John V.'s Profile

Now known as MDR Bike Co. A screw popped out of the side of my bike after I let a friend of mine borrow it - I'm pretty sure he had an elephant strapped to the back.

Anyway, I took my bike in here and they replaced the screw for free within 2 minutes, no questions asked - for free. Pretty awesome.

Some of the stuff here is slightly overpriced, but that's brick and mortar for you these days. Regardless, I'll be coming back here for parts and repairs from now on.

I can't speak on the quality of the services provided, or the facilities, but I'm frustrated enough with their customer service (or lack thereof) to write about it on here.

I purchased a Groupon for 30 days of Bikram, and was excited to use it. I had some questions about the Groupon, so I attempted to email them. No reply. I emailed them several more times and never heard back. I called them - no answer. I wrote on their Facebook page - no reply.

The Groupon has since expired. I was hoping to "cash in" the Groupon before it expired since I was going to be out of town that week, but again, I could not get ahold of anyone there. Waste of money and time - thanks for nothing!

Your time and money are most likely better spent at The Hot Yoga Center in Redondo Beach.

After a biking accident, another shop (Helen's, also in SM) told me that my front fork was bent and that I'd need a new one. I decided to get a second opinion. The guys at The Bicycle Workshop seemed to be pretty professional (as in they knew what they were doing) and told me that a new fork wasn't necessary. The honesty is refreshing. They had my bike fixed up within a few days and it's running as good as new now.

I got into an accident on my bike, so I brought in here to have someone take a look at it to see what repairs needed to be done. The guy who looked at my bike told me all I needed was one $20 part. He told me to go pay for it and then to bring my bike to the back so that they could put it on for me.

The lady at the register (who I'd assume was a manager based on her interactions with other workers) was incredibly rude and seemed annoyed by my patronage. That in itself isn't worthy of a 1 star review - sometimes people have bad days and take it out on other people.

Anyway, I paid the cranky lady for the $20 part and brought it to the back of the store where they do repairs. They put my bike up on a mount, and after taking a closer look, told me that the front fork on the bike was bent and would need to be replaced. If I wanted a new front fork with shocks, it'd run me about $200 for the part, and it wouldn't be the same color as the rest of my bike.

Obviously, I wasn't happy to hear this, but if that's the truth then so be it. I decided to go to another shop for a second opinion.

I took my bike to The Bicycle Workshop (also in Santa Monica) and they told me that I'd need a new seat (which was clearly bent) as well as a tune up, but that I didn't need a new fork at all. They were surprised to hear that another shop had suggested this.

Anyway, I paid for the suggested repairs at The Bicycle Workshop and my bike is as good as new now. Definitely glad I didn't spring for a $200 fork that I didn't need. I'd steer clear of this place if I were you.

I saw Greensky Bluegrass here last night, and this place instantly became one of my favorite venues in Southern California.

Nice and roomy (for the popularity of the types of bands that they get here) with a cool ambiance.

Drinks were a little pricey... $6 for a PBR seems kinda stiff to me.

I'll be keeping an eye on their calendar to find another reason to drive down to Solana Beach to visit this venue again.

Best place I've eaten in Philly in quite a while. I like the fact that the menu isn't 10 pages long - there's something here for everyone, but it won't take you half an hour to decide on something. Great choices for lunch/dinner or just a snack to accompany a few beers. The outdoor seating is a huge plus. Be sure to check this place out if you haven't already.

You can see the menu here: http://media.philly.co...

Several valuable items were stolen from my car while it was parked here overnight, and I can't help but feel that the parking attendants themselves were responsible.

When I returned to pick up my car, the parking attendants were incredibly rude. They were arguing with one another over what they could charge me for - one of them was giving me dirty looks and clearly trying to raise the price, even though we had agreed on $45 for 24 hours when I originally parked.

When I got into to my car, things were clearly shifted around, and while I found this to be peculiar, I just convinced myself that it must have happened when they moved my car around.

It wasn't until I returned home that I noticed that things were missing. Gone were a $400 Bose SoundDock and a digital camera with over 3 months worth of photos that I'll never be able to get back, among other things.

$45 for 24 hours is expensive, but I took a slightly bigger hit on over $700 worth of electronics and a 16GB SD card full of memories that I'll never be able to retrieve. You'd be wise to avoid this garage (and all others associated with Central Parking Systems) at all costs.

This place is interesting. I was meeting up with some friends from out of town, and I walked by it at first because the storefront makes it look more like a fancy LA bakery than anything else.

We went on a Tuesday night at 8:30 and it took about 20 minutes for 5 of us to get seated - in the meantime, we enjoyed some $12 cocktails at the bar. Pricey, but good. I hate to say it but I've grown accustomed to paying this much for drinks in LA.

Asparagus Veloute was delicious, probably my favorite part of the meal.

Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios was pretty good.

Napoli pizza was "okay". I'm from the east coast so I'm a bit of a pizza snob. This was nothing special, but by LA standards, it was better than average.

My only real complaint was our waiter. He took almost an hour to take our food order, and on the other end of the meal, the check took an eternity to come.

I'd most likely check out any number of other places that I've never been to in LA before I came back here, but if you want to give someone a taste of relatively casual LA dining with an interesting atmosphere and some good people watching, it's not a bad choice.

This place is a must for me anytime I'm in LBI. Friendly staff, cool atmosphere with good music and (most importantly) the food is good. This past weekend I had some garlic knots and a cheesesteak stromboli. Both were excellent. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the area.

This place has a half-decent beer selection, but I went for dinner. I ordered "The Boot" to go. For $8, I must say I was expecting a lot more than I got. An overly cooked dry-ish chicken patty with some melted parmesan and some marinara on a bun. The sandwich sucked, which is not a big deal, but for $8, they could have thrown some fries in there or something. As I said, I got my order to go, and when he handed me my bag (~15 minutes after I ordered), it was so light that I actually took the food out to make sure there was something in there.

In addition to that, the buttons on the arcade game (Marvel vs Capcom) are broken, and the flippers on the pinball machine don't work. They're more than happy to take your quarters, though.

Based on some of these other reviews, it seems like people like this place, so maybe I just came in on an off night or something, but I was not impressed at all. Definitely wouldn't get food from there again.