Sandy "sandswirl" C.'s Profile

I found Si on Yelp.  Like what everyone else said, she works out of her home and is the sweetest lady.  She is very busy, but found the time to schedule me in for multiple fittings. I kept losing weight up until my wedding day so each time i went we had to take the dress in a little more.  

She didn't do a traditional bussle for me because my dress had a beautiful diagonal draping that she wanted to preserve.  So she put in multiple hooks and color coded them so that my bridesmaids could help me hook the different areas up.  I got so many compliments on my dress and how beautiful it looked both down at the ceremony and up at the reception.  It didn't look tucked in at all, it just looked like a shorter, flowy dress.

I also ended up having her do a flower girl dress, where she made these cute fabric roses  and added a sash to a plain white one... and she also altered a couple of evening gowns for me.

She was simply awesome.  Thanks Si!

I'll post some pics too.

I am so happy I found this salon.  I needed a haircut and happened to drive by and see that they weren't very busy on a Thursday, so I walked right in.

I went in and they were able to immediately start on me.  Tina was the lady who shampooed my hair, and it was the most awesome shampooing and head massage ever.  It was just what I needed.

Lisa was the one who cut my hair - I asked her to cut 2 inches and give me layers, and she executed perfectly.  At some asian salons they go overboard with the layers and give you a fobby look, but she didn't.  She was careful to do it the way I wanted it.

She finished with blow drying and straightening.  They took their time and did a great thorough job, and it was only $25.

Both Lisa and Tina were extremely friendly.  I loved it so much there, I came back the next day with my husband so he could get a haircut as well.  My hubby was happy with his $15 haircut (shampooing included)

The salon is a good size, and is very clean.  They have a lot of pedicure stations with the massage chairs, so I decided to get a mani-pedi after Lisa told me about their $30 mani / pedi deal!  Lisa did my nails, and they turned out great. I just did a simple one color pedi, and clear nail polish for my mani.  

At this salon, they really really put in extra effort to making the customer feel comfortable and happy.

On Friday, I decided I needed a change. So I went in for a haircut at a Vietnamese hair salon, and ended up coming out with a wave perm.  

This was my first time at Envy U Beaty Salon.  My experience there was much like the experience you get at a Vietnamese Nail Salon:

http://www.youtube.com...

While she's washing my hair
Hair Lady: "You so tall! you must have an American boyfren!"  
Me: "umm...well my husband is chinese. He is american though, and he is tall."
Hair Lady: "oh you married? oh wow so young"
Hair Lady: "How tall are you?"
Me: "5'7" and a half"
Hair Lady: "oh wow, taller than me (she's like no taller than 5'3" btw).  People think I look tall and they look my feet to see my shoes. you know."  

Back to the chair while I'm getting a trim
Hair Lady: "How much you weigh?"  
Me: "umm excuse me?"  
Hair Lady: "you know, how many pounds? mmmhmm?"  
Me: "umm.. a hundred twenty something..."
Hair Lady: "you not skinny..... but you not.. you know.. "
Me: "fat? hah yah I know I'm not fat."
Hair Lady: "mmm but you know, it's good.. it's not good to be too skinny when you're so tall"
Me: ...

*awkward silence*

Hair Lady: "you go gym?"
Me: "yah, I do."
Hair Lady: "Look me, I never go gym. I just skinny" (and yah, she is a skinny petite vietnamese lady)
Me: ...

*awkward silence*

Hair Lady: "you need more body (in your hair).  Wave perm.  It look good. You like it."
Me: ok

While she's applying curlers
Hair Lady: "You need eyeliner. you see? just a little bit.  Like me. Just a lil dark on top and bottom." and she starts to peel her bottom eyelid down to show me how she does her makeup...
Me:  ahh yah thanks. I usually only wear eyeliner when I go out at night.
Hair Lady: "it's too light.. but it's ok you look good. don't worry you look good!"
Me:  (thinking: .. I wasn't worried...)

