Kielbasa King

I usually treat mall food with a good degree of skepticism, and rightly so. At the behest of a fellow suburban Unilocaler some time ago, I thought I’d finally give this place a try. I took my older son to lunch at the Golf Mill Mall. He got a McD Kids chicken nugget meal while I went for a Kielbasa King buffet plate for $ 4.99. Seemed like a good value for a big piece of Polish sausage, some pork roast chunks, 2 pierogi and roasted potatoes. I thought it would be a good time to try them since it was before noon and before the lunch crowd. Service was fast since nobody was in line.
Being part Polish myself, I was leery of the name. Now I know why. Instead of crowning the Kielbasa King, I present thee with 4 articles of impeachment and prompt dethronement from the rank of good Polish food.
1. Let me begin with the potato pierogi. Nice in appearance but under the heat lamps on the dry pan of a steam table, the dough exterior becomes dry and leathery, part of it completely unchewable. And what’s up with the flavorless hot dog slices scattered around for good measure? True Polish pierogi are briefly boiled and served tender, not left on a metal pan for hours. Sliced hot dogs are not a companion dish to pierogies either.
2. The pork was OK, and probably the best of the meal though it looked a bit sloppy.
3. Roast potatoes… well, they were pretty bland and flavorless too, plus dried up under the heat lamps as well. Hard to swallow them, period.
4. Lucky for me, the kielbasa itself did not come from the display tray but fresh from the back. Still, its skin was dry and a bit overcooked. A properly cooked kielbasa should have a tender casing that pops and oozes a little liquid when poked with a fork. This sausage was tough on the outside, which is a characteristic of overcooking.
While I did not order the dumplings, they looked more like oversized egg rolls than Polish-​style dumplings. Using Kielbasa King as a baseline to judge Polish food would do a great injustice to the fine Polish delis around Chicago and the burbs that offer way better food.
Therefore, with a unanimous vote of the food court, Sir Kielbasa King, you have been removed from your culinary duties and relegated to 2^nd-​tier mall food ranking.
In the end, I wished I had a McNugget meal like my son.