Clifton S.'s Profile
Date
1 Previous Review:
-
12/28/2010
Best bang for the buck buffet in Vegas. Imagine a world buffet (like Rio's) with actually good food, unlimited wine/beer (say wah! in Vegas?) and, it's $22-26.95 depending on the day you go. And it was also named beg buffet in Vegas according to magazines... so best take that 10-15 minute drive out there and get some good eats.
The buffet wait is always pretty tedious no matter when you go these days since it's getting more and more popular these days with both tourists and locals. Around the holidays the wait gets to around 3 hours and I've actually been rejected from lining up once because it was so full.
Now on to the food. The buffet serves a wide variety of foods from standard American fare (fried chicken, prime rib, mashed potatoes), to Asian (pad thai, stewed oxtails, sushi), to European ( pasta, pizza, antipastos). Though some items are passable, most of the things served are decently prepared and cooked properly. The fried chicken is crunchy and hot, the pad thai noodles are cooked to a perfect al dente, etc. In the end, they have a great selection without sacrificing much quality.
The free drinks are awesome here, you can have beer on tap or wine with your meals. They sometimes even have creamed sodas which are pretty good. The beer is decent (most are light ales) and the wine is pretty good (if you can chug down Charles Shaw you wouldn't mind the stuff they serve).
The desert bar is also stacked with many dessert pastries and also comes decked out with a full on gelato bar. There's even a coffee machines where they can add Bailey's Irish Cream free of charge to it. The desserts are sweet and all very good, and the gelatos are bold and intense tasting (just like the Wynn buffet).
Definitely worth checking out despite the long trek out here and the long waits
Las Vegas, NV 89147
(702) 889-6660
Hikari
Categories:
Japanese,
Sushi Bars,
Steakhouses
Neighborhood: Spring Valley
Awesome.
Minor Gripe: The hot sauce they use on the oysters totally overpowers the oyster flavor. Oh well it's all you can eat.
1 Previous Review:
-
12/28/2010
A sushi AYCE treasure 5 miles off the strip. Decent quality fish, good service, reasonable price, and a great selection compared to other sushi AYCE places.
Living in the OC area for 4 years, there are tons of AYCE sushi places and I have visited many of them. Hikari compares and ranks among the best places found in the OC.
First off, most places don't offer unlimited fresh oysters, uni, and fried soft shell crabs. Most places are very stingy with these items, but the sushi chef allowed us to order the oysters by the dozens, mounded the uni on the sushi, and gave us 4 freshly fried crabs. The oysters were seasoned with ponzu and Japanese sweet mayo. The uni was sweet and creamy (bad uni tastes and smells like dead fish ass). The soft shell crabs were very succulent, each bite contained chunks of salty meat and creamy guts. Nom.
Their fish selections were pretty good. They even offer amaebi (sweet shrimp) raw which is always good. Most places charge $7.50 a plate for it and this place hands them out like candy! The ono (white fish) is also worth mentioning, it had a very creamy and savory white flesh (be sure to get it seared with a blow torch, it releases the fats and allows for a more melting bite, without it the ono will be very tough and chewy). Careful with the ono too, it's a oily fish so don't ingest TOO much of it (oily in oily out if you catch my drift).
Anyways, I always make a effort to come here everytime i'm in Vegas. I just came back from the Holiday season and my advice is NEVER to go here during big holidays. The place gets packed and they run out of most of the popular stuff like the oysters and uni.
Pasadena, CA 91103
(626) 683-1150
Shaab Restaurant
Category:
Japanese
Neighborhood: Pasadena
On my birthday dinner I came here for the shabu shabu. I used to love coming here for it, it was really great (back then) but now the portions of meat have gone way down and so has the quality of it yet they still charge 25 bucks for it. I mean common, I can easily go to Mitsuwa and buy 2 lbs of beef for around that much at probably the same quality.
My biggest gripe is that the manager/owner of this place needs to hire more wait staff. Having that one poor Japanese girl bussing and waiting on all the tables in the restaurant slows service down to a crawl. She does the no-no of running from table to table (never run in a restaurant, especially if you are a server), forgets orders consistently, and pays little attention to each table.
One dumb ass kid who was slicing the meat behind the counter forgot our table of 6 orders completely. I mean common, look at the f*cking ticket, its' not that hard to use a slice some meat and arrange it in a neat fashion on a plate. He took FOREVER, probably 15 minutes after my dad got fed up and yelled at his ass to cut our order (mind you there were NO orders of sliced beef before us, he was just lazily looking around). I could've cut 15 pounds of cheese and 30 onions by the time he cut a few measly morsels of meat.
But they give you vegetables and other sides you say! News to you, if you ever shopped for any of the vegetable items/noodles they serve, they can easily be bought for all under 10 dollars at huge quantities, all you need are some very basic knife skills to cut it up.
Value for value, shabu shabu is probably the biggest rip off in the world. Sure it's a novelty at first, but coming from a culinary stand point, the restaurant does ZERO cooking, all they do is chop up some cheap vegetables and slice some beef that you dip in some boiling water.
