Misono A.'s Profile

The salon looks clean and inviting, but I had a very unpleasant experience with the service here!

I used to get my eyebrows threaded at M&M Thread Salon in downtown Berkeley, but I recently moved to El Cerrito and was looking for a place close by to get threading services. I saw that Sara's Nail Salon was advertising threading on their window, so I decided to give it a try.

I walked in and asked the middle-aged receptionist in the front, "How much does it cost for eyebrow threading?" and she promptly responded, "$15. Do you want to get it done?" It was slightly more expensive than I'm used to at threading salons I'd been to in the past, but I agreed to it. The receptionist took me back to a private room at the back, where she had me lie down on a seat. A young woman came in and without making much conversation about what I wanted done, just started prepping my eyebrows with powder. I knew something was wrong when I suddenly felt her apply some hot wax onto my brow area. I immediately stopped her and told her that I had asked for "threading, not waxing." She looked at me, confused, and told me I should have told her beforehand. I responded that I'd asked the receptionist for threading, and she went out to talk to her.

The receptionist then comes back and claims that she could have sworn that I had requested waxing, not threading. I was 100% certain that I had clearly asked for threading services (after all, I knew the salon offered both, so I was very specific when I first spoke to the receptionist), but she then proceeded to say, "You probably asked me how much it was to get eyebrows done, and I assumed you meant waxing." I could not believe that this place was putting words in a customer's mouth.

Anyway, I was pretty miffed at this point, but they brought another girl in to do the threading, which turned out to be cheaper at $12 (the $15 they had quoted me was for waxing) so I decided to go through with it.   I'm used to professional threaders whizzing through sessions by quickly and efficiently pulling out multiple hairs at once with relatively little pain so that I can get out of the salon in 5-10 minutes, but this girl took forever. She was obviously inexperienced and not very good at threading, because she took forever and she was working one hair at a time in an unnecessarily painful way. She then proceeded to spending even more time plucking! I'm accustomed to threaders plucking and trimming a few strays at the end that they were unable to get with their threads, but this turned into a whole 10-minute plucking session. If I wanted my eyebrows plucked, I would have stayed at home and done it myself!

In the end, I was satisfied with the end result of how my eyebrows looked, but it just took way too long and was such an unpleasant experience overall. I found Sara's Nail Salon to be rude, unprofessional, and incompetent, and will not be going back there.

One of my latest obsessions is cupcakes, so when I heard about Cupkates Truck from a friend recently, I was immediately intrigued. Cupkates Truck is a mobile cupcakery, and the very first "cupcake truck" in the whole Bay Area. They wander around Berkeley and Oakland selling delicious cupcakes straight from the truck (like a taco truck, except with cupcakes!) Their cupcakes are apparently baked fresh daily with local high-quality ingredients. Sounds like a winner to me!

We actually didn't get a chance to try them until a couple weekends ago, since aside from us being busy, the truck moves to a different location everyday and sells out promptly within a couple hours of arriving. You have to be on the ball to catch them before they're out of cupcakes, especially on a weekend. We got the s'mores cupcake, lemon raspberry cupcake, and red velvet.

The s'mores cupcake both looked and tasted amazing -- delicious marshmallow frosting topped with a piece of graham cracker and chocolate, all on top of a moist chocolate cupcake. The lemon raspberry one was the only one that was a little disappointing... the raspberry buttercream was too buttery and not fruity enough for my taste, but the lemon cake portion was pretty awesome even by itself. The red velvet was awesome. I'm a huge fan of red velvet, and this one did not disappoint. I took a bite and felt like I died and went to heaven. I didn't want to come back down. We recently went back again and tried the salted caramel. The frosting was once again a little buttery, but had this great caramel aftertaste that made it all better.

Cupkates Truck is a slice of heaven that you will not want to miss out on!

Recently having moved to Berkeley, one of my worries was finding a new threading salon to go to to maintain my eyebrows. Before, I used to drive out to Threads Beauty Bar in Dublin, and I was worried that I would have a difficult time finding a salon of the same caliber of skills and service in Berkeley. I'm grateful for Yelp, though, since it is where I first found out about M & M Thread Salon. I went on a Saturday morning, and was served immediately. The girls did a great job, and were very friendly and sweet. My eyebrows are unfortunately on the flat side in terms of their shape, and when I expressed that I would like to have a more defined arch, they helped in doing some shaping. My brows still aren't very arched, but the girls did the best they could with the state of my brows, and I was happy. The decor and interior is not quite as fancy as Threads in Dublin, but it is cozy and clean. I'm so relieved that I was able to find such a great new threading salon right in my neighborhood! I will definitely be back on a regular basis.

