pyatachok's Profile
Any good dim sum left in Chinatown
Thank you Guys for all your suggestions. We'll definitely try some of them next time in Philly :).
Any good dim sum left in Chinatown
We usually stay at Hilton Garden Inn right across the mentioned Dim Sum Garden. We heard that south of Philly is not very safe area lately due to teenagers bad behavior. That's why we are trying to find some good choices of Asian food around downtown, and also because all the interesting museum and attractions are there and you don't want to loose the focus on that. But thank you Guys for your help and advice. I'm sure we'll use it some day.
Any good dim sum left in Chinatown
Yes, we tried Vietnam Palace long ago. The impression was just the same "unimpressive" like all the rest of them I've mentioned. Though I have to say all the meals we ate were at Lunch time right at the opening hours, so it might be that the staff wasn't ready for a clientele, but still it can't be an excuse, because at Lakeside we ate at the same hours and they always were ready.
And speaking about Pho 75, this was one of the very few Pho places that never gave us that huge thirst for water afterwards and sleepiness, (believe me we ate in many, many places around the country). That alone can show you the quality of the broth, unless you like "artificially tasty" MSGed broth. I even won't mention a wonderful aroma of cinnamon that was present in their broth unlike many other Pho places were you know it's supposed to be there, but can't even catch a hint of it.
We didn't try any Indonesian places and plan to do it at the time of our next visit to Philly. Hope it will change our opinion about Philly's Asian food scene.
Any good dim sum left in Chinatown
Totally agree with cwdonald.
After closing Lakeside we couldn't find anything close not to the great dim sum but at least good one. Our experience in Dim Sum Garden was absolutely awful. Sakura was a little better, but the food tasted very blend (not even salty enough). Nan Zoew noodle house was even worse then Dim Sum Garden. The only good experience from the whole asian scene of restaurants was Pho75 and unfortunately it moved from Race St. We totally gave up on Pilly's Chinatown .
Good falafel in Baltimore?
I agree with shnacks post about Tahina's in Owings Mills. It's a Mediteranian flavors fast food joint, but VERY TASTY and fresh. Besides yummy falafels they are the only place I know that have Eggplant fries which are wonderful too. REALLY worthy place to try.
Restaurant Sabor - Big nice surprise
I also called them but nobody answers. I think they are closed. What a pity, we liked this place!
Well, hopefully they will open something new.
New favorite spot in Towson MD
Oh, Now I understand and will do it shortly. Thanks crowsonguy.
'Demi, a North Baltimore gem
Recently we discovered a new wonderful place for foodies. It's called demi and it's a down stares part of the bigger venue called Crush in Belvedere Square in Govens MD.
This little jem of a restaurant impressed us more then New York's Picholine (that considered by many as one of the best in the city) where we paid $300 for dinner for two and left a bit disappointed.
I wonder if some of you guys tried this place and what do you think of it.
-----
demi
510 East Belvedere Ave, Baltimore, MD 21212
New favorite spot in Towson MD
I've tried, but didn't find 'Demi, a North Baltimore gem' on this site.
Farrah Olivia
Hey Guys,
What do you think about Farrah Olivia in Crystal City VA. Does it worth to try? I've red mixed reviews, so clear it up for me please.
What's the best brunch in DC right now?
We love Zaytinia and Cafe Atlantico.
-----
Cafe Atlantico
405 8th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004
New favorite spot in Towson MD
Thanks hon, Might be because we were passing Towson University I thought of Towson.
New favorite spot in Towson MD
Recently we discovered a new wonderful place for foodies. It's called demi and it's a down stares part of the bigger venue called Crush in Towson MD. Here are my reviews that I placed on yelp but thought it would interest chowhounders too :).
WOW! JUST A WOW EXPERIENCE!
PROS: amazingly creative & delicious cuisine (tapas style), outstanding professional service, cozy modern ambiance with wonderful vibe, great value for the quality and quantity of everything we've enjoyed so much.
We had:
Raviolis, Pork belly, Red pepper soup, kobe beef, poached pear salad, scallops and chocolate crossand pudding for dessert. Everything was very delicious with interesting combinations of flavors and presented with great creativity in timely manner.
The drink's choices are a little limited, but very affordable and good quality.
CONS: NONE we could fined.
This little jem of a restaurant impressed us more then New York's Picholine (that considered by many as one of the best in the city) where we paid $300 for dinner for two and left a bit disappointed.
Bravo demi! You'll see us back and get our highest recommendations.
