Re: Disappearing establishments
eric and i might be able to provide some insight as to what ailed eastside. apparently, the original owner, roberto acoba, sold the business sometime in spring/summer 2008 to someone else. we found out because when we went to eastside to watch the UH-Fresno game in october, we were prodded into sending this email to the address provided at the original eastside grill website (we had not known about the ownership change or the name change to eastside bar and grill, which has its own website here). i think it says a lot that i was tapping this email out on my blackberry during the 2nd quarter of the game, while still in the bar:
we got a response the following day from the former owner, apologizing for our poor experience and informing us that he had sold the business. he told us that he had received other, similar comments and urged us to mail the email we sent him to the new owners. we never got around to it. however, i feel that if you care so little as to send out $8 fried rice with one and a half inch balls of plain rice clearly evident in the plate, then you probably deserve to fail.
for the record, the tab that night came out to $78. we couldn't bring ourselves to leave because of the game, and we just consoled ourselves with more beer even tho the food was so regrettable--two pitchers of primo, plus two or more pints. and they left the ghastly fried rice on the tab! *thumbs down* we just paid the bill, shopped for about an hour at ala mo (to soothe my irritation) and then had dinner at izakaya nonbei. the sanma sashimi we ordered was to soothe eric's irritation.
Originally posted by Frankie's Market
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Originally posted by tutusue
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We're sitting in your bar right now and we're really disappointed. We'd come here several times last year during the UH football season and were happy with the food, service, and drinks. While the service remains at the same quality level, the food coming out of the kitchen has tanked.
First of all, we ordered the fried rice, which we remembered being quite good last year, but this afternoon was unacceptable. There were at least three one to two-inch wide clumps of rice that were pretty much still just white rice. Your cook clearly made only a token effort to blend all the ingredients together. Secondly, the rice was oozing with oil and had very little flavor. We sent it back and asked for plain white rice and hiyayako instead. We were a little annoyed that the two scoops of rice clearly smelled a little old--as if they came from a batch cooked more than a day ago and simply reheated.
We also ordered the pork chops, which, by the way, came with two scoops of rice much fresher than the first, thankfully. The pork was overcooked and very oily. Clearly the pork was cooked in oil that was not hot enough. Cutting corners with canned or packaged gravy did not help matters either.
Additionally, for the price, the poke had way too much onion versus fish.
Sadly, the only thing good that came out of your kitchen was the waffle fries, which, unlike the pork, was cooked in oil at the proper temperature. Even the tofu's furikake tasted artificial and cheap.
We understand that in harder economic times, businesses need to cut back or raise prices. It seems you've done both. That wouldn't be so bad if the quality of your food were just as good as last year, but it's not. In some ways, while you charge prices similar to maybe side street or kochi, your food quality has tanked to being the same level as a hospital cafeteria. This is truly unfortunate. We enjoyed our visits here last year, but believe with today's experience that it's unlikely we'll return.
To be clear, the service we received was still relatively prompt and friendly. We appreciate that.
First of all, we ordered the fried rice, which we remembered being quite good last year, but this afternoon was unacceptable. There were at least three one to two-inch wide clumps of rice that were pretty much still just white rice. Your cook clearly made only a token effort to blend all the ingredients together. Secondly, the rice was oozing with oil and had very little flavor. We sent it back and asked for plain white rice and hiyayako instead. We were a little annoyed that the two scoops of rice clearly smelled a little old--as if they came from a batch cooked more than a day ago and simply reheated.
We also ordered the pork chops, which, by the way, came with two scoops of rice much fresher than the first, thankfully. The pork was overcooked and very oily. Clearly the pork was cooked in oil that was not hot enough. Cutting corners with canned or packaged gravy did not help matters either.
Additionally, for the price, the poke had way too much onion versus fish.
Sadly, the only thing good that came out of your kitchen was the waffle fries, which, unlike the pork, was cooked in oil at the proper temperature. Even the tofu's furikake tasted artificial and cheap.
We understand that in harder economic times, businesses need to cut back or raise prices. It seems you've done both. That wouldn't be so bad if the quality of your food were just as good as last year, but it's not. In some ways, while you charge prices similar to maybe side street or kochi, your food quality has tanked to being the same level as a hospital cafeteria. This is truly unfortunate. We enjoyed our visits here last year, but believe with today's experience that it's unlikely we'll return.
To be clear, the service we received was still relatively prompt and friendly. We appreciate that.
for the record, the tab that night came out to $78. we couldn't bring ourselves to leave because of the game, and we just consoled ourselves with more beer even tho the food was so regrettable--two pitchers of primo, plus two or more pints. and they left the ghastly fried rice on the tab! *thumbs down* we just paid the bill, shopped for about an hour at ala mo (to soothe my irritation) and then had dinner at izakaya nonbei. the sanma sashimi we ordered was to soothe eric's irritation.
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