a sad story, my family asked me what I wanted to do for father's day and after much thought, I settled upon driving from westchester into the heights, walking around our old nabe, lunch at the fountain, pastry from court st pastry and shopping @ damascus bakery.

I was so sad to see the fountain had closed, I'm sure btw the original and new owners I've eaten there over 100 times...from quick take out to dates to meals with our kids.

When I first moved into the heights, there must have 10-15 middle eastern restaurants on atlantic and court (near atlantic). Imo, yemen cafe is the only game left in town.

In the end we had a nice day, joya thai was good and the bakery stops were great. Actually, court pastry was about the best I've had there (and I've been there a lot). And nice that the owner of damascus continues to recognize me even though I'm in just twice a year.

I allude to it in my op, it's very nice to have the option to make reservations here.

somehow missed the previous incarnation, stopped by on my own tonight, wanted lobster w xo, one was $18, two for $25 so I decided to wait to come back w a friend. Instead, order the peking pork chops.

There was a ctown restaurant that closed 20 years ago which made this perfectly, I tried a bunch of terrible renditions and gave up. Loved the chops here, I will say it's not the perfect order when eating on your own as the sweetness of the sauce can be a little cloying. But a couple of chops with 2-3 other dishes would be perfect. also, if you happen to be in ctown with a general tsos crowd, they're going to like this dish and while you weave in some other goodies.

another table was eating lobster and big pile of fried (not peking) pork chops, looked amazing. clocked at 15 mins walk from fidi, I think I can make it for lunch...especially if I take a city bike membership.

can't wait to go back, Thanks Lau!

we saw it over the weekend, ate at szechuan gourmet, a fairly short walk. where did you end up?

btw, worst play EVER!

first time at red egg this past weekend. we arrived without reservations and were lucky to be seated at the last available table. For the uninitiated, they give you a dim sum menu, you mark your order with a pencil and they make your dim sum to order. For the first time we let our 17 yo son do all the ordering. We had no idea what was coming, here's what he ordered in arrival order:

sui mai - I've come to suspect a lot of sui mai is bought bulk/frozen as it tastes about the same at most restaurants. The red egg version tasted very fresh, with terrific flavor.

Sticky rice in lotus leaf - the chunks of meat and sausage really set this rendition apart. I didn't realize my son liked this so much, he ordered two dishes.

garlic spare ribs - a little like southern fried spare ribs, the dish just didn't offer enough flavor to justify the accordant caloric and cardiac damage.

steamed roast pork bun - average, would not order again.

pork, shrimp and peanut fun gaw - delicate, open wrapper, very good, i've not had this before, not sure if it's a red egg creation.

vegetable fun gaw - good but too close to previous dish, not sure why he ordered both.

pan fried turnip cake - great, this came nice, hot, and a little crispy. this dish really benefited from the "made to order" treatment.

vegetarian spring rolls - son liked, we didn't try. have to break our kids of this habit.

scallion pancake - first real miss. small, tasteless triangles.

pan fried shanghai bun - this looked like it was going to be heavy but instead it was light on it's feet, greaseless, very nice. still, I prefer the versions found in shanghai restaurants.

stir fried radish cake with duck meat - for me, this was the best dish of the meal. The radish cake was soft in the middle, a little crispy on the outside, the duck gave it a little fatty goodness, eat this while it's hot.

ok, so we're three people, trying to work our way through this mountain of food when an entree of:

peking duck sliders shows up - The bun and preparation are similar to the $1 flushing duck bun stall but instead of a couple of bites of random duck meat they place beautiful whole slices of unctuous peking duck on the bun. They also throw a little apple into the slider which adds welcome palate cleansing acidity between bites. Would definitely order this again but it's not cheap, works out to $24 for six sliders. we should have asked if we could pick at the duck carcass.

my wife has one slider, I'm full but bravely choke down two and my son wolfs down three as if he hasn't eaten in a week. I look around the table thinking we did a pretty good job, but of course I should have known dessert was coming:

sweet sesame balls - My son loved these, a little smaller, fresher,, more delicate and hotter than the usual fare, I took half a bite and stayed out of my son's way.

our check before tip came to $86 which I thought very fair for the quality of the food, excellent service and nice surroundings. It was also something of a relief to sit in a dim sum restaurant in Chinatown and have waitresses speak better English than I (me?).

best,

every year or two our kids make the finals of a problem solving competition called destination imagination. we stay in the dorms at university of tenn @ knoxville and eat terrible dorm food. This year my wife and I vowed to eat all our meals off-campus, here's what we found:

copper cellar on cumberland - they have an expensive steak house in the bottom, we ate pub menu on the main floor. It happened to be $5 burger night, the burgers were delicious, service was great. I tried the spinach maria and fried okra as my sides, both were perfect. I like the way they cut the okra into smaller pieces, to form crunchy, salty fried bits. Later in the week my wife took some people to this place to mixed reviews but I think they were expecting something a little fancier.

golden roast - A nice, quiet place to hook up to their wifi and get some work done while sipping cappuccino. They seem serious about their coffee, however, I found too much foam and not enough flavor. Still, a nice place to hang and maybe the coffee is what to have here.

