Your Favorite Restaurants (1 Viewer)

[boblarson]

What are your favorite restaurants where you live? What makes them special?
(no insults to any poster allowed in this thread. Those will be removed if someone does personally attack anyone directly. This is intended to be a clean thread about food. There - you've been warned)

I will start off this by suggesting one of my favorites in the Portland, Oregon area.

It is Grant's Philly Cheese Steaks. It is a small place on Sandy Boulevard on the East side of Portland as you are heading towards Gresham.

They have the most wonderful Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. My favorite is the one with Cheese Wiz and sweet/hot peppers. The meat they use is really top notch and it is all cooked fresh for you while you wait. I've never had a better Cheese Steak sandwich somewhere else. These are fantastic. They also come with home made thin sliced potato chips. And the prices are very reasonable.

 

[rainman89]

Im gonna go with the Dinosaur Bbq over here in upstate NY.

If you leave this place hungry you are doing something wrong..... yum

 

[PNGBill]

In Port Moresby we used to have a great Chinese restaurant that did Chili Crab.
You felt like eating the shell. My wife is allergic to crab but couldn't not eat this dish but of course paid the price for a few hours after the meal with swollen lips etc
They made their money and moved to Australia

 

[GaryPanic]

I have a gurka restaurant near by and this is a new depth to Indian food (Nepal sits on top of India -ish) richer and not as spicey

then there's my indian (well its Pakistain) curry house -service is fab and the price is just right ...

To get a decent English meal i have to go to a country pub - called the Slow Snail its int he woods near a place called Ivy hatch - the services is Slow - but that is part of the charm - you eat there and its an all evening event - brillant for a romantic dinner - they take you starter order and 30 minutes later it arrives - main 30m ins later pudding 30 mins later - its all about the expereince - (not a place to eat if you are in a hurry )

The list goes on ... and on ... depending on what I fancy Mexican/french /Thai/Japanese/- then if i really want to push the boat out London is 30-45 mins away - but hte food in the Countryside is probably better

 

[Fifty2One]

Visiting Montreal Canada you must go to Decarie Hotdog - near DuCollege metro station. Really small place Casse-Croute type restaurant, hotdog and fries are excellent, poutine and burger are good. Best order there is a "frite - steamee all dress - pepsi - maywest" (fries, hotdog with lots of fixings, pepsi and a snack cake) all the carbs calories sodium colesterol we know we crave even if we should not eat it!

This thread making me hungry!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

In New Orleans, it is hard to name only one "favorite" because we have a glut of great eating places here.

For seafood pig-outs, Wifey and I like the Bush House of Seafood, which is actually across Lake Ponchartrain from us. It is a good 40 minute drive from where we live. They have a variety of seafoods - different species of fish, plus many preparations of shrimp, oysters, crabs, crawfish, scallops, etc. You never know on a given night what they will have as a "special" dish, either. I've had soft-shell crabs, soft-shell crawfish, fried alligator tail, ...

My cousin is a shrimp lover. We took her there one evening. She had seven different preparations of shrimp including spicy-boiled, stuffed, barbecued, broiled, in etouffee, as an Alfredo pasta preparation, and scampi. I've seen many different types of fish including flounder, trout, tilapia, and catfish. It's a buffet. They will have about 60 seafood entrees each night that they are open. Plus a salad bar and at least four pre-mixed salads such as Waldorf, Caesar, etc. Plus a dessert bar with their specialties - parfaits of various types. Fruit parfait, peanut butter parfait, .... ('scuse me while I wipe the drool from my keyboard.)

We also enjoy the Acme Oyster House on Veteran's Blvd. in Metairie, LA (about 3-4 miles from my house). They have a mixed-seafood po-boy sandwich made with tabasco-infused mayonnaise that is killer. There is another Acme in the French Quarter. It has been featured on a Travel Channel special about America's 10 best places to pig out. They are known for their oyster bar. (With their name, who would have guessed....) In the show, they talk about folks downing 12 to 15 dozen oysters on the half shell in one sitting. Not my favorite dish, though. I prefer all of my seafood cooked.

Then again, I have to watch the fried foods with my diet as I grow older. We also have a strong Vietnamese presence here because of the people who left after the fall of Saigon. They took to our waterways and have started some great Oriental restaurants here. They use local seafood, too, so it isn't like I'm being unfaithful to the local fishermen.

I haven't even mentioned restaurants owned by Paul Prudhomme and John Besh, both winners of the Beard Foundation's cooking awards. Also Emil Brigtsen. And then there is Mosca's, one of the best Italian places you'll ever find, with authentic northern Italian cuisine.

Is it any wonder that New Orleans also has a growing market for weight-loss clinics? In many places, you eat to live. In New Orleans, we live to eat.

