Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

Happy holidays.

We had booked a table for late lunch at ‘Thee Bungalow’, a so-called ‘upscale’ restaurant at Ocean Beach. One of the Cohn family restaurants, it seemed to have a good reputation, and had a ‘prix fixe’ meal at $49 plus taxes and tips.

I dug around for reviews and discovered that ‘Yelp’, in particular, had a bunch of really not very good ones of the place. Checking a little further, I noted that several of the entrees were, in fact pre-cooked by their vendors. This set off big red flags and we canceled the booking.

Now what? Off we set to Valley View casino. At the door the doorman asked if we were first time visitors. ‘Yes’, we said. He said, ‘If you want a free buffet and $20 to start you off in the casino, sign up for the Player’s Club, it’s free.’

So we did. It was a stress-free process. We went to the buffet line. One couple in front of us. We were showed to a table within seconds. The waitperson was attentive, and for a buffet, the food was awesome, with an incredible range of choices. Seafood, beef, steak, ham chicken, turkey, lobster, as well as Mexican favorites, pasta, etc. The vegetables, incredibly, were not overcooked and there were many choices for dessert (by which time we were both overstuffed, anyway).

What’s not to like? for a 10$ tip, all this was ours. The only downside is that, like a tv remote control, I couldn’t figure out how to use the Player’s Club card to spend the $20. Oh, well.