Restaurant & Bar Reviews

A favorite place of ours in Boston, Aquitaine always produces a great experience. Wine selection and entrees are fantastic along with the ambiance. I love coming in here just when it opens to grab a spot at the little bar in the front where we will sit all night if possible to have a few drinks and an exceptional meal. The music they play is on trend and the food is fantastic, our standards are the Sole with potatoes and, Steak Frites and the steak tartar!

Since the renovation of the Pump Room Public Chicago, we’ve been a handful of times to experience the new space and taste the work of restauranteur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. This spot is sure to deliver a great scene with delicious food and phenomenal service. The Pump Room in Chicago has an extensive history for celeb spotting.

Be sure to start with a glass of wine or a cocktail, the selection was deluxe.

For appetizers try the Tuna Tartar, Salmon Crispy Sushi Rice with Chipotle Aioli or the Pretzel Dusted Calamari, all were delicious and didn’t last long enough to get a picture of. Every dish we had was fantastic, for an Entree it’s really up to your preference, the menu for the Pump Room has a great selection that won’t leave you disappointed.

pump room entrance from Public hotel lobby.

Cocktail Menu at Pump Room ~ Try the Moscow Mule!

Asia de Cuba is one of my fav places to eat in Los Angeles.
Located in the funky Mondrian hotel it offers inside and outside dining.

The food is Cuban fusion and is outstanding.

Calamari salad is the signature starter and is a must. It is a big portion so can be shared.

Tuna pica is also excellent.

The view of LA is incredible .

The mojitos are very good as well. Especially the mango .

Salmon was great.

So was Cuban chicken.

The steak was so good that I forgot to photograph it before I started eating.

The wild decor almost has an Alice in Wonderland feel.

While this is not a cheap place it is definately worth a visit.
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Nobu is one of the most famous Japanese restaurants in the world. It has outposts all over the world including NewYork,London,Vegas and Miami .The Miami branch is located in the Shore Club on Collins Ave.While the hotel is very funky the restaurant is really simple with no real atmosphere . So you go there for the food.

As I said you come for the food and it is expensive.

We started with tuna sashimi which was excellent.

Rice cakes were good.

Rock shrimp was fantastic

Octopus was fantastic.

Pork belly was very good.

Wontons tasted like wontons.

The most disappointing part of the meal was the sushi.

I enjoyed my meal overall but thought that everything was just a little too pricey.
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Located in the Short North district this is prob my favorite restaurant in Columbus. A short 5 minute walk from the Hyatt it is the perfect place for dinner or lunch.

The restaurant is in an old warehouse type building with exposed brick walls and some great art.

The bar is small but very well stocked and the bar tenders are excellent.

One word of warning though. Even though there is free wi-fi reception is not good so do not expect to get much computor work done.

The food is great. Presentation always very nice and quality very consistant

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The Hubbard Grill is located in the trendy Short North district of columbus. It is about a 10 minute walk from the Hyatt which is home to the Ohio Star Ball.

The building started life as a Chevvy dealership and some of the original fixtures have been left.

The bar area is quite noisy so if you want to talk try and grab a booth.

Food is well priced and portions are very generous.

The food was excellent.

The rib-eye was done in a Marsala sauce with fingerling potatoes and was really tasty.

Pepper crusted Ahi Tuna with jasmine rice was as good as I have ever had.

Drink selection was well priced and features some American gems such as the Sophia Coppola sparking complete with straw.

Beer selection was very good and Curtis our server very kindly gave me a small tasting of different columbus beers. I really like the elevator brand.
Service was great and atmosphere very good. Will definately be back here.
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Just had a great Sunday brunch at Amrheins in South Boston

Irish Coffee was great to start with, they also had the Francis Coppola Zinfandel on the menu.

The buffet selection was extensive, with your standard american breakfast options and everything from shrimp to steak. Our plates were filled twice!

Meat lovers will be happy if they stop into Amrheins restaurant as well as the standard breakfast lover too!

Do not let the strange location of this restaurant fool you( it is on the top level of the South Coast Plaza). It is my fav place to eat in the Irvine/Costa Mesa area

It features 2 outside eating areas.(this one is actually in the mall)

This one is inside the restaurant walls but actually the roof opens up.( confusing at first but after a few drinks it will all make sense)

The bar is small but very well stocked and the bartenders have always been excellent on each visit .

The main seating area is right next to an open kitchen.

The food is excellent. I have never had anything that I did not really enjoy.

The bone marrow an tataki were both excellent.

Coq au vin simply magnifique.

John Dorey is a fish and was excellent.( I thought he played for Huddersfield )

For dessert it is definately off to Hungary.

We actually started and finished in Hungary .
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We actually started the evening with a few drinks at ‘The Lobby Bar’ in the atrium of the Liberty Hotel. This building was previously “Boston’s Charles Street Jail which had been opened in 1851 as an experiment in prison reformation and closed more than a century later after a judge ruled conditions there were inhumane.” (NPR article)

The building re-opened in September of 2007 after a five-year, $150 million renovation, as the Liberty Hotel. Our night started with a ‘Harvest Margarita’ pictured below and a Besame, both were delicious.

We then moved into CLINK. to commence our dinner.

I was very happy to see they offered gluten free bread to start our dinner (along with normal bread)

We also found an exquisite bottle of wine to take us through the evening, it’s called Darioush (neither of us had it previously and it pleasantly surprised us.)

In regard to food, we started with the Beef Tartar (a little too pureed for our preference) though the ice cream on top was a unique pairing that went well with the overall dish.

When asked between the Tuna Sashimi and the Octopus with Yucca, the waiter said, hands down if you like Octopus this is the best in Boston. While it was good especially when compared with others I’ve had in Boston, I have had better in Argentina.

Our main dishes were another beef dish, and the scallops, both were good, but nothing off the chart. My scallops were especially interesting as they were accompanied by a mix of raw mushrooms and carrots, thankfully I like raw, for those who don’t this may be a little to overpowering to be bearable.

Overall, dinner was nice, the atmosphere entertaining and the wine and cocktails even better. We arrived for a 6pm reservation, the place was packed (Saturday night) by the time we left which was around 9PM. I recommend booking a reservation for CLINK. and heading over early to get a drink at the Lobby Bar and take the architecture and crowd in at your leisure.

Buckhead is the ritziest suburb of Atlanta.Paces 88 is located in the St Regis hotel.

Paces 88 is a very upscale American Bistro .

I was there for lunch and there was a vegan option not shown on the main menu.

I did not have a starter but went with an Irish coffee. Nothing special here but the presentation was very nice.

Steak frites was also very good.

Lobster BLT was ok but nothing to write home about.

If the weather is good try the outside patio. Very cool.
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