This cafe sits somewhere between OK and quite good. It has the potential to be very good, but it's not there yet.

The review below says that the serving sizes are small. I agree. The French toast based dishes are quite adequate, size-wise, but the servings of spanakopita and pea and haloumi fritters, although delicious, were perhaps half the size I would have expected for the price. Filling the plates up with rocket and other leaves doesn't fool anyone. Customers know a less than generous serve when they see it.

The review below also says that the menu is limited. I agree with that too, although it isn't necessarily a negative for me. I don't mind a cafe that only does a very few dishes, provided it does them well - and, mostly, Ruby's does them well. What I do look for in a menu, small or large, is a bit of balance, and for me Ruby's menu leans a little too heavily towards sweet dishes. Some of the savoury dishes have sweet elements added, and at least one of the sweet dishes is tooth-achingly sweet. Great if you have a sweet tooth, but I don't particularly.

For instance, the bread in the "Savoury French Toast" is Greek sweet bread. It's served with scrambled eggs and bacon and comes with maple syrup on the side. The execution of each component was fine: lovely creamy eggs, nicely crisp bacon, perfectly cooked French toast. And I don't mind the maple syrup; it can work quite well with bacon, and at least was on the side rather than drizzled on top. But the Greek sweet bread combined with the eggs and bacon was, I felt, a bridge too far. It threw the dish off balance. I think it would have been much better if the French toast had been made from plain bread. Offer some fried tomato and mushrooms as optional extras, and offer a choice of maple syrup or a spicy tomato relish. That would be a genuine savoury French toast, with a little sweetness in the maple syrup if the customer wants it.

The sweet version of the French toast, called a "French Kiss", is very, very sweet. It consists of the same Greek sweet bread base, with a topping of berries, pomegranate seeds, yoghurt, almonds, and I can't remember what else. I had a taste - nice, but one forkful was enough. My friend, who does like sweet dishes, finished it off and pronounced it interesting, but agreed it was a bit too sweet and won't be ordering it again.

The milkshakes are excellent. There are about seven or eight to choose from, all $7, each thoughtfully composed, and the ones I have tried have been delicious.

Service is friendly, and efficient enough when the place is quiet, but they struggle once it starts to jump a bit. We last visited during a lunchtime that was moderately busy, but not full. All the tables except one were occupied, but most of them didn't have a full complement of diners, and there were still empty seats along the window. We grabbed the last available table, which still contained the detritus from the previous diners. It took a while before anyone came over to clear it, and we eventually got tired of waiting for menus and got up to fetch our own. There followed another long wait for someone to take our orders, and another even longer wait for the drinks, and eventually the food. To be fair, I should emphasise that the two staff on duty were working very hard. But then again, shouldn't a cafe be careful not to have seats for more customers than it can comfortably serve at any one time? If this is typical of the service during busy periods, then perhaps this cafe ought to consider hiring more staff, or removing one of the tables.

One more thing: customer comfort does not appear to be uppermost in their minds. On a day when fierce and freezing winds were blowing outside, blasting through the front door every time a customer failed to shut it properly, one of the staff came over and propped the door OPEN (!) for a while, saying it was to freshen the air and relieve the buildup of steam in the kitchen area. Sorry, Ruby's, but if you have a steam problem, then spend some money on better ventilation. It is not acceptable to make your customers freeze just because your equipment isn't up to the job.

In summary, Ruby's has potential. I hope this review hasn't scared anyone off, because there are many things I like about this place. I want to see Ruby's succeed, because East Coburg has been crying out for a decent cafe for some time - there is literally nothing for about a kilometre in every direction. With the Merri Creek bike path so close by, there's a large potential customer base for a breakfast/lunch cafe that can hit all the right notes. Ruby's has the potential to be that place. There are people in the kitchen here who know how to cook, so with a bit of tweaking, Ruby's could be really good. Increase the serving sizes, turn the sugar dial down a bit, hire another staff member to help during the busy periods, and give a bit more thought to customer comfort. Do all these things, and there's a good chance I'll become a regular. As things stand, I will be back - I've been a few times already, and there are enough good things to lure me back - and I hope to be writing a better review next time.

