ronsmeetup

8/11/09
Happy Hour

went there with a Meetup group, of 7 people…

Kuma is a Nice place, freeway close~ but lousy overpriced wine and SUSHI!
or is it_~
Happy Hour sucks- period!

First is the Happy Hour selections limited to a small menu card on table— with costs going to $8 happy hour rolls, give me a break!
Yoshino Sushi, San Gabriel, the best rolls I have had anywhere~ Sashimi-Tempura $8 any time!, and get this, one awesome 95 plus item Sushi Buffet, with an ambiance of a Japanese Sushi place!
The interior of Kuma while nice- is tacky over the top elegance, with prices to match and quality I had lacking, rolls not even rolled tight or correctly!

World re noun chef~ must be kidding!!!

I think the Okami rolls at Costco for California Rolls are better!
Rolls were not wrapped correctly, and when you add up $3 here, $5 there, and keep going~

I tried the mussels, 3 on plate ~ very tasty but for $3 where is value!
I spent $10 on SUSHI for crap!
Only tasty food was baked Mussels!
THEN:
A Un-Happy Bill of $10 plus~ for nothing!

So a joke of Happy Hour, then one would think then they would expnad this to a Buffet or for $10 people can order from a selected menu!

Ambiance: 4
Food:1
Parking: 3
Value for Happy Hour:1
Menu of Happy Hour: 2
Service: 3.5
Cleanliness’s
Freeway Close:5

Go to a decent place with quality Sushi~ at correct prices!
If you want to meet near freeway for a place easy in and out~ ok, for SUSHI forget it!
~
Ron “B”
~
Happy Hour Menu:
Dine In Only. Excluding Holidays And Valentine Day.
Served Monday through Sunday 3:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m .

01. Edamame – $3
02. Baked Green Mussel – $3
03. Chicken Sate – $3
04. Cucumber Salad – $3
05. Chinese Chicken Salad – $5
06. MIso Soup – $2
07. Red Curry Clam Chowder – $3
08. California Roll – $3
09. Avocado roll – $3
10. Salmon Roll – $3
11. Philly Roll – $5
12. Albacore Scallion Roll – $5
13. Spicy Tuna Roll – $5
14. Crunchy Roll – $8
15. Salmon Sushi – $3
16. Ono Sushi – $3
17. Shrimp Sushi – $3
18. Bonito Tataki Sushil – $3
19. Mackerel Sushi – $3
20. Crab Sushi – $3
21. Smelt Egg Sushi – $2
22. Egg Sushi – $2
23. Hot Sake Small – $2
24. Sapporo Draft Beer – $2
25. Cold Nama Sake – $3

8/3/2009 ~ Monday

I went there for Buffet- lunch.
Price: $8.95 plus tax……………

The ambiance is very nice indeed, real post modern~ California Mexican decor- comfortable!

Buffet: It is served 11am to 2pm
I arrived at 12:30pm.
The place was packed.
3 of the Buffet trays were decimated (empty)!
So there is the main Buffet tray bar, with about 7 trays, and a cookie desert tray. next is the salad bar area- very lacking in choices!
Finally the taco bar… @ choices either chicken or carne. I had the carne ( to top off my salad ) and it was stale and old tasting and not hot! The salsa choices are minimal and also very lacking!

So as usual, I like a green salad and top it in a Mexican Buffet with whatever meat is handy, and so I added the beef from the taco bar, and next added Pico de Gayo, and a onion- cilantro mix, and some of the Green Chili Carnitas (tray empty) to scrap up morsel of carnitas and chile salsa. Try this, you may be surprised!

There were Bbq. Short ribs, so I put 5 on a plate!
The ribs were tasty but overdone in sauce, or over-saturated with the bbq. sauce~ making a finger lickin ok- but a hugh mess to wipe off fingers and face!

When the Chimichanga tray was refilled, I tried the stuffed shrimp Chimichanga , and this was beyond good~ ~ ~but ~ one thing, the scales were left on some of the shrimp!

