Albert "Albo" C.'s Profile

We got married this past summer at Wedgewood/Eagle Ridge down in Gilroy and chose API as our photographers, as they were the preferred vendor for Eagle Ridge.

We were able to meet with Aaron beforehand and we were thankful for his sincerity. My wife has her own ideas about style (being a graphic design major in college) and Aaron was receptive and excited about some of the things she wanted to try with our photos.

We chose the Rome photo package - $2700, 2 photographers (7 hours each, with staggered start times), 3 locations, plus keeping the raw data files. According to our contract, we were also supposed to get 300 4x6 prints, 4 8x10 enlargements and 2 11x14 enlargements.

We also went with the Silver video package - $2395, 2 camera ceremony, single camera reception, 7 hours - since my wife really wanted a wedding video in addition to the photos.

On our wedding day, Aaron and John (IIRC) were both great, and really helped make taking all those pictures a lot more fun and relaxing. I didn't meet the videographer at all, though I assumed that he was doing his thing.

We got our photos within a couple months of the wedding at were very eager to see them. Overall, we got about 500 shots and the quality of the images was pretty good. My wife would have preferred a slightly different style to the photos, but to my untrained eye they seemed fine.

We got our video a few weeks later and popped it in the DVD player, looking forward to reliving our wedding day. The DVD was divided into 2 parts - "Love Story" and "Wedding Day". We started having misgivings from the start, as there was image pixelation and audio skipping even on the menu. "Love Story" was a video montage of our ceremony, cocktail hour and reception set to our first song. "Wedding Day" was actual video from our ceremony and reception. There was intermittent image pixelation and audio skipping during the montage and outside portions of the ceremony.

Maybe it was because of the outdoor ceremony and a somewhat breezy day, but audio quality suffered with a lot of wind buffering on the mic during our vows. I was a little sad that they had put in their own music during the procession, as we had specifically chosen non-standard processional music. It appeared that the entire ceremony was shot with 1 camera (not 2 like in the contract) - though honestly I'm not sure because I wasn't focusing on the video guys that day. Of note, there's a part of the video where I am beginning my vows and camera switches from over my shoulder to over my wife's shoulder... except in the middle of the switch there's a filler image of palm trees and the sky (the audio is intact).

The video of the reception was much better, as they caught our entrances, all the speeches, cake-cutting and my brother-in-law's backflip on the dance floor.

Aaron responded to my concerns about the video image quality, saying that it was likely due to an image stabilization layer they had tried to use. He offered to give us a replacement video (without the image stab) and also give us the raw video footage downloaded onto a portable hard drive.

We did get our new video (without the image pixelation and audio skipping) as well as the uncompressed video once the video guy returned from his sojourn to Paris.

We're happy with the memories we now have of our wedding day. The still photos were decent; we were pretty happy with those (minus artistic differences) and felt it was a fair deal. For video, I would argue otherwise - my wife still feels like it could have been a home video. We've since attended a wedding where the video of the afternoon ceremony was already edited and played at the dinner reception and the videographers did overhead shots and smooth tracking shots; all for the same amount of money that we spent.

That would all argue for 2 stars, but I'll bump them up an extra star for the customer service Aaron has shown, instead of just blowing us off after our wedding was over.

Surprisingly ok. Kind of.

Attended a birthday dinner here last night... I'm sure it's all been said before, but I'll stand on my little soapbox for my spiel. It's dark and loud and the ambience is all Santana Row; too many guys, too few girls - at least at the bar. Farther back in the restaurant, it's just as dark but a little quieter. The decor is all dark, from tables to chairs to leather booths. There are curtains draped from the ceiling, turning a large open space into passageways and nooks and creating a sense of privacy. It's almost what I would imagine a lounge/restaurant in 1920s/30s Shanghai would've been like.

The menu is very fusion-y, with some odd-sounding combinations and moderate depth. It's basically PF Chang's but not as kitschy. Prices are about the same ($10-15 for an appetizer, $15-$30 for various entrees) and the food quality is somewhat better. The szechuan chicken was ok - mild to moderately spicy and decently tender but could have used more vegetables (a few snow peas and a few strips of squash) and the seafood risotto was surprisingly good but very salty. I was rather amused that the vegetable dishes were pushed onto the "Sides" section of the menu.

Obviously, you don't come here looking for traditional Chinese food. But if you want to try moderately over-priced yet decently tasty fusion Chinese food in a swanky atmosphere (or you're interested in pretending that you're a Triad in interwar Shanghai), you could do worse.

Four of us stopped by for dinner on Sunday night, which may be the best night to stop by since they have both the small plates (until 7p) and Sunday dinner (appetizer, soup v. salad, entree for $25).

We ordered two dinners and a bunch of small plates. The cheese plate is good (if you like cheese, that is) with 3 different types, ranging from dry to creamy. The Mediterranean dipping sauces were possibly my favorite part of the meal, with baba ghanoush, hummus and tzatziki accompanied by small pita slices - more pita slices would've been nice. The lentil soup was also pretty good and surprisingly hearty.

