loriannkru's Profile
How are these Miami Beach choices for Easter weekend?
Hi. We are From NNJ/NYC, and this will be our first trip to Miami Beach. We are staying at Eden Roc, from Sat - Wed, but won't pick up a car rental until Monday.
For our first night, I thought we'd go to Scarpetta because it's close by, and we love it in NYC. Second night is Easter, and we were thinking 1500 degrees, also close by. Once we have car, we were thinking Joe's Stone Crab and Pied a Terre.
Is there anything fantastic that we would be remiss to not try? Would you sub in Michael's Genuine, Michy's, Hakkasan, Sra. Martinez.?
Is Gotham STEAK dissapointing? I love gotham Bar in NYC.
We are equally happy dresing up or down...just would like to go to the places making the most exciting, innovative and delicious food.
Memphis report: Central BB, Corky's, Gus' World Famous Fried Chicken
We just spent two days in Memphis. Here's a quick report.
Central BBQ: we thought this pulled pork BBQ was a bit dry. We also had wet ribs--they were only ok--drier than a set of dry ribs we later had at Corky's. Generally, we weren't impressed at all by Central.
Corky's BBQ: liked this a lot, especially the dry ribs. The twice-baked potato salad is not to be missed. Banana pudding was decent.
The stand-out was Gus' World Famous Fried Chicken. This chicken is a little spicy, which we loved! We saw on Man V. Food to eat it with ranch dressing, and so we did. We also loved the baked beans (which are sweet) the slaw (sweet) and the coconut pie. I wasn't so excited about the dirty rice or the sweet potato pie. French fries were solid, but you can skip them. The potato salad was made with yellow mustard, which isn't my personal favorite. But the bottom line is that we would highly recommend Gus' to any of our friends visiting Memphis.
one night in Little Rock
Whole Hog. Details: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/733112
Three days in Little Rock.......
Thanks to all of you for the suggestions on this thread. My husband and I went this weekend - here's how we did:
Our favorite place of those we tried: Whole Hog. We loved trying the 6 different kinds of BBQ sauce on the table. (We hear there is a 7th "volcano" sauce available at the counter.) We went to Memphis after Little Rock and had BBQ at two other places (Corky's, Central), but Whole Hog was our favorite.
Loca Luna - go and get the crab cakes. The sauce on the side is worth the price of admission. We also liked the cheese dip with salsa. They claim to have the best margaritas in AK. We tried the premium ones on the rocks (and thought they weren't great). We finally tried the frozen - THAT was the good one. Brie and shrimp quesadillas were lackluster, and their very hyped tortilla soup was the worst I've had. Soft shell crab was very good.
Flying Fish - loved the atmosphere, loved the fried oysters. Thought the rest of the food was just standard (fried shrimp, hush puppies, french fries, gumbo over grits, bbq shrimp po boy.) Key lime pie was particularly lime-y (very good). Bread pudding was just ok.
We stopped by Trios for dessert one night - the banana delight was fantastic. Worth a trip for that.
Copper Grill - this was ok, too. I had the mac and cheese balls and some mushroom soup. Mac and cheese needed some umph; mushroom soup was terrific. My husband had the egg rolls and said they were ok. Peach and bacon-wrapped pork was decent. We weren't really excited by the place, on the whole.
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Loca Luna Restaurant
3519 Old Cantrell Rd, Little Rock, AR 72202
Heading Back to New York - Trying to Narrow the List.
Thanks so much! Loved the duck, the gnocchi, and the carrots. We also loved the oysters and the crispy pig head. Wasn't so wowed by the mackerel or the pork & duck terrine. We also loved the seven spice sour cocktail. We brought home crack pie (delicious) and compost cookies (bleh) from the milk bar. We'll definitely be back!
Heading Back to New York - Trying to Narrow the List.
