Butter Up That Bacon

Review: Jungle Cafe Buffet

Jan 062012

Let’s face it. I live in Medicine Hat. A one horse town that wouldn’t know good food if it slapped it in the face.
But since I’m stuck here and I have to eat, I’m gonna (regretfully) try a few places in town.

Yup. Just how I remembered it: Terrible

Today, I went to the Jungle Cafe inside the Medicine Hat Lodge. It’s a nice hotel. Not like “nice” nice, but it’s the best we got in this town.
The buffet however…

Looks are deceiving. The board in the front listed the menu items on the Buffet. It sounded quite nice:

-Roasted Striploin with Yorkies
-Beef Ribs
-Ginger Beef
-Cannelloni
-Shrimp Scampi over Rice
-Chicken Stir fry
-Pizza
-Scalloped Potatos and Veg
-Various Desserts

Where to begin….

First off, the staff are apathetic. No one even acknowledged we were there until I went up and poked the hostess that was talking to someone for at least 5 minutes. And no it wasn’t a patron. It didn’t end there. Not once was I offered a refill on my drink. I had to request it each time.
We didn’t even have the appropriate number of settings for our table. Not that the tables are “set” but the basket containing salt and peppers only had one Silverware roll. Apparently a booth meant to seat 4 is only supposed to eat with one set of silverware.

Now for the food. I know it’s a Buffet. Most buffets usually have terrible food. That’s a myth by the way. There are MANY quality buffets out there. There are some that give the entire name “Buffet” a bad name. This is one of them.

Let’s work our way down the menu.

Roasted Striploin. (IMO) The best cut of beef money can buy. With it’s luscious fat cap slowly melting over beautifully marbled meat producing a nice crisp and flavorful crust drizzled with a nice jus and topped with a fresh yorkshire pudding. I think I just drooled.
Sadly… what I got I wouldn’t feed to my dog. Not only was the striploin trimmed of anything that resembled fat. That’s not the worst part. The entire pan was so overcooked that I don’t even think the chef could spell thermometer. I’ve had some questionably graded meat in my life, but this was literally like gnawing on leather. I feel sorry for the cow that gave it’s life to end up in that pan o’ crap.

Some people like a crispy yorkshire pudding. I’m not one of them. I like them soft like a freshly baked roll. These were of the hard kind. I’m not faulting them for that. What I am faulting them for is the lack of salt. For the love of flavor, salt your damn batter. After adding a bit of salt, it was passable. A little tough, but passable.

Beef ribs. I love beef ribs. Roasted slowly so all the connective tissue melts producing a soft texture that has just enough of a grip to know you’re eating ribs. It shouldn’t be fall off the bone, but it also shouldn’t be bolted on for dear life. Beef Ribs done wrong are basically inedible. They’re impossible to eat, at least without ripping out a tooth. The ones I had tonight were part of Category #2. And they were slathered in Bulls Eye. I can pick out that Bull (plop) anywhere. Ridiculously sweet and artificially smokey. Yup. You hit the Bulls Eye. On the dart board o’ crap.

Ginger “Beef”. I love Ginger Beef. Tender strips of Beef battered lightly and deep fried and smothered in a slightly sweet gingery spicy sauce. It’s the unity of all flavors. Hot, sour, salty and sweet.
This wasn’t beef. It was pork. I don’t care about the underlying protein, as long as it’s done right.
Done right wasn’t even in the same Galaxy as this dish. I don’t know who invented it, but they would be spinning in their grave to even be in the same province as this. And if Wikipedia is right the guy who did invent it IS in the same province. If he’s still alive, for the love of life stay away from this dish.
What’s so bad about it? Let’s just say there was nothing good about it. You can’t get very far culinarily when you start with “Dry Garlic Ribs” that come in a box. Yup. Those deep fried hunks of crap that you get at the worst sports bars. They have an inherent off flavor that I can’t identify that’s unique to these ribs. They’re frickin’ terrible. The funny thing is…. making Dry Ribs the right way isn’t that hard. Take a pork butt, cube it and dredge in flour and deep fry. Cost and labor savings is the biggest driver of this boxed crap. The added cost and labor of doing it right is minimal. Think of whoever eats your food.

