The Town With Nothing At All

Here I am with my family in the small northeastern Michigan town of Alpena. I have never stayed in a town this small. There are around 10 restaurants not including a couple fast food places. We have eaten at about 1/2 of the places. But eating at those establishments that were rated well online, I found them all to be terrible and discouraging in my quest to try other restaurants here. I will rate them in the order we tried them in.



1. Chee Peng Thai/Chinese Restaurant - On Urbanspoon, Chee Peng received a 4 1/2 star rating from 51 votes. I don't know who in the fuck rated Chee Peng this well. But they are insane. I would give them 2 stars at the most, and that is because they would only warrant one 1 star if there were visible bugs.
     I ordered curry chicken, and my husband ordered kung pao pork. The curry chicken was not spicy at all. There was barely any flavor in their brown curry. But with that disappointment I am still glad I did not order what my husband did. The kung pao pork was disgusting. Thin strips of dry, overcooked pork with way too much spice. I love spicy food and this was unbearable.  I hate to waste food, and I couldn't take this home with us for left overs. It was that disgusting.
     There was one part of the meal that was decent; the egg drop soup. I have never seen a restaurant make egg drop soup like this. It had a lot of cabbage and small bits of pork. It was better than the standard egg drop soup with just egg.





2. B&B BBQ-  no ratings online that I have found. I recently rated it on Urbanspoon.

   I ordered the sliced brisket and chicken. My husband ordered ribs, and my son a grilled cheese. All of the meat was very dry. Maybe because I am from Oklahoma I am just spoiled with moist, tasty meat. We went when they opened for lunch, so it is not like the meat sat out all day and became dry. It was clearly over cooked to the extreme. The only upside was the grilled cheese was actually good, and the sides that came with our BBQ were house made and tasty. I had the mac n cheese and red beans and rice. The red beans and rice were my favorite thing I ate.
  I tried to order the cheesy potatoes, but they were not ready yet. Why would someone that owns a restaurant not have food that is on the menu ready when it opens? Maybe this is another facet of dining out that I am spoiled with not being from Alpena.I am sympathetic to the people who live in Alpena, and have no idea what BBQ really is. 


3. John A Lau Saloon- We dined here a couple of weeks ago. I ordered a filet cooked medium with shrimp. My husband ordered ribs. NONE of the food was good at all. The filet was burnt on the outside and medium rare on the inside. I don't even know how one can accomplish that. The ribs were dry. The shrimp was over fried. And the mashed potatoes had a sour taste that was not sour cream. I spit out my bite of those into my napkin. Asparagus was over cooked and I couldn't bite through it. The beer was good, but they don't make that!


4. Jimmy Chen's Hunan Chinese- I can't find any reviews for this online either.


Of the restaraunts we have tried, this is the best. This is a typical chinese buffet. There obviously wouldn't be the selection of a big city. Just one buffet table, when I am used to about 5 or 6. The upside is that this place has what they call sushi on Saturdays. They do not have a big selection, but the dragon roll is okay. There isn't much flavor to it. I ordered it with spicy mayo and it did not taste like there was any heat in it. I would not call the sushi good, but with it being the only sushi in this town, I will take it. I need my rice rolled around seaweed fix, even if it is just an avocado roll.

Mushi sushi

On the way up to Alpena I  had planned to try Spiro's Greek restaurant in St.Louis. We didn't leave our city until 3 which put us in St.Louis at 11pm, with Spiro's closed. Boo. Oh well, we still have to drive back home in a couple of months, and Spiro's is still on my list.

Our second stop was Chicago. We did get to try the sushi place I chose, Seadog Sushi. I did not care for Seadog Sushi. We orderered;

(2) Dragon Rolls : shrimp tempura, unagi, avocado,   masago  cream cheese, spicy mayo, eel sauce 


and a Spicy Scallop Roll : scallop, avocado, spicy mayo, masago
and we also ordered the Shrimp Yakisoba for our son.


Seadog Sushi disappointed me. I thought that going to a city 4 times bigger than the one I am from, that the sushi would far exceed ours. I was wrong. I suppose I will start with the first roll I listed, the Dragon Roll.

The Dragon Roll was the best of the food we ordered, but that isn't saying much. The rice was warm and mushy, and the avocado had a lot of browning which is an indication of their lack of care in delivering fresh produce.


Then there was the Spicy Scallop roll. I have had better scallop rolls from a chinese buffet. This roll was bordering disgusting. The scallops were warm and seemed almost minced. They were also rolled on the inside of the roll, versus baked on the outside, which has been the way I have always seen this roll made. Another disappointment was there seemed to be more masago on the inside of the roll than there were scallops! Yuck. Really?! Masago mixed with spicy mayo and minced scallops. The only texture received with this roll, was mush.


Last, but I'm not sure if it is least than the Spicy Scallop roll, is the Shrimp Yakisoba. I thought this would be a solid order for my son. Yakisoba noodles are usually a hit with my child. NOT this time! The noodles, I am fairly certain, were no yakisoba, but lo mein. Yakisoba noodles aren't tiny, but not as big as lo mein noodles. Then the sauces had a very strong barbecue sauce flavor. It was disgusting, and none of us could eat it. Which is terrible because we usually will eat food that isn't ideal. We were raised by penny pinching baby boomers who practiced rationing.


 On the way back to Okc I plan on trying Lawrence Fish Market, and if they are terrible, then I will know Chicagoans don't know sushi.

The beginning of the end

     My name is Aimee. My husband has a traveling job with fiber optics, and over the last couple of years we have traveled several places. Before we arrive at each destination I always make it a point to check out the food scene. I  use www.tripadvisor.com or www.yelp.com to check out food reviews.

    Right now we are upon a departure to a new destination; Alpena, Michigan. Twenty hours from our hometown of Oklahoma,City. This proves to be a 2-stop destination city. I have planned out my foodie journey as such;



First stop- Saint Louis, Missouri. I have decided I want to check out the best gyro I can find in Saint Louis. After reading a several reviews I have chosen Spiros Greek Restaurant.



Second stop- Chicago, Illinois. I love sushi! Wow, do I!!!! I can tell the difference in quality. Oh, the taste difference if the fatty tuna, snapper, scallops, and shrimp are fresh, or if the manager decided to try and make his budget quota for the month. After careful review I have chosen Seadog Sushi. It was a close call between that and Lawrence Fish Market. But LFM is cash only, and I am not the biggest fan of carrying cash.



I am looking forward to trying these new restaurants and letting the interweb know how it goes!