Thanks to all who helped us plan a trip to Berlin in late August. Life delayed the report, but we had a fabulous time and looking forward to returning in May. Focused on picking places to eat that were kid friendly and reasonably priced with an emphasis on German food in deference to Dad's preferences.

We stayed in Mitte, well-located for tourist attractions but a bit lacking for food options. Picked up breakfast most mornings from the nearest Kaiser which was more than adequate for our needs.

We had 5 dinners in Berlin:
1. Cotto e Crudo - small Italian place in P'Berg. Great antipasto app, varied number of pasta dishes. Extremely well priced with most mains 8-12E. For the price, an excellent value. Every dish was solid, and we sampled 80% of the pasta dishes available. The meats in the antipasto platter were excellent. We enjoyed it enough to return for a 2nd evening. Ran about 90E for 6 of us, including appetizers, plentiful drinks and mains. Service was v good. Looking forward to a revisit in May.

2. Maximillian's - went here on the rec of our tour guide. Acceptable German food in the middle of Mitte with reasonable prices for quantity/quality of food served. Our 2 year old loved running around in the interior atrium. That being said, nothing about the place would encourage us to return, nothing outstanding about the food.

3. Schwarzwaldstuben - generous portions, had great beer options (Rothaus, a favorite of the trip), slow service. Good value for the money and offered some options we hadn't seen before, reflecting more southern German cuisine. Would come back if we were in the area.

4. Pratergarten - ate here on our last night. I remember the cream of chanterelle soup was quite good as was the goulash. Our veggie eater ordered mashed potatoes, hard boiled eggs with mustard which translated 2 mashed potatoes, eggs swimming in a jar of Dijon - can't say I recommend that particular dish though overall the place had good food and a nice ambience for a summer evening. Would go back in nice weather.

We didn't have big lunches. We did eat at Meierei in Potsdam which had fabulous views of the lake - quite picturesque. Food was very acceptable at the outdoor biergarten, though our veggie eater had some difficulty. Would return for the views.

Also had lunch at Sargentino. Small place in Mitte focusing on Umbrian food. For 10E you get either soup or salad and the pasta of the day. Terrific food and value, can get crowded. Would return for lunch in a heartbeat.

Overall had a great time in Berlin and looking forward to trying new places (Katz Orange!) at our next visit. Thanks again to all who gave us recs.

Thanks I've added Watzke Ball to our restaurant list - we leave in 3 weeks, very excited!

We'll be going to Berlin in August and your reviews are really helpful - thanks. Glad to hear you had a good time!

Hi all,

Chow has been invaluable in helping us plan our trips and we have one coming up to Germany - Dresden and Berlin specifically. We're traveling as a larger group this time and dietary preferences are making selections a bit more difficult. We want family friendly places, good food, and a reasonable price point (I don't have a max number, but aiming for about 25E per head for dinners excluding alcohol) - great values are always a plus. Much as I would love to try some of the Michelin starred places in Berlin, its not going to jive with the rest of the family, and not with my 2.5 year old (though she did an admirable job in Paris). I need to find places that will fit my fathers desire to sample local (German) cuisine/beer and my sisters psuedo-vegetarian preferences (chicken/fish/veggies only).

I've read the threads on Berlin and have a few ideas, would love to here any others. Feedback on Dresden seems a bit weak recently, hoping to get more suggestions. Thanks in advance!

From what we gathered from the chef (via our waitress) it was a mixture of ground meat (mainly pork) layered lasagna style and roasted for a good portion of the day. It was served in the shape of a wedge of lettuce, but didn't get the info on how they managed to maintain that shape. I will try and email you a picture.

Really a great restaurant. Very much enjoyed it.

Catherine Reed was great with our daughter and didn't miss a beat when she saw her or her "stuff" (stroller, diaper bag etc). The restaurant is small, but IMO if your kids are well behaved (not prone to temper tantrums or throwing food) you'll be fine. If you are very concerned, eat early @ 730. We were the only customers for 2/3 of our meal there, but the place was filling up as we left.

