where do I start? there are so many that are so bad they all are the worst.
today:
souper salad has gone downhill. location forest lane in north Dallas.
1. cheese sauce for the tacos was so watered down it was barely yellow.
Even when it cooled of, it was runny like water.
I am sure it is extreme cost cutting. So, I suppose you take a gallon
can of Rico's nacho cheese sauce, which is good as is and will more than
stand up a spoon, and dump it in a 5 gallon bucket, fill the rest with
water, mix that up into a disgusting dribbling mess, then put some out
on the steam table. (the directions on the Ricos can say add 1:1 water
to increase your profits, not 4:1) Sorry, souper salads, nacho cheese
sauce is supposed to be too thick to use a straw with, not that I tried,
it was so disgusting. Otherwise it's called soup, not sauce. It's bad
enough it is mostly hydrogenated oils, do you have to make it worse? I
even tried putting some of the "shaved cheese" next to the tacos in the
bowl of cheese, but it would not behave like cheese and melt, and the
whole thing kind of congealed into an oily aomeba-like blob that kept
trying to escape the bowl..
2. sour cream is also supposed to be thick. For the baked potatos. I am
not sure what was in those containers on ice, but that sour-cream-like
stuff was so thin it dripped right off the spoon like gravy. Soon as it
hit the hot baked potato, it ran like water. I'm not sure how that was
accomplished and I don't need to know, (although the waiter said
something about buttermilk) because I would not ruin sour cream like
that in the interest of saving a few pennies and making one serving feed
5 people. No wonder the place was 2/3 empty at lunch time.
3. 'Bleu' cheese dressing. This is a no brainer. I looked for the bleu
cheese particles. Really. But there were none to be found, except if
they were the little 1-2mm diameter things in the white-colored water
you were representing to be bleu cheese dressing. It tasted like
buttermilk. It was funny that it was so thin than when I dropped my fork
onto a spinach leaf on my plate it splattered like milk. I am sure the
other patrons found it funny that I was having to slurp my salad. Until
they had theirs.
4. all the vegetables and other real food was fresh and good. but it
does not matter, when you offend the customer, cheating them out of
something good, by offering shitty sauces that ruin the food in so many
ways. Why not try "not" diluting your dressings and sauces, and charge
$1 more? Nobody's going to eat you out of $1 worth of bleu cheese
dressing or sour cream, (especially with all the women that eat salads
there and don't use much sauce) you buy them wholesale you cheap idiot..
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a couple years ago: Panda Chinese buffet on 183 near belt line in Irving
TX - I mistook a sauteed cigarette butt for a sauteed mushroom stem. the
nicotene high was amazing. Ate there again a week ago for the first time
since - was OK, but the silverware and dishes were not very clean.
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Golden Corrall in West Memphis, TN. (sorry not in DFW, or, we should be
glad it is not). crusty silverware 1 clean set out of 4, one needs to
check -both- sides of the plates. your tea glasses are taken away, and
swapped with those of the poor old toothless people at the next table
before being returned..
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Do The Ptomaine Tango at the Embassy Suites!
N39^44'59.1" W104^59'28.9" Downtown Denver
I stayed at the Embassy Suites at 1881 Curtis Street, downtown Denver.
That is where I got the food poisoning. I ate the 'salmon and steak
duet' in the hotel restaurant.
Now, you may say, "Getting Food poisoning isn't geeky!". Note:
Describing it *is* geeky, so here goes. It was pretty awful, the food
poisoning, and I had to GOTO the hospital for injections of drugs and a
liter of liquid from a plastic bag.
I'm not sure which was worse, getting to the trade show and realizing I
was going to puke and running to the restroom (thankfully a stall was
free) and puking so hard it came out both ends (more detail than you
needed I am sure), -or- the huge horse-needle they used at the hospital
to administer the I.V. and drugs. Man, that needle was at least 2 inches
long, and I bet a millimeter in diameter (not including the catheter
installed on it). And they stuck it right into a vein on the back of my
hand. Let me just say it was an uncomfortable procedure. When I saw the
needle, I asked the other nurse for something to squeze on with my free
hand, so as to lessen my attention to the discomfort (you know, bite the
bullet? -the hand they were sticking the needle into had to remain
pliable and free for the first nurse to manipulate as the needle was
forced in). She said to squeeze her hand, but I said no, I was afraid I
would break it, so she gave me a wadded up towel, which worked perfectly
and seemed much smaller afterwards. Three hours later I felt well enough
to leave, and The doctor said it was "gastroenteritis" (a fancy name for
food poisoning I guess), gave me a prescription, and told me to eat only
a liquid diet for two days.
Several days later, I got a call back from the state health inspector,
who said it was the potato salad, and that the organism was something
called "staphalococcus", a common germ, which is apparently on peoples'
bodies, but which likes to get onto food that is left out too long, and
multiply, and, once ingested, incubates inside the host causing pain,
vomiting, diarhea, and other uncomfortable symptoms.
By the way, Embassy Suites is owned by Marriott, and a friend of mine
got poisoned at the St. Louis one a while back, and several people at
the 2000 Encompass event got sick at the same hotel in L.A..
But back to the Embassy Suites in Denver, the place was dirty dishes and
crusty silverware all week, so I guess it was inevitable. Although the
Embassy Suites manangement was polite and and very comforting, they had
no interest whatsoever in my out-of-pocket for medical bills (you know-
the customary deductibles).
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sorry for the rants. I hope they are as entertaining as the eateries
were disgusting.
PJ