The Irascible Chef

When I want a very good, solid, Italian, meal at a very reasonable price, there’s no question that Pasta Pomodoro is the place. Consistency is key and they’re almost the definition of consistency.

We took the 3 kids there the other night and it was great! I must say the waiter was the best part on this particular night! The food was delicious, but the food is always delicious, like I said—Bubbie(def. #1), it’s consistent, and I expect it to be.

We didn’t have to wait to be seated and were sat at a nice spacious table—perfect for kids and the food and the drinks and the fun / educational placemats and crayons that keep them satisfied / occupied while waiting for their food.

The kids drinks were Shirley Temple cocktails (remember when they were fun and before you were too cool?) and PP has figured out that it just might be best to serve large spill-able drinks with covers for the kids! The focaccia was still warm right out of the oven and perfect in their seasoned olive oil pesto mix—we all love that!

The waiter came by many times to make sure we were happy—we were! He brought us extra bread when we needed it—which we did, you can’t let those delectable sauces stay on the plate when they can be in your belly with a little-bread-wrist action! He also brought refills for the kids drinks. Our Moretti’s were just fine—cold and perfect with the food!

Pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs (no as good as mine—but NOBODIES are!) grilled cheese pannini, Gemelli with chicken, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, in a garlicky cream sauce, and a half order of lasagna and small salad lightly and properly dressed.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Did I mention that the kids $6 dollar meals (in a sit down, waiter service, restaurant) come with ice cream sundaes? How can you beat that? You can’t! But Pasta

Pomodoro can!

On Tuesday’s, for every adult meal, the kids meal is free! Wahooo! Now in our case one of the kids had an adult entree, but our waiter brought three sundaes (no extra charge) because he knew it would make everybody very happy! (He probably also knew that it didn’t cost them anything because we had 3 Adult meals and probably were entitled to 3 kids meals if we wanted—the customers and the House won on this night!)

Special thanks to the waiter this evening! See, how important the waiter can be???

Oh, by the way Pasta Pomodoro can be enjoyed with or without the kids (though not as much fun) and a bottle of wine for a romantic delicious dinner for two or party of ten—and, regardless of the size of your dinner party, very affordable!

What are other people saying:

Melon Scrapings Stuff that wants to get out of my head. Life, and other things like it.

B O N N E T bitching and moaning inspired by teenage angst

Technorati Tags: Affordable Italian food, food review, Pasta Pomodoro, Restaurants, Shirley Temple

I had the salad on the right—excellent!

Aldo’s in Los Gatos—Fantastic!

What a pleasant surprise for Italian food! Family owned and PRESENT. Atmosphere is sort of rustic charming with a high ceiling, maybe could have been a little less bright overall.

Our waiter complete with Italian accent was attentive and not obtrusive. Oil with roasted garlic and fresh bread was very flavorful and nicely done to get the juices flowing.

The Chianti was the right wine for the table and went with everything. Let’s talk about the everything: the table had Minestrone soup and the house salad or Insalata della Casa. The Minestrone looked good and hearty, and the diner was happy with it. The salad was very flavorful with just the right amount of dressing.

The entrées were Scaloppine al Limone—veal with white wine and lemon, Vitello Ripieno—veal stuffed with proscuitto and mozzarella in a Marsala wine sauce with mushrooms, and Barbara Special— spring mix salad with grilled salmon, scallops, and shrimp with balsamic vinegar. The veal was tender enough to cut it with your fork! The Marsala sauce was tasty, but a little sweet for me, but everyone loved it. The grilled fish on the salad was perfectly cooked and very tasty. We didn’t save room for dessert which looked good on the menu. So sad…

The menu itself was flawed with a few spelling mistakes that seemed like the cause was lost in translation. Something about it was charming—when usually it’s like a fork piercing my eyeball! My guess is that great food and service can overcome and make me forget how important spelling is.

