Case: We were excited to try the happy hour menu at this new place in Tivoli Village. That excitement quickly turned into dismay as we experienced the shitty service and crappy food. When we do happy hour, although we prefer sitting at a table, oftentimes we sit at the bar counter if we are concerned about slow service by the waitstaff. Typically, the bartenders do a much better job refilling your water and attending to you than the regular waitstaff. Unfortunately, this was the exception to that rule. Frankly, this was probably some of the worst service we've ever had sitting at the bar. We are very understanding if the bar/restaurant is busy, but this wasn't one of those cases. The bartender asked if we were interested in the happy hour menu and what we wanted to drink. We replied yes and we would start with ice water until we had a chance to peruse the menu. He acknowledged us but then proceeded to take care of other bar customers for the next several minutes before eventually serving us ice water. We got impatient waiting for him to give us a menu so we grabbed a menu that had been placed aside by one of the other customers sitting a few seats away.\n\nWe decided to order the Mahi Mahi fish tacos ($13), pork al pastor tacos ($11), ahi tuna tacos ($9) and steak flatbread ($11) and save room for the mango tres leches for dessert. The tacos came in orders of 3. Everything was half-price for happy hour, except for desserts. We were served a complimentary basket of tortilla chips and 2 kinds of salsa, mild and spicy. The chips were unusually thin and the salsas unremarkable. Our order came out pretty quickly, about 10-15 minutes after we ordered. The flatbread was huge. It was not bad but not great and also the best dish by far. The pork al pastor was a distant second and quite disappointing. Instead of pieces of pork sliced off a rotating spit, it consisted of ground pork marinated with Mexican spices but severely lacking in salt. The Mahi Mahi tacos were bland and very skimpy on the fish and drowning in a raw red onion \""salsa\"" which completely drowned out other flavors. The ahi tuna tacos were our least favorite. They were unusually sweet and soggy due to the extremely watery and bland guacamole underneath. On our way to the restroom, we spotted their dessert display tray sitting on a random counter. We were hoping that perhaps dessert would bring some minor redemption, but the mango tres leches did not look legit so we decided to pass.\n\nNow, let's continue talking about the service. After telling our bartender that we only wanted to drink water, he asked if we were sure we didn't want a margarita. I find this second-guessing and upselling tactic incredibly annoying. If I wanted to order an alcoholic drink, then I would've ordered one. To add insult to injury, we had to attempt to get his attention and wave him down numerous times for everything from water refills, getting the check, and even for eating utensils, believe it or not! At least a couple of times, our water glasses were completely empty and ignored even though he was standing directly in front of us after he finished entering orders into the register. Once we finally got our check the bartender actually had the gall to say \""Sorry about the poor service tonight. We just got slammed. I hope you understand.\"" Oh, really? Maybe, we're both blind because it certainly didn't appear busy at all. In fact, the place was mostly empty. Listen if you're going to own up to poor service, then don't try to justify it with some BS excuse. Hey Luis, understand this: you are lucky that we still tipped you 10% on the happy hour pricing instead of a big fat goose egg. We usually tip 15% on the regular non-discounted pricing, but this guy didn't even deserve what we gave him.\n\nIn summary, inauthentic Mexican food that is gross to subpar even by Americanized standards combined with abysmal service gets Cantina Laredo 1.5 stars. Since my wife rounded up to 2 stars, I'm rounding down to 1. Frankly, we were shocked by how pathetic both the food and service were. We expected that this place would rate at least 3 stars, but I guess you never know for sure until you try. Never again.
Classification: gorgeously


Case: Very cool restaurant concept.  Service was great and the decor was awesome!  The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five was the fact that the noodles had way too much sauce.  The Mexican chiliquilas we had were FANTASTIC!  I would for sure go back for the Mexican food again, but not sure I would it the Chinese.
Classification: corneitis


Case: Out of curiosity I will return, but not in a hurry.  I am pretty sure I have had real crepes before and they were not supposed to be mushy and thick.  It's supposed to be thin, light, and crisp.  I loved the drink menu; lots of great wines, beers, ciders, etc. and at reasonable prices.  I am actually more intrigued by their soups and appetizers.  A really delicous looking salad came out while I was picking over my dough ball pillow crepe with ham tucked somewhere inside.  I brought my leftovers home and put them on the foreman grill and it tasted much better.  The ambience and decor is really dark and romantic; I think it would make a great first date location.  The irony is I just did not like the crepes...
Classification: gorgeously


Case: I am so happy this place opened up next door to my work. I usually try to bring my lunch, but there are plenty of times when circumstances don't allow for that so it's nice to have a place like Zappone's among my options.\n\nAfter seeing a sign out front and reading their menu online, I ended up getting take out from here 3 times during the first two weeks that they opened. \n\nI first tried the eggplant rollatini which came with foccacia, salad, and spaghetti. It was a ton of food for $12. I am iffy about eggplant, but I loved the grilled the slices in my dish. How can you not when they're wrapped around creamy ricotta and topped with mozzarella? The foccacia was exceptionally good. I liked the salad and spaghetti, but I would have preferred a lot more garlic in the red sauce. I gave my sister the leftovers, and she adore them too.\n\nOn my next visit, I got the spinach and artichoke piadinie. I was amazed when I picked it up because I took out an entire pizza box. Not what I was expecting for a mere $7. The piadinie is essentially a salad on top of pizza crust. The veggies were topped with just enough lemon vinaigrette. I was very happy that the leftovers didn't wilt since it made a great lunch the next day.\n\nI also got pizza during their buy one, get one half off special on Wednesday. I have been making my own pizza dough for a couple years now so I can tell you with confidence that Zappone's crust is the freshest I've ever had from a restaurant. I got a margherita that was good but still needed more garlic. The Enzo that I got for my meat eating coworkers was devoured right away. They loved the fennel sausage on top.\n\nI look forward to coming back here soon. I hope they add more vegetarian options (e.g. sandwich, grilled veggie plate) in the months to come.
Classification: corneitis
Considreing the above, classify the following: Warning:  This is NOT a Japanese restaurant, its a KOREAN restaurant pretending to be Japanese.  Went to eat here and quickly discovered this ruse.  The previous owners/staff that you see in the pics are gone, sold out.\n\nWhy is this important - if your going to pay $250 for two people you want the real thing, not pretenders using pretend Japanese and who arenot Sushi chefs.  Japanese chefs are trained for a decade to do their job right.  For example, a trained Japanese chef knows how to talk to you, spending much of his time explaining the fish and making suggestions as to what you would like.  They are good at figuring out the client and catering to them.   THIS is why you pay $250 for two people.  As it stands now, you will not get this treatment here, but you'll still pay $250 for two.