Bingying L.'s Profile

Liked the cozy feeling and the 80s music. It was nice and inviting. Service was great and not uppity at all.

The food was very good, although some of it was too salty for me. Loved the wood pigeon, the lemon preserve, the huge oyster and the lobster tail. Even the bread was excellent. The menu is full of nice little surprises - you can get up to 2 or 3 dishes for one entry on the menu. The wine pairing was also very generous.

But in the end the $650 price tag just didn't seem worth it for 2 tasting menus and a shared wine pairing. There are definitely other single Michelin star restaurants (or even 0 star restaurants) that are better value of money. The difference in quality was just not significant enough to justify the extra cost.

It was a nice experience overall though, so not a bad idea if you're curious and feel like splurging.

Was in town for a business trip and noticed the good yelp reviews for this place. I was not disappointed! I had the black tea gelato and mojito sorbet. Just the right amount of creaminess and not too sweet. Holding back on star #5 because it's pricier than what I'm used to - $4.95 for a regular cup (which would qualify for more like a 'small' at most other places). I had mine to go but it looked like a nice place to hang out - spacious, nice lightning and free wifi.

Had a coffee macaroon and a chocolate eclair. They were alright. Nothing to write home about. The macaroons are larger than your usual size, but since it didn't taste particularly good, $3.50 is still a rip off.

The pastries were very nice to look at, but that was about it. We had the intense and the napoleon. They were OK. The highlight of the place was the video they played showing the pastry chefs at work. After you see how much effort it takes to make every single pastry look pretty, you almost understand why you just paid $7 for that tiny thing on your plate.

The food on its own is maybe worth 4 stars; docking another star for the ridiculous price. I mean, I know we're in the Bellagio and not some dingy corner of the Mission, but still...I wouldn't come here just to pay so much for mediocrity.

This was our second lunch trip to Locavore. The first time was good - we had the sausages and both were great, and everything (especially the beer) was very reasonably priced.

This time we came back to an almost totally different menu. We had the beef risotto and the burger, which we were told came from the same cow. It was probably one of the best burgers I've had in my life. It was so juicy and beefy and went perfectly with the fried egg. The fries and coleslaw were also good. For beer we had the Drake's and this lager from Oakland, both of which were fantastic (and honestly a bit underpriced).

Service was very friendly and attentive. Our fries came a little late so they offered to comp it, but we had a scout mob deal for 50% off and felt so bad knocking so much off the bill that we told them to leave it on. The total before tips came up to $22. What a deal! We'll definitely be back here soon.

We were somewhat disappointed with this place given the prices and the Michelin star. The mussel soup and suckling pig appetizers were pretty interesting. Unfortunately, despite the promising plating and fancy ingredients, the main courses turned out pretty subpar. The veal tenderloin was just ok. The pork loin was dry and a little tough, and didn't go particularly well with the truffles. We had the lemon hazelnut tart for dessert which was the beat dish of the night.

The bill came up to $170+ including tax and tips. Not quite worth it when I almost gave myself a pat on the back for managing to finish my entrée. The atmosphere was a little snotty for my liking as well. Plus they topped it off by not giving us the complimentary truffles that the two tables around us got. We'll find better places to spend our money next time.

Waited almost an hour to get in on a random Friday morning. I was so looking forward to this and was completely disappointed.  No tuna? No jellyfish? No hugely terrifying sharks? What am I doing here?

The aquatic show was honestly kinda lame. Do away with it and leave the dolphins alone.

Apparently this is the second largest aquarium in the country but I'm not sure what they did with the space. If you've been to Monterey don't bother with this one. Even Sea World had better exhibits.

Came here at 8:15 on a Friday night. It was ridiculously crowded, so make sure you have a reservation.

Maybe because Dine About Town was on, the restaurant seemed ill equipped to handle the volume of hungry customers that showed up. We waited maybe 5-10 minutes to order our wine, after which it was at least another 15 minutes before we could put our order in for food. And then more waiting to get our bread - somehow they thought of bringing us the olive oil and vinaigrette earlier but the bread took a while to follow (by this time it is almost 9 so I am ravished and not too forgiving about the lack of bread).

On to the food. A plus was that their Dine About Town menu had 4 courses instead of the regular 3. We were pretty impressed by the first two courses - the arugula and beet salads and homemade pasta with pesto sauce. Unfortunately, this did not prepare us for the complete disaster that was the third course. I got the chicken and my friends had the pork and fish entrees. The chicken and pork was too dry; they were basically a slab of meat on a bed of spinach. The spinach was pretty decent, but the meat was kinda what you would expect them to serve on a plane (or worse, depending on which airline you take). After that we were so turned off that dessert turned out pretty mediocre.

Dinner took about 3 hours in total, which you'll have to admit is pretty unacceptable. I'm not opposed to long dinners, but this was purely due to inefficiency and understaffing, not because we were having some elaborate 8 course meal. Also, if you're going to take so bloody long to serve us, don't turn off the ventilation before the guests are gone. The service was friendly enough and I guess the staff were trying their best, so I don't hold it against them. But the restaurant seriously needs to re-evaluate its staffing model (and the disappointing meat dishes) if I'm ever coming back again.

had the clams appetizer, the polenta and fettucine specials, lava cake and 3 glasses of wine. the bill came up to $80 for all that (excluding tip)! I enjoyed the food (pasta was good, cream sauce wasn't so thick that you'd get sick of it and cake wasn't too sweet) but to be fair it only warranted 4 stars. bumping it up to 5 for the great service and the value for money.

Discovered this little gem a couple of months ago and we've been coming here at least once a week since. The quality of food is probably about 4-4.5, but I'm bumping it up to 5 stars because it's great value for money ($10+ for 2 dishes, rice, salad, miso soup, appetizer and tea!)

So far we've tried:
- sukiyaki: my all time favourite! very flavourful with tender meat and lots of onions. yum.
- nanban chicken: it's amazing how this manages to come out so crispy and yet un-dry. my only gripe is that it's a little too much fried stuff for one person (works much better if you're sharing)
- butterfish with miso/ginger pork: these two dishes are kind of similar. good but not super spectacular
- tofu burger/fried tofu: both are tasty, good non-meaty options
- hamburger steak: decent but not amazingly special in my opinion

no idea what authentic japanese home-cooked food tastes like, I'm satisfied with this stuff!