Max's Burgers

April 23rd? That's quite the early date for the beginning of softball season. The last couple of years, the first game has been rained out leaving us without any game to play. Oh, but we still went out to eat! So why am I complaining? Well, this year was different. We got a cloudy day, albeit chilly, for our inaugural match, against one of the better teams in our division no less. Well, apparently the rust was a bit too heavy for our team as we lost pretty handily. There is a serious problem when I was the most consistent hitter for team (usually I'm not). That expensive bat finally paid off! So with a 1 in the L column, we needed to soak our sorrows in food. Finally, we got a chance to visit Max's Burgers, which I actually had on my radar for some quite time. I delayed my visit since Bear wanted me to wait until softball season started. Low and behold, he wasn't there for our first game and hey, we weren't gonna wait for him! Uh, I hope he doesn't get mad... Bears are friendly creatures right?

Even before everyone arrived, I declared that I needed people to help me tackle the Behemoth. The what? Was this a trick question??? No, the Behemoth is a monstrosity of a burger big enough to feed 4 people easily and then some. For $55.00, you get a really large burger consisting of cheese, bacon, ham, fried eggs, mushrooms, grilled onions, tomato and lettuce on a house-made cheddar onion roll. Believe me, one quarter of this burger was more than a normal person could eat. Apparently Milhouse and I are not human because we finished it. Is this burger a novelty? Yes. The burger patty itself was pretty overcooked, but that was forgivable considering the size of it. Gotta make sure for safety purposes. However, with all of the wonderful toppings including so much bacon, it made up for the patty.

Served with the burger was the Triple Bypass consisting of onion rings, yam fries and fries with chipotle mayo. These were all fried up crispy and were not very greasy. I liked how they used breading for the onion rings which made them extra crisp. As part of the behemoth, there was a choice between a pitcher of beer or pop. Taking everything into account, $55.00 split between 4 people was actually a good value. Miss Y looked at us like we were some ravenous gluttons and decided to go for a regular burger in the Max Burger (lettuce, tomato, pickles, red onion & big Max sauce). It was served on a soft toasted brioche bun and with a heaping side of fries. Unlike the behemoth, this burger was not as overcooked, yet still not exactly juicy. She thought it was a pretty decent burger. In the end, everyone (there was many others who had single burgers too) was satisfied with their meals, taking into account the reasonable prices. Not the best burger we've ever had, yet more than acceptable nonetheless.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Behemoth is quite fun (albeit not the best way to eat a burger)

The Bad:
- Meat is overcooked
- Not their fault, but parking in the area sucks

Bamboo Grove

Ever since my visit to Bamboo Grove during the CRA media restaurant tour, I've wanted to go back for a complete meal. After all, this little restaurant surprised me with its tasty food. Never would I have thought a place named Bamboo Grove would be better than the big boys in Richmond. Furthermore, our itinerary for that night consisted of 4 restaurants which limited our time to savour the food. Yah, poor us... So I convinced my parents that we should go visit the place, even though it wasn't exactly the closest destination to go for Chinese food. I'll admit it. As much as I ridicule Richmond, it is THE place to go for Chinese food in the Lower Mainland. Thank gawd that I now own a hybrid because I can only imagine how much gas it takes my SUV to make it from North Burnaby to Richmond.

Now, despite not really looking like a legit Chinese restaurant from the outside, Bamboo Grove is nicely renovated inside complete with clean washrooms. One thing that is a bit troublesome with the place is its location - you must rely on their tight parking lot in the back. Once it is full, parking spots in the area are at a premium. We experienced this first-hand, scoring the last available spot which wedged us between a Range Rover and a dumpster. But hey, I got a parking spot! So why all the trouble to eat here? Other than the aforementioned tasty food, they have a CRA winning dish. Now wait for it... Pork Stomach & Ginko Soup. Doesn't that make you want to get outta your seat and drive right down there? Okay, maybe it ain't the sexiest sounding thing, but if you like offal, the soup is money. The combination of pork stomach, ginko nuts, fatty pork, white pepper and bean curd stick just works. Sure, there is a slight gaminess from the pork stomach, but it is nicely tempered by a good dose of white pepper. I realized that the CRA can be highly political as much as any other awards, yet for me at least, this soup deserves the attention. Oh yah, one of the major reasons this "old fire" soup tastes so good is due to the massive amount of ingredients, which was served on a plate with a side of sweet green onion soy. And one more thing, I get my cars from Prestons... Wait, that's AV and his terrible commercials. Okay, the thing I wanted to say was that the soup must be pre-ordered.

