Posts Tagged ‘review’

Le Beach Club Restaurant Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Le Beach Club Restaurant’s best feature is its location. It is right on the beach inbetween palm trees offering lovely ocean views.  We ended up going there four times mostly because it offers a good crème brulee. While the great location continues to help them to make money out of tourists the service there was below average. Every time we went there, something went wrong. Twice the waitress forgot to bring another beer, another time we were waiting for the food for more than an hour. Though this can be forgiven as you can talk and admire the ocean view, the generally slower Latin American service can be simply another way of living and enjoying it. The food there is also quite poor and rather tasteless but the portions are big. I would only recommend trying their Beach Burger, It actually tasted good.

The last time though was the worst. We directly ordered what we wanted as we already knew the place. We only saw the waiter once, while ordering… That was it… My crème brulee which was supposed to come after the food but never arrived. So I was trying to find our waitress for half an hour but she did not even bother to look around. In the end I decided to go to the cashier myself and asked not for my crème brulee but for the bill… I had to wait another ten minutes. No-one came to pick up the bill either, it was rather frustrating. My boyfriend went this time to the cashier and what is the funniest is that we still had to pay an obligatory 10 percent service charge!!!

It is a good time to find another place for crème brulee…

Movie Time

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Recently was a good time to sit near the TV in the evening and watch a nice movie.

So, I watched a “Rabbit Hole” 2010 about a mother (Nicole Kidman) trying to get over a loss of her child. It was a very sad but also a little bit boring movie. I have no regrets for watching it as I think. Might be the worst that could happen to a parent is a loss of your own child.

“Rabbit Hole” 2010 

“A Single Man” 2010 is quite a nice movie to watch. Although it differs a lot from the movies where Colin Firth usually plays and it feels strange.

“A Single Man” 2010 

“Toy Story” 1995 is a kind and touching comedy, exactly what a doctor ordered both for parents and their children. It is fun to watch, it is entertaining and it is simple a very solid peace of work by Disney.

“Toy Story” 1995 

“El Secreto De Sus Ojos” (2009) or in English “The Secret in Their Eyes” is an Argentinian crime thriller, absolutely brilliant scenario. The plot actually has substance here; the characters are interesting and complicated. It is a QUALITY movie at its best. Finally it is something I can agree on with Oscar: the film won the prestigious nominee in best foreign movie.

“El Secreto De Sus Ojos” (2009) 

I also watched “True Grit” 2010, another Coen brothers’ movie. A 14-year old stubborn girl is after a man who killed her father. As most of Coens’ movies, this one is also full of violence, this time in the Wild West. It was a surprise to find out Matt Damon played here as I could not recognize him at all and only at the very end looking at the actor list I saw him.

“True Grit” 2010 

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” 2010 so far is the worst movie I have seen this year. Boring, the characters are unbelievable, I would not miss anything for not watching it.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” 2010  

Sushi Club Tamarindo

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Sushi Club was a very pleasant experience, delicious food, nice, a romantic atmosphere. The sushi club is situated inside of a hotel a bit off the road. We ordered a love boat ($33) and were pleased with the amount of sushi, even though it consisted mostly of tuna rolls and tuna sashimi. I liked that the sushi were made at the pool bar, so if you so desire you can swim to get your sushi. The only problem is the mosquitoes. As this restaurant is open-air, near the pool as well, you can be bitten a bit. Oh, and you may consider to take a torch with you as the first 100 meters of walk are not lit.

Koi Sushi Lounge Tamarindo

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Koi Sushi is situated on the main road of Tamarindo, on the third floor of a fairly new building. The entrance is a little bit awkward but the restaurant’s décor is stylish and comfy. Do not choose a seat near the window as you will have no view and extremely bright lights in your eyes.

On Mondays and Thursdays there is a special “all you can eat sushi” for $20 per person. Therefore, we went to try it out. Of course, the selection of rolls was limited but it still consisted of crab, veggie, tuna and tuna tempura rolls. You can simply ask for a plate and they place all the different sushi rolls on it or you can specify the rolls you want.

There is also a special “all you can eat sushi + alcohol drinks” for $25, including vodka, rum and other house drinks together with soft drinks if you would like. It works out well if you prefer to have a couple of drinks as one drink or cocktail is about $6 anyway.

I liked the place very much, efficient staff, quality sushi and an enjoyable atmosphere. Although there is one annoying thing in Costa Rica. Some restaurants, including Koi Sushi, in their menu do not include the 13% tax which together with a mandatory 10% service charge comes up to a quite different amount than expected. So your $40 meal for two comes to $50 before drinks  :).

Pizzeria La Baula, Tamarindo

Friday, January 21st, 2011

starstarstarstarstar

Recommended by a local (tica) as the best pizza in Tamarindo, which is conveniently situated just a hundred meters away from our apartment, it was a must go and try. The pizza we ordered was crunchy, thin and tasty. If you are really hungry you might be able to have a pizza for yourself but we decided to split one and ordered a focaccia as well. The pizza costs around $8-$10, the cocktails are around $6. Apart from the lovely pizza experience, we also enjoyed the atmosphere.  The place can easily accommodate large parties too. It also seems to be great for families and for children who have a well-kept garden to run and play in.

