shaomai

Ok, so this isn’t really a restaurant, more like a little green tea bakery. I was walking to buttercup bakery, and the pictures of the green tea lattes in the window caught my eye. I didn’t realize it at the time, but apparently, this little green tea shop has only been open for 4 days. Since we were on our way to get cupcakes but I was super thirsty (and LOVE matcha!), I decided to get the regular green tea latte.

Wow… so as soon as I ordered, the Japanese dude in the suit starts grinding the green tea leaves. Yes, the matcha is so fresh they grind it to order! They have a little mortar and pestle, grind the tea, and then create the drink. The green tea was probably the best quality green tea I’ve ever had (and it was very, very green), and even though it was milky and sweet, it wasn’t too milky or too sweet. Frankly, it was actually awesome.

The sad part for me was that for some reason, they can’t put whipped cream on their regular lattes. Milk Chocolate Green Tea Latte, Honey Green Tea Latte, and Ice Cream Green Tea Latte all come with whipped cream… but not the regular latte. I think it had to do with the pricing.

The only reason this place gets four stars instead of 5 is just b/c it’s pricey. I know it’s probably worth it for the quality of the green tea, but it’s a little ridiculous to pay $5-$6 for a small green tea latte.

They had a few other green tea goodies (cookies, chocolates, cheese cakes), as well as tea leaves, and regular tea drinks for sale, but everything was very, very expensive (about $4 for a small cookie). I’m sure it was all amazing, it’s just expensive.

Legal Sea Foods isn’t the best seafood I’ve ever had… but for a moderately priced chain restaurant, it’s solid. I know that if I’m ever in the Boston area, I can walk into a Legal Sea Foods and my seafood will be fresh, and the cost of my dinner will come in under my company’s meal limit for the day.

Everything I’ve had here has been good, though nothing has been amazing. At the State St. location, the staff was friendly, but a bit slow. Can’t blame them, they were really busy, and since I ate at the bar and watched all the action going on assembling the plates, I know they weren’t just sitting on their butts being lazy… they just really had too much going on.

All in all, there are better places to eat in Boston, but if you just want something easy, accessible, and guaranteed to just be good, Legal Sea Foods is the way to go.

I was never much of a ramen fiend until I was introduced to Ramen Halu. People always raved about Ryowa, which I never thought was all that great. I liked the negitoro donburi combo at that other ramen place in Milpitas that I can’t even remember now. And then I found Ramen Halu.

The first time I went, I had the Shoyu (soy sauce) ramen. it was good. The cha-shu was memorable though – perfectly fatty and tender and tasty – which is the reason I came back again. On my return trip, I tried the signature Halu Ramen dish, and let me say, I have never stopped eating it. The broth, which has visible tiny chunks of pork fat afloat is so perfectly sweet and tasty. I usually don’t drink my ramen broth b/c it tends to be too salty for me, but with Halu Ramen, I can’t stop drinking it! The thick ramen noodles are crunchy and silky and smooth. The texture is just supremely satisfying. Add in the perfect cha-shu, and I come here every week.

On top of that, their service is really friendly. They are a little slow at times (they’re always completely full and don’t have many servers, so you can’t blame them), but I was blown away by what I experienced yesterday. I had a bit of a headache, so after we placed our orders, my boyfriend rushed out to try to find me some tylenol. It took a bit longer than we thought, and the waiter noticed his bowl of ramen sitting on the table, untouched, for quite a while. He graciously offered to make him a brand new bowl when my boyfriend returned. It turned out he came back just about a minute after they took his bowl away, but they did make him a brand new bowl and didn’t charge us for it either! I thought that kind of service was just impeccable.

I love Ramen Halu. I eat there almost every week.

While many of the dishes here were good, it was the Spoonful of Happiness dish that will make this a memorable eating experience for me. It’s actually 2 spoonfuls of happiness, accompanied by a sweet sake shot. One spoonful contains 2 large chunks of uni, a quail egg, and tobiko swimming in a pool of ponzu, while the other contains some perfect ankimo, wrapped in whitefish, drizzled with truffle oil. It is heavenly! though this is a starter, we wished it was served at the end of the meal, so we could savor the flavor all night!

