Old Country Buffet - Bellingham

I started going down to Washington occasionally and there was this one place that always stuck out in my mind, but I never visited - Old Country Buffet.  I heard about it, saw it on Urban Spoon, but never went so I took the plunge and paid a visit.  Haha, definitely not fine dining, but you know what, it got the job done.  I was full of tasty food (translation - comfort food) for cheap.  It reminded me of Uncle Willy's but more variety for about the same price.

I piled on all the stuff that looked tasty including fried chicken, pork rib, mashed potato with gravy, quiche, and a bunch of other stuff I can't identify by memory.

They had some sort of penne in a white cream sauce that actually didn't taste half-bad.

That's the pork rib, and to tell the truth, it wasn't all that bad.

Haha, mac and cheese, I couldn't resist.  I had to try it.  Once was enough.

This was some sort of cream soup.  It might have been clam chowder?  I had the cheese and broccoli here once and I felt really guilty after.

The prime rib was most often medium to medium well, and they only have creamy horse radish.  I'm personally not a big fan of creamy horse radish, but hey, I only paid 10 bucks for this lunch.

Popcorn shrimp.

The deserts were on par with Uncle Willy's.

Would I go back to Old Country Buffet?  Haha, I have to admit, I've been back a few times already.  Like I said, it's not fine dining, much of the menu isn't particularly healthy (well, I bypass the salad section, which is actually quite large), but you're not paying an arm an a leg, so if you think about how much it costs nowadays to eat at Rotten Ronnie's or Burger Thing, then this ain't such a bad deal.

Richmond Sushi

Holy cow, I haven't touched my blog in nearly a month and what's the first thing I come back with?  AYCE sushi, haha!  Apologies for the long absence.  I've been in the middle of changing jobs from one department to another so I haven't had much time to work on this...also, my Nikon P100 died on me a few weeks ago so I had to send it in for (hopefully) warantee.  Several of the controls stopped working and my PC stopped detecting the camera, and started charging it, even though I had set it to no-charge.  Anwyay, I loved the camera, so I hope it comes back in one peice.  Anyway, back to the blog, the pictures for the next few entries were either taken my my dad's Nikon L24 or my HTC Desire. 

So, I was at my other job and we were called in on a Saturday with lunch paid and what did the group decide to do with their $13 meal allowance?  They got us to go for AYCE sushi at Richmond Sushi.  I haven't stepped into this place for more than 6 years.  The parking is crap here, maybe that's why I don't come here often.

It was a Saturday afternoon and the place wasn't very full.  I was surprised because I remember this place used to get pretty packed. 

Haha, it's been so long, I don't remember what this was...I think it might have been some some sort of....no, nevermind, I'm not going to guesss.

The gyoza presentation wasn't as bad as Aji Taro, and I do remeber these not tasting too bad.

Of course, there's always someone who can't handle the raw fish so we got them some California Rolls...as you can tell, the rice to filler ratio isn't all that bad. 

The ebi sunomono was pathetic.  It was by far the worst sunomono I have ever had.  The one single shrimp sat on a bed of crunchy, yes, crunchy noodles.  These were not al dente, they were raw.  Unbievable, even worse than Aji Taro.  Mazui desu.

I dunno what's going on with AYCE sushi nowadays, but I find they always have to drown the deep fried stuff in the Thai chili sauce...you know, that sweet and spicy sauce?  Yuck. Anyway, the ika karaage came with that stuff on it and I didn't like it.

Shrimp bombs!  With more Thai Chili sauce.  This was a hit with some of the non-raw-fish eaters.

Teriyaki beef was dried out, but rehydrated with sauce.

Chicken karaage?

Assorted carrot tempura.  Actually the nasu (eggplant) wasn't too bad and kind of a surprise to find in this place.

The obligatory salmon, tuna and saba nigiri sushi, ordered en masse until we were sick of them.

I had to do it, I had to order the kaki motoyaki in the egg tart trays.  First, because I like oysters, and second, because I love egg tarts.  Haha, but after a few of these, I felt not so hot.

All in all, Richmond Sushi was more or less the way I remember.  I didn't go by choice, but it was more of a social thing so I went along with the group.  Would I go back again?  Not willingly.