Approximate cost: $15

I was on my way to visit a family member who lives within walking distance of this supermarket. She mentioned that she was out of milk, and would I mind picking up some as I passed through the Sunbury town centre? No problem, I said - and promptly forgot. I was almost at her house when I remembered the milk, so I stopped at this supermarket, grabbed some low-fat milk (from memory, I think it was Pura Lite Start), took it to her house, and thought no more of it.

The next day she phoned me. "You bought that milk at the Melba Ave supermarket, didn't you?"

"Well, yes, I did - but how did you know?"

"Because the use-by date expires today. I'll have to throw out what I don't use today. And this is not the first time it has happened. I refuse to buy milk from that supermarket any more, even though it's close by. I buy it from one of the supermarkets in the centre of Sunbury. Their turnover seems to be better, because their use-by dates are always about a week away."

Now, technically the store has done nothing illegal. It is perfectly legal to sell perishable food right up to the use-by date. But I think not warning customers is not playing fair with them. When you buy milk, you expect it to be good for several days at least, especially if you're buying several cartons at a time. If an item of food is getting perilously close to its use-by date, you'd expect some warning, if not a discount.

A supermarket near my home checks all its dairy products, smallgoods, etc. each morning, and puts discount labels on anything getting too close to its expiry date. That way everyone is happy. The store is able to sell its almost-expired stock while maintaining customer goodwill; shoppers who need food to last a while will take fresher products from the back; and canny shoppers who are able to consume the food in a hurry get a bargain.

But if a store is deliberately and quietly selling almost-expired food, I think that's unfair, and if they're doing it inadvertently, then that suggests sloppy stock control. Neither speaks well of the store. It's not illegal, but nor is it the way to stay in the good books of your customers.

So. You have been warned. If you buy milk from here, check the date on it. I have no comment to make about what else they sell, because this is the only thing I've ever purchased, but based on this experience, and what my relative told me, I won't be in a hurry to return.

Dear WOMO people,

I really like your service. I've said as much in a previous review and I won't repeat it all here.

What I DON'T like is an apparently recent innovation: full size popup ads for Happy Customers businesses.

I realise you have to promote HC businesses. it's how you can afford to keep this site running. If there were no HC businesses, there'd be no WOMO. I have no objection to their promotion per se.

What I object to is the manner in which it is done. Popup ads are irritating at the best of times, but these ones are especially irritating because they are huge, almost the size of the browser window. Moreover, they appear suddenly for no apparent reason when you're partway through reading a review, and they splash themselves all over whatever you're trying to read. It is impossible to keep reading until you close the popup. And you read on, and click through to the next page, and then another popup appears.

I have the "Block popup windows" option in my browser set to "on", but it makes no difference.

They seem to be appearing at the rate of one popup per page viewed. This, combined with their enormous size, is excessive. You even get a popup for the same business appearing again later on after you've already closed it once! If I've closed it, then guess what? It probably means I'm not interested in the business, so what's the point of showing it to me again? If anything, it's only going to make me more annoyed and disinclined ever to use that business - which is hardly the business's fault, since it's WOMO who is responsible for the frequency, size and position of the popups, all of which combine to make them so annoying. WOMO, don't you realise that in making the users of your site so irritated, you are actually doing a disservice to your Happy Customer businesses?

What I find incomprehensible is that the popups aren't even relevant to the reviews I'm trying to read. I was trying to read reviews of the Australian Reptile Park in Gosford, and in the space of a minute or less I was forced to get rid of two full-size popups blocking what I was trying to read. One was for a mobile phone service and the other was for a stationery provider. What have these got to do with animal parks???

Please stop doing this. Your site was enjoyable to read until now. It is rapidly becoming VERY annoying. If it gets too annoying, I will stop using it. Put the HC business in a box over on the side or something, where we can see it but it doesn't get in the way.

Thank you.

