NWA WorldClub Incheon Internaional Airport, Seoul South Korea

NWA WorldClub
Incheon International Airport
Seoul, South Korea

Cass Fresh beer
cookies
cake
biscuits
Premiers Cote de Bordeaux 2005
Cost: Complimentary

Rating: 3 spoons

Good stuff really hit the spot

Air Quick TH 3 - the Beer Counter Vienna International Airport Vienna Austria

Air Quick TH 3 - the Beer Counter
Vienna International Airport
1300 Wien
Vienna Austria
www.airrest.com
Map

1 0.5l glass of Gosser beer
Total Cost: 3.20 EUR
Ratings: 3 spoons

Note: Airest is the name of the Group that runs the Air Quick cafeteria at the Vienna International airport. You can find more information about the services here.

I decided to have a beer after being annoyed by the service at the Hagen Daz Take Away.

I approached the bartender and asked him if he accepted credit cards since I did not want a repeat performance of the experience at the Hagen Daz Take Away. He said yes and asked me what I wanted. I told him a local beer would do and he proceeded to pour me a very tall pint (0.5l) of Gosser.

I gave the lady my MasterCard and she charged the 3.20 EUR without any incident at all; what a concept.

Now what really gets me about this is that both the Hagen Daz counter and the bar counter are operated by Airest, so I don't get the attitude that the lady gave me. I think an e-mail to Airest is in order.

The beer is actually quite good and I am sipping it in the non-smoking area of the cafeteria style area; hidden from that bad lady. I am also able to watch the planes come and go to the gates as I await my flight. I am smelly of smoke though since the smoking area is right next to the smoking area :-(.

Hagen Daz Vienna International Airport Vienna Austria

Air Quick TH 3 - Hagen Daz Take Away
Vienna International Airport (the Transit area)
1300 Wien
www.airrest.com
Vienna Austria
Map

Rating: 0 spoon

I had not eaten anything in a few hours and though that some ice cream would be a good deal. I approached the ice cream stand and placed my order for a single scoop in a cup. The lady asked which flavor I wanted and as they had so many it took me a while to find something that would whet my appetite.

I finally settled on Coconut Macaroon although I really wanted another flavor; Macadamia Nut Brittle that had nuts in it. As I have braces that was not an option :-(.

She reached for a cone and I told her that I wanted a cup. She said that you can only get a cup if you get two scoops minimum; I frowned and told her I was getting a cup as the cone was a little difficult to eat with braces. She recognized my plight and reached for a cup reluctantly.

Once back at the ice cream containers, she mumbled that they only do this for children; to which I replied, well, I guess I am child today. I don't think that went over very well.

She finished her chore and instructed me to pay EUR 2.40, so I forked over a credit card; well, that put her over the edge! She instructed me that she does not accept a credit card for anything under 7.00 EUR. She then commenced to scoop the ice cream back into the rest of the container; pausing for a moment to ask me if I had any kind of cash at all; to which I responded, "No." I had cash, Euros, British pounds and USD, but at this point I really refused to patronize the establishment any longer. she continued and scooped the ice cream back into the main container and had the worst body language I've seen in a while.

I left the counter and started to look for other things to eat; not finding anything that was reasonably priced (this airport is so expensive), I settled on some Gosser beer at the establishment across from the ice cream place. And guess what, they had no issue accepting my credit card for the 3.20 EUR purchase. I wanna end this review with some other phrase, but I must restrain myself...

Chuy's Houston TX

Chuy's

2706 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77098

Get Directions

1-713-524-1700
www.chuys.com
Map

party of 5

Veggie Enchalada $7.79
Rating: 3 spoons
1/2 chicken fajita $10.99
Rating: 2 spoons
Tuesday special $8.49
Rating: 2 spoons
Burrito chicken $8.49
Rating: 3 spoons
Burrito Beef $7.99
Rating: 3 spoons
4 beverage (4 iced teas) $7.56
Rating: 3 spoons

Total cost: $51.31

It is the birthday lunch for one of my colleagues and Chuy's is her favorite restaurant, so off we went.