The food was fresh and nicely presented—we were also complimented with chilled Limoncello—a lemon flavored liqueur from Italy—helps with the digest… Nice touch

—iChef

Technorati Tags: Aldo's, eating out, family, food, iChef, Italian food, Los Gatos, Restaurant, Service

I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs! I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs! Chil… — wrong restaurant, wrong jingle, wrong, wrong, wrong! (Austin Powers, Fat Bastard’s version)

We’ll go Outback’s tonight! Life will still be there tomorrow!

We did the old-barnstorming-pop-in before the movie, Eagle Eye, trick. Told the waiter that we were in a rush. He handled it like a champ! We split: a No Rules Burger—medium, with everything except tomato and onion with the blue cheese dressing on the side, fries and a 22 oz Sam Adams October fest. Man O’ Man do they make a tasty burger at Outback! Menu and descriptions.

And I would dare say it was picture perfect! Fluffy bun, plump juicy burger, and fresh nicely done toppings! The perfect amount of food for two. Not too full, just right!

Of course we still got the buttered popcorn, sour something candy, and a large diet to wash it all down with.

Advice: Stick with the burgers, fries, and beer and you won’t be disappointed! Every once in a while (get a little excited drooling at the pictures on the menu) we stray from the proven recipe of perfection and we are muy disappointed—you will see the pretty pictures and get sucked in—don’t, just take our advice! Or don’t, you’re a big-boy (or big-girl, but you have to be careful with that one!) you have free will, live and learn!!!

—iChef

Technorati Tags: food, food review, iChef, Opinion, Outback Steak House, Restaurant

Based on Previous review of Ace Wasabi: How Important is the Waiter

Hi iChef,

I wanted to apologize to you. I am truly sorry for the lack of service our waiter provided to you and your guests…
…btw, I appreciate your fairness and I hope to see you again at Ace.

Ken Lowe
Owner of Ace Wasabi Rock and Roll Sushi

The power of the Internet… Power for the people! Power to the people! Power of the people!

People are listening, taking notice, taking action! Of course and unfortunately negative press gets more attention than compliments. We start to take compliments for granted, we become complacent, money is good—keeps rolling in, less need to sweat the small stuff!

Add all the small stuff together, you get a big ball of little details, and that’s really what it’s all about! Successful people do sweat the small stuff! Ken Lowe owner of Ace Wasabi and a bunch of other assorted successful eateries has taken the first step in making a difference and cleaning up the big ball!

I couldn’t find contact info on Ken, but Mr. Lowe did find us through our review that’s all over the Internet! He accepted responsibility for the faults of his restaurant, contritely apologized, and assured me of an exact strategy for fixing the problems. Oh, he also thanked me for my review and fairness.

This is the kind action I totally respect! Goes miles with me! And I will scream from the roof tops and let people know about this as well! Thank you Ken!

—iChef

Technorati Tags: Ace Wasabi, Blog, food, iChef, IrascibleChef, Ken Lowe, Restaurant, Review, Rock and Roll Sushi

Let’s just say that San Fransisco is one of my favorite places and of all the restaurants in SF that I enjoy, Ace Wasabi is at the top of the list, an A lister, easily top 5 (only because I can’t single ONE out like that—that would just be wrong, wouldn’t be fair, why should one be forced to anyway?) When anyone comes in from out of town we go to Ace Wasabi!

There have been variety of servers over the years: to die for, beautiful fun, fun eclectic, groovy foodie, dreamy charming, and some mix match combination of the above.

Some have been outstanding, some just good, but only one waiter disaster (but nothing that Ace Wasabi’s fabulous food couldn’t make me forget)—I care not to recall that evening here—know he paid dearly for his gross incompetence.

But this past Friday we had a new experience—UGLY! Ugly that couldn’t be covered up by the fantastic food, beer, and hot sake. This is because the hot sake was so hot it scorched my tongue and I couldn’t really taste much after that.

