Mr. "Info234" I.'s Profile

So I do alot of work in San Antonio and I have to say I love this hotel. I also stay at the one in San Jose on Santa Row. Though, its a hard thing to say which one I like better. Granted this lays on the line of between ghetto and really classy area of Downtown San Antonio. I also believe there is a homeless shelter around 2 blocks down so its hard to say its the most safest area. Though, who cares! This place rocks! Great decorations inside and awesome hallways.. but what really matters is the room! The room was awesome and very comfortable and I love the FULL length mirror in the room. The service was awesome and every one was really friendly. I ordered over 200 dollars of room service and it was 1st class! Dont ask me why but I was hungry and didnt want to leave the most comfortable hotel bed ive ever been. To bad I was alone! :) So if you are looking to spend some money in a good hotel and let loose. Or even to impress!! I would recommend this place!! Also has a great cafe and bar attached to it! so be sure to check those out!

So yesterday was a huge day for Soccer.. Alot of the World Cup games where yesterday.. So I knew I had to work in SA. But I needed to find a place to watch the games! I have seen games in here before and I know people come in here to watch games all the time. But dont get me wrong when I say this.. Being From Austin, and being a huge Longhorn Fan, the USA national team was playing. Every TV in the bar was broadcasting the Longhorn game and only one screen behind the bar as playing the USA game. It just really urked me wrong. I love the longhorns and hold tickets for alot of their games but this is our NATIONAL TEAM! So I was really let down on the fact they couldnt atleast have two TV's playing the game. They didnt play any of the other games and broadcasted the Mexico game afterwards. Which was fine but missed over 8 games that day. Regardless, this is my personal pfft and has nothing to do with the bar.

On the flip side, loved my blonde lil waitress - She was sassy and gave me a hard time and said she hated me because I lived in Dallas.. hehe but I knew she meant in a sassy way. She made my night and served me great small bite size burgers with some great service! I was really impressed with the food and LOVE the bar, it was really layed out well and has a very comfortable seating area. I would come back here regardless, if they didnt play all the games. So dont get me wrong, I love this place.. friendly people, awesome huge bar area and placed in a secretive area that makes it feel more like a hidden hole in the wall.. So I will be returning and im sorry for the lack of being excited about playing more soccer games. I just got off the road from driving 5 hours and being told you are only playing the USA game was a huge bummer for me :(

So needless to say Ive been here every time Ive been to this area.. one thing you will notice is that its always filled with travelers from all around the nation. So all these people cant be wrong.. Not to mention I love the area but this is a great place to go and get red or green chili food from a great Mexican place. The plates are huge, the plates are SUPER HOT and you cant go wrong with the magaritas. I leave this place with a extra stomach every time I go. So if you are in the area, go check it out!

I have been here a handfull of times, and im impressed each time I come. The food is great and very fresh! I had the spinach salad with blue berries!!!! With the Red Sauce Ravolii with Chicken! It was really good and I will keep coming back to get it! I also had a huge selection of drinks. I had the mojitio which was very good. Though, the iced coffee was GREAT! I have to admit its very icey and creamy at the same time. I dont care for coffee but i keep coming back to this iced coffee like a fat kid on a baby ruth! :) So Im not going to make this review long, but its a great place to have company and great selection of foods, deserts, drinks and etc. They have an outside area you can sit at with anyone and have a great conversation.

I have been to my share of bad and really bad mexican places in Texas. I also have been to my share of some of the best mexican flared places as well. I have to say, Chacho's falls in the middle. its not bad, but perhaps not the best i've ever had. But the fact this place lays on the most popular  street in Houston. With that you get a crowd from gentlemen clubs, karaoke bars, asian bistros, mexican bars, nightclubs, pubs and etc. So the type of crowd you get here is HUGE! Esp, at 3AM at night. The food is great, you just cant go with the taco's and the tortas are another selection of something on the menu I would get too. I had the Pastor Taco's and i was impressed though, I still felt the pork and the pineapple couldve been diced / chopped down some more.

So im not to pick on this place, as its a great late night place to get some good mexican food, Perhaps to me it might be average but I had a good time and the food was good and most important its constant.

While visiting in Houston, I was told that Blakes is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in Houston Texas. Well, When it comes to a hamburger. Who would think that a hamburger can be done in so many ways and have so many unique tastes to it!

