I have had the chance to use these guys twice now. They seem to have the cheapest rates. But I guess you get what you pay for.
The first time I used them was in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, most rental car companies operate out of the rental car center. You catch a shuttle at the airport, and a few minutes later, you are at the rental car center. No problem. But with Fox Car Rental, you need to catch another shuttle from the rental car center, to the Fox rental car lot. While the shuttles to the rental car center are frequent, the shuttles to the Fox lot are not as frequent.
I had reserved an econom car. But they seemed to be out of these, and were giving people PT Cruisers. Pretty cool. My only complaint was that the PT Cruisers didn’t have cruise control. I picked the car up, and dropped it off, no problems.
My second experience with Fox Car Rental was in Seattle. Man of the rental car places in Seattle are right at the airport. But Fox Car Rental is off airport. We got there, and didn’t know how to get to the rental car place. I called Fox Car Rental and got a recording about going to the courtesy phones and calling extention 32 or something. But on the courtesy phones at the airport, you cant dial anything. I did manage to go through the menu on the phone, and contact Fox, and was told to wait island 1 or 3. We got out there, and just missed a Fox shuttle. We had to wait 20 minutes or more for the shuttle come back. Getting the car was no problem. We got a Kia. Great car. It even had satellite radio installed.
The biggest issue came when we went to return the car. Out flight was a little after 6am. We planned to be at the airport at 4am, so we planned to drop the car off at about 3:30am. We arrived at the rental car place at 3:30am only to find them closed. WHAT? I called the local Fox Car Rental number and got a message saying thei hours were 4am-1am. WHAT? I had checked the Fox Car Rental website and didn’t see anything about hours. When I called the Fox Car Rental 800 #, I didn’t hear anything about hours. We waited until 4am, and they opened a few minuted after that. It still took time for them to get opened to check us out. The whole thing was kind of annoying. I will have to think before I choose to use these guys again.
We were Tupper Lake for the Tupper Lake Tinman. I had a friend who was staying out in Saranac Lake. We were going to meet up for dinner. The original plan was to eat at a place out in Lake Placid named Pasta La Vista. But when my wife and I arrived in Lake Placid, we found Pasta La Vista was out of business. Bummer. I loved the name. My buddy and his friend hadn’t arrived yet, so I called him. He discussed it with his friend, and it was decided we go to a place called Nicola’s. Fortunatly it was less than a block away. So my wife and I walked there. We went in and got a table.
Eric and his friend Bob showed up shortly.
My wife and I have already been looking through the menu. One thing we noticed was that they don’t do separate checks. Hmm… So my wife and I quickly checked how much cash we had. Only about $55 in cash on us. I would have liked to have had a steak, but couldn’t afford it. I was going to have pasta then. I couldn’t decide which one. I asked the waited for a recommendation. He recommended the Bolognese Pasta, so I ordered that. My wife ordered the We also ordered a Vongole which had clams and linguine. We also ordered a caesar salad to split. Oh, and I ordered a diet coke.
The caesar salad was excellent. But the Bolognese Pasta, was just okay. Kind of bland. My wife was not thrilled with the Vongole either. She said the clams were good, but the pasta was missign something. I tried her pasta and agreed. My coke was empty, and I asked for a refill. After a bit I asked again. After asking the third time, I finally got it. We also had to ask for the bill. When the bill came, we set about figuring out who owed how much. I foudn they charged me for the 2nd coke. Grumble.
So the service sucked. Other than the caesar salad, the food was not all that great, and was priced on the high side too. Pretty much, I did not like this restaurant and cannot recommend it at all.
Nicola’s is located at 211 Main St, Lake Placid, NY 12946. Their phone number is 518-523-5853. They have a website: http://www.nicolasandgrill211.com
My wife and I have eaten here a couple times. The first time was for dinner using a coupon from our Entertainment book. The second time was this last weekend for lunch to celebrate her graduation (she got her Masters degree).
