Review from Spasso

When we pulled up to the Strip Mall where the restaurant was located, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But the moment we walked in the door I was pleasantly surprised - the nice decor, a huge wood burning stove, the friendly staff, and needless to say it's a lot bigger inside then it looks from the outside. When we sat down our waitress was very polite and helpful in suggesting a wine to our tastes. Most of us had wine and the cocktails were served in pint glasses (this is my type of drinking...). What is unique about their wine selection is that if you don't find what your looking for on their menu you can go next door to the Wine Shop and pick out your wine and they'll cork it at the restaurant. Plus the wine prices are very reasonable starting at only $20 a bottle. We then decided to get the Spinach Artichoke Dip for an appetizer and it was fabulous - it tasted very fresh and the Parmesan Flatbread was excellent. We then proceeded to order dinner which we tried the Crab Cakes, Pepperoni Pizza, Margherita Pizza, Bacon White Cheddar Burger, Seafood Volcano, and the Skirt Steak. The pizzas were good but simple - basically what you'd expect. Crab Cakes came with three dipping sauces that were exquisite - each with their own unique flavor, it was definitely a winner. The Bacon Cheddar Burger was huge and I assume it was good since Luis kept it all to himself :-). The Skirt Steak was tender and juicy and the hunter sauce added the perfect touch to this excellent dish. And then there was the Seafood Volcano...shrimp, scallops, and crap in an absolute phenomenal cream sauce. I'll definitely be back for more of this. If you like seafood then there is no doubt this is the dish for you! We all ended up passing on the desert as we all were full and a few of us had to go boxes. The prices were very reasonable and we would definitely return.

****(4.25 OUT OF 5 STARS)

Review from Obento-Ya

This small little restaurant was definitely something different and good. We snuck in a couple beers on happy hour and ordered a couple appetizers. First we ordered both the Agedashi Tofu and the Kushi Katsu Vegetables. The tofu didn't really taste like anything - I would definitely not order that again and the Kushi Katsu Grilled Vegetables were interesting but definitely nothing special either. At this point I was kind of worried the food seemed blan and didn't have any flavor. We then ordered different Bento Box Combos which included the meat of your choice - we had the chicken, pork, beef, and the salmon. The bento box also came with white steamed rice, spring greens, Japanese potato salad, spicy burdock root saute, a Japanese egg omelet, and miso soup. The salad was fabulous, the potato salad was creamy goodness (we were all hoping to have gotten an extra scoop!), the egg omelet was also very tasty, and the miso soup was good but the shallow spoons made consumption a tad difficult. After becoming pros with our chopsticks all and all we were very pleased with this restaurant. We would recommend getting the Classic Bento Box versus the Combo box and save yourself $4 - maybe get yourself the Asparagus and Bacon roll (we also tried this and I thought it was phenomenal (anything with grilled bacon is always good!)

***(3.25 OUT OF 5 STARS)

Review from Cafe Maude...12.9.08

This resataurant has the ambiance that you love, it was fancy but low key. The service was good though it seemed the type of place that is in no rush to get you out the door and perhaps too polite to interrupt your conversation to get your order. Which among a bunch of girls - there was really no down time for him to sneak in, so it seemed as though we were waiting to order. We shared a bottle of wine and Marlo was excited to try the Bronco Nagurski (whiskey, rootbeer, and bitters) - she was definitely impressed and loved the extra kick!! The waiter was excellent when he noticed we weren't impressed with the wine and got us a new bottle which we definitely enjoyed. We then enjoyed an array of food everything from Mac & Cheese to Baked Escargot. The Mac and Cheese was definitely one of our favories. We also had the Corn Chowder, Egg & Spinach, House Cut Fries, and Grilled Asparagus. I have to say we all enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and I have to say the conversation was the best. All in all we would definitely return and thought it would be fun to visit during the live music on the weekends.

***(3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS)