Today, Sashimi has become a norm, a fundamental pillar of the Japanese dining experience. Its simple and fresh form makes this a healthy and desirable alternative to “red meats”. As a matter of fact, Sashimi could be eatten as a starter or as the main course in the meal. Sashimi generally is served with Wasabi, used with the compliments of soy sauce to make a powerful and distinct hot flavor. The use of this green paste is to add flavor yet kill parasites that could be present in raw seafood.

Certainly, I would be the first to say that I’m a lover for seafood, cooked or raw. Since I was eight years old, I learned to appreciate food. The one I appreciate most is the delicacies of Sashimi. My favorite of them all would be Salmon and Scallops. Gosh, I’m hungry just talking about it. If you haven’t had Sashimi, I encourage you to just try. You will be surprised.

FYI. Posh will soon be premiering Sashimi as part of our selection available for your Japanese Sukiyaki experience. Stay tuned.

Being consumers ourselves, we know that every bit counts. At Posh, we are committed to bring the best in healthy Japanese dining and value to our guests. Its the least we could do to say thank you for supporting us through the ups and downs.

Between July through September,

if your entire meal is paid

through Cash payment,

we will take 5% off your

total bill.

I’m glad that finally they would provide this free service. Now, I think the next thing they need to have is more power sockets, I’m sure that people now need to plug in their computers for this 95 minute trip.

With that being said, thank you very much BC Ferries for listening to one of the many things we wanted in conjunction with the Fare Deals from Monday to Thursday travel.

Since I’m in the food industry, it probably makes a lot of sense to actually talk about the food. The Harrah’s group has put on a great deal for those who enjoy food and lots of it. $34.99 for unlimited access to any of Harrah’s properties for a 24 hour buffet-a-thon. The properties included Rio, Paris, Imperial Palace, Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, Flamingo and Harrahs. Frankly, we were thinking that it would be nearly impossible to visit all of these 7 buffets but being a deal junky, we decided that it was a feat to conquer.

Our goal was to start at 4 in the afternoon with the first, that way we are making sure that dinner is being served rather than a lunch menu. We were to visit three buffets the first night, two next morning and two more in the afternoon. Honestly, it wasn’t really easy after the first few buffets, some where better than others but overall, they were pretty close to the same after the third location. It was our intent to visit each and actually rate them so you could just visit the best. With this post, here are the top three winners:

1) Planet Hollywood: most comprehensive, largest selection, Alaska King Crab legs, simply the best
2) Rio: A good selection, great deserts and lots of Snow Crab legs both served hot and cold.
3) Flamingo: Lots of food and seafood was abundant, oh and lots of shrimp cocktails, de-shelled.

Places to skip: Imperial Palace and Ceasars Palace

Oh yes, generally line up are about 15 minutes while waiting to get seated another 10. So go 20 minutes before you are ready to chow down.

We did also visit Rio’s seafood Buffet. Dang, that was amazing. The best buffet I’ve had in a long long time. Mind you, that buffet alone was $38 bucks per person. (this is not the one included in the $34.99 deal)
Soon, I’ll report on each of our dining experiences, after I catch up on my work from vacation.

As you may all know, the food is the basics, the soul and the core of the restaurant, but in all cases, there are major supporting factors to build a successful restaurant. Staff and service, environment, atmosphere, parking, location and the works. Within that list, service certainly comes at the top of the list of critical factors. Does it apply to other businesses, I wondered.

You know what I mean, many times, people don’t get good service but because the price is good, people continue to shop there. As a matter of fact, what does “good service” mean? I’ve recently been impressed at the new operations model developed by Brian Jessel BMW calledBrian Jessel Auto Haus.

I first saw it driving Northbound on Boundary Road and realized that this new division focused on a few items that BJ BMW didn’t. If there were any organization that I’m particularly impressed with in terms of service, it would be that of Brian Jessel’s dealership. So as curious as I was, I wanted to find out what-sup with this new location.

Catch this, with a $25 basic car wash, you get a 50 point inspection. I thought that was the most bizarre thing? My first thought was, what the heck was a 50 point inspection? (Apparently it was a list of 50 things that would be considered essential to maintaining your vehicle at optimal condition)

Then thinking again, I wondered why they would do that. Whats in it for them? A wash is only 15 minutes yet they throw in a free checkup for you, no strings attached. Of course with their ability to be technical, I think a lot of this has to do with impressing each and every customer that chooses to visit BJ Auto Haus.

