Alison "no longer S." W.'s Profile

So, together with certain members of my family, I have become absolutely obsessed with soup. Good soup is practically a lost art, but it still lives at Lynbrook Bagels. They even have a special category for vegetarian, low fat, no lactose soups. I don't have a problem with meat, fat or milk but it's nice to know and their choices always sound like food instead of a consolation prize. They have a good mix of thick and hearty soups but they do have a couple of lighter options for when you're not crazy hungry. And they don't do that thing where they have three weird soups to choose from with nothing else. I hate that.

While you're waiting to order, you can see all their fresh baked desserts and breads and they all look freaking amazing. And they smell good. This is evil. Also, I haven't met a better bagel in Lynbrook. They have cute little mini bagels, too.

Went here with friends for a loud, casual birthday dinner based upon Yelp recommendations. And holy cow were they spot on. At these ridiculously low prices the portions are beyond huge.

The cuban isn't my thing but someone ordered it and it was gone in 60 seconds.

I ate some mofongo (about $4 for a giant scoop with dipping sauce), some "fried green" (which caused us all to comment "I love green!") which came with bean sauce for I think $6, fried (no breading, yay!) calamari, scallops and shrimp (mostly tentacles and very little scallops and shrimp but still delish) for $14.50 and a few bites of the biggest steak I have ever seen in my life with some kind of green breading on it. Sorry, I'm not that well versed in Dominican food yet. This place is going to change that.

Anyway, it's a very raucous, very accommodating place and I freaking love it. Our waitress never specifically checked on us but she was always available when we needed to get her attention. And hooray beer.

During the height of our no AC-crisis at the beginning of this past summer, this PC Richard saved us. We have those stupid windows that slide open horizontally instead of vertically. Which meant we had to get one of those obnoxious freestanding AC units with the giant duct connecting it to a hole in the window. But good luck finding this. The only other place we found one was Sears and it was $500. We finally remembered PC Richard existed and, despite the monstrously packed parking lot (which they had an attendant directing) and elbow-to-elbow need for AC units, we were out of there in 40 minutes.

Bonus: The guy who helped us gave us personal attention and a good discount because he has an Infiniti and my husband works at Infiniti.

So, when you first walk in it takes all your energy to steel yourself against the stench of rotting fish.

But do not turn and run. Because this place is filled with a lot of the awesome unconventional Asian food you can get in Flushing with none of the tiring hustle and bustle. There is a ton of fresh (yes, fresh, not rotting, despite the smell) seafood and it's all very hands on d.i.y. So make sure you know how to pick a prawn out before you come here. They also have tons of candies, snacks and frozen appetizers that you can't find in your average international aisle in supermarkets.

Their fresh fruit selection could be better (and I've seen many a fruit fly on the prowl) but many of them still look better and heartier than what you can get in a chain. Occasionally there are weird fruits, too. A full aisle of regular American grocery story basics and plenty of Coke- and Pepsi-owned drinks.

This Home Goods is such a pleasure to shop in. There's not too much else going on in the same strip, so the parking lot is manageable. And the store itself is giant and well-spaced. They keep everything incredibly neat, especially in comparison with other TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods locations. If I'm going here for the kinds of things they sell here with a not too specific agenda, I never ever come out empty-handed. Once I went to eight other stores and found exactly what I was looking for at this one (a bird cage with a specific height and color requirement).

Their holidays section is always incredibly extensive, so it's a good place to start for decorations and holiday-related gifts. They have the same stuff they sell at places like Bombay and it's a third of the price.

Staff seems less pressured than most locations, so they're really helpful and pleasant.

This is a TJ Maxx for serious TJ Maxx shoppers. Half of the customers in the store can tell you exactly when the next truck shipment is due and they lay in wait for the introduction of said shipments to the floor.

So, we know what this means in the negatives: the good stuff is scooped up right away and everything gets broken really quickly. And that's what leads directly to the positives: things go on sale quickly here and you can absolutely negotiate down on anything with a defect when it hasn't gone on sale yet. Beauty products that have been opened, three-piece sets that are missing pieces, everything is fair game here and it all gets picked through and opened very quickly. (Go to Port Wash. Home Goods if you need something you don't want other people to have touched, like food.)

So, be aware that the customer service/returns line will occasionally be way longer than the new purchases line. At least they have the nifty "Please proceed to register ##" contraption now, making it clear where to go.

This location is always incredibly messy if you come any time after noon. This means someone may have covered up something awesome with something crappy, so you have to be prepared to dig here. Especially excellent sections: shoes, wall hangings, toys. Avoid: all clothing except men's shirts and underwear; the rest should only be tackled when you're looking for nothing in particular and don't mind rubbing elbows with cranky, pushy people.

Okay, guys, I have no idea why this place doesn't have better reviews, except that everyone is going at the wrong times. I have three words for you:

1. Beer
2. For
3. Breakfast

I've been here for brunch before and now they've reintroduced it for Oktoberfest. Brunch comes with unlimited mimosas and bloody marys but you can also order beer. With your breakfast.

