places

It seems a shame not to cap­ture and share some of our col­lec­tive intel­li­gence about good places to eat and drink.  Some of these are rec­om­mend­ed by oth­ers, unvis­it­ed and to try.

seattle

Saint Helens.  Beau­ti­ful­ly designed wood­en box brasserie on the Burke-Gilman trail near UW—cafe in the morn­ing with nice break­fasts (and prop­er cap­puc­ci­no) at the mar­ble counter, good look­ing food and drinks in the evening, out­door seat­ing along the bike path.

Bateau.  Great steak frites and oth­er meat things, from their own farm.  Owned by the same peo­ple as Gen­er­al Por­poise (who use said far­m’s eggs).

Con­tadi­no.  Decent pas­ta and piz­za place on 19th.

Sit­ka & Spruce.  Great cre­ative food, and in the beau­ti­ful new Mel­rose Build­ing.

Mam­noon.  Superb Syr­i­an food.

Chop Shop.  Short but nice menu neigh­bor­hood cafe and bar.  In the same excel­lent­ly ren­o­vat­ed build­ing as Cloud Room.

Lon­don Plane.  Looks attrac­tive; had their Tar­tine-style bread at Bar Fer­d’­nand and it was real­ly good.

Blind Pig / Babirusa.  This place is in a strip mall in East­lake and looks thor­ough­ly unpromis­ing from with­out.  The mood improves inside, with an entire­ly sea­son­al and dai­ly-vary­ing menu on the black­board full of cre­ative com­bi­na­tions (water­mel­on and prawn soup, yum).  With four of us, we just ordered every­thing and feast­ed.

Cor­son Build­ing.  Need to try.

Bar Sajor.  By the Cor­son peo­ple.  Need to try.

Bark­ing Frog.  East­side restau­rant attached to Wil­lows Lodge.  A love­ly 2h bik­eride from Seat­tle, and very good cre­ative food.  Next to Herb­farm, and just across the riv­er (a short walk) from a bunch of winer­ies includ­ing Mark Ryan and DeLille.

Wan­der­ing Goose.  Awe­some bis­cuits and oth­er things South­ern on 15th, in the style of and owned by one of the Vol­un­teer Park Café ladies (pay and order first at the glass pas­try case in the front where one can be tempt­ed to impulse eat, then sit).  Great brunch.  Unlike in the South, the cap­puc­ci­no is respectable, though Vic­tro­la is also next door.

Rione XIII.  Ethan Stow­ell’s new place on 15th.  We had a beau­ti­ful snack here of pros­ec­co, car­ciofi alla judea, and sup­pli al tele­fono.  The micro-counter on the side­walk out­side reminds me of the side­walk parks San Fran­cis­co has begun putting in, like the one out­side Four Bar­rel.  15th is look­ing up.

Mon­soon, 615 19th Avenue East.  This is a place we’re very lucky to have so close to home, tucked away in the leafy part of Capi­tol Hill.  Posh Viet­namese, strong on French influ­ences and with a win­ning focus on high-qual­i­ty ingre­di­ents (paint­ed hills beef, mad hatch­er eggs, etc.).  The inte­ri­or is min­i­mal and attrac­tive; open kitchen behind the bar.  Prices are quite rea­son­able, but this is very much not a Chi­na­town dive; date night works here.  Open every day for din­ner, and now for lunch as well.  On week­ends there’s a love­ly brunch, at which one can get dim sum (pieces ordered indi­vid­u­al­ly though, there’s not near­ly enough vol­ume here for the cart), bro­ken rice bowls, banh xeo crêpes, or west­ern things like eggs bene­dict and waf­fles, are very fine­ly pre­pared.  Faves: cat­fish hot pot, green papaya sal­ad, egg dish­es, all the dim sum.  Pret­ty much every­thing is good here.

