Triangle Trip

If you’re ever in the mood for drinks before, or after enjoying a great meal, check out urbandrinks.com. You can check to see when happy hour is, at any bar - truly, a Godsend for those impromptu socials with friends or coworkers, or when you’re in a new city and not familiar with its nightlife offerings.

UrbanDrinks has user reviews and ratings to help you make your decision; after you’ve picked your bar, urban drthey have the restaurant phone number and address after you pick your bar. And if the bar you pick isn’t what you expected, or want to hop over to another pub, UrbanDrinks shows you the nearest places where happy hours is happening.

Right now, they’ve got listings in eight metropolitan areas (see map below). So far UrbanDrinks is in Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Boise, and DC, and they’re constantly adding more. Check out it, and never be stumped on where to get a drink again.

Ever been on the road and wanted to check out a restaurant’s menu before actually physically going in?  Of course you could do some research online beforehand but what if you just left the client site or hotel and was looking for a place to eat with decent selection and prices?

Well if you have an iPhone you are in luck!  I recently checked out a new app for the iPhone called Unimenu.  It’s main goal is to be able to look up menus for restaurants in an easy manner.  You can view a restaurant’s location/address, look at what items they offer with prices, and directly call the restaurant from the app.  Additionally, it has some neat features as well.

Let’s say I’m craving some Japanese food in LA.  I can filter by cuisine in LA (it locates the metro area I’m in automatically) and select the “Near Me” button.  It then lists out the closest 10 restaurants near me serving Japanese cuisine, which then I can look at each menu and restaurant information accordingly.

Also, if ever you find yourself ordering from the same restaurant frequently, you can add that restaurant’s menu to your favorites and you’ll always have it handy, even if you don’t get any reception from crappy AT&T (or T-Mobile).

Lastly, I think the most creative feature of the app is the ability to add specific items from a menu or menus to a list, afterwards which you can email out if need be.  This is particular handy if you are ordering for a big group of people: you can just pass around your iPhone and have people select what they want.  Of course, you may want to wipe down your iPhone after you get it back.  One day I hope they come up with an iPhone app that de-sanitizes the phone.

Right now the app supports New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Chicago (the app also allows you to filter by neighborhoods specific to those cities).  I do most of my traveling between New York (city of blinding lights), SF (I left my heart there), LA (California dreamin’), and Chicago (my kind of town) so this app is perfect for me (who’d wanna go anywhere else anyhow?).  They also have a corresponding website at www.unimenu.com for those without iPhones. So for all of you who have ever walked into an unknown restaurant and been caught off guard by the prices or selection of the menu, check this app out.

As a follow up to our previous Pasadena restaurant review post which ranked 15 restaurants, Statusmonger, Big A and Captain G have since visited a few more restaurants in Pasadena, CA. We found Pasadena restaurants are a bit overrated. Nonetheless, we feel obligated to share our experiences with our readers.

Below is a list of our experience and ranking.

1.  Langham Hotel Dining Room - The only restaurant inside a hotel in the greater LA area to have a Michelin star! Dining experience was worldclass and worth the price. Great wine selection and dessert. Located inside the Langham Hotel, the Dining Room is kind of hard to find as it’s in a residential neighborhood. There is another restaurant called “The Terrace” which does not have a Michelin star. Make sure you tell the reservation specialist that you want the “Dining Room” if you want to experience real fine dining.

2.  Sushi Roku - Japanese restaurant nested in between Colorado and Union (near the corner of Colorado & Fair Oaks) — near Crate and Barrel. Very trendy restaurant with lots of young people. Service was excellent. Great sake selection as well. It’s fusion Japanese so do not expect anything real authentic.

3.  Tani - Japanese restaurant on Colorado Blvd and Raymond. Tiny looking restaurant on the outside but Tani has a pretty sizeable patio area seating on the outside. Good food selection as restaurant offers both cooked and raw Japanese food. Poor sake selection.

4.  Malagueta - A Brazilian joint located on Colorado (down the block from 1812 but 20x better). Has wide selection of Latin American wines. Mostly meat dishes. Avoid if you want veggies.

5.  Trattoria Tre Venezie - Little snobby Italian restaurant with one Michelin star that opens Wednesday to Sunday. We do not think this restaurant is worthy of the Michelin star. Food was mediocre at best. We were there on a Wednesday and the restaurant was not crowded at all. Wine list were all from Italy. The bright spot is they have authentic Italian soda.

Trattoria Tre Venezie6.  Yard House - Usual chain, American beer place.  It is usually packed with younger college kids.

7.  City Thai - Typical Thai food, nothing special.

8.  Tokyo Wako - A pricey Teppanyaki steakhouse. The show was typical of a Teppanyaki place but the waiters/waitresses provided excellent service. Portions were huge. Sake was good. However you’re paying for $30+ for Teppanyaki.

9.  Cafe Santorini - Mediterranean food inside an alley near Colorado and Fairoaks (by Roku). This restaurant has great ambiance. The restaurant is actually located on the 2nd floor of a building with outside seating. Service was horrible. Waiter could not recommend any dish — all he said was “pick whatever you want.” Food was very salty. The bright spots are: large portions, good dessert and great fresh bread. Perhaps the portions and dessert is what drive people to come to this restaurant. We were at Cafe Santorini on a Monday night and it was packed.

10.  Mojito’s - Cuban place on Raymond. They served great Mojitos as the name suggested. Food was so so at best. It was not memorable so it’s at the bottom of our list. Menu items were not too expensive.

11.  Central Park - Located on South Fairoaks and across the street from Pasadena’s Central Park. It’s an American style restaurant with seafood and meat on the menu. Nothing special. Just an over-priced restaurant that serves typical diner food.

12.  JJ Steakhouse - Steakhouse on the 2nd floor of a shop on Colorado. JJ Steakhouse is probably the worst steakhouse in Pasadena. For the same price, you are better off at Arroyo’s or Ruth’s.

13.  Kansai - Small Japanese restaurant on Fairoaks near Colorado. Kansai has a huge variety of Japanese dishes on its menu - perhaps too much to choose from… Setting is kind of ghetto. Food is so so. We will probably not visit them again.

14.  Nepal Tibet House - Located on Holly Street which was kind of out of the way… The restaurant marketed itself as Himalayan food but it was actually more Indian food than anything. We were disappointed and the meal was pricey.

15.  Cafe Bizou - We attempted to go to this restaurant 3x but couldn’t experience it. The first time they were closed after 9PM. The second time we were seated by the host and sat for 15 minutes without service. Furthermore, the patrons that night were at least 65 and up - crowd was definitely not hip. We gave Cafe Bizou one more chance on a Monday evening and they were closed for Monday’s.

With this list and our previous post, we have evaluated 30 restaurants in Pasadena, California. I don’t think you will find a better place with a more candid review of each restaurant at a particular location.

Big A | Captain G | Statusmonger