My family likes it. I find it OK.

And of course Sylvester's. Over in Amherst Cushman Village Store has a great little cafe in the back, very snug. Bread Euphoria in Burgy is good for a caloric breakfast, too. Amanouz for a late breakfast/brunch. But agree, Magiesmom, these are not diners and a lot more money. I can't eat conventional breakfast food anymore (carbs, fats) so a place like Green Bean is a better option for me. Sometimes there are coupons on Northampton Deals, $10 coupon for $5. Makes Green Bean very affordable. I used to eat at the Miss Flo when I was in my early 20s with our good friends who lived here. But since I moved here myself 25 years ago I have been there only a few times. Just not my kind of food anymore. Nostalgic, yes. (And in truth I always remember the guy who was knocked out and left to die in the cold behind the diner during a bar fight...a real turnoff). It didn't happen in the Miss Flo, it was at the Silk City Tap, but they're connected and part of the same business. Ridiculous I know but...

Miss Flo Diner is more about its vintage look and local color than dining, unless you like two over easy with white toast and 1950s coffee. Rte 9 Diner in Hadley is nothing to write home about either. There are far better places to eat around the area than either of those.

Meijie, I think I used to eat at Tandoor too when I worked at Madison and 56th in the late 70s. If i'm remembering right, it was our go-to office restaurant for special occasions. They had lunch specials even I could afford on my $225/week salary. I recall gracious service, too.

Another customer not bothered by Banh Mi's "decor." The new Northampton Main Street Vietnamese place has a pretty decor but lousy, bland food. I'll take the hole in the wall over that any day. Someday they can put money into their decor -- but I'm not in a hurry to see it. As my grandma used to say, that's what makes horse races....

Finally ate lunch here today. Strange experience. The food was prettily served but almost tasteless. I had a chicken and rice dish. The chicken was blah. The accompaniments were dry looking tomato/cabbage/cucumber, with a watery dipping sauce that had very little flavor. I had a green ice tea. No flavor whatsoever. It could have been tap water. The server was very sweet and the restaurant is a bit more formal than Vietnamese places usually are (nice paint colors, low lighting, and the usual tacky paintings found in all ethnic restaurants). I can't see going back there again. The food was just...nothing.

I just ate there again yesterday (I CANNOT stay away from this place!). I had the summer rolls. THey were loaded with fresh ingredients, inluding very fresh pieces of scallion (hard to defrost and have them seem fresh, no?) making it hard for me to imagine them coming out of a freezer. Perhaps the package you saw was the actual rolls -- the wrappers -- but not a finished product? Next time I am there I will ask. I told them I put positive things about them on a food/restaurant website and they were SO happy. I'd like to stay positive given that the food is so tasty. And we don't have good Vietnamese here so I'd like to see this place make it.

Where is this?

I had a tofu banh mi. It had tasty ingredients and lots of good sauce. The bread was good enough after it was toasted although It's not real baguette. I was quite happy with the sandwich. My husband had summer rolls (what he called them) and said the rolls and the dipping sauces were good. He's been to Vietnam and has been very disappointed with the offerings around here so felt this place was pretty good. We don't love Miss Saigon in Amherst. Mediocre pho and if they can't get that right....

We went to the Hadley place today (rather my spouse stopped by and brought back some stuff). It was good. I'm not a Vietnamese food expert though. It's in the strip mall with Mi Tierra and the halal meat market on Route 9, on the north side of the street a mile or two from the bridge.

New hole in the wall (meaning = promising) place just opened Saturday June 2 on Route 9 in Hadley, in the strip mall with Mi Tierra and the halal meat market. Had a tofu banh mi, summer rolls -- both excellent. The sauce on the banh mi was tasty, the ingredients fresh, and while the roll did not quite convey "Paris," it was plenty good enough. Sauce for rolls was good, too.
Owner gave us the banh mi after we bought the summer rolls and a bubble tea.
Definitely going back. The menu is still small -- basics like fresh rolls, pho and banh mi -- but they seem good at what they're doing so far.
Not 100% sure of the name of the place, but this is husband's best recollection.

"Uninformed" is not a friendly word; generally people here are nice and not snobby.
I eat neighborhood pizza in NYC where my relatives live, not what you can get at destination pizza bistros which employ or are owned by self-identified chefs.
If basic NYC neighborhood pizza by the slice is no better than what I can get in Northampton, than ordinary NYC pizza has deteriorated in quality.

That's what I understood the article to say as well, but I don't find the Gazette infallible shall we say.

also read in Gazette the other day. booze = profit. I'm sure it will be worked out soon enough. I hope it doesn't cause them too big a financial hit in the meantime. Although it's not my dream restaurant I wish them well.

Recommendations? I do remember going to a wonderful world market, but that was before there was an international market on every corner, even here in the Valley.

When peple want to know where to eat I sometimes say, "the Farmer's Market." I don't think the restaurants here are all that either, but for some reason I don't have very high expectionas of food in New England anyway. As I've saId before here, I prefer the small, inexpensive ethnic places over anything more ambitious.

I don't see much here about the Pioneer Valley (Northampton-Amherst-Greenfield). We don't have destination restaurants here in my opinion though some would disagree. I do think the croissants at 40 Green Street in Northampton are the best I've had in the US. I've had NYC croissants and Northern CA ones, too. The owner/baker was trained by a retired Parisian pastry chef (his French wife's uncle). He uses the best ingredients. If you are having a truly epic craving for real French croissants, and you can't get to France or even Montreal, they are worth the drive. We also have some of the damned finest artisanal goat cheese anywhere. I'd actually recommend our Saturday morning Farmer's Market over any particular restaurant. But I also love the Brattleboro Farmer's Market. That one has really really good stuff, including home-made foods and takeout. The Northampton Saturday FM does not have much in the way of ready to eat food except the goat cheese and any ripe produce you want to stuff in your face in the car.

