Nat A.'s Profile

I'm a fan for what it is... Americanized standard chinese food.  That's what I came for and that's what I got.  It isn't super fancy and it isn't going to wow your tastebuds.  But if you want some chicken with cashew or chow fun noodles or lo mein, this is your spot.  I have a soft spot for steamed pork dumpings and the ones I received here definitely hit the spot.  I haven't tried the sushi here.

Decor isn't really THAT bad.  I kind of liked the brick and basement feel.  The tables and seats felt somewhat antiquated.

The service was not terrific.  We got there when it was not busy at all (maybe 5 total patrons in the restaurant) and the guy at the desk stood around for a few minutes counting who knows what on various receipts in front of him.  All the while ignoring us.  Eventually we got seated and service was prompt once we were at the table.

I will return.

Solid service, desserts are decent.

But the falafel and shawarma are not good at all.  The shawarma looked and felt very jello-like.  Just gross and not good.  Even the pita bread was lackluster.

I won't be going back here again, a few times is more than enough for me.  Especially in an awesome place like the RTM I can't see any reason to go here for lunch.

I should have read yelp first.

This place would get 5 stars if they had a better internet connection.  There were two things that bugged me about it.  First, it was slow.  Really slow.  It was taking 30-60 seconds to load simple webpages without a lot of images.  If you wanted to watch a YouTube video you needed to go take a shower and come back when it was buffered.  Given that I work online, this alone made the stay a tough one.  The second annoying thing was that the internet connection timed out every 24 hours and it didn't give you an option to renew it (it was free) by clicking a button to connect until it ran out!  This is really annoying if you're in the middle of filling out a web form or something and then you click Submit and it redirects you to the Hilton page and throws away what you just typed.  So, yea, the internet situation here is not good.

So what's the good news?  The rest of the hotel is awesome.  The room was spotless and nicely decorated in a modern fashion.  The bed and pillows were amazing.  Bathroom was great.  Service was good (although housekeeping knocked on my door at 8:45 AM on the day I was checking out... WTF?  I don't really get why they'd be told to do that).  The hotel breakfast was good.  Setting is really nice being right on the water with restaurants right there.

Overall it's a highly recommended hotel if you don't need a solid internet situation.

I went to this place for a men's haircut after I couldn't get an appt at Ritual (basically next door).  I probably should have been going here all along.  The salon area isn't decorated as nicely as ritual but the haircut was great, the shampoo/massage was great and the price was 25% less than Ritual.  I only really knock it for the decor being a step below their competition.  Otherwise I was a big fan.

I'll give it three stars because it's the definition of "okay" for what it is: a low to midrange hotel in a mediocre neighborhood.  It's not particularly bad but it doesn't stand out as being good either.

The upsides to the hotel are:

1.  There's free wifi (it was slow sometimes and fast sometimes)
2.  The room is clean
3.  The rooms are big
4.  Breakfast is decent
5.  There are microwaves and fridges in the rooms
6.  The service at the front desk was always helpful and prompt
7.  There are actually a few decent food options within walking distance and the train is right across the street if you plan on using that

The downsides are:

1.  The neighborhood is definitely not nice
2.  The rooms are a little dated (ie, no white comforters, old TVs, weak AC, etc)
3.  The elevator is incredibly slow
4.  The parking seems to be plentiful but it's a very tight squeeze in a bunch of spots and a bad driver or a big car would definitely have a bunch of issues
5.  The floors and ceilings seem to be quite thin (I could hear every step being taken above me -- luckily I happened to be on the same schedule as whoever was above me)

Overall it was an adequate place to stay but I only ended up there because priceline put me there and I don't think I would go back unless I really needed to be in that area.  They need to refresh the rooms and fix the ceiling noise (if possible) for this to be a four star or higher in my mind.

This helicopter ride was a great experience.  We did the doors off starting at 8:30 and it was the perfect time because there was still enough light to see mountains but we still got the see the strip all lit up.  The ride was smooth, the pilot seemed to know what he was doing (he said 31 years with military experience), everything was explained clearly, they seemed to be very very careful with safety and the chopper was great.  The staff was also kind enough to email me a copy of the picture that they took of us in front of the helicopter.  Overall highly recommended!  No better way to see the strip.

