Chinese Buffet Price Wars in Mentor, Ohio

If you are out in Mentor near the intersection of Mentor Avenue and Heisley Road and need a lot of food at a cheap price you might want to take advantage of the prices being offered at two nearby Chinese Buffets that seem to be in a price war (map of the area is here).  I have tried both and while neither is outstanding, they do offer pretty good food and right now the prices are low.

First up is Great Taste Buffet at 9440 Mentor Avenue, just East of the intersection.  Great Taste is the larger buffet with more variety and a slighly nicer decor.  Prices are currently $4.99 for Lunch and $7.99 for dinner.  The front section of the restaurant has several buffet stations set up and the overall food quality is better than most of the Chinese buffets I have tried recently.  Most of the food is well cooked and pretty well seasoned.  The highlight for me was the homemade dessert custard pies.  Decor is pretty standard for this type of place, a bit flashy and starting to get dated, but you don't come for the ambiance.

Phoenix Buffet is at 9354 Mentor Avenue just West of the intersection in a storefront set back from the street.  Phoenix is much smaller and has less of a variety, but is offering the buffet for $3.99 Lunch and $4.99 Dinner.  The buffet is a single long line in the middle of the space, but they manage to squeeze in a good variety of good food.  The highlight here for me was the small fried shrimp with a spicy coating, nicely fried and with a nice zip they were a real treat.  The food is actually pretty flavorful, it might be that having to produce a smaller variety of items allows them to do a better job.  The decor here feels a bit old and very generic, but it is hard to beat the food you get at this price.

My recommendation would be in favor of Phoenix, but that is more for the price then anything else.  The food quality is about the same, flavor slightly favors Phoenix, but variety and decor favor Great Taste.  Either way this is a good way to fill up without spending much money.

The Lancer Steakhouse - Cleveland Institution Returns

The Lancer Steakhouse has been through a lot, but continues to serve up good food at affordable prices.   For those unfamiliar with Lancer, it has been a Cleveland institution for over 50 years.  Located on Carnegie between E.77th and E.78th it has been the center of one of the only real areas of activity between Downtown and the Cleveland Clinic for as long as I can remember.  Lancer is one of the favorites of many of Cleveland's professional athletes and the African-American community.  I have personal history with Lancer, as when I was a young kid, my father had his office in the small strip of shops across the street, so when I would come down to put together catalogs for him, Lancer's was there and already well established.

Recently Lancer's burned down and even worse, due to tight money, the owner had let the insurance lapse, so what came next was up in the air.  I am happy to say that Lancer's has reopened across the street from its former location (the space that had Angie's Soul Cafe) and they have plans to rebuild on the original sight with a new and bigger restaurant.   So I figured I would check them out in their temporary quarters at 7804 Carnegie Ave.
(map is here). 

The outside is nothing special, a plain brick building with some nice front windows, a small lot sits next to the entrance.   Once inside you see that the space is relatively small, but clean and neat with a slightly upscale feel from the red tableclothes covered with white.  During the day, the windows let in lots of light, making the place feel inviting.  While I was there the flat screen over the bar area was showing college basketball.

Lancer's menu (which can be seen here) is pretty straightforward with meat and seafood well represented.  I choose to go with one of the $5 lunch specials, the perch sandwich; you can also get a burger, chicken or catfish sandwich for the same price.

As you can see, what I got was two very nice pieces of ocean perch, lightly floured and perfectly fried with coleslaw and french fries.  While there was a single piece of wheat bread underneath, this is not so much a sandwich as it is a great lunch.  The fish was excellent with some spiciness in the coating and then expertly cooked; it was tasty and really well prepared.  The coleslaw and french fries were both good and everything came out fresh and flavorful. 

Lancer's is a great place to get good wholesome food at reasonable prices.  It will be interesting to see what will come next with the new building, keep an eye out and consider stopping by the next time you are passing by.  Lancer's has a webpage at www.thelancersteakhouse.com and a facebook page at this link.

Update on Watami Buffet and Wendy Park

Just wanted to drop in a quick update on Watami Buffet in Parma (the full review is here); I dropped by this Saturday lunch with my new little brother and have to say that I was impressed.  I had liked Watami before, but I actually think that it has improved since then, which is especially impressive for a buffet.

The decor is still the same, nice and clean in the Japanese style, the upkeep of the place looks very good as the dining room and buffet areas are neat and clean with no signs of wear.