Ellenost: I'm going to Ma Peche for the first time tonight. Can you suggest a few must-try dishes?
uhockey: Maybe this is old news to you, but I figured I'd mention a few must-try dishes just in case: Arroz de Pato at Aldea, sheep's milk ricotta crostini at Locanda Verde is simple and perfect. (I think you're not a wine drinker? If you've got others with you, the Vespaiolo on Locanda Verde's wine-by-the-glass list is unusual and delicious.) And SHO Shaun Hergatt--if you do make the special trip, the pearl barley risotto with maitake mushroom and an egg yolk on top is utterly fantastic. And one more thing - if you haven't been to Amada in Philly yet, that's a must-try.
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Aldea
31 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011
Locanda Verde
377 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10013
Ma Peche
15 W 56th St, New York, NY 10019
Istanbul report
We had a really excellent meal at a restaurant called Tugra which is right in the Ciragan Palace (now run by the Kempinski hotel). This place was massively expensive, though (I think about $350 for two apps, two entrees, cheese course as dessert, 6 glasses of wine. Note that you can get plenty of great meals for a LOT less than $350, but since Tugra was good, I’ve included it here.) If you go, definitely get the ancient-style mezze appetizer and the new-style mezze appetizer. I also thought my sea bass was the best example of a plain sea bass I ever had. It wasn’t gussied up with sauces and whatnot—you could just taste a perfect example of fresh fish. The service here was REALLY good, and you feel like you’re dining inside a museum. And they permit you to walk the grounds after dinner, which is worth doing. http://www.kempinski.com/en/istanbul/Restaurants%20and%20Bars/Restaurants/Pages/TugraRestaurant.aspx
(Note that imported wine in Istanbul is massively expensive – Tugra charged $35 for a glass of champagne, so you’re better off going with Turkish wines. All the Turkish wine we tried was very good. The national drink is something called Raki, which my husband says is like Ouzo – anise/licorice tasting. They pour you about a shot’s worth, and mix it with water and ice. This seems to be very popular with mezze.)
A great place for Lamacun was Tatbak, Akkavak Sokak 28/A Nisantasi. Lamacun (super-flat pizza on a crispy flatbread crust) is everywhere, and worth a try. It has ground lamb and some kind of red sauce on it. I think you’re supposed to put some parsley/arugula on it, squeeze lemon on it, then roll it up and eat it that wayWe also ordered Pide there (like a thicker crust pizza), and it was also excellent. I think Tatbak is only opened until 8 or 9 p.m. – they are more of a lunch place. I watched what everyone else was ordering, and nearly every person in the place got the lentil soup (including me). There are two little pots of sumac and dried pepper on the table. MAKE SURE to add some of that to your lentil soup – it’s delicious. Everything coming out of the kitchen looked delicious. This place was cheap. At lunch time, Turks seem to drink this sour yogurt drink called Aryan. You can try it at Tatbak. http://www.tatbak.com/
Another thing you should try on the street are the things that look like soggy hamburgers. They taste like a very-thin-patty hamburger with Turkish spices.
A lot of the restaurants are kebab places. One of the two best we tried was Sofyali 9 (off Istikal Cadessi). http://www.sofyali.com.tr/eng/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 I generally am not a fan of chard, but make sure to get the stuffed chard on the warm mezze menu. It’s delicious. They bring a whole tray full of mezze out, so you can just point to what you want. You might try the little Black Sea sardines on the cold mezze tray. I’m not a fan of sardines, but these were good and worth trying. (Right now, it is sardine season—you will see fishermen lining up on both sides of the bridge to catch “hamsi”. ) The kebab there was also excellent. http://www.sofyali.com.tr/eng/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
The other great kabab place was Tike. There are a number of locations. http://www.tike.com.tr/eng_index.asp
We went to this one little hole-in-the-wall place that reminded me of something you’d find in Brooklyn, Antiochia. http://antiochiaconcept.com/ Minare Sokek 21. They had great mezze. You can also try Durum there. Here’s the NYTimes review: http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/europe/turkey/istanbul/78768/antiochia/restaurant-detail.html
For fresh fish, we went to Mavi Balik. When you walk in, they have a display of fish, and you choose what you want. Red Snapper for two was somewhere around $80 - $90. Yikes. It was only ok. We went there because they have hamsi done the traditional way – coated in cornmeal and sautéed. I wasn’t wild about their hamsi, but my husband liked it. (Given the price of this place and my ho-hum review, I’d find traditional hamsi somewhere else.)