I'm always nervous when I have a job around the home or garden that requires the services of any sort of tradesperson. I'm the type who has trouble changing a light bulb, so when something needs doing by an expert, I have to choose carefully, because I'll be relying totally on their advice and expertise. I'm always worried that I could be ripped off, so I rely on sites such as WOMO to sort the good tradespeople from the bad.

This firm appears to be one of the good ones.

I have an enormous gum tree in my backyard, taller than a 3-storey house, and it was becoming dangerous. Several branches had already fallen down, one of them onto a neighbour's roof, and I was worried that a strong wind or a storm might bring more of them down.

Ian from Taylors came out to look at the tree and give a quote. He arrived well within the two-hour window he'd specified, which always gives a favourable first impression. He said the tree was basically healthy, but agreed that several of the branches were dangerous and needed removing. He quoted $1430 for their lopping and removal. I accepted the quote and asked him when he could start, expecting an answer something like: maybe this side of Christmas if you're lucky. I was astonished when he replied, "Tomorrow, if you want." I picked my jaw up off the ground and said yes, indeed, I did want.

Taylors specified a two-hour window during which they'd get started the next morning. I like tradies who do that; don't you hate the kind who say they'll be here sometime between 8 and 4, as if you can take the whole day off work to wait for them?

The men arrived very promptly - half an hour early, in fact - and set to work quickly and efficiently. Within two hours they had the offending branches lopped, chopped, mulched, and carted away.

The mulcher was as noisy as hell while they were working, but at least it was mercifully brief. I had expected them to be at the job for the best part of the day, and was pleasantly surprised at how little time it took. They also cleaned up after themselves and left everything very tidy.

I'm very pleased with their work and would not hesitate to use them again.

Don't be too concerned if you live outside the list of suburbs in the catchment area above. I live in Coburg (inner north), which is nowhere near Bayswater (outer east), but that wasn't a problem. I told Ian I was surprised he'd agreed to take a job this far away, and he said, "We go everywhere," and reeled off the list of far-flung suburbs and country towns to which he'd been recently, much further away from Bayswater than Coburg is. So don't take the list as gospel; if you live in Melbourne or anywhere near it, ring them anyway and ask whether they're willing to come to you. You have nothing to lose by asking.

I like semi-dried tomatoes. I particularly like them in winter, when fresh tomatoes are not in season and the only ones you can find are insipid imitations of their summer counterparts. And my favourite brand of semi-dried tomatoes is AusFresh. Juicy, bursting with flavour, not too oily, not too vinegary. The balance of herbs is exactly right, with none of the unpleasant (to me, anyway) aniseed flavour of some rival brands.

I used to buy my AusFresh tomatoes at either of the Big Two supermarkets, but over the past couple of years it has been increasingly difficult to find them there. No shortage of the home-brand version, though. I've been reading quite a bit lately about how the Big Two are pushing out a lot of smaller producers in order to stock the shelves with their own home brands. Could the Big Two be doing that with AusFresh? I have no way of knowing, but if that is indeed their strategy, it is a foolish one. I'm not going to replace my favourite brands of foods with your home brands just because you no longer stock the brands I want. I'll move heaven and earth to get them elsewhere.

And that's what I did with AusFresh, although fortunately I ended up not needing to move heaven and earth. I was heading north on the East Coburg tram, nose buried in a book as usual, when I happened to look up and glance out the tram window - at a factory-like building with a big sign saying "AusFresh Antipasto".

AusFresh? The same name as my favourite tomatoes? Could this be their factory? And is that a retail outlet I can see attached to it? Hastily pulling the tram cord, I leapt out the door and darted across the road.

It was indeed the AusFresh factory, they do indeed have a direct-to-public retail outlet attached to it, and they do indeed sell my coveted semi-dried tomatoes - and much, much more besides. I've noticed dried pasta, beans, biscotti, ham, salami, cheese, coffee, and many other things, but to be honest I really don't have eyes for anything other than the deli cabinet, where my much-missed tomatoes reside, alongside several other types of antipasto.

I now call in there every 4-6 weeks or so, buying a bulk supply of semi-dried tomatoes, and occasionally some other goodies as well, such as roasted capsicum or eggplant.

