Amy "Amalina" W.'s Profile

In a town that, for me, is otherwise underwhelming, Blue Marlin truly stands out for quality customer service and food. My husband and I split oysters for our appetizer. The plate consisted of two New Zealand and two New York oysters. Both were absolutely delicious (this coming from someone who is not a huge oyster fan, by the way). For our entrees, my husband had the special, which was skate fish, while I had the New York strip steak.

The ambiance was great. Perhaps it was the time of day (early evening), but everything from lighting to noise level was perfect. Our server was very attentive and made it a very pleasant experience. If we ever do go back to Madison, we will definitely stop by this place again!

County Market is known for being inexpensive, but there is a point where quality becomes more important. After my last two visits to the new CM on campus, I have hit that point. My most recent experience is what has made me realize I should not shop for produce here: after coming home with grapes, blueberries, and carrots from the produce section, I learned that all three had one issue or another. The grapes had been placed in the wrong area, so I ended up with seeded instead of seedless. Upon opening the carrots, I experienced a strong stench of fermentation--this is most likely attributed to being in heat. Lastly, the blueberries have become moldy. One can argue that blame should be placed on the transport service, but I have never had problems at Schnucks. I have had to throw away $4 blueberries, $2 carrots, and I'm very disappointed in my grapes. I'm at a $6 disadvantage, so in fact I saved nothing by shopping here.

When I went to CM the other day to return the carrots (at this point they had fermented to a point that was nauseating, and I wanted to make customer service aware of this fact), I was greeted by a young man who was singing and acting, well, kind of obnoxious. I interrupted him, gently, with my request to have the carrots refunded. As I did not have my receipt, he said I could swap. I told him that I would open up the next bag in front of him to see if it smells similar. As we walked to produce, he went into the warehouse area without returning, so I walked back to CS and did so in front of another representative who agreed that these, too, smelled off. Some less important but equally annoying stuff went on as he asked another employee to smell, but eventually I got my money back. At any rate, the overall experience was disappointing to say the least.

A previous experience also indicates a lack of commitment to quality customer service. About a month ago, I decided to do my grocery shopping there. I had a full load of groceries that would have been more appropriate for someone to help me with (especially since a significant portion was produce). There were employees available, but they were standing around and chatting. This became a chaotic experience as a woman who oversaw self-checkout was "helping" me by being extremely rude and pushy.

I might come in here for a sandwich or pre-packaged items, but I am NEVER coming here for normal grocery shopping again.

A La Turka had become an institution to my friends and I. Every time my fiance and I drove to Chicago, it was assumed that A La Turka would be paid a visit. Sadly, as of this past weekend, our institution is dead to us. It has gone from being a high quality Turkish restaurant -- similar to experiences my fiance and I have shared in Istanbul -- to generic mediterranean. The belly dancing was invasive to a point that we felt very uncomfortable. In all, it took two and a half hours to complete this meal. No one in our party finished their food, and a few of us received luke warm dishes. A La Turka is OVER. However, if anyone know where Erwin went, please let me know! We love him!

Since Milo's never got around to addressing my several issues with our Thanksgiving meal, I will just post the majority of my complaint email here:

"My mother, fiance and I went to Milo's for Thanksgiving dinner, after my mom's oven caught on fire. We had been told that we would not be disappointed, but unfortunately we were proven wrong. My fiance ordered the mushrooms starter, pork entree, and cobbler dessert. For the most part, he was satisfied with his meal except for the mushrooms which he felt weren't prepared sufficiently. My mom had the salad starter, turkey dinner, and the other fruit dessert. She liked the salad a lot, and thought the dessert was alright. I had the chicken and wild rice soup which was very good, the turkey dinner, and the pumpkin pie. I have three issues with this meal, which before tip came to about $105: the turkey dinner, my leftovers, and my dessert.

First, given the situation with my mom's oven, we wanted to have as nice of a dinner as possible without our usual homemade goods. There were several problems with the entree but the main issue seemed to be the turkey itself. It was a huge portion of what tasted (and appeared to be) like it was processed and cut from a roll. There was little to no flavor. My mom felt and I agree to some extent, the potatoes tasted like they were instant. Usually a richer gravy is used when a cornbread stuffing is made, and particularly for the mashed potatoes it would've made the plate more appetizing, but instead a very tame and rather undesirable gravy was used. The vegetables were watery and not at all reminiscent of standard Thanksgiving vegetable options. Second, the pumpkin pie crust was good, but the pumpkin ingredients tasted very gummy, as though they came from a can.

