I was warned by my good friend Dianne that I better be ready to eat this summer -- I'm always ready :D
We went to Pink's the World Famous Hot Dog that originally started in a small street corner of Beverly Hills, CA. They had opened another branch within the boardwalk at Knott's Berry Farm.
Spicy Polish Dog with Bowl of Chili
Spicy Polish Sausage covered with Chili, Chopped Onions, Mustard. Bowl of Chili on the side
Judgment: The hot dog is prepared fresh and right in front of you. Similar to how Subway prepares their sandwiches -- to order. The chili is in a giant pot simmering all day but it is quite tasty. The Polish Sausage definitely has a good snap to it and well seasoned. It is spicy but not overwhelming where you need to sit there drinking water the whole time. The bun is rather plain, I kind of wished I had a pretzel bun with that sausage. 8 / 10
Judgment: The Chili is piping hot and it melts that slice of cheese that's floating around in it. The seasoning tasted balanced and the meat is tender. The only frightening thing in this bowl is the separation of oil. It does seem a bit overwhelming when you really pay attention to it. Then again, that's how all Chili is. 8 / 10
Conclusion: The Pinks inside Knott's is definitely good. It makes a good attempt at recreating the Los Angeles legend. The hot dogs might have different names but the taste and ingredients are all there. Also, part of it might be because they do change up their specialty hot dog menu from time to time as well.
The Restaurant gets a B-rank.
So the weekend started with going to Las Vegas for AniMaid Café's special performance for Haruko Momo-i at The Farm. The event itself was fun, although to an extent, I felt it was pretty fail because there was almost no audience at the concert. That in itself is another story, we're here to talk about food after a long hiatus. We went to the Rio Casino's World Buffet.
Buffet!
Sesame Ball, Pork Pastry, Steak, Asian Style BBQ Pork, Corn
Prime Rib and Yukon Gold Cheese Potatoes with Gravy
Judgment: The food was atrocious. Most food was over seasoned to where it is like eating piles of salt. The steak was probably the worst steak I've had in a while. Despite some people telling me the mashed potatoes were delicious, I found it bland and boring. It was supposed to be cheese potatoes, but it tasted like the potatoes had been sitting in water too long and lost all the flavor. The Sesame Ball was probably the only enjoyable food at the entire buffet. Although the saying goes "Variety is the spice of life". I disagree with that statement when it comes to the food here. 3 / 10
Conclusion: This buffet was hardly worth the time we spent in there. They prepared seafood poorly, where it wasn't a crab leg split in half but it was more like cut like you would cut a hot dog. The variety is definitely there, food ranging from American, Mexican, Asian, everywhere. Although it does follow the idiom: Jack of all Trades, master of none. Nothing particularly stood out to be very memorable other than how unsatisfying the meal was to me.
This Buffet gets a C-Rank.
