ModChick
Drama Llama
True North Strong and Free
Posts: 5,062
Jun 26, 2014 23:57:06 GMT
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Post by ModChick on Sept 20, 2023 5:39:36 GMT
I would love to be a guest during a recording of a Hell's Kitchen episode ... see the chef's struggle and Gordon Ramsay give people a hard time ... yup, I'm weird. If I was to go to a serious restaurant, I would want it to be a place called The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine ... their story is amazing and the food looks soooooo good! It is almost impossible to get a reservation ... You can watch the series based on the restaurant and it's owner Erin French on Discovery + My brother’s girlfriend has a son who is about 24. He’s been in the audience twice at Hells kitchen episode and he said it’s freaking amazing. They don’t get charged for dinner. He said the food is absolutely delicious and watching what goes on in the kitchen is something to watch Nice!! This is one restaurant experience I’d love to have as well.
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Post by miominmio on Sept 20, 2023 7:16:32 GMT
Maeemo and Under. I doubt I can talk hubby into Maaemo (it’s VERY expensive, but it would be fun to go there once). Under (it’s under water) is eight hours away, but seems worth the effort to travel there.
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Post by kristi521 on Sept 20, 2023 14:50:06 GMT
PF Changs--chain Chinese food. Nothing special and I would always choose a good local Asian restaurant over Changs Cracker Barrel--decent food. Fun store to do some shopping. Melting Pot--overpriced fondue. LOL Famous Dave's--don't bother. Find a good local BBQ joint and you will be much happier. Overall, we don't eat at many sit down chain restaurants. there are too many local places to enjoy and I want to support local businesses. When we are traveling, we have a rule to not eat at chain restaurants, if at all possible. We will make an exception to have Waffle House or some other regional chain we don't have up here in WI. Seems like I always heard how awesome places like PF Changs was so I thought I was missing out. I don't really hear as much about them any more though.
Thing is the BBQ places we have are all not so great. One we liked, just went out of business, and there is one we like well, but we hate paying thier prices. They are always $6-7 more per plate than the others. We do eat there once in a great while.
I totally agree about eating local and that is what we usally do and we are like you, when we travel we make it a point to avoid chans.
Which reminds me; we go to Denver fairly often for different various reasons. One day, we had gone to an exhibit at the art museum. When we were done there, we left to find something to eat on our way to put flowers on my dad's grave at Fort Logan National Cemetery. We could not find anything that rocked our boat between the museum and the cemetery as it seemed like the parh we traveled was nothing but chains. Put flowers on the grave and said the first place we see we are eating no matter what as we were starving. Huge painted sign on side of highway BBQ! Took next exit and went to have some BBQ. The place looked shady, but told my son, well, they do have to have kitchen inspections. lol That was THEE best BBQ I have ever had. We would go there on occasion when in the area, but it also has closed. PF Changs used to be so much better. Now, I have one fairly close to me and I cannot tell you the last time I went. I am thinking it has been at least a decade.
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Post by ~summer~ on Sept 20, 2023 14:54:22 GMT
I remember going to the original PF Changs in Newport Beach (it was one of the first) with my sister back in the 90s and I thought the lettuce wraps were amazing.
The last couple times I went though, the food was actually bad. I would not go out of my way to go.
Never been to a Waffle House or Cracker Barrel - and I don’t think I would haha
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Post by stampnscrap1128 on Sept 20, 2023 15:11:18 GMT
I can't think of any specific restaurants but one of my bucket list trips is to tour the coast of Maine. I'd love to eat some really good lobster there while overlooking the ocean.
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Post by ~summer~ on Sept 20, 2023 20:37:47 GMT
I can't think of any specific restaurants but one of my bucket list trips is to tour the coast of Maine. I'd love to eat some really good lobster there while overlooking the ocean. I will totally second this! And I’ll combine it with touristy places we’ve never been for $500. The answer is Acadia NP and eating lobster on the coast!