Go out to Ranch 99 and Mitsuwa and assemble your shabu, it's cheaper, better, and more bountiful.
Oh yeah and their tempura was rock cold, the chicken teriyaki was like rubber and cold, and their food is way underseasoned. Go figure.
Went to this place for my graduation dinner, very classy place upon entering. Very New York steakhouse and very classy looking place.
We were seated and greeted by our waiter who was very attentive. The one thing I would note pointing out to him was that he seemed a bit too serious and rigid, smile a bit for god sake. He did his job well though and got a nice fat tip.
The menu is arranged in the steakhouse style which consists of ordering appetizers first, then cuts of meat and sides to everyone to share.
Please please please, if you love cow, I would highly suggest the rib-eye cut (ordered the 48 oz) and preferably bone on (more flavor). It has the perfect amount of marbling and beefy flavor. And for the love of god, order all your meats medium rare.
The steak came sizzling hot and it was HUGE. It was probably the size of my head (I got a huge noggin) and about 3 inches thick. It had a GREAT crust from that dry aged fat caramelized on a ripping hot grill. Fatty, unctuous, and that very distinct twang from the dry aging process. Essentially it was the perfect rib-eye steak.
We also ordered the creamed spinach (very good) and the lobster mashed potatoes. The lobster mashed potatoes were worth every penny of it. Big sweet chunks of lobster piled on top of fluffy buttery mashed potatoes, what a sight and pleasure to eat.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(877) 652-7800
Bayside Buffet
Category:
Buffets
Neighborhood: The Strip
The buffet at Mandalay Bay is probably on the lower tier of buffets compared to the Wynn and Bellagio. They made a addition of having both snow and king crab legs, which is always a plus in my book. The snow crab was a pain to crack though, the shell was very soft. Then again, I'm not really adept at opening crab legs. The king crab legs lacked the sweetness and briney flavor of good king crab legs.
The rest of the dishes were all forgettable. They had a Mexican, Americanized Chinese, "Spanish", and some really poorly done American foods. Throwaway junk food basically. All the vegetables were cooked to death (mush and brown). They were sitting in the holding cambros for too long (trust, I work in food service and this always happens when they cook the vegetables too early and hold it in a hotbox for too long).
The filet and prime rib were decently cooked, not the best, but they weren't rubbery like some other places. The proteins lacked seasoning.
All and all, go to the Wynn or Bellagio buffet, which my opinion are way better than most of the buffets on the strip.
P.S. they really downsized their selection on deserts, the selection is meager compared to the full gelato bar and bakery of the Wynn buffet.
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 941-6669
Chart House Waikiki
Categories:
Steakhouses,
Lounges
The menu selection is very limited and is reflective of the age of the owner (old and traditional). You get your standard fare of steaks, tuna, swordfish, and other really overplayed and outdated entrees. I mean, there salads consist of packaged greens you can easily find at the super market and they just put a few pieces of fish on it and put a outrageous sticker price on it. The "sushi roll" was just a unrolled sushi with chopped nori and a mayonnaise sauce squeezed on top, I can order the same dam thing anywhere in Southern California at the same quality for about half the price.
I don't think 65 dollars for a plain New York steak justifiable in a non white linen/ fancy steakhouse. Sorry, but that's just me. I've had outrageously good steaks for less than 65 freakin dollars at very upscale steak restaurants.
The clam and ahi poke appetizers were fine, but the chef was very stingy with the proteins. I also found a piece of crab shell in every bite of the mushroom crab cakes and a fragment of oyster shell in the Rockefeller. The amount of crab in the mushrooms probably totaled to about 1 teaspoon per mushroom. Pretty sure you can make these yourself for a fragment of the cost.
Aside from paying the price markup solely for having a marina view, the staff was very attentive and friendly. 1 Star for great service. You're better off going to the local fish market and buying some poke and eat it on the pier during sundown. It's probably the same experience you'll get dining here at the Chart House.
P.S. Last time I ate here I got a allergic reaction to the fish I ate. I do not have any food allergies and it was the first time it happened.
Irvine, CA 92612
Rite Aid
Categories:
Drugstores,
Cards & Stationery,
Photography Stores & Services
The crowd that frequents here is also pretty terrible, maybe on par with the crowds that go to Walmart religiously. There was one women that had about a 4 inch stack of coupons and was sifting through each one at the checkout for EACH of her items. Man I really wanted to knock her on the back of the head. There was one employee that wouldn't open another register and that crazy lady held back the line so much that people were lining up in the aisles. Everyone was pissed and in a terrible mood.
If you are trying to buy something here, go elsewhere to like Target where you can get quicker service and overall a better atmosphere and set of employees. I cannot STRESS how bad this Rite Aid is when it comes to their employees, just horrible. The Rite Aid back at home in Pasadena is WAY better and actually friendly to their customers.
On the bright side, their Ice Cream is always bomb, so +1 star for that.
Rite Aid: With us, It's personal. Oh yeah I bet it is, listening to all the employees complain about how much their jobs and personal life sucks.
