Chris "r3v" S.'s Profile

Fun, dark, hip and small sake joint.  

On the alcohol front (and let's face it, that's why you're at such a den of inequity) it's pretty well equipped.  The beer list is roughly the same as any decently stocked Japanese restaurant and there's no hard alcohol.  But, you saw the name of the place, right? It's a _sake_ lounge.  If you're not drinking one of the admittedly frilly sake-cocktails or indulging in a taste, glass or bottle from their plentiful list of sakes, well, then, you might be wasting your time here.

The small plates are tasty and decently diverse.  Nothing to write home about, but I might mention the hummus to my mom if we were on the phone or something.  

There seem to be three kinds of seats in this place: a no-back ottoman type thing, a rather reclined couch with a low back or a couch that enforces good posture.  The tables are small, but that's ok.. so are sake glasses.  Hrm, I guess there could've been barstools at the bar.  I didn't notice.

Oh, and on the topic of seats:  Interestingly enough, the men's room toilet is missing it's seat and has no paper seat cover things.  I'm guessing that's a sublte request to do your serious bathroom business elsewhere.  (On that note, I guess I agree with them...)

Anyways, fun place.

Ah, Legends.

It's a geek shop, so let's start at 5 stars and do a little math.

As a comic shop, it kinda bites.  Poor selection and poorer organization.  Knowledge of comics varies wildly from "Eh" to "Nil".  -(3 stars) Ouch!

As a toy shop, it's mediocre.  The selection seems to be entirely random.  If you're looking for something that's in line with a current trend, then you might find it.  Other wise it's just random chance, as far as I can tell. (-1 star)

As a collectibles shop, it's over priced. Sure they have the latest Elektra bust, or a Thor's hammer... but you'd be better off buying online.  (-1 star)

Crap, we've hit 0.  Now what?  Ah... the next category...

Gaming!  It's got enough games to be considered a gaming shop and there are so very few gaming shops around.  (+2 stars)  The selection is actually pretty good! (+2 stars) The have a ton of dice! (+1 star)  The staff seem to know very little about gaming... (-1 star).

It's in a friggin' mall.  (-1 star)  I don't care if that seems unfair.  It's a hassle to park and walk through the entire mall when I don't give a $#@% about the cellphone kiosks and clothing shops.

So, we end up at 3 stars.  Pretty respectable, actually.   It's a good gaming shop, but I would rather go anywhere else for comics.

Dense.  And not in a bad way.  The shop is wall to wall comics. I'm pretty sure that I've never come here for anything and not found it.

I seem to remember that, back in the day, this shop was called "Little Shop of Heroes" but now it's just "Heroes".  I submit that the former is a much more charming name, whether it's the figment of an addled memory or not, and it's a bummer that they changed it.

Comics Conspiracy has the lucky privilege of being the closest comic shop to my place of employment. That's not the only reason I like them though.  This shop has probably the best selection of Trades and Graphic Novels of any shop in the area.

If you're looking for toys (which I don't tend to be) you might have better luck elsewhere, but for comics, it's a great shop.

Space Cat is, at best, a mediocre comic shop.  The selection is poor and the staff is hit or miss.

However, it's got a little of everything.  Comics, books, toys, video games, DVDs, VHS, CDs, vinyl...  I'm sure I am missing stuff from that list.  So, while there are much better places to go for comics, Space Cat's selection of other stuff is impressive enough to warrant a trip or two to poke around.  

Eclectic is putting it mildly.

Illusive has a fantastic selection and a great staff.  The first time I was in there, the owner (Anna), helped me find a magazine that she didn't normally carry when I couldn't even remember the name.  She was also willing to point me to another shop to find an item that she didn't have. In both cases, it required a little digging on her part and she got back to me via email. Now that's good service.

It's not the closest shop for me, but I'l still make the trek occasionally because I like them so much.

This non-descript strip mall restaurant is easy to miss, and a name as generic as "Bay Sushi" doesn't help them stand out either.  Fortunately, a co-worker had tried it out before and brought me there.  It's now joined my small list of  regular spots for lunch.

The restaurant has a couple handfuls of tables and a very small sushi bar.  It's modestly decorated and resembles every other cheap to mid-range sushi place you've ever been in.

The food is solid, if not always fantastic.  The terriyaki is decent, and the sashimi is fresh enough.  Sometimes it's very good, sometimes closer to "ok". The gyoza, however, are some of the best I've had.  They have a touch of crispiness to them that some folk may consider over-fried, but I just love.  You people can keep your soggy, floppy potstickers... lemme have my crispiness!

