly undoctored, that was smart of them.
the nicest things i can say about them is that they do get points for labelling most of the food, and the beverage staff is on top of things. the price isn't too bad, either, at least sunday-thursday, when it's a dollar cheaper than friday and saturday.
5th- the dakota, minneapolis (b-)
it's so rarely that i get to see people have worse restaurant karma than i do, it was a novel thing to see here. there were some people next to me who had been at the bar long enough to down half their drinks already, so they had ordered before i got there. and i thought i had to wait a long time for what i ordered, they had to wait longer (i thought i could run in, order, get the food in a few minutes and eat quickly and leave, but not so much...). and they got hush puppies and mini ham and swiss sandwiches, not overly complex dishes. weird.
like those folks, i also ordered off the happy hour menu. i've not been to the dakota for a few years before they moved, but from what i recall of the previous happy hour menu, it was a lot happier. there was a larger selection of items to chose from, instead of the handful here. and if you're a vegetarian, it's fried things or fried things for you.
i opted for the chicken wings with blue cheese dressing, and the cup of fries with bearnaise (me getting fries- big surprise there). the serving of fries was huge- too much for me to eat. not bad, not great, about a b-/c+ for the fries, but the bearnaise was quite good, and lighter than you see in most places (that's a good thing). the wings were about average. the dressing had some nice chunks of cheese in it, but no blue cheese flavor.
the service was of the earnest variety. i managed to confuse the bartender when i wanted more than 6 but less than 12 wings, but i would think if they list the price of wings as a per-wing cost, minimum of 6, you could get any amount more than 6 you wish to. the management wanted only to give the tco tuesday card out to people with entrees, but the web site just says you have to have dinner there. dinner could be a selection of side dishes and a salad if you so choose. so yeah, i ended up with a card to fill in.
on the whole, it was slightly above average, but i don't know if i'd rush back for happy hour. and since most of the time to just have dinner here if you get there after 6 pm or so on show day you have to pay the door price for the show, plus the cost of dinner even if you don't care to see the show. (though many of the shows here are worth seeing....).
something different from the "two for one" deck of dinner cards that mrs. brk has. a better experience than other bowling alleys you can eat at, though not quite as good as other nearby bars (mainstreet, bunny's) without the melodius crashing of pins. my turkey melt with swiss and coleslaw needed, well, thousand island dressing, though the bread and turkey were quite nice. the fries were unseasoned, even after dumping salt and pepper on them, so not worth the extra $1.50. ketsup and mustard helped both a lot. mrs. brk went with a tuna melt and chips. both were better than mine by far.
service was quite good, even as the place got busier. i'd go back to try more things, but this is another hopkins place that got a smoking ban exemption so i'd probably try to go earlier when it's less busy. and i kind of want to try the mac and cheese wedge in the $2 per item happy hour (there's quite a few things to try on that one). and for a bit under $10.50 for both dinners (and the popcorn), it would be worth another trip.
13th- houlihan's, chanhassen (c-/d+)
no idea what to think. i just kind of felt sorry for the whole place or something. it's like... good and bad and average all rolled into one. ultimately, i left thinking... well, it's bad enough i would not ask to come here, but i wouldn't necessarily actively avoid it and refuse to go back ever, like some places.
for instance... service. we waited somewhere between 10-15 minutes (not my choice) for someone to get to the table. however, once that horrid bit of service past, everything went fine, we got stuff quickly, water was refilled, etc.
and food. i started with the tuscan salad. not what you usually get as a choice of salad, it sounded interesting... white beans, tomatoes, and goat cheese on mixed greens, served with bread. it was good, though hard to eat, and speaking of hard, it had a few random inedible pieces of some salad-based food or other in it. which kind of ruined the whole thing for me.
for the main course, i got the stuffed chicken breast, with mashed potatoes, and veg of the day. the veg was asparagus, which you don't see in most chain places. the chicken breast was good, stuffed with herb cream cheese it needed more cheese and most of it was shoved to one end. then again, i think most things need more cheese. however, the potatoes were misnamed... they call them 'red bliss' (as they're red potatoes... ha. ha.). however, in my idea of blisslike mashed, there's no raw potato invading the scene. after a while i gave up on the raw vs. the cooked, it drove me crazy (sorry, had to go there, and points to you who got the ref...).
of course mrs. brk had no problems with herfood. she went with the house salad- the corn in it was puzzling, but it was above average in presentation and taste. though they should warn folks it had bacon in it. the blue cheese dressing was good, too. she also got a steak and baked potato. she didn't eat the potato there, so i am not sure if hers was also raw in places. the steak was fine, but served with just butter on top (no steak sauce or whatever).
so i'm puzzled... the food was quite above average for a chain, except for the inedible parts. service was pretty good, except when it completely sucked. so yeah. confusion. thus the ambivalent grade.
as for decor, it's not obnoxious like some chains, so that's a point in its favor. but they were trying to be hip on their menu and some of their signage, which was kind of sad/trying too hard... prices for entrees seem a bit high for some things, though, given you're in a chain restaurant in chanhassen.
from the people that brought you el loro, the same food, only different. same ranch dressing with your chips (it's nice you get the chips and salsa with lunch), same ingredients in a different pile when i ordered the lunch version of the chicken taco salad than the nachos, more or less.
it was kind of bland, and didn't have a lot of anything really except chicken. some hot sauce (i like the green kind) helped. though the bowl was a fried version that was not tasty. alas, probably not my new lunch place. service was quick and a team effort. i may come here now and then, but it shan't replace dino's.... though i should remember to try things like the fajitas, the ingredients are bound to be different then.
20th- dino's gyros, edina (c-)
already i am into the nostalgia, and as with most nostalgia, it's never as good as the real thing... but since the shakopee branch closed, not a lot i can do... and i am way into the brk this month, which so doesn't help.
this time it was the ordering... now, if one person says they will have some sandwich with fries, and the other person says i will have another kind of sandwich and also with fries, why did you think we ended up with one serving of said fries, and one of greek rice? even if mumbled, there's no logic in that.
either way, the fries were lukewarm and not seasoned well. the chicken mushroom swiss i had also caught the same chill and suffered for it. mrs. brk's jr. chicken gyros sandwich was warm.
the baklava we split was the only good thing (though also, not surprisingly, a bit cold).
at this dino's, you don't get a mint with your food, either. hrm.
24th- the scoreboard, minnetonka (c-)
my fault for not getting the salad bar, but the chicken taco salad. it started out ok but on the cold side, then turned into mushy icky stuff. the make your own soft serve dessert was good, though. mrs. brk enjoyed her blt (heavy on the b) and fries. service was not very attentive.
27th- atlantic buffet, bloomington (b-)
wtf? ok, i didn't know that this place was world buffet, only different. if i would've known that i would've actively avoided it. but it's some bizarro world version, as most of the stuff here doesn't suck. it's the same random assortment of food, but it's better. maybe the steam tables and ice milk machine are newer or something, but it's just better. though the sushi... give that a pass. and the mogolian bbq is better at khan's... the rest of the stuff i had wasn't bad, mostly (there were a few 'one bite and toss the rest' items like the squid and the veggie egg roll). maybe because i knew what to avoid. weird. even the tables were nicer.
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