This board (along with JT’s blog) was invaluable in helping us plan our recent to trip to France. We were aiming for lower key places as we were traveling with our 2 year old. We did not run into a single problem in terms of the restaurants accommodating her or us. That being said, the ipad, portable DVD, and headphones were meal-savers for us (and for those sitting around us) as was booking the earliest seating for dinners. We rented an apartment in the 3rd arrondiesement, usually had breakfast there and lunches were quick sandwhiches. We did enjoy 5 wonderful dinners in Paris. Prices are ballpark – relying on memory rather than receipts. We were traveling as 4 adults and one very energetic toddler. Apologize for length and any spelling/grammatical errors.

Sunday night in Montmarte – Au Clocher de Montmarte
This is a (relatively?) new restaurant on a street off to the side of the Sacre Couer that had 2 big benefits to us – the first was that it was open on a Sunday. The second is it's open continuously from 12pm. This allowed us to eat early at 630pm which was great for our daughter. We loved the ambience of the restaurant. The menu was short on French classical fare and leaned heavily towards sandwiches and eggs. The food was good, though nothing unique or extraordinary. We took our desserts to go and they were quite acceptable. In terms of quality of the food, this was the weakest restaurant, but the location and hours were ideal for our plans. I would return there if we were in the area, but would not make a special trip for it. 2 apertifes, a bottle of wine, 1 shared appetizer, 4 mains and 2 desserts to go were about 135E.

Monday evening – La Regalade (original location)
Our favorite meal of the trip. 34E prixe fixe menu is a hard deal to beat – many choices for each course and every dish was fantastic. The terrine and pickles to start were excellent and we probably could have made a meal just from that. For starters, we had squid ink risotto with prawns, which was the most interesting preparation of risotto I’ve tasted and cooked perfectly. One veal tartare which was lightly seared and served with shredded greens and a citrus based vinagrette- very good. I did not taste the scallops but were told the were excellent. 2 people had the braised beef as the main which our 2 year old could not get enough of. The cod was beautifully prepared. The pork belly was very good, but a bit on the fatty side for my tastes. In terms of dessert, 2 of us had the rice pudding was very good, one chocolate de crème (very good) and one soufflé. The best dessert for us was the soufflé no question. I know the rice pudding gets a lot of mention on the board, but I’ve had similar preparations in the past (thanks to my mom's apparently classic recipe), this one was a bit sweeter.
Total including 2 apertifs and a bottle of wine was approximately 180E . Would go back here in a heartbeat, and I’m not sure I could envision a trip to Paris without eating there.

Tuesday evening – Terroir Parisien.
This place opened a few weeks before our visit. Getting there was an adventure – multiple streets around the building had been closed for an event in the adjacent building. We finally did manage to communicate well enough with a police officer to make it to the restaurant. It was well worth the effort. The restaurant is modern in appearances and set-up, we loved the open kitchen and open feel to it. Our waitress was excellent and extremely accommodating to our daughter. My DH and FIL had to try French onion soup (in an attempt to see if they could find one equal to Julia’s) – it was an interesting preparation. It comes as a deconstructed soup with an onion and cheese in a bowl with the broth served alongside it in what resembles a creamer. It was good, but nothing all that special and probably would not reorder it. The foie gras terreine was excellent. 2 of us had the roasted cabbage served with ground pork shoulder – this was the most interesting dish we had in Paris . The meat and cabbage were layered lasagna-style and roasted – fabulous. Have not had anything like this elsewhere and my daughter could not eat it quickly enough. We also had the lamb stew and braised beef, both of which were very good. A side of pureed mashed potatoes rounded out the meal, and was amongst the best I’ve had. My DH and FIL found room for dessert – one St Victor and grand marnier soaked cake. Desserts were acceptable – don’t think this is the restaurants strongest point, or we didn’t order well.
2 apertifs, one bottle of wine, 3 appetizers, 4 mains and 2 desserts were about 150E. Felt this place offers an excellent value in terms of the quality of food. Would return in a heartbeat – and is a great Sunday night option IMO.