The brunch is deceptively huge. They have it spread out in four different sections, so make sure you don't miss any. They have plenty of vegetarian options, but I will say you'll be eating a lot of starchy foods if you're not eating any meat. Still, plenty of fruits, muffins, stuff like that. Do eat anything they have with potatoes (duh, they're German) and sausages. They will also make you omelettes, still included, you just have to let them know when they take your drink order.

I had a German soup, which was a potato soup thing with meat stock of some kind (definitely some kind of pig meat involved, so I, personally, wasn't that into it). I also had french toast which was solid, eggs, muffins, potatoes (quartered and spiced and divine), melon, mousse (skip it), who knows what else. There were like 120 things to choose from.

And they make their waitstaff prance around in leiderhosen and stuff. What's better than that?

This location isn't so great. It's basically what you can expect right near the Source Mall. Chain type watered down taste. I ordered a chile shrimp thing that was sickeningly sweet with no spice and a strangely overpowering amount of smokiness. My husband ordered something or other with chicken, shrimp and steak in it that looked okay and that he liked. The refried beans and rice they serve on the plate are good, so at least there's that. We also shared a fried ice cream. The fried dough and honey were good but they use ice cream that has chips in it and I find that this keeps the ice cream inside from getting all gooey and melt-in-your-mouth delicious like I like.

Our service was excellent on our last visit, but we were there at a dead time. In the past, I have never noticed a particular problem with it. As mentioned in other reviews, they get the drinks just as right as any other Mexican food place. But it's nothing special, just average.

I should mention that there was another section with a lot of people in it and they sat us alone in social siberia. I didn't particularly mind because I don't like people, but it was definitely noticeable that we sat near no one else.

This is the worst Hilton I have ever been in. It gets two stars instead of one because there are still Hilton mattresses on those beds and the decor is, frankly, gorgeous.

But the rude service. The unhelpfulness. The vacuum cleaning white powdery stuff that they left running along the entire length of the hallways instead of, you know, vacuuming it. The smoking rooms that you could smell from the beginning of the hall and which stunk so badly that our smoker friends had to keep their windows open the whole time.

I think that, probably, if you didn't ever need anything extra beyond checking in and checking out, you would have a positive experience here. But it's the effing Hilton. If I want baskets delivered to the rooms of the guests staying here for my wedding, damn well deliver them. Don't tell me you will have to call their rooms and make them come down and get them. That is tacky.

Someone left a morning room service order on their door (which says it has to be left on the door by 2 am and their order will be delivered at 8 or whatever) and no one picked it up and their food never came.

They are just lazy and overpriced. We could have gotten better service at Motel 6. Seriously. This is not up to Hilton standards.

So, this is a small mansion overlooking a lake in the middle of nowhere Long Island (near Stony Brook). There are two caretakers who live in half of the mansion and the rest is rentable for dance classes, readings, other small events and, most recently (and most importantly, haha), my wedding.

There's a nice wraparound porch (we did the ceremony there with everyone else standing on the front lawn) and you can access both the front door and the door to the ballroom directly from it (useful for smokers).

The front door opens to a sitting room with a fireplace, lots of wing chairs and lots of run-down ramshackle (in a good way) furniture. Directly to the right are the stairs which lead to a lofty space with a kitchen table and chairs and, behind that, the "bridal" room and bathroom for people to get ready. The bridal room and bathroom are newly redecorated and in lovely condition with plenty of mirrors.

Directly under the stairs are two unisex bathrooms (one of which is handicap accessible) in excellent condition except for some peeling wallpaper. To the right of the bathrooms is a large, open room with supports in the middle (the supports sort of pave the way for making an aisle) which we planned to use for our ceremony if the weather didn't hold.

Behind the entrance fireplace is the dining room, with furniture in reasonably good condition, and the kitchen, where everything is updated and catering friendly. Left of the entrance is another sitting room (which we used to set up the bar) and the ballroom. The ballroom is a perfectly period updated and the acoustics are divine and there's a small stage area. We fit our band (The Slackers!!!) into this small space, but they were a little cramped in there and I'd recommend a smaller band size, like four.

We fit nine tables that seat eight into the ballroom with plenty of room for a dance floor. If you didn't mind a smaller dance floor, you could probably fit 12-15 tables in there (they have a closet full of six-seaters and eight-seaters for you to choose from).

The only things they provide you with are tables, chairs and space. You bring in everything else, but they are total dears and will help you find anything you need. Many of the places they recommended to us were entirely out of our price range (we had an $8000 budget and a 70-person guest list) but they definitely had plenty of options and ideas, especially about how to use the space.

They also have a no liquor policy that they make sure to tell you about repeatedly (for insurance reasons). So bring it in quietly, on the day of, and keep it discreet when you're outside. They will only be there in the beginning to check you don't need anything and to collect your balance.

If there's no event the night before, they will let you start setting up then. This was a total life saver for us because we were doing everything ourselves. They will also let you put anything you like into storage the whole week before.

This place is highly versatile. It's just as well-suited to a fancy schmancy $60,000 wedding as it was to our much smaller scale, more alternative d.i.y. wedding.