Foods from BaiDu
Comments
2013 Aug 17
I have been to Bai Du a few times - once to try it out, and subsequently because I was with others that wanted to try it out. I found the food generally unpalatable, sloppy and badly put together. For example, sushi rolls often fell apart, rice paper wraps couldn' even be picked up without all the contents sliding out, many rolls and dishes had waaaay too much salt, sugar or sauce. This is, for me, the worst place for AYCE sushi in Ottawa, hands down.
But it gets worse....much worse that bad food. Last time I was there ( last week) I noticed a couple of disgusting things that will keep me away forever.
1) There was a girl working there (in grey jeans and suspenders) that walked out of a bathroom stall and right out of the bathroom and back to work - WITHOUT WASHING HER HANDS!!!
2) I found it odd that the server brought a couple of orders to us with plastic gloves on. I then noticed she, and the other wait staff, were sweeping floors and cleaning between bringing us our food. So basically, she served our food while wearing the same gloves she was wearing to clean floors! Seriously?!
Disgusting and unacceptable!
But it gets worse....much worse that bad food. Last time I was there ( last week) I noticed a couple of disgusting things that will keep me away forever.
1) There was a girl working there (in grey jeans and suspenders) that walked out of a bathroom stall and right out of the bathroom and back to work - WITHOUT WASHING HER HANDS!!!
2) I found it odd that the server brought a couple of orders to us with plastic gloves on. I then noticed she, and the other wait staff, were sweeping floors and cleaning between bringing us our food. So basically, she served our food while wearing the same gloves she was wearing to clean floors! Seriously?!
Disgusting and unacceptable!
2013 Apr 20
They seem to be getting their act together. Based on earlier reviews I would say that they have really gotten the bugs out of their operation.
The Good:
Food delivered fast, was excellent quality (the sushi rice for example was still warm).
Service was attentive.
Value is good.
Buffet seems to be gone, they changed their menu today and a number of items such as grilled eggplant and coconut shrimp were dropped.
We had 6 people and would therefore order multiples of each item, they combined these onto one plate and in many cases dressed up the order to make it look really great.
The Bad:
Decor is still an issue, in particular the multi-color flashing lights on the ceiling. It is in such bad taste to have fancy decorations mixed with cheap flashing lights. It was a distraction and to be honest I won't go back until the lights are turned off (or set on a pattern such as a slow fade). As it is, most of us ended up with head-aches and it makes the food look horrible (green tea ice cream looked gray and pulsating under the lights).
The Good:
Food delivered fast, was excellent quality (the sushi rice for example was still warm).
Service was attentive.
Value is good.
Buffet seems to be gone, they changed their menu today and a number of items such as grilled eggplant and coconut shrimp were dropped.
We had 6 people and would therefore order multiples of each item, they combined these onto one plate and in many cases dressed up the order to make it look really great.
The Bad:
Decor is still an issue, in particular the multi-color flashing lights on the ceiling. It is in such bad taste to have fancy decorations mixed with cheap flashing lights. It was a distraction and to be honest I won't go back until the lights are turned off (or set on a pattern such as a slow fade). As it is, most of us ended up with head-aches and it makes the food look horrible (green tea ice cream looked gray and pulsating under the lights).
2013 Mar 12
We went last Saturday night and the emptiness of the restaurant should have alerted us to something being up.
We were seated right away at the back of the restaurant at a table that was actually too high for me. I'm not exactly short at 5'7”, so sitting at a table that hits about 2 inches below my shoulders is a novel experience. The table was bolted down to the floor, so I couldn't pull it closer to compensate. In retrospect, I should have asked to have been seated at another table right away.
I was craving Korean barbeque, so we ordered plenty of that first. The whole reason I wanted to go to Bai Du was to use the tiny gas stoves. We were informed upon our arrival that the kitchen would be doing the cooking and through I was a bit disappointed we ordered anyways. I love Korean barbeque and cooking it at the table is half of the fun.