Cannelloni is marvelous. Fresh Pasta Shells stuffed with various fillings and topped with other various things like cheeses and sometimes a nice sauce.
What I got was spiral pasta in a generic tomato sauce with some strange consistency sausage baked with Cheddar. Average at best. I have to question the sausage though. I’m pretty sure they cheaped out on it since it had the strangest texture to it.

Shrimp Scampi. Fat shrimp smothered in a buttery lemon sauce over fluffy rice.
This was at least edible. But Shrimp Scampi it was not. It tasted thaiish. It had notes of lemon grass and was quite spicy. If anything it was TOO spicy, especially for a buffet.

Chicken Stir Fry. Tender chicken and an assortment of veg quickly woked over high heat with a light soy based sauce.
All I got was overcooked veg with some decent chicken in a thick heavy sauce. I couldn’t eat more than a few bites without feeling bloated.

Pizza. A crisp mahogany crust with a light coating of tomato sauce and a few good toppings.
What I saw was a crust that looked damn near albino. White looks damn near black compared to this crust.

Scalloped Potatos. Thinly sliced potatoes enrobed in cream and various cheeses and baked until golden.
What I got were dry potatoes that looked to be overcooked. It looks like it was missing the cream too.

Dessert. The end to a perfect meal.
Or in this case a boxed disaster that’s comparable to one of the worst meals I’ve ever had. Every single dessert from a box. That means it looks really pretty but tastes like the box it came in. The fruit had it’s rind left on it. Even the Jello didn’t have real whipped cream, but Edible Oil product (if you call it that… I sure can’t stomach that crap).

Ambiance. I can’t complain about it. The tables had a pleather top that matched the booths. Probably for easy cleaning.

Ambiance (10%): 6
Food (50%): 0
Service (25%): 0
Value (15%): 0
Overall : 0.6

Bottom Line: I’ve never scored a restaurant this low, even for Medicine Hat. Awful service teamed with even worse food makes the value of this restaurant a zero. I really have nothing good to say about this place.

Review: OCB

Restaurant Reviews, Seattle, WA No Responses »

Jan 062012

I’m a fat guy. Fat guys like to eat. Eats don’t come cheap when you’re eating for 2.
This is why Buffets rock. You pay one price and you eat enough until you fall asleep.

I’ve been in the food industry for years. I know the ins and outs pretty well.
The one thing I CANNOT figure out is how Old Country Buffet makes any damn money. For $12 (plus $2 for a drink) you can eat all you want. Now… you may be thinking “Who cares? Buffets have horrible food and nothing useful in terms of selection!” Well. You would be wrong. There’s steak on the buffet. And mussels. And butterfly shrimp. And a few other kinds of shrimp. And pork ribs. And there’s a bit more protein based fillers like fried/grilled chicken, pot roast, etc etc etc.

I know the US has cheap food prices, but I still can’t figure out how these guys are in business.

The steak quality is shockingly decent for a $12 buffet. Don’t expect Prime Rib (actual “Prime” Rib too, not what most people call Prime Rib) but at the same time, don’t think it was something like Bottom Round. Surprisingly it was Sirloin. And it was cooked Medium Rare. A feat that is lost on most places that cook steak and somehow manage to charge at least double what I paid here.

The Mussels were quite good, but the Shrimp was a bit disappointing. All of it was severely overcooked and tiny.

Ribs were “unique” as I’ve never seen pork ribs that big. They were the size of Beef Ribs. And no smartass, they weren’t beef. They were pork.

Fried Chicken was good, as was the Pot Roast.

As always, my reviews are based on a weighted scale. Keep in mind that “Food” is based on the type of restaurant. Just because OCB scored an 8 doesn’t mean it’s gonna equal an 8 at some fancy pants snooty $500/plate place. It’s an 8 in the Buffet Category.

Ambiance… It’s a buffet. Full of screaming kids. Not exactly date night. That is unless you both don’t care about ambiance and want some tasty cheap eats. Probably a 2nd date. Not a first.

