Caitlin "The Investigator" B.'s Profile

I have been thinking about getting a tattoo removed for a couple of years and decided to take the plunge last month.  Yes, it hurts like a m-er-f-er.  They do their best to minimize the pain with a numbing cream and a wand that blows cold air over your tat while they blast it with lasers.   Even a big baby like myself is confident I will make it through at least a 6 month series of once a month appointments.  You probably won't see results right away, but as the weeks go on the pigment starts to fade.

A year ago I decided to grow out my pixie into a bob for the zillionth time.  The only reason I was finally successful in doing so was because of Ian.  His philosophy about growing out your hair is that it should always look finished, as if you wanted it to look like that.  He is very honest about what would be the most flattering.  I get tons of compliments on my hair now.  Thanks, Ian!

I am soooo picky about my eyebrows.  After several botched waxes at other establishments, I decided to let Brenda have a go.  Amazing.  Brenda trained with Anastasia, brow waxer of the stars.  She never goes too thin, but gives a beautiful arch.   If you want to make an afternoon of it, schedule a facial as well.  Without being pushy, she can give some great recommendations on skin care.  Thanks, Brenda!

If you're looking for a new kilt and leather bustier from The Crypt, swing by Cafe on Park for some scrumptious eats!  I ordered the Savory Pancake with cornmeal batter, cheese, onion, and jalapeno.  Everything is baked in and it is delicious!  I love savory crepes, but have never tried a savory pancake.  

I ordered the Pancake Combo for around $10 and it came with bacon and two eggs.  The bacon is thick cut and next time I will ask for it extra crispy.  It was cooked for a normal person, but I like bacon that is slightly burnt.  Kathrina M. told me about a place she saw on TV that serves baskets of bacon when you order a beer.  A beer would have gone nicely with my meal, but wanted to stay classy.  Oh what the hell, there's nothing classier than having a beer with your pancakes!

This is the best place to get your nails done in San Diego.  Period.  I've been to many of the nail salons reviewed here on yelp and this one takes the cake!  Megan gave me the "Essentials Manicure" for $20 and it is flawless.  Usually when I get home I have some touch ups to do, but I didn't have to do any.  I'll be back next week for a pedicure.

I wish this place was closer, but it's worth the trek.  I had the baked potato and vegetable kebabs.  The baked potato was rubbed with spice and roughly the size of my head.  I took half of it home and it was just as good the next day!  

Everyone is right about the grill being much hotter than Turf Club.  Good thing I like burnt bread!  Our friends clued us in to an off the menu item- tater tots!!  We shared a basket of half onion rings, half tots and they were scrumptious.  Dessert was the 'smores thing which had a layer of chocolate mousse that was waaaay to sweet for me, but my husband loved it.

We went on a Friday night and it was very crowded.  I recommend reservations.

The food here was delish, but I knocked off two stars for the poor service.

We ordered our food and drinks.  I said I wanted the Keeps Pleasure
(Skyy vodka, tangerine, bing cherry, mint) to start and a glass of Sauv. Blanc with my dinner.  Well, our waitress (glasses, dark pony tails) didn't bring our cocktails out for 15 minutes and even then it was because I reminded her. The cocktail was super tasty, but should have been served earlier.

We had our salads (I had the green salad with shaved veggies which was awesome) and when dinner came along I had to remind her about my glass of wine.  She couldn't find where she wrote it down so I had to tell her again.  The Crispy Skin Half Jidori Chicken had the most amazingly crisp skin on the outside and was nice and juicy on the inside.  It came with two shittake mushroom dumplings and some baby bok choy.  The bok choy was cooked perfectly and the dumplings were light and flavorful.  

We shared the banana split and the cranberry bread pudding with
buttermilk gelato and toasted pumpkin seeds for dessert.  The banana split was okay, but the bread pudding was yumtastic!  

Maybe our waitress was having an off day, because other people came to bring us stuff throughout the rest of the meal.  The food is top notch, but the service needs to improve.

