Just for fun: Where did you eat?

[Muffin210]

Just for fun...what are the last three restaurants that you ate at?

Be brutally honest!

Here are mine (if you don't count the terrible cafeteria food at the hospital where I work):

1. Buona Vita on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach (inexpensive Italian food plus no corkage fee!)

2. Five Crowns in Corona del Mar ("The O.C."...heh, heh, heh ) -- Lawry's with silly waitstaff costumes (kinda like Disneyland meets Hooters?)

3. Michelia in LA (3rd Street)

Of the three, I think Michelia is my favorite. I hadn't been there in a long, long time (because of the distance across town) but I wasn't disappointed.

So where have you eaten lately???

[melkor]

In CA it's been the Michael Mina, then the French Laundry and then Baraka.

[juniper_joyce]

From San Francisco:

Gourmet Carousel, Franklin at Pine. Decent, not outstanding, Chinese very close to my house.

Spices II, Sixth (?) at Clement. Szechuan. I love this place - I don't have to do any convincing to get them to give me a lot of spice ...

Absinthe, Hayes at Gough. Great brunch on Sunday -- took my out of town guests there, one of whom is vegetarian. We all had an outstanding meal with some killer bloody marys from what I think are the best bartenders in the city. I would highly recommend checking Absinthe out for brunch.

[Carolyn Tillie]

2. Five Crowns in Corona del Mar ("The O.C."...heh, heh, heh ) -- Lawry's with silly waitstaff costumes (kinda like Disneyland meets Hooters?)

Damn, I grew up in Orange County and remember when the Five Crowns was THE fancy-schmancy place to go (along with Newport 17)...

Mine:

1. Slurp (a noodle house in Berkeley)

2. Grasshopper (Japanese-style tapas in Berkeley)

3. Saketini in Napa (cheap Japanese-style)

hmmm... I detect a pattern here -- guess I need to get out of my Oriental rut

[Squeat Mungry]

Longest ago to most recent:

1) Gary Danko

2) Chez Maman

3) 2223 Market

All in San Francisco.

Cheers,

Squeat

Edit 'cuz it's really Chez Maman, not Chez Mama!

Edited August 31, 2004 by Squeat Mungry (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Manresa, Los Gatos a week ago ...

that alone equals more than three restaurants, you realize!

Since I have returned to Atlanta: Barcelona, here a Spanish upscale eatery today with superb tapas ..

Oh yes, and a buy-your-own-sandwich on Delta Airlines ... guess that is "eating out" if you look at the altitude!

[tanabutler]

Le Petit Robert (San Francisco)

Manresa (Los Gatos)

Sestri (Santa Cruz)

[jschyun]

In the last three days:

some not great place called U.S. Trattoria on Columbus I think (sort of a family run Italian American place) I had the gnocchi when I should have gotten the salmon according to a regular. Oh well. Salmon looked like normal steam table salmon, but he liked it.

Gary Danko, I like that lobster with the mushrooms and corn, but I get the tasting menu just because I might find somehting else I like.

Some korean place in Garden Grove where I had kimchee chigae that had fatty pork in it, with (black) wild rice. banchan was pretty good. family run. forget the name.

[Hest88]

Do you guys eat at nothing but fine restaurants? We're on a budget, so I've been cooking a lot but:

1) Tsar Nicoulai Caviar at the Ferry Building for a gorgeous and scrumptious brunch

2) Joy Luck - cheap Oakland Chinatown dinner

3) Golden Flower - pho for lunch. Does lunch count?

[Squeat Mungry]

some not great place called U.S. Trattoria on Columbus I think (sort of a family run Italian American place)

jschyun, the actual name is even more generic: "U.S. Restaurant". It's not great, but some of their stuff is pretty good for the price. It's been run by the Cipollina family for 50 years, but as of September 1 has been sold to some corporation.

Edit to add that I always thought the family name was pretty cool, since "cipollina" means "little onion" in Italian!

Edited September 1, 2004 by Squeat Mungry (log)

[CheNiPenso]

Well, I've just come back from Vegas, so I'll just list my most recent SF restos here:

* Last night at Fattoush with friends visiting from out of town. Great Turkish-esque food for the price.

* Last Wednesday at Il Cantuccio, perennially one of my two favorite Italian restaurants

* Not long before at Incanto, my, um, other favorite Italian restaurant. Seriously, though, it's good stuff.

[jschyun]

some not great place called U.S. Trattoria on Columbus I think (sort of a family run Italian American place)

jschyun, the actual name is even more generic: "U.S. Restaurant". It's not great, but some of their stuff is pretty good for the price. It's been run by the Cipollina family for 50 years, but as of September 1 has been sold to some corporation.

Ah okay, that explains all the hugging and I thought I heard people congratulating or saying something congratulatory to the older woman.