As usual, the parking lot was full so the driver dropped us off, we went inside and he found a parking space.

You have to get here early as it is always full for lunch; our wait time was 20 minutes. In about 6 or so minutes the driver came back after parking the car and found us waiting.

When we were called to our table, it was not ready, so the guy took us over to another table that was already assigned to another party. So he took us to another corner of the restaurant and that table was just being cleaned. So he took us back to our original table and now it was ready. It was quite comical.

Chuy's is an Elvis themed restaurant, so there is a Cadillac trunk in there plus a host of other Elvis Presley memorabilia. There are also fish hanging from the ceiling.

As we sat, they brought chips and Mexican dip; next the waiter took our drink orders and left us to mull over the menus that were presented by the m'aitre d.

We placed our orders and were surprised when the order for the other table came and we thought it was ours. We waited about 15 or so minutes for ours to arrive; sizzling as the fajtas were placed in front of me. The beef burrito was the last to arrive.

We ate heartily and had good conversation. Not a bad meal and quite a nice place to dine.

Bell Street Café Houston, TX

Bell Street Café (corner of Milam and Leeland Streets; entrance on Milam Street)
800 Bell Street
Houston TX
1-713-656-0870
Map

Buttermilk Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes
Cost: $4.15
Green beans
Cost: $1.00

Total Cost: $5.65
Rating: 2 spoons

Overall Rating: 1 spoon

This place is located in the basement of one of the downtown Houston buildings. I decided to walk over there and catch up with one of my work colleagues.

Once inside, I looked at the menu and they had grilled BBQ salmon with two sides for $5.85; the Buttermilk Fried chicken with one side was $4.15. They also had samples of the meals and this one looked the most enticing.

Myself and three others behind me wanted the salmon, but they were already out of that and it was only 12:38p :-( and they close at 1:30p having opened at 11:00a.

We asked the servers and they gave us an odd look and went to see if there were more in the kitchen; sadly there were none. The mashed potato and green beans were down to the last amounts and inquiring if they had more brought odd stares again. They did get more from the nearby kitchen though. Reluctantly two of us had the chicken and the other decided to have something from another area. The guy who had the chicken was a security personnel and said he could not wait for them to decide if they had anymore salmon so he took the chicken and bolted. I had he chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans and a whole wheat roll.

I was dining with a colleague and he wanted to have some coffee; well there was none! By now I was really angry, so I asked the cashier why was there no coffee. She said that coffee finished at 9:30a; odd I thought, so now they are telling customers when to have coffee? How rude...

I paid for my meal using a debit/credit card after getting some water and lemon and headed for a place to sit of which there were ample. The dining area is quite large and airy housing a large screen TV off to one side which always plays CNN. Off to the side one could see a water fountain from behind the glass.

The meal was good as we swapped weekend activities. Once I was done, you have to bus your own table to a nearby revolving receptacle. Not a bad meal, but the service from the servers leaves a lot to be desired.

simit sarayi Istanbul, Turkey

simit sarayi (located across from the Sirkeci Metro stop on the #38 train, next door to the McDonald's)
Istanbul, Turkey
http://www.simitsarayi.com.tr.tc/

Ratings: 3 spoons

We had a few Turkish pastries, plus some Turkish tea. The tea was served in a glass with a plastic handle. It tasted like herb tea, but was surprisingly good. It was perfect as it continued to rain and we needed somewhere to shelter for a bit. It was also a pleasant atmosphere.

McDonald's Istanbul, Turkey

McDonald's
located across from the Sirkeci Metro stop on the #38 train
Istanbul, Turkey
Map

izgara tavuklu sandvic (grilled chicken sandwich) meal (sprite)
Cost: 7.57 YTL
Rating: 3 spoons

McRoyal (cheese burger) meal (coke)
Cost: 7.57 YTL
Rating: 3 spoons

We had just arrived in Istanbul, found a hotel for the night and headed out on the town. After walking around the Agyasofia and the Blue Mosque, we took the above ground Metro towards the Docks. Our goal was to make it to Asia in 15 minutes :-).