Wednesday night – Le Galopin
This was an anniversary dinner for myself and my DH – didn’t think our daughter would sit through a 7 course anything. We loved the restaurant, small and cozy with the kitchen visible if you were seated on the first floor, on a very quaint street in the 10th. Dinner is 7 courses, no choices. The food was excellent, most dishes seemed to have an Asian tilt to them and foams were present in the majority. Felt the balance of meat/fish to vegetables was great and good texture combinations. I’m a bit hazy on some details as I lost my notes . First course was a whitefish seared with miso. Best dish of the night. Amazing flavor combination. Second course was a mussel broth with roe, very nice. Third course was a fish tartare served with a combination of vegetables. Fourth course was seared duck and fifth course was a bass (or similar fish). Everything cooked very well. Felt the desserts were the weak point – the kitchen was trying to match sweet and savory with varying success – dark chocholate pieces with celery sorbet didn’t work for me. I don’t remember the second dessert, I’m not sure I had more than a bite or two of it. My DH had cheeses in lieu of the desserts which were all quite good.
We had a great time and would return,. Felt the price was extremely reasonable for the quality of cooking and quantity of food. With 1 pot of wine and 2 dinner services, the bill was extremely reasonable – about 105E.

Thrusday night – Reed
Chose this place because of the mentions on CH. It’s a small restaurant, about 20 seats, and Catherine Reed seems to do pretty much everything herself with very impressive results. Another open kitchen (beautiful stove – I was quite jealous). My DH and FIL each had the red pepper and tomoato bisque to start which was excellent – amongst the best soups I’ve every tasted. Other starters were the foie gras terriene with greens which was very good and the Sicilian tarte – a flatbread served with heirloom tomatoes. In terms of mains, the chicken dish was by far the best – expertly cooked and the mushrooms were excellent. This was served along with braised endive and a vinagrette that has now become my favorite dressing. Have spent most of the past 3 weeks trying recreate it with varying degrees of success (if anyone has tips, pls let me know!) We also had the lamb stew, risotto served with asparagus and prosciutto (the risotto was quite nice and really took on the flavor of the asparagus), and the veal. No complaints from anyone. Desserts are homemade and we tried the chocolate mousse and boston crème pie – both quite good.
All in all, an excellent meal and an excellent value for the area. We would certainly return. The above with a bottle of wine was about 170E.

All in all, a wonderful trip and wonderful dining experiences. Can't wait to return in the future!

We will be staying in Bayeux for 2 nights in March and I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations/thoughts on where to eat during our stay (most of the threads for the area are a bit old). We are flexible on price, but prefer to keep it to 30E per head. Local/regional food. We will have our 2.5 year old with us so a lower key atmosphere would be ideal. If it matters, we will have a car and can travel. Also, any other food or wine-related recommendations? We will be in Bayeux on a Saturday and are already looking forward to the market.

Thanks!

Thanks for the recommendations - we've been to Grouper and Chips for lunch and enjoyed it. How is dinner there?

Last time we were at Randy's it was not as good as it had been in the past but we were going to give it another try....has it continued to slip?

We will be spending 3 nights in Palm Harbor and 4 nights in Naples at the end of August, traveling as a family of 7. We've spent time in Naples before and have old favorites (Nemo's, Randy's) but are looking to try some new ones as well.

We'd like to focus mostly on seafood places (despite the great reviews on Inca, Bha Bha bistro in Naples - we'll have to save them for another trip), and we're trying to keep entree prices below $25-30 per plate. We're not looking for upscale ambiance, just comfortable places to enjoy a good meal as a family.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated and we'll be sure to report back after our trip!

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Bha!
847 Vanderbilt Beach Rd, Naples, FL 34108

Thanks to all who replied a few months back to request for restaurant recommendations - the responses were enormously helpful and as a result we enjoyed wonderful meals during our stay in Florence. Never had any problems with our daughter, but we ate at 730 most evenings which was helpful. All restaurants were easily accessible from our hotel which was near the Duomo.

We also used Elizabeth Minchilli's app "Eat in Florence" to guide us as well - highly, highly, highly recommend it (as well as her blog!) and all her picks were great. Quick reviews are listed below - all the food we had was very good - well-prepared with high quality ingredients which makes it difficult to identify any one or two dishes as a "must have." We asked for recommendations at each restaurant and were always pointed towards good dishes.

