It's sad to say, but this Pho just made me miss Florida even more. I was hoping that by eating some Pho I'd be reminded of the good times with my friends back at home. I was also excited to introduce my sister to a new dish that she had never tried before. Unfortunately this place that is know for their Pho never lived up to they hype.

I should have known that this wasn't going to be a good experience when the place was completely dead at dinner time. It's hard to know how busy places could get or should be when you aren't from the area. I was only visiting my sister in California for a few days and this was only our second time going out at night for a meal. She mentioned how dead it was and that maybe we should look around at the other restaurants in the strip, but I was dying to have her try Pho for the first time.

The setting was beautiful. 9021 Pho is located in a shopping complex that happened to be decorated for the holidays. It was laced with Christmas lights and roses throughout the courtyard. They even had an ice rink that was put up just for the holidays. This area is perfect for a dinner and a stroll with a date or with family and friends. I was surprised that 9021 Pho didn't have any outdoor seating like most of the other restaurants in the area.

When we walked inside the first thing that my sister noticed was that it was empty. It was around 7pm on a Wednesday and the only people that were in this restaurant were the servers and cooks. The servers looked clean and well put together being that they were all in black uniforms with their hair pulled back and well groomed in general. The decor was crisp and colorful with clean lines. It was well lit and clean overall. I liked the wall full of plants and the minimalist approach that they implemented and it was nice to see the kitchen was open for the patrons to watch their meals being made.

Our server was pleasant and she helped answer all of our questions about the menu. When we ordered our Pho Bo we received our bean sprouts, lime and basil first. The basil was wilted and bruised when it arrived. The Pho Bo only took another 8-10 minutes to arrive. I was pleased with the clean presentation, but one of the first things I noticed was the amount of oil the muddled the broth. Most of the Pho that I've had has always been clean tasting with little to no oil on top. I added my bean sprouts and seasoned my Pho Bo to my liking. My sister followed suit since she didn't know what she should add to her Pho. We both started to grab a spoonful and I noticed that the noodles were in a massive clump all stuck together and braking apart because they were overcooked. It was a shame because there are only a few elements to this soup to begin with and to have the noodles overcooked made it hard to enjoy. The flavor of the broth fell flat and you couldn't recognize any of the spices that give the broth any depth. Just a salty beef flavor. The meatballs in the Pho were tough and almost rubbery. While the meatballs in Pho aren't like a meatball from a spaghetti dish their texture shouldn't be as tough as these were.

We did tell the server about the problem and she immediately apologized for the noodles and she asked if we wanted new ones. We decided against the new bowls of Pho because we realized that we had already eaten half of what we were going to be able to eat anyway. Later when we received the bill the server told us that the manager had removed one of our bowls from the bill. I absolutely appreciated the way that they handled themselves and I have to give them great credit for taking care of the situation.

While I appreciate how they handled the problem with the bad noodles and mediocre soup it still frustrates me that companies with Pho in their title can't even get their main dish right. I'm sorry for the poor review and I wish I could give them a second chance, but I was only visiting for a couple of days and I didn't want to take the chance on another mediocre meal.

Holy Cow! Or should I say, "Holy organic, GMO and preservative free, locally grown deliciousness"!? It was just like taking a trip down the rabbit hole, but it tasted better and I wanted to live there. Forever. I'm sure when you think of rabbits and food together you're thinking lettuce and carrots with maybe a side of bean sprouts, but this place did what Alice did in Wonderland and fell through a magical hole only to be left with wonderment.

Let's just paint the picture shall we? On my visit to California to see my sister she suggested that we go get something healthy at this place called The Rabbit Hole Cafe. After thinking what most people do when they think of rabbits and food (see above) I was more than just a little disappointed. The night before I had a crappy meal and I needed something that was going to be hearty and comforting, like meat and potatoes.