As for the other food, it was all good, and fairly priced – not cheap, but not expensive either. I’ve heard some great things about the omakase, served at the sushi bar, and definitely would like to go back and try it. The rolls were unusual and creative. A little on the small side, but I prefer that so I can try more things. Their “catch of the day” sushi menu contained some unusual fish that I’ve never seen before (e.g., mexican black sea bass). The only sushi I had on this trip was the Kona Kanpachi, and it was good… but wasn’t amazing. So I’m not quite sure how much I enjoy the sushi/sashimi here yet, but it’s a good place for rolls and japanese small dishes. They also have some nice girly sakes, like their Lychee Sake. That was nice, light, and sweet. Hardcore sake drinkers will probably just think it tastes like juice, but I liked it.

The restaurant is small and cozy, but unlike most Japanese restaurants, they do take reservations, which is great. I came here on a Thursday evening following the July 4th holiday, and it was full pretty much the whole time, but there wasn’t a line of people waiting, so walk-ins are probably fine on weeknights. I called for a reservation at 5:30 pm the day of and got one easily.

The only thing negative about this place is that they are a little low on staff – it could be b/c of the holiday people were on vacation, but though service was friendly, they were a little slow.

Overall, really enjoyed this place and look forward to trying more things off the menu! And a few more spoonfuls of happiness.

Like the previous review said, these sandwiches are huge. I ordered the 6" sandwich, but I have a ruler at my desk and I just measured it, and it is actually 8.5". It is also 2.75" tall and has .75" of meat. (Yes, I really did just measure my sandwich at work. Don’t worry, no one is around.) They are a little pricey (over $7 for my sandwich), but since they are so huge, you could totally split one with a friend and have it be very reasonably priced.

I am a sucker for sandwich shops that have the meat slicer and slice your meat to order (it’s sooo much better!), so I was very excited about my sandwich. however, I ordered the Italian sub, and there’s just way too much vinegar here for me. Not only is it too bitter, the fact that parts of my bread is now brown and soggy makes it look really disgusting. But it still tastes pretty good… would be better without the vinegar. Traditionalists may not like the fact that there’s dijon mustard in this sandwich, but I think it adds an interesting flavor.

Being an Iron Chef enthusiast, I was REALLY excited to come here! The decor was awesome, the bathrooms were super cool, and Chef Morimoto himself stopped by our table and said hello.

That being said… I didn’t actually like the food. I really really wanted to… but just didn’t. Though, I feel like Morimoto’s reputation is such that I will give him the shadow of the doubt and just chalk it up to an off night, or the fact that i didn’t go with the omakase.

I ordered the Surf and Turf, and the kobe filet sauce was just WAY too strong, the hamachi ribbons were kind of tasteless and a little on the mushy side, and the crushed cirtrus and avocado was just WAY too tangy. I also ordered hamachi and uni nigiri on the side, and they were sadly disappointing as well. Basically, I didn’t like any of my dinner. my friend got the duck duck duck, which she seemed to like. she took her boyfriend back the next week (also an Iron Chef afficionado), and she said the Surf and Turf was MUCH better that time around. So I dunno, maybe I just got unlucky with a sous chef having a bad day.

However, my poor dinner was almost erased by the spectacularness of the earl grey praline creme brulee. now THAT was heaven.

Ok, whoever rated houston’s 2 stars obviously did not eat the ribs. It is possible that Houston’s other dishes are 2 star quality… but I’ve never eaten anything other than the ribs, and never will. Why would you, as they are the best ribs ever!!! (note title)

Admittedly, I was wary at first. Chain restaurant, kinda pricey, normal american fare… but on a friend’s recommendation, I ordered the ribs. Friend said he’s never seen me devour a plate of food that quickly. Two things to note here:

1) I’ve probably never finished a full rack of ribs in my entire life. I did here at Houston’s.