LoL.

The whole time she kept looking at me up and down and then looking in the mirror at herself.  funny.  Goes with the "Envy U" theme.  Or maybe it should be "Envy Me"

If she weren't a Vietnamese lady in the hair salon, I'd probably be super annoyed or even pissed off.  But I think she honestly meant well and was trying to give me some tips -- that's just how they make conversation hahha.  In the end, I was super happy with my hair. She did a great job and I guess that's all that matters! =P  Believe it or not, I'd definitely go back.

I didn't catch the lady's name, but she is not one of the owners.  The shop is run by Theresa who seems to be the most experienced and polite.  The lady who did my hair said most people who go there request the owner... but i'm thinking I'll just stick with her .. ms. beauty consultant who gives it to me straight lol.

I found this place using my yelp app -- when I was looking for a good casual chinese restaurant.  

Great Service - It's a family owned business... waitress=daughter cook=dad.

Great Value - get the 3 for $18 deal and make sure you let them know before hand.

Food was ok - The egg drop soup was a lil too starchy and totally burned off the roof of my mouth!  chinese brocolli was good!, honey walnut prawns were decent, but I was not impressed with the general tso's chicken... it tasted more like orange chicken with way too much breading.  Maybe we didn't pick the right dishes...

It's not in a great neighborhood... and it was completely empty when we walked in.. it had a cold, dark, closed down feeling to it.  A lot of people came and got take-out.

Hubby and I were both surprised this place got 4 stars on yelp.  3.5 maybe for service & value.

I LOVE this place, and always come back for TWO things:

1) They have absolutely the BEST yellow curry chicken!  The chicken is always extremely tender... it's better than any other thai curry chicken I've ever had.  

2) Cabbage soup.. their cabbage soup HITS the SPOT!  I crave this soup.

Soooo good, I could eat it everyday!

If you love these two dishes as much as I do, then Tuesdays is the best time to come here.. because they have daily lunch specials, and every Tuesday they have their cabbage soup and curry chicken as part of the lunch special!

I'm surprised this place is never super crowded.. the food is just awesome... and they have good service too.  In terms of the decor, it's not fancy.. even a little bleh.  There are these orange curtains with some kind of pattern on them.. and if you're lucky, there will be a waiter who always wears the same shirt that matches the curtains! hahaha.  I used to see him there all the time, but I haven't seen him for a while.  anyway, I thought that was funny and it reminded me of the movie garden state, where zach braff's character had a shirt that matched the wallpaper =P

Ahhh.. I have fond memories of Sushi Roku in Las Vegas... =)  my girl friends and I came here for dinner during my Bachelorette weekend in Vegas.

As good as the food was, the GM was the highlight of our meal.  Frankly put, the GM Kenji is a gentleman and a hottie patottie.  Whenever someone left to use the ladies room, he would come to our table, pick up their napkin, and put it nicely folded on the table... and then chat it up w/ us. hehe.  When we realized this, we started taking turns being the 'decoy' and he would come to our table every time without fail.  haha jk i'm exaggerating.. sorta ;)  ... 11 girls in Vegas need some form of entertainment at all times I suppose.

Anyway, on to the food:

Fav dishes:
Japanese Yellowtail Sashimi w/ Diced Chilies
Tuna Tataki Sashimi w/ Ponzu
Baked Lobster with Creamy Miso Sauce Roll
SeaBass w/ Truffle Miso Glaze & Sauteed Spinach
chocolate (volcano? lava?) cake

YUM YUM YUM.  

Oh yah, the latte there is excellent too!

I try to come here every time I'm in Sin City! (for the food of course *wink*)

YAY! I can't believe this korean restaurant has been in my neighborhood all this time, and I didn't know about it!!!!  

Discovering this hole in the wall korean restaurant really made my week! I'll be coming back for more very soon.  The pricing is reasonable and the portions are huuuge!

