Where do YOU like to eat out?

We're having fun in the Vacations & Travel Forum putting together lists of our favorite places to eat out. Come join us! We don't need to know the exact address (although if you have it, we'll be happy to include it!) - just the name of the restaurant, the city it is in, and the State or Province if it is in the US or in Canada. If it is in a different country (and I expect most of yours will be!), list them under the first letter of your country's name.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/682159/

Thanks but I don't eat out other than very very occasionally. Too expensive and I know what's in most of the food I prepare. I try to avoid soya as far as possible and it's in practically everything processed. Besides my bother (sic) used to work for hotels and I did some silver service waiting after work for a short while as a teenager, it's mildly off putting when it's a 5 star hotel, I dread to think what goes on elsewhere ;)

LOL I can understand that, Baa! :-)

i like all you can eat places

Well, go list your favorites, phicks! :-)

to many this is florida the land of ten million resturants

I Like decent restaurants. I have never been to road side cafe and i'm proud of that fact!
If anyone comes to Lincoln for food we'll point you in the right direction easily. Jut let us know what you like the most.
My top ones are :-
The tea rooms in Dublin, Ireland.
Seaham Hall Near Newcastle Uk
San Piedro Scunthorpe Uk

Try those out for size and let me know.

Mike

Hi Mike,

SCUNTHORPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didnt know there was a restaurant there you could go into without being armed.......................LOL

Hiya Resin Its probably the same thing. Its run by Tom's company they own the Samlings as well in the lake district.
Sorry i kind of forgot that you where here. I'm sure saying its Near Newcastle is a bit like saying London is Near France to you. But its all relative. lol

MR CROC!! Seriously you wouldn't believe it. It probably the second most Expensive meal i have had in the last 6 months or so. About 100 quid for the 2 of us. Not trying to sound poncy. Its what we do for fun. Some people collect stamps and some people spot planes, we eat out in restaurants. lol

Toms company links http://www.tomscompanies.com/Default.asp?uid=620104451&tid=1&sid=1&mid=1

Mark check this one out its the one in scumthorpe http://www.sanpietro.uk.com/

There is a place somewhere near you Mark that gets great reviews, do you know it? It has a helicopter launch pad thingy.

Mike

If you go to Harlow Carr Gardens near Harrogate in Yorkshire you can sample Betty's Tea Rooms wonderful sandwiches and cakes at the cafe near the bottom of the gardens (not sure if this bit is open in winter), or in the Restaurant near the entrance where you can also have a full meal. This is an R.H.S. garden and is beautiful all the year round. I like to go for my birthday treat in February and the ground under the trees is usually carpeted with snowdrops, cyclamen and winter aconites. They have been extending and renovating the gardens and have made a lot of changes and improvements in the past two years. They have planted up a wet meadow on the left of the woodland and completely re-done a kitchen garden area near the top of the site near the restaurant. Great food and gardens - what more does anyone want.?

I'm in Harrogate next week. I have been there before as my granny lived there. I'll take a look if i have time. Of course i'll take a sample of all the cakes i can and book them out to the expenses! lol

I dont know of one with a helicopter pad Mike...............

Have you ever tried Winteringham Fields ???????????????? Now talk about expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.winteringhamfields.com/

have a look

Hi Mike

Hey Mark i'm pretty sure thats what i'm on about. I heard you could land your chopper there. (maybe thats a different site. lol)
We keep meaning to go there. But since our arrival 6 months ago, going out has been lower on our list of things to do.

My mum is one of those funny geordie types. Never could understand a word she said! lol
My Auntie lives in Seaton sluice. Nice little place, only spoiled by being up north. heheh

Every other door in Crete is a food place: restaurant, taverna, cafe, raki place, you name it. I would say in Greece eating out is a national pastime - in the most lazy way: park the car just behind your chair, if possible.

