Review of Hana Matsuri Restaurant

My husband and I are big fans of Japanese food. We were driving down to Lakewood for something, so we were excited to revisit Hana Matsuri nearby. It is located in a strip on the bus road of Alameda. The restaurant is small and not fancy. But don't let the look fool you.

We ordered the sashimi with miso soup. Good as usual. The fish was fresh and delicious, and the presentation was beautiful. We also had the steak cooked on the table with hot stone. The cook was cooked perfectly right before my husband, sizzling and all. He had to cook it himself though. :)

The service was quick and good. Our waitress was attentive and knew the menu well, at least the different steak sauces when we asked about them. Even the hostess helped serve food to our table.

We can't say our food was not fresh. Oh they were fresh and raw to start. But seriously, we recommend this restaurant. We will come back again to eat.

Amazon Fresh Review

Join us in ABC Wednesday in its new home.

The letter of the week from ABC Wednesday is the letter A. For the lack of ideas, I am writing about the new (to me) grocery delivery service through  Amazon called Amazon Fresh. I promise I am not getting paid by Amazon for writing this post.

How timely is that that I have just received my first grocery today with Amazon Fresh. What did I order? See the picture below including five grocery items not included.

Here is a review based on my first try with Amazon Fresh Grocery Delivery by Amazon in Denver, Colorado.

Pros:

1. One advantage of using the service is the convenience. I ordered online without having to walk the isles of the store and standing in line waiting for the cashier. The groceries are delivered right to my front door--kinda like the Uber or Lyft for my groceries. This service can attract home-bound adults, busy folks, or some people with transportation issues, like, maybe college students who do not have a car. I am thinking I can do this to friends who are sick or old who may have trouble getting to and from the store.
2. They have enough choices of brands to choose from.
3. I can choose to shop local from the "local" tab. This is especially useful for me when shopping for produce as I like being able to eat locally grown foods when I can if the price is right.
4. I don't have to live with the guilt of not tipping. Compared to Instacart app, another service I used in the past (with buttons for 10-20% tips), there is no tipping option when you finalize and pay for your order. I really don't have much room for tipping in my budget in addition to member fee.
5. It has a sales tab where I can buy the deals for the day. This makes their food more affordable to me.
6. The groceries are well-packed and came in great condition. The frozen foods remained frozen and the refrigerated items stayed cold. Frozen spinach frozen? Check. Juice cold? Check.

Cons:

1. I have to choose thru delivery time that does not necessarily fall the same day I ordered. I had to schedule for the next day six to eight a.m. My first choice was 6-8 pm the same day I ordered. I am hoping this will improve when the service gets more popular in my area and they hire more helpers to deliver.
2. If I choose to extend my service for another month after the trial, I have to pay $14.99 a month for membership. Also, if the total of my order is less than $40, I get charged the delivery fee of $9.99. Keep in mind, the service is for Prime members that I already pay an annual fee for. Anyway, I love Prime and use it more than once a month so I cannot complain about that.
3. The groceries are well-packed with one-way packaging, alright, but maybe with too much packaging. I think some items can be combined in one bag, for example. Imagine, each bag is paper-bagged, metallic-insulated bagged, masked-taped, cardboard-lined, and packed with ice packs or with additional dry ice. I am not sure if the metallic insulated bags are recyclable in my area here in Colorado. I am guessing not. And, I can only use so much ice packs. Perhaps my donation station would take them. 

Conclusion: So after all these cons, would I buy from Amazon Fresh again? You betcha. The pros still outnumber the cons. I am sure I'd use the service for a month during the free trial. After that, maybe so. I already just ordered the Amazon Dash Wand that goes with Fresh so I can scan items at home that I want to buy again or vocalize my order through the wand that automatically lists to the virtual Amazon cart. It costs $20 and I heard that I will get $30 credit for it. Plus it comes with Alexa (another "a").

What did I do with the extra time instead of grocery shopping today?  I went to a nursery instead to get the plants below--annuals, perennials, ground cover plants, aloe vera, rosemary, lavender, squash, bell peppers, and hot peppers! I love the extra free time!