Expo Expedition (Part 2)

by Monica Liau
on Friday, May 28, 2010

The Expo has over 128 restaurants. Figuring out where to eat in the massive grounds is still a bit of a mission. Last week, I talked about eating on the fly. Why sit down and have a nice meal when there are so many new countries to get stamped into my handy-dandy Expo passport? But there does come a point when your feet are so dog-tired that lines are no longer possible, making any ensuing cultural education meaningless. Then, it's time to find a sit-down restaurant.

Speaking of the sit-down restaurants, one piece of gossip I've been hearing on the grapevine is that the restaurant chains within the Expo are, for the most part, not making much money (especially those higher-end establishments). The wayward chefs and waiters excited by the "Expo Possibilities" may come to rue the day they abandoned ship at their anchored establishment.

However, when gallivanting through Zone C - which includes the oddly patronizing "Africa" Pavilion and several "innovative" European Pavilions - restaurants seemed to see a far from dissipated crowd even at 3pm, after the obvious lunch-hour crunch. Tourists were in a feeding frenzy at Bricco Café, where you had to arm-wrestle your way into a table. Mexican newcomer Mi Tierra has a relatively big space in the Mexican Pavilion, and seemed to be dishing up tacos at a rapid rate to hungry customers. Obviously, all of the KFCs are one big party all the time - don't even bother going to those.

Surprisingly though, some other big-name restaurants are not doing as well as expected. I had heard that Haiku by Hatsune, one of the more chic names in Japanese cuisine, was doing a roaring trade in their Zone C location. When I popped in for a glance though, the inside was bare and the waitresses were desperately trying to bring in customers from the street. Perhaps it was just an odd hour for sushi. South Beauty, which has several sites throughout the Expo, also had a bunch of empty tables - same went for Japanese Tenya.

I hear the restaurants that populate the Expo Village are doing even worse. Aside from Bubba's Texas-style BBQ, which serves up those beloved American South sandwich morsels, the gossip chain says that absolutely no one is getting any customers, including Paulaner Brauhaus and New York Style Pizza. Too bad, since both are great place to grab a beer and a bite.

Having traversed the Expo top to bottom, I only have one last question: where the hell is the Expo Village?