Geoff's Profile
Oaxaca meals, and......Marco Polo downhill?
Thanks all, will report back. I'm wondering what my best dinner option might be on a Thursday night. Staying in Centro. Scheduled to land in Oaxaca at approximately 8:00 p.m. Maybe Casa Oaxaca, or La Biznaga, or similar. I like the idea of the Friday set Comida at Los Danzantes. Based on past experience will definitely have comida at Marco Polo and will see for myself how they're doing.
Definitely not enough meal opportunities! Three dinners, two comidas, two breakfasts. And snacks. And of course nieves!
Oaxaca meals, and......Marco Polo downhill?
Greetings all. Upcoming, too-short visit to Oaxaca. Was last there a couple of years ago and, among other meals, had a really great comida at Marco Polo. Have been doing some research and what mentions I see (most recent are late 2011) make me wonder if they've gone downhill. Your take?
I'm reading through my old notes and what I see here on chowhound. If you're so inclined to think about it for a minute........I'll have opportunities for two breakfasts, two comidas, three dinners. Not nearly enough meals! If this were your itinerary, where might you go? My focus is on Mexican/regional style food. Mix of "nice" and "casual." "Food with big flavor" is what I care about most.
thanks!
Oaxaca City recommendations needed
Wow, it's two years later and I have no idea why I never replied to your note. So sorry! My wife and I are headed to Oaxaca mid-March for a short visit. Looking through these posts for reminders/suggestions, and I promise to report back this time. As of now, good chance we'll visit both Casa Oaxaca and Casa Oaxaca Cafe.
Merida - your thoughts?
Greetings all. Will be in Merida (first visit) later this month and could use some advice. Not a lot of current info on this board; there are also some comments from a few years ago. We’re staying in Centro, coming into town on a Sunday, leaving on Wednesday. Looks like we’ll have opportunity for 3 comidas (and maybe one early lunch), 3 dinners. We’re all about “food with flavor,” and would definitely want to focus on local/regional style food.
So, using chowhound and a couple of other sources, I have a somewhat long list I’m trying to cull down. Any comments at all on these, or others I’ve missed, would be much appreciated!
Local 3; Casa Frida; La Chaya Maya; 2012 Espacios Mayas y Algo Mas; El Chili Habanero; El Trapiche; El Principe Tutul Xiu, El Templo; Amaro ; Los Almendros all look good from what I can see. Also making my list were Rosas y Xocolate; Restaurante Kantun; La Flor de Santiago.
Thoughts? What’s missing? Other favorite food ideas? I also read about the Saturday slow food market; is it really only Saturdays (and if not, is it worth it)?
Thanks for your help.
New Year's Day lunch - chinese/dim sum?
Thanks all. Indeed, everyone was open. We went to elite. Variety of dumplings, buns, veg. All very fresh, delicious. Looking forward to a return visit. Thanks!
New Year's Day lunch - chinese/dim sum?
Not finding any threads about eating out on New Year's day, lunchtime. Interested in any style of Chinese, or dim sum. Someone suggested Monterrey Park area? Any thoughts much appreciated!
casual lunch in Santa Barbara
Thanks all. We did end up at Los Agaves and really enjoyed it. Cochinita Pibil; chili verde con puerco; and a poblano stuffed with carnitas and cheese. delicious salsas. Will gladly return the next time I'm in the neighborhood.
casual lunch in Santa Barbara
Thoughts about Los Agaves? Los Arroyos (downtown or Montecito)?
casual lunch in Santa Barbara
Surprised to be having some trouble finding good recs here on the board. Any thoughts about casual lunch on a weekday in Santa Barbara or Montecito? Love Super-Rica if I'm in the neighborhood. Italian? no. Other than that foodwise, the only thing I care about is food with FLAVOR - easy enough to drive to any location. Maybe keep the cost under $60 for two if possible. thanks!
The Federalist
Yes. Mediocre, with erratic service. Both attributes also present in its predecessor, Palette.
Hong Kong: China Club
Greetings. I have reservations at China Club in a couple of weeks, and am told that I'll be there for the special noodle and tea shows/demonstrations. Does anyone have any experience with these? Is it cheesy/too touristy etc? I know the space is lovely, and hey, this is chowhound; I'm all about the food. I'd appreciate any thoughts, thank you!
Hong Kong; my list is longer than my meal opportunities
Charles, thank you. I benefitted greatly from reading your posts and I'm very happy to get your input.
Hong Kong; my list is longer than my meal opportunities
Ooops. Also Joy Hing and Yat Lok.
