Sapporo

Just a block or two from Times Square is one of the best ramen shops in New York City. Sapporo is on West 49th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, about a block away from the M&M store. Keep an eye out for the red and white awning. Sapporo is a tiny little hole-in-the-wall type place. It isn't listed in the AAA New York City tour book. But the place is amazing. While they do serve other dishes, their main fare is traditional Japanese ramen. My daughter had the Miso Ramen, which is a basic ramen dish with both minced pork and two slices of roast pork. I had the very similar Tokyo Ramen, which added a fish cake and seaweed to the Miso Ramen. My aunt chose the Tomato Omelette and a mini Chahan - Japanese fried rice.

All of the food was delicious. I don't think I have ever had a better bowl of ramen. The best part was the size of our meals. Both ramen bowls were huge. The omelette and chahan were a bit smaller but both of those are listed either as appetizers or side dishes. And the price wasn't too bad either. Overall, we are extremely happy with our lunchtime choice. I was only disappointed the size of my stomach. I really wanted to eat more!

Game review: Diner Town Tycoon

I really wanted to get the memory of Mr. Biscuits out of my head. So I downloaded Diner Town Tycoon. Diner Dash has rarely let me down. And this is no different. Well, I lie. The gameplay is completely different, but it's much more enjoyable! Instead of waiting on tables, you are trying to stop the evil Grub Burger from taking over your town. You start off with one restaurant, where you control what dishes are being served and how much they cost. It is your job to make sure you have enough ingredients for each dish so you can feed the hungry hoards that populate your town. As you try to keep your restaurant afloat, there are daily goals for you to accomplish. With each goal reached, Grub Burger loses their hold on the people.

I found myself completely mesmerized by Diner Dash Tycoon. I expected the traditional 'run around serving tables' game, but was surprised by how different and innovative this version was. There was a little bit of Diner Dash (each customer has specific tastes) mixed with a little bit of the 'Tycoon' games (the game view looks over the town as a whole instead of focusing on one business). If only I had more thumbs to put up for it!

Game review: Cooking Dash

Everyone's favorite waitress, Flo, is back for yet another Dash game. This time it's Cooking Dash. At Flo's order, her chef has left the restaurant to further his career, leaving Flo and her grandmother to handle the shop. Grandmother handles making the sandwiches while Flo cooks food and serves the customers. This was a ton easier than the Diner Dash: Seasonal Snack Pack. As a matter of fact, this version is a lot like the original Diner Dash game but with better graphics. However, instead of just handling customers' orders, Flo also has to handle the grill and the fryer. Adding these jobs to her waitress job doesn't make completing her tasks impossible though. It's just another trip around the kitchen. If you like the Diner Dash series, I think you'd really like Cooking Dash as well.

Game review: Mystery Cookbook

You are a mouse. Not just any mouse but a rather smart mouse who has to help a variety of animals find their lost objects. Yes, I know the game is called Mystery Cookbook but there is no actual cooking going on. Instead of cooking, you travel to different restaurants helping the owners' animals. This is a pretty run of the mill hidden object games. None of the games are too difficult but they are just hard enough to keep it fun. Even the in-between puzzles are a nice change. If you are looking for something new and innovating, you won't find it here. But if you are looking for a decent hidden object game, this is for you.

Game review: Ice Cream Mania

Heading back into time management games after a short break from the genre, Ice Cream Mania caught my eye. After all, I like ice cream so it can't be that bad, right? And, to tell the truth, it's not. You play Cindy, one of the heirs to an ice cream mogul. Cindy is competing with her sisters to win her deceased father's fortune. The gameplay is fairly easy. Make a scoop of ice cream in your machine, put it on a cone (or in a bowl, whichever the customer prefers) and top it off with some flavored cream-type stuff. As the levels get harder, you'll gain the ability to add things on top, such as orange slices or gingerbread men. The customer will also be able to order two scoop sundaes as well.

