the great food court project: special guest food court

Last night I had to go to Perimeter Mall to get a haircut. Since it was around dinner time, I decided to head to the food court as part of The Great Food Court Project. While Perimeter Mall's food court has many overlapping restaurants with the Lenox food court, the food court that is at the true center of The Great Food Court Project, there were some intriguing differences. I decided to dine at an establishment available only at Perimeter, to determine if it was a restaurant that Lenox should pursue as well. In other words, were there wonderful secrets in Perimeter that might make it the superior area food court?

Initially I was going to eat a sushi place but the line was too long, and I was kinda craving something warm. I was on my way to Panda Express, so I could do a side-by-side comparison of Asian places in malls, as one of my last food court reviews considered Lenox's Asian Chao. But on my way to the corner housing Panda Express, I was stopped by a sample lady from a place I'd never seen before, in any food court: Lani Grille.

Guessing from the name and the palm trees that were on a wallpaper border, I'm guessing this place is supposed to be sort of Hawaiian or tropical. But I don't think you'd really know that from the food. The sample I received had a name like Florentine Chicken, and it was grilled chicken in a creamy spinach sauce, and just by the name you can tell that they were going more for Italy than for Hawaii. They also had a chicken option that was supposed to be Mexican Chicken of some sort, for it was basically grilled chicken in what looked like a fancy nacho cheese. Now that I type that out I kinda regret not getting it.

Intrigued by Lani Grille, I decided to stay. The menu was just a piece of paper saying that you could get one type of chicken (they had four), rice, and salad for $5.99. I went for a chicken that I don't know the name of, but it was basically grilled chicken in a tangy sauce with onions. It was good. At times it tasted sorta like barbeque, and sometimes the tang made it taste a little like teriyaki. That could spell trouble for Lani Grille as they're located across the way from Sakkio Japan, much more revered for teriyaki in the food court world. The only bad thing I can say about my meal is that it was probably not the best thing to eat before a haircut, when you've got someone right up in your face. Particularly if you're chatty with your haircut guy, as I am.

I'd also like to point out that Lani Grille, in addition to the chickens and salads, had several side dishes, but I don't know how those worked because they weren't described on that piece of paper menu. Perhaps this place is new. But I worry for them, because I don't think they're universal enough to be in a food court. Let's say I had gone to Panda Express instead; if someone had asked me what I had for dinner, I could have said "Chinese food" or "General Tso's chicken." Whereas now, all I can report is that I ate a chicken dish that I don't know the name of, from a culture that was sort of indistinguishable as unique if indeed Lani Grill is trying to represent a culture. That's just not distinctive enough. And I think it gave other customers trouble too. I heard one man saying, "What is it?" as if hoping for a one word answer. But the woman, who didn't speak English very well, simply handed him a sample. I don't know if Lani Grille would fare very well at Lenox.

While I ate I watched this mother and daughter who went to Panda Express. They both had kids' meals and I was pretty interested in how the mom got away with that. Neither of them spoke to the other the whole time; all the mom did was play with her blackberry. The girl watched some teenagers who looked like the kind of teenagers who went to the mall because they had nothing else to do. You know the kind.