Kris "with a K" M.'s Profile

Went to Yak and Yeti with a friend on a Thursday night, around 8PM or so.  Surprisingly, the restaurant was pretty busy - a good sign.

Yak and Yeti is an interesting place.  Downstairs is more or less an Irish pub - thick gilding, bar, lots of wood, TVs showing soccer (I mean, "football"), pleasant older blond bartender.  Upstairs, in more of the "house" area, the walls are decorated with Indian art and the atmosphere is much more of an Indian restaurant.

I ordered my typical suite of Indian food, which I judge an Indian restaurant by: chicken tikka masala, naan, samosas, and a mango lassi.  My friend ordered lamb korma, so we could try another item.  The mango lassi came out first - a dark orange color rather than the lighter yellow-orange I'm used to, and with ice rather than smooth and blended.  Interesting, but it tasted good if a bit syrupy sweet.  

The naan that came was unimpressive and a bit limp, though perfectly palatable.  The samosas were spiced well, but the filling was fairly homogeneous and mostly potato, rather than the mix of vegetables I'm used to.  However, the tikka masala and the korma were the real winners of the night.  

We ordered them "medium" as my friend isn't a big fun of heavily spicy food (unlike myself) and we wanted to share, but it turned out the medium was actually a pretty good heat in itself - enough to kick your tongue but not enough to overwhelm you.  When paired with the super-fluffy jasmine rice, both were extremely good.  

So how to rate this place?  I'd probably go with 3.5 stars, based mostly on the strength of their entrees and taking into account the mediocre-ness of the surrounding foods, but those entrees were really good.  I'll bump it up to four stars, because despite everything else, I'd come back again.

D'Deli is possibly my favorite restaurant in Golden, and certainly my favorite sandwich shop.  This is significant, as there are now four (4!) sandwich shops all within two blocks of each other in downtown Golden, including a Jimmy Johns and a Quiznos.  But in terms of quality, D'Deli blows them all out of the water.

When you walk in, you immediately notice the giant blackboard filled with sandwich ingredients and possibilities.  You can either choose to make your own creation of epic proportions, or choose from one of their many pre-chosen sandwiches.  These things are hefty, averaging something like 5 or 6 ingredients, plus sauces and possibly cheese.  Personal favorites are the Heater (heavy on spicy bits like jalapenos, pastrami, banana peppers, and chipotle ranch), the Italian (heavy on the meat and cheese), or, if I feel like going vegetarian, the Greek (artichoke, cucumber, sun dried tomato, kalamata olive, spinach, feta, greek spices, and balsamic vinaigrette - and if I feel like being not so vegetarian I can add turkey for free).

These sandwiches are huge, too - half of one is really enough for a meal, but I prefer to get a full one for not much more - if nothing else, I'll save it for dinner later!  The prices reflect this though - they are probably the most expensive sandwich shop by a dollar or two - but honestly in my opinion it's more than worth it.

Lastly, I like buying from them because I like supporting Golden businesses.  The guys working are local and great to talk to, friendly personalities.  The bread is brought in from a bakery in Wheat Ridge, I believe, and several other of their ingredients are fresh and local.  Much better than giving my money to a chain like Quiznos or JJ.

There guys are the bomb.  They've managed to fix all sorts of problems with my Volvo, in addition to doing quick and thorough services and such.  They're super friendly and trustworthy, which is vital in a car repair place.  Whenever I have car issues, I bring Heimdall (my Volvo - it's the name of the Norse guardian god, and the Norse were from Sweeden, where Volvos are made, so it all fits) to Andersen's and they get it taken care of.

As a note, they also work on other brands of cars - it's actually Andersen's Foreign Car Service, so they work on Mercedes-Benz, VW, and BMWs as well, though they specialize in Volvos.

Sunflower Farmers Market is an awesome store.  I'm always amazed by the low prices of the produce, as well as their variety and stock.  One of the big reasons why I (and often many people) don't eat as many veggies and fruits as I should is because of price.  Sadly, vegetables are usually not exactly cheap compared to junk food and its equivalents.  But at Sunflower, I can walk out of there with two bags full of healthy foods for less than $20.

In addition, they have a good selection of vegetarian, organic, and elite-brand food items, most of which look delicious and are priced if not cheaper than elsewhere then at least competitively.  Most stuff is also cheaper than Whole Foods (often referred to as Whole Paycheck for a reason).  I haven't noticed a significant dip in quality either, but YMMV.

In summary, Sunflower Market is a pretty darn good grocery store, and if I lived closer it would probably be my primary one.

An excellent event!  Who could possibly turn down free pizza and free booze on a Saturday night?  Not this Yelper, that's for sure, and judging by how packed the Walnut Room Pizzeria was, not many others either.  Got to meet (and re-meet) several great people and had some quality conversations, which is only to be expected from such a great crowd.

Pizza itself was darn tasty, excellent toppings and flavors.  The Walnut Room even brought around samples of their sandwiches and cheesy bread.  It definitely made me want to come back!

Big thanks to Laura L, our fab CM, and the Walnut Room Pizzeria for hosting us!

