Robin B.'s Profile

I love this little joint. With super fresh food, hot & fresh coffee, super duper good prices, and friendly faces all around you've got yourself all 5 stars.

It used to be called Comfort Zone Cafe and it had a similar vibe/low price menu so when CZC closed I was sad. Then when I saw it was re-opening with a new name I did not know what to expect. I lived around the corner on Potomac Ave so having a place like CZC was awesome. Little did I know Ashker's would come into Elmwood Village and step it up a notch and be more awesome.

The owners/management/cooks are super nice and set the tone right for grabbing a cup of joe and a hot cheap meal. Not only is the food fresh and priced well but it is very delicious as well. My breakfast quesadillas and breakfast wraps have hit the spot every time.

Hooray for Ashker's!

This place gets a rare 5 star review from me because of my fresh, flavorful, and bountiful Chicken Tikka entree. It came with a generous portion of perfectly prepared and spiced grilled chopped chicken mixed with grilled peppers and onions, flavorful rice, tasty grilled pita bead, and a choice of soup or salad. I had spicy lentil soup which was exactly that. Spicy and served hot which was nice to have on a winter day.

My wife's Chicken Curry entree was equally done right. It melted in your mouth.     Her mediterranean side salad was fresh and yummy as well.

Since moving from Southern California to Western New York last year I have not had a chicken meal that was prepared with as high quality ingredients and in a way that left the chicken so juicy and flavorful. My only complaint is that there isn't a Kabob Cafe equivalent in Elmwood Village in Buffalo.

Not only was my food great but the server was super friendly and attentive and genuinely cared about the food they served stating she believes it is Ellicotville's best. I would not argue with this after our meal here.

The building/interior was pleasant. I liked the open plan that allows you to see from the top to the bottom with exposed wood beams and variations of hanging lights throughout.

There is a large parking lot behind the building for patrons of the restaurants there: Ellicotville Brewing Company & Kabob Cafe. The no parking signs are scary but we confirmed with EBC we could park there. Street parking is hard to find out front so the parking lot was a nice find.

5 stars for the best cuban sandwich I've ever had(been trying these at various places lately and this sandwich was FAR AND BEYOND THE BEST).

Today I was my first experience with North End Caffe.

I ordered The Real Cubano panini sandwich because I had read it was one of the dishes they tried on Diners Drive Ins and Dives.  I was not disappointed.

the roll: a delicious baguette... fresh, crunchy outter, soft inner
the slow roasted pork: amazing
ham: sweet and delicious
cheese: swiss... melting and merging with the pork/ham
sauces: creole mojo(not sure what this is but it appeared to be mayo to me.  If you're worried about being healthy you may want to ask for none of this although it totally rocked the sandwich... could eat the bread with this stuff and the mustard and pickle alone
pickle: yes... good... fresh

You also get a healthy helping of mixed organic spring greens covered in some yummy yellow vinaigrette looking dressing.

Haven't tried anything else but purely based on this Cuban sandwich I can't wait to try more from North End Caffe.

Alegria on Sunset is no El Torito Grill... and that's a good thing.

People, please.  There is NOTHING to complain about when it comes to Alegria.  I've been looking for a great Mexican food restaurant in Los Angeles that I feel I can trust over the past couple years since moving here and I have found it in Alegria on Sunset.

Before you go to Alegria you need to know two things.  Once you know these two things head on over and enjoy some of the freshest most delicious Mexican food you'll ever eat.

1) CASH ONLY (yeah I never carry cash but I'm not going to die if I have to go to the bank/atm)
2) BYOB (why this is a bad thing to you complainers I'll never know)

Now that you know these two tidbits of information grab some cash and some nicely priced wine/beer/other spirits and head over to Alegria for amazing food.

I've eaten there for lunch on the weekdays and dinner on the weekend and have never had trouble getting a seat.  One time we had a party of 12 on a Friday night and they were more than willing and capable of fitting us into their tiny restaurant.  That was the only time we had to wait and that was a total of about 10 mins because they had to set up a huge table for us.  As for parking, yes the lot is small but there's plenty of street parking all around it.

The food.

