Out Of Town: Kyoto Japanese Restaurant, Rolla MO

Restaurant: Kyoto Japanese Restaurant
Address: 1002 N Bishop Ave, Rolla, MO
Website: None that I saw.
Genres: Sushi, Chinese
Check Constraints: None noted.
Chain:No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Dumplings in Red Oil ($4.95)
• Sushi Set B ($12.50)
• 4 Sushi (Chef's choice)
• Spicy Tuna Roll
• Soup
• Salad

Once again, we were in Rolla, Missouri for our twice-annual visit. We only reviewed one restaurant this time, since we took things a little easier - Mecha, ND and I were all trying to decompress from work. It's almost a two-for-one deal, though, since Kyoto doesn't just do Japanese food and sushi, but does some interesting Chinese food as well. In its newer location along the "main drag" of Rolla, Kyoto has plenty of room inside, if not necessarily plenty of parking. The interior is fairly traditional in style, with several booths providing you the option of sitting with your legs underneath you.

But enough about the building. Onto the food! The dumplings were essentially large circular potstickers - meat and cabbage inside a layer of dough. They were steamed, and served in a bowl with a spoon, much like some sort of strange meatball cereal. They were also extremely hot, so be careful and let it cool before you spoon one into your mouth whole with eager anticipation, like I did. The "red oil" portion of the appetizer is a chili-flavored sesame oil, with which the dumplings were dressed. It added a nice peppery flavor and though I could have (of course) stood more heat, they were still deliciously spicy. Definitely Would Eat Again.

As with a lot of sushi places, the dinner I ordered came with soup and salad. The salad was good, although suffered from the "iceberg lettuce is the only lettuce" problem a lot of places have. Still, you get your fiber where you can. The soup was good, with what seemed to be an onion base - it had a deliciously oniony flavor to it. Still, a cup of it was probably enough. I don't think I'd opt for the bowl.

The sushi here was good. I wouldn't classify it as fantastic, though it's certainly not the worst sushi I've ever had. But given the circumstances - a college town in the middle of Missouri - it's got some remarkable tastiness to it. Granted, I have a very liberal hand with the wasabi so I'm not usually the best to comment on the subtle tastes of the nigiri. I can, however, say that both the nigiri and the rolls were well-crafted, and that the composition of the rolls made for some delicious eating. I sampled off a lot of people's plates and dishes, and they all fell into the "good" range for me. I don't think any of our party strayed off into the Chinese section of the menu, but I imagine the food is at least as good over there.

Someone at the table ordered red bean buns at the end of it all as dessert. I don't remember who that was, since I was kind of in a food-induced coma at that point. Regardless, they were chewy, delicious, and a good topper to the dinner.

We've been to Kyoto once before, and it's likely we'll be back. You don't have many choices when eating sushi in Rolla, but take heart in that your one choice is, in fact, enjoyable.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Triple Dinner ($16.95)
  • Chicken Teriyaki
  • Tekka Maki
  • 6 Sushi
• Rainbow Roll ($9.50)
• Inari ($3.00)
• Barley Tea ($2.50?)
  

I finally learned the proper way to have wasabi on your sushi. For the record, that's to mix it into the soy sauce in a dish, then dip it. I didn't know that. I'm not sure why.

In any case, the tea I had, which was roasted barley tea. It's their standard tea, and not listed as such, but now that I've figured out what it is, I looked it up, and the stuff I saw sitting in the tea was definitely barley. The first time I went there, we all got the stuff, practically, and wondered what the heck it was, and didn't like it very much. Now that I've figured out what it is, I can appreciate it as barley tea and not the green tea that I expected. Unfortunately, I have no basis for comparison of barley tea, so all I can tell you is that if you're not expecting green tea, it's decent tea. I think. It's also a pot plus a cup, and the pot's pretty good sized, so you're not going to run out quickly.

Inari rolls are a siren call to me. They're so very simple, reasonably priced for just grabbing to nosh, and are just plain good. I always get them now, wherever I go that has them. I prefer them hot, but cold seems to be the standard, the hot ones must have been an anomaly. These were the best cold ones I've had, though, as they were barely greasy at all, something that has plagued the cold rolls in the past. For those who are reading this as their first sushi review, Inari rolls are a blob of sushi rice with a tofu skin wrapped around it, then deep fried. I usually eat one straight up, and then dip the other in soy/wasabi mix, and they're both quite good.

The triple combo's a pretty good value. More substantial than a bento, for not a hell of a lot more price. The chicken teriyaki was nothing special, as far as I can remember. The tekka maki I'm remembering as quite a bit better than most of what I've had, and the sushi assortment, well. I had to pass off a piece on account of not being able to stomach shrimp, but other than that, it was decent to good.

The real star of the dinner, for me, was the rainbow roll. I had never had one of these before, but now, I'm thinking I'm gonna have it more often. Take a nice long california roll, which I mostly tolerate, but don't go out of my way to get. Now layer along its entire length maybe half a dozen types of fish, with multiple types overlapping on any given area, and cut it into delicious chunks, and arrange to look kinda like a rainbow, only with stripes the wrong way. Okay, my description skills suck, but the rainbow roll doesn't. It was wonderful, from beginning to end, and even my somewhat touchy stomach ate it up.

As for the red bean buns... well, they were delicious, and now ND just wants to go outside and take it easy.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Triple Dinner ($16.95)
  • Chicken Teriyaki
  • Tekka Maki
  • 6 Sushi
• Hamachi (Yellow Tail) (4.25)

I actually can't remember if I got Maki or not. Is very long ago, and I can't find the recept despite paying. It's a shame I went to Hiro after this, because it kinda overrides my impressions.

The dumplings Cham got were at a good and not unedible heat, so all could enjoy. I got some a la carte sushi, as I often do, this time opting for the yellow tail. It's definitely a fish I could go for again, and unlike Cham I do not destroy the subtle flavors with more wasabi than should ever possibly go on that fish. The a la carte comes by 2 pieces here, as it seems most places do (making Sakura Bana the exception to Matsu, Hiro, and Kyoto's rule.)

Their triple dinner came in a bit of a bento box format (I think?) and was definitely comparable. It came with an appetizer of a salad, and while being full of iceberg, the dressing was a bit off what you usually get, and pretty good. I'm remembering sesame, but it's been a while. The 'chef's choice' sushi was, as is pretty much standard, tuna, whitefish, shrimp, salmon, etc. This has to be tougher to get in with good time than Omaha's sushi places, so their ability to have comparable sushi to Sakura Bana is definitely a positive note, and it isn't as if there's huge competition in the town. The chicken teriyaki, I think, was actually better than it was at Sakura Bana, at least slightly. It definitely delivers, and at similar price as well. And the dessert of red bean buns, I nipped at a bit before biting in. Very sweet, enjoyable. And then the check. Whuu. Mid 120s, if I remember, for 6 people, pre-tip. Which isn't bad at all (20 bucks a person, with some sharing? Yeah.)

The overall on the place is that it's a good place to eat, does good sushi even in the middle of nowhere, and the prices are perfectly reasonable. If you're the type, in the area, and you can find parking, I don't think we've got a reservation about sending you to Kyoto. Missouri.