The Service was pretty damn good for a buffet. Granted… it was self serve drinks too, so it’s not like they did a whole lot outside clear plates, but those plates were cleared pretty damn quick.

Finally comes Value. It was $12. And had steak. That was cooked well. Easily a 10 here.

Ambiance (10%): 1
Food (50%): 8
Service (25%): 7
Value (15%): 10
Overall : 7.35

Bottom Line: If you want some cheap food that’s pretty decent, you could do MUCH worse than an OCB. Hell.. I’ve had much worse steaks that were priced at least twice as much as what OCB charges.

America, this is why you’re fat :: $0.30/lb Turkeys

Misc No Responses »

Dec 012011

Thanksgiving is coming up here in the US. It’s a few months after Canada’s Thanksgiving.
I’m always trying to be in the US around this time since the food is awesome. Everyone has specials.
I can see why. $0.30lb Turkeys? Last time I bought a Turkey in Canada it was over $1/lb for Utility.

I think next year I’m gonna make sure I have a vehicle and import a bunch to stock up.

Oh and for the record, you can get a chicken for about $7 in a Grocery Store. I bought an 18lb turkey for the same price.

Here’s a small Gallery

So I realized I was missing a pizza stone…

Misc No Responses »

Nov 122011

I had a craving for Pizza recently and didn’t feel like buying over $9000 worth of quality toppings/produce/shredding cheese/etc so I went to Papa Murphys. I figure paying $15 in a retail setting would net me sweet [expletive deleted] all in terms of food, so I settled on the “freshest” pizza I could find.

Since I’m currently remotely located, the only Oven I have is a Secura Digital Turbo Convection Oven (which will get it’s own review at a later date).
If you have no idea what this is, it’s the same type of oven that you see on Mr T hocking on late night television.

For those that have this type of oven, you know it’s a directional weapon. It browns beautifully on top, but the bottom usually stays anemic. This is a big issue when it comes to pizza. I did buy the Accessory Kit which comes with a Pizza Pan and despite the reviews stating that it does brown the crust, it doesn’t. It doesn’t come close. I literally burned the top (on purpose) to try to get a nice bottom crust. It didn’t work.

I needed a pizza stone. However, I didn’t want to go out and buy one since the Secura Oven is quite small. Having a small pizza stone is useless.

So what do I do? Live with soggy pizza?
Yeah right.
The only thing I really need is a hot surface to crisp up the crust. I use a cast iron pan to make grilled cheese all the time, so I figure what harm could it do to a pizza? Papa Murphys pizzas are pretty big. There’s no chance in hell they’re gonna fit in the Secura, so I have to cut it up. This isn’t a big deal since I don’t have a 20″ cast iron pan.
The pizza gets quartered and in it goes on the “Pizza Pan” from the kit for 6 minutes to cook the top at 500F. After 6 minutes, the top is quite nicely cooked, but the crust is literally raw. So raw it sticks to the paper pan it comes on. If you finagle it a bit it does come off. Pluck the pizza and carefully arrange it the mess onto a Cast Iron pan. You do have a Cast Iron pan that’ll fit a quarter of a pizza on Medium High heat that’s hot right now right? Anyway… cook for a few minutes checking frequently for a nice golden brown. Once it is, pull it, slice it and serve it.

And that’s how you get pretty awesome pizza using a DH (and Mr T) stamp of approval’ed oven and a cast iron pan without the need for a pizza stone. Don’t expect to serve a huge crowd, but it’ll serve one to two people quite well.

Amazon Fresh: Same Day “Grocery” Delivery Awesomeness

Misc No Responses »

Nov 122011

So I recently discovered Amazon Fresh. I had a look at their Zip Code list and I’m located in the delivery area. I was intrigued. Not having to get off my [expletive deleted] to get groceries is a neat thought.

So I have a look through their website and there’s some killer deals. There’s also a few WTF moments like $1 per orange. I went to an Asian Grocery store and bought some wicked ones for $0.50/lb. I then ate 10lbs in a day. But that’s another story.

