Last weekend, I was face-to-face with a common Friday night dilemma – where should we eat?
Our situation this week was dire. We were already in the car without any ideas on where to go eat. As we drove toward Randall Road I asked the kids a series of questions to figure out where we should eat.
“Do you want fast food or slow food?”
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“What sounds better Mexican, Asian, American, Italian?”
“Do you want to be served, or serve yourselves?”
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After a barrage of questions, we finally decided on Asian Cuisine, located at 2523 N. County Line Road in Algonquin. Asian Cuisine is located in the strip mall in the Algonquin Commons parking lot, near Mimi’s Café.
We have dined at Asian Cuisine several times in the past and have always enjoyed their buffet. Good fresh food and reasonable prices.
As we walked up to Asian Cuisine, I noticed a few things that looked different. First, someone was changing the sign from Asian Cuisine to rice Asian Cuisine.
Second, the inside of the restaurant looked much different. The buffet area was replaced with a sushi bar and it was dark and quiet. Very quiet.
At that point, we should have probably walked out. Much too fancy for my kids. Instead, I gave the kids the “this-restaurant-is-very-fancy-please-behave-like-you-are-at-grandma-and-grandpa’s-house” speech and we sat down.
As I looked over my menu, I tried to find something for my little kids to eat. They love sushi but I could not find anything on the menu that looked like something they would enjoy.
I ordered them each a bowl of white rice and promised a trip to McDonalds on the way home.
The non-little kids ordered several rolls and some sashimi. We tried Yellowtail, a Spicy Tuna Roll, a Rock ‘n Roll, a Philadelphia Roll, a Sweet Potato Roll and the special of the day, the Broadway Roll.
Everything was fresh and tasty, but it was not any tastier than any of the other local sushi restaurants, and it definitely was not better than our favorite sushi place, Sushi Station in Elgin.
I probably will not go back to Rice Asian Cuisine. Not when there are so many other, just as yummy, sushi places in the area. Our dinner was very expensive and we all left there hungry.
The restaurant is a great place to take a date on a Saturday night but I would not suggest it for a family with young children. The food is good but the service is overbearing. At one point during our meal, we had four servers staring at our table.
Lesson learned: Have a plan when going to dinner.
