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Ballston Redux

For reasons beyond my understanding I keep going back to Ballston Quarter expecting to find something special.  I keep being disappointed.  Construction is still a bear.  You either have to walk across Wilson Blvd two or three times to deal with sidewalk closures or walk blocks around the whole thing.  When I arrived this time the barn doors were open which was actually nice.  It was a pretty day and people were strolling in and out, taking advantage of the variety of seating options.  The food choices, however, landed me back in an unhappy place.  I was going to get something from the Mi & Yu Noodle Bar for lunch and grab a pizza for dinner from Turu's by Timber Pizza (the first time I tried to get a pizza from them they were "out" of pizza).  Doing take-out from the Noodle Bar proved a tad problematic.  On one hand they gave me a ton of food, but on the other hand it was all in separate containers (broth, tofu, udon noodles, vegetables) with no way to mix them.  So I switched out -- I would get the pizza for lunch and take the Noodle Bar offering home.  Problem #2.  The internet crashed and the pizza place could only take cash.  Plus, the service was really slow.  They only had one person working the register (with others standing around complaining about their jobs??!?) so after I finally placed my order I waited around, only to see a customer come back to complain about her pizza being burned (it was) and the guys behind me get their order before me.  Given that they ordered a pepperoni pizza and a salad and I only ordered a cheese pizza, this was perplexing, but whatever.  The pizza was decent.  Not a Margarita (my fave) it still had mozzarella cheese mixed with other cheeses, a tangy tomato sauce and a nicely chewy, tangy crust.  Inexplicably the basil wasn't added to the pizza but placed in a corner of the box.  This mystified me and made for an odd tasting addition.  In any case it was acceptable pizza but the hassle in getting it kind of wore me out.  The bowl from Mi & Yu was less impressive.  The toppings, noodles, tofu, an egg, some chopped veggies, was bland and boring.  Worse yet, the supposed veggie broth wasn't veggie and I ended up ... well, you know where I ended up.  So I won't go back to that particular shop.  Will I continue to keep "trying out" Ballston?  Oh, probably.  I just hope I can find a winner in this food court of duds.

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