Mark B.'s Profile

This is the best shop I've ever been to, hands down. They are so honest, one time I took my Civic in for a problem, and they called me later to tell me they looked up the symptom with the manufacturer and it was covered under a Honda recall.

They could have made a few hundred bucks off me for this repair, but instead they were thorough and honest enough to advise me to take it back to the dealer, where it would be fixed for free.

I took my Honda to them for years, and even though I now live 50 miles away, I think I'll take my car back to them next time it needs service.

Bill and Mark are soft-spoken to the point of being quiet, but they explain everything very well. They give you a service checklist showing everything they did, with check-offs for Yes, No, and Not Applicable. Their notes are easy to understand. For example: if they detect a minor problem that might not need to be fixed for another few thousand miles.

Note: My 5 star review is based on 1 visit (so far).

Meeting some friends at the corner of Market and Church for brunch, it was going to be between Sparky's (which I love), Chow (which I like), and Home (which I'd never been to). Velma loved Home's chicken pot pie last time she ate there, so she enthusiastically voted for it. The others were amenable to any of them, so it looked like we were Home-ward bound.

On Velma's urging, we opted for the patio, which has a decidedly more laid-back and cozy feel than the main dining area inside. On the way, we passed the a-la-carte Bloody Mary table, which a gaggle of slightly bleary-eyed hipsters were making good use of.

Home serves brunch on the weekends from 10am to 2pm. We were there at 11:15 on a May Sunday, and it was suitably busy without being crowded.

Home serves up classic American comfort food with a gourmet twist. They offer vegetarian alternatives and free-range Niman Ranch beef, although organic eggs come at a slight cost increase. You'll pay a tad more for your brunch here, but not much more.

I ordered the California omelet, which contains tomatoes, scallions, and pepper jack cheese. It arrived with two gigantic dollops of avocado on top, which was my first indication that I was going to like this place. Any place that doesn't scrimp on the avo gets at least three stars in my book. My plate was further festooned with Home's breakfast potatoes, large cuts of small roasted potatoes that are highly seasoned in a way that made my heart sing with love. Another two stars. The omelet's very fresh ingredients and zesty taste (albeit with few ingredients) sealed the deal. I had been looking forward to a filling omelet at Sparky's, but Home stole the show by leaving my taste buds awed and my stomach full.

Velma chose the buttermilk biscuit and country sausage gravy with two eggs. Having tried a couple bites, I can confirm that it was splendid, maybe even better than mine. I think Chris opted for the eggs Florentine, English muffin, poached eggs, sauteed spinach, hollandaise, and breakfast potatoes, which I didn't try but he finished as quickly as I did, so I guess it was good. Jenny had the buttermilk pancakes, which she said were great but didn't finish, because they were huge. And because I've never seen Jenny finish a meal ever. Carmen had already eaten, so I'm mentioning her only to add a blonde to the mix.

Taking a look at their dinner and dessert menus makes me want to go back some evening. Home has a wide variety of wines and spirits as well. Happy Hour is daily from 5 to 7pm.

Surrounded on all sides by Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Myers Flat is a minuscule town that one wouldn't ordinarily think rates a restaurant as good as The Groves. Yet here it is, right on the Avenue of Giants, just off Highway 101.

We're very familiar with the local fare, as we take brief jaunts to the redwoods once or twice a year from San Francisco. So it's with plenty of local experience that I can say that The Groves is extraordinary. We were in the area for two and a half days, and we went back our second night for dinner because it was so good the first time (and let's face it -- there's very little else that compares, locally).

I gave The Groves 4 stars because it didn't disappoint, on two separate occasions. I was skeptical at first when some bread arrived with the menus that was far too sweet and fluffy for dipping in the olive oil it was served with. I was also puzzled by the slightly schizophrenic decor that's certainly nice and upscale enough, but had a few puzzling touches that made me wonder whether I was seeing a bit of the building's original use show through.

The staff was professional and friendly, our food was prepared quickly and served hot, and the water kept flowing. We were offered wine from the associated Riverbend Cellars next door, and we tried a couple glasses the first evening (although I can't recall what we had).