Perhaps not the easiest or in a location where it has a huge sign or in one of Houston's most popular shopping malls. But has enough parking spaces for a good amount of people. While you walk into this place you are greeted by good and well mannered workers at this establishment and you even get a chance to meet the cooks while they greet you when you walk in. They arent shy to tell you what is good and fresh on the menu that day. There is a huge menu of anything from cheese burgers to bbq by the pound. And you know that you are going to get homemade pies as well. They are on display as soon as you walk in. Italian cream cake to carrot cake all for you to view and drool over right there before your eyes.

I asked for the double meat chesse burger with all the fixings and a half half drink of tea and lemonade. The drink I wasnt to crazy for, but to me, that does not matter to me. Im asking my self, what does the beef taste like? Well, I had a huge surpirse- This monster of a hamburger was one for the recommendations for MAN VS FOOD! This guy was neatly pressed with a decent grill greased bun with layers of meat and that are followed with layers of cheese. With all the fixings of tomato, lettuce, jalenpenos,  pickles and many more things. IT was cut in half and served on a clean dish. It melts in your mouth with the cheese dripping off the sides and as I mentioned the grease is just enough to make the hamburger enjoyable and not taste like a grease spot in grease pan.  We also ordered onion rings with sweet potato fries. Keep in mind I knew these products were going to be fried, but still they were lightly friend and it didnt feel like I was eatting nothing but fried food but lightly fried food with huge onion rings and lots of mushy sweet potato in the middle.

By this, point I had to unlatch a belt loop and attempt to make some room for my desert but I didnt make it that far. I stayed at this point which left me very content. I couldnt dare to place any thing else in my stomach. Or visits to the restroom would be in deed the next step The pricing structure was great and i didnt feel like I had to take out a loan to get this platter of food. Though, more than anything that I was happy about was the service. They might not have a waiter service, but kinda felt like they did. They front desk girl was very helpful and came to our table to refill our drinks many times and even the cook again came out to our table to ask us about the food and was amazed i took down that doublemeat burger! OUCH! :)

Over all, its a great experience with the atmosphere of a small hole in the wall but I cant complain the food. I must give credit when deserved. I was impressed and will be returning back to this location when I have a burger fix. But perhaps this time I will give the BBQ a try.

Im a happy hour person and really late night person. So this place is perfect for me. They have a great happy hour crowd that comes in and drinks their little healthy souls away! I really enjoy the vodka selection they have, yet another place in Houston that carries my fav. Hangar One Vodka. So needless to say, they warmed to my heart QUICK! Though, when i show up for happy hour, i try to fight for a small table close to the outside and get some great calamari with some lemon! Its really good and I usually can through 2 plates of this. Though, I will admit the food is extremely expensive and NOT cheap in any form! So having a steak, appts and drinks during Happy Hour will easily cost me 100 dollars alone, if not more. By the looks of the cars in the valet line, I would charge that much for food as well. (Bentleys, Ferraris, Lambos, Porches, Mercedes, BMW and etc) - So needless to say, its a crowd that is spending some more cash and usualy local business people. But dont let that scare you, they have some affordable dishes like the fat bread and some drinks that arent going to cost more than 4 - 6 dollars. So if you are limited on cash of a money saver, its ok - you can still get away with some killer prices! Its all about having a good time right?

Funny enough, you would think alot of these people are uptight or snobby! NOT AT ALL, I had a great time and enjoyed many conversations with many types of people and made some new friends there. Its a very friendly atmosphere and still stay in touch with alot of people there. I know alot of people come here to dine in and leave but I come here to get drinks and eat at the bar.

At night, you can expect the same. Though I have always had a really interesting experience at night. I mean trouble! I find myself in the strangest scenarios with anyone in this place. I could tell you some stories about me in this place.. But I dont want to risk getting anyone into trouble! So anyone that knows me that is reading this, you are safe!  I have seen some really good looking people here and that makes the whole experience better. Dont get me wrong, I like my dive bars but some times I like dressing up and wearing a nice shirt with slacks and looking at other people dress up and etc. So I like my swanky bars too! Not to mention the glow of all the bottles on the wall just shine at night. Its a great view! Its like a god shine of all bottles! AMEN!

You will have great time here, and its a great late night place to get food at 130AM and great happy hour place! Places like this is why I like living in a larger city! You can get top notch service late at night as well during the day. Im a night owl so I need some pampering as well!

So ive only been here once and I still like the feel of other bars better. But I guess I just couldnt make it my home or get comfortable. But that is just me. But it was fun and I liked it. Its a country type of dive bar! Had some really interesting people there! lol but I think its great bar, great service and the lone star beer was no different any where else Ive been. So I had a great time, but the huge selection of bars in Austin. I just have to say its not my home. Which is ok, im sure it would be if there wasnt as many dive bars in Austin :) Though, check it out, its awesome and friendly staff and jsut another place to place your hat and sit back and have a cold one.

