Phipps Feeding Fiasco

The experience

 It’s always a good idea to involve the celebrant when planning a celebration dinner.  I told my mom today that we’d be going out tomorrow night for her birthday.  Well, my dad is working tomorrow night.  Hmm.  She thought it better to go out tonight.  As you might have guessed, we didn’t have dinner plans for tonight anyway, so switiching evenings would not be a problem.  I gave her a couple of choices and we settled on Plano Chinese BBQ.  The kids would be pleased.  I went back home to pick up Ogre and then we all headed out.  I was a little nervous to see not a single other car in the parking lot.  Ogre reassured me it’s because no one in Plano eats this early (I think it was around 5:30).

We were, of course, seated right away at a big round table with a lazy susan.  We looked over the menu and ordered our drinks.  Mina immediately asked for her pink girl (her chopstick trainers).  I handed those over.  Benji was playing with his chopsticks.  Lolo and Lala wanted to take them away because they thought he would poke his eye out.

Ogre needed something and thought it’d be cute to show Benji that he could get it to Papa by turning the lazy susan.  Yeah, that was cute for two seconds.  Then all Benji wanted to do was turn and turn and turn and turn the lazy susan.  The lazy susan was not quiet.  We were able to distract him and found something else to play with.

Then the waitress came over with some forks and spoons and set them on the lazy susan. Before I could get Ogre to not turn the lazy susan, he started turning it, again, enticing Benjamin to spin the thing.  Awesome.  I dug into my purse to find the Chinese Yo-Yo, which would save my last nerve.

The BBQ pork came out and we all took a portion.  The presence of food made Benji forget about the lazy susan and he began stuffing his face with rice. We munched on that for awhile until more food came out.

Food kept coming out.  Dish after dish.  What the heck did we order??  We had BBQ pork, roasted duck, pan fried dumplings, lo mein, combination fried rice, some eggplant vegetable dish and some mushroom dish.  Geez.

We ate and ate and ate until we could eat no more.  There was quite a bit left on the table.  No problem, Lolo said, he’d take him home and share it with Tony.  Tony is my mom’s cousin and works with my dad.  Apparently they’d be working together tomorrow night. 

The waitress brought over the orange slices that Benji insisted on calling mangoes.  He ate most of them.   Before we left, he said, “Happy Bir-day, Lala.” Then we all read our fortunes and headed home.  Mina wondered where Lala’s presents were.  I told her Lala wants those tomorrow, she was okay with that.  Mina loves drawing out any celebration.

The food

Traditional Chinese food, with Chinese BBQ (roasted pork) and roasted duck.  Yum.

We ordered:

Chinese BBQ: Very good.  Not the best in the area, but definitely a good flavor with a nice sauce and not dry at all.

Roasted Duck: They give you half a duck.  Ours was nice and meaty and had a good flavor also.  As always, watch those bones!

Pork Lo Mein: They use the thicker lo mein noodles and my dad thought the noodles were a little underdone.  Either Benji was not hungry or didn’t like these very much because he didn’t eat a lot (unusual for him and noodles).  Ogre thought they tasted pretty good.  I realized that I didn’t even try the lo mein!

Combination Fried Rice: Nothing to write home to mom about.  Probably more traditional than one would expect. I.e., not as much soy sauce.  I was not impressed.  It had chicken, shrimp and pork in it.

Eggplant Vegetable Dish: This was good.  Nice and garilicky with a soy type sauce on it.  Even Mina ate it!

Mushroom Vegetable Dish:  It came with those big beefy Chinese Mushrooms and Bok Choy with a thicker soy/oyster sauce.  You could taste the cornstarch a little, but overally, pretty good.  Not as good as a a similar dish at Joy Luck BBQ.

Pan Fried Dumplings: Surprisingly good.  It has the thicker, more won-ton like wrapper, but overall pretty good.

The service

Average.  They took our order, brought out our food and kept Ogre’s drink filled (my parents and I had can soda).  Just the basics and the minimum here, but nothing to complain about.  Food comes out as it’s ready.

The kids

As with all the other Chinese BBQ posts, I think Chinese BBQ is kid friendly.  No kids menus, no kids activities, just food that should be pretty palatable for most kids.

We thought this was pretty good Chinese BBQ.  First Chinese BBQ and Joy Luck are better, in my unwanted opinion.

The total:  $56.17

Related Fiascos

• Hoots AKA Hooters
• Pressured Dinner at El Pescador
• Family Dining at The Keg
• BBQ Joy at Joy Luck BBQ
• Benji’s Asnore at Cafe Amore