The Stonefire Grill is opening a branch in Pasadena, CA. And on Saturday 10/17/09, celebrating the day of the grand opening, they have decided to host a charity event, you dine for FREE, and tips goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Once I read about this on Gourmet Pigs's website, I excitedly called and made reservations for 7pm. Sounded like a great way to try a new restaurant and support a good cause! So last night, myself and 2 other friends showed up to our "reservation" right on time at 7pm. Upon arrival at the door, we were shocked. There was a line of at least 100 people standing outside the restaurant door. Thinking to myself.... well, I made a reservation, so there is NO way that's the line for me to wait in.... I asked the front hostess. Unfortunately, she confirmed. YES everyone is waiting to be seated. You have to wait in this LINE. (by this time even the inside of the restaurant was PACKED already with diners)

At this point in time I was quite irritated and asked for the manager. I asked the manager if ALL these 100+ people waiting in line had reservations at 7pm. She said YES. I was like.... WHY would you make reservation for 100+ ppl at 7pm when you obviously can not accomodate them!? She procedes to talk condescendingly, "well, you need to just WAIT in line. You know, this is a charity event, after all, you are getting to eat for FREE."

Well, lady. I've gone to plenty of charity events, and SHE obviously did NOT know how to run one! I would have had NO PROBLEM if they had stated the event was first come first serve. NO! They took my reservation for dinner for 7pm, and now expect me to wait for 1-2 hours in a LINE to get seated!? what is the point of a reservation then!? AND condescendingly reminding me since I get a free meal I should be happy wasting my time in a long ass line, as if I could not pay for the meal!?

I was seriously fuming. And apologizing to my friends that I did not know this was how the situation would be. Wasted time on my precious Saturday night. The people at Stonefire Grill had poor planning, rude customer service, and out of principle, I would NEVER return to the restaurant to give them my business.

Given previous positive experiences at Michael Mina's in vegas, we decided to return with friends during most recent vegas trip to finally try their signature lobster pot pie. Michael Mina was first based in SF, but now has opened four restaurants in las vegas. The restaurants offer mostly higher end comtemporary american cusine, some with a seafood focus.

The decor at Michael Mina's is modern, sleek, but not too uptight. The crowd was well dressed but not too formal. Last visit I had an annoying stuck up waiter who made it his life mission to "educate" us about food and wine. Not in a fun or enjoyable way either, he had apparently forgot his job was to SERVE. Luckily, this visit our service was friendly and relaxed.

Amuse bouche - some sort of gazpacho (almond?) topped with herbs. This did not do much for me, flavor wise was a bit bland and the texture was too grainy instead of smooth.

Crustacean trio american classics - sweet shrimp trio with horseradish, Maine lobster roll with citrus aioli, crab "po boy" with remoulade ($29). This was a very "it is what it is" type of dish. Basically american classics done well. Ingredients were good, flavors on the heavier side, especially the deep fried crab was a bit oily. Overall it was a hearty enjoyable dish, but lacked the creativeness I had hoped for.

Trio of sashimi ($24) - fluke with grilled pineapple and japapeno gelee, kampachi with coconut gelee and curry, albacore with mango and nuoc mam cham. Didn't taste this myself but my friend seemed to really enjoy this.

So when ordering our food, my friend opted for some foie gras dish, which apparently the "half" foie gras was a perfect entree size per our waitress.

Roasted half valley foie gras ($MP) - forgot how much it was given we were just all so taken back by the SIZE of this monster! The waiter pushed this over in a big cart, opens the lid, and presents this giant piece of foie gras, really, basically size of a full serving of steak. That is one gigantic liver! The first pic below shows the size, for reference, the spoon/fork in the picture were the large serving utencils.

Our waiter procedes to cut up the foie gras and plate it. This baby was so big, that he had to plate it onto two plates! Each one looks like the pic below. My friend ended up eating one of the plates as entree, and the other plate was shared between rest of us. The foie gras was pure fatty heavenly bliss, the outter layer had a thin charred crisp and inside just melted in your mouth. This was defintely one of the better preparation of foie gras I had. However, I would say for some reason the overabundance of the portion took away a little from the "experience" itself. Our eyes were already full looking at the dish! This definitely proves there is some logic to the small platings in fine dining =).

