Triangle Trip

First, we do not like to blast restaurants. We prefer to be the ones making recommendations. This post is an extreme exception.

Captain G and his colleagues just had their worst meal in a decade. This includes business and non-business related meals. We just left Maison Akira with a $250 bill for 3 people. This was not only the worst meal we had in a decade; it is also the most expensive.

When we chose to dine at Maison Akira, we thought we were having Japanese food or at least Japanese fusion or French fusion. This place was neither Japanese nor French. Maison Akira is located in Pasadena. Not only did the restaurant didn’t have valet; the parking lot charged us for outside parking. How could a restaurant not have valet in SoCal? We should have seen this as a red flag before entering the restaurant.

This week is restaurant week (dineLA) with prix fixe menus in LA. Maison Akira had a $44 prix fixe menu. Since it’s Chinese New Year, $44 meal should be another red flag as the number 4 is bad luck in Chinese. Another red flag was the chef prepared complementary salad that contained two tiny shrimp and five day old vegetables.

The setting of the restaurant was old musty. We were seated right in front of the door/entrance. That was another red flag that this restaurant doesn’t have good service or Feng Shui for that matter. How could a classy restaurant have a table right in the middle of the road facing the entrance?

Today’s prix fixe menu had the following entrees:  duck, Kobe beef and tuna. The three of us selected the Kobe as it was the best option on the menu. We all had different appetizers, which happened to be the best course on the menu.

The Kobe beef was the worst steak we have ever had in a decade. An Outback steak would have been 5x better. Given the fact that we had Ruth’s Chris the night before for the same price, I really felt we got ripped off for this meal. For $44, Ruth gave us a tender 14-ounce filet + appetizers and dessert.

There were four slices of Kobe beef with sloppy mash potatoes that tasted like chalk. The Kobe beef were chewy and had lots of tendons, and tasted more like lamb than beef. I thought I was eating rack of lamb as opposed to tender Kobe – the way it is supposed to be served. For all we know, the Kobe could have been dog meat, as we have never had anything so bad in our experiences. The sauce for the Kobe was most likely prepared by some amateur chef, as it tasted really tangy.

I had the Crème Brulee for dessert which tasted like egg tart that has been aged for two weeks. The Crème Brulee was extremely dried and the strawberry was not fresh. Finally, the wine selection was extremely poor. We selected the Hafner from Alexander Valley and paid $80. Sadly to say, the wine was the best part of the meal. We felt like we’d paid $250 for the wine since the meal itself was a horrendous dining experience.

Yelp also lost all of its credibility. We read the Yelp reviews before deciding on the restaurant and saw 4.5 stars from 107 reviews. After tonight’s meal, all the raters on Yelp are clueless. Yelp should remove all the positive entries about this restaurant removed.

In summary, the price for tonight’s meal cost us an arm and a leg, and it tasted like we were eating our arms and legs. We noticed the chef is Japanese. We recommend he stick to Sushi or pure Japanese food as oppose to French/Japanese because it’s not working…

I experienced Clear for the first time last night and thought it was quite valuable if the airport is packed. I was at JFK last night (Sunday night) and it was a zoo. As a Clear member, you actually get to skip the line – even bypassing people with status.

The Clear process is as follows:

1. Show your Clear membership card at the Clear station. A Clear representative will look at your card and make you identify yourself via your finger print (thumb, index finger, etc.) or retina scan.
2. Once you have been verified by the Clear representative, he/she will assist you with the removal of your shoes, belt, laptop, liquid items, etc.
3. The Clear representative then takes you from the Clear station directly to the front of the line of a security scanning machine.

My experience was extremely pleasant and efficient as I was a seasoned traveler. I can see how the $199 per year fee can help some of the novices/rookies running late to airports. The jury is still out if Clear is actually worth me giving up my personal data + $199 per year. The limited airports with Clear machines still baffles me. You can find more insight on the registration process from my December post.

Finally I would like to let everyone who considers joining to know that they actually will only get 11 months of service vs. 12 months if they decide to sign up. It took Clear a four weeks to get me my card. Here was the entire process:

1. Registered online:  around December 15
2. Registered at Clear kiosk:  December 30
3. Received Clear card:  January 21

Hope this article helps… Happy Lunar New Year!!  May the year of the Ox bring prosperity to all my fans.

Regardless if you’ve corporate accounts with Hertz, Avis, Budget, etc., National Car Rental offers the most flexibility when it comes to return locations.

Hertz and Avis offer one way rentals but they often want you to stick to the itinerary. Any last minute changes will cost you $75 to $100. National however allows you to return it to any of its regional locations.

I had a car from Hertz last month from LAX and needed to return to Burbank due to a flight change. Hertz wanted to charge me a drop off change fee of $75. I had to escalate the issue to a supervisor to get rid of the fee.

I had a car from National last week that was picked up from LAX and scheduled to be returned to Burbank. Due to my travel schedule change, I had to drop off the car at SNA. I rang. National and just told them about the change and they switched my return without hesitation. I actually didn’t have to call. National is very good about just accepting cars at their facility. I also had similar experience in NYC when I said I would return the car at the 43rd street facility and dropped it off at the 12th street lot.

National is flexible and they get business travel!