I tried the green enchilada- was lack luster…

So overall, Margarita’s Buffet in a pinch, but I personally would not return!

Ambiance: 4
Air conditioning: 4
Parking Lot : 3
Service: 4
Food: 3
Chips with Food: Stale not good

Stars actually 3.75

Master Chef is a nice place to eat, and If you want authentic Chinese Cantonese cuisine, you have to try Master Chef’s!!

It’s not the fast food of :Panda Express, P.F Changs, nor the $3.99 fast food lunch deal! So- the real deal. for Chinese in China Town!

It is so easy to get to from the freeway, even late at night- ~downtown LA and traffic does apply. there are booths and tables, and a small back bar area seating say 3.

Cantonese-style cooking
The food is average to above -Chinese food, & I learned is peanut oil free? None of the food was overly greasy!
All fresh cooked, and tasty.
Service was good considering the amount of people and full tables.

With every meal you get soup, which is a corn soup. Lots of corn starch mixed with chicken stock and some corn. Nothing great but it does come with the meal, and the standard hot tea, and steamed rice.

Our meetup group was 40 people and we had 4 tables.

Our table had 10 dishes!
View pictures for a mouth watering experience.
Some dishes were: dry chicken chow mien, wet chowmein, Chinese Fried Rice, Mongolian Beef, Deep friend squid (crisp and very salty),walnut shrimp, Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce, Chinese Broccoli with Beef, and on.

The total bill ( our table) excluding drinks was $72 for our table so $90 was left.

By far in years late, this is the best of the Chinese I have been!

China town is in total decline as what it was years ago, and small art galleries have sprung up everywhere- many offering free wine, beer, and snacks! Lets say it is called ART?-

So, this is becoming akin to Silver Lake Sunset on Hill and Broadway!
Imagine some Motown blasting sounds live in China Town, and people walking about drinking beer and wine!

Star Rating:
Food: 4.25
Service:3
Cleanliness: 3
Ambiance:3
Health Dept rating: A
Parking: 2
Noise: 3.75
Waiting area for tables: 2.5

_~~~~~~

I called Yoshino Sushi, and asked about the Sushi Buffet lunch- and it was $19.95. With that OK & being skeptical I went as it is 2 miles distant.- and could also leave.
Also a few reviews on Yelp which I think the 2 star reviews had a Long term wedgie while at Yoshino- to leave review for a place with great food, ambiance, good service, dishes picked up pronto and no moans about the quantity of what I ate!

NOW if your the TYPE with Bistro Mind set, and like rip off prices- and uppity attitude at uptight Bistro Elmer Dills listed joints_~ then quality, value, good taste, interesting combinations, and all you can eat_~~ is just not for you~ with that said~

As I have been ripped off at two local Yelp good rated local Japanese Sushi joints in past month or so, then personally I do not have believability with many yelp reviewers!
I tell it as it is~ period!

I walked into A Sushi binge waiting to happen!
I did not see Buffet trays! Gulp~ then I was greeted at door, and asked if I wanted menu order or buffet~ so Buffet blurted out~ so next was table or would you prefer bar, and to this I said Sushi Bar.

I was one of two customers at 1:30PM, and tow more came in while I was there.
Why so few people?, as most in immediate area is all some kinda Chinese or Viet Names food house!
We even have Pho 69 !!!

The Ambiance is quite nice, very clean, heath rating “A”, and air conditioning perfect on a hot day.

The waiter who seated me tried to explain Buffet order off actually the Sushi Menu.

SO:
12 Appetizers to choose
plus like 65 different SUSHI assortments!
Knock yourself out!

So I had:
2 orders of Yellow tail
Albacore
Smelt Egg rolls
Freshwater eel
Miso
Sesame Chicken
Sashami Tempura Roll
Dynamite Lobster Roll
Rainbow Roll
Gold Caterpillar Roll
and
Green tea Ice Cream
_~~~~
Full!

