Derek W.'s Profile

While not exactly the perfect place, I think that it's better than the usual 4 star place on Yelp.  So I guess if I could go for it, it would be a 4.5 star place in my book.

I used to go to this place quite a bit while I was going to college at UCSD, but unfortunately I'm not in the area very often now  So I apologize if any of this information is out of date (since I graduated in 2006).

It's a pretty tiny place (probably seating for less than 20 people in a pretty cozy place.  I love Sorrentino's for their lunch specials.  I usually go for the sandwich special, which consisted of a 6 inch sandwich, soup or salad, and a drink for a little over $5.  It's not going to stuff you, but it will be satisfying.

I usually like to go for the soup as it's a bit more unique than their house salad.   They have soup specials that change each day, but my favorite is the Tomato Florentine.

I've also tried their pizza and breadsticks, and I can say that I do enjoy them.  This place isn't one to knock your socks off, but it grows on you.  It's comfortable and great.

While the food wasn't bad, the whole experience was just strange.  Walking in we weren't sure whether to sit at a table or go to the counter (you sit at a table).  It's like the restaurant didn't know whether it was a sit down place or a fast food place.  It seems like it wants to be an Asian restaurant, but most of the menu is straight American food.  Identity issues, anyone?

The food was overpriced at about 10 bucks for essentially fast food level goods.  Oh and by the way, combos are not available for dinner.  The food itself though was not bad.

Everything just felt strange.  Eating there was like those times when you go home, there's nothing available to cook or eat so you scrounge something up by digging through the freezer.  While it tastes good, it doesn't seem like a cohesive meal.  That's what BBQ Chicken is.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to go back.  I'd rather experiment somewhere else.

While driving down Fair Oaks, one does not particularly notice this small establishment.  It's nestled amongst buildings that make it seem a little oddly placed.  But that doesn't mean that their unwelcome.  Perhaps far from it.

I came here for a gathering with approximately 15 people for a little birthday celebration on a Thursday.  Unfortunately, it's not a very large place so 15 people will take up around half of the indoor seating.  Oops.

We tried the brick oven, roma, and the white pizza with chicken.  All of them were pretty good, but I'd definitely recommend trying out the white pizza with the chicken.  There isn't really a sauce to it since it just has olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, and cheese.  But that also makes it interesting (and might be why it's delicious).  We got the extra large size for the 3, and it seemed like a decent price.  Keep in mind that they say that it's NY-style so the slices are meant to be thin.

In addition to the pizza, we tried the garlic knots that were not bad as long as they are fresh.  We also got the chicken manicotti that wasn't bad and the shrimp fra diavolo that was just about the spiciest marinara sauce I've had.  Both are worth checking out, but they seem a little bit pricey to me (maybe only a couple of bucks more than I'd consider a great price, though).

The staff was for the most part very friendly and accommodating.  They also even gave the birthday girl a free scoop of gelato, although the gelato wasn't anything to write home about.  The staff was pretty helpful, but they probably weren't the best in terms of attentiveness.  Just don't be afraid to speak up if you want something, and you'll be fine.

The ambiance is pretty open, and it feels rather local with a lot of people stopping by just to pick up some carry-out.  That's always a good sign, especially on a weekday when business doesn't have to be too busy.

One thing to note is that they only have 1 bathroom that you enter in through the back of the restaurant, and it's near the kitchen.  And when I went, it was blazing hot back there.  Not sure why, but the bathroom itself wasn't too nice.  Just something to note so you're not going in to the bathroom expecting something nice to hang out in.

After a day of blazing heat, it was nice to go to Lanna Thai for dinner.  From the outside, it doesn't look like much.  In fact, it's just another place in a strip mall.  But once you walk through the doors, you are greeted by pleasant and tasteful decor.  It's modern and clean looking while also having a touch of the Thai culture (there are small supposedly antiques all around the restaurant.

I went with a fairly large party for a graduation dinner (for UCSD!) on a reservation for a Saturday in the early evening.  The rest of the place seemed to have people, but there weren't people lining up waiting.

The service was pretty good.  They came by enough and were quite accommodating.  We didn't have to flag them down too often.  Of course, with a party of over 20 people, we took up about half of the whole place.  So who knows, maybe we just got more than the usual attention.  