Hong Kong; my list is longer than my meal opportunities
Greetings from Washington DC. What else is new? Visit a great food city and there's no way to eat everywhere you'd like to. Last visit to HKG was three years ago, thrilled to return. Based on notes from then, and a review of this board, I have a long list. Looks like we'll have 5 lunch and 6 dinner opportunities. Staying in Central, happy to travel for great food. Keeping the money relatively moderate. Focus is on Chinese. Would value and appreciate your comments about any of this, including alternative suggestions. THANKS!
For dim sum etc., I see:
Tim Ho Wan
Maxim's
Lin Hung Tea House
Sun Tung Lok
Yan Toh Heen
Crystal Jade
Fook Lam Moon
Din Tai Fung
Others that catch my interest:
Bo Innovation
Lei Garden
Yin Yang Private Kitchen
Hutong
Yung Fu
Yung Kee
The Manor
Spring Door
Shui Hu Ju
Mak An Kee (Mak's Noodles)
And not to be forgotten: Hollywood Desserts!
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Lei Garden
IFC Mall, Hong Kong , HK
Dinner in/near Groton, CT
Thanks for suggestions. Had a lovely dinner at Bravo Bravo. Solid, straightforward italian. Good pasta/marinara, good atmospher. Had a good dinner at Octagon. Usually closed on Mondays but the hotel was completely full and they agreed to open. I was part of a "private" dinner but I don't think the food was any different than in the restaurant overall. Solid, nicely done ribeye; sides fine but not special. One lunch at Somewhere in Time cafe. Delightful - very casual, just breakfast and lunch. Basically home cooking style diner food, very very friendly service. Overall, good eats.
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Bravo Bravo Restaurant
20 E Main St, Mystic, CT 06355
Dinner in/near Groton, CT
Greetings from a Washington DC hound. Will be staying at the Marriott Mystic Hotel, which is actually in Groton just north of I-95. Dinner Sunday, Monday. Casual, not a national chain. I'll need to cab from hotel. I eat everything. Any thoughts of anything interesting? Thanks!
Bali, Ubud - casual, local eats
Greetings all. Not a lot on the board on Bali, so I'll ask. Staying at Uma Ubud for a few nights in August. Looking for opinions on casual, local places, with local food. Don't need yet another "expats/visitors love the burgers" place, would much rather eat Indonesian if good casual places - warungs or similar - exist. Thoughts? Thanks!
Singapore - incredibly overdue thanks
OK, I'm back. This is LONG, sorry! Thanks again for your ideas!
I’ve reviewed the past couple of years’ posts, as well as some other info I have on hand. And, for kicks, I got a copy of Makansutra. This time we’re staying at the Fullerton. Obviously, the choices are endless. THANKS for any thoughts on any of my ramblings, below.
It seems that the major change(s) since August 2009 is the opening of the Marina Sands complex and all that goes with it. We’re not really interested in going over there, frankly – those high end places aren’t really what we want to do while in town. Regarding the Rasapura food center: is it worthy of a stand-alone visit? I’m asking this knowing that we will be taking full advantage of several other centers during our stay – will probably have most breakfasts, at least a couple of dinners and who knows what other snacking opportunities at food centers, depending on where and when we find ourselves out and about.
Food centers that we didn’t visit, or fully visit, but that get fair notice here, seem to be: Peoples Park Center(?), Hong Lim (just renovated?), East Coast, Food Republic (at Wisma Atria); basement of Ion, Takashimaya basement at 2 Ngee Ann City, Commonwealth(?), Ghim Moh(?), Old Airport Rd, and Chinatown complex. Any favorites here? I do realize that often you have faves spread out everywhere; a couple or more stalls in each center with your fave of a particular food.
We’ll probably have 3 or 4 lunch, 3 or 4 dinner (reservations or not) opportunities.
- We had such wonderful experiences at 53, and were treated so well when we needed an unexpected dinner rezzie, that we want to return. Probably a lunch.
- The only other “high end” place that truly intrigues me is Andre. I’ve no doubt it’s wonderful………but do you think it’s “worth it?” Big money. What about Wild Rocket? Vansh? Yantra? Mustard?
- We’d be happy to eat at the other places we had reservations last time; any thoughts about those, or similar replacements to that list?
- Believe it or not, we never got out to East Coast - we’ll do that this time for sure. There’s some disagreement on this board regarding favorite place(s) for crab – would you weigh in again on that?
- Really enjoyed our dinner at Madras New Woodlands. For diversity, will probably try one or more others in Little India (or elsewhere). New recs welcome. I’m seeing mentions of Jaggi’s, Anjappar, Murugan’s, Raj of Kolkata, Malgudi, Muthu’s, Komala Vilas, Saravana Bhavan, Sakunthala’s Restaurant.