We didn’t have to wait to be seated at 7:45PM which seemed odd, but a good thing at the time. But we were seated all-the-way-all-the-way in the back where it was hot and steamy—the window that we opened let smokers smoke sit at the table with us, which we agreed was better than the heat and humidity we were experiencing.

We did wait for at least 15 minutes before anyone came by to ask if we wanted dinner. Our humble waiter smelled like smoke and looked a little disheveled, like he just rolled out of bed or something else. We wanted drinks! *We were still in the benefit-of-the-doubt zone* We ordered drinks and Tuna Tataki— Ace has the best Tuna Tataki (recipe) I’ve had anywhere!

The drinks weren’t brought out to the table until the Tuna Tataki was brought out—usually the drinks come out first. It wasn’t that busy for a Friday night. I have been there on nights where there are wall-to-wall people and never waited for a drink! Packed—you can’t even move without your body-rubbing, brushing, and or bumping with hundreds of strangers. (Okay Phobic’s, it’s a happening place, cool good looking people—not always unwelcome…)

When the large Asahi beer, hot sake, edamame and Tataki were dropped off at the table the waiter didn’t bother to take the rest of our order… (Why would he?) No one checked back to see how we were doing—if they had they would have seen we were out of drinks and food—with no food on the way! I had to ask the Busboy to get our waiter. Patience dwindling!

We ordered more beer and hot sake and a series of rolls and sushi—very excited! Our excitement evaporating after 30 minutes went by—I got up to physically locate our waiter—I found him looking at this fancy new age Jukebox and he was surprised to see me. I asked where our drinks were, “Oh! Coming right up.” he said. Have you seen my patience they were here a minute ago—I’m sure!

While in the restroom, he brought beer with some excuse why the sake wasn’t also delivered. Still it was a half an hour without a word or even visiting the table. The people I was with asked about our food order and like a deer in the headlights—it appeared that he forgot about our food. GREAT!

The sake arrived just barely warm—I sent it back! I didn’t wait almost 45 minutes for hot sake to be just barely warm! Well, the waiter showed me! I shot the boiling sake down and torched my mouth—you’ve been there, shreds of the roof of your mouth hanging down on your newly singed tongue…

Again no one checked to see how we were doing, I couldn’t taste a thing anyway! We needed more drinks, we needed more wasabi, we needed attention! We eventually needed the check and again NO ONE!

I have high expectations and hate to be disappointed, but Ace, which I have been to a million times, is always spot on—disappointment is never a thought…

Well, as diners we have rights, at the very least we have options and the strongest option we have to send a message to the waiter is the TIP. What is my imperfect night worth? Dinner wasn’t cheap. My standard tip is 20%—I was generous, he got 10%! He deserved ZERO, so I’m little upset with myself. A manager wasn’t visible if there was one there at all—I should have asked…

He picked up the check while we were still sitting at the table (something else I don’t care for) The people I was with knew he would know his reward shortly and the collective wisdom was that we should leave, but I wanted him to know… We didn’t get up until the yelling started. He got the message!

How important is the waiter, if you’re the owner of a restaurant and you just read this, you tell me!

I could have put this section at the top, but chose to add it at the bottom.

I need to disclose: This review is about my last experience at Ace Wasabi Rock and Roll Sushi, this past weekend. And I won’t be holding this last visit against them because I’ve been there a million times and this one horrible visit shouldn’t ruin it. However I will be watching very closely until I can remove this past experience from my mind.

The failure on this night rests squarely on the waiter, however a manager should have picked up on it if they were there!

—iChef

Technorati Tags: Ace Wasabi, Asahi beer, Hot Sake, sake, san francisco, Tipping, Tuna Tataki, waiters, Wasabi

Not bad, not bad at all. Not spectacular either. Decent is what it was and I would go back.

I should preface by saying, I love sushi and all the accoutrement’s and ceremony that revolve around the dining experience. That being said, this dinner was a dining out of hunger and need—not for pure enjoyment. What do I mean? I mean we had a time limit and NO hot sake nor beer… So sad.

