Regency Grill' Thai Kitchen

Regency Grill' Thai Kitchen
1111 E. Broadway (downtown, attached to the Regency Hotel)
10/19/07

Oldboy: 5 stars
The lesser known of the Thai restaurants in Columbia, greatly overshadowed by Bangkok Gardens. I have always enjoyed the food here. Average price with usually leftovers for a second meal. The decor is the usual Asian accoutrement's, though it does escape somewhat from the typical hotel restaurant atmosphere. You can chose your heat level, I usually go for a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. The spring roll was somewhat over fried and greasy. They have a good lunch deal, where you can pick two sauces from a list of six, and get a spring roll or drink included with the meal. The cashew chicken could have used a few more cashews, but had a good flavor. The heat level was just right for me, hot enough to make me sniff a bit but not enough to cover or distort the flavor of the food. One of my favorite Thai foods is the peanut satay; theirs came with three strips of grilled chicken and a tasty peanut sauce, though I prefer the peanut sauce to have bits of ground peanut mixed in it. Overall, decent food for a decent price, good lunch special.

Bread Basket Cafe

Bread Basket Cafe
220 S. Eighth St. (downtown, off the north side of the MU campus)
10/17/07

Oldboy: 5 1/2 stars
We went there in the evening and I got the feeling they do a lot more business during the day. Lots of seating and few people on a Wednesday night around 7 pm. Very reasonable and low prices, for the amount and quality of food you receive. Counter service rather than sit down and be waited on. I got a soup and 1/2 sandwich combo. The 1/2 sandwich was more like a full sandwich, with thick slices of homemade bread, though it was a little light on the meat. The bread was toasted/grilled, which gave it a little bit of a crunch factor. Overall, it was filling and tasty, good but not great. The soup came in a bread bowl with the extra in a cup on the side. Unlike other places that offer soup in a bread bowl, you got a full serving of soup. The soup was cheddar broccoli, warm and filling, though I would have liked a bit more broccoli in the soup. As much as I liked the bread bowl, I would have liked the option of just having the soup in a bowl to cut down on the number of carbs in the soup and 1/2 sandwich combo. It was good soup, had a nice taste and flavor, but it didn't make a great impression on me. The best features are the quality and amount of food for the cost.

The Pasta Factory

The Pasta Factory
1020 East Broadway (corner of Broadway and Hitt - downtown)
10/24/07

Oldboy: 4 stars
What we've often considered one of the best Italian restaurants in Columbia. However, on this particular occasion we were somewhat disappointed. Moderately priced, I got an appetizer, entree and desert for around $20 - $25. The amount of food is good, as leftovers were enough for a decent meal the next day. The service was decent, my water glass was usually kept filled, though we ended up waiting a bit near the end of dinner for the bill. My favorite part of the decor are the old belt-driven ceiling fans. We were never offered or received bread with our meal, which would have been nice to have to sop up sauce. The fried zucchini sticks were tasty, and not too greasy. I got the Straw & Hay Fettuccine for an entree, which was rather disappointing, in fact, it tasted better warmed up the next day. The sauce seemed to end up at the bottom of the bowl rather than coating the pasta, and it wasn't until I was scraping the sauce into the take-home container that I really tasted the parmesan in the Alfredo sauce. The prosciutto was somewhat bland as well, it needed a sharper, saltier taste to stand out. Walkabout's tortellini was also a bit tasteless, and I found it difficult to determine if they were stuffed with cheese or meat. The cheesecake was fairly decent, creamy and smooth with a good flavor. Hopefully, we just had an unusual bad day, as this place is usually pretty good.