Onward Communism

The darkness has descended
Everything is bleak
Depression has set in
The restaurant on a hill
Sucks your will to live
Oh the despair
Of the stark interior
A Russian novel 
Has Nothing on the China Star

I went to the China Star (9421 Metcalf, Overland Park) while I was waiting on a new windshield installation just down the street. I had time to kill so I figured a little walk and a leisurely buffet would serve me well. Unfortunately this place put me in a funk for nearly a week.

The interior is so bland and cold that it almost literally takes your breath away. It might remind someone of a restaurant in an Alexander Payne movie. I could just see Schmidt sitting in there eating moo shoo  pork the week after his wife died. I wish I were joking, but that's what I was thinking of the entire time I was eating.

I can't really say anything bad about the food. I mean if you subscribe to the food is fuel argument then I was definitely refueled, but it was like putting 87 octane in a racecar. All the dishes tasted the same, it seemed kind of silly to get different things. By my third trip to the buffet I just grabbed a half plate of the food closest to my table. It wasn't worth the effort to get something labeled differently. All that being said, the food wasn't awful. I could chew it and swallow it and it had some flavor and that flavor was mildly pleasant.

While I was in there I saw the counter lady from the windshield place that helped me. When I got back to pick up my car we talked about our experience and our need for a Prozac prescription. I truly feel that she is my sister now. When you share an experience like eating at China Star, the bond is strong and can probably never be broken.