Restaurants

I ate at a Melting Pot with my parents when we were on vacation in Florida a few years ago. I remember it being really dark and it took quite a long time to get through the whole meal. It was really fun though.

I love love love Applebees. I saw a few people mention they thought it was just okay, but I love it. Another place I love to eat at is Carrabba's. We don't have any around here, but I eat there whenever I go to Ocean City, Maryland. The salad that comes before the meal is absolutely amazing. Mmm. I like the Texas Roadhouse too.

My favorite restaurant is a local Chinese buffet. It isn't anything fancy and it doesn't have a million different buffet bars or types of cuisine to choose from, but it has all of my favorites and I love it.

My least favorite restaurant is Ruby Tuesday. It just never impressed me.

I love any of the restaurants here where Deborah Scott is the chef; my favorite is Indigo Grill (Pacific Rim - Asian - Southwest Native American fusion). I also like various little privately owned places that use and respect fresh ingredients.

Least favorite? Any of the kid-hell chains such as Denny's, Applebees, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Chili's, etc.

I can't stand any chain restaurant that has a bunch of random junk on the walls (Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday -ooh, TGI Friday's is the worst. They marinate stuff in Jack Daniels? No thanks. Just the smell of that stuff makes me want to vomit). The food is no good!

I will admit that I do like Olive Garden minestrone soup, and I also like their salad, but going there is such a nightmare that it's not worth it. There is always a huge crowd waiting and then a zillion kids screaming and craziness in there. Makes me want to run screaming from the place.

Here in the Minneapolis area, there is a chain of Thai restaruants that are pretty good called Sawatdee. MMMM. I also love the seafood chain "The Oceannaire" and the sushi bar at Ichiban. Back in San Diego, my favorite place was Old Town Mexican Cafe. They opened a new breakfast restaurant downtown in the Marina district that had the best breakfasts EVER. What was it called? Er, something walker's. The mandarin orange crepes were SO good. mmmm. Oh, and Jake's in Del Mar.

When I lived in DC there was a place called Olive's that was sooo tasty. Most of the dinners I went to were law firm dinners and McCormick and Schmick's however. Not a bad place but it got tiring after awhile.
There was this little restaurant in Arlington...man my memory sucks right now...Woodfire Grill? Something like that. It was soooo good, the salmon and garlic mashed potatoes. I used to eat there constantly. I think it was in Clarendon.

As for fondue restaurants - I like the cheese part, and the dessert part, but holy crap it takes *forever* to cook each little piece of vegetable or shrimp or whatever you are making in the fondue pot. If you stick a bunch in at once you lose them in the pot and that's a major hassle. So if I were to go back, I'd just go for dessert or cheese, LOL.

The Melting Pot is not a quick meal restaurant. It's fun to go with a bunch of people though and make a whole evening of it.

I remember a great restaurant in D.C. that served exotic meats. You could get rattlesnake, Elk, etc. It was cool.

It's funny that you mention the Jack Daniels stuff at Fri. It's one of the few things there I like. I also make a fabulous Jack Daniels sauce for bread pudding. But I drank JD for years, so I guess I still like the flavor. :)

I had wasabi mashed potatos at a resturant here. I wasn't impressed with the other food or the prices, but I sure would like some more of those potatos. They weren't spicy at all, they weren't but a very, very, very pale green. But they had great flavor. I should experiment to see if I could make them.

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Originally Posted by onei0091;3192827;

There was this little restaurant in Arlington...man my memory sucks right now...Woodfire Grill? Something like that. It was soooo good, the salmon and garlic mashed potatoes. I used to eat there constantly. I think it was in Clarendon.

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Is it Colton's Woodfire Grill? We've got one in Omaha and it's really good, we've been there a few times.

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Originally Posted by onei0091;3192827;

. . .Back in San Diego . . . They opened a new breakfast restaurant downtown in the Marina district that had the best breakfasts EVER. What was it called? Er, something walker's. The mandarin orange crepes were SO good. mmmm. . . .

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I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. Love it! There's always a line, too.
Richard Walker's on Front Street, between Island Avenue and Market Street. (There are also two in Illinois -- one in Crystal Lake, and one in Schaumberg. I think the owner got sick of the midwest and came here!)

Jake's in Del Mar is very good, too. I think it has the same owner as Duke's in Huntington Beach?

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Originally Posted by Marleybone;3192961;

Is it Colton's Woodfire Grill? We've got one in Omaha and it's really good, we've been there a few times.

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No, Oh, I remember - it was called Boulevard Woodfire Grill. Mmm, the smell would lure me in and I'd always order the same thing - salmon and garlic mashed potatoes. I haven't been back to the Clarendon area in years.

Po' Folks in Buena Park. Oh their food is amazing and the portions are huge!

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Originally Posted by Ellen;3193023;

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. Love it! There's always a line, too.
Richard Walker's on Front Street, between Island Avenue and Market Street. (There are also two in Illinois -- one in Crystal Lake, and one in Schaumberg. I think the owner got sick of the midwest and came here!)

Jake's in Del Mar is very good, too. I think it has the same owner as Duke's in Huntington Beach?

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Yes! There was always a line out the door - and the owner/manager of that place was extremely type A and rushed around like a blur in that place, LOL! Richard Walker's - that's right. I remember them telling us when they first opened that most of the waitstaff was sent out from the Chicago area to start up the San Diego restaurant.

I have a place on Ash and State St downtown in Little Italy. Also lots of good restaurants around there. There is an Italian (surprise!) restaurant called Buon Appetito that has the BEST house salad dressing I've ever had. I asked them one time what they put in their dressing and they laughed in my face and said, "we'll never tell". Dang. I would love to know what's in it. It has a very distinct but unusual flavor. I miss all of those little street festivals that they had in Little Italy. Oooh. Haven't been to my place there in over a year now, but am planning a trip back next month. And one of the first places I go will be Richard Walkers!

I used to do the Sunday Tea thing at the Hotel Del Coronado - has anyone ever tried that? You get tea, then all of these delicious finger sandwiches, followed by the most delightful desserts, devonshire cream and this raspberry sauce that was to DIE for. They'd also give you champagne with a splash of Chambourd in it. MMMM. Last time I was in San Diego I called to make a reservation and they said, "sorry, we don't do afteroon tea anymore" WHAT?!?!? NOOOOOOOO!!!! I am still not over that. I've tried finding a place around here that does that sort of thing, can't find it. Perhaps it's time to move to England. LOL.

Yeah, I'm hungry. So my mind is whirrling with visions of yummy food in it.

I have to say that I think the best US city for food is New Orleans. WOW. When I was there I pigged out left and right and never ran across a bad (or even mediocre) meal. It was all really, really good. I stayed near the French Quarter so most of the meals I had were in restaurants near there. Delicious!!!!