ParkLaBrea wrote:Beef Brisket at Weber Grill in Schaumburg...

Shredded tire treads, albeit in decent sauce

I agree. Each time I have been there (usually business lunches) they have managed to make the worst brisket on the planet. It's like they only cook it for a few minutes and then tear it apart and lather in sauce.

No one to blame but myself for this, I was driving home from work late, got lazy, and decided to stop at Brown's Chicken on Oakton. Why??? I have driven past hundreds of times and never stopped. I knew the chicken would not be great (it was okay), but what really sunk the meal was the tasteless baked beans and the absolutely-soaked-in-grease hush puppies. I wasn't expecting the fabulous, light perfectly-seasoned-with-jalapeno hush puppies that I ate at Soul Fish in Memphis, but honestly, these must have been marinated in grease before being fried. Grease from the outside right to the middle. I threw most of the meal out.

Dannon Greek yogurt with honey on the bottom. I know, I know, what did I expect? I couldn't isolate the yogurt from the honey so I don't know if I didn't like the yogurt or the combination. I ate a few bites and tossed the rest. Blech.

I might be a bit off on the name, but Mountain High yogurt is the pinnacle of suck. And worst of all, you're stuck with a quart of it. Thank god for granola.

Pie Lady wrote:I might be a bit off on the name, but Mountain High yogurt is the pinnacle of suck. And worst of all, you're stuck with a quart of it. Thank god for granola.

I've had Mountain High and didn't mind it. This Dannon stuff was terrible.

Judy H wrote:No one to blame but myself for this, I was driving home from work late, got lazy, and decided to stop at Brown's Chicken on Oakton.

Hands down the best item Brown's has on the menu are their fried mushrooms. They're fabulous- but be careful not to burn your mouth scarfing them down. I've yet to have a Brown's ever screw up with that side order! Give that one a try, and don't order anything else...see what you think.

"BBQ" ribs at Wells Bros.

Hint: If they offer you some homemade BBQ made out back, order a pizza.

It pains me to say this, but Klug Farm strawberries from the Federal Plaza farmer's market today. They were bitter and mostly inedible. A week ago I had very mediocre strawberries from the Evanston market. Is this just a bad year so far for strawberries?

Jonah

Jonah wrote:It pains me to say this, but Klug Farm strawberries from the Federal Plaza farmer's market today. They were bitter and mostly inedible. A week ago I had very mediocre strawberries from the Evanston market. Is this just a bad year so far for strawberries?

Jonah

i posted in another thread about the inedible strawbs i bought from the green acres folks at the green city market last week. i ate some strawbs on sunday- don't know where they came from. they made a delicious ice cream, but were rather unsweet eaten raw. but at least i didnt have to spit them out! so, i'm guessing, a mixed bag- taste before buying if possible. justjoan

Well, I have a couple. Pad Thai from the Big Bowl last night. Tasted pretty good, except the fact it had 8 staples buried in the bottom of the box. Literally 8 unused staples....

In terms of actually bad food, I had lunch at my client's cafeteria today. 'Southwest Salad ,with Grilled Pita'. Unfortunatly the pita was painfully dry. Very very hard and difficult to eat. The 'chipotle ranch' was like taking a very poor ranch dressing and throwing some salsa in it. The chicken, though, was the worst, very very tough, overcooked, oily and greasy. Disgusting.

Client travel is rarely very rewarding culinary wise.

This is a pre-emptive "Worst Thing I've Eaten": I have to go to Golden Corral in Aurora tomorrow for a post-wake meal ...is there anything there that isn't terrible? I'm not going to get there in time for the wake- should I eat something on the way?

abe_froeman wrote:This is a pre-emptive "Worst Thing I've Eaten": I have to go to Golden Corral in Aurora tomorrow for a post-wake meal ...is there anything there that isn't terrible?

Saltines.

Pie Lady wrote:

abe_froeman wrote:This is a pre-emptive "Worst Thing I've Eaten": I have to go to Golden Corral in Aurora tomorrow for a post-wake meal ...is there anything there that isn't terrible?