Dinners:

Trattoria i Due G: located near the train station. We originally intended use this pick to sample the bisteca, but the rest of the menu was so appealing that we all wound up with different dishes, none of which were bisteca. Varied menu, All very good, authentic tuscan food. My FIL's veal stood out as the highlight of the meal. With a bottle of the house wine, 2 antipasti, 2 primi, 2 secondi came out to a reasonable 80E. They accept credit cards. We felt this was a good option near most of the tourist sites.

Trattoria Casalinga - we ate here for lunch on our first trip to Florence, liked it so much that we came back from dinner. Was happy to see that not much has changed in 2 years! Bustling trattoria located near Santo Spirito church, with very, very reasonable prices; cash only. Extremely friendly towards our 16 month old. We shared 2 antipasti, 3 primi, 1 secondi; carafe of the house wine came out to 55E. Excellent value. Varied menu with authentic tuscan food and each dish we ordered was great. Would return here in the future.

Osteria Antica Mescita - our favorite dinner of the trip. Located next to San Niccolo church, probably a 15-20 minute walk from Santa Croce. We sat in the lower level of the restaurant, in what used to be the crypt of the church. This restaurant had the most limited menu of the places we went to, but we felt the food was the highest quality. 2 of us had the pasta specials (fresh pasta, fresh vegetables), one the lemon chicken (felt that it was a very generous portion size, high quality chicken) and one had a salad. All delicious. We regretted not ordering the antipasti which looked great, but had previously enjoyed one crostini too many at Enoteca Fuori Porta - we know for next time to leave room! The above with a bottle of wine was about 55E. Excellent value for the quality of food. This is a great restaurant to stop at if you are coming/going from Piazzale Michelangelo. They take credit cards.

Lunches:

'Ino - we found this sandwich shop from the "Eat Florence" app. By far our favorite lunch - went back multiple times during our visit. We tried 4 different sandwich's, all were great. Best ones we had were when we asked the staff to make us their recommendations. Great location near the Ponte Vecchio and Uffizi but far enough off the beaten path that it is not (yet) touristy. 1 block away is Carapina, which was a favorite gelato place. Each sandwich is 8-10E and were split by 2 of us (though my daughter managed to inhale one all on her on)

Porks - Mercato Centrale. My DH and enjoyed this place on our first visit, went back this time. Friendly staff but felt the food wasn't quite as good as it was previously. We had the pork sandwich and various caponatas. Nerbone is the better option in the Mercato IMO, and I probably wouldn't return here.

Enoteca's:

Le Volpi e l'Uva - Oltarno. A little difficult to find, but well worth it. Very interesting and varied wine selection; had 5 glasses to share along with a generous cheese platter. 35E, well worth it. Had the place mostly to ourselves at 6pm, but filled up quickly afterwards with most of the tables reserved. Would come back here in a heartbeat.

Enoteca Fuori Porta - 2-3 blocks from Osteria Antica Mescita. Another lovely place to enjoy a glass of wine before dinner, adequate beer selection. Excellent crostini. Wound up ordering more food than we were planning as we enjoyed it so much! 4 glasses of wine, 2 beers, 2-3 crostini were 40E. Would return.

Gelato: We also manage to do a reasonable tour of the gelato offerings in Florence. Gelateria de Neri was the favorite, a close second was Carapina. Also enjoyed Vivoli (especially the riso flavor if you are a rice pudding fan; though prices are higher than at other gelaterias), Gelateria della Passera (good option on the oltarno, least expensive). The only place we didn't love was Grom - not quite sure why but felt it wasn't quite as good as the other places IMO.

Thanks again for the recommendations and hope the reviews are useful!

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Nerbone
Via dell'Ariento, 87r, Florence, Tuscany 50123, IT

Fuori Porta
Via del Monte alle Croci, 10, Florence, Tuscany 50125, IT

Vivoli
Via dell'Isola delle Stinche, 7, Florence, Tuscany 50122, IT

Grom
via del Campanile, Florence, Tuscany 50122, IT

Carapina
Piazza Guglielmo Oberdan,2r, Florence, Toscana 50136, IT

We received some great advice for our upcoming trip to Florence and we're hoping to get some additional help in choosing a restaurant for our short stay in Milan. We will be spending Sunday night in Milan (arriving that morning from the US) and we're looking for a place that serves traditional Milanese food, moderately priced, either close to the Stazione Centrale (where our hotel is) or easily accessible to it. We expect to be somewhat jet lagged, and would prefer to eat earlier (7pmish) to later. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the suggestions - Due G sounds great! Will be sure to report back.