First of all, this place is so freaking cute that I asked the restaurant owner who the decorator was.  He said he did it himself by trial and error.  This guy should have a side business as a design consultant.  It is ornate without being gaudy.  Exposed pipes combined with traditional Moroccan rugs lend a unique twist to what you would usually expect from a restaurant name Kous Kous.  

We started off with the Zatouk, an eggplant spread served with pita bread.  I don't know what they put in their pita bread, but it is so soft it melts in your mouth.  My husband has a love/hate relationship with eggplant and he thought it was amazing.  I could have eaten a whole bowl of that alone.  I had the Veggie Berber Tagine, which was described as stewed vegetables in a paprika/tomato sauce.  The vegetables were not overcooked and the sauce was richly spiced.  Veggies included carrots, potatoes, green beans, and maybe something else.  It came with a side of whole wheat couscous which was flavored with cinnamon and raisins.  My husband had the lamb sausage served with mashed potatoes and peas.  The mashed potatoes were some of the best I've ever tasted.  They were mixed with garlic and ginger, while the peas were covered with some sort of a paprika-ish sauce.  

This place gets bonus points because the owner recognized us from the only other time we've been there, which was a few months ago.  The guy has a photographic memory.

My bathtub faucet had a leak that came out of nowhere, so I turned to my trusty consumer advisor...yelp.  Rick Moore had good reviews so I called him on Saturday night.  I told him it wasn't an emergency, but the sooner he could come the better.  He said he would be there at 12:00 pm the next day.  Sunday.  

I left the Farmer's Market early so I could be there at 11:45 am.  12:38 rolled around and still no Rick!  I left a message and he called back 15 minutes later.  He said the water heater he was fixing took longer than expected. He then asked me a couple questions about my faucet and concluded that he would need a special part for it.  I'm not sure why he didn't ask me about my faucet on Saturday night, but whatevs.  I was still a little t.o.'d that I came home from the Market early for nothing and he didn't call.

He said the earliest he could be here was 8:00 am on Monday.  I happened to have the day off and said that would be fine.  He arrived at 8:30 and got the job done within 30 minutes.  

His partner kind of reminded me of Nick Burns, the computer guy from SNL because he would ask me questions and then guffaw in a patronizing way when I didn't answer immediately.  

Rick did a great job and was very reasonable.  The reason I didn't give him 5 stars was because he was late for the original appointment, didn't call, and it had to be rescheduled for Monday.

Last night the husband and I wanted to venture out of Hillcrest and into the wilds of University Heights.  I lived there when all they had was Twiggs and El Zarape.  There are approximately one gazillion new restaurants that have cropped up since my departure.  As I strolled the pages of yelp for a new place to try I came across a review for Jayne's Gastropub.  

Thank God.

I started off with a glass of Sangiovese/Cab and a cesar salad.  The cesar salad features whole romaine leaves lightly dressed with heaps of parmesan.  It tasted as good as it looked.  This place has THE best burger in town!!  Served on a heavily sesame seeded bun with the most amazing onion/garlic relish and a thick slab of vermont cheddar cheese.  The burger is of ample stature, and I finished all but two bites...I was saving room for dessert.  I ordered the brownie with vanilla gelato.  A-ma-zing.  I've never had a brownie that was tender, flaky, and moist all at once.  The gelato was super creamy and heavy on the vanilly flavor.

We made reservations and glad we did because there were a ton of people inside.

I don't care how popular Pinkberry is...I will always be true to Yog-art.  So far I have sampled, and loved, tart mango, strawberry, taro, vanilla, honeydew, chocolate, dulce de leche, butter pecan, peanut butter....and probably some others I forgot to mention.  The fruit toppings are super fresh and the service is sublime.

In the evenings, you can even watch cheesy 80's music videos projected onto the front wall.  If you are over the 80's music scene, but still have a penchant for childhood games you're in luck!  They have a host of toys to play with in their cupboards including Connect 4 and...well...that's the only one I know of because that's what I play every time I go.