redrover's Profile
How Do MSP restaurants compare to Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco Rests??
So I'm planning to come through the Minneapolis/St. Paul area for a couple of days this summer on my way back to the San Francisco Bay Area. As a visitor, I'm not looking for the highest of high end dining. One, I can't afford it, two I don't particularly enjoy the atmospherics. I'm looking for the locavore food. I'm looking for the ethnicities which aren't so well represented in the food scene out here--German, Swedish, Northern European generally. We've had some wonderful moderhn Scandinavian food in Portland, maybe we can hunt that up in your area. Maybe we'll go to a Vietnamese restaurant since that's sort of baseline food for us even though we're Anglo (when we went to New Orleans when my daughter was about 5 she was so happy to see Vietnamese food after all those weird crabs and things!). I'm starting to look forward to MSP for food.
Grand Central Market Late Sunday afternoon
I'm thinking about taking a group of people to Grand Central Market late on Sunday afternoon, maybe around 5. I haven't gone there that late and am wondering if the restaurants and vendors are still open. Are there many people there? I don't want to go if it will feel deserted and almost closed.
Grand Lake (Oakland): What to Eat and Where?
A bit of a nitpick, but even though Trueburger is on Grand (and has great burgers), I'd group it more with the Uptown places like Hawker Fare, Pican, Plum etc. It's a lot closer to them.
Torta de Tamal (tamale sandwich) at Tamales Amy inside Produce Pro in Oakland on San Pablo Av @ 23rd St
No place on site to sit, right?
Around the World in Berkeley
So within a 20 minute walk of most of campus:
Chinese--Great China
French--La Note
Indonesian--Jaykarta
Italian--Corso
Iranian/Persian--Alborz
Irish--Bec's
Japanese--Ippuku
New Orleans--Angelyne's
Vietnamese--Anh Hong
One more is needed
The New York Times says go to Oakland for the food
The New York Times named Oakland one of its' 45 Places to Go in 2012, for the restaurants. Oakland is listing #5:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/travel/45-places-to-go-in-2012.html?ref=travel
Thai Town places open today, Christmas?
I'm wondering if restaurants in Thai Town are likely to be open today, Christmas Day?
Most Divisive Restaurants?
Great category. I've accepted the Chowhound wisdom on Canter's as a deli, but their bread and rolls are actually quite good. Intelligentsia makes a good cup of coffee, but so drips with attitude (especially in Silver Lake) that I can't stand it. Their original Chicago site is, I guess unsurprisingly, far less pretentious. I thought In 'n Out was OK, but never understood why there were the object of such veneration.
Chipwich - is this available in LA???
I usually try to avoid nostalgia on Chowhound, but you guys brought back the summer of 1981 for me. I was working in Lower Manhattan near Wall St. and used to buy Chipwiches all the time. Lord knows how many calories I was eating, if I'd been sensible I would have eaten for lunch instead of after. In my memory they are fabulous!
The It's It is a good ice cream sandwich, made in the Bay Area, but it doesn't have cookie outsides
Any reports on month-old Origen in Berkeley?
My wife, teenage daughter and I had a good experience there last night. The two of them shared the tasting menu, made easier by the fact that the server accidentally brought an extra dish! The gnocchi was the standout for them, also the pate. I got the flatiron steak, which was fine, if not exactly huge. Timing was definitely off, there were long intervals between some of the courses. It's definitely a large, ambitious menu with almost a confusing amount of information. The decor is nothing to write home about, it reminded us very much of visits to previous restaurants on the site, like Zax Tavern. We'd go back.
Where is the center of the LA food universe?
Choosing a neighborhood for reasons besides food? Scandalous!
It's hard to come up with criteria on this one. If you look at Jonathan Gold's 99 (insert snarky remark here), he's got about as many places east of Vine St. as west of Vine. To the east there's Thai Town, Koreatown, Downtown, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley. To the west there's Hollywood, Fairfax, Beverly Hills, Westwood Blvd., Sawtelle, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Venice. Very different kinds of food in the two directions, but maybe relatively even.
If you located around Hollywood & Vine, you'd have good transit access with the Red Line subway station and a bunch of bus lines converging. From a driving standpoint you'd probably want to be a little further south.
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Little Tokyo Restaurant
150 E Bonita Ave, San Dimas, CA 91773
Vine St
1235 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Golds 99 essential restaurants 2011 up
http://www.thedeliciouslife.com/jonathan-golds-99-essential-la-restaurants-2005-2011/ That's a spreadsheet workup The Delicious Life did on Gold's 99. It shows that 28 restaurants are new to the list this year, only 5 of which had previously appeared. It also shows that only 22 places have been on the list since the beginning in 2005. Chowhounds love to disagree with critics (what is this list for), fair enough, but that rate of change says to me that Gold's list is not ossified old places. You might not agree with all the choices, that makes sense, but he's not just recycling the past.
No Dim Sum West Of The 405?
Hong Kong is considered "eastern" because it's east of Europe via the most direct route. But the most direct route from California to Hong Kong goes west. Thus there is a restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area known as Hong Kong East Ocean.
Pasadena is weak!
Would the new Dog Haus beer garden be the place to look for craft beer in Pasadena, or are there other places?
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Dog Haus
105 N Hill Ave, Pasadena, CA 91106
Current dense restaurant clusters in Palo Alto and Mountain View downtowns
I really like going to Downtown Mountain View because I can see a lot of potential places to eat without a huge amount of driving around.
Now, not to be competitive or anything, but the Downtown Berkeley Association's list of eating places of all kinds lists 143 places. I think the list is mostly valid, though the website with Giovanni's is a small chain in central Florida.
http://www.downtownberkeley.org/index.php?option=com_dindirectory&page=byletter&alpha=&Itemid=48
Seating favoritism at La Note, Berkeley
I encountered some highly irritating seating favoritism at La Note on Saturday. I arrived with my teenage daughter at around 1:00, and there was a line, as you'd expect. I signed in, the hostess wrote my name down along with everyone else. We both waited there the whole time.
