The road to the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet is paved with good intentions.
In an effort to make amends for all the greasy lunches I normally eat, I packed a Healthy Choice frozen dinner last week. Ostensibly, the meal contained beef tips in barbecue sauce, but it tasted more like styrofoam cubes smothered in brown ketchup. Not only was the meal lousy, but I was hungry again 90 minutes later. This experience reinforced my belief that no man should eat anything with the word "Healthy" on the box.
I made amends the next day by visiting an old favorite - Lido's Buffet in Carriage Place. Lido's has been in that location for at least fifteen years, serving up good pizza and fresh salads. There are usually other entrees as well, such as wings, popcorn shrimp, stromboli, or pasta, and good homemade soup.
Lido missed the boat that day, he left the shack
But that was all he missed, he ain't comin' back...
Remember Boz Scaggs' "Lido Shuffle"? No? Then you're quite a bit younger than I am.
I invited a coworker who's a fan of Cici's Pizza. Cici's provides good service and a variety of pies at a bargain price, but to me, their crust always tastes like high school cafeteria pizza. I didn't like high school cafeteria pizza even when I was in high school, so I hoped the extra driving distance to Lido's would pay off.
Lido's didn't let me down. The restaurant looks the same as it always has - dark-green carpet, burgundy wallpaper, and as many booths and tables as they can cram into a strip-mall restaurant. And they need as many seats as they can get, because even on a Wednesday, the place was packed with customers by noon.
We passed through the buffet from right to left, and here's what we found:
* Fresh salad greens (mostly iceberg lettuce) with a variety of toppings and dressings
* Three kinds of pizza: one pepperoni, one pep and sausage, one veggie "half and half" with green peppers and onions on one half and diced tomatoes and onions on the other
* Italian wedding soup
* Chicken wings
* A penne pasta dish with diced chicken in a cheesy white sauce
Lido's pizza offers a well-baked crust of medium thickness and plenty of cheese - a good delivery-quality pie. And it's always fresh, because the crowd depletes the pizza station so fast that the cooks can barely keep up. Somehow they do - about the time the station was down to its last slice, a cook brought fresh pie from the kitchen.
The salad was unremarkable, but all the ingredients were fresh. And isn't that all that's important, given the strictly supporting role salad plays at a pizza buffet?
The penne pasta dish was a pleasant surprise - a little lukewarm, but very tasty. I ate so much of it I didn't have room to try the soup.
My coworker reports that the wings were "much better than BW-3." I've had good wings and lousy wings at BW-3, so take his comment with a grain of salt and a Wet-Nap.
The soda glasses are huge - a nice touch, given that some buffets give you a Dixie cup of Pepsi and look askance at you when you expect three refills. No refills necessary at Lido's, unless sixty ounces of high-fructose corn syrup isn't enough for you.
So why four grease spots instead of five? Two reasons. First, our server never brought us silverware or napkins, which we sourced from the buffet. Other diners were provided with a fork and knife wrapped in a napkin. Like Joe Pesci in GoodFellas, I hate being on the "pay no mind" list. Second, with drink and tip, the price is dangerously close to $10/person. Lido's once encouraged regulars to return by providing "$1 off" coupons, good for your next visit. Apparently they've stopped that - unless our coupons were off someplace with our silverware.
Lido be runnin' havin' great big fun
'Til he got the note...
This is the end of an era for me, because for years, I've never been without a Lido's coupon in my wallet. The food's still good, so I'll go back to Lido's - but probably not as often as I once did. Enjoy the buffet, but don't expect much change back from a ten-dollar bill.
No comments:
Post a Comment