Well, I live in a village with about 2000 people, and it has 4 eating places, one better than the other:
Manolis, a small taverna where Manolis(the owner) will bring you the whole menu and you eat it or leave it; unique for its homemade quality, austere Cretan countryside tastes, and of course loose red wine. You start with fresh leaven bread and fresh goat cheese, then huge chips golden fried in olive oil and tossed with rough sea salt, meat balls that are unique, wild greens (horta) which he collects himself from the nearby hills, boiled and served with olive oil and lemon, fried wild mushrooms, and the meat: lamb with stamnaghathi (a kind of taraxacum) in an egg and lemon sauce, or pork with celery, or whatever traditional meat casserole his wife Eleni has cooked. Total tables: 5 in the winter, 10 in the summer.
Rodinos (Nicos), wonderful kebabs in pitta (the old traditional Greek fast food) and all other kinds of grilled meat, salad, and one cooked meal everyday, where the workers usually have lunch - and I love to taste it whenever I can. All in the traditional old cafe surrounding: neon lights, lots of noise, at the end permanent customers (all of them retired and eternally talking about politics), a loud tv for watching the big matches, and all the trimmings.
Gazozas, a very respectable taverna with the most beautiful terrace in the summer: you can choose to sit under the vine, loaded with red grapes, or under the giant mulberry tree, or by the pythoi with geraniums and hydrangeas. All grilled meats and dairy products and fresh salads. Lefteris, 3rd generation taverner, grills meat to perfection, and wife Katerina looks after the plants and the kitchen, the son is the maitre d'.
Gaganis, a very picturesque small place with many tables outside in the summer nights, around the old church. Dinner usually starts at 10 and goes on past midnight. He specializes in one thing, omelette with tomato and/or
cheese, or omelette with chips in and/or cheese, wonderful mountainous fresh mixed salads and kebabs in pitta. End of Menu. George serves everybody and his mother cooks everything like she does at home. He is on many printed guides and the locals do not change him for anything.

You can tell we like eating out - if we omit it for more than 4 - 5 days, we develop a syndrome.

Do you feel hungry?

You are bringing back memories of some lovely holidays in Crete. Good food, beautiful scenery and warm weather - what more could one want? I'm not surprised that Northern Europeans are buying homes to retire to, it is very tempting, but a shame they are inflating the prices for local people. It is the same here in all the pretty villages and coastal towns, the prices are sky high and they are being used as holiday homes and left empty for half the year, while locals can't afford to buy them.

Back to food and drink - why do you make Retsina? It is horrible, more like disinfectant. Is it supposed to be medicinal?

Pat, it is a very simple story. There are many myths attached to it, but the reality is simple: Attica (the vicinity around Athens) is full of pines, and even before the 6th century BC they had tried to make wine in casks made of pine wood, which of course is full of very aromatic resin. So the wine acquired the taste and aroma of resin, and got its destinctive light amber colour. Nowadays resin is added intentionally and to a great extent it has nothing to do with the real original stuff. Evenmore, the retsina I could buy in the UK was the lowest quality of the Greek trade. All in all, retsina somehow tastes of turpentine; you either love it or hate it. But put in front of you some olives, feta cheese and fried squid and a glass of ice cold retsina and immediately the breeze of the coast near Athens is on the cheeks of your soul. I was born in Athens and grew up with it. I love it like the Irish love Guinness, which to me it looks like it is made of wash left to rust in metal barrels from WW II (a personal expression of a friend of mine, just ot show you that food is a matter or memory of tastes from childhood: likewise the French - as well as the cretans - like snails but consider slugs to be yacky).

If you find some nice respectable retsina (like Achaia-Clauss) have it cool well in the fridge and try it on a hot day, to accompany fried fish or pita kebabs and then tell me again.

Sorry I have insulted your retsina Dimitri. I was in Crete when I tasted it - it was first prize in a pub quiz.

I will try your recommendation and let you know, thank you.

Do not worry, Pat - I don't see it as insult - I know a lot of people don't like this wine and here I felt obliged to explain the idiosyncrasies of this wine, and emphasise the importance of using a good quality sample when trying to judge it.

Best wishes

Dimitri

Thank you all for the worldly 'tastes'...I enjoy visiting your forum. I could take the coast off of Athens right now. Pretty chilly here in Illinois tonight.
Laura

Laura, I don't know how big Thomasboro is, but in most big(ish) cities there are greek restaurants as greek immigrants always adhere to the catering business, but there is certainly some cold retsina relatively near you, just to give it a try.

