We visited Cakes on Walnut the other night for book club. We got there about 8 o'clock and there was one other group in the place. It was nice to basically have the place to ourselves and we all hopped in line for food and drinks.
Starting out, Cakes on Walnut has a few marks against. First of all, it is in my second least favorite part of town (downtown, first is campus). Because of it's location, there is little or no parking, which is another black mark. There are various parking lots in the area and if it had been daylight or I had been with a group, I would have felt more comfortable walking a further distance. As it was, it was 8 pm and I was alone and wanted to park as close as possible. Finally, there were no signs identifying what the place was. I circled the block 3 different times looking for it, until I finally saw a car I recognized and figured it had to be close by.
My next issue was that they were out of everything I ordered(mini Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcake, Japanese Cherry and Earl Grey tea). I was able to make substitutions but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. Of course, we were there at 8pm but if they are open, I expect them to have a full selection available. I was also unimpressed with the service and the knowledge of the products by the employee. She moved very slowly and despite the fact that we were nearly the only people in the place, managed to develop quite a long line. I also realize that tea isn't their main product, but if they sell it, their employees should know some tea basics. Like that strawberry white probably isn't the closest to the Japanese Cherry black. Just because they have fruit flavors, doesn't make them the same or even close.
The tea also had some problems. It is brewed hot and poured over ice to make iced tea. This has two issues. One, it melts all the ice in the cup, leaving you with tepid tea and no ice. The other problem is that it melts all the ice and waters down the tea. I will occasionally make tea that way home but I know to make it stronger than normal and use a ton of ice.
In short, not the place to go for tea.
I got a small Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcake which is a cinnamon cupcake topped with chocolate icing. The cake was quite dry. It could be just the way they are or it could have been because we there at 8 at night and the cupcakes had been sitting out all day. Either way, I could have done without the cupcake. The icing was absolutely delish though! It was a light, whipped icing and was not too sweet.
The cost was really high too. The small cupcake is $2.75 (the mini is only $1) and the tea was $2.50. That is about on par for other coffee shops in the area but for that kind of price I expect something better than what I can make at home.
In my opinion, you should save yourself the hassle of trying to park downtown, grab a six pack of cupcakes from the grocery store (or make yourself a couple dozen at home), hit Walnut Street Tea Company and get yourself a whole box of Twinnings flavored tea for the same price as one cupcake and glass of iced tea. Share it with someone you love.
Final verdict? 1 stars because the icing was fantastic. It merits a star all on it's own and carries the whole place
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Lego Land Discovery Center
This weekend, we visited the Lego Land Discovery Center in Schaumburg.
We were really excited about the visit because of other good reviews we've heard and the website makes it look awesome. I'm sad to say that it didn't live up to expectations. It wasn't terrible but I doubt we will be back. The coolest part, by far, are all the Lego models on display.
Through the front door, you have the option to go left into the retail shop or right into the exhibit. Obviously, we went right. We bought our tickets online and printed them at home so all we had to do when they opened was present our tickets and go on in. A word of caution, they do have some coat racks but the space is highly limited so either leave your coat in the car or be prepared to haul it around all day.
The first thing you see is Miniland
It is a replica of the Chicago waterfront done in Lego. They have Navy Pier (which the kids thought was fantastic since that was were we had been the day before), The Sears Tower, the Hancock Building, Millinium Park, etc. They have lights on timer to simulate day and night and even have a little Lego Batman standing on the Sears Tower. I really liked Miniland and was impressed with the level of detail that was included.
Miniland is also the "staging area" for the Jungle Tour.
I was totally unimpressed with the Jungle Tour. Basically, it is an area of models that you go through as group. They let between 40-50 people in at a time and every group is given a test sheet. As you go through, you are supposed to stop and look at the models and answer questions about them. Unfortunately, because you aren't allowed to go through on your own, there are too many people in too small of a space and not only can you not answer any of the questions, you can barely see the models. I was really disappointed and we ended up just walking through and getting out of the way.
The Jungle Trail exits into the Hall of Fame These models were absolutely the kids' favorites. This is where you find the life-sized models of Darth Vader (complete with light saber), Batman, Indian Jones, Harry Potter, Hagrid and R2-D2. The kids spent more time looking at those models (and posing for pictures) than at any other part of the place.
The Hall of Fame is next to the
Dragon Ride. It is a very cute ride through a castle, although it does get dark towards the end and young kids might be scared. It is not a roller coaster but closer to a train ride. I recommend going through 2 or 3 times to see everything because there are lots of details that are easy to miss on the first trip through.
