Move Out of the Way!

Have you ever driven through Irving Street (upper Irving and/or lower Irving) on a Sunday afternoon? Well, if you haven't you don't want to start! Irving is always crowded in general, but for some reason Irving is especially crowded on Sunday afternoons. Why is that? I guess everyone has the same idea that on Sundays, Irving is the hot spot for lunch.

Today, a couple of my friends and I were looking forward to eating some cheap Japanese food at KiKi's located on 9th and Irving (if you’re looking for a high class Japanese cuisine, this is not the place for you! But there is a good Japanese restaurant right next door called Ebisu. KiKi’s is like a fast food Japanese restaurant if you ask me). However, plans quickly changed as we arrived on Irving. It was so crowded we didn't even try to look for parking because it was almost impossible to find any. Everybody was doubling parking or circling blocks competing for spots it would be a waste of time trying. We decided to try to find a place on lower Irving instead, but as we got closer we saw that it would be impossible to drive through there as well. Finally, we settled for Noriega Teriyaki and found parking right away. What is it about Irving Street that causes traffic to be bumper to bumper when all the other streets have no cars?

Another question I’ve always wondered was… Is it really necessary to charge for a bowl of soup? So as we were eating at Noriega Teriyaki, we ordered a meal for three people, but we had four people total, so we asked for an extra bowl of rice and soup. I understand that the price for rice is rising, so charging for rice is understandable, but for soup too? If you compare a Chinese and Japanese restaurant, the Chinese restaurant usually serves a bowl of soup per person; however, in a Japanese restaurant, miso soup is only included with a certain meal and if you ask for an extra bowl of soup it cost a little over a dollar. It’s a small bowl of soup, is it really necessary to charge so much let alone anything at all for a bowl of flavored water? You’re probably thinking; if it’s just a bowl of ‘flavored water’ then why get it? Well, I love soup, but I just find it ridiculous how much they could charge for it.