beXnlog

Buffet Style

Happy 4th Birthday to Sol!

Today at work Anjali and i both expressed our love for buffet style meals. As someone who likes to eat a little bit of a lot of different things, as opposed to 1 giant serving of 1 thing, it doesn't get better than a seriously good buffet.

be and i recently ate at Minado, a Japanese seafood buffet in Midtown. It was about $21 or $22 a person and be thought it was awesome: clams, fancy sushi pieces, lobster tails, oysters, etc. but for me, there were only a few things to eat. I don't eat meat or seafood so my choices were limited to the vegetarian maki rolls and a few hot dishes. I did love the mini servings of dessert, though. I first saw mini servings offered at Todai; i think they are much more efficient, less wasteful and allow you to try all 10 kinds of cake and 5 of mousse/pudding/ice cream without feeling extremely bloated, and all this is after gorging on an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Todai actually offers many more vegetarian options that Minado. be loves the Todai in Las Vegas; he thinks about it constantly. In Hawaii we ran across a Todai in Oahu, so we ended up eating there twice. Our new friend Kevin from LA also professed his love for Todai, and met up with us the second time. There's actually a location in White Plains upstate, so be is hankering to try it sometime. Anyone who loves seafood, let him know!

Las Vegas is buffet capital of the US, without a doubt. There you can find cheapass ones for $5.95, all the way to gourmet buffets who get their ingredients flown in daily. The lines are sometimes hours long, so it makes sense to go for a very late lunch and be there when they change to dinner. You'll pay the cheaper price but get the dinner offerings! In Las Vegas, we always just end up eating a quick breakfast around noon, a huge late lunch from 4-6PM (yes, we do eat for 2 hours!) and a fast food snack around 10PM, so we miss all the major mealtimes anyways.

Using our trained senses, we officially rank the buffets in this order: Aladdin, Bellagio, Todai. I don't recommend the buffet at Luxor and i think Paris is overrated. Surprisingly, the buffet at MGM is decent. I like Aladdin the best because they add special touches to already great food, plus they offer cuisines no one else does (Middle Eastern, Indian, Mexican). Bellagio had the best crab legs according to be and my mom (yes, we took my parents last time!) and the mango dessert was of note. Todai, as implied earlier, is the place for sushi and seafood lovers to gorge but they offer a lot of other options. As for Paris, we kept hearing people rave about the buffet but it really wasn't anything special. The food was very salty (a trick to make you eat less), the crepes were floppy and the dishes all seemed the same. I will say it was better than the buffet at Caesar's in Atlantic City, though. That one was pretty bad. be and Mike Yap tried to have a crab leg eating contest and they both crapped out since they were so salty. Overall i don't like Atlantic City.

I wish there was an all-vegetarian buffet somewhere. Usually at the better buffets there is plenty to eat but it would be nice to frequent one with fake meat, vegan options and top-grade produce. I've been meaning to eat again at Vatan. It's a fancy all-you-can-eat vegetarian Indian restaurant. It's not buffet style; they set out platters of food and you ask for more of the dishes you like. The food is very, very good and worth the $23 or so a person. All the non-vegetarians who i've taken there have all loved it.

All this talk about food is making me hungry! Tonight be is roasting potatoes and turnips, i'm making grated beet salad and collard greens and we have to eat another avocado. I just spent a while throwing out moldy food from the fridge, too!

posted by beXn @ 9:35 PM