Worst Resturants in .ba

Jay J. wrote:
>
>I want to start a list of the WORST .ba resturants.  Stuff that really
>wants to make you HURL.  Bad service AND bad food.  Roaches in the food.
>A fly in the soup.  Bread that will crack your teeth.  A foul malodor, a
>mephitic mhasim eminating from the rest-rooms.  Flat coffee, whatever...

      Well, I don't think I've been to any where quite that bad, but
I definitely have my picks for "worst restaurants" around.  I'll limit myself,for the moment, to two in my local area, but I won't promise not to post more.

1)  Miyake, on University Ave, in Palo Alto

      Terrible sushi, combined with a frat party atmosphere, makes for
one horrible restaurant.  It's cheap as sushi goes, but it's cheap for a reason--  it's bad.  It's the only restaurant I've never been willing to even give a second chance to.  I had a couple of friends who used to insist that Miyake wasn't _all_ that bad, but they have since changed their minds after having received some extremely dubious-looking/smelling sushi on a couple of visits.  I've never been able to understand how this place can stay in business.  I think it's the fact that they don't check ID's.

2)  Chef Chu's, on the corner of El Camino and San Antonio, in Mt View.

      I, along with many others, stated the reasons for my hatred
of Chef Chu's on this group about a month or so ago.  I won't recount them in detail now, but they still stand.  Although the food here isn't all that horrible (in the same way that Miyake's is), it certainly isn't at all good--  or at least it's not even _nearly_ as good as it should be considering the prices they charge.  If the prices were lowered to, say, the same as Mr. Chou's were (before the fire), I'd give the place a rating of "mediocre" or maybe "OK", but with the way they are now-- it gets two big thumbs down.  The rude service doesn't help much either.

      --  Jim C.

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| James A. Chokey                          [email removed] |
|                                                      |
|               Alas! Coquettes are but too rare.                  |
|                                   --  Disraeli             |
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My worst picks are (at the moment):

1. Seto Sushi, Sunnyvale (both locations): Incredibly poor and _rude_ service, and, on being served a cockroach for lunch one day, the manager had no comment but still handed us a bill and said "pay in full..." That was the last time I was there (1 year ago). Food was pretty good, though, but the dinner prices were a bit high.

2. Kabul Afghan Restaurant, Sunnyvale: Incompetant service and exorbidant prices for mediocre food. Even my Afghan colleague won't eat there.

3. Birdcage Wok, San Jose: YUK! I lose my appetite even thinking about it. Worst of the buffets. They might (hopefully) be gone by now....

4. Max's Tea Room, Los Altos: A former employer had quarterly dinners for the exempt emplyees there. The dinners were so bad, I stopped going even though, as a batchelor, free food was a lure. I remember the "sirloin" -- it seemed more like a lost truck retread from the side of 101.... My stomach still turns just remembering it.

5. Pasand India Restaurant, Santa Clara: The only Indian restaurant which consistently made me feel ill. I don't know what they did, but I was always sick after eating there (and I LIKE Indian food). No colleagues from India will eat there. Worse than a South India Denny's.

That's all I can remember for now. Gee, I lost my appetite too; what a way to diet!

> Kevin M. wrote:

> Anybody know of a place that serves razor blades or glass shards to go?

That would be Mumtaj, the original (of the existing) Indian restaurants on Castro in Mtn. View.  The last (and I do mean last) time I went there, there were some lovely glass shards in the sagwala.  Sharp edges, too, just the way I like them!  Presumably they add them to scare the cockroaches away from the food.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work; roaches are (were) often visible on the wall behind the buffet table, and once a friend had one attempt a commando landing in his water glass!

Luckily, there are many other options for all-you-can-eat Indian buffets on Castro, including Taj Mahal, which is excellent.

Can I post again?

Just ate at Ravioli's, a fast food pasta restaurant in Saratoga. The pasta was way overcooked, and wasn't drained well. I returned it, and got another one, the pasta may have been not so bad, but now the pesto sauce was cold. Returned it and got a refund. I went there once before, on the day it opened, and it was equally bad and I also returned the food, but decided to give it another chance since I figured that on the first day they were still working out the kinks. Never again. Ravioli's is owned by Florentine's which except for their awful coffee, has always been adequate, so I'm surprised this venture isn't better run. The salad that went with the meal at Ravioli's was also pretty awful, just a bunch of iceberg lettuce with some slivers of carrot.