Marlon "I'm All In" E.'s Profile

I treated a couple of friends for their birthdays on Saturday night at Ruth's Chris Steak House.  Everything about the experience was wonderful, from the venue, to the service, to of course, the food.

We ordered from the Dine About Town menu, which comes with a steak salad for the appetizer, 4 choices for the main course (with a choice of creamed spinach or mashed potatoes for the side), and a chocolate cupcake with vanilla ice cream for dessert.  For the main course, I had the 8oz. steak, and my friends had the stuffed chicken and barbecued shrimp.  The best part was smelling and hearing the food sizzle when they bring it out on hot plates.

I would definitely come back here again, Dine About Town or not. Highly recommended!

Bowling alleys are pretty ghetto in general, but Brentwood Bowl might be the ghettoest (or is it most ghetto?) of them all in the Bay Area.

I was planning on getting some practice games in today, so I walked in and saw an old lady managing the lanes behind the counter. It seemed like she was in another world, because she was talking to herself while attempting to make friends with the computer.  From what I understand, she was trying to get a group to switch over to a different lane.

Being the patient guy that I am, I just stood right in front of her and waited to make eye contact.  And waited.  And waited.  I saw that she was becoming more frustrated that she couldn't get the lane change to work.  Ten minutes go by.  Still nothing.  Finally I asked her if I could get a few games in, and she quickly snapped back at me with, "If you're not on the waiting list, I can't get you a lane."  So out the door I went.

I think it's safe to say that I'm not coming back here ever again.

I always get excited when I hear about new food trucks, especially ones that are in SOMA.  So of course, my eyes lit up when I saw the Brass Knuckle food truck parked in front of Bar Basic last night.  They have an amusing theme to the food names on their menu, which I'm sure you can get just by reading this: Notorious P.I.G., M.C. Hammer, Lamb Halen, Snoop Dog.  Kinda makes me wonder how they come up with these names.

Anyway, I gave the M.C. Hammer a try, which is a grilled ham and swiss sandwich with a jalapeño popper inside (see my photo).  It tasted like all kinds of cheesy goodness with a nice kick, and was definitely a stomach stuffer.  It's perfect for absorbing all those happy hour drinks you've had after a long work day.

I talked to one of the ladies inside, and she said that they will be routinely parked in front of Bar Basic on Thursday nights.  If their other items on the menu are just as good (or better), I'll definitely give them a 5.

After 27 years of living in the Bay Area, I finally got my first taste of the infamous deep-dish Little Star Pizza tonight.  Long overdue, right?

My friend and I arrived around 6:30 after a brief walk from the 16th and Mission Bart station, and fortunately, we were able to get a table before the big dinner rush came at 7.  We were greeted promptly with menus and waters as we deliberated what kind of pizza we wanted.  When our waitress informed us that the pizza takes about half an hour to make, we opted for the garlic bread to keep us occupied.

I suppose you can call Little Star's version of garlic bread as "deconstructed."  A loaf of pre-sliced bread is in the middle, and then a whole bulb of roasted garlic and butter are on the side.  It was a bit of an adventure to extract the cloves out of the garlic and spread it along the bread slice, but I've never seen that presentation anywhere else.

Let's not kid ourselves here: the star of the show is the pizza, and the headliner, as many Yelpers have commented, is the crust.  Normally, the crust is the worst part of the pizza whose purpose is to just hold the toppings together, but Little Star's crust is much more than that.  It actually has taste and crunch, thanks to the cornmeal that they blend in there.  I bet that if they served the crust by itself as an appetizer--just the crust--people would go bonkers over it.  It's that good, folks.

We went for the large, which is eight slices, and both of us managed to chow down three each.  The waitress gave us each a box to go, handed us our check, and back home we went.

Thank you, Little Star, for waking me out of my Yelp review hibernation with your version of an awesome deep-dish pizza.  Now I need to make a trip to Chicago to compare!

So it was time to get the hair cut, and I decided to give Nicky's Hair Salon a try, since it's a short drive from home.

I walked in and was immediately greeted with a smile and a hello from a nice woman.  She kindly directed me to a seat, I told her my usual haircut formula (#2 around the sides, blend the top), and after exchanging the usual "how are you" and "nice day outside" pleasantries, she went to work right away.

Despite the spacious room, no one else was cutting hair, so I assumed she was Nicky herself.  The place was pretty clean, and doesn't reek of hair products like at other salons.