The beef was good, though I couldn't tell the difference between the Bai Du Beef and the Beef Snow Flake A; it's possible they gave us the same dish twice. I liked the chicken barbeque; it was moist enough that I could forgive the bland seasoning. The beef skewers were excellent but a bit over seasoned.
The kitchen items were hit or miss. The pumpkin tempura was good; crispy outside and creamy inside. The General Tao was very sweet but light on the chicken. Pork dumplings in peanut sauce were good, but that might have just been the peanut sauce. The seafood pancake was also pretty good.
The Si Chuan Shrimp (item #35) had a taste I couldn't pinpoint. Like one of the vegetables had started to go bad. My companion tells me he didn't taste anything off with it.
The sushi was mediocre. The salmon tasted fine but all the rice was hard and none of the avocado was ripe. The Mona Lisa roll wasn't bad but the sushi Bune was light on the octopus.
The sushi pizza was easily the worst thing on the menu. We ordered the avocado one and were given one that had unripe avocado and was covered in hot mayonnaise. It was gross. Nothing could make up for how bad it was.
Basically I won't be going back and will be looking for another place that does Korean barbeque.
We were seated right away at the back of the restaurant at a table that was actually too high for me. I'm not exactly short at 5'7”, so sitting at a table that hits about 2 inches below my shoulders is a novel experience. The table was bolted down to the floor, so I couldn't pull it closer to compensate. In retrospect, I should have asked to have been seated at another table right away.
I was craving Korean barbeque, so we ordered plenty of that first. The whole reason I wanted to go to Bai Du was to use the tiny gas stoves. We were informed upon our arrival that the kitchen would be doing the cooking and through I was a bit disappointed we ordered anyways. I love Korean barbeque and cooking it at the table is half of the fun.
The beef was good, though I couldn't tell the difference between the Bai Du Beef and the Beef Snow Flake A; it's possible they gave us the same dish twice. I liked the chicken barbeque; it was moist enough that I could forgive the bland seasoning. The beef skewers were excellent but a bit over seasoned.
The kitchen items were hit or miss. The pumpkin tempura was good; crispy outside and creamy inside. The General Tao was very sweet but light on the chicken. Pork dumplings in peanut sauce were good, but that might have just been the peanut sauce. The seafood pancake was also pretty good.
The Si Chuan Shrimp (item #35) had a taste I couldn't pinpoint. Like one of the vegetables had started to go bad. My companion tells me he didn't taste anything off with it.
The sushi was mediocre. The salmon tasted fine but all the rice was hard and none of the avocado was ripe. The Mona Lisa roll wasn't bad but the sushi Bune was light on the octopus.
The sushi pizza was easily the worst thing on the menu. We ordered the avocado one and were given one that had unripe avocado and was covered in hot mayonnaise. It was gross. Nothing could make up for how bad it was.
Basically I won't be going back and will be looking for another place that does Korean barbeque.
Older
2012 Aug 18
I have never written a review for a restourant before but because a friend of ours decided not to come to this restourant because of the two reviews I made it my goal to sign up and give an honest review. So here goes: the styling of this place is more like a nightclub then a restourant the booths are red / pinkish leather and there are huge chandeliers above, but there is normal booths along the windows aswell if you don't want to feel like your on the set of scarface. As for the food, we got everything we ordered within about 15 mins which is not bad given the amount of food we ordered. There is also a buffet with pre cooked stuff on the side so you have something to munch on while you wait on your order (all inclusive in one price). Everything that we ordered pre cooked tasted good. The uncooked meat for the table BBQ however is un-seasoned raw meat but they bring you different sauces to experiment with, so make sure you use lots of the sauce or else the meat will taste kind of plain. Overall the selection variety is very good, the food tasted great (if you prepare it right) and I would recommend this place to others, but not too often, because it is all you can eat and that might cause problems in the long run :p
Sparrow Seed
Ageed completely! :)