Anyway… as I’m adding items to my cart, I discover that there’s certain things that I can add from Amazon’s regular site. WITH my groceries. Delivered Free. The same day. I damn near [expletive deleted] myself.

So I add a few things that were hot deals and a few things I needed and a few things I didn’t, but wouldn’t mind having.

Long story short, I placed an order at just before 1PM and everything was delivered before the end of the day.

I’m all for grocery delivery, but this is officially the first time I’ve ever received a hard drive with my frozen bread, chicken breasts and ‘maters.

Garlic Presses: Why the hate?

Hardware No Responses »

Apr 152011

Every real chef hates them. I think it’s based upon “doing things right” rather than “useless device”. I don’t understand all the hate since they usually do a pretty good job. Plus if you get peeled garlic, it makes adding real garlic to any dish a snap. Shove a clove in, press and scrape. Instant garlic without the odd taste of canned “chopped garlic”.

Now, I’ve purchased a few garlic presses over the years and they’ve ranged from mediocre to not bad. Most of them were either hard to clean, required a good bit of force to press the garlic or didn’t do a really good job. Then again… most of these were under $10. I figured it was a garlic press, how bad could you [expletive deleted] it up?

Turns out that you do get what you pay for. I recently discovered the Kuhn Rikon. It’s not cheap by any means, but it’s frickin’ AWESOME.

It’s completely stainless steel compared to my last unit that was plated. Whatever it was, it didn’t like the dishwasher as detergent would stick to it in white little clumps. The same thing happened to my Kitchen Aid flat beater that was burnished.

The effort required to operate the Kuhn is surprising. Physics is awesome. My old press was actually quite difficult in terms of force required to press a clove. The Kuhn requires very little force.

The biggest beef I had with my old press is that it left behind 20% of the garlic I pressed. I didn’t really care since garlic was cheap, but it was a waste. The Kuhn on the other hand presses the crap out of every clove, so only the outer skin is left. There’s very little pulp left behind.

A final note about cleaning. Anyone that loves to cook, hates to clean. That’s why restaurants have dishwashers. Sadly for those at home, we’re usually stuck doing it ourselves, unless you have some little slaves I mean kids around. The Kuhn Rikon is surprising easy to clean. It’s designed so the hopper “flips out” so you can scrape out the skin that’s left behind. Most other presses you have to dig around in there to get all the crap out.
One other note about this, it is a bit hard to load the first few times since when the press is unfolded the hopper is no longer a hopper. It’s not a pain by any means, but you just have to hold down the flap when you put garlic in.

Bottom Line: If you like garlic and have a few bucks kicking around, you could do much worse than the Kuhn Rikon.
It does an awesome job, but that should go without saying if you’re paying this much for something like a Garlic Press.

QfaPB: Denny’s

Quest for a Perfect Burger No Responses »

Apr 072011

Ok, I just lost some cred there.

Most of you are probably thinking: “WTF!??! DENNYS??!?!?”
That’s what I said. Hear me out.

Most restaurants/diners/etc have preformed pressed forcemeat burgers that come frozen in the back. They’re usually terrible.

Denny’s decided at some point (apparently recently) that this needed to change. While their burgers were never really “WTF is that [expletive deleted]” they weren’t exactly “I’d push my own mother out of the way to get another”.

Today, my girlfriend wanted breakfast. Denny’s was close, as was a local Breakfast/Lunch joint. I’m all for supporting local business, especially restaurants since (well some at least) still understand that food comes from ingredients and not from a microwave.

I was undecided when I got to Denny’s since I actually enjoy their food. Their T-Bone and eggs, while having the strangest texture I can’t describe, is really good for under $15. And it’s awesome to be able to get any sort of steak at 4AM. It’s by no means a steakhouse steak, but for $15 it’s pretty decent.
Anyway…. so I ask the server “What would you get? The burger or the chicken fried steak?” She responded “The burger. We recently changed them to be fresh made in house rather than whatever it used to be before.” I thought about it and went with the burger.

