shannon l.'s Profile

What's better than the SJ location? This place is big and clean.

What's worse than the SJ location? They're not as efficient.

Everytime I call to place an order for a party tray, the lady says "call just 15 minutes before" or "call when you are on your way".  To take some precaution, I usually call 30 minutes ahead of time and tell them that I'm on my way.

And both times, they haven't started cooking the food until I get there!  I do appreciate that the food is piping hot and fresh when I end up getting it but if you're in a rush, be prepared to wait at least 10-15 minutes depending on how large your order is and how busy it is.

I got the fried shrimp balls and they were a total hit.  They look delicious and don't taste overly greasy!  They come with the same sweet & sour dipping sauce that you can get with your eggrolls.

Parking is on the curb or in the lot behind Starbucks which is around the corner.  Cash only but there's an ATM inside.

I like this place!  It's pretty, spacious, and table service is wonderful.  We didn't finish two bottles of alcohol but we took those home in Voss bottles even with the man watching.  Woopdeedoo.

Near closing, they started to play house music which is funny.

Free tacos and s'mores too!

Nicest Thai restaurant ambiance I've experienced in the states!

I absolutely love the super high ceilings inside and the NO ceiling outside!!  Man I was just amazed at how nice this restaurant can be without a food markup.

I actually came here for my friend's wedding rehearsal and we were all seated outside.  It was a pretty cold Pasadena night but luckily they had plenty of heat lamps.  

We also ate about a gazillion dishes but what stood out to me the most was the tom yum soup and the panang curry.  Those were most peoples' favorites.  The tom yum soup was PACKED with a variety of seafood; almost so packed that there barely any liquid was available.  And the panang curry was just wonderfully sweet with coconut but had the savoriness of the meat at the same time.  All the other items were standard.

If you think Thai Iced Tea is too sweet, then get the Thai Iced Coffee.  It's decent here!  I say this is the best place for big groups... nice ambiance and family style food!

Sit upstairs!  The restaurant is surprisingly big with tables everywhere but I do believe that the best seats in the house -- given nice weather -- is the upstairs.  

The bread they bring out is EXCELLENT.  They're basically sliced up focaccia (I think) with lots of seasoning.  It's painfully addicting and I ate about 10 pieces.  If you order hummus and pita bread, there isn't even close enough pita to use all the hummus.  But what you can do is keep asking for the bread which goes better with it.  I found that the pita bread was too thin and floppy.

My main dish was the Grilled Beef Brochette which at your typical lower end Mediterranean restaurant is essentially beef kabobs.  But never in my Mediterranean eating experiences have I had a restaurant ask me how I wanted the kabobs to be cooked.  I asked for it medium rare and most of the pieces were cooked to order minus a medium piece.  It comes with pilaf, vegetables, hummus and more pita bread!  I liked how light and flavorful this dish was.  Even the pilaf was cooked perfectly and not mushy at all.

Some of my friends didn't enjoy their dishes as much.  I wouldn't recommend getting the Farfalle pasta with pesto because it's pretty bland.  Most of the dishes range from $10-20 but if you want to save some $$, get the lunch wraps.

Everything is linen cloth here so it definitely has a nice yet cozy ambiance.  Decor is rustic and the staircase downstairs spits off into multiple areas which is kind of interesting architecture.

My dad saw an ad in the Chinese newspaper for this restaurant since apparently it's been one year since opening.  I have gone to Stoneridge Mall countless times but have neglected to see this place, partly because it is quiet hidden in the plaza.

We went at around 12:30pm for dim sum which is actually quite late so I felt like even though the food was good, the selection seemed limited.  It's a decent sized restaurant so there was no wait.  

We ordered about 8 different dim sum dishes and the total came out to $32. Not bad at all!  If I don't have the opportunity to go to Oakland or SF Chinatown, then I'd definitely choose this place over some other places in the East Bay based on cleanliness alone!

I bet this place gets good business because Boiling Crab's wait is always so long.  On a Friday night, the wait was estimated at 2.5-3 hours for a party of two!!!  If you give up there, you can come right over there; it's just steps away.

When you walk in, the first whiff you get is of WAFFLES.  It's the weirdest feeling because you expect to smell beef broth until you see the table with four waffle makers right in the front.  They're the green kind which apparently contains coconut mik.  They're only $1 here and if you order them, they'll make it fresh and it's soooooo worth it.

Anyhow, I only had $21 in cash and that was enough to get us a small bowl of pho, a large bowl of pho, and an order of spring rolls plus tax and tip.  Later we found out that they do also accept credit cards.  They are very generous with the noodles, the broth is flavorful but still quite MSG-laden, and the meat I'm on the fence about (I had good and bad pieces).  The peanut sauce for the spring rolls was the best because they include tiny diced red peppers which gives it a kick.

