Dave "So Fetch" C.'s Profile

For context, we went here on a day that it was raining and the bay was EMPTY, so we didn't hit any traffic at all on the water. That being said, I have to say that this was one of my favorite things that I've done in the San Diego surrounding areas (other than hang out w/my friend Arlene, who is the best).

It was raining and we thought that our outing from LA was ruined. We debated going to shoot guns. I suggested that we (a group of 6 guys) get mani/pedis (didn't go over well). We thought about a casino. But in the end, we said screw it, we came down to boat, so we were going to boat.

We went to Seaforth right after the rain stopped and since we didn't know how bad it was going to get, we rented the Pontoon (affectionately referred to as the "Poontang" by one member of the staff) for a leisurely cruise around the bay. It didn't go very fast, but it was very relaxing and the boat is pretty big! You could definitely take a bunch of friends out and have a leisurely ride around the water on the Poon.

But really, we were there for the jetskis. We all got one ($90/hour) and after a long lecture about how we, 6 guys in our 20's, were the type of people that scared the staff, and about how we would be charged $100/inch/scratch up to something like $4,500 for each ski, blah blah blah. We might be young, but we're also poor! We weren't going to run into each other because we would have to wash dishes for the rest of our lives! We stayed far, far away from each other because we weren't going to screw around with that.

You have to coast into the bay (under 5 MPH), which is kind of a bummer because people yell at you and you can get a ticket if you go faster, but once you get out there, it's great! The jet skis we got could easily go 50 MPH+. I think I topped out around 56 MPH, but it was plenty fast enough. The water was really calm when we were out there, so it was perfect to just cruise around and do some crazy turns because it was completely empty.

If you've never gone jet skiing before, I highly suggest it! $90/hour is a lot, but you'll only need one hour and I think it's a small price to pay for a great life experience. If you go on a perfect weather day, it will be packed! Go on an ok day and you can really have some fun out there!

They also have wet suit rentals for $3, so even if the weather sucks, you can still be warm (and covered in other peoples' bacteria, including mine, because I got one. I promise I didn't pee in it).

Cru was very good, despite some hit or miss dishes for me. I know that some people probably would have loved everything here, but we (Sarah G. and me) happened to get a couple dishes we weren't crazy about, but we had a few that we really liked.

GET:
Pumpskin seed chorizo rolls
Squash Soup
The Curry

Not crazy about:
Pad Thai (a little heavy)
Miso (too much freakin ginger, my mouth was killing me)

This was my first trip to a raw restaurant, even though I'm vegetarian. Overall, it was a really good experience and our server was really nice. They also have a bathroom, even though it doesn't look like it is one. There's plenty of street parking within walking distance and I enjoyed the laid back ambiance. Neat spot and I will definitely be back!

Let's be real here, it's a gas station, but I have been here to snap a picture for Yelp.

Nothing too fancy here, but they do sell firewood and ice if you're going camping and you're in a bind! The bathrooms aren't horrible (as long as you're a guy and not taking a dump), decent enough to change in as long as your feet don't touch the floor.

If you're someone who would rather throw the football with friends instead of doing keg stands, or you enjoy a nice bike ride instead of sitting inside and watching p0rnos (not hating on pornos, guys, just saying the outdoors is great every now and again), Castle Batting Cages can be as equally great of a find for you as it was for me.

Because I hate Baseball Central on La Cienega (mostly because some of the employees are dicks), I went out in search of a new batting cage that wasn't called Baseball Central, even if it was further away. The answer in this search was Castle Batting Cages, which is right where the 101 and 405 meet. It actually is not nearly as far as it sounds for people living on the Westside, just go around 7:30P or so after the traffic has died down. Other than the name, I wanted a place that was outside (I hate hitting in a playpen) and a place where I could actually see how far I was hitting the ball to a point - again, Castle Batting Cages was the answer.

I'm not a serious baseball player. In fact, I've never actually played a game of fast pitch baseball in my life. I never made it past tee ball, but I can make solid contact playing company softball. That's what I really like about this place, there are so many different speed options and you don't feel intimidated going into one of the slower cages to practice, despite the fact that they go up to 80MPH and some of the guys there are really good.

