opilicious "HOORAY MEAT!"

Normally I’d be the last person to recommend an Indian restaurant. At one point I hated Indian food, and then it became somewhat tolerable. But this place I’d go to again and again. I came here for lunch time buffet and I loved it.

The restaurant just seems like some converted duplex in a residential area so it might be a bit hard to locate. When you go in there’s that familiar sign, “Please wait to be seated.” Don’t. Apparently just go straight to the buffet line. You get your food and then you either get seated or you just grab a table yourself. I’m sure it’s different for dinner service though.

The buffet is probably one of the smallest I’ve seen, but it didn’t matter since everything was so damn good. The chicken, the lamb, the curry, the naan, everything was delicious. The two times I’ve been here they’ve had different desserts. And they both were homemade excellence.

Service is a little lacking. You have to flag down the waiters to give you more water and more naan.

It may seem a little chaotic in here, but the food is excellent and well worth it. Anything that’s cheap ($8 buffet) and tastes great deserves 5 stars! Come here early for lunch since it gets crowded quick.

This place is semi-fast food dining. You line up to order and pay for your meal. They’ll give you a number and you pick it up when your number is called. Just like most fast food places. The quality of food, however, is almost as good as a sit-down restaurant. For the price you pay, you get an excellent deal. Generous portions as well.

So for a sit-down restaurant experience with fast-food efficiency, this place is a good choice.

Super trendy, super expensive, super not worth it. Ok, maybe once just to check it out but I don’t really know anyone who hasn’t had a complaint about this place. Price is high, portions are small, and the taste is only decent. They often times have nice preparations for the dishes, but it’s only good for show. That is, if you can see your dish. The lighting in here is super dim. You can hardly read the menu and maybe you can use the candles to see what you’re actually eating.

If you’re up for a little splurging on food in Maui definitely come and check out this place. I’O offers contemporary pacific cuisine in a classy but casual ocean side dining experience.

I’m not sure if the menu is exactly the same since I dined here almost a year ago. But I do remember the scallops. They were prepared perfectly!

Service is excellent as expected anywhere in Hawaii, and they offer excellent recommendations for wine pairing with your meal. So if you’re ever sick of eating that poi and laulau in Maui, come and check this place out. You won’t be disappointed.

Mayflower and Joy Luck Place are probably my top 2 places to go for dim sum in the south bay. Advantages of going to Mayflower is that the place is bigger, so possibly less of a wait (which is always an issue at Joy Luck Place especially on the weekends). Another advantage is that the service is slightly friendlier at Mayflower.. well, as far as asian service goes. You might actually get a smile out of someone here.

Bottomline, you won’t go wrong here as far as taste and variety of dim sum.

This cheerful little tofu house sits among the many other Korean restaurants along El Camino. One thing that sets this place apart is the super friendly staff.

If there’s a wait for a table, they’ll actually take your order while you’re waiting so that when you sit down they’ll only need to verify your order before they start bringing out the food. It just makes things move a little more efficiently.

They had actually gotten my order wrong. I either told them the wrong dish or something was lost in translation, but nonetheless the waitress was more than happy to replace it; no questions asked.

The wallpaper is basically made up of children’s drawings taped to the wall. Some are drawings of the restaurant itself and some are just completely random but completely entertaining.

Chocolate + banana + hazelnut = hands down one of the best shakes I’ve ever had. It’s the hazelnut that does it for me. Just thinking about it stimulates my taste buds. I fancy it very much. It wil take you to the promised land.

This retro hawaiian themed coffeehouse is a tiny little place where people often go to study or just hang out with friends. It’s even open late till 3am for those late night cravings to make you nice and fat.

I would give the food here 3.5 stars, but I rounded up to 4 stars because of the good barley tea and the friendly service.

The menu had a good variety, but I thought the food was only average/good. I enjoyed the baked salmon with cheese in miso, since it’s not something I usually see on a Japanese menu. I didn’t know clam ramen was the specialty dish here. I’ll give that dish a try next time.

Service was excellent and accomodating.

This tiny little restaurant is often overlooked by passersby. There aren’t really any clearly visible signs for the restaurant and I didn’t even know the name of the place until I walked inside. And once you’re in, the place will most likely be packed. Reservations are a must to avoid waiting for a table.

As for the food, there’s a good selection of pastas but the most memorable dish is the baked brie appetizer. It comes out on a hot skillet topped with roasted garlic accompanied by freshly baked bread. I was never a fan of cheese plates before, but this dish has converted me into a fan of brie and will keep me coming back.

The ambience has a bit of a romantic mood to it with the dim lighting and the warm & cozy atmosphere. Most patrons here are couples with 2 or 3 booths for small groups.

The previous review gives a good description of how this place functions, so I won’t delve too much into that. So basically at this Brazillian style restaurant you pay for an endless supply of meat brought out on large skewers by Gauchos (what they call their servers). It was a pretty cool experience, but I wasn’t barraged with meat like how I was expecting.

Each skewer of meat is brought out one at a time, so I had to eat my meat only slices at a time depending on how often these gauchos came to our table. This dainty dining was not how I imagined an all you can eat meat experience.

The selections of meat ranged from beef, lamb, pork, chicken, sausages, and even chicken hearts. The only item I thought is worth mentioning is the sirloin seasoned with sea salt. The rest of the meat was just ordinary.

An interesting dining experience, but I expected more.