Sherman's Food Adventures: Sizzler (Southcenter)

Sizzler (Southcenter)

Black Friday. The true definition of chaos where people get hurt trying to score a deal. In fact, some have even died in the stampede of deal-hungry shoppers. Why would someone subject themselves to something so ridiculous? Well, that would be Costanza and myself. Determined to shop til we dropped, we headed down to Seattle right after work on the American Thanksgiving. Arriving too early for the store openings, we had to grab something to eat. After circling Southcenter for awhile, it appeared the only choices we had were fast food and the Sizzler. And if you can believe, we went to the Sizzler. Oh man. I haven't been here since they closed their location at Westview in North Vancouver. Mediocre cuts of meat and a salad bar that would make Taco Bell look good were all the memories I had of the place.

Looking over the menu, we had a difficult time deciding on what to order. You see, other than their value picks, most of their choices are pretty expensive (considering what you get). Alas, Costanza did the honours first and went for the Steak and Fried Prawns (he also added the salad bar as well). Well, as expected, his steak was not exactly super tender. However, it was edible and didn't require too much chewing. As for the fried prawns, they were the typical frozen butterflied-type. Hey, it was still crisp and fairly enjoyable to eat. Yet, since they were fried from frozen, they took on quite a bit of oil. For myself, I had the Malibu Chicken and Steak. I asked for medium-rare and it was closer to medium. Again, the steak was not exactly great, but it did the job nonetheless. The Malibu Chicken was essentially a fried breast topped with ham and melted Swiss - their version of a Cordon Bleu if you will. It wasn't bad since the chicken was moist and there was plenty of ham and cheese.

Now for the salad bar... I wanted to try the spaghetti, but there was only a few strands of dry pasta sitting in the warming tray throughout our meal. Maybe it was best I didn't eat it... There were 2 soups - Clam Chowder and Beef Barley. Surprisingly, the chowder had a good clam flavour. Too bad it wasn't exactly creamy. It was more starchy than anything. The beef barley was not very good. Sure, it had lots of beef in it, yet it tasted like Puritan beef stew (which for me, is not very good). What we did like was the very hot and crispy Chicken Wings. They were quite large and totally juicy with a crisp exterior. Well, we knew what to expect from this meal which in the end, left us with realistic expectations. Sure, the food ain't going to light any culinary fires, but we were hungry and it did the job. One thing of note is that the prices are not exactly cheap. That doesn't bode well since one could eat practically anywhere else. Considering the food quality, we probably would have if anything else was open.

The Good:
- As much as the salad bar is pretty "meh", it is a good value
- Predictable

The Bad:
- Food is pretty "meh"
- Not exactly cheap

5 comments:

LotusRapper said...

Wow, Sizzler is still around ?!? What a vestige of the um, 80's.

Which reminds me we ate at our local Sizzler back then, on Lougheed Hwy around Rosser, in N. Burnaby. IIRC an AYCE meal was around $7.

Anonymous said...

Given all the food options at Southcenter, I'm surprised you didn't go to the Cheesecake Factory or checkout Jollibee, the Filipino fast food place. Also there's Red Mango for dessert.

Sherman Chan said...

@LR Yah, I forgot about that location!

@Holly Yes, I would've, but nothing else was open. Cheesecake Factory was staring us in the faces, but closed...

slif said...

I have fond childhood memories of eating that particular Sizzler location out of popcorn shrimp when I was but a wee tot... all you can eat shrimp -- that'll teach them LOL

Sherman Chan said...

@slif LOL, AYCE shrimp, I remember that!

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