Melissa H.'s Profile

I really like this bake shop. They have friendly and helpful staff, adorable gifts, and free coffee. Their cupcakes are so cute and pretty tasty.

My only problems with them are that they don't have many cupcakes to choose from and, though they have a daily special cupcake, it's usually something that's on rotation and I've seen it before.

I've tried the seasonal lemon, caramel, chocolate mocha, and vanilla cupcakes; all were fantastic. Their cake is moist and flavorful. Their Italian buttercream icing (on the chocolate mocha and vanilla cupcakes) is superb! It's very thick and has a nice texture. Their American icing is also delicious and well done, but a lot like the icing I make at home.

I'm really looking forward to ordering a cake from them soon.

When I visit my parents at their house in Sarasota, we always have a hard time finding good restaurants that aren't chains. Well, Urban Flats is a chain... but this one, at least, doesn't feel like it.

The lunch menu is has a lot going on, with Starters, Urban Entrees, Flats, Salads, and "Flatwiches, Wraps, & More." Whew! What's a Flat? A pizza. What's a Flatwich? It's like a pizza burrito. It's a ton of stuff to read and figure out in a short period of time.

There for lunch, my parents ordered half a flatwich and a soup/salad each, a la Panera Bread's "You Pick Two." Not interested in spending 10 minutes reading the menu, my eyes caught on Urban Chicken Parm, and I thought "I know what that is!" My parents loved their meals, but I was bored. Seriously, why is it so hard to make a readable menu? The less choice the better.

Nevertheless, it's a charming and modern space. The booth was nice, and the service was good. My parents really like the place. Maybe next time I'll let my mom decide what I get.

They made the croissants even better!

They may be smaller, but they're crispier and more buttery. +1!

I love it there.

If you sit at the sushi bar, there is no menu and you cannot order hot food. Each person must order at least 4 pieces of sushi/sashimi.

A party of 2 gets seated quickly pretty much all the time if you're willing to sit at the sushi bar. We also came here with a party of 4 and had to wait 10 minutes. No big deal for such amazing food.

Nearly every time we order: tuna, salmon, mackerel, eel, and tamago. Every time we put one of these pieces into our mouths our eyes roll into the back of our head and we squeal with pleasure. So good.

Driving down Sunset Blvd, we would have been completely lost trying to find this place without the GPS. The Andaz is easy to drive past, and RH is hidden away, too. Maybe they're trying to make the hotel and the restaurant like a secret hideaway, but it seems a little too secret to me. Even Alinea was easier to find than RH.

With 6:30 reservations, we were seated in an empty restaurant. It was a little bizarre and really awkward. I didn't know what to think: if it's such a great place, why isn't anyone here?

We were sat at a table facing the kitchen, a table with a couch and pillows. Awkward. What are you supposed to do with those pillows? Sleep in the restaurant?

Anyway, we ordered a mushroom tart to start, despite all the foie gras appetizers. It was great, but not really a tart. The flavors and textures were really nice, with several different kinds of mushrooms and some baby greens on top. The "tart" seemed like it was just phyllo dough, and the mushrooms were cooked separately.

For the main course, I ordered wild salmon. I wasn't feeling particularly daring, but... The salmon tasted awfully fishy. I make and eat salmon all the time; it shouldn't taste like that.

Luckily, Joe ordered something yummy: beef cheek with carrots and button mushrooms. Oh dear... It was falling apart, and when he gave me a bite, it melted in my mouth. What a contrast to the salmon.

For dessert I had an apricot and almond tart with lavender cream. Again, it wasn't really a tart. The apricots seemed to be cooked for a while, and when I cut into them, they were so flavorful and juicy. The "tart" part was like a cake or cookie that had absorbed all the apricot juice. Mmmm... So summery and delicious. The lavender seemed like an afterthought.

Joe had a chocolate cake with Little John's English Toffee ice cream. We're a little addicted to Little John's, so it's no wonder it was so good. The chocolate cake was more like a lava cake, and they even served a little piece of the toffee with the ice cream.

So most of the food was good, but the fishy salmon made me a little turned off. The decor is really nice and clean, a lot of potential. But an empty restaurant and a lot of staff make for a lot of super awkward moments. The service was a little too attentive, and they didn't seem to be very good at communicating with each other. ("Have you been given dessert menus yet?" asked one server that had never visited our table before. With a coffee already in front of me, we explained that we already ordered dessert. Shouldn't that be a clue?)

Another awkward thing that kept happening was that we were given new silverware after every course. For a place that's supposed to be fairly casual, is it necessary? And if you're going to do that, shouldn't you be consistent with the placement of the silverware?

Nothing was bad, really, but all the little awkward things added up. And to have fishy salmon...

I don't think I'll be back for a while.

Ren P. is right about Rustic Village. It's a little sprawling, and not very pleasing to the eye. They try, though. Maybe a little too much. When it's not snowing, there's always a lot of people about, mowing laws and planting flowers.

The building layout is not ideal. Our apartment always felt like a cave because of the windows on one side only. It was always dark in there.

