Darren M.'s Profile

Been coming for a while, but just signed up for the Master's Swim Class and love it! The swim coach, Mike, has a good balance of knowing each person and training/pushing them to excel. The Master's group itself is a great group of people, very friendly, and encouraging to newcomers like me! If you want to brush up on swimming skills or train for a triathlon, you'll fit in just fine!

Been here a couple times before shows at The Fox Theater. Decor is nice, staff is friendly, but be prepared for poor food and light pours on the drinks. $7 beers, $8 well drinks and $10 pulled pork sando which is so-so pork slapped onto a cold Costco hamburger bun. Nachos are $8 and you get a very small plate with so-so ingredients. Come on guys even the ball park is better, but to add insult to injury, most music venues offer way better food for the same price.

What great words can I say about Ramen Dojo that haven't already been said. We had Spicy Soy and Spicy Pork Ramen Bowls - INCREDIBLE. The broth is so complex and tasty - full of flavor! If you like ramen - this place is probably the best on the peninsula.

Be prepared:
- the wait can be 45 minutes to 1 hour
- $8.95 min per person (glad I didn't bring the kids)
- this is a tight spot, get in/get out type of place (not romantic)

This is a tough review for me. I LOVE Chinese food. I have eaten at many, both hole in the wall and high end Chinese restaurants. Our whole family went for dinner last night and we all really wanted to love this place. Overall, atmosphere is poor, service is great, food is so-so.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Friendliness / Service - 4.5 stars
There was an older woman and man running the restaurant. They were both all smiles and a delight. Fast, friendly, attentive service. She even offered to bring ice cubes for the soup for our children.

Decor / Atmosphere - 2 stars
It looks like they are trying to upgrade a little bit with some dark wood trim and more modern lights. The problem is the pink paint and and 1950's lino tables. I wouldn't mind if this was a tiny little joint tucked in between stores in Chinatown and every dish was $5-$6. But for a large space, downtown, they really need up their game a bit. Especially since dinner entrees start at $8.95. The place was empty at 6:00pm.

Food - 3 stars
I give the food 3 stars because I'd probably eat their lunch special regularly if I worked downtown. The food is just OK, not great. The pink hot n sour soup really threw me for a loop. I have never been served pink hot n sour. We had beef chow mein which would have been exceptional - tender beef - fresh bok choi  and lots of it - but the noodles were lukewarm at best, some already cold. Garlic Chicken was great! Good flavors. Rice was also good. Portions were good considering the price.

I would say with a little extra effort, this place could easily rival Su Hung in Menlo Park. Touch up the decor, the outdated furniture and add a little more finesse to the food and you'd have a real winner.

This is a favorite of some of my colleagues, but I just don't get it. Over priced burgers, fixings that aren't fresh. Whoever said these guys are using local organic beef is kidding themselves. The meat is average at best, the lettuce not crisp and the tomatoes pale. The upside is you get a BIG burger, and they have great shakes and curly fries.

I wanted to give two stars for the simple fact that I used to be able to get an angus certified burger and fries at the Hilltop for $10 and it was AWESOME. Now I'm at Phyllis' and paying $11 (including curly fries) and the quality pales in comparison. However, I went 3 stars because most of my friends like this place.

Definitely not the best burger in Novato - not by a longshot - and not even for the price.

If you want a deal though, get the chili-cheese curly fries. For $4 its the best deal on the menu!

Oh yeah $2.50 for a kids sized soft serve cone! Gimme a break. Soft serve costs pennies to make, if you want to build a regular customer base, sell your kids cones for $1 like McDonald's and the adult cones for $2, they'll come for ice cream and order curly and burgers too!

I've been to Cacti many times over the years. My most recent trip however, was a two star experience for the food and price. I remember when they first opened and were serving a neuvo style mexican menu. It was a bit pricey for my pocketbook at the time but it was great food.

Fast forward to today when I went with some business associates from out of town for lunch. They have a little bit of everything on the menu now, most of which looks good. The wait staff was friendly and seated us promptly. Good attention paid to getting our drinks and keeping them filled. Food came out fairly quickly, but my compliments end there.

My biggest problem - the food was just "ok" and I've eaten better food at a lot of restaurants for less $$$. We had 8 people so I got to hear feedback on quite a few dishes. Without prompting, everyone said their food was just "ok." Most of the dishes looked like something they would slap together at Denny's and run you about $7-$9, but when you're paying $12 - $15 it better look nice and taste good.

Its just a shame. The building is an authentic old catholic church and the place should be a rockin restaurant with a great atmosphere. Instead its got the feel of a cheap Mexican restaurant with holiday tchotchke hanging all over the place. Don't get me wrong, if we had been eating $5 burritos and $7 fajitas, I'm sold! But we weren't.

Sorry Cacti - two stars this time. There are so many better places to eat in old town Novato with better prices.

I started coming to Peninsula Covenant Church several months ago when I moved to Redwood City. PCC is a pretty large church. I would guess there are about 800-1000 people that attend on Sundays. They have 3 different worship services depending on your worship style or preference. I prefer either their contemporary service or their Sunday evening service because of the more modern music and worship band.

