tjdnewyork

We're flying into MSY, landing at about 9:30am and heading straight for Natchez (we'll hit NOLA on the way back). Any tips for local joints to hit for breakfast and lunch on the way up. Ideally breakfast would be relatively near the airport and lunch a few hours up north. Thanks.

Useful thread. Went to Blue Ribbon Sushi late night. I used to really like this place but I had not been back for a year or two. This time we were very disappointed--prices have gone up and portions have gotten smaller. Quality of the sushi rice was spotty. I really have to say I would not go back here, which is a shame because I used to think it was a pretty good late night option. Guess they've just been able to coast along on a wave of popularity and are now just squeezing everything out of their existing customer base. Oh well.

Agree about La Piola. Went there a few times about 5 or 6 years ago, when they also had that place next door or around the corner that only did things al forno. I thought both places were very good. But on my last visit, about six months ago, I thought it was pretty terrible.

Hi, Wrote a graphic novel style piece about Naples and Procida, mostly about food, for Conde Nast Traveler. I thought some of you might enjoy taking a look. Here's the link: Naples Graphic Novel Piece Take care, Tom

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. A friend here ended up choosing Range before I had a chance to try any of your suggestions. I liked the place a lot. Great cocktails, especially the "after dinner" cocktails which I had never seen before. I had a tuna confit to start and then the pork shoulder. Pork was good but tuna was great. Will try out some of your suggestions on the next trip. By the way my favorite restaurant this trip to the Bay Area was Pizzaiolo in Oakland--loved that place. Thanks again for the assistance.

I'm a New Yorker with one night left in San Francisco after working the week in Berkeley/Oakland area. Had amazing meals at Pizzaiolo (went back two nights in a row) and enjoyed Camino and Chez Panisse. Been searching the boards for great places to go here but it seems almost all my top choices are closed Sundays. Can anyone recommend a great, very locavore, California type of place in the city that is open this evening? Or point me to a thread that answers this question if I've missed it? I prefer somewhere with profoundly great food but not such a formal atmosphere, like Pizzaiolo--and something I can't easily duplicate in New York. Thanks for the help.

We went to Matsugen a week or so ago, before the Bruni review. Overall I thought it filled a certain kind of niche: high-quality Japanese in an atmosphere that is beautiful and thoroughly Japanese in a different way than Totto, Aburiya, etc. Matsugen is a much grander space and the design is very much in line with what I've seen in similar places in Japan. First glaring problem looking at the menu: why is there sushi here? No self-respecting Soba place serves sushi. A few other things, maybe, but that's just not right. Had the trio of appetizers and two were good, but the yuba didn't seem like yuba to me and my girlfriend, who is from Tokyo. Grilled chicken was just great. Simple, delicious, and spectacular. We both had the Matsugen soba which has a lot of stuff on it. I loved it and so did she. I thought the soba quality was very high--better than Totto in fact, but I will admit that the amount of stuff on top made it hard to properly evaluate the soba. Price, as noted before, is reasonable for soba, high for other items. Based on quality to price ratio I would say that Aburiya for izakaya stuff and Soba Totto for soba are undoubtedly better than Matsugen. But if you want a high-end Japanese experience in a beautiful space then this place is great. Mind you I like the Aburiya space a lot, but it's going for something different: the neighborhood izakaya feel as opposed to the destination restaurant.

Don't like the place so much overall, but had good lobster sashimi a few years back at Matsuri. The other thing there that's excellent is the anago tempura. Rest was hit and miss.

Went here recently. Weird space. Bar counter is very awkwardly designed, with a too narrow front part that is way too small to balance a plate and utensils. The bartender was very nice. The tapas were not so good--we had a number of fried things. The second dishes were superb--a kind of crab lasagna and a poached shrimp dish. The main dish, called a confit of bacalao, was just okay. The one thing that really bothered me was the presence of many many flies. Not a good sign.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I ended up going to Bentley's. Loved the atmosphere, oysters were great. Main was so so--backed pollack with cauliflower and cheese. About 50 pounds with two drinks. I'd go back for the oysters and the atmosphere and try something else as a main.

I'm wondering if anyone can suggest some good value French and/or Italian restaurants that would be quick taxi rides from Monaco or perhaps in Monaco itself. I found one rec for La Saliere in an earlier post, which sounds good, but most of the other posts on Monaco focus, of course, on the fancy places there. I read a NY Times article which seemed to have some good suggestions--can anyone confirm these are worth visiting? Here's the ones Mark Bittman suggested in the article: Calypso, 2 Quai Amiral Courbet, Villefranche-sur-Mer; 93-01-96-73 ; 40 euros. Bistrot Loumiri, Avenue du Jardin Exotique, Eze; 93-41-16-42; the prix fixe menus are 16 and 24 euros. Carnival, 29, quai de Monléon, Menton; 93-35-99-95; 25 euros. Le Picadilly, 16, avenue François de Monléon, Roquebrune; 93-35-87-16; the daily prix fixe menu is 18.50 euros, with a quarter-liter of wine. Thanks in advance for any help.

In London for just a couple of days and looking for a recommendation for a solo lunch spot where I can eat at the bar. I want something quintessentially London, that's not so easy to find in New York. Already went to Saint John this trip, so cross that off the list. I'd prefer a place with great food, great ambience, and something more than just a very crowded pub or gastropub (been to the Eagle). Somewhere you can relax at the bar and order a great meal. I'm based near Smithfield's Market but could move around. Thanks for your help.

