Crap. With Green in the Name.

*sigh* I have had a lot of pictures build up in my little "Blog Pictures" folder but this one has been sitting in here for quite some time. Went here quite some time ago with my fiance and some friends. It got decent reviews ... perhaps we went on a bad night?

Pretty intimate setting. Very dark.

Decor is pretty nice. Small place. They have this little front bar area with some small tables and a separate side with other tables. When we went in they said they had reservations booked up and there was no space in the main dining hall. Note to you readers, when we ordered a group of six got their table in the main dining room. About five tables remaining.

Whatever this was, some kind of thinly sliced cured meat with a salad ... it is not on the menu any more and thank goodness. It was not very good. There was a strong overpowering bitterness with the salad. The meat was cured to the extent of defining sodium in its true form. My tongue was confused and upset. It was either leaning on bitter or salty. No in between. It wasn't like ... hmm this salad is a bit bitter (from say something awesome like arugula) so I think I will pair it with this savory meat. No, it was, oh my dog crap, this is like chewing on orange zest, maybe I can save my tongue ... but wait I just put a salt bar into my mouth. Fail and fail.

The green beans were undercooked. Too hard and chewy. Sorry I don't remember this dish but nothing stood out.

Braised beef ... whatever. I'm an idiot. Gambling on what a waitress thinks is good. Speaking of her ... my fiance, friends and I agreed something smelled of ass. It might have been her or someone else working 'cause someone needed a freaking shower. Or roll in mud. That's how pigs do. Braised crap is fail for me always. I need to keep reminding myself so I will never ever consider it again.

I enjoyed the tomatoes. Meh, next.

Steak was actually not too bad. Went well with the huge tomato and crispy onions. Maybe one of the better dishes of the night.

Bacon wrapped filet. Bacon was a bit burnt. So a bit bitter from the char. Besides that it was alright. Not as good. I would say this one screamed traditional American dinner to me (especially with the peas).

I am a sucker who bends over for donuts. Sadly, underwhelming also.

Fruit crisp with blueberries on top. My fiance hates warm fruit. Our friend enjoyed this dessert. So by the time we finished our meal, there was still four tables open. Subpar food, stuck up waitresses, and smelly ass people or establishment. Meh. I doubt I will go back unless a friend insists, threatened, blind-folded, clubbed over the head, brought by gun point, or the menu looks so enticing I will roll around in a grass field while daydreaming and looking forward to such a menu. Oh yeah, the price point is also sucks.

Green Street Tavern
69 W. Green Street
Pasadena, CA 91105
626-229-9961
http://www.greenstreettavern.net

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A Boba Place.

Mmmm hmmm. You read that title right. Why would I eat at a boba house? Tea Station for that matter? You know I definitely do not have a good reason but I ended up here one day. I think we were close by and thought "Hm, I wonder how their food is, we see a lot of people eating there so let's try it."

Assorted cold dish appetizer. Needed more sauce. You're better off going to a nearby Taiwanese place, would be better and cheaper.

Ramen with egg & ham. Tasted like they bought packaged ramen and made it for me. Fail.  Horrible of me to think I would get anything half decent.

Popcorn Chicken. You can get this anywhere. Would be cheaper.

Mmmm hmm. Eat better elsewhere and cheaper. Nothing else to say.

Tea Station
18558 Gale Ave.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-839-2588
http://www.teastation.us

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Snow. Shaved. Journey Continues.

La Kaffa in Rowland Heights. This place is pretty close to Class 302 and a huge plus about this Cafe is that it is not as busy as Class so on busy day you might only have to wait ten minutes for seats. The good? Their milk snow is comparable. Their green tea snow is a little better than Class 302. The bad: the toppings. Bleh. Canned! Canned! Horrible.

You only get to choose two toppings and condensed milk is one of them ... so essentially you get one canned topping. The mangoes were sour and painful to take down. The snow is good though. If Class 302 is friggen busy then you come here.