The Moroccan carrots were a little boring and while the garlic prawns were fairly large, it sucked that there were only 3 of them for the 4 of us. The calamari was ok, though not terribly crispy as others have noted.

The salmon entree was good - not too dry - and the mashed potatoes and spinach were a nice touch.

It's not cheap, but the staff are very friendly and very on top of refilling water. I'm a little torn how to rate this place... Some of the dishes are really good, while others are just mediocre. Not a place I'd necessarily frequent, but nice for special occasions.

Solid breakfast fare - almost as good as Stacks and less busy. I'm a big fan of the omelettes, skillets and scrambles - I like my breakfast totally unhealthy, obviously. I have to admit, though, that I'm not a big fan of coffeecake in general.

Not a huge fan of their lunch and dinner menu, but it's definitely on the breakfast rotation.

Not quite as good as the Cupertino location...

The gyros themselves are still good, with a decent amount of meat and real tzatziki sauce. I really like the taste of the gyros, which makes me homesick for Chicago's Greektown. The side salad is ok but I hope I got a bad batch of fries because they were limp, soggy and rather sad.

It's not what I would call cheap but I think the amount of food is fair for the price. Still, I prefer the Cupertino location... not really sure why.

Tucked away in a strip mall on San Carlos, Slider's may not be a place you go out of your way to eat at, but if you're in the area, it's definitely worth a visit.

The interior is fairly spartan, Counter and grill near the front door, seating towards the back. The choices are interesting (beef, bison and ostrich), plus various extras for the burgers (mushrooms, bacon, cheese, etc). The bison burger was pretty good, but didn't really taste all that much different than a beef burger. The sweet potato fries were pretty, except for the a few limp ones at the bottom. For unexplainable reasons, I liked the plastic trays/dishes and I thought the grill was pretty unique.  The condiments were ok - nothing out of the ordinary.

Overall, it's a decent burger joint, not as upscale as, say, the Counter but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Since I moved to Campbell, I've been meaning to check out the local branch of Satura. The selection was the same as at the LA and PA branches and the staff were friendly as always. It might have been an off day because it didn't seem to taste as good as I remember. Other than that, there's not much more to say that I haven't said in my reviews for the other locations... Read those if you're interested. Or not.

I am glad that it's close to home, though.

Arguably Campbell's favorite breakfast place, Stacks is always busy on the weekends. They have solid breakfast fare, but lack that little oomph that would push them into four-star range for me.

I was intrigued by the biscuits and gravy (weekends only), so gave that a shot, while my better half chose the veggie scramble with a single pancake (subbing in for the standard bagel). The veggie scramble was pretty good and full of vegetables, while the potatoes were pretty good. I've had better potatoes, but Stacks does a good job with theirs. The biscuits and gravy were also ok - I liked the fluffy, moist biscuits but felt that the gravy was pretty bland. I usually go with their scrambles or skillets, which I like.

Prices are a little on the higher side, and I have to admit I'm not really fond of bagels. The outdoor seating is nice, as is the free coffee - if you're a coffee drinker, that is.

Will I be back? Yeah, given the Sunday farmer's market and the fact that I'm within biking distance of downtown.

We were having a mini-school reunion and looking for dim sum up in Millbrae. Fook Yuen was closed for renovations, so we decided to check out The Kitchen. Overall, it was pretty decent dim sum, without too much of a wait.

As I've come to expect from dim sum in the Bay Area, the food ran the spectrum. Some of it was good, even really good, while some of it was definitely not so good. Highlights included the har gow, the fried radish cake, the deep-fried dumplings (xian shui jiao), the chive dumplings and sticky rice chicken. Mediocre items included the siu mai (too dry) and the chicken feet (not enough flavor). Not so great items included the shrimp chang fen (much too dry) and the Shanghai dumplings (I suppose this can't be helped, but my friends ordered it).

Definitely worth a return trip, as it's probably one of the better dim sum places on the peninsula.

I've now been to The Skillet a couple of times, aided by it's convenient location close to home. Staff is always friendly and welcoming, though the place is a little dead on weekday mornings. Then again, this is nestled in Campbell, which is not the most hopping town in the world.

On the first visit I tried the Southern scramble. The biscuits were soft and fluffy but the gravy was only mediocre - a little bland taste-wise and would've been better with bits of sausage. I liked the scrambled eggs but didn't care for the ham. The hashbrowns were only ok - crispy on top but pretty soggy on the bottom.

On the second visit, I opted for the triple header scramble. Once again the eggs were good, and this time I had bacon, sausage, ham, onions and green pepper mixed in. Definitely a better choice than previously. I tried the homefries this time, which were ok, but also nothing outstanding. They were cut into thin slices, as opposed to small chunks, and weren't soggy but also not too crispy.

Overall, it's not bad for cheap breakfast close to home.