We were just in Veracruz. Best place by far was a place from the Martinez web page recommended above--it is called Las Brisas del Mar and is very good. Great Veracruz style fish soup. Can't remember the exact name but it's at the bottom of their soup list, think it's chilpachole. Excellent version here. The seafood cocktails were very popular and pretty good. I really liked the Machaca with crab, which is scrambled eggs with tons of crabmeat. As for other places, we tried one place near the Aquarium in that row of restaurants. It was called Playa Reyna and was extremely bad. We were there late and only ate at one of the many places there, so I don't know about the rest. The two big cafes (Parroquia and El Portal) are cool, but probably more about atmosphere and coffee than food. El Portal service was excrutiatingly slow. Lechero is what they call a kind of cafe con leche here and that is excellent. You hit your coffee glass with a spoon to signal them to bring you hot milk. The town was mobbed with Mexican tourists when we were there. Interesting atmosphere. Overall a cool place, but quite Americanized with a Sam's Club, many chain restaurants, etc.

We went to El Califa in Condesa at the corner of Atlata and Alfonso Reyes. This place was different from taco places I've been to in the past--sit down only, no counter, and relatively expensive. I read about it in the Times and Fodor's so decided to give it a try. I thought the tacos were excellent. The meat was much higher quality than usual and marinated well. I really liked the al pastor--great taste from the pieces of pineapple on top. The place was packed and stays open very late. When we wandered around the area we saw a lot of other good looking taco places. EmilyG-we'll have to try the taco place near the Sheraton. We're actually staying at that hotel. We just came from El Moro a half hour ago, but it was packed so we had some churros to take away. Thanks for the taco help.

We're down in DF for a week. I've browsed the boards and found some great info, mostly on the high end places, which I will put to good use. I may have missed the threads, but I haven't been able to locate much on the cheaper fare on offer in DF. Any suggestions on where to begin to sample some of the city's best streetside/casual fare? Thanks.

We're here in Paris today through Friday. I figure the best way to eat well at a good price is to sample some of the better places at lunch. Can anyone give their recs for the best French restaurants with a good value lunch menu? I'm mhoping for a few in the 20-30 euro range and a few in the 12-18 euro range. We're staying in the 3rd near Republique but are willing to travel the city for a great lunch. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

I spent some time in Sana'a recently. The basic dish is salta, a fenulgreek and meat stew cooked over very high flames and served scalding hot. You buy bread outside the restaurant and bring it in with you. Then order a salta and wait as it is made. There is a place in Sana'a that is wonderful for this. It's called Ali's and it's near Bab ash Shaub, I think. Hard to find and no name displayed. You need someone to take you there, probably. They also serve a very good piece of grilled lamb rubbed with spices and grilled in foil for a long time. You can read about this place in a wonderful book you should read before you go by Timothy Mackintosh Smith called Yemen the Unknown Arabia. The country is amazing. The food is so-so. When you tire of Yemeni stuff in Sana'a, or when you want a beer, head to the Korean restaurant, I think called Arirang, or to the British Club. Your hotel should be able to direct you.

Landmarc--good skirt steak, very good wine prices. It's in Tribeca, so south of Washington Square Park, but I wonder whether you could find better value.

Mar, Thanks, would love to talk to you about that. Take care, Tom

We ate at Chanto tonight and I really liked the place. This is a kind of restaurant that is everywhere in Tokyo (I think of Kitchen Shunju as the epitome of this kind of place) but hard to find in New York--what I think of as the nouveau izakaya. It's Japanese but with definite western influences and inflections. EN Japanese Brasserie is trying to do the same thing but is nowhere near as good; the same can be said for this place butai on East 18th. We had an excellent crab croquette covered in uni, a fatty tuna roll, a fried pork dish, and grilled asparagus. Quality was high. I really liked the raw vegetables they have as a free starter--something you find everywhere in Tokyo at these kinds of places, but something I haven't seen here at all. The only thing that I found a little strange was the division into appetizers and entrees. The places of this sort that I went to in Tokyo didn't divide things in this way and had a menu that was designed more as an izakaya or tapas style meanu. This place is the same food, but I guess they are trying to Americanize the concept a bit. I definitely recommend checking this place out.

A fiction, yes, unfortunately, to get the place in given the constraints of the piece. Sorry if I misled. Another thing that changed since we reported the piece is the location of Colibri. That's reflected in another informational section of the piece but not in the graphic novel part. One other problem is alioli vs. aioli. Glad you enjoyed it. Good luck finding a Sunday venue. I'll let you know if I think of anywhere worthwhile. Tom

Thought some of you might enjoy this Barcelona story I did for Conde Nast Traveler, which features some of the restaurants we frequently talk about here. It's done in graphic novel form so it's a bit different from the usual travel mag fare. It ran in the June 2006 issue, but you can see it online here at my site: http://lastmenout.com/articles.html#rafa Hope you enjoy. Tom

I like Korean but I have to say that it is one of those cuisines that I am drawn to maybe once a month or once every two months, unlike say Italian, Japanese, Thai, French or Chinese. Maybe I haven't experienced all the subtleties of Korean food, though I have tried not just the usual suspects but also places like Hangawi and Kori. I find it is not as multi-dimensional in flavor as the other cuisines I mentioned. Again, maybe this is just me but others have also said the same thing to me.

I would say Lupa (Thompson between Houston and Bleecker, part of Batali et al's empire), which has incredibly low prices for such high quality food. Big salads are 8 or 10 bucks. My favorite pasta (Bavette Cacio e Pepe) is about 11. Good deal.

Went to Le Reminet. Decent food, nice place, etc. but I think I would have found more French people at Balthazar (New York) than I did at Le Reminet. It was packed completely with Americans or other English speakers at 10:30 on a Sunday night. Nothing against Americans (I'm one) but the point of going to Paris for me is to see where the Parisians go. Too bad.