How to tell you're NOT in a classy joint
Jun. 12th, 2023 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerSaturday we had friends over, and they suggested we get dinner together. They were passionate about Chinese food. It's not really our thing anymore, and with all the restaurant turnover of the past several years we're not even familiar with what's good locally. "If it was just us, we'd go to Panda Express," we warned them.
Cue friend whipping out a gargantuan phone and punching up a map on Google. "Here's one a mile away that's rated 4.1 stars!"
I squinted at the map. "I think that's the one that always smells like fish that's gone slightly bad and is empty even on Friday/Saturday nights."
We went anyway. 'Cuz what do I know, I just live here.
Well, good news/bad news. Good news: the awful Chinese restaurant that smelled of spoiling fish and was dead even on busy nights is finally gone. Bad news: the restaurant that's replaced it is only... somewhat better.
The new restaurant offers both steam-table service and ordering from a menu. The ready-to-serve food in the steam trays all looked disgusting. Well, okay, the rice and lo mein looked fine, but everything else... some thirty choices... screamed "Pass!"
We ordered from the menu. The food was decent to good. (Note: "decent to good" for this area. Standards for Chinese food in the SF Bay Area are high!) But I couldn't shake my concerns about what might be happening in the kitchen given the shitty looking food they were happy to leave in the plexiglass covered steam trays up front. Then as we wrapped up the meal I excused myself to the restroom and saw this:
Wow, talk about getting a clear sign to answer the question, "Is this a classy place or not?"
That is going to knock a whole star off my eventual Yelp review!
Cue friend whipping out a gargantuan phone and punching up a map on Google. "Here's one a mile away that's rated 4.1 stars!"
I squinted at the map. "I think that's the one that always smells like fish that's gone slightly bad and is empty even on Friday/Saturday nights."
We went anyway. 'Cuz what do I know, I just live here.
Well, good news/bad news. Good news: the awful Chinese restaurant that smelled of spoiling fish and was dead even on busy nights is finally gone. Bad news: the restaurant that's replaced it is only... somewhat better.
The new restaurant offers both steam-table service and ordering from a menu. The ready-to-serve food in the steam trays all looked disgusting. Well, okay, the rice and lo mein looked fine, but everything else... some thirty choices... screamed "Pass!"
We ordered from the menu. The food was decent to good. (Note: "decent to good" for this area. Standards for Chinese food in the SF Bay Area are high!) But I couldn't shake my concerns about what might be happening in the kitchen given the shitty looking food they were happy to leave in the plexiglass covered steam trays up front. Then as we wrapped up the meal I excused myself to the restroom and saw this:
Wow, talk about getting a clear sign to answer the question, "Is this a classy place or not?"
That is going to knock a whole star off my eventual Yelp review!