We were informed when we called day of to request a table near the door so one of us could exit easily with our daughter if need be.

Thanks everyone for the responses - Al Tranvai looks like a great option for us.

To clarify the price point - we aren't big eaters and most likely will order 2-3 antipasti, 2-3 primi patti and 2 secondi patti for the table - that amount of food has worked well for us in the past in NYC. Hoping to keep the bill to at or below 100E for most of our dinners in Italy. Still, we'll probably have to break the budget one night for bisteca!

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Al Tranvai
Piazza Torquato Tasso, 14, Florence, Tuscany 50124, IT

We will be traveling to Florence in May - 4 adults and a 16 month old who has yet to meet a food she doesn't like :). We've looked extensively through chowhound as well as the divina cucina site and we're still having difficulty finalizing our dining plans. We're looking for authentic Tuscan food that is reasonably priced (would prefer to stay at 20E per adult for dinner, can push it to 30E if there is a restaurant that is worth it). Most importantly we want to make we choose family friendly place. We will have 3 dinners in Florence - Monday through Wednesday.

Bisteca Places: Sostanza, Cammillo, Buca Lapi seem to have favorable reviews. We'd like one of our dinners to focus mainly on bisteca. We were also intrigued by Omero, is it worth the trip?

The other restaurants we have been looking at include Casalinga, Osteria Antica Mescita, All'Antico Ristoro di'Cambi, Il Contadino, and Trattoria Cibreo.

Any feedback/guidance/opinions will be appreciated!

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Cibreo
Via Andrea del Verrocchio, 8/r, 50122, Florence, Tuscany 50122, IT

Sostanza
Via della Porcellana, 25, 50123, Florence, Tuscany 50123, IT

Buca Lapi
Via del Trebbio, 1, Florence, Tuscany 50123, IT

Completely agree with the suggestion for fine dining at lunch - we've taken our 1 year old to Perry St, Cafe Boulud, etc many times. I'm actually surprised to see the rec for Bouley - we attempted to eat there for lunch last month and we were informed by the maitre d that the chef does not want children under 5 in the dining room. This is the only restaurant that we have had a problem at, and we eat out fairly frequently.

Another option is to eat dinner early. We've actually found most places in the city to be very accomodating of our daughter, especially if you are willing to eat at/before 6pm. We've done this at Lupa, Otto, Babbo, Spotted Pig, and a number of other places.

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Lupa
170 Thompson Street, New York, NY 10012

Cafe Boulud
20 East 76th St., New York, NY 10021

Babbo
110 Waverly Pl, New York, NY 10011

Spotted Pig
314 W 11th St, New York, NY 10014

Love Square Meal but just heard (today) that they are no longer BYOB and are not currently serving liquor due to a snafu with a regulatory agency....They aren't sure when they will be back to serving/allowing alcohol in the restaurant.

We enjoyed our meal at Perilla much more so than our meal at August. Nothing about our experience at August would make us return (we don't have any complaints about it, but we also don't have any raves). Perilla was a very comfortable atmosphere, we were able to linger, and the food was very well prepared.

My DH and I will be moving to that area in a few days - looking for recommendations in the vicinity for good take out (we happily eat any type of cuisine), good restos, and any recs for grocery stores in the area.

Many thanks in advance for the advice!

We just returned from a long weekend in Montreal -- we ate at three great restaurants thanks to the recommendations of chowhound. I've never actually written a review before, so I'll apology in advance for any rookie mistakes.

APDC - We ate here our first night in Montreal. We had attempted to make reservations through the website, but somehow the reservations never made it into their book. Our hotel concierge was nice enough to take care of securing us a table 2 days prior to our trip. I wish we had a place like this in NY - incredibly unique and very good food. I had been a bit nervous to try this place as neither of us are particularly big fans of foie gras. We ordered based on our server's recommendations. Very casual restaurant, people are here to relax and enjoy their food.

