Buddaoken!! Ryu-ken!!
Buddakan: After having two delightful meals at Stephen Starr establishments in the past, I jumped on the opportunity when I was invited to dinner at Buddakan. Buddakan is one of his Pan-Asian restaurants where the food is served family style placed in the center of the table as soon as it is done being cooked. I didn’t understand why they did family style when they kept their portion size similar to regular meals. The restaurants décor was of an orient theme and was very dimly lit. My favorite aspect of it was the ceiling. They had it painted black with little led lights depicting stars to give you a night sky setting. After sitting down and perusing the menu for a short time our “great” waiter introduced himself. This gentleman had such a stuck up attitude and was not friendly or helpful throughout the night. There was even an incident where he took away a plate of mine with food on it that I was still eating. As for the food they had a pretty good variety to choose from and I think they had something for everyone. As for me, I went with the Szechuan Crusted Rib Eye. When I order a steak, I like it medium this one happened to be delivered to me well done. Since the steak was close to $30 I explained this is not what I wanted. It was then taken back and a new one was going to be cooked. After fifteen minutes, my second steak was delivered to the table, this time medium rare. After speaking to the manager, letting him know this wasn’t what I ordered for the second time, he offered once more to cook it again. I refused because by this time everyone is finishing up their dinner and I have yet to start mine, so I kept it. The steak was very disappointing and you can tell it was rushed to get out to the table. Its accompanying turnip fries were almost tasteless and seemed to not even be seasoned. It would have been nice if it came with a sauce to make up for the lack of taste. After my sub-par steak I was able to sample the sweet and sour chicken that someone else ordered. The chicken was dry and again disappointing in taste. However, the sweet and sour sauce it was cooked in was delicious. It’s a shame they had trouble getting the chicken right. At the end of the meal the rib-eye was taken off the bill by the manager, which made it easier to stomach. Overall, I did not like my experience here and don’t plan on coming back to this location. However, there is a Buddakan in Philadelphia that is supposed to outdo this one tenfold, maybe I’ll give that one a go around one day.
-J
Price: $$ - $$$ moderate to expensive
Buddakan’s Location: 1 Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic City, NJ (The Pier at Caesar’s)
