Glenn "Omnivore's Dali Lama" H.'s Profile

These are nice people serving solid Chinese food in very much a hole-in-the-wall place. Nominally decorated, this place is easy to miss from this one way street.

So we tried two orders of their dumplings: the Shrimp and Chives and the Chicken and Chinese Spinach. Of the two, the chicken and Chinese Spinach fared better with the Chives overpowering the Shrimp in the other dumplings. Both had the same dipping sauce (needed) and both had the perfect dumpling chew--not doughy or too thin--and clearly hand made because we had the pleasure of seeing them preparing them while we were there on a late afternoon.

But I cannot say that I was so impressed with what I had to want to order them again--especially because you are stuck with an order of 12 and so makes this less than optimal if you want simply to try them to get to taste which might be your favorites.

We had two excellent dishes as sides to the dumplings there; Garlic Bok Choy as well as their Green Onion Pancake.

That being said, unless dumplings are really your thing, I might not be returning for the dumplings unless I could get a mix of 6 and 6 to get some variety. I would need to try their other menu items, which, if the pancake and the bok choy were representative, really looked promising.

I stopped in here just passing by and I noticed all the terrific supplies for those of us who either backyard bird, feed the birds, or are birders. Everything from feed (suet to self-serve, bulk, thistle seeds and many premium seed mixes), to nesting supplies, they have it here.  And there was a taller, older woman (sorry did not get her name, but she was not the owner) who was so very helpful to us when we were trying to located a Shepard's Hook to hang our feeder from.

I did note that issue with the a woman that Josh G. and H B. noted in their reviews; barely on the edge of civility, she was clearly either bored or unable to make any really positive impression on me. She was the first person who met me, with little enthusiasm, and I learned later that she was the owner. I saw that attitude and what the other reviewers experienced.

I like to support locally owned and operated stores because it is good for the local economy, but when going through the trouble of packing the store with such obviously great things, it makes little sense to show little or no pride in the wares. In this case, she had another person in the shop who remained on his cellphone, watching an apparently important game, who might have been an employee but did not appear to act like one in any way. Maybe he just liked to hang out there as a friend. Not sure.

So one out of three people in the shop were great, and that is sad because this shop needs to be about service and pride in the wonderful store items.

Nonetheless, birders are generally great, giving people and I will probably going back to check Birder's Garden out again and see how service remains.

This is for their truck visit to 777 Mariner's Island Blvd, San Mateo 4-23-12:

I'm split on Little Green Cyclo. On the one hand, they are committed to local, organic greens and humanely produced meats and I completely am behind them on this.

On the other: when their truck showed up in San Mateo at my office, I was over 45 minutes in a pretty long line yesterday (great news for the March of Dimes charity that they were serving for) and when I got the Spicy Tiger Prawns over Rice and Veggies ($10) it was 5 minutes before the end of my lunch hour. The 4 prawns were large (shell on) and fairly well grilled served over a steamed white rice and a small salad with a small fish sauce container. The overall impression was that it was pretty good but not amazing or outstanding in any way.

I checked with four other co-workers who also went there to see if they would recommend this truck returning on a regular basis. They too were split.

Many were not impressed with the spices or taste (or value) of their Bahn Mi or their other dish.

One said:
I had the papaya salad and the pork chop rice plate.
The salad was a low 2. Bland, but the marinated beef strips were tasty.
The pork chop was a 3. A lot of rice for a small strip of pork. However, meat was well seasoned and tender. Salad was fresh.
The service was a 4. Did ask for receipt emailed but never arrived :-(

Another who had the Tiger Prawns over Garlic noodles liked it well enough but was turned off by the level of salt in the noodles. (3.9 is what he rated it).

And we all noticed that in spite of all the pretty colorful pictures of Vietnam on the side of the truck, there was no one who was inside the truck preparing the food who even looked Vietnamese.

Now this was not a big deal for me, since I know that it's not your ethnicity that makes the food, but given the luke-warm reviews of the food and the lack of spice/flavor that I heard more than a few times, someone who understand what it is suppose to taste like needs to be back there to control the quality of the flavors and portions, if they are to be successful here as a mobile choice for food.

And given the long wait (45 minutes? Really?) I cannot afford to spend my lunch time waiting in line, even for service that is made to order. They need to get the service level right before they can efficiently serve an office crowd.

So the consensus from 5 of me and my co-workers would be "Yes, if they improved their service time for the line AND especially improved the quality of the dishes served."

Prices were OK for some but too high for the Bahn Mi--especially because they'd had better Bahn Mi for less at other places. If you're going to go to the effort of wonderful meats and organic local produce, the last place you want to cut is in the preparation.

Think BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse (a US chain) but in much prettier Vancouver Canada and you will get the picture. 3.5 stars.

We had two very good brews (an Empress India Pale Ale and a Signature Pale Ale).

Shrimp and Mango salad (baby shrimp, chopped mango, jicama, mesclun greens, citrus vinaigrette) $14 CAD. (4/5)

Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich (See pic: on marbled rye toast, dijon mustard, roasted garlic mayo, pickle, fries) $13 CAD (4/5). This is the one sandwich meat that I can only get in Canada and I look for it each time I'm there. Steamworks' did not disappoint. The uniquely smoked brisket meat was juicy without being too fatty and this was a really good sandwich.