For the rest of our meal, we decided to do their "create-your-own-meal" from a list of dishes which includes a daily soup (which we got to go since we already had the pork stomach soup), complimentary crab and dessert. We went for the Crab in Cream Sauce as a result. With just enough cream sauce that was thick and well-seasoned along with a fairly decent-sized crab, this had all the makings for a good dish. However, the crab was completely over-fried where the meat was dry and oil-soaked. What a shame really. For the kiddies, we got them their favourite being the Scrambled Eggs and Shrimp. This was really well-executed with fluffy eggs which were neither oily nor watery. There was good colour and just enough salt to go with the cold-water crunchy shrimp. We also felt this was a relatively good portion.

For our veggie dish, we got the standard Gai Lan with Beef. The picture doesn't do the plate justice. Hidden underneath the gai lan must've been enough slices of beef for another 3 orders. This was a good thing since the slices were big and tenderized properly. Furthermore, there was good caramelization which in turn resulted in great flavour. As for the gai lan, it was of good quality and cooked perfectly being crunchy and vibrant. We also loved the fact there was good wok heat where there was very little moisture at the bottom of the plate. Another one of our favourites is the Peking Pork Chops and yes we got that too. Yah, the colour of the sauce was pretty radioactive-looking, but it was well balanced and just enough to coat each piece of pork chop. Nice mix of sweet, savoury and tart. Although the pork chops were far from being chewy, they were cut too thin which led to them being overcooked.

When we were deciding on our last dish, our server suggested we get the Fried Taro with Boneless Duck. Boy, it has been awhile since we last had this. Possibly because many restaurants need advanced notice or probably the real reason - it's darn unhealthy! Much like a really large "wu gok", this was really well-done. It was fried really crispy on the outside with moist mashed taro and tender boneless duck. Sure it was oily, yet not terribly so. I've seen versions of this where the bottom of the plate could rival the face of a pubescent boy. From one fried item to another, we had the Deep Fried Crispy Chicken. As much as it is pretty easy to drop a chicken into hot oil, there is an art to this dish. I've actually tried making this in a commercial deep-fryer at my friend's restaurant and it is all about oil temperature and timing. The trick is to get it super crispy on the outside with rendered skin while maintaining the moisture in the meat. The one here was perfect. The skin was crispy, meat was moist and well-seasoned. We also loved the traditional plating with shrimp chips (well, my kids loved it more).

Lastly, we had the Steamed Sea Bass in Black Bean Sauce. Despite the huge mound of black bean sauce on top, it was actually not that salty. In fact, there was a good mixture of garlic and sugar which went well with the oily flesh. The fish itself was well-portioned and cooked perfectly. When it came to the end of the meal, we were offered our choice of dessert which was either Sweet Red Bean Soup or Coconut Pudding. For me, I'm not a huge fan of red bean soup, so I chose the latter. It was nice to see something other than red bean soup for dessert. The coconut pudding was pretty good where it was not really all that sweet. I wasn't a huge fan of the evaporated milk on top though. Why do Chinese restaurants dump evaporated milk on everything? LOL. Okay, the meal as a whole wasn't perfect, but considering how busy they were, it was way above average. The chef(s) really know how to execute and it shows in the final product. Furthermore, we found the pricing fell within acceptable limits for the quality of food. If Bamboo Grove was located closer to where we live, I'd be a regular customer.

The Good:
- Food is simply done right
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Seating is a bit tight
- Service wasn't bad, but it was hurried

Super Buffet

Okay, I'll admit it. I committed a major transgression. No, it's not something that I need to keep a secret from Viv. In fact, she was right there with me. And get your mind outta the gutter! What we did could almost be inexcusable - we visited an Asian buffet (specifically Super Buffet) in Bellingham... Yes, something like this is on par with eating at places such as Foody Goody (now thankfully gone), Sui Sha Yah and Grand Buffet. Wait, I've done all three! OMFG. Okay, just throw the tomatoes at me. Hold on, don't do that, I think Super Buffet may need them because their salad bar was looking a bit sad... Oh trust me, that wasn't the only pathetic thing there. Oh where should I start... Wait, before I start, let me make one thing clear - drinks are NOT included. Why am I making this an issue? Because they asked us for our drink order without telling us it was an extra charge. It apparently happened to a few tables around us too. Not cool.

