ric "jiggins" h.'s Profile

There are few reviews I would give a 5 star rating. Ferraro's deserves that in my opinion .. it is a great, comfortable, authentic style Italian restaurant. Family owned and operated.. it is really one of my most favorite dining experiences of all time. Many people have reviewed the service and style of the restaurant. Ferraro's makes no promises about being the finest dining you have ever had.. but they do offer fresh, quality, home-made food and an ambiance that is really authentic and very, very easy to enjoy.

They have live music and a great staff to make you feel welcome. The tiramisu is some of the best, if not the best that I have personally had.

I consider myself a bit f a "foodie" being in the industry.. and I can tell you that every time I go to Ferraro's.. i feel like I'm going to someone's home to enjoy a quality meal. It is really a great place to enjoy the company of your favorite people over great food. Check it out.

I'll Tell you what.. I was instantly in love with this store when i saw it from the Hugo Boss Store across the way.. haha.. cuz i can't be spending my money on Hugo Boss when i can get a couple of shirts for about $100... like i did at this Cafe Cotton.

Sure it's pricey, but up to this point I have been a huge fan of the quality and style of the cuts. I purchased 2 shirts recently, and have been very happy with the feel of the shirt, the way the cotton breathes, and also.. i got a 2 for 1 during a Summer sale. So I couldn't resist. The place was literally daring me to come in, with that 2 for 1 sign in the window.. and I did.and I did. I love this stuff!

I'll be visiting them again.

"Yay! I'm a fan".. or so means the 4 star rating.

I had a great experience at Lola's I looked it up on YELP while I was down in Hollywood and the reviews mainly led me to want to check it out for myself. I am pretty happy I did.

Had a great experience.. great food.. and good service. I was instantly happy with the smaller size of the place, cozy.. some would say. The comfortable dining room with about 5 tables, a casual dining area with LCD's and even a Billiards table. The bill was less than $100 for both of us and we didn't hold back. I dig it and will be returning to LOLA's!

To quote another reviewer.. "Not amazing, not bad. "

Here is the thing, I would rather rate this between 2 and 3 stars.. 2 1/2.. not fully 3, and here is why.

I was literally walking by with a buddy around 830 pm on a Monday night.. almost unaware that the restaurant was there, because it is upstairs from the street. We checked  the menu, the prices were ok, The food seemed to be "American Style" Fusion.. So we figured why not?

We head in, the little hostess was a bit cold to talk to.. she sent us straight upstairs to wait at the bar which was meant to be bout a 10 minutes wait. The bartender looked at us and stayed at the other end of the bar.. 3 employees stood in front of us and didn't say a word, only standing behind  the bar and talking about 'back of the house issues' in front of guests. Whatever.. moving on.

The bartender comes over, takes the wine list I was looking at and says he will be with us "in a minute".. which was about 10 minutes after we originally started standing there.. 10 more minutes LITERALLY go by.  He sees me getting annoyed and asked what we want. I wanted a glass of wine, but thier selection was scarce, and I was un-impressed at this point.. so I opted to wait.

The bartender proceeds to make a rum and coke that my friend ordered.. in a tall glass with about 4 shots of rum in it. Seriously.. He was trying to make up for ignoring us.. but the drink was nearly undrinkable to a person who has a functioning liver. My friend got a coke on the side.

So now we have been waiting or over 20 minutes.. we sit down, another 5 minutes go by.. a hostess comes over and asks if we are ready to be seated.. and before we can really answer "yes" .. she walks away. Hmm.. so we follow her to a table where she is standing, looking annoyed - waiting for us.

I should mention that the place was pretty full for a Monday night at 9 p.m... so I understood that there was some delay on seating us.. but the service was just bad.. even 'mean'.. haha.

So we get to order finally...and the waitress AMY was pretty cool. She was busy, and we didn't see her often between our drinks and food.. but she served us with a smile and some personality... and that really goes a long way.  

We had ordered the 2 crab cakes which were good enough, served with a spicy mayo of some sort.. they did take nearly 25 minutes to get to the tables.. and then dinner came about 5 minutes after. .. but I digress..

For our main courses.. We opted for the Crab Mac and Cheese.. and Ribs, and The scallops.. with a side of cheese polenta that was meant to come with the Niman Ranch Pork Chop that they were out of. Good stuff, The Food was good! No real culinary accomplishment here, but it was very edible, comfort food and nice and hearty. We did not finish our meals hungry.

I ordered a cappuccino that was cold, and we shared the  s'mores dessert.. it was ok.  the price was about $118 for both of us with nearly three courses and a coffee and 2 cocktails.. but the service was so bad.. until we got to Amy. Everyone has "off" nights.. so you never know -  and truly the food was good. So maybe an update after another visit is in order.

