‘Best places to eat’

[Chicago56]

‘What restaurants are really close to your heart? Great Seas on Lawrence in Chicago definitely gets a mention, if not just for their chicken wings. They’re so popular that on special occasions, you can see lines of people with boxes on them walking down the street! There’s even a Kickstarter campaign to start a replica restaurant in Naperville that a guy called Chris Yoon who’s a huge fan of the wings has started. I remember going to the restaurant as a kid, and it’s still about today. Any other iconic delicious eateries you wanna share?’

 

[CWS4322]

Welcome to DC! The best place that is really close to my heart when it comes to places to eat is at home. My chickens got the hummus and tabbouli (sp) I picked up at the "best in the city" Shawarma place last night. Way too salty (hummus) and an odd off putting taste re: the tabbouli. I can make much better at home of those two sides.

 

[CraigC]

Unfortunately my favorite Italian place to date is 300 miles north, in Daytona Beach. Home has been it so far, but I'm hoping a tip we got from our landlord's handyman about a local Italian place brings our favorite closer to home. So far, we really haven't had success with other cuisines isn't very good.

 

[Roll_Bones]

We have a Mexican place near us that serves real Mexican and Tex Mex food.
Their oysters on the half shell are delicious.
The beer is great too!

 

[GotGarlic]

We're fortunate to have quite a few excellent restaurants in our area. Here are a few of my favorites:

- Tortilla West - amazing open-faced tamale with braised short ribs. They specialize in tequilas; you can get a flight to sample. I also love their Mexican dip - braised pork shoulder with tomatillo salsa for dipping and jalapeño mac 'n cheese.

- Still - it's decorated as a speakeasy, in the half-basement of a historic building. Great, imaginative small plates.

- The Orapax Inn - owned by a Greek family, we've been eating there since we moved here in 1985. Wonderful Pegasus wings (marinated with Greek spices and grilled) served with tzatziki (I like mine better, but it's good ), Greek salad with lots of feta, and delicious personal pan pizzas. Love their pizza sauce.

- Pasha Mezze - great Middle Eastern food. Love the brunch with house-made breads and jams.

- Vintage Tavern - elegant, modern Southern-inspired food.

- Mannino's - Italian restaurant with award-winning she-crab soup. I especially like their antipasto platter.

I love to cook and my food is quite good (she says modestly), but sometimes it's nice to take a break from the kitchen and enjoy a relaxing night out.

 

[Dawgluver]

Our little town actually has some good eats. Thai, several authentic Mexican places, and a couple of nice Italian restaurants are my favorites.

 

[Kayelle]

In this little town if you don't like Mexican or Irish Pub grub, you're out of luck.

We have some good restaurants about 10-15 miles away in the next town though.

Dawg, I'm curious about your town population. Ours is 29,000.

 

[Dawgluver]

We're around 23,000, Kay. The bigger towns are 30-45 minutes away. The "big cities" are 3 or more hours away.

Strangely, I find I like the food here better than what I've had in the "big cities"!

 

[RPCookin]

We're around 23,000, Kay. The bigger towns are 30-45 minutes away. The "big cities" are 3 or more hours away.

Strangely, I find I like the food here better than what I've had in the "big cities"!

Interesting perspective. Our "big town" 20 miles away is 15,000. Our town is about 400 if I count the dogs. We have one restaurant, Bully's Pub and Grub, open 4 days for lunch and dinner, and they are packed for every meal, along with a lot of take out. They have a good lunch menu and a limited and delicious dinner menu, but a lot of folks come for the nightly specials. Wednesday is all you can eat R.M.O.'s, and Saturday is prime rib (my fav). They are also the only place in Colorado where I've found walleyed pike on the menu, along with trout almondine, shrimp scampi, and Mark's hand cut steaks from locally raised beef. It's a totally local hangout, but it's really amazing how many non locals show up, especially for lunch. UPS and FedEx trucks, other service technicians are parked in front regularly at noon (we asked and many of them plan their routes to be here for lunch), and I've seen as many as 30-40 motorcycles lining the street.

