Max W.

4/30/2016

This review pains me. Makai was awesome. First they took away the breakfast sandwiches. They were only the best under $10, quick breakfast option in the city. Super high quality, with a poached egg on great bread, and great cheese. It was simple and perfect. I could go on but they're gone now.

Now they stopped sourcing Crema Cafe pastries and the new ones are garbage.

They used to make the best espresso and espresso drinks in the city, but my cap today was sub par. It was bitter and tastes like they switched to over roasted beans. Not the same quality at all.

I'm really sad about the new ownership. Who buys a business with no passion for that business? I don't know how anyone could be happy with what Makai is turning into.

1/15/2016

Got my dryer working when the motor stopped starting. They did a temp fix so I wouldn't have to buy expensive parts. Dryer is on its last legs but this buys me some time. Thanks!

1/30/2015

Had a very poor visit here today, which is too bad.  I was looking forward to trying it out and heard a lot of good things.  Hopefully the issues get worked out, because I think that they have a good foundation but it was not in sync.
I'll start with the good.  Sides were on point.  The beet salad was not at all what I was expecting (no lettuce), but then turned out to be the best beet salad I've had. Fries were crispy and delicious with large grain salt on them.  The pickles are so good I was eating a side of those on their own.
The weakness started with the wait.  There were people in the restaurant when we got there but it wasn't busy.  We walked right to the counter and were able to order.  I wasn't timing it but it took a really long time for our food to come out. It must have been about 30 minutes, and all we ordered were two sandwiches and a couple sides.  I'll address the grilled cheese first.  The bread was not visibly grilled or toasted, and there was no butter on it at all.  It was a far cry from the pictures others have posted of it here on Yelp. I'm not sure how this left the kitchen as it was so visibly wrong.  The other sandwich was the Chianina burger, which I ordered medium rare.  It came out well done, no pink whatsoever and very dry.  This is a cardinal sin to me for any place wading their feet into the (over)crowded gourmet burger scene. It was a waste of quality meat.
I feel that if I was served the dishes as intended I would have loved it as much as everyone else seems to, but I was not.  I'm hoping for better next time.

5/24/2014

They were 3/3 today on my first visit.  I was craving some jerky like I got at this place in Big Bear that made it all themselves.  Found Ma N Pa's, went for the jerky.  It's just what I was craving, delicious.  I grabbed a few of the selections and the corned beef was my favorite.  It's around lunch time so I figured why not grab some lunch too?  Got a plate of ribs to take home.  They are really nice meaty ribs and I liked the BBQ sauce.  I'll have to ask them if they make the sauce next time I'm in.  While waiting for my ribs i was wandering around the store looking through the prepared foods and I see a tub of split pea soup.  I love split pea soup!  Threw that on my order to eat for dinner.  I just finished the soup right now and it hit the spot.  Big chunks of ham and that great full feeling you get from a home cooked meal.  I think I'm going to end up being a regular.

2/3/2014

I bought an old house and went with Southwest HVAC to update it from the old floor/wall heaters to central heat/air.  Right off the bat Southwest gave me the best customer service experience by far out of the companies I had in to quote the job.  They were priced competitively.  They offer the option of Trane equipment which has very high ratings in Consumer Reports.  It also happened that they were available to do the job right away, as I only had a few weeks before I was moving in and wanted it done before then.

Back to the customer service- Julio is the man.  He is super responsive and on the ball with communication.  He always got back to me promptly with answers to my questions both through email and phone calls.   He reformulated my quote multiple times as I asked for equipment brand and model # changes. I asked if they would put in a Nest thermostat instead of the quoted one, they did.  He was never impatient (and believe me I have tested the patience of some of the workers I've had in while I try to navigate updating things I know little about).  When we gave him the final go ahead he had a crew ready to start immediately and they finished everything in 2 days.  The job got done before my move in, even though I had pushed the work out researching what I wanted.  

The work looks clean. The system works great and we're really happy with it.  In addition, they built a new sub-floor where the old floor heater was and patched the drywall where the wall heater used to be.  I need to hire someone to blend in actual flooring and smooth/paint the wall, but it was stated up front they don't do that kind of finishing work.  The final walk through was thorough and Julio made sure to show me everything they did while he explained it all.  He even answered questions I had about household maintenance that were totally unrelated to HVAC. (He showed me how to light the pilot light on my water heater, which it is kind of embarrassing to not know how to do that, but I have never owned a house before!)

I was impressed with Southwest HVAC.  They are very professional and were great to work with.

9/13/2013

Loved it here.  Killer beer list, killer whiskey list (with nice variety of rarities), cocktails looked good.  Chili filled donuts that were awesome.  Brisket sandwich was good.  I never feel like writing reviews anymore, but boneyard pulled me out of semi retirement.  I'm pre-selecting my birthday meal 2 months in advance, it will be here.

7/20/2013

Priscilla went out of her way to be extremely rude to our group. Can hardly believe employees here behave in this manner. It was totally absurd. Will never come here again.

7/14/2013

For a place called Neat they don't have the bottle selection of whiskeys that you'd want to drink neat.  It's all bottom to mid shelfers, narrow selection with no premiums or rarities.  Cocktails were very good and strictly as a cocktail bar I'd give them 4 stars but this isn't a place for serious drinkers.  I made the trek based on the bar lists this has started popping up on and was disappointed.

2/19/2013

I was down after trying a few Long Beach cafes that looked the part but failed to deliver, then I finally found what I was looking for.  The Flea makes a very good espresso.  Great balance of flavor and everything was dialed in just right.  Almost as amazing is the pricing.  Did I really just pay $1.50 for an excellent shot?  LA is $2.50 to $3.50 generally, and most of the places suck! Barista was a nice guy.  I was going to tell him to raise his prices, but held off.  (Well, he should raise them at least a little bit, they are silly low!)

8/11/2012

As an espresso hound this is my go-to cafe right now.  I don't have much to say other than it is excellent.  (and I have to add it to my 'I love espresso' list)

The espresso.  I hadn't had Verve before, and I'm glad they brought an out of town roaster to the LA scene.  The Guatemala they use for espresso is fantastic.  I like that they are serving and highlighting single origin espressos, but would prefer if they didn't do it at the expense of blends, which can be equally amazing.  Both styles have their place IMO.  I love Single Origin's custom La Marzocco Strada from Espresso Parts.  It is a true beauty.  The way they plate the espresso on the board with the sparkling water, tasting notes card, and small biscuit is class.

The in house treats are great too.

One warning.  If you are buying a bag of coffee here look out for the roast dates.  I have caught them keeping the bags around for sale after their shelf life for espresso use has expired (2 weeks post roast date).