You can view pictures, including final bill!

The blending of the rolls, is quite different.
My Favorite was the Sashimi Tempura roll~ this is a 5 rating, and unbelievable!!! So Good!
The Seasame Chicken: 4 and good!

The Yellow tail, albacore, eel, came laid out over a rice mound good-. – fresh- quite OK~ but not cut Sashami thick!
Sashami is not on Buffet Lunch……….

Miso~ bland…

In the last Japanese Sushi Joint I was at 2 pieces of Salmon Egg
Uni rolls- cast $4.50, and really tasted like something I would fish for trout with! The Smelt Egg Sushi here, 2 pieces, was good!

So, if you look at all I ate, and the visual, smell, taste, quality and amounts!!!!! for $19.95_~~~

Such a Deal!
Still over 50 items to go….
I threw in the chop sticks, downed digestive enzymes, and paid!

I will be back, and dinner is $21.95 all you can eat Sushi!
Think these lame organizers of meet up ought to find deal like this, then foot massage following desert at one of the local next door shaved or milk tea houses!

In the same Building – is a Quality Massage Place~ as I walked in checked it out, as I have been having $15 foot and body massages for close to 2 years now~ and this is a very nice clean place!

Across the street is L&H massage if a large group goes or you really want deep body massage and have some foot walking!!!

My ratings:
Food: 4
Ambiance: 4
Clean: 4
Service: 3.33
Taste of some dishes: 4.5
So, there is lots of parking in private lot.
OVerall Value: 4.5

Enjoy!
~

Actually 3.75 Stars~
Lunch Buffet price: $8.95
Ice Tea: $2.00

Pasadena Carbrera’s Mexican Cuisine is a great place to go, not be riped off for Bistro priced carp, and have enjoyable good food, complete with great service.

There are 3 locations: Pasadena, Duarte, Arcadia!

If you read my reviews, you will see I am impressed to leave a 4 Star rating… I try an tell it as it is!

So good food, a large variety, at a value price!
Note: Buffet items do shift day to day!

Parking is in a large lot directly behind.

Well I had a Buffet lunch and what a surprise!
Over 20 Buffet main food choices, plus deserts!

The Salmon in Green sauce, so very good~ had seconds!
The Green Chili Enchilada~ very good!
Cesar salad, and Mixed Green Salad – good- especially with hot
picado on top with mixed veggies!

Flatus- Awesomeflavor, better dipped in the dark chile salsa
Chicken with Mole
and so much more!
One Note: The mixed veggies- only warm- not hot!

I do not eat rice or beans so no comment, except there were black beans- which looked good!

See Pictures, (shot thru sneeze bars also)- the food on my plates not only looks good~ but tastes good!!!

Desert, has a wide assortment of Melon, Pineapple
& in a cooler~
Flam
Carrot Cake
Cheese Cake
Chocloate Cake

I had great friendly service, in a large Restaurant with Good Ambiance.

Must say Cabrera’s is a find.

They have so many specials of food- at various times of the day and appetisers- happen in there , or call and see what promotions are going on! Phone: 626-795-0230………..

So fast seating – sitting in a comfortable booth, wonderful service, clean restrooms, nice and clean inside with Mexican colors, themes, & ambiance!

I will be back when in Pasadena!

Parking: 3 ~ becaue no back door to enter, then walking up side to
front door!
Ambiance: 3.5
Service: 4.5
Food: 3.75 ~ Based on taste, variety, flavors, and choices
Price: 4.5

“taste, price, comfort” = Value!!!
This is what I look for!

~

Went there for Lunch with friends.
Had lunch specials, like 2 items $6.95…
I had the Ceasar- Pasta combo as my choices!

The PASTA was not hot. The chicken was only warm. The noodles overcooked and little dry!