Chesapeake's - it was late, we were in the area, didn't know much about the place but decided to give it a try. we split an order of calamari with an asian sauce which I thought very good, my wife declared it a near miss. for entrees I had crab cake sandwich, I've been to some of the best places in maryland and I thought this rendition held it's own. My wife had red snapper with cole slaw, it was expensive for knoxville ($28) but she received a huge portion of perfectly fried, greaseless red snapper. We liked this place, it was a little expensive for a thursday night meal but will be back if we visit again.

french market - this is a well-reviewed creperie, not sure what the fuss is, it's very good but I dunno, would never put it on a list of must-visit places in knoxville.

farmers market in market square - Now here's the place you must visit if you find yourself in knoxville on a saturday morning. Parked off on a side street are 3-4 food trucks serving great southern breakfasts. I had aged cheddar cheese grits with a farm fresh egg on top. I skipped the artisinal bacon but I'm a little embarrassed to admit I said "go for it!" when they asked me if they could cook the egg in the bacon fat. The grits were perfectly cooked, the fresh egg had a little bacony goodness...actually, it was so good that after my first bite I had to find a quiet place to savor the meal. Without a doubt the best four dollars I've ever spent for food.

It was tough, but I skipped the fresh biscuits with homemade jam, I skipped the bakery stall that had boxes of fresh pastry and cookies, some the size of my face and hardest of all, I skipped the fresh fried southern pies. But I have something to look forward to next time I'm in knoxville.

best

hi, back at u tenn for a kids problem solving championship. Food on campus ranges between bad and very bad.

first and foremost, is there any great bbq around campus? last I checked there wasn't much but hope springs eternal.

any and all suggestions appreciated. Spent summers in the south growing up, so any good southern cooking, especially fried chicken, would be great. But anything that's good would be appreciated...might try to rent a bike for the work out and lengthen my chow reach...

I was in la placita market in peekskill last weekend for the first time and they had more pork belly than you could eat in a lifetime. I haven't been, but if it's closer, there's also a la placita mini mart in ossining that my bbq friends swear by.

any ideas? there used to be a couple of guys with giant griills making cornell chicken on the side of the road but I haven't seen them in years.

as ryanallday points out, no need to get on a plane. Big W's is very good and a trip to nyc these days yields good bbq.

Over the last 6 months I've eaten at memphis maes 4-5 times. Here are my conclusions:

- ribs: sauced and unsauced are absolutely terrible. The meat is mushy, falls off the bone (overdone), fat is unrendered, the rub has no flavor, do not put in mouth.

- chicken: perfectly cooked, hard to believe it's smoked. very little smoke flavor or smell.

- brisket: not bad, would not order again,

- pulled pork: very good, moist, nice chunks of bark

- sides: great, hushpuppies, collard greens, slaw, just delicious

a good meal can be had here if you stick to chicken, pulled pork and the great side dishes.

I did some work for a client in princeton and there was an ayce sushi palace in nearby kingston, nj. it was very good, not great, but a great bargain given the qty/quality. try searching google to find reviews.

stopped by for lunch today, what a fun place! Lot's of families, great beer list, interesting menu. My wife had a cuban made with pulled pork, great idea, absolutely delicious. I decided to try the chicken/rib combo. The chicken was nicely smoked, just a hint of sauce. Unfortunately the st louis cut spares weren't quite as good. The first rib overdone, the meat just fell off the bone. The other two ribs were a little better, but clearly overdone. I will say they managed to render all the fat and they were clearly smoked over wood. My sides were outstanding, bourbon glazed carrots were not overdone. The beans were supposed to have burnt ends but the pulled pork substitute was very good.

will definitely try this place again but will skip the ribs next time.

ordered 1/4 rack of spares with two sides for $11. First the good:
- generous portions, well-priced
- hot, fresh cut sweet potatoes and perfect cornbread were delicious
- great, friendly service

the not so good:
- the ribs were over-cooked, falling off the bone while the outside of the rib was tough and chewy. Additionally, there was a good amount of unrendered fat.
- the menu claims a rub is applied, I couldn't taste it.

the sides are so good, I'm going to head back to try some of the other bbq meats. Ribs are terribly unforgiving, maybe the pulled pork will be better...

