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| - We decided to try somewhere new for dinner tonight. Between the fact that this place is on the list for Dividend Miles dining (US Airways miles) and mostly positive reviews here, I figured we'd get some tasty food.
Now, let me begin by saying the first (and only, until tonight) Korean BBQ place I ate at was (goes to dig up the name of the place) Shilla Restaurant near Denny Park (apparently there are a few different restaurants with the same name). I'm pretty sure we got the bulgogi (marinated beef) and the chicken (marinated, too). The side dishes were all very good, seemed fresh and well prepared. Overall, a good place that we plan to return to sometime in the vaguely near future.
So, back to Phoenix, and Korean BBQ.
We get there, and maybe about a quarter of the tables are occupied. The decor is somewhat lacking, but nothing bad. One thing I did notice, that seemed a little odd, was a cleaning cart was just kind of sitting there in the middle of the dining room floor. But hey, I'd just walked in, who knows what was going on before I got there.
After a few minutes, we were seated. After only a short time, we were asked for our drink orders. My husband ordered a Coke, and I got hot tea and water. My hot tea came in the same kind of glass tumbler as my water did. Strange. As well as the odd presentation, it really wasn't very good tea.
After a little time, we placed our order for the same beef and chicken dishes we'd had in Seattle. Seemed like a safe option. Shortly after, the side dishes came out, as well as some lightly dressed romaine salad and three large romaine leaves for "wraps". After setting these on the table, the waitress lit the grill and left it to warm. Before leaving, the waitress dumped a small dish of sliced raw garlic and jalepeno on the heating grill.
About five minutes later, our raw meat arrives. And this is where I start to get uncomfortable. You see, some years ago, I had to take a food safety class. I know all about cross-contamination, how it's bad juju, and what you need to do to avoid it. I'm guessing at least our waitress ... well, let's say she's never been close to a food safety class. Not even in the same city. Anyway, I digress. So, with a pair of tongs, she places two large pieces of thinly sliced chicken breast on the grill, which takes up half of the grill. Then she takes the -same- raw-chicken-goo-covered tongs and picks up the pieces of barely cooked garlic and jalepeno off the grill and puts them back into the same small dish they began in (ostensibly ready to eat). And _then_ she puts the beef on the grill with the same tongs. She basically dumps the contents of the beef plate (beef and raw sliced onion, same as the chicken).
At this point, the entire grill is covered in a thick layer of meat. So much so, in fact, that the grill top has cooled down so much that nothing's really cooking. Just stewing in its own juices, which to me, isn't really bbq. It's, well, stewing. She sets down the gooey tongs next to a pair of scissors and leaves.
A few minutes pass, and I take up the tongs (eew) and turn over the chicken. I take a look at the beef, but it's still a damp mess with no room to spread out on the grill. The waitress comes over, physically takes the tongs from me and starts messing with the meat herself. Okaaay. Then she takes the scissors and starts cutting the meat up. The still raw chicken meat. Cuts the large pieces into smaller bite size pieces and leaves it to cook on the grill. Then, and I really shouldn't be surprised by this at this point, she picks up the beef with the tongs and slices a few pieces of it into smaller pieces with the _same_ scissors what just snipped up the half-raw chicken. A few more times pass where I go to flip the meat, and she comes over and takes the tongs away from me, and does it herself. And some more meat snippage.
Finally, we get to eat. It's not bad, but really not very good. None of it, sadly. It's not -bad-, but definitely nothing I'd repeat. Not once during our meal did anyone come by to see if we were doing okay, ask us if we needed anything, refill drinks or anything.
Oh well. On the plus side, we got to try a new restaurant that wasn't completely horrible. On the downside, I'm now at home with an upset stomach and preoccupied with cross-contamination nightmares.
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