Jack and Mary's Restaurant

Restaurant: Jack & Mary's Restaurant
Address: 655 N 114th St - In the minimall to the east of 114th, look for the sign with a chicken on it.
Website: None I could find.
Genres: Home-Style, Chicken. (Yes, that's really a tag.)
Check Constraints: 18% gratuity for 6 or more. $1 split plate charge.
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Iced Tea($1.49)
• Onion Rings ($4.99)
• Regular Chicken Dinner ($7.99)
• Salad Bar
• Chicken Noodle Soup

We're not dead yet! Much as happened last month, the dire specter of work has arisen and laid claim to huge amounts of our time. Rest assured, we're still eating at places, we just haven't told you about them yet, so you as the reader should expect there to be a minor surge of reviews sometime in the next two weeks. But right now we have a restaurant to cover.

In looking around on the web I saw two competing addresses for Jack & Mary's. Whether this means they've moved or that they have two locations, I'm not sure, but since both of them are around the Dodge and 114th St area, I have to say it's more likely they moved and the internet hasn't entirely caught up with that fact yet. Regardless, there's a location off 114th St, and that is the one we ate at. We were actually shooting for Feta's Greek Restaurant, which is in the same minimall, but the place was so packed with lunchgoers we opted to try to find another place to eat.

Jack and Mary's is a restaurant which has a very broad love affair with chicken. A good 90% of their dishes are chicken-based, and some of the non-chicken items still wind up chicken-fried. So you can cease wondering what the rest of the geeks got, because we all got chicken of one form or another. We tried a couple appetizers first, though, one of these being the onion rings (thankfully free of chicken). They were good stuff, too. Remarkably reminiscent of the ones at Mama's Pizza without the interesting salt, the onion rings had a good helping of onion flavor paired with a crispy batter that didn't overpower or smother the onions at all. They don't come with ranch, but there's ketchup at the table. Verdict here is definitely Would Eat Again.

Their salad bar is perhaps a little lackluster compared to some, but it's serviceable. You won't find multiple types of greenery and the bar seemed to be missing staples like cucumber, but there were pepperoncini and olives, which always makes me a little giddy about my salads. It's filling, if nothing else, and one has to ingest one's vegetables somehow. The soup was adequate but nothing special. For a restaurant which prides itself on its chicken, the soup seemed to lack a good chickeny base to it. It wasn't horrible by any means, but I don't think I'd go for it again.

The fried chicken, which seems to be the bread and butter of this establishment, was simultaneously a surprise and a let-down; a duality of food, not unlike some kind of chickenish Tao. The chicken itself was the most moist and flavorful fried chicken meat I had ever tasted. I have brined and roasted chicken breasts before, which results in very juicy and properly seasoned breast meat - the fried chicken breast here was very similar. Were it a piece of grilled chicken, I suspect I would have been ecstatic over the meal. Alas, I ordered it fried, and the real letdown was the breading and the process used. The chicken was fried with skin, but I confess I initially remembered it as skinless - there was some remarkably uneven breading and even some almost bare spots. In addition, the breading was essentially flavorless, so that it was nearly superfluous. Its sole purpose seemed to be to give the chicken a crunchy texture, which I have to admit it did admirably - no soggy breading here.

In summation: the chicken here was better than at a lot of "country-style" restaurants, and I wouldn't even be averse to giving it another shot, in the hopes that it was just an off day for the chicken. Most of the rest of the geeks seemed satisfied with the meal, so giving the place a total writeoff's not a good idea. I suspect if I go again I'm going to try to get a piece of fried and a piece of grilled, and see what comes of it.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Iced Tea($1.49)
• Hot Chicken Sandwich ($7.99 ish)
• Salad Bar
• Cheese Soup
  

Work has been so busy that I can't really remember prices here, but it was all pretty close in price, so anyway, food. I tried one of the onion rings, and one bite was more than enough for me to know it was about a hundred times too oniony for me. What Cham calls a pleasant oniony flavor, I call "someone stuffed an onion up my nose."

The salad bar was decidedly lacking in anything resembling Italian dressing, so I was forced back to ranch, but it had enough of the standards that I got a good salad that was worth the money. The cheese soup wasn't so amazing as I had in other places, but it made an excellent dip for the bread that was placed before us in generous baskets. I approve of restaurants that give bread baskets, as a general rule.

The hot chicken sandwich was exactly as advertised, and as expected, mostly. A big slab of bread with chicken, mashed potatoes, and a thick coating of gravy. The chicken gravy wasn't the best I've had, or even close, though. It was very thick, and not really chickeny enough. The blandness didn't go well with the potatoes and chicken. Unless you're a fan of a big platter of bland, I wouldn't go for it. I know I would go for something else if we went back.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Hawaiian (Chicken Sandwich) ($6.99)
  

I actually liked the onion rings here better than those at Mama's Pizza. Maybe the others were too salty for me. If ND got an end-piece instead of an actual ring, I can see the "onion up the nose" argument. I did have one of those and it was pretty strong. Your average ring, I'd say, isn't so bad. The other appetizer ordered was a plate of way too many fried gizzards. I'd never eaten one before, and I will likely continue not eating them. I don't think it's the restaurant's fault, but I am not nearly qualified to judge gizzards. The flavor was very strong and not my favorite. The texture was unpleasant. I barely ate the one, but I gave it a shot at least.

The sandwich was pretty good. It was a grilled chicken breast marinated (or otherwise infused) with teriyaki, a pineapple ring, and a bit of cheese in a bun. I think it came with fries, and if so, they were forgettable. The chicken itself was good and tender inside with a bit of a tougher outside. The flavor of the sandwich in general wasn't very strong. It sounds like most dishes were relatively bland. The strongest thing I encountered were the gizzards. In general, I'd say it's pleasant but not amazing food. The price was ok. I would be willing to give the place a try. It'll be on my mental list of places for chicken or country/home-style food.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Regular Chicken Dinner ($7.99)
• Salad Bar
• Cheese Soup

Mmm. Chicken. Ahem. Pretty much everyone else nailed the comparison to Mama's, with less of the popcorn salt and more of the onion flavor. I was very pro-these-rings, although I think just a little less salt would do a better job of bringing out the flavor without having the obvious salty flavor. Still, salt makes things good. The cheese soup was thick and tasty. Not amazing, but a good choice. And the salad bar was okay for providing, well, salad. No real ew to it, which is the reak thing that salad bars risk. Also, totally avoided gizzards. No thanks.

As for the chicken, Cham is right that the meat itself was juicy and likely brined, and also right about the lack of skin/breading flavor, which is a real surprise. They definitely do a good job on the meat, but the outer coat is not just for crispiness and contrast, in my mind, it's for taste. You can do so much more with skin/breading, and it may be just because they're home-style/traditional that they haven't moved that way, but I really wish they would. Still, there's a good variety of other things to try (I'm really interested in the burger Moogle got), so another go wouldn't be a problem with me.(Unfortunately, it's competing with a lot of other enjoyable places in that same area that I'm a sucker for (Thai Pepper and the Taj), so I don't know if it'd be my first pick on my own.)

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Chicken Fried Chicken ($7?)
• Wisconsin Cheese Soup

The cheese soup was surprisingly good. There were chunks of celery in there for a nice crunch and there was a spice to it that gave it that little extra that I've never seen from a cheese soup. The Chicken Fried Chicken was a bed of mashed potatoes with a large chunk of chicken fried chicken on top with white gravy on top of that. I thought it was delicious. The Chicken itself was fried crunchy but not crack your teeth hard and overall it worked and it filled. I don't recall whether I ordered the special or just off the lunch menu, but regardless, I'd get it again.

