My Recommendations

Recommended: Colicchio and Sons Tap Room

2011-11-29T12:57:00.001-08:00

My review on Yelp

We had a late lunch at the Tap Room the day after Thanksgiving. My wife's comment says it all - "Judge away, Tom, judge away" - a reference to the fact that many people complain about the way Tom judges on Top Chef. The entire experience (service, food, everything) is exactly what a restaurant should be.

A 25$ prix-fixe for lunch (two courses) is a STEAL for a restaurant of this quality.

I had a frise fig and walnut salad (I typically wouldn't enjoy frise) and it was amazing. My wife had the bean soup and fell in love with it. Then I had the ricotta cavaletti with oyster mushrooms. Delicious. My wife had a flat-iron steak (something she doesn't usually eat) and loved it.

The service was spot-on - dishes arrived as soon as we were ready for them, impeccable timing and perfectly casual. Wine was expensive but well worth it. Saw lots of pizza and burgers being eaten which made me very excited to come back.

Mesa Grill (Thanksgiving) - Not Recommended

2011-11-29T12:51:00.001-08:00

Check out my full review on Yelp and Open Table but the Thanksgiving prix fixe was so disappointing that I wonder if I would go back to another Bobby Flay restaurant.

They promoted it as Southwestern Thanksgiving Bobby Flay-style and my wife was crushed.

Service was indifferent (I don't care how busy you are for that) - and the initial course was surprising. The pumpkin soup tasted like overdone pumpkin pie before it was put in the shell. The shrimp and couscous was dry after the sauce disappeared.

Worse, my prawns weren't cooked --- to the point where I had to spit it out. The server even noted it (we were comp'd one prix fixe which we didn't expect) - it was inedible and unfortunately made the entire meal disappointing enough we didn't want to finish it. There were only 6 items on the entire menu - that one of the them was completely undercooked still amazes me.

Tom Colicchio Interview

2011-03-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you like Top Chef, you will definitely want to read this interview with Tom Colicchio.

Great interview - full of insight on the Top Chef All Stars Season.

Tom Colicchio | TV | Interview | The A.V. Club

Not Recommended: Stella Osteria (Ottawa)

2010-11-14T03:41:00.000-08:00

The Byward Market in Ottawa is the obvious tourist hot spot in the city, boasting the latest and arguably, greatest restaurants. Stella Osteria has been around for a few years, affiliated with Luxe Bistro and the Blue Cactus.

Rated highly by the local paper and magazines, we had high hopes. The hostess at the front was wonderful and attentive - if she was the standard for their service, the evening would have been wonderful. Sadly, she wasn't.

From Wikipedia, "Osteria" in Italian literally means a place where the owner "hosts" people.
Food is generally regional and prepared with local recipes, and often served at shared tables. We've been to Mozza Osteria in Los Angeles - that felt exactly as described above. I'm not sure if the owners of Stella truly have that in mind, because the experience didn't hit that tone at all.

Food
First off, the portions are very large. It would be enough to only have three appetizers for a table of four. It was impossible to put all four plates on the table and still eat comfortably. We started with appetizers. The Caesar salad was over-acidic and served in the equivalent of a kitchen bowl. The "Stella special" fried zucchini is an interesting spin on an old roadhouse classic, using wide thin slices rather than sticks but otherwise was nothing new. The seafood platter wasn't very good - with the batter appearing sickly white instead of a golden brown. One exception was the prosciutto di parma platter which was wonderful. It combined aged prosciutto with fig, pecans and parmigiana.

Because the platters are so large, it would have been enough to stop there. Instead we opted for something a little smaller, some light pasta.

The pasta isn't fresh or home-made - which for an Italian restaurant should be considered a crime. The spaghetti bolognese comes with a single large meatball, made with breadcrumbs and extremely dry. The carbonara was very heavy with garlic, to the point where one of our companions felt it was burnt. The egg on top was done well but when placed in the large bowl, it was lost. The vegetable ziti featured a whipped goat cheese which brought a unique taste, although not quite becoming to the dish. Both the bolognese and ziti had a layer of oil at the bottom of the bowl. I didn't have the black cod but it wasn't received with great enthusiasm.