We started by sharing the poutine. All I can say is wow - I didn't know foie gras could taste that good or that it could go so well with fries. It's certainly not a dish for those who are worried about their cholesterol.

My fiance had the duck in a can for his main course. This is, without a doubt, the most unique dish I've ever seen served. He loved it. I was a bit more on the boring side and had the lamb shank which was quite large and quite good. By that point we were compeletely stuffed and skipped dessert.

We each had one glass of white wine which was recommended by our server and went well with both of our dishes. Total with tax and tip was about 130 CAD.

Our second night in Montreal found us at Les Montees de Lait. It's clearly a local place as we were the only folks who spoke English in there. Even though we were close to 30 minutes late for our 8pm reservation, they seated us right away. Though the restaurant was half empty when we walked in at 8:30, it was full by 9pm. We each had opted to have the four course menu. My fiance and I were both thoroughly impressed by the depth of the wine list here and it was by far the most comprehensive listing of the three places.

My fiance started with a halibut dish that was a special for the evening and was excellent according to him - he didn't share that one so I'm assuming it was quite good. His second course was also a special and was escargot cooked into a ravioli. The escargot were incredibly tender, with just the right amount of garlic cooked with it. He didn't like this dish as much as his first, but it was also his first attempt at escargot. He then followed with the venison dish that was also very well done and finished off the evening with the pot de creme dessert that he claims was the best he's ever had.

I followed our servers recommendations when ordering my meal - I started off with the blue fin tuna dish which was good, but nothing special. It's a "safe" dish to start with, but I've had similar preparations at many different places. Next course was goat cheese and grilled eggplant, which was a combination I had never had before. It worked, but was very rich and very filling to the point where I could not finish it. Pork belly was my third course which was quite excellent- this dish was the highlight of my meal. For dessert I had the chocolate mousse which was a little too far on the bitter side for my tastes, but I'm not that big a fan of chocolate in the first place.

We each had a different glass of white wine and of red wine that were well-paired to our meals. The only hiccup in the meal was the service between our third and fourth courses - it took nearly 40 minutes between courses, despite our request for a menu. Total with tax and tip was about 160 CAD.

For our last night we ventured to Joe Beef. This was the place that we had the highest expectations for given all the buzz around it. We arrived a bit early for our 7pm reservations and were seated without a problem. Tables are very close together making it very difficult to have a private conversations.

We each ordered an appetizer and a main, our server chose a wonderful red wine to pair our meals to. I would say this was the best choice of the three places we went to in terms of pairing.

My fiance started out with the rabbit appetizer. He was happy with the preparation and left none of it behind. He ordered the sirloin for his main course as he really wanted meat and he certainly got it. The portion size was enormous - I think we both could have shared it and left full. It was cooked perfectly to his specifications and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Very good.

I started with the soup made with pork, artichokes, and fall vegetables cooked in a chicken broth base. Not that exciting a dish, but very good. For the main, I had one of the evenings specials which was halibut, scallops, and clams. Tremendous portion size, and everything cooked incredibly well.

Though there were no disappointments at all with the meal, this is the place that we'd be least likely to return to in the future. I can't really put my finger on why, but it wasn't as unique as the other two - it was just missing something -- although it may very well have been our high expectations. But the food was still very very good. Total with tax and tip was 160CAD.

The glasses of wine never ran us more than 12 CAD per glass, which was quite reasonable, especially when compared to the prices in NYC. I thought all the restaurants offered a good value for the meal they were providing.

My fiance and I are planning our first trip together - and this will be our first time to Montreal. This website has been a tremendous help to us while planning our meals. So many of restaurants sound wonderful and we're looking for some advice on how to narrow down our choices. We have three nights there and our from our reasearch have chosen five options: APDC, Joe Beef, LCC&P, Brunoise, and Les Montees.

Having lived in NYC for 3+ years, we're somewhat spoiled by the options here. We're looking for great food, ambience plays a lesser role for us, and we'd love to find places that you don't have in NYC. While we're comfortable spending $$$ on a meal, we want it to be worth breaking the bank for. We're also hoping for one lower cost dinner (~50 pp before alcohol, tax, and tip) while we are there. Location doesn't matter. Any other suggestions are welcome.

We'll be going at the end of August, and will post back about our experiences. Thanks!!