Vios.  Owned by the cheer­ful, gas­tro­nom­i­cal and com­mu­ni­ty-mind­ed Thomas Soukakos.  Greek food, again with an empha­sis on sim­plic­i­ty and fine ingre­di­ents.  A place in the back for kids to play, and nom­i­nal­ly a “mar­ket” counter in the front, though mar­ket prices are well north of Greek islandish.  For lunch, it’s hard to beat the lamb sou­vla­ki sand­wich, loaded with oven-roast­ed toma­toes, yogurt and pars­ley.  At din­ner, a glass of retsi­na and a pik­il­ia plate to share would be a good start.

Omega Ouzeri.  New place by Thomas of Vios, the grown up ver­sion.  Deli­cious.

Anchovies & Olives.  This has become per­haps our favorite place, because: it’s some­how light, in that one can go ear­ly or late or on a whim and feel instant­ly accom­mo­dat­ed.  The menu is short and sweet, and changes often.  The dish­es are inter­est­ing and might include things like, for instance, a lit­tle slab of grilled mack­er­el with the skin charred, the flesh suc­cu­lent, on a bed of chori­zo and wild mush­rooms or some oth­er such uma­mi-inten­sive thing.  The wines by the glass are very good.  There’s a paint­ing on the wall they should change.  But oth­er­wise the envi­ron­ment is appeal­ing, dark and casu­al; the wait­staff hip and pierced, but not over­ly.

Casci­na Spinasse.  Warm but­tery light, love­ly hand­made pas­ta, an open kitchen with lots of mason jars.  The fon­du­ta with truf­fles and egg is not to be missed.

Café Lago.  Good piz­za, and nice hand­made lasagne.

Odd­fel­lows.  Hip­ster-inten­sive and deli­cious com­fort food, in a high ceilinged room open to the street in the for­mer Odd­fel­lows build­ing (and with much of the décor scav­enged from the build­ing’s for­mer life).

Tal­lu­lah’s.  19th is start­ing to look pret­ty great.  This place, next to the new and very well sup­plied neigh­bor­hood gro­cery Cone & Stein­er and the equal­ly hip Hel­lo Robin ice cream shop, is very good look­ing and the food is cred­i­ble.

Quin­n’s Pub.  Gas­trop­ub with good food.

Oste­ria La Spi­ga

Via Tri­bunali

Seri­ous Pie

Cafe Presse.  Main­stay of late night din­ing.  Kitchen open til 1am every­day.

Le Pichet.  Bell­town restau­rant by the Cafe Presse peo­ple, also open late, some­what more lim­it­ed menu.

Har­vest Vine.  Long­time great tapas place.

Pin­txo.  Basic tapas place in Bell­town.

Boat Street Café

India Bistro

Vol­un­teer Park Café

Smith.  Pou­tine!  And uncom­mon­ly good mac and cheese.

Agua Verde Pad­dle Club.  Decent Gringo Mex with high qual­i­ty ingre­di­ents.  There’s often a long line, but in the sum­mer you can rent out a kayak before a late din­ner.

Ele­men­tal

Car­ta de Oax­a­ca

Sta­ple & Fan­cy

How to Cook a Wolf.  My oth­er co-favorite of Ethan Stow­ell’s, with Anchovies & Olives.

Shang­hai Gar­den

Essen­tial Bak­ing

Armandino’s Salu­mi.  Brain­child of Mario Batal­i’s father, real­ly beau­ti­ful salu­mi and (if one shows up and waits in line) great week­day lunch.  The finoc­chiona and a non­tra­di­tion­al vari­a­tion with mole are tops.

Grand Cen­tral Bak­ery

Colum­bia City Bak­ery.  Best pain au lev­ain in Seat­tle.  I’m guess­ing some of the best bread on the West Coast peri­od north of Tar­tine.

Gen­er­al Por­poise. Extreme­ly good filled dough­nuts and good espres­so, also beau­ti­ful.

