Mike C. Miller's Profile
Restaurants near Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley
Le Méditerranée used to be very good. I don't live in California, so I don't get to eat in Berkeley as often as I'd like. It's there on Collage, just north of Ashby.
http://www.cafelamed.com/pages/lamedberkeley.html
Best Indian Restaurant-Lunch-East Bay
No East Bay discussion of Indian food is complete without a mention of Breads of India in Berkeley. I'm very fond of it. Two or three daily specials and a few regular items. As the name implies, they will also have two or three bread specials that run the gamut. Not a wide selection, but the food has always been top notch, at leas the times I've eaten there.
http://www.breadsofindia.com/berk_today.html
Rick's on the Square--Tyler, TX
Bummer about the soul food joint. It was never great, but it was a good change of pace.
Bachelor party in Austin
No better place to eat BBQ in the world, IMHO, if you're willing to travel a bit. Many threads herein on that topic. The only world class BBQ joint that is actually in Austin is Franklin's on East 11th. The line out front is nearly as legendary as the BBQ. My personal choice -- and BBQ is a very personal matter -- would be to load up in three cars and head out to Taylor Texas and have an EARLY lunch at Louie Mueller's BBQ. It's closer to town than some of the other legendary joints, and it's frankly my favorite. The brisket is very good to great, depending on the day (and only if you get the fatty end). But, ORDER THE DAMNED SAUSAGE!!!! It just beats me why people don't eat house made sausage at a BBQ joint in the German part of Texas. And you have to get there early to make sure that they still have sausage. And not that anybody should go to a BBQ joint for atmosphere, but Mueller's has atmosphere is spades. Nobody in the party will ever forget their trip to Mueller's -- I promise. It's looks just like a Hollywood art director's idea of what a central Texas BBQ joint should look like, down to the dusty parking lot and the creaky old fans. But it's entirely authentic. Nothing artificial or contrived about it at all.
Not sure about the crowd from the game. Call and ask them. Also ask in a very general way about what time they run out of sausage on an average Saturday. They're very cautious about saying when they run out of things as they hate to disappoint. But if you tell them you understand there are no guarantees, etc., and are nice, you might get an answer.
Best Thing YOU Ever Ate, Austin
Just loved the Capital Grill. What a loss. They had a wonderful duck and andouille gumbo that you couldn't beat with a stick.
La Condesa's whole roasted suckling pig?
30-40 people from one sucking pig is either one mighty big pig on 30-40 mighty skinny people. Hell, if there's a roast pig being served, I want about two pounds of meat for my part.
Treebeards -- Downtown Lunch
I was in Houston for business yesterday and our morning session ended rather early, leaving my law partner and I with and unexpected opportunity for a leisurely lunch downtown within walking distance of where we were, but not enough time to hop in the car and go eat anywhere else. Consulted Yelp and decided to eat at Treebeards without reading the reviews too carefully. Turned out to be a decent, inexpensive choice.
Treebeards is essentially a Cajun food cafeteria. Had I read that it was cafeteria style, we would have likely picked somewhere that served fresh food. But truthfully, it was OK. I had red beans and rice with sausage, duck gumbo, and a bowl of fresh watermelon for desert. My parter had a large salad that had been pre-made, but was surprisingly fresh. She said that she enjoyed the salad. The beans and rice was very good, the gumbo average, and the watermelon quite good. Decent cornbread and they didn't charge you for butter (a pet peeve).
Partner paid, so I didn't notice exactly what the price was, but it was very reasonable by my standards. Probably $12 - 14 or so each. We didn't have a lot of interactions (as one would expect) with the staff, but they all seemed to go out of their way to be helpful and were very friendly and well trained.
Just glanced at their web site. Apparently they have several locations downtown. The one we ate at was at 315 Travis St.
http://www.treebeards.com/locmenus/lm-mktsqr.php
For those for whom price is a critical issues, here is a menu:
http://www.treebeards.com/locmenus/lm-mktsqr.php#menu
In summary, it's not a place I'd go out of my way to eat at again, but if I found myself in that part of downtown again and it was lunch time, I'd be glad to eat there again.
