Would it surprise you to learn that the food at Level 257, a gargantuan Pac-Man-themed Dave & Busters-style arcade-slash-bowling alley-slash-restaurant at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, isn’t very good? How do you like the sound of a “Filet Mig-nom,” an unpronounceable $34 steak served with a Donkey Kong barrel potato? For clarity, a DK barrel potato is a spud that’s been impregnated with a squirt of mashed potatoes, a sort of Frankenstein version of a twice-baked potato, except with not enough of the good, buttery filling. (See below.)
Things kind of went haywire from there. An order of meatballs, each one topped with a spicy marinara and a gob of fresh mozzarella, is pretty unremarkable, but disappeared a lot faster than the other appetizer we ordered, the server-recommended tiki rumaki. It’s hard to imagine that cheese wrapped with beef wrapped with bacon could be bad, but these were pretty lame, thanks in no small part to flavorless, spongy beef and a slick loogie of cheese that basically evanesced on contact with the tongue. I’d be very surprised if these little bundles were made fresh on a nightly basis.
