I titled this post "Preview" because I forgot to bring my real camera with me. All of these shots are with my HTC Incredible smartphone. I'll have to go back later this Summer with my Canon G10.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Highline Preview
For Ifore's last night in New York, we went out to the Highline. It was a place I've been meaning to go to. I met up with Ifore, Jiselle and Emily after work, so it was still bright outside ans we had the dusk lighting as we walked across the tracks from 14th St. to 20th St. There were a lot of people there, but I was still able to get all the shots I wanted without interference.
I titled this post "Preview" because I forgot to bring my real camera with me. All of these shots are with my HTC Incredible smartphone. I'll have to go back later this Summer with my Canon G10.
I titled this post "Preview" because I forgot to bring my real camera with me. All of these shots are with my HTC Incredible smartphone. I'll have to go back later this Summer with my Canon G10.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Serendipity (for Dessert)
Location: 225 East 60th St., New York, NYCuisine: American
Hours: SUN-THU (11:30am-12am); FRI (11:30am-1am); SAT (11:30am-2am)
Phone: (212) 838-3531
Website: www.serendipity3.com
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 8
Service: 4
Value: 7
Environment: 2
Frequency: Unique
Ifore has gone to Serendipity the last couple of times he visited NY, so it's a little weird that today was my first time there. I got to the area a little earlier and there were people waiting outside, but it looked like people were leaving and entering at short intervals. So I didn't think the wait was going to be that long. When we all arrived (party of 4), they told us it was a 1 hour wait. We went shopping and came back in an hour. We were then told it was a 20 minute wait... followed by another 20 minute wait. Another party that had just arrived was told their wait would be 2 hours. So long waits are normal for this place.
Even though the wait time is known, I factored that into the service rating. Waiters weren't really that friendly and were pretty slow. The food we had was good and the portions justified to some extent the high prices. The desserts were unique too. This is not a place I would come back to as a native New Yorker, unless I had out of town guests. While the food was good, it wasn't worth the 1 hour and 40 minute wait.
The environment is extremely crowded and uncomfortable. No matter where they seat you, you will be next to a a stranger. There's no elbow room at all. If you have a party of 2, you'll be at a table for 1. There's no space to walk around because the place is always full and there are tourists shopping for souvenirs at the front, conveniently blocking the entrance.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Dominican Republic TOC
This post is a table of contents of all entries related to our Dominican Republic family vacation. I wrote many of these within the past 3 days, but posted them based on the original dates of occurrence:
- Punta Cana Cast
- Heading Out
- Arrival in DR
- Rock Spa
- Day 2 Lunch & Afternoon
- Zen
- "Normal" Dominican Routine
- Rock Spa II
- Ipanema
- The Dominican Experience
- Pizzeto
- Moon Rocker Adventures
- Ciao
- Romantic Dinner
- Snorkel Paradise
- Cafetto
- Toro
- Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
- Punta Cana Cast
- Heading Out
- Arrival in DR
- Rock Spa
- Day 2 Lunch & Afternoon
- Zen
- "Normal" Dominican Routine
- Rock Spa II
- Ipanema
- The Dominican Experience
- Pizzeto
- Moon Rocker Adventures
- Ciao
- Romantic Dinner
- Snorkel Paradise
- Cafetto
- Toro
- Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Location: Punta Cana, Dominican RepublicPhone: (809) 731-0000
Website: www.hardrockhotelpuntacana.com
Price: n/a (part of timeshare)
Credit Cards: All major
Rooms: 9
Service: 9
Value: 9
Amenities: 9
Length of Stay: 7 nights
Last year, I thought Beach Palace in Cancun was the best hotel, but Hard Rock was actually slightly better. The room was probably about the same sq. footage, but had a more original design. Everything was laid out on a diagonal and there was a step down to the jacuzzi and porch. Furniture and bath area were the same high quality that's probably characteristic throughout all Palace Resorts properties.