Once done there, we headed upstairs to the
Lego Factory Tour. This looks a lot better on the website but is basically cheesy. The best part was getting our commemorative brick at the end. The first machine is really loud and once it starts up, it is impossible to hear what they are telling you about the making of the Legos. Our tour guide also talked to fast and wasn't able to tailor her spiel to a specific age group. Fortunately, I had a basic understanding of how Legos are made and was able to explain it to MT so she could understand.
After the factory tour, we went to the
4-D theater. I entered this with fear and trepidation because I dislike 3-D in general and 4-D is usually so over done that it is just a miserable exprience. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the end of the movie. It is currently "SpellBreaker" about a wizard who takes over a kingdom with his spell that destroys weapons. We were told that there are water effects in the movie but that the day before they came on as a waterfall instead of a mist and were turned off on Saturday. My first comment about the movie was that it was REALLY well done 3-D. Most 3-D is still a little blurry, even with the glasses on, but this was really crisp and looked great (so great, in fact, that TB nearly jumped out of his seat during the scene where the rhino charged the cage). My other comment is that the 4-D was also well done, in that it wasn't over done. There were a few spots when I thought a 4-D effect was warrented that they didn't have one but I'd rather it be under than over, when it comes to that kind of stuff. It was also subtle. Air blew around when you were falling, bubbles fell when it was snowing but there was nothing to scare the younger crowd.
After the theater, we went into the building center, where they have tons and tons of Lego bricks to build all kinds of stuff. There are several test tracks to test your model cars on.
There were earthquake similator where you build a building and then it shakes it to see if it is stable.
There is a large climbing structure for kids that are done with the blocks to run around in. There is a large Duplo area for the toddlers and there is a section with huge soft blocks for even littler kids to play in. TB had a great time building and testing cars and MT liked the earthquakes. She was too practical though, and never got anything to fall because she built them too well. There were a couple of employees walking around, helping the kids build their models who seemed to work really well with kids. They both knew what they were doing, as far as building, as well.
This was also the area where the cafe was. It was pretty basic and not somewhere I would have eaten a meal. However, we go too many places that have no food of any kind so I was glad to see it. We did have some snacks and drinks there and it was fine.
After the building area, we had seen and done everything there was to see and headed for the gift shop. I was disappointed with the gift shop. Besides being over-priced (the theme to the whole place), there wasn't much unique there. I expected to find hard to find pieces, unique sets, etc. Unfortunately, they had a lot of wall space devoted to the same kits you can buy at any Toys R Us. We did find a new Lego Star Wars shirt for TB, but it was the ONLY youth shirt in the whole store. The big find of the day was the Lego figure keychains. Lego people will know that people are often the big draw of the kits because they can't be bought seperately. What we found were characters from most of the major sets made as keychains. They were $3.99 a piece and we bought several of them. When we got home, we took a pair of pliers and opened up the O-ring holding the keychain on and took it off. They all have little metal knobs stuck in their heads but the kids don't care. They have Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
Finally, the only model picture I took with my phone so the only that is getting uploaded. MT hanging with Spongebob
Overall, it was neat to see the models and things and the kids had a decent time in the building area. I would go back again just to see the new 4-D movies that are coming out.
This would be a really great trip for a crazy Lego fanatic and is best for ages 6 and up.
I'm giving this 2.5 stars because there wasn't enough bang for our buck, in my opinion. If I'm paying $20 to get into something, it better give the kids more than a couple of hours entertainment. And that couple of hours included going back and doing some things a couple of times, just to kill time.
We were really excited about the visit because of other good reviews we've heard and the website makes it look awesome. I'm sad to say that it didn't live up to expectations. It wasn't terrible but I doubt we will be back. The coolest part, by far, are all the Lego models on display.
Through the front door, you have the option to go left into the retail shop or right into the exhibit. Obviously, we went right. We bought our tickets online and printed them at home so all we had to do when they opened was present our tickets and go on in. A word of caution, they do have some coat racks but the space is highly limited so either leave your coat in the car or be prepared to haul it around all day.
The first thing you see is Miniland
It is a replica of the Chicago waterfront done in Lego. They have Navy Pier (which the kids thought was fantastic since that was were we had been the day before), The Sears Tower, the Hancock Building, Millinium Park, etc. They have lights on timer to simulate day and night and even have a little Lego Batman standing on the Sears Tower. I really liked Miniland and was impressed with the level of detail that was included.
Miniland is also the "staging area" for the Jungle Tour.
