Ryan H.'s Profile

Hana is a nice place for sushi. Even though they have a few huge TVs behind the bar, I would dress up a little to go here. From the outside it looks huge, but inside it feels more intimate. Probably because they keep the lights low. We had sushi dinner, so I can't speak to the hibachi experience. You know what you are in for if you go for that kind of thing anyway.

The sushi nerd in me thinks this is some of the best sushi I've had. The pieces were big, flavorful, and tender. Even the squid. You must try one of their signature rolls. Usually signature rolls hew close to the commonly accepted ingredients, but Hana's signature rolls included things like mango and asparagus. The waitstaff is attentive, but not pushy (like a certain other sushi restaurant on Western Ave which shall remain nameless, but rhymes with Itchy Bond). Kudos!

After a 22 mile bike ride, nothing could be more satisfying than Seb's fried goodness. This is your typical roadside stand, selling fried food and ice cream. Looks like your ideal place for summer outdoor eats. There's a wide variety of stuff to choose from. We had fried fish, clams, and french fries. I was unimpressed by the fries, but I'm not a big french fry person. But the clams and fish were very good. Soft serve, available in chocolate, vanilla, and "twist" was fine. If I'm ever back on Grand Isle, I'll be sure to go back.

I feel like we're spoiled as far as contractors go after hiring Mark to remodel our bathroom, do some electrical work, and install windows. Each appointment he made, he stuck to it. In fact, he would try to show up 15 minutes early just in case of any hold-ups. So he definitely does not fall into that category of contractors who don't show or are perpetually late. He got to the house every day, bright and early to work on the bathroom, and we're really happy with the job he did. It looks good, clean, professional, and he stuck to his estimate, which was reasonable.

In the pizza wars, there can be only one winner. I've already written up the pizza parlor across the street from Hometowne Pizza, and summarily ripped it apart. But as bad as that place is, it seems only to have encouraged Hometowne to strive to make an excellent pie. I've had two pies from them: a barbeque chicken specialty pizza, and an eggplant and sausage pizza. And they were awesome. I might go so far as to say the barbeque chicken pizza was the best I've ever had. Perfectly done. Tangy sauce. Big pieces of tender chicken. I loved it. And the eggplant pie was surprisingly good as well! Eggplant! Not an easy ingredient to prepare. The place across the street could barely handle a simple black olive and mushroom.

I'm very tempted to give Hometowne 5 stars, but I will have to try their other offerings. In the Remsen St pizza war, this is the overwhelming winner. Next up is Mick's Pizza on Ontario.

I recently moved to Cohoes and was looking forward to the PIZZA CHALLENGE, the ultimate face-off in pizza competition between the two pizza parlors that sit across from each other on Remsen Street: Cohoes House of Pizza and Hometowne Pizza. Little did I know that it would not be much of a contest. Hometowne Pizza is the clear and easy winner.

There's nothing to recommend here, as far as pizza goes, which surprising given the restaurant's name. I've ordered two pizzas from them, a plain black olive and mushroom pizza, and one of their specialties, a buffalo chicken pizza. I was severely disappointed in both. First of all, the crusts seemed too round, too flat and disc-like. It took until the second pizza for me to realize that this might be because the crusts are bought  pre-made and frozen. I can't say this with certainty, though. What I can say is that the crust is completely tasteless and the entire completed pizza has the consistency of a frozen pizza. The slices are stiff triangles, and nothing moves when you tip it upside down. It's kind of unnerving. And almost insulting. You'd do just as well to buy a frozen Tony's pizza. I am not kidding.

I still have to try their calzones, grinders, etc. But as of right now, the House of Pizza gets the big thumbs down from me.

As has been my experience with all ethnic markets, you need to know what's good and what's not before you go in. For an ethnic grocery novice like myself, you sometimes don't know exactly what you're getting when you buy something at the Asian markets in Albany.

What can you trust here? You can trust anything that Eastern Europeans are known for completely. Mustard. Anything that's pickled. Cured meats. Hearty breads. Blintzes and pierogies. It's all great. But here's a surprise: The cookies are great. When you think of countries that produce great cookies, you might not think of Russia, but you'd be wrong. I'm working my way through the different flavors of gingerbread. So far, gingerbread with mint has been my favorite. Because of the cookies, I might be emboldened to try food from the other sections at Dnipro which I might not trust otherwise. Namely, dairy. Will it be a success? We'll see. For now, support this local ethnic market.

Nothing but good things to say about this place. We had our wedding reception here, catered by Elegant Touch, who frequently works with the owner of the Altamont Manor. The grounds are lovely, the house is great. We had a brass band play on their porch. We picked the Manor over several other venues for our reception, because 1. it had the nicest grounds, view, architecture, and 2. Harvey, the owner. We met with people from a few other venues, and we found Harvey refreshingly laissez-faire. It's your event, and he'll basically let you do whatever you want, and help along the way, as long as you are respectful of the property. In telling you about the full range of types of weddings and events they've done, he'll show you pictures of weddings with several groups of musicians, to weddings with nothing more than a boombox to play you down the aisle. I believe he will also push the "Play" button on the boombox if you ask him to.

It's a small venue. I'm not sure of the maximum, but we had 50 guests, and we filled up the dining room pretty well. They could fit a few more tables. It was perfect for a more intimate wedding reception.

I got my wedding cake and a birthday cake from Cocca Dotts, and I wholeheartedly recommend them. First, we scheduled a cake tasting for our wedding cake. As you can imagine, this is the most enjoyable part of the yearlong wedding planning process. You can try any kind of cake and frosting they make. We decided on a two level cake, buttermint cake and Baileys frosting on the bottom, spice cake and hazelnut frosting on the top. We had a basic idea for the look of it (dark brown with green ferns) and the chief cake guy helped us flesh out the idea and settle on something. A few months later, it was delivered on time for our wedding, and it was completely delicious. Everyone loved it, even with our non-traditional flavors.

I also ordered a birthday cake, and I described over the phone as wanting it to be white fondant covered in black polka dots. When I went to pick it up, they were hugely apologetic because the baker was out of town and they could not do fondant over the whole cake without him, and so they did it in butter cream. They took about 30% off the price. It still looked fabulous. They didn't need to apologize at all! Any time I need a fancy cake, I'll be headed back here.

I hesitate to review my wedding caterer because it seems like the service would be so personal and involved for each customer, versus a store or restaurant where they are pumping out the same thing all day long, but I feel it is appropriate to offer my endorsement. Elegant Touch catered my wedding reception, and they were a class act. From the first time we contacted Deb and were given a sample menu (which we ended up using because it looked so good) to the actual day of the reception itself, they were nothing but helpful, kind, and professional. The food was delicious, everything was where it should be on time, and they handled us and our guests with care. We even had a couple of curveballs in the form of 50 bottles of Jones Soda and 30 lbs of candy for a candy bar, and they put all of that together perfectly.

Came here with a party of ten on a Sunday afternoon. I had called on Wednesday to make a reservation, and again on Thursday to confirm it, but when we got there, they were apparently still unaware that we were coming. So they scrambled to get space together.

On the plus side, we did get to sit outside on the upper deck. On the downside, for some reason, the staff thought it was more efficient to put together a bunch of circular tables next to each other rather than putting rectangular tables next to each other. As a result, you were awkwardly seated far away from the person next to you. Very odd. So Riverview dropped the ball on those counts.

But the food was decent. My pulled pork sandwich was not great, but not bad. My wife's brie and avocado sandwich had too much brie (such a complaint!). Maybe the quality suffered in having to bring 11 meals out unexpectedly and simultaneously. Three stars. I wish Fireworks was still open for lunch.