For the most part, the game is easy. It gets a little more difficult when you get to the two scoop levels but that is mostly because it can be daunting keeping track of which order the scoops go in. Otherwise, the game is fun. I found myself buying new toppings instead of upgrades to my ice cream machines, which may have hindered my progress a little. Considering I made it to the second store before my trial ran out, I didn't notice any hindrance if it existed. Since your character doesn't move around any, the graphics can get a little boring. It's basically just a row of customers sliding into place in front of you with either a daytime or nighttime beach background. So it wouldn't be a game that you could play for hours on end. But it's a nice time distraction for a half hour or so at a time.

Game review: Family Restaurant

Family Restaurant is a restaurant simulation game that is similar to Cooking Mama. You are given a template for each dish and it is your job to match it with the ingredients at hand. The closer your food matches the template, the happier your customers are. While the game isn't difficult, it can get annoying. There are times that you, the player, swears that your food matches the template but you'll only receive a 60%. Since you're making the same basic dishes over and over, the frustration level rises with each dish. However, there are some dishes that are extremely easy to hit 100% every time. Luckily, the overall score for each level is an average of all your dish percentages so those 100%s even out the lower scores.

Game review: Golden Hearts Juice Bar

Yet another restaurant themed time management game, Golden Hearts Juice Bar tries to change things up a bit by making the "restaurant" into a trendy drink bar. Unfortunately, the changes that make the juice bar possible makes the game annoyingly difficult right from the beginning. Of course, it doesn't get any easier as the levels go on. You play Kelly, a college student who is trying to each some money to continue her studies. So she takes a job at the local juice bar making milkshakes and strawberry smoothies. While this sounds like a great job, the game makes it extremely difficult by taking it out of a bar-typed setting and using a restaurant setting instead. As such, Kelly has to crank out as many drinks as she can while waiting on tables. Add in the fact that each drink takes a couple of seconds in the blender, it's not too difficult to end up with some cranky customers. You can make them happier with the house band but they seem to take an awful lot of breaks.

Also, the game setting teases you. There are things available that you can use but the customers don't want. So if you accidentally click on them, you are screwed. This includes things like lemon wedges for the drinks and slices of cake. They don't come into play until the middle of the second restaurant level.

I'm rather disappointed in the game. I wanted it to be really good. It's a great theme but it's just not used very well. If the designers had used the bar instead of seating the customers at tables, the game would be a lot easier and a lot more fun to play. I hope that they'll make a sequel to the game with a couple of minor changes. It'll be cool to have a bar-themed time management game. I think it'll bring back memories of the old Tapper games.

Game review: Turbo Subs

Turbo Subs is a time management game where Rebecca and Robert from Turbo Pizza decide to open a sandwich shop. This time the shop is in New York City and is located on a train. The game plays much like every other time management restaurant game. You make food and serve it to customers. However, the restaurant is laid out a bit differently. Instead of having straight counters, these ones are in a circle. It makes it a little more difficult to click on the actual customers since now they stand sort of behind each other. Also, it's a little annoying that some of the food takes so long to make. The customers can request a toasted sandwich but then they start getting angry when the sandwich takes longer to make.

Overall, it's not a difficult game. Though it's not particularly interesting either. There isn't anything that sets it apart from any other time management restaurant game. A good game but not a great game.

Game review: Hot Dish

In my day-to-day life, I don't cook. My husband does a majority of the cooking in our household. This is mostly due to the fact that I hate to cook. For some reason, I decided to load up Hot Dish to see if I'd like that any more than real life cooking. I both liked and hated this game. On one hand, the simulated cooking is a lot like Cooking Mama on both the Nintendo DS and Wii. You choose a dish and you go through the steps to cook it. From chopping the vegetables to simmering the seafood to baking the bread, you do it all. However, Hot Dish throws you for a loop by forcing you to prepare more than one dish at a time. It starts out with one dish in the tutorial but you are quickly thrown into making three dishes at once! This means you have to keep track of when to flip your grilled chicken over so it does burn while stirring your warming milk so it doesn't curdle while flipping your sauteed shrimp. It really does get to be too much.

In my opinion, this game would have been better if it had focused on making two dishes at once instead of three. As it is, you already make an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. Do you really need to make three of each at once? The game only shows one reviewer and I doubt that she is eating that much food by herself. I think I'll stick with Cooking Mama. At least she doesn't try to drive me to drink!