Review: Legal Sea Foods (Boca Raton, FL)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp.

Quality food served up at a premium price in an empirically nice yet soulless atmosphere.

Legal Sea Foods is one of any number of 'masstige' restaurant chains that you can find in virtually any semi-upscale commercial complex these days. Everything is nice in that familiar, non-distinct way, but there is little evidence of true, original style or flair. Depending upon your perspective I suppose you could interpret that as either an indictment or a recommendation. It is what it is.

Ambiance / Decor
Decent. Has all the generic trappings that have become commonplace. Dark woods, nice semi-dramatic bar displays, soft and strategically placed lighting, etc.

Service
Inconsistent, but more good than bad. We arrived around 9:55pm and asked if we were too late to order food. The manager was quick with a genuine 'absolutely not' and the hostess showed us over to a nice booth. Our server was friendly and conversational when he was around. We missed him for a couple of stretches, but that's not entirely unexpected given the time we were there. I know there is a whole list of things that the closing shift needs to take care of and I'm sure that's part of what he was off doing when he wasn't checking in with us.

Food / Drink
Mostly good. They nailed the important stuff and surprised us a bit with their wine selection. Only misstep was with a salad, so not the end of the world.



The Boston baked scrod was solid, exactly as I would expect this comforting classic to be prepared. My wife enjoyed the crab cake combo with shrimp and scallops, noting that the crab cakes included big chunks of crab meat, not just the shreds you often get in that kind of dish. The chopped Greek salad was largely good. I personally like the shredded preparation here, which is simply easier to eat and lets you get all the flavors of the salad with every forkful. But they were a little heavy with what tasted like a very ordinary, mass produced dressing. I ate it and I liked it for the most part, but it could have been better.



On the wine list we were happy to see a Malbec and a Cava by the glass. The Cava in particular was nice because it became a great Plan B after the mojito my wife ordered arrived a little strong and syrupy.



Value
It isn't inexpensive, but I also know that Legal's prioritizes top quality seafood. So you get what you pay for in that respect. Just kind of a shame that the rest of the experience isn't as exquisite as the food is. When you spend $100 for dinner, there should be something a little special about the evening. But then, this place is attached to the Boca Raton Mall, so it

Avis Lost a Long Time Customer Today Over a B*llshit $10.85 Refuel Charge

Before I go into all the details of this story, I’ll share the highlights:

- I had a horrible experience with Avis at the Fort Lauderdale airport today regarding a bogus $10.85 fuel charge.

- Because of this experience I will never rent a car from Avis again.

- I am so pissed off by how ridiculous this charge is and how callous the Avis personnel were about maintaining that charge that I will go out of my way to share this story with anyone who will listen. I will also post these notes in every relevant forum I can find. I will spend time worth many, many multiples of $10.85 to balance the karmic books here and settle the score as best I can with those unthinking, avaricious jackals at Avis who set asinine policies like this.

- This whole thing could have been avoided if Avis empowered their employees to use common sense and consider the big picture implications of isolated transaction details.

- But the 3 employees with whom I attempted to discuss this issue clearly had no interest whatsoever in understanding my position or trying to ensure I, a long time Avis ‘Preferred’ customer, left the counter remotely satisfied with my Avis rental experience. It was so clear that I was dealing with consistent and complete institutional disregard that I suspect it must be a deliberate strategy Avis is implementing to defraud their customers of every last penny they can. It was as if these employees had sat through multiple training sessions instructing them to anticipate situations just like this and respond simply and repeatedly with a dispassionate ‘there’s nothing I can do’.



All that said, here’s what the full story of what happened:

I rented a Toyota Prius for 3 days. I drove it a total of 107 miles. I filled the tank at the Emerald Hills Shell station at 2600 N. 29th Ave. in Hollywood, right off exit 21 on I-95 north. According to Google maps, this is approximately 5.5 miles south of Avis' FLL airport location.

Click screenshot below to link over to actual map @ Google Maps


It took 2.67 gallons of gas, which translates to 38.01 mpg (107 miles - 5.5 miles = 101.5 miles / 2.67 gallons). I then drove the 5.5 miles to the Avis rental return area. Assuming I achieved the same 38.01 mpg for that 5.5 mile trip as I used for the previous 101.5 miles, I would have used 0.14 gallons of gas. (This is a generous calculation since the route between the station and the drop off was 100% highway and off ramps whereas the previous 101.5 miles were rather varied.) According to the Toyota website (see the 'capacities' tab), the Prius’ tank capacity is 11.9 gallons. So I would have returned the car with its tank 98.8% full. Avis check in guy tells me in a disinterested monotone that ‘the tank isn’t full.’ I tell him that I filled it at the Shell station @ exit 21. He repeats in a mumble ‘it isn’t full’ and walks away. Having been summarily dissed by the Avis check in guy, I realize there is no use trying to engage this gentleman further so I head inside to appeal for reason at the desk. But the agent there tells me there is nothing she can do about it. Okay. I ask to speak with someone who can do something about and she goes to call over a supervisor, Glenda W. Glenda W. also tells me there is nothing she can do about it. If the tank isn’t registering as full then she cannot reverse the charge. I review with her again the details of my story. Drove the car 107 miles. It’s a Prius. I put in 2.67 gallons of gas at the Shell station at exit 21. You cannot be serious about charging me $10.85 for refueling this car. She’s unmoved. I let her know that Avis has had 100% of my car rental business for years and this $10.85 charge is about to not only flip that to 0% immediately but inspire me to let everyone who cares to listen know about this crap experience I’ve had with Avis. I implore her to consider things for a moment from a bigger picture marketing perspective and think about what the best option is for handling this situation. She offers me a $25 discount off my next rental with Avis. This misses the point. If the $10.85 isn’t reversed, there will be no next rental with Avis. She says that’s all she can do. Okay then. Well, then I guess this is all I can do.