Another outstanding experience at demi. Menu was half changed from last time we've been there, but everything we ordered was AMAZINGLY creative and delicious. This restaurant stands on the same level as the best gourmet choices of such "culinary meccas" like Washington DC, San Francisco or New York. Chef Tai and his assistant are very talented and creative, and you can watch them work right in front of you if you sit at the kitchen bar. I also would like to mention our waiter Michael (I'm sorry if spelling is wrong ) who is a professional, knowledgeable and friendly server, and was a big part of our pleasurable experience.
Highly recommend to Foodies, but if your preference is quantity over quality of the food it might not satisfy you and you'll be better of at Crush. Though for us 4 to 6 of their tapas dishes (for two for dinner) were very satisfying in point of filling us up. But I understand that some people like it "big " on the plate :).
Thank you demi, we'll be back.
This is our 3rd time @ demi and 3rd time of pure pleasure.
Now we can say for sure that menu changes every month or so, introducing us to more and more creative and delicious dishes from Chef Tai and his assistant (sorry we don't know the name).
Every time we dine here we feel so welcomed. The service from Michael goes above and beyond of what you could expect from a good waiter. His knowledge of every aspect of the dish preparation is very impressive. His memory of our preferences in drinks or food is remarkable. It makes the whole experience feel like we are his personal guests and he always makes sure that everything is done to the liking of the patrons. It's a rare case to meet such an outstanding service and we are very grateful for that.
We'd like to repeat to all the Foodies of Baltimore: if you haven't been here yet you missed a lot. GO and have fun tasting this treasure!
I wonder if some of you guys tried this place and what do you think of it.
Timonium?
We were very impressed with demi. This is a small addition to Crush that serves wonderful tapas style dishes.
West Baltimore hidden treasures, cheap eats
You could try these restaurants:
Chameleon Cafe
70 reviews - more info »
4341 Harford Road
Baltimore, MD 21214-3118
(410) 254-2376
thechameleoncafe.com
Linwoods
25 Crossroads Dr, Owings Mills, Maryland 21117
(410) 356-3030
linwoods.com
Sascha's 527 Cafe
527 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201-5028
(410) 539-8880
saschas.com
But nothing I think will be comparable with NYC restaurants, though still you can find the to be quite good.
Restaurant Sabor - Big nice surprise
Reading the reviews on some sites about Restaurant Sabor in Lutherville, MD I was going there without high expectations.
Boy oh boy was I pleasantly surprised by EVERY ASPECT OF OUR DINNER today! I can't believe we went to the same place with people who wrote negative reviews!
PROS: a) High quality (and quantity) yummy and creative food. All the dishes were absolutely wonderful.
b) Cozy, elegant exceptionally pleasant ambiance and clientyle.
c) Warm, attentive, highly professional and knowledgeable service.
d) Quiet, nice area; parking lot
CONS: We couldn't find anything.
We definitely will be back and highly recommend it to the tasty food lovers.
P.S. I agree that this is not a place for children (unless they are well behaved ones).
-----
Restaurant Sabor
12240 Tullamore Rd, Lutherville, MD 21093
Kumari in Baltimore
We just returned from Kumari. That was our first introduction to Nepalese food and we were really impressed with everything. The food tastes amazingly good. High lights of the dinner were: Chicken MoMo (something similar to pot stickers but juicier and more flavorful), complimentary chips and condiments (tastes so refreshing), Lamb Korma, Palak Paneer and Kashmiri Naan. The service was very attentive and friendly. The ambience was cozy with the hints of ethnicity. All together it was a very pleasurable experience. We definitely will be back, and can recommend this restaurant to everyone who loves ethnic food and great service.
Best of the dim sum experiences
That was most sophisticated and delicious Chinese food we ever tasted on North American part of the world. We had their dim sum brunch menu dished and each one of them was the work of culinary art. It’s not your typical Chinatown type dim sum weekend brunch with ladies pushing the carts and you guessing if you get a chance to have your favorite dishes or not. It’s totally different case of great service, elegant and cozy ambience and your choice of amazingly delicious dishes that brings you to a total WOW experience for which you don’t mind to pay those quite expensive prices that they charge. BTW we visited Joe’s Shanghai in Midtown the day before and to our taste their soup dumplings many people are raving about as “the best in New York area felt like total disappointment in compare to CTB ones. We are going to give JSH another chance when in Flushing but if it tastes the same that will be the last JSH for us. From how on we know for sure that whenever we are in New York CTB will be the absolutely first choice for a dim sum menu meal. My only wish for them would be to add more wonderful dim sum dishes (like chicken feet, rice noodle rolls with minced beef, stuffed eggplant etc.) to their menu. I hope one day it’ll come true and then this restaurant will be pure perfection in our eyes.
