Sarah "Cheddah" D.'s Profile

We had a bunch of shaved ice on our trip to Oahu, but one day decided to make the drive up to the north shore and stop off at Matsumoto because it had been recommended to us by a few people.

OMG.  I really didn't know that shaved ice could be so good.  Looking back on our trip one of the highlights was splitting this with my husband.  Definitely get ice cream at the bottom -- it makes it!

These stores are everywhere! They are overpriced but sure beat having to pay for breakfast everyday.  We bought cereal and milk here and saved a bunch of money!

We were driving by and I really wanted to stop in for a few minutes.  We didn't tour or anything, but if you are in the neighborhood get one of their pineapple whip floats!  OMG .... soooo good!

Who knew pineapples could be that delicious?

We went here our first night in Hawaii, because we wanted somewhere within walking distance and were pretty fed up trying to find someplace that wasn't a tourist trap.

This place was nice in that it didn't feel touristy and like you were right on the strip.  The prices were very reasonable and even a bit cheaper than I would pay out in San Jose. The sushi arrived pretty quickly too.

Honestly, I don't know why so many people are giving this place 5 star reviews.  The fish was alright - nothing great or amazing like I would expect right on the water.

The reason for the 3-star review really has to do with our waiter.  When we first got to the restaurant our waiter was checking in on us every minute to see if we had ordered (sheesh, give us some room).  After he finally served us he seemed to disappear and we had to grab him to get the check and then find another waiter to charge our credit card. Where was our waiter?  Flirting behind the sushi bar with some girl.  Greeattt!

So all in all the meal was okay? I might go back again for lunch or something, but definitely not as a dinner spot.

You can't beat the tasting menu for $38 (I think thats how much it was).  Appetizer sampler was nice, fish course was good (albeit a little dry) and the dessert was great. I really enjoyed the service throughout the evening.  Our waiter was really attentive and personable which is a big thing for me.  

The one thing that I didn't like about the restaurant was that it felt very "touristy". I'm a big fan of going to local places, but I got that's what you get for eating so close to Waikiki.

My first Japanese curry experience. Split the beef curry with the hubby. Good stuff!

The inlaws were coming into town and we knew that we needed to find a daycare/out of town facility for our puppy.  We checked out a number of places in the area and I was very sketched out by the majority of them until we came to Downtown Dogs.  Downtown Dogs is clean, and is staffed by capable and wonderful people.  

In order for your dog to be allowed to participate in daycare you need to get evaluated to make sure your dog has a good temperament and is agreeable with both other dogs and people.  I found this very reassuring that my dog wasn't going to be placed in a room with a bunch of awful canines.  

There are a number of different rooms for dogs based on their size, age, etc.. and there is always one person in the room with the dogs cleaning up after them and making sure they don't get too rowdy (if they do, they are put in time out).  

The other nice feature is the webcam.  At first I thought it was a little gimicky but I actually appreciate Downtown Dogs more knowing the level of service they provide throughout the day when I am not there to monitor my pup.

As of right now I can only comment on the quality of their daycare but when we do finally board him overnight I will let everyone know what I think!

Where do I get started?  I think the meal and restaurant would best be wrapped up by some slurs out of Gordon Ramsay's mouth.

My husband and I did the $60 tasting menu for New Years Eve.  We thought $60/person was pretty decently priced compared to other places - now we know why.

When we got into the restaurant I was surprised at how empty the restaurant was but dismissed it because I figured, "hey its new years and people are probably out partying instead".

We were seated fairly promptly and after about 7 minutes our waitress finally showed up where we were able to get water.  

The meal started off with some homemade bread and butter (with a twist).  Pretty yummy.  Then the bruschetta which they totally got right - mmm!  The next course was some type of puff pastry with asparagus and mozzarella cheese.  It was alright, something you would probably find in a buffet line and think, "this ain't half bad!"

That's basically where the meal stopped at being good.  My next course was mushroom risotto.  In every food show on television I've watched, risotto has always been something that no chef can ever get right.  Mine seemed to be both undercooked and overcooked at the same time with a pretty bland taste.  I'm actually looking forward to trying the mushroom risotto I have in the freezer from Trader Joe's more than reliving this stuff.

My next course was prawns three ways.  I guess the chef thought that being all fancy and putting each prawn in a shot glass with some awful breading and drizzling the plate with sauce would make him and artist and cover up the fact that the shrimp were pretty disgustingtly bland.  Sorry Mr. Chef -- next time spend more time on the food, not the the plate artwork.

And oh dear, the dessert.  I'm not quite sure what I ate.  Once I scraped away the fort of hard whipped cream around the edges I had some type of puff pastry that passed for alright.

On a plus, the espresso was great and my free glass of champagne + glass of bland white wine was a nice touch.

I don't think I'll be coming back anytime soon though.

Thanks you Yelp!

I thought places like this didn't exist in California, but I am so happy I was wrong.  Growing up my parents always had the German butcher where we went for all of our meats and cold cuts.  Since moving to California about 3 years ago, I've been sucking it up by going to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods for my meats - but sadly, they just don't have everything.

We picked up a ham bone-in and some German sausages for Christmas eve festivities.  Since it was around lunch time my husband and I split a sausage sandwich -- yumm!

Needles to say we will be definitely coming back and I think this place might become a regular on our shopping list.

My husband and I spent a lot of time going through every single doggie daycare place in the area to figure out what would be good for our pup.  Let me tell you, I don't want my dog to be pampered or have individual attention, I just want a nice, clean facility that doesn't give me the creeps.

Oh my god - what a HOLE!  We went in just to observe and it was gross.  Dogs barking all over the place.  One really shady person working there that did absolutely nothing to sell it.  Crates lined up in the play area.  I would rather have my dog run around in the streets for a few days then actually pay money to board him up there.

Eww!  Stay away -- go to Downtown Dogs instead.