American kobe ribeye trio ($70) - puree, hen of the woods, spinach, gratin, spring onion. This definitely was a bit of a disappointment. One of the reasons I like the trios is because I look forward to three different pairings of flavors with one ingredient. This, however, was just like piece of steak and each of the trio just paired with a "side". Though the sides were fine, the pairing did not enhance flavors. Each piece of steak tasted the same, just had a regular "side" placed on top of the steak. Furthermore, the supposingly "kobe" "ribeye" was a rather lean piece of meat lacking fatty marbling. It was done perfectly median rare, but without the fat the steak was not as tender and juicy as I had hoped.

Maine lobster pot pie ($78) - baby carrots, fingerlin potatoes, black truffles. This dish did not disappoint. The dish first was carried out by the waiter in a pot, a literal pot pie presentation. Then the waiter opens up the pie and plates it tableside: phyllo crusting at bottom, lobster on top, then drizzled the beautiful sauce all over the dish. The lobster was well prepared, fresh and not too ruberry. The sauce was this amazing lobster bisque I prolly could have drank as a soup. The only complaint about the dish was that it was perhaps oversalted. Nevertheless, this was quite a satisfying dish, with a fun presentation.

This meal turned out to be more filling than we intended it to be, we somehow all ended up with heavy dishes. By the end we were too stuffed for any desserts. Since it was my birthday, the restaurant was kind enough to prepare these cute little chocolate popsicle cubes and lit a festive candle. It was a nice touch.

Overall, I did enjoy our dinner. However I regret that our choices of food all coincidentally ended up being quite heavy. Especially the gigantic foie gras made me feel plaques building up in my arteries! We were all in a food coma afterwards. Who knew I would ever complain about too much foie gras? lol. The food somehow lacked the delicateness, the dancing of flavors I had hoped for. But it was damn hearty and good tasting. I would definitely go back, and perhaps visit other Michael's restaurants. I especially like his "trios", I like the idea of getting different flavor combinations out of one dish.

Michael Mina @ Bellagio

3600 Las Vegas Blvd south

Las Vegas, NV 89109

(702) 693-7223

I'm always up for a "good deal". Readings online suggested that Komasa sushi is just that.... little joint with fresh sushi at a reasonable price. I always walk by this place in Little tokyo on my way to my fav place Sushi Gen. I was looking forward to looking for a new sushi spot.

Upon entry, the place was tiny. I was glad we came early to secure a sushi bar seat. There is a sushi bar that seats about 10 ppl, and maybe 6 tables in the restaurant. Instead of ordering from the sushi chef in front of me, we were given "sushi menu" to check off our orders. I haven't had to do this for a while, usually just place my order spontaneously from the chef.

And I cont to find out more strangely, my order was placed by the chef all the way at the OTHER end of the bar. There was definitely no interaction between sushi chef and us. The chef, far away from us, rushes to make our order, grabs it in his hands, walks all the way to our side, and throws the pieces of sushi in front of us. Then without saying a word, runs back to his station. A few times I tried to stop him to ask if they had japanese snapper or large scallops. He looks at me a little caught off guard, like "why r u talking to me", and shakes his head No.... then runs off. This is the weirdest sushi bar experience ever, and quite frankly I hated it.

The sushi, while some pieces notably fresh eg yellowtail, Ebi, albacore.... There was no craftsmanship/refinement wutsoever. The Sushi was sort of "slapped together", the piece of nigiri rice crumbled apart. And the one california roll we ordered (there was serious lack of variety of sushi to order from....so i craved a generic cali roll), it was sooo poorly constructed that it was so ugly! Shit was falling out of it left and right....Please refer to pic below lol. I can't believe they even served it!

We also tried the fried chicken nuggets, which were a bit undersalted.

The two of us at around $70. But this is prolly higher than most ppl would eat. We r sushi piggies pretty much. Also we ordered uni as well as ebi. In conclusion, this was like, "fast food sushi" experience. No attention from sushi chef, no personal interaction to it at all. Yes the fish wasn't bad. Similar quality and price to say, Kiyosuzu in Arcadia. But at least at Kiyosuzu u get treated like a human being. lol. Most of the time I don't midn bad service in exchange for good food. But something about sushi.... it just was not right the way we ate......I probably will never go back to this place. I would be more than happy to pay 30 bucks more and enjoy my meal down the street at Gen.

351 E 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

(213) 680-1792