-----
Chinatown Brasserie
380 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012
Grand Chinese Cuisine – Amongst the finest dim sum restaurants in Toronto (lengthy review + pics)
We didn't go to LWH because they said it's the same as Grand but more expensive, so we didn't want to spend money for the same meal. But we went to Dynasty next to ROM and it was quite good but not outstanding ether. What impressed us the most from chinese cuisine it's actually the hole-in-the-wall Mather's Dumpling place. We hope to visit Toronto again and have a better luck, but thank you for concolation responce :).
Grand Chinese Cuisine – Amongst the finest dim sum restaurants in Toronto (lengthy review + pics)
Sorry, guys, to disappoint you all who are raving about Grand Chinese Cuisine, but our experience there was absolutely mediocre.
FOOD: We ordered Har Gau, Grand Scallop dumpling, Shark’s fin & seafood dumpling in chicken broth, Steamed chicken feet, Steamed dumpling with mushrooms and corn, Chicken & shitake mushroom clear dumpling, Prawn chive & corn rice roll, Minced beef rice roll, Deep fried lobster roll with yogurt sauce, Baked cod fish pastry in thousand layers, and Red bean paste pancakes with ice cream.
Nothing from all these dishes impressed us at all. On the opposite, the quality of their dough was in the lowest level we ever tasted. It was breaking at the slightest touch of the chop sticks. Yogurt with lobster rolls was out of the place completely. Our impression was that they are trying to invent asian/europian fusion but all their “tries” were failing. Just a nonsense experience for us. Plus half of the dishes mentioned in your post which we‘d like to taste where not in the menu.
SERVICE: Our waiter was a funny Guy. He tried to limit the number of orders we would like to do at the same time trying to impose his personal likes even when wasn’t asked about his opinion. His attitude was: those white people do not understand anything in dim sum cuisine so do as I tell you. After a little while he lost an interest in us completely which coursed more waiting time for everything( dishes, check, drinks…) Their hostess started our experience with making us wait till she finishes whatever she was doing without even apology, and finished it with forgetting (even after being reminded) to stamp our parking tickets. So all together it didn’t add to impression about this place.
AMBIENCE: This is the only thing that was positive.
In conclusion I’d like to say that a big part of our trip to Toronto was devoted to Chinese (particularly dim sum) cuisine. We are big fans of this cuisine and after reading your posts had big hopes to find some outstanding taste experiences. Unfortunately we found only one so far and it wasn’t Grand CC (though we made our trip time longer in order to attend it). From all of our experiences Flushing, NY and San Francisco, CA still share the 1st place of quality and inventiveness of the dim sum cuisine in North American continent.
Nota Bene - Fabulous!
Can't be more agree! Nota Bene was just wonderful. One of the best experiences we had ever. The food is amazing, the service is very professional and attentive, the ambience is lovely and the only thing we’d wish to improve is the level of noise when the room is close to full. But again it’s probably the new “cool” thing for the younger generation to have it kind of noisy :). Overall it’s outstanding experience.
Amazing Experience at 5th Element Restaurant
We just returned from 5th Element and rather disappointed in everything - food, service and ambience. The Lamb Shank discribed by the waiter as there "signiture dish" was just a boiled piece of lamb covered under tasteless marsala sause + absolutly tasteless mashed potatoes. All the rest we ate was even worse. The wait for any kind of service (refilling the water glasses, check, dishes themselves was too long). All together it was a bad experience.
I understand that tastes are different and because of this I was kind off missled by this post into visiting this place, I post my opinion about this restaurant so people would doublecheck before visiting and wasting their time and money.
Please help to make a choice
Thank you so very much to all of you people.
aser, thanks for LWH idea. I am a big fan of dim sum, but was scared by their prices, so we consider it as a lunch place. Anyway we're not leaving Toronto without eating some GOOD dim sum.
Rabbit, speaking about Middle Eastern, I love good Afghan cuisine. Goes Toronto have anything GOOD?
I still have a lot of time to chose but your suggestions make my choice easier.
Thanks again.
Please help to make a choice
We are planning our getaway in Toronto in the first week of September (3 days). Please help me to choose where to have our dinners from this list of restaurants. We'll stay in Hilton Toronto and moneywise ready to spend from $70 to $100 p/p. for a special evening, and form $40 to 60 p/p for the other two.
1) Nota Bene
2) Beer Bistro
3) Reds Bistro
4) Bravi Ristorante
5) Le Paradis Brasserie Bistro
6) Globe Bistro
7) Babur
8) Messis
9) Pomegranate
If you have any other suggestions I'd appreciate it too.
Also we are going to spend one night at Radisson on the Falls (Niagara Falls). Do you know any good but not very expensive place in walking distance from hotel?