La Medusa

Besalu

Rosellini’s bak­ery.  I thought we’d nev­er sup­plant Besalu for the cof­fee and pas­try dur­ing the kids’ park­our class.  But this place has done it.  Short­er lines, astound­ing quiche, beau­ti­ful berry-filled dan­ish­es and excel­lent canelles.

Bak­ery Nou­veau.  Final­ly a real bak­ery in Capi­tol Hill.  Fan­cy cakes etc., though the crois­sants aren’t up to the lev­el of Hon­ore or Besalu.

Ocho

Poco

BaBar

Jew­el

Rev­el.  Dun­ge­ness crab noo­dles with red cur­ry and creme fraiche– superb.

Espres­so Vivace.  Gold stan­dard for espres­so in Seat­tle.  Sev­er­al loca­tions.

 

Vic­tro­la.  Go-to for great espres­so on 15th on Capi­tol Hill.  The espres­so is in fact more robust and less mid­dle-of-the-road than Vivace’s.

Eltana.  Great bagels, non­stan­dard spreads, and deli­cious shak­shu­ka.

Than Broth­ers.  The actu­al best Pho in Seat­tle is to be had at Mon­soon, but that’s quite fan­cy.  For the it’s-on-your-table-in-60-sec­onds, $3.99, cream puffs includ­ed ver­sion, one goes to Than Broth­ers.

Fogón.  Good Mex­i­can place in the Pike/Pine cor­ri­dor.  Hip, nei­ther self-con­scious­ly upscale nor dumpy.

Din Tai Fung.  Soup dumplings.  One has opened in Uni­ver­si­ty Vil­lage!

Delancey.  This piz­za place is by all accounts awe­some.  Next to the also awe­some Hon­ore in Bal­lard.

For cook­ing, aside from Pike Place Mar­ket–

De Lau­ren­ti

Mutu­al Fish.  Best seafood sell­er in Seat­tle.  (Not a restau­rant.)

Fish­er­men’s ter­mi­nal in Bal­lard.  Good fish can be got­ten here, from off the boat, much more cheap­ly than at Mutu­al.

Cone & Stein­er.  Nice (if pricey) neigh­bor­hood gro­cery on 19th.

Mol­ly Moon.  Good ice­cream.

Il Cor­vo.  Down­town and lunch only, but nice hand­made pas­ta.

the san juans

Moss­back.  This place is actu­al­ly in Kingston.  It’s awe­some.

Catkin cafe.  On Orcas, in Olga.  Superb.

bellevue

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Din Tai Fung.  Soup dumplings are the thing to get here of course: xiao long bao.

Wild Gin­ger.  Chilean sea bass + herbs with brown rice = excel­lent.

Mon­soon East

portland

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Tasty n Sons.  Pleased by our din­ner at this place.

Pok Pok.  Viet­namese street food place high­ly rec­om­mend­ed by Jessy.

san francisco

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Flour + water.  The Mis­sion.

La Cic­cia.  Sar­din­ian.

Nopa.  Near the pan­han­dle.

Bi-rite

Zuni

Tar­tine.  Real­ly excel­lent bread and pas­tries.  Leg­endary bread actu­al­ly, Pol­lan more or less devotes a chap­ter to it in Cooked.

Bar­Bam­bi­no

Com­mon­wealth

Walzw­erk

Heir­loom

Way­fare Tav­ern.  Very good.

AQ.  Very good.

Wexler’s.  Beau­ti­ful drinks and food, gor­geous black wave on the ceil­ing.

Bour­bon & Branch (anti saloon league, speakeasy) http://www.yelp.com/biz/bourbon-and-branch-san-francisco

Rye http://www.ryesf.com/

[...]

Frances
Eiji
Star­bel­ly
Mis­sion Chi­nese Food
Pizzetta 211
Chez Maman
Kasa
Dosa
Spork
Range
Plow
Pi
Pizze­ria Del­fi­na
Monk’s Ket­tle
Cafe Mys­tique
Absinthe
Chi­lan­go
Weird Fish
Farmer Brown
Lit­tle Star
Bur­ma Super Star
La Taque­ria

Absinthe

Benu

Bistro Aix

Bour­bon Steak

Cotogna.  Very excel­lent.