Since Zubeyir has gotten raves on Chowhound, we also checked them out. Bekar Sokak 28. They had good kebab.
By the last night, we’d had enough kebab, so we went to the Chalet at the Swissotel for fondue. It was great. So was the wurstsalat (salad of sausages and cheeses) and the gluwein (hot mulled wine, which was something like $15 per cup, but it WAS good.) It’s almost worth the trip just to see the chalet, which is built separately from the hotel…it’s really a chalet.
Vegas Report: Sage
When we sat down, I said to the waiter, "We heard you have some great items on the lounge menu. Would it be ok if we ordered some of those here at the table?" And that solved that. :-)
Vegas Report: Silk Road (breakfast)
Summary: Solid, but huge missed opportunity to eat somewhere excellent.
Good:
*Blood orange mimosa
*coffee - standard good
*Bellini
*Eggs benedict with spinach, confit tomato, canadian bacon, served over crisp potato - very good, but we both still prefer Payard. Definitely needed more hollandaise.
*Free range turkey hash – was a little overspiced with something I don't care for. My husband thought it was good, but not something to come back for.
Vegas Report: Todd English's P.U.B.
Summary: DO NOT MISS. Surprisingly excellent food—and nearly each dish packs a surprise. AND it’s relatively inexpensive for the strip. We went here twice. The first time we had everything that was our “A” list. The second time we went to our “B” list and found that nearly everything was still amazing. This is what Lagasse Stadium should be – but the food here is amazing, whereas the food at Lagasse is a universal disappointment.
Don’t miss:
*Bread pudding with toffee, caramel, delicious ice cream and Captain Crunch cereal
*Roast beef sliders with cheese, red onion, thousand island dressing - super delicious, totally better than the sum of the parts
*Turkey carvery - very good turkey, flavorful - a triumph of turkey. I mean, we only ordered Turkey because we were there on Thanksgiving day. But we'd seriously order it again.
*They have 6 sides from which to choose with all their carvery dishes. The horseradish sour cream was good, but the blue cheese fondue was just amazing. It seriously made me want to worship at the knee of the god of blue cheese. They also have a black truffle mayo, and they’re very generous with the truffle.
*Dirty Chips – potato chips with blue cheese dressing, scallion, bacon bits, fried chicken livers. These are really good. We wished we had more than just 2 people eating them…the order is huge. I think these would be better if they warmed up the chips. It’s a great idea in need of better execution. While these were good, they’d be better if they had more bacon bits anda better distribution of the sauce and scallions.
*Lobster slider - perfect. Great garlicky brown butter aioli. Lovely roll.
Good
*Mac + cheese – note this was noticeably better on our 2nd visit (but obviously good enough the first time to reorder on the 2nd visit.)
*Seven delightful sins – these are 7 quarter-sized ice chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, with 7 different flavors of ice cream. Lots of fun. Even though these are small, they came sliced in half so we could share.
*Respectable skinny fries
*Respectable pastrami sliders
*Fresh-popped popcorn (their version of a bread basket) – yummy, nice spices
*Grichebactom (grilled cheese bacon tomato) – with brie. Interesting. Very good, but not the best thing on the menu.
Skip it
*Todd English ketchup is kind of god-awful
*Chopped salad . It does have a nice mix of Mediterranean flavors, but still not “worthy.”
*Artisanal pretzels with cheese – pretzels need help
Vegas Report: MoZen
Summary: We went with high expectations. We found a restaurant with perfect service turning out perfect food. But note that while it’s spot-on perfect, it’s not revelatory. Went twice – once for breakfast, once for dinner. The bottom line:
Dinner: it’s not exciting enough to justify the opportunity cost of not eating somewhere else that will blow your socks off.
Breakfast: We think Payard is better, but this is very close.
Recommend
*Spicy tuna roll – very good, but not worth a special trip. We ordered it with a trio of sakes, which we enjoyed.