 

[PNGBill]

Just noticed a Posting regarding Cosmos trip to Greece and his looking forward to authentic Greek food.

One thing that annoys me is when you visit a country how often you find the restaurants have been "adapted" to suit the tourists and you can taste more authentic food back home, at certain restaurants.

Chinese are the worst. We have chop sticks at the table here in Port Moresby. Go to Singapore and you are likely to get forks!

Not saying this is always the case but as tourists, you sometimes end up in "tourists" restaurants and have to off the beaten track to find the real local food.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

So true, Bill. However, in New Orleans, the best rule for finding local authentic food is to ask someone where they like to eat. If it turns out to be a mom-and-pop joint, odds are it will be dynamite! And it won't be a fast-food chain.

 

[PNGBill]

My gawd The Doc Man - how do you decide where to eat and when do you have time to play Access??

 

[chergh]

My favourite dining experience is undoubtedly The Fat Duck in Bray. It's an amazing experience and given it's nature not some where I would go more than once every five years or so. They only have a tasting menu and the meal lasts about 5 hours.

For a good meal my favourite place is a gastropub near Newbury called the Pot Kiln. Everything is local and a lot of it shot by the owner himself.

 

[chergh]

I'm going with "The Hat" in Brea Ca the best pastrami..

http://www.thehat.com/

Ah I stopped there when I drove Route 66 in 2007. Even by American standards the portion size seemed insane.

 

[oumahexi]

has to be http://www.anstrutherfishbar.co.uk/, voted the best chippy in Scotland, set close to the fish market and you are always guaranteed fresh fish!

Second has to be the Mandarin in Missassagua, Ontario.

 

[Fifty2One]

Next time you are in GTA try Applewood Fish & Chips in Mississauga

has to be http://www.anstrutherfishbar.co.uk/, voted the best chippy in Scotland, set close to the fish market and you are always guaranteed fresh fish!

Second has to be the Mandarin in Missassagua, Ontario.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

PNGBill - I decide by discussing with wifey what it is we feel like eating tonight. We go out twice a week - we call it "date night" - so that our marriage keeps special evenings open for conversation and discussion, no phone calls, no issues except each other. We've been happily married for over 15 years and counting because we take the time to be with each other. The choice of restaurants just makes it that much easier to find a chance to get together. And we use the date-night opportunity as an excuse to try a new restaurant now and then.

We've found a really great little Mexican restaurant not that far from us - maybe 2 to 3 miles. Taqueria Corona is always getting local awards. A friend of mine who is a professional chef tells me that their ingredients absolutely represent authentic Mexican food as opposed to the more common "Tex-Mex" style. The portions there are pretty substantial and quite tasty. I can recommend it with clear conscience.

 

[ColinEssex]

Next time you are in GTA try Applewood Fish & Chips in Mississauga

What is "GTA"? (apart from Grand Theft Auto)

Col

 

[Kryst51]

One of my favorite places to go for a burger is a restaurant called "Shady Glen" in Manchester, CT. The cheese on the burgers is fried, and they have the most awesome ice cream anywhere.... In fact the only other ice cream to rival it (in Connecticut, at least) is ice cream from the UCONN (University of Connecticut) Dairy Bar.

As far as my current location.... that takes more thought. For Tex- Mex I have to go with Gringos I eat there a couple of times a month with friends. Their table-side Guac, and their La-Bomb-A burgers are "Awesome" (Said in a sing-songy type voice ) I have already mentioned Central Texas BBQ, There's also a great place called Spaghetti Western near where I work that serves wonderful pasta, and their pizza "slices" are huge. For cajun cooking I go to my Maw Maw's house.... no place else... although she sticks to Gumbo, and the occasional sauce picante, plus some kind of meatball stew that is also roux-based.

 

[SimonB1978]

What is "GTA"? (apart from Grand Theft Auto)

Col

GTA would be Greater Toronto Area

Simon B.

 

[boblarson]

GTA would be Greater Toronto Area

Simon B.

Ah, thanks for that. I was wondering what it was referring to as well.

 

[Rich]

I prefer to sit in the company of my own home with a good chinky and bottle of wine

 

[PNGBill]

PNGBill - I decide by discussing with wifey what it is we feel like eating tonight. We go out twice a week - we call it "date night" - so that our marriage keeps special evenings open for conversation and discussion, no phone calls, no issues except each other. We've been happily married for over 15 years and counting because we take the time to be with each other. The choice of restaurants just makes it that much easier to find a chance to get together. And we use the date-night opportunity as an excuse to try a new restaurant now and then.

Great idea and looks like you won't run out of choices anytime soon