Todd "Effin" F.'s Profile

Eight Immortals seems very popular with the local asian community ... and being the round-eye that I am I've only tried a few simple dishes that I found to be just OK. I will warn you that the salt & pepper shrimp are whole shrimps ... complete with heads, shells, & legs. It was also fried & served with jalapeno slices. It wasn't for me and I couldn't eat it for what it's worth.

Rick & Cesar are both high quality barbers. They're good at what they do, friendly, and efficient. For $11 you get a good cut, back of the neck shave, and a quick neck & shoulder massage with one of those electric massager things. The place is pretty small, with about 4 chairs for people waiting that are less than 4 feet away from the barber chairs. I'd drive out of my way to get here if I had to ... luckily it's in a convenient location. There's a public parking lot just south of geary between 18th & 19th too if you can't find any street parking.

I used to really like El Camino Barber Shop. It was the place I found after moving to California. At the time, there was only one woman working there and she was great. Cut really good hair and was super friendly. She's the one that sits closest to the entrance. Over time, more and more people were working there and I found it harder and harder to get my hair cut by the same woman. I was never happy with the work of other people there. One woman actually told me while she was cutting my hair that she didn't come to this country to cut hair. I should have gotten up and ran right then. Anyhow, I stopped going there once I moved and have never looked back ... except now to write this review.

Toast serves up some tasty morsels that go great after a long day's hike. I particularly remember the fried, stuffed olives & the Smoked Salmon & Sweet Corn Griddle Cakes. Both were delicious.

Growing up in the south ... I am an avid fan of fried chicken. And of course the things usually found with fried chicken like sweet iced tea, cole slaw, and so on. It had been years since I dared to eat fried chicken from one of the so called chains that served this style of food. I mean really, once KFC merged with Taco Bell what self respecting southerner could proudly walk in and order a bucket of extra crispy, a tub of slaw, and a big gulp of sweet tea when the next person planned to order a meximelt and a chalupa?! It was this negative attitude that kept me from bothering to try Popeye's for years until recently. Their chicken was moist & flavorful. And it wasn't like bad fried food where it's all fried batter ... there was actually a nice amount of chicken in there. I dunno about love ... but I'm definitely a fan of that chicken at Popeye's.

Another ATL fast food bust. I fondly miss Chick-Fil-A's so when I'm somewhere that has them I usually make a point of stopping by for a taste. On a 2 hour layover before flying internationally I decided to snack on a chicken sandwich and waffle fries ... and of course a sweet tea. The bread on my sandwich was coated in something greasy. Being hungry, I ate it anyways. I then spent the majority of my remaining time in ATL visiting the bathrooms in the Delta Crown Room in Concourse E ... which turned out to be the terminating point of this meals journey. Thank you for flying ... through me.

I didn't know how much trouble I was in for until after I got to the register and noticed the mob of angry folks with tickets waiting for their food loitering off to one side. After I joined them with my Dr. Pepper I knew with my luck I'd ordered the wrong thing. They kept slowly calling number after number ... skipping mine altogether ... and apparently a few other folks. You could spot them in the crowd because they kept shaking their heads each time a new number that wasn't theirs was called. My ears finally perked up when I heard the woman calling the numbers holler how she needed "that bacon double-cheeseburger" already. Then it hit me, that's what all these poor saps were waiting with me for. We all made the mistake of ordering this. I thought it was a good sign that it was listed twice on the value menu - numbers 4 & 5 ... shouldn't that translate to them serving a lot of them & shouldn't that translate into faster turn around time? Anyhow, my burger finally arrived. Good thing my flight was delayed otherwise I might have missed boarding the plane. Next time I'll just order a Whopper like everyone else I guess. Have it my way indeed.

It's funny that after living in the birthplace of Five Guys for years I never once managed to eat there until after I moved to the west coast and then traveled back to the east coast to eat at Five Guys who have now expanded north to Manhattan among other places. I'll concede the food was good ... but now living in the land of In-N-Out Burger ... I just didn't find it living up to all the hype people have been giving it. I'd return ... but only because there's no In-N-Out Burger on the east coast ;)

A tasty spot to stroll into for a sweet snack or coffee. Lots of amusing celebrity pictures on the wall. Mediocre service.

I'm baffled when I find bad Italian restaurants in a place like Manhattan. It seems it should be difficult if not impossible. Let it be known, my co-workers/friends and I ended up here by chance. It was pretty much a walk down the street from our hotel & flip a coin scenario. Only since we'd all been traveling all day long and it was starting to rain/snow we ducked in here instead of walking across the street to see what else was available had the coin turned up tails.

Where to begin. The place was practically empty with only two other tables being occupied. The service was worse than you could possibly imagine. Our server kept disappearing into the back for extended periods of time and nobody else bothered to check on us. Our main courses took a while to come out and were bland and unimpressive. We asked someone for more bread to have with our entrees ... instead our bread plates were removed. Our server finally disappeared for good so we flagged down someone else to bring us our check so we could pay and get the heck out of the place. Never again.