The Cesar came with only 3 small dabs of dressing!!!!
Had to ask and wait for a Cesar dressing side!
I ordered De-caf coffee!
I had to ask for refills!

This is my second tie here, and absolute last!

Applebe’s to be is a horrible placewith bad energy, and on a cool day of rain- when we walked in the Airconditioning worked so well we ( the 3 of us) felt chilled!

I see staff as uncaring, lack of concern and merely having a dead end job…

the Food I had- is like a Healthy Choice nuke it frozen dinner say…

The Ceasar was just chopped romain- and dry!

ALL in all- Applebe’s is a place as Denny’s for a easy chocie stop with so-so food!!!

~

Rating 2.5 actually

Went to Yoshido Friday night, 6-5-09..
Met some members of Sushi meetup.
As I was Sushied out,and did not want a $30 dinner so I ordered Chicken Teriyaki dinner plate $ $12.75…

The place was filled to capacity.
Every table and Sushi Bar filled!
Servers were stressed out- my take!

The Green tea came, and not only warm (not hot) but tasteless for my palate.

The Miso came, warm also~ and worse was without flavor.

My Chicken came, and the chicken was tough, overcooked, and tasted as if it sat in some MCDonalds type holding oven, brought out and Sweet sauce poured over it. The sauce tasted like out of a Kraft Bottle…

On the table was ordered a Sushi Plate, a Sushi Pancake thing, and desert, and a Oyster- Sushi Desert with not only caviar type uni but other types also complete with a Quail Egg…

Being a Wasabi freak, I tasted the wasabi, and it was SOSO. I asked the waitress – and the wasabi was mixed from powder!
I assumption is then this is not real Wasabi, but a powdered mix of horseradish- mustard and artificial color!

The prices are over the top and what I viewed of the Sushi Plate- just was cut thin, not that much, and looked like something at Todai!

I am not impressed, and would never return!

What do people see in this place…
When I go for Japanese food, it is not only for quality but for Ambiance,and energy of the place…

Why would I want a SUSHI bar filled to capacity, with people walking up and down nearly brushing into me?
I would like something more traditional, with Japanese soothing music playing.
Maybe a place with tasteful design, not set up to maximize the space to hold maximum people!!!
Si is Yoshida!!!!!!!!!!

Try Sorafune on Garvey in Monterey Park!!!

Sushi bar has 5 chairs.
Table capacity say 25 people max…
Nice Ambiance, very clean, A DVD running playing old classic Japanese style music, and—- A true Japanese couple running it, and a traditional polite caring Waitress- in the purest Zen for a Japanese Sushi Bar……"

_~

I rate this 1 1/2 due to pathetic service, and greasy bad tasting food!

I went there as part of a MeetUp group!
This was the 3rd week of March, 09!
There were 11 people!

To state how popular Hengyang is, there was one table of 4 Alcoholic Chinese men- drinking and kibitzing.
The near 1 1/2 Hours we were there no other customers!

The service was Pathetic.
Imagine the waitress ( with bad attitude) with but one table- and pathetic service!

One would imagine then attentive service, well guess again – as Tea Cups were empty!

For sure, I will never eat there!
The next day, I personally had digestive tract stress!!!

The dishes cooked in OIL- were very greasy, and seemed like rancid oil- the taste masked by Chili and MSG and spices to me!

Since the Organizer of this group also runs a Food Review site, I would have expected something better than this as a Choice of Chinese, with literally hundreds of Chinese Restaurants around SGV…

I parked on the street, but would imagine there is a back lot..

NOTE: the specialty menu is posted in Chinese on the wall…may be a bit difficult if you don’t read Chinese, but they do have another translated one.
So the Order was made- which I had no say, or another woman at table…

Ordered was:
sauteed cauliflower with pork oil, the hot & spicy tofu, the spicy whole fish (very bony and cremated), and the bangly with chicken, Spicy Tofu, Cumin Lamb, and Spicy on Spicy, Dried Cucumbers (which weren’t dry at all), the Shredded Squid, the Bitter Mellon with Chinese Sausage, and the Preserved Meat…

My take was the Chili Dishes with rancid oils, and or saturated lard were greasy with a terrible and rotten taste!