I was totally unimpressed with the Jungle Tour. Basically, it is an area of models that you go through as group. They let between 40-50 people in at a time and every group is given a test sheet. As you go through, you are supposed to stop and look at the models and answer questions about them. Unfortunately, because you aren't allowed to go through on your own, there are too many people in too small of a space and not only can you not answer any of the questions, you can barely see the models. I was really disappointed and we ended up just walking through and getting out of the way.
The Jungle Trail exits into the Hall of Fame These models were absolutely the kids' favorites. This is where you find the life-sized models of Darth Vader (complete with light saber), Batman, Indian Jones, Harry Potter, Hagrid and R2-D2. The kids spent more time looking at those models (and posing for pictures) than at any other part of the place.
The Hall of Fame is next to the
Dragon Ride. It is a very cute ride through a castle, although it does get dark towards the end and young kids might be scared. It is not a roller coaster but closer to a train ride. I recommend going through 2 or 3 times to see everything because there are lots of details that are easy to miss on the first trip through.
Once done there, we headed upstairs to the
Lego Factory Tour. This looks a lot better on the website but is basically cheesy. The best part was getting our commemorative brick at the end. The first machine is really loud and once it starts up, it is impossible to hear what they are telling you about the making of the Legos. Our tour guide also talked to fast and wasn't able to tailor her spiel to a specific age group. Fortunately, I had a basic understanding of how Legos are made and was able to explain it to MT so she could understand.
After the factory tour, we went to the
4-D theater. I entered this with fear and trepidation because I dislike 3-D in general and 4-D is usually so over done that it is just a miserable exprience. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the end of the movie. It is currently "SpellBreaker" about a wizard who takes over a kingdom with his spell that destroys weapons. We were told that there are water effects in the movie but that the day before they came on as a waterfall instead of a mist and were turned off on Saturday. My first comment about the movie was that it was REALLY well done 3-D. Most 3-D is still a little blurry, even with the glasses on, but this was really crisp and looked great (so great, in fact, that TB nearly jumped out of his seat during the scene where the rhino charged the cage). My other comment is that the 4-D was also well done, in that it wasn't over done. There were a few spots when I thought a 4-D effect was warrented that they didn't have one but I'd rather it be under than over, when it comes to that kind of stuff. It was also subtle. Air blew around when you were falling, bubbles fell when it was snowing but there was nothing to scare the younger crowd.
After the theater, we went into the building center, where they have tons and tons of Lego bricks to build all kinds of stuff. There are several test tracks to test your model cars on.
There were earthquake similator where you build a building and then it shakes it to see if it is stable.
There is a large climbing structure for kids that are done with the blocks to run around in. There is a large Duplo area for the toddlers and there is a section with huge soft blocks for even littler kids to play in. TB had a great time building and testing cars and MT liked the earthquakes. She was too practical though, and never got anything to fall because she built them too well. There were a couple of employees walking around, helping the kids build their models who seemed to work really well with kids. They both knew what they were doing, as far as building, as well.
This was also the area where the cafe was. It was pretty basic and not somewhere I would have eaten a meal. However, we go too many places that have no food of any kind so I was glad to see it. We did have some snacks and drinks there and it was fine.
After the building area, we had seen and done everything there was to see and headed for the gift shop. I was disappointed with the gift shop. Besides being over-priced (the theme to the whole place), there wasn't much unique there. I expected to find hard to find pieces, unique sets, etc. Unfortunately, they had a lot of wall space devoted to the same kits you can buy at any Toys R Us. We did find a new Lego Star Wars shirt for TB, but it was the ONLY youth shirt in the whole store. The big find of the day was the Lego figure keychains. Lego people will know that people are often the big draw of the kits because they can't be bought seperately. What we found were characters from most of the major sets made as keychains. They were $3.99 a piece and we bought several of them. When we got home, we took a pair of pliers and opened up the O-ring holding the keychain on and took it off. They all have little metal knobs stuck in their heads but the kids don't care. They have Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
Finally, the only model picture I took with my phone so the only that is getting uploaded. MT hanging with Spongebob
Overall, it was neat to see the models and things and the kids had a decent time in the building area. I would go back again just to see the new 4-D movies that are coming out.
This would be a really great trip for a crazy Lego fanatic and is best for ages 6 and up.
I'm giving this 2.5 stars because there wasn't enough bang for our buck, in my opinion. If I'm paying $20 to get into something, it better give the kids more than a couple of hours entertainment. And that couple of hours included going back and doing some things a couple of times, just to kill time.
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