The seafood pancake was thick and crunchy on the outside, with fresh seafood that's not too chewy. It's the BEST seafood pancake in the area for sure!

Everything else was also delicious! The chap chae (glas noodles), kalbi (bbq ribs), kimchee jige (kimchee stew)... all awesome.  *DROOL*

There's something super satisfying about eating a delicious hearty meal at a casual /laid back mom n pop restaurant.

Hubby and I decided to try this place out because we are huge fans of Jamie from Top Chef!  

YAY!
- Best French Onion soup EVER
- Every dish was pretty much delicious...
- Great atmosphere!

BOO!
-I was SOOO surprised and bummed when I found a little hair in the sauce part of my lamb shank entree! The hair was black and a little wavy =(  

I mean, as gross as it sounds, it was on the side in the sauce, so I just sorta picked it out and continued eating.   haha... the lamb shank was good.... but it was a total downer on the perfect meal.. esp knowing that my dish was def NOT prepared by Jamie.  

Jaime is blond! hahah I wonder if I would have felt better if I found a blond hair in my sauce. HAH.

I had HIGH hopes for Womack's because I kept hearing nothing but awesome things about the food.  And although the food was actually pretty decent, I would probably never go back because of the horrible service.

So here's what happened:

We had a large group and Womacks is a tiny tiny restaurant.  Our group was trying to decide between going to the buffet or womacks.  We called in advance, and the person who picked up the phone said come on over, the wait will be only 15 minutes (which sounded much shorter than the 1 hour wait for buffet).  So we walked over.

The waitress with the clipboard was actually pretty friendly at first.  I told her we had a group of 9, and she looked towards the only table that could fit 9 people, and said "Ok I'll seat you guys at that table as soon as it's available."  I thought, "Sweet!"

So our group gladly waited outside in the cold for the next 20 mins as that table finally cleared up.  When she came outside, she called the next party of 5... and although there were three open tables of 4 that could have easily fit 5 people with an extra chair, she seated them at the table of 8 that she had promised us!

I thought she MUST have forgotten.  So I went up to her and reminded her that we have the party of 9.. and she immediately snapped at me and said "I'm SORRY but there's people who have been waiting MUCH longer than you have!!!"

=(  woah there, sorry...

So we continued to wait outside, and she proceeded to seat every other party except for ours. 2 hours later we were wondering if we should just leave.  The restaurant had started clearing out and she was seating people who clearly got there later than we had.

So someone else in our group finally spoke up and said it was fine if she just split us in two groups.  She snapped back "OF COURSE i will try to seat you with whatever is available!" She said this while there were empty tables inside.  

She came outside one last time. There were 3 empty tables inside.  She looked past us and called some other names. crickets chirped.  We said, "ummm we're the only ones left out here" ... at this point we were just hungry, tired, and cold... too drained to try going anywhere else.

She finally let us in and sat our group at two separate tables. When she took our orders she said in a snarky tone with a smirk, "i'm sure you guys had plenty of time to read the menu and decide what you wanted while you were waiting outside."

We ordered and ate. I'll even admit, the food even tasted pretty good... maybe because we were starving. We tried our best to force some smiles to hide our frustration.

Even though she split our group, she charged us an automatic 18% for gratuity for our "large group."  She said, "I'm not asking you -- I'm telling you, I'm giving you one check.  Oh, and wasn't the food awesome?"

grrrrrr.....but I'll be fair - as much as I wanted to hate the place - the ribs, spiced cider, pie... were really good. 2 stars for the food, zero stars for the service!

My girlfriend took me here and we bought an entire pie -- scarfed the entire pie down in one night... yah.. the WHOLE pie.. between the two of us.  

after dinner.

It was BAAAD but it was SOOO GOOD.

holy smokes - BEST banana creme pie EVER.  

To this day, i still can't stop thinking about that dang pie. It's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing i think about when I go to bed at night.. omg thank goodness I live far enough from this place.

hehehehe =P