Tom "Farts happen; GET OVER IT!!!" R.'s Profile

I don't play the lady drink game.

There are bars where the bartenders, generally young attractive Asian women, will sit and flirt with you for ten minutes if you buy them a drink. It's usually Patrone Tequila or Crown Royal Whiskey and sometimes from a special bottle that the customers don't get served from. They pour it into a special shot glass that's made out of thick glass; if you look carefully you can see that the volume it can accommodate is a little smaller than half of a standard shot. The price for a lady drink in San Francisco in most of these bars is $10, I imagine the bartender gets a commission for every one they sell.

I do sit at these bars from time to time; not only are they great for general people watching but I like to see how people react when I bring them for the first time. Also I find the bartenders more friendly than average, I tip well and that may have something to do with it. I have noticed though that once you buy one of these women a lady drink you go from being a customer to a potential mark in their mind. The radar switches on and they realize you are an easy touch. Not only will they start scheming to get you to buy more lady drinks but they are likely to pull anything they think they can get away with to extract more money out of you. I've seen it happen over and over

This place is crazy, loud, and generally raucous but it's not really a dive bar.  Out of an inability to really classify this type of bar I usually call them "hostess bars" but since Club Kristi doesn't have karaoke rooms or karaoke hostesses calling it that isn't entirely accurate. It has a lot of characteristics of the bar part of a hostess bar.

I'll probably be back.

Where else do you take a three and a four year old when you want to spoil them?

Even though this is a chain the ice cream is good. I had the Cherries jubilee and while it wasn't as good as the New York Cherry flavored ice cream I love from Mitchell's here in the city it was better than the flower, salt, or cheese flavored stuff from other popular places I will not name.

My mother finally let me treat; this is the first time I ever remember mom letting me pay for something. It cost a little more than I expected but you can't put a price on getting your young niece and nephew jacked up on sugar and then taking them home for their parents to deal with.

I was riding in the car with my mom and dad when mom says "I'm taking the kids to lunch tomorrow, would you like to come." After an uncomfortable silence I realized she was talking to me about taking my niece and nephew to lunch. When did my mom stop calling her children "the kids"?

This was my first time ever at a Quizno's and I have to say that the sandwich wasn't half bad. Through some kind of elaborate coupon scheme I got a smallish sandwich, a cup of soup, and a raspberry tea for $4. Of course the Kids loved it.

***********Update*************
I stand corrected, these are in fact pies and not pasties. I'm leaving the review as is though.
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I call these pasties (pass-tees) and not pies. I'm not English or even an Anglophile but if it's full of meat and you can hold it in your hand it's a pastie.

My friend Pete and I saw this place after our too small breakfast at Copper Kettle. I hadn't had a good pastie for ages; I walked by The Cravery once but the pasties were too small and too expensive.

We walked in and there's one guy working there.  He said "hi" and I said "how's it going."; typical social convention but then he threw me a curve ball and answered with "not so good". I'm not saying that it's important for people to hide their pain around me but I think the general rule is that when a stranger asks you socially how you are you put on a brave face and say "fine, and you?" Now that the social fabric that binds society has crumbled I don't know what to say. Was I supposed to hug the guy and tell him everything will be OK? I did what anyone raised with WASP values  would do, I ignored the comment and moved on.

I ordered a beef and potato pastie so he heated it in the oven and brought it to me. While it was tasty it was cold in the middle, was it a symbol for my cold heart?

I came here a couple years ago with friend who wrote a yelp review, http://www.yelp.com/bi... It was before I was on yelp but I was there the time that inspired his review. I was appalled at the filthiness of the place and when he sent me the link that showed their Health department rating I thought I was going to be sick.

I guess a couple months ago the owner discovered yelp and started PMing my friend about how he'd cleaned the place up so after two years of bad mouthing Copper Kettle we felt obliged to give them another shot.