After maybe 10 minutes, she was all done.  The thing I noticed she does best more than anyone who has cut my hair was thoroughly blow dry it.  I know it doesn't get rid of all the little bits of hair, but as I'm typing this, I don't notice myself itching or seeing any hair on my shirt afterward.  Bonus points there.

Overall, the haircut was quick, efficient, smooth, and with no problems.  I gave her the $12 + $3 tip, she gave me her business card (which I noticed you get a haircut for free after 5 visits), and off I went.

I won't give this place a 5 yet, but if I'm satisfied the next time I come back here, I'll bump it up.

This has to be one of the weirdest places that I've ever been in.  An optometrist place that sells frozen yogurt?

Anyway, their froyo is legit.  I gave their lychee flavor a try, and it definitely tasted like lychee!  I would imagine that their other flavors taste just as good.

I also learned that Tiffany (yes, the jewelry brand) makes frames for the blingers out there.  I suppose there's a market out there for that.

So I guess the lesson here is, if you're selling glasses, you should also sell frozen yogurt?  I'm still tripped out by it...

"It's as if I died and went to meat heaven."

That's the first thing you'll say when you step into Espetus.  I was here a few years ago when they just had a small little area as the restaurant, and now it has expanded to almost four times that size to make space a lot less cramped.  But enough about the place; let's get on with the food!

I went for the salad bar first, which is self-serve, and went for the pesto pasta salad and mixed greens with vinaigrette.  Those were good, but I just got a little bit since I knew that I would load up on the meat.

So the deal with this place is that the waiters come around with huge chunks of meat, they announce what it is, and then they carve and serve it to you.  You can also tell them how much you want and how well it should be cooked.  Of course, I pretty much said yes to everything, haha.

From what I remember, here's what they served us:
- Fried bananas and cheese bread (for starters)
- Beef ribs
- Top sirloin
- Sirloin steak
- Filet mignon
- Flank steak
- Pork sausage
- Shrimp
- Parmesan-crusted pork
- Pork loin
- Lamb chops
- Chicken hearts
- Chicken legs
- Bacon wrapped chicken breast
- And last but not least, grilled pineapple

As you can imagine, I pretty much had to roll out of my seat when it was all said and done.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that pretty much everything was cooked and seasoned to perfection.  The waiter service overall was very friendly and informative.  Of course, it's gonna leave you with a hole in your wallet if you come for dinner, but it is so worth it.

Now I've got to try their San Mateo location to see if the experience there is just as good, or even better!

I had a pho craving before practicing with my band last week, so I decided to give it a try at this place.

Well, it was pretty disappointing.  The wait time between the order and serving seemed a bit long (maybe 20 minutes).  The portion was nice, but there was very little flavor in the broth.  I actually had to put soy sauce in it, which I never do.  The noodles and meat were okay. I just had a sense that whoever cooked this didn't put a lot of effort into it.  Maybe their non-pho stuff might be better, but I don't think I'll be coming back, unfortunately.

So sorry Little Saigon, but you have just been chopped.

I've had bite-size portions of fish tacos as an appetizer, but today was the first time that I ate them as a meal in itself.  Suffice to say, Rubio's definitely does not disappoint.

After receiving my order, I quickly took a bite, and yes, them fish tacos are de-freakin-licious.  The next thing I did was squeeze some lime and pour some of the roasted chipotle salsa on those things, and wow, it just puts the flavor scale over the top!  The beans and chips were okay, not much there as expected.  They are side dishes after all.

So just like that, I became an instant fan of fish tacos.  I can only wonder how much better they could be...

"Hiiiighwaaaaay to the Danger Zoooone..."

My coworkers and I went to GoKart Racer for some "work bonding time" a few weeks ago.  The environment definitely makes you feel like a racing pro, from the spacious lockers, to the surprisingly comfortable jumpsuits, to the detailed post-race stat sheets.

Because I wear glasses, I thought I would have a problem wearing them with the helmet on, but thankfully, there was enough room through the visor for me to slip them on after securing my helmet.  Major points there, or else I would have been driving practically blind, which would have been an adventure.

As for the go-karts themselves, I found the two that I used were pretty responsive and handled the tight turns pretty well, although a couple of my coworkers complained that theirs were inconsistent.  Oh well.

This will definitely make you have a deeper appreciation for race car drivers since you can feel the resistance of the wheel as you make the turns, and of course they are doing it at much faster speeds.  Oh yeah, and your body will be sore the next day. ;)

It was my first time go kart racing in years, and I had an awesome time.  Straight up adrenaline rush!