Much like Haiku and Bluefin in Seattle (and to a lesser degree Royal Star in Burlington), the buffet consists of several stations featuring specific Asian cuisine (I'm not even sure if I can use the word cuisine!). The Sushi section had various rolls, cones and nigiri which were not really all that appetizing to look at. The slices of fish atop the nigiri were smaller than a tip at a Chinese restaurant. We could see more sushi rice than fish itself! At the very least, the rice was surprisingly acceptable having a texture that was still chewy yet not dry. It was bland, but hey, low expectations here. At the far end of the sushi bar was tempura and fried maki. Adjacent to the sushi bar was a section of Cold Items consisting of tako, hokkigai, wakame, oshinko, crayfish, peel 'n eat shrimp, mussels, squid, kimchi and for some odd reason, boiled eggs. Nothing here was really all that appetizing, yet it was edible. Across from this section was a mixed variety of Hot Food such as spring rolls, baked mussels, steamed oysters, snow crab legs, stuffed mushrooms, teriyaki chicken, pork ribs, fries, fried prawns, steamed sole, BBQ chicken, garlic bread and cream cheese & crab wontons. Most of the stuff here was pretty forgettable, especially the chicken since it was pretty dry. The pork ribs were alright. They were not fall-off-the-bone, but they were a "pleasant chewy". The crab legs were okay for what they were. Since these are typically frozen, there was not much to expect. Surprisingly, the sole was perfectly cooked being flaky and moist. At the end of this section was a selection of Soups which included wonton, egg drop and hot & sour. Meh, these were pretty typical buffet soups with the hot & sour being somewhat edible. Of course there was a lack of depth (because the soup base was probably water), yet there was plenty of flavour thanks to MSG. The ingredients were pretty decent though, especially the moist chicken.

Behind the sushi bar lay a pathetic selection of salads. Sure, I'm not one to visit the greens too often, however, for some people, I'm sure it would be a huge disappointment. Rather than ingredients to go with the bowl of mesclun greens, there were far too many bowls of gelatin. Directly parallel to the "salad" bar lay the mostly Chinese Food section. This included blue crab, fried prawns, coco shrimp, ginger frog legs, fried noodles, fried rice, General Tso's chicken, Mongolian beef, stir-fried green beans, steamed clams, fried squid, mustard greens, black pepper chicken, mixed veggies and ginger beef. The best way to describe most of the proteins would be the word "dry". The frog legs were overcooked and lacking flavour while the same could be said about the fried whole prawns. The coco shrimp were lost in too much batter. Yah, they seem to overcook their meat here. It is a buffet though, so I'll cut them some slack. Looking over my notes, I don't think I actually liked any of the food from this selection, other than the clams.

The Mongolian Grill section was more like Japanese teppanyaki, yet whatever... I'm pretty sure for cost-effectiveness, investing in an authentic Mongolian grill would've been a waste (since many people wouldn't care about the difference). The items available were beef, chicken, shrimp, pork, various veggies, short ribs, steak, squid and shrimp skewers. This turned out to be the least offensive portion of the buffet since the food was cooked up fresh (much like Royal Star buffet in Burlington). However, the chef dropped my short rib on the counter and proceeded to plate it anyways! And I left a tip too! Well, it turned out to be a moot point because the short rib was unchewable. The rest of the stuff was actually not bad with crunchy shrimp, fresh veggies and nicely cooked noodles. There was aggressive seasoning at work here (no, they don't let you choose your own sauces), yet it was not overbearing.

