What's your favorite restaurant and meal?

[divingbiker]

My favorite restaurant is Mandalay, a Burmese restaurant in Silver Spring, MD. Just went there tonight, in fact. My favorite meal is a papaya salad and sour mustard with tofu, but I've never had a bad meal there.

At home, I like spaghetti squash with fake meatballs and Barilla green-and-black-olive sauce doctored with mushrooms and peppers, or brown rice with fake chicken, baby bok choy, onions, and enoki mushrooms (if I'm feeling energetic.)

Around here, we've got every ethnic food imaginable, and my neighbor and I rotate among them every weekend--Thai, Salvadoran, Middle Eastern, Ethiopian, Burmese, Indonesian, Indian...the list is endless, and they're all delicious.

I never eat fast food, mostly because they don't have vegan options. Except Chipotle, which I love.

[Running Mommy]

Around here I LOVE wildflower bakery/cafe. YUMM!Fab butternut squash ravioli's and chinese chicken salads. But I have to stay away because their bakery items are to DIE for! The chocolate chip scone and carrot cake are my two favorites.
Otherwise good BBQ would be what I want. I can never pass up good que.
BUT, I would have to go to Alabama (paging silver family) to have Jim and Nicks. Again- my sweet tooth always has room for lemon ice box pie. Have mercy!!

My other faves are in nor cal. Chunk cripsy chicken in a ginger garlic sauce at a certain place in Santa Rosa is my all time fave.
My other fave up there is Langleys on the Green in Windsor. That used to be our "date night special place" when we lived up there.

Oh and one last fave... REAL sourdough bread. The kind from San Francsico. Actually franco american out of Petaluma is the stuff! I can eat the entire loaf with either some butter or good olive oil... BOY HOWDY!

[7rider]

DH and I just got back from a favorite sushi spot, where we had yellowtail cheek, salmon, spicy tuna rolls, and all our usual faves.
Like DivingBiker, I also like Mandalay in Silver Spring (my co-workers took me there for my b'day this past September). Indian is a frequent fave, too. There's a new Ethiopian place that just opened in Silver Spring, and that was really good. No utensils...eat with the "spongy bread".
I grew up eating at Italian restaurants, but strangely, when DH and I go out, we usually opt for the more...well, exotic. But Japanese and Indian top the lists. However, if given the opportunity, I never fail to pass up eggplant parm!
Oh...and I do try to avoid chains (aka "factory food") and fast food places.

[Pax]

Milos - Fancy (for these parts) local place. Amazing scallops over wild mushroom risotto.


Apple Dumplin' - Local down home place. Meatloaf, smashed taters, and green beans...pure comfort food.


Fiesta Cafe - Local Mexican place. Cheese enchiladas, beans, guacamole, and draft Dos Equis.

[Trek420]

Oh and one last fave... REAL sourdough bread. The kind from San Francsico. Actually franco american out of Petaluma is the stuff! I can eat the entire loaf with either some butter or good olive oil... BOY HOWDY!

Yes, we have great sour dough bread here. RM, next time you're in the Bay Area take a trip south to the little town of Pescadero. Not only some great cycling but

www.duartestavern.com

Among other yummy things they make an artichoke soup that is to die for, have some crusty sour dough bread with it .... yum.

[kelownagirl]

Big Mac, Large Fries, and a Chocolate Shake.

Just kidding!!!


Lobster, pretty well anywhere. Also the crab ravioli at the Wild Apple Grill. And pretty well anything on the menu at the Minstrel Cafe where I got married last spring. Yeah, I know, you've never heard of any of these restaurants...

[Trek420]

Yeah, I know, you've never heard of any of these restaurants...

Yeah, but I like that. Keep those reviews coming in.

[OakLeaf]

Mmmmmm, too many choices for restaurant meal.

Whole Cuban-style fried fish at the Spanish River Grille, New Smyrna Beach, is right up there.

Just about anything on the menu at Dragonfly in Columbus.

I wish I remembered the name of the little hole-in-the-wall in Chicago where I first experienced Thai food in '83. It probably isn't even there any more. The proprietors had only been in the US for six months, and I thought I'd died and gone to food heaven.

Home meals? Am I taking a lot of trouble, or doing something pretty quick? If I've got the time and energy to mess around with phyllo, it's spanakopita, hands down. For an easy meal, Phillipine mongo - whole unpeeled mung beans with spinach, tomatoes and lime juice, served over rice. Hah, spinach in both. Yummy!

[Eden]

For an easy meal, Phillipine mongo - whole unpeeled mung beans with spinach, tomatoes and lime juice, served over rice. Hah, spinach in both. Yummy!

ooooooohhhh recipe? please! please!

[Fredwina]

really, really bad...
I like Steak N' Shake
The good news: I;m 2,00 miles away form the nearest location.
The bad news: in 3 weeks, I'll only be 7 miles

[carpaltunnel]

Nettie's Mexican Restaurant in Bellevue, Nebraska, yum. (You can't tell where Omaha ends and Belluevue begins.)

A family owned place in what used to be a filling station/cafe combo building from the 1950's. Nettie passed away a couple years ago but worked late into her 80's there, as did her boyfriend. Pictures of Nettie and all the generations of Escamillas all over the walls. Also pictures Nettie with some world famous people who find theirway to her when they are in town for a concert or game.

These days her daughter Cathy and her family continue to put out the same high quality food. I always get the potato and pea enchilada plate, smothered with lettuce and tomato. DH always orders the beef enchilada plate. They remember their regular customers. Everything is made from scratch including salsa, chili, and menudo. The chili is painfully hot with a wonderful flavor. We get a cup and spoon it judiciously over our enchiladas.

You come in the door, work your way to the cash register, put in your name, then stand in line until a table is ready. Or sit at the bar if there's room . A very basic looking place that people flock to for the great food. You're more likely to see well known Omaha faces there than about any place else.