Unknown must visit restaurants in your city

[XXXNoahXXX]

<u>BOSTON</u>

A little OT, but March 4-9 is Restaurant Week in Boston. Tons of Boston's best restaurant's offer $20 lunch/$30 dinner three-course prixe fixe menus. They are now taking reservations and it fills up fast.

http://www.restaurantweekboston.com/

My recommendation would be to go to MASA. I've been there a few times, each time for dinner although they also have great Tapas at the bar and what looks like a great brunch menu.

http://www.bostonchefs.com/clients/Masa/

http://masarestaurant.com/

Just some amazing food there. I want to try new places but even with all the other choices out there, the Masa restaurant week menu looks too good to pass up.

Anyone have experience with Turner Fisheries? In addition to their Restaurant Week menu they do a brunch seafood buffet which looks delicious as well.

[Parlay Slow]

Atlanta:

Hae Woon Dae has the best Korean BBQ in the city and is open very late hours to boot!

Baltimore Crab &amp; Seafood is an excellent carry out seafood joint downtown

[mbillie1]

Not sure if this will help anyone since Binghamton, NY sucks, but I go to college there.

BINGHAMTON, NY

Russell's Steak &amp; Seafood - 1001 W Main St, Endicott - excellent stuff. Elegant and not overly pricey. Also, literally 5 blocks from my apartment, so alert me if you intend to go. A+

Curry's of India - 45 Court St, Binghamton - phenomenal Indian food. Mom &amp; pop establishment, she waits and he cooks. Fantastic variety, excellent quality, not expensive at all. Available in spiciness from wimpy to infernal (my terms, but they fit trust me). It's a very small place, but definitely worth visiting. A

Hurricane Rylie's - 113 Nanticoke Ave, Endicott - A small little place, looks a bit like a bar from the outside. Excellent food, not gourmet but much better than Friday's / Olive Garden / etc, for about the same price if not a little less. Also, they serve the most enormous portions I've ever seen anywhere. They also have the quickest service I've ever seen, for that matter. You sit down, order your drinks, by the time you've taken 3 bites of your soup or salad, your monstrously large entree is there. A/A-

Those are my three favorites in the Binghamton area (I know 2 of them are in Endicott, but this is not bias because I live there - I lived in Binghamton previously and I would always make the trip to Russell's or Hurricane Rylie's). If anyone actually goes to any of these places, or if anyone's even heard of Binghamton, I'll be happy if they get some business out of this.

[Go_Blue88]

if anyone is ever in the chicago area and is willing to drive like 20 minutes...

in highland park, there's an amazing grill place called Stash's.

Order:
1. 1/2 lb cheeseburger (with cheddar) and get hot peppers on it (they have awesome hot peppers).
2. "The Homewrecker," which is the biggest Char Dog i've ever seen (i think it's a half pound). So good.
3. Chicken Caesar Wrap. Kinda girly i guess, but it's real good.

Get any of these things with Cheese Fries (fer some reason their cheddar cheese is better than other cheddar cheeses that i've had.

[El Diablo]

XXX,

Note that a lot of those restaurant week deals aren't really all that great. In Boston it's $33. At the restaurant you listed, the apps are about $8 and entrees are in the $20-25 range. So, if you were gonna get what's on the prix fixe list and get dessert, you maybe save $5 or get a free dessert. For example, looking at the menu, you could get one of the apps + any fish dish for $28 (and if you get dessert, it's probably about the same total price as the special) or app + the pork chop for $33 or app + the awesome sounding filet mignon for $37. I'd probably opt for one of those choices rather than sticking to the limited menu unless exactly what I wanted was on the menu. Especially since going with one other person if we even have dessert we'll usually just split one anyway.

Not meaning to rip on your post here, just pointing out that restaurant weeks are often not nearly as good a deal as they seem. I've done them, but when I do I look for the most expensive restaurants I can find on the list that I've been wanting to try but have avoided for that reason. Great way to try out places like that and see if they are worth the money.

[ElSapo]

[ QUOTE ]
restaurant weeks are often not nearly as good a deal as they seem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here in D.C., I really hate restaurant week. I'll grant that these are good opportunities for some people, but mostly we're talking about people who don't eat out that often and may not realize the disparity in quality. And that's fine and good and well, and I don't mean to insult those people.

But the quality of service and food that shows up during restaurant week is consistently weaker than it would be otherwise. Servers know they're going to be faced with an onslaught of couples and groups spending $30 each, plus maybe a glass of wine. This should not affect their attitude, but hey, stuff happens.

The kitchens are marking off steaks by the hundreds to re-finish later. Standard practice anyway at some places, but it definitely gets stepped up. The menus are limited. Food quality falls.

There are always great experiences to be had and restaurants that do it well. But if you really want to try a restaurant and see what they are capable of, try a random Wednesday or Thursday instead of restaurant week. Because often, it really isn't -that- big of a financial savings. Some places here in D.C. get on the list that I swear would normally cost less than the RW price.

But the week is there for some people. It becomes an ocassion for some people. And that's fine - all I'm saying is that if you really enjoy food and dining, RW isn't the time to try a new place.

[punkass]

Thanks for the scoop ElSapo. I am one of the people who would have planned going to a restaurant during RW thinking I was getting the grand tour for a bargain.

[KJS]

[ QUOTE ]
Seattle:

Thai Tom is often thought of as the best Thai place in town. I won't go there because it's too small, and they have a nasty habit of opening when they feel like it (which jibes with my lunch schedule). If neither of those things phase you, the food is amazing.

[/ QUOTE ]

The real best Thai in Seattle is Mae Phim on Columbia and 1st downtown. Daytime hours only, closes at 7PM. It is the most authentic and most delicious Thai in town, bar none.

KJS

[KJS]

The combination of really good and unknown is always a troublesome one for me. Does it even exist? Why would a really good restaurant be unknown? Terrible location? Word of mouth drives so much business that unless a place is brand new or at the end of a cul de sac in East Bumf*ck it is not going to be that unknown if the food is really that good.

On that note, I will submit 2 places that are quite known amongst Seattleites and are very good but are high on the list of places that I tell people about and they are like "I never heard of it". That is a version of unknown, in my book, and an even better one than "you won't find crap about this place online", which to me probably means it is not actually good. Particularly in a small city like Seattle that is filled with Internet nerds who like food.

Cafe Zum Zum on 3rd and Marion downtown is my #1 downtown lunch spot. The curries there are like crack in styrofoam. 4 veggie, 3 chicken and 3 lamb per day. Don't go at noon unless you want to wait a very long time.

Bakeman's on Cherry between 1st and 2nd downtown is Seattle's version of the soup Nazi, but the guy hawks amazing turkey sammies with real made fresh daily roasted turkey (the meat loaf is amazing too). And "what soup are you having" and "did you say apple pie", and "are you buying his lunch too". Solid honest grub for a great price ($3.65 for turkey sammie). Beware of all the lawyers though, it is near the courthouse. Again, avoid during the noon hour.

I'll add a shout out to the Sloop Tavern in Ballard, near the liquor store on Market St.. Best cheeseburger in town.

KJS

[Chrisman886]

Chataeu Orleans in San Diego is awesome. The music is usually great. The food is ridiculously good. My favorite dish is "The Holy Trinity."

www.chateauorleans.com