Last Minute Dinner for a newbie!
Celebration, Mockingbird Lane, about 1/4 mile west of Innwood. Classic Texas comfort food served with family style vegetables in an inviting atmosphere (several old houses joined together). Several special every day, plus the old favorites on the menu.
Menu us usually up to date on the web site.
http://celebrationrestaurant.com/restaurant/dinner.htm
Food isn't revolutionary or out of this world good, but it's fresh, very good, and has a bit of a Texas twist without being too over the top. I'm quite fond of the place as are many others. Been there for over 35 years but doesn't seem at all dated.
Rick's on the Square--Tyler, TX
Good to hear.
Has the food changed any at lunch? My impressions at lunch is it's a decent enough place to eat, good blue plate special, better than average sandwiches, but nothing of the quality you're talking about here. (Still, it's one of my two favorite places to eat when I'm in Tyler for lunch. Can't remember the name of the other. It's the soul food place north east of the square.)
Best Thing YOU Ever Ate, Austin
Wish I did. It was THE hot dining spot in town in the early 1980's. Very good, except for a limited wine list. The had great tarts. You just don't see those much any more. Too labor intensive, I guess.
Best Thing YOU Ever Ate, Austin
Ever?
Redfish with Tomatillo sauce at Alana's on Sixth Street circa 1982, followed by a kiwi and banana tart.
Marshall Recommendations Help
As brother Howard reports, it was almost certainly the Excelsior House Hotel in Jefferson.
Marshall Recommendations Help
Forgot two places. Neely's Brown Pig, on Grand Ave. Local institution that's been open for about sixty or seventy years. A "brown pig" is a BBQ'ed pork sandwich. One the small side, sort of like pulled pork, but with a catsup's based BBQ sauce, not vinegar based. Also has a bit of mayo on it. (It's a lot better than it sounds.) Decent hamburgers, too.
Second place is Porky's. Originally opened by some offshoot brother or cousin from the Neely clan. They have a "pig" sandwich, too, although they aren't allowed to call it a brown pig. It's a bit bigger, and lately, have been pretty good. A bit on the spicier side. Porky's also have decent fried catfish filets and pretty good hamburgers. The rest of the BBQ there is pretty forgettable.
Marshall Recommendations Help
Welcome to the Justice Capitol of Texas.
Best lunch bet is the P&J Lunch Room. It's on Travis, about half a block east of Alamo. Pure unadulterated soul food. Jackie Franklin is the owner. One meat (usually two or three choices) and two vegetables with tea is just under $10. But there is usually, but not always, a set rotation on favorite dishes: Mon - brisket; Tue - fried chicken; Wed - pork chops; Thur - pot luck, but often meat loaf, chicken spaghetti, or chicken and dumplings; Friday Fried cat fish and usually fried chicken. I eat there about three days a week and love it.
BBQ Express. On Elmore Street. Run by Herbert White. Very serious BBQ. He also usually has one plate lunch per day. As noted, East Texas style BBQ, no Central Texas style BBQ. If you can't figure that out, you can't read a map. Brisket and sausage are very good. Also has BBQ chicken, which other places often don't. It's very good, too. Bodacious, a regional chain, also has a BBQ joint in town. Not as good. If you must eat there, try their ribs. Too much sweet rub for me, but it's better than their brisket. Sausage will do in a pinch.
There are a plethora of mediocre Mexican restaurants. Each nearly as bad as the last. However, two deserve mention as standing above the crowd. First, Don Juan's. A regional chain. Food is not great, but it's better than most of the rest. Ask for Shawna as your waitress. Best waitress in town. Also, MIguel's, on Pinecrest is good. Authentic is probably the correct word. Miguel actually runs the place. Mexico City style tacos including cabrito are your best bet.