Service was friendly, certainly not rushed, and everything was good. I'm not crazy about the bathrooms through, which looked significantly downscale, downstairs, than what the upstairs eating areas looked like.

Prices are higher than I think they should be for a salad (even a shrimp one) and a simple beef sandwich with fries, but this is Vancouver and you do pay for the atmosphere and location.

We came it late after a long trip in and were very pleased to find both friendly service and a terrific, well-appointed, room, 32 inch flat screen TV, and a nice desk for the business traveler.

We had found this place via Living Social and were not disappointed. Really classy place. Their Garden Terrace for breakfast buffet (included in the Living Social deal) was both elegant and large, with good food and an open atmosphere.

Elephant and Castle attached (did not try).

Conveniently located about 1.5 blocks from the monorail and the downtown, this is a really nice hotel chain that I'd never known about, but will certainly check them out when traveling again.

Traveling by Amtrak Superliner (no WI-fi on this ) took 1 hr 20 to crawl to the US border from Vancouver. Speed varied from about 65 mph at the upper end to what felt like an eternity of 20 mph slow stretches. While it took off on time, and it had lots of room for my legs and even fold out leg support for my wife's shorter legs, I was hoping for a faster travel-speed but did not get it much.

So it took a total of 4 hours to finally get into Seattle, and while I loved the comfort and the well-stocked dining car (had salads and burgers, hot dogs and even beer and cocktails along with other snacks and reasonably priced food). I would have traded some time for some comfort. The price was OK, but again, I would have paid more for a zippier experience.

If you keep your expectations low, you can just relax for the duration of the trip--just don't take this to get anywhere fast.

Oh: and I must comment on the service at the station. Walking Zombies. Living Dead. Take your pick. OK: they do not look quite as bad as a Zombie, nor do they eat your brains, but they certainly care for you with the emotions of the Living Dead (look for bite marks to make sure).

No sense of urgency. No sense of duty to move any faster than a blade of grass as it grows up to the sun.

Easy.
Does.
It.

One.
At.
A.
Time.

Any.
Day.
Now.

So this should pre-set your expectations about how fast you should expect an Amtrak train to move from this location. So very different from their Acela train on the East Coast!

This little town of Port Angeles has a little gem in this place right on the shore and they deserve our support.

They primarily had very cool small, interactive (you could touch many of the life-forms there), pools or aquariums filled with critters.

So if you are a fan of tide pool exploration, like we have in the SF Bay area (and like I did when I was a boy), there is nothing like finding all that life (and more) in a comfortable setting with great, knowledgeable, friendly volunteers.

All the colors and sizes of starfish, chitons, anemones, sea squirts, nudibranchs/sea slugs (gorgeous, amazing, little creatures), tide-pool or local fish, and even a crab-loving giant octopus are in this little, well-run place.

I was enchanted, as was my wife; we could not stop taking pictures!

Easily one of our favorite places while we were visiting this port town. We not only donated but also purchased a cap there to show our support of this place. If they do charge during other times of the year, this Center certainly takes some funds to keep it going, and a few dollars seems so little for so much.

Thank you, volunteers, for making this such a special and fun place!

Great beer, very friendly service (Lagunitas IPA is still my favorite, the Smithycks was oddly a bit flat but still good) and decent fish (cod or halibut) and chips. What more could you want from a pub? OK maybe less expensive fish and chips--$14 for the halibut and 12 for the cod.

They said that this Little Italy here in San Diego had some great Italian cuisine.

They are correct-oh-mundo.

Thanks to the amazing Yelp community we settled on this tiny first-come, first-serve spot that indeed served us one of the best Italian meals we've had here in California, or anywhere else in recent memory.

They started us off with a remarkably light, but crispy, Italian bread with a garlicky fresh tomato bruschetta that was both delicious and instantly addicting.

Then on to a very tender-crisp calamari appy with another fresh dipping marinara that was distinctly different from the first in balance and flavor but a perfect compliment.

I had the Ossobuco Maiale a fall-off-the-bone tender very large, slow-cooked pork shank served with risotto. This was a seriously hungry-man's serving--my grainy picture hardly does justice to it. It was covered in a rich gravy and sauteed mushrooms. I don't know what they simmered this bad-boy in but it was extra-tender and moist. The thick and rich risotto almost paled in comparison to it.

My wife had the Scampi Serenata which was surrounded by freshly sauteed organic spinach, garlicky fresh baby carrots, squash, broccoli and red potatoes. Need I add that the shrimp were large and expertly prepared.

Add to this great, friendly service and a surprisingly moderate bill to boot ($57 before tip) and we were very happily stuffed.

Yes, this place can be a bit cramped (and no reservations) for some (lines were literally forming as we ate.) but if you get here early and can get a seat, this is very much worth it.

For the views only: this place is a freely accessible spot that should be a mandatory stop on your trip to San Diego.

We did not have the drinks, so I cannot comment on the service. But let my pictures of the views serve as my "words cannot express" review of this place.