Looking at them as an example, I think service is no longer a single element on a list of achievable but is considered a standard in today’s economy. Think again, what could be an added service to Posh? Car wash while you dine? Hum… maybe its actually worth thinking about.

Either way, for sure, service is no longer a bonus but a standard. Organizations that focus on not only a good product (especially that of the same as other competitors) must focus on upping their ability for what is their method to win over each and every customer.

As of July first, the state of Washington, has opened its doors inviting that of British Columbians to do their shopping south of the Boarder. What a smart way, I thought to myself. There’s a state that knows how to be competitive! The direct impact to our local economy is that spending will be sent South, however with that being said, the BC government is still better off, with huge injection of cash into the system.

What exactly does that mean? For BC citizens, we no longer have to pay state taxes when we shop in Washington. Okay, with that being said, that means that when we shop in the states for our Ipad, we save roughly $40 bucks CDN when shopping for a 16GB unit in States, then on top of that the tax exempt in Washington. We’re talking about a $60 dollar difference.

At the end of the day, it encourages locals to visit our neighbours in the States and ultimately, its going to cost us in the long run.

HST will also hurt all retail owners, extra money paid for rent. Now, that ultimately will have to reflect on costs, otherwise, out of business.

To be tax exempt, all you have to do is show your driver’s license at the till. Gosh, is that easy or what?

As a matter of fact, I had to rely on “Mythbusters”, the hit Discovery channel to put the facts straight. In one of their episodes featuring the gang, they had performed tests to see if this rule was indeed fact or myth. With many experiments and analysis, they concluded that the amount of bacteria growth was identicial, 1-5 seconds or otherwise, so the minute that the food touches the table or other surfaces, it is almost immediately contaminated.

For those foodies out there, like I that thought the “5-second rule” was a fact, think again. This is indeed a MYTH.  Wikipedia & Mythbusters

So when you are about to gobble that last Konjac Roll that dropped onto the table, maybe you should just order another one.

Last year with the introduction of this program, the lowering of the rates really improved the traffic to and from Victoria. Personally, I feel that this is a great boost for tourism and an open invitation to the mainlandto keep our tourism dollars within BC. While the Canadian dollar at or near purity, this incentive shall bring more tourists to the island for travel and touring. Good job BC Ferries.

BC Ferries will be offering this deal between May 25th to July 29th. I know that the traffic will increase on these routes, I suggest those who want to ride with me to and from Victoria and Vancouver to be early at the terminals for otherwise the waits could be long and lonely.

The ferry rates will be a positive impact to that of Victoria’s restaurants, hotels and tourist destinations. Posh will be anticipating a busy season and BC Ferries have just helped that become more a reality. (After all, you cant be busy without the guests right)

Anyways, what was interesting about that particular table was that they were actually secret diner for restaurants in LA. The gentleman (to be nameless to protect the innocence) had been a secret diner for over 14 years. His job 4 nights of a week would be to attend to different restaurants and experience, rate and comment on their service and quality.

Since he was such a great mood, he happen to share three of his trade secret for some of the things that he had seen from great servers that other less experienced servers had not.

1) Check-backs: He said if there is one single most important thing about service is done at the check-back. Check on your customers within two minutes or perhaps within the first couple bites. I wold think that’s a pretty standard thing… until he added that it was critical to ask them about their specific dishes rather than a general question. ie. “How is your Sukiyaki tasting this evening?” rather than “How is your food tasting?” Something really subtle could make a big difference.

2) Hosting: Many times leaving the guests at the front longer than 2 minutes would be considered less than perfect. Of course assuming that there are open tables available. The host should be stating “Welcome to Posh” rather than directly asking “Hello. For how many tonight?”

3) Manager checkup: Often times he said that the manger walks around and just stands around. A good manager on site should be really speaking with guests and getting to know them. A loyal group of customers could really make the restaurant a success. Having no loyal customers could be a detrimental impact to the restaurant too. Leaving it to chance is not a good idea. Often times when Managers talk with guests, real information could be realized from that conversation, perhaps ideas, comments or recommendations.

Three pointers he shared and frankly, very solid ones. Since our little chat that night, we have started to incorporate all these into action. Check-backs, Hostess greetings and Manager chit-chats. You never know, sometimes you could learn a lot from serving customers, I know I did.

Oh yes and he mentioned that if anybody were to go to LA, visit the Jean Paul Getty Art Gallery, avoid wasting time at all other exhibits and go straight to “the room”.