Hey, I'm counting my pennies like every other diner these days. Contrary to what most people think, I do eat on my own dime - just as often as I do for a review-related meal. And, hell, I want to save a little cash, too. But in order to save that dough, I need to remember which local restaurants are offering certain specials on particular nights. The Thai Place restaurants - the Westport location at 4130 Pennsylvania and the Overland Park venue at 9359 West 87th Street - both offer two phad Thai dinners for the price of one on Tuesday nights only. Both dinners must be the same (if you order one phad Thai with chicken, the second dish must be with chicken, although the spiciness level can be different). It's a good date-night dinner.
There's only one of these restaurants left in the metro -- the Texas-based chain closed a couple of its other Kansas locations -- but this one, in a high-traffic tourist spot, is popular for its frequent low-priced dinner specials. The current special offers an unlimited bowl of pasta (patrons can choose both the pasta and the sauce) and an all-you-can-eat salad for less than 10 bucks. For an additional $1.99, you can gorge yourself on unlimited meatballs, too.
Where am I eating this dish?
Red Lobster, the budget-conscious seafood restaurant chain operated by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants Inc., is ending its "Endless Shrimp" promotion this coming Monday.
But on Tuesday, all 700 Red Lobster restaurants in the United States -- including the four locations in the Kansas City metro -- will roll out a new menu that's even more sensitive to budget-strapped diners.
A story posted online yesterday on the Nation's Restaurant News website reported that the popular dining chain will debut six new items on its dinner and lunch menus that "expand customer choices around the $13 to $17 entree price range. Red lobster typically runs an all-day per-person check average of about $19."
Coupons are all the internet rage, especially with the Great Recession lingering and businesses using every tool possible to get customers in the door. Groupon has been serving up restaurant discounts for a while now, and this very rag recently launched pitch.com/coupons.
And just today, Living Social, one of the original gangstas of the coupon-slangin' game, launched its Kansas City operation, with a coupon for 50 percent off at Kokopelli Mexican Cantina in Prairie Village.
May you never pay full price again, you cheap bastards.
I've been in search of a great banh mi since Vinh Hoa in North Kansas City closed. Though I have yet to find a suitable replacement for David Du's grilled pork offering, I might just have uncovered a budget friendly version at Kim Long's Asian Market (511 Cherry), in the Columbus Park neighborhood.
The banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich on a crusty baguette with a combination of pickled vegetables, meat and a fish or spicy sauce. No two are likely to be the same, and the Kim Long's version is a mixture of cold cuts that's a bargain at $2.50.
Despite being refrigerated, the vegetables (sliced carrots, daikon, cucumber and jalapeno) are crunchy, as is the baguette. On my sandwich, a layer of ham and what I believe was liver pate sat underneath a bright mound of cilantro.
The sandwich could have used a splash of vinegar -- the vegetables are fresh, not pickled -- and a bit more heat. But this easily beats a packaged convenience store sandwich. And at this price, you'll have enough in your wallet to pick up a small bottle of sriracha from the store shelves.
| Smokestack's Dinner for Two |
For just a little bit more, though, you can get more from a local 'que joint. The Smokestack BBQ at 8920 Wornall offers the "Smokestack Slab Dinner for Two," a slab of hickory-smoked pork ribs with steak fries, cole slaw, pickles and toast for $22.95. If you'd prefer a bunch of barbecue without ribs, there's the Smokestack Dinner for Two with a half-chicken, two sliced meats, steak fries, slaw, pickles and toast for $22.95. Both these meals can easily be shared by three adults.
And the two Zarda Barbecue locations, in Blue Springs and Lenexa, offer a $17.99 Variety Plate that easily feeds two hungry people: any two sliced meats, 2 ounces of sausage, 3 ounces of bunt ends, one-fourth of a smoked chicken, a rib snack, two side dishes, bread and pickles.
| Something sweet and jiggly, please |
The manager of the restaurant -- which is the new prototype for this North Carolina-based buffet-and-grill chain -- told me that the well-laden dessert station in the restaurant, called the Brass Bell Bakery, always offers a selection of sugar-free gelatin cubes along with the pies, cakes, cookies, soft-serve ice cream, two kinds of fruit cobblers, very good bread-pudding and old-fashioned banana pudding made with vanilla wafer cookies.
I had never been to a Golden Corral, assuming it was one of those dumpy, 1980s-style cheap steakhouses like a Ponderosa or a Bonanza (or a Ryan's Grill & Buffet, which still seem to be doing a beefy business out in the suburbs). Actually, the Northland's Golden Corral has more in common with the casino buffets -- but without the pungent aroma of cigarette smoke and the clanging bells and sound effects from the slot machines.
| Get cozy with a big bowl of lasagna |
It's a very good deal if you're a fan of huge hunks of house-made lasagna. For $11.99, the meal includes a big house salad, garlic toast and an impressively large slab of lasagna made, according to the menu description, with "spinach and meet."
Kreka means meat, of course, but it's an easy meal to share if you want to meet a friend at the neighborhood diner for an evening meal. Or even better, eat half of the dish and take the rest home for lunch the following day.
| Fill up a plate, Italian-style |
The Mixerini Bar is what Milano's calling its express lunch bar, where
different Italian dishes -- squares of panini sandwiches, slices of
freshly baked pizza, small calzones, a fine prepared Caesar salad
or a make-it-yourself salad and custom-created pastas -- can be mixed and
matched, buffet-style. The $10.95 price includes a loaf of bread for
the table and soda or iced tea. And yes, you can go back to
the bar until you're stuffed.
Milano offers the Mixerini Bar seven days a week: from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday (the restaurant is open
Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.)
Ai says that so far, the record for maki mayhem goes to a table of burly guys who come in to watch the football game on TV, down a couple of beers and gorge on maki rolls. "They've eaten eight rolls each," Ai said. "That's a lot!" And since the rolls average about five bucks each, they got their money's worth.
(Image via Flickr: Sifu Renka)
Milk & Honey has the best I've had in KC. http://milkandhoneykc.com/
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