We should have a thread about eating situations (let’s not necessarily call them restaurants) where the food doesn’t matter. Like Lucky Cheng’s. Which I totally thought was gone, but holy cow, it is not!
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Oh yikes
Good thread idea!
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Is sex to be involved? Coz, frankly, I can’t of any other situations where the food doesnt matter.
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Like a buffet in a strip club?
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Now all I can think of is Jumbo’s Clown Room in L.A.
Link is probably NSFW, depending on where you work.
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I had a fab time. The chopped liver whipped at the table and the bottles of vodka in ice… plus the atmosphere. Would not go for the steak which was unmemorable (at best).
Other places where the food doesn’t matter much:
Chuck E Cheese (amusements and games for kids, birthday parties are held at these kinds of places), most jazz clubs that serve food, ski resort cafeterias in North America (although the food is pretty good at some cafeterias in California & Colorado) & the casino
I’d forgotten a couple of music venues that do food - one in Nashville, the other in Memphis. Dinner was indeed secondary to the music.
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Isn’t that the whole sub genre that has the new title of clubstaurants? Come for the party, not the food. Might fit many of the places in the meat packing area. Or any place to go to see and be seen (scene?). Been to plenty of them and one thing they share in common is the “heinous” pricing model.
Yes, I would say so.
Also - karaoke clubs
They might have food, but mostly that’s just to keep something in your stomach to absorb the booze.
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Wow. I haven’t thought about Lucky Cheng’s in years! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I had been to the EV one a few times, and then they moved into a space right next door to where I was living at the time, which used to house my beloved Zig Zag bar. I went on opening night, around 10pm. And they’d run out of food. And because they’d run out of food, they also couldn’t serve drinks. I was so annoyed by this, and by the fact that the Zig Zag was now gone, that I never went back.
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Also, most dinner theatre.
I’ve never been to Medieval Times, but I’m guessing not so good.
Almost forgot the touristy ninja dinner with magic tricks my last night in Shinjuku, to which my friends conned me into going. It was over $100 / person and the food was worse than you’d find in the suburbs a midsized city in Canada. We had one no-show, a friend who was feeling ill, after making a reservation for 4, and in this relatively empty restaurant in January, they tried to say we had to pay the full $100 amount for the person who didn’t arrive with us.
Ha! I’ve never done dinner theater, but I would have to imagine it is like the food you get at a high school prom or value priced wedding - dry chicken breast, cromulent vegetables, some kind of starch. That “ninja dinner” sounds like it was full of “yikes”!
I have been to Medieval Times. Once. The food was ok to my 20 something palate, but the lack of utensils (just a spoon, for the soup) and infrequent drink service was annoying.
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We went a couple times. It was whatever location it was at in 1997-98. On that occasion, my sister and a college friend of hers walked from somewhere around FAO Schwartz and just kept walking. NYC is good for just walking. Eventually we were tired and there was Lucky Cheng’s. I don’t think the two of them were prepared for it…
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Such fond memories!
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Oh, here’s a Chinese restaurant…
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That is exactly how I pitched it 
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