Museum dining: your experiences

[lancastermike]

Two museums in Baltimore: The Walters is a superb museum; their food court is basically cold sandwiches and salads. The Baltimore Museum of Art has an upscale restaurant, Gertrudes, run by minor-celebrity chef John Shields, that is vastly over priced and mediocre, with poor service. There are many good restaurants in Baltimore, so enjoy the museums and walk elsewhere for the food

Last week my wife and I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art and than ate at Gertrudes. I agree with the pricey part, however both our food, and in particular the service, were very nice. I had a rockfish with crab imperial and the crab was real as was the fish and both were well made. I agree there are lots of better restaurants in Charm City, but Gertrudes was fine with us. My cocktail, a perfect Manhattan, was also cold and well made.

[Mottmott]

At the Philadelphia Art Museum Cafeteria you can get a reasonable lunch at the cafeteria. It used to be outlandishly bad, but has improved so that you can now put together a salad that will include roasted veggies and some chicken for a reasonable price. Desserts suck. With so many excellent Phila restaurants, I've never tried the museum's.

[Rehovot]

I think the Musee d'Orsay cafe is lovely...There's something about eating next to a giant clock-window...

Sadly, I can never return, since they accused me of using counterfeit francs, once. Turns out they were fake, passed on to me by a restaurant the night before.

I think the Palais de Chaillot has a good but pricey cafe with a fantastic view from the outdoor terrace.......The Musee du cinema is nearby.

Lousy strudel at the Kunsthistorisches cafe....

[Gifted Gourmet]

Lousy strudel at the Kunsthistorisches cafe....

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and, may I say, incredibly overpriced!The museum, on the other hand, was marvelous ... the cafe was elegant and very attractive ... particularly ...the cafe with the black & white art deco marble floors! The strudel, as you so correctly report, was very average ... not suitably Viennese.

[doc slaughter]

The Boston Public Library has a really good grilled chicken with veggies on this amazing bread that you can get ot take outside in the center court yard for a really different dining experience and it's very reasonable. They also have a very nice sit down eat in dining room that looks a bit more upscale but still very comfortable and relaxing. The library building is more of a museum than anything else. It was one of our favorite places in Boston, very rich in history and educational. I've never eaten in the Phila. museum of Arts but it always looked to be very inviting and I will give it a try sometime, also I think they do Fancy dinners too.

[Portia_Smith]

I highly recommend the cafe at the musee jacquement-andree in paris. it's a beautiful room as you can see here

and you an enjoy your afternoon pastry and tea in very glamourous surroundings. The tarte aux framboises was spectacular. A perfect accompaniment to a wander through 18th Century french art.

I also love the cafe at Bitov Castle in the southern part of the Czech Republic. You sit in the courtyard of the a fabulous castle looking over the Thaya River towards Austria and you can order a half litre of krusovice lager for about 30pence or a slice of sacher torte for about 50pence. You can't beat the price and it's pleasant to sit in the sun with the fountain running in the back ground. But make sure you eat before you do the guided tour as it has the world's largest collection of taxidermy in europe. Baron Haas - one of the former owners, especially liked to remember his pets

Just upstream is the chateau at Vranov nad Dyje - again, there is an outdoor cafe with astonishingly low prices. This cafe is set amongst vines and specialises in local wines from the znojmo region. If you climb from the village below you will appreciate a cold glass of wine here

I love the cafe on one of the higher floors of the Tate Modern as you can see St Pauls and the traffic on the thames. But it's a little too expensive for my tastes and you often have to wait for about an hour for a seat. Cake is always fabulous though, and everything tastes better with a view.