Thanks for your future advice
Lewes/Rehoboth, DE finds-latin and wings
This weekend we visited this restaurant. This was most tasteless Mexican food (if you can call it that) experience we’ve ever had. Any Mexican chain restaurant would seem a gourmet food compare to what they served to us. Pretentious inattentive service, dishonesty (they overcharged us for that Friday deal margarita and sangria and when we point it out said that they don’t have this deal anymore, though just a minute ago we heard ourselves the other water was advertising this same deal to the next to us table) plus absolutely horrible but expensive food ruined one of our getaway evenings. I do not understand people who would pay this kind of money for that kind of food.
Pierogi
Where ever you go just don't go for perogies to Veselka. Here is my resent review from another site:
"I was born and raised in Ukrain. I know this culture and cuisine quite well and LOVE it.
Last weekend visiting New York we had a meal at Veselka (after reading all these praising reviews).
Let me tell you people. You ether never tasted a REAL UKRAINIAN cuisine or just have a bad taste.
We had there Borsch, mixed perogies plates (1 boiled and 1 fried) and crepes with cheese and rasberry sause (all their "signiture" dishes). We left half hungry and disgusted with the taste of the borsch and perogies. The crepes were not the best but at least eatable. Everything was served barely warm.
I didn't have such a bad experience eating in the most cheap canteen back in Ukrain.
It's a shame that this place claimes any connection to Ukrainian cuisine at all. It was very, very disappoining."
Seeking great soup near Union Square
Totally not agree about Veselka. Here is my review from another site:
"I was born and raised in Ukrain. I know this culture and cuisine quite well and LOVE it.
Last weekend visiting New York we had a meal at Veselka (after reading all these praising reviews).
Let me tell you people. You ether never tasted a REAL UKRAINIAN cuisine or just have a bad taste.
We had there Borsch, mixed perogies plates (1 boiled and 1 fried) and crepes with cheese and rasberry sause (all their "signiture" dishes). We left half hungry and disgusted with the taste of the borsch and perogies. The crepes were not the best but at least eatable. Everything was served barely warm.
I didn't have such a bad experience eating in the most cheap canteen back in Ukrain.
It's a shame that this place claimes any connection to Ukrainian cuisine at all. It was very, very disappoining."
Worst ethnic place you've been to
I can't be more aggree!
"I was born and raised in Ukrain. I know this culture and cuisine quite well and LOVE it.
Last weekend visiting New York we had a meal at Veselka (after reading all these praising reviews).
Let me tell you people. You ether never tasted a REAL UKRAINIAN cuisine or just have a bad taste.
We had there Borsch, mixed perogies plates (1 boiled and 1 fried) and crepes with cheese and rasberry sause (all their "signiture" dishes). We left half hungry and disgusted with the taste of the borsch and perogies. The crepes were not the best but at least eatable. Everything was served barely warm.
I didn't have such a bad experience eating in the most cheap canteen back in Ukrain.
It's a shame that this place claimes any connection to Ukrainian cuisine at all. It was very, very disappoining."
BRUNCH IN NORFOLK VA VIRGINIA BEACH, CHESAPEAKE VA
Can't understand how people can even mention this restaurant on Chow?!
We had absolutly terreble experience there. This is absolutly average to awefull american fare with high price tag to it. We just returned back from VB and thanks to misleading reviews from this site wasted a lot of money on restaurants like Citrus, Fire and Wine, Mayflower ect.
a) Citrus: we odered BBG pork sandwich which camewith 2 not full Tbsps of average coleslaw and that's IT, second order was their "signiture dish" pancakes which was 2 eggs, 2 sausages and 2 dry small pancakes on the top of which you'd find few slices of banana and few pieces of caned crashed pineapple (discribed in the menu as glazed with orange glaze and some other fruits). Well if that's what they mean by glazing then for us it was the first and the last time there.
b) Fre and Wine: great ambiance, poor food (exept of entrees nothing tasted good), slow service, expensive.
c) Mayflower cafe: no ambiance, tasteless food, slow unattentive service (unless you are there friends, or might be live in that building and a regular customer), the only + it's unexpencive.
The good choices for us were:
Cobult Grill, Lucky Star - fine dining, expencive, but worth it.
Croc's, Veitnam Garden, Pelon's Baja Grill - great inexpensive food and good service.
Hampton Roads, Virginia
"We liked the ambiance, but the food was questionable. The appetizer was expencive and tasted just OK. Thier chef's table bar offerings($6p/p + to your bill) were absolutly tasteless and the waste of money. Our entrees were very good, but dessert was absolutly horrible. The service is so-so and tries to be professional, but you could see through it that it's not. I would not waste my time and money in this place again."