The restaurant itself was very charming and decorated very nicely with Japanese touches. Clean, comfortable, and cozy!

We did have a very nice and accommodating waitress. I did have to do the double take when I heard her speak to us. A blond haired, blue eyed, white skinned girl sounding like authentic Japanese girl, speaking second-language-English—I had to check what my ears and eyes were separately telling my brain.”Veg-ah-tobbles,” made me look.

Wasn’t happy with the look of the albacore (gray in color) or salmon (small in size) sushi, but they both tasted fine. Fine. I also had a spicy shrimp tempura roll that had more tiny golden roe on it than I’ve ever seen as a garnish (not my favorite—garnish or not) but was almost easily brushed aside. Very tasty And all washed down with hot green tea—which I enjoyed quite a bit.

Leaving the restaurant was the most difficult part, as getting the check, checking the check—thankfully, needing the check to be corrected ($20 dollars of refilled cokes had to be removed—honest mistake), and finally paying the bill at the register took longer than reasonably necessary. See even explaining took a long time…

I would definitely try Fuki Sushi again, if I’m in the right place and the right time—there are so many places to go! Next time I will include the hot sake and beer! (definitely check for the soda refills—if anyone’s ordering them!)

—iChef

sidenote: when apologizing for the bill our authentic Japanese sounding waitress sounded more like a German accented, second-language-English speaking girl.

www.fukisushi.com

4119 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 494-9383

Technorati Tags: Beer, English, Fuki Sushi, German, green tea, iChef, Japanese, palo alto, sake, tempura

—Travel all the way to Beijing, you know, what used to be called Peking! Painstakingly suffered through 13 luxurious hours in Business Class—which by the way shouldn’t even be counted as travel time, and didn’t find a way to get authentic Beijing Peking Peking Duck!

Did manage to attend 3 Olympic events including the final round of Mens Individual Gymnastics with medal ceremonies, did walk the Great Wall (with crown they gave me at BK), did go through the Forbidden City, did see Tiananmen Square, did have dinner with my childhood hero and Olympic World record holder Janet Evans, did invent and drink b-O-b®, did go on crazy taxi ride, did eat at McDonald’s in China (tasted like chicken) did say hello and thank you in Chinese like an authentic Chinamanperson, did eat traditional Chinese breakfast—DID NOT get to try: Scorpion, or doggie, or most disappointingly, authentic Peking Duck or roasted duck as they called it at the best Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing, Da Dong, because we got back to the hotel 15 minutes too late! (Did have greasy poor quality Peking duck sliced to order, wrapped in pancakes with Hoisin and scallions at the J&J hospitality center in the Hotel Kunlun, which was superb except for their rendition of Peking duck! It was nice because they had two chef’s making them to order, and we did get to actually have Peking duck in Beijing and it was after we foundout that we wouldn’t be able to have it in the restaurant, but…)

All this in 3 days on the ground, one of which was day 1 and we arrived at the hotel 4:30pm…

China Stix, here in Santa Clara, California!

A recommendation from a trusted (foodie) colleague. And, as promised from the onset, “it won’t look like much from the outside, and it didn’t! —to complete the visual it didn’t look like much on the inside either. But we were there for the Peking Duck! The same duck that eluded us in Beijing—or was it?

We tried in Beijing to communicate, we really did! My goal was to say 2 things—Hello, pronounced, nee how, and thank you pronounced, shia shia. I felt stupid, but I did make an effort. Communications in China otherwise was impossible, even simple sign language went no where—painfully slowly!

Well, communicating with our waiter was like trying to communicate with our taxi driver in Beijing. IMPOSSIBLE!

I wanted Tsing Tao, but I tried to get the hot sake on the menu, but as much as I tried I ended up with cold hot sake. My daring Sous Chef tried the plum wine that was so sweet we could have made Shirley temples for all of china!