Upon pulling up to this place I noticed the outdoor seating in the front of the place. There were just a few tables outside and although The Rabbit Hole Cafe is in a small shopping strip the outdoor seating made the strip feel a little more inviting. When we walked in we had trouble paying attention to seating ourselves because there was a ton of cute little things for sale in the front. They had a little bit of everything from baked goods to jewelry and trinkets. It was an adorable set up and to the right was a sitting area that had a hodge podge of seats and tables. The walls had pictures and murals of characters from the book 'Alice in Wonderland'. Overall, it had a very rustic and warm feeling which helped me get in the spirit of my rabbit food meal that I was about to eat.

When we sat down at this very large wooden table and I looked over the menu I knew that this place was going to be good or it was going to fail miserably. Often times when I see things on the menu like vegan cheese sauce, quinoa or sweet potato muffins I'm displeased with the muddled flavors and the overuse of spices. The menu had so many options to choose from. They offered soups and wraps, comfort foods and sandwiches, salads and quinoa bowls and much more. While the menu had so many things to choose from I took a chance on something I would NEVER have ordered anywhere, just to see how crazy this concoction would be. My sister stayed pretty simple and ordered something she had tried before.

I ordered the Eggless Benediction Bowl which is described as the following ' Two organic fried chickpea patties topped with our exclusive organic Portobello bacon and fresh organic spinach on bed of brown rice quinoa, smothered in our homemade vegan cheese sauce with lemon.' While my sister ordered the Rabbit Hole Bowl which is described as 'A wonderfully yummy and nutritious bowl of quinoa brown rice layered with grilled sweet potatoes and caramelized onions, topped with crispy fried kale and a peanut, ginger lemon dressing'. She also decided to order the sweet potato muffins just to prove a point that starchy sweetness can be transformed into a fluffy muffin without tasting like a rock.

We had to go to the front to place our order which was the only drawback to this place. I was finally in a comfortable spot and taking in the ambiance of the decor and aroma from the kitchen and I was bummed when I had to stop being lazy and get up to place my order. Once the order was placed it only took about 10 minutes or so when our plates were delivered to us by two servers.

The smell of the sweet potatoes and mushrooms wafted by when they set the bowls down. My sister offered up a bite of hers first before I tried mine. Hers had a sweet and salty flavor that was so delicious that I thought I might want to trade dishes before I had even tasted mine. The quinoa brown rice mixture was cooked to perfection and the sweet potatoes had a crispy outer layer that gave them an almost buttery flavor. The crispy kale was salted just enough to tone down the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and the hint of ginger. It was pumping me up to try my own dish.

When I tasted my dish I did so without adding the lemon at first. I found that the chickpeas and vegan cheese sauce took care of that comfort food that I longed for. The spinach was fresh and helped hold my bites of quinoa and portobello mushrooms together. The mixture was incredible and I wouldn't have given it up to anyone. The saltiness of the portobello mushroom chips enhanced the flavor of the vegan cheese sauce while the chickpea patties gave me a flavors of a nutty potato. It was amazing how well everything was prepared and crafted in this one dish. Let's just say that I left no rabbit holes unturned when devouring this dish.

Ohh and as for the sweet potato muffin, it was fluffy and light and even tastier than I had imagined. I would say that my sister won that argument, but really I feel that we were both winners in this situation. I will however, take my hat off to The Rabbit Hole and their extremely polite staff for changing my mind about what rabbit food could taste like. I always knew that it could taste this good, but I haven't found anyone who could show me how it could be done.

This will definitely be a stop on my food travels that will go down in the books as "Best Served"!

I love cupcakes and even more I love when a place is KNOWN for their cupcakes. My sister Patti Reilly has been talking about these cupcakes for years. Finally I came out to California to visit her and I was able to try these "amaze balls" cupcakes that she keeps telling me about (her words, not mine). 

Now for all of you who don't already know this about my reviews, I compare foods that I eat to the best that I've ever eaten. So if I haven't had something that is amazing before the company will have a darn good shot of pleasing me. If I have, well sadly for them, they'll have a lot to live up to. In this case it's a sad but true story. These cupcakes didn't live up to they "amaze ball" hype that my sister so cleverly called them. The place is small and well set up. I love their menu, display and even the smell is delicious when you walk in. I spent a few minutes smelling and viewing the beautiful cupcakes that were in the display and finally I chose a vanilla frosted chocolate cupcake while my sister found a red velvet and double chocolate with her name on it. 

