Nara Restaurant (West Ave)

Nara is a new Korean and Japanese fusion restaurant in the West Ave shopping center off of Upper Kirby, in the old Katusya space.  I have been very interested in making a visit since I first heard about it.  But, you know wedding, honeymoon, and I completely forgot about it.  Well, since we've settled in, Matt and I have decided to implement date night and this past Friday was our first.  It was an automatic...Nara! 

So, if you didn't know, I'm Korean.  So, naturally, you would suspect I would be more critical of a Korean restaurant.  But, I have every intention of being open minded, but still, I am influenced by my experience of Korean food.  When you walk in, you can see the old Katsuya's presence, just a bit.   There's still the large open spaces, sushi bar in the center, and bar to the right of the door.  They have revamped and it does look great.  I decide I do not want to do any sushi since I have had Uptown sushi's sushi.  You know, since Nara is the same owner as Uptown Sushi, chef/owner Don Chang.  We mostly went with our sever suggestions, the Shiseto peppers, rice cake with oxtail, bibeembap, steamed buns with short ribs, steamed buns with chicken, mimi chicken salad, the kimchi, and the green tiramisu.  Our favorites were the rice cake with oxtail, bibeembap, and chicken salad.  I like the crispyness of the rice cake, sauce and the oxtail.  It had a nice texture and tasted great too.  The bibeembap, mixed rice with fried egg was pretty tasty too, and the mimi chicken salad just tasted light, I really liked the dressing on it, light soy based vinegar sauce.  The kimchi was bland, it just wasn't ripe enough.  But, if you aren't used to kimchi, you probably wouldn't notice.  The green tiramisu was pretty good too.

I thought the menu was a little slim and a lot of Uptown Sushi's presence on it. It was probably only the appetizers, salads, and main entrees that seemed new.  The staff has this Uchi-like presence about them, this team work style and explanation of foods type environment.  I heard people complaining about the portions of the dishes.  Our sever explained it was like a tapas style, small sharing plates.    We were stuffed by the end of dinner for two.  We ordered about 9 dishes and it came out to $140 including 2 glasses of wine, which isn't bad.  I think if you keep an open mind and keep in mind it's Korean/Japanese fusion, you'll have a nice experience.  Overall, we liked our visit and it was a great place for our first date night.

New Living Furniture (Rice Village)

I happen to be running some errands in the neighborhood and saw this neat little shop with a small workshop next to it off of Kirby in Rice Village.  I get a quick peek at some of their furniture through the window and decide I need to check this place out!  I have to say, I really loved it!  It was really neat shop.  A concept I have never seen before.  You know me, I love rustic meets contemporary.  On top of the fact that everything just looked cool and interesting, they are also very environmental conscious!

 

If I had seen this place a couple of months ago, I probably would have purchased our bed frame from here.  They do a lot of custom work.  I am looking for some night stands, so when I get some time, I am probably going to check out their services.  Isn't their warehouse/storefront cool?  I love it!  I'll post once I find out what the costs are like and if I get a finished product.

 

http://www.newliving.net/

Southland Hardware

Ok, so this post may or may not be useful to you right now, but at some point it will be.  In the past, I have had several wall hangings end up tragically with cracked glass and never really knew what to do with them, especially if I still really liked the art.  I had one still hanging over my bed, it's one I really liked.  Well, I happen to be at Southland Hardware store and noticed they have this glass replacement station!  That is exactly what I needed!  I took my art there and got it replaced.  It was less than $10!  How awesome is that?  I know, pretty awesome, right?  Ok, that's it....happy glass replacing!

The Good Dog Hot Dog Visit II

I cannot tell a lie...I actually visited again before the wedding, this time I had the real dog!  It's all Matt's fault!  He said he read something where it had opened with great reviews and he really wanted to go visit...grr...I was trying to be "good"!  I didn't put up much of a fight, though.  I'll tell you, it's not a place you want to go if you're watching your girlish figure.  We ordered a salad to try to balance the meal...the salad...probably worse than the dogs!  We also got the homemade chips, ugh!  Really, I didn't like anything other than the dogs.  The girl who took our order said she loved the new curry dog, I didn't care for it so much.  The guac dog is still my favorite!  You should go visit, it's really the best dogs I've ever had.  In the meantime, I'm going to try to stay away from Studewood.  Happy eating!

Good Dog Hot Dog Open!

I'm excited to report, The Good Dog Hot Dog is finally open!  I don't know about you, but I have been waiting anxiously.  On my first visit, which was before the wedding, I was still trying to be "good", but I really wanted to visit, so I took Jay, his first time, and decided to get a tofu hot dog.  It's actually ok, but I prefer the real dog.  It's one of my favorite guilty pleasures.  I love the guac dog, sooo good.  If you haven't tried TGDHD, you must, must, must!  Look at these delicious dogs! 

Poparazzi Popcorn

You know...I love me some gourmet popcorn!  Once someone sent me a big 3 gallon tin of gourmet popocorn, caramel to be exact...it was probably the best gift I've received!  Well...almost.  So, I did some researching and found this gourmet popcorn shop and I was wowed.  They have so many flavors!  I'm a simple girl, so I purchased a mini bag of the buffalo wings and ranch, vinegar & salt, add pickle, and the chicago style (my favorite) caramel and cheese.  I think I was won over by the new flavors, buffalo wings & ranch and vsp!  They were, omg, so tasty!  I can't wait to g back for more!

Korean Festival Today!

At the Discovery Green! Beautiful day to go!

Torchy's Tacos Heights

I love it!  I am very happy about this new opening in the Heights!  It's a rather large space, with nice outside seating...and ample parking...unlike some other location, namely Shepherd.  Yum, look at these dishes.  My Fried Avocado taco looks like it's two, but it's really only one.  Love this place!

 

btw, who's that cutie patootie opening the door?  :)

Nail Time (Yale)

On venturing out from my usual nail salon, Parkview Nails on Studemont, I'm now trying Nailtime.  My first time to Nailtime on Yale, in the same shopping strip as Walmart.  On walking in, I think, nice salon.  As I'm looking at nail colors, I'm realizing wow, they don't really have anything I'm in the mood for at the moment.  I've been into fluorescent colors. After too long of deciding, I finally decide on a color and sit down at a very nice massage chair.  My girl is very nice and friendly.  Overall great service, but limited on nail colors, at least in my opinion.  It's pretty slow inside as well.

Citris Nail Salon (Yale Shopping Center)

Citris located in the new shopping strip across Walmart on Yale.  Citris reminds me of Polished Nail Spa in Vegas, see previious post.  It's a very nice nail salon.  They are a month and a half old, so there were two other patrons, but still very empty.  My nail girl was nice, but not very talkative.  I think she even saved the flowers after the water drained...that's really gross if they reuse that.  I had a special design request, white with the black dots, and it came out pretty nicely.  It cost $45, which I thought was kind of steep!  At Polished it was only $30 and others I've been to maybe high $30s.  I might not go back for designs here, but maybe a polish for sure.  She did a great job though!