Other places that I see in posts that I’m wondering about:
- Lucky Plaza – is this a food center or something else? Indo Kitchen sounds good.
- My Cosy Corner, Famous Sungeo Rd Trishaw Laksa, Prima Taste Kitche for laksa
- Founder, Ng Ah Siou for Bak Kut The
- Chatterbox, Yet Con for Hainanese chicken rice
- Warung Nasir, Nasi Pariaman, Sabar Menanti, Haji Maimunah for Malay Padang food
- House of Peranaka, Guan Hoe Soon, Peranakan Inn, Ivins, Baba Inn for Peranakan food
- Dim sum, if we’re in the mood: folks seem to like Hua Ting, Jade Palace at Forum, Lei Bai at Sheraton Tower, Crystal Jade, Imperial Treasure, Lei Garden, Tung Lok
Singapore - incredibly overdue thanks
Greetings all. I'm happy to say that my wife and I will be returning to Singapore for a few days in August. We were there two years ago and ate our way through town. Relied heavily on you hounds as we did food research, and I was just trying to find my old "report back" post. Um.......I can't find it, and other than a review of 53 (which we thoroughly enjoyed) I have a bad feeling that I might never have posted. Bad chowhound!
So.......many, many thanks to all of you, especially FourSeasons, klyeoh and MGomez for your voluminous and spot on posts. I won't do the details here, but we had a chance to graze through Tiong Bahru, Lau Pa Sat, Maxwell, Gluttons Bay, Food Nation and Newton Circus food centers. Fantastic! Especially liked the variety and settings at Tiong Bahru and Gluttons Bay (we were staying at the Mandarin so Gluttons was hugely convenient as well).
We had (other) lunches at My Humble House, Straits Kitchen, Palm Beach Seafood, and 53. Even tried a breakfast at Melt in the Mandarin. (Other) dinners at Madras Woodlands and 53.
Then we came home and just had broth for a month. ;-)
Loved being there, loved everything we ate, and immediately started thinking of our return. Well, here we come. I'm deep into reading all posts on this board and thinking of where to return, what new to try, etc. I will post separately with questions regarding this trip. And yep, know all about all the new, high end places in the Marina Sands. That was still a construction site in 2009.
Thanks again and I'll be asking some questions within the next few days.
Help with good eats near Hopkins
Thanks all again for your suggestions. Fyi at the suggestion of a Baltimore friend who joined us, we ended up at Vino Rosina, www.vinorosina.com. It was excellent – food was good, the space was nice, modern etc., and I was glad that they also do “short pours” if you don’t want a full glass of wine. Had some excellent short ribs with a nice summer salad, and a short pour of California pinot. I'd definitely go again.
Help with good eats near Hopkins
Greetings Baltimore hounds. First: please forgive me, I haven't had time yet to do appropriate research, so I have a pretty open question. Taking a friend to dinner next Friday, respite for her while a spouse convalesces at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I'm not at all familiar with the area. Anything nice/convivial in the area? I'll be driving so yes, could go anywhere, but my unfamiliarity with your fair city is an issue. As far as I know friend eats all kinds of food, no issues there. Thanks for any thoughts as I begin to read through the Board.
El Rey de Chivito - Fast Gourmet inside of a Gas Station, DC
I went this past Saturday -- the day after a glowing little piece in the WaPo. showed up about 1:45. Chivito was outstanding. Took over 30 minutes to get my sandwich; the combination of the good notice plus allegedly one of three cooks out sick hurt them. They'll find their stride, I hope. I'll definitely be back.
Todos Santos, Baja Sur
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. We had a lovely week in Todos Santos/Pescadero – with a lot of truly wonderful food. Here’s the, er, not-so-skinny:
We stayed at Rancho Pescadero and had dinner there 4 times. Fish and shrimp entrees were especially delicious, as were the tortilla soup, shrimp and avocado salad. Chicken mole also yummy.
“Nice” meals:
Michael’s was wonderful, as advertised here. Beautiful garden space, super friendly chef and staff (that was really the case absolutely everywhere, so I won’t repeat myself). Vietnamese style crabcakes, green chili pork curry (more like a mexican stew, actually), scallops in red curry. Delicious.
Suki’s: Delicious and lovely, also lovely outdoor garden space. Thai noodle salad, coconut/veg soup, green chili curry. Great.
Carlito’s (in Pescadero) – outstanding. Sebiche, lobster roll, “shrimp carlito’s (really big ones, great ranchero-style sauce/spices), stuffed banana peppers. Yum.