As for food, we each ordered items from the menu and split them family-style.  The prices were fairly reasonable for what I've seen for Thai food.  That is, most things were about $8-$15.  If anything were to be better, the prices could ALWAYS be cheaper.  Anyways some of the notable things that I thought were pretty good were the green curry, the lemongrass companion, and I heard other people say that the duck curry was superb.

Tasteful decor, pleasant service, decent prices, and especially tasty food all make for a good experience and somewhere to at least try if you're in to Thai food.

The name makes it sound large.  The city makes you think swank.

But it's actually a fairly normal (perhaps even hole-in-the-wall) place.  Went there on a fairly hot Saturday in the afternoon.  There was a lot, but it looked to be pay parking.  So we found a spot, thankfully, on the street.

Walking in, I was pretty surprised to find that there were large fans running (instead of A/C) and nobody around.  Eventually a lady came out.  It didn't look like there was a whole lot (perhaps because it was already the afternoon), but she helped us choose the mixed berry cobbler a la mode.  That's half a normal cobbler heated plus some vanilla ice cream for $4.33, for those that don't know.  That's definitely enough to share.

The cobbler itself was not bad.  But it was also not great.  I'd give it 3 stars.  It had too many seeds, other cobblers might have been better.  Anyways, I also asked for some ice water, and the lady working there said that they didn't have any, but she had Arrowhead bottled water.  I asked if they had tap, and she started to question why I wanted tap water.  She didn't get that I didn't want to pay $2 or $3 for a bottle of water.  She kept pressing, which was pretty surprising, and I finally told her that's why I asked for the tap water.  She said that she was "old school" and she'd just give the bottles to me.  I'm fairly certain she was from the South with her twang and her southern hospitality!  So I'm bumping up the rating to 4 stars.

This place is just a small stand in a building.  However, that's a large part of its appeal.  It gives the impression that it's going to be one of those hole-in-the-wall awesome type of places.  And perhaps it could be.  But it wasn't really when I went.

Based completely on the review by Lacey W, I ordered the Jugo Verde.  Oh man, it was horrible.  It was so bad, I had to dump out most of it!  It helps a lot if you can read Spanish.  I can read some, but not a whole lot, and there were ingredients that I didn't know in it.  I came back and among the listed ingredients are cucumber and parsley.  Worse even than the ingredients was the fact that it was horribly tepid.  Lukewarm and so gross.  They said that they also had pineapple and lemon (I could read as much) in it, but I sure didn't taste that.  It just tasted like warm green cucumber water.

Thankfully it wasn't a complete loss.  I had asked the worker what a good drink was, and through broken English mixed with some Spanish he told me about their Super Jugo Energetico (Energy Juice).  That drink was a lot of orange juice along with almonds and I'm sure some kind of cream because it was slightly frothy.  They also listed protein, but I don't even want to know what they meant.  Thankfully that drink was cool and refreshing!

Oh and both of the drinks were listed as $4 each, but for some reason the guy only charged me $7.  Decent price for the Super Jugo Energetico, but a downright horrible price for the Jugo Verde.  I think that you'd have to pay me $20 to drink that thing completely.

So maybe 4 stars for Super Jugo Energetico and being able to talk to the stand worker in a mix of English and some of my Spanish from high school.  0 stars for Jugo Verde.  And if I could, negative stars for Lacey W because recommendations with that many capitalized "SUPER"s have better be amazing.  Not disgusting.  

At best, maybe she had it on a good day with another worker, and I had it with someone who didn't know how to make it.  But I probably won't know because I don't see myself ever trying that drink again.  I'm not sure if I would try this place again since it didn't rock my world either.

Went here on a Saturday for lunch, and it wasn't as crowded as some of the other reviews mentioned that it would be.  Not to say that I wanted it to be crowded or anything.  This place isn't very big (probably room for about 70 or so?), so it was nice to have only a few tables of people.

The wait staff did indeed speak Spanish, but pleasantly knew enough English to get by.  The menu did have both Spanish as well as some brief English translations.

I enjoyed their fresh salsa and chips that they served as soon as we sat down.

For lunch, I got the Albondigos soup based on another review here.  It was alright, it had meatballs, but it probably wasn't worth the $6.75.  I also go the Carne Asada combination.  It was a good amount of food, and it was also pretty good.  That was about $11.

The person I was with had a Carne Asada quesadilla combination that came with the house soup.  It was some kind of a noodle soup that tasted like watered down ravioli sauce.  That meal was about $9.