If my memory is correct, it goes:
High Arc Softball
Low Arc Softball (25MPH)
40 MPH Baseball
50 MPH Baseball
60 MPH Softball
60 MPH Baseball
70 MPH Baseball
80 MPH Baseball

Sometimes, there's a little bit of a wait at the faster cages for the more serious players who are practicing, but you'll rarely have a problem getting a spot at anything under 60 MPH. The machine is far enough away that it gives you a lot of time to react and you can even adjust the height of the pitches. The overall space is pretty big, so if you really crank one, you can tell that it went "over the house" and hit the back wall, making you feel like the frontal crotch area of your pants is entirely too small to handle all your manliness. And you can work on pulling the ball or going opposite field and you can actually see if you're doing it.

I'm slowly working my way up and can hit in the 50 MPH cage now, which is great to have the option to slowly progress like that. Yes, it's a batting cage so some of the bats are "dead" and you'll scream in pain if you hit it in the wrong spot, but you can't expect them to maintain the business if they have to get new bats all the time. If you know you'll be back, I'd definitely recommend getting one of the packages, I paid $55 for something like $75 worth of cage time and I think that's much more reasonable than the $3 for 30 pitches (that isn't bad either though). I sit in an office all day and this is my release on the weekends when Yoga isn't enough.

And juuuuuuuust in case something ghetto happens, there are always cops there at night who I think are strapped. However, I wouldn't want to see what a bat fight looks like even though we're all wearing helmets - it'd be like something straight out of Warriorz. CAN. YOU. DIG. ITTTTTTTTTTT?!?!

Lizon is a great, friendly neighborhood spot to get your alterations done. I've only got a couple things done here, but I've always been happy with the results.

When you're getting sized up, it often seems like he's going really fast, but it's just because he knows the game and pretty much knows exactly what he's going to do and what your measurements will end up being. The service is pretty quick, quality is great, and best of all, the service is really solid.

I went here over the weekend get get measurements done fox a tux for my friend's wedding and after joking that it would be "Just $100 dollars," he was happy to run through all the measurements and even told me what each one meant. It was just 3 minutes of his time, but it's something that I can really appreciate him doing, especially when he was swamped with last minute people coming in doing alterations for prom that same night.

This is theeee Banana Republic location on the Westside. As a result, the 5 stars are relative, but this location is so far and beyond the best location on the Westside that it deserves the Woohoo!

Forget Century City (selection too small) and Westside Pavilion (selection even smaller), this BR actually has some breathing room and plenty of sizes. It doesn't feel squished and everything is always well-maintained and laid out. While I know one person can be the source, I hate going to BR's and having the sale section look like someone broke in and started throwing crap all over the place. Here, they actually try and arrange the sale section to look just like the other sections where humans are shopping.

While it's not the mecca of BR's, like The Grove's Abercrombie is to that world of frayed clothing, but it is very, very good. There are always a lot of people around trying to start dressing rooms for you or they're just trying to earn their dollars by putting their name on the clothes that they're holding on for you at the register - always helpful.

Don't waste your time with the other locations on the Westside because chances are you'll just end up here anyways looking for the sizes that weren't there at the other locations.

Me love the food court. So many good, Korean eats for under $10. The JJM (jja-jjang myun) place attached to the restaurant upstairs will make your JJM vegetarian (and fresh!) for an extra dollar (which seems weird because it's actually taking food out of it, but you're paying more, but it's more weird to be Korean and vegetarian).

Plenty of parking. Lots of variety. Connected to a the supermarket where you can get all kinds of things like Choco Pies, Kiwi Gummies, and delicious Ice Cream Fish (sammich shaped like a fish), with plenty of parking. I don't do a lot of Asian things these days, but this makes me want to go to noraebang (karaoke) and get red faced with a thing of soju.

Me likey.

Lazy Daisy has got to be one of the most disappointing places that I've been to for breakfast in West L.A. I think the ambiance is pretty terrible, the service is even worse, and most importantly, the food is completely just on-par with what your lady friend could make for you after a night of listening to Day26's "Babymaker."