I can highly recommend AusFresh if you live in the area and you like antipasto. If you don't live anywhere nearby, and your local supermarket doesn't stock AusFresh - well, I guess there's not much you can do but ask them to stock it and hope they'll listen to you.

I discovered A Hidden Secret a few months ago at the North Essendon Village Farmers' Market (see my separate review of that market). A Hidden Secret is so good, it has become the number #1 reason why I visit that market. I thought it deserved its own separate listing on WOMO, because I didn't want to take up my entire market review raving about a single stall.

According to A Hidden Secret's website (which I strongly recommend you visit - it's well laid out and very informative), they make a wide range of vegetarian and vegan meals using "fresh, locally sourced organic vegetables and fruits, free range eggs, Meredith Dairy Cheeses and Yoghurts. The pastry is home made using only Warrnambool butter, and you can be certain that all ingredients are 100% vegetarian."

So: one big tick for catering to vegetarians and vegans at all, and a second big tick for caring about the quality of their ingredients and striving to use local, organic and free-range.

I've only tried a relatively small selection of their foods so far. At least, I thought I'd tried a reasonable number of things, but when I visited their website, I discovered it's only a tiny sample of all the things they make. The total range is considerable, much wider than what I see on the table before me at their market stall. Perhaps they only bring a certain selection of goods to the market, or - more likely - people are getting to know how good they are, and things are selling out before I get there. The chap I spoke to at the stall last month said that if you've got your heart set on buying a particular item, it is recommended that you phone or email and have that item put aside for you to collect. They are more than happy to do that for you.

Now, the food. So far I've only tried their pastry items, but everything I've tried I would rate at least "good", most "very good" and would happily buy again, and several I would rate as "excellent".

The Mushroom and Pumpkin Wellington (vegan) is a must-buy. From their website: "a lovely combination of pumpkin, silverbeet, macadamias, hazelnuts, almonds, breadcrumbs, onion, garlic & spices, all encased within a vegan puff pastry crust lined with a mushroom duxelles." It's delicious. Serve this up to a committed carnivore, accompanied by a salad, don't tell them it's vegan, and watch them polish it off.

Equally delicious is the mushroom, leek and feta tart. (Can you tell I'm a big fan of mushrooms?) A beautiful peppery taste, good chunky texture, and very good crisp pastry. I'm also very fond of their three cheeses, leek and fennel tart.

For tonight's dinner, I have a "4 Quarter" tart thawing out in the kitchen, nearly ready to pop into the oven. (Their pastries freeze very well, by the way.) One quarter of the tart is the three cheeses, leek and fennel; another quarter is mushroom, leek and feta. So it's guaranteed I will like those. The other two quarters, which I haven't tried before, are broccoli, onion, cheddar & tomato; and pumpkin, silverbeet and chevre. Sounds very tempting.

The only dish I've tried which I wasn't quite as enamoured with was a Moroccan tart. The flavour was very good - the spices nicely balanced - but the texture of was a little too grainy for my liking, probably due to the almond meal. I mentioned to the stallholder a couple of months ago that I wasn't as taken with it as I was with their other items, and I was impressed that he was really keen to know why. He said they value the feedback they get from customers, and they use it to tweak their recipes in order to give customers what they will like. So if you bought something that you weren't crazy about, or even if you did rather like it but think that with a little tweaking it could be something even better, then do tell them; they won't be offended, and they will take your comments seriously.

Last month I bought a curious thing called a Homity Pie. From their website: "A simply delicious pie that has proved a hit with vegetarians and meat eaters alike... a traditional British open vegetable pie. Made with potatoes, onions, cheese, a hint of garlic and herbs, it has a history that dates back to WW2 when Land Girls working under rationing restrictions made pies from vegetables that were easily available in the fields..." I'd rate this pie as good - better than the sum of its fairly humble parts. The taste was appealing, similar to leek and potato soup. The texture of the filling was a little runnier than I'd expected, but not unpleasant, and the pastry was crisp. The main problem I found was that after eating about two-thirds of it, I felt I was all potato-and-onioned out, and wanted a bit of variety of taste. I think I should have gone halves with someone and had something alongside it (a salad, or something with tomatoes, or sausages or rissoles) to contrast with it. But I'd still buy it again. I imagine if I had been a Land Army girl during World War 2, I'd have just been grateful for the tasty, nourishing food, and would have eaten it without complaint.

