Stacy "[Add nickname]" J.'s Profile

The number one absolute best thing they do here is grilled meat.

The best dishes have the whimsical, non-descriptive names. Crying Tigers (grilled steak). King & I (chicken and prawns on sticks). And also the BBQ chicken. Et cetera.

Remember: MEAT. Preferably on sticks. But definitely grilled.

For the "expensive FiDi sandwich" genre, a genre I haven't come to terms with, it's pretty good. I like it better than the Sentinel.

Also, eye candy: the guys behind the register are routinely rosy cheek'd and with tousled hair.

Three reasons I love Danae:

1) Her name. She's got two vowels right next to each other! Crazy!

2) She's probably the first hair stylist I ever had a conversation with instead of grumpily staring at the mirror, or reading a magazine. She seems really mellow and quiet, but then she's all, "Oh, I went to India for a month with $5 in my pocket. The camel carnival was disappointing."

This is much better conversation than the time I went to Supercuts and the stylist told me about how she doesn't like the sound of ambulance sirens because they remind her of her dead husband.

3) At some point, I had that short bob with long bangs that everyone had last year, and it started to grow out and look funky. I let Danae know that I wanted to grow out my hair past my shoulders, and to re-shape it so it wouldn't look funky as it grew out. Folks, that was at least a year ago and my hair still don't look funky; it's layered and dynamic like I got it trimmed more recently.

UHHMAZING.

Bonus reason: I like that she doesn't wash your hair beforehand because I have thick, wavy hair that's different on either side of my head and other stylists blow dry it stick straight before cutting. Meanwhile, I'm thinking the whole time, "My hair will not look anything like this tomorrow when I towel dry it and run out of the gym."

Danae works with the hair you got, not the hair that's most convenient for her. It's beautiful and zen, man.

In short: phenomenal stylist, and you could not possibly beat the price.

Lordy, you whisper "authentic," and the foodies come flocking...

I wished I waited and did some research before visiting here for the first time because I thought I had an expansive palette, but was proven wrong. I mean, I really really thought so. I've had natto. I'm Chinese, fer gosh sake, we eat every part of the animal cooked in parts of other animals and we laugh at the white people who purse their lips at organs and offal on the secret menus.

But, two of the dishes I had here (cold dishes) are the most foul things that have passed my tongue. Were they authentic? I don't have a doubt. But, did they please me? Hell to the No. I won't say what they are because a) I'm sure to people accustomed to such flavors, they were totally awesome, and I don't want to unfairly bias people against them; and b) to hide shamefully my ignorance of authentic Japanese cuisine.

Having said that, the three or four dishes we did like (grilled, fried, soupy) were TREMENDOUS. And all dishes, tremendous and foul, were gorgeous visual creations of color, curves and composition.

The service was also gracious and generous, which is important when you're stepping into a restaurant and are not quite sure what you're doing with this gigantic menu.

I have no doubt that if we stuck to famiilar territories, we would've had a five star experience, but we flew too high on wings of pastrami, and got scorched by the cold flavors of the unfamiliar.

Totally tasty and acceptable Korean food for $7. They got a bling-y new sign out front that looks like they got their daughter or son to whip it up in Illustrator.

What I like about this place is that I can get my fix for cheap, fast Asian food, but it's not the grease bomb of Lee's Deli or the overload of Sorabol at the mall.

I'm sure this place has other food, but we only had BBQ take out. 1/2 rack of ribs, salad with bacon bits, Texas toast and a baked potato for $15! There's also just a little bit of BBQ sauce because the meat actual has smoke flavor to it.

You can cut corners with baked potatoes and no one would complain But, even the baked potato was good: moist and tender.

This is a tiny steakhouse across the street from Hamley's and it's the better deal, says the Pendleton relations. I can't argue with the deal. I had a 10 oz prime rib, baked potato, green beans cooked with bacon, salad and bread for under $30. Cheesecake was good, too. Hubby had the marinated chicken breasts with all the sides and the caramel apple pie.

Service was very friendly and their wine list had some local vineyards. Definitely one of the better restaurants in town.

Great option in Pendleton if you want to eat something that isn't deep-fried. I had a chicken breast on a wheat roll with a side salad. Hubby had pancakes the size of dinner plates and a real ham steak. Our niece liked the kids french toast and the kid size sodas come in teeny plastic cups with lids and a straw.

Party of 5 plus one kid came in around $55.

GASP! I had no idea this bookstore was so large! I had been discouraged from ever visiting this store because it seemed so tiny from the sidewalk. Like, maybe it had some token NYT Bestsellers and the foremost collection of Pre-Columbian sculpture pop-up books or some other obscurities I have no interest in.

To the contrary, Alexander Book Co. has a broad collection of general interest books on three floors. A suitable replacement to Stacey's for FiDi lunch hour book browsing.

The quality of the sushi rice is awful, but when I need to feed my hungry maw in 15 minutes and hop on Muni, this is perfect.

I ordered the tofu udon for the first time today, and the texture of the udon was surprisingly good: slippery and chewy. But, it came with two pieces of tofu skin, one solitary piece of fish cake, and a sprinkle of green onion. The broth was bland to boot. I guess I can't expect much more for $5.