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UrbanSpoon is restaurant review site that I’ve been recently relying on to find new places to try while eating out. I like the fact that you can select different categories (i.e. Mexican, Italian, seafood) and sort the list by popularity/rating.

Since a lot of “foodies” use the site, I thought I could trust the rating system on UrbanSpoon but it turns out that we have to take the ratings listed on the site with a grain of salt. It seems that the problem that plagues other review sites like TripAdvisor and Citysearch, applies here as well. My guess is that savvy restaurant owners are skewing the ratings on UrbanSpoon in their favor. How else can one explain the reason for “Peking Garden” being listed as one of the top Chinese restaurants in Raleigh??

Until this past weekend, I had never been to Peking Garden since it looked to be one of those run of the mill old-school chinese restaurants from the 1980′s. But still it’s listed as one of the top picks in the area, so I thought I’d give it a try. bad idea.

I should have went with my instincts and stayed away from this place. It’s definitely old-school. From the bamboo decor to the koi fish pond, the place looks to be frozen in time, with no intention of updating their look or their food. And boy, is the food old fashioned and sad to say, just plain awful.

The General Tso’s was basic and passable. But the more expensive “gourmet” (not!) Hawaiian shrimp dish – was a joke. essentially prepackaged shrimp drowned in a “sweet & sour” sauce. oh and don’t get me started on the “Chicken in Garlic Sauce”. It’s more like GARLIC and more garlic with some chicken in it. I’m going to be smelling like garlic for days. oh and whatever you do, don’t ever order the double pan fried noodles with chicken. what a waste of money.

Two obvious tip offs that I unfortunately chose to ignore:
1) the place was far from crowded during dinner
2) we were the only asians dining there during our visit. So, if other asians won’t come to eat your asian food, what does that tell you??

This is no damn “hidden gem”, I can honestly tell you that right now. Obviously the owners (and friends/family etc) are tech savvy enough to know how to place these bogus votes/ratings on the various review sites like UrbanSpoon. Either that or these local yokels have absolutely no idea what good asian cuisine is supposed to taste like!
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let’s see what I’ve got packed for lunch today…

alright! the wife packed me kimbap today. normally, it’s the usual ho-hum turkey sandwich and chips but I’m pleasantly surprised to find kimbap in my lunch box today.

hhhhmmmm, what did I do to deserve this?

..uummm, nothing really comes to mind…

uh oh. I’m getting a bit suspicious now.

is the wife trying to soften me up for some big purchase in the near future???

hhhmmmmm…

I get a kick out of visiting Food World over in Durham. It’s an Asian market that took over the space of a large grocery store in a faded old strip mall near downtown. The decor of the pre-existing supermarket hasn’t been touch all that much so when you walk through the place you get a weird mish-mash of cultures. The interesting twist on top of all that is that Food World also caters to the hispanic community that lives in the area. So there’s a section devoted to hispanic foods including a Taqueria. They make tortillas from scratch and the hot menu items look pretty authentic. Oh and there’s a fishmonger hidden in the back corner that get his fish fresh from Wilmington.

We don’t make the trek over to Food World too often since there’s a nicer (cleaner, more modern) Korean grocery store in Cary that we prefer. But I have to say that Food World’s got character. On our most recent visit (it had been about six months since our previous visit) we wondered if they had updated the look of the store to keep up with the new competition in Cary. NOPE. not a thing. Well, actually I think the hispanic presence in the store has become even more prominent now. and maybe the Taqueria/fishmonger feature of the store is enough to keep the place in business even with the competition across town. oh and surprisingly the prices of the various korean items we needed on our visit were just as high as they are in Cary. I would have thought with the lower rent in that part of Durham, the prices would reflect some sort of discount but I was wrong…

OK the owner of the local Seoul Garden officially pissed me off. I’ve tended to shy away from this place in the past even though its probably the best place in town to get some korean food. The old guy that owns the restaurant has always rubbed me the wrong way. he’s got a way in making me feel like some sort of idiot just because I can’t speak the language. it’s the same reason why I don’t want to attend korean churches. All the elders treat you like you’ve got leprosy or something when you don’t speak proper korean.

anyway, I had placed a take-out order over the phone and then when I got there, I realized that he messed up my order. First he tried to make it appear that *I* was mistaken. but when he double checked what he wrote down, he muttered something under his breath basically acknowledging that he messed up. but he didn’t apologize. then he made me wait another twenty minutes for them to correct my order.

I was fuming!

I never liked the guy. and I hate the fact that I give him my business especially when he so condescending. AND NOW he’s NOT apologizing to me for fucking up my order. what an asshole. what’s the big deal anyway? Say you’re sorry and be done with it. Obviously it’s your typical “korean pride” issues.

again, when it was finally time to pay for my order, he had another opportunity to apologize to me and he DIDN’T do it. Not only that but he charged me full price for the meals. come on, you’re the owner for pete’s sake! can’t ya give a frequent customer a small discount for making him wait for your mistake???? fucker.

OK, hear me now people! I ain’t going back to his restaurant. he obviously doesn’t appreciate my business. Seoul Garden is dead to me. you hear me, DEAD.

I know I SHOULD be eating a more healthy diet especially now that I’m hitting forty but it’s tough. I recently discovered a fairly new Five Guys Burgers located near my house. Oh man, I love their burgers. They’re a bit more expensive than your regular ol’ burger joints but good lord, their burgers are worth it. I’m salivating now just thinking about them. Another place that I’m currently into is Qdoba Mexican Grill. There are ton of similar mexican burrito joints around town but Qdoba tastes so much better than their competition. It’s a bit out of the way relative to where I live but “good eats” is “good eats”. Too bad I isn’t some sort of health food joint that I’m craving for…