And all praise to A Hidden Secret for reviving these old recipes and customs, and giving us an insight into what our forebears ate. According to their website, they will shortly be introducing to their range an old Scottish dish called Skirlie Mirlie, which a Google search indicates is made from turnips and potatoes. Neeps and tatties, as my gran would have said. I look forward to trying it.

If you don't live anywhere near the North Essendon market, go visit their website anyway, and click on the "Markets and Festivals" link. They get around quite a bit, it seems: Williamstown, Castlemaine, Daylesford, Talbot, Newtown, Queenscliff, Torquay, and more. And they sell their relish by post.

They're good. Really, really good. Highly recommended.

POSTSCRIPT 21 April 2012: The 4 Quarter Tart we ate last night was a huge hit. In particular, the quarter made with broccoli, onion, cheddar and tomato was excellent, and has now been added to my list of favourites.

Important note: This listing is for Donnini's fresh pasta shop only. It is NOT for the restaurant of the same name further down the road; there's a separate WOMO listing for that. I believe the restaurant is run by the same people, but I cannot comment on it because I've never eaten there.

I've been a customer of the fresh pasta shop in Lygon St for well over twenty years. They make a number of different fresh pastas and pasta sauces - see their website for the full range - and all the ones I have tried have been of excellent quality.

My favourite pasta here is the agnolotti (a filled pasta, similar to ravioli), of which they sell about seven different types, mostly vegetarian, and my absolute favourite of those is the mushroom agnolotti. I think many other people must agree with me, because it seems mushroom is always the first variety to sell out for the day.

I buy my agnolotti in bulk, separate it into its individual squares, lay it out on trays, freeze it, and then pack it into freezer bags. It freezes brilliantly. When I'm ready to cook it, I take it out of the freezer and throw it straight into boiling water; no need to thaw it. The exact cooking time varies slightly depending on the type of pasta and your personal preference. I give the mushroom and spinach pastas about 10 minutes when cooking it from frozen, and the pumpkin pasta about 8, but you should experiment and see what works for you, or ask the friendly staff for advice. After it's cooked, I drain it and serve with a little olive oil or melted butter, some ricotta if I have any, a scattering of semi-dried tomatoes, and lots of shaved parmigiano reggiano. Delicious. No need for any fancy sauces.

I'm also very fond of their spinach and ricotta canneloni. It makes a really easy meal when you're too tired to cook - just bung it in the oven, make a green salad to go with it, and that's dinner sorted.

Donnini's isn't especially cheap, but the quality is superb and I think it's worth the price.

If you're looking at their website, be careful not to write down the wrong address. Donnini's used to be at 398 Lygon St, on the east side of the street, next door to Trotters. About a year ago they moved directly across the road, to the WEST side of Lygon St (the odd-numbered side), and Trotters expanded to fill Donnini's old store. At the time of writing, though, they still have not updated the address on their website, so don't go looking for Donnini's at their old address. Their new store is at 337 Lygon St, in between Jimmy Watson's and the Nuts About Life nut shop.

This market takes place on the second Saturday of each month. It's run by a group called Regional Farmers Markets, the same people who run the Bundoora Park market, which I visit regularly. (See my separate review of the Bundoora market, or the RFM website, for more details of the organisation and the locations of their other markets; I won't repeat it all here.)

This market is in Lincoln Park, which is technically in Essendon, but it's right on the border of North Essendon, one block away from the North Essendon Village shopping centre. I imagine it's called the North Essendon market because "Essendon" might mislead people into thinking it's in the heart of Essendon, somewhere near the station. It isn't; it's a couple of kilometres north-west of the station.