The halibut was quite good, I've only had better at restaurants right on the coast, and the braised and roasted duck was excellent -- very flavorful and not at all gamey. We finished with splendid deserts (mousse and homemade chocolate mint ice cream) served in portions worthy of chocolate lovers.

The following day we had The Groves' hamburger and one of their single-serving wood-fired pizzas. The pizza's size was just right after a day of hiking around in the redwoods, not too small as they often are in many California cuisine establishments. Even with the thin crust (my preference anyway), the meal was filling on a day that I was certainly hungry, and the wood-fired pizza and its adornments were extremely flavorful and the crust extra-crispy, just as I like it. The burger was fresh and excellent too, and the fries were great, no ketchup necessary, which I can't say often of restaurant fries.

For those unfamiliar with the Redwoods Region, Myers Flat is located just off Highway 101, a short drive (~10 miles) north of Garberville (which is about 200 miles north of San Francisco and about 70 miles south of Eureka).

I'm no vegan-hater like many of the reviewers, but my latest experience at Medicine was very disappointing. I first went there about a year-and-a-half ago and it was pretty good, even if the serving sizes were miniscule.

This time, I ordered the curry tofu rice bowl and it was massive with a capital assive! I mean, the bowl was almost as big as my head. This was not necessarily a negative, but there was far too much rice for far too little curry, the curry was hardly what I'd call earth-shatteringly good (or even what I'd call pretty good), and the tofu and vegetables were completely cold, which just sucked.

With all the cold veggies and tofu on top, this meant what little warmth my meal had was trapped at the bottom, and had dissipated by the time I'd shoveled a hole deep enough into the vast bowl to get to it. Bottom line: cold curry tofu bowl = suck.

The shiitake croquette (side dish) was pretty good, although this was mostly due to the yummy dipping sauce.

Judging from the few people at Medicine on a weekday at lunch hour, I'd say the word is getting around that this Medicine has become hard to swallow.

Pakwan is like sex. You might regret it in the morning, but while you're having it, it's the best thing in the world.

Open Studios at Hunters Point happens twice a year, in the spring and fall. I've been several times and it's always amazing.

Over 300 fine artists have their studios there and most of them participate in the Open Studios events. There's everything from jewelry to painting and mixed media to fiber arts and sculpture. There's very traditional stuff (boring to me) and very non-traditional stuff.

There's something for everyone! Unless you don't like art at all. In which case you should probably just go to bed instead. But not with me. Because I like art.

Their website kinda sucks --- doesn't give you any indication of the voluminous amount of excellent art you can see there --- but it has some interesting history about the community, and has the dates for the next event.

http://www.thepointart.../

Lulu's thin-crust, oven-fired pizzas are definitely on a higher plane than the hometown Sicilian-style offerings of my absolute favorite pizza restaurant, Cicero's, but Lulu is an entirely different species of restaurant after all, so to compare the two would be amoral.

But Pappy Long said to always try to do three amoral things before lunchtime, so here goes.

I ordered the asparagus pizza with prosciutto, fontina, and white truffle oil. Now, this is the sort of highfalutin fare you decidedly wouldn't see on the menu at Cicero's, which is more of a down-home, checkered-pattern-tablecloth sort of place.

Just to clarify, I like both sorts of places. As long as the pizza's good, that is.

Where Cicero's pizza is sometimes drenched in oil, Lulu's is crispy and barely oily at all. The asparagus pizza was simply delicious, better than I had imagined it might be, with the prosciutto and fontina adding just enough extra flavor to the asparagus but not masking its freshness. Where Cicero's amazing taste comes from its secret-formula sauce, Lulu's rates as nearly mouth-watering more for its interesting blend of toppings than its zestiness.

Overall, Lulu is a little pricey but definitely worth it for a special or even semi-special occasion. They also have an excellent and comprehensive selection of wines and spirits. In fact, my first time there, I noticed that they had amontillado, a sort of sherry that I had never seen in any restaurant, but I recalled from reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" back around the 6th grade. So of course, I had to try it.

I've eaten at Lulu two times now and my food, and that of my companions, has exceeded expectations on both occasions. The portions are not huge but they are undoubtedly delicious, and just sizable enough when coupled with bread, a little wine, and an appetizer. The pizza is $16.25 and not huge, but was decently filling.