Lastly, there was a whole section dedicated to Desserts. It only existed for the sake of existing. Many of the desserts were prepackaged stuff. In fact, the almond cookies were still in its tray from the box! For reference purposes, the desserts included cream puffs, macaroons (no, not macarons), palmiers, chocolate pudding, chocolate cake, fruit and banana with strawberry sauce (ew...). Alright. I have to admit that the price for the buffet ($13.95) is plenty attractive, considering the sheer amount of food. However, it means absolutely nothing when the food, at the best, is mediocre. The extra beverage charge was annoying and so was the service. Most of the staff were milling around chatting with each other. Actually, all the guys were flirting with the only young female on staff... I fully realize that a buffet is not the best place to find good food, but there are good buffets and bad buffets. Super Buffet falls into the latter.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Large selection

The Bad:
- Food is not very good
- Restaurant is not very clean (esp the washrooms)

Top Gun Seafood Restaurant

It goes without saying that we are truly spoiled silly in Vancouver when it comes to Dim Sum. So many choices in so many different price points. Sure, there are the occasional WTF joints in town, but they are a rarity. Therefore, it is pretty easy to find decent Dim Sum in all corners of the Lower Mainland. Due to the lack of clientele, some cities do not enjoy what we have (such as Portland). Furthermore, depending on other factors, some cities (such as New York and San Francisco) feature Dim Sum that may not be as progressive. For the longest time, Seattle was another Portland - a vast wasteland of Dim Sum and Asian food for-all-that-matters. I remember suffering through Dim Sum at Noble Court about 10 years ago in Bellevue. Due to the influx of immigrants and high-tech workers, Bellevue isexperiencing an Asian food boom of sorts.

After positive experiences at Din Tai Fung, Facing East and Square Lotus, it was about time we gave Dim Sum another go. From all reports and according to Goose, Top Gun was our best bet. Not to be confused with Top Gun in Vancouver, the one in Bellevue is hidden and a little tough to find. A quick evaluation of the parking lot made me wonder where people would park their cars when the restaurant is full. Looks like they would have to park far away and walk it. Fortunately for us, we scored one of the precious few parking spots. Furthermore, we got seated right away as well. The is good luck was probably due to our weekday visit. We got right down to eating because they kicked it ol' school with push carts.

Recently, my son has been on this Wu Gok (fried taro dumpling) obsession and there was no choice but to order it. These were pretty tasty with a well-seasoned filling which featured a good amount of pickled vegetable. There was an even mashed taro to filling ratio as well. We also appreciated that they were not greasy either. As if it was fate, on the same cart was another kid favourite being the Pineapple Custard Bun. Normally, this item is butchered by many Dim Sum joints, but not here. The bun was soft and topped with a nicely textured sugar topping. Inside was an abnormal amount of semi-sweet custard. This delighted my son as he ate it in record time. With no pan-fried rice noodle rolls in sight, we opted for the steamed Beef Rice Noodle Roll instead. The rice noodle was soft while being a tad sticky. It was bursting with lots of tender beef which was balanced in terms of flavour and the amount of cilantro.

With the declining popularity of push carts, there are certain items we don't see as much as before. Congee is one of them. Sure, it appears on most menus, but it is normally buried at the back of the order list and is usually overpriced. Now when it comes around in a push cart, it beckons me to order it. Call it the power of suggestion via seeing and smelling it. As such, we got a bowl of the Preserved Duck Egg and Salted Pork Congee. Despite what you see in the picture, there was tonnes of egg and tender pork. However, the pork was not really all that salty. It was more of the marinated type. The congee itself was thick to the last spoonful. Onto some steamed items, we had the Bean Curd Skin Roll. Stuffed to the max with filling, the rolls were a touch dense, yet it wasn't hard to eat because the texture was spot-on. The pieces of pork were tender while still retaining a chew. The texture of the bean curd skin held the balance between being slightly chewy, but still being moist. And unlike many versions of this dish, the whole thing wasn't swimming in sauce.

Despite the smallish portion, the Black Bean Pork Spareribs were not bad. However, there was an inordinate amount of cartilage pieces. It was probably due to our bad luck though as I noticed that the table next to us had meatier ribs. The meat itself had the proper texture of being tender while having a slight bite. Unfortunately, the whole thing was bland. That would be the same for the Stuffed Eggplant as well. Even though there was only a modest amount of black bean sauce, that was not the reason for the lack of flavour. Rather, the sauce itself was weak. As evidenced in the picture, the eggplant was pretty oil-soaked. Regardless, the eggplant was cooked just right (not being mushy) and the shrimp mousse filling exhibited a nice bounce texture. Although the meal was far from perfect (and what is really), the Dim Sum at Top Gun was leaps and bounds above what we had experienced many years ago. Make no mistake, this is legit Dim Sum in Bellevue.

