Kevin S.'s Profile

Probably one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the city.  And the crazy part is that it isn't even run by Italians... go figure.  As this great little restaurant is run by a Vietnamese couple that's been classically trained in italian cooking (Perche No means Why Not).

In any case, their food is totally delicious.  Love their grilled lettuce salad and pretty much all of their pastas which are hand made every day.  Would totally recommend to anyone looking for a great Italian restaurant.

Found this place after taking the "scenic" GPS guided route to Ikea and was really impressed.  As their showroom was quite large with a wide selection of counter tops, tiles, and cabinets.  Which was a little overwhelming given that my wife and I are just starting to figure out what we want.  That said, the staff was quite friendly and very knowledgeable about the types of materials, types of options, and how things will wear over time.

Will definitely go back as we get closer to figuring out what we want to do.

I'll be honest, I wasn't impressed.  Their tasting room is quaint and while the hosts did a nice job the wine really wasn't all that.  As the Pinot Noir was pretty flat with a wet finish which I'll be honest wasn't to my liking.  

That said, their reisling and pinot gri were pretty decent, but I was really underwhelmed by their reds which sort of dominates my rating.

After reading a bunch of the reviews there are a couple of things folks should know about eating here:

1) the menu changes a lot based on what's fresh.  So if you're going there because you read about something in another review - it'd be wise to call ahead to make sure they have it (only the cioppino is a staple)
2) the restaurant isn't large so last minute reservations / walk ins could be tough to come by

That said, the food here is definitely worth it.  The cioppino is one of the better ones I've had and you'd be wise to ask for extra bread to get all that tasty broth.

Beyond that the lamb they had was excellent and the all their in house deserts were great... especially the lavender creme brulee.  All in all, a great meal will definitely be back next time I'm in Portland.

Every great sports bar must have three key things:

- TVs (and all the associated cable packages)
- Good food
- Good wait staff that aren't too hard on the eyes or are really friendly

Kanpai has TVs pretty much rammed into every nook and cranny - Check

The food is tasty - especially the poke and ginger chicken - Check

Wait staff was both friendly and relatively easy on the eyes - Check

The only real negatives are that the parking lot is rather small considering how busy it gets and while I think some of the fans are quite zealous a few borderline on ignorant and obnoxious.... but that can be pretty much said for at least 1 out of 2 sports bars.

So you remember in high school when all the really popular girls just sort of sat around doing nothing and focused their effort around looking pretty.  Well, if you go to Olive You in Kirkland you can observe what happens when those girls become servers.  They ignore you, take forever to get off their butts to take your order, and then generally ignore you while feigning interest to preserve some semblance of a tip or perhaps because the manager might be watching.  

What all this came down to was 35-40 mins to get our food, zero apology or explanation for why it took so long (we only order wraps & gyros), and when we received the food we noticed the plates were really hot because they were probably sitting under the heat lamps for 10-15 minutes (as gyros aren't really a hot plate kind of food normally).  On top of that they refreshed our water one time and did I mention that the restaurant was 1/3 full and their was plenty of staff just sitting around.

All in all, this place really does deserve a 1.5 stars because I'll be honest the food was actually decent, but there's no way in hell I'll ever go back given the service which actually lead me to tip less than 15% as I was soo dis-satisfied which the general lack of interest with which we were served.

Just went in for my check up and I have to admit I was impressed with all the high tech updates they made to the place as all the equipment looked very state of the art.  And as always the staff was very pleasant and accommodating and while it's a bit out of my way to get there its definitely worth the drive.  Would highly recommend it for anyone nearby looking for an optometrist.

Went here with a friend and my girlfriend and while we were seated quickly I have to admit it was definitely tough to talk as the room is large and has very little sound dampening so if it's crowded it's loud.  The food was decent except for two BIG problems:

- my dish the special carbonara was ridiculously small (note it was a $12 entree).  I mean, it came on a plate that looks more like it holds a side salad in most normal restaurants and well the food was arranged nicely in a small triangle in the middle of the dish.  Note this was no heaping mound mind you - but  a very thin very flat triangle.

- my girlfriend's dish had a TOOTH in it.  Yes you read that right.... she bit into a tooth in her mac and cheese.  

Of course the staff was very apologetic after she spit it out and brought it to their attention, but at the end of the meal they didn't even comp us for the item.  Which clearly tells me they really don't care about the customer as words are one thing, but seriously not comping one mean when there was a TOOTH in it is ridiculous.

That said, I realize lots of people like this place, but I'm here to warn folk that if you go there and something goes wrong with your dish expect a nice apology, but don't expect a make good besides replacing the damaged dish.

Fresh Catch was excellent and I would definitely recommend people adding it to their culinary tours of Hawaii (which should include ono ono hawaiian food) as the poke here is as fresh as it gets.  On top of that they had an excellent furikake salmon that was - as the locals say - broke da mouth good.  

That said, this place is a total hole in the wall that's not really a restaurant as most folks get food to go due to limited seating.  Regardless, though I totally recommend folks come on in grab some poke bowls and enjoy some of the best things about the islands.

As far as food and pricing go this place probably deserves 4-stars as the food is well priced, very generously portioned, and pretty tasty.  That said, ordering in this little hole in the wall was challenging and borderline frustrating as the staff speaks chinese and not a lot of english.  What's worse, many customers here are pretty fresh off the boat and honestly aren't the most polite as they'll cut in line ahead of you if you blink.  Even worse is the fact that the staff will actually serve them ahead of you once they start blurting out their order in chinese.

So unless I'm with my other chinese speaking friends who are willing to go to the mat and defend our place in line like an outpost on the great wall I'm not coming back.

Though for the courageous and thick skinned this place is a great cheap meal as I challenge anyone to eat more than $10 worth of food.