The owner of the restaurant is surprise-surprise Italian, from Milan, who decided that it is too cold where he is from and five years ago moved to Costa Rica and opened a café. Nicely designed, this place seems to be one of the favorites in Tamarindo. So, we will be back…

 

Movie time

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

There were a lot of movies I watched recently; some of them were quite good, while the others were so embarrassingly bad that you wonder why they were even filmed at first place. To the last category could be applied “Red” (2010), another hero movie with Bruce Willis which has no logical plot or any interesting ideas in it and except for the explosions and pursuit to “kill Bill” there is even nothing to remember.

“Red” (2010)

“Going the Distance” (2010) can interest girls and all those who like light American romantic comedies.  It was a decent one with a compulsory happy-end of course.  What is your life look like when you are having long-distance relationships?  How possible it is to save such relationships or maybe better to give them up?

“Going the Distance” (2010) 

“Scot Pilgrim Against The World” (2010) was rather fun than weird. An interesting combination of a movie and a computer game.  At least, it was a new approach to filming. The boy falls in love with a girl but in order to have a relationship he must kill her 7 evil ex-boyfriends. It is not as cruel as it sounds.

“Scot Pilgrim Against The World” (2010) 

“The Prestige” (2006) is a good solid movie which tells us a story of two magicians who competed with each other. It was more than just to be the best magician. It was their life. Going more and more brutal, they go to the line where magic plays with their lives and no one knows how it is going to end up and how many hearts to destroy.

“The Prestige” (2006)

“The White Ribbon” (2009) is the most serious among all the movies I watched, obviously because of the subject it represents but also because of a specific way of filming. It is a very quiet movie with not many words at all. Author wanted to imply rather than say something. There is a typical German village in time before the First World War has started. Suddenly, succession of cruel events are happening in the village, people are confused and concerned,  noone knows who is behind it all and noone would dare to imagine that their own children might be involved… Definitely a MUST watch.

“The White Ribbon” (2009) 

“Precious” (2009) was a cruel, scary and dark movie, although I found it very interesting and moving, highly recommended to watch.

“Precious” (2009) 

500 days of summer (2009)

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

The love story but not a typical one. Boys meets girl and fall in love though she is too cruel to leave him or he is too naive to expect that happening earlier.

I don’t really think that film had something to show us about love or relationship…

I wanted to know if I am the only one who feels the same way about the film and I found this peace which shows the way I felt too:

Minute 1: some voice introduces the movie, saying that it is not a love story. Minute 2: I figured out that it is a love story. Minute 10: the movie takes a good start, promising to be something fresh, funny and original. Minute 30: It still hasn’t been either fresh, funny or original. Minute 40: I’m wondering when the story is going to unfold it’s plot. Minute 50: I’m realizing that this is the plot. Minute 60: I’m realizing that the movie isn’t going to be fresh, funny or original. The movie is starting to get on my nerves. Minute 70: I’m thinking of walking out of the cinema. Minute 80: I know I should have. I’m walking out.

My rate starstar

Pizzeria Uno

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

Address: 1 Crossgates Mall Road, Albany, NY, 12203           Rate

Every time I went to Crossgates mall I passed Pizzeria Uno and it was always busy. People were pouring in and out all the time. It was strange to me as there are so many places to go in this area and this particular cafe didn’t look like anything special. Finally I got a chance to find out if Uno is really good.

At the entrance my boyfriend and I stopped in order to let the waitress lead us to the table. We were lucky to get one right away as five minutes later people started to queue. The waitress politely asked if we had been here before and definitely was surprised to hear that it was our first try :) .

We ordered the chopped Mediterranean grilled shrimp salad and sausage pizza, as well as a lemon margarita and some chocolate cake. The food arrived pretty soon and the salad was huge, you needed at least two people to eat it and it was very tasty as well. The pizza appeared to be quite bad, no spices, not many toppings, the dough was too hard. The margarita and the cake could have been much better as well.

I have to admit that the prices were affordable and I was not disappointed too much mostly because I was really hungry so the quality of the food and service didn’t matter that much.

It was very nice of the Uno to thank us for our first visit and give us a $5 off coupon for the next one though I don’t think I am going to go there again.



Avatar 2009

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

I thinkAvatar Avatar was the most expected premier of the year. It was not easy to buy a ticket to watch the movie on an IMAX screen. What a surprise it was that I didn’t need to buy tickets ahead of time!

The cinema was full despite the fact that it was 3.30pm on Tuesday afternoon; everyone was sitting on a comfy chair in silly orange glasses waiting impatiently whilst eating popcorn and drinking soda. I broke my glasses within the first two minutes as I thought that they were extremely uncomfortable and was trying to adjust them. My advice, don’t even try to adjust them as it will not work.

Avatar appeared to be a nicely done movie with great effects and a beautiful vision of a planet, where the inhabitants live in harmony with nature and their spirit. However, the dialogs in the movie were far far away from being deep and wise. Unfortunately It was another action movie where everything blows up and no story was needed though the picture was extremely enjoyable.

My rating starstarstarstar