We often head out to dinner on Friday nights as a way to decompress from the work week and get ready for the weekend. Part of the challenge of living in a smaller community is the lack of options for dining. There are about 3-4 places that we have on the rotation that are reliably consistent in regards to decent options and OK food. There is one restaurant that we really like and occasionally treat ourselves to,
The one restaurant has its limitations too - it has had the same 'specials' page for over 8 yrs! When we first arrived to town the wifer would often order a specific dish because it was a 'special' and thought it would not be offered for much longer...well here we are 3 1/2 yrs later and the specials menu is the same and her favorite dish has become 'old reliable'. We then heard from another patron that the track record of the same specials menu actually dates further back to at least 8 yrs. Since it is our favorite place to eat at in town, we view it as a funny quirk since the food is usually pretty good.
A few months ago, a local Chinese restaurant started to offer an 'Indian' menu on certain days of the week. We were excited to check it out as it was the only Indian option in town. Despite not being the best Indian food we had ever had, we were excited to add it into the rotation!
Fast forward a few months and we went back there yesterday to get some Indian food. Unfortunately they are no longer offering the Indian menu at all on any day so we took our chances with the Chinese menu. The red flag should have gone up when we heard a patron ask for chop sticks and we heard the waitress say they did not have any. Mind you, the waitress was dressed in sweat pants and a sweat shirt. At this point we should have known not to do what we did next....
We looked at the menu and thought it was pretty cool that the menu had tofu options. Sweet! So we both ordered tofu - I ordered the mandarin tofu and the wifer ordered the tofu version of the general tso's chicken. The plates arrived and the mandarin tofu plate looked fake. It came with a bunch of sqaured tofu pieces that had been deep fried and covered in some glazy orange syrup and 2 pieces of broccoli. Nothing else....just a bunch of fried tofu squares floating in a fluorescent orange syrup with two token broccoli stems bobbing around. I should have taken a picture because it just looked 'not right'. We dug in and took a few bites of the flotilla and figured out it actually tasted worse than it looked! We basically ate about 3 or 4 pieces of the drowning fried tofu mess and then decided to stick to rice only....even the fried rice did not have any veggies. We ate up the rice and then promptly paid the bill and left with what was perhaps our most un-satisfying meal in the last few years.
word of caution - if you are thinking of tofu from a chinese menu, think long and hard about it....
The one restaurant has its limitations too - it has had the same 'specials' page for over 8 yrs! When we first arrived to town the wifer would often order a specific dish because it was a 'special' and thought it would not be offered for much longer...well here we are 3 1/2 yrs later and the specials menu is the same and her favorite dish has become 'old reliable'. We then heard from another patron that the track record of the same specials menu actually dates further back to at least 8 yrs. Since it is our favorite place to eat at in town, we view it as a funny quirk since the food is usually pretty good.
A few months ago, a local Chinese restaurant started to offer an 'Indian' menu on certain days of the week. We were excited to check it out as it was the only Indian option in town. Despite not being the best Indian food we had ever had, we were excited to add it into the rotation!
Fast forward a few months and we went back there yesterday to get some Indian food. Unfortunately they are no longer offering the Indian menu at all on any day so we took our chances with the Chinese menu. The red flag should have gone up when we heard a patron ask for chop sticks and we heard the waitress say they did not have any. Mind you, the waitress was dressed in sweat pants and a sweat shirt. At this point we should have known not to do what we did next....
We looked at the menu and thought it was pretty cool that the menu had tofu options. Sweet! So we both ordered tofu - I ordered the mandarin tofu and the wifer ordered the tofu version of the general tso's chicken. The plates arrived and the mandarin tofu plate looked fake. It came with a bunch of sqaured tofu pieces that had been deep fried and covered in some glazy orange syrup and 2 pieces of broccoli. Nothing else....just a bunch of fried tofu squares floating in a fluorescent orange syrup with two token broccoli stems bobbing around. I should have taken a picture because it just looked 'not right'. We dug in and took a few bites of the flotilla and figured out it actually tasted worse than it looked! We basically ate about 3 or 4 pieces of the drowning fried tofu mess and then decided to stick to rice only....even the fried rice did not have any veggies. We ate up the rice and then promptly paid the bill and left with what was perhaps our most un-satisfying meal in the last few years.
word of caution - if you are thinking of tofu from a chinese menu, think long and hard about it....
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