The Restaurant "Fix" is the kind of restaurant that is designed to perpetuate 'the scene'.. Attractive staff, loud music playing and an open front that faces the casino, right next to the nightclub. It is actually run by The LIGHT Group. They run The Bank Nightclub,Jet Nightclub, Yellowtail Sushi, and a few other night-life spots and restaurants around Las Vegas. It is trendy and LOUD.. with scantily clad female servers and bartenders.. and is normally not the kind of place that I would go for a good meal , but we were there to have a night out on the town so it was perfect. The food was good, the service was good and it really wasn't as expensive as you would expect. I mean.. it was about $80 per person when all was said and done, but that was with 4 cocktails, an appetizer of Lobster Tacos, two entrees and two side items. Not 'everyday' kind of spending.. but i t was quality and I liked it. I had the Kurobuta Porkchop for my dinner, and my friend had the Scallops... good quality on both.

I would go there again for sure.. provided that it was a party-kind-of night.. not for a quiet meal. Good stuff!

eh.

I tried it out for lunch with a friend.. nothing special. Menu is uninspired, but what do you want for a restaurant with "ranch" in the name?

The service was sub par.. it was a bit hectic in the place, didn't seem to have any flow of any kind. just random employees. walked in and no hostess, no-one to direct us and not a single employee acknowledged us. I am not upset about it.. but i was hungry and looking to sit.. so I didn't know if I was supposed to seat myself. Then a little blond came out and asked if there was anything she could help us with.

I said, "yes.. we would like to sit and eat".. she just looked at me as if i said something wrong. I dunno what it was about. then they put us in a crowded section where the server was just overwhelmed. She as very friendly.. very friendly.. and inquired about 4 times as to what we were doing later. So we told her, but she seemed uninterested. So maybe I just read the whole place wrong.

Our food took about 20 minutes and the appetizer of chicken fingers never showed. We just canceled them cuz the mains were there. The manager decided to bring them anyway and said they would just go to waste. It was a nice gesture.. but you could tell they had been forgotten in the window.. cuz they were just less than warm. Oh well, I ate 3 of them anyway. I had ordered only a Iceberg wedge salad because I wasn't into anything else and the chicken fingers and the salad were going to be the meal for me.

I would go again for a drink and some snacks. Nothing to rush back for. The place looks cool and it would be fun to watch some drunk patrons ride the mechanical bull. Maybe even get up there myself...probably not though.

This is by no means the first time I have been to Firefly. It has been a place I go now and then over the years for a late night bite to eat or a social gathering or two. Sometimes it's loud and there are tons of people.. but the food usually quality and if you can get a table you are golden.

I went again the other night and it seems they have done away with alot of the clutter, added more dining areas and used the once "Dragonfly" Sushi next door ( a short-lived endeavor) and turned it into a disco ball having lounge of sorts. ( I haven't ventured in there yet) So the dining room is free for just that. The food is always good, inexpensive and easy to get to.

Between my friend and I, we shared a pitcher of red sangria, 4 tapas and dessert.. the bill was about 60 bucks. Not bad for an hour and a half of dining for two peeps. Check it out. Its a fun spot!

What's not to love?

The food is classic American-Style Italian.. great little guy running around playing his music on an accordion..and most of the staff has been there a very long time.. 20-40 years in some cases. it is very inexpensive, filling, and always a good time. Please check it out and ask fr Luigi! He will take care of you and has been there almost as long as the restaurant itself!

This is one of the better food experiences I HAVE EVER HAD. Seriously. The food was great. It was quality, quality, quality. That was a very nice surprise, as I had no idea what the food or atmosphere was like at all, and decided to go based solely on the descriptions from the menu.

We walked in and were right away re-directed to the downstairs cafe part of the restaurant. I am told it is the more 'lively' and 'casual' section, but as I noticed upstairs seemed to be extremely bare, I was happy to end up down there. There were 2 of us, and the hostess really tried to seat us at this very small table, literally in an aisle.. which I wasn't going to be ok with, so we got another extremely small table for 2 that was at least in the main part of the dining room.

The server didn't show up for some time, which was strange, we arrived at 7 p.m. and at that point the place was pretty much empty. The bus-boy arrived about 10 minutes after we sat to pour water. I only mention that because they are known to be great for service, according to them - and the 4 diamond rating they mention on the website.

When you sit down, you essentially get 3 different menus, or we did.. one was a cheese card, another was the menu for the Tavern (where we were seated ) and then a more fine dining menu.

The server, Jared, "like the jeweler" according to him.. stopped by to get our drink order, and we decided to place a cheese order as well. Why not? The cheese showed up right away and the bread as well, which was really great.. the server showed up about 5 minutes after that with the drinks we ordered.

