You know, I’ve never been in one, so I don’t know, but I don’t think the customers dress it themselves. I think the schtick is more that they have a lot of toppings and sauces to choose from (moreso than the usual pizza place), and that you get to put whatever toppings you want on it based on the size of the pizza (that is, not a per-topping surcharge). Oh, and they all look to be wood-fired pizzas that are cooked up in 2-3 minutes. They do also have “prebuilt” pizzas, looking at the menus of Mod and Blaze.
ETA: Yeah, looking at the videos, it does seem to be the workers putting on the ingredients, not the customer.
Yes, Blaze is basically Chipotle/Subway-style pizza, in that you go down the line and have them add toppings. It’s actually pretty good. Never been to MOD.
Reminds me of That 70’s Show, where Red’s favorite restaurant had been replaced by a Bennigan’s-esque restautrant featuring something called a “salad bar.”
“My wife didn’t get all dressed up for a special night out so that she could make her own salad. See, she could do that at home. For free.”
There’s a nearby restaurant that used to be a good mid-range place, and they did fairly steady business. It also had kind of a monopoly, because the only other restaurants in town are fast food, pizza, and a couple of sandwich places. They also did a lot of business with graduation parties, rehearsal dinners etc.
So of course, last year, the owner decided the only sensible thing to do was scrap the whole works and turn it into an overpriced chopped salad place instead. This was after the chopped salad fad had been over for years and hadn’t really caught on around here anyway; folks around here picture “restaurant salad” as a few scraps of iceberg lettuce, a dome of calorie-licious fixings, and several ladlefulls of dressing.
Somehow it’s still open but I never see any cars in the lot anymore.
There was a restaurant in Austin near UT called Big Bites. They made it a few years. They sold sandwiches, burgers, pizza, and wings. The gimmick was that the sandwiches were HUGE. The Phat Buffalo had chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, bacon, french fries, buffalo sauce and ranch dressing. the Phat Bastard had chicken tenders, gyro meat, mozzarella sticks, french fries, and tzasiki. Phat Sheriff cheesesteak, chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, canadian bacon, onion rings, french fries, mayo & ketchup. They were open til 4am and delivered. They were aimed at the drunk/stoned/after the club crowd.
The food wasn’t that great, but it was super-sized, fried, and cheap. But it turned the freshman 15 into the freshman 45 and eating with a bunch of loud drunks wears pretty thin.
A guy I used to work with had the same problem. He never could get the local Chinese place to make his food spicy enough, even when he said to make it as hot as they could. It’s like they were afraid they were going to hurt him.
So one day when he asked them to make it as hot as possible, he added “Nuclear.” It was like the light bulb finally came on.
So they brought his lunch, and as he was eating it his nose was running and sweat was pouring down his forehead. The waitress timidly walked up and asked “Is it OK?” And he grinned and gave her a big thumbs-up.
I’m surpised that no one has mentioned “Dick’s Last Resort” yet. It’s a theme chain-restaurant where the actual theme/attraction is the obnoxious and rude waitstaff and lack of amenities - if you want napkins they’ll throw them at you, I don’t remember if you can actually get silverware. I think I remember them calling us a bunch of pussies and throwing some on the table. And the food sucks (they think it’s good though even though they give every dish a stupid crude name). I think the drinks are really strong, though - they have to be
And if it’s your birthday the waitstaff will gather 'round you and yell " we don’t care!".
And the big attraction is the hat - every patron gets a condom style paper hat with a personalized insult on it. When I went my friend’s husband got a hat with “my balls are in my wife’s purse” written on it – his 5 year old got a hat that said “Mommy, why do I look like the milkman”. I think mine said “No wonder I’m single”.
I’ve eaten at Mongolian Barbecue places in several cities. There used to be one in Salt Lake City when I lived there. It still seems to be operating in Sandy, UT There used to be one in New Brunswick NJ near Robert Wood Johnson hospital that went through at least two owners, but it’s apparently gone now. There are others listed in the area. There’s one inside another Chinese restaurant in East Brunswick.
typing in “Mongolian barbecue” in search engine brings up lots of hits in various places
I ate at a Genghis Grill at Charlotte-Douglas once. It was the same concept described here for a Mongolian Grill, except you just ordered and they put pre-portioned food on the rotating grill. It was pretty decent…Yelp tells me it’s closed now though.
The Melting Pot? That place was super trendy when I was in college. I never saw the appeal (especially with the icky cheese).
I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was, but my dad and a bunch of his coworkers ate at a restaurant like that on a trip once. (He was probably traveling in Wisconsin or Illinois.) Once word got around that he had worked at and managed a steakhouse, he ended up cooking all the steaks himself.
Noting that this is just my opinion and not an objective judgment, I find the whole molecular gastronomy and “deconstructed” meals trends to be ridiculous. Just give me FOOD, not some kind of flavored foam, or a plate full of ingredients that aren’t actually making up a whole thing.
Not exactly a concept, but it’s how Dim Sum restaurants typically operate – people walk around the restaurant pushing carts, and you can grab dishes off of them. Frequently, if you aren’t eating with someone who can read or speak Mandarin and can thus communicate with the waiters, or is very familiar with the cuisine, you can play a guessing game as to what exactly is in each dish. At the end of the meal, they simply count the number of plates of each color that you have, and charge you accordingly (kind of like how those Sushi bars work with the conveyor belts).
Oh, I love The Melting Pot as an occasional thing, I’ve been maybe twice in the past 6 years. I mostly like the cheese fondue.
You have to come with a large enough group or at a slow enough time to get a table with 2 burners. You want two different cheese things. But for the “cook at the table” main course (each person orders their own little assortment of uncooked stuff) you should go with the oil. The broths are more health conscious but it doesn’t really work right. And if anyone has ordered anything hot and spicy, you need two pots of oil or else everyone’s food will be hot and spicy.
And it’s really expensive. It takes me by surprise every time.