I have had the Alexis Burrito several times: perfect grilled chicken(thick chunks of juicy white meat with grill marks on it), fresh tomatoes, crisp greens, onions, cilantro, Jack cheese, Creme Fraiche, spicy salsa, vegan rice and black beans.  I'm not sure what makes rice "vegan rice" but I do know that the rice is freaking great.  This is BIG burrito ala Chipotle but with less rice filler.

I have also had the Carnitas dinner place several times.  I wouldn't have ordered it again if it was sub par.  Succulent pork with all the fixings to make amazing little carnitas tacos.

My girlfriend has ordered the Chimichanga de Pollo several times and I have had the pleasure of having a few bites several times.  It is seriously amazing.  I love that rice they put in their burritos.  The chicken is delicious... the fried tortilla is not super greasy and gross... it's possibly the best chimichanga I've ever tasted.

Last but seriously not least is the GUACAMOLE AND CHIPS.  I love guacamole! I frequently make it myself at home and I order it almost everywhere I can.  If it was just OK I wouldn't bother to mention it but this guac is seriously perfection.  It's the freshest tasting guac I've had in a restaurant ever and the large is LARGE.  You get what you pay for.

All the whiners can stay at home and leave this place to me.  I love it.

Sometimes places have signs that say "voted the best" hanging in the window and you never really find out what is so great about the place that would entitle it to be "the best."

The Kind Burger (TK Burger) is not one of those places.  I love it!  It is the best short order burger I've ever had!

There are two more locations: Costa Mesa & Huntington Beach

All three are great.  I've had no bad food or service at any of them.

The TK experience begins with one or two cute girls working the register.  If you're looking for the California girl the Beach Boys sang about then look no further.   Next is the simple menu.  Burgers and fries.  You can get healthier turkey, chicken, ahi or veggie burger patties and have heard they are all pretty good but what I love is the traditional cheeseburger with everything on it, fries and a side of the special sauce.

The special sauce is a very thick version of the 1000 island dressing you might find on an In n Out burger.   The comparison stops there though.  TK's special sauce, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and buns kill all competition.  The buns are really awesome.  I think between the sauce and the buns TK really has something unique.

The fries are thick and delicious.  No soggy slinky in the bunch.  They put a light coat of seasoning salt on them which is just right.  Not too seasony or too salty.

Combine with a cold fountain coke, California beach girls, sand and sun and you've got yourself the perfect lunch my friend.  Can't recommend it enough.

I wish there was one near Hollywood.

What do you get when you take 32 twenty somethings, serve them  beer and mixed drinks in gigantic novelty glasses, encourage them to be really loud and throw them into an arena filled with teenage girls, little kids, their wasted dads,  and renaissance fair people?  A night of awesomeness, that's what!

Props to my friend Casey for setting up a group reservation first and foremost.  He text everyone in his phone the group # and phone number to call and reserve a spot.  This process was great.  They took my credit card number when I called in so that took care of worrying about paying for tickets, a meal and beer right off the bat.

When our 32 person group arrived we discovered that we had been marked "May Be Rowdy" and were informed by the guy at the door that he had never seen such a note written next to a group.  Whoever made the note knew what they were in for.  We made no denial of such possibilities but this didn't deter them from letting us in.

Next we headed into the holding area where you wait to get a group picture taken in front of some Medieval stuff.  While our group slowly piled in we began smack talking to anyone who wasn't in the Black and White knight's section.  The booing and yelling had begun before we even got inside yet it was not looked down upon.

Once inside they make you wait in an area that has two bars.  The bars are lined with novelty mugs and mixed drink glasses the size of your head.  It was really dark in there and had the feeling of something like you would get if you went into Excalibur in Vegas.

After giving you time to properly booze up they call you into the arena section by section according to your knight's colors.  We had been chanting "Black and White!" and talking major smack on the blue knight in the bar area so when our group was called out people were booing us.  It was great.  All in good fun.

Once inside the arena you sit down at long tables which have plenty of room per row for the wenches to walk up and down.  Most of the serving wenches looked pretty cute in their busty outfits.

Fair Nikki brought us 3 courses throughout the night.  The first is something like Minestroni soup and garlic bread.  There are no utensils so you have to eat the soup by sipping straight out of the bowl.  You do get one paper napkin so if your mustache soaks up some soup you can clean up a little.  Oh yes.  Beer is also poured into a mug for you.  So if you are looking to save $$ you can skip buying beer in the bar and wait until you enter arena.  It is included in your meal/show price.  However if you want to get trashed you should probably get booze in the bar because you will only get two mugs worth from the wench.

