Buddha's Belly

On one of our rare outings for lunch (it's hard to drive anywhere for lunch, especially since my car is not parked in the same building as where I work. It's a 10 minute walk just to get to my car), we decided to go to Buddha's Belly - a trendy place off of Beverly Blvd. The place was hopping with people -mostly people from nearby businesses, I was assuming. We got a table outside to accommodate all of us, which was pleasant enough but service was a bit slow.

Julian got a Singapore Seafood Noodles -shrimp, mussels, scallops, flat squid ink noodles, red and green bell pepper, egg, onion, nira chive, cilantro, spicy yellow curry. I didn't try any of it, but he finished it and he said he was still hungry, so I guess it wasn't very filling.

Kue and Grace both got Spicy Tom Yom Koon Thai Ramen Noodle Soup - shrimp, thin egg noodles, lemongrass & red chili broth, tomato, straw mushrooms, cilantro, kaffir lime leaf. They seemed to like this alright, and it looked like a pretty big, filling bowl of noodle soup.

I got Seared Ahi Tuna Salad - sushi-grade ahi tuna, organic mixed greens, ginger, fried onion slivers, wasabi sesame seeds, wasabi-yuzu dressing. This was totally disappointing. Check out how PAPER THIN the ahi tuna was - if you held it to the light, you can see through it. I don't know why this place was totally shafting me on ingredients - I mean, I'm paying 13 dollars for a salad, and I'm glad they used mixed greens instead of romaine, but I severely felt angry after eating this. Ahi tuna sliced this thin should be wrapped around something...like...bacon. Ha! I guess that would take away the healthiness of this dish. But seriously. Boo.


Evan got the best thing at the table - Spicy Peanut Noodles - shrimp, chicken breast, flat rice noodles, celery, mushrooms, edamame, spicy peanut sauce. I had a taste of it and it was really delicious - rich because of the peanut sauce, which had a great consistency and flavor. If I ever had to come back, I'd get this instead of my rich people salad.

It was a nice lunch out, but I still feel burned over the price and cheapout of my salad. It's pretty trendy because of the location, so part of you're meal you're basically paying for ambience.


http://www.bbfood.com