Fortune Star Buffet Restaurant Butler: Fresh and Cheap!

I am a sucker for a good buffet.

The Fortune Star Buffet and Grill (at 330 Butler Commons, Butler) gives so much more than you'd expect for $6.75 (lunch buffet).

My first plate (of many)

There's a monstrous selection of food
At the salad bar, I'd go for the chilled shrimp, hard boiled eggs sprinkled with paprika, olives, sliced beet, cherry tomatoes, lettuce.

At the next three hot food bars, I'd continue loading up with spinach & cheese, greasy ham pie, white fish, stuffed shrimp, salmon with ginger, stir-fried mushrooms, pork dumplings, buffalo wings, bbq pork, crispy spring rolls, egg rolls, broccoli chicken, beef and steamed mussels. The steamed mussels are succulent and flavorful.

The hot food bars also offer fried rice, lo mein, spicy sausage links, pizza, wontons, sesame chicken, General Tso's chicken, three kinds of soup...

There's a guy who'll hibachi / grill fresh-to-order your selected raw ingredients (shrimp, beef, vegetables, noodles, etc) with your choice of sauces and LOTS of garlic.

The sushi bar has a pretty good selection of sushi rolls, although not sashimi, and my favorite seaweed (wakame) salads liberally drizzled with sesame oil and sesame seed sprinkles.

The dessert bar is well stocked with an assortment of fresh (oranges and bananas) and tinned fruit (usually longans, litchi, peaches), chocolate and banana pudding, marshmallow ambrosia (I think!), two to three selections of pies.

Dessert bar #2 has about 8 flavors of self-scoop ice cream to choose from. And there's also cream puffs, coconut cookies, coffee cake.

The food
It's fresh, attentive cooks constantly replenish the food. It's also good - surprisingly not too salty. Although you will probably still feel very thirsty in the hours that ensue as the food has MSG (monosodium glutamate) in it.

Gracie's Verdict
Fortune Star Buffet gets Gracie's 'Three-and-a-half' Stars, for good food and lots of it, at an unbeatable lunch price of $6.75.  If you compare with Eat n Park's $8 'soup and salad' buffet (and any other buffet really), Fortune Star wins hands down for value.

Burger Hut Butler: Om Nom Nom

I'm drooling even as I type up this review.

These burgers are amazingly good for the price (starting at $3.35). Possibly even close to my all-time-current-fav Five Guys.

My expectations were low because Dy picked the place. And I didn't think Dy would pick a good place.

It's so nice to be wrong sometimes.

My order
I got the hamburger plain, with no embellishments.

The food
My order arrived in about 10 minutes, even with the busy lunch crowd.

The bun was ordinary, but the patty was anything but. The coarse-ground chunky patty was extra-lean yet juicy. Burger afficionados, you know it is not easy to cook extra-lean patties properly without simultaneously drying them out. Hats off to the cook. The pickle spears were crunchy, and mouthwateringly tangy, the meaty slice of tomato was flavorful.

Gracie's Verdict
Burger Hut gets Gracie's 'Four Stars'. The food is fresh, tasty, and so very cheap. I will be back soon to get my next fix!

This reviewed Burger Hut is located at 104 Point Plz, Butler. An apparently better sister Burger Hut is in downtown Butler and this is now on my to-try list.

Rome's Country Cafe Butler: Great Grub on Golf Course

The Rome's Country Cafe is located on 312 Bonniebrook Rd, Butler. It's become our must-stop-spot every Freeport-Butler Rails-to-Trails ride.

The place has been packed both Sundays that we've stopped to eat. Come early enough and you can partake of an extensive breakfast menu. If you are really hungry you can order the 'Hungry Hog Platter' that comes with pancakes, eggs, sausage - the works.

Our order
Off the breakfast menu, I've had the steak and eggs. And from the lunch menu I've tried their wings.

The food
Who would expect their steak to taste good? And for $4.95! The steak was small, but fairly portioned, and cooked medium-rare as ordered. The eggs (scrambled) were buttery, moist and fresh-tasting.

The wings (buffalo sauce and seasoning salt on the side) were also good. Crispy-skinned and juicy slivers of meat to coax out between the bones. Yum.

Just some really good wings.

Gracie's Verdict
I am most definitely hooked on the Rome's. I can't wait to try more of what's on their menu. Rome's gets my three-and-a-half stars!

Allegheny Mariner: Good Eats

Trying (and failing) to pass my driver's test in Kittanning has now brought Dad and I twice to the Allegheny Mariner Restaurant for post-non-celebratory lunches.

Ambience
The riverside views are lovely. The side of the restaurant facing the Allegheny river is framed with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The decor inside is cosy too.

Our orders
I got the burger, while Dad ordered the soup of the day - I think it was 'Italian' soup. I tend to order burgers every restaurant I visit. I figure it's the least processed item on most menus? Plus, it's hard to mess up a burger!

The second time we went, I had a cup of stuffed cabbage soup and Dad picked a reuben sandwich with french onion soup. He also chose one of the premium beers on tap.

The food 

I loved the fresh baguette slices that came with our meal. I slathered on butter and savored each chewy, gluten-y bite of that delicious bread.