McKenna's Blues, Booze, and BBQ

Restaurant: McKenna's Blues, Booze, and BBQ
Address: 7425 Pacific St
Website: http://www.mckennasbbb.com/
Genres: BBQ
Check Constraints: None.
Chain: Yes (sort of). | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Ten-Hour Smoked Brisket Sandwich ($7.99)
• Red Beans & Rice
• Jalapeno Cornbread ($1.39)
• Drink ($1.99)

A while ago, the ownership of McKenna's... changed hands. It was closed for a couple months, and during that time business apparently fell off. We had heard several good things about its barbecue, and we all felt that we wanted to give them a fair shot at serving up some goodness. For that reason we held off, and tried some of the other BBQ places in town, to mixed results. However, the BBQ bug struck one Thursday morning, and we swiftly decided that it was time to try the restaurant.

It doesn't smell very much like wood smoke outside McKenna's, but there's a very good reason for that. The clever yet evil people seem to vent the delicious smells directly into the restaurant. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not actually smoky inside, but when you walk in and the aroma hits you, you suddenly feel like ordering a lot more food. I actually did smell a bit like I'd been near a campfire when I got home from work that day, which was kind of an interesting effect. Regardless, the agony of waiting for food while that smell just hangs in the air is pretty intense. We ordered appetizers as per usual, and though I'll let the others hold forth on those I will say that I preferred the black eyed pea dip - it was definitely a notch above a generic refried bean concoction.

You would hope that with the good smoke aroma hanging around, McKenna's would have a good smoke on their meat. This is quite definitely the case. The brisket, sans sauce, was deliciously meaty and was tender without being overly dry or falling apart. It could have perhaps been a little more moist, but since it's being eaten with barbecue sauce that's less of a complaint. The sauce was deliciously tangy, with strong hints of molasses, and it went pretty well with... well, with just about everything at the table. All McKenna's sandwiches are served between thick slices of what appeared to be an egg bread. The sandwich, then, was several folded strips of brisket, a splash of sauce (not enough to drown the meat, which is a huge thumbs-up), and the bread. It was absolutely delicious, although the size of the bread slices versus the layout of the brisket on the sandwich meant I got some bites that were mostly bread. It tasted good, though, so I didn't much mind. The verdict here is quite definitely Would Eat Again.

I couldn't taste the jalapenos in the cornbread, but it was good... for Northern-style cornbread. It was perhaps a little dry for northern-style, but I repurposed some of the butter delivered to the table and it helped a lot. The butter had some kind of green herb or spice in it, but we couldn't taste anything. It may have just been parsely.

The red beans and rice deserve their own paragraph. Now, I've not been to Louisiana, so it's hard for me to speak to authenticity. I will say that of the red beans and rice dishes I have had, this one was very different. The beans were not cooked until they fell apart, for starters, and so the appearance of the dish was much more a "beans on top of rice" affair, as opposed to a bean-based sauce. There wasn't much attempt to overspice them, either - the bean flavor shone through. I might have used a shorter-grain rice for a little added stickiness, but that's not that big a complaint. Most importantly, the bean flavor was accompanied by a delicious heat which came out of nowhere a second or two after taking a bite. It was probably out of the heat range of everyone else at the table, but man, it was fantastic for me. I can say it with 100% certainty; unless there is an all-you-can-eat ribs special on the next time we go - and there will be a next time - I'm going to get their red beans and rice/smoked sausage platter. Probably with some cornbread to sop up some of the delicious leftovers.

For the price, it's damn hard to beat this much bbq at this quality. McKenna's brings blues acts through the area, and I am positive that between the food, a good beer, and some good music, you'll have trouble finding a better time on Saturday nights.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Brisket Dinner Platter ($11.99)
• Jalapeno Cornbread
  
• Cottage Cheese
• Corn on the Cob
  
• Drink ($1.99)

I've been okay with the idea of hitting this place for quite a while. Our adventures in barbecue so far have been disappointing to me, with Ozark Smoked Meat Company coming closest to being actually good. I was pleasantly surprised by McKenna's, for the most part, though I have a maxim to impart that will be good for your dining experience.

The brisket was well smoked, with a readily visible and thick smoke line. Mine came without bread, so I was eating pure meat and sauce. The meat was just tender enough to be edible without falling apart, except for one slice I got that was way too thin, and when rolled up, they were great for dipping.

The corn cob was half a cob or so, and utterly unremarkable. It did remind me of why I don't eat corn on the cob often, though. The cottage cheese was apparently prepared and then let sit out while the rest of the dish was prepared, because it was warm. Not lukewarm, but actually warm. Warm cottage cheese is a travesty and a crying shame. Also, don't listen to those other knuckleheads about not tasting the jalapenos in the cornbread. You can taste them if you're not in the habit of regularly torturing your mouth with absurd amounts of capsaicin. The cornbread is, however, VERY dry. If you don't get butter, ask for some.

The appetizers selected were, strangely, both chips and dip. Mainly because they didn't have much -but- chips and dip. The black eyed pea dip was quality, but not something I can really expound on. The chicken nachos were quite good, and had whole beans rather than refried, but they came layered under a quarter inch of melted cheddar. Well, it HAD been melted, anyway. It was a quarter inch sheet of solid cheese by the time we got it, and it was actually work to get a chunk of nachos out. Aside from that, it was good, and not bogged down with things like tomatoes and onions. If they switched from cheddar to cheddar sauce, they would be perfect.

So anyway, the moral, for your dining enjoyment at McKenna's is this: If it involves barbeque sauce, it will be delicious. If it does not, it will probably be much less so. It was still far and away the best barbeque place we've done thus far, and I would willingly eat there again. I'd just get much different sides with the dinner.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• BBQ Smoked St. Louis Spare Rib Basket ($8.99)
• BBQ Baked Beans
  
• Drink ($1.99)

It took me a while to find the smaller/cheaper portion of ribs which resides in the "Sandwiches" section. I suppose, if you wanted to stretch a bit, you could call it an open faced rib sandwich--it was a rack of 5 or 6 ribs served on top of a large piece of bread. Nevertheless, they were delicious. They had a good smoke; they didn't have any chunks of char; they were very tender and just fell off the bone; and they weren't drowning in sauce (but they did come with a small side of bbq sauce you could apply yourself). The sauce itself worked really well. It wasn't very sweet and had a a nice little kick and a smokey flavor to it. The BBQ beans were a bit too much. I think they could have gone with about half as much bbq sauce in the beans and been fine. As it was, it was like eating the barbecue sauce.

The appetizers were surprisingly good for just chips and dip. I particularly liked the Smoked Chicken Nachos. Once you got through the quarter inch layer of cheese (I'm disappointed that I have to complain about such, really), you could get a delicious scoop of beans, chicken, and some nice green tomato-y pico de gallo.

The service was pretty good. The waitress got a bit confused with ordering our drinks because the other four of us arrived about 10 minutes after ND, but I can excuse that. She kept our drinks filled. And she was actually able to go through Mecha's rib platter and tell him which was what (and seemed eager to do so).

I'm eager to go back. I'd probably go in the evening when they have their blues acts going.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Chicken Nachos (~$7.50?)
  