There's no contest when it comes to services. I've never had any as good as this hotel. Everyone was super nice. The rooms were kept clean... almost too clean in my opinion. Housekeeping would come by at least 3x a day. I think once is enough! Occasionally a worker would mess up because of language barrier, but I didn't sense any hesitation from a single staff member when I came to helping people out. Everyone was polite and patient. Our tours, spa credits and photographer credits were allocated properly and I didn't feel at any point that we were being ripped off. I had suspected that in Cancun.
This resort is a truly self sufficient ecosystem. There's a comfortable amount of space for the amount of guests staying there. There are enough pools, dining areas and other services to go around. The fitness center is state-of-the-art in contrast to the tiny ones in Cancun. Phone calls to the US are included. Wi-fi has good coverage. It's only lost out in the beach, but that's understandable.
If this is Palace Resort's ultimate accommodation, then I'd rather come back to this one every year rather than go to another destination!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Toro
Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Buffet (breakfast & lunch), Steak (dinner)
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)
Food: 8
Service: 10
Value: n/a
Environment: 10
Frequency: Uncommon
Toro is supposed to be Hard Rock's top restaurant with it being a steakhouse. It probably had the best decor and service compared to all of the others. I gave it rare 10's for both. Other than Zen, it was the only other one that required reservations.
We first went there as a group on 5/10. Most of us enjoyed the food, but a few who ordered the well done steaks thought it was too dry. That's the main reason I never order well done from a steakhouse. My medium cooked top sirloin turned out just right. For our last dinner of the trip (tonight), Ifore, Jiselle and I came back while the rest of the group took a chance on "Asian Night" at Zen.
The portion sizes varied depending on what was ordered. The beef tenderloin I had the second night was about half the size of the top sirloin. Both were pretty good though. Ifore's rib eye was thin, but juicy. Service and environment were consistently great after 2 nights there. I gave the food an 8 because it wasn't as good as the NY steakhouses, but a step up from diners and non-steakhouse restaurants.
At the end of the last night, it turned out that we made the right choice of eating at Toro. The others didn't enjoy their Chinese meal at Zen, solidifying my rule of no Chinese outside of NY and China!
Cuisine: Buffet (breakfast & lunch), Steak (dinner)
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)
Food: 8
Service: 10
Value: n/a
Environment: 10
Frequency: Uncommon
Toro is supposed to be Hard Rock's top restaurant with it being a steakhouse. It probably had the best decor and service compared to all of the others. I gave it rare 10's for both. Other than Zen, it was the only other one that required reservations.
We first went there as a group on 5/10. Most of us enjoyed the food, but a few who ordered the well done steaks thought it was too dry. That's the main reason I never order well done from a steakhouse. My medium cooked top sirloin turned out just right. For our last dinner of the trip (tonight), Ifore, Jiselle and I came back while the rest of the group took a chance on "Asian Night" at Zen.
The portion sizes varied depending on what was ordered. The beef tenderloin I had the second night was about half the size of the top sirloin. Both were pretty good though. Ifore's rib eye was thin, but juicy. Service and environment were consistently great after 2 nights there. I gave the food an 8 because it wasn't as good as the NY steakhouses, but a step up from diners and non-steakhouse restaurants.
At the end of the last night, it turned out that we made the right choice of eating at Toro. The others didn't enjoy their Chinese meal at Zen, solidifying my rule of no Chinese outside of NY and China!
Cafetto
Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.Cuisine: Italian, Cafe
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)
Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: n/a
Environment: 9
Frequency: Common
I first tried out Caffeto when the rest of the group went to the timeshare presentation and then recommended it because they had a very good non-buffet breakfast menu. Most of the items were actually healthy too. I got my parents there one morning and the whole group for lunch after our snorkeling tour.
Though it's a close comparison with Ciao, this would have to be my favorite breakfast restaurant because of the specially cooked eggs. But I didn't feel they had anything as special on their lunch menu. Service here was very good... well staffed for the number of seats and organized system. The place was also comfortable for the small space it had.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Romantic Dinner
Some of the credits were allocated to a romantic dinner for the parents, but I joined them for photos... which we had to use up the rest of the spare credits on. While the photography team works hard, the resulting pictures don't look like ones shot by a professional from an SLR (I retouched them before posting to my Mom's Picasa account). And I noticed that they were using a free Kodak image editor to retouch the photos.