Slant­ed Door.  Great Viet­namese near the fer­ry ter­mi­nal.

Mar­lowe.  This place is quite good.

Out­er Lands.  Beau­ti­ful envi­ron­ment out on Sun­set, good drinks and very nice food.

Far­al­lon.  Not sure on look­ing, pos­si­bly douchy.
Fifth Floor.  Pricey but inter­est­ing Fer­ran Adrià kind of sit­u­a­tion near the SF stu­dio.
Gitane.  Indul­gent tapas of the broiled bacon-wrapped-date sort in a lit­tle alley, same neigh­bor­hood.
Mamaci­ta
Prospect
Ris­to­bar
Sai­son
Water­bar
Zero Zero.  Piz­za and pas­ta, decent.

Mon­te­sacro Pin­se­ria + Enote­ca.  Grit­ty and cool pizze­ria just off Mar­ket St., inter­est­ing lighter-weight take on the dough (sup­pos­ed­ly inspired by the ear­ly Roman ver­sion of piz­za) and good sim­ple wines, kitchen open til 11pm every­day except Sun­day.

SPQR.  Fan­cy haut Roman, deli­cious and cre­ative.

Nico.  This place is excel­lent.  A delight of short menu and few options, both food and wine– all paired, most­ly inspired.

Ver­be­na.  This looks like it needs to be tried.

The Square.  Not bad, short of fab­u­lous.

Casey’s Piz­za.  This piz­za truck is aston­ish­ing­ly good.  One needs to check the web­site to see where it will be.

proxy.  This tem­po­rary project on a stalled devel­op­ment in Hayes Val­ley is home to a love­ly bier­garten and an assort­ment of food trucks.

Bar Agri­cole [pic].  The restau­rant is so beau­ti­ful that it’s hard to focus on the food.  The food’s good.  The drinks are good.  The space is a sort of Swedish designer’s dream.  Clean wood, wood-tex­tured cement, per­fect­ly shaped glass­es and decanters, a sense of mod­ernist lifestyle geom­e­try that makes one feel that one is simul­ta­ne­ous­ly inhab­it­ing the decade of Falling­wa­ter and the 21st cen­tu­ry utopia wrong­ly pre­fig­ured by Falling­wa­ter.

Cof­fee bar.  Very pleas­ant envi­ron­ment in which to hang out with the lap­top and hack for an after­noon.  Accept­able espres­so (though not on par with the best in SF).  Soups and sand­wich­es.  Some pow­er out­lets, and some tables “lap­top-free”.

Pic­ci­no [pic].  Lit­tle cof­feeshop in the Dog­patch; also now sport­ing an adja­cent place to sit down for piz­za, wine, sal­ads.  Under­go­ing some kind of major expan­sion now, scal­ing up to a larg­er restau­rant.  The tiny most­ly stand­ing-room bar is still best, I think.  Very fine espres­so and cap­puc­ci­no, served in crude­ly formed raku cups whose glazed and scored sur­faces feel good on the fin­gers.  Blue Bot­tle beans.  Lim­it­ed but good selec­tion of small baked things as well.

Rit­u­al [pic].  Among the best SF cof­feeshops, on par with Four Bar­rel and Blue Bot­tle on a good day (though not as con­sis­tent).  Excel­lent crois­sants and attrac­tive space.

Blue Bot­tle.  The clas­sic place for a beau­ti­ful cap­puc­ci­no in the tra­di­tion­al size.  (The Vivace of SF?)  The wait may be long, and the baristi are insen­si­tive to line length– per­haps even shear-thick­en­ing as it length­ens.  Their very high self-regard is jus­ti­fied.  Also: love­ly for break­fast.  Only 2–3 things, but good ones.

