Color Club D128 Nail Lacquer review

after 3 coats

It's a snowy season! I'm so thankful I don't have to see snow... at least not right now! But, I really want to create this effect for my nails to match Winter... and since tomorrow is Christmas... what better than to have a falling snow effect on your nails? I found this nail lacquer/polish at Tokyo Hands for ¥1000... it was a bit expensive, but it looked so pretty... I just couldn't resist. I am a huge fan of Gold and White... So I like Marc Jacob's Daisy's design!

comparing my nail to the demo

impressions:

• hard to include all the white and gold sparkles (but not impossible)
• three coats and I got the effect
• takes a while to dry
• need to add a top coat
• should have reminded us to use a milky undertone

This is definitely much more easy to apply compared to other sparkly products but it still requires effort, to get the effect, it took me 3 coats and I had to purposely force the white and gold sparkles to position on my nails. The nail polish took a long time to dry... (1 hour to get all 3 coats). Remember to get a top coat... you will need it or the "snow" and gold will all fall off.

I was quite impressed with the effect.

Score: 8/10
Website: http://www.colorclub.com/ (company website, product is not listed on their website... strange)

伊藤園 (ITO EN) 麦のソーダ (Mugi Soda) review

product

While strolling around Harajuku, I came across a vending machine, this Mugi Soda caught my attention, how can Wheat Tea be a soda?

Wheat tea has been one of my favourite Japanese drinks... so I was very intrigued to how it would taste. This only cost ¥100

ingredients: 

糖類（果糖ぶどう糖液糖、果糖、砂糖）、大麦、酸味料、香料

(translation: Sugars (fructose glucose syrup, fructose, sugar), barley, acidulant, flavoring)

Impressions:

• a little too sweet (compared to Wheat Tea)
• tastes like carbonated soda (can you imagine?)
• tricked my brain into thinking it was beer
• very sparkling

This... is a very interesting drink. I can't say whether I like it or hate it... at first, I thought it tasted like carbonated Chocolate... by tastebuds were confused... and then I kept thinking I was drinking beer (probably the intent of this drink). It is also very sparkling... as they added a lot of cabonated water into the drink... nonetheless very interest.

Score: 7.5/10

Website: http://www.itoen.co.jp/news/detail/id=24418 (Japanese)

Hong Kong Pizza Hut Afternoon Tea review

inside dining area

Pizza Hut has come a long day from it's pizza restaurant days in Hong Kong. What used to look like a cafeteria has been transformed into a much presentable restaurant. It would not be exaggerated to call it a cafe... A pizza Cafe.

As I walked into Pizza Hut, I was immediately surrounded by the familiar aroma of Pizza Hut's pizza

After sitting and waiting for food I realized that soft commemorate jazz was being played.

Where ever you are, you can hear the noise of workers hard at work in the kitchen... I didn't mind but when they started talking loudly outside their work area (inside the dining area), that was when I started to mind.

Afternoon Tea Set

After carefully choosing (you can find their menu on their website) I opted for their Supreme Pizza Set. There were a lot of choices... but this appealed to me the most. You can either choose a specialty drink or a soup... I chose soup. The cost of this was $65 HKD.

Supreme Mini Pizza

Supreme Pizza

Pizza was delicious. The pineapples complimented the taste very well

Olives gave it that extra push of savory

Pizza crust, very crispy on the outside, very soft and moist on the inside.

I found the crust at the bottom to be slightly oily though.

Score: 8.5/10

Cream of Chicken and Mushroom Soup

Cream of Chicken and Mushroom Soup

I love this soup. It is one of my favourite items here and I'm glad they have kept it till now! 

The soup is not thick and can be considered thin by "cream soup" standards (but this is what I like about it). Although the Chicken and Mushroom taste is not very strong, you can still taste them and there are a lot of chicken and mushroom bits inside. I really like the soup brooth/base, it leaves your mouth feeling savoury.

Score: 9.5/10

Service

The service was fair but not very efficient. I find myself making an effort to capture the staff and servers' attention. And it took them a long time to clear out finished dishes. And the noise that I mentioned at the beginning... not very happy with that.

Website: http://www.pizzahut.com.hk/en/restaurant/tea.html

Sorento Wood Oven Stove review

For my Birthday (yes... sorry... I know this has been a while) my cousin decided to take me to this Mediterranean place which cooks their food on a Wood Oven Stove.

Escargot (Appetizer)

Escargot

Impressions:

• portion is small (only 6 escargot)
• small size of escargot
• loved the cheese and sauce

I found this quite expensive... for almost $10 CND... the portion is quite small...

Taste-wise, it was good... the cheese and spinach cream sauce was delicious. The Escargot didn't seem fresh though.

