We spent part of the weekend down in Atlantic City with Mary & Steve for a mini-getaway. We started off with lunch at the Continental in the Pier Shops across from Caesar's Palace on the boardwalk. Right off the bat, we were all happy to hear that despite it being 1:15pm, they were serving breakfast & lunch! The menu was not large ~ not diner large ~ but well rounded. I had the BLT with fried egg. It came on thick Texas style toast and other than being greasy was very good. The accompanying side salad with avocado ranch dressing had too much feta cheese for my liking.
Next up was a trip to the Toga Bar smack in the middle of the casino floor for pre-gambling drinks. These were tasty and were also very inexpensive (there’s a little confusion here on if that was the price of six plus drinks or if the bartender left off a few but we decided not to question it in either case). I might have found my go to bar drink ~ Absolut Citron with Sprite.
The group broke up at this point with Alan & Steve heading outside to the Beach Bar at Trump Casino and Mary and I hitting the blackjack tables. We reconvened an hour or so later at the Beach Bar. Mary & I opted for fruity, frozen drinks. I’m pretty sure mine was sans alcohol from the taste of it. Not what I was hoping for!
Later that evening it’s off to Buddhakan for dinner. Also located in the Pier Shops at Caesar’s Palace, Baddhakan is next door to Continental. It’s got a great, tiny bar that surprisingly based on size, serves dinner. It was also packed. We had 7:15pm reservations but told the table wasn’t ready. We waited maybe 20 minutes ~ enough time to have a drink in the tiny bar with every other starving would be diner. We are eventually seated in the main dining room close to the communal table situated under the eerily smiling face of the giant Buddha. A length conversation ensues on whether we should scale the long table to rub the Buddha’s belly for good luck. We don’t, focusing on a very nice looking menu instead.
Lots of intriguing appetizers ~ we settle on ordering four and sharing. Pork Pot Stickers, Wild Mushroom & Truffle Dumplings, Tuna Spring Rolls and Boneless Char Sui Spare Ribs. The spring rolls are very close in nature to a traditional Thai spring roll – not as exciting as we were hoping it was going to be. The other three appetizers were wonderful and turned out to be the highlight of the meal. We are also all intrigued by the Duck Salad with frisee, poached egg and sherry vinaigrette and order two of them to share as our second course. I love this course – it’s what I was hoping for with the combination of textures and flavors. Mary points out the egg is, at best, warm and was used to and hoping it would be warm to give that extra point of blended temperatures.
For the main course I order the Beef Lo Mein. Alan gets the Wok Cashew Chicken; Mary the Broken Chili Chicken and Steve the Char Grilled Aged Beef with Szechuan Fries and Watercress Salad. All of the courses are decent and safe, filling…but lacking any wow factor. There were no standouts and upon Steve’s question of would you order it again the consensus was no, we’d try something else.
A note about my rating scale: I’ve been keeping a record of restaurants since November 1, 1998 on almost every place Alan and I have eaten since our first high end experience on that night at Xavier in Piermont, NY. To set expectations, I’ve only handed out a perfect rating of 100 six times in 13 years across a total of 412 restaurant visits. They were:
· Daniel, NYC (first trip, lunch with Scott in 1999)
· Alaine Ducasse, NYC (2001 for Alan’s birthday lunch)
· French Laundry, Yontville, CA (2001 with Scott & Paul)
· Per Se, NYC (2005 with Hugh Davies)
· Daniel’s, NYC (Sky Box seating in 2006 with Susan & Kristie)
· Les Crayeres, Reims, France (2006 with Scott)
Mary ordered the Chinese Chicken Salad. We were told by our friendly and attentive server that the salads were "big enough to share". She didn't mention that they were big enough to share with the other twenty diners in the establishment! It was comically huge.
Alan & Steve both ordered omelets. Alan’s was ham & swiss served with toast and breakfast potatoes. He powered through it so I’m guessing it was tasty. Overall it’s not a bad place to grab a low key bite to eat; very affordable.
Next up was a trip to the Toga Bar smack in the middle of the casino floor for pre-gambling drinks. These were tasty and were also very inexpensive (there’s a little confusion here on if that was the price of six plus drinks or if the bartender left off a few but we decided not to question it in either case). I might have found my go to bar drink ~ Absolut Citron with Sprite.
The group broke up at this point with Alan & Steve heading outside to the Beach Bar at Trump Casino and Mary and I hitting the blackjack tables. We reconvened an hour or so later at the Beach Bar. Mary & I opted for fruity, frozen drinks. I’m pretty sure mine was sans alcohol from the taste of it. Not what I was hoping for!
Later that evening it’s off to Buddhakan for dinner. Also located in the Pier Shops at Caesar’s Palace, Baddhakan is next door to Continental. It’s got a great, tiny bar that surprisingly based on size, serves dinner. It was also packed. We had 7:15pm reservations but told the table wasn’t ready. We waited maybe 20 minutes ~ enough time to have a drink in the tiny bar with every other starving would be diner. We are eventually seated in the main dining room close to the communal table situated under the eerily smiling face of the giant Buddha. A length conversation ensues on whether we should scale the long table to rub the Buddha’s belly for good luck. We don’t, focusing on a very nice looking menu instead.
Lots of intriguing appetizers ~ we settle on ordering four and sharing. Pork Pot Stickers, Wild Mushroom & Truffle Dumplings, Tuna Spring Rolls and Boneless Char Sui Spare Ribs. The spring rolls are very close in nature to a traditional Thai spring roll – not as exciting as we were hoping it was going to be. The other three appetizers were wonderful and turned out to be the highlight of the meal. We are also all intrigued by the Duck Salad with frisee, poached egg and sherry vinaigrette and order two of them to share as our second course. I love this course – it’s what I was hoping for with the combination of textures and flavors. Mary points out the egg is, at best, warm and was used to and hoping it would be warm to give that extra point of blended temperatures.
For the main course I order the Beef Lo Mein. Alan gets the Wok Cashew Chicken; Mary the Broken Chili Chicken and Steve the Char Grilled Aged Beef with Szechuan Fries and Watercress Salad. All of the courses are decent and safe, filling…but lacking any wow factor. There were no standouts and upon Steve’s question of would you order it again the consensus was no, we’d try something else.
Jenn’s Rating: 72
Zagat Rating: 26-27-23Jenn’s rating scale (0 – 100).
A note about my rating scale: I’ve been keeping a record of restaurants since November 1, 1998 on almost every place Alan and I have eaten since our first high end experience on that night at Xavier in Piermont, NY. To set expectations, I’ve only handed out a perfect rating of 100 six times in 13 years across a total of 412 restaurant visits. They were:
· Daniel, NYC (first trip, lunch with Scott in 1999)
· Alaine Ducasse, NYC (2001 for Alan’s birthday lunch)
· French Laundry, Yontville, CA (2001 with Scott & Paul)
· Per Se, NYC (2005 with Hugh Davies)
· Daniel’s, NYC (Sky Box seating in 2006 with Susan & Kristie)
· Les Crayeres, Reims, France (2006 with Scott)
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