We waited a surprisingly long time given the number of people in the restaurant (declining). Then we started noticing that parties the same size as ours (two people), sitting in the same place (inside) were being seated before us. I looked on the list, and sure enough names below ours were crossed out. After this happened at least three times, I spoke to the hostess, who hurriedly apologized and seated us. The food was good, the service was fine, but it was hard to enjoy after that (no "comps" were requested or offered).
I found this to be pretty inexplicable and very annoying. I was really surprised to see it at La Note (which we'd been going to for years), not at some white hot trendy place--not that it's acceptable anywhere. I don't know what was going on, but I couldn't help noticing that I was older than almost everybody there, while my daughter was younger.
I sent an e-mail to La Note about this right away but they have not responded.
I like La Note but there are plenty of breakfast/brunch places in Berkeley and the East Bay.
Anyplace to eat in Redding?
My family and I ate at Giff's on a roadtrip. The burgers were decent. But we had the distinct that we'd better not say anything that, say, Rush Limbaugh, would take exception to. It was a very uncomfortable experience--just want people to know.
sfogliatelle
PiQ Cafe in Downtown Berkeley has good ones.
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PiQ
91 Shattuck Square, Berkeley, CA 94704
Where to stay in Oakland close to good restaurant and bar choices
If you're choosing purely on food, I'd agree with Robert--the Mariott, the Courtyard, the Clarion, or the (historic) Washington Inn in Downtown Oakland would be the best choices. You could always get on BART and go to Berkeley.
But as a place to stay outside San Francisco, Berkeley has a generally livelier environment at night--there's the Shattuck Plaza, the Downtown Berkeley Inn, Joie de Vivre's Durant in the UC Campus area and some others.
Bakesale Betty's (Uptown) WTF?
Bakesale Betty Uptown (or Downtown) at Broadway & Grand has reopened, just from 11-2, Tuesday-Friday.
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Bakesale Betty
2228 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
Cleveland Solo
Stuart, thanks for the transit directions. I'm heading to Cleveland tomorrow (Saturday) and will be there on my own until Tuesday morning, traveling on transit. You all have listed lots of great choices. I'm wondering if there are any good places for breakfast that open early in the Downtown, since I'm scheduled to catch a Megabus at 8:15 am (or maybe I'll try to go to Slyman's early and run back downtown).
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Slyman's Restaurant
3106 Saint Clair Ave NE, Cleveland, OH 44114
Near the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame [Cleveland]
I'm planning to stay downtown in Cleveland, at the Hyatt, from Saturday night (the 16th) to early Tuesday morning (the 19th). How much of this would be reasonably accessible on transit--train or bus?
Southie by Wood Tavern
I had a quite good, though hardly huge Ahi tuna sandwich, lots of crisp slaw with it, at Southie today. The demographic was different than previously described, mostly young folk, a few parents with kids, hardly anyone over 50.
The two person tables, though, gave me about the most uncomfortable eating experience I've had for a long time. When somebody sat at the next table, she kept bumping into my back. I'm not tiny, but I'm not huge and neither was she. As far as I could tell, she wasn't doing anything weird that would have caused this effect. I've never had this experience anywhere else. The tables are bolted to the wall, so you can't move them as you might in other restaurants. Maybe the counter is better.
Best Iranian/Persian Food in L.A.??
This love fe(a)st raises the question in my cynical; mind--apart from service issues, are there really any bad Persian restaurants that should be avoided, or is the general standard just really high?
Saul's-Fantastic Pastrami Sandwich, why all the hate?
I don't hate Saul's, but I don't feel like the sandwiches I get there are up to the ones I get at Nate 'n Al's or Junior's in LA. Maybe it's just the atmospherics, but I don't think so. I do like the matzoh ball soup and latkes at Saul's. Saul's seems more like a good quality diner to me. In the 30 years I've been here, Northern California has never been known as a great area for Jewish deli.
The Jewish deli is an endangered species, there's a whole book about it, called Save the Deli. The author believes that Los Angeles is now the best deli city, because entertainment industry folk support them. Deli is the food of older Jewish generations, but younger Jews are much less inclined to eat deli.
Long Beach questions
Thanks, chows. That map is more or less consistent with how I think of Downtown Long Beach. which would be where I can easily walk to from a downtown hotel. West of Alamitos makes sense, 10th St. might be pushing it a bit in terms of north, but OK. Pine St., Pacific Ave. etc.
I've been to and liked Starling Diner. It's not downtown, but it might be my best breakfast option, in which case I'll just get on the bus and go there. It's a Grind might give me the first coffee to give me strength to get to Starling Diner!
I'll look at Yelp, but I don't trust the food reviews on it!
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Starling Diner
4114 E 3rd St, Long Beach, CA 90814
Long Beach questions
I'm planning to stay in Downtown Long Beach from tonight through Friday morning, without a car. I'm looking for a decent breakfast in the downtown, if possible. Places on or near 7th St. east from downtown also work, because I expect to be traveling along that street. I can always take a bus and will if I need to, but it would be nice not to have to, especially for breakfast.
My other question was about craft brew bars, it sounds like Congregation Ale House is the answer to that one.
It also seems like there are plenty of dinner possibilities between Cambodian, downtown places, and Belmont Shores places.
Quality Italian north of Market?
Thanks, I like Pesce, but I don't think it's what I'm looking for this time, especially since my daughter is a fish hater (we're working on it). I haven't eaten at Milano or the other three, they all seem promising.
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Pesce
2227 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109