*Murgh mughani - very good, tender chicken with nice grilled flavor. Excellent sauce. Side of daal was very nice and spicy, chutney on the side was tremendous. Naan was ok.
*Polenta with mascarpone – perfectly buttery and delicious, served with a perfect mix of herbs. I was very happy to have leftovers of this for breakfast the next day. They serve a very generous portion.
*American breakfast was perfectly done – the pecan butter they serve with their waffles is excellent. Sausage is outstanding. Hash browns were excellent, perfectly seasoned. Roasted tomatoes were perfect.
*Croque Madame is made with a Serrano ham that is absolutely delicious. Could’ve used more mornay sauce.
*OJ is perfect, coffee is perfect
Good
*Mandarin orange crème brulee. We got this b/c there was supposed to be wasabi in the crème brulee. We couldn’t taste any. The crème brulee is over a dark chocolate ganache. On top is a blood orange salad and a citrus sorbet with spun sugar. All very nice, but nothing tremendous.
*72 hour short rib - very nice, good. Wouldn't come back for it or send anyone here for it. Nice pureed edamame on side with something crispy.
* Homemade yogurt with stewed fruits - very nice to taste homemade yogurt - sure isn't “Dannon Light + Fit!” Very creamy, but could have been better if more tangy/acidic.
Vegas Report: Guy Savoy Bubble Bar
We stopped in at the Bubble Bar again and had four small bites.
Worth a trip
*Truffle and artichoke soup with mushroom brioche – this is so delicious. Definitely worth stopping in for this alone.
Recommend
*Sweetbreads – very nice, simple preparation
*Beef tartare – nice.
Skip
*Oysters – eh. And I know this is supposed to be a signature dish. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, we are just dipping our toe in the water with oysters. But we loved them at Sage, and enjoyed them very much at RM Seafood. Not so excited about the preparation here.
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RM Seafood
3930 Las Vegas Blvd S 134-200A, Las Vegas, NV
Vegas Report: RM Seafood (downstairs) - lunch
Summary: Not worth a special trip.
Recommend
*Fish tacos – very spicy and delicious
*Oyster sampler – we are just dipping our toe in the water with oysters, but we each got a sampler and enjoyed them very much.
Good, not great
*Potato lobster soup – brioche in soup was very good
Skip it
*Tuna melt – yikes. When it came out, the melted cheese was already cold. And the sandwich had no tomato, but was in dire need of one. The potato chips that came with it were good.
*Fat Elvis Spring Rolls. How you can take a dessert with chocolate, peanut butter and bacon and still come up with something so unexciting is a mystery.
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RM Seafood
3930 Las Vegas Blvd S 134-200A, Las Vegas, NV
Vegas (mini) Report: Max Brenner
Go to this chocolate shop and get the macaroni and cheese! (No chocolate involved.) It’s truly savory and delicious! It comes with roasted tomatoes on it, and a side of marinara. It’s delicious without the marinara, but if you do put it on, it becomes a whole new (and equally delicious) dish. I would recommend a trip for this alone. It also has a nice breading topping.
I also had a chocolate peanut butter milkshake that I thought was perfect, and I’m not a huge fan of chocolate milkshakes. My husband had a white chocolate and Chambord martini that he also enjoyed very much.
We'd been to Max Brenner in NYC in the past, and weren't so blown away. But I found a half off coupon on Groupon one day, and figured "what the heck." So this was a pleasant surprise!
Vegas Report: Sage
Summary: run, don’t walk. One of our favorite meals this year. The first night, they had a limited menu that did not include the sweetbreads. So we went back a second night so we could try them.
Must have:
*Lounge food: Kusho oyster with Tabasco sorbet & tequila mignonette – delicious!
*Foie gras brulee – belongs in the Food Hall of Fame! Had this both times we went. After the first time, I was thinking perhaps I was imagining how good it was. Nope. It was THAT good the second time, too Truly a knockout dish. I think there are cocoa nibs on top. It also comes with incredibly delicious brioche bites with sea salt. My husband and I split this dish both times, and at half, I definitely had had enough. (It’s rich.) However, my husband said he would like to see how many of those he’d have to have before he had had enough.