Although Shapes Brow Bar did a decent job on my eyebrows the one time I went, the experience was more painful than the times I've gone to Threads Beauty Bar in Dublin and other threading locations in the area. It was also uncomfortable because it is a kiosk in the middle of the mall, and people walking by stare, and even sometimes crowd around to see how it's done. It's a little embarrassing to be made a spectacle right smack in the middle of Southland Mall, getting your eyebrows groomed. Shapes Brow Bar is alright, but I would recommend going to Threads Beauty Bar instead if you don't mind making the trek out there -- it is better staffed, the quality of service is better, it is more private, and the ambience is much nicer.

I happened to be in Kash Fabrics a couple months ago to purchase tickets for a Bhangra competition, and saw that they offered threading services. I usually go to Threads Beauty Bar, but had been too busy to go despite my brows being in desperate need of some maintenance. The pricing here is the best I've seen anywhere - only $5 for eyebrows! They accept walk-ins, and the young lady who worked on mine did a good job. I think they recently started doing threading here (and I don't know much about the other products and services offered by the store), but it is a good place to go if you are in Hayward. I've since moved to Berkeley and found a new threading salon, but the price at Kash Fabrics really can't be beat!

Creations just opened this past weekend and I've already been there two times. It is a self serve frozen yogurt place and they boast an impressive ten flavor variety - plain tart, blueberry, mango, passion fruit, green tea, strawberry, peach, lychee, vanilla, and chocolate. I tried most of them and they were all very good, although I'd have to say the lychee and passion fruit were my favorites. I'm giving it a 4 star because on their grand opening, they were sold out or out of order for both the vanilla and green tea so I was a little bummed by that. They said they'd have it back up and running in no time, though, so I am waiting with bated breath since I am a fan of green tea everything. The choice of toppings is endless too - everything from delectable mochi pieces to nuts to gummy bears to little pieces of fresh fruit. Pile on as many topping as you like on top of as many flavored yogurts as you like (why only have one when you can mix a bunch?), and any combination is still the same price per ounce. I'd say the pricing is very reasonable - you can get a lot for under $5.

The interior of Creations is very clean and modern-looking. They have a bunch of little tables with red chairs inside, as well as a counter by the window where you can sit and enjoy your froyo. The employee we talked to said they would likely be open until pretty late (around 1am), so it is definitely a great place for a midnight snack. The employees were helpful with any questions customers had, and were very friendly - as good as service can get with a self-serve place. I would say this is a worthy competitor for Yogurt Harmony, which is a little down the street on Shattuck... in a way, better in that they have much more flavors and toppings to choose from, and you can be as creative as you want with them!

Love eating here! My husband is a hard-core fan of Indian food, and this is one of his favorite places to dine. My favorites that I always order are chicken tikka masala and tandoori chicken, along with aloo naan... although pretty much all of their naan is amazing! I liked their vegetable samosas as well, and the mango lassi is delicious and complements the meals. The service is friendly, the food portions are hefty, and prices are reasonable!

Thai E Sun serves up some decent Thai food. We kind of wandered into it accidentally -- we were walking around downtown Berkeley in search of a certain Thai restaurant and couldn't find it, so we came across this one instead and ventured inside.

The decor in this place is fun! I think it would have been fun to sit at one of the gazebo-style tables with a roof, but we were instead seated at one of the tables on the other side of the restaurant. We ordered some beef broth noodle soup and pad see ew, both of which were good, but it didn't blow us out of the water. We may go back again, but have a feeling that there are some better Thai restaurants in Berkeley to be found.

This may very well be the best Italian restaurant in Hayward. At first glance, the exterior (and interior) don't look so special, but I assure you that the food is amazing.

The bread and dipping sauce that they bring out is very good. Not sure what they put in the dipping sauce, but it is very flavorful and dangerous in that it keeps you eating more and more of the bread.

We ordered the Linguine ai Frutti di Mare (seafood pasta) and the Petto di Pollo alla Modonese (chicken breast stuffed fontina cheese & sage and wrapped in prosciutto), both of which were delicious. I make it a point to try seafood pasta most of the time I eat Italian, and this one was one of the best! We topped dinner off with tiramisu for dessert, which was simply divine! It was light and satisfying. Although we've since moved away from Hayward, we'd definitely like to come back for more Buon Appetito next time we're in the area!

Jeremy's is a great place to find designer closeout clothes at a discounted price, but even so, the prices aren't THAT cheap. I noticed that many of the items are from J. Crew, but other brands that can be found include Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, D&G, Dior... It's important to be careful to inspect the clothes really well, though, since very often you will find holes, tears, or stains. You can often find some good deals on shoes and accessories as well, beyond just clothing. The line for the waiting rooms can take forever, especially on a busy Saturday. They seem to always be advertising sales on their mailing list, but I think I definitely got the best deals during their post-Thanksgiving sale.