I'm not a maki kinda guy, so I'll let the other yelpers cover that.

They climb up from three to four stars because of the service.  They're always quick, friendly and helpful.

So, some co-workers had heard about this spiffy new bowling alley popping up in Cupertino and we thought we'd check out the restaurant for lunch.  So, this is a lunchtime review, by a non-bowler.

Lunchtime on a Wednesday, Strike is pretty sparsely populated by customers.  I think the staff outnumbered them.  

When we got there, we walked around the place, exploring all the various areas. The flashy bowling lanes had a few groups bowling.  Mostly little kids with their parents.  It would have been very easy to get a lane to play on, and have room on either side.

We cruised through the billiard and air hockey areas.  Each of those had several new and brightly colored tables to play on.  None of them were in use at that time of day, though.  I immediately noted that if I ever came back with a group, and could get out of actually bowling... I'd probably be spending my time in this area.

The arcade is small, but has enough games if that's not all that you're there for.  It's no Dave & Buster's.

After our exploration we came back to the restaurant/bar area and unceremoniously grabbed a booth.  It wasn't clear if we need to wait to be seated or not, but we're just those kind of take-charge problem-solvers.

One of the first things we noticed was the menus. Each table had one (1) menu and it was a standup flippy thing.  The sort of thing a place like Chili's lists there drinks or specials.  I'm pretty certain the idea was not meant for whole menus.  I'm pretty certain because that's pretty stupid.  So, being the problem-solvers we are, we swiped another menu to ease the decision making bottle-neck.

Our waitress was a very sweet Ukranian girl who was very, very attentive.  Of course, there was only one other group eating in the restaurant so it wasn't exactly challenging, but still.  I've been ignored in nigh empty restaurants before.

The waitresses, whether they are serving the restaurant or lanes, are dressed like cocktail waitresses.  Not quite as flashy as a vegas cocktail waitress, but the skirt was just as short.  The outfit had a distinct bowling alley look to it (i.e. kinda like a bowling shirt turned into a dress.)  My party approved.

The bar, which isn't really separate form the restaurant, is like a Vegas sports bar.  Every single inch of wall is covered by a screen of some sort.  Every where you look in this place is like a workout for your retinas.

The food was decent.  "Better than Chili's," one of my co-workers said.  We all had sandwiches or burgers.  They have a pretty extensive beer list.

Our lunch was accompanied by the soundtrack of my high school days.  Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant... A-Ha.  That was a good thing. I bet the music isn't as great at night.

Long ago (but not "long, long ago") this strip-mall theater used to be a run-down dollar moviehouse.  I must admit that I don't remember ever seeing a movie there, but I heard it wasn't so great.

Now it's had a makeover and been modernized.  The screens are ok, the sound is decent.  They didn't attempt to destroy the audience's ear drums, which was nice of them I suppose.

The seats, as in every made-over theater these days, are pretty cush. However, not so much with the reclining action.  For some reason, the management at the Cinelux Plaza Theatre in Campbell are very concerned with good posture and my seat did not recline at ALL.  Fortuantely, it was still comfy enough for a 2hr15min movie.

The staff, however, seem like they felt a little put out that I wanted to buy a ticket.  And some popcorn.  And give them money in exchange for services and goods.   Just general economics type stuff.

I kinda wanted to say, "Look, I know it's not the most glamorous and exciting job in the world, but  I'm not here to ruin your precious standing around time.  If you move me along quickly, you can get back to your collecting dust ASAP. Just a tip."

But Transformers was starting.

This is a great little deli with an impressive array of meets and cheeses.  They have a nice stock of beers imported from Russia, Ukraine, etc. Of course, they have all sorts of other imported foods, but beer, meat and cheese always catch my attention first.  What can I say?

Oh yeah, I wish I could read Russian so I could figure out what everything is on my own.

Fortunately, the menu for the cafe is in English and has descriptions of most of the items you can order.  If, like me, you're not too familiar with Russian food, but are curious, they're happy to explain (in their awesome Russian accents) the dishes.  

While sitting in the cafe half of the business (it's clearly divided from the deli), I was next to a table full of men speaking Russian in almost hushed tones.  It was like sitting next to a bunch of Russian mobsters or KGB.  Except this is in Campbell.  And it's not the movies.  Ok, nevermind.

I had the Golubsky.  Beef and rice, baked in cabbage with sourcream and tomato paste.  It's served with a side of rice (cooked with vegetables) and a dollop os sour cream.

OMG SO GOOD.

Seriously, I'm going to have to make several trips here to try most of the menu, if not everything on it.