This is a solid three star place. I'm glad to see that they had cleaned the place up, and there were mostly families in there instead of the drunks that filled the place two years ago. Also the sexiest and friendliest waitress I've seen in ages certainly helped the atmosphere.

Where this place fails is value; while the food was good $11.95 is a lot of money for breakfast in a whole in the wall bakery. When I order something called "The Full Irish Breakfast" I expect a mountain of food especially at that price but we were both still hungry after. Later we walked around down in the inner Sunset and saw a half dozen places advertising the same meal for between eight and nine dollars. I'd have been perfectly happy paying $8.95, that's about what the meal was worth.

The only thing that might get me back is that waitress; don't judge me because the only difference between me and every other man is that I'm honest about my lechery.

Where else can you go to get a drink at 6:00 am in The Mission? Where else can you be served by a Mother Daughter team?

I finally worked things out with the owner and had an event here. I brought at least 50 people and had a great time, I hope the bar also thought it was a good deal for them. The truth of the matter is that I bring so many people we usually chase the regulars out and the regulars usually aren't very happy about it.

I've also heard this is the best place to find a contractor; come at 7:00 when they are getting their morning drink.

Some of you may know that I've been looking for a new "go to" Thai place for some time http://www.yelp.com/bi... and I think I have found it at Lers Ros.

First off trust all of the reviews and order #62 the pork belly with crispy rind. In English it doesn't sound all that appetizing but it's one of the best things I've ever had. Even if you aren't supposed to eat pork and you only try it once in your life this is the dish to get because God will understand.

At the beginning of the meal I was sorely disappointed. I've traveled extensively in Thailand and the dish I use as my test of all Thai places is the Thom Ka Gai (Chicken, Coconut milk, and lemongrass soup). I figure if a place get's that basic dish right they have potential. Lers Ros fumbled the soup; it was too watery, too lemony, and even though I ordered it "Thai Spicy" in Thai it was very bland.

We also ordered the whole Tilapia, for under ten dollars a real bargain, and duck red curry. Both dishes would have been very good on their own but were totally eclipsed by the pork belly.

The seats aren't very comfortable, the lighting is bizarre, and they brought all the food at once but even with those complaints this is still a five star place.

It seems like the wave of yelp influenced hipsters that made this place nearly impossible to get into for months has moved on to Ike's and I couldn't be happier. Now I can eat here after only a reasonable wait.

I finally tried their tealeaf salad and loved it; of course their fish noodle chowder is as good as ever.

If they gave the place a good scrubbing and a fresh paint job I'd gladly bump them up to four stars.

I thought they had a much better thing going when they used to be off of Van Ness. I've been to this location twice since the move and find it sterile and uncomfortable. The staff is friendly and very good-looking but that only goes so far. The first time I was there was about a year ago and the place was bustling but this last time it was just sad. Maybe it had something to do with the Bay Bridge being closed or maybe because it was the night before Halloween and people were saving their energy. If that was indicative of a normal Friday night I don't think the place will be open much longer.

I can't put my finger on exactly why I don't care for this place but I don't. I liked it better when it was Hamburger Mary's.

*Note*

I've never had the food here, just came in for drinks. I'll give brunch a try someday and update my review.

After a long train ride to Bakersfield my mom asks if I'm up for Chinese food. You may remember from previous reviews that I'm not the biggest fan of the food but when I'm visiting my people I try to go with the flow. Plus my sister is very picky about what she'll eat and I figured if my mom suggested it was already sister approved.

Most of us had one of the family dinners. I was excited because it had been a long time since I was with a group of people that was up for that and it turned out to be an excellent idea. We got to taste several of their specialties and there were all tasty and not overly oily. My sister had Orange Chicken and I tasted it, for a faux Chinese dish it wasn't bad.

This family run restaurant has been in Bakersfield forever and is a little run down but the service is efficient and friendly. The best Chinese food I've had in years and it's in Bakersfield, I want to come here every time I'm in town.