SWITCH! Tsing Tao, and Chardonnay!

Let’s just say we got the Peking Duck for 2, not that it says it’s for 2 on the menu, but when asked if it would be enough for 2 we were told, “it is a whole duck! With pancakes.”

Okay we came for the duck, why mess it up with any other flavors, or possible disappointments? The duck, and only the duck, it shall be! For 2.

It was presented very nicely with head and beak included—no extra charge!
The skin was crispy, the meat was juicy, the fat was all but nonexistent! The pancakes were individually handmade, the Hoisin sauce was sweet, but not too sweet, and the scallions were uniformly sliced thin and not over powering.

I still remember having better (the duck 3 ways) at a Peking Duck House in Northern NJ— By the way, when we mentioned that we wanted Peking duck 3 ways our waiter asked us as if we were lunatics if we saw that on TV or something—because all us, pathetic American’s, see something on TV and must have it—after-all, it was on TV! (he also mentioned that we wouldn’t like the soup any way—way number 2 of 3, because it looks unappetizing with the duck bones sticking out—annoying American’s watching too much TV!)

TheMommyblog also, talks about this evening very positively!

—Irascible Chef

Technorati Tags: Beijing, China, China Stix, dog, iChef, J&J, Janet Evans, Johnson and Johnson, Peking Duck, Restaurant, Scorpion, The Mommy Blog

Wow did I luck out! My car was having it’s first checkup across the street and I was a little hungry and I don’t like being disappointed by any meal! The most risky meal for me may be when I’m forced to stumble on in (caught without a plan)—doesn’t happen often, but you have to eat when you have to eat

Lee’s Sandwiches.

I figure it’s a run of the mill sandwich shop like Subway and I will get the generic turkey with avocado—hard to screw that one up. Yes, when I walk in they have pictures on the wall of sandwiches, but I’m trying to process what all is going on. I see loaves of bread coming out, all the employees are of Asian decent, peoples food is being called out when ready, and there are prepackaged hot to-go delights. This type of food service is very similar to Nijiya Market in Mountain View—where, if I’m making Japanese Sushi or cooking any kind of Japanese, I buy my ingredients from. Nijiya Market (unbiased review) has the best quality, freshest sushi grade fish, nicest looking poultry and meats, that I trust enough to serve my guests. Japanese and Chinese food is all about the ingredients!

Just back from Beijing where the Hotel Kunlun dining area always smelled like you just walked into a Chinese Restaurant. I was still in the mood for a little more Chinese! As I said I don’t like to be disappointed and if there’s too much salt or my fries aren’t hot enough at McDonald’s I’m going to complain and send them back!

So, I’m going to Give Lee a shot! Yes, they had regular sandwiched as well, but come on—let’s roll the dice from up high!

I had rice paper wrapper spring rolls with shrimp and roasted pork and chicken lo mien. $2.50 each! Delicious! Fantastic! What a find!

Then I tell a couple of people about it and they tell me it’s a chain and they are all over—Double Fantastic! So, good job Lee and please keep up the great work!

—IrascibleChef

Technorati Tags: Chinese, food, Hotel Kunlun, iChef, Japanese, Lunch, McDonald's, Nijiya Market

Let me just start by saying that the last time I saw Janet Evans she was a young girl, winning race after race and breaking record after record in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

I had the biggest crush on her… She had the greatest smile, the biggest wide eyes, and the most enthusiastic personality—who could blame me?

Janet became America’s sweetheart and I didn’t stand a chance. I did think about joining the US Olympic team, but what would I do? When I was younger, I planned to be an Olympic bicycle racer, okay, why not, it’s a start? But. Oh, that’s right that was when I was 13, never competed in bike racing, and I was a kid—when that type of dream was still possible. I was 13 talking trash riding around on a 10 speed with my friends—it was a dream.

