Tell us about your favourite restaurant of the moment

http://photos14.flickr.com/18092192_255faaccd1_o.jpg

It's incredibly depressing. That place was like home.

Suzy I want to go to restaurants with you!

I'm picky about Vietnamese spring rolls and I've still never seen any here that are the same size (eg. equal size to summer roll) as in the Vietnamese places in Minneapolis, even though the little ones are nice in their own way, just missing gobs of bean thread and discernable pork/prawn.

Pita place here in my town. I just realized I don't know the name. They know what we order before we sit down, we always take the same thing. Now and again I have a pita with chicken and cheese. I love cheese. No, no, I LOVE cheese.

Italian restaurant in my own. Pasta Presto. It's cheap. I usually order the spaghetti salmon *au gratin*. It has lots of cheese. Did I mention I love cheese?

Indian restaurant. Again I don't know the name. I'm shit at remembering names. It's slightly expensive. I usually have the fried cheese as a starter. And lots of bread. We're probably going there for our one year anniversary. The three of us. :-))

Is Nero any good in New York? Or what about some good diners in NY? I want to have a cholestorl induced heart-attack! ;)

this place is absolutely GREAT. have you tried tre viet in hackney, suzy? it's really local to me and not brilliant in the way cay tre is, but they do a variety of astounding noodles, fabulous duck an absolutely shit-kicking catfish in ginger sauce.

What the hell is in that taco bell wrap (or whatever you call it)? French fries? We have that here, fries put between a bun.

My favorite vietnames is Green Papaya up on Mare street. Their Rare beef salad iss one of the most beautiful things you can do with a piece of steak.

Taro is sstill my favorite japanese. I had great chicken yakisoba there yesterday and my colleagues chicken teriaki was one of the best i have tatsted, marvellously crispy chicken skin and a nice light sauce. (very good sushi too).

Very true, but Americans have disco fries! (Can you tell I'm obsessed with cheese?)

it may as well have BEEN fried.

That would be a nasty naan. Maybe it was a paratha (which should be oily and deliciously so).

Garcia's in the towns east and west of mine - Mexican food. Good, lots of menu options (most of which I haven't tried), and cheap.

http://static.flickr.com/42/217396172_b72e358c68.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/91/217396171_e44e69c6ca.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/59/217396170_708e838036.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/53/217396169_d13fb9281b.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/71/217396168_1c4cd42f80.jpg?v=0

in New Haven: The Pantry (superior eggs at brunch, wooden tables and diner counter, undergrads meet tough guys, jazz festival posters and jazz)

in DC: Vegetate (high cult of freshness, boho non-scene), Capital Q (real enough Texas bbq, Lucinda and the Blasters)

I'm salivating at the mere thought of the wild mushroom risotto I had. mmmm

Haandi in Knightsbridge did a fantastic curry on Sunday night and had exemplary service.

dear god i love this place

https://www.facebook.com/hungerpangnyc
http://ditmasparkcorner.com/blog/food/new-american-asian-hunger-pang-restaurant-to-open-at-1021-church-avenue

these guys are near my apartment, reasonably priced, brand new and fucking great. Karl Malone take note.

hey, that's near my apartment too. excited to try it. dogwood was pretty good, but i will eat this cuisine/ menu way more often i think.

The M. Wells Dinette at PS1

Restaurant. A smallish place on 2 levels on a side street in the centre of Galway. It sells very nicely done Caribbean food and is called Jamaica Joe's.
Have loved the 2 dishes I've had there so far, but early days yet. Only opened last month. May be back for more tomorrow.

Take away Kawal's indian stall on the St Nicholas market on a Sunday afternoon. Quite amazing food & he's got a dhawali on next weekend.
But if you're in Galway on a Sunday or Bank Holiday Monday afternoon make sure you go down to his stall. It's lovely and reasonably cheap. He bungs in curry, raita and salad with everything you order.

not a fan of the ps1 dinette; too expensive, too pretentious and not particularly outstanding imo

disagree with all three of those points -- reasonable, outstanding, and I wholly enjoy the pretention.

As far as the prices, they usually have a bunch of dishes that are filling and between $10 and $20, so I don't see what's expensive about it unless you're just expecting cheap food because it's super casual and in a museum.

i got a two course meal with two people and it rang up as about 120 with tip, that did not feel cheap to me and i didn't care for the food

Eh fine. You mean two people total or three? With drinks or without?

two people total, i think i had some sort of infused soft drink thing and my friend had a bloody mary. not for me.

The only time I've ever eaten brains (sheep) was there. That was actually probably my least favorite thing I've had there though it was worth trying once. I find the food pretty much always at least surprises me and more often than not is great. They seem pretty inventive.

Had a very good meal at Gunshow in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Pricy, but highly recommended.

yeah the dinette is heavy on marrow and sweetmeats and other things that do not match my "having knocked around a museum for two hours, what's for lunch" mindset

NB i do not like french food so that's a large part of my disinterest right there.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/thanh-my-restaurant-westminster

There's plenty of great Vietnamese places in Westminster, but we glommed onto this one. Open very late. Reasonable prices. Can never no wrong with an order of spring rolls and the sour fish soup.