Is this place worth it? Yeah I guess but only if you don't want to wait for Class 302. Personally, waiting 45 - 60 minutes vs. not much of a wait to get (generally) what you're craving then that's fine. 

La Kaffa
17883-D Colima Rd.
City of Industry, CA 91714
626-810-1351

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Snow. Shaved. First Part of the Journey.

Oh Pa Pa Walk, how we enjoy your shaved snow so much. There's so many shaved snow establishments now. Fluff Ice, which is utter crap. La Kaffa, eh. Boiling Point, alright. Class 302, not too bad but only certain flavors are good. I'll break down why I like Pa Pa Walk last by going through these to explain each.

Fluff Ice. Looks like a Yogurtland brother except it's shaved snow instead. They have a bunch of flavors and you get to choose a couple toppings. My friend and I decided to try this in Monterey Park when it was fairly new. I do not care how new or old an eatery can be but dang, how in the world did they manage to convince themselves this trash in the form of ice would sell?

It's like shaved ice and shave snow had a reject child. Horrible texture. Horribly, heavy artificial taste. Oh my goodness slap me for wasting $5. Cute little cup right? Plentiful toppings ... canned crap moosh. Disappointing and to make matters worse they strategically place all the rubbish over the snow so you will not figure out how unappealing it is. Thumbs down. Please make sure to take off your pants and defecate in front of their store for producing such waste.


Even if your life depends on shaved snow do not come here. Wow this place is the sucks.

Fluff Ice
500 N. Atlantic Blvd.
Monterey Park, CA 91745
626-872-2123

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Not much.

My girlfriend loves nigiri. We're on an island, so I figured why not try a sushi place in Kihei? It received decent reviews by people on the Internet. But who is to say that is even correct? Hell, you don't even need to consider my reviews as anything relevant. All I know is I take all reviews with a grain of salt and just go with an open mind. The only issue is sometimes I get overly interested in the food and over order. Happens a lot and we end up with a lot of leftovers and a high bill. Haha. So we drive to the southern part of Maui to try out this place after a loooong day of driving. It's in a strip mall and it was not too busy when we arrived. However, after we sat down more and more people started coming in.

Salmon Nigiri. The girlfriends favorite. Taste was not fresh, she did not enjoy it. Tasted a bit old or frozen ...? Not sure how to describe it but dissatisfied.

Soft Shelled Crab. I usually like this and I'm not sure how old these were or where they were purchased but these small crabs were pretty much hollow. I would dip it in the sauce and surprisingly the ponzu sauce would get absorbed through the batter and into the gaps in the crab so when I bite down, I get a splash of citrus ponzu in my mouth. Overpriced and ripped off.

Ramen. I'm a fan of ramen. My better half enjoys it sometimes but does not enjoy it to the extent I do. This bowl of soupy ramen was probably the only half decent thing we ate at the restaurant. I don't know what it is but even this isn't anything great compared to ramen you could get in Southern California. The noodles tasted like it was packaged, nothing fresh made in-house nor purchased from someone who specializes in ramen. Shoyu soup base was bland, did not seem like anything was simmering for hours. Fish cake was questionable. Hollow and dry, no density in it ... what was this ... fish jerky they threw into the bowl in hopes it would suck up some of the soup-base and expand? *sigh* DO NOT even mention Daikokuya to me. I will cover that establishment at a later time.

Gyoza. Came with the little ramen set. Typical frozen bulk packaged stuff. Tastes like many of the different dumplings you could find at local Asian supermarkets.

Miso Crusted Butterfish. Yeah ... overly fatty, overcooked, lacking in seasoning/glaze.

Oh my you can't imagine how sad we were. Disappointment to the tenth degree. Cheese! So dissatisfied, I recall we ended up dropping by to try a pizza place in Lahaina, which I'll do for my next review. Seriously, this place was a waste of our money. Perhaps our palates are spoiled by the local sushi places we frequent so often or we have just grown to know what is good and fresh nigiri. What I do know: the sushi and cooked food was not very good here. Worst part: being Hawaii, quite overpriced. We lose!

