Abby L.'s Profile

Really delicious food. No frills decor, but who cares? One silly little complaint. If you get the platter, you get the main dish, two sides, a drink, and a piece of baklava for a certain price (usually about $8-$9). If you make the mistake of ordering a main dish with ONE side, you will pay for that one side by weight and not get to tell how much you want. So I paid $9 for one main dish and one side. Don't make my mistake.

Great beer selection. Nice tables outside. Nice back room. Cute chicks (good for the ogling guys in your group). The food is godawful. The only acceptable thing on their menu is the pretzel.

The food is great, but the atmosphere isn't my favorite. There are always TERRIBLE fumes from the pizza oven, and the ventilation isn't great. They also play crazy loud music a lot of the time. Service is only soso.

All that said, I love their pizza, and oddly, the tofu salad is really good.

OK, I'm going to be an outlier on this one, and you know why? MSG in the sauce. It may use another name, but it's there, and I get migraines, so I couldn't partake. The meat quality was excellent, and I loved the hush puppies. A little smoky inside, but overall a decent place.

How do I love Helios? Let me count the ways. I'm new to town and have been here every day. There's free wifi, a nice vibe, great coffee, and a great clientelle that changes depending on the time of day and the day of the week. I managed to end up there on a Wednesday night when there was a killer DJ and wine, and a knitting group at the same time. I really like the pumpkin spice latte. I'm currently addicted. It's a well-lit space with high ceilings and interesting art that rotates. I met the owner, and he seems like a super-sweet guy. I've had a few of the lunch menu items, which were mighty tasty. Wifi service is very consistent. Only complaint is that they could use a few more plugs for the pyooters.

I'm also going to hold back a star because of the smoking situation. I really don't mind that a smoking room exists, but this one has TERRIBLE ventilation. It's fine in the front room, but you have to go through the smoking room (which is HUGE) to get to the bathroom. Just in my brief race through, I managed to absorb the smell that stayed on me for hours. Yuck! Otherwise, the environment is great, free wifi, great bevs. But they need some ventilation badly!

OK, I'd read the reviews, but I still had to go. It's a great looking place. It's a hole in the wall, great light, very colorful. I love the space. The menu was great, too. So many options and very unique combinations of things. I know that sounds like the beginning of a great review, but by the time I left, I knew I wouldn't be back any time soon.

My fellow diners liked the random sheets of paper with menu items that were pinned up all over the walls, but I found it a little overwhelming. The choices on the menu are extensive enough already.

The waitress was an older woman who tended to show no expression, so I never knew if she was hearing what we wanted or not because she didn't respond or nod or anything. She mumbled, too, so I wasn't always sure what she was asking. She seemed pretty unhappy to be there.

Together, me and my three fellow diners ordered the Mexican Polenta, the Spanish Omelette, the Gingerbread Pancakes, and the Pumpkin Pancakes with Cranberry and Walnuts. My pumpkin pancakes were completely undercooked, so I ate around the edges of each pancake. There were WAY too many cranberries in the thing. Each bite had 4 or 5 little ones inside. I didn't order cranberry pancakes, did I? I didn't spot any walnuts. They were topped with cream cheese (a big hunk) and strawberries. Under ripe and overly soaked strawberries. YUCK! Between that and the doughy middle, I ate almost none of my breakfast, and that is VERY unlike me.

My friend who ordered the Gingerbread pancakes loved them. I didn't, so I guess that was a matter of taste. The Mexican Polenta was weird. It had raw jalapeno's, so when you bit in, the heat of the dish seemed to somehow sit on top of the actual flavor. Not well integrated at all. Apparently the Spanish Omelette was "pretty good". I do know that the home fries that came with it were good, so that's something.

I just feel like they need to shorten the menu and work on improving the recipes that they have. The start of a great breakfast place is there, but the execution is SORELY lacking.

Went here on Friday on the recommendation of a friend. This is a cool space. When you walk in, it's a long narrow walk back past a very long bar. We didn't keep walking, so I don't know what was past there. Great food menu, which mattered since we were HONGRY! As recommended by the friend, we ordered the peanut butter burger and the mac and cheese with andouille. Both were excellent. My boyfriend got the hot dog and says it was great. I'm sure others have mentioned the large ass beer menu, so I won't bother with that. Our waitress seemed bored and was pretty inattentive at times, but we got what we needed. The atmosphere was really fun, too. Great music selection. While we were there, they were playing a lot of Stooges and some Rapture. Probably made ME less fun to those at my table since I kept singing along, but it sure made the whole occasion more fun for me!! I would definitely go back. It just worked perfectly for the kind of place it is.

Good GRIEF, these guys are good. I've used them twice, once upon arriving in Boston with a MASSIVE Penske truck we'd driven from Tennessee. It had my then boyfriend's stuff and my stuff (including a lot of very fragile antiques I inherited from my parents). Three movers arrived on time. I was surprised that they were "like me", clearly smart people (led by a woman named "J") with much more than just muscle to offer. Moving isn't just about lifting. It's about playing advanced, 3D tetris, and they were up for it. They got everything out of the truck lickety split. I was impressed.

But then I used them again to move out of this apartment one year later. No more boyfriend's stuff this time (we broke up), but this time, the trick was the little prior notice. I found out I had to move earlier than I thought. I called, and they were able to fit me in two weeks later on August 30th, right in the heart of moving season. J arrived with two different helpers, one clever enough to quickly figure out how to disassemble my massive antique wardrobe.

J took stock and immediately knew where to start. They were efficient and careful and even offered to help pack some boxes that weren't completed. They carefully wrapped antiques in blankets and stretch wrap. They cut up trash bags and taped carefully around a large painting I have that isn't on the sturdiest canvas.

They loaded up the truck, and I sent them off to the storage facility with a key and told them to do their best. Later that night, I was shocked when they called to say they had just finished.

It's been almost two weeks since the move, and I finally went over to the storage facility to add a few boxes, and WOW! I had no idea that 3D Tetris could be so complex. I had only one box and a few stray items to add, and it took be 45 minutes to add it to their perfectly organized work.

I recommend these people HIGHLY. Seriously. They are VERY good. They are worth every penny.

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One word of advice: Realize that you are paying by the hour. They quote is for the first two hours, then after that, it's hourly (as in, half of the two hour quote). In all the excitement, I spaced that little detail, but when I saw their work at the storage facility, I was so grateful I'd hired them.

This place was GREAT! I was in Seattle on vacation, and my friends and I decided we wanted to go to karaoke, so I went on Ask Metafilter and asked about the best places to go on Fridays. This was the place people kept mentioning, and they were right. It's a total dive bar with a really diverse crowd, from seedy and down and out to educated and swanky. The books are big with every song I could think of singing. There was a lot of crowd participation and dancing, too. I highly recommend you travel up Beacon Hill for a fun night out.