Linda "OurBestofKauai.com" S.'s Profile

Lots to discover in this shop. I found the clothing to be very well constructed and pretty. Perfect for island wear. Good price performance for what you get. I also found some nice gifts to take back on my next trip to the mainland. I love the little town they are located in.

Late dinner. Everything that we ordered was excellent. We always appreciate good price performance and they have that going for them as well.

We had the orecchiette pasta with Italian sausage, zucchini and basil pesto, polenta with short ribs and spinach (I provided photos of both here); and trout on a bed of spinach and garlic mashed potatoes. A desert of nutella calzone.

Nice ambiance. Really appreciate that they serve late. Extensive wine selection. Great addition to the upper west side.

We have enjoyed both lunch and dinner several times at 22° North. Our most recent visit was late March. Since we have lived on Kauai for many years, of course we also ate at this location when it was Gaylords.

We really appreciate the 22 Degrees North dining concept.  Their "Farm to Table" motto is a reality here, with many of the ingredients grown on farms very near the restaurant.  Fresh goat cheese, free range eggs and meat from Kauai sources make the menu really interesting. There is a chalk board at the entrance listing the currently available local vegetables and fruits being served. (There is a similar drink-related board in the bar)

The restaurant is set in a nice, quiet, historic building with tables facing three sides of a central outdoor garden.

Management has made a commitment to recycling throughout the restaurant: water glasses are crafted from wine bottle bottoms, coasters are recycled cardboard, candle holders are made from recycled glass,  and the table tops are made from zinc printing plates.

The food is prepared with care and includes several seafood, meat and vegetarian dishes.  Some of our favorites were those that used local ahi, a pork ragu, and fresh salads. I've added a couple of food photos from our visits. The menu is constantly changing to reflect what fresh ingredients may be available on any particular day, so it's hard to recommend a specific dish.  We suggest that when you arrive, you ask the friendly staff what their favorites may be.  We have always had good service here.

The bag of free doughnuts that you get for checking in on Yelp are like the warm beignets you get in New Orleans. Yummy.

Four stars considering we are talking inexpensive, Chinese delivery. We are not expecting a fine dining experience folks.

The order completion tool that I saw admired in another review here for Fu's is through http://eat24hours.com/ Fu's is more agile than most of the Chinese delivery places in the area understanding how to utilize the internet both with their own website and the addition of this tool.

Now that I have discovered eat24hours - I plugged in my address with "any cuisine" and got 49 places delivering - but interestingly Fu's wasn't on the list. The lady on the phone DID say, she was making an exception on free delivery so I must be slightly outside of their area.

eat24hours has it's own ratings but of course I will use that only as a first point of reference and double check on Yelp.

Ray and I LOVE this place.

Having lived in Japan, we are seafood snobs and can easily tell when fish is fresh and well-selected.

Like most everyone else that has reviewed Farolito, we were very impressed with the mixed seafood ceviche.
The fish in cilantro sauce I had was excellent. (the fish they used that day was sea bass).
On our most recent visit Sunday Dec 12, we brought my father and he enjoyed the beef stew in cilantro sauce.
We all shared a tacu-tacu - another one of our favorite dishes here.
For dessert: we thought their flan was excellent.

We each had a glass of their house Chardonnay. They made a great choice with Viu Manent 2009 from Chile.

In our opinion, the price performance here is excellent.

Ambiance is nice. We like the art work they use on their walls. Service is always gracious.

As far as we know, Farolito is OPEN Sunday. My iPhone Yelp app popped up with "closed" so this needs to get fixed on the business info here.

You can depend on the quality of the fish here. It is very fresh and well selected.

I was with a group of 11 people, and given our various requests, both the waitress and the manager took very good care of us.

Venice is a difficult area to park in so having valet available for $4.50 is a big plus. Delivery of the car was prompt and courteous.

Another big place is that you are in Venice. This is a fun area. Driving down Main Street to get to and from this restaurant is in itself an amusement.

We sat on the patio which is a bit "divey" but casual fun with good music. They have a happy hour on the patio which I haven't tried yet (note happy hour is ONLY available if you sit at the bar, not a table). If you are taking a date here, I would opt for the inside room with the white tablecloths. Note that the patio was covered when we were there - I am not sure if it is ever actually open air. But they do have heat lamps.

If you are ordering off the menu or the specials on the board, you should be fine. You should be able to order a reasonably priced meal without fear. If you order anything without a pre-determined price, be sure to ask.

I was surprised that I ran up a $90 tab here (with one glass of wine, tax and tip) just for myself. I have a lot of experience ordering at Japanese restaurants (I lived in Japan 20 years) and I can usually get a satisfying meal with a glass of wine for $60.

The dangerous thing to do when ordering sushi anywhere that you may go, is to order things that you don't know the price of. The waitress said that they could make any hand roll with the soy paper displayed on the board in their $8 special. I was relaxed and enjoying my friends so I didn't want to make an ordeal our of ordering. I kept it simple and ordered what is usually a nominally priced roll - "negi toro".