Service
The service was pretty poor. The waiter was indifferent and inattentive. He was somewhat friendly when he was there but didn't make us feel welcome. Initial drink orders took forever to arrive and when they did, they were wrong (gin and soda, really?!?!?). The selection of beers on top isn't huge but not impressive. With two choices of Nero d'Avola, the waiter didn't offer the choice but immediately assumed the most expensive. If the basic service to that point had been great, I could have appreciated it - but it wasn't. At times, I felt they wanted to rush us out of the restaurant because they were getting busier, but the slowness of the actual service contradicted that impression. Even getting the bill was a chore.

Dinner for four with two bottles of wine came to $269.

Overall
In your own city, heading into the Byward Market should be a special occasion, coming away with the feeling of getting away from your regular day with an exceptional evening. Stella's didn't hit that mark; in fact, it fell way off the mark.

Jason Mraz Site: Common Pleasure (Recommended)

2010-05-03T16:52:00.001-07:00

While the main fan site is on RKOP, Common Pleasure is a great site for Jason Mraz audiophiles, wanting to go through his entire discography and perhaps better, all of the songs he has ever performed.

The site host (Jon, I believe) has amassed one of the most complete listing of Mraz's work (he also records some of his shows with amazing quality).

The forums don't have a lot but the information contained within the site (which is remarkably well updated - details from shows from April 2010 are all there). This is really the kind of site for those fans who want to catch up on older tunes but also any fan who wants to find the latest shows and what was played.

Highly recommended.

Recommended: Mozza Osteria (Los Angeles)

2010-02-28T03:44:00.000-08:00

Mozza Osteria is a restaurant co-owned by celebrity chef Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton.

Our experience was amazing. Expectations were high - and they did not disappoint - in fact exceeded. We were 5 mins late for our 5:45 reservation - and they got us in (lineup after 7pm ) and made my wife's birthday dinner a meal to remember. Our daughter said "most amazing meal experience in her life". Every bite was an amazing set of layers - and the service was phenomenal. Not rushed - amazingly helpful and the price was actually lower than expected. We could not have asked for a better evening.

Served by a group of professionals all of whom were exceptional, the experience felt like a tour. If you had been there before, you felt they would have let you do your own thing - but as first timers, they didn't push all of the food, making simple but amazing recommendations ("you don't need four dishes, only take three and mix them").

Including dessert, wine and cocktails, dinner for four came to approximately $350, not including gratuity. The meal and restaurant made you feel like a million bucks.

Jason Mraz: Highly Recommended

2009-11-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

Always recommend Jason Mraz (an amazing song-writer and great guitarist) - but even more so with his final performance of the Gratitude Cafe tour in San Diego, CA, singing the following:

(In My Life, the Beatles) - although some lyrics were missed, this was beautiful. But it also reminds me of one of his original songs, 1000 things. A slightly different sentiment but somehow quite similar, about how after all , there is one thing you remember:

"But I stopped my counting when I saw your face
Erasing memory, well I feel as though I've never seen a face before
Until I saw your eyes
And they're smiling back at me through my tears
I've been counting all these years, oh
Suddenly the thousand things I've seen were nothing more than dreams of
Of you and me"
--- Jason Mraz

Mraz is often considered fairly egotistical in his writing - but with the renditions of these songs, I think he shows what a wonderful guitarist and lyricist he is.

I'm sure, I'll come back to this post and comment more on how much we recommend Jason Mraz, but for now, this is something I highly recommend, even to watch, if not to purchase and buy.

Wine Garden: Recommended

2009-10-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

Company: Wine Garden (West) - RECOMMENDED

The Wine Garden is a wine-making company, similar yet different to make-your-own-wine businesses but with a twist. Most wine making companies offer juices or concentrates, where you have to purchase large quantities of juice and then wait (usually longer than 2 months) to receive your wine. The end result? It's up in the air.

The Wine Garden is different. Yes, you still have to pre-order the wine but what is available is a wide variety of taste and price. Most of the juices offered all come from the Maipo valley in Chile, where their provider provides grapes directly from a first-press vineyard. While there are third-press juices like many companies, the treat is in the Wine Garden's first-press grapes, frozen grapes brought up right from various regions. Matt and Kevin, the owners, take special attention in the pressing and fermentation process. These first-press grapes can take upwards of six months but are stored in beautiful Hungarian oak barrels. The end result is a wine that competes hardily with most wines found in the liquor store. Some require longer storing in your home - while others are ready to drink. While there are other Wine Garden sites around the Ottawa area, this one is truly a special one - in fact, theirs is the picture that you see on the web site. Some of their wines are used in area restaurants as the house wine.