I try to visit this market each month, and I definitely make a point of it if for some reason I haven't been able to get to Bundoora market that month. There's some overlap of stalls at both markets: Green Eggs, Flavour Station cakes, and Saucy Sista relishes, to name just a few.

But there are several stalls at North Essendon which aren't at Bundoora, and two in particular at North Essendon - Dench Bakers, and A Hidden Secret Gourmet Produce - are so good that it's worth a visit for those stalls alone. Dench makes an excellent range of artisan breads, my favourite of which is a raisin loaf, which has a lovely citrus taste because its ingredients include whole pureed oranges. A Hidden Secret makes a range of vegetarian food including some beautiful savoury pastries. (See my separate review under the heading A Hidden Secret.)

If you're planning to go to the North Essendon market by car, be warned: parking can be hard to find, and traffic, especially on Mount Alexander Road, is just terrible on a Saturday morning. I recommend you avoid Mount Rd altogether and approach the park via Lincoln Rd. Even better, consider going by public transport. The number 59 tram runs along Mount Rd, one block away from the market, and so do several bus routes, including the 903 SmartBus, which is the one I catch. The frequency of transport on a Saturday leaves a bit to be desired, but if you consult timetables before you go, you can time it so you don't have to wait too long at the bus or tram stop.

UPDATE 7 Oct 2013: There are two things in my review above which were true at the time, but have since changed:

1. Market location. This market has moved around a lot in the last 12 months or so. It has had at least 4 different locations that I know of, and maybe more. I have no idea if the current location (St Therese's School) is now permanent, so it's really important that you check the market's website before you go (click on link above) so you're not heading off to the wrong location.

2. Flavour Station and A Hidden Secret have both moved to the North Coburg Primary School market (also 2nd Saturday of the month) since I wrote the review above.

I haven't trooped around to anywhere near as many bike shops as @Lindy from Brunswick (see review below), but I can certainly see what she's getting at. While attempting to buy some bike accessories at another bike shop (NOT Lygon Cycles) I copped a bit of "attitude". Seems that if you're not young, fit, and lycra-clad, some bike shops take it as a licence to sneer at you. Fine. I'll take my money and go elsewhere - straight to Lygon Cycles.

At Lygon Cycles, no one will sneer at you. They're enthusiastic about bikes, but they don't mind if you're not. I enjoy riding my bike, but I look upon it purely as a means to get from A to B. I'm not into bike culture, I don't drool over other people's bikes, and I have neither the time, the ability, nor the inclination to become familiar with all the components of my bike and figure out what's wrong and how it might be fixed. Frankly, I'd rather pay someone to do it for me.

So recently when the brakes on my bike started getting too soft (I had to squeeze the left one really hard to get any response at all), I thought about where I could get my bike serviced. Lygon Cycles had been pleasant enough on an earlier occasion when I needed some bike accessories, they are a short ride away from where I live, and they had a couple of positive reviews on WOMO. Good enough for me, so I decided to give them a try.

I was served on each occasion by the friendly and helpful Riley. He did a quick examination of my bike, and said he felt the most basic service (bronze level) would be the appropriate one to fix the brake problem and deal with any other minor problems that might exist. It costs $69; see their website for a list of exactly what you get for that price, and for a comparison with their higher-level services.

It's an electric bike, and Riley made it clear that they wouldn't touch the electrical parts. That's OK; I wasn't expecting them to. I only wanted the bike bits serviced, not the electrical bits. The electrics generally work fine anyway, and a little application of WD-40 sorts them out when they're not. If I ever had a problem with the electrical parts, I'd probably go back to the place in Cheltenham where I bought it.

Riley assured me that if they discovered any problem that wasn't immediately apparent, that might need extra parts and therefore bump up the price, they'd phone me and get my OK before going ahead. Fine with me.

I hadn't made a booking, and Riley warned me that they were pretty busy and might not even get to my bike for a couple of days, but that was OK - I didn't need it back urgently. And in any case, it was only two business days later that I got the call to say the bike was ready to be picked up, so they seem to run an efficient operation. The price remained the $69 that had been initially quoted - there was nothing extra to pay.