New hamburger place in town in the past two weeks called Big O Burger that was actually pretty good when I ate there last weekend. Better hurry up and eat there before they close. Otherwise, the best hamburger in town is a toss up between Whataburger or Juicy's, depending on your taste.
Best Chinese is Peking. Not great, but adequate. Nice folks, too.
OS2 and Blue Frog have been mentioned and what has been written is pretty accurate. You can BYOW to Blue Frog. Of course, unless you have brought your own wine to Marshall, purchasing it locally is rather chancy, though Under the Texas Sun (right next door to Blue Frog) may be your best bet. Blue Frog has decent stemware.
There is a decent, but not outstanding Italian place out by your hotel, Cafe Italia. You can BYOW there, too. Stemware is not so good there, but unless you've found better wine than I think you can in Marshall, does it really make any difference?
Our other Italian place sold out to somebody that is allegedly opening a Sushi restaurant. If you'll eat sushi in Marshall, Texas, you're a braver man or woman than I am. But c'est la vie.
For late nights after research, drafting, working on exhibits, etc. Waffle House has the best late night breakfast. Very good hash browns and they do a pretty good job cooking your eggs the way you want them. Other late night option is IHoP.
If you have time, head to Jefferson to eat at Stillwater Inn. Very, very good food. Caddo Lake for fried cat fish at Big Pines Lodge -- food isn't as good as it used to be, but atmosphere is such that everybody ought to eat there at least once. Kilgore for truly killer ribs at Country Tavern. Longview for really good Mexican roast chicken at El Pollo Cachuchon or adequate Vietnamese at Pho on High Street. (Also is a amazingly good Thai place in Longview, if you can ever find them open called Little Thai House, but it seems like they're closed more often than they're open.)
And don't forget to let the locals know that you're here for a patent trial (not that they'll really have a hard time figuring that out). We've got them trained to understand that lawsuits are good business for everybody, not just us lawyers!!!
Review: First Bijoux Visit Since Change
Having eaten at both now, I think I like the one in the 6th better, too. I've eaten there twice, and the one in the 8th once, but the first two meals were a bit better and the staff seemed a bit more interactive. But it's awfully hard to generalize based on just one visit.
Review: First Bijoux Visit Since Change
We went to the one in the 8th, just off the Champs that is in the basement of the Publis drugstore. A really good meal, too.
Review: First Bijoux Visit Since Change
Had my first meal at Bijoux since the change in formats. I'm very pleased (and pleasantly surprised) to report that the quality of the food has not declined at all. It is still one of Dallas' top restaurants.
First, a copy of the new menu is on line:
http://www.bijouxrestaurant.com/bijoux_dinner_menu.pdf
This was not the exact menu that they had on Friday night, but it was very close and the format was the same. I had two appetizers and a main. One of the appetizers was a progressive tasting of oysters, each with a different style sauce mignonette. This was very good and light. The second appetizer was a chevre and leek agnolotti with collard greens, and lardons. Also nice, although perhaps not quite up to the standards of the oysters. My girlfirend had the beet salad with goat cheese, pecans, arugula, and red beet gelato. It was out of this world good.
For our mains, the GF had lemon sole, which was very good. I had the scallops with green peas, which was served in a warm tomato coulis. It was outstanding.
There is now a one page wine list on the back of the menu with modestly priced wines, all of which are available by the glass or by the bottle. I was initially disappointing when I thought that was all that was available as almost all were quite a step down from their previous wine list. However, their previous wine list is still intact and is now called the reserve list (although the one on their web sight is somewhat dated). We paired our choices with an excellent St. Aubin 1er Cru 2005 from J.M. Boillot. It was a good match for all, but especially for the scallops.
One final note. The overall quality of the cooking hasn't declined one bit. I recently had scallops at three fine restaurants -- l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Maceo', both in Paris, and also at Bijoux. I thought that the scallops at Bijoux were at least the equal of those at Maceo' and better than those at l'Atelier and my GF thought Bijoux's scallops were the best of the three. So the move to the less formal menu hasn't really hurt the quality of the cooking here at all.