Turkey is the only country, I think where you leave one part of the country in Europe and go to the other part of the country in Asia in about 15 minutes.

We were really hungry as the last time we had eaten was on the plane; we noticed a McDonald's across from the train station at our stop. We venture in.
It was quite entertaining as we noticed a picture of the Employee of the Month on the wall. We asked to see him and the guy who was taking our order shouted back and by the time we got our order he came out and said hello.

It took quite a while to get our order as they were taking forever to get the order for three persons before us. And once they got to us, it took longer to get our orders as there was a little language barrier.

We finally got our orders and it was quite good; the Fries tasted just like it does in the U.S. The funny thing is that I usually don't eat McDonald's in the U.S., but I when I travel as it is much easier. It is also amazing at how much people in other countries eat a lot of McDonald's.
While we ate, an American couple from San Francisco, CA, stopped by and chatted with us. They were there for a week and were quite shocked and surprised when we told them we were leaving on the 6:05a flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then to Houston TX.

It started to rain quite a bit as we enjoyed our meal. Eventually, we got out of there and headed to the snack shop next door. By the way, there is a Burger King right next door as well.

Berryhill Baja Grill Houston TX (Heights location)

Berryhill Baja Grill
702 E. 11th St.
Houston TX, 77008
1-713-225-2252
www.berryhilltamales.com/baja
Map

Party of 2

It's $2 Cosmo night at Mo Mong Houston TX

Mo Mong
1201 Westheimer Rd # B (two blocks from Montrose Blvd, next to the Hollywood Video store)
Houston, TX 77006
Tel: 1 713 524 5664












Overall Rating: 3 ice cubes

Each Wednesday, Mo Mong's have a $2 Cosmopolitan night until about 10:40p or so. It is usually packed and is for some reason a primarily gay crowd. They now have a DJ playing so that is cool.

Parking is in the parking lot just outside the door that is shared by the other establishments in that little strip mall or behind the strip mall. it gets full rather quickly so get there early.

The main bar area is on the ground floor with an outdoor patio where you can sit and eat items from the restaurant or have a drink as well. If you smoke, this is where you have to go to smoke.
The food served is Vietnamese fusion kind of food which is always very good. I will have to do a review of the restaurant at another time.

It was a fantastic night, except for one thing: I asked one of the waiters to take a picture of our group and he replied that he was a bit busy. What the heck, you are too busy to take two seconds to snap a photo of people who are patronizing your establishment? I was pretty pissed! I then asked a lady who was behind the bar to do it and she happily obliged us. Now how hard was that?

As the night progressed, some girls showed up and were promoting Tiger beer from Singapore. They were dressed in traditional Asian ware and were giving out free beers, press on tattoos and a rolled scroll from Tiger. This was pretty cool and the beers went rather quickly, but they seemed to have an endless supply of them.

I had had Tiger beer in Singapore before so I ended up having two. Here are two guys who were having a few drinks with us.

Pho Saigon Vietnamese Noodle House Houston, TX

Pho Saigon
2808 Milam St. Suite D
Houston, TX 77006
1 713 524 3734
http://www.phosaigonnoodlehouse.com
Map

#11 Pho tái (Beef noodle soup with eye round steak)
Cost: $4.35
Rating: 4 spoons

#40 Pho gà thit trang (Chicken noodle soup with chicken white meat)
Cost: $4.35
Rating: 4 spoons
Soursop smoothie drink
Cost: $2.50
Rating: 4 spoons
Total Cost: $6.85

I had not seen a friend of mine for about 6 months, so it was time to catch up. He had recently got a job at a downtown company, so lunch was long overdue.

I met him in his building and we made our way to the parking garage. At the restaurant, we parked on the rooftop parking as the parking lot for the strip mall was full as usual.

As we entered the restaurant, were greeted and seated right away. At the table, we sat shoulder to shoulder with a row of chairs. We figured the whole row would fill up at one time and it almost did. This place does get packed for lunch, so go early.