The Good:
- This is real Dim Sum
- The place is fairly clean

The Bad:
- Parking lot is too small
- Selection of Dim Sum is limited

More About Crawfish King

Wait. This is Saturday... Why is there a post? Well, I felt compelled to continue the discussion regarding Crawfish King. You see, there have been some people on Twitter in addition to other various comments that have been negative towards my post. I can totally understand why. After all, I basically ripped into a family run location of Crawfish King. If you have been a consistent reader of this blog, you know very well I DO NOT take my blog lightly when it comes to affecting people's livelihoods. In fact, many have criticized me for being too "soft" or "forgiving". Hey, I'm in a no-win situation, you can't please everyone. So I am cognizant of all the issues at play when I post on my blog. In the case of Crawfish King, the entire incident was completely true and not exaggerated. I have 7 other people with me that night who can echo the same sentiments (or worse). Now why did my post rip into them so harshly when I rarely, if ever, do it in my 1300+ posts? Simple, we gave them ample opportunity to redeem themselves and showed incredible patience over a 2+ hour ordeal. We played along nicely and even stayed at the urging of the manager. We did warn him that for us to stay, there had to be a good reason and compensation for our wait. However, he didn't come through and slapped us in the face with nothing more than a courtesy discount. In fact, Milhouse thought it was a bit of dishonesty on the manager's part because he wouldn't say what kind of compensation we'd get. In the end, he wouldn't even come out to discuss it. It was more of a take-it-or-leave it approach. Talking about unconscionable. We did nothing wrong in this whole predicament. The restaurant was at fault. Plain and simple. I am not in any shape or form backing down from my stance. That is how strongly I feel about it.

To give them the full opportunity to redeem themselves, I actually left my card (which I rarely do) for them to hopefully contact me so I could add their response in the blog post. No, we weren't looking for a free meal or anything. We really had no interest in going back because the food was not to our liking. Rather, I really wanted to give them a chance to right a wrong. Nope, they didn't email me at all over the 3 days prior to the post going up. I even tried with tweets. No reply. Therefore, the post went up as is. I am not going to mince any words when the experience was so bad and the lack of response too. I wasn't expecting preferential treatment. I just wanted some form of acknowledgment. With a Twitter account and Facebook page, I don't think it is too much to assume they should do what most restaurants would do - correct the problem. Especially one as valid as this one. Was the post harsh? Yes, it was. But that is how I felt as a customer (and others too in my party), and I just so happen to have a blog. The lack of professionalism and integrity by the staff and manager wasted our time. And to top it off, the food wasn't even good. Some would point out I should just post good experiences and forget about the bad ones. I don't see it that way. Sure, I rave about places where people should go and also panned the places people should avoid. Everything is fair game. If you run a restaurant or any business, you should do it with the customer in mind. I've been in retail before and that was exactly our mandate - to keep customers happy.

Sure, my blog does have some influence, but let's be real here. If a restaurant is going to fail, it is not going to be due to my blog. I've posted negative things about Kawawa and Po King. They are both in business and still doing well. So no, my blog doesn't close down restaurants. Restaurants fail all by themselves. If they stink, they will fail. Check on Yelp! and Urbanspoon, my experience at Crawfish King was not unique. In fact, it is more often than not. If they are going to fail, they will fail on their own merit. Not my blog post. Again, my biggest issue was their response to the problem and lack of care after the fact. As much as it seems like I want them to fail, I don't. C'mon. I don't wish ill-will on anyone. I saw the family-run operation with the kiddies in the kitchen. We realized it was their first 2 weeks in operation, so things would be chaotic. But even looking past that, the bottom line is the restaurant did not do its due diligence to fix a problem. We gave them ample opportunities during and after the fact. Most customers would merely leave without ever saying a word. What will ultimately affect their longevity are their own actions.

