Grace J.'s Profile

I brought three antique gemstone jewelry pieces for appraisal yesterday. I walked in without an appointment and was seen by Travis within 5 minutes. I was concerned about the price of the evaluation because I had read on other reviews that the appraisal was per carat, and my emerald necklace ended up totally 300 carats, but they gave me a flat rate. Travis was very informative, commenting on the quality, weight, total carats, likely age of the piece, and suggested a jeweler for restringing. He was equally informative with my two antique rings, telling me about the style of cut, period treatments, carats, and suggested a jeweler for resizing. The appraisals are laminated and in a protective sleeve, and list all the gemstone specs, include a picture of the piece, diagram of the cut, and replacement appraisal value. I am very pleased with the level of service at GAL and highly recommend them.

This store is really tiny and crammed full of fabric. The prices are slightly better than the garment district and they do have a nice, but small variety of fabrics. Their specialty is drapery and upholstery fabrics and they do re-upholstery work in the shop. Most recently I bought fabric to make curtains and I paid much less than I expected. The one detraction is that they short cut me on the drapery lining by 1/3 of a yard so I would recommend that you watch them cut the fabric to be sure that they use a yard stick instead of eyeballing it.

I don't understand the bad reviews. They are completely contrary to my many experiences at Chic Fabrics, easily my favorite fabric store. The prices are much better than other well known shops. The selection is varied enough that I go there first when looking for something specific. My loyalty has garnered attentive service and fare to better prices. I've bought everything from cashmere to chiffon to corduroy and silk velvet.

I've been to this place three times over the years and every time it has take them an inordinately long time to assemble a simple gyro. The last time I went my order came out to $9.35 and when I handed them my debit card I was told they had a $10 minimum. So rather than accommodate a customer who is short 65 cents, they have given me another reason to skip them next time I'm looking for a gyro. I can understand being strict about minimums if an order is less than $9, but do they really want to be breaking twenties all day? It's a hassle that isn't worth the crappy pita the just ok meat was on. Also, the sauce was tahini, not tzatziki.

I usually love shopping at C21, but I was just really disappointed by what must be a new policy. They don't let ladies try on bras!  BUT (I was told) bras can be returned within 30 days. This is absolutely ridiculous. So basically, they are expecting me to buy over $100 worth of bras, take them home and try them on, return what doesn't work and repeat as necessary. WASTE. OF. MY. TIME. I do not mail order bras and I do not buy them without trying them on for the simple fact that any bra I try on is 95% likely to not fit correctly. It the one thing I truly hate shopping for, and if Century 21 is not willing to accommodate me than Macy's will get all my bra business.

Three girls, three flights, a half dozen more oysters + friendly bartender = greatest girl night out.

Best onion rings I've had in a long time. Huge, crunchy, sweet  delicious. Great happy hour spot super close to my office.

This is the place to go if you are looking for Carne Asada Fries.
Well, it's not actually carne asada, but it is steak over fries with melted cheese and it's as close to San Diego style as we've found in NYC and it tastes good, so we keep going back for #71.

Otherwise, this place is your average non-descript chinese made tex-mex hole in the wall. For what it is, it is just fine.

This place was a general  disappointment.

The tea wasn't particularly hot when it arrived at my table and hadn't steeped more than a minute.

We ordered the scallion pancake and steamed pork dumplings for an appetizer. The scallion pancake was good, but the dumplings were overly doughy and the pork was unimpressive. I had a hard time eating the dumplings with the long, heavy lacquered chopsticks. The chopsticks kept snapping out of my grip and they just couldn't hold onto the slippery dumplings. Luckily, we were provided with forks with our chopsticks. I'm guessing that weren't the first patrons to have difficulty with those chopsticks.

My non spicy (according to the menu) shredded duck with ginger was actually quite spicy (I'm sensitive to spicy foods) and the duck was dry, had a lot of skin, and my first bite was full of gristle.  On the contrary, my date's "spicy chicken and chinese broccoli" was not spicy at all. He loves spicy food. Bummer. He liked the broccoli alright, but wondered how a dish with "spicy" in the name could be utterly lacking in flavor.

Our dishes were served to us on large platters and we were provided with extra plates, but our table for two could barely accommodate all the dishes. We decided to skip the extra plates and eat directly from the platters. This seemed to confuse the waitress who asked us twice if we wanted any rice (we declined) and never cleared away the extra plates.

The waitress only refilled my date's water glass when he asked for a refill. I never got a refill, luckily my "tea" was wet enough.

I'm grateful to have a chinese place that is a sit down restaurant, but it felt crowded and cramped even though the restaurant was not particularly full. This is not the place to have an intimate conversation over a meal.

Next time I want to sit down and drink delicious tea and eat fresh steamed dumplings I won't go to Grand Sichuan. There is a better place only 2 blocks away that has better tea, dumplings, duck, service, and seating.

I frequent this store as it is one of the few places I know in the city that carries paper patterns. My best experience there was once when I was looking for a specific out of print Vogue pattern and I couldn't remember the exact pattern number. I told the helpful owner that it could be one of two options and he went into the store room to search for me and brought out both options. I was thrilled to purchase the pattern for half what it cost online.  

There yarn selection is pretty good, and their notions are comprehensive. They have great deals if you pay cash. Anytime I can't find what I'm looking for the make sure to write the item down.  The only downside is that they close early on Fridays and are closed saturdays.