So here’s a rundown:

Bun: Your average baked in a factory Sesame Seed bun. Wasn’t great by any means. I’m also pretty sure it was either untoasted or very lightly toasted, which loses points.
Meat: Shockingly it looks like it was done in house. Decent flavor and a nice thickness. Good grind on it. It was done to well done, but still had a marginal “running down your arm” factor.
Toppings: Standard lettuce, tomato and red onion.
Condiments: Just mayo. Which isn’t bad, since ketchup and mustard IMO wreck the meaty taste of the burger. If you really like ketchup and mustard (and/or are 4 years old) they could probably put some on.
Additions: Bacon and Cheese. The Bacon was nicely thick cut and Cheese was Cheddar instead of Processed Cheese Food.
Cost: $9 with Fries

Bottom Line: You could do MUCH worse for $9 in a lot of places.
For a cheap burger available damn near nation wide at 4AM it’s actually worth mentioning.

The Quest for a Perfect Burger

Quest for a Perfect Burger No Responses »

Apr 042011

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been searching for the perfect burger. Out of literally thousands of burgers across North America, NONE have achieved this title.

There have been a couple close calls, but there’s always some flaw that makes it miss it’s mark.

To be the perfect burger, it has to meet a whole host of qualifications including but not limited to (obviously) taste which is broken down into type and texture of bun, grind/contents/size/texture/temperature of meat, freshness/selection of toppings, appropriate condiments, additions like bacon/cheese/eggs/etc, cost and what I call the “running down the arm factor”.

Normally I sum this up into a general “WTF is this [expletive deleted]!”, “meh”, “decent”, “HEY! This isn’t bad!” or “I would push my own mother out of the way for another!”, but for the purposes of a review I’ll expand upon this scale to include details of why it was included.

Since my memory is a touch fuzzy some days, I will only include any burgers I consume from today onwards. For that one person that does stumble upon this site and wonder “So what does this guy think is the perfect burger?” The answer: So far? None. Have you not been reading? There is a king of the hill though and it’s been there for a while. Shockingly… it’s Fuddruckers.

Hell even their slogan is “World’s Greatest Hamburgers” and I tend to agree as of right now. Here’s why:

(NOTE: This may sound like an advertisement for Fuddruckers, but I assure you I have no affiliation with Fuddruckers or any other eating establishment mentioned on this site. If someone manages to usurp Fuddruckers, they will receive identical treatment.)

Bun: It’s fresh baked. In house. Buttered and Grilled. This means it’s nice and soft, fresh, and flavorful. It’s shocking how many people have really good patties, but TERRIBLE bread. In fact… I like their bread so much that I buy extra buns when I go there. It’s THAT good.

Meat: There’s TONS of things wrong with factory grind, which is why Fuddruckers grinds their own. At least they used to at one point. (I’m hoping) that this is the reason why they’re not afraid to offer burgers done to temperature. Most people have it ingrained into their heads that burgers have to be well done. Let me tell you that you haven’t eaten until you’ve had a rare burger. It’s indescribably good.
Since this is the most important part of a burger, I’ll comment on all parts of the meat.
The grind is adequate. It’s not a really coarse grind that I like, but it’s also not mincemeat. The texture is good since it’s made of meat and not “misc”. I hate those frozen patties you get at some restaurants that look like a meat paste pressed into a “burgery” shape.
While Fuddruckers does have different types of burgers, I’m focusing on Beef. I do want to try their “exotics” line, but I haven’t had a chance to.
Size. Let’s face it. Size does matter. Paper thin patties while good in sliders, are NOT good inside a good burger. Fuddruckers offers a variety of sizes, including 1/4lb (pfft), 1/3lb (better, but still pfft), 1/2lb (passable, but still meh) and 1lb (NOW we’re talking). The reason size is important is that a thin burger overcooks by the time you get a nice sear on the outside.
Now comes to the important part: Temperature. I touched on this before, but it has to be mentioned again. Well done burgers are an abomination to the [deity]. They have all the life cooked out of them and all you’re left with is dry crumbly tasteless crap.
While a rare burger may not be everyone’s cup of tea texture wise, Midrare is a good balance between raw beef and “WTF is that [expletive deleted]“. It’s cooked enough to eliminate the raw grind, but still awesome enough that it’s awesome.