It's not bad for a town where the only other businesses are a bank (with post office in the same building) and a hairdresser next door to Bully's. Add the town hall and you have the entire business district.

 

[Dawgluver]

Whoa, RP, that is a little town, but Bully's Pub sounds great! Which reminds me, the little town I grew up in, pop. 2500, is the only one I've found that still serves shrimp burgers, which I dearly love, and can't find anywhere else.

 

[Addie]

For me it is Seafood! And just a five minute ride on my handicap scooter and I am at Bell Isle Marsh Seafood Restaurant. You would think with all the restaurants in Boston and surrounding communities, that chefs would choose one of the highly recommended ones by food critics. But it is one of two places that they go to, to eat after work. They other is the South Street Diner in the Leather District right near South Station. They are open all night. BIM Seafood closes at 2 a.m. Both places give huge servings and are reasonably priced for the type of food they serve. The Diner does not serve alcohol. BIM does.

If you are looking for décor, find another upscale place to eat. Bell Isle overlooks the full Boston Harbor filled with sail boats. And they have a deck you can sit on weather permitting and watch the lights go on at night in all the buildings. The building and floor is all cement. Wooden benches and tables. Noisy and crowded on weekends. A long line forms outside.

The diner is typical diner fare with the best meatloaf and gravy dinner. And it looks like it was stuck in the 50's.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

"Grampa Chuy's Mexican/American Restaurant" the best shredded beef in the state. The refries are to die for and Shrek buys the salsa by the quart.

If we go to Scottsbluff the best place is "Olé" they make their own tortillas and sopapillas!

The number of Mexican restaurants, in these parts, completely overshadows all the other type of restaurants.

There is a good family style restaurant in Wheatland, WY...but that is over an hour drive for breakfast or dinner.

 

[Addie]

Even living in Texas for quite a while, I never really developed a taste for Mexican or even Tex-Mex foods. Except for Mama Lupe's chili sans beans and her enchiladas. I certainly didn't care for their corn meal bread. Very little flour, mostly cornmeal mixed with water and salt. It was like eating the cornmeal right out of the box. And it was like that when I tried it at several different places and homes. I finally learned to say, "No thank you. I don't like cornmeal." That ended all conversations about it.

 

[iamcliff]

My favorite restaurant back in New Orleans was Deanie's, located in the small community of Bucktown. Stuffed shrimp was my favorite. We also liked Café Maspero for poboys on Decatur street in the French quarter, and also Café du Monde for beignets (French doughnuts), also on Decatur street, across the way from the St. Louis Cathedral. I found that the little "hole-in-the-wall" restaurants in New Orleans were my favorite.


Here in Georgia, when we want seafood, we like Copeland's, (love the tasso sauce), and we also found a little spot in Marietta called AJ's famous seafood and poboys. Their fried catfish poboy is awesome.


For southern cooking we like Mary Macs Tea Room in Atlanta and OK Café in Marietta.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

In this little town.....Dawg, I'm curious about your town population. Ours is 29,000.

We're around 23,000, Kay...!

You guys call those "little" towns? We moved from a real-live city of about 33,000 to a town of 10,800. We've grown up - now around 11,400. Some days I think if I sneeze it's a person on the other side of Main Street saying "bless you"!

Still not the culture shock PF must feel following her move, going from around 70,000 to under 500. We have nearly that many neighbors in our neighborhood.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

We collect "favorite restaurants" the way some people collect refrigerator magnets. These are a few from here and there, starting with "back home" (greater Cleveland, OH):

Don's Pomeroy House: Elegance in setting and food, this was one of our favorites back home. Alas, their dinner prices have gone from an "every once in a while" range to "very special occasion only, maybe" price. Built in 1847, it was a stop along the Underground Railway.

