Melissa "METALISSA" C.'s Profile

Still DAMN good and the employees are great and don't judge me for coming in for pizza several times a month! I've never had anything here besides the pizza, but someday... I will have to!

Kitchen closed at 11 pm on a Monday. What a bummer. :( We had to leave the Artists Village to eat, so we didn't really come back to drink as we had intended to do.

You know, I love this place, but we came in here after they twittered that they were doing an all night Monday Happy Hour. Well, we showed up at about 10:50 pm on Monday and the kitchen had closed!! The excuse was that they were too slow to merit keeping it open, which I totally understand but I was still disappointed, especially given that the employee told us the kitchen is normally open until 1:15 AM!!

We were hungry, so we left to head down the street to Lola Gaspar to eat.

I've been to the other two locations that these people operate and given that this place has almost 500 reviews, I'll keep mine short and sweet. 11:30 pm on a Monday night and the place was nearly empty. This was a bonus for me and my boyfriend, though, as we scored a seat right away in the tatami room.

Two Sapporo ($5.50 each) started us out, then we dived right in and ordered. The Stinky Roll ($12) was albacore tataki with grilled/fried garlic and butter. Sounded odd but was sooooo delicious! Definitely worth it and we savored every bite! The Plum and Shark Fin ($4.50) was a special and I didn't care for it, but my boyfriend loved it. The shark fin was chilled and stringy and came served on a bed of pickled plums and sunomono. The flavor was salty and a little bit sweet. The takoyaki ($5.95?) is a perennial favorite of ours and once again it didn't disappoint! Lots of octopus pieces in each bit of fluffy dough and the Japanese mayonnaise really seals the deal. We finished off with the nabeyaki udon ($8.95) which we always love and that left us stuffed! No yakitori this trip, but we were so satisfied and our bill was only $45.

I love that this location offers some spicy pickled cucumbers at the beginning of the meal. I don't remember getting those in Little Tokyo and I might vaguely remember getting something at Kappo Honda but it's sort of a blur.

All in all our experience was very pleasant and I know we'll be back again!

I had a bowl of ramen that was unremarkable. There was far too much seaweed on top (or whatever the black stuff on top was-- fried green onions?), although the noodles were perfectly cooked. I think it was the Kohryu Ramen. I thought it was alright, the charsiu didn't have much flavor to it. For $8 and some of the glowing reviews from Yelpers I love I expected much more.

My boyfriend had a miso ramen which he adored, since he was really craving miso soup, but I wasn't really feeling that either.

I want to come back again and give this place another fair shot. The gyoza looked phenomenal and I'm always excited to try takoyaki in different places. The fried rice also looked great.

I just wasn't impressed. It was OK, but honestly I like the wider selection and simpler noodle soups available at Ebisu in Fountain Valley!

This place is really great, especially for a chain restaurant, and I would recommend that all tourists come here instead of going to some crapfest like the Olive Garden or Black Angus. The atmosphere is dark and quiet, the drinks are reasonable, and while the wine list is a joke, they have Blue Moon on tap.

The first thing we loved was the service-- group-style and spot-on!

For ou r meal we had the off-menu Moink ($36), which included a quarter rack of ribs, half of a rotisserie chicken, a 4 oz filet mignon, mashed potatoes and green beans. We added a shrimp skewer ($4) and a side of macaroni and cheese ($4). I thought the plate was a little overpriced but the food was phenomenal. The steak was tender and cooked just right, and the butter that was on it was to die for. The chicken was perfect too. The ribs-- the meat just fell off the bone.

We were too stuffed for dessert. The service was great and our meal ended up costing $70 after tip, which is a little pricey, but there's plenty of ways to try this restaurant and have it be more affordable. It's got a relaxing, quiet atmosphere which is perfect for the exhausted tourist and I know if I'm ever back in Orlando (unlikely, but still), I'll want to eat here again.

My main complaint here is that it's not really pizza, is it? It's flat bread with one or two tiny bits of toppings, but really you're paying for bread. This is not some thick juicy pizza loaded with pepperonis and sausage, this is sort of your lowest-common-denominator Chuck E Cheese type pizza.

Unlimited, though! I ate my $5 worth, I think, but I was on carb overload for sure. It is what it is, and this location is quieter and cleaner than the other one that's about a mile away.

This restaurant made our trip to Walt Disney World SO SPECIAL! As you are probably getting from the reviews, this place is set up like you're in a 1950's TV sitcom. Mom's in the kitchen cooking dinner, and your aunt, uncle, or cousin, is keeping an eye on you while you wait for dinner to be ready. We requested a TV table and they were happy to accommodate us.

I'm a big geek about the 50's and the 60's so I was falling in love with the decor, the built-in shelving, and all the ceramic knick-knacks all over the place. I have boxes full of that stuff at home!

Our server was Dale, who was playing the stereotypical "drunk uncle" (you know, we all have one!). After we said we weren't on any meal plan, he said "That's alright, I'm on a beer plan!"