We placed our orders and within a few minutes, there were beans, vegetable and hot noodle soups in front of us.
My friend and I ate heartily and enjoyed our soups immensely. I sipped my sour sop juice as well.

We were also supplied with sauces on the table as well as a spoon and chop sticks.

The service was efficient, pleasant and prompt. We chatted some more as we enjoyed our meal. It was time we got back to work, so we went up to the cashier with our bill and paid individually using credit cards. Of course cash was also accepted. As you can see, we ate it all...

Coffee Bar Houston, TX

Coffee Bar
1600 Smith Street
Houston, TX 77002
Lobby area


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Breakfast: 9:58a on Oct. 10, 2007
Party of 2
Total Cost: $3.98
Overall Rating: 4 spoons

1 butter rum muffin
Rating: 5 spoons
Cost: $1.65

1 Triple Expresso
Rating: 2 spoons
Cost: $2.33

Credit cards are accepted and you don't have to sign or get a receipt unless you request one. Of course cash is always accepted. The staff is friendly; this morning it is the brother and sister team; sometimes the dad is there and very rarely mom. They also have other people working for them as well.

I've never had bad service from these folks and they know exactly what everyone eats, which is uncanny, but a very, very good thing. There are always smiles on their faces regardless of their mood that morning. Every now and then I have to remember to tell them I am having something different so I don't end up with a butter rum muffin.

Today, the line was not too long; only four persons were ahead of myself and two other colleagues. One of them had a triple Expresso served using Seattle's Best coffee. He says it is not the best he's tasted, but he has a cup or two or three each day anyways :-).

The muffin is placed in a brown paper bag and is extremely sweet. I have yet to find out how many calories are in it. I try to have one only when I forgot to bring something from home; condiments and utensils are off to the left side in self-service units. This always a good place to meet your colleagues and say a quick hello before work.

The Coffee Bar also serves juices, teas, fruits, lattes and other breakfast pastries. The prices are a little high, but then it is downtown Houston.

Paulie's Houston, TX

1834 Westheimer Rd. (corner Westheimer Rd. and Driscoll St.)
Houston, TX 77098
Tel: 1 713 807 7271
Fax: 1 713 529 8217
www.pauliesrestaurant.com



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Lunch: 12:24p on October 9, 2007
Party of 2
Total cost: $19.43
Overall Rating: 2 spoon
Spaghetti and meatballs
Glass of tap water
Rating: 1 spoon

KC (avacado, tomato, mayo, pesto sauce, bean sprout on a whole wheat bun with potato salad)
Glass of lemonade
Rating: 1 spoon

There was a short line of 4 people ahead of, so our wait was very minimal, four minutes to be exact. This gave us time to read the large red menu with black letter off the wall to the left.

The lady took our oder, gave us a buzzer and told us our order will be ready shortly. This is a seat yourself joint and it was quite easy to find an open place. Which is kind of odd as the parking lot was full; we go the last spot. I wonder where was all the people.

We were given cups with ice to get the water and lemonade at the three canisters to the left of the cashier. The third metallic canister had iced tea written on it. We filled up and took a seat next to the window.

The restaurant had three ceiling fans is quite airy and had about five pictures of Texas longhorn cows on the walls. Smooth Jazz music was played and was actually quite soothing.

We busied ourselves with conversation as we waited. In about ten minutes the buzzer went off and I went to collect our food.

The meal was presented on a tray; the bowl of spaghetti and meatballs on one side and the KC on the other. Two grilled sliced of bread was also provided, although a bit hard.








While the spaghetti was well cooked, the meatballs tasted a bit bland and were not cooked all the way through :-(. Despite that I ate it all as I was hungry.
The KC was nondescript and the potato salad was too potatoey, but my partner in crime ate it all as well.








The experience was O.K., but the ambiance was a bit family as there were at least three babies around the place, so the baby powder content was rather high. My lunch partner vowed not to return; at least not for lunch anyways. I've been several times and actually like the place. I am usually there for dinner though.