I will also plug this place, which happens to be run by friends, but regardless has great great food

http://www.yelp.com/biz/re-union-brooklyn-2

i'm not going to name the place. i really like it. the food is good. this older waitress - older than me - comes over hopped up on some sort of goofball and i wanted what she was having and she hands us menus including a coffee menu with different roasts, etc, which was cool but i just ordered a black coffee and i said i didn't care what kind it was. then she asked me if i wanted cream. i said..no..black...she finally got the picture and then came back and said they were out of coffee!! hahaha! and she handed me a thimbleful of the dregs in a cup until there was more! it was gunky. then the owner worked some magic and she came back with dirty mud! i said no problem i'll have a coke. i finally got a coffee halfway thru our meal. then she starts to take our order without an order pad and i went uh oh this isn't good. maria orders tacos. my dad and i order two hamburgers. me with cheese and bacon and fries. him without bacon or cheese or fries but coleslaw. omg it was like an abbott and costello routine. she got every single thing wrong. "and you want cheese and fries, right?" to my dad. "and you want no fries and coleslaw and no bacon, right?" i swear it went on like that for a good minute. this is two. hamburgers. i wanted to yell "why don't you write it down!?" but i didn't i just kept laughing and maria kept telling me to stop laughing. the food finally came and everything was fine and she said "you probably thought it was going to be all wrong, right?" and i asked her why she didn't just write stuff down and she said it was easier for her to remember it in her head! evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. she said she would have written it down if it was four people or more. she might want to amend that and include 3 tops. it was funny. she was singing and dancing. i really wanted to ask her what medication she was on. or where to get the meth she was on. she was cool.

ooh, maybe you can help me. i used to go to this vietnamese place in chicago and my favorite dish there was this kind of beef spring roll. ive mentioned it a couple times on ilx. but anyways, its the kind wrapped in the fresh ricepaper, and has strips of grilled beef, but its a deep red color and has peanuts on it. its fully cooked, but its dark red - not sure how. and then there's strips of carrots, bean sprouts, cilantro, lettuce in it - and you dip it in a spicy fish oil sauce thing. oh god it was good. do you know what this is called in vietnamese? i'd find out from the restaurnat, but they closed down.

― phil-two (phil-two), Monday, April 24, 2006 9:03 AM (seventeen years ago)

Nem Chua Bò Cuốn

The beef turns red because of the curing process

There's 2 places that serve the most amazing (imho) versions: Brodard in Fountain Valley CA and Nem Nuong 25 in Nha Trang VN.

But our dearest Phil doesn't post here anymore so I will text this to him lol.

ate at a pricey but delicious northern italian resto in venice, ca on our couple's anniversary on sunday. everything we had was excellent but the pappardelle in duck ragù was easily the greatest ragù i've ever tasted, like HEAVENLY. it is absolutely a "special occasions only" type place but i really want to try everything on the menu now

I kind of feel like covid took the wind out of the sails of dining here. Not that people aren't going out. They are (and of course carry-out/family meal takeout was a thing during the pandemic that both kept people fed and a lot of restaurants afloat, at least for a while, and in tandem with state and federal funds). But between labor costs/shortages/retention, extra fees, higher/hidden menu prices ... it's like the quality and creativity of the food itself hasn't risen to the challenges restaurants and diners have both faced. Just going out to an average place costs a bunch, and the even more expensive places don't seem much better than average themselves. Like, good friends of mine went to Ever last week ($$$$), and they said the service was great but the food was ... OK. Fine dining shouldn't be "fine." There's just not that much to get excited about, at least in Chicago, just a few standbys and standard-bearers but not much in the way of musts (imo). It's kind of a bummer.

Bon Appetit had a recent piece along those lines: "Diners are happy to pay higher bills at their favorite restaurants. But for many, the risk of eating somewhere new is no longer worth the cost."

(That said, Josh, I had a very good meal at the nouveau-Ukrainian restaurant Anelya a couple weeks ago.)

I am addicted to the extra hot wings in Pepe's Piri Piri, they do awful things to my digestive system but it's worth it.

Good to know re: the Ukrainian(ish) place. There are a couple of Filipino places that people love, too (and maybe you've hit them), but kind of like Ukrainian I've never been a huge fan of the base cuisine so have been wary of elevated Filipino or Ukrainian or whatever. I'll have to read that Bon Appetit piece, though, since that is the vibe I've kind of gotten.

There’s a New Orleans place near my work that has good sandwiches and salads. Before the pandemic and inflation their prices were higher than other nearby sandwich/salad places (admittedly quality at this place is much higher). Remarkably they haven’t raised their prices post-pandemic and now those same prices seem reasonable.

Some places boast that they've kept prices stable, but then they add on a 3+% fee. A place we're going to next week:

As a way to offset rising costs associated with the restaurant (food, beverage, labor, benefits, supplies), we have added a 3% surcharge to all checks. We do this in lieu of increased menu prices. You may request to have this taken off your check, should you choose.

