Window Shopper

Well, I did not expect to make a list. It would be huge for those that I like. Those that I hate are a smaller list but definitely hated. In all of this, I enjoy food most of the time. When I was in the hospital, the food was not a great thing. In fact, I was probably losing weight so I did not need a diet pill to get the weight down. It was happening anyway. And I am sort of grateful now but at the time it was difficult to deal with. I was not feeling well and they gave me crap to eat.

That is a problem for me. You would think that they would want to feed their patients good food that would make them well again. But no. They do not want that. They want to be cheap even if you are paying the bills. Of course, that does not matter. Either you pay or the insurance, whatever kind you might have. Since they pay the bills, the hospital can slight the patient so that they can save money. At least that is my take on that particular little problem.

A few months ago, we had a full refrigerator and full cupboards. Then a sort of money drought happened around the same time we were able to help someone have a place to stay. Do you know what happens when more food goes out of the fridge than goes in it? Big, raging holes of nothing are in the fridge. That’s what happens. No one is at fault, mind you. It’s just that way.

At the moment, I feel like the Old Mother Hubbard though I hope I ain’t that old. But the cupboards are certainly looking a tad more bare than usual. And now, the big question is….what happens when people know that the cupboards are getting bare and some of the things they usually have available no longer are available? I can tell you! Voracious appetite hits. When that happens, you get bad attitudes. ACK! You know what I think? People ought to get on Phentermine 37.5 mg because that would take care of voracious appetite syndrome. I do believe that’s what it is.

These more than sane people usually could care less about those things sitting in the fridge and the cupboards. Those items could sit there until they were out of date on the label. I am not kidding here. But let there be a few holes in the items in there and you get insanity!!! Okay, I am done hollering about it now. Oh, hey what about that cupcake that was in there? I want it!!! Wait! No!! NO!! Don’t take that! It’s MINE! Rats. It’s gone. Somebody got it first. Sigh.

Recently, we were able to partake of the lunch buffet at two different Pizza Huts. I just thought I would comparison shop. Having done so, I am now able to give a review of both places. And I thought I would share that so that you, the reader, may be able to see what is going on at your own Pizza Hut or other buffet offerings wherever you live and eat. The two Pizza Huts in question are the store in Batesville, Arkansas and the one in Ash Flat, Arkansas. And I want to be perfectly clear here, we are not in any way affiliated with either store nor are we affiliated with Pizza Hut on a national level. We are simply consumers who saw things that we are reporting to you.

1) The Ash Flat Pizza Hut-Fairly new, built a few years ago. The buffet is in a good place in the room and accessible from all areas of the restaurant. We noticed that the buffet table was clean, neat, appealing. The person in charge of the getting the pizzas out so that there are no spots without pizza evidently knows their job. With few exceptions, the table was quite full for the lunch time. They had a full house during that time.

At frequent times, the person watching the table would come out, look the table over, combine pizzas onto one pan and leave room for more. The “more” was quick in coming. The person came out with the new one. The pasta dishes were treated exactly the same. When the pasta was getting less than half a pan, it was replaced with the person putting it into the next pan. Rarely were there any spots open on the table. They used one place in the six place table for dessert pizza. The rest were for the regular pizzas. Nothing stayed on the table for long whether because the customers took it or the person who watched the table took it because it had been there too long.

The salad looked appetizing and fresh. The person that looked at the table cleaned it when necessary. When we sat down at the table, the waitress asked us what to drink…water….which she brought right away along with silverware wrapped in a napkin very neatly. The waitress was very attentive. If we had had any problems, she would have addressed them. We asked for a special order on the buffet. They had no problem. It was there very quickly. And last but certainly not least, our waitress was very attentive to our needs. And very nice.

Result: We were quite pleased with all parts of the visit, at the way we were treated, the buffet table both in appearance and the way it was not allowed to be empty at any time. Very nice. It was just great to go there and eat from that buffet. You knew that they would not serve anything that was very old because it was not allowed to be old. Cost: $5.99. We give it a 5 out of 5 pizza rating!!

2) The Batesville Pizza Hut-When we went into the store, the buffet table was somewhat messy with food on the counter part of the table. We were asked before we sat down what we wanted to drink. As we sat down, she brought the drinks. We were not served any silverware or napkins. The silverware, we noticed, was sticking out of a container that are usually used for the salad part of the table. They were not wrapped but were out there for any food to drop into the container. We got our own napkins from the buffet table. We did ask for fresh silverware which the waitress, who was surprised at the request, brought out and it was wrapped in a napkin in haphazard fashion. We think she wrapped it as she brought it out.

The pizza side of the buffet table was messy. When we got there, there was a dessert pizza that ended up being there the whole hour we sat in the place. There were six places for pizza as before. They used four for regular pizzas and two for dessert pizzas. The second dessert spot was for cinnamon rolls. They appeared to be more interested in the cinnamon rolls getting there than the other things although that space stayed empty for the better part of almost twenty minutes before cinnamon rolls were put there even though there was little to no pizza on the table at the time. It seems to me that since they had a full house that more pizzas, not dessert, would be in order. The salad side of the table was not only messy but the salad appeared to have been there awhile. I wondered about that since we arrived at 11:15 am. It looked limp and not very appealing. There were almost empty containers on that side as well.