Four Bar­rel.  An excel­lent third wave cof­feeshop.  Much of the deep, ware­house-like space is devot­ed to roast­ing and oth­er cof­fee machin­ery; the front, where you sit or stand at the bar, is fur­nished clean­ly and minimally—except a hair­i­ly tan­gled hang­ing rope light, and four boar heads mount­ed on the wall.  The menu is short and rig­or­ous; for exam­ple, only plain crois­sants, but good ones.  The unex­pect­ed “boar head ele­ment” is an affoga­to made with stout-fla­vored gela­to, which is pfg.

Sight­glass

Farm: Table

the sum­mit

Bouche.  This was a love­ly sur­prise find near the Microsoft offices on Mar­ket Street.  Not par­tic­u­lar­ly notice­able from the out­side, quite hip on the inside with ver­ti­cal space, raw mate­ri­als and a taxi­der­mied Boar’s head, serv­ing din­ner until late (i.e. 12:35am on a Mon­day, which is when I showed up after the late flight in from Seat­tle).  I had a love­ly glass of Peche Abuse red blend, a corn soup done very cre­ative­ly with a foamy emul­sion and a tem­per­a­ture gra­di­ent from hot around the rim to a small icy dol­lop of sor­bet in the cen­ter, and a cou­ple of oth­er small dish­es, all deli­cious.  I left very hap­py.  The wait­staff were friend­ly French expats, and the chef (Guil­laume from Provence) sport­ed the Ein­stein­ian “afro of genius”.

OK, this is sil­ly, but Beard Papa in the base­ment of the West­field Cen­ter has out­ra­geous­ly good Japan­ese-style vanil­la cream puffs.

los angeles

Intel­li­gentsia.  The best espres­so.

Gjeli­na.  Nice casu­al food in Venice.

berkeley/oakland

A Cote

Ippuku

Plum

Gath­er.  Good for brunch.

Stra­da.  Decent cof­fee, excel­lent work envi­ron­ment (plugs and WiFi out­side).

Enote­ca Moli­nari

victoria, b.c.

There are blogs claim­ing that Vic­to­ria is a food­ie place, and this may or may not be the case– I know that many of the places I researched looked prob­lem­at­ic, and the impres­sion was con­firmed when we passed by them (the down­town is real­ly very small) and saw that they had obvi­ous prob­lems (e.g. those awful OPEN signs writ­ten in ellip­ti­cal LED, or an “Ital­ian” fish dish cov­ered with melt­ed asi­a­go cheese, wtf).  But we did in the end find a beau­ti­ful place to eat, and checked out anoth­er place that would be worth try­ing next time.

ulla.  Almost passed it up because the food pic­tures on the web­site seemed a bit too much.  Made reser­va­tions any­way, because the pre­sen­ta­tions weren’t tall and were spar­ing in their use of dots– good signs.  And it was real­ly love­ly.  In the mouth, not just on the plate.  (Though on the place it was also every bit as pret­ty as in the pho­tos.)  The ingre­di­ents were of high qual­i­ty, and the dish­es ren­dered with a qui­et, intense pride that did­n’t whiff of cul­tur­al cringe like some of the estab­lish­ments down the street.  The place has a mod­ern, com­fort­able, white wood kind of look, and atten­tive but not over­ween­ing staff.  Very much worth return­ing to, and would be in any city.

devour.  Closed on week­ends, looks like a one woman show with just a few tables.  I want to try this place next time.  It looks promis­ing.

philadelphia

zahav.  Very good look­ing reco from Ilse.

aspen

Vic­to­ri­a’s Espres­so.  The only ful­ly accept­able cof­fee in Aspen, and good for sal­a­dy quichey things as well.

ohio

jeni ice cream

Jeni’s ice cream.

boston

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Volt­age Cof­fee & Art.  Good espres­so near MIT and enough barista tat­toos to look famil­iar from the Seat­tle per­spec­tive.