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maryannscraps
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,736
Aug 28, 2017 12:51:28 GMT
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Post by maryannscraps on Sept 22, 2023 11:37:44 GMT
I can't think of any specific restaurants but one of my bucket list trips is to tour the coast of Maine. I'd love to eat some really good lobster there while overlooking the ocean. I will totally second this! And I’ll combine it with touristy places we’ve never been for $500. The answer is Acadia NP and eating lobster on the coast! We were up there last week. One of my highlights was takeout lobster rolls from Beals, eaten at Seawall while a small herd of deer chowed down on the grass next to us. Man, that lobster roll was really good.
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Post by guzismom on Sept 22, 2023 14:51:54 GMT
I crossed one off my list today - DS and I went to the cafe at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna and had Sachertorte for afternoon tea. It was delicious! I don’t tend to lean towards chain restaurants, and there are fewer of them in Europe anyway. When travelling, we look for recommendations from our hotel or Airbnb host. We went there and our Sachertorte was tasteless and served with a side of pomposity. The waiter ghosted us and the comically imperious host was far too busy (in a half full restaurant) and important to have a minion figure out what we owed. I’m used to a lower level of service in Europe because they don’t tip, but this took the cake…uh, Sachretorte. We left what we thought we owed after about half an hour. This is the only place IN THE WORLD that we have been turned away because of our dress...and I've eaten in far fancier, more celebrated places all over the world. They claimed my husband was wearing 'sport pants' (aka, sweats); but honestly, he was not. He had on a pair of black pants with a normal hem; no elastisized cuff or anything of the sort. I think it had more to do with the two children we had in tow...what a bunch of snobs. Thankfully, there was a very cute cafe right across the way where we enjoyed the 'torte'; it was delicious! They were so gracious to our girls, giving them extra little cookies with their hot chocolates. My husband is absolutely FABULOUS at finding us special places to dine on our vacations; I tease him that I'm going to make him a trip planner/travel agent in his retirement. It is so fun to be watching TV and see the place you dined on vacay featured on Stanley Tucci's show!
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luckyjune
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,685
Location: In the rainy, rainy WA
Jul 22, 2017 4:59:41 GMT
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Post by luckyjune on Sept 22, 2023 17:23:59 GMT
I want to go to a family-style Italian restaurant. We did this in Boston. We asked our tour bus driver to recommend a good Italian restaurant. He told us to go to Little Italy and go to any mom and pop restaurant and we'd have an unforgettable meal. He was correct. The best part for me was watching Grandma hand bagged up meals to the young men working there, on their way out the door, at the end of their shifts. Each was addressed as "Bello" and they all hugged her on the way out. So sweet.
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luckyjune
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,685
Location: In the rainy, rainy WA
Jul 22, 2017 4:59:41 GMT
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Post by luckyjune on Sept 22, 2023 17:33:54 GMT
We have a local restaurant called The Herbfarm. They do farm-to-table themed meals. One of their dinners uses only ingredients sources within 50 (maybe 100?) miles of the restaurant. Another is called "Valley of Eden" and features the foods grown in the valley around the restaurant. It's a pricy affair, and not one for a spontaneous "Let's go to the Herbfarm tonight!" kind of thing. I want to eat there at least once.
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Post by Susie_Homemaker on Sept 22, 2023 17:58:19 GMT
I don't have any real must do's, but if I eventually pull into a Buccee's (sp?), I've been told I need to try their brisket? We have eating at Buc-ee's next Saturday night on the way home from the football game on the itinerary. I do love their (always fresh) pulled pork sandwiches and they have so many other things (junk food and healthy choices) to choose from that it's hard to resist. Not fine dining by any stretch, it is a "gas station" (with 100+ pumps!), but definitely worth going to if you ever get the chance.
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Post by 950nancy on Sept 22, 2023 22:26:56 GMT
I have been to most of these places except for Edelweiss and Cracker Barrel. We used to have a Famous Dave's, if you mean the BBQ place. We would go there often, but they closed up. Growing up in LA, we used to go The Old Spaghetti Factory in Hollywood. That was a treat and for a kid, it was fun because they had trolley cars inside the building that was part of the decor. I always wanted to get a table inside the trolley. I have heard that the building has since been torn down. I have also been to other locations several times as an adult. It is a bit on the pricey side, but it is not bad. All entrees include soup or salad, and ice cream. The one near me gets really busy on Sunday's. I've been to the Melting Pot for company functions. It is pretty good. Yeah, I find Ruby Tuesday and TGIFridays to be just ok. They are never on my list of places I want to go, but I'll eat there if people I am with want to go there. I might have to give it a 2nd thought to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I don't mind paying a bit more for a treat. To me though, pasta is one the the cheapets foods around, so a plate of noodles that cost maybe a quater, a blob of sauce and possibly a meatball will cost me almost $25 makes me dizzy. lol That's too bad if they tore the building down. I hate when they tear up my nostalgia.