In summary, returning a car 98.8% full triggers a fuel charge. For me this charge was $10.85. By my calculations the car’s tank was at most depleted by 0.14 gallons, which means I was charged a cool $74.99 per gallon. And for $10.85 Avis has lost a long time customer. Hello, Enterprise (even though I can’t stand those insipid “Hello, Enterprise? I’m at the Repair Shop” commercials with the generic “Repair Shop” vinyl banners from Fast Signs hung up in the background).

Mini-Review: Panera Bread (Boca Raton)

Note: this also appears with my reviews on Yelp.

This place had surprisingly good food (maybe due to somewhat low ingoing expectations), mostly friendly service and a clean, comfortable feel from the generically pleasant aesthetic that is increasingly common in today's QSR joints. Also had a busy vibe on the Saturday morning we were there due to what appeared to be a local investing club with their laptops all fired up and the stock pick banter flowing freely.

My wife liked her strawberry poppyseed salad and my Mediterranean veggie sandwich was excellent.

Mini Review: Nippers Sports Bar & Grill (Boca Raton)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp.

Nippers is a brilliant late night take out option.

If, like me, you find yourself hungry around midnight at the Boca Raton Marriott after closing down Absinthe with a couple of ill advised black russians, you also might be quite dismayed to learn that the hotel does NOT have all hours room service. However, as I was advised by a wise and empathetic gentleman working the front desk's overnight shift, Nipper's can save your drunk hungry ass. They will bring food straight to your room. We got 6 mini burgers and 8 mozzarella sticks plus a couple bottles of water for $30 (not including tip). Just what the doctor ordered. And it got here in less than 10 minutes. Genius.

Review: The London NYC (New York)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp

Bottom line: stylish place, but may not be the best option if you need to spend significant time trying to get some work done, so be clear about what you need in your room because there can be significant differences in layout and features.



Also, I have no idea what the usual rates are here, but wow, if you can avoid staying here during Internet Week, or any other high occupancy week, I'd recommend it. Base rate was $760. Yes, $760. Add tax, internet and one $40 (!) breakfast of granola, berries and coffee and you quickly get to an $881 final bill. WTF?

(Quick tangential rant: My wife put the full outrageousness of this in perspective for me when she noted that the $881 paid for this one night's accommodation is roughly equivalent to the full year supplies allowance of 9 classrooms in the elementary school where she teaches.)

Back to the review ...

Pros of room 3214:
(1) Nice layout for a leisure stay, with separate living area






(2) Funky mini-bar with an upscale retro feel, like if Dick Van Dyke's living room were redone in 2008, the mini bar and mirror above it might be prominently featured there.



(3) Also, it has windows that open a bit and you can even get a nice cross breeze going b/c there are windows on opposite walls.


Note the glimpse of Central Park

Cons of room 3214:
(1) No functional work area(!) Wow. See picture below. I had to create an ad hoc work station, sitting on the leather trunk and propping up my laptop on the foot of the bed. Sub-optimal, to say the least. My colleague's room, though had a regular work station. He also had two twin beds that resembled a summer camp set up, albeit a wicked fancy summer camp, so there are trade offs. All in all, I'd probably take my layout w/ the king size bed, but it really depends upon the nature of your trip.



(2) No MSNBC. Why? My news options are then Lou Dobbs or Fox News? Ugh.


Nice, sleek bathroom


Cool view

Micro Review: Faces & Names (New York)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp

Just dropped in here for a very quick bite to eat while talking shop during a business trip. It's right next door to London NYC, which was convenient. I'd recommend the vegetarian spring rolls as really pretty tasty and the tuna wrap was fair. Also, they whip up a mean onion ring and my colleague seemed to enjoy the mini burgers.

Mini Review: Flourish Bakery (Chicago)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp

Flourish decently fills a gap in the Bryn Mawr take-out ecosystem. Spending $40 a crack for take out @ Little Mexican or Little India adds up after a while, and Apart is great, but variety is the spice of life so being able to get a couple of good panini w/ sides (though kind of small) for $17 is nice. Just don't expect them to be fast. At 8pm on a Friday we were the only ones ordering food and it was a good 10 minutes before they were done. But they were tasty (the caprese and monte cristo). In particular, the honey vinaigrette wrinkle within the traditional pesto based caprese was a nice little somethin' somethin'.



And this is definitely a take out place rather than an eat in place, unless you're really looking for a pit stop on your walk from Andersonville to the Lake or something. Despite the reasonably attractive retro styled macro elements, there is something distinctly generic and uninspiring about the seating area.