Just returned from The Tonga Room's happy hour and buffet.
Herewith my unabashed review--be aware that I gave the discount
password on the way in, so they knew I was drinking and dining on
the cheap.
OVERALL---An excellent evening, definitely justifying my expressed
desire to keep The Tonga Room in operation.
DECOR---No huge tikis, just a comfortable South Pacific feeling with
even some sailing ship tackle and of course the pool. Basically red walls
seemed fitting. Thunderstorms as fine as ever.
SERVICE---Friendly and quite conscientious without feeling oily. They
did bring my tab without the promised discount, but when I held up
the offending tab to a passing waiter, he saw without a word from me
that the discount was missing and immediately had it applied. Best
waitstaff I've encountered in a while.
LIME DAIQUIRI---Well made, with premium quality lime juice.
EDAMAME---Freshest I've had in my recent restaurant experience. The
smokey and spicy flavor was quite appealing when I ate a few of them
shells and all, but disappeared when I ate just the hulled beans.
FRIED RICE---Superb. A variety of rice types and colors (even black),
each cooked to the right degree and fried with no obnoxious oiliness.
Pure rice; no vegies etcetera mixed in.
CHOW MEIN---The one weak link. Food-court quality.
SEAWEED SALAD---A mellow version with very good flavor, no excess
of vinegar, and no feeling of eating fish fodder.
EGG ROLLS---A rather good vegetarian version, with the insides done
to a nicely mushy, almost pureed consistency, and the very thin outer
layers fried crisp but not burnt. The accompanying sauce was the best
egg roll dip I've yet encountered! But note that there is no heating unit
under the egg roll plate, so they can be anything from piping hot to
luke warm, depending on how long ago they were put out. Not that this
bothered me--they tasted fine to me either way.
CHICKEN WINGS---Beautifully fried; meat falling off the bones without
being at all dry. I'm talking about the center section pieces (with double
bones in them) which fortunately were in plentiful supply. IMHO no
real chicken wing buff would waste time on the "drumstick" sections
with their dry, tough and flavorless meat. The ones with sweet chili
sauce were nicely flavored and not too sweet. Those with the hot sauce
also had good flavor and were of medium heat.
MELON PIECES---At least 3 melon varieties that seemed ripe but not
syrupy. Some of them were crisp and chewy, but I would not call them
tough. They were sprinkled with an herb I did not recognize, but which
seemed admirably appropriate.
DRESS---Yuppy casual. Sport shirts, a few non-distressed jeans,
even some athletic shoes, but no droopy pants or T-shirts. Sadly, I was
the only person I saw who was wearing anything island or tiki.
(Note on tipping. My tab after discount and before tax was $15.68.
Knee-jerk 15% tippers would have tipped about $2.35. I left five
dollars, because the price was exceptionally low for what I got, and
the service was quite high. I hope that any of you who patronize
happy hour will consider doing something similar.)