I had the PB&J shake, which was really good but as shakes always are, FILLING! My boyfriend had a Heineken, and when Dale brought it out, he said "Here's your ba-ba! Don't tell Mom I gave you that." He had us set the table, and since there were only two of us, there were extra settings left over. He kinda grabbed the basket they were in and threw the rest on the table, in case we needed "extra." Oh, Dale.

The rules here are good manners, no elbows on the table, and ALWAYS clear your plate! I had the steak with au gratin potatoes ($21.99?) and my boyfriend had the meatloaf ($16.99). He said the meatloaf was a little dry, but my steak was great! We didn't have a hard time clearing our plates. The portions are modest without being too small. Easy to finish but not leaving you hungry.

After the milkshake, I was about to explode! Me and my boyfriend were Dale's last table, and after he closed out our check (about $60), we chatted for a long time about California and Florida and working for the Walt Disney Company (since I'm a cast member at Disneyland), and we just had a damn good time.

This dinner was definitely the highlight of a wonderful vacation.

We were seated right on time for our 8:50 reservation after checking in about ten minutes early and requesting a seat by the window to see IllumiNations. We were seated pretty far back and while they do dim the lights in the front room, we were closer to the room behind it and the glare from those lights kept us from seeing most of the show. But seeing what little we did of the fireworks was nice.

I had their three-course meal, which was $37. I started with the French Onion Soup, which was perfect, except that in my opinion it had a bit too much crouton in it, and was very heavy. To be honest, I was full after just the soup! For my main I had the salmon with ratatouille, and it was alright, but nothing to write home about. I finished with the creme brulee, which was, again, all right. A little too custard-y for me, personally. I've had better creme brulee. My boyfriend started with the lobster bisque and had the beef tenderloin, both of which he loved. They don't have much in the way of beer on the menu, just one selection, which the boy had ($8), and I had a glass of Riesling ($10).

I didn't set my expectations too high since this is a restaurant in a theme park we're talking about here. The server was nice, the maitre'd made sure we were seated in the front room, and the wine was fantastic, but the food was nothing special. After everything the bill came out to $105. The atmosphere was beautiful and it was special to be at Epcot so I thought it was worth the price, but I've had better food in other French cafes in Las Vegas and California.

450th REVIEW!

This was, by far, my favorite theme park at the Walt Disney World complex! EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, was originally Walt's dream of creating a self-contained community where people would live and work, using public transportation and utilizing amazing marvels of engineering like "air conditioning." It may seem a little Utopian and crazy now, but I still like that "air conditioning" idea-- especially in Central Florida! UGH!

Future World is, for the most part, pretty dated and a little cheesy. I can see why there's so many more adults than children at this park! Innoventions is even less innovative than it is in Anaheim, and the Land Pavilion is a crock. Worst of all is the Imagination Institute, where Figment embarrasses you continually for about fifteen minutes,  making you want to shield your face as you exit the attraction so that no one knows you experienced it! The Seas with Nemo and Friends was a real treat, and getting to see a couple manatees up close really made my day! Mission: SPACE was pretty intense, but as long as you don't think about the fact that you are spinning, you can hardly feel it. Test Track was alright, but I feel like it could have been made more exciting. Spaceship Earth was fun if only for the fact that you get to go up into the geosidic dome at the front of the park, but it seemed a little dated, too. No major progress since the personal home computer? Sad!

The real standout at this park is the World Showcase! Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, the UK, and Canada. Mexico's Pavilion was, to me, the most impressive (and the most "air-conditioned"), and I had to resist the urge to spend a grand buying all the adorable Oaxacan wood sculptures. The little mercado in the middle reminded me of Olvera Street in Los Angeles at night, but the prices were shockingly more reasonable. I loved the kitsch factor of the Norway pavilion, and the Maelstrom ride is pretty fun, if a little scary at the end. Norway seems like a scary place, with all that off-shore drilling! China was understated, and I feel could have been much more impressive. Germany was great, and I enjoyed several glasses of Riesling, beer, Haribo, and pretzyls here. Italy didn't feel quite like Italy to me-- no cobblestone streets of Florence, only Venetian masks? Bummer. Japan was so much fun, and my boyfriend had to drag me out of Mitsukoshi to keep me from blowing my whole vacation budget on cute Japanese knick-knacks! France was beautiful, but I couldn't understand how to get to the Eiffel Tower? Britain was cute, but their Beatles shop didn't really offer that much in the way of exciting merchandise. Canada was, well, Canada.

We also managed to visit during the Food & Wine Festival, and we tried just about EVERYTHING! Also sat in on a Sam Adams beer seminar, which was more about getting free beer than learning anything about it. We especially enjoyed the German spaetzle and the schnitzel in pretzyl bread. Also, the fisherman's pie in Ireland was YUM! But don't opt for the honey meade, it was gross!

Overall, we came in EPCOT four times during our weeklong vacation and walked the World Showcase the same number of times! We truly loved this park, and I wish we had something similar to it in California!