laurie w.'s Profile

This place is why I love Yelp. I was in town for a conference, and I wanted to get something for dinner that was relatively healthy and close. The last thing I was expecting here, honestly, was good sushi, but the reviews convinced me and I gave it a try.

Wasabi was so good, better than my standby spot in the DC suburbs has been lately. I loved the combo salmon/avocado/cucumber roll without all the mayo/cream cheese that my local places seem obsessed with (and yes I can ask them to leave it off but it's nice to just have simple options.) The tuna and scallion roll was lovely as well, and the sashimi was very fresh. I just had room for two pieces of yellowtail but I may grab some for the road on Thursday.

Best? Very friendly woman helped me both times, and the second night we had a nice chat. It makes a difference, especially as accustomed as I am to dismissive customer service and garden variety rudeness. I felt good about patronizing their restaurant and sent a bunch of colleagues here too. I wish them much success in this spot.

The whole time I was there I was thinking "This place is not even serious" which was kind of distracting.

In other sad news, the guy who works the door at the Cafe Japone was there the last time we tried to go to karaoke because it was my friend's extreme wish. He was a jerk then, and he was a jerk now. Like I said before, if you're not in New York, and you work at a not-great sushi place, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself. Tool. Ugh.

Anyway, after he directed us downstairs in his typically not-charming fashion, we stepped into some under-the-sea, technicolor, 1970s fake Japan meets Studio 54 acid trip. High, it would be amazing. Not high, just weird, and you saw the cracks in the seashell chairs and it was just profoundly depressing.

The food, right. Ok. The tuna tataki was terrible. The sushi was ok, but by that point I'd lost all faith given the state of the tuna. I am weird about sushi places although I'm not a picky eater at all.  The surroundings were just so very bizarre, none of us could really handle it. Would not return.

Three stars for the beer selection, which is really good. I feel like I should be rating everything in this town on a relative scale, which means this place should get five stars for that alone and having edible food, but no matter where I am, I don't like being spoken to like I'm the dunce when the person speaking can't pour beer or make change or attempt to be cordial, I suppose. Also, the spot filled with smoke because the person cooking apparently forgot he was cooking and burned pizza, so I smelled of burnt pizza for hours.

And the music was too loud. And the pizza was ok but not great (doughy crust - not a fan, and sort of runny at that.) And you kids get off of my lawn, but whatever. I would have probably given it five if I were drunk, but that wasn't happening at the time. Get over yourselves, pizza people. Be nice. Isn't that the alleged vibe around here?

I enjoyed lunch here, actually. It wasn't the best but the food was fresh and the staff was very, very friendly.

The rolls were ok - not awesome. I'm on a salmon and white tuna with avocado kick, and they were both fine - also both under $5, which was nice. (I'm really starting to hate the upcharge on everything just for living in Montgomery County.) I also got a couple of pieces of white tuna nigiri because they were $1 apiece. Lunch came with a teeny-tiny ginger dressing salad and miso soup, so it was a lot of food for very little money. The green tea was nice, too.

I wouldn't drive special to get here but if I were in the Mt. Vernon area and had a sushi jones I'd go again.

There is always a ridiculous wait at every Cheesecake Factory. I think people expect to see actual cheesecakes rolling out the door on a conveyor belt and that idea is so lovely that it's just like, yeah, I'm going THERE.

That is not what happens there. What happens there, usually, is you wait a long time for a table and then you sit down and it's loud and menu is like a little plastic confusing book and you pick something that sounds like it's less than perhaps 8000 grams of fat and the size of the table and then you eat. And of course you get cheesecake because, we-hell, it's the CHEESECAKE factory, you idiot. That's what you get there!

So why did I just eat that super mega seared wasabi ahi tuna salad with the two dressings the apropros-of-nothing rice cracker shavings and also the fried macaroni and cheese appetizer? And why did I suck down the mojito again? Right! In preparation for cheesecake.

We didn't have to wait last night because a friend got there early (she loves this place, by the way. I'm just a hater.) and snagged a bar table. I'd never been to this location, but it's the same as the other two, in Rockville and Atlanta, that I've been to.

The food was ok. The waitress was extremely annoying, high-maintenance and rushy-rushy and snapping up the dishes while you were still eating, that sort of thing. But if I worked in this place I'd need Xanax cheesecake so I kind of feel for her.