*Yellowfin crudo - absolutely delicious. It had layers of flavor – first, loads of truffle, then a lot of “sea”, great with the pine nut. Also, I’m not a complete fan of mushrooms – I tend to approach them with caution, but there were mushrooms in this dish that were just delicious.
Recommended:
*Lounge food: oxtail crostini – tough decision whether to put this on the must have list. It’s excellent. Finished with some nice balsamic glaze.
*Risotto with lobster mushrooms, pumpkin seeds, sunchokes, butternut squash. Delicious. (I got it twice and want to try to figure out how to make it at home.) It also has tiny dehydrated grapes in it, which are a surprising element. I asked what else was in it—mascarpone, cream, parmesan.
*Sweetbreads – these ARE really good, but I have to say that my first thought upon tasting them was “Kentucky Fried Sweetbread.” It’s no wonder everyone loves these—they’ve got the Colonel’s seasonings. :) They come with some spinach & mushroom. Very nice.
*Dessert amuse from the chef – chocolate caramel soup shooter – outstanding
*Amuse bouche day 1: burrata white bean puree, fennel cracker, artichoke. Delicious and fresh tasting.
*Desert Shrub cocktail - tequila, grapefruit & prosecco
*European Union cocktail – raspberry lamic, chocolate stout, brandy. Good blend of flavors and unique enough to give it a try.
*Dark & stormy – for those who think ginger beer sounds good.
*Sourdough roll in the bread basket is very good
Just ok, not standouts
*Crab and corn fritters – very good, but believe it or not, I think Cheesecake Factory’s corn fritters taste better. (Sorry Shawn McClain.)
*Farm egg – standard
*Amuse bouche day 2 – butter bean crepe with cranberry sauce
Skip it
*Bacon bread in the bread basket - tasted a little dry or stale
Room for improvements:
I SO have a pet peeve about wine being served at the wrong temperature. I ordered a glass of white Burgundy that clearly came out of a regular refrigerator (way too cold). At $27 per glass, get the temperature right, people. Also, instead of bringing out that overchilled bottle so I could taste it before they poured, the waiter just brought out a carafe. Bush league all around. C’mon, c’mon!
Others have mentioned that regardless of whether you show for your reservation on time, the hostess seems to park you at the bar first. That happened to us on one night, too. Not the biggest annoyance, but if you show up for your rezzie on time, and they clearly have a table open for you, this just seems like a ploy to up your bill (who’s NOT going to get a drink while they wait?)
Vegas Report: Joel Robuchon
Summary: A mixed bag. And since it’s a 3-star Michelin, we’re not really pleased when it’s a mixed bag…we’re looking for our socks to be knocked off. So disappointing overall.
Evening started off on the wrong foot. The car they sent to pick us up didn’t show, and we didn’t get a call warning us. They apologized for it when we showed up, but didn’t do anything else, which I thought was surprising. (Like pick up the tab for the cab?)
In any case, here’s the story on the important part…the food!
Standout dishes:
*The amuse bouche with caviar was truly outstanding. I could eat this 3x/day. We also loved their Bruno Paillard champagne – terrific match.
*Foie gras and artichoke – very refreshing, very interesting to have artichoke as the highlight. Unusual and delicious.
*Cheese cart – what a great cheese cart. I loved that they weren’t afraid to put some off-putting choices on there- Epoisses, Muenster, Pont L’Eveque. We love cheese and are familiar with a lot of cheeses, but they had one we’d never heard of called Boulette d'Avesnes. It makes my heart go pitty pat when restaurants have a cheese cart in the first place, don’t dumb down their cheese selection, AND when they put unusual stuff on the cart. So they totally got a gold star from us! And I should mention that our server was also really nice, friendly, helpful. Perfect service from him.
*Mashed potatoes – totally amazing, tremendous.
*Hazelnut crème brulee with pop rocks – utterly delicious, absolutely fun.
