Scott T.'s Profile

I'm torn on whether I wasted my money and time here, or if it was the most refreshing night I've had in a while. I'll settle somewhere in the middle.

First, let's get the bad out of the way. You are going to be stuck in the middle of huge crowds on a weekend (or baseball night), there will be no space to sit, and you will be wedged in between a chain-smoking punk and a less than attractive girl all night.

Other reviewers have mentioned the patio (on which you're allowed to smoke) in passing - let me clear up the mystery. The bar part of the bar takes up nearly half of the inside portion of the tavern. The "patio" is the second half, and consists of what looks a damn lot like a normal bar whose roof just got hit by a hurricane. This means you will be drowning in cigarette smoke for the entire night. Make no bones about it, this is not a bar you want to be at if you don't like smoke.

That said, let's focus on the reason you came - the beer. There are somewhere around 3 million beers on tap, enough so that I was thoroughly confused by the sheer amount of names to pick through and resorted to making other people decide instead. The beer prices are fair, and lines weren't too bad even with the place busting at the seams on an Angels game night.

All this said, the one thing that saved the Goat Hill Tavern from getting a miserable 2 stars in my book was the fact that I was surrounded by real people - a rare commodity for those stuck in south orange county.

I think people's reviews of rock climbing gyms says more about the gyms they've been to previously than anything else. Given this, I have to say Rockreation is solid, but not amazing.

Things that are awesome:

- I was blown away by the quality of the features on walls. I haven't had much experience with other gyms (3 total), but the technical possibilities on these walls were wonderful. Such a refreshing relief from yet another gym of carbon-copy flat walls. Go climb a bouldering route where you don't have any feet for half the wall and tell me you can go back to having set feet again.

- For an average sized gym, they pack in a ton of good climbing. There is a decent amount of bouldering, with good variety in the type of route. There's even a crack in the corner, and a traverse section for practicing along the wall. Toss in your standard top roping and dedicated lead-climbing section and you have something for everyone.

- Staff is friendly and helpful, as you'd hope. Routes are set in interesting ways, although you should be aware that the bouldering may be graded a good deal harder than what you're used to (I dropped by 2 grades).

Not so awesome

- Not much here, except it just isn't that large. I will admit to having been spoiled by Sunnyvale Planet Granite in terms of sheer size and number of routes.

- If you're new, don't expect to be able to boulder unless you have serious athleticism. My girlfriend can climb V1 maybe even a V2 elsewhere but couldn't get up several of the "VBeginner" routes at Rockreation. Leave your ego at the door.

Overall, it is easily the best option in the area. If you want all around exercise, there is a (small) gym in the back with the basics, showers, and a free yoga class on a few weekdays.

Let me start out with the good. VDC Norte is nicely built, clean, and generally looks more like an upscale apartment complex than something you'd find at a typical college. There is a pool and hot tub, small gym and barbeques within easy range of most apartments.

Now for the downsides. VDC is easily the most distant on-campus apartment - even Stanford Court might be closer for some classes. If you have a cell phone with AT&T, expect next to zero service in most of Norte and VDC. I have two or three spots where I can somewhat reliably get calls, but older phones in particular are nearly unusable. Second, internet is a joke. The maximum speed you can get from ethernet in the rooms is slower than the _wireless_ on campus.

My largest complaint is the exorbitant price. I have a two bed, two bath grad apartment and am paying $864 as of this year (08-09). Compare this to a two bedroom apartment in Palo Verde with one bath for closer to 600 dollars. Having one fewer bathroom is well worth the improved internet and much cheaper price of PV.

Don't live in VDCN if you care about price, location, internet or AT&T coverage. I can't get out of this lease fast enough.

The food was decent (red curry). The service was slow. The price was painful.

Save your time, sanity and cash and just go to Mix Bowl for equivalent food at half the price.

I have to admit, I was a little unsure when a friend recommended Kean's as "the best coffee shop in the area". I have tried several non-chain, upscale places which ended up giving me little more than an expensive cup of mediocre coffee and a reasonably comfy place to sit.

Let me tell you, Kean's is worth your time and hard earned cash. Employees who are enthusiastic about their coffee and quite willing to help you out with their fairly extensive are a welcome relief from those you might find at Starbucks, or even occasionally at Peet's.

I found their chai not quite spicy enough for my taste, but the mocha and mayan hot chocolate were both very good. If beans are your thing, there is a large display set up with many options to choose from. I can't wait to go back!

My Taco Surf experience is pretty limited. I've been exactly once, at the request of my girlfriend, who used to live in the area. She was raving about it and i have to say, when I first saw the place, I was not optimistic.

There's something about the way it is jammed on the side of PCH, and the generic pseudo-mexican decor that didn't promise great things when it came to food.

That said, I loved it. We walked in at dinner time on a friday night and had a seat available for us. A live band of some sort was playing in the bar, although it seemed more for the 40+ crowd than the 18-25 crowd. The requisite chips and salsa came right away. Solid chips, solid salsa...not much to say here, except that we did get at least one refill without having to ask. That's a total pet peeve when you have to beg to get more chips and/or salsa.

The menu looked pretty standard, but plenty affordable. Everything was more or less about $10. I was delighted to find out that they actually offered legitimate quesadillas that were not appetizers. Call me a gringo, but I really do love a quesadilla for lunch or dinner. It came and was as thick and packed a quesadilla as I've had in a while, including all the extras.

Overall, great service, cheap menu, solid food. My only complaint is that there was no decent hot sauce/salsa around...just the standard bottle of Tapatio.

Patty's is the definition of the excellent hole-in-the-wall burrito place.

For my four years at the nearby Colleges, I spent far too much time standing in the gloriously painful line at Patty's waiting to get my hands on one of those burritos.

In my opinion, there's exactly one reason you should choose Patty's over the many other excellent options in the area, and that's the sauce. Order "for here", take a seat, and use up about half of the bottle they give you to get the full effect. It's not too hot for you to really pour it on, and it has enough flavor to almost be a meal in itself.

The prices are reasonable, even if they are well up from the $4 quesadillas I remember from a few years ago, and I have  yet to have a bad item off the menu. The only flaw I can complain about is the popularity. If you show up even close to a peak hour (11-12 or 5:30-6:30) you will have the honor of waiting for a solid 30 minutes to an hour before you have your burrito in hand. My friends and I always had middling success calling ahead, but if you can you should.

On the off chance it's too much food for you, take a look at Juanita's, down south of the 10 on Indian Hill.