Sorry, where was I going with this? Oh, right, iChef Mindy won an all expense paid trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics from sponsor Johnson & Johnson. For two! J & J ROCKS! They paid for every single thing, including food, drink, 5 star hotel, Olympic event tickets, AND round trip Business Class tickets to China— a small a freaking fortune!

One evening we were treated to a special intimate dinner for 11 at Green T in Beijing with special guest—can you guess who? No way!

YES! Janet Evans—all grownup!

Why was dinner for 11 and not 12 ? Because unfortunately Janet’s husband couldn’t make it—Unfortunate…

Would I speak or trip over myself? Continue to keep my secret or step up to the starting blocks and tell about my ridiculous unrequited feelings from over 20 years ago to someone I only met on TV?

Well, we show up at the restaurant and the hi’s, hello’s, and how-do-you-do’s, come and go and we all pressed palms, exchanged names, had a cocktail as a group (I had a GreenTea Martini.) The table at this fabulous Asian fusion restaurant rivaled Asia de Cuba (here in the states)—it ran the length of the restaurant and had seats with chair backs as high as the ceiling. There was a seating chart and iChef Mindy was so lucky (it almost wasn’t fair) because she was sat RIGHT next to Janet! Where would I be, probably at the end of this table as long as the Great Wall (just so happened we visited earlier.) Where’s my place card, where’s my name, where’s my— What’s this? There must be a mistake! Yikes! I was also seated next to Janet!

As fate would have it Janet was seated right between Mindy and myself! (because, unfortunately, as you know her husband couldn’t make it) Hoo-freaken-ha!

What a wonderful event, dinner, and conversation. Kids, blogging, writing books, (can’t call me inconsistent!) sponsorships, beer-in-a-bowl® (which IS of course trademarked) etc.

I didn’t tell her about the crush I had, I thought that would be so passé. Though when I did tell her what I told her I think she knew what I meant.

I told her what her smile, enthusiasm, and big brown eyes meant to (me) the country, how excited she made (me) the country feel, dot dot dot

She was great, she showed us pictures of her daughter and husband on her phone, talked to us like she was one of us. We took pictures before leaving. Yes, the group shot was great, but I wasn’t leaving without a pic of just the two of us—dreams do come true!

What a wonderful life!

PS. Predictably during the 1992 Olympics, I managed to fall love with Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken—I was young, a dreamer, falling in love with unattainable, enthusiastic, Olympic-Gold-medal-winning-women, that I would never meet, let alone have a meaningful thought provoking conversation with…

Though, my dream did eventually come true, in China of all places, with Janet.

—IrascibleChef

Technorati Tags: 2008 Olympics, America, Beijing, China, Crush, Dreams, J & J, Janet Evans, Mindy, Restaurants, Swimming, travel, USA

Happy 40th Birthday iChef Mindy! Welcome to the club!

# # #

I’m just not sure where to start… Maybe a, China Power In -N- Out, list!

• Janet Evans
• Business Class
• Beijing China—the People’s Republic
• The Green T
• Hotel Kunlun
• Communication or not
• 2008 Olympic (Beach Volleyball, Men’s Indiv Gymnastic Finals, Swimming—MP, the BirdsNest, WaterCube)
• Pollution and Traffic
• Yuan, RMB, $
• Johnson and Johnson
• Customs in China vs Customs in US—Airports
• The Forbidden City Tiananmen Square
• New Friends from the Old Country
• The Great Wall
• Janet Evans

Okay, I have my work cut out for me…

Technorati Tags: $, 2008 Olympic (Beach Volleyball, 2008 Olympics, Beijing China—the People, Business Class, Customs in China vs Customs in US—Airports, Hotel Kunlun, Janet Evans, Johnson and Johnson, Men's Indiv Gymnastic Finals, Pollution and Traffic, RMB, Swimming—MP, the BirdsNest, The Forbidden City Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall, The Green T, travel, WaterCube), Yuan