That’s fair. But whatever you do don’t go “Next Door.”
Personally, I think Goode’s is pretty good (no pun intended). But I think among the reasons it’s so renowned is because its one of the few barbecue restaurants in the city that’s a) on a main thoroughfare and thus easy to find and b) keeps convenient hours for those who can only go for dinner or on the weekends. There are a lot of great barbecue restaurants in that neck of the woods, but they tend to be hole-in-the-wall type places that are hard to find, and don’t do much, if any, advertising. So unless you know someone who’s a fan of those places, you’re probably never even going to know about them.
The most overrated restaurants in and around Austin aren’t upscale or gourment places- they’re down-home and/or barbecue places.
Threadgill’s is considered an Austin institution, in part because people like Janis Joplin performed there decades ago. But the food is mediocre at best, and often plain bad. There are LOTS of better places to get a chicken fried steak.
The town of Lockhart is not far from Austin, but it’s far enough to be an inconvenient drive. If you ever visit Austin and someone tries to talk you into driving to Lockhart so you can get barbecue at Kreuz’s Market, tell them no- you’d rather stay in and have a peanut butter & Jelly sandwich. The food is pretty bad, and it’s WORSE when you been driving 45 minutes to get there.
I could not possibly agree with you more, and I even grew up in the NW. I’ve hated Peter’s as long as I can remember, but everyone else in this city seems to love it. Perhaps I wouldn’t hate it quite so much if I hadn’t had to sell lukewarm Peter’s burgers at high school basketball tournaments, but I doubt it.
100% bleh.
I have not actually dined at any of Michael Symon’s restaurants. My husband and I and his parents went to a movie at the Cedar-Lee and then decided to have dinner at Lola, and among the four of us, not one of us could find a single thing on the menu we would want to eat. We apologized to the server, paid for the drinks, left a generous tip and went to Anatolia.
Greater) Bostonian here weighing in…I’d say the “Smith and Wollensky” steakhouse-hugely expensive ($45 for a prime steak), and not very good. Many friends have had bad dining experiences there. I’d also nominate any of Todd English’s restaurants-the guy is supposed to be a culinary genius…but I don’t see why. His main schtick is pairing unconventional fruits and meats together…nope, I don’t care for a pork chop with purieed figs…yeecch! I find him highly overrated, and expensive.
I have fond memories of Arthur’s from when I was in my early 20s. A 24 oz. steak for $11.99 (IIRC) and they brought bowls of pickles and hot peppers to your table. Add a pitcher of inexpensive beer and a young guy with little cash was in heaven.
I went back a few years ago and was thoroughly unimpressed. I guess my tastes have changed over the years.
However, the Arthur’s in Lake Mohawk was decidedly better and more scenic.
I haven’t been there in years, but I always thought too much was made of Aunt Josie’s Restaurant. It has all the elements of a Treasured Little Neighborhood Find. Little run-down place in a sketchy neighborhood, with the old Italian Mama stirring a vat of sauce in the kitchen. When I was there we had spaghetti with two meatballs, $9, and other than a slice of bread, that was it. It wasn’t anything remarkable, for $9. They did expand their menu a lot, and I’d like to go back and try something less mundane.
Well, duh. If you are going to drive to Lockhart, you eat at Smitty’s, not any other place.
In Portland it’s Pine State Biscuits. You order at the counter then hope there is a table as you can not sit down til you order. It’s expensive, and it’s just biscuits that a hundred other restaurants in a Southern city would serve.
There’s a burger place juuuust a little down the street (Edmonton Trail and 8th? 10th? Somewhere near there). The name escapes me at the moment, but it’s supposed to be pretty good. It’s been there forever, and I keep meaning to try it. When I do, I’ll report back with my findings!
While we’re on the subject of overrated Calgary restaurants with questionable health department records, I nominate Nellies. Uggghhh, chipped coffee cups that are stained with years of other people’s coffee? That’s not “character”, that’s “disgusting”. I was met with ridicule when I never wanted to met people there, and felt weirdly vindicated when they all had to shut down for a while. I told you so! It’s gross, yet lined up out the freaking door every weekend. 
Actually, I’m reminded of a piece of advice columnist Bob Greene used to offer regularly: NEVER travel solely for food. You’ll always be disappointed.
Yeah, if you’re gonna pay 30 bucks (Or whatever) for a steak, you may as well pay a little extra and go to Barbarians or something. I’d agree with The Keg.
Juan’s Place in Berkeley, CA keeps winning polls in the local alternative weekly for the best Mexican restaurant in the East Bay. In my opinion, not only isn’t it the best, it isn’t even good. The last time I ate there the chicken mole they served me was reheated pre-cooked plain chicken with some mole sauce poured over it. Ugh. The idea that Juan’s Place is the best of anything is a mass delusion.
Here in Evanston, there’s a chicken wings place called Buffalo Joe’s. Everyone said I absolutely must try it, it has the best wings within 100 miles, etc. First of all, I ordered the spiciest possible type because I love spicy food. The wings just weren’t very spicy. Second, one of the ways they spiced the wings up was by topping them with sliced jalapenos. Jalapenos definitely have their place, but the flavor of the jalapenos clashed with the flavor of the wings.
I used to love Buff Joe’s, but it hasn’t been the same in at least a decade. Or maybe my tastes changed. Speaking of, I actually found Buffalo wings in Buffalo not to be all that spicy either. The spiciest at Duff’s was not all that hot, despite the Scolville scale warnings, and the Anchor Bar just adds shitloads of black pepper. (And, yes, I had some from smaller local places, too. Not that hot.)
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pletely agree on the jalapenos clashing. Honestly, when it comes to standard Buffalo wings (made with Franks) I think medium is the way to go.
There’s a place in town called The Admiral, so hip that your teeth will hurt. We went their for dinner a few years back.
The good: the venison was freakin’ delicious.
The bad:
-The beer was overpriced and in a bottle, and this is a place that advertises itself as a bar, primarily, in a town that wins awards as the best town in the nation for beer.
-The pimiento cheese wasn’t exactly out of a grocery store container, but it was nothing great. Pretty mediocre. Give me five minutes and a food processor, and I’ll whip up a batch that’ll kick that stuff’s sorry mayonnaise-soggy butt.
-The service was execrable. I eventually had to go to the counter to get our check at the end of the meal.
-They overcharged us by a few bucks for our meal, with no indication why.
I’ll never return, no matter how many people gush over its awesomeness.
Ooh, I really disagree. For me, Lou’s is my least favorite by far of the big deep dish joints. I’m just not a fan of it at all and don’t really get the love. I agree with Puly on Pequod’s, and while I’ve been wanting to try Burt’s, I haven’t made it up there. It’s a different kind of deep dish, and I wouldn’t take a tourist there who really wanted a typical Chicago-style pizza, but it’s where I go when I want one (well, there or Art of Pizza). However, like a lot of Chicagoans, most of my pizza consumption is thin crust. Doesn’t stop me from having a strong opinion on the deep dish stuff though.
I’ve posted this before but Buffalo Joes still makes me sad. When I ate there in High School (ETHS 88’), the wings were great. They’ve gone down tremendously since then. They are the size of parakeet wings, the sauce is one dimensional, and the extra charges for tiny cups of blue cheese dressing are an insult.