Tour d'Argent Paris
Amazingly comprehensive wine list. That alone makes it worth a visit.
A "Texan" restaurant in East Texas
If you're not shy about driving, half way between Tyler and Kilgore is Country Tavern. Vey, very good ribs.
Great Galveston Dining?
I haven't been since they moved post huricane, but previously it was steam table line up and pick what you want.
two foodie girls eating their way through austin...
I wouldn't feed a stray cat out a Chuy's.
Looking for a "Meat and Three" around the Austin area.
Purely hearsay, but I once had a cab driver in Austin tell me that Arkie's foor was better than Hoover's. I can't vouch for the cab drivers bona fides, but it's one more small piece of data!
Overall view of dining scene in Austin
OK, what did you mean "hold it's own in ANY market." I'm curious. It's a middling wine list. Nothing more. Unfortunately, other than Pappas Brothers -- and I deplore eating steaks out -- I don't know of a single restaurant in Texas that has anything other than a middling wine list these days.
Overall view of dining scene in Austin
"Hold it's own in any market. . . . "
Um. . . . No, not really. Not even close.
http://www.absinthe.com/winelist.pdf
http://www.realwinelists.com/winelists/RN74-WINE-LIST.html
http://pappaspizza.net/images/dyn/menus/menu_397.pdf
http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/winelist.html
And that's just the places I've eaten in Dallas and SFO.
Great Galveston Dining?
Try Simp's for lunch. Great little soul food place with good seafood. Can't be beat.
Overall view of dining scene in Austin
Wow!! Paggie house list is VERY nice. Never even heard of the place. I'd make a special trip to eat there. You could nitpick a bit -- outside of Dujac, de Montille, and Ghislaine Barthod, there are not enough of my favorite red Burg producers on the list -- but hell, I'm just delighted to see those three!! How's the food?
As for the others, I thought that Oliva was a nice enough small list the one time I ate there. Not terrible impressed by the food.
Congress, more depth than quality, especially in terms of the quality of the producers in Burgundy (which is where I most often buy). Liked the whites better than the reds. Rhones and Bordeaux better than the Burgs. Kind of hard to account for that. Italian producers seemed pretty middling and uninspiring. No real small or hidden gems that I noted (although Italy isn't my strong point).
Uchi, underwhelmed. Thought that both in Chard, Riesling, White Bordeaux, etc. all could have had higher quality producers, even at the low price points on the list, never mind more depth at higher price points.
Overall view of dining scene in Austin
I think we need to be careful to define our terms. You don't have to have high end fine dining to have a good restaurant. But to have "fine dining," you may have to have some of the elements that have been talked about here.
Look at the cafe upstairs at Chez Panisse, Zuni Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, etc. There are many, many restaurants of that ilk that do fresh seasonal ingredients that trump any on offer in Austin, but are not white table cloth, crystal, and sliver, etc. To me, they are excellent restaurants. Maybe even fine dining. So I would take issue with Bubbleboy79 if he is arguing that crystal and sliver are a prerequisite for fine dining. Zuni Cafe's wine list is only two pages, but very well curated. Frankly, I'd rather have their two pages than the 20 pages or so at Congress -- better producers, more variety, and the wines are better suited to the cuisine. Unfortunately, I just don't see that quality level in any Austin wine list, much less a list like Gramercy Tavern (modest in size, but very well selected).
In some respects, Austin seems to have it backwards. The smaller less expensive places don't seem to put much emphasis on their wine programs. Indeed, some almost seem to ignore wine and treat it as an afterthought. And the bigger fancier places don't seem to put as much emphasis on their foods. For them it's more about decor and ambiance.
My ideal restaurant is causal to the point of being very unassuming -- say Chez Panisse upstairs -- but with knockout quality food and at least a very good wine list. Unfortunately, I don't see any place in Austin that fits the bill on both sides right now. (Nor in Houston, for that matter, although Mark's comes close. In Dallas, both Lucia and Nonna come close although they both fall down on the wine side a bit.)