The mains were pretty good. My burger patty appeared lovingly hand-formed and not machine-pressed. It was juicy and quite tasty. I would order it again. Dad ate my chips.  He also enjoyed his soup. I tasted some. It was rich, tomato-ey and yum.

Stuffed cabbage soup and the to-die-for rolls

The stuffed cabbage soup that I ordered the next time round was hearty and filling. It was a touch too salty for my taste, but went down well with the bread that comes with every order.

Dad ate half of his french onion soup. He seemed to like it. I don't know if I'll ever warm up to the idea of eating a bowlful of soggy bread cubes and caramelized onions topped with oozy melted cheese. My insides get clogged just thinking about it hehe.

Gracie's Verdict
Allegheny Mariner Restaurant gets Gracie's three-and-a-half stars. The food is fresh and good, and reasonably priced.

I will definitely go back to try their crab cakes and filet mignon, which other reviewers seem to love.

Lunch at Dizzy Lizzie's: MEH

Dizzy Lizzie's is located at 300 Market Street, Kittanning, PA. Everyone raves about their breakfasts. I went there with Dad after some practise drives around Butler in preparation for my driver's test (which I have failed twice so far). This was at 11 am. We figured we'd order lunch.

Our order
Dad got chicken and biscuits. I ordered the burger.

Wait time
Our food arrived in about 15 minutes. There were only two other customers in at that time.

The food
My burger looked promising. The patty looked hand-formed, not machine-made.

Mmm, salivating yet?

Unfortunately, it didn't deliver on taste. The beef patty was cooked okay - well done. But it tasted like it had sat in the freezer for some time. It just didn't taste fresh.

Moving on... 
Dad sat quietly picking at his chicken and biscuits. He's not a picky eater. Usually.

Dad:   Have some. I can't eat anymore.
(I taste a small bite)
Me:   WOW.
Dad:  It's kind of salty.
Me:   *chokes* ... No kidding!

When I tasted that chicken and biscuits, I understood why. It was astoundingly salty.

Leftovers

I'm not sure why, and neither was Dad, but he had the chicken and biscuits to go. Next day, he told me he gave them to the guinea hens. The guinea hens didn't eat it. But some other (mystery) animal licked up all the gravy that night. That animal most likely has high blood pressure or sodium toxicity now.

Gracie's Verdict

For Dad's inedible meal, and my freezer-burned burger, Lunch at Dizzy Lizzie's gets ONE star (out of 5). 

Would I go back? 

Yes. Because I'm curious about the rave reviews for their breakfasts. :)

bd's Mongolian Grill Pittsburgh: Go Mongo Review

I finally got to chow down at Bd's Mongolian Grill this week. The concept is fun, the food is fresh, and I totally enjoyed my meal!

Interesting fact: There's a Bd's franchise in Mongolia. Who would have guessed that BD's Mongolian Barbeque restaurant had its reaches as far as Ulaanbaatar? From the reviews by native Mongolians, the food is good, but it's definitely not Mongolian :p

How it works
There are three stations from which you will load up your bowl (one time for $7.99 lunch price, all-you-can-eat $10.99). I went for the one-time lunch deal. Now this require a bit of strategic loading to get your money's worth.

At the first station, you will first encounter these noodles. Noodles are cheap, and filling, and are not what I load up with when I want to get my money's worth.

Carbs

At the other end of this first station however, you will find the good stuff (except the fake crab stix).

Behold, my friends, the good stuff.

After filling up about three quarters of the bowl with steak, calamari, scallops and shrimp (which sad to say are likely farm-raised), I proceeded to the second station. Here's a great selection of vegetables: tomatoes, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, peppers, cilantro etc... and eggs. I love eggs.

Eat your veggies people.

With my bowl fully-loaded, I carefully made my way to the third station - the sauces, condiments, spices await my discerning palate. If you're not sure what sauce or sauce combo you wish to season your meal with, you can place a small amount in those little sauce bowls provided, and taste the sauce first. I tasted each and every one (teriyaki, fajita, chili garlic, kung pao, mongo marinara, lemon, pad thai, peanut, ponzu, szechwan, shanghai barbecue, shiitake mushroom, spicy buffalo, sweet & sour) before settling for the Mongolian soy ginger sauce. I also put in a heaping tablespoonful of minced garlic, and a generous wallop of hot pepper flakes.

Having chosen and mixed just the right blend of sauce and spice to create my outstanding dish, I toddled over to the grill station and got in line. 

Mongo chef cooking up a storm right before your eyes. Very entertaining.

It wasn't a long wait at all. I was salivating by the time my dish was handed to me, less than 10 minutes later.

I finished every morsel.

The food was perfectly cooked. You know, having gone through the Food Safety Course (to meet the requirements for becoming a food vendor), I am always watchful for lapses in safe food handling and preparation practices. Buffets, where anyone and everyone has their hands in the food, are naturally suspect. What if someone sneezes all over the shrimp at the meat station? No problem, the hot grill takes care of those nasty sneeze germs. What if someone sneezes all over the raw veggies at the soup and salad bar though? Erm, I didn't get anything from there hehe.

Will I be back? Yes!

BD's Mongolian Grill get's Gracie's 'Four' stars :)