Lastly, my leftovers. You are probably wondering why I would've asked for a box given how displeased I was. To be honest, we wanted our Thanksgiving dinner to be as pleasant as possible so instead of complaining and making the staff's lives difficult, I decided that perhaps if I took what I couldn't finish home it would be better the next day. I asked to have my food boxed, but after several minutes of it not coming back we asked the waiter if we could have it. After some confusion about which person actually took my food we were told a new half-plate would be made. This would've been fine except that this afternoon I opened up the plastic box and there was more turkey than I ever had to begin with and very little of the stuffing, a moderate portion of the potatoes and little to no gravy, so I was eating what tasted like instant, flavorless food. It was very disappointing and I wish I would've been offered the option of a discounted entree instead.

We've had problems with Escobar's dinner-time menu, too (my fiance was confused and disappointed by his open-face tamale a few weeks ago), which is only worth bringing up because it was so recent that it is seriously making us reconsider if we want to go to either restaurant again. I'm not sure how much you can do at this point, particularly because we chose not to address the problem last night, but at the very least I want to bring your attention to our disappointing Thanksgiving dinner. My mom noted that she really enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant and thought it was very cozy. Unfortunately, I just don't know if this is enough."

My first tip-off should have been that my menu had a large chunk of food on it. My second tip-off should have been that my water glass had food on it, too. My third tip-off should have been that the people two tables away from us finally had to go up to the register to pay, and then before ordering food, that the coffee was absolute crap. Yet, my fiance and I were in it for the long haul (little did we know how long). After about 20 minutes the server took our order. It didn't take so long to receive the food, but that's probably because there was a lot of crepe and few ingredients (although I must admit that my fiance's Norwegian was better than my Parisian which still had lukewarm, not entirely melted cheese). After asking for a refill on water, our server came by the six table space three times without coming back to our table. How does one catch the attention of a server who avoids eye contact with her customers as much as possible? When it was time to get the bill, the table next to us just shouted to get theirs, so we resorted to doing the same. When we finally got our bill and attempted to pay, their credit card machine was being rebooted. After about 10 minutes, my fiance walked up to the register to find out the credit card machine wasn't working, period, and he had to walk to the ATM down the street. Okay, so it's not their fault that the credit card machine died, but the nonchalant demeanor of this server was incredible. To make up for the credit card issue, they gave us a scoop of mocha gelato, which had the flavor of graham crackers and chocolate chips (they charge $60 for a tub of this stuff, by the way). So yeah, we could've left before it all fell apart, but we were super hungry and we wanted to be open minded. It was a purgatory of mediocrity.

I ate here just a few days before having my wisdom teeth removed, which for me meant I had an infection and wanted something soft and tasty to eat. Their food (depending on what you get, of course) is both of these things. The wait staff is excellent and prompt. Under the circumstances, I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

When I lived in Chicago, I couldn't imagine going to a better Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, I haven't lived in Chicago since the end of 2005 and the quality has diminished considerably over the past three years. It seems they don't know how to prepare tofu nor do they know how to use fish sauce. In sum, Star of Siam sucks these days.

I was very excited to visit Ashkenaz, but my first clue on what the experience was going to be like should've been location: trapped between a Big Bowl and some overpriced apartments in the Gold Coast, Ashkenaz is one nasty deli to be in.
This diss aside, I enjoyed my turkey sandwich and loved the matzo ball soup. The salads, on the other hand, are naaaaaaaaasty. If I were to walk by it (as if I'd ever be casually walking around Gold Coast-area) I would probably eat there, but intentionally trying to get to it isn't worth it. If you want good "Jewish-style" food, you may as well just pay less for "gentile-style" since, trust me, there are no Jews serving food in that place and it's not kosher.

I decided to try Golden Wok after a bit of a vacation from greasy Thai food, but the management as well as the food quality appears to have changed.  I have never had worse Tom Kha until I had the misfortunate of eating there last week.

Cafe Iberico brings me much happiness.  Their Iberico hamon is delicious!  But... so is everything else!
The service is good and the food is tremendous.