I think I just ordered the wrong dish. Everyone else seemed pretty happy. The regular also said the plain spaghetti and meatballs was pretty good. And the prices were very low. My gnocchi was like $11 or somewhere round there.

[carp]

I'll admit that you caught me on a good week. Usually I wouldn't let others in on my secret shame as usually this list would be populated by one good restaurant and 2 hideous choices that would out me as an indiscriminate eater of anything that will sit long enough for me to take a stab at with my fork...

Fujian in Walnut Creek (Spencer, the very best raw fish man I know)

Vatran's Flying Sausages in San Leandro (Peter Vatran makes excellent roast beef, incredible braises, wonderful soups... and he is the one-and-only Sausage Sage... the Delacroix of Delicatessen)

Picasso in Las Vegas (million$ of dollar$ worth of Picassos... oh, yeah and they serve food, too...)

Edited September 1, 2004 by carp (log)

[marie-louise]

From the East Bay:

a soft taco at Cactus on College (too lazy too cook)

Naan & Curry on College (again, because neither one of us felt like cooking)

Jojo's on Piedmont (an actual planned dinner out)

plus some Bun at Pho 84 yesterday for lunch...

[tanabutler]

From the East Bay:

a soft taco at Cactus on College (too lazy too cook)

Naan & Curry on College (again, because neither one of us felt like cooking)

Jojo's on Piedmont (an actual planned dinner out)

plus some Bun at Pho 84 yesterday for lunch...

I still want to try Jojo's. It looks wonderful. Is it as good as ever, Marie-Louise?

[carp]

a soft taco at Cactus on College (too lazy too cook)

Cactus isn't half bad...

[savvysearch]

Haru Haru Sushi in OC.

Z'Tejas in South Coast Plaza

Le Diplomat in Brea Mall

[Gary Soup]

Oh, gosh. Ignoring a Subway sandwich (emergency) and snacks, I guess it would be at 3 Brasseurs (a gibier choucroute and a biere blonde), Frite Alors! (cheval tartare and frites) and Chez Gatse (Tibetan) where I had the "Yeti" tasting menu, as it were. All were in Montreal (out of my home area) and not my usual fare (the Tibetan could be).

I'll make it up to San Francisco this weekend, however..

[marie-louise]

I still want to try Jojo's. It looks wonderful. Is it as good as ever, Marie-Louise?

I hesitate to say yes, because there is rarely an empty table, but yes, it is as good as ever. The food is very good, the restaurant is beautifully decorated, but the best part about it is the people who work there: the host always remembers us, everyone says hi when we walk in- from our usual waitress to the woman who is the assistant/busboy, and the chefs/ owners look up from their open kitchen and say hello and good-bye as you walk past. The staff is not overbearing in that mind-if-I join-you kind of way, but they always seem to have time for a short conversation at some point during the meal. As the host seats you, he asks if you'd like to start w/ a glass of Champagne (Agraparte)-which he brings promptly. It is just a completely pleasant dining experience. We've had so many threads about haughty hostesses and snotty waiters, and every time I think I read one I think about this place and think, now why would I spend my hard-earned money to be treated like that when I could come to a place like Jojo's and be treated so warmly!

Do save room for dessert. She used to be a pastry chef at Chez Panisse-her ice creams and sorbets are to die for...

I've probably screwed myself out of ever getting in there on the spur of the moment, but here is their website: http://www.jojorestaurant.com/story/index.htm

Edited September 1, 2004 by marie-louise (log)

[JAZ]

If you don't count lunch places, it'd be Chou Chou, Chenery Park and Incanto.

If you do count lunch places, it'd be Lee's, Briazz, and the salad/juice bar place on Sutter by the post office, which I never remember the name of.

[hollywood]

In LA, Patina (delicious), Quizno's (ok), The French Garden (not very French).

[Bombdog]

I've been traveling lately, so after Pilar's in Napa it was Emeril's Delmonico's in Vegas then Shealy's Bar b que in Batesburg/Leesville South Carolina.

[FoodZealot]

All in West LA -

Pho place on Wilshire - new management, less Americanized menu than before. Worth more visits.

Don Antonio's on Pico - basic "hot plate" Mexican food. Nice patio.

Javan on SM Blvd - Persian restaurant with the hilarious cheesy commercial where the pianist gives a "blue steel" look and some food appears in front of a blond woman. Nice environment, food is good, but I wish it was a tiny bit better.

[wnissen]

Y'all amaze me. My last three:

Railroad Cafe (one of the few decent places for breakfast in Livermore)

International House of Pancakes (Livermore again)

Mountain Mike's Pizza (Livermore)

We don't get out much.

[ruthcooks]

Omigod, what a time to ask!

I just got back from visiting my son's family in Dyersburg, TN and we ate out 3 times:

Olive Garden (on the way home from Memphis airport)

Wendy's

BadBobs (or some such) all-you-can eat barbequed ribs

The ribs were good, anyway.