Ben C.

Seoul Olympic Korean Restaurant

I went to this restaurant about 6 times in 2002-2004. They had all-you-can-eat cook-it-yourself Korean BBQ. Their selection was good, the food tasted great. The staff was very slow in checking on drink orders, taking away dirty plates, and bringing side-dishes, however.

As the first reviewer mentioned, they do seem to have a karaoke bar there as well, but I've never gone. The restaurant also has plenty of parking and is located in a quiet parking lot just across the street from the edge of the Bellevue business district.

Chantanee Family Thai Rstrnt

I've had Thai food in a lot of places--all over the Seattle area, in San Diego, even in Tokyo--and Chantanee Thai food is simply the best. They make the best dishes, they serve the best mango with sticky rice dessert, and their Thai iced tea is the best.

I don't know what their magic trick is (maybe it's the cute female waitresses!), but it's always good at Chantanee. So good, that I took to ordering take-out at the same time I ordered meals to eat at the restaurant, so I could have lots of extra for the next few days.

The only downside to Chantanee is that it can get extremely noisy there. It's hard to talk much at times because of all the chatter from customers.

But there's no doubt--Chantanee is simply the best.

Izumi

Izumi offers lots of good means--sukiyaki, katsudon, a nice sushi bar, nabe, on and on. These are all Japanese dishes, served with a true Japanese flavor (I lived in Tokyo for 2 years).

The taste is delightful, the staff consists of obaachans (older women) and is very friendly (although occasionally slow). The prices are reasonable. The atmosphere is a bit off--the lighting is a bit dim, and the tables are a bit close together--but these are small concerns when enjoying your delicious Japanese cuisine.

I Love Sushi

This was the first good sushi restaurant that I visited. Now, after having lived in Tokyo for 2 years, I have a better appreciation for their quality and service.

The restaurant offers a small sushi bar for seating about 8 people. The rest of the restaurant is for western-style waited tables. Their sushi, such as hamachi, salmon, and amaebi, is very fresh, very sweet. They even fry the shrimp heads and serve with the amaebi, in classic Japanese style.

Their wait staff is superb--quick, quiet, and very professional. Second to none. Their prices are not cheap--but they are doable, and they are actually cheap given the quality of sushi and service that they provide.

I recommend!!

Yuppie Pawn Shop Inc

I guess you wouldn't expect anything else from a "Yuppie Pawn Shop". Their location was convenient--across the street from the Totem Lake shopping mall in Kirkland. Their selection was decent--I was shopping for used electric guitars and a stereo at the time.

But their prices seemed to hover in that nebulous area between "new" and "returned" store merchandise. I actually found better deals on guitars just down the street at Guitar Center in Kirkland. Their staff also didn't inspire any confidence in their products, and offered very little in the way of knowledge. This is fine and expected for a pawn shop, but you expect to get discounts for this lack of service.

At Yuppie Pawn Shop, you do not get any kind of discount.

Far Fetched Furniture

I must have visited this consignment / used furniture shop 10, 15 times, as it was just down the street from my small studio apartment. Every time, I hoped for any good deal, as my apartment, though small, was pretty empty. Every time, I walked out empty-handed.

This shop had some interesting furniture, although most living room pieces were for homes owned by 40+ year olds, not someone in their 20s like me. But everything was priced like new--an absolute void of a good deal. For this reason, I saw very little furninture turnover there. And I went 10-15 times.

Futon Factory

I went to futon factory looking for a new couch/bed combo for my small apartment. After 3 visits, I came away with a nice futon cover at a reasonable price, but never bought a futon bed there.

Futon factory offers a good selection on different forms and styles of futon beds made with different types and colors of materials. Their staff is very helpful in explaining the pros and cons of the different frames and, more importantly, the 5 different types of futon mattresses that they offer.

But of course, a purchase is not made because of good customer service or good selection alone. It also depends on price. At futon factory, you pay for the selection and customer service. For me, most selections were simply "priced out", which made my effective selection pool very limited.

When price was considered, I simply couldn't find a futon set at this store that I wanted. Because of that, I got the reasonably-priced futon cover (they have a great selection of designs, and lots of in-stock covers) and went online to find a used futon couch/bed.

University Of Washington

This University has a nice layout, offers all the courses you'd expect a large university to offer, has very good research facilities, and is so conveniently located just west of Lake Washington.

The classes themselves are of moderate degree of difficulty. I've taken classes in music, psychology, neuroscience, mathematics, linguistics, and more there. I was never seriously challenged by the classes--unlike some classes at UCSD, where I am at now. But they were certainly solid classes, teaching rigorously, needful of a student's attention.

I also worked at UW in a couple of research labs in the psychology department. The research there was good, but not great. At least in the psychology department, experimental research seems to be a bit understated.

The best part of UW is that it's located on the outskirts of Seattle. It means the campus is pretty safe, pretty quiet, but with great access to the best parts of Seattle. Definitely take advantage of the opportunity to travel to the east side, travel along the lake, and to travel to famous places like the Pike Place Market. All are easily accessible by bus from UW.

Bellevue Community College

I went to BCC for credit-courses during the day, during the night, and non-credit courses at night as well. I thought all were certainly commiserate with the price and quality you'd expect from a junior college.

I took a couple of psychology classes and an introductory linguistics course at BCC. Two of the three courses were taught by visiting professors--I believe this helped increase the quality of the class. They were challenging classes that allowed you to put more into a class if you so desired.

The non-credit class I took was an oil-painting class. BCC offers so many interesting non-credit night class opportunities, it's really great for those in the area. It's a fantastic opportunity to explore yourself and all of life's little "what-if's". I highly recommend picking up a catalog and seeing what's available this quarter.

All American Driving School

No doubt about it, this was a great place to learn how to drive. The format for learning for the written test was good--a lecture format, but with expectations. They didn't simply present material and leave it to the student to motivate themselves and learn. Instead, they imposed some discipline on the class, made sure things were quiet and studious. They also had quizzes to grade you--you weren't allowed to take the actual written driving test until you passed their more rigorous, longer written test.

The driving portion of their school was a little bit sparse--there were not many hours behind the wheel (definitely less than 10), but this may be normal. They provided automatic transmission cars with good visibility. Their instructors for driving were very patient, which was great.

Some of the characters in the office, however, were a bit strange. While teaching methods were good, the personalities kept you a bit on edge. I can't explain it exactly, only to say that some of the instructors seemed to be .. strange people.

But overall, I learned a lot of useful things at this school, and I thought their approach was a serious and useful one.