We ordered the "Colorado Bison Striploin Carpaccio" - described as - "butternut squash phyllo cigar, fingerling potatoes, romaine, grilled red onion, fried quail egg, red cabbage slaw, horseradish vinaigrette" ($14.95) Which was like WOW.. bad-ass and awesome. My friend had never had any kind of carpaccio before and she loved it. I was really impressed with the flavors and the presentation.. really really great starter plate.

Then we had our entrees which consisted  of  the "Empire Seafood Paella"- described as - "steamed mussels & scallops, seasonal fish, saffron rice, chicken, sausage, shrimp, fish fumét & herbs.." ($24.95.) .. and the "Grilled Berkshire Farm Pork Rib Chop" - described as -  "creamy citrus barley, roasted cauliflower, spaghetti squash, asparagus tips, Oregon mushrooms, Newcastle brown ale reduction ($26.95)

Listen.. the Paella was great. Great flavor and great in portion.. I mean it seems to be a simple thing, but good Paella is a rare thing in my book. Sometimes it is so-so or just boring and bland. This was not. It was very good.

The Pork Rib-Chop.. was also fantastic. The flavor was excellent with the Newcastle reduction, which is what initially drew my eye to the dish, and the temperature was perfect. They did not ask for a temperature for the meat, but it seemed to be served just above medium and was very tender and flavorful.

We continued our meal, ordered a couple of glasses of the rioja on the by the glass list. It was a bit hot and higher in alcohol that I like in my rioja, but that is sometimes the case and it was my choice and was nice enough.

So about the service.  The server was nice enough, and he was attentive when he was there. The problem was, the food seemed to be dropped off in a random fashion. To start, the cheese plate and carpaccio were on the table for quite awhile, as we were really enjoying them so it was no problem..  then suddenly the entrees showed up. We hadn't seen Jared (the server) for some time at that point, as the room was filling up with guests fast. The food-runner attempted to drop off the entrees but couldn't because we were still eating. She then placed the food on the next empty table and stacked our dirty plates on our table and placed THEM on the empty table next to our food, then placed our food down on our table and took off to get silver for us to eat  with.

As I have already mentioned the food was excellent, I just expected more from the delivery.  I would love to give the place 5 stars, but for a Triple 'A' and 4 Diamond award winning establishment... you expect more.

I will definitely go back should I ever go to Raleigh again. The room was cool and the food was really great. Check it out if you get a chance. You will enjoy the food and the atmosphere a lot! Highly recommended!

I'd say that if you are into checking something new out.. this could be worth it... then again, I am a big fan of 'rustic-style' Mexican food..and those that try too hard to over achieve something that is already great - can fall far. I'll tell you how it went for me and my dinner companion.

Drinks - Hers: Classic Mojito, fresh squeezed lime, muddled. It was made nearby so we saw the drink being made..Nice touch.  Very good and tasty.

Mine: Caprihina. I have never had one t hat was flavored before.. Traditionally I believed it was meant to be muddled lime, sugar a bit of soda and cachaca.. a sugar cane alcohol. This one had white peach muddled into it.. Good drink, just unexpected.

We had the home-made guacamole, and a couple of drinks to start. It was god, arrived nearly 20 minutes after we ordered it, according to the server - as a result of being made fresh. I appreciate that.. but 6 oz of guac shouldn't take that long. We were, however, brought an amuse bouche of sorts. While I think it was a nice touch.. i don't think it was necessary. They were essentially one-biters of corn-tortilla chicken enchiladas.

We had asked the server about a few things on the menu, she went immediate for the $25 entrees (the highest price on the menu,) and actually mentioned that you could get Tacos anywhere, when my friend mentioned that she may have the chicken tacos.

I thought about having the 'young-goat' entree to try something different.. but decided to go against it. Just seemed too .. 'veal-like' and I didn't want to go there.

I had: Buey Gratinado con Salsa Cascabel ($25) It was described as Grilled Premium Angus baseball sirloin topped with melted Chihuahua cheese served with a tomatillo-cascabel chiles sauce and duck fat friesI

I ended up with what was essentially a fillet Mignon covered in a melted cheese blend, served with steak fries that were not all that flavorful. She talked up the dish as if I was going to be wetting my pants with excitement from the flavor after one bite.. not so much.

My friend had the 'chicken tacos' .. that I was told, were only so - so.. when the server placed the food down, she again mentioned that mine would be better than the chicken, with a mention of how "you will be jealous of this dish".. speaking of the "Gratinado".

We skipped dessert, didn't even look .. as we were pretty full off of two rounds of drinks, guac and dinner. Nothing to write home about or even check out for another visit.. unless we sat at the bar only and had the guacamole and cocktails specifically.

I should mention that it was difficult to find, and even the TOM TOM Navigational was yelling at us that we passed it. It is behind another bar that sits on the street, and Jibarra is on the side of the building behind it. Directly I'd say check it out for lunch, and if you like it.. try dinner.