• Ultimate Rib Dinner Sampler ($25.99)
• Jalapeno Cornbread
  
• BBQ Baked Beans
  
• Corn on the Cob
  

I decided to go whole hog, as it were, and get the largest sampler of ribs they had. It was probably about 1.5-2 racks worth of meat, so it was a given I would not finish it.

First, though, the appetizers. The Black Bean Dip + Chips was pretty good. The chips weren't anything amazing, but the dip really did have a pleasant flavor that isn't too common in dips. The chicken nachos were definitely good, and I probably ate too many of them given what I had to deal with. They came with a good chunky salsa, and were indeed buried under some difficult to manage melted cheese, but if you're not too afraid of getting your hands dirty, you can get all the flavors together on a chip.

As for the rib sampler, they had 5 types of ribs. The featherbones were something I'm not familiar with, but apparently they're not only an Omaha thing (see the google for the associations) but supposed to be a good way to get good meat on the cheap. Unfortunately, these were pretty darn tough. The flavor was good, but tough. The Country Pork Ribs were pretty darn juicy, being boneless, although perhaps a bit fatty for some. Think real boneless BBQ with big pieces of meat. The BBQ smoked pork baby backs came a bit tough, but again, the sauce was decent and the flavor decent, just old/overcooked. The St. Louis style, which I'm also not particularly familiar with, was again somewhat tender and easy to get at, and I remember it as a bit more pure.

The shining part here, which I've waited to describe until we were through the the batch of lunchtime inconsistency, was the Hawaiian. The Hawaiian style ribs were exactly what ribs should be. Fall off the bone tender, flavorful, smoky, and they came with a plum-based sauce which 1) worked extremely well with them 2) most of the table was convinced was 80 proof. I refused to leave a single bit of that particular flavor on my plate, and you should as well. On the overall, the platter was decent, but if it had not had inconsistency issues, it could have been amazing on a scale I'd never had before on both scale and flavor. The place was sparsely populated, and I imagined few people were getting what I'd gotten. Nothing was too particularly spicy, but that's not a bad thing. Just a note.

Red beans and rice is not something I have a lot, but this had both strong heat and a good flavor for the beans. A bit too strong on the heat, but the place unabashedly sells milk (which is good to keep in mind if you head for something spicy.) The cornbread I didn't really get through, due to the large plate of food.

I would definitely try this place again, and I want to try it when it's busy enough and I'm not in a rush, because I think then it'll move away from 'frustratingly inconsistent' into something... well, hopefully as good as those Hawaiian-style ribs hinted that they could be.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• BBQ Smoked Badwich ($7.99)
• Coleslaw
• Black-eyed-pea Dip with Chips ($5.29)
• Lemonade ($1.99)

The nachos were tasty. There were a lot of interesting things mixed in. It was a little bit dry though, so it was harder to keep things on the chips. That seemed to be the style, though (as opposed to accidentally dry or overcooked). The chicken was good and the flavors mixed well. The dip was really good. This one seemed a little too soupy, but it didn't end up being a problem. The peas were whole and the dip held together well enough. The flavor was pretty mild, and made for a great change from regular refried bean dips. The lemonade was pretty good too. It wasn't too sour or too sweet. You get unlimited refills with it too. That may mean it's fountain-style, but I didn't really notice.

The main attraction, the Badwich sandwich, was an interesting beast. It's a pulled pork AND beef sandwich. It was slightly over sauced, but that was about what I was looking for that day. It definitely wasn't flooded, which is good. It came between two large pieces of bread and was a pretty good size. The meat was pretty tender. The BBQ sauce was good, but I didn't taste the meat too much over the sauce. It had a good amount of heat to it. I had a bit of the jalepeno cornbread too. I couldn't detect any heat due to the sauce, but I could taste the jalepeno peppers. The creamy coleslaw was a little light on the "creamy". I didn't realize before, but after ND mentioned that his cottage cheese was warm, I noticed that the coleslaw wasn't very cold. I wasn't a fan.

I would come back. I'd say stick to the intentionally warm side dishes, and go for some of their more unique dishes. They have plenty of interesting options that are off the beaten path.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Restaurant: Buffalo Wild Wings
Address: 205 North 76th Street - Between Chuck E Cheese and Toys R Us
Website: http://www.buffalowildwings.com/ (Warning, flashriffic)
Genres: Buffalo wings, American
Check Constraints: None.
Chain: Yes | More Omaha Locations: Yes

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• 10 Wild Boneless Wings ($6)
• 10 Spicy Garlic Boneless Wings ($6)
• Basket of Buffalo Chips with Cheese ($4.59)
• Drink ($2.19)

Work is slowly returning to normal levels, but we were ready for a little bit of a rest, so we went somewhere safe for the week. It was kind of a homecoming for us, since Buffalo Wild Wings is what helped us start this blog in the first place. That doesn't make much sense at first, I'll admit. It's hardly a restaurant that screams "Omaha". But if you'll give me a moment, I'll explain.

In the before-times, in the Long Long Ago... I hadn't even moved to Omaha yet. MapleSyrup and I were still living in Indianapolis, working at a horrible job that had one large perk - an extra-long Thursday lunch. A great deal of the time, the lunch destination of choice for the office was the downtown Indianapolis Buffalo Wild Wings (or BW3s, if you're cool). That preference possibly even dates back to most of us in the office having gone to college in a town where one existed, but that's reaching back a little too far for comfort. When I moved to Omaha, it turned out my new job had a similar informal lunch policy, and so Thursday Lunch continued. For a year or so. With most of those Thursdays being spent at a BW3s. So you can imagine that we were all really rather sick of it.

I can't remember which of us proposed we first start eating around at other restaurants in Omaha, but we were all very ready for the idea. That decision led pretty directly to the decision to start up first a Google Map and then a blog about where we were eating. So it's not a large stretch to claim that BW3s is the reason we're doing this at all, and thus last Thursday's lunch should have been a triumphant homecoming.

Unfortunately it just reminded me why we wanted to branch out in the first place. First off, the prices at BW3s are just this side of ridiculous unless you go on a day they're running specials (Tuesdays for 35c regular wings, Thursdays for 60c boneless wings) and even the specials are more than some places have wings for normally. Secondly, the boneless wings here are always far too dry. There's no flavor of the sauce and to be perfectly honest that's the only reason to get the things because the breading's not that good and it drowns out any chicken flavor. That may only be a problem at this location, though, which leads me to point three.

The biggest problem I have with large chain restaurants is that their ostensible purpose - in fact, the whole reason places like McDonald's have page upon page of food documentation - is to deliver the same food in multiple places. Unfortunately that's so hard to do it's nearly impossible. BW3s suffers from this in a large degree - since most of their food is made in batches and then the sauce is added, you can wind up in a situation where not only did your order get overcooked and undersauced, but so did everyone else at the table's.

To be fair, there's some delicious to be had here or I wouldn't have kept coming back as long as I did, even considering the inertia. The chicken tenders are the best item on the menu, as they just come with a cup of sauce (and extras are only 60c, so you can mix and match flavors) which allows you to control your own sauce application. They're also the most consistently cooked item, in my experience. They're even one of the "value menu" lunches so you can get some potatoes of your choice and a drink for a reasonable amount. Their sauces are also good. I'm sure they're horrible for me, but even the Wild sauce has a good amount of flavor paired with the heat. Blazin' is just a stupid level of heat and there's no point to it unless you're trying to display your huevos for all those people in the restaurant to not care about.