The brakes are now working just fine, and I'm a happy customer. I will definitely be returning to this business when my bike needs another service. Top marks.

Approximate cost: $69 bronze service

This is the first occasion I have used a business that I found entirely via WOMO, and it has been a very positive experience.

I'd been wanting to have my nails done professionally for some years, but had been reluctant because of all the horror stories one hears. Choice Magazine did an article on this subject a few years ago, spelling out all the things that can go wrong if you are unlucky enough to be serviced by an inadequately trained or careless nail technician: over-trimmed cuticles, fungal infections, and other assorted nasties. Yeechhh. Reading that article almost put me off nail salons for life. There are several nail salons in my suburb, but no way was I just going to choose one at random. I decided I would only visit a nail salon which came with not one, but several recommendations - and that's where WOMO came in. I chose Andrea's business because the reviews on WOMO were universally positive.

First impressions were good. Andrea's website is well laid out, with clear and detailed information about the services she offers. The site is also very upfront regarding prices. One thing I felt was lacking on the site - and I told Andrea this during my first appointment - was a direct comparison of Shellac vs Bio Sculpture. (Things such as: which one gives a neater result, which one lasts longer, which has a greater range of colours, which one is better if your nails are short / long / bitten / thin / flaky / ridged, which one leaves your nails in a better natural condition after the product is removed, and so on.) This would help customers like me who are not familiar with either product, or have experience with one but not the other. In any case, I decided to put myself and my nails in Andrea's hands, and let her use her professional judgement to decide which was more suitable for me.

Andrea was friendly and welcoming when I arrived for my appointment, and she maintains a spotless and comfortable work area. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were none of those pungent acrylic fumes that just about knock you over when you go past the doorway of most other nail salons. (Pity the poor people who work in those places.)

On seeing my nails, Andrea recommended shellac, which is the cheaper of the two options, and she did a beautifully neat job. I was very pleased with the result, and astounded at how quick it was. Each coat of shellac literally dries in seconds under the UV lamp, so there is no chance of smudging.

I would have liked a greater choice of colours. Shellac only comes in about 25 colours, several of which I did not like at all (blue, purple, teal, brown, black). Some of the remaining colours were nice enough, but none was exactly what I was looking for. However, Andrea says that the manufacturers (CND) are continually increasing their colour range, and in time we should be able to expect several more colours.

Andrea gave me some advice on aftercare (nothing too difficult: mainly, be careful using suntan oils and personal insect repellants, because they can eat into the shellac). She said that if the aftercare instructions were followed, she was confident the shellac would last two weeks. Often it lasts longer, but anything after two weeks should be considered a bonus.

She was absolutely correct. For two weeks, the painted areas of my nails looked as beautifully neat and perfect as when I stepped out of the salon. Lovely and shiny; not a chip, not a dent, not a scratch. On Day 14, a tiny crack appeared at the edge of one nail, followed by a tiny v-shaped fragment of polish flaking away, and I thought - is this the beginning of the chipping that usually happens with conventional nail polishes long before now? But I was wrong. An hour or so after that chip of polish came away, a chip of the nail directly underneath it also came away. In other words, the flaw was not in the polish, but in the nail; that nail had been in the process of breaking, and it showed up in the polish first.

I went back for my follow-up visit exactly four weeks after the first appointment. By then the colour was very slightly faded on the nail tips, and the finish not quite as glossy as it had been for the first two weeks, but apart from the tiny bit of broken nail, the painted areas of my nails were still as perfectly neat and tidy as they were on Day 1. Still no chips, no dents, no scratches - and that was after four full weeks of normal wear and tear. I have no doubt that if my broken nail had stayed intact, the polish on it would have stayed intact too. This is a very robust product.

And I haven't altered my usual activities in any way to protect my nails either: I've grabbed at keys, played the piano, lifted ring-pulls on the lids of cans, peeled prawns, dug away at those annoying foil and plastic seals that are cemented on to so many condiment bottles these days... the shellac polish has stood up to all of that and more. I'm not sure whether it's the product itself or the skill of Andrea's application, but I've found that shellac really is every bit as hard-wearing as it is claimed to be.