The main pastor is a 40 something guy who does a good job breaking down Biblical and contemporary topics. There is a good mix of scripture, examples, and he seems to be naturally funny at times. There are quite a few other pastors/leaders and they all seem to share in the Sunday process.

I realize everyone's spiritual path is a very personal thing, so how could you judge a church or experience based on a review? But here are a couple things I really like about this church:

- They are very welcoming and open to people, even if you are not a "christian." The main pastor is very clear about his beliefs, but they are always making comments to make you feel welcome if you are just checking things out.

- There is a very strong emphasis on giving back to the local community. It seems like every time I go, someone is talking about an event or opportunity to help give back to the community. A few months ago they did this thing called "Beautiful Day" to give back to local public schools. Everyone (myself included) went to a school over by the new Costco and spent all day painting, cleaning, and building new common areas. It was very cool because there were no big church signs or speakers saying "look at how cool we are because we give to the community." Everyone just came and chipped in.

- The church has a lot of different programs for people of all ages and influences. They have a big childrens program, a skate park on site, a huge community center, homeless and at-risk programs, I think they also have a church for spanish speakers.

A few things I'm not a huge fan of:
- Parking! Make sure you arrive at least 10 minutes early or you might have to park on Farm Hill Rd. and walk.

- People are friendly, but there really isn't any comfortable place to grab a cup of coffee and talk to them. They have a rolling coffee cart on the outdoor patio, but its more of a grab and go kind of thing. It seems like a lot of people go off site to a cafe or restaurant to connect.

If you are in there area and looking for a church or someplace to explore your faith, I would say definitely check this place out and see what you think.

FlyBar is the place to catch happy hour for sure, but get there early because seats go fast. Another great Divisadero spot with $3 drafts, sangria and sake, but this place it top notch. Drinks are great, food is great, and the staff is super friendly.

We went on a Wednesday night just before happy hour was over and ordered nachos and beer. We arrived to a full house and luckily got 2 of the last seats at the bar because a couple people had just left. Staff was super attentive and made sure we had menus and drinks asap. Served with smiles all around and several people checked in to make sure we were doing ok. A+ guys!

Our nachos seemed to take longer than normal at most places, and the chicken was buried at the bottom of the plate. At first we thought we got the wrong order because we could even see any chicken on the plate. They were tasty for sure, but I'm a fan of nachos with all the fixings mixed up so I can have some on every chip!

We had several beers on tap and were lucky enough to catch the Poppy Jasper Amber Ale, a local favorite! We also partook in the sangria - thanks Kristina - and it was excellent!

If you're on Divisadero, definitely stop by FlyBar and have a drink, it will be a memorable experience for sure.

I recently read a great article about happy hour pub crawling through Divisadero, so on a recent trip through the city, a friend and I decided to hit a few and 821 was one of them.

Bar 821 is a small, dark, but chill bar. GREAT happy hour beers on tap and friendly staff. Did I mention they have Chimay on tap!?! That's good enough for 3 stars right there! They also have Sangria and Sake, but that seems to be par for the course in NOPA these days.

There was a very interesting mix of hipster regulars, 40 somethings, and a few "just got off work and need a drink" 30 somethings. Music wasn't too loud and they were running old Popeye episodes on the tele.

Overall a good experience and would definitely hit it up for happy hour again. Depending on your scene, I imagine it gets pretty crowded as the night progresses. We were in around 6:00pm and it wasn't very crowded at all.

I'm dropping the two stars here because I ate here with my whole family and it was way overpriced for the quality. I would however give it four stars for the outside patio and beer. Buyer beware, if you wants drinks and appetizers, sit on the patio and enjoy the fire and friendly atmosphere. If you want a nice dinner with your family or significant other - skip the inside dining experience. There is simply much better food for the same price in a number of restaurants in HMB.

Now about the Brewery:
Interior decor is your below average cheese probably from around the 1980's. I'm a major lover of brew pubs, and the decor screams "stale seafood grotto" long before it gives you the brew pub vibe. Again, just like my intro - outside is way better - exactly what I expect from a seaside brewery - inside, a definite Meh!

The service was very good - waitress was on top of her game and as such we left her a great tip. Order was correct, drinks and food were timely, and she had a great personality.

Food - almost put me at a one star, but I'm trying to be reasonable. I would say the food was just average, but that's kind of what I expect for a brew pub. Most of them have average - but decent food - for a decent price. That's were this brew co lost me. The food was simply just "ok" - but NOT FOR THE PRICE! I'm not a cheap skate and willing to pay $15 for a burger if its a really good fresh burger. I don't mind paying $19-$25 for a fresh fish sampler or blackened anything. But when the food is average, the presentation terrible, the flavor bland, I expect price to adjust accordingly. Our family of four (two adults, two small kids) spent $150 on dinner and we only had two beers! I figured it's crowded it must be good, but I forgot about the huge hotel next door. It's obviously the path of least resistance.

Next time I'm in town, I will NOT be having dinner at the brew co. I will definitely sit on the patio and have a few drinks, but then I will head any one of the much nicer places within a 1 minute walking distance.

To get 3 more stars, fire your chef and get someone who knows how to make stellar pub food, and take some interior decor cues from any number of brew pubs within a 50 mile radius. The patio is a great start and if you could carry that through to the inside and match it with some great food, this would be THE place to go in HMB.