"Mom, please don't ever make me come back here again."

I usually enjoy trying out new restaurants but for some reason I wasn't especially excited to have dinner at Hibachi Grill, Augusta's newest buffet restaurant. The reason may be that tacky all you can eat buffets just aren't my thing. Does that make me a food snob?

As I have said before, I don't think of myself as a food snob. I love McDonald's and macaroni and cheese from the box. I even think Papa John's is good pizza. And after having dinner tonight with my parents at Hibachi Grill, I can say with all confidence that I am not a food snob but I do like food that is good.

When Dad first suggested that we go to Hibachi Grill for dinner, Mom didn't think I would be able to find anything to eat that was gluten free. I assured her that there would be something for me to eat since I can usually find something at any restaurant I go to even given my aversions to fish, mushrooms, raisins, and cauliflower. And I am usually okay with just mediocre food if it is cheap enough.

Hibachi Grill is in an older strip mall in Augusta. It is a large restaurant that was trying for an Asian feel in its decor. It succeeded - if you like tacky lacquered decorations mixed with standard industrial buffet equipment. But the corrugated boxes of fortune cookies stacked underneath the bug zapper really made the atmosphere along with the requisite fountain in the foyer. (Isn't it a health code violation to have a bug zapper above tables of diners?)

The actual buffets were full of a wide variety of food - most of which I could not eat since it was either breaded and fried or covered in some sort of sauce which looked like it contained soy sauce. (One of the main ingredients in soy sauce is wheat so it is a big no-no for a gluten free diet.) I did manage to find some rice, mashed potatoes, and some "premium" steak which turned out to be pot roast. The "steak" was fine. It was tender and while it didn't have much flavor it was tasty enough.

I began to look around the restaurant while Dad was still perusing the buffets while Mom and I were already seated. The other diners were from a large cross section of society. I leaned over to her and said "please don't make me come here again." She rolled her eyes and chuckled. Hmmmm, maybe I am not a food snob but I might just be a snob in general. :) (Don't judge me.)

After finishing my first plate, I went back up to see what else I could find. I found some french fries, a stuffed baked potato, sauteed green beans, and some pork loin. What I really wanted was the yeast rolls drenched in melted butter, but I was good and stuck to what was on my plate. The french fries turned out to be under cooked. It takes a lot for me to not eat french fries but after one bite I was not interested in eating another one. Not only were they undercooked but they were very cold and over salted. The stuffed baked potato was simply half of a half way done microwaved potato topped with cheese, bacon bits and scallions. It was not good. The green beans were a tad greasy but were still crisp and green so I enjoyed those. In my book, there is nothing worse than an overcooked vegetable. The pork loin had a decent flavor but it was over cooked so it was very tough.

Since we are less than two weeks away from out trip to Disney World, I have Disney dining on the brain. I have been researching about gluten free dining in the parks and resorts and know how careful Disney is with special dietary requests. So, midway through my tough pork loin I leaned over to my mom and said "if this was Disney World, the chef would have come out and walked me through the entire buffet and told me what I could eat and what I couldn't eat." I knew that was not going to happen at this restaurant so I didn't even mention my dietary restriction. But I can see now why having gluten free friendly restaurants is so important. It was very difficult to even know what I could eat. If I was a person who got sick from eating gluten I would not have even tried to eat at this restaurant or any other buffet. It was just too hard to know what to eat and that isn't even taking into consideration the threat of cross contamination of food items from utensils.

For dessert, I did find some tapioca pudding and some ice cream. It is hard to mess up opening up a tub and setting it out on a buffet so both the pudding and the ice cream were fine.

Dad seemed to enjoy his meal. Mom tolerated hers, as did I. The bill for three of us with two drinks was $38.11. Gluten free issues aside, I can see why this restaurant is popular - people like cheap food. But should people really have to sacrifice good food for cheap food? Does it really cost any more to cook food properly than to cook it improperly?