Yes, Famous Dave's is a BBQ place. The one we have here was in a nice stand alone building, but during the pandemic, they closed and moved to a much smaller place in a stip on a very busy thoroughfare. Son went there the other day and was not real impressed.
I think we're in the same area. We ate OSF last year and it was good, but yes, pricey. They also give you some either spumoni or ice cream with all meals.
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Post by Merge on Sept 22, 2023 22:31:22 GMT
For anyone who visits Maine but can’t get a res to Lost Kitchen, Primo in Rockland is another amazing farm to table place that is a little easier to get reservations for (but book at least several weeks in advance).
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Post by monklady123 on Sept 22, 2023 22:41:30 GMT
One thing I've never eaten but would love to try is real poutine. Not some random probably-fake kind that we might be able to buy in the States. I want to have it from a real Canadian place.
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Post by katlady on Sept 23, 2023 0:00:40 GMT
One thing I've never eaten but would love to try is real poutine. Not some random probably-fake kind that we might be able to buy in the States. I want to have it from a real Canadian place. I had poutine a couple of times on a trip to Montreal. One was a breakfast poutine. So good!
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Post by smasonnc on Sept 23, 2023 0:36:05 GMT
We went there and our Sachertorte was tasteless and served with a side of pomposity. The waiter ghosted us and the comically imperious host was far too busy (in a half full restaurant) and important to have a minion figure out what we owed. I’m used to a lower level of service in Europe because they don’t tip, but this took the cake…uh, Sachretorte. We left what we thought we owed after about half an hour. This is the only place IN THE WORLD that we have been turned away because of our dress...and I've eaten in far fancier, more celebrated places all over the world. They claimed my husband was wearing 'sport pants' (aka, sweats); but honestly, he was not. He had on a pair of black pants with a normal hem; no elastisized cuff or anything of the sort. I think it had more to do with the two children we had in tow...what a bunch of snobs. Thankfully, there was a very cute cafe right across the way where we enjoyed the 'torte'; it was delicious! They were so gracious to our girls, giving them extra little cookies with their hot chocolates. My husband is absolutely FABULOUS at finding us special places to dine on our vacations; I tease him that I'm going to make him a trip planner/travel agent in his retirement. It is so fun to be watching TV and see the place you dined on vacay featured on Stanley Tucci's show! You dodged a bullet. Highly overrated.
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Post by smasonnc on Sept 23, 2023 0:41:03 GMT
We went there and our Sachertorte was tasteless and served with a side of pomposity. The waiter ghosted us and the comically imperious host was far too busy (in a half full restaurant) and important to have a minion figure out what we owed. I’m used to a lower level of service in Europe because they don’t tip, but this took the cake…uh, Sachretorte. We left what we thought we owed after about half an hour. This is the only place IN THE WORLD that we have been turned away because of our dress...and I've eaten in far fancier, more celebrated places all over the world. They claimed my husband was wearing 'sport pants' (aka, sweats); but honestly, he was not. He had on a pair of black pants with a normal hem; no elastisized cuff or anything of the sort. I think it had more to do with the two children we had in tow...what a bunch of snobs. Thankfully, there was a very cute cafe right across the way where we enjoyed the 'torte'; it was delicious! They were so gracious to our girls, giving them extra little cookies with their hot chocolates. My husband is absolutely FABULOUS at finding us special places to dine on our vacations; I tease him that I'm going to make him a trip planner/travel agent in his retirement. It is so fun to be watching TV and see the place you dined on vacay featured on Stanley Tucci's show! You dodged a bullet. Highly overrated. We don’t eat at a lot of fancy schmancy places, but we’ve eaten at a lot nicer places than that. The piss-ant host was pretty comical. He failed to notice that we were sitting at the table and he was at the door, not the other way around.
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