Our favorites: Malbec, Carmenere and their "Bordeaux" blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot/Malbec and xxx, where xxx may be one of Shiraz, Carmenere or some of their others.

Instead of just offering cases of wine, members can also purchase boxes (including 5l and 20l sizes). The prices are extremely reasonable, ranging from $3-4 bottle to $7 bottle of the first-press grapes. We have been members for three years and have yet to be disappointed by a bottle and the bottling experience is fun and enjoyable. As the web site says, the Wine Garden definitely offers Wines Beyond Your Imagination.

Company: Wine Garden (West) - RECOMMENDED

WestJet Airlines: Recommended

2009-10-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Company: WestJet Airlines - RECOMMENDED

There are effectively two major airlines in Canada: Air Canada and WestJet. Air Canada has gone from being a government subsidized airline to a private company, gobbling up other private airlines. WestJet is the latest of airline companies who provide competition with Air Canada for across the country, as well as some international flights.

We recently flew to Vancouver from Ottawa. This was the first time we have flown on WestJet and based on our experience, we would definitely fly them again. On the way out, we had a brief stop-over in Calgary. The flight attendants on both flights were friendly, attentive and in the case of Michael, hilarious. Michael made a "show" of the emergency announcements and both times, got the attention of most passengers, to the point of making the other flight attendant laugh during her announcements.

Only downside was on the flight back where the pilots did not welcome the passengers on-board (a small thing) and neglected to mention a possible delay (about 20 minutes - kind of major).

WestJet doesn't charge extra for bags which is a plus (although we usually go carry-on anyways) but you do have to pay for snacks, a common practice these days. As far as equipment goes, WestJet flies 737s, all equipped with TVs in the back of each seat, showing Bell channels and offering some pay per view. Honestly, it's not worth getting pay-per-view since you may be interrupted with announcements, making it impossible to really get a full watch of a show.

Company: WestJet Airlines - RECOMMENDED

NOT Recommended: Around the Home Handyman Services

2009-09-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Company: Around the Home Handyman - Norm (Norman) Richter - NOT RECOMMENDED

This company is NOT Recommended. Here is a link to their BBB listing. Note that the Around the Home BBB rating is not an "A" as noted on other sites.

(something I don't usually do here is comment on individual businesses or go on non-technical tirades. This is an exception to the rule - so if you're looking for tech comments, please ignore).

On a personal note, I can appreciate people can't work for free these days. It's tough - but any company who offers a one-year guarantee for their work should not be charging for problems with existing work (new work, yes - but work that they originally did? Absolutely not).

We have used Around the Home handyman services, owned by Norm Richter (also listed as Norman Richter) for two separate pieces of work: roofing and flooring. The roofing job was done extremely well and on budget. After the flooring work, we will never use them again.

The flooring job was a mixed bag. We were originally quoted about $1600 for a kitchen and mudroom renovation. Since we were paying by the hour, it was expected to go higher. The final tally was over $3000. Originally expected to take 3-4 days, it was over a week. Time was ADDED to the bill that was never received until we forced the issue as noted below.

The initial tiling looked great - but had some problems that were evident 3 days after the job was completed. This is where the problems began.

There was a crack in one of the tiles and several holes in grout around the floor. The biggest problem however is the supposed one year guarantee. FOUR months after we initially called and reported the problem, Norm finally came around to fix things, saw and reviewed the problems with the tiles and grout. The next day, they only fixed the tile (and replaced another) but did not correct the grout problems, blaming us. Keep in mind this was FOUR months after we tried to get them to come in.

Subsequent follow-ups was that he couldn't do the work for free (even though it was part of the original work) and that we should have used an insurance company's tilers to fix the grout that was caused by his work. He then subsequently blamed our floor.

I wish they had told us up front that they could NOT do the job properly.

Needless to say, I would NOT recommend them for any flooring work.