Worst dinner ever!

I practically came running back home just to post how horrible this dish was! My son and I went to Cafe Mimosa for the first time tonight, I've been wanting to try it for a while. I didn't read through all the entrees because I quickly found something that I knew I wanted as soon as I read the description. Lime Beef. I don't remember the exact description, but it did include 'thinly sliced beef braised to a medium-rare pink'. That was all it took- I love my beef. In a perfect meal you would have a beef appetizer, followed by beef entree, and end it with a slice of beef for dessert!
My 7 year old is not an adventurous eater- I ordered the barbeque beef spareribs appetizer and a side of fried rice for him.
When the plates came out I was hit with an unpleasant odor. Then I saw the beef piled up on my plate. Instead of thin, pink slices it was well-cooked chunks. I thought it looked awfully dry. I took a bite and my fears were confirmed- very dried out and it had the most disgusting taste I've ever put in my mouth. I don't know if it was marinated or had been seasoned during cooking but it was just gross!
My son ate a bit of fried rice, which was just typical fast-food Chinese fried rice. We both picked at his ribs, they were edible but I wouldn't say they were good.
I didn't send my dish back because I think it was just my personal tastes that didn't care for it, not that they had done something wrong. But I could not pay the check and get out of there fast enough. So now I'm out almost $27 and I'm still hungry

I stopped at Cafe Mimosa. That was enough said for me.

never again for us either.

Here's the deal at Cafe Mimosa. Left side of the menu is mostly genuine Vietnamese. Right side is dishes that seem Vietnamese but are mostly yuppie fusion fare from the original Mimosa in Oxmoor Center from the 1980's. Right side dishes, including the curries, used to go from the deep-freeze to the microwave, when I worked there in the 1990's. Last time I looked at the menu it was the same one original owner Huong Trahn brought to current Bardstown location. Much better and fresher Vietnamese is available at VK, Annie's or that place on Strawberry Lane, whose name currently evades me.

never again for us either.

I agree .. however it was one of our favorite restaurants years ago, with different owners of course.

Can't imagine how it stays open.

Well I have never been there but I think now if I went I would have to be really chemically enhanced. Just to get through it.

I have not eaten there since the early - mid 90's , but it was great back then. It was a weekly regular for carry-out and they had a big following. I hate to hear that has changed.

Stopped eating @ CM long ago. My problem was with the restrooms. Nasty! filthy! Yuck Yuck Yuck!

I loved the place in the late 80s/early 90s. Then it switched over to the current format. The last time I ate there the food tasted funny. I came home and had to throw up.

Never again.

I ate there for the last time recently. I ordered carry out and found a bobby pin in my seaweed salad.

I was walking around in the Highlands a couple weeks ago with a good friend and we walked past Cafe Mimosa.

Me: Remember when we used to eat here all the time and we thought it was really good?

Him: Yeah, I was just thinking that!

Has the food gotten worse in the last 5 years or so or did our unrefined palates just not know any better then? I haven't been there in ages and based on my last few experiences there, I have no desire to go. Too many other yummy Asian places around the city and other sorts of really good food in that particular area of town to bother.

The thing is that Cafe Mimosa is wildly variable. I've had one really good meal there -- the first time I ate there, almost two years ago now. Since then, I've had meals ranging from pretty good through passable to vile and then back again. (Recently, people wanted to order there at a board game night and I was outnumbered; at least the food was decent. The place is still on my "bad list", I think.)

never again. here too.

Looks like I'm in good company...I've had meals before that weren't great or that I wasn't crazy about- but I've never had something that was so awful I couldn't even eat it. I am a firm believer in cleaning your plate, but not this time!

Though I don't go there as often and haven't actually eaten in the restaurant in almost a year...I get carryout probably every other month or so and still find it incredibly good. Allthough I definitely don't get it as frequently as I did at one time...but there are just so many other good places to eat. Lately I find myself more down on Lemongrass Cafe than Mimosa. Although they did change the peanut sauce for the summer rolls at CM and I didn't care at all for the new stuff...it was like liquidy peanut butter.

I haven't had the Lime beef in years though....it was the first thing I ever had at CM...and then it was slices of beef in what I thought was a wonderful broth. I'll probably stay away from it now as well.

The Hunan Chicken and Lemongrass Combo are still the funk though.