Vanilla bean cheesecake was ok. White chocolate raspberry truffle was my favorite for a long time. I always, always feel like I should have just eaten dessert when I come here, and having done this before I think that's the ticket. Eat somewhere more sane - like home, maybe? - where the entrees aren't the size of a garbage-can lid, and go for cheesecake and maybe a coffee drink in the bar. Do not do the whole dinner ordeal. There are so many better places to do this.

My final irksome tidbit is the inclusion on the menu of a section of "Weight Management Salads." Hi 1954 . May I have some spiced apple rings and cottage cheese, too? You specialize in the fattiest dessert in the world besides eating cake icing out of the container (what what?) and you're not only going to give me three allegedly more sensible dining options, you're actually going to CALL THEM WEIGHT MANAGEMENT SALADS and make me order them that way? (And I don't mean me. The day I utter those words to a server is the day I ought to be spoon fed at home.) It really bothered me.

Meh.

Great sausage, lovely sauerkraut, friendly dude, and it's just so great that it's there just when you need it - late, post-many beers. Another of the countless reasons why Austin is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world.

My MacBook broke at a burlesque and cupcakes show (seriously) at SXSW Interactive, when I got tired and set the sucker down on the floor at just the wrong angle for metal and concrete. I'm a (very stupid obviously) blogger and basically I bring it everywhere during the day, and without a stop at a hotel room to drop it off, it's got to come with me at night. Besides, if you're going to liveblog something, it just might be a burlesque and cupcakes show.

This was ridiculous, though, even for me. The computer capital-B broke - as in black screen of death, no little spinning rainbow circle, BROKE. I took a cab to the Apple Store from downtown, and paid money I don't really have for an iPhone that I'd been meaning to get anyway.

The iPhone is, of course, awesome. Leeanna or LeeAnn or Anna Lee (I'm so sorry) was very helpful and competent where setting it up was concerned, and did not shame me about breaking basically everything I own and even acted slightly interested in my problems. Floyd the genius could do nothing with my computer, and more or less told me to suck it up til I got home. He was cute, though, and friendly too, in spite of the fact that it was Saturday at 3 p.m., basically the time when all Apple Stores everywhere reach critical mass and the fluorescent lights start to drive everyone collectively insane.

Three base stars because I got the answers I needed and an iPhone with minimal fuss. An extra star because everyone's so much friendlier in Austin than at home (sorry, home) which makes the news goes down just a little easier.

Eh. I had a Cobb salad and it was sort of terrible. It was my fault I guess for not storing the "spicy ranch dressing" part when I skimmed the description, and for not asking for it on the side, because I've never had a salad dressing that was so hot it was almost impossible for me to eat the salad. I've also never had a Cobb salad with dressing dumped directly on it, so it was all just a bit too confusing for me.

The waitress was cranky, too. I was a cranky waitress for seven years once, but never to people as nice as I am to waitresses because I was one for seven years, so I'm less down with it these days. Not impressed with any of it, really.

I sort of love PF Chang's, I have to admit. It's like going to Mass on any given Sunday, anywhere. You walk in anywhere in the world and you're going to hear the same Gospel. Hit any PF Chang's and there will be my lovely, tasty lettuce wraps - same in Austin as they are at home. Comforting - and also very good.

We had 30 minutes for lunch and they had a bar spot open. I order three things at this place, anywhere it is - the wraps, hot and sour soup and Mongolian beef. The first two arrived fine and fast, and that is what I needed. My colleague - who is vegan - was easily able to get her meal adjusted to suit her, which it's always nice to see. .

Service was bad but the bar was slammed, so I'm guessing that was it.  I was really too engrossed in my wraps to follow along.

The Mexican martini is so good, and really should give five stars to any spot that gives me a full shaker and leaves me to my own devices. My fish tacos were a problem, though. I swear the batter (which was too heavy, too) tasted stale. I kept telling myself it was in my head, because this place is legendary, right? Eh.

I could have stuck with the queso we shared, the completely delicious tres leches cake and another shaker or six of the Mexican martini goodness and wouldn't have missed the fish taco mess for a minute.

(Oh, and service wasn't so bad for us.)