Viva Ventura Pt2

Yes, part 2 has arrived. It will probably be a while before part 3 since this turned out to be a much more expensive month than I expected, mostly due to all this eating out.

Sahara By Bahador: I went for the $6.99 lunch buffet and it was well worth it. I've never had Persian food before and it was very good, even if a bit of it wasn't to my taste. I highly recommend the chicken kabobs, and the herbed rice was very popular, even though not really my thing. The service was good and the waitress was very friendly, showing my ignorant self what was available on the buffet. This is a definite recommend for lunch on a work day.

Crazy Tokyo Sushi: This place has reader's choice awards and is pretty highly rated but I wasn't impressed. I've eaten a lot of Japanese food at a lot of places in many different areas of the world. I know what to expect and I didn't get it. Now, I didn't have sushi, I had an entree, Tonkatsu, and I had some of the Chicken Teriyaki. The portions of the meat were decent but it came with a tiny portion of rice and a cucumber salad and that was it. For the price for each entree, I'm used to getting tempura or something in addition. Also, the tonkatsu barely had any sauce on it and the chicken teriyaki had almost too much. Service was decent. I won't be going again, especially given the vast number of other Japanese restaurants nearby.

Gyu-Kaku: This is one of those Japanese grill places where you choose your meat or vegetable, choose what sauce it is marinated in, and then they bring it out to you and you grill it yourself. Now, I'm used to getting this kind of place in an all you can eat format where you can use their sauces or combine them to make your own. So, Gyu-Kaku was a disappointment in that sense, but was good in every other. At Gyu-kaku you pay by the plate of whatever. Now, this is fine for light eaters but people who like to eat will walk away much poorer or still hungry. The food was good, the sauces were good, the service was good. I went with a few friends and I think this is the best way to go, that way everyone can try a little of everything and people who have never done this before always seem to get a thrill out of it. The only drawback besides it not being buffet style was how packed the place was. Once all the tables were filled, someone at one table could not get up unless somebody at another table moved out themselves. It was a small inconvenience, so it doesn't detract too much, but this is definitely not a place to go if you don't like crowds and being crowded.