Cage H.'s Profile

Pretty good salsa (good consistency, not too salty, good flavor, though the chipotle is a bit on the smoky side for my taste), great chips (appear made or at least reheated/enhanced on site), good chile verde and carnitas. Very generously proportioned burritos (not quite as big as your head, but I took half of mine home for breakfast the next day). Service is pretty fast, and the atmosphere is clean, cheerful, and a bit nicer than one expects in a tacqueria where you order at the counter and are served in paper-lined plastic baskets. Open late, which is also very convenient. I'll give it 3 stars for now, for convenience, service/cleanliness, and flavor. It would need to up the salsa quality (or I'd need to try more dishes and see if the quality is similar) to earn another star on the semi-fast-food scale.

Flour tortillas made while you watch, great salsa (OK but not great chips), and excellent service. The tortillas are almost, but not quite, awesome enough to go there just to experience their chewy, flaky, butter, wonderfulness. But just average taco and chile relleno (which seemed to be one of their specialties) and weirdly flavored rice and frijoles refritos. Service was nothing special. Ambience was kitschy and could be cute if the food were better.

They seem to have a loyal following, as the place was quite full at 1 pm on a weekday. I wonder from reading other reviews if this is based largely on good salsa, tortillas, and relatively generous margaritas. There is certainly a niche for such a place, but having grown up in the San Joaquin Valley and no longer being a student (yes, keep chuckling, I spent quite enough time as a student), that's not really what I'm looking for in a Mexican restaurant.

I'll give it a pass on returning. 2 stars mainly for the just-made tortillas, and I'll keep looking for another place that does tortillas as well.

I've been here twice, both times with a Chinese-American friend of my partner. The first time was for her wedding reception, now ranked as one of the ten best meals I've ever eaten, along with my friend Judy's banquet for her wedding rehearsal dinner, dinner at Bistro le Petite Bofinger near Place du Bastille in Paris, and a 10-course meal prepared by one of the chefs from French Laundry. The second was a return visit with a party of four about two months later. My friend considers it one of the most authentic/highest quality Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area.

Out of the many courses, a few manage to stand out as beyond excellent. At the wedding banquet, we had lamb chops perfectly seared on the outside, tender on the inside, prepared with a cumin rub. It seems that one needs to order the lamb chops in advance, but the regular menu has a great dish of cumin-scented lamb strips stir-fried with bell peppers. Jade Palace is known for their soup dumplings, which burst in your mouth with a flavorful broth. The care they take for their food was signaled when we realized that they had not brought us the other dumplings we'd ordered (on the return visit), and the hostess explained that the dumplings were no longer fresh enough and would be tossed out, rather than serve substandard dumplings.

The shrimp ball soup was delicate, such that even my fish-hating partner enjoyed it. The crab with sticky rice was the best I've had.

A few considerations: Service can be slowed down on busy nights; they seem to be quite popular, with a heavily Chinese clientele. It is also a bit hard to find. You park across the street in a public lot next to a Mexican restaurant, cross into a nondescript mall, then find yourself in a tiled courtyard with a fountain and the entrance to the restaurant. After reading some of the other reviews, I would say that going with a friend who speaks Chinese likely helps. I would not suggest going here (or really, any Chinese restaurant I bother to review on Yelp) and ordering sweet & sour pork, lemon chicken, etc. They'll probably taste Americanized, leaving you wondering why everyone around you is savoring their winter melon soup or cumin chicken with obvious delight.

My partner and I stumbled upon this place while looking for food around 10 pm in Chinatown one Thursday evening. There were only a couple tables occupied, but all Chinese, which we took to be a good sign.

We had potstickers, mixed vegetables with mushrooms, beef chow fun, and walnut chicken (I prefer walnut prawns, but my partner is a Midwesterner who dislikes most seafood). All were delicious, particularly the mushrooms and vegetables. I normally like my chow fun with more vegetables, as I used to have it at Vietnamese places in San Diego, but it was quite good nonetheless, and the noodles were delightfully chewy.

Service was fast and polite. It's now on our list of late-night places in SF. We'll definitely be back.

Despite the concerns of at least one other reviewer on here, I'm not sure if there's really a clear difference between Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine; certainly it's not the difference between northern and southern Indian cooking, perhaps more like the difference between Belgian and central French cuisine. Regardless, I was surprised upon the arrival of our meal to realize I have not had lentils, mixed vegetables, and tibbs quite this good since the closure of my long-lamented favorite Eritrean restaurant in San Diego (Asmara).

We were the first customers in the place for brunch on a Saturday, around 11 am. Service was fast, the injera was good, and everything in the house special combination was delicious. The chicken kulwa in particular was amazing, chunks of tender boneless chicken in a reddish sauce of miled chiles, ghee, and spices. We'll definitely go back, and possibly just have the chicken kulwa with the vegetarian platter to try more of the great vegetable dishes. Also, I normally avoid the various lentil dishes as fairly bland compared to the other options, but the yellow lentils were deliciously spiced and well worth ordering again.