Crawfish King

*Restaurant is now closed*

I don't know where to begin... If you've been reading this blog for a while, you will see that I rarely rip into a restaurant (Kawawa and Po King are the exceptions). I try my best to be fair and forgiving. However, as I write this post, I am literally still baffled at the ineptitude of the staff and management at Crawfish King in Richmond. Let me set up the scenario. We had just finished our Monday night softball game and headed to Crawfish King for some eats. They were pretty busy for a Monday, so we had to sit at 2 separate tables of 4. Our table of myself, Hot Chocolate, Boss Woman and Milhouse put in our order at 8:23pm. At around 8:30pm, the table beside us left. Hence Bear, Judes, Chill and Bubbly were able to pull the table over to join us. They had not ordered yet and put in theirs around 8:40pm. At 9:00pm, they got their food to our amazement. They were comfortably eating as we wondered what happened to our order. We asked a staff member to follow up our order shortly after that and then again 10 minutes later. Again at 9:20 and again at 9:30. Each time it was acknowledged but nothing happened. You would think that someone would've wondered why we hadn't gotten our food in nearly 1.5 hours! Finally, I lost it and let the manager know at 9:45 that we had been waiting for almost an hour and half for our food. He checked and apparently no one had put in our order. The server who took our order asked us if we were "sure" that he took it. Uh. WTF? The restaurant is not freakin' big. Does he have short-term memory loss? Not only that, all of us witnessed him taking our order. Was he implying we were lying??? He didn't look convinced. Oh and not a single "sorry" during this time. Okay, some might think that the addition of another 4 people at our table messed them up. Well, I'm not sure how that could happen when we put in our order FIRST, a full 17 minutes before the others did. Furthermore, we had not moved at all from our table. It was there all along. With a computerized system, the order would have been attached to our table number. So that cannot be used as an excuse.

Also, when we did place the order, he didn't even know what fried okra was, let alone actually putting in our order. So just a bit before 10:00pm, the manager re-takes our order and informs us that they did not have any okra. Oh and apparently, they did not have any bubble tea either despite having a whole menu page dedicated to it. But honestly, bubble tea, prata roti and noodles at a Southern boil? So let me talk about some of the food at the other table first. Bubbly had the Fried Catfish and Fries which wasn't really her favourite. To be fair, catfish is a bit muddy and that was in no way a reflection of the restaurant. It was rather thin though and combined with the cornmeal batter, it was crunchy (maybe too crunchy). The fries were pretty generic being like the Cavendish variety found at Costco. Bear had some of the Roti Prata and it was super greasy. When did Whales Tails from the PNE set up shop in their kitchen? Spread some jam on these suckers and voila - fry bread. Chill had the whole Dungeness Crab and it was alright. He did like the abundance of garlic in his garlic butter sauce. Kinda greasy though. And pricey considering restaurants in the area would charge less per pound (not a direct comparison, but a legitimate concern).

As for our food, the manager convinced us to stay even though we wanted to leave (after all, we'd been there over 1.5 hours). He promised to make it worthwhile when it came to the bill. So we got our order nearly 2 hours after we arrived at the restaurant. It was 2lbs. each of the Crawfish and Shrimp. We added an order of sausage for $4.00. We got "The Big Easy" medium flavour which included all the sauce options. Okay, am I missing something here? This is a SOUTHERN BOIL right? Then why was the whole thing drowning in grease??? Yes, there should be grease, but not that much. The flavours were pretty strong, so that was not bad I suppose. Too bad the shrimp and crawfish were slightly overcooked. Furthermore, the order of sausage consisted of 4.5 slices (I say .5 because 2 of them were end pieces). When has 4 slices constituted a sausage? Imagine buying a hot dog with half of the sausage missing... And with 2 lbs. of crawfish, it comes with a bonus corn, make that half a corn... So if they cut it into 2 pieces, would that make it 2 corn? The order of Cajun Fries didn't look any different from the one that Bubbly got in her dish. Starch-covered fries... I have a bag in my freezer. Now for the most disgusting item of the meal - the Hot Wings. That "sauce" at the bottom of the basket was actually 75% pure oil. It was neither hot nor tasty. If I wanted a basket full of oil, I could easily steal some from the back of a KFC. The wings were woefully soggy and bland. How does one mess up hot wings??? At the end, the same server that messed up our order asked us how we would like to split the bill. We asked what was the manager going to do for us first. He went back and asked and came back with the same question. Again, we asked what was going on with the bill. He kept asking if we wanted it split or not. Fine, we chose split and when the bill arrived, we were given a whopping 15% off for our troubles. The manager didn't even come out to talk to us. Look. It's not about the money. I can afford the dinner (gosh, I've paid for most of my meals for almost 4 years!) and if I wanted a free meal, I could go get one. It is all about the principle of it all. They don't give a flying rat's ass about the customer.