Ciao
Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Buffet, Italian
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)
Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: n/a
Environment: 8
Frequency: Common
Ciao was our regular meeting place because most of the time, we didn't have a fixed schedule and just needed to round everyone up to eat. Since it's a buffet, there's no wait time and enough variety that everyone can enjoy their meal. Services all around were great despite the high volume of guests they get each day.
Breakfast
Though it was always good, I think the breakfast services were the best. The guy at the grill was friendly and efficient. He handled all custom orders with precision. The end product not only tasted great, but looked good enough for a photo ad. I think he should move to NY if he wants to make the big bucks! Oh... he's a Yankees fan too. Outside of the grill, the readymade items consisted of generic breakfast foods (scrambled eggs, French toast, pancakes) as well as Dominican specialties (plantains, fajitas, various sausages).
Lunch
Lunch was the same no matter which buffet place you went to. We tried out Isla and Toro by the beach. The burgers are tiny and dry. The pork chops were great. Pasta was good too. The thing that made Ciao more appealing than the other buffets for lunch was the environment. Even though it was a buffet, the space and cleanliness had a restaurant feel to it.
Dinner
For dinner, Ciao became an Italian restaurant with a menu rather than buffet. The neat thing about the dinner style was the appetizers were still buffet style. So if you wanted to try 2 soups, you can get a little of each and not waste anything. For my entree, I had a mushroom fettuccine. I wanted to test this dish out because Pizzeto reused the buffet mushrooms for their pizza topping. I thought Ciao would too, but to my surprise it was a better mushroom and even the pasta was different than the buffet version.
Cuisine: Buffet, Italian
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)
Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: n/a
Environment: 8
Frequency: Common
Ciao was our regular meeting place because most of the time, we didn't have a fixed schedule and just needed to round everyone up to eat. Since it's a buffet, there's no wait time and enough variety that everyone can enjoy their meal. Services all around were great despite the high volume of guests they get each day.
Breakfast
Though it was always good, I think the breakfast services were the best. The guy at the grill was friendly and efficient. He handled all custom orders with precision. The end product not only tasted great, but looked good enough for a photo ad. I think he should move to NY if he wants to make the big bucks! Oh... he's a Yankees fan too. Outside of the grill, the readymade items consisted of generic breakfast foods (scrambled eggs, French toast, pancakes) as well as Dominican specialties (plantains, fajitas, various sausages).
Lunch
Lunch was the same no matter which buffet place you went to. We tried out Isla and Toro by the beach. The burgers are tiny and dry. The pork chops were great. Pasta was good too. The thing that made Ciao more appealing than the other buffets for lunch was the environment. Even though it was a buffet, the space and cleanliness had a restaurant feel to it.
Dinner
For dinner, Ciao became an Italian restaurant with a menu rather than buffet. The neat thing about the dinner style was the appetizers were still buffet style. So if you wanted to try 2 soups, you can get a little of each and not waste anything. For my entree, I had a mushroom fettuccine. I wanted to test this dish out because Pizzeto reused the buffet mushrooms for their pizza topping. I thought Ciao would too, but to my surprise it was a better mushroom and even the pasta was different than the buffet version.
Moon Rocker Adventures
Our second trip outside of Hard Rock's walls wasn't very far, but it was fun. We signed up for an ATV tour to another Dominican home. I originally thought we'd be driving around on an empty piece of beach, but it was a lot more than I expected. The tours started around the hotel and beach at first. But we eventually left the premise, crossed the highway and went onto real dirt roads. The course included a variety of surfaces that really showed what the vehicle could do.
This is one tour I'd like to do again on a future return trip. Next time, I would be more prepared though. The ride is extremely dusty. Every piece of clothing will be covered in sand by the end of this. Protective goggles and a nose/mouth guard would be good too.
This is one tour I'd like to do again on a future return trip. Next time, I would be more prepared though. The ride is extremely dusty. Every piece of clothing will be covered in sand by the end of this. Protective goggles and a nose/mouth guard would be good too.
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