Like I wrote in "800," I went to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.  Usually casino grub isn't worth writing about but this one was the exception.
I arrived around midnight and hungry.  The great thing about casinos is that they always have a restaurant (or four) open all night long.  Mohegan Sun was no different and I went to Fedelia's for a quick bite.
Now, when you go to a late-night eatery, what do you expect?  Hot, tasty food served quick?  Hardly.  You expect cafeteria food at lukewarm temperatures with a long wait.  Since it was late but I needed something to carry me through a couple hours gaming, I ordered the Ugly Mug of Roasted Chicken and Corn soup and a side order of french fries.
The food arrived on my table in under five minutes.
Sure, it's soup they keep in a water bath and fries they keep under a heat lamp - how hard could it be?  But no, this soup was piping hot.  And tasty.  The fries were perfect: freshly fried, crisp and hot.  Holy smokes, this was PERFECT cafeteria food.
Which made me wonder.  Why is it that I can go to a small, supposedly quality-oriented, restaurant and the food is worse?  Like the other week at Mama's On The Half Shell in Baltimore - the seafood chowder was tepid at best.  Or another trip to Cafe Hon where the gravy fries were limp, lifeless and supposedly covered in a transparent liquid that was supposedly brown gravy.
Here I was, at an institutional monstrosity, in the middle of a weekday night with barely any patrons and the food was just stellar.  Exactly the way it was supposed to be and served by a friendly group of staffers.
I wish more restaurants would take their cues from this example.
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