Bel­ly bar.  Noisy and hip base­ment bar on Kendall Square with a few com­mu­nal high tables.  Nice short wine list, good salu­mi and cic­cheti, and fon­due if you reserve ahead.  The lamb polpette were deli­cious.

Dumpling Cafe Inc.  This place in Chi­na­town had cred­i­ble and yum­my soup dumplings.  (List­ed on the menu as “mini juicy buns”, either pork or pork + crab.  The pork-only are the way to go.)

chicago

Sepia

Black­bird

Avec.  Prob­a­bly favorite place in Chica­go for now.

Province

Girl and the goat

Intel­li­gentsia

new york

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Casa Mono.  Good tapas, recent dis­cov­ery by Adri­enne (Dec 2015).

Bar­b­u­to.  Decent Ital­ian food in a con­vert­ed garage in the meat­pack­ing dis­trict.

Frank.

Prune.

Balt­haz­ar.

Batali place on Waver­ly

Batali place on Thomp­son

Mamoun.  Cheap and ever awe­some falafel in the East Vil­lage open til after mid­night; try the excel­lent smoky chick­en kebab in pita with a dol­lop of babaganoush.

Tor­risi Ital­ian Spe­cial­ties.  This place looks very spe­cial and has come with high praise from trust­ed friends.  Unfor­tu­nate­ly, I think get­ting a reser­va­tion is dif­fi­cult.

Dove­tail.

Telepan.  Anne and Michael rec.

Per Se.  Must try it.

WD~50.  Also must try it.

Le Bernardin

Daniel

Nice Matin.  Brunch stand­by near the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um.

Cafe Lalo.  Cute and good for brunch or frit­ta­ta type stuff any­time of day, also a huge dessert menu and absinthey drinks at night.

new:

Bud­dakan.  Douchey vibe but good food til 11 near Google.

Txik­i­to.  Great food.  Alex Raij.

El Quin­to Pino. Oth­er Alex Raij good place.

La Vara.  Yet anoth­er Alex Raij place.  They’re all good.

Bar­b­u­to.

Bea. Late night snacks and wine in mid­town west.

banff

White­bark cafe.  The best espres­so in Banff.. Aussie run, of course.

berlin

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Bunker

Al con­tadi­no sot­to le stelle

Koll­witz­platz

amsterdam

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De Kas

barcelona

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Cera 23.  Rec­om­men­da­tion from Ilya.

Com­merç 24.  Also from Ilya.

Cala­mar­ga.

san sebastian

Rekon­do.  Great place.

Sir­im­iri Gas­troleku.  Short menu, deli­cious stuff.

Bar Goiz Argi.  The absolute best pin­tx­os I’ve had.

cambridge, uk

The Punter, 3 Pound Hill.  Cam­bridge is a very beau­ti­ful lit­tle town.  And it turns out that, notwith­stand­ing being in Eng­land, it does have an excel­lent place to eat: The Punter.  A pub with love­ly mod­ern food made from high qual­i­ty ingre­di­ents, and the usu­al sup­ply of arti­sanal warm beer or what­ev­er they call it.

reykjavik

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Fish Com­pa­ny

tokyo

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Bear Pond Espres­so.  Tokyo is a good place for cof­fee, and Bear Pond is the most awe­some espres­so in Tokyo and in the world.

Place with Blaine

French bak­ery

tel aviv

Yo’Ezer Wine Bar.  [Note– the patri­arch is dead and the place is now closed :( super sad.  Yo’Ez­er RIP.]

Mar­garet Tayar.  This is the place under the big blue met­al fish vis­i­ble from the Jaf­fa clock­tow­er.  Open­ing hours seem some­what errat­ic, and the tem­pera­men­tal epony­mous Mar­garet’s “high prices” for this kind of food annoy many locals.  (For a non-Israeli, this means lit­tle, as the food is deli­cious Yemenite stuff, you won’t be com­ing here every day, and if this restau­rant were any­place else in the world its prices would be unre­mark­able.  The fine-ness of the prepa­ra­tion is also a step above ordi­nary Yemenite holes-in-the-wall.)