White Oaks: Reputed to be a speakeasy during Prohibition, we know it as a place with excellent food and wonderful ambiance. Our favorite dining room has both a fireplace and nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. Makes for a great anniversary dinner setting in late November. We celebrated our 10th there.


We've eaten our way up and down the eastern seaboard, and across the center of the country from shore-to-shore. There are two in the southeast that we really enjoy and have dined at several times:

Poogan's Porch is one of the renowned restaurants in Charleston SC. We were so impressed on our first visit that we made sure our schedule landed us there for our 40th wedding anniversary dinner. By the way, "Poogan" was the neighborhood dog that came with the house when it was sold to become a restaurant. Apparently his owners didn't want to move him, poor doggy.

Dixie Crossroads is as kitschy as they come, but the food has always been good when we've been there. It's been a while since we've been there, so we might make an out-of-the-way stop during our next trip to FL.


There were four favorite places we've eaten at when driving from OH to CA and back to MA. One is gone (Lena's Home Cooking in Tucomcari, NM), another two will never be found again if they still exist at all (Santa Fe, NM and Kansas - your guess if it's in MO or KS). Finally, there was a coffee stand in LA's Farmers' Market that sold beignets "just like they make in New Orleans" per Himself. I'm still waiting for us to get around to vacationing in the the Big Easy.

...There is a good family style restaurant in Wheatland, WY...but that is over an hour drive for breakfast or dinner.

You could make and clean up from dinner twice over in the time it would take to drive out and back!

 

[Addie]

You guys call those "little" towns? We moved from a real-live city of about 33,000 to a town of 10,800. We've grown up - now around 11,400. Some days I think if I sneeze it's a person on the other side of Main Street saying "bless you"!

Still not the culture shock PF must feel following her move, going from around 70,000 to under 500. We have nearly that many neighbors in our neighborhood.

When I attended our local H.S., there were 2,000 students. Now there are way more than 4,000. Closer to 5,000. And for some strange reason it is one of the safest schools in the city. I can only recall three names of kids in my graduation class.

As a child, I loved living in a small town. Not so much as an adult. Everyone knows all your business. And if they don't, they feel like they know you well enough that they can ask you. There are 44 other residents in this building. I make 45. They drive me crazy with their gossip and nosiness. And they ask almost every day, why don't I sit on the patio with them and just chat. Just like a small town.

 

[CharlieD]

The only restaurant that I really, truly loved, was a Chinese place called Great Wall. It was absolutely incredible. Being into cooking has it's disadvantages. I am too critical of food served to me. I really like things done right and will not eat if they are not.


P.S.having said that, there is a small place in Chicago called Milts. It really is a wonderful place.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

You guys call those "little" towns? We moved from a real-live city of about 33,000 to a town of 10,800. We've grown up - now around 11,400. Some days I think if I sneeze it's a person on the other side of Main Street saying "bless you"!

Still not the culture shock PF must feel following her move, going from around 70,000 to under 500. We have nearly that many neighbors in our neighborhood.

I go out for a 15 minute walk and I end up out of town, any direction I pick. The signs say 468...but with us it's 470!

I can: get a haircut, pay my utilities, grab a drink, buy an antique and say hi to the entire police force all in one block...on one side of the street...but only between 8-12 and 1-5. Everything closes for lunch, except the bar.

I have to go to "The City" to do any real shopping, it's a huge metropolis of 4200 people. I'm out in the boonies, guys!!!

 

[Addie]

I go out for a 15 minute walk and I end up out of town, any direction I pick. The signs say 468...but with us it's 470!

I can: get a haircut, pay my utilities, grab a drink, buy an antique and say hi to the entire police force all in one block...on one side of the street...but only between 8-12 and 1-5. Everything closes for lunch, except the bar.

I have to go to "The City" to do any real shopping, it's a huge metropolis of 4200 people. I'm out in the boonies, guys!!!

Are you enjoying it? Sounds like heaven to me.