Glancing at the other reviews by Yelpers, it seems one's experience with the service is hit-or-miss at Lulu. Ours was fine that night, and on my previous visit. But nothing special to write home about one way or another.

Lulu is related to Palo Alto's Zibibbo, which I need to try sometime.

A note to Yelper Liz S., whose one-star review begins with "The waiter opened with, 'The food is provincial.  That's a part of France'.  You can't say we weren't warned..."

The waiter's enunciation may be poor, but the information was accurate. S/he did not say "provincial," as you heard. S/he said "Provencal" (that c should be a cedilla, a c with a little tail accent underneath), which is the French-English adjective meaning "from Provence," the Mediterranean region of France.

"Rustic" is the nicest adjective I can think of.

I don't mind cheap hotels and kinda dumpy accommodations, until they try to pass themselves off as a bed and breakfast or try to sound nicer than they are by calling themselves an "inn." This place isn't an inn, it's a motel.

That said, we were specifically looking for something cheap for a quick weekend getaway from San Francisco, so I didn't really mind the semi-dumpy decor. I live with "dumpy" every day in the Mission, so it doesn't bother me.

But upon checking in we were informed that they had mistakenly given away our room for the second night. This was later remedied by switching the other person, but not before we were told we'd have to switch rooms the second night to a room with two double beds instead of the queen we already had. Nice.

I was willing to forgive (somewhat) the condition of the room because we had specifically booked the converted water tower, and the notion that we'd be sleeping in an old water tower was enough to forgive a lot of dumpiness.

However, the architect (or weekend handyman, more likely) who converted this particular water tower was -- how can I put this -- a less-than-inspired artisan.

You might think a converted water tower would feature, say, a spiral staircase up to a staggeringly high balcony where one could enjoy the views of the harbor down the bluff (the "inn"/motel does in fact have a decent view...if you walk around the back of the office to the lawn and don't mind the road noise since you have to look past Hwy 1 to see the ocean).

You might think that. You would be wrong. The water tower room did not feature any view at all, other than of the parking lot and the gargantuan truck parked two feet ouside the door. Nor did it feature any sort of stairs. Unless you count the two steps up to the disappointingly situated GROUND FLOOR room. Yes our converted water tower featured one small room. On the ground floor. No view, no height, no balcony. Not even high ceilings or a skylight, or even a bogflammin' stupid we're-a-fishing-community-let's-do-a-faux-marine-decor-thing PORTHOLE fercryinoutloud!

Did I mention the architect? And his questionable capacities?

The walls hadn't seen a paintbrush in maybe a decade. And when they had, the painter was apparently either drunk or incompetent (let's hope s/he was drunk). The faded-nearly-beyond-recognition Monet posters (posters!) behind plexiglass were a nice touch, the blinds on one window fell completely off when we tried to close them, and the toilet seat broke completely off the first time we raised it (did we get an emphatic "I'm soooo sorry! We'll fix that right away and let me take $$ off your bill!"? Um, no: "Oh, sorry. The guy'll fix that soon, but it probably won't be for a couple days." Nice.)

Because my mother taught me right, I'm going to think of some nice things to say: There was candy on the office counter, coffee and muffins each morning, the hot water always came on quickly, and the heater worked great. Oh, and it was the cheapest halfway decent place we could find in 3 counties. I'm giving the Bodega Harbor "Inn" 2 stars because it was cheap and I wasn't expecting it to be really swank.

I finally experienced the overwhelming Powell's City of Books -- the entire city block (not to mention the other locations in outliying neighborhoods) -- that is the Powell's empire. I very nearly spent my entire allowance.

My girlfriend and I spent 4 hours there one afternoon and didn't see each other once until we phoned each other to meet up. I loved every minute of it. They have possibly one of the largest selections of graphic design books I've ever seen, and I barely spent any time looking at science fiction or numerous other favorite genres.

The fact that Powell's A) stocks tons of used books (I located two items on my Wish List), and B) has an awesome website that rivals Amazon anytime, makes this company tops in my book. I only wish I lived a little closer to Portland...

Update: Another Yelp member pointed out that I seem to have mixed up my Powell's locations. I think the location I was intending to review is the one at 1005 W Burnside St, Portland, OR 97209, which would be on this page: http://www.yelp.com/bi...