I wish that I could enjoy a cupcake with a cream cheese frosting base, but I'm not a fan of sweet cream cheese. No cheesecake for me either. Now that I got that hiccup out of the way. We sat down outside the Sprinkles Cupcake location and cup up the cupcakes so I could try both of them. The first thing my sister noticed was that the chocolate one looked dry. She tasted a bite and said that it wasn't as good as normal. When I took a bite I noticed that the cake itself was dry, but the frosting was good. It was very sweet and had the right amount of vanilla flavor, but the cake was so dry that it longed for a glass of milk or even water at this point. When we cut open the red velvet I could see that it was a lot more soft and moist as a cupcake should be. My sister said that it was perfect and she wished that I liked cream cheese frosting. I did try a very small piece of it and I thought the cake was SO MUCH better than the chocolate cupcake. Even the frosting was pretty good on the red velvet cupcake. It was made with cream cheese, but it only had a hint of the cream cheese flavor. 

Overall I'm going to mark down that I 'liked' Sprinkles Cupcakes, because I can see the potential. I think they might be a great asset to the California dessert industry, but maybe it's because people here haven't had much competition in that department. If you ever want a decadent cupcake you might need to travel to the East Coast. 

I never thought it could be true, but I had a bad crepe. That's right, it happened. It wasn't just the crepe that was bad which was even more unfortunate. When I arrived in LAX I was famished and I was ready to eat just about anything as long as it was fresh and warm. My sister Patti Reilly and I went to a cute little place called Creme De La Crepe which was in a shopping complex not too far from the airport. The restaurant looked very inviting and warm which was just what I was looking for. 

When we walked up to the restaurant the first thing you notice is the seating area outside that makes this location look very French. The chalkboard menu was outside with some delicious specials featured for the evening. When we walked inside there were a few people seated and they seemed to be enjoying themselves, which I thought was a good sign. Patti and I sat down at a two top table by the window so we could look outside while we ate. There is limited seating in this restaurant, but it's still very inviting. The decor was French inspired with a modern American twist. 

Our waitress stopped at our table and she asked for our drink order immediately and when we had questions about the wine she didn't seem to know anything about it. We asked about the house wine and she didn't know, a sweet wine she didn't know, etc. When I asked about a specific dish she said that she had never tried it before. Later I found out that she was a vegetarian, so I can understand why she didn't know what my dish tasted like. I ended up ordering the Exquise Crepe (pronounced 'Ex Keys') which had ham, brie and cherry tomatoes with a pesto sauce on top. It didn't mention a salad or any dressing, but one came with it. My sister ordered the tomato basil soup. 

It wasn't long before our food came and it looked delicious. My sister started with her soup right away. She took one bite and I could see on her face that she wasn't pleased. She passed me the spoon and asked what I thought and after I took a bite I imagined that I made the same face. It tasted burnt and old. Almost as if it had been sitting on a burner all day long and it was getting to the bottom of the pot. Not even the side of cheese helped with the flavor. When I took a bite of my crepe my first reaction was to spit it back out (but I didn't). I realized that I had only taken a bite of the outer edge which was only crepe and pesto. As I worked my way into the middle I was able to taste the ham and brie with the pesto sauce. It would have been a nice flavor if the crepe wasn't wheat or if the pesto wasn't saturating the top of it. There was an odd flavor to this dish that I couldn't explain. I definitely didn't like the watered down pesto and the crepe being made from wheat gave it an earthy flavor that made the rest of the dish taste muddled. I decided to move onto the salad since that looked harmless, but the dressing tasted like hollandaise sauce. It had a mayonnaise type texture and flavor that didn't belong on Arugula. 

