Don't Judge an Eatery by its Cover

We went to a place called "New York Buffet & Grill" tonight for my brother's 20th bday. It's a new establishment where the old Blockbuster by Festival Foods used to be. We knew nothing about the place other than its name, and boy does the name deceive! A sign on the sidewalk out front said "Italian, American, Chinese, Japanese," so I was expecting to walk into a Ponderosa-esque restaurant. But as soon as I set foot inside and saw two Asian ladies in kimono tops standing there, I knew something was amiss. We were seated, drink orders were taken, and we all went to peruse the cuisine. They weren't lying. They did have representatives from all of the ethnic food groups that were advertised, but what they didn't tell you is that Chinese represented 99% of the selections. Italian consisted of pizza and wedding soup. American was...jello, maybe? And then for Chinese and Japanese, there was sushi, a habachi grill, and all the typical variations on chicken that Chinese restaurants offer. I especially loved the handwritten labels above all of the food like, "stuff shrimp" and "hot muster." Oh, and my brother received perhaps the best attempt at an American birthday cake that can come out of a place like that -- cheesecake surrounded by thinly sliced cucumbers and topped with halved cherry tomatoes. A novel attempt, but it just slightly missed the mark. By that time, we knew this was in no way, shape or form a Ponderosa. We were at a Chinese buffet with an awfully misguided title. The food and the service were good, but I'll be interested to see if the New York Buffet and Grill can survive its naming blunder.