Maria "gimme that filet o fish" O.'s Profile

I heart you "mini-cake" carrot cake. Delish! Also the lemon mini cake was fabu!
As for the regular sized cupcakes I will pass on them the next time I come thru here. The chocolate and white cupcakes with "buttercream" frosting were kinda gross. Dry, stale, and the buttercream tasted more like "crisco"-cream. ick.

the girl behind the counter was quite helpful...although she couldn't tell me much about the carrot cake since she was allergic to nuts and hadn't tried it. but thanks to the lady sitting next to the counter who told me the carrot cake was awesome; you were right.

so if you're stopping by, bypass the regular sized cupcakes...they're not that good. go for a mini cake or a full sized cake.

i heart boba bee.

the drinks are delish, the tapioca is a perfect chewiness. some places have frozen little bits but these are fresh and nice. flavors are outstanding, but they discontinued my 2nd fave, kumquat. sadness. if you're tired of boba try the jellies. yum yum. it's just like the jelly candies you get at the asian market.

the decor is a little lacking, but it's okay..i normally run in get my drinks and head over to mather park and enjoy.

go get yourself a lychee boba today!

ice cream shop or chem lab?

walking in you see the mixers and their overflowing steam..which is actually the liquid nitrogen freezing the ice cream before your eyes. pretty cool.
love the fact that you make it the way you want....you can have bright blue strawbery flavored yogurt with gummy bears and nutella. i wouldn't actually recommend this, but you could make it if you want. you have your choice of base[ice cream, yogurt, soy ice cream] and your flavor and your mix-ins. you can even make it whatever color you'd like. if you get fresh fruit, do NOT have them mix it in before the freezing process; you'll have frozen rocks that hurt to bite. just have them add it at the end.

it's a fun place and the staff is friendly and helpful.  they need more seating area, but you can grab your icream and go wander around the neighborhood.  i'd go back again and my 3 year old loved to watch the mixers almost as much as he enjoyed eating his ice cream.

there was a massive line while we were there, but that just tells you that people like it.

i'll be honest, i've never been to a tailor before...so my only thoughts were of chandler and joey in that one episode of 'friends' where joey's tailor takes advantage of chandler. don't worry, this is definitely not the case here.

the hubbs needed to get some pants and sport jacket altered for his brother's wedding. unfortunately we are not so good with the planning ahead and realized this 5 days before we flew out to san diego. so we looked up tailors nearby and headed over to ji's. what a nice experience. the lady who owns it with her husband was sooo nice. she even humored our crazy 3 year old who wanted to look at everything in the shop and helped to see all the fun stuff. she told us she had grandkids and was used to it. we told her we needed it ASAP and she said she could have it ready for us the next day.
we went again the next day and everythng was ready and fit perfectly. this little family business rox!

i wish it could give a 2.75, but yelp won't let me give 3/4 stars.

we dined here on a wednesday night, so the place wasn't  packed. we had reservations on the upper level. we had a wait a few minutes for our table to be ready so we sat at the bar and had a beverage.  i was really psyched to eat here since it was a phil stefani restaurant...but i wasn't too impressed.

our party of three shared 3 small plates and each got our own entree. the small plates were superb...the artichoke beignets were fabu! we had to wait awhile for the entrees, but we were busy talking and catching up tht we didn't really notice...until 25 minutes passed.
my entree was the double pork chop which was just meh. it was kinda tough to cut, and but it tasted alright. our friend had the imperial snapper...which was quite tasty with a crabmeat crust. [yes, we tried each other's food...everyone should, that way you get to experience more.] my husband had the crab legs...which he never had before in his life. we were all quite amused by his attempts to crack the legs. our server was very nice and showed him how to properly open them up. he enjoyed them immensely.

now why did i only give it 2 stars if i liked the food and had a good time? because it was a pretty forgettable experience; even tho it was just last week, i had to work to remember what we had and what we did there. even the amusment of the hubbs trying to manuever the meat out of the crab legs couldn't make the experience  memorable. and for the prices and the fact that it's part of the phil stefani group i expected much more.

so ...
+'s
-friendly, helpful servers
-nice view if you get a window
-valet is cheaper than parking in the lot

-'s
-forgettable experience
-pricey

also, it's mostly a seafood place but it does have some meat dishes too.

so, if you're at navy pier and wanna try something fancier, check out riva. it's not an awful place, i just felt my experience lacked something...but if you really wanna try this place you should. maybe you'll have better time.