The Plum Garden is a Japanese restaurant. They have both regular seating, and hibachi. Hibachi is where sit around the cooking surface, and the chef cooks right in front of you, usually providing a bit of entertainment, doing various tricks with the food and cooking utensils.
Both times we ate here, we did the hibachi thing. The quality of the hibachi cooking “show” depends on the experience of the chef you get. The first time we ate here, we had a great show. The second time, the chef wasn’t nearly as skilled. Things they would do included building a small volcano from onion rings, and having it shoot fire and smoke, and then having lava pouring out, spinning an egg on a spatula, tossing it in the air, and having it slit on the edge of the spatula, tossing balls of rice into the customer’s mouths, etc. It’s a lot of fun.
As for the quality of the food here. It’s excellent. I have had the hibachi steak both times, and my wife has had the shrimp. The shrimp was probably the best I have ever had on the first visit. I really considered the getting the shrimp on our second visit. But I was able to try my wife’s shrimp. It was still really good, but not as good as the first time. I guess it depends on the shrimp. Besides the main entrée, the meal also include Japanese onion soup, rice, and a garden salad with some sort of dressing that I tastes like it is made from carrot juice. It’s interesting. Maybe the difference in chefs is a lunch versus dinner thing. But during our lunch, we saw the chef at one of the other hibachi grills, and he was doing many of the tricks that our chef hadn’t done. So maybe it is just luck of the draw. Or maybe you can request a chef?
Anyway, the food is a great, and the service excellent. I will eat here again.
The Plum Garden is located at 3349 Monroe Ave, Rochester NY, 14618 (which is actually Pittsford). Their phone number is 585-381-8730.
A bunch of my friends and I were in Boston for the marathon. We met up at the convention center where the expo was being held. We went out searching for some place to have breakfast or brunch all together. There were about 15 of us. We wanted to find some place where we could sit all together. Probably not easy on regular days. But the city was crowded with people there for the marathon. We wandeded around the streets, stopping at places, and asking about available seating. Most of the places had no room, or there would be an incredibly long wait. Then we stopped at Charley’s Restaurant. They said they had room for us, though we would have to wait maybe 20 minutes. Sounded like a good deal.
The bunch of us waited in the bar area talking. After a bit, someone came and took us downstairs. We were seated all together. There weren’t any other people down here. It seems like they opened this area up to accomidate our group! How cool was that.
Service was very good, though the food was a little slow to come. That really didn’t bother us, and we were enjoying talking. A couple people had to leave, to make it to the Red Sox game.
The food did come, and it was very good. I had the “Newbury Breakfast” which consisted of three eggs any style served with an English muffin, fresh fruit, home fries and crisp bacon, sausage or ham. It was very good. My only complaint was that it was pretty light on home fries. Cmon guys, potatoes are cheap! The other people in the group seemed to enjoy their brunch meals as well. My wife, and a friend ordered the french toast, and they brought little tiny things of syrup. Not nearly enough for the friend toast. But a simple request, and they brought more. I would eat here again.
Charley’s Restaurant is located at 284 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02115. Their phone number is 617-266-3000. They have a website: www.charleys-restaurant.com
We were in town for the Boston Marathon and staying at the Doubletree Guest Suites. The night before a marathoin, runner traditionally will eat pasta for the carbs. We asked the people at the front desk about any pasta type restaurants in the area. As luck would have it, there was a pasta place across the street. We headed over, and found the place without too much difficulty. The entrance isn’t obvious. There are signs though.
We haad to wait to be seated, but that was mainly because there were six of us. But we didn’y have to wait too long. They were busy, and we could see many other people eating in there that were plainly marathoners as well.
The service was very good. My wife who managed restaurants for many years, was so impressed with the manager, that she approached him after dinner, and complemented him on the job he was doing.
The food was good andd plentyfull. I had spaghetti with meatballs. I was full by the time I was done. Some of our party didn’t manage finish their meals.
I would probably go here again. It is very convenient if you are staying at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Waltham.
Their address is 475 Winter St, Waltham, MA 02451. Their phone number is 781-684-0650.