All told, it was a pretty nice homey type of place.  Unfortunately it wasn't the most amazing Mexican food, and it wasn't cheap enough to be able to use that as an excuse/positive.  Not bad, but I think that I also had higher expectations based on other reviews.  That's not any fault of the establishment, but I'd still only give them an average grade.  Would I go back again?  I'd consider it, but I'm not going to make a special point of doing so.

Dave greeted us as we were standing there, and he let us know that they were using all kinds of fresh ingredients (rather than the customary stuff that was more unhealthy).  It was cool hearing that from Dave himself.

I went for their special of the day, a sausage and meatball sandwich.  Many of the sandwiches are served as subs that are either 6" or 10".  The 10" was a decent amount of food.  It's sandwich only (no chips or meals).  I also went for a smoothie, which are pretty good.  They told me that they got an award for second best smoothies in town.  I kind of wondered who got first.  :)

The place itself was extremely casual.  And it was also pretty small.  When I was there, I saw 2 2-chair tables, 1 4-chair table, and a 2-chair table outside.  Pretty cozy if you ask me because things got pretty busy at times while we were there (lunchtime on a Saturday).

I also enjoyed that it was extremely chill there.  They just gave us the stuff and then when we left we went up to the counter ourselves to pay.  That's trust.  And I like that.  That's what you get with a small place like that I guess.

In the end, it was about $11 for a sandwich and smoothie.  And although it does seem pretty fresh, I must admit that I might not have guessed it if I didn't read it in reviews on yelp and hear it from Dave himself.  So I guess it is up to the customer to decide whether it is worth it or not.

All told, pretty tasty, worth a try.  I'd go back again, but it's not going to become my favorite restaurant of all time.

Nestled in a rather non-commercial part of Koreatown, this popular Korean BBQ restaurant offers some excellent things while also managing to confuse patrons about other things.

First off, the surrounding area is for the most part residential.  So parking is, as one would expect, pretty horrendous.  Expect to be driving around for a long time in search of a cramped space if you don't want to valet.  Which leads to a point of interest, it's rather unfortunate that they have a valet lot (with a valet charge) since they're already charging a fair price for the food.  I understand the need to pack as many cars as you can, but at the least then the valet service should be included.  It's a case of feeling nickel and dimed.

Once you get over the parking hurdle, you better expect a hefty wait if you don't already have reservations.  Try your best to make reservations because this is a type of restaurant that encourages long wait times (it's all you can eat, so people just sit around for a long time).

The servers will set up your table and grill for you, and you will soon find yourself grilling up your meat.  The choices range but favor pieces of beef.  Definitely give it all a try since it all tastes pretty good.  The only other unfortunate thing is that their side dishes are not as numerous as at other Korean restaurants that I've been to.  They do, however, have some fairly complementary rice paper (essentially a noodle) that you can wrap around the meat.  It makes for a very nice contrasting taste.  In fact, it's pretty delicious!

Service is pretty decent for the most part.  They're not the best English speakers, but the message gets across.  You'll usually get what you're asking for and that's what's important.

The environment is fairly full of hustle and bustle.  It's definitely not quiet, but one of the better things about Tahoe is that it isn't as gross feeling as some other places.  There isn't vast amounts of smoke in your face, you won't smell as horribly like Korean BBQ, and the servers will gladly change out your grill if you so ask (like if you burned some meat on your other one).

Price is about $20 including tax and tip.

Oh and on another note, don't miss out on the bidet in the bathroom!  They're not too frequent in the U.S., so they're usually met with some apprehension.

With the ambiance of an expensive restaurant, the prices do not disappoint.  It'll cost you a pretty penny to eat at this place nestled inside of the Fashion Island mall.  For special occasions and other limited outings, this is probably worth it.

I made use of the Prix Fixe menu (relatively worth it for $30 before 7:00 PM as of the date of this review) to get French Onion Soup (pretty good, sweet, maybe too much cheese), Sea bass (I forgot its name but it seemed like it was baked) with potatoes and spinach (tender and tasty with the creamy sauce and nicely balanced with the potatoes and spinach), and the Chocolate Souffl (it was good, but it wasn't as spectacular as I'd expected;  it was as good as warm chocolate cake with ice cream).

The service was fairly good with the waiter coming around enough so that some of the time there was nothing needed.

In sum, French 75 is a nice little place that seems like a nice place if you're looking to celebrate a special occasion with a group or want to have an especially pleasant night out with your loved one.  For needs less than this, you might want to just check out your local cafe (e.g. Mimi's).