mgpinkish "My cat and I are alike in that we like to overeat!"

Bo De Tinh Tam Chay is a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant. I give this restaurant five out of five stars because they deserve it. Their customer service is good. They serve delicious Vietnamese food and it’s vegetarian. For those of you that are against the idea of vegetarianism, you must not skip out on this restaurant. Although they don’t use meat in any of their food, they use a lot of imitation meat products. This means that meat lovers can continue to enjoy meat (even though it’s "meat") and vegetarians can continue to enjoy being vegetarian.

I’ve been to this restaurant when it was busy and when it wasn’t busy. Because of this, I had a chance to observe how they treat their customers in detail. On their busy day, they had a bunch of customers waiting in line to be seated. (You had to write your name down and the amount of people you came with.) Although their workers prefer to converse in Vietnamese, they treat all of their customers (Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese) equally. I caught a few customers who tried to cheat the long line and an employee solved the problem peacefully by asking for their name and checking with the sign in sheet. The employee did not okay the cheating and made those customers sign in at the bottom of the sign in sheet.

Based on what I’ve eaten, I believe they use good products to make their food. Their food fills you up and does not make you feel fat or bloated in the stomach. Your stomach feels light and that usually is a sign that your stomach is satisfied.

The owner(s) and/or the employees are probably Buddhist. When you walk inside the restaurant, you notice Buddhist posters on the wall. If you observe carefully enough, they even have a glass showcase filled with Buddhist objects (ex. lotuses and Buddhist statues.) They also have a cart ("bookcase") filled with Buddhist handouts, calendars and books. Most of these handouts, calendars and books are made available to the public for free.

I feel that because they’re Buddhist and make vegetarian food, they care about their customers’ well-being. I see this in the food that is served, how their employees treat customers and how they pack my take out orders.

I’ve ordered for to go once and I must admit that I was impressed. I felt as if they had treated me like a special customer. Food was not placed in typical cheap take out ware. They were placed in nice plastic take out containers. They also made sure that I had everything (ex. beansprouts, noodles, broth, “chicken”, limes, vegetables and etcetera) to enjoy their food as take out. I was in awe. It showed that they genuinely cared about their customers.

Although I give this restaurant a rating of five stars, a con to the restaurant exists. (No one’s perfect, right?)
Here is the con:
If you’re not familiar with Wesminster’s Little Saigon, you’ll have a hard time finding this restaurant. I can attempt to tell you how to find it, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll find the restaurant after I tell you how. There’s a mall called “Phuoc Loc Tho” or Asian Garden Mall. Face the front entrance of this mall. Don’t go inside the mall. Instead, go to the left of the mall and walk about halfway down. You should see Bo De Tinh Tam Chay to your left. Hopefully, my directions will help you in finding this restaurant. (If it helps, the restaurant is located in between the Asian Garden Mall and Little Saigon’s new housing project. As of date, the housing project is still under construction.)

Bo De Tinh Tam Chay is the right place to go to if you’re looking for a good restaurant. Superb customer service, healthy food and located right next to Little Saigon’s Asian Garden Mall. What’s not to love about eating and shopping? Hard to find, but well worth the search!

Thai Original BBQ Restaurant is located across from Cerritos’ Los Cerritos mall. It is usually packed with people. Anyone interested in grabbing a bite at this restaurant should come early, reserve a seat or call in ahead of time.

From the outside, the restaurant appears to be small. However, it is pretty spacious on the inside and is not cramped at all.

A fish tank greets you when you walk in. Waitors/waitresses get to you as soon as they can. (During busy hours, you need to sign in your name and wait to be seated.) The restaurant is clean and simply decorated. There are some interesting art posters framed onto the walls of the restaurant.

The restaurant is known for its BBQ chicken. (Thus, the name of the restaurant.) When my friends have a craving for good BBQ chicken, they automatically think of Thai Original BBQ restaurant. Other friends of mine also associate the restaurant with good Pad Thai or “classic Thai rice noodle dish with shrimp, bean sprouts, and egg, all scrambled in a flavorful sauce”. (I’ve had the Pad Thai here in the past and will say that it was on the sweet side, but still nonetheless, pretty good. As for the BBQ chicken, my mom says it’s delicious.)

There are many items to choose from at this restaurant. Pricing on food items range from $5.75 (lunch special items) to $14.25 (pla tod lard prik/peppery fish).

I recently ate at Thai Original BBQ Restaurant and I must say that I was satisfied with my food and dining experience.

I would like to also mention that the male waitor was good looking. ;) (He fell under the category of tall, dark and cute.)

UPDATE (7/26/2009)
I recently went to this restaurant. I must say that I was disappointed simply because their customer service has gone downhill from the last time I wrote this review. Also, the mee krob was a little bit on the burnt side this time around. I’m thinking of revisiting them soon. Let’s hope that they won’t disappoint me again.

