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Well, here is Kiji.

To start this, a warning: XP had advised me that I might want to cut down on the length of my entries. "They're kinda awesome in that snooze-inducing way," he said in that affable yet up-front way of his.

I really worked to cut and be succinct. I really did. And the result is... well...

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Evans - Jubeat

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So here we go! I apologize for the really long wait for this next review - illness, work and travel got in the way.

I do ask those who read: I have 7 reviews and pictures that I can write up. What are you interested in reading next? If I can get this poll to work properly, let's try... though I preface this too by saying that the first choice on the list I'm hoping to save as a Christmas gift for the

Poll #1483999
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

Which of the following restaurants do you want to see reviewed next?

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Val's in Hayward, CA - a burger joint that came recommended to me. Did it live up to the hype?
7 (36.8%)

Kiji in SF - a Japanese restaurant that came partially recommended to me. How was the omakase of the Bay Area?
6 (31.6%)

Delfina in SF - an Italian restaurant that was also highly recommended. How did I find it, particularly on a Hallowe'en?
4 (21.1%)

Vivacity in Richmond, BC - a Chinese seafood restaurant; did the traditional Chinese banquet live up to its billing?
0 (0.0%)

Chambar in Vancouver - a Belgian restaurant. Did the food compare to the trappiste beer?
1 (5.3%)

Finch's Tea Shop in Vancouver - Great sandwiches but did that explain why it was so busy?
1 (5.3%)

Le Faux Bourgeois, Vancouver - It came fully recommended as well... Was it more proletariat than it let on?
0 (0.0%)

Anyway, without further ado, onto another review! 




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Well, the votes have come in but none has actually gotten more than 50% of the vote, meaning I'm likely to follow the most popular choice but later.

One thing I should mention is how much more authoritarian Cesar is over the Internet. As soon as we talked, he was like "give me the scoresheets' and 'now now now now now'. If there was such a thing as a mature temper tantrum he was certainly having it then.

Of course, I am always obliging and willing to follow directives. So, without further ado, I release to Cesar (and to all of you) one of his score sheets, in my own writing!

Said scoresheet! )
I'm sure Cesar is thrilled with the effects instilling fear in me is getting.

Onto Round 2 of figuring out of what to do with Cesar's scoresheets! Keep voting! 

Current Mood: scared

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Sorry about the lack of posts for some time! I promise you, 4 great reviews will come soon. I hope they'll be interesting!

Anyway, onto some other business for now...

Poll #1480578 Cesar's Scoresheets
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

As we all know, Cesar is neurotic at tournaments and now I have 8 of his scoresheets that I snatched to cut down on his dramatics. What should I do with them? (to put it in context: he was freaking out about it in Kiji, even!)

View Answers

Give them back like a nice person.
7 (29.2%)

Give them back in the next tourney we both play.
2 (8.3%)

Give them to Evans and Conrad to teach them how to play Scrabble.
11 (45.8%)

Make a time capsule of them.
4 (16.7%)

See if paper really does compost.
5 (20.8%)

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Hi again! Well, here's a review #6, and so without further ado, here we go! Again, please tear me apart if you have any thoughts at all; I really appreciate the time you take to read and want to improve as much as possible! 

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So sorry! My old laptop died when I was more than halfway through the last review, and so in a sulk I wrote slowly for about a week. Here we go, though!



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Well, here's the next installment of "Does James really Know Anything?" I'm afraid to know your answer.

Well, I'm actually more desperate to see if *anyone* even reads these. If you do, please leave a review! I know my reviews suck but I really want to improve...

Read more... )

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To those out there who read (ie, the crickets and all): I'm sorry for taking so long! But I promise you that my next reviews should be pretty good.

Secondly, I think I'm taking better photos! ... yay?

Read more... )

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Hi again! Well, I guess this is a second restaurant review (I hope to do 1-2 a week)... hopefully I'm doing okay.

If there are any comments, points of advice, points of disagreement or anything, just feel free to level them! I appreciate your time taken to read (if you choose to), and I hope I'm at least halfway interesting.
Read more... )

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Hi all! 

Well, I guess I'll be turning this more into a review-ish blog or something nowadays (since I tend to not talk about anything anyways). 

One thing that I like to do is eat and sometimes try my hand at preparing food, so let's give my hand at these reviews! The last thing to know is the grading scheme is out of 100, and letter grades are broken down according to the Canadian grading scale: 

90%+ - A+
85-90 - A
80-85 - A-
76-80 - B+
72-76 - B
68-72 - B- 
65-68 - C+
62-65 - C
59-62 - C- 
50-59 - D
50%- - F

Additionally, the restaurants will be awarded points on this breakdown. Note that it's hard to get full marks in any category alone, but you can get close: 

Food -  /60 total [Taste (/50), Presentation (/10)] - I generally couldn't care that much about how the food is presented, so long as it tastes good. However, for those that take pains to really make things look nice, they should get a special mention.

Taste can be broken down as I see fit amongst a variety of dishes, appetizers or components of dishes having less of an overall impact than the main dish itself. Thus, a 3-course meal might be better modulated. However, there is the argument that this doesn't accurately compare 3-course meals to a 1-course meal elsewhere, which is somewhat true and something I also might address in my Discretionary section.

Decor - /10 - Again, the best restaurants need not be the most amazing atmospheres, but a place where you can sit down and just enjoy your food without feeling awkward. Hence, the look of the restaurant doesn't matter *that* much to me.

Service - /15 - Service is not something I will rely on to make my verdict of a restaurant but it merits more consideration than the look of the place. Generally, I'll pick what I want to eat and so long as the service matches my expectations, it'll pretty much be good.

Price - /15 - this is likely controversial but I stand by my belief that restaurants should be respectably priced according to what you end up eating. As it is, a restaurant that gets a 0 in Price could still end up with an A if they blow my socks off, and likely could through A+ in discretion.

Discretionary - ? - I'm pretty sure everyone's run into restaurants they've had a special experience at, or likewise where everything went worse than the theory should dictate. This is to give special mention to those places that really make something special in one way or another (and these discretionary points can add up).

One of my friends suggested I be strict on my grading, so be warned, an A is going to be really hard to find in terms of my reviews and is probably a restaurant to check out, if you agree with my taste buds.

That being said... onto a review! (oh, and my account of law work is somewhere in the writing) 

Read more... )

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Name: arbretriste
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