My verdict on this place is Would Eat Again, as a safe destination for business lunches when I'm not sure my colleagues are going to be into, say, baba ghanouj.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• 10 Spicy Garlic Boneless Wings ($6)
• 10 Honey BBQ Boneless Wings ($6)
• 10 Garlic Parmesan Boneless Wings ($6)
• Basket of Buffalo Chips with Cheese ($4.59)
• Drink ($2.19)

The really sad part about that list of food is that it wasn't all that much actual food. Back when we were doing this place every week, I could do a basket of Spicy Garlic and be okay. My capsaicin muscles have not been working out, unfortunately, and I am no longer able to do so, not even with ranch.

On the other hand, the honey barbeque and the garlic parmesan are just as good as I remembered them. They have a bit of lingering heat to them, which is fine with me. The honey barbeque is not as good as someone blending it at home, really, but it's damn good for a mass produced sauce. The garlic parmesan, though, is really great stuff. I've never had anything quite like it anywhere else, not even at home. It's actually kind of hard to describe, it's almost like they took a caesar salad dressing and then added a bunch of parmesan and hot pepper, only it's not at all tangy. The flavor is pretty much all parmesan, garlic, and hot.

Other than that, I really don't have a hell of a lot to say. I wasn't part of the group Cham was talking about, having gone to school in merry old fatass-ville, where you can get anything at all delivered right to your door. I'm afraid that having eaten at so many other places now, this one doesn't seem so appealing anymore. Except that garlic parmesan sauce. I might have to go buy me a bottle or three.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• 6 Honey Barbecue Boneless Wings ($3.60)
• 6 Cajun Jerk Boneless Wings ($3.60)
• Regular Wedges with Cheese ($?)
• Drink ($2.19)

I wanted to have this on the blog mostly to show our roots, and Cham has done a fine job of it. We actually started on Wednesday 50c Leg day, but they dropped that long ago. We switched to Thursday when that happened. This revisit went a little better than a previous revisit, I think. Quality of food items varies from visit to visit as Cham had mentioned.

I agree that the boneless are on the dry side. You may be able to get that extra sauce Cham mentioned for these as well, but nobody here has tried. Honey Barbecue is a good, flavorful sauce with what I think is just the right amount of heat to it. The Cajun Jerk is on the upper end of my heat tollerance/bravery. I think it has decent flavor to it as well, but a few boneless with that starts to make me sweat. They have two shapes of potatoes. I tend to favor the wedges while the other guys get chips. I don't think there's much difference. You can get cheese on either for a little extra.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• 12 Honey Barbecue Boneless Wings ($6.00)
• Regular Wedges with Cheese ($?)
• Drink ($2.19)

Actually, the whole BW3's thing at our old company started before the company even moved to Indianapolis. Through some happenstance while we were still in Terre Haute, it became weekly ritual to head to BW3's on Thursdays for their 60c chicken tenders special (this was where we found out one of our coworkers was deathly disgusted by ranch dressing and its ilk and would rather be lowered into a vat of human waste than a vat of ranch). This carried over when we moved to Indianapolis as a general Thursday company lunch policy, which usually ended us up at BW3's in Indy.

I hadn't eaten at a BW3's since they got rid of the one in downtown Indy and replaced it with a Badaboomz. The HoneyBBQ sauce was just as good as I remembered it. It was a little sweet with a not overpowering medium heat, which I killed slightly with a cup of ranch dressing. I echo everyone else's complaints about how dry the boneless wings usually are. And I also echo the price complaints: it was 60c for a whole chicken tender a couple of years ago and now it's 60c for a boneless wing.

Overall, I'd still eat there again. It's a tad pricey for what you get, but what you get is good enough.

P.S. We discovered very early in Indy that it was a bad idea to take advantage of the full service option at BW3's. I was very amused to find that they'd discovered the same thing here in Omaha.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• 5 Honey Barbecue Boneless Wings ($3.00)
• 5 Teriyaki Boneless Wings ($3.00)
• Regular Chips with Cheese ($?)
• Drink ($2.19)

It may be a bad idea to take advantage of full service, but that doesn't keep a number of the people from our office who go each week from doing it.

No disagreement on the boneless being sometimes very surface dry, but the flavor of the sauces usually seems to carry for me, barring phase of the moon. Cham nailed the weirdness of the inconsistency dead on here: National chains are supposed to be, to some degree, consistent, and this place isn't even consistent with ITSELF, let alone other restaurants in the chain. And the price is definitely a bit impressive. 10-15 dollars for a lunch is a decent meal in many other places that aren't quite so bad for you, and a fast food meal for 5-6 bucks is just as obtainable, just as large, and just as american.

I am not sure the 'Teriyaki' flavor is really what I'd consider teriyaki, especially compared to a place such as Sakura Bana, but I do enjoy it, even though it's not spicy. The Honey BBQ is a good goto sauce with a bit of heat that rarely steers you wrong. I've had a number of their sauces as well, and they are, on the overall, enjoyable. What this place really has is 'options with nonobjectionability'. The food does not impress, but it's 'there' enough, and customizable enough to fit the Average American Palate. Also, if you're a fan of bar games/trivia, BW3s tend to have those (as this one does), which can be a draw for some people. (Cham didn't go into his depressingly large Players Plus numbers.) Of course, alcohol as well, as BW3s is also theoretically a sports bar, so TVs and alcohol for people who want to be anti-social or social, (mostly) respectively. It's not a bad place to go socially, but there are better food places in the world. And probably even in your city.

Margarita's Mexican Restaurant

Restaurant: Margarita's Mexican Restaurant
Address: 3636 S 72nd St - attached to the Howard Johnson
Website: None
Genres: Mexican
Check Constraints: If there were any, we missed them.
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Enchiladas Suizas Lunch Special
  
• Tamale
• Sopapilla with Ice Cream
  

Last week's lunch feels like it happened in some kind of fugue state - I remember trying to decide where to go, and then somehow we were there. Work had started to taper off, but the accompanying brain fuzz had not yet been dispelled... as a result, the whole experience seems fairly dreamlike, and the quality of the review suffers for it. We offer our apologies in advance. We also lost the receipt - since there's no known website for the restaurant that means we're even lacking prices. Mea culpa.

Margarita's came about sometime last year, replacing the "Dreamers Bar & Grill" previously in the same location. I'd always intended to try it, but it somehow never managed to come up until last week. The place wasn't crowded, but we did show up at 11:30 since one of our number needed to be back at work for a phone meeting. Seating was fast, and though it took a minute to get drinks, chips and salsa, it wasn't overly long. Unfortunately, none of the above ever got refilled during the meal. It's a restaurant's prerogative to limit it to one basket of chips, I just wish they'd put that on the menu somewhere. There's little excuse for the drinks, though.

It being lunch, I ordered a lunch enchilada special. I also ordered what I thought were three tamales, that being the only number listed on the ala carte section of the menu. However, only one came out - I'm not sure if it cost less, since we lost the receipt, but I imagine it did. Anyhow, the enchiladas were chicken, and coated in a green sauce. They were kind of tiny for examples of their species, but they did taste good. Oddly enough, they were topped by what looked and tasted like pregrated parmesan instead of some more traditional Mexican cheese (Oaxaca comes to mind). It actually went pretty well with the flavor of the enchiladas, I just remember being tired enough I did a doubletake when it wound up on the table. The tamale was also a little small, but good as well. Like a lot of its kind it came unwrapped from the corn husk already, and instead of just being covered in red sauce it was served under what was almost a chili; lots of cumin and beans.

We ordered sopapilla with ice cream, but unfortunately Mecha and I had to skip out before they arrived at the table because the whole dining process was taking quite a while. We'd have made it an hour lunch if we hadn't done the ice cream, but ordering 5 of those added an extra half an hour to the meal, easily. The rest of the guys brought us our desserts in to-go boxes, and I wish I'd had time to eat it while it was warm (if it ever was). The sopapilla itself was not as sweet as it could have been, which was honestly a plus in my eyes, but it makes the ice cream a necessity if you're looking for a typical American sugarbomb dessert. Forgoing a spoon and using the pieces of sopapilla to scoop up and eat the ice cream is definitely the way to go with this dish, by the way.

Given my state of mind at the time, I am wary of condemning the restaurant for the speed or the portion-size, especially in the absence of the receipt. I will say that I'm not especially eager to go back and verify our experience - not when there are places I know are much better and new places to try, as well.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• #19 Lunch Combo (Enchilada, Burrito, and Chalupa)
  
• Sopapilla with Ice Cream
  

It's actually my fault we have no recipt, but I can tell you that for the five of us, with dessert, it came to 66bux. Not surprising, for a mexican restaurant, but I can tell you that the portions were surprisingly small for one. I ordered a triple combo, which at the other mexican places we've done was enough to defeat, or nearly defeat, even my capacious stomach. This place didn't even come close.

Worse, the lunch combos are ground beef only, and while the ground beef was good quality, and the cheese and cheese sauce over the top were quality, the chalupa left something to be desired. It came out more like a tostada. I didn't even recognize it as anything but a side salad, as the shell was soggy by the time it got to us, and was invisible under the beans and salad on top. It was very much a waste of money, and I definitely should have ordered something else.

It seemed to take half an hour for them to get us the sopapillas after they were ordered, so much so that by the time I had to flag down the waitress and ask for them to be boxed, they hadn't even actually started working on them. The sopapillas themselves were... bland, I suppose is the term. I mean, a fried tortilla with cinnamon, sugar, and chocolate sauce is something I am inclined to like, but this was lacking, even with the ice cream on top.

This isn't a place I'd willingly go to again, not with places like Senor Matias and Jonesey's Taco House around.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Margarita's Burrito Lunch Special - Spicy Chicken (Somewhere between $6 and $7)
  
• Sopapilla with Ice Cream
  

I know that my dish was somewhere in the upper $6 range. A lot of the lunch specials were about the same, plus or minus a dollar or two. I think my plate was almost a reasonable size for the price. It was a medium sized burrito filled with "spicy" chicken and sauce. It was buried under lettuce, a little cheese, and a big blob of sour cream. There were fried rice and refried beans on the side. The chicken itself was pretty good, if not very spicy. It wasn't dry like I've seen in other places. The rice was pretty bland and the beans were ok.

The sopapilla didn't impress me at all. It was pretty bland, as the others have said. To me, it was just eating ice cream with a crunchy, unappetizing tortilla. It wasn't even like having an ice cream cone. It was just "meh." I couldn't taste the cinnamon or chocolate... I could, however, taste black pepper. It was the stranges thing, but I think it was due to the to-go utensils we were given. Even though it did take forever to get our desserts, they were well prepared with special to-go containers and pre-packaged plastic utensils. Now the thing is, the utensils came with a packet of salt and pepper inside. Clever, but not useful for ice cream. I had eaten a few bites and was wondering why it tasted like pepper when I realized the pepper packet was right under my nose. I thought removing it from the area would help, but it seems that the spoon became infused with pepper. That may have had a hand in ruining my sopapilla experience, but it was probably just the icing on the bland tortilla/ice cream dish. (Not cake. I would have rather had cake.) However much this thing cost me, it wasn't worth it.

A note on the service: It looked like our server might have been the only server. I can't remember if she seated us as well or not. When food came out, it seemed like the chef(s) brought the dishes out. It wasn't terribly busy, but there were enough people that one server would not have been enough. It may not have been 100% the waitress' fault, but she certainly didn't look like she was in a rush either.

I don't think I'd visit again unless it was with friends who really wanted to go (and these guys don't seem too enthused with the idea). The food was unremarkable, the prices were not the best, and the service was really slow (which may or may not be typical).

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• #15 Lunch Combo (Enchilada, Burrito, and Tamale)
  
• Sopapilla with Ice Cream
  

As ND said, the only option for the meat for the enchilada and burrito was beef. The burrito was pretty good. It was smothered with cheese, but was terribly small at about the diameter of a half-dollar. The enchilada had something off about it. I think it was missing the sauce you normally get with such and it came in at about the diameter of a quarter. The tamale came unwrapped with lettuce and some sort of chili bean concoction on top. It almost resembled what you would get from a can of chili beans (though I don't contend that was where it came from). The tamale was actually pretty good in retrospect. That was the entirety of the platter. There were no refried beans or anything else. The portions were grotesquely small for the $7.79 I paid for it and I didn't even have the option of chicken or cheese as every other mexican restaurant in existence gives.

The sopapilla was a bit plain. It could have used a touch more cinnamon and sugar and I think they would have been better off serving it nacho style--quarter it then third those quarters and scoop up the ice cream with your "chips."

As others have hinted, the service was atrocious. The whole experience ended up taking well over 1.5 hours. We only got one basket of chips and a small caraffe of salsa for 5 of us. We never got a refill on our drinks. And we ended up having to get our desserts to-go, because it had been 20 minutes with no sign of them.

I don't think this will be a place that I return to. The service was terrible and the portions were way too small for the prices.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Some Lunch Combo (3? 5?) (Beef Burrito and Enchilada) (~5.50)
  
• Sopapilla with Ice Cream (~2.50)
  

I can add to price analysis by pointing out that my mind said, with tip and tax, that 10 bucks would cover my piece.

The place actually had some interesting flavors in their dishes, which gave both Cham and I a little pause, IIRC, but ND and Maple are right: the portions were surprisingly small for a mexican place. The place did have more than one _person_ there, as they also tried to ask us for our drink orders, but the service was still incredibly slow.

I'm not sure I'd go back to this place either, all things considered. The chips/salsa were standard fare, the meat actually worked for me, the sauce was a little odd but okay, and the sopapilla I really would have liked warmer (that phone con really didn't help)... but there are a lot more solid options around. Looking for a place to eat is a bit of a competition, and this place really doesn't compare.

El Basha Mediterranean Grill

Restaurant: El Basha Mediterranean Grill
Address: 7503 Pacific St. - In the mini-mall just west of Tires Plus
Website: None
Genres: Mediterranean
Check Constraints: Short order
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Falafel Appetizer ($5.50)
• Chicken Shawarma Wrap Combo ($7.75)
• Fries
• Drink

Work recently has been positively crazy. As a result, the lunch destinations of late have been picked with an eye towards speed, distance, and the most bang for the time - also as a result, we had to skip a week due to an utter and total lack of time. But El Basha is fairly close to where we work, and it's been long enough since AFK that it was judged a worthy destination. I'm rather glad about that.