Saltines.

There are probably 100 restaurants of varying degrees within 10 minutes of GC, I wonder why they picked there?

justjoan wrote:

Jonah wrote:It pains me to say this, but Klug Farm strawberries from the Federal Plaza farmer's market today. They were bitter and mostly inedible. A week ago I had very mediocre strawberries from the Evanston market. Is this just a bad year so far for strawberries?

Jonah

i posted in another thread about the inedible strawbs i bought from the green acres folks at the green city market last week. i ate some strawbs on sunday- don't know where they came from. they made a delicious ice cream, but were rather unsweet eaten raw. but at least i didnt have to spit them out! so, i'm guessing, a mixed bag- taste before buying if possible. justjoan

I've been pleased with the strawberries at Fresh Farms. I generally eat a pound at a time and they've been good. This week they're a little pricey ($2.99) but last week they were 2 for $5; still high but okay.

LikestoEatout wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:

abe_froeman wrote:This is a pre-emptive "Worst Thing I've Eaten": I have to go to Golden Corral in Aurora tomorrow for a post-wake meal ...is there anything there that isn't terrible?

Saltines.

There are probably 100 restaurants of varying degrees within 10 minutes of GC, I wonder why they picked there?

*Sigh* I don't know- probably cost, variety of food (good or bad) and they have a private room where the kids can run around. Everyone's paying their own tab, so a one-price buffet is probably easiest to split the check on. The deceased is the mother of my husband's friend, who's always had questionable taste in food. They put raisins in their taco meat. Not to be authentic (raisins are pretty common in Peruvian food for example, right?), but to make it sweet.

sandman wrote:

Judy H wrote:No one to blame but myself for this, I was driving home from work late, got lazy, and decided to stop at Brown's Chicken on Oakton.

Hands down the best item Brown's has on the menu are their fried mushrooms. They're fabulous- but be careful not to burn your mouth scarfing them down. I've yet to have a Brown's ever screw up with that side order! Give that one a try, and don't order anything else...see what you think.

Yes, and their fried chicken livers are also really good and consistent.

Pie Lady wrote:[
I've been pleased with the strawberries at Fresh Farms. I generally eat a pound at a time and they've been good. This week they're a little pricey ($2.99) but last week they were 2 for $5; still high but okay.

Scoot across the parking lot to Walmart. They usually carry Dole strawberries for $1.50/lb. They're just inside the front door.

I'm not sure I can take even that much of WalMart. But I have a friend who shops there, maybe I can bribe her with Little Debbies.

To the person worried about Golden Corral... I wil vouch for the Pot Roast which has always been very good, Meat Loaf comes in 2nd.

The Steaks are ok and what you expect there.

However... each location varys. I have NOT been to Aurora, so I cannot make any comments. As to the ones I've been to.. forget Bolingbrook.

Kenosha Wi is usually good as is Schererville, Ind.

The best location I have found for Food taste - Consistancy and cleanliness...
GURNEE.

And an extra KUDOS to that locations Manager (wish I had his name).

One Sunday afternoon, he had to stop the same KIDS from running, and serving themselves numerous times. Then he blasted the parents who allowed it.

This eventually resulted in two whole racks of CLEAN trays having to be removed because the kids spilled their POP and ice cream all over them.

BTW after being repremanded by the manager a second time, they all left to a round of applause from all those sitting around them.

Then I felt sorry for the staff that had to cleaning up after them because there was more food under their table than was probably on the Buffet.

We went strawberry picking in at the Johnson farm in Indiana yesterday and I got the impression that it is indeed a bad year for strawberries. It took us much longer than usual to pick and the berries were small for their variety (although they taste great small.) They didn't appear to be way overpicked or anything, just small plants and low yields.

