Geoff D.'s Profile

Stopped in for an okay lunch before visiting the Sonoma Mission. More specifics:

- 3 stars for atmosphere in the back room -- high cabin-style ceilings were fun to look at, but made for very chilly indoor air on our winter visit
- 5 stars for Italian sandwich -- nice crunchy bread, varied meats and a little spice
- 2 stars for Prosciutto, Tomato and Brie sandwich -- strangely dry and boring given this hard-to-mess up ingredient list
- 3.5 stars for kids meals -- chicken tenders and fries are always popular with the munchkins
- 3 stars for latte -- weak espresso makes for an "ok" after lunch drink
- 2.5 stars for our service -- our server was friendly, but acted clueless and unempowered (e.g., couldn't answer questions about menu, blamed the kitchen when he brought the wrong thing)

If you're going, I recommend sitting in the front room and ordering the Italian sandwich!

I was sad to see that Bistro Elan closed, so came to give Birch Street a try yesterday. It was tasty, though offers a different league of experience vs Bistro Elan.

I had the soup, salad and sandwich (SSS), which was a good combination for the price. The Broccoli Soup of the day was fantastic, and the Salad was solid. The Turkey Club(ish) Sandwich had good favor -- only weird thing was that the turkey skin was left on -- I found that strange and ended up making a mess by pulling my sandwich apart.

The space is cute, but of "functional" rather than "warm" design and extremely small with Max occupancy of 19.

A very nice place for lunch, just not the romantic dinner spot the bistro was.

I fall into both the "tourist" and "family with young kids" category, which means, among other things, that I've been to a lot of aquariums over the years. I'm pleased to report that Sydney has one of the better ones for these reasons:

1. Shark feeding. Yes really. It's cool. You take a small boat out over the shark tank -- then proceed to toss handfuls of dead fish to them while you're surrounded by dorsal fins. Perfect scare for all ages, but safe enough for small kids. Make a reservation in high season, as the boat is small and the sharks don't eat that often.

2. Platypus exhibit. Okay, these do exist elsewhere in Australia, but I've never seen one before. We were able to watch three of them swimming around and had a friendly guide nearby to answer questions.

3. Under-tank walkways. Probably the most extensive maze of walk-through exhibits I've seen, with plenty of sharks, dugongs, groupers and rays to watch from all sides.

If there's a knock, it's that the aquarium could use a refresh in decor and such, as it feels a bit worn relative to newer or recently updated ones. Still, the exhibits themselves are world class, and well worth a visit when you're in the area.

I hate to be the snooty tourist here, but... we came with on a rainy day in August thinking we could get lost here for a day... and left maybe two hours later feeling rather underwhelmed.

The visit wasn't bad, mind you. Just not particularly gripping either. Powerhouse is huge and has the look of a place that should hold your attention for hours. There is tons to look at... planes on the ceiling, train cars to walk around, recent design exhibits to browse, even a Mars Rover.

The issue is that the exhibits weren't particularly interactive. And those that are interactive appear to have been designed with 1980s design standards. Even the newer exhibits didn't hold our kids' attention for more than a few minutes -- and they love science museums (among others, they had a blast the previous week at Scienceworks in Melbourne). As an example, the coolest exhibit we found was a "make your own fireworks" station, where you stand in line, then spend 5-7 minutes selecting ingredients to design your firework, all to see what it will do. Well, we watched 5 different people go through this process, and in every case the result was something to the effect of "your firework doesn't work. please try again."

Granted, Powerhouse was under construction in August, so perhaps the newest exhibits will be better -- and presumably the new layouts will address some of the dark-basement-like feel we encountered.

Overall, I'd imagine that Powerhouse is a fun visit for those living nearby, especially when there's a good temporary exhibit on. I just wouldn't recommend it for tourists who are only in town for a short time. Even if it's raining.

Where else are you going to kuddle a koala? Pet wallabies and potaroos? Feed kangaroos?

Granted, this is a very small zoo on a resort island. So please don't go expecting to be overwhelmed. But if you want to get up close and personal with these famous Australian critters, this is a good place to do it.

3 stars for "Breakfast with Koalas," which was fine but not more than you'd expect: a simple breakfast buffet on a patio surrounded by three sleeping koalas.

5 stars for the 30 minute Zoo Tour. Really that's all you need to see the whole zoo. Our guide was entertaining and educational. And we did get to pet & feed the aforementioned critters. Makes for some excellent memories and photos.

5 stars for the Koala cuddle. Sure it's a little pricey at $15-20, but I believe this in one of the few places you can actually hold a koala. And those photos of our kids holding the the furry little guy are well worth it.

So while this is certainly not a destination zoo (how many of those are there anyhow?), it's well worth a 45 minute stop if you are spending a few days on the island.

Pleasant atmosphere; one of the few upscale places on the island with white linens and such.

It was our most expensive meal on the island at north of $200 (2 adults, 3 kids)... but sadly not one of our tastier meals. The fish and dishes were all fine, but just none to write home about.

I quite preferred the Italian food across the street at Romano's.

Watched the Parramatta Eels get clobbered by the Manly Sea Eagles in this very suburban stadium. From Sydney, we took the river cat ferry service for a pleasant taste of the suburbs and sporting life.

Fun environment to see a rugby game outside the big city stadiums. Kept up fine, but small even by the standard of mid-sized college stadiums in the US. Literally no bad seats in the house.

One particular highlight was the members' club across the street, where we had quite a decent dinner before walking back to the stadium for the game. (Food in the stadium itself was underwhelming.)

The family and I took Fantasea's Great Barrier Reef day trip from Hamilton Island. It was a perfect intro to both the reef and snorkeling generally for our kids aged 5, 7 and 9. I've been on a number of snorkeling trips over the years, including another one to the Outer Reef from Port Douglas, and would rate this one by far the best for families.

In particular, the destination pontoon makes it all work... way more spacious, stable and accessible than trips where you try to snorkel/dive directly from the boat. They also had plenty of life jackets, wetsuits and floatables available, all making it much less intimidating for the kids.

Once you're ready to get out of the water, the groper-viewing hole, underwater viewing chamber and semi-submersible (think the submarine ride from Disneyland) offer plenty to see/do the remainder of the day.

Even the food wasn't bad.

Last but not least, the staff was very easy going and helpful. We'd bought tickets for an earlier day, but when it turned out to be lousy weather that day, they encouraged us to just switch our booking for the next day (and then keep doing that until the weather cleared or until we ran out of days).

It's hard to go wrong with gourmet burgers, so no surprise that The Counter is often packed. As a result, you can "count" on a wait and a lot of noise. Not the best option if you're looking for a fast lunch or deep conversation.

But they do make a good burger. And on warm days, sitting outside alleviates the noise.

Overall nudging my rating up to 4 stars because I've come back several times... so apparently I must like it.

The epitome of a yelpy business.

- It's a tiny hole in the wall.
- I'm in from SF and don't know what's good nearby.
- It's 7 blocks away from me, so I never would have stumbled on it.
- I've never even heard of a Cambodian "not-bahn-mi" sandwich.
- I thought $7.50 in Manhattan could only buy Dunkin Donuts.
- It would not have occurred to me to try a tofu not-bahn-mi.

Fortunately, things all came together on this one and I was blessed with the best sandwich I've had for quite a while.