The main course is half a chicken, a spare rib, and a potato wedge.  Not the best I've ever had but it was plenty of food.  The final course was a chocolate pastry that was actually pretty tasty.

The show was what you will expect it to be.  Kind of cheesy but when you're covered in chicken grease and beer and screaming and yelling and chanting with all of your friends for your knight it really is fun.

After the show they let you out into the bar area again for drinks and dancing for what seemed like only 30 minutes?  I lost track of time.  It was very surreal to see my drunk friends dancing on the dance floor with moms holding sleeping babies and little kids doing their best JT impressions.

Moreno's rhymes with Morenblows.

I used to live around the corner and frequent Moreno's with Natali H. on nice nights appropriate for outdoor dining.  As she said they have a huge outdoor patio that is very nice.  It's a real mood setter for any occasion.

The inside is pretty much like an older El Torito or a Don Jose's... not much going on.

The food has always been pretty standard issue run of the mill nothing to talk about generic Mexican.  When I say always I mean the past four or five years.

There are Mariachi groups wandering the premises taking requests which can be fun.   They're better at their jobs than the so so service.

Until that night Natali H. described...  before that night Moreno's mediocre food and service was close to making me forget about the patio and just never eat there again.  After that night of the worst service ever combined with worse management ever I have vowed to spread the word that Moreno's is run by a bunch of jerks and the food/service sucks!

I don't even remember that we got 50% off our bill (once we found the manager ourselves).  All I remember is the manager being super pissed right off the bat and talking to us like we were the assholes for sitting around with no food, water, snacks, drinks... you name it for hours.  When we found him all we wanted was to say that they needed to be aware of the fact that they dropped the ball on our table in case they need to change how things were run... I assumed this bad service was probably a pattern and that if enough complaints came in they would be forced to step it up.  We weren't even asking for a discount at all.  I remember actually stating that we weren't looking to get a discount.

The place sucks.  Maybe if you have a huge party, a hunger for the outdoors, and you want food that is sort of Mexican foodish they will be able to accommodate you better than some restaurants but I would look elsewhere first.

On Monday I was cleaning the grease from the bridge of my glasses and they disintegrated into two pieces of useless crap.  I was horrified.  I have contact lenses so I got by this week OK but I HATE my contacts and have been stressed that I wouldn't be able to find something in the Hollywood area for a reasonable price in a reasonable amount of time.  I moved to the area not too long ago and had no idea where to start.

I turned to the Yelp community to guide me on my LA journey to the perfect eyeglasses.  Old Focals came up and the reviews made me believe I had found my place.  Cool vintage looks for reasonable pricing?  Perfect.

My Saturday trek from H-wood to Pasadena turned out to be the perfect day thanks to Old Focals.  When I arrived I was greeted by a sweet and friendly dog and then was pleasantly surprised to find all the coolest classic styles of eye-wear I could ever want to choose from.

I was worried that vintage = $$$$ but I went ahead and tried on a ton of glasses until I narrowed it down to two pairs that I liked a lot.  I asked the guy working there, who was super nice, which pair he thought I should go with.  He asked me if I was worried about the price and I said not really(I was but I also don't want crappy frames to be a part of my face for years so I was willing to bite it and pay top dollar for what I wanted).  He asked because he thought if I had the money that I should buy both pairs, get lenses in both, then whatever pair I didn't wear as much I could get tinted and use as prescription sunglasses.  OK, this sounded like a good idea actually since I've needed sunglasses for a long time... but what about price?

He gives me a pretty good price and then proceeds to knock the price down if I wanted to get both.  Awesome.  I had actually already been thinking about getting both and now I was going to get both for a deal.

After paying for the frames he gave me Happy Eyes' card and since I live in Hollywood he also suggested a place near me that had good prices on lenses. Sweet!  Then he asks me what my friend and I were doing in Pasadena after leaving his shop and suggested a restaurant that perfectly satisfied our hunger for lunch.

Next I headed over to More Vision on Hollywood Blvd and they set me up with lenses for a great price.  While at More Vision I saw that every pair of frames was priced at nearly DOUBLE what I paid for my awesome pair.  All in all I got two pairs of unique eyeglasses  for the price of one average pair.