Izakaya Matsu
1280 S. Kihei Rd., Suite 120
Kihei, HI 96753
808-874-0990

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French. In A Wall.

Alright ... so Gregoire in Berkeley. Under Yelp it is categorized as French & Gourmet Ghetto. I am definitely unsure of what Gourmet Ghetto would be besides perhaps being a nicer cramped small crappy looking place. Gregoire is nicely decorated. Cute boxes. Super small but lots of places in Berkeley do not have the luxury to be spacious. Staff is quite friendly, because when I came here I had no idea what to order and the cashier just suggested things that were good and what was most popular. Besides his suggestions, Yelpers seemed to rave about the potato puffs so definitely needed to try those. So onto the food:

Garlic Fries. Of course we had to try them. My better half is a fried food (especially potatoes) fanatic and what's not to enjoy about the intoxicating scent of garlic on fresh fries out of the fryer? Only problem? Fries were either too old or a bad batch. Over cooked potatoes are usually just really crunchy. This batch we got some crunchy, some hollowed out, some hollowed out with oil floating in it. Either way, the nice smell was superceded by the horribly disappointing quality of the fries and lack of any attention going into the batch of fries in the fryer. We ended up throwing it away after maybe 1/4 of the fries because we picked out all the edible ones. My significant other did not want to waste it but I just snatched it passed it to the trash can.

Potato Puffs. I don't let hype get to me too much so I had a good idea of what this would be like. I just thought it would be fried a little more but geez, this puff is literally a scoop of mashed potatoes thrown into the fryer to lightly crisp the outside. Taste is nothing special, actually quite bland, and makes me want to just eat a serving of mashed potatoes with gravy.

Steak Sandwich. Keep in mind that Gregoire changes the menu every couple months so I went about, 4 months ago. Anyway, the bread was nicely toasted, meat was tender, and nice tasty roasted peppers. I did enjoy this sandwich. Is it something I would go out of my way for? Not really because this place is really small and pretty busy most of the time. My better half said it was fine but didn't stand out to her either. There's more options considering this is only a block from a small little "food court" and Cheese Board Collective. There's other options nearby. If you're curious to try the potato puffs go for it but to us, it was not something special that makes you smile and want to throw a puff then hope it magically lands in someone's mouth so they can experience a sense of happiness.

Gregoire
2109 Cedar St.
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-883-1893

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Coffee? (Scoffffff)

This is where we found ourselves after finishing up at The Stinking Rose.

Friend suggested we just go up the street (about a block) to try out this little Cafe and get some coffee. Clean up our palates and get some sweets. Seemed pretty busy, lot of people outside (but I come to realize maybe it was for the Cafe right next door) and a couple people inside.

I realized not many places serve good coffee. Starbucks isn't good. Coffee Bean isn't too great either. Had their Brazilian Light Roast the other day, black, no sugar or cream. Acidity was low, not a very full bodied coffee and the beans were fried to hell. How do I know they went to hell and managed to come back in this dark liquid form, the bitterness that screamed "I was a decent bean whose family, along with self, were kidnapped, grounded, and burnt by scolding water temperatures only to have all our flavors stripped from us."

Back to what I LOVE to emphasize: service. Here's our conversation:
Me: "So what kind of beans do you use to brew your coffee?"
Man: "Illy"
Me: "Oh right, duh (finally realizing their little canisters with Illy written all over them)"
Man: (waiting with notepad)
Me: "Are there different types of Illy beans or you use the same beans for everything?"
Man: "Illy"
Me: "Okay ..."
Me: "I guess I'll try a cup of that"

Yeah......

Here's the coffee. Full bodied, high acidity, mild bitterness. Not great but better than Starbucks.