Asagao in croton opened a while back under new mgmt and it turns out they have a credible Bibimbap. Any other places in westchester with good Bibimbap?

tia,

Hi Jackie,

we too have decided to head elsewhere this year, the kids voted for DC so we have reservations at and inn constructed in the 1800s. We were in lake placid over the summer, really nothing new to report. Have a great t'gving and best to catnip!

we were here for lunch during restaurant week. We had squash soup which was a near miss, my wife's flatbread pizza was great...not brooklyn great, but certainly westchester great. I had a good fritatta. Tiramisu was very good, olive cake was delicious.

we didn't drink anything, they certainly have some interesting beer/bitters. I love the movie posters on one wall, hate the big, lit up "Gleason's" on the other wall.

My sense is that if you stick to the flatbread pizza and drinks, you're going to be pretty happy with this place.

we've been there for lunch three times over the last two months. We like the sandwiches but can' t help but feel it's overpriced. Agree bread is good but the ratio of meat to bread is too low. Also, I've tried to taste the bbq on it's own and found the pp dry.

Have to try ribs/brisket/chicken at some point for dinner.

I work in the area, since you're staying near gct, two other places to consider are machiatto for very good coffee and croissant and rize coffee. Rize serves stumptown coffee and has a decent bagel (they told me they're from brooklyn). agree that ess is a "should not miss" for great bagel and smoked salmon.

there's a lot more interesting chow in the area than say 10 years ago, from hand pulled udon to lebanese to very good bubble tea.

enjoy!

Kids are adventurous eaters, like all manner of ethnic food, looking for great chinese, thai, vietnamese, japanese noodle, bqq, soul food, etc. What restaurants would we regret not visiting?

tia,

we're in the same area, same time, I posted the same thread and oddly, my son just asked me if we could have Ethiopian in DC. Which places were you planning for me and ethiopian? Looks like we're heading to tabard for thanksgiving. we were there last year for a non-thanksgiving dinner and it was great.

both

mae's is mediocre

Hi,

we're staying dupont circle, loved tabard last time we were in town, wondering what else we should consider in the area?

thanks in advance,

I have the vaguest memories of hong fat from that time but I was there about five times with friends, one of the first chinatown restaurants I tried. I recall it was absolutely packed every time we went, we waited on line a couple of times. the atmosphere was fun, all the customers were happy to be eating the food.

I recall thinking it was good but wanting to explore other places where my friends were perfectly content with hong fat. the stand out dish for us was some sort of fried butterflied jumbo shrimp with a red sauce. Also, I think it was the first place I had clams with black bean sauce.

there are any number of good restaurants within a 10 minute walk from time square. what do you mean by "good-ish"? anyhow, I work in the area so if you could be a little more specific I can offer more targeted suggestions. there is a lot of overpriced, mediocre food in the area targeted towards tourists.

If you're looking for ethnic, two places that come to mind are szechuan gourmet, arguably the best szechuan in manhattan (I don't believe it's the best but one could make the argument and it's certainly one of the best) and margon for cuban, morgon is a small, crowded lunch counter with limited seating, an unconventional but great cuban sandwich and other cuban comfort food.

when I worked on the east side, we used to send one of our co-workers in a cab to minar for rava masala dosa once every month or so. haven't been in many years, but it used to be great and overlooked.

I thought the sushi better prepared and fresher than yama but haven't been to yama in years. Also, I thought the sushi was cut more generously. I'll have to give yama another try.

we've been here five times now and I can't say enough good things about the pizza. The thin crust has some cornmeal which sets it apart from other local pizza, the ingredients taste fresh and the toppings have been delicious. We also like the mussels marina. I'd call it inexpensive for what's on the plate, the decor is tired but I love the old photos on the wall and the owners could not be nicer.

if you google "westchester magazine paradise pizza" there's a nice writeup about the pizza by the chef/owner of the cookery.

used a group on sunday for okinawa after hearing good things about it. not a big hibachi fan but kids enjoy it. I had the sushi for one, I'd peg it as nyc quality sushi, best I've had in northern westchester. Tried the kids hibachi, also very good, a little too salty for me but they used a very good cut of steak and nice size shrimp. While it sits in a strip mall, they've done a nice job with decor.

why wall st area? a 10-15 minute walk puts you in tribeca. also, wonder what you mean by "chow"? fine dining? good ethnic food?

in any case, you might want to consider north end grill, probably a 10-15 min walk, depending on where you are.