Despite being short-order, the restaurant is rather intriguing and has plenty of space for people. Their menu seems to pull a good balance between being fast and offering a wide variety of Mediterranean flavors. Unlike AFK, El Basha is far more towards the traditional side of the ethnic restaurant scale - that's not a dig on either restaurant, they both have their upsides and honestly very little downside. It's just a different take on the same kind of cuisine, and all that matters is what suits you the best.

The falafel appetizer came over a salad, dressed with a very thin creamy garlic dressing. That made it a little hard to share anything but the falafel themselves with the rest of the geeks, so I wound up with a heaping helping of salad to start off the meal. It was rather good, and if you were perhaps hunting for a slightly lighter lunch that is where I'd suggest you start. The falafel, while perhaps a little small, were moist and flavorful, and went pretty well with the dressing. I would have preferred the dressing to be a little less watery, perhaps, but sopping it up with the falafel worked pretty well. I'd eat this again, especially if I were trying to be calorie conscious.

Brief comments on the other appetizers: The hummus was far smoother than I am used to, but it was delicious nonetheless. The baba ghanouj had a very sharp taste to it, but was darn tasty as well.

The chicken shawarma wrap came wrapped in foil, which was goobord as it had the garlic dressing inside, and trying to eat it without the foil resulted in a very drippy (if delicious) mess. It had onions inside, and not much else that I could tell, which resulted in a fairly solid if unvarying flavor. Given the option, I'd probably go for the gyro or something a little more interesting next time.

Most importantly, though, the time it took to order, get the food, and eat it was less than an hour by far, which is good for when you're in a crunch but want to avoid "fast food". All in all, I might start suggesting it as a regular destination for meals, even if I did wind up having had a little too much garlic for even my comfort.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Hummus Appetizer ($5.50)
• Gyro Platter ($8.75)
• Lentil Soup
  
• Drink

I'm afraid I don't have much good to say about this one, unfortunately. Luckily, not much outright bad, either. I did not, in fact, understand what hummus was when I ordered it. I actually thought I was getting falafel. What I got was excellent tortilla-thickness pita bread and a bowl of extremely smooth hummus. Cham says that it is good hummus. It was a taste I could take or leave. Not something I'd ever go out of my way to get. The falafel, though, that was good stuff.

The lentil soup appeared to not have a name, but it is very easy to describe. It was quite heavy on the cumin, making it taste like a good chili as a starter. Then, instead of meat and beans in that chili, add potatoes and rice. That is essentially the soup. I ate it, and enjoyed it. Also, it was a damn good size bowl for coming as part of a combo.

The gyro platter came with that funky potato salad, a very sour taste which was not pleasing to me at the time. The gyro was mounded pleasingly high with meat, but the toppings were not on the side, and as I am not a huge fan of the sauce slathered all over it, it was somewhat less appetizing than I would normally find a large pile of good meat (that is to say, om nom nom). As it was, I still nearly finished it, but just couldn't bring myself to take the last few bites.

I really don't think I'd come here again, given a choice, but if you like the more authentic foods from the area, go for it.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Beef Shawarma Wrap Combo ($7.50)
• Fries
• Drink

Due to the hectic nature of the past couple of weeks, I don't remember an awful lot from this place. Luckily, the beef shawarma is very similar to the chicken shawarma that Cham had. It only had a few things in it with a good amount of beef. The sauce does accumulate at the bottom of the foil, so grab a pile of napkins for those last few bites. It was also fairly filling. The fries didn't stand out one way or the other.

They were actually out of another item that I (and MapleSyrup, I found out later) attempted to order. I forget what it was called. The bit of falafel I had was good and less dry than AFK. I'd eat there again, especially since I'm in the area fairly often. It'd be worth another visit or two to try a few other items.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Gyro Platter ($8.75)
• Lentil Soup
  
• Drink

It seems that I ordered the same entree as ND, so there isn't a whole lot for me to add. I wasn't as great of a fan of the lentil soup as he was. It was ok. It wasn't vile. But it isn't something that I'll be getting again. The Gyro Platter came with a big scoop of "mashed potato stuff." We're not sure what it was, but it was delicious. It had a mildly sour taste, reminding me of lime and cilantro. Cham claims there was some sesame oil in there. I could have eaten much more of it than what they gave me. The addicting nature of it kind of reminds me of that of Salt & Vinegar potato chips. The Gyro itself was overflowing with meat and fillings. I barely finished it.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Baba Ganoush ($5.50)
  
• Gyro Platter ($8.75)
• Lentil Soup
  
• Drink

Talk about busy. Took us a while to even get the review out. Cham nailed the Ganoush (or however it's 'properly' spelled) with being sharp, but also fairly complex. The hummus was incredibly smooth and tasted good, and both had a lot of similar notes, unsurprisingly. The lentil soup I don't remember much of at this point, but I remember liking it quite a bit.

Something I think the others didn't mention about that weird potato-salad-like-thing is that Cham and I think it had sesame flavor/oil in it, making it extremely interesting. I'd never had anything like that that I remember, and it seemed unique for a mediterranean place. The gyro itself had a large amount of meat, and ended up making this all an extremely filling meal.

I have to agree with Cham that the place's speed and flavor makes it a good place for a lunch visit when you actually have to do it in an hour (or maybe even just over a half an hour, if you're close enough), and while it may seem a bit expensive compared to a value meal or whatnot, there's a lot more here than you'll get in a fast food paper bag.

The Taj

Restaurant: The Taj
Address: 668 N 114th St - In the mini-mall just off of Dodge
Website: http://www.tajofomaha.com/
Genres: Indian
Check Constraints: 15% for 5 or more people.
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Lamb Vindaloo Lunch Special ($8.99)
• Rice
• 1 piece Pakora
• Salad
• Paneer Kulcha ($2.99)
• Diet Dr. Pepper ($1.99)

We haven't eaten lunch at an Indian place since our very first review way back in December of 2007. Man, we have eaten a lot of places since then, and it seems like it was such a long time ago. Regardless, when an associate informed us that The Taj, which used to be crammed into a fairly small place next to the Dodge Street HuHot, had reopened in a larger facility in the same mini-mall... we couldn't pass up the opportunity.

The new location is much, much larger, though perhaps a little lacking in decor. That's fine though, since you're not going to be sitting around waiting for your food very long. As usual we took a while to sort out who was ordering what, but it seemed like it wasn't very long at all until the appetizers were out. We'd barely finished those before the lunch was on the table. It left us with a little less time to talk than usual, but since traffic in the area can be a real pain I didn't mind the extra time in the slightest.

I ordered my lamb vindaloo at a "5", which is "very spicy". I wouldn't say it quite delivered on the "very" part, but it came out at a heat level which perfectly matched the strong taste of the lamb and the vindaloo sauce, even if it overwhelmed some of the more subtle flavors. Taking a cue from the associate who'd been there before, I dumped it out on the rice it was served with, and the whole thing became a very rich-tasting and filling lunch. I ate the accompanying salad first, but it wasn't much more than lettuce dressed with a light vinaigrette. The single piece of (potato) pakora had a good taste to it as well, and I'd consider making a meal of it next time if I weren't so determined to try a curry. At almost $9, the meal felt a little expensive for the size, but I did order lamb, and I felt the extra cost was worth it for the flavor. The chicken vindaloo lunch special was a more reasonable $7. I'd definitely eat this again.