Normally the toro in a negi toro is left over bits of relatively inexpensive chu toro chopped up - but if it's fresh, it tastes good. The waitress did not warn me that this negi toro was made from "o-toro" which is a very expensive cut of toro and not something I would expect to find in a negi-toro without being warned. The cost - $15.50 + $1 for the soy paper - $16.50 for a hand roll. It tasted great so I ordered a second one (I didn't know the price till the bill came).

Then I had shishito (which can run from mild to spicy - this was spicy), Hawaiian Poke served California style in a martini glass was a special that evening. Fortunately it was not really Hawaiian poke because Hawaiian poke is salty. But the structure of their dish followed the classic red tuna cubing of poke and then avocado added. The tuna was of excellent quality and the price performance on that $12 dish was good. Several of us ordered the poke and were pleased with it. Seafood gyoza for $9.00 was fine, not amazing but fine.

Overall, I would recommend Hama Sushi without hesitation for the location and the quality of the fish.

I was Sushi on La CIenega for the third time last night. We came post Art & Artifact Gallery Randy Taraborrelli book signing event across the street with celebrity photos by Frank Worth and others.

It was my husband, Ray's second time here. Fortunately, I have Ray hooked now. I got the sashimi platter for the third time, repetitive but always orgasmic and the ingredients slightly vary based on what the chef knows is good that day.

It's actually slightly healthier to have sashimi at night than sushi. which even if you considered ordering with brown rice, only tastes good made with white sushi rice, which is made with mirin (read a small amount of sugar).

SLC's well prepared brown rice, which comes at no extra charge and miso soup make this ample sashimi platter a meal but I always like to have one appetizer to round out the taste experience. Being with Ray helps because he ordered some sushi but mostly appetizers.

This time we tried:

Age dashi dofu (fried tofu) which was prepared with a slight twist and delightful. I'll let you be surprised.

Black cod marinated in honey decorated with broccoli, carrot and eggplant. Usually this type of preparation is done with miso and is called saikyo. Actually honey creates a similar taste but the slight difference creates an adventure. Excellent.

Gomae. They had a choice of two: asparagus and spinach. We got the spinach. Traditional but solid offering.

Vegetable gyoza (pan sauteed dumpling). Well prepared.

They remembered which three special salts I liked from my last visit and without my needing to mention it, brought me a small plate with tiny portions of each salt. You only need a little - I like to use it on the brown rice.

I was inspired to do my first Yelp check-in.

I had several pairs of high end shoes stretched here. I was pleased with the work and the price. More recently I had a handbag repaired. This shop is classic old school. I THINK Mike is the son and the elderly lovable gentleman is Steve but someone said Spartacus, that could be. Not too much English happening here. Be aware they only take CASH. If your job is complex (eg multiple pieces with different requests) I would suggest checking that the piece of paper receipt you get makes some kind of sense. You may give your shoes to Steve and Mike is the one in the shop when you pick up. You want to feel comfortable that what you understood is what Mike will understand when you pick up if Steve is not there that day. You can get nifty shoe polishes and other shoe related tools.

Was looking at Yelp for a late night place on Memorial Day. A lot of places closed early tonight because business was slow but not at Versailles. I am regularly in Miami so I have high standards for Cuban food. But considering this restaurant is in LA, offers great price performance, quick service and good food, I concur with the many yelpers here, this is a winner.  
It is VERY casual. Don't be concerned about finishing your plate, it seemed like everyone walked out with a doggie box.
My husband and I shared the Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken and the Cuban Style Roasted Pork (Lechon Asado). We reek of garlic. We asked the waiter to recommend which of the pork dishes we should try and we went with his recommendation.
They are both good dishes but I wouldn't recommend eating them together because there is a similar flavor resonating in both of them.
If I'd paid more attention, the pork dish did say "marinated in Versailles unique garlic mojo criollo sauce roasted to perfection" - but actually all of the pork dishes except the fried one are in the garlic mojo sauce. Next time I'll try a fish or as I saw on a comment on my Whrrl check-in too late - the arroz con pollo.
I'm repeating myself but the price performance is great. Especially the chicken - $10.99 for half a chicken, rice, black beans and fried plantains.

DigitalLA had an event here May 5, which is also Cinco de Mayo. DigitalLA did not have exclusive use of the bar and it was very crowded. It was not that much fun trying to talk above the din so I was delighted to join a small group having dinner. As everyone points out in the reviews, the view is fabulous here. The food is good but expensive. It was my birthday week so I threw caution to the wind. I had the spicy seafood stew which I can recommend. At the table, the corn side dish was excellent as was the mac and cheese. Service was good. Parking charge wasn't bad.
I have no clue as to what the regular bar crowd here would be like, it was an odd night.
It would seem to be a nice place for a romantic dinner.