The buffet seems to have improved a little bit, with a bit more variety and an improvement in food quality, especially on the hot side.  Part of this may have been being in when they were busy, but the hot food was well prepared and tasted very good.  Even some items that I found lacking were much better, such as the tempura shrimp were far better.   The sushi side was still pretty good, with the emphasis on combination maki rolls, but the fish seemed fresh and while still not real sushi bar quality, this is a good deal for the money.

I do have to mention that I was especially happy to see that they have added the small custard pies that I usually get at Dim Sum to the hot line as a desert item, so that was a nice suprise.  Overall Watami has held up well and actually slightly improved its food quality; while still not at the level of a real Japanese Restaurant, it is one of the top buffets I have tried in the Cleveland area and certainly a good value if you are looking to fillup on Japanese food at a reasonable price.

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I wanted to also mention that I stopped by Wendy Park on Whiskey Island later in the day on Saturday.  With the weather warming up, I managed to get the motorcycle out and headed downtown to check out this new park at the mouth of the Cuyahoga.   For those unfamilar with this park it is a nice little potential jewel that came about mainly through citizen action and some generosity from Ed Hauser.  You can get more information at the website here.  The park is a work in progress right now, but it does have some spectacular views of the Cuyahoga, the old Coastguard Station and Downtown Cleveland.  I have included a couple of pictures I took, but you can see more at this link.

Mandarain Seafood Buffet - OK Chinese in Twinsburg

I have a confession to make, I have a weakness for Chinese Buffets; fortunately I have managed to mostly avoid them the last couple of years mainly due to the fact that they generally aren't that good and the price has been creeping up.  I recently got a $2 off coupon for Mandrain Seafood Buffet in Twinsburg so I figured I would give it another try.  Mandrain is located at 2695 Creekside Drive in Twinsburg, close to the 480 exit at Darrow Road (map is here) and right next to the Gander Mountain. 

I have been to Mandrain quite a few times in the past and very little has changed, which is both good and bad.  The decor is a modern look, but it isn't at all distinctive or original, its fine but certainly not something that is really noticeable.  About the most interesting thing is that the buffet tables are in the middle of the space with seating areas on either side.  The lunch buffet was $6.50 which I thought was acceptable because of the coupon. 

Lets start off with the items that fall on the good side of things.  They have a seafood soup which is usually very tasty, nicely complimented by the crisp and colorful shrimp chips.  The shrip toast was flavorful and not overdone as it often has been in the past.  The vegetables such as the peapods and green beans were nicely cooked and had good flavor.  Although a close call, the sushi which is set up at the sushi bar at the back of the buffet is good by Chinese buffet standards; it has decent flavor and while not a great assortment there is enough variety to make a nice plate.  I would like for more seasoning in the sushi rice to compliment the seafood, but overall pretty good with the best thing being the handrolled crab salad rolls. 

The medicore is where most of the food I tried fell.  Things such as the fried shrimp, the rice noodle dish, the crab salad, the fried rice and most of the other items were ok, although lacking much flavor.  I enjoy Chinese and most other Asian foods because of the unique and different flavor profiles, unfortunately Mandrain and most other Chinese buffets I have tried in the area tend to make the food as bland as possible to appeal to a broad swath of the population; I understand this, I just don't have to like it.  Desserts for the most part fall into this as well, with some flavor, but not enough to make it worth the calories.

Finally I have to mention the really bad, which were the shrimp in the Seafood Trio, they were very bad with no flavor and either a rubbery or mealy texture depending on the shrimp.  I realize that having certain items on a buffet makes it hard to get the cooking exactly right, but I have had shrimp on enough buffets to know that it is possible to get them right and these were not anywhere near that.  Especially disapointing when you consider this is suppose to be a seafood buffet and the only shrimp in the steam tables were these and some overly sweet batter fried shrimp. 

Finally a word about service, while I don't expect a lot at a buffet, the waitress went by me for about 5 to 10 minutes before asking what I would like to drink and the only way I could get my check was by standing up and putting on my coat; not a good peformance at all.

The bottom line is that while there is a pretty good variety at Mandrain, most of the food has little flavor or distinctiveness.  There is a sushi selection, but no make your own Mongolian grill like some buffets.  I probably won't be back to Mandrain unless something major changes, but your mileage may vary.