My better half and friend got the hot chocolate. It was fine. Upgrade from a packet of Swiss Miss. Didn't use great chocolate though but overall not half bad. Can actually taste the chocolate ... milk chocolate I think. Some mint chocolate chip gelato was also ordered and it was fine. Just nice to get a little bit of flavor on the tongue since The Stinking Rose was just superb ....

Would I come here again? Never. Would I suggest you visit? Sure why the hell not if you need some coffee, little goodies, and just so happen to be in the neighborhood. Do I agree with the Yelpers on this place? Hell no. 

Caffe Greco
423 Columbus Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-397-6261

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Stinking Rose, Food & Service

Alright menu is pretty basic. My brother has gone to the Stinking Rose in Los Angeles and told me it was not very good. I love garlic and a couple friends wanted to give this place a try. Why not? My better half and I are always up for trying new restaurants. First thing that needs to be mentioned is the service. Yeah they gave us a couple minutes to figure out what we want. Horrible wait staff, just carry around their little PDA-like devices and just ask what we want, "Okay" and leave. Nothing about suggestions, just nothing over all. I definitely regret giving 15% tip. For me, if you give decent service I don't mind 15% or more. If you ignore me I'll give you 5% or less. Anyway, I'll get down to what was ordered and what we thought of everything. Things ordered from the menu:

Roasted Garlic Potato Onion Soup

Here's a picture of it after poking into the little pastry top. The pastry was a bit fun. Didn't taste like anything ... not even salted butter. The soup itself was equivalent to a can of Campbell's Cream of Potato except less sodium and a little bit more potato. I'd much rather go buy the preservative filled cream of potato, get some terrible Pillsbury pastry and bake 'em together in the oven. I didn't taste any onion, nor find any chunks or bits of onion either. Very misleading. Looked nice when it came out, everything went downhill for this soup after taking my first taste.

Bagna Calda. Ordered this because that's what the place is known for right? I enjoyed it because I like garlic. Grilled, raw, however you want to make it. So this was fine, but the little cheese/garlic rolls they offer with it are not good. Little salty, and looks like there might be a cheesy or garlicy taste to it but the rolls are not good. Doesn't even seem freshly baked, maybe even a little old. I had two rolls and just avoided it for the rest of the night.

Mussels & Shrimp. Not bad. I do like the garlic shoved into the mussels and the garlic butter dipping sauce. My better half and friends seemed to enjoy this dish. I did not try the shrimp but the size looked fine and they seemed well-seasoned. The mussels were not over cooked but they were a bit small so for $19.95 ... pass.

Garlic Roasted Prime Rib. Crap. Medium Rare is apparently medium tough and unflavorful. Cheap slice of meat, not tender, not flavored well, au jus and horseradish hardly made this dish edible. Mashed potatoes were dense and bland. The creamed swiss chard tasted like warm green tea ice cream except it has this mud like texture in your mouth (because who hasn't accidentally gotten mud in their mouths as a child right ... lol). See that little container with the green contents. It's basically raw garlic and green onions with some salt in olive oil. I think I put that on everything for the extra flavor and spice.

Our friends ordered the Portobello Mushroom Baked on a Bed of Roasted Vegetables and Silence of the Lamb Shank with Chianti Glaze & Fava Beans. Tried a piece of the portobello, tasted like it could have been grilled by anyone who knows how to operate a stove, oil, pan, salt and pepper. Lamb shank, I'm not a big fan of lamb but it was salty. All I know from this dish is salt. All our friend kept emphasizing was how salty it was and the ten cups of water he drank accompanying each bite could not convey the high sodium levels enough. The stupid thing was our friend asked for the Clams with Fresh Black Linguine & Garlic Parsley Shallot Sauce. Awesome staff gave us lamb. What I love more than service equivalent to the productivity of a goat in the wild is when this service can hardly understand the English language. I'm such a moron for giving 15% tip.

Overall, don't ever try this place, don't ever think about trying this place, don't ever just don't. Expensive, crappy everything, waste of money. Only good part of the night was hanging out with friends.

The Stinking Rose
325 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-781-7673

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