So there you have it. Mediocre food, poor value and worst of all - crap service. Completely confused and totally unprofessional. We gave them a total of 7 chances (checking on our order and asking what they were going to do with the bill) to make amends for the over 2 hour ordeal. They did not. When has it become acceptable to outright lie to a customer saying you will check on an order when it doesn't exist? When has it ever been right to even suggest that a customer is wrong and even go as far as denying you took their order? How about: "Hey, that table doesn't have food and it's been 1.5 hours, maybe something is wrong!"? And how hard is it to say "sorry"??? Or how about a manager convincing you to stay and promising to make it up by only offering a measly 15% off for your troubles? And on top of that, avoid the customers completely when it came time to settle the bill? Oh and more importantly, the food was greasy and "meh". This place doesn't stand a chance.

The Good:
- You really think there was any good in this?

The Bad:
- Worst service I've ever seen (and I've been to a lot of restaurants)
- Food is mediocre-to-poor and it's not a good value
- Everything was covered in grease (including the non-boil items)
- Management does not train its staff properly nor do they care about their customers

Square Lotus

Having eaten 3 meals that were non-Asian, we broke down and went back to the well. It is true we had made a vow to eat something other than Asian food on our little getaway to Seattle, but we just couldn't hold out. Therefore, with not a lot of time allocated for dinner, we went for Vietnamese food (which is usually quick and cheap). At first, we considered "What the Pho?' since it sounded cool, but after some internet research, it appeared that would be the only good thing about the place. Hence, we headed over to Square Lotus instead. I punched it into the GPS and we went on our merry way. Unfortunately, the GPS decided to make things more complicated than it should've been. It instructed us to make a U-turn where it was not really possible. Turns out that I could've merely turn left into the strip mall. Moral of the story: don't listen to your GPS when it wants you to put your life at risk with illegal maneuvers.

Settling into the restaurant, we were impressed with the decor as there was an air of class, not usually associated with regular Vietnamese restaurants. Furthermore, the prices were quite reasonable despite the apparent class upgrade. Onto the eats, we started with the BBQ Pork Summer Rolls. For us, BBQ pork in a Vietnamese restaurant would be grilled pork (sometimes with lemongrass). But to our surprise, it was Chinese-style BBQ pork in the rolls. The BBQ pork was very lean which made it very dry. Within the nicely prepared rice wrapper, there was crunchy wonton strips, basil and properly textured vermicelli noodles.

For myself, I went for the standard, being the Pho Dac Biet (or the everything Pho). The broth was rather light with a minimal amount of MSG. It wasn't a flavour explosion, yet it was well-balanced. The noodles were not clumpy and al dente while the meats were plentiful and mostly tender (except for a few tough pieces). Viv had the House Special Vermicelli Bowl consisting of a spring roll, grilled pork and shrimp. Although they didn't use the proper rice wrapper (opting for a wheat wrapper), the spring roll was still quite tasty. It was crisp with a well-seasoned moist filling. The grilled pork was moist and tender exhibiting a wealth of flavour. As for the grilled shrimp, this was probably the highlight of the dish. They had a great snap texture and again, was well-seasoned. Viv really enjoyed the dish and remark that it was prepared carefully, unlike some of the other ones shes had which were merely thrown together. 

The kiddies shared a Pho Ga which had a chicken broth that was flavourful with plenty of depth. Again, it was not too salty. However, the chicken was very dry and kind of hard to chew. Chicken meat and BBQ pork withstanding, the food at Square Lotus was pretty good. Considering the classy dining space, reasonable prices and decent service, there is not much to dislike about the place.

The Good:
- Clean and classy
- Reasonable pricing
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Some of the meats in the soup noodle are dry
- The service we got was friendly but was sparse most of the time