*Mignardes. Just entirely too much fun to have 40-some odd dessert bites rolled out in front of you. Loved the lemon lollipop. Loved the cannelle de Bordeaux(?)—looked like a little Alsatian Gugelhopf, but tasted different. Even the caramel was a standout.
Just ok
*Langoustine ravioli with black truffle. I think Chowhounder uhockey warned against this, but I dove right in anyway. And the langoustine was a little tough. And the sum of the parts wasn’t magical. At this point, I said to my husband, “Oh dear. I’ve had a LOT of better meals this year. “ And he responded, “I’ve had a better meal TODAY. ”
*The bread cart. We were so looking forward to this, but I really wished they would have had 3 great breads rather than a ton of breads that were just ok. We tried the rosemary, gruyere, comte, basil, bacon/mustard, olive oil and plain baguette. All solid efforts. But by comparison, the mushroom brioche served over at Guy Savoy blows the doors of any of those breads, IMO. The butter and olive oil they served were fantastic, though.
*Chestnut veloute. I am a lover of soup. This was nice, but not something I’d run back for. The chestnuts were interesting, and we’re happy to find foie gras anywhere, including at the bottom of a bowl of soup. But again, not a standout dish.
*Sole. My husband and I agreed the fish was perfectly cooked, but I thought the delicate flavor of the fish was completely overpowered by the Mediterranean flavors in the dish. I didn’t think this was an improvement on a sole meunier.
*Duck & foie. Basic/basic. Sigh. And the fat on the duck really needed a bit more rendering.
Sommelier – so we’re super tolerant about accents, happy to stretch to give non-native English speakers a break. But their sommelier’s English was pretty tough to understand. I could catch names of grapes here and there, but really couldn’t get enough of what she was trying to say as descriptions of the wines. And then…on top of that…we’ve got to say that we didn’t really “get” her pairings. They were fine, but nothing happened where 1+1 = 4, and that’s what we’re looking for our sommelier to do. She still gets kudos for having that Bruno Paillard Champagne on the menu. And we found two unusual dessert wines we’d never heard of, tried, and loved (Charente Pineau des Charentes; Vin de Constance). But they definitely need a better sommelier on all counts listed above.
Décor – OMG, there were tacky LED candles on the tables. I wouldn’t put those out for a formal dinner at my HOUSE. In a room full of stunning floral arrangements that probably cost thousands of dollars, LED candles? Confusing.
A few last notes– I went to Per Se for the first time just a few weeks back, so I had that 3-star Michelin experience fresh in my mind. In that case, we just kept getting served one mind-blowing dish after another. So that’s what I’m looking for. This dinner had its moments, but totally paled in comparison. We’ve also been to Twist within the last year, and had a much better experience there. We felt Twist was swinging for the fences on every dish, and we thought they hit it out of the park more often than not. We just didn’t get that mind-blowing “out-of-the-park” experience here. We’ve also been to L’Atelier twice and found it more inventive and exciting.
Final bummer – they sent everyone home with a chocolate bar instead of a loaf of cake/bread. Sadness.
Vegas (mini) Report: Bradley Ogden
Hi - we ate in the restaurant. When we checked in, I explained to the host that we wanted the burger (on the bar menu) and the souffle (on the restaurant menu) and asked him where he'd like us to go. (It was a little slow that evening, so I suppose they didn't mind bending the rules by bringing the burger to the dining room.) The service was excellent, atmosphere was quiet. (But a lot of the strip was quiet last week.)
Vegas (mini) Report: Bradley Ogden
So we decided to solve our problem of "too many restaurants, too little time" by doing some grazing between restaurants. We'd long heard about Bradley Ogden's burger and twice-baked blue cheese souffle, so we went in to try those.
Worth a special trip:
* Yep, that twice-baked blue cheese souffle has entered our Food Hall of Fame. It's a tiny, perfect serving. It comes along with beautifully-prepared pears, some pear puree, some crumbled blue cheese and candied walnuts.
Good, recommend:
*The corn bread
*Cherry Limeaid cocktail - nice enough.