The restaurant looks small at first, as if it would only hold 15 people, but there's a walkway to the side that leaves to a spacious back part of the place.  Service is fast and they keep their thumbs out of your soup.

I figured that even though this place serves Korean beer and bar food, that I could go on a weeknight for a quiet round of snacks.  Key word: QUIET.  I've been in the working world for a while now so after a long day of slaving away, I just want peace and sound of mind.  I step into this place and it is reminiscent of an Asian American college night.  Less frat, more Christian.  Not only that, the restaurant bumps up the K-pop as if they are straight up in LA K-town.  

All of us in the surrounding booths were smaller parties of four or less which do offer some privacy.  At the time, there was only one server who seemed frazzled by all the work but got it done nonetheless.  I ordered the dukbogi with chicken and mozzarella.  It comes out on one of those hot plates.  I abstained from ordering a separate chicken dish knowing this one had chicken in it, but the chicken here is more slathers of boneless breast.  It's quite spicy and unfortunately, the hot plate kind of dries out the dukbogi a little.  You also get salad (mostly cabbage) with Thousand Island dressing and pickled radishes (helps cool down the spiciness).

For something more substantial, I got the budae chigae (Korean army stew) but this one was very seafood influenced.  It had ramen noodles, mussels, squid, shrimp, mushrooms, one big radish, and sausage clumps (very soft and easy to eat).  

Cost of items:
-dukbogi with chicken and cheese: $14.90
-budae chigae: $17.90
-bottle of OB: $5
-two bowls of rice: $2

Hell yea, it's expensive.  There were actually a lot of items I wanted to order but since it was just us two, I did limit myself.  Next time I'll try the soy/garlic chicken and cheese corn (I've been looking for this for so long!).

I actually like this place.  It's a good mix between rollercoasters, animals, and events (in my case, Fright Fest for Halloween).  Yeah, it's expensive but what theme park isn't?

Fright Fest is interesting because they have the haunted house, more like tent, that you can walk through.  Or if you go through this particular zombie area, you can anticipate masked movie-murderers throwing their realistic-sounding chainsaws at you.  Seriously, I thought it was real for a split second.  However, I did witness a zombie get mad... like seriously mad at a young kid and he had to report it to one of the staff.  I think maybe the kid got too scared and physically assaulted zombie man.  Sheesh.

The lines can get pretty long for rides but you can get Flash Passes which start at $27.99 per person.  OUCH.  They should do the Disneyland process where you go around getting passes from the individual rides then going back at your designated time.

As for the shows, I went to the tiger show, the elephant show, and the seal show.  For some reason, they really cheese up the shows for Halloween.  The seal show was the worst and it totally dragged on and on with this bad Austin Powers impersonator.  The elephant show is the best especially when it poos and pees randomly and they have to clean it up.  The tigers are not bad because they throw raw meat into the water for them to eat.

As for food, we didn't eat here except for the nachos.  We saw a man walk by with a glorious mound of nachos and toppings so for the rest of the day, that's what we looked for.  The only place we were able to find something close was at a crepe shop that served nacho chips, topped with cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos.  Small and tasty but not quite what we were looking for.

Depending on the time you go, parking is a bit far but there are shuttles readily available.  Parking is also an additional cost but I highly recommend searching online for coupon codes for tickets + parking.  Lockers cost around $10 and remember, you CANNOT BRING ANY ITEMS (purses, backpacks, etc.) to any of the rides with you which means you also cannot leave it on the side as you go on the ride.  Apparently they've had a really bad theft problem and had to implement $1 lockers next to each ride where you must check your belongings in.  Money guzzler.

I needed to pick up something for my five hour flight back to the West Coast and I sure am not going to buy a preserved sandwich on the airplane for $10 when I can get a fresh one here for $4.80!

It isn't the most gourmet of delis but they do offer a standard selection of meats.  I got salami and Swiss cheese.  For the price, it was decent.  Their "everything" is mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes.

I don't feel bad writing about this not-secret-at-all secret spot.  Maybe if the glass doors to the phone booth were tinted or fogged, then there might've been more of a mystery.  But you seriously see people walking in and out and in and out.  In my mind, I imagined that PDT would create for me an ultra exclusive, speakeasy experience, like in the Prohibition Era... not that I know what that's like.  But it's just as small as Crif Dogs if not smaller.  

The cocktails are good and typically pricey ($14).  I had The Great Pumpkin which has an egg in it that makes it frothy.  The drink tasted light of alcohol but I knew it was strong.  Definitely something you have to sip on over time.  Our party ordered a couple of fries and tots and they were normal.  Drinking cocktails with kiddie foods is... interesting.