San Diego
Fleming's (of course) $29.95 prime rib dinner on Sunday nights. Who can beat that? And no valet.
In-N-Out
Seattle June 2006
Fish Cafe foie gras was slightly overcooked.
cheese place
Washington D.C. July 2006
Our seven-course meal at Maestrowas only slightly marred by the alarm going off at the 6th course. But they did give our last two courses for free. :)
Because bunnie loves Middle Eastern food, we had to try Zatinya where the hummus was pureed finely. We ordered about 10 dishes here -- my eyes were
bigger than my stomach. Everything was reall good
New York, New York, September 2006
It was raining and disma but we wandered from the subway to find Momofuku's Noodle House, which is noodle perfected. bunnie's been to plenty of noodle houses in Japan and says this compares. A thick meaty broth with a perfectly poached egg with hand-made noodles. It's an open kitchen so you get to see everything, which we both like and there is a HUGE fire extinguisher just in case it gets out of control.
steak place shared a kobe steak. Had spicy cornbread and mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was made just like your mom would make.
foie gras hamburger restaurant? Foie gras hamburger was waaay too meaty.
Boston, October 2006
Todd English's Olives (overrated)
Oak Room for brunch (carpaccio, raw cubes of beef chopped up, yum yum. not the standard Italian preparation)
Mary Chung's
that awesome bar place for hamburgers and a flight of beer
San Diego, October 2006
all-you-can-eat sushi
Chicago, November 2006
http://www.loumalnatis.com/"> Lou Malnetti's deep dish pizza. Got a spinach (the "Lou") and the Deluxe. bunnie ate half of mine!
Portillo's chicago hot dogs. On the way to the airport, shared a Chicago hot dog to get our vegetables and some fresh yummy fries.
Bay Area, November 2006
Los Altos Grill with no corkage fee! A great location to meet the parents. Good fast service, noisy atmosphere, not at all stuffy, nice enough to feel like it's a nice dinner. We shared steak served with
blue cheese with tomatoes (bunnie), prime rib (Pauline), tender meat-falling-off-the-BBQ-ribs (dad), prime rib sandwich (mum and sis). bunnie pulled his "Chinese" move and paid for the bill
Washington D.C. December 2006
Obelisk (freshest mozzarella ever! flown in from Italy) The food was great. Unfortunately, we were suffering from a huge lunch we had earlier at
Lebanese Taverna (Greek) Preceding our Obelisk dinner, we decided to share the appetizer sampler, which came out on this huge platter and could have fed four.
Jaleo
San Diego December 2006
Met some friends at When in Rome. Being in company, we shared (no fighting allowed) the salad with prosciutto and shaved parmesan.
New Year's Eve at Fleming's
fish tacos at South Beach Bar & Grill. I've been here a couple of times and really liked the food. I didn't sell bunnie on it -- the traffic, the wait, etc, but once he bit into my grilled fish taco he was sold and ordered himself one (after consuming his own three tacos).
Bay Area/Napa January 2007
Delfina's. My sister's favorite place but it must have been a bad night in the kitchen. I ordered carpaccio and the crab linguini. Both were waaaay too salty.
bunnie ordered carpaccio and a simple spaghetti dish with spicy marinara sauce. Much to his chagrin, I helped myself to some of his (okay, a lot of his). Followed
by a couple of main dishes and desserts. Profiteroles have espresso ice cream!
But we had to get up early to go to the Essence of wine tour in Napa with the guy who took the Bliss picture that's on Windows
After a disappointing meal at Delfina's, I had to bring bunnie to Tra Vigne in St. Helena . Omigod, we had lunch reservations but we ate a dinner's amount of food. We had fresh mozzarella -- made right there on the premises when you ordered it. Then we ordered THREE plates of pasta, thinking that we would bring some home. No, no, we finished it all. I preferred the tagliatelle with lamb ragout while bunnie, thankfully, preferred the carbonara. The carbonara wasn't your typical white cream sauce but was yellow and black from egg yolks and lots of pepper, just like the Italians make it!
Does Gary Danko's ever disappoint? bunnie had the 7-course truffle tasting menu. Some interesting combinations like truffle with poached egg and truffle ice cream. Truffle ice cream is just blech and tasted like meat ice cream. I didn't order my usual seared foie gras and instead "settled" for frog legs wrapped in pancetta (which were pockets of perfection), squab with a wonderful five-grain stuffing and plum sauce, and venison.
January 2007 (Washington D.C.) My honey-b flies halfway across the WORLD (from Shenzhen) to feed me a 36-course Latino dim sum lunch at Cafe Atlantico. Interesting combinations like foie gras soup ( :( , foie gras should only be seared) and the use of jicama to wrap everything. Long long brunch --took about 3 hrs. Just in time to make our anti-war protest (because we care that way). Also, Lebanese Taverna and Urban BBQ -- some local restaurants in Rockville.
Pauline's Goals
To eat at James Beard restaurants
To find hand-made noodles (either Italian or Chinese)