Well, I was saved from the potential horrors of Golden Corral. Traffic on 294 was atrocious and we didn't get out there until after the bereaved were done with dinner, so we just met them at their home to pay our respects. We ended up going to Omega in Niles for a late dinner; I'm pleased to say, I now I need to go to the Omega thread and retract my previous negative/neutral comment.

Italian beef sandwich from Godfather's pizza on Wilson. The pizza is pretty good but the beef, one of the worst I've had. Two bites and threw it out.

I'd like to know what one does if a carry out place advertises Vienna hot dogs, big sign and all, and you end up with a mouthful of mush. No way a Vienna product. Even the mustard was Centrella. I am picky about my dogs and I should get the product advertised on the store. This is after 4 attempts at this place, last two I had no choice. That or Tastee Freeze food. Last attempt was a beef which was frozen, brand x product on yesterdays bread. Sell the place Mike. The place is empty anyway and I think it's only fair, as the area needs a good carry out.
Mike's on Main Street
Lombard

TooHot wrote:I'd like to know what one does if a carry out place advertises Vienna hot dogs, big sign and all, and you end up with a mouthful of mush.

One posts a rant on an internet discussion board.

Other then being rude, what is your point Kenny?

More disappointing than bad:
I ordered takeout from Point Grill in Fresh Farms Niles since I was sans lunch today. The menu description was promising: baked tilapia, garlic, tomato, cilantro and lemon juice wrapped in a pita. What I got was very unsatisfying: all I tasted was tomato and pita. This wrap was about as wide as a fat cigar. I guess I should have ordered the shwarma, but I was really wishing that I'd taken the time to try Kabob 2 on Lincoln instead. For only fifty cents more I could have tried the lunch special with shwarma, 3 kinds of kabob, salad, rice and pita.

Pie Lady wrote:More disappointing than bad:
I ordered takeout from Point Grill in Fresh Farms Niles since I was sans lunch today. The menu description was promising: baked tilapia, garlic, tomato, cilantro and lemon juice wrapped in a pita. What I got was very unsatisfying: all I tasted was tomato and pita. This wrap was about as wide as a fat cigar. I guess I should have ordered the shwarma, but I was really wishing that I'd taken the time to try Kabob 2 on Lincoln instead. For only fifty cents more I could have tried the lunch special with shwarma, 3 kinds of kabob, salad, rice and pita.

Chicken Shawarma and Falafel are the way to go here. Both are very good, IMO. I think the spicy hummus and baba are both decent, too. Nothing else here has wowed me and the sauces, both hot and tahini, are dreadful.

=R=

Dinner at Big Thunder Ranch BBQ in Disneyland.

It was our first night at the park and so we knew weren't going to take the time to eat off-site.
Everything about our meal was bad, well maybe the baked beans were OK. It was hot and we waited about 15 minutes for service. (It was early May and not that crowded). We finally flagged down someone to bring water. The meal was plunked down in front of us in metal buckets. I get the western theme, but still! We felt like hogs being tossed some slop. My husband loves ribs, but whatever they served was precooked and barely warmed. I ordered the vegetarian platter. I was not expecting much because it's a "ranch". But I was told that the wait would be about 20 minutes. I received a skewer with tofu, peppers and squash. The whole mess was slathered with a sauce that had little in common with BBQ. To make the whole dinner worse, it was not cheap. It was a whole lot of "all you can eat" with nothing you wanted to eat.

The uni at Tank Sushi. I love uni but it has to be fresh. This gloppy mess had a slightly grey color, looked goey and didn't have that smell of the sea that good uni has. The texture was horrible, like a giant fishy snot and the flavor was just bad. They should be ashamed of themselves

JLenart wrote:The uni at Tank Sushi. I love uni but it has to be fresh. This gloppy mess had a slightly grey color, looked goey and didn't have that smell of the sea that good uni has. The texture was horrible, like a giant fishy snot and the flavor was just bad. They should be ashamed of themselves

Oooo, not good. A bad uni experience can ruin it for a long time. Was this a one off at Tank or do they generally have bad uni; that's a deal killer for me in a sushi spot.