Additions. Let’s face it. There’s a reason why Cheeseburgers are so popular. Cheese makes it good. Bacon doesn’t even need describing as to why it’s awesome. Stuff like Mushrooms are good too.
Conveniently, Fuddruckers “Works” has all 3. There are other varieties, but those are built upon individual tastes.

Where Fuddruckers really shines is the condiments. I don’t understand certain places that say I can “Have it my way” when they don’t put nearly enough of “my way” onto my burger. Instead of describing what you want to some pimply faced kid that doesn’t care what your way is, Fuddruckers hands you a nekkid burger (with additions) and points towards to condiment (or rather salad) bar. All the usual stuff is there, but it’s stuff like Pico de Gallo, Spicy Brown Mustard and olives that really makes it special. They even have shredded and leaf lettuce. It’s damn near a salad bar. Which really means you can “have it your way”, even if your way is a 1/2 pan of olives, a dozen whole tomatoes and a 2 cups of mayo. Try asking for that at BK. Or even Harvey’s where they have the same concept, except their salad bar is behind glass.

This brings us to cost. While some fancy schmancy fine dining place probably has a $10000 truffle burger made from imported Kobe that’s been fed gold bars while getting daily [expletive deleted], it would rank pretty low on the overall scale because a good burger deserves to be eaten. By everyone. And often. While a one off food orgasm is great and all, you shouldn’t have to mortgage your house in order to get a 2nd one.
Fuddruckers fills this one quite nicely. $10 (depending on territory) gets you a 1lb works. Add a couple bucks for fries/rings/etc and a couple more for a drink and you come to an awesome burger for under a $20. While this isn’t cheap (ok it is pretty cheap for a 1lb) it’s well within reach for 99.99% of the population.

The last point: The “running down the arm factor”. Let’s just say that they have paper towel rolls on each table.

Bottom line: World’s Greatest Hamburger? I would tend to agree. Is it perfect? No. But as of right now, it is at the top of the list.

Review: Bluefin Sushi

Restaurant Reviews, Seattle, WA No Responses »

Apr 012011

Today I had a huge hankering for seafood. The problem with seafood is that it’s [expletive deleted]ing EXPENSIVE! This is usually why I tend to seek out all you can eat places. The issue is that all you can eat joints are hit or miss. Some are AWESOME and others are just plain terrible. Price is usually a good indicator, but it’s not always the case. I was kind of questioning $28 for a sushi buffet that included Prime Rib, Snow Crab, Shucked Oysters among other things, but I figured I’d give it a shot.

First off, the selection was quite good. There’s a decent variety of seafood and a nice selection of hot items. Unlike most buffets, there wasn’t a bunch of “Salad” filler. Their website lists all the items on the buffet, but that’s not usually a good indicator to what’s good or not.

Assuming you’ve read their website before reading this review, you’ll see some interesting things like Prime Rib and Soft Shell Crab and some strange things like Salmon and Scallops. While Salmon and Scallops aren’t strange themselves, they read more like ingredients than actual dishes.