The paneer kulcha (which transates to "cheese bread") was excellent - the perfect complement to the vindaloo. In fact, I used it mostly to gather up and devour the excess vindaloo sauce. It's not overwhelmingly cheesy like your average garlic cheese bread, but is instead subtly laced with a cheese which has permeated its flavor throughout the entirety of the naan-like structure. Once you hear what ND has to say about the garlic naan, I'm pretty sure you'll find it unthinkable to go here and not order some kind of bread with your meal. And for $3 it's worth it.

The Taj isn't the kind of restaurant to go the first time you meet your girlfriend's parents, but if you've got a hankering for Indian while you're at work, you'll be hard pressed to come up with a better option.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Chicken Korma Lunch Special ($6.99)
• Mulligatawny Soup ($2.99)
• Garlic Naan ($2.99)
• Soda ($1.99)

I'm not going to talk about the restaurant today, I'm just going to talk about the food, because damn, the food merits talking about. Okay, first up, Mulligatawny. It's a brothy type soup that I've had twice now, and I'm sad to say that while the version I had here was edible, it was nothing to crow about. It was about the same on the quantity of rice in the bowl, mind, but the broth itself, rather than being fairly thick, was thin and greasy. There was a visible film of oil on the broth, and that came through in the taste. It was the same general soup, as opposed to the variants that wiki tells me about, a virulent turmeric yellow with a considerable but not overwhelming spice to it, it's just that one of them was crafted so much better than the other.

That, however, was the first and only low point of the meal. The drinks flowed freely, a change from the somewhat inattentive waiters of other places. I opted out of getting lassi this time, having been not particularly pleased with the yogurty flavor of the last one, but Mecha will have an opinion on the one he got. Two appetizers (aside from the naan) were ordered. One was a sort of fried cheese. I have no idea what type of cheese it was, but it was excellent both with and without the brown dipping sauce that came on the side. the other was a sort of dumpling filled with ground beef and peas. It was much like a Runza, only somewhat less bready. It was also quite difficult to divide among tasters without making a mess, making it one of our less intelligent choices. Still, it was good, and the sauce for it will make you happy if you are a fan of sauces that slap you upside the head and scream "IT IS DELICIOUS CILANTRO. YOU MUST TASTE IT."

The chicken korma is an orangish yellow sauce with immense cubes of chicken, served in a bowl on a plate with plenty of rice and a bit of salad. I have a feeling that the base used for it is extraordinarily spicy, because the dish is cream based and yet still manages to have a considerable heft to its spiciness. On its own, the sauce is a little sour, but quickly grows on you, but more importantly, if you take a cube of chicken, some rice, and the sauce all together, it blends into a delicious flavor. It is not, however, a sauce so good that I would pour the whole thing onto the rice, as they did with the vindaloo. It was much more my speed to carefully manage the amount of sauce involved, because the spice was very nearly too much for me. Also unfortunate was a chicken bone inside one of the chunks of chicken, but at least it was a large bone.

Last, and greatest, though, is the garlic naan. Two such dishes were ordered, and I think I ate more than my fair share, even though I ordered one strictly for myself. I am, as should be quite obvious, a big fan of things that involve bread, butter, and garlic. The garlic naan here is as good as a combination of those three ingredients can get without adding cheese. I'm not even sure how good it could get with cheese. Flat, pita-style bread comes out from the kitchen piping hot, brushed with butter, and with garlic baked in. It's just enough garlic to give you the flavor without making your cubicle-mates go home early. I would happily go here and order nothing but three flats worth of garlic naan and something to wash them down. If you go, and do not order at least some sort of bread (they have six or seven options), you do yourself a grave disservice.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Lamb Saag Lunch Special ($8.99)
• Paneer Pakora ($5.99)

The paneer pakora is the fried cheese appetizer mentioned above. I didn't know until looking those links up just now that paneer is actually the type of cheese, which is a South Asian cheese. It's a little hard to describe, but it seemed more fluffy/airy than typical cheeses. It came as six flat pieces which were about two bites. I don't remember them having a ton of flavor, but they were good. The beef and peas item was decent too. The sauce was quite strong though, so be careful with it. There were two of them, but they were big enough for each of us to have three or four bites worth.

The saag is a curry dish that's heavy on the spinach and greens. It came out looking like a brownish-green mush, but there were nice big chunks of lamb in it. It was also a slightly creamy dish. It wasn't spicy (and I didn't expect it to be) and both lamb and sauce were quite good. I also put mine on the rice, and it turned out to be really filling.

I thought the appetizers were reasonable, and if you're a fan of spinach, a saag variant is definitely worth a try.


==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Lamb Curry Lunch Special ($8.99)
• Mulligatawny Soup ($2.99)
• Meat Samosa ($4.99)
• Mango Lassi ($2.99)

The aforementioned dumpling filled with meat that came with the ridiculously cilantro-y sauce is the Meat Samosa. Also, the ambiance is about as generic as it gets. Bright fluorescent lights, orange walls, the most generic of standard chairs? I realize it's a new place, but it is a bit of a downer that it is so generic. With this food, though, you can only care for so long, and the food coming quick like Cham said also makes not worrying about it too much easy.

The Mango Lassi was a very large cup of lassi for 2.99. Frankly, most other places when you order a few bucks of Lassi do not hand you a huge cup of it. 20 oz? 24? More? Not sure. Too much for me to drink through. I just wish they'd have had Rose Lassi. A much more subtle enjoyable flavor. Anyway, asiding. If you like smooth heavily mango drinks, Mango lassi here is a great buy.

I did not get a crack at any of the bread, but I trust that it was good. The Samosa did have a fairly nice complex flavor which the sauce overrode a bit, so if you're not a huge fan of cilantro, stay light on that sauce. Also, they're difficult to split, as they come in large shells (a-la runza.) The cheese pakora was fine, and ND pretty much nailed the soup: lackluster. It was a shame because the last time we'd had it it was so good.

The lamb curry was a very, very nice flavor, although I should have poured it out on the rice like Cham did. Some good heat, which the lassi helped cut back, and a wonderful complex flavor. Same price bump for lamb, but I don't mind it.

I'd definitely avoid the soup, and might try the non-mango lassi next time, but the main dishes or any of the non-soup extras were good to great, and that's definitely worth coming back to.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Lamb Keema Lunch Special ($8.99)
• Rice
• 1 piece Pakora
• Salad
• Soda Pop ($1.99)

I was reading over the menu and saw that the Lamb Keema was basically ground lamb and peas and thought to myself, "That sounds like shepherd's pie," then thought further, "I like shepherd's pie!" And thus was the order. As Cham said, the salad was nothing special--just a little bit of lettuce with a light vinegarette on it. The potato pakora was delicious but far too small and short in quantity. The rice had some yellow bits and some green flakes in it, but was unremarkable. It tasted pretty much like rice. The Lamb Keema itself was pretty good. It was finely ground lamb spiced with some peas mixed in. The peas weren't rendered into mush, so they added a nice pop to each bite. The dish overall ended up, as I expected, tasting like spicy shepherd's pie sans mashed potatoes. However, despite all of this, I was underwhelmed. The dish just didn't offer anything new or interesting. The next time I'll probably try something different. Maybe a heaping plate of potato pakora ...