The only redeeming factor: the food.  It was good.  Nothing I ate was poorly prepared.

Onto the bad.  This may get long.  The service was awful.  I think they may be way more focused on catering because when we walked in and my sister asked for a menu (none posted, except specials) the guy kinda of grumbled about the place not having a menu.  Then he handed us a menu.  Kinda a WTF moment.

Oh, before we got the menu we just kind of stood at the back counter for 5 minutes in what appeared to be a line.  No one was being helped so we just asked the guy who walked out from behind the counter to do something unrelated to helping the small crowd in their establishment.  After we did get the menu we had to ask twice if we could order and, finally, we managed to place an order.  Like I said, the food was good.  We got some cold lunch food and the quiche special - both would be recommended.

Paying the bill was an experience too.  It was something like $42.50 for the four of us.  I had an Amex gift card with $5 left on it so I wanted to use that up.  And I handed her two $20s plus the card (which says $100 on it) and said "please put $5 on the card and pay for the rest with cash".  I was going to leave the tip separately on the table because it was a pay-at-register place.  Despite the poor service I planned on tipping maybe $5 because it wasn't a table service place so I thought 10% or so would be more than generous (my sister didn't want to tip at all).  So anyway the cashier takes the $40, puts it in the register and hands me a credit card receipt that says something like $2.50 on it.  I say "oh I wanted $5 on that, can I have the $2.50 in cash and put the full $5 on the gift card so I can throw it away?".  Her response "no".  I just stand there kind of confused and I ask again.  Then she filled in the rest of the card value on the tip line and just kind of looked at us like she'd solved the issue.  We just walked out.  It wasn't worth trying to explain to her because either she was not very smart or she was doing it on purpose -- neither type of person being worth our time.

Obviously I don't care at all about the money - I needed the change for the tip because of the bills I had. But the service/checkout at this place made my blood boil -- and I'm a very calm person.  Clearly I won't be returning.

Really good eggs and corned beef hash.  For $1 more you can add a huge muffin to it.  This was among the best $10 I've ever spent on a meal.  Service was fast and friendly.

The only downside was that the table was quite sticky when we sat down and it smelled like syrup.  Obviously it just wasn't cleaned up from the prior person so I wet my napkin and wiped it up.  Nothing else in the meal or experience was bad.

I would definitely recommend this place.  I wish I was in the area more often -- I was only there because of the batting cages and minigolf at the nearby Sportscenter!

Good food, would definitely come back.  I don't think it's as good as other diners I've been to in CT but there was nothing "wrong" with it -- it just wasn't anything special.

Service was pretty good (& the food was really quick) but I think our waitress was having an off night or something because she was muttering under her breath when I ordered ice water.  Meanwhile she hadn't even taken our order yet and I got an entree, side and dessert so I was hardly being a cheap customer.  So I'm not sure what she was upset about.  Anyway, she was friendlier the rest of the night so I would still rate the service as pretty good.

Overall this is an above average diner experience.

I'll just get the bad over with: I have a bad stomach ache right now about an hour after eating at Ai Fiori.  I don't think it was Ai Fiori's fault at all.  I normally don't eat foods with a lot of dairy in them and I think a dairy-heavy course is getting to me right now.  My girlfriend feels fine and she tried everything I ate so it must be me.

Okay, on to the good.  We each did the $84 prix fixe menu which came with an appetizer, pasta, meat/seafood and dessert.  Each course was absolutely delicious for both of us.  I think my favorite was the gnocchetti which was obviously during the pasta course.  I also loved the lamb chops.  I wish I was more of a foodie and could remember and describe the dishes in detail because they definitely deserve it.

The waitstaff, decor, location and everything about the restaurant was really fantastic.  If I had to complain about something, it was that we seemed a little close to the table next to us (although not close at all to anything behind us) but I wasn't bothered by the snippets of conversations I picked up from the table next to us.  So that really wasn't a big deal.

I definitely think this was worth the ~$250 (including tip and drinks) for a nice dinner out in NYC.  Next time I will be smarter about not ordering a dish with cream in it!