Since it stands up to normal wear and tear exceptionally well, the main determinant of how long the product will last appears to be your rate of nail growth. If your nails are already the length you want them to be, and are very slow-growing, then consider yourself lucky: you may be able to get many weeks out of a single shellac manicure. Not I, alas. Mine grow very rapidly, and the regrowth area was noticeable after as little as a week, especially on my thumbnails, and extremely noticeable after two weeks. And the thing is, you can't just touch up the unpainted area, or even remove the whole lot, as you could have if you'd done the job yourself at home with conventional polish. Even the removal of the shellac needs to be done professionally with (I presume) special products; it's not something that is recommended for you to attempt yourself with ordinary nail polish remover.

If money were no object, I'd have my nails done every week, to avoid the regrowth. Since I can't afford that, I'll probably be looking at every two to three weeks from now on. So if your nails are as fast-growing as mine are, this is something you need to take into account. If you need your polish to last a long time before your next appointment (for instance, if you're going away on holiday), perhaps a colour that's close to your natural nail colour might make the regrowth a bit less noticeable? I went to a job interview on Day 24, and I was very conscious that my nails were showing a lot of regrowth. I just hope that the fact that the colour was a very pale pink made it not quite so obvious. (Normally I would have had them redone before Day 24, but Andrea was taking a couple of weeks off over Christmas/New Year, as she's perfectly entitled to do, so it wasn't possible to get an earlier appointment.)

But this regrowth problem is neither a criticism of the product itself, nor of Andrea's skill with it. It's just a fact that you need to consider: nails grow, you can't deal with the regrowth yourself, so if you want nails that always look their best, you should be aware that you'll be committing yourself to a series of regular appointments. I will definitely be doing so, at least for a while yet. The end result is so good that I think it's worth it.

UPDATE 18 April 2012: I've now had six manicures from Andrea, and I'm still just as happy as I was after the first one. Two more things about her service are worth mentioning:

(1) She has a great loyalty program. After you have had a certain number of shellac manicures, your next one is free. Fantastic value.

(2) If you have a nail that is starting to break across the nail bed, don't panic - make an appointment with Andrea ASAP. She can't do much if your nail has completely broken off, but as long as part of it is still attached, she can perform what's called a "silk repair" to reattach the broken section. It's amazingly strong; so far, all my silk repairs have stayed in place long enough for the broken bit to grow out. And what's more, a silk repair is close to invisible; viewed side-on, the polish is sometimes very slightly thicker than on the other nails, but viewed from above, it looks just the same, so much so that I keep forgetting which are the nails that have had the silk repair.

On my most recent visit, 8 days ago, Andrea reattached a nail that had already broken two-thirds of the way across the nail bed. It was hanging by not much more than a thread. I thought it was beyond hope, and told her she might as well cut it off, but she said "no, I think I can save this one." The result is just beautiful; you now can't tell that it had ever been broken, and I have every confidence that the silk repair will last until my next visit (13 days away). Top marks, Andrea.

UPDATE 21 Aug 2012: Twelve shellac manicures to date, including two freebies (under the loyalty scheme I mentioned above). Still delighted with the product, and with Andrea's first class service.

A small correction to my earlier review. I wrote, "Each coat of shellac literally dries in seconds under the UV lamp, so there is no chance of smudging." Not quite. It's certainly fast, but only the FINAL coat is guaranteed smudge-proof; until that final coat goes on, don't be fooled by how dry it seems. Be careful not to absentmindedly touch your clothes or your hair until the whole process is finished, or you'll deposit a layer of lint onto the not-quite-set polish. Also be careful when inserting your hand into the slot of the UV lamp. The opening is big, but it's still surprisingly easy to misjudge it, bang a nail against the plastic casing, and smudge the polish. After one visit when I managed to do all those things and make a mess of Andrea's lovely work which she then had to fix up, I've learned my lesson. I now pay attention to where my hands are until after that final coat of polish is dry.

Approximate cost: $40 for shellac