2) I am a notoriously slow eater and I finished that full rack in less than 10 minutes.

What makes them so good? For me, it’s the fall off the bone quality. I think I ate the entire rack without having to touch one bone with my fingers – the meat just fell right off and you can seriously eat the entire rack with a fork (which also contributed to my ability to eat them so fast). Flavor is excellent too, but I’m sure other restaurants’ ribs taste good, but aren’t as tender and juicy as these!

Everything else about this restaurant I don’t really remember… dessert I remember as being normal, drinks were normal. but the ribs – 5 stars all on their own.

This is my second trip to first crush. I don’t really remember the first trip, but I remembered not really loving and not hating it either, so I decided to give it a second chance. For having such a prime location just a couple of blocks away from union square, I’d hope for more, but I still wasn’t impressed.

I was just getting over a stomach bug, so this may be a bit biased, but again, I wasn’t impressed. The one thing that’s kind of neat is that they offer several different “flights” of wine — a 3 wine sampler of wines that are paired together. There are about 6, and most of them will start with a lighter wine and go to a bolder wine, so you can experience the range of flavors.

The bartender is really nice, makes good (and quick) drinks, but my overall impression of first crush is that it’s overpriced for food that’s good, but not great.

Maybe it’s just me, but all Asian fusion-y places are just starting to taste the same. I came here with a party of 5 people, so we were able to try quite a few things on the menu. everything was good… but it seemed like my typical experience at any asian fusion place.

the atmosphere of the restaurant is contemporary, and the napkin holders are really cool. our waitstaff was friendly, but because we were tucked into a corner, it often took them a long time to come see if we were ready to order or if we needed dessert menus, etc. but the busboy was extraordinary… never had an empty glass of water!

the food was… i don’t know how to express this. everything was good, just nothing was special. my one memorabi experience was the ahi tuna and mango rolls — i didn’t really taste the mango as much as i expected to, but there were some nice big hunks of ahi in a deep fried eggroll wrapper. i also had the bananamisu for dessert, which was probably one of the more unique dishes (a bruleed banana, cut halfway down the middle, and a hunk of tiramisu), but taste-wise, i didn’t think it was extraordinary.

i think what bothers me is that it was a pretty normal restaurant, for very expensive pricing. maybe i’ve just been to too many fusion places, but eos did not stand out in my book.

I was skeptical of wild ginger (if you’ve read some of my previous reviews, i’m pretty fussy about asian fusion dining), but I have to say that wild ginger exceeded expectations.

I’ll start with the service. Our waitress at first seemed to be a little hippy chicky, which surprised me for being an upscale dining establishment, but she proved over the course of the night that she was a good waitress and knew the menu well. this was also the first time that i’ve had a server inquire about potential food allergies – i don’t have any, but i thought this was absolutely great, since a lot of people would be allergic to many of the ingredients used in these dishes.

Now, the food. All the food was flavorful, well-executed, and unique. The dishes are Asian-inspired, with a lot of Chinese and Southeast Asian flavors. The menu had extremely extensive choices – there’s a regular menu, and in addition to the regular menu, there were about 20 more choices! The dishes are meant to be shared family-style. My dinner companions didn’t seem to really agree with my taste in food, so i didn’t really get to try anything that i wanted to try, but everything we ordered was good, and there were even some greats in there. my favorite dish by far was the Seven Flavor Beef – tender and tasty, everything about this beef was perfect. I also really enjoyed the noodle dish, though I can’t remember which one it was… the catfish and prawns were good, as was the coconut gelato for dessert.

The one big negative about Wild Ginger is that the dishes are rather small for the price , so this probably isn’t a great place to go if you don’t have cash to burn (but perfect if you’re on work expenses!).

Overall, if I every stayed in downtown Seattle, I’d come here again. It’s definitely the best place I’ve found so far within walking distance of the downtown hotels.