The Counter-San Jose, Ca

The Counter was a modern 50s hamburger joint, with overpriced food and boring bathroom.

Santana Row was supposed to be a hip-happening place filled with drunken idiots on Friday night and The Counter a place to munch on a food fit for the munchies.

The place itself felt like a place from The Jetsons cartoon without the space-spandex outfits.

Sadly the design leaves little in the memory banks and the large TVs just take away from the atmosphere.

In the bathroom it featured a large hanging white globe in the bluish white tile and painted space.  The space was very soothing, simple, but features little atmosphere other than the music to cover up toilet flushes.

Everything was clean, but the toilet paper was thin as Bible pages, one of the handles on the locks was missing, no purse hooks,  one of the seat cover dispensers was empty, there was toilet paper rolls on top of the paper towel dispensers, the toilet brush was visually obvious and the trashcan was full.

The most interesting parts in the bathroom was the hexagon tile floors, thank goodness everybody has i-Phones to keep them busy on the pot.

Overpriced burgers, with an unsure design and blase design; The Counter was just a clean toilet in a forgettable space.  6.5/10

Big Basin Cafe-Saratoga, CA

I was chilling with my friend in downtown Saratoga, you know, where the richer than Los Gatos people live?  There was this little coffee shop and I really had to pee so I went in and my friend ordered a coffee.

It was a small bathroom; warm, well lit, nice air freshner smell and it featured calm colors.

Everything was also full, but the plunger was viiable, the toilet paper was on the toilet and there was some paper towles on the floor by the trashcan.


There was also a chair in front of the toilet just in case somebody wants to watch you go.  A little creepy for my taste, but I try not to judge.

It was an average clean bathroom, boring is ok I guess especially when it is a bathroom, because who wants ropes and pepto bismol pink?

Small but charming, 8/10 for me if you just need a clean place to pee.

Trials-San Jose, CA

Trials had this wonderful English PUB feel to it and it is so nice not to see any TVs blaring sports at a bar and my butt can't help but be afraid of the woman's room.

Of course the room was a little dark to match the feel of the PUB, but it wasn't like I couldn't find the toilet, nice and clean by the way.

By the sink a plunger sat and the seat covers were a little low.

There was some trash on the floor by the little table, where I put my purse, where the tacky plastic flowers stared at me while I waited for my yellow stream to end.

The red paint and white tile were nice, but the high ceilings made the entire room cold, leaving a hint of a musty urine smell.

The light itself was just a light bulb.  Maybe there as a nice glass ornament covering the lonely at one time, but not today.

Overall, it wasn't too bad for a PUB and I just couldn't stop loving the stained glass.

6.5/10

Petco-San Jose, CA

Petco, where the pets go!  That's why they have oops bags.

Yes I shop at Petco occasionally because sometimes Target fails to have what I need, namely specialty items like decent cat food.

I volunteered at this Petco for Town Cats a while back and now the Humane Society is there, sad because Town Cats is a no kill rescue 100%, while the Humane Society will send unwanted animals away to be euthanized by another shelter so they say they are a "open door" shelter.

When I was there I used the bathroom many times, this time the bathroom featured a dark atmosphere, no purse hooks, a dirty sink and much more.

Retail sucks, I know this and anyone who has worked it knows it, but it doesn't mean  you leave your bathroom a mess.

I can't understand an employee who will go into the bathroom and not clean it up, especially if she isn't on break.

There were no seat covers, the trash was full and it just felt dirty to sit down in.

The sink was the worst wet mess, there were tacky fake, dusty, plastic plants to show off the bad filtration system and no soap to wash my hands.

Honestly, the store was not busy and regardless of how many signs are up stating "If the bathroom needs attention alert the management  :)" who informs the employees anything less than a diarrhea apocalypse?

It felt genuinely creepy and sad, because employees have to go here too, showing the lack of respect they have for their one private place.

5/10

Tropicana Buffet-San Jose, CA

The Tropicana Buffet was a place filled with loud families, running children and piles of food, so their bathrooms have their work cut out for them

It was a small two stall bathroom with one light barley glowing.

I opened the stall door and saw a trash can for all the personal feminine items and diapers, lots of diapers.  But this wasn't just a normal trash can, it was record for every previous woman who was on her cycle before me.

It did not matter if the toilet was clean, the tp was full, even if the seat covers were not stocked, I wanted to throw up in the bucket, so gross.

Washing my hands wasn't a joy either, the counter was very wet from child after child, unsupervised by a parent, came in and decided to play sink water wars.

Even drying my hands was a hap hazardous adventure because of the rubber-band jerry rigging invented by a redneck third cousin.

Like everywhere else in the restaurant business, it was understaffed and all of the people are overworked and underpaid, no wonder the bathrooms were the last item on the cleaning or fix-it list.  5/10 was the best I could muster, especially because of the bucket trash can lying in wait.

Sa-By Thai Cuisine-San Jose, CA

While babysitting for my friends cats while they went away for over two months they recommended Sa-By Thai, the food was delicious and their bathroom was comically decorated.

It was a rather large bathroom, a little dark, but the colors were lively and in touch with the Thai feel.

However, compared to the rest of the restaurant it was substantially less classy.

All the decorations looked like they were from a hoarders garage sale and falling off the walls.

To embed the ghettoness, notes on construction paper, were posted informing the pubic about how to flush a toilet and how to turn off a light.

I'm sure many individuals forget to have any sense of common courtesy for the next patron, but leaving poorly written and fading notes on your already shabbily painted walls is just bad customer management.

To stop this annoying waste of paper please join me in flushing twice if need be and turning off the light to save some much needed energy.  This will not only help the planet, but help the management focus on important issues, like toilet paper levels.

Yes the paper was stocked, the soap full and it was clean, accept for the dust covered plants, but it was sad to see how nice the rest of the place was compared to this small room.  It would not take much effort repaint, repair and re-design to help match the class just outside the door.

6/10

Smoke Eaters-Cupertino, CA

Smoke Eaters, a popular wing hot spot in the San Jose area, famous for their Hellfire Challenge featured on Man vs Food.

I'm one who only stomach Atomic hot wings and visited the bathroom to wash my hands, not scrape my insides into the toilet.

It was a Tuesday when I visited, 50 Cent Wing Tuesday, busy to say the least, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the two stall bathroom surprisingly decent.

The colors were nice and warm and they turned up the heat in the tiled space.

Everything was stocked nicely and there was a hint of a flowery scent in the air, very surprising for a wing joint.

There was the visual toilet plunger, the full trashcan and the most jarring line of thin dark hair glaring under the florescent lights.

I left my share of hairs everywhere in life, but if you decided to do some grooming between breast bites  pick up your skanky locks with a paper towel, they were stocked by the way.

I also hate it when people blow their noses into the sink.  Oh my god, the noise, the visual splatter, the leavings when I go to wash my hands.  Ew. 

8/10