Suzanne Del­lal.  Love­ly break­fasts in the cafe with ample patio and out­door seat­ing near the dance school.

Bar­bunia and Bar­bunia, the bar.  The bar, across the street from the main restau­rant at 162 Ben Yehu­da, is bet­ter.

Con­tain­er is a cool place in Jaf­fa, right on the water oppo­site the piers.  Good drinks, good food, and a beau­ti­ful raw indus­tri­al space true to its name.

Ido says (May 2012): “If you have the time, go to Berti (ברטי)– King George 86 TLV”.  This seems like advice worth fol­low­ing.

Bas­ta, in/next to the Carmel mar­ket.  The truf­fle piz­za is great.  (Thanks Ishay.)

Rec­om­men­da­tions from Michelle:

Rabin Square area (all are with­in walk­ing dis­tance from one anoth­er):

1. The ‘Brasserie’ — a very pop­u­lar place, good food.  Rec­om­mend­ed dish­es: bone mar­row with toast, chick­en con­somme, endive sal­ad with cham­pagne vinai­grette (good for a nice lunch).  Bak­ery next door belongs to them and has excel­lent cof­fee and pas­tries.

2. Book­worm or ‘Tolaat Sfarim’ — right across the square from the Brasserie, an excel­lent book­store cafe.  They have won­der­ful meal-sal­ads and good cof­fee, and every­one who is some­one in the int­elec­tu­al life of Tel Aviv sits there.  Also a very pro Pales­tin­ian place.

3. ‘Car­di­nal Choco­late’ A Choco­lati­er — deli­cious choco­lates way beyond any­thing any­one over here makes... Don’t miss the sour cher­ry pra­lines.

http://www.telaviv4fun.com/bistro.html

Yehu­da Halevi/ Lilen­blum area:

1. ‘Joz Veloz’ — the hip­ster hang­out. Arrive ear­ly, there is a line.  Food has been excel­lent or noth­ing much in waves, no idea what is hap­pen­ing now, but I am going there when in Israel, just to feel the beat of the city which I so miss here.  Cor­rect Adress is: Yehu­da Hale­vi 51. There is an iron gate at the side of an ugly res­i­den­tial build­ing, through the gate to your right, in a con­vert­ed insur­ance office.

2. ‘Katit’ Extra fan­cy local fusion. The chef, Meir Adoni, is a whiz in desserts and sweets, I ate there once and loved it, hope it is still the same ;-)

3. North Abraxas — this place is sup­posed to be incred­i­ble, don’t miss it (and tell us how it was...). The chef, Eyal Shani, is a genius, and it is also sup­posed to have excel­lent music.

4. The trendi­est, hippest place in town is called ‘The Bas­ta’. It is in the cor­ner of one of the streets of the Karmel mar­ket — on Hashomer st. No. 4.  I am total­ly plan­ning on vis­it­ing it, it is sup­posed to be out of this world deli­cious (the above applies here as well about telling us how it was).

5. And of course, ‘Her­bert samuel’, Very easy to find, deli­cious and very easy to enjoy. if this list is too con­fus­ing, go there only- it’s the clos­est there is to a sure thing.  [I can con­firm this place is excel­lent.]

Odds & Ends we men­tioned:

- ‘Old timer’s’ cool cafe in TLV = ‘Cafe mer­sand’ — Ben Yehu­da 70

- Jerusalem — ‘Rashel’s Sand­wich’ No. 17 Beit-Lechem Rd. — take the dai­ly spe­cial (Tunisian food, all fresh­ly cooked there, deli­cious!!)

jerusalem

Abu Shukri.  Best hum­mus ever.

venice

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Venis­sa on Bura­no.  Unbe­liev­ably deli­cious