Here is my 2 cents about this bar!!

You cant walk in here and expect a full service bar that most cities have. This is a dive bar that has a liquor store attached to it and has a rental apartment on top of it. The parking lot is full of pot holes and perhaps not an area I would leave a nice car alone by its self.  So with that being said, you cant expect perfect service from this bar. You have to take it for what it is! I LOVE this place. I guess like most of my EX's I keep coming back for punishment. HIT ME AGAIN JIMMY.

So Jimmy, is a known public face in Austin and in the Dive bar arena. Sure he might be an ass, sure he might be grumpy from time to time, sure he might not treat you with respect all the time, sure he might not like you touching his dogs, sure he might not like you just picking beers from the cooler.. WHO DOES? This is his home and his life.. This is what he lives for! This is his dream! So you have to take the bar for what it is. If you dont like Jimmy or his house hold rules.. Hmm leave! Dont come.. He doesnt need you and nor does he care.

So with that being said, I love this hole in the wall dive bar! And for the people that dont know Jimmy. He is the owner, janitor, repairman, mailman. waterboy and break fix guy of this bar! He is actually a nice guy on a good day. He might make you feel uncomfortable at times, but you know what, Who cares.. get your beer and sit down! And enjoy a great time of pool, air hockey, pac man. dashboard games, video games, pin ball and various other stuff.

They have free popcorn in this place, just serve yourself and have as much as you want. Jimmy will make sure its always filled and available for you to get some more. They have perhaps the biggest and most impressive beer selection I have ever seen in the world. I love it! You can even ask him to order something for you and he will get it. Of course he thinks he can sell it and you are a regular and knows he can sell it to you.  But the part of this bar I like alot is the silver plated bulldog things on the bar! THOSE ARE PIMP! With the white tile walls, with dimmed lighting and bulldogs on the bar! It just makes this bar something you want to live in. Go figure, I think Jimmy lives there already. You can see him there at noon serving you and at 2 am closing the bar down. Its ONE guy, so give him some slack. That place has his elbow grease in it.

Its dirty, sure - but what dive bar do you go to that is clean? I want my dive bars to be dirty! Just like how I like my women and food!! hhahahah Jk.. that was a joke.. :) But, that is what makes this place unique. You can find all types of people camping out and having a good time. The bathrooms are clean but have a strange musty smell sure.. with the full blown mirrors all around you ! hehe what a trip to see if you are drunk. Plus he doesnt mind changing the TV stations for you if you want to see a another game or etc.. He is actually pretty about that.

The JukeBox is the god of all music.. from Johnny Cash to janes Addiction to Zep to Hendrix to Metallica to Alice in Chains to Misfits to etc! You cant beat that type of selection in a bar! Perhaps the Zaltron machine in that place had something to do with it :)

So if you are looking for a down and dirty place to have some impressive beers, and play some pool with really friendly people. This is your place. If you are looking for a full service friendly bar, with full wait staff and to be served at the whim of raising your hand. This isnt your place. This is a DO IT yourself type of bar and for me.. these are the best places to make new friends and have a great conversation with people and have a great time.

This screams everything a Dive Bar should be about! Seriously, this bar has it going! It has everything to make it a dive bar! Its old looking, its rusty, musty, has history, has great regulars and just makes you feel like you walked into another world. I love this place and I feel welcomed every time I walk in. They had some crazy 80 cent beer night when I went and I just couldnt believe it! That is something un-heard off! I dont know if its still true or have that special around anymore. But it was something I told my good friends about and they made it their local watering hole.

This place is small though, I wouldny say its great for large events or large amounts of groups. Its perfect for a place to sit down and drink your night away with someone next to you that is talking about their golfing game or world war II. I dont know, but you will have a blast! They had all types of fun board games and one of my favs! DOMINOES! Ok I still owe someone there some money because I got some drunk off cheap beer that I ended up leaving with out paying up. But If I find that person there again, Ill be more than happy to give them 20 dollars I owe them. :) It was of course a farmers bet and the money due was the money I was going to pay for his beers! :)

Regardless, we created a havoc there, we played dominoes all night and had a blast! The peoeple that go here are great and you will never seem to be amazed with the amount of trouble you run into here.

The parking is bad, but its not their fault. You have to park at the deep eddy pool area and walk up the small little hill to get there. But the place might be scary to walk into but dont be. Get on in there and sit your butt down at the bar and make some new friends.