Some dishes had no flavor at all!
Most oil dishes all tasted the same: Greasy and Rancid to me!

To me some of the non oil dishes were average at best. Very heavy on the oil to saturate your chapped lips.

**This restaurant is for the hardcore Chinese food purist, only, who appreciates BAD food- that these so called experts would call Bistro…

Not sure how much MSG, but for sure it was there.

I have been to Chengdu 3 times and have eaten then some authentic Food~ I have had Hot Spiced Chili food, but personally tend to not want food cooked in Lard or Rancid Greese…

The bill was divided I believe 10 ways, my share I left $15.00

I left this meetup also…

Beware of Yelp reviews~ you can be blindsided!!!

NEVER AGAIN @ this Chili Joint!
~

From:
(taken from Jonathan Gold’s LA Weekly Review)

Excerpt:\
if you’re not careful, you can end up with a tableful of what is essentially the same dish, rabbit or lamb or preserved pork or fried eggs or duck tongues or splintery chunks of frog, stir-fried with a colorful mosaic of garlic and hot chopped peppers. The basic formula is delicious, a real wonder to behold, but it gets monotonous after the fourth or fifth iteration if you don’t vary it with something like stewed wild pumpkin farmer-style; sliced dried cucumber tossed with shredded fresh shiso; a wintery stew of chicken with chestnuts, translated as “bangly” on the menu; or cauliflower in “pork oil,” cooked with enough crunchy lardons to power a dozen French salads.

" 2.5 star rating"

Way over the top as to Cost for a Hot Pot..
Our table had 10 people!
We had Veggie Hot Pot- mild!
Any one can spice a Broth with Chili and Seasoned sauce!
The broth as brought was tasteless, and bland!
The veggies noting exotic.
The Noodles OK..
So we cooked Hot Pot, and ate.
We racked up over $150 for our table!!
If I am paying $15 my share, I would expect to be stuffed!
We even have another table in our group donate Green Noodles to us,
and still I consider this place with bad parking (full lot as many places use it), slow service, slow to clear empty dishes, and easy to charge over the top prices!
For What? To view pastoral scenes of grazing sheep?

What a unbelievable expense for nothing!
The fried Green Onion Cakes- good!!!

What did I miss and why the 5 star ratings?
Think Yelp reviews are baseless when Places as this are reviewed 5 star…

Parking was almost non exist ant on a Saturday Night!
Service ordinary, and slow!

I see nothing about this Hot Pot Restaurant that would draw me back-
When Shabo-Shabo and Hot Places are all about SGV.

Why drive to Little Tokyo and the hassle of parking when there is a fantastic local Sushi restaurant…
Run by a pair, Sushi Chef and Waitress ~ a small “Hole in The Wall” worth a visit… We never ran out of Green Tea, which was ‘free’ also!

Service polite and fast service and attentive to our needs also…

The Sashimi a little pricey- but nice sized quality and good sized portions on order… There is a Sushi Bar with about 10 seats, and tables to hold say 20.. Assortments will vary, as to what the chef can buy- being only quality of fish

A full menu of Sushi, and assorted foods in reason for a small place… They serve mostly sushi, sashimi, tempura, and different kinds of grilled fish.

There are daily specials, as the Spicy Tuna Salad I had which had a superb flavor and taste … The plates are prepared with care, and come with assorted dishes…

Sushi can be ordered from Sushi List offering various rolls, or sashimi.

All in all I will return as this is a great find!

Monday: closed
Tuesday: closed for lunch, dinner from 5-10pm
Wednesday-Saturday: 11:30-2:30 for lunch, 5-10pm for dinner
Sunday: 4-8:30pm for dinner