lovefoodwilltravel

Hi najki, Has been mentioned here before....Da Dong Roast Duck. Quanjude is the government standard. Da Dong was one of the (top) chef at Quanjude and he started his own restaurant. So the service and standard of food at Da Dong is of a higher standard. What i rememberd from dad ong was the waiting room. We sat just before the window. real weird...like beind a human window display. Btw in Beijing you need to avoid the socalled foodstreets at the wangfujing area. its bad food and a pure tourist trap. But there is a street called "ghost street" and this place is FULL of all sorts of restaurants.Not sure how good they are...but there are so many choices...good idea to stroll around. Ask your concierge about this street. When u mention ghost street ///they know what u mean. Btw I must mentioned i had two incredible dinners when in Beijing. Sad thing is....as we were taken there...have no idea what the name was of the places or the dishes. One was a mongolion(non hotpot) restaurant. We sat in a real yurt where the food was served. They served donkey/ass, camel etc etc. But the dish i remember was a whole roast lamb. It was so tender. The ribs was as thin as the chopsticks. Awesome. The second was a barbecue restaurant(Maybe mongolion too?)...you get served special mongolion beef thats milfed or something so that its as tender and as marbled as the kobe/ wagyu beef. Real nice.

Hi Kirsten, I was there a few years ago and have to say that it has been pretty bad experience. Prague has great beer, but for food it was quite bad. The local cuisine is quite heavy with lots of pork,sausages, dumplings etc. Simple pub grub. Filling but not exactly great taste.(Kinda bland o my taste) Examples are U Fleku and Kolkovna. They were OK but you get pretty bored/fedup after a few days. But if this is your thing....you'll have great fun exploring the different beerplaces. Food here is quite cheap too. If you stay in teh old city you can visit all tehse places by foot. I tried some higher end restaurant like Cowboy steakhouse(same owner as kampa park) and it was one of the worst dining experiences of my life. Very expensive high end place and the food was simply awfull. They managed to serve the sideorders first....and 20 minutes later the main course arrived. Tried a few others and all i came out with...great places(very posh), high end prices and alas mediocre food. IMO dont waste your money in these places. One restaurant I can recommend is called Ambiente Restaurante Brasileiro in the old town. Is a brazilian churrascaria with teh wellknown all you can eat formula. It was all kinda salty...but still quite tasty. We all enjoiyed eating here...not sure if the food was so great. OR our taste got dumbed down after a week in Prague. Anyway only place i can actually recommend. Anyway lower your expectations and it would be ok.

Hi Rogelio, Really would like to thank you for your input and help. We all truly enjoyed Taberna de la gourmet. Great value and quite delicious. Lizarran is quite OK. First time was great. But when we ate there again before we went home it was not so great as on our first day. Anyway is a great place and vbecause with all those bread...incredible value because they fill you up like crazy. Besides budget what really messed us up was the tom tom sat nav. It doesnt work at all in Alicante area. So didnt dare going to Paco gandia. And somehow i couldn't locate Darsena. The Iberico place....came to the wrong restaurant that didnt have a buffet. Had a Paella on the beach at San Juan. Think we got conned...gave us paella for 3 persons...but besides the price no difference from paella for 2. But was really tasty...and cant wait to give Paco a try when next i come. Anyway spain made a great first impression.People take there food seriously...just check out the (super)markets.

hi rogelio, thanks for your reply. I tried lizarran. It was really fun and quite tasty. One troublesome thing on spanish restaurant webstes...no price info. And i have no idea if its expensive or cheap. I am intrigued by paco gandia and the taberna dela gourmet. What would be the cost for a paella at paco gandia? and is it only available for lunch? It seems a lot of nice places are concentrated around the barrio/old city area.

Hmm Ubud for lunch...Ibu Oka Babi Guling. I still dream of this place. It's quintessentially Bali....finding one of the best pork dish/restaurant in the world in one of the largest muslim countries in the world. It's featured on multiple TV shows from Rick Stein, Bourdain....IMO a must eat place. You can easily google it. All i can say is...GO FOR IT. And ubud is a great place to visit too. PS only available for lunch...and no reservations available. In Ubud I love the Italian restaurant Ultimo in kerobokan. It has a sister restaurant in Jakarta. Wonderfully romantic with great food. And if you go for the Fixed Menu(check the menu) you will get one of the greatest deals on the island. To be honest most places here I find overrated and overpriced. The places are truly beautifull and service is great...but the food is good but nothing special. Still the recommended places are good bets if you are looking for solid meals. Finding good eats in Bali is really hard. I still love the Jimbaran Seafood. It's still damn tasty and the fish you get here is pretty nice and fresh. And well its expensive. But if you are form a western country...it's still pretty good value. The place iw ould recommend is the place where the bomb was placed a few years ago. This plavce is relatively fair and always good quality food.(Dont know the place exactly....but its furthest away from Kuta) BTW did you notice that there is NO streetfood in Kuta? The reason is that there is a moratorium on foodstalls near Kuta. To protect the restaurants there. To find great value tasty streetfood...you need move a few blocks away from the beach area. I had some great seafood at Jalan Iman bonjol at a street stall. It's not fancy big fish like at Jimbaran...but the taste actualy better. And the price was so good...made me feel guilty. Anyway in this area just behind the beach area...you will find these stalls. You need a car or a trusty driver to find it. have fun in bali....one of my fave places.