When the waitress came back the only thing we complained about was the soup which she ended up taking off of our bill because we didn't touch it after the first bite. With my crepe I didn't complain because I was so hungry that I ended up eating about half of it just to fill my belly. I left the salad almost completely untouched. She was very kind and had a personable demeanor, but her knowledge on the menu was lacking. I wouldn't suggest this restaurant for anyone who is looking for a decent crepe or French inspired soup. Too bad that doesn't leave much on the menu to be desired. Oh wait, their Rose' was good. Thank goodness for wine. 

This is a pretty decent place to have some Mexican food here in Tarpon Springs where the Greek blood runs thick. It's hard to find anything other than Greek food and Seafood in Tarpon Springs. This location is nice because it has a large parking lot and it's large enough to see from the busy 19N Rd.

When my neighbor Linda and I went in here it was around 6:30 which is prime dinner time for the snow birds around here, but it seemed a little empty. This made me a little nervous considering Tarpon Springs is a hot zone for tourists especially around dinner time. The waiter that we had was pleasant and helpful, but not very social. He was there when we needed him and everything came as it should, but he didn't say much to us at all. This isn't a complaint considering she and I went to dinner to talk shop, but merely an observation.

When we sat down we were given a huge bowl of chips and a spicy salsa that wasn't chunky at all. My neighbor had been here before so she knew to ask for a mild salsa. This salsa came and it was chunky and warm and seasoned more like a marinara sauce. Both of us like that sauce much better.

She ended up ordering something called Pollio Fundido which was delicious. She said that it's the only place around that will make it. Pretty much it's a fajita without being all cut up. It comes as a whole chicken breast with green peppers, onions and cheese on top. Then it has a side of rice and tortilla shells to use.

I'm boring and I just ordered the fajitas because I couldn't kick the craving. I asked for my peppers and onions to be cooked very well which they did perfectly. The seasoning on mine was delicious and not too oily. I've had a lot of fajitas in my day and most of the time the chicken and vegetables are overly oily or under seasoned. This was not the case here.

When our meal came we both ate about half of the meal and decided to take the rest home. Their portions were a little bit bigger than most Mexican restaurants that I've been to.

They had a list of desserts, but I have to say that we couldn't even look at that portion of the menu after eating so much food for dinner. I will definitely come back to this place the next time I'm craving Mexican.

On a visit to see my parents and sister Patti over the weekend, my sister and I decided to grab some sushi. We love having sister time and Celebration is a great place to enjoy a Starbucks, dinner and nice walk. Ari Sushi has been a favorite on the food review sites so we thought it only appropriate to check it out for ourselves.

Upon walking into Ari Sushi around we first noticed that the place was only half full on a Friday night. This is odd since all the places around us were spilling with people inside and out. When we looked around we both agreed that we liked the calm feel that you get with the dimly lit lights and darker decor'. We waited in the front to be seated, but after a few minutes went by and no one came to seat us Patti and I decided to go sit at the sushi bar. We said hello to the sushi chefs and asked if it was okay that we sit there and they immediately said yes. We waited a few minutes longer and no waiter or waitress came by to say hello or to give us a menu. Finally my sister got up to go get a menu and after she sat back down she realized it was the lunch menu. Two minutes later a waitress came by to grab the menu and said "I'll take that, it's not the right one. I'll send someone over to you with the right menu." I felt it was a rude introduction considering we had waited a while before even having anyone ask if we had been helped. Luckily we were given a server who was outgoing and perky to help mull over the tension that was stirring.

We ended up ordering a cucumber salad and gyoza to start. The cucumber salad had a nice light dressing on it and beets to sweeten the flavor. The gyoza was delicious and filled to the brim, but the dipping sauce which is normally sweet and salty was extremely spicy and salty. We ended up using the dressing from the salad on the gyoza which gave it a much better taste.

When our meals came from the sushi chefs in front of us they were beautiful. I ordered a West Coast roll which had baked salmon on top and a crab salad with cream cheese on the inside and a Mexican roll. My sister ordered a Lobster roll which had a mango drizzle on top. All of the rolls came out looking beautiful.