Score: 6.5/10

close up of Escargot 

Sorento Specialty Pizza

Sorento Pizza

Impressions:

• hot! lots of hot peppers
• thin crispy crust 
• very filling

I liked the pizza... it was definitely much more worth than the escargots, the pizza was around $12. Be careful though, there are quite a lot of salty hot peppers, they were quite a surprise when I ate them... I didn't expect there to be too many... but regardless, it was a well made thin crust pizza. 

AND... although it looks small... it is extremely filling.

Score: 9/10

Sorento Specialty Spaghetti

Sorento Spaghetti

Impressions:

• lots of sauce
• would be much better if they used a thicker pasta (e.g. fettuccine, Linguine)
• Portion looks small but extremely filling
• lots of chicken
• loved the sauce

I was obsessed with the sauce, it was very tasty. The blend of herbs with the cream was perfect, this was a Spinach, Mediterranean herb sauce, I also appreciated the amount of sauce contained... but wished it was a thicker pasta... the Spaghetti was having a hard time holding the sauce and it was too thin making it less tasty.

Score: 8.5/10

I was quite happy with this meal, the service was not too good though, they were not very tentative and we had to make an effort to grab their attention.

website: no website

PaTaPaTa Ya (ぱたぱた家) Chicken izakaya review

the izakaya is all the way at the end of the hallway

So, after I got home and googled this place (for the sake of this review) I discovered this was a chain, there are 6 shops in total. The one I went to is located in Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, you can find the address and info at the end of this review. 

Izakayas are one of my favourite places to dine in in Tokyo because they are so unique. Food you can find in one Izakaya would possibly not be available in another... and even if it is available the taste won't be the same.

menu

I got plum liquor... because I'm in Japan :P... It was for ¥420. My friend got a Cassis and Orange Cocktail.

Plum Liquor and lotus root appetizer

For the Plum liquor, you can choose to add warm water, tea or soda water. I chose Soda water because I wanted something cold. It was good but I felt that the plum taste was not very strong. It was also not very sweet. 

Like most Izakaya, they had complementary appetizer, for our appetizer they provided a mild spicy lotus root cold salad. It was quite good.

menu of chicken wings (those are not my fingers)

Since it was an Izakaya that specilized in chicken, we decided to get chicken wings. These definitely caught our attention! The people next to us also got these... and the smell was so tempting.

5 chicken wings

We were so glad when these chicken wings came. They were slightly fried and coated in honey. Then they used sesame and black pepper to coat over the honey. The black pepper's aroma was so mesmerizing. I highly recommend this dish... though it doesn't look like a lot, we were 1/3 full when we finished the wings (these wings were split between just 2 of us).

I thought they were going to be much more saltier, but turns out they were quite sweet... I didn't mind the sweetness... because it still tasted good... however, I would suggest that they try to add raw sea salt to intensify the taste.

Chicken organs

Since we had no idea what to get... we just opted for orders with pictures and determined the tastiness of them based on pictures. We ended up ordering this.

Chicken organs actual 

I think this is perhaps one of the very few times where the actual dish looks better than the image on the menu!

This turns out to be random pieces of Chicken organs. It might look small but it was things that I was able to identify were: chicken liver and chicken gizzard.

I found the organs to be slightly overcooked, so they were slightly "harder" than your normal organs dish. The sauce was slightly sweet with a bit of hot pepper taste (the green veggies you see in this picture are hot green peppers). 

we didn't know what it was but it looked good

Just like the previous dish, we just randomly chose this dish. It looked quite appetizing... so we just went with instinct.

chicken drumstick in some black pepper sauce

I really liked the black pepper sauce, but felt that the chicken was slightly overcooked... the skin was was falling off the meat and the meat was separated from the bone. It was delicious and quite salty.

The service was quite good... we met a girl from China who was very friendly. We also got to chat with her (mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese).

Our meal cost a total of ¥3060. We were FULL by the end. It is quite a reasonable price and I think I will be visiting again... when I'm around the area.

Score: 8/10

Website: http://www.g-taste.co.jp/patapataya/

Specific branch page: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g025031/

Address: 東京都港区芝5-34-6新田町ビル1F

ＪＲ田町駅 西口/地下鉄三田駅
A4出口 徒歩1分

Tel: 03-5730-3001

(Address Translation: Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo 5-34-6 Nitta cho Building 1F

JR Tamachi Station West Exit / Mita Subway Station

A4 exit 1-minute walk)

デニーズ Denny's Japan review

how it looks (Gotanda)

I knew this place existed for quite a while but never had to chance to go. Like Denny's in America, this is opened 24 hours.

just right up the flight of stairs!

