Great Taste

Review by Joel Kirk

1803 E. 12th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
(The Chester Field)
216-685-9997

When you’re looking for something different to eat in downtown Cleveland and are tired of the deli’s, etc…isn’t it a great idea to wander into a Chinese Buffet? Isn’t Cleveland known for it’s Chinese buffets? Or am I missing something here? I’ll tell you though…that’s not the only thing missing…so is the word “Taste” when talking about the food in this place. It’s sad because if this place did have Great Tasting dishes…it could probably make a KILLING in downtown Cleveland at lunch time. There’s not much to choose from in the Asian cuisine in Cleveland’s downtown and this place is really missing out I feel. Ditch the buffet, focus on putting out quality food and you might be able to do a lot more here.

The Place/Atmosphere:

Great Taste has a good location, close to Reserve Square and not far off from East 9th street. They greet you with a sign inside the door that states:

My only thought to this after eating here is…If food is so precious…why serve it under heat lamps and ensure your food has no taste?

I wouldn’t waste the food if it tasted good. Seriously. Plus…don’t tease me with a picture of a lobster. That just pisses me off. The pictures of illuminated waterfalls and various shots of the Great Wall of China make for a nice setting…I guess.

What was ordered:

Joel: Well, this is a buffet. So, the usual stand-by Chinese favorites were eaten (General Tso’s chicken, Pepper Beef, eggrolls, etc.) were there. They all tasted the same. Everything was sweet. Or bland. Some things were both…sweet and bland. Imagine a piece of cardboard drizzled with sugar. I ate something that resembled Ramen noodles cooked in curry sauce. I don’t know what it was to be honest. The Hot and Sour soup was neither hot or sour. It was cold and sweet. All the food was really greasy as well. The one thing that could be considered decent was the Crab Rangoon. The dumplings tasted like dump. You get the point. Just not very good.

I found a meat of some sort on a stick. Any sort of meat on a stick, the guys at Eating Around Town will try. It was red…which I would take to be spicy. It was Teryaki Chicken. This had no taste whatsoever. Please do something about this.

Chris: Got the same things as I did with Egg Drop Soup. Like mostly everything else…the Egg Drop soup was bland. Seriously, the things were not tasting very well. You would think they would even have a grease taste.

Chris says to “get one of the Chinese biscuits (pictured below) to sop up the storm of Great Taste” later on. The Chinese biscuits (dough lightly fried and dusted with sugar) were easily the best part of the lunch.

Innocent Bystander:

Unfortunately, we forgot to get an innocent bystander’s review of this place. Sorry, we’re a couple of idiots. Instead, we’ll read the fortune cookie messages to you that we got.

Joel: A Cheerful letter or message is on its way to you.

Chris: The only rose without a thorn is friendship.

Whatever. Of course mine is cheerful and Chris’s is emo.

Hour Later Review:

Bad News Bears. Greasy = problems.

Would we go back:

Wow. Good question. I would want to go back only because every once in a while, Chinese food is a great way to beat a hangover. I’d probably go back towards the beginning of the year. I hear if you do that, they give you a free calender. That would be nice for the office. I don’t know. I’m probably more apt to bring in a Healthy Choice microwave Stir-Fry and eat that at my desk.

Comments

Add New

Find Lunch

Follow Us