rsh

...just to follow up on this, we did eat at Felicin and it was a great meal. they initially couldn't find our reservation but were very gracious about it and seated us anyway, next to a table for two that sat empty all evening and turned out to be the one that we had booked (they had not understood my last name when i called to book). very existential to sit and look upon your own empty seat and table. anyway, the food was excellent: i had ravioli dal plin with black truffle sauce followed by fonduta with white truffles, and my girlfriend had tajarin with white truffles followed by veal braised in barolo. all was perfectly prepared, and the 1996 sandrone barolo that we ordered went fantastically with it. linda, thank you again for the recommendation.

thanks a lot, linda! i appreciate your help...

Hi, I'm going to be in Piemonte for a very short trip this weekend (Saturday night through Monday afternoon) to celebrate a birthday. (Now that I live in London it's easier to do these things - much more convenient than when I was in New York!) Anyway, reservations for Sunday and Monday have been easy, but Saturday night most places are totally full and since this was a bit of a last minute trip I don't have a lot of wiggle room. Both Felicin (Monforte d'Alba) and Le Torre (Castiglione Falletto) have room - does anyone have any views on which of these is more worth a try? The trip is centered around truffles and wine, to be sure, but I'd ideally like to have some creative dishes to avoid having the same tajarin, uovo in cocotte, etc with each meal. (Not that I'm complaining and if it comes down to that then fine, but in that case I'd prefer versions of those that are as good as I can get). For reference on Sunday I have reservations at Enoclub and Bovio, and Monday afternoon at Ciau del Tournavento. Also, I'm staying in Monforte d'Alba, so all things considered if Felicin and Il Torre are very similar then Felicin is preferable if only because I can walk there and back from my hotel. Any advice is very much appreciated! Thanks a lot. Rob

just to bring this full circle - and thanks to everyone who helped. i'll post a more full recap later, but with respect to eating around midnight, you can definitely be more than sated at midnight or so in san sebastian. from 11:30 or so, in the old quarter, at the very least casa gandarias and al fuego negro serve hot and cold pintxos, and gandarias has its restaurant open for full on sit down meal where you can order until midnight. i'd called them and made an 11:30 reservation for the night i was scheduled to arrive to make sure i had a table, and then by a stroke of luck and scheduling (and useful frequent flyer status) i managed to get myself in 2 hours earlier than i'd thought, allowing for a few pintxos before a real meal. it's worth noting that gandarias is open all night, with the kitchen ceasing to make hot food between midnight and 11am - but during off hours all sorts of cold pintxos, and hams, chorizo etc is available. no problem. this is especially useful for all of those from london who are of necessity flying in at off hours either to bilbao or biarritz and therefore get into san sebastian later in the evening. it's also useful since gandarias is one of the 3 or so best pintxo bars i went to. one final note: the drive to san sebastian from bilbao does take about 1 hour, but once you're there, if it's your first time, count on it being another 30 minutes to figure out how to get to your hotel. those one way streets are crazy. like i said, more later, but that's the answer to my original question.

Actually I will add a new question to this, while I am on the topic of when I can and cannot eat tapas: is it likely the bars will be open on Good Friday evening and Easter Sunday evening? currently I have: Thursday night: arrive, eat? Friday: lunch Akelarre, dinner tapas? Saturday: lunch Arzak, dinner Elkano Sunday: lunch Etxebarri, dinner tapas? Monday: lunch tapas? a sidreria? i am sort of considering trying to move my Elkano reservation to friday night to ensure that i will have at least one decent experience leisurely moving around and eating small plates. (i'd prefer more than one night of that but am sort of stuck on sunday night since none of the big restaurants seem to be open for sunday dinner anyway). originally i thought that with that schedule i would be able to fit in a few tapas evenings, but between thursday's late arrival and the holidays i am wondering if it's not worth changing the schedule or cancelling one Arzak or Akelarre... any thoughts are more than welcome...

Thanks a lot for all of your suggestions, guys. I'll probably make a game day decision based on what time we end up with the car. If anyone else writes a response thanks in advance - I am leaving tomorrow morning for an actual vacation (as opposed to the holiday weekend San Sebastian will be) to Russia and so will only be able to respond when I'm back...

Hi everyone, A quick question... I will be going to san Sebastian for easter weekend, flying in on Thursday night and leaving on Monday night. I arrive at bilbao at 9:35 and am renting a car, so if all is on time and I don't get myself lost, I imagine i'll be in san Sebastian at around 11 or 11:30. From what I have read, that is cutting it kind of close for dinner since places seem to stop serving pintxos at "around midnight.". I was hoping to go to a couple of tapas places, but am curious: is this a realistic goal? Also any advice on particular specialties at tapas bars would be welcome: I have seen them in bits and pieces around here but I figure I will ask anyway. Thanks in advance for your help! Rob Ps I have reservations at some great places including arzak, akelarre, etxabarri and will provide a report upon my return...

Hi everyone - I am going back to Viet Nam in a couple of days and my mouth is already watering in anticipation of all of the good food I'll get to eat. I am fairly comfortable from other time I have spent there that I can generally find great things to eat BUT: I am possibly going to go on an overnight Ha Long Bay cruise from Ha Noi. The last time I was in Viet Nam I did this as a day trip and while the scenery was magnificent the food was absolutely crap. Searching on the internet seems to reveal that for the most part, my experience was par for the course: these boats cater to western tastes and more or less give you heaps of not-so-good food. So my question is this: has anyone been on a junk in Ha Long bay that actually serves food that is anywhere close to excellent/great/good Vietnamese food? It seems like such a shame to waste five meals (BLD day 1, BL day 2) out of only 9 days in the country if the option is just lame tour group food. Any recommendations are very welcome. Thanks so much in advance! Rob