The first week we moved in we were welcomed by a swarm of ants in the dining room/kitchen. It was disgusting, but the apartment complex handled it acceptably. First they sent someone to lay traps, then someone to spray, then an exterminator to spray something else.

Various other small things occurred, but they were very attentive -- for the most part.

About a week or so before we moved out, we had a leak in the ceiling of the hallway between the bedroom, bathroom, and the rest of the apartment. It was so bad that the dry-wall started sinking. The maintenance staff responded to that pretty quickly and found out our neighbor upstairs was doing laundry in her sink and making a mess, so bad that the water went through the carpet, the floor, and the ceiling.

We also always had a loud toilet. After it was flushed, it always seemed to make a lot of noise for a while before stopping. A few days after the ceiling incident, our toilet flooded the bathroom. At 2 or 3 am.

After we called the emergency maintenance number, the guy came over and looked at our toilet. He tinkered with its inner-workings before leaving to get us a mop. When he came back, we had a dirty old mop without a bucket and no fix for our toilet. Thanks, guy!

I liked living at Rustic Village overall, but that experience left a very bad taste in my mouth.

The reputation far exceeds the reality of this place. Yes, it's old, and yes, famous people have stayed here. That's about it.

The rooms are NOT luxurious in any way. The cleaning people didn't even do a very good job. Our tub was always clogged and gross. And the elevators? Horrendous. You'd think with that many people staying at the hotel, they'd have fast moving elevators. No way.

The best thing about the Chicago Hilton is the guy who'll call a taxi for you and open the door. That was the highlight of my stay at this hotel.

Yummy! Yummy!

What to expect from this place: really really tasty Mexican food, nothing else. Tables aren't always clean, service is sometimes lacking, and the atmosphere leaves much to be desired...

That said, holy cow. So delicious.

I've had enchiladas, chimichangas, chile relleno, chicken and steak tacos, steak mulitas, sauteed salmon tacos... All of it was mouth watering. I could totally eat their chicken tacos every day; they're THAT good.

It's been a little over a month since our reservation and my first attempt to write a review for Chez Panisse. It's hard to explain how great it was, but I'll try:

When we arrived for our reservation at Chez Panisse the day before my birthday, I was struck by how relaxed it was. I knew I was in Berkeley and that they didn't even have a dress code, but I also knew how serious they took food. However, I didn't feel like I was in a food museum or a house of worship like I did in other fine dining establishments (e.g., Per Se). The staff and the way the building is set up made me feel like I was invited to a friend's home for dinner.

We arrived early, and when we first walked through the door, we were hit with the smell of delicious food cooking in the first floor kitchen. What an appetizer.

As the second party sat for dinner, our table was located as far as possible from the kitchen. First, we were given a small plate of warm almonds that were drizzled with oil and sprinkled with salt and thyme. Yum.

I found myself straining my neck to see what was going on in the kitchen. Our server encouraged us to not be shy and to get up from our table to see what was happening. We followed our noses to the edge of the dining room where we saw pork roasting over an open flame, the smell of which was heavenly.

We eventually made it back to our table, where one of our servers brought over a basket of delicious bread. We tried not to eat too much of it, but it was difficult. Acme Bakery makes _the best bread_, and we were helpless to fight the urge to eat it.

That night, the menu consisted of:

Chino Ranch melon carpaccio with mint and basil

Monterey Bay calamari with garlic, hot pepper, and linguine

Spit-roasted Magruder Ranch pork loin with fresh shell beans, porcini mushrooms, and polenta

Santa Rosa plum and raspberry sherbet coupe with cava gelée

After eating the calamari and linguine dish, I got up again and went to the kitchen. When I walked up to the edge of the room again, the head chef called out to me: "Why don't you give yourself a tour of the kitchen?" "Sure!" I said! Score!

The kitchen seems to be set up to be explored. The room is long and narrow, with counters down the middle. The chefs cook at their stations, mostly facing the pathway. It was really easy to meet their eyes and talk with them about the dishes they were making, how they did it, and why. I was surprised that it seemed like I was the only one in the full dinner service that seemed interested in the kitchen.

When they served the pork loin et al, I was a little disappointed with the small portion size of the polenta. It was deliciously creamy and tasty with sweet corn throughout. When our server came by to check on us, I asked if it would be possible to get a little more of the polenta. "I'm not sure, but I'll see what I can do!" she said.

A few minutes later, she brought over a bowl of polenta, shell beans, porcini mushrooms, and RIBS FROM THE PORK LOIN. Oh God.

I thanked her profusely and happily split it with my sweetie. A-maz-ing. What other words could describe that experience?

When we were getting ready to leave after dessert, we decided to go thank everyone in the kitchen for such an amazing experience. We felt so close to them, the chefs seemed so approachable, that it only seemed right.

Chez Panisse is not like other fancy restaurants I've been to. It doesn't matter what you're wearing or what fork you're supposed to use. All that matters is that you enjoy the food and you enjoy yourself. It was a success!