The house was full. Most of the time, the four pizza pans were nearly empty. It was obvious that the pizza maker could not keep up with the crowd. The usual was that there might be between a half and a whole pizza on the table if you combined the pans. Most of the pizzas contained sausage. There was little variety. No one seemed to be watching the table because at no time did anyone come out to inspect it. Once in a while someone would bring a single pizza out. Never did they have two new ones at once. Never did anyone think to clean the table. It was messy when we got there. It was messy when we left.

We asked for a special order. It came out fairly quickly and was very hot. Nice. We liked that. They ran out of pizza plates, the oval kind. People had to use the salad plates for pizza since they have a clean plate rule which I, by the way, agree with. The pasta pans were nearly empty when we got there. At no time during the hour we sat there did they change those out. In fact, by a half hour, they were empty and stayed that way. When we left, a person was putting a new pan in…after we mentioned that fact at the register, I might add.

When asked if everything was all right, I said no. They wanted to know what was wrong. I told them a couple of things. My husband mentioned a thing or two. Nothing had been done prior to us mentioning those things. Right before we left, what I heard from one of the people behind the register was “we do the best we can.” Hmmm.

Result: Unsatisfactory visit. Too many things wrong. No attention to details at all. No cleaning of the table. No interest in keeping it stocked well. Not very good service at all. The only bright thing was that the buffet was cheaper than the Ash Flat Pizza Hut. This cost $5.49. This would be about a 2 out of 5 pizza rating. And the only reason it gets that is the cost, the special order and the waitress who was attentive.

These visits were totally different. It shows what happens when people are happy where they work, are attentive to their customers and care that the customer gets what they order or want. Pizza Hut execs, you should take note of the vast difference in the way the stores are handled. Amazingly, the store that worked the best is in a rural area but is still quite busy at lunch time. They were not pressed to get it right. They had it going on. The other store which is in a larger town with a college, could not handle the crowd in a much smaller dining area. And the tables appear to be similar in size. I should mention this one thing too. If I am not mistaken, the rural PH is larger than the other one. That means that they are far superior in all respects to the other PH that’s in a city.

My husband has a blog that deals with cooking, recipes and lots of things to do with the kitchen. And he has a list of the other cooking blogs that he likes. Through all of it, one of the things I like so much are the chocolate recipes. And that is a problem in itself. I love chocolate! Love the recipes for brownies and other recipes that use chocolate. I also love raspberry recipes. They’re so great.

I do think there is a problem though. With our family seeing these recipes and trying them out, we could have real sugar issues some time. But also, we do see that there are other things that we cannot ignore. I mean, you know what it was like to be a teenager, right? I remember. Most of us had to battle the big zit problem one way or another. And with all those chocolate recipes, our niece will be looking for acne solutions sooner rather than later if this keeps up. So, we have decided that he can write the recipes but we can’t always try the recipes like we would love to do. And that can be the best solution for us right now. But I do miss my chocolate. Sigh.

Today, I decided to try out the Pizza Hut Online website. We received coupons in the mail that stated they had online capability. While it may be normal and even easy for you with a larger version computer, my computer had problems. It was extremely slow loading. It was extremely slow with virtually everything. And it kept wanting things that it did not specify. For instance, it wanted all numbers or all letters…..in what, we have no idea. It wasn’t the password. It wasn’t my name or address. We have no idea what it’s problem was.

I simply was not happy with the way the website operated. In fact, it was so bad that I completely nuked my signup and order. You have to understand that we live in a rural area where this particular store does not deliver at all. But we could have a carryout. They have only quite recently offered internet ordering for this area. Yes, I do know. Archaic, right? But that’s the way it is out here in rural America.

The problem that we see is that the page is loaded with flash which does not do well on my computer. Because of that, the site was too slow for literally anything. It took the better part of 5 minutes to load from the front page to the order page. It went downhill from there. That is not good for anyone wanting to order anytime this century. We have wasted most of an hour trying to get this to work. The next step is to bypass the website altogether and call them like we usually do. And that’s the way it is today.

EDIT NOTE: I should tell you that we have DSL so it should not have taken so long.

Normally, I do not have a lot of good things to say about Walmart. At one time, they were pretty good, great in fact, but that was before Sam Walton died. Since then, I truly believe that those in charge have forgotten what pleasing the customer really means, something Sam Walton believed in totally. However, once in a while, something really good comes from Walmart.

This particular product is actually a Sam’s Club product but it has made it’s way into the Supercenters. Actually, I was told about this product by my Mom and my sister, both singing the praises of it. If you like grilled burgers, you will love Black Angus Beef Patties! These things are huge, have loads of juices and taste like they dropped off the grill a few moments ago. It is a new product in the Sam’s Choice line. The box says Backyard Gourmet. Black Angus Beef patties come in 6 one third pound patties in several actual flavors. For instance, the one that I am reading right now is Swiss Cheese and Mushroom. They also have Vidalia Onions. I cannot remember the others but there are several.

I have to admit that the box is a tad hard to read on the back where the instructions and stats are but the burgers are so good that we put them in things too! Cooked up by themselves, they are so juicy and good. Break them up into a casserole or slow cooker meal and you have more zing! These burgers keep their taste right through it all. I recommend them to everyone!