Dimitri

Dimitri,
I live south of Chicago about 2 hours. My town is very small. I am close to Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois. I was in a suburb of Chicago a few months ago with my daughter and my niece (checking out wedding dresses in some nice stores there) and took the girls to a Greek restaurant for lunch as neither one had ever been to one, for the experience you know. They had fun, enjoyed the food, the atmosphere and watching people around them. I don't speak Greek but think I heard some spoken by some young men at a nearby table. Good to take in and appreciate some culture other than our own every now and then. Chicago is definately a diverse city. I've been in the Greek, Italian, Jewish and Indian sections before. Fun to do and good people. I will look up some retsina next time I'm there. Thanks.
Laura

Being near a port there's definitely a lot of choice here. The one that always strikes me as unusual is Gurkha cuisine, the restaurant has been in Winchester for as many years as I can recall a so it clearly does great trade.

what is Gurkha cuisine like ?

Dimitri - I hope I have the good fortune to visit Crete one day - Your list of restaurants did make me hungry although I just finished dinner (pitta ;-))

Our favorite restaurant in Reykjavik is named Argentína. It's a steak house and serves the best steaks I've tasted. We've never left there unhappy. Really wonderful and usually very busy so you need reservations.

On our travels to the Westfjords this summer we had lunch in a wonderful restaurant in a small village named Bíldudalur. It serves a delicious seafood soup that is an absolute must if traveling through there. The name of the restaurant is Vegamót (Café Vegamót).

here's a photo :-)

Rannveig, it would be nice to see you in Crete. Can you give a recipe for an extraordinary seafood soup? it would be very interesting.

D

No sorry - I have no extraordinary talent in making seafood soup. But the one we had in Bíldudalur was possilbly the best I've had - really good. Wouldn't mind getting that recipe ;-)

Visiting Crete is definately on my to do list. I want to wait until the girls are a bit older so we can do some sightseeing when we go ..... I'm not the type to just hang around the pool when vacationing ... I have to see the sights too ;-) lol

Where I like to eat out . . . the local public park, when the cherries are ripe on the cherry trees ;-)

Sometimes get people coming up to me to say, "Hey, you can't eat those, they're poisonous!"

Resin

Ooooh Resin - don't get me started on cherry trees. Having a cherry tree to pick the cherries off would be bliss to me ...... I loooooove cherries! :-) lol

Rannveig, keep in mind to foind that recipe please, when it is convenient.

Resin, you are wonderful .............. what a perception of speech !!!


D

We'll all have to meet up in Crete and sample all the lovely food Dimitri has told us about - and try the retsina.

Or try the fish soup in Iceland

Or ................

Hi Rannveig,

Drool away . . . :-)

Awww Resin that's just cruel .... lol. Boy do they look yummy - looks like heaven to me! I'm drooling :-)

They were . . . :-)

Have some more!

So very pretty :-)

So glossy you can see my reflection in them!

Wishing I'd taken some pics of one of the other trees, its cherries are lighter red, translucent, in the sun they look like shining rubies among the leaves (but much tastier and juicier :-)

Resin

oh Resin you're killing me! lol That is the only thing that could possibly tempt me to move to someplace a bit warmer ......having apples and cherries growing in my garden .......

Those cherries are making me drool...I never seem to manage to get any from my trees, the blackbirds always get them just before they're ripe!!...so I just leave them to it..and buy them from the local grocersinstead, madness isn't it!

I just fancy sittiing on Crete right now too, it's cold wet and miserable here, I need some warmth to ease my bones...and a meal thick with garlic and olive oil...mmmm

We don't eat out much (well I don't) but if we do we go to a place called the Lobster pot right on Portland Bill. It started out literally as a shack, like an old railway carriage, it's now been upgrade to a bigger shack, but you can't beat it.
you sit there in the winter, watching the waves crashing over the rocks,wiping a hole in the steamed up windows.. or the race churning up the sea.

In the summer you can sit outside on the grass watching the boats round the bill,with a glass of wine and a nice sald, very relaxed and informal. Absolute bliss.

they do fab fresh crab sandwiches,fish and chips, good old fashioned home cooking. they're famous though for their gooseberry crunble. My sisters all buy some to take home.