Recently made my first visit to China Village after finding it on Yelp and reading the reviews. The lamb with cumin was amazingly tender, not too spicy, very fragrant with cumin and Szechuan pepper; the eggplant in yellow bean sauce was tender and delectable, though I would echo the warning that it retains a LOT of heat and should be allowed to cool a bit before eating. We had the Zhang style spicy fun, which were translucent, oblong, rubbery green noodles in a sauce of oil, Szechuan peppers, and chopped scallions. They were ok, but the sauce was amazing; I want to try duplicating it over pasta, and was spooning it onto my rice.

The food seems quite authentically Chinese, which is to say very flavorful, made with good ingredients and cooked just right, but with a fair amount of oil. As my partner put it, "It's not greasy, but it's very rich." Might be worth considering if you have a lot of less adventurous eaters in your party, or perhaps balance out some of the heartier dishes with a soup or vegetable dish.

Service was actually surprisingly quick and very attentive. I'm giving 4 stars but would advise going with people who like fairly authentic Chinese cuisine.

My partner and I stumbled upon Soowon Galbi when our regular spot further up Vermont Ave, Kobawoo (see below in my reviews, still a good place to go), was completely packed for what appeared to be a special event. It has since largely displaced Kobawoo as our favorite place to go in Koreatown.

The ambience is great, and the ventilation system is efficient, unobtrusive, and stylishly incorporated into the general decor--that is to say, one of a handful of Korean barbecues where you don't come out delicately perfumed with scents of smoked beef, pork, and garlic (not that the fragrance isn't totally worth it, but if you have the option...) Service is friendly and efficient, and they are quite willing to help novices to Korean barbecue.

The beef marinated in sesame oil has become our favorite, probably closely followed by the boneless, spicy pork galbi. The chicken galbi is a bit underwhelming--not bad at all, but just not as exciting as the meat dishes. They've recently added a grilled vegetable option as well, which is a nice complement to the large quantities of marinated meat.

A standard meal comes with a large cabbage and lettuce salad to share, a bowl of miso soup, and an assortment of panchan side dishes that will be refilled indefinitely. The fish cake and candied potatoes are favorites. Meals also come with a stack of rice-paper wrappers for the meat, which need to be pulled apart with some delicacy to avoid ripping them but are delightfully chewy. The two basic dipping sauces are a lightly spiced vinegar with jalapeno in it, and a mixture of coarse salt and seame oil--unbelievably good on the sesame beef. Rice may be ordered a la carte.

Their liquor menu has also recently expanded. They have a couple kinds of soju, a couple of Korean beers, and several new liquors that I haven't seen before. The sake flavored with hawthorn berries is refreshingly light but sweet and has become a favorite.

A few suggestions: there is valet parking, but after 7 pm there is nearly always street parking at the meters within a block or two. They normally have a minimum of 2 barbecue orders per table; i.e., you have to order at least two before you can order such non-grilled options such as the bibimbap, chigae, or noodle dishes. As the barbecue items could easily feed one and a half normal, non-starving persons each, bring an extra friend or two or else expect to have a very meat-laden and umami-filled dinner.

A friend and I stumbled upon Tara's Himalayan Cuisine when we found our usual South Indian place up the street was closed on Mondays. I'd tried Tibetan restaurants a couple of times before and been generally unimpressed--the dumplings were overly chewy and the food was usually bland. Tara's is completely different.

The momo dumplings are good both vegetarian and with meat, and come with an intriguingly flavored, mildly spicy chutney that perks them up nicely. The thukpa Tibetan stew was a tasty meat and vegetable stew, though I don't know that I'd go out of my way to order it.

The yak is as others here describe it--it's not grain-fed beef, so know what to expect. It's a lot like bison/buffalo or ostrich meat in that it's dark red meat, though not gamey, and very lean. The chili sets it off very nicely, moderately spiced and with a little butter, chilis, onions--think a lean fajita.

I would agree with other reviewers here that the food is quite pricey, but if you take that as a given for the fancier restaurants in the Palm Springs area, and figure that anything with atmosphere or presentation is going to be a bit of a splurge, then I think you can begin to make a more reasonable assessment of Okura Robata.

For starters, you need to emphasize the robata part of the restaurant's name. The maki and temaki, as several reviewers note, are ok but not outstanding. The grilled dishes, however, are excellent, as are the different carpaccio. We had the hamachi with serrano chilis and a citrus marinade, which was outstanding. We disagreed over the black cod: some people in our party thought it was ok, but I thought it was as good as any I've had. The beef strips marinated in olive and sesame oils and grilled on a lava rock at the table were also excellent.

The dessert menu has recently changed (as of 12/2008). We had the panna cotta with berries (excellent), and the creme brulee, an interesting take on creme brulee, served in two small cups, one coffee-flavored and one classic with a lace cookie in it.

Reservations are recommended, especially on a weekend or holiday.

This is a great bargain. I agree with the comments of other reviewers -- it's hard to beat a fairly good massage for $35 per hour. It's hard to rate individual masseuses/masseurs, because they change frequently as the students complete their hours and move on to private practice (at much higher fees). I'd reiterate other reviewers' suggestions to speak up and be proactive: if the room is too warm or cold, let them know at the beginning, and tell them in advance what you want. I've been about 4 times in the last year and plan to go more frequently. One other thing: you're better off booking at least a week in advance if there's more than one of you and if you want anything in particular or want to work with a particular masseuse/masseur you've seen before.