I found that the West Coast roll was a very flavorful, but it could have used a cucumber or asparagus for crunch. The Mexican was very good and it wasn't greasy from the fried shrimp either. My sister seemed to like the Lobster roll, but she commented that the mango drizzle made it taste a little more like a dessert. It didn't stop her from eating a couple pieces though. We both ate about half of the meal and ended up taking the rest home for my dad. These rolls came out a little larger than most sushi places that I go to.

Maybe the next time we go we'll be able to try some of the other amazing rolls that they have listed. They definitely had a special variety of rolls and sauces. Hopefully next time the service will be better from the start so we don't feel like we're putting anyone out by actually eating there.

I truly enjoy a good day out with the girls! It's always a pleasure to meet up with the girls for a delicious lunch and girlie conversation. I had never been to Cafe Ponte before, but my friend Bonny kept telling me how amazing the food was. I looked up the website and menu before I went, just so I had an idea of what I wanted.

When I pulled up I was surprised to see that Cafe Ponte was in a shopping center instead of a stand alone business. Once I walked in I was pleasantly impressed by the white table linens, crisp decor and the light tone of today's best hits. The restaurant was crowded, but it never felt cramped and it wasn't so loud that you had to talk over people. It was a great place to take a date or to have lunch with the girls when you need a break from the craziness of life. After the day that I had, I was the first to order an alcoholic beverage. Mojito for me and apparently the rest of the girls felt like following suit.

I ordered the Trio for lunch which offered a soup, half a club sandwich and a salad. The daily soup was a butternut squash with apples and pumpkin seeds and I chose the arugula salad with house dressing. My friend ordered the daily special pizza which was a white pizza with 4 different types of mushrooms and artichoke. I don't know how the pizza tasted, but she seemed to love it. As for my dish... the butternut squash soup was to die for. It was filled with flavor and spices that made my taste buds go crazy. It was creamy but there were small bits of apple in it that gave the soup some crunch and sweetness to offset the pepper notes. The club was very tasty and it was on a fresh Focaccia bread which made it incredible.

There are definitely some more items on this menu that I'd love to try and hopefully I'll get the chance to check them out for dinner some time. I'd also like to try a dessert when I'm not so full from devouring my entire meal. This was a great experience for lunch and the service was exceptional!

Recently I was introduced to Pho by some of my amazing foodie friends. They showed me how flavorful broth can be and how adding just a few simple veggies and raw meat can change the flavor to make any type of Pho you'd like. While having homemade Pho was never on my "to do list" I have to say that it should have been and will be on that list again. It's bound to happen that I'll be craving it as much as sushi.

We stopped into a place called Tasty Pho after a 5k walk because I was cold from the 70 degree breeze. All I knew was I had Pho about a week ago and I needed more ASAP. Tasty Pho is a smaller restaurant with not much decor. It reminded me of a plain Jane sushi place that you'd stop into during lunch time. This wouldn't be a place to take a date, but it was perfect for us since we were dressed in workout clothes.

I ordered the Thai Iced coffee (New Englander at heart) and the Thai Pho, which is just broth, scallions and raw meat. They put a tray of limes, sweet basil and bean sprouts in front of us to add to our Pho. I ended up trying the wonton wrapped shrimp which was very simple, but had lots of flavor. Then we tried some type of Thai pancake thing (the thing in the bowls, in the picture) that I was NOT a fan of. Way too fishy flavored for me. Thank god the Thai Iced Coffee was sitting next to me because it helped kill the flavor. Mmmmm Thai Coffee. So sweet and delicious. I can feel the caffeine high as I write about it now.

Soon our server comes to the table with a bowl in his hands and two other servers behind him who were also holding bowls. When he got to the table he says "Who ordered the Pho"? I couldn't help but point out that he may want to be a little more specific since they have about 10 types of Pho on the menu and the name of the restaurant is literally called Tasty Pho. We had a little giggle about it and then moved on to eating out delicious Pho.

For those of you who have never had Pho before, I highly recommend it. However, keep in mind that this dish is typically HUGE and a regular size is about 3 times the size of a normal bowl of soup. I ended up having two days worth of left overs from this dish.