Good to have SOME exercise before eating :P...

lots of things on the table

Unlike American Danny's, Japan Danny's has different things on their tables:

• a bell (to ask for service)
• utensils (handed to you when they give you water) utensils include a fork, a spoon, a dull knife and chopsticks
• sugar (for coffee)
• coffee whitener
• toothpicks
• dessert pamphlet
• Danny's app download info sheet

menu... I opted for the Set which included a salad and bread/butter

It took me way too long to choose (the menu is also very different from the American menu), there were less items, and most were steaks/pasta sets. There were also options to choose drinks and salad sets. It took me a while to understand it (I'm slow... I guess ;P). Each set also gave a recommendation as what you should order with the "main". So after some careful consideration, I ordered the Porcini Mushroom Cream Hamburg Steak with salad set. I didn't order a drink as all they had were mainly coffees (coffees + dinner are a bad combo for me... they result in serious insomnia >___<).

 生ハムサラダ Raw Ham Salad

The first thing that arrived was the Raw Ham Salad. It looked like it was full size too!

impressions:

• the raw ham tasted like Parma Ham 
• loved the sauce (no vinegar at all!)
• needs more sauce
• veggies were fresh

I was obsessed with the sauce, it was so good!! It has been a while since I have had other salad sauces (other than Caesar and Ranch) that I could appreciate... and THIS was definitely the first. It was hard to pinpoint what the sauce was, but one thing was evident... there is no vinegar. According to the website, the main ingredients for the sauce was Olive Oil (I beg to differ... they must have used special olive oil). The salad was also topped in Parmigiano Reggiano making the salad very delicious.  The veggies (which included: carrots, onions, lettuce, cabbage, sprouts, radish) were all very fresh and nicely prepared. Overall, I really liked this salad A LOT! I highly recommend it.

Score: 10/10

you can go to its website for more info: http://www.dennys.jp/menu/salad/rawhum-salad/

ポルチーニ香る きのこクリームハンバーグ

The translation should be something like: Porcini mushroom cream with Hamburg Steak. This is the first Hamburg steak I have ever had... so my impressions on it might be slightly biased. I found this Hamburg steak to be too soft... (not sure if they are all like that)

Impressions:

• love the mushroom sauce!
• too little sauce
• sauce was too oily (way too oily)
• veggies were fair... nothing special...
• spinach was too oily
• hamburg steak was too soft

I loved and hated the sauce. The flavour was beautiful, it consisted of lots mushrooms and cheeses to make it so tasty... BUT... I found that the sauce was drenched in oil (you can see in the picture how the borders of the brown sauce is surrounded by oil). 

The crispy Potato thins (resembling potato chips) added a nice texture and flavours making the too tender hamburg steak much more appealing. 

Score: 7/10

More info: http://www.dennys.jp/menu/autumnmenu/porcini/

bread and butter

This was definitely a surprise... I wasn't looking forward to it... since it was just... bread and butter. First though... I almost burnt my fingers trying to rip the bread in half (but I don't mind) because (you will see in my impressions).

impressions:

• very hot! be very careful
• very soft
• very delicious
• very soft

Honestly, have you ever seen me write so many "very"s in my impressions? probably not... I loved this bread... it is definitely one of the best breads I have ever had. The bread was rich in bread (taste)... It was served very hot... I just loved it! It's one of those breads you will be craving...

Score: 10/10

set bill

The service was great... although they didn't "serve" you, they were very courteous... every time they are leaving, they will give you a small bow (I think that is exception service... even in Japan standards). Unlike most diners and restaurants they hardly walked pass you... instead you always  have to ring a bell (by pressing a button) to get their attention.

Score: 8.5/10
Website: http://www.dennys.jp/

Hagiso Cafe review

Happy December!! I can't believe this year flew by just like that... it honestly feels like August... or something like that... how did we end up in December already?? (for those who are wondering... I went to this place all the way back in March... yeah... it took me THIS long to write the review... >___<) 

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We were so fortunate it was such a lovely day when we decided to eat at this place. It was actually recommended by a friend of a friend of mine's. 

One word of caution, since the only place you can smoke in this cafe is in the patio area (called terrace, in Japan), if you plan to eat at their patio, be prepared to be interrupted by people who want to smoke beside you. The smoking area is right at the Patio/Terrace area... -______-.

We both ordered the same food... It was a fried mackerel sandwich. It came with drinks and a grapefruit sorbet slush dessert (I forgot to take a picture of the dessert). Our meals costed a total of ¥2600.

The mackerel sandwich tastes really good... I was trying to figure out how they got the mackerel piece to stay like that... And my friend's mackerel kept falling out xD 

The mackerel and the bread were both crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Score: 8/10

restaurant hours: 

12:00 - 21:00
定休日：月曜日（祝日の場合火曜）
※イベントによって臨時休業あり
Our holiday is Monday
(If a Monday is a national holiday, then the next day)

Address: Nippori station 3 Chome-10-25 Yanaka, Taito, Tokyo, Japan

Contact number: +81 3-5832-9808

Website: http://hagiso.jp/