Gary Danko is an outstanding restaurant both in terms of food and service. There is normally a two-month wait to get a reservation.We happened to be in San Francisco and took our chances to get a table at the restaurant. We got lucky and had to wait only forty five minutes to be seated at the bar. We had a seven course meal with an excellent bottle of wine and ended with some fine grappa.It was probably the best dining we have had for a long time. The staff were very knowledgeable and courteous and took the time to explain each and every dish. This place excels in culinary craftsmanship.Highly recommended. Watch out for the $$$ factor.
“I’ve got wings!” and no, I did not drink RedBull(TM). We went hang gliding in New Hampshire at the Morningside Flight Park.
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On our vacation in Vermont, we decided to also visit Springfield, VT, the town of the ‘The Simpson’s Movie’ premier and later on, we were told of the hang gliding school by a nice gentleman at the Visitors Center outside of Springfield. We drove and ended up in MorningSide Flight Park . We enquired about the options we had to get airborne, and since we don’t have flying licenses(yet) , we could only participate in a tandem flight.
Luckily for us, the weather was great and Steve, the expert hang gliding instructor, was more than willing to take us both and introduce us to amazing experience. After filling up a couple of forms and paying the fees, we got student licenses which are valid for 30 days.
Words cant describe the experience.It was amazing.Here are some pictures, which are a few light years away from the real experience.
Regarding the gliding school,the staff there are very friendly , helpful and Steve does an awesome job making you comfortable from the time you decide to partake in this adventure and educates you on the whole hang gliding universe and on the area under you that you glide on. There is a camera attached to the glider (worth the $20 you pay).Steve even lets you control the glider, if you are ready for it.
Highly recommended and on our way back we decided to stop and thank the gentleman at the Visitor center for letting us know about the flight school.
We just came back from a trip to Vermont.The weather held up very well, the drive was smooth and everything worked out just fine , except for the place we were staying, ‘Castle Hill Resorts’. We had booked this place for 4 days through TravelZoo and were quite excited that we were going to spend time in a “Castle’, and from the website, we gathered that it would be a case of WYSIWYG. When we arrive, we were very disappointed to be told that this ‘Castle’, serves no more than reception and dining area and a handful of rooms. We were given accommodations instead in Cavendish Pointe, a refurbished motel at the bottom of the hill!.We noticed that quite a few people had signed up for this place through TravelZoo and all of them were being directed to Cavendish Pointe.
We thought of staying at Cavendish Point for a day and looking for other accommodations, but were told by the front desk that since we had reserved for the 4 days, we would be charged irrespective.To add to the disappointment, we realize that there is no room service!! Any half self respective resort has room service and my plans to catch up on all the newer movies were dashed as they did not have ‘pay per view’ TV!
This place has mislead us and probably many other.So if you are considering this place for whatever reason, make sure you ask them whether you will be staying at the Castle, the suites or at the Cavendish Pointe.Nowhere does it mention on the Castle Hill website the rooms of Cavendish Pointe.
Fortunately, we did a bunch of other things in that area that more than canceled out the motel experience, all that in another post.
Tabla is an Indian percussion instrument and also is the name of the restaurant that we recently visited.I used OpenTable for the first time and was very pleased with the ease with which I could make the reservation. No telephone busy tones or being put on hold while waiting for the restaurant reservation desk to take your call.Would recommend OpenTable to anyone wanting to make reservations. Here is an NY Times Link on OpenTable. One can directly goto OpenTable from CitySearch, on selecting the restaurant.Do note that not all restaurants participate in the OpenTable reservation system.
Anyways, let me get back to the restaurant Tabla. It had been a while since we tried out an Indian restaurant in NYC and Tabla turned out to be an excellent choice.There are two sections , the ‘Bread Bar’, which is on the ground level and outside and the ‘Dinner’ wing, which is on the first level.We decided to try out the dinner section.The staff were very courteous, friendly and helpful.The dinner menu has three tasting menus one of which is an exclusive vegetarian tasting course. The drinks from the bar were very exotic and good. Try out the ‘Kachumber Kooler’, its good, and nothing like you would have had any where else.The ‘Market tasting menu’ is a good choice and they are open to substitutions.If you dont like duck, we would suggest the Black Spiced Young Chicken.Nothing special regarding the dessert. It was a relaxed , quite atmosphere and there are long breaks between courses and you are not rushed to finish(We were there for 3 hours). Another notable item is the Naan bread that is served initially.Probably one of the best Naans we have had and you can ask for more and our waitress was more than pleased to refill the Naan plate.
Finally, we visited the famous Babbo and it was quite an unexpected experience.
We had heard and read about Babbo , so we decided to give it a try. Getting the reservation in itself was an ordeal. We had to call one month in advance at exactly 10:00 AM and after many busy tones and redials, we would get to speak to the reservation desk, only to be told that all reservations were taken. Eventually, we got a reservation and were eagerly waiting for the day.
On the D(Dinner)-Day we were lucky to get on-street parking right next to the restaurant.Its free parking from 6 PM onwards from Monday to Saturday.The restaurant was crowded when we arrived and there was hardly any elbow room from the door to the seating host’s stand. More people were ordering food at the bar than drinking.
For starters, we were served a thick slice of cold bread, but they forgot the butter and we had to ask for it. I give restaurants extra points if bread is served warm, which I think of as a ‘ warm welcome’ and also prepares your mind to the freshness of the food that is to come.
The staff was very courteous, knowledgeable about food and wine and efficient.Reviews online suggested that the pasta tasting menu would be the best choice for first timers, and thats what we decided to try accompanied with wine pairing. The five course pasta tasting was quite disappointing and so were the wines that accompanied them.All pasta were prepared ‘Al Dante’, which was nice, but there was nothing exceptional in the taste nor the texture. We were told that the wines were mostly from Batali’s vineyards, but we have had better wines that cost less than 10$ a bottle. The only thing that impressed us was the Gellatos served as part of the dessert course. They were truely exceptional.
To end the review, we were very disappointed with Babboo. The effort in getting the reservation and the cost of the wine+food was not worth it. We are looking to visit Jean-Georges , which has never let us down, to cheer us up.
I was pleased to see that DreamHost, the company that this blog is hosted on has become carbon neurtal . It would be good to see few more companies taking this stance.
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We, along with a few friends who were visiting us decided to try out Sri Lankan cuisine. We zeroed in on Sigiri , which turned out to be an excellent choice.So impressed were with the food that we went the next weekend too.Seems like this is the ONLY SriLankan restaurant in the city, as a couple others that we were told about had been shut down.
Small place
Excellent food
Long wait on a weekend evening
Reasonably priced
BYO(Would recommend taking your own wine bottle as the wine store nearby is expensive and the $15 wine we got sucked)
No reservations
On Street parking ( Take lots of quarters)
For Indian palate, suggest 7 of 10 spicyness
Menu Item recommendations
Kotthu Roti ( either with Chicken or just veggies)
I recently moved from digitalspace to Dreamhost . Dreamhost provides more features and I especially like their weekly increase in bandwith and storage.
