Diet Scams

Last week my wife and I went to an Asian buffet in Oakland, CA called Buffett Fortuna. And they were impressed with how low priced the food was for a buffet…whereas that just made me all the more suspicious of the establishment. These people are serving sea food and fried shrimp and desert with drink at under $10 a head in California after taxes? hmm

Throughout the meal the family said stuff back and forth, often in Tagalog…their native tongue. The most frequent word was something like uneyen (sp)…which was them asking each other “what is that” … must have been asked 30 times in a one hour period. Ask that once or twice – no problem. Ask 30 times? Yet another signal of questionable food quality.

The chicken was not delicious, with some of the sauces seeming like they came out of a ragu can. The shrimp was cooked in oil that was at too low of a temperature, causing the breading to absorb a ton of nasty tasting oil. The mustard that I dipped the shrimp in was the single hottest mustard of my life…it was almost as if it was Wasabi brand.

The food was too exotic and nasty for me that even the corn and mac and cheese started looking appealing.

I ate way less than at any other buffet I have ever been to. Looking for a bit of salvation I tried desert. First was a delicious looking cookie that had coconut in it. That grossed me out. So then I tried to grab my mini Crème Brûlée, but it was not Crème Brûlée … it was some other coconut dish, one with more coconut which almost made me puke. My wife felt a bit sorry for me an grabbed me a couple bite-sized mini flans/egg tarts. The first one tasted a bit plain, but unlike the prior 4 or 5 dishes, it was not offensive. I then bit into the second one and it was raw…with this gewwy raw egg stuff seeping into my mouth.

It was probably one of the worst meals I have ever had, and some people on Yelp agree. My favorite review was:

Stay away from this place!

I sat down with my full plate, and about 5 bites in, I have to stop to pull something weird out of my mouth. It was a big wad of plastic, what looked like the wrapper on the little peppermints you get after your meal at a lot of restaurants. I called for the manager, who was extremely apologetic, and said he would replace that batch of chicken. He quickly gave me my money back, but only after I requested it. They tried to tell me that I could stay and eat still, but I was out of there quick, and I had no stomach to eat any of that food anymore.

Even if you don’t find foreign objects in your food, I still think it’s a waste of your $8.99.

It used to be called Continental Buffet, until they closed down in June or July. They remodeled the place, and proceeded to remove their Mongolian BBQ station, the sushi station with sushi chefs preparing the piles of nigiri, and even the dim sum. Any hint of freshness to their food was replaced with steam trays and additional seating. The only addition was a fountain drink stand and a soft serve machine. The food looked worse, tasted just as boring, there was a noticeably smaller selection, and the price was the same as before they closed. They just made more room to cram in as many hungry people as they could.

I will only go there again if I feel an extreme need for dieting!