I’ll usually get a Ruben sandwich if it’s on the menu, with onion rings.
If the place is a little more upscale, I’ll look for lamb.
Open-face hot turkey sandwich. I wish more restaurants served it. Cheesecake Factory had a great one but they took it off their menu a couple years ago.
I think it was Panera. Or maybe La Madeleine. It sure was a poor imitation of French onion soup, though.
Sometimes you’re served something so half-assed that it goes beyond disappointing into the truly insulting.
Aw, *heck *yeah. Gotta love a restaurant when this is on the “lighter fare” menu:
Sounds like they know what they’re doing! 
Eek! And Mader’s marinates theirs for 10 days! It’s right there on the menu. How naughty and exciting!
All right, I’m gonna have to rustle up some German lovin’ friends and take a field trip.
Sweetbreads, duck, especially at Thai or Chinese restaurants, and lamb. I also like steamed mussels, although those are pretty easy to make at home. For breakfast, eggs Benedict is hard to resist. I’m not much on dessert, but creme brulee can tempt me.
If it’s a place that I know for certain will make it from scratch, chicken-fried steak.
I love veal and lamb shanks – if a place has osso bucco, I’ll definitely order that over anything else.
I order Shrimp De Jonghe - I eat it as an entree. I don’t go to places that have it all that often, so it’s a treat.
Mmm, chicharone (sp) burrito. Basically fried pig fat. Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle. I think I’ll have one today. 
So they can charge more.
If it involves avocados, I will order it.
And Miller High Life. A lot of places don’t carry it.
In lieu of that, wheat beer.
I also love a good French onion soup, which can be hard to find.
Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s not just a dish of chicken and cashews. There are some peppers, some spices, a little onion. It’s heaven. In Thai, it’s called “kai met mamuan.” I can’t vouch for how it will turn out in the US, though.
Rabbit - I love rabbit and you rarely see it on restaurant menus. It’s usually a special. If they offer rabbit, I get it.
Soft shell crab. Once again, too rarely seen, mostly because the good ones are seasonal.
My favorite retaurant in New Orleans, Clancy’s , offers a homeage rabbit sausage appetizer, and the best soft shell crab I’ve ever had. I’m in heaven when I eat there!
Hawaiin BBQ places are spinging up everywhere, and they have good chicken katsu.
I almost always order a “spider roll” when I go out for sushi with my fiance. Of course, we always order a platter that we can share, so it’s not like it’s the only thing I eat. Tempura soft shell crab + spicy mayo + asparagus +wrapped in nori and sushi rice = heaven. The fiance is the same way about spicy tuna rolls, which I’m okay with, but never crave.
I am ambivalent a good deal of the time. French fries are often over salted, and onion rings can be too bland at a lot of places. Too much salt can ruin a meal for me, as can a meal that’s not spiced at all.
Another french onion soup lover here. My dad used to make it from scratch. Delicious.
Spaghetti carbonara. There’s an italian place here that my wife and I have been to probably ten times and I don’t think I’ve ever tried anything else on the menu.
Carnitas.
If I have the option of caesar salad vs. regular salad, I will always take it, even if they charge extra. Even shitty caesar salad is better than iceberg lettuce with thousand island or ranch dressing.
Blech! Swordfish is one of the most disgusting fish I have ever cooked. swimming with parasites, it is making me nauseous just thinking about it. But I guess you have to see it to understand how revolting it is.
For me, it is the French Dip. Thin sliced roast beef and Au Jus soaked bread… Yummilicious!
I always like to order Liver and Onions, the Undisputed American Champion of Organiererie’. From Greasy Spoons, to Steakhouses, Haute Renditions, Diners, Bars, this dish is never the same. A simple dish, but a certain skill in preperation, and the quality of the organ all come together. I’ve never really had a bad Liver and Onions… a glass of chianti, some Fava beans…
The way I make it, I use a slab of bacon, and a whole bag of onions.
At breakfast, hash browns. I loooove hash browns. The grated kind, not the chopped kind (which I consider to be home fries.)
Salmon and profiteroles. Not together.
At afternoon tea the other day, we were served little choux pastries with creme fraiche, smoked salmon and caviar*. They were awesome, and appear to come perilously close to combining your two loves.
Me, I’m all about the duck.
*God knows how fancy. I’m not a connoisseur. Tasty though.
If we are talking about a dinner only place then I tend to lean towards the fried shrimp as a gauge of their food quality. Otherwise, I judge restaurants by their pancakes. No diner worth their weight in slaw serves bad pancakes.