* Burger - the meat on the burger is a very good, nicely seasoned burger. It's kind of the epitome of what a standard burger should be. Definitely solid, perfectly prepared. Comes along with some very nice fries. If you're looking for an imaginative burger, go elsewhere. But if you're looking for solid classic, this fits the bill.
Just ok:
*Amuse bouche was foie gras on brioche with vanilla gastrique and persimmon gelee. Wasn't anything revelatory.
*Caesar Salad. This is billed as their signature caesar salad, so we figured we'd give it a go. It was a remarkably common caesar salad to be billed as a signature dish....
Skip it
*Las Vegas Heat cocktail - chipotle flavor. Meh.
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Bradley Ogden
3570 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Vegas Report: Country Club
So, we just made another return trip to Country Club for the French Dip....but it was Thanksgiving and not on the menu. Talk about poor planning. I do wish they would've told us when we called to make the reservation. At least the service was outstanding!
Good, but not worth a special trip:
* French fries are improved, not too salty this time.
* Duck confit salad - standard, but done well - solid effort
* Gumbo is very good - a solid, well-seasoned gumbo
* Creamed corn, brioche stuffing (for Thanksgiving) both very good
* The Bombolone dessert is kind of nice. You get six small doughnuts with a molten buttery chocolate filling. This would be great if you're there with a group that doesn't have room for dessert, but wouldn't mind one (or two) sweet bites. It's not the best dessert you'll ever have, but it's worth a taste.
Wouldn't bother:
* Pumpkin soup - dud, lacked savory flavor
carne vino or raos
Agree with Scarpetta - I'm from the NYC area, and we love it! The can't-miss dish is the spaghetti. They also put a stromboli in the bread basket here that is to die for. We also like the fritto misto.
No Zagat ratings of Disney restaurants?
Sure will! Thanks for the guidance! I'm going to see if we can get a reservation at Chef's Table - looks like an interesting place.
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Chef's Table
4290 S Highway 27 Ste 106, Clermont, FL 34711
Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2010 (Orlando)
I had the Grand Marnier slushie earlier this year and thought it was perfectly fine until I let my friend try it, and he said, "Tastes like St. Joseph's aspirin for children." And then I coudn't get that out of my head.
No Zagat ratings of Disney restaurants?
Thanks to all of you - I figured out what i was doing wrong. I set my location as Orlando instead of Orlando area. I suppose since the Disney restaurants are in Lake Buena Vista, they weren't coming up.
For one night, I'm debating between California Grill and K Restaurant and Wine Bar (Haven't been to either.) For another night, I'm debating between BlueZoo (have been) or Primo (haven't been). (Ravenous Pig is a definite on a third night.) I was looking at Zagat to see user reviews of the restaurants, to try to help me decide. Of course, I'd be interested in any of your thoughts.
Thanks again for all your comments! And YosemiteSam, I had checked out your great post and all the Chowhound Orlando guides for tourists first so as to not drive you regular Hounders crazy. I just treat these restaurant decisions as a "full-contact sport." Too few days in Orlando, too many good choices for food!
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California Grill
Disneys Contemporary Resort, Orlando, FL 32830
Annual visit - How's my lineup
Well, I've decided that one way to solve this dilemma is to just go to both. (Next I'll ponder the dilemma of how to also still pay the mortgage.)
TRULY appreciate everyone's thoughts, and of course, will report back!
Annual visit - How's my lineup
Well, that seals the deal. Thank you SO MUCH, willyum! I will definitely report back. We'll be there 5 nights during Thanksgiving. Can't wait!
Annual visit - How's my lineup
Ian, great post. We have Alex booked for our anniversary next month, but I'm thinking of switching to Robuchon based on your recommendation. We also LOVE Julian Serrano--and totally agree that the sangria rocks.
Looking for the middle ground
And check out discounts available at restaurant.com. For more, see this post: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/735447?tag=main_body;topic-735447
No Zagat ratings of Disney restaurants?
I just looked at Zagats and can't find ratings of any Disney restaurant. I could've sworn they've been inlcluded in the past. Any ideas?
Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2010 (Orlando)
Laura's review and the survey are incredibly helpful. Thanks!