First, we’ll start with the noteworthy. The buffet included Snow Crab which was a nice touch, especially for $28. There wasn’t anything like drawn butter, but that’s not a bad thing since cold crab and hot butter is terrible.
Not only was there Snow Crab, there was a nice hot Asian style Dungie. For those who have had it, you know what I’m talking about. For those who don’t, it’s hard to describe. It’s a Dungie crab that’s chopped into large chunks and dredged before frying and tossed in an Asian style Soy/Ginger/Garlic sauce.
Next up is raw oysters, which did come with a nice variety of accompaniments like a really spicy horseradish, an Asian style soy/ginger/etc sauce and Tabasco. A minor issue for those snooty people that like varietals is that these were just generic oysters rather than something like a Kumamoto. Besides… generic oysters are better than no oyster.
Something I didn’t expect to see is Prime Rib. I was quite surprised that they had it on a Sushi Buffet. Even at 8PM (1 hour prior to closing) it was still at a nice Mid Rare. My one gripe is that it was a touch bland and didn’t have a ready source of au jus, but other than that it was shockingly good. At least for a Sushi buffet. I mean… I wouldn’t go there for the Prime Rib, but for someone that may not enjoy Sushi (like my companion) it was a nice touch.
Korean BBQ isn’t a stranger to all you can eat sushi and it sure wasn’t absent here. Although it seemed more like an afterthought than a “feature”. It was lacking in variety but was still tasty. Then again… it’s hard to break Short Ribs.
Shark Fin Soup. I walked by this and almost messed myself. Obviously this isn’t real Shark Fin Soup, but still worth a mention. This is by FAR my favorite soup if it’s made right. This particular iteration wasn’t bad, but it seemed like it was missing a few things. It was really sparse in terms of ingredients, but was still quite good. It even had a good bit of white pepper which most restaurants don’t add enough of.
Finally we get to the Sushi. With the variety of other food here I didn’t partake in a lot of it, but there are a few things worth mentioning. Unlike some of the all you can eat places I’ve been to, Blue Fin had Sashimi as well as good selection of Nigiri. For those who don’t know, Sashimi is just straight raw fish without rice or nori. Nigiri is a large piece of fish on top of a nugget of rice. They didn’t have a huge selection of Sashimi, but they did have Tuna, Salmon and Snapper. The Tuna looked quite nice, as did the Snapper but the Salmon looked a little limp. It tasted fine though.

A few other things that were interesting but not worth a paragraph:

-Cocktail Shrimp. Nicely sized too.
-Mongolian Beef. Had a good bit of bite to it.
-Manilla Clams in Black Beans. Just overall good.

Now… for the bad news. Their website lists a wide variety of food (and apparently ingredients) but a good bit of them we-re missing. I was quite looking forward to partaking in some Soft Shell Crab, but sadly they were absent. I know they’re not in season, but they shouldn’t be listing it if they don’t have it. There were a few other things missing, but I’ll attribute that to the day’s selection rather than maliciously leaving them out. Long story short, I wouldn’t set your heart on any particular item on the menu since it may be absent.
As with any buffet, there’s always issue with food quality. In this particular case, the quality was quite good. Very few things were cold that were supposed to be hot and vice versa. There were a few things that were overcooked, but not significantly to the point of complaint.

Because it is a buffet, the ambiance isn’t exactly “romantic” or “fancy”. But if you’re into good food at a reasonable price, Blue Fin Sushi really hits the mark.

The Service was quite good. A few reviews online mentioned issues with the quality of service, but I had no such issues. A server was prompt when we sat down and explained how things work. It’s not hard to understand how a buffet works, but it’s always a bit awkward not seeing a server before getting your first plate. Speaking plates, they were cleared in a timely manner and drinks were kept topped up. For a buffet (which is normally notorious for bad service) Blue Fin is quite good in terms of service.

As always, ratings are based on class of restaurant rather than overall. This means that good fast food can outrank fine dining, but doesn’t mean that it’s better.

Ambiance (10%): 7
Food (50%): 8
Service (25%): 8
Value (15%): 10
Overall : 8.3

Bottom line: If you enjoy large volumes of seafood it’d be stupid to pass up Blue Fin Sushi, even if you don’t like Sushi. Food Quality is quite good as is Service. The ambiance is decent if you don’t mind the family atmosphere. As for value, it’s hard to beat $28 per person for Snow Crab, Oysters and Sashimi.

Website: http://bluefinseattle.com/
Map: http://goo.gl/ClxvB

Butter Up That Bacon

Review: Jungle Cafe Buffet

Review: OCB

America, this is why you’re fat :: $0.30/lb Turkeys

So I realized I was missing a pizza stone…

Amazon Fresh: Same Day “Grocery” Delivery Awesomeness

Garlic Presses: Why the hate?

QfaPB: Denny’s

The Quest for a Perfect Burger

Review: Bluefin Sushi

Categories

Archives

Links

Meta