"0"^^ . . . "1"^^ . "2013-11-04T00:00:00"^^ . "2"^^ . "0"^^ . "I've been to Cali a couple times. The first time was fantastic, the second time was terrible.\n\nCali Nails is located in a strip mall on Central next to a Dominos and a liquor store. The first time I went in it was on a Friday during the late afternoon. I wanted to get some acrylics for a event I was going to later in the week. I walked in and Jimmy, the nail tech, was so nice to me. The salon was practically empty so he sat me down and got straight to work. He even asked what kind of music I liked and put on the Pandora station I wanted to listen to. He was a really nice guy to talk to. He even gave me a little flower on my ring fingernail for free. It was one of the nicest experiences at a salon I've had.\n\nI went back a few months later. Total disaster. I decided to get acrylics and a pedicure. I made an appointment for a Saturday morning. When I went in it was a complete zoo. All the chairs were taken, it was noisy and chaotic. There wasn't even anyone at the reception desk, someone at one of the manicure stations yelled \"Can I help you?\" from across the room. I take it that Saturday mornings are pretty busy for nail salons in general, so you think they would have hired enough people to work that day. I found out from one of the employees that wasn't the case. Anyways, they told me that even though I had an appointment it was a 20 minute wait. I knew if I tried to go to a different salon it would be just as packed, so I decided to stay. They got me into a massage chair and the woman who was working on me was very rough on my toes. I get that you want to remove all the dead skin, but at one point my toes started BLEEDING. No way in hell I am sticking my bleeding toes in THAT tub water. That's begging for an infection.\n\nAfter my pedicure and color, I walked over to the manicure station. A different woman doing my manicure seemed like she was in a very bad mood and complained to me about this was supposed to be her day off and she had to come in to work. That was kind of a buzzkill. Then, in the middle of my manicure, some other staff member pulls her aside to go into the back room for some reason. I was left soaking my nails for 10 minutes, sitting in a chair by myself. She came back and apologized, saying they had an \"accident.\" Not a good sign. Later when I told her what color I wanted to paint my nails, a cute light pink, she looked at me as if I was crazy and then said \"Whatever.\" What inconsiderate customer service. I spent 2 hours in that salon, when I easily could have spent 75 minutes.\n\nThe salon itself is not very high end. It's not totally run down, but it's doesn't have a luxury feel. And for a casual type salon, the prices are a little steep. $45 (including $5 tip) for acrylics, another $30 for the pedicure.\n\nThe other problem I encountered is that there is no security, something that's sort of necessary when you're in the middle of a major metropolitan city. The second time I got my nails done here a homeless person walked into the salon and started randomly yelling profanities. It wasn't until someone threatened to call the cops that they walked out. \n\nIt's weird that I had two completely polar opposite experiences, but if you do go to Cali, I would suggest making an appointment with Jimmy any day that's not Saturday. But I would research other nail salons in the area before hand."^^ . .