If you're looking for an authentic Vietnamese pho restaurant, Pho Fusion is not it.  In fact, Pho Fusion is to real pho as Chipotle is to authentic Mexican food.  Big portion, not necessarily great flavors, but reasonable food.  The pho menu is 5 types of pho, each labeled in English - beef, chicken, vegetarian, meatball, and shrimp.  That's it.  Lots of other "fusion" items too, which are probably more their specialties.  

The pho I had was not bad, but the broth lacked serious flavor without sriracha and hoisin.  Big portion, and decent enough.  I probably won't come back here specifically for pho unless I have to be in the area again, because there are far too many better, authentic pho places in Denver.

Mom and I came here for a late dinner on New Years Eve, around 8 or so.  The experience reminded me of  that scene in the Simpsons episode where Homer is in Tibet buying the doll that tries to kill him - a good thing! But a bad thing.  But a good thing!  But then another bad thing.

Con: Very busy, no tables seemingly available.
Pro: Manager splits off a spare table from her reserved group for us to sit.  How nice!
Con: Apparently, one waitress serving ~15 tables + floaters and drink orders.
Pro: Waitress is very earnest and obviously working hard.  Takes our order relatively quickly.  Kitchen is still open, hurrah!
Con: Kitchen forgets our order of fried mushrooms, even after we ask the waitress what happened.  Main course of the food we ordered is decent (Cornish Pastie, Shepherds Pie), but vegetables are prime examples of British cooking - cooked just to the point where they become limp and lose all their flavor.
Pro: Waitress apologizes for mushrooms not arriving, takes them off the bill and comps my drink.
Con: With those off the bill, bill no longer reaches minimum to use the http://restaurant.com coupon we had planned on.  Waitress and manager converse, but it takes nearly 20 minutes for them to figure out how to resolve due to aforementioned crowds and busy-ness of waitress.
Pro: In the end, they simply took the coupon's amount off the bill anyway, which led to a bill of $8 with tip.  We quickly paid and left, as a live DJ had started up and the speakers were next to our table.

On the whole, an ok but not entirely pleasant experience.  Possibly worth going back a couple hours earlier, and not on New Years Eve, to see if it's more pub with a bar rather than bar with a pub.

I came here with a friend as part of First Bite Boulder, for their prix fix menu - three courses, $26.  Each plate was presented with care and attention to detail, and was bursting with flavor.

The first plate was blackened scallops with cantaloupe and avocado.  An odd combination of tastes and textures, but it worked amazingly well - deliciously cooked scallops paired well with the tang of the avocado.  Main course was lamb shanks with a marinara sauce, yukon potatoes, and I believe shredded pork.  The pork seemed out of place and would have been better replaced with a green vegetable, perhaps kale or haricots verts.  But the lamb was succulent and spiced well.  Dessert was a simple lemony ice cream and two spongy cookies sandwiching them - a good, simple palate cleanser and finisher.  

My friend decided to not go for the prix fix, but ordered some smaller plates - their marinated olives were savory and excellently flavored, and the tomato bisque was rich and creamy.  The house salad was simple, but well-prepared.

All in all, an excellent meal.  The atmosphere was busy and vibrant - the restaurant and bar were both full.  Our waiter was a bit scattered, but given the volume I forgive this.  Totally worth it, and glad I got to go during First Bite, as I probably wouldn't go otherwise due to price.

Vital Yoga has seriously changed my life for the better.  I started taking classes here through the Colorado School of Mines, which has a significant discount on classes, with very little yoga practice under my belt.  I was able to explore many different types of yoga under multiple qualified teachers, and eventually found one that fit my preferred style - Vinyasa.  

Even better, I found an amazing teacher.  Desi Springer, one of the co-owners of Vital Yoga, is absolutely incredible - in addition to being a human Gumby (I often swear she doesn't have bones in her body, the way she can bend, stretch, and contort), she's excellent and welcoming in giving advice and tips on improving my yoga postures and balance.  Most of their teachers are solid instructors and practitioners, but for me Desi fits my needs.

Vital Yoga offers multiple types of yoga styles, from Vinyasa and Anusara to Power yoga to their Bikram-inspired Vital Roots (which works more on core).  They have a Vital Beginnings class for those who are new to yoga.  Further, a membership to Vital Yoga is good at their other two locations (already here on Yelp), in Highlands Ranch and Cherry Creek, and they offer different classes and styles at each.  Lastly, they'll often put on extra workshops, ranging from meditation to acroyoga to eating healthy and gluten-free.

As Desi once said, saying you can't do yoga because you're not flexible enough is like saying you can't learn to swim because you can't float.  Give it a try!

The only reason I've gone to this pizza place so many times over the years is their Mines student special - half off your order of a small pizza or calzone with student ID.  Having said that, the food is decent, because even I won't take advantage of a deal like that if the food is poor.

Personally, I prefer the thin-crust pizza over the deep-dish or the calzone, but to each their own.  The pizzas are well made and the ingredients are tasty, though I've found their pepperoni isn't as good as the sausage.  They also have a good selection of ingredients, from cream cheese to black olives to sausage to green chile strips.  The appetizers are not bad, though I always wonder at people who order cheesy bread right before ordering pizza.  The wings are decent, and the popcorn is free!

All in all, not a bad place to go to get relatively cheap, decent pizza.  It's A-OK.