Hi all, Will be going to El Campello near Alicante this week. Wll stay around 7 days. Readinga round was hoping to try some of spains famous restarants. But most aren't that close. Really really want to eat at Etxebarri. Is there steakhouse comparable to it in this area? Any restaurants or eateries that could be recommended? As it will be a famly event...good value eateries would be appreciated. But there is always room for must eat places in time and budget Reading around I found a few interesting stuff: Lizarran, its a chain restaurant. But has been highly recommended because of its great value. So will give it a try. Gourmet Iberico...restaurant specialising in the famous iberico pig/ham. Sounds interesting specially the weekend lunch buffet. Also I would like to eat Paellaand it seems rice dishes is a local speciallty. Darsena seems to be famous for these dishes...what is teh price range? Seems a very fany(pricey?) restaurant. when checking teh website don't see any price info. Anyway i truly would appreciate your input and views.

Hi all, What a cool post. Even some new places mentioned here i want to give a try. My all time favourite place to eat if money is no issue. Sazanka at Okura Hotel. Japanese Teppanyaki steakhouse. Also serves Wagyu(aka kobe style) steaks. All in one my favourite japanese restaurant and steakhouse. I believe the chefs here are imported from japan's okura Sazanka. (Btw Okura has excellent other restaurants) In a popular tourist destination like amsterdam it's truly hard finding great value places. Sometimes the food is terrible or the price quality is simply not good. On the otherhand in a place like amsterdam you will be able to find all sorts of restaurants. And thats great news because local cuisine is not that great. My current fave: Brazilian Churrascaria Samba Kitchen. A smallish brazilian rodizio. It's pretty new in the netherlands. Carnivore's delight. All you can eat place. Great grilled meats, but its buffet and salad bar is surprisingly good too. reservations is a must. Highly recommended. For the best meals in price quality there are two areas of the city i can truly recommend. RLD/China town area is the first. The chinese restaurants here are pretty good and great value. Since they are allowed to bring in cooks from china the chinese restaurants has been booming in the netherlands. NamKee used to be an old fave of our family. But there are 3 other places that i could recommend. First is Hoitin. In the same street as Nam Kee. It's claim to fame is it's ribs in hoi sin sauce. They are really really good. They also have pretty extensive choice of chinese pastries. The Egg custard tarts and the cha sieu buns are tasty and great snacks. Closer to the Dam are two chinese restaurants. Right on top of each other actually. The lower one is called Golden Chopsticks and is pretty nice chinese eaterie. When ordering just look at the pictures on the wall. Above it is a regular restaurant.I only know it as 747. Never known it's real name tbh. This place has really good Dim Sum. great value for lunches or brunches in the weekend. Second area I like for great value meals is the Albert Cuyp Area aka de pijp. There are lot of ethnic eateries here. Places like Orontes, but also for example Samba Kitchen and Okura hotels is situated here. Lots of eateries...specially strolling the market you will find alot of choices. Like the suriname eateries or kebab/falafel places. But guys Netherlands is a relative small country and its extremely easy to visit the other cities like Den Haag and Rotterdam. In Den haag there are 2 places I would highly recommend: First in the China Town Area there is a restaurant called Fat Kee. This is a restaurant unlike any other chinese restaurant in the netherlands. It's taste and style are more like the nyonya, indonesian style chinese food. Not like the run of the mill cantonese restaurants. However they do it...they do it right.The tasty generous food makes this place EXTREMELY popular. A must try IMO. Second place that i would recommend in Den haag is Dungelmann.Located in teh High end shopping district of Den Haag. Similar to van Dobben...tbh I think you could call this place the original. They have different Kroketten. veal, beef but also Shrimp.prawn versions. Very very delicous. CLose by to this place is a place famous for its fries. Similar fresh homemade fries comparable with the place in amsterdam. (Kleinste Winkeltje) Rotterdam. The harbour city. One of my fave dining experiences in the netherlands is called Shabu Shabu. Don't let the name confuse you.Matter of fact they dont even serve this dish. What this place does serve...is all you can eat japanese food. Serving Sushi and teppanyaki(grill) dishes. Yes this dining experience has become THE MOST POPULAR dining experience in the netherlands. Basically each city has siimilar places. But this phenomenon has started in Rotterdam and there they still do it best. Excellent value and at shabu shabu what they serve is comparable to regular japanese restaurants. The best chinese restaurants can be found here. Tai Wu has the best Dim Sum in the netherlands and is great value for a lunch spot. Located right in the center of rotterdam, close to the central station. Anyway let me know what you think of my suggestions.

Hi, Hope I am not to late. But it has been some years ago...but I thoroughly my dinner at Baan Rim Pa. It's an authentic Thai restaurant...with a great location near Patong. Great thing here was...they served authentic thai dishes...but the cooks are willing to adjust the heat of the cookery. Making the curries as mild as you want. For the first time i was able to enjoy all the different thai dishes without having to shutdown early because itw as too spicy. Patong is a real tourist town.Most restaurants here are tourist places. Expensive and not as great foodwise. For better deals and better food....make some trips towards Phuket Town. i remember being taken there with my dive instructor.