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
(714) 964-3400
One Stop Smoke Shop
Category:
Tobacco Shops
I entered the store as I tried to pinpoint where to actually start looking around when the very nice shopkeeper (big guy with a beard) greeted me (initially I thought no one was here since it was go quiet) and told me exactly where to find the things I was looking for. He was quite knowledgeable, he knew all the prices on the top of his head, where the glass came from, all that. FINALLY I have found a smoke shop where the employees there are KNOWLEDGEABLE and know what they are doing.
The shopkeeper put up his recommendations and helped me choose what I wanted the the vast selection of glassware. He patiently stood there and explained the origins and quality of everything that I was interested in.
One Stop Smoke Shop is really a one stop visit for whatever you may need. They even carry Bee line! They are the ONLY shop in the OC which I have visited who carried/had in-stock that stuff.
The search for a good smoke shop ends here. A+ Customer service, Great prices (15% off everything above 10 bucks right now), Great Selection, Great Quality. Show owner comment »
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 632-5939
Dory Fishing Fleet Market
Category:
Seafood Markets
We waited tirelessly for 2 hours and by the time we were about to call it the sun was already rising. There were no boat at all to be seen and it was 8:30 already. There was no sign of anybody!!
I'm not sure what's going on, but they should probably update their times of when this place is actually open for business?
Just warning other Yelpers about going on weekdays or coming here EARLY in general. Will update soon once I have a free weekend to visit this place again.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-5168
168 Market
Category:
Grocery
Neighborhood: Alhambra
Anyways, I was picking up some groceries for my mom and battled the nightmarish parking lot on a Sunday afternoon. I was probably in the parking lot for a good 15 minutes fighting through a fleet of drivers who take at least 5 tries to complete a simple 3 point turn. Drove me nuts.
The produce here is dirt cheap, but at a cost. The green onions were on sale for 15cents per bundle but they were already starting to rot. The greenish tinge was replaced with brownish slime and it seemed like all the other vegetables were rotting also. I would rather spend a little more $ and go elsewhere for better product. Plus there are plenty of old Asian ladies who rudely shove in and out to get what they want, even if you were waiting there patiently for someone else to be done. Thank god they couldn't understand the f-bombs I was dropping when pushed and elbowed away.
The seafood selection here is huge, and is probably the highpoint of shopping here. The tanks look really clean compared to most Asian markets and had plenty of fish/shellfish/and exotics to choose from (saw huge skate wings and live conch for sale).
The cashier was undoubtedly slow but both her and the bagboy were pretty nice and spoke English pretty well.
Do yourself a favor, go to 99 Ranch, H Mart, or Mitsuwa for your general Asian ingredients and needs.
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"Pork fat, nuff' said."
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61 Useful, 29 Funny, and 19 Cool
South Pasadena, CA
Yelping SinceMarch 2009
Things I LoveBacon, Wine, Beer, Tapas, Steaks, Dim Sum, Sushi, Korean BBQ, Uni, Pulled Pork, Clam Chowder, Fried Calamari, Clams, Oysters, Fried Fish, Spring Rolls, Fresh Baked Bread.
Find Me InLA
My HometownSouth Pasadena, CA
My Blog Or Website When I'm Not Yelping...I work at Soiree Catering and at the Anthill Pub & Grill.
Why You Should Read My ReviewsGoing to attend the CIA in March 2011, is that enough food cred?
My Second Favorite Website The Last Great Book I ReadPig Perfect
My Last Meal On EarthA whole roast pig, maybe some sides.
Don't Tell Anyone Else But...I hate vegans and vegetarians.
Most Recent DiscoveryPig feet. fatty, unctuous, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth pig feet.
Inaccessible and infuriating.
What began as a 1hr-2hr wait turned into bouncers telling people that they were at full capacity or that the line was a 3+ hour wait. This happened THREE times in the past 5 days I was trying to grab a meal there.
Here's where it became a sh*tshow. The M resort offers a lot of complimentary deals now to gamblers now. Why you ask? To make their gamblers stay at the hotel longer, therefore raking in more revenue. Smart ass business plan they got there, they even have the weekdays covered with special deals such as "Senior Wednesdays" (a horror fest with all 60+ seniors filling the entire casino to the brim with walkers and wheel chairs). The M resort definitely cares more about making their gamblers stay; they hand out comped meals like candy therefore making the VIP line EXTREMELY long on top of the EXTREMELY long waiting lines thus translating to absolutely absurd waiting times.
Another point observed in my 5+ visits there (which all ended up driving back on the strip since it was packed to the brim), apparently they also offer meal passes (all day any day) to locals, so forget about going on weekends when the entire city of LV is trying to grab a good deal.
The M resort has made their star buffet too accessible to the masses. Just a warning to people who don't want to wait 3+ hours for a 20 dollar buffet. Are you seriously going to waste hours of your time just to save a few dollars on a buffet? Spend the extra 10 and go on to Bellagio and the Wynn, their lines move way faster now (waited 30 or less minutes for both of them on a WEEKEND during dinner rush).
Or wait a few years until the old folks that flood the lines to croak from too much crab legs and beef fat.