You said a good restaurant… how good is good? Are we talking a French chef and $200.00 per person meals? Are we talking escargot and caviar? Are we talking a good steakhouse? How about a good seafood restaurant? You’re going to have to get a little more specific before I can answer your question.
Goumet, of course. Fast food has its place, but it can’t measure up to a first class restaurant.
Not an easy thing to decide when I’ve only ever eaten “gourmet” once in my life. I’m not sure about the rest of you, as mentioned by Who_Me?, but the most expensive meal I’ve ever had was a little over $100 for my wife and myself, though at least $40 of that was alcohol.
Since I’ve never done it more than once, I can’t decide if I’d liek to do it on a consistant basis or not. Though I have to admit the food was absolutely droolarific.
Ukelele Ike said, “Geez. There’s stuff in between, you know.”
I know there’s a lot in between, but that wasn’t my question.
Who Me, when I say gourmet, I mean top-of-the-line French, like “Le Francois” in the Chicago area (which, at one time, was considered one of the top four restaurants in the world) or any other really nice, fine dining restaurant.
Some people just don’t like that type of food. I happen to love it. Figures…I don’t have the wallet to match my taste!
Well, okay. “Gourmet,” then.
I try to dine in fine establishments as often as I can, and I never eat fast food of any kind. Meaning chain restaurants. I happily consume pizza and burgers and frankfurters and souvlaki and Jamaican jerk chicken pies, etc., as long as I can avoid the McFranchises.
When I returned from a four-month stay in Paris at 19 I did the same sort of thing kniz did, but in my case I hit the first coffee shop outside Grand Central Station for a REAL cheeseburger.
[sub]waving wildly and grinning at Athena[/sub]
Definitely gourmet. And BTW, it’s “Le Francais.”
I pretty much agree with Uke - I like fine dining and don’t mind paying a lot for a good meal, though the $100 per person meals are few and far between. I generally avoid most fast food places (there are occasional exceptions) and also avoid most national chain sit-down restaurants, but I go to plenty of local chain places. Some of the really good restaurants in the Chicago area have multiple locations.
Thanks for the spelling correction. I haven’t been there since the new guy took over. But I have to say their food is absolutely faaabulous!
No prob, Kalhoun. I normally wouldn’t, but in case someone was looking to eat there, I thought I’d provide the link. It’s still generally rated very highly, but “Le Titi de Paris” recently made it onto Chicago Magazine’s top 20 restaurants, and “Le Francais” dropped off, IIRC.
What’s that Thai place way up north, past Belmont? Crummy neighborhood, across the street from an auto glass shop? Are they still open? Still rated near the top for Chi retaurants?
I had a damn fine dinner there a couple of years back.
::shaking head::
Arun’s is still great, and I’d be glad to buy ya lunch there, Uke, if you’re ever in Chicago.
Porcupine…Wow. I ate at La Titi a couple years ago (used to work in that neighborhood, so I ate there fairly often) and I thought it was HIGHLY overrated. Affordable (for lunch, anyway), but the service was atrocious and the ambience was lame at best. I’m bummed to hear Le Francais hit the skids. My parents used to take me and my sister there for our birthdays (we left my husband at home…what, with his Mickey D’s palate) and have such fond memories of it. Since my mom died, my dad can’t bring himself to go there. Too sad for him.
Thank you, HS…just after I hit “submit” I thought “Huh…didn’t I ask this around here once before?”
Give me a Big Mac over duck l’orange anyday.
Mmm…heart attack on a bun.