Clearly, this place is not designed to be "Good for Groups" and it's on the Westside, so I will not hold the 30 minute+ wait against it, nor will I question the operational skills of the hosting staff that constantly leapfrogs other people above waiting customers. What I will hold against it is having a Tofu Scramble Special listed on the board, yet being "out of tofu" at 11:00AM on a Sunday. Something about that SCREAMS "We just had some old ass tofu lying around and we wanted to unload it." If you're out of tofu, just erase the special off the board! It's written in chalk! And when I said I was vegetarian, the waitress kept suggesting things with bacon in them. Thanks.

I ended up getting some kind of really crappy bruschetta thing that was the least spectacular plate I've ever seen in my whole life. It was like I took a piece of Pepperidge Farm Texas Toast, put an egg on it (which I had to get, even though they make me feel sick...and I asked for the egg to be "over medium" and it was leaking all over the place), and then randomly sprinkled salsa nuggets on top of it. My "potatoes" was literally 5 pieces of little potato. FIVE! If I wanted to get a crappy breakfast, I would have just gone to Norm's (and I freakin hate Norm's) or Denny's in Westwood, at least I get sheer volume of food there! AND I would have just got two crappy breakfasts for the price of my one breakfast for ants that I got here.

Despite the alleged quaint appeal of this place, it completely blows. It is one of the few places (along with Harvey's Sandwiches in Palms) that I will never, ever, ever go to again. The service is lazy and the service and wait is crazy.

Lots of hype surrounding this place and while it was still really good, I wasn't in luuurve at first sight. However, I live on the Westside and I'm used to the long waits and bougieness of Toast, Jack and Jill's, etc.. So what I loved about this place was the energy (I LOVE DTLA!) and the speed at which we were served.

I went here with one of my favorite girls on the planet we call Earth, who happens to live downtown. We were promptly seated (9:30AM on a Saturday) and right away, people were taking our drink orders and just a minute later, they were asking us if we were ready to order. While some people might think this is kind of rude, I attribute this to the place probably having a lot of regulars and it's a diner, so they should try and turn the tables over quickly so that more people can get in. We ordered (she got the pancakes. I got the Vegan rancheros) and they brought over a couple donuts for us (a pink one and the bacon one that everyone raves about.

So I got a Vegan breakfast, which is clearly not going to be this place's specialty, but it was pretty good overall. I liked my tortillas and the beans were solid, along with the tofu "egg" thing in the middle, which was nicely fried. I was completely satisfied. My friend got some pancakes that she thought were reaaaally sweet with the syrup, so it might not be for the less sugar loving crowd. We got in and out in just about an hour (because we talked a lot), but you could easily get in and out in an hour and under $30 if you come early enough and don't have to deal with the long waits.

Great atmosphere. Decent food. Metered parking will make you a little antsy ($3.00 for an hour) because you'll be gambling, I would just park in the $5 lot across the street for peace of mind while you get some eats. I'd definitely go again, so this isn't a bad 3 star rating, just thought it was "A-OK!")

This is hands down one of the best Asian vegetarian restaurants in the vast universe called Los Angeles County. "But what about...?" "Ohhh but you haven't been to...." No, it really is.

Other than being a little tough to find (in one of those multistory kind of strip mall/mini-mall complexes that sprout up in places where there are a lot of Asians), Happy Family is like finally making it to Canaan after being in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. The food is fresh, servers are incredibly nice, and the prices are unreal for the sheer variety and MASS that you can consume over the course of the meal.

Like everyone is saying, this is a crazy man's buffet. It is not a long table where you "get what you get," you sit down, order things off the menu (2 plates to start, then one at a time after that) and they just keep bringing it to you - all for a set price! While I wouldn't say the "meat" is as convincing as say... the Santa Fe Chicken Sammich at Veggie Grill, it's the variety of different flavors and the way that the restaurant doesn't
bank on just having a couple good dishes. They have vegetarian fish, beef, chicken, squid, weird balls (that's what she said), tofu dishes, soup, noodles, all kinds of things on the menu that will be just as good going down as it will be smooth coming out later that night.

One of the best things about Happy Family is the service. Even if you're an obnoxious looking 25 year old guy (like me), the servers always stop by and they actually seem happy to take more of your orders while you're just stacking plates like a Vegas buffet at your table (until they take them away).

Go here. Leave happy. Cure your consti.