Monday, November 09, 2009

Southern buffet in Santee S.C.

The buffet lunch at Clark's Restaurant in Santee S.C. almost made up for the bad Mexican meal the night before. It included a large salad bar, an excellent choice of hot dishes including meat loaf and fried chicken along with an excellent sweet potato casserole spiced with pineapple and an equally succulent spinach souffle, along with several other dishes I did not sample. There was also dessert and hot bread, all for a mere $9.95.

Clark's bills itself as an historic inn and it is pretty, but it was built in 1946 to imitate an antebellum mansion. The dining room has dark walls and wood trim, Windsor chairs and small sparkling white Christmas style lights in the corners. Clark's also offers rooms for the night with breakfast for about $87, not much more than you pay for a similar motel room in this part of the world.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Mexican restaurant

I don't like to write negative reviews, but travelling south from Washington I came upon a truly appalling Mexican restaurant. I"ve eaten in a lot of Mexican restaurants and have visited Mexico five or six times, but never did I see food resembling that served at a restaurant in Smithfield, NC.

An order of chili bore no resemblance to any chili I had ever seen, being just minced meat on an enchilada. And an order that included chili relleno had just a sliver of a dessicated pepper on a ball of meat swimming in an inedible sauce. Not surprisingly, there were no other customers in the restaurant. The waitress spoke little English and my Spanish isn't good, or I would have sent the meal back.

The restaurant will go unnamed to protect the guilty, but if you happen to stop in Smithfield be very careful about Mexican restaurants.