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Showing posts from October, 2010

The Derby- Arcadia

When talking about high end restaurants in Arcadia, there really are not many. Sure, there are plenty of pricier restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory or Din Tai Fung for that matter, but both are really quite casual. Moving onto more formal restaurants, we have hotel restaurants, Santa Anita park's own restaurant, Sesame Grill, and then the Derby, probably the most expensive of them all. The Derby is a long time restaurant in Arcadia, but I have never tried it before until this year. It is a very popular option for people watching races at Santa Anita Park, obviously due to the horse inspiration of the Derby due to Seabiscuit's owner actually owning this restaurant for some time as well as its general classiness. The Derby ticks off plenty of fancy check marks: business casual suggested, free valet parking, and expensive prices on the menu overall, whether it be lunch or dinner! The atmosphere was quite dark. Don't let the photos fool you, I edited th

Tahoe Galbi Restaurant- Koreatown, Los Angeles

Last time we talked about Orange County , now it's Los Angeles for a twist before I go back to restaurants in San Gabriel Valley again. When we were going back from Steinway and Il Piccolino last time, we drove by Tahoe Galbi, and a thought came into my head that Wandering Chopsticks had wrote about it before . We went back to LA in hopes of trying Spago after visiting the places we needed to go, but when we saw the customers going in, they seemed as if they were dressed very formally, and we were not. My dining companions did not feel right eating there in casual clothing (although that was permitted), so we decided to find a casual option based on Korean food since Koreantown was close by! After driving by Tahoe Galbi again, we noticed a small, dimly lit restaurant with plenty of customers, but with problems on finding parking we just went to Tahoe Galbi. After getting our car in the valet (2 USD), we went in, only to find a long waiting list plus the smell of barbeque. No

A September Trip: Thai Nakorn- Garden Grove, Marine Air Corps Air Station-Tustin, UC Irvine

It so happened to be another UC Irvine visit again due to the start of their school year, so what would we do a fair morning at UC Irvine? Lunch of course, but where? Charlie Palmer? Not today. Pippin @ UCI? No, it would feel like a waste of money since other dorms at UC Irvine got free dining passes during move in day.  My dining companion didn't mind driving far, so I suggested Thai Nakorn thanks to the reviews by Elmomonster and KevinEats . I didn't know that Garden Grove, at least for Thai Nakorn, was so far from UCI when I inputted it into the GPS. A grueling 30 minute drive later thanks to the GPS route going local most of the way (instead of going a further distance by the freeway), we were there. It was quite surprising to find the restaurant empty, although by the time we arrived it was a late 1:30PM. There were only two or three tables that had people sitting, and in such a large restaurant (you see only about 1/2 of the restaurant in this photo) it felt very col

CSN Stores.com $65 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

  EDIT: Deadline has been pushed to 11:59 PM Pacific Time (GMT-08:00), on Saturday, October 16, 2010 . This giveaway has ended. CSN Stores has offered me to give a gift certificate worth 65 US Dollars to all of you readers! And that of course means, the first giveaway on the blog to thank all of you U.S. and Canadian readers (gift certificate limited to United States and Canada) after almost two years of staring this blog. But I'm sure some of you are wondering: what does CSN Stores offer? Based in Boston, CSN Stores is a " Top 3 online U.S. retailer of home and office goods." With that said, their size allows for a wide amount of products to be selected from their website. They actually have 200+ stores/websites  which offer products like dining chairs and office furniture all the way to household appliances and cookware. So, with this certificate if you win it, you are going to have a wide variety of things to choose from! So, what can you do to earn some en

Zapata Vive!! Mexican Restaurant & Cantina- Arcadia

The comments from last week's survey requested unanimously for a Mexican restaurant in Arcadia , and so here it is! Zapata Vive is one of the Mexican restaurants in Arcadia where the atmosphere is decidedly more Mexican compared to other places as well as sunny. And if you can't tell already by my writing, I have been here quite a few times. (However, this post only has photos from one visit and that is the first time I brought my camera to this place) Additional plus? There are routinely coupons for Zapata Vive in the local mail, and there are also restaurant.com gift certificates available. Thus, if you have extra airline miles from United that you don't plan on using for flying, switching for gift certificates is a great option- and using it here is a good option, as the main condition is 35 dollars minimum on food only, which when you have a party of four is easy peas-y. Plus you can use it any day of the week and any time of day, including lunch. I do no