Yogurtland occupies a space inside the Los Cerritos Mall that was once a Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store. It’s small and very cramped. If you’re claustrophobic, stay away from this place on their busy days (ie. school day afternoons). Also, don’t expect to eat your yogurt inside Yogurtland. There’s minimal seating available inside.

Yogurtland’s service isn’t that great. But what would you expect from employees who are teenagers that don’t intend on working here forever? Honestly though, it wouldn’t hurt to have better customer service skills.

If you’ve never been to a Yogurtland before, I will summarize it for you by telling you that it’s basically a self serve frozen yogurt place.

The good thing about Yogurtland is that they offer a variety of flavors such as, Plain Tart, New York Cheesecake, Green Tea, Strawberry, Peanut Butter, Taro and etcetera.

Another good thing about Yogurtland is that you get to pick and choose which flavors you want to consume. You also get to decide how much of each flavor you want, since you’re serving the yogurt to your own cup/pint. After you finish selecting the flavors, you move on to the toppings (cheesecake bites, cereal, oreos, kiwis, strawberries and etcetera) which are optional.

Payment goes by how much your yogurt cup/pint weighs. It costs 30 cents per ounce. (Don’t be too ecstatic about their pricing on yogurt. You could easily spend at least 8 dollars on your first frozen yogurt cup if you don’t watch what it is that you’re doing. The trick is to get only the flavors you want and only the toppings you want. You can always go back for more if your tummy isn’t full/satisfied the first time around.)

I will warn you that this Yogurtland isn’t as clean as it looks. I’ve caught their yogurt serving machines being dirty (sticky, wet and runny) many times. If you want to avoid seeing such uncleanliness, go there when they aren’t busy.

They also have a tendency to run out of flavors.

I understand that it’s hard to keep up with the needs of customers. However, they really should do something to improve their situation.

First, they should train their employees to be more cheerful and customer friendly.

Second, they should keep the frozen yogurt serving machines clean. (It’s not appetizing to see a gross looking machine.)

Third, they should try to do something about running out of flavors so frequently.

Fourth, I’ve come to notice their amazing collection of green/pink Yogurtland spoons. The funny thing is that they never hand out these spoons to customers. Cashiers always hand you a plain plastic spoon. Why not the nice pink/green Yogurtland spoon?

Honestly, I’m not fond of this place. If you like frozen yogurt or like Yogurtland and it happens to be crowded here, drive to Artesia’s Yogurtland instead. (They have a restroom there, aren’t crowded and have more tables and seats for you to eat your yogurt at.)

UPDATE (2/13/2009)
I recently went here and I would like you to know that they are now handing out their green/pink Yogurtland spoons. This is a nice improvement.

This restaurant has been through a lot of drama with public health inspectors. I remember eating there for the first time when they had a B. Then things started to go downhill when they got a C. After what seemed like an incredibly long time of sporting a C, they somehow managed to get an A. And to be honest with you, I’m proud of them for working hard enough to obtain an A. (I guess it makes me feel a little less gross for having dining inside a former C restaurant. I’m just kidding.)

In comparison to other Thai restaurants I’ve been to within the area, their restaurant is attractive. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that their restaurant is relatively new?) The chairs inside the restaurant are white and have an interesting look. Their walls are light brown/tan and carry an interesting design (the same design found on their website).

Their restaurant is always playing American music (pop or hip hop). They also have a T.V. and Thai puppets hung on a wall.

They have A LOT of waiters. You’re probably thinking that this is a good thing. However, it’s not. Their waiters are average when it comes to customer service. It’s hard to explain. Sure, they’ll seat you, take your order and ask how your meal is, but that’s basically almost it. Whatever happened to saying bye as you’re about to leave? There were two waiters standing next to the cashier (near the entrance/exit of the restaurant) and they didn’t even bother to say goodbye to me as I was leaving. Is it that hard to say bye or thank you? This happened to me more than once, so I know that it wasn’t because they didn’t see me leave the restaurant.

They can definitely improve in the area of customer service. Another area that they should try to work on is takeout. I’ve ordered food for to go before and every time I order a hot item (ex. some type of soup), it hass always been placed in a plastic container. Plastic containers aren’t made for hot items! Styrofoam containers are made for hot items! It gets me upset because they should know better than to pour hot food into a plastic container. (If left in the plastic container long enough, the container will eventually start to bend. Try it as an experiment if you don’t believe me!)

Back to the waiters… I once waited for my to go order, while reading magazines that belonged to the restaurant. My order was done, however the waiter that took my order did not know. Another waiter took note that I was waiting too long and asked me what I had ordered for to go. A brown bag that was placed near the cook’s counter since who knows when happened to be mine. I’m glad this particular waiter took note of me, but upset that I had to wait longer than I had to for my food.

I guess this explains why I give them three stars instead of four stars. (I want to give them four stars, but their customer service isn’t at the level where I want it to be.) Also worth noting, the male waiters seem to be more friendly than the female waiters. They seem to smile more. Another thing worth noting is that their restaurant closes later than other nearby Thai restaurants.