Lunch at El Zaguan – great fish/seafood. More expensive than it should have been for what it was, but the food was truly delicious.
Lunch at Café Santa Fe. Wasn’t gonna go, but curiosity got the best of us. Lovely space. Truly delicious pasta. Truly silly prices.
Tacos:
As great as all of the other food is/was, it was the tacos that we knew we REALLY cared about. Bottom line is that we didn’t eat a taco that wasn’t excellent. Everyone has their faves, of course, but I really don’t think you can go wrong anywhere.
Before we even got to town we stopped at La Colonia, a little stand at approximately km 78 on the highway – really great carnitas.
Coming into town, turning right on the ruta des camiones, the first stand on your left (it has a name and I can’t remember it!) was our overall favorite. Fish tacos that had that perfectly crispy crust, almost creamy fish inside. Just divine. I could eat here three times every day and not get tired of them. [perfect Mexico moment here: the first couple of days we were in the area Todos had power outage problems. Was this a problem for these taco ladies? Nope. Need to power the blender for more salsa, etc? Walk over to the pickup truck, plug the transformer into the truck battery, plug it into the blender, whirrrrrrr, and delicious salsas are ready to go!].
Barrajas: tried the fish and the carnitas. Both delicious. Fish especially generous. Not quite as crispy/creamy as mentioned above.
Georges: also excellent. Unfortunately had run out of guac the day we stopped by, but clearly popular and worth a visit.
Chilako’s: Outrageous carne asada. I was warned that the folks who run this place weren’t always friendly. Not AT ALL my experience. Lovely folks, great food.
Other important things:
Ice cream! La Paloma. Great. I was particularly in love with the fresh lime sorbet.
Churros! I think just Friday and Saturday eves, a little stand just up the block from Suki’s. 6 churros in a bag for 20 pesos. Oh yeah.
L’Esquina: a great “third place.” Just a lovely place to plop down and eat and drink (or not – they really don’t seem to care), relax, read, etc. Garden setting (yes, this is clearly a theme). Delicious agua frescas, and we had good cookies and one day an outrageously delicious piece of zucchini cake. I want to transplant this place to my hometown. Oh, wait, our weather can’t often accommodate it. Damn.
Baja Beans: wow, were we lucky. Baja Beans opened recently in Pescadero (km marker 60 or 61?) and it’s AMAZING. Great coffees, and chocolate and carrot cakes that will make you weep. Seriously. I am not making this up. I'd consider moving here just so I could hang out here every day. You know we were staying close by, at the Rancho. We heard about this place at the end of a yoga class, when the buzz went around “chocolate cake at BB today.” after a quick shower we hustled (as much as you can hustle in that chill environment) over there and were greeted by another great “third place” where you can hang out in the garden all day if you want to. by the time we finished a piece of cake nearly our entire (two dozen) yoga class colleagues had shown up! Another great moment.
So – if you’re planning to visit Todos, or if you’re close – you’re going to eat very well. you can spend a lot if you want to or absolutely not; either way you won’t be disappointed.
Todos Santos, Baja Sur
Thanks so much for everyone's replies. Taking all these recs with me. My wife was there last year and you're validating what she loved and giving us some new tips. We're going the last week of the month and of course will report back.
Buen provecho!
"3" in Arlington
Any recent experiences at this Clarendon spot? Trying to search board, but it's a tough name to search on.
Looks/sounds like it would be a buzzing place, comfort food etc. I'm especially interested in the bacon options (not as many on the menu as I'd hoped but what's there looks excellent).
Thanks!
Chef Ricardo Munoz Zurita now in Condesa - Azul in Condesa
Plus one re pescadero. Had this a couple of weeks ago. Highly recommended!
Todos Santos, Baja Sur
Thanks so much. We'll be there Sunday to Sunday, 2/20-2/27. No real intention of driving into town at night - i like the idea of breaking up the langorous days by coming in for comida of our choice, and stay in Pescadero in the eve. Uh-oh - is Michael or Hotelito open for comida?
Todos Santos, Baja Sur
Mariana, I've just done a scan of history and see the many helpful posts from you - thank you in advance!
You mentioned some restricted days for Michael's and Hotelito - what's the scoop on them currently (we'll be in town the last week of February).
Gracias!
Mexico City restaurant that isn't Pujol
I was at Dulce Patria a couple of weeks ago. Outstanding, definitely go. P.S. EVERYONE except us got the guanabana margarita. It's a frozen concoction, fyi.
Also went to Azul y Oro for comida. It is as advertised.....not at all fancy, lovely staff, and truly wonderful food - huge flavor.