under pressure...dum da dum da da dum dum.
they should totally have this david bowie song as their theme song...but it would get annoying if they played it over and over and over. but i digress

pressure is good times. the pool tables are clean and fast. the food is tasty and they serve some decent beers. i have yet to sit in the cafe side, but it looks nice and cozy. and i hear the comedy shows they have are funny. [go see antoine, he's a riot.]

you could bring your pre-teen & teen kids with you and teach them the art of billiards. it's not at all like some of those scary hole-in the wall pool halls. it's a little pricey...but it's totally worth it.

the one con that i could think of is the music selection...i don't know if it's a dj or someone just sets their iPod on shuffle. someone who has every song since 1982. it was just a little disconcerting to hear michael jackson then smashing pumpkins then tupac. but that's just me.

bottom line...go here and play some pool and have a good time.

i have a confession....dentists scare the crap outta me. i hate going to 'em. i hate the noise of the drill. however this place wasn't all bad....

dr chen was super nice and not judgmental when i made my horrible dental confession of not having been to a dentist for a few years. she was very good at putting me at ease while waiting for the novocaine to kick in so she could refill my cavity. [part of the filling had broken off which is why i went in.]

since my hiatus from the dentist, i obviously had some problems with my teeth that need to be addressed. dr chen told exactly what was going on and what would need to be take care of first. since i don't have dental insurance, she and the receptionist [who was very very nice, but i've forgotten her name] helped me by telling which was most most important to be taken care of so that we could space it out and not have it cost my eldest's 1st year of college tuition. i made another appt next month for some more work.

also, they were very pleasant and willing to find me an open appointment when i first called about my cavity broken off...they actually had a last minute cancellation and was able to fit me in the day after i called.

this place was great...so why not 5 stars??? cuz it's still a dentist. ;)

is this restaurant about the online craze of twitter-ing? do they follow ellen degeneres on twitter?? do they tweet about their goings-on?

no, but can you tell that i am kinda obsessed with twitter right now? sad, but true.

this gem of restaurant is top-notch!

brunch with a toddler, a newborn and two adults could prove to be difficult and a challenge. esp. with my kids. but my son behaved for almost the entire meal. [this is a rarity, believe me] i loved the fact that they have a basket of goodies to bring to the table for the kids to play with. and they offer bananas so the little ones have something to munch one while they wait. i heart kid-friendly places. it's hard to go out to eat with kids, but when the restaurants make easier like this one, it's makes many a parent happy.

and the food was delish too! i had the artichoke & blue cheese quesadilla. yum! i loved the vinegar-y acidic bite of the artichokes and the pungency of the blue cheese. service was great too, from the hostess to our server and the back waiter, pleasant, accomodating.

it had terrific atmosphere, everyone seemed laid back and easy going. ready to accomodate a larger party if necessary.  i love the fact that they had a patio.

we had no wait time, since we ate on a friday at 11am, but i'm sure there's a decent wait on the weekends. but i would say it's worth it. the food and service both get A+'s. so if you need brunch head over here and maybe even tweet about it on twitter. =)

please, take my money and laugh about it.

yes, that's really what i think they do.

so my husband,[boyfriend at the time] bought his first car here like 4.5 years ago. they gave him a good deal, i suppose, i wasn't there...but he seemed to be happy about it. two years later we trade in that car, which was brand new when he bought it, for a used Rav4. totally ripped us off. which we didn't realize until after we made the deal. oh well, that's what happens when you don't research and make snap decisions, right? sure, i guess. let's give 'em another chance...

taking in the Rav4 to be serviced was such a hassle. they say they can drop you off while they service, but you had to ask the guy like fifty times. they say it's only gonna take an hour...it takes 3.5. they recommend unnecessary maintenance and then give you a judgmental look when you say no thanks. and the things they supposedly have fixed need to be fixed again. my brakes were squeaking, took it in, got it fixed, 2 weeks later, they're squeaking again.  annoying.

needed to get a new car...this time we went to grossinger toyota in skokie. much more helpful, much more pleasant to deal with.

baked cheese and martinis. baked cheese and wine. baked cheese and beer. baked brie and john malkovich? [yep, that's right. he was there...not with me unfortunately, but he WAS there.] can you tell that i'm a fan of their baked brie? the reuben is pleasant, but not outstanding. i like their calamari, extra crispy and not rubbery.
great for late night snacking; after clubs, or after a long shift and you need a little pick me up. lunch is good here, they have outdoor seating in the summer so you can people watch while you gnosh.
vicky, one of the terrific bartenders, is super helpful, and is quite creative in the martini genre. i was tired of the old martini standbys: dirty, cosmo, etc.  she made one up that is out of this world. you should go there just to try it.