A place we went to a few weeks ago:

Here at Daisies, we strive to provide the optimal experience not only for our wonderful guests, but for our dedicated employees. We devote tremendous energy to serving food and beverages comprised of the best ingredients, making as much from scratch as possible and sourcing the balance from ethically responsible purveyors. And we practice what we preach. A 25% service charge is applied to all dine-in checks in place of a tip to ensure our deserving staff members receive equitable pay and benefits. ALL gratuities and fees are included in this charge. Thank you for supporting fair compensation for industry employees.

(Daisies was great, btw, but even accounting for tip I thought 25% on top felt kinda high, however you break down tip vs. "fees". 15% tip and 10% fee? 20% tip and 5% fee? On top of entrees generally in the mid $20s.)

i'm still trying to get used to $15 burritos. i still flinch a little.

Yebo Beach Haus in Atlanta

https://yebobeachhaus.com/

Eclectic menu, really friendly staff, not too loud or crowded.

Hinoki and the Bird in LA

https://www.hinokiandthebird.com/

Best pork chop I have ever eaten, hands down.

what i like about my little town of 17,000 people right now. good homespun breakfast place where i can go and never see anyone i know so that i can eat my omelette in peace with a room full of cops and senior citizens. good homemade local donut shop. sweet little Korean restaurant. wood-fired pizza place. good new american place run by my best friend from high school with the best shrimp & grits in Massachusetts. mostly decent if not wonderful Greek place two doors from my store for gyros. across the street from my store an amazing for real deal bakery (called Rise Above) an awesome Indian restaurant and a good Thai restaurant. 3 Chinese restaurants of varying quality but the best of them also has the best sushi around. TWO Salvadoran restaurants and a Mexican food truck and TWO more Mexican restaurants that are decent.

terrible regular pizza though. people who grew up here are used to it but i will never be used to it. the local Big Y supermarket makes better pizza than any of the terrible Greek-style pizza places. Have to go to Northampton for decent pie. or Connecticut.

so, nothing fancy but it is really not fancy here. again, have to go to NoHo or Amherst for fancy.

your town sounds really nice. it makes me nostalgic for the place where I grew up and also the place where I went to college, but since then I haven't spent any time in those kinds of towns except when visiting friends in the Litchfield Hills of Northern CT and the Berkeshires in MA

it has its problems but its nice here overall. the mohawk trail. the valley. its pretty. for some reason i was really surprised that both my kids LOVE coming home when they come home from school. they speak of this place so fondly. i never wanted to go back to my neck of connecticut. it was lame to me. but its different here. you do have to have a lot of tolerance for ex-hippies though. they are kinda the scourge. not the fentanyl crowd.

i dunno. i probably shouldn't look an oblivious and annoying gift horse in the mouth. better to be surrounded by ex-hippies than maga nation.

Some places boast that they've kept prices stable, but then they add on a 3+% fee. A place we're going to next week:

As a way to offset rising costs associated with the restaurant (food, beverage, labor, benefits, supplies), we have added a 3% surcharge to all checks. We do this in lieu of increased menu prices. You may request to have this taken off your check, should you choose.

There's a place here that adds a 10% fee on all checks, unrelated to tip, no taking it off. I feel like it just puts the wait staff in an awkward position to explain it to anyone who looks at their check, and feels like a slightly scammy way to keep the prices appearing the same on the menu.

when i used to wait tables a lunch/salad bar place at the Bourse across the street from the liberty bell in the late 80s in philly we would add a gratuity if someone had any kind of accent. tourists, you know. but they really didn't tip. we would get 10 germans at a table. we had to do it. but people would ask about it every once in a while. sometimes if you were lucky you would get a table of 10 people and they would leave a big tip! we called that a double grat. cha-ching!

i'm torn. the friendly's in town - there used to be two! - tasted like poison and i kinda always felt like i was gonna die after eating there but starbucks sucks too. well, to be fair, i have only been to starbucks once. in the 90s. their coffee sucked. it tasted burnt and i hate burnt coffee. not a fan of french roast either. i will always have fond memories of friendly's in the 70s though. and those butter-toasted hamburger buns.

https://www.recorder.com/Starbucks-applying-to-take-over-Friendly-s-on-Mohawk-Trail-54183907?fbclid=IwAR201qnYQQiMgtg7O5pU8WC5rxETKIXoowdzO4sFgf9M3yev1Wu3qRFFnw4

There is very odd cafe in Shibuya where you walk through this baroque exterior straight out of Vienna's 6th district and inside is this cloistered set of benches not unlike a church, theater or train all focused on these massive 10 foot tall speakers playing classical music on this *serious* hifi. You're expected to be silent (except for your whispered order to your server) during your visit.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%E5%90%8D%E6%9B%B2+%E3%82%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A7+%E3%81%83%E9%9F%B3%E3%80%81+%E6%B8%8B%E8%B0%B7&tbm=isch

Just heard some people on a radio show talking about that place (Dave from Dirty Projectors)

They have an excellent magazine selection available for perusal. While waiting for my colleague I picked up a thick glossy edition about vertical coffee cultivation and it was amazing (nb: I could barely read it but the pictures were excellent).