Never heard of it and I live in the area. Either very underground or not that great?

Agreed, JunieB. The first big Border's was the real deal. I remember going in there the day it opened (1972?) and just gawping. Do you remember Pleasant St Bookshp here in Hamp? That was a very fine bookstore, but a lot smaller of course. Have never been to Zingerman's, only bought mail order. IKEA was a lot more fun before I read about their terrible labor practices at their US factory. Too old for Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie clothes, and too cheap.

I went to college in Ann Arbor, not known for its gastronomy then (Zingerman's didn't exist yet, just as well since i had no money for such places). There was a bagel store called The Bagel Factory that I snubbed. I ate bagels back at home, not in MICHIGAN. Of all places. They sold something called a Fragel, which was a deep fat fried, cinnamon-sugar-dusted raisin bagel. People used to rave about it but I had no interest, disdaining it as nothing more than a fake doughnut, midwestern munchie food. I'd try one now, but the Bagel Factory is no more.

Tornado and Blizzard? That's new to me! Will try next time I'm in the area. Yes, a "real" bagel fights back. If you put on too much cream cheese and lox (my dad was too cheap to buy novy) and you bit down carelessly, the filling would just squish out the other end of the bagel since your teeth were pressing, not cutting it. THAT'S how you know it's a real bagel.

We're not IN New Haven. I don't compare the Connecticut River to the Seine or the Tiber, so why would I compared our local food to that of Paris or Rome? As for NYC pizza, it is like the bagels there - not what they used to be. I had an 'authentic water boiled old-fashioned NYC bagel" two days ago. It tasted just like a Bruegger's bagel. Puffy, soft and flavorless. I grew up on NYC bagels back in the day. They were small, hard and, honestly, rather flavorless until toasted (kind of like an English muffin). The closest thing in NE to a real 1960s NY bagel is Katz's in Chelsea, MA.

Nickmerrill, I think sometimes in our zeal for the new we overlook the tried and true. I have never bought a sandwich at Serio's, and I don't eat sandwiches very often anymore, but next time I want one I'll go there.

Luna's demise was due to family squabbles not lack of customers. I agree that the pizza around here is just OK. I can make do with the occasional slice from Pinocchio's or Bread Euphoria. I'm not eating as much pizza as I used to anyway now that I try to minimize my carb intake.

Junie your post is very timely for me! I just posted a review of Pintu's from our meal there tonight (under a new thread). I also rolled my eyes when I read that the new Indian restaurant in Ehampton would be offering Italian food as well, but the reasons behind this make some sense. Let's see how it gets sorted out after they open. They won the liquor license, so that will help them attract people willing to spend $$$ on a real night out rather than yet another take-out place. I would be thrilled to have a new go-to Indian place. I am sick of India Palace and its high prices, Pintu's wasn't cheap either and is a bit of a drive, and I rarely go to Amherst to eat (although I keep hearing that I need to go back to Chez Albert). I once had a choking fit in the Main Street Indian place in Hamp (does anyone actually eat there? I never see anyone in there when I walk by, and we speculate that it's some kind of front for another, not legal business!) and never wanted to eat there again.

Had dinner here tonight on the way to pick someone up at Bradley. Very convenient halfway point between Northampton and the airport. Our first visit there since cutting out a glowing review from the Northampton newspaper a few years ago and pinning it to a bulletin board (where it curled up and turned yellow as the years passed...).
I had the vegetarian variety platter (which they call the Maharani) and spouse had curry mahi-mahi. The food is quite nice. I found everything noticeably less oily, lighter, and much less salty than the Indian offerings in Hamp (or Second Ave in NYC, where I have experienced some spectacularly indigestion-producing, greasy and not necessarily hygienic South Asian meals). Even the relish tray with the usual brown, green and orange-pink condiments were fresher-tasting than what I've had before. Whether they also came out of a bottle or can I don't know, but they tasted better.
The prices were similar to India Palace in Northampton -- $80 for three including a big Kingfisher beer. My meal was more than I could eat, and the take-out tandoori chicken we got for our traveling son was a huge portion for $15. Our son (who always has Tandoori chicken in any Indian restaurant), reported it was good but "not as succulent or flavorful as India Palace's."
Finally, the owner hovers around and we found him charming. The place was packed, with a nice happy busy-restaurant vibe.
I'd eat there again and recommend Pintu's as a place worth trying, especially if you are tired of Northampton and Amherst's limited Indian options.

P&E is great with fish, but I always feel like lunch just takes too long there. I rarely have the time or patience for a table service lunch (except for Siam Square, which is quick). P&E is a grande old lady though.

That's what makes horse races as my grandmother used to say. My experience is the opposite, and while I have only eaten at Grub once, and not loved it, I have eaten at BE many times and enjoyed it every time.

They are super-nice at Serio's, and their meats are very good. I buy my holiday brisket there and at other times if I don't see what I want they try to find it in the back. I sometimes get a little container of cooked food to go, but alas must avoid things like mac and cheese now. If we're talking about local markets, then you can't leave out State St Fruit which has basic things like egg salad. These are fine places to grab a quick bite, but not exciting. I am not always in the mood for exciting so that's OK.

But don't most people buy it on Friday for their Sabbath observance? I have never bought it, made it or thought to buy it except on Friday. You could get it on Friday, slice it and freeze it if you're only using it for french toast or bread pudding. Not necessary for it to be fresh for those (supposedly stale bread is better for both). I have never seen it for sale except on Friday and Saturday (day old).