We go to the one in Oakland and the one in Robinson. The Oakland one is much louder and more “student-y” than the one in Robinson. Something to keep in mind if that sort of thing isn’t your pitcher of margaritas.
I’ve been there, as well as to the other Ethiopian restaurant, Tana. They’re both good.
Mr. Neville and I drove to Chicago this summer for a memorial service for his great aunt. We stopped on the way in Maumee, OH, near Toledo. We went to a Thai restaurant called Bangkok Kitchen in a strip mall near our hotel. My expectations were really low- we were in the Midwest (not known for spicy food), this was a restaurant in a strip mall, the nearby restaurants were mostly national chains, and it looked utterly generic from outside. But the food was great. They even made the food actually spicy, which a lot of Thai restaurants I’ve been to won’t do :(.
Some of my absolute favourites which aren’t on the tourist trail and probably won’t appear in most mainstream guidebooks:
Bistrotheque: in an old factory on a scruffy industrial estate in East London. Camp, hyper fashionable, and has a theatre attached which shows gay cabaret.
Champor Champor: Malaysian/Indonesian fusion food at its most original. Crazy interior design. Everyone I’ve ever taken here hearts this place.
I’m glad I reminded you of Tamarind! Dosa night is yummy too. Don’t go to the Smiling Banana Leaf (for Thai food) in Highland Park - I check the Allegheny County site for restaurants who are below the health code (boyfriend’s good friend’s father is an inspector, so I started the habit!) and the Banana Leaf had some pretty nasty stuff going on. Plus the service is beyond dismal. I’m sorry Pangea didn’t work out for you though
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kayaker**, Abay is pretty good, but the lack of good seating and privacy makes it so that I’m not there often. I adore the Caribbean place next door, Royal Caribbean. I used to go here constantly when they had restaurant(dot)com coupons. God I love the food there; BBQ Jerk chicken was my favorite, the goat is excellent too. Seafood fritters are phenomenal, and the plantains.
So where would you send someone for dinner in Nashville? Breakfast will be at Loveless Cafe but I need some options for Dinner on Saturday night. You have a hot Cajun place? Whatelse? (no barbeque because I am from Memphis and I eat way too much barbeque as it is)
Memphis
best mexican place is Molly’s La Casita
best Thai is Jasmine
best bbq ribs my Dad’s house sorry very limited clientele
best bbq in 3 little pigs
best diner is Pancake shop
best nice place either Encore downtown or Napa Cafe in East Memphis
my favorite place is a small chain called Flyng Fish downtown
New Orleans
Coops Place and Verte Marte in the French Quarter
24 hour Po Boy on Chef Menteur “We never close” Having a tasty po boy for breakfast on Christmas morning made me very happy.
St. Louis
Everest Cafe - had Nepal food that was awesome, also a mango juice and mango vodka drink that was lethal.
Other places I ate are probably too well known. Fountain on Locust (beef sandwich and ice cream), Crown Candy Kitchen (biggest blt I have ever seen and ice cream) Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary restaurant (great appetiser, ok bison burger) Ted Drewes (more frozen creamy goodness)
I went to wrong place for pizza, Manhatten Express. It was good but not spectacular
Murray’s or Cherokee Sirloin Room for steak
Kinhdo for Vietnamese (actually, there are lots of good Vietnamese restaurants here)
Dixie’s in St. Paul for terrific crab bisque
128 Cafe in St. Paul for lots of stuff
The Good Day Cafe in Golden Valley for excellent breakfast and lunch
Patron (route 19 near Wexford/Cranberry - I’m not sure of the exact area but I can tell you how to get there)
It’s a smallish Mexican place that has some awesome food. Really really good. I got a chimichanga there last week and it was awesome. Most places fry their chimis until the outside has the consistency of a tortilla chip, hard and super crunchy. Patron lightly fries theirs so it is crispy on the outside but still soft on the inside. Perfection!
To you Pittsburgh dopers, any other decent Mexican and Chinese restaurants? I’ve been to Mad Mex, but not for a long time. The only thing I really remember about it was the gag items on the menu, like the “trailer park burrito” (a slim jim on wonder bread, wrapped in cellophane). I’ll have to go again based on the recommendations here.
A Rey Azteca opened this year near me that’s pretty good too. Not as good as Patron IMO but still pretty damn tasty. Their Burritos Mexicana (beef tips with cheese and tomatillo sauce) is delicious.
Orient Express is in Oakland, near the Carnegie Museum. It’s great. Really clean and well kept, unlike a lot of Chinese restaurants. Great service. Get a Dozen cupcake on Craig street while you’re at it!
As for Mexican, I’ve heard good things about this place, but never been there. Linky. Any place that has a line during a Steelers game must be doing something right
Rochester, NY: Captain Jim’s Fish Market (2329 E Main St at the corner of Winton). I’ve been going here for years. Nothing fancy on the menu but it’s a really good place for a basic seafood dinner. And the people there are always friendly. I think it’s reputation suffers from being in a bad location and not having any atmosphere.
In Lacey, Washington, one of the best Chinese restaurants is Tea Leaf. Even though it’s started into the pattern of most Asian restaurants around and has a lot more Korean dishes than it used to, it definitely avoids the sugar/salt/fat trap of most American Chinese food around these parts. It’s really close to the intersection of the busiest north-south road in town and a major east-west road, it’s been there forever, and some of my friends have been eating there their whole life, but quite a few more of my friends have never heard of it.
And now I’m craving sizzling rice soup. Good job, me.
San Jose, CA – Siam Leaf, a Thai place just around the corner from me. They opened up shop in a “cursed” location that prompted me to start a thread awhile back. People have been giving it pretty good reviews, but business so far is just okay. I especially like their grilled trout, which I didn’t think of as a traditional Thai dish.
Ooh, I’ll have to try it out soon. I’m on the lookout for tasty cheap places for lunch near Pitt. I’m amazed we have so many Pittsburgh dopers, actually. It’s cool to be part of a community now that I’m back in the US of A.
I just moved here so I don’t have much to offer to this thread, but the Greek Gourmet in Squirrel Hill has incredibly delicious hummus and gyros. And Brillobox has a vegetarian dinner for $5 every Sunday that has been really tasty every time I’ve gone. You have to put up with a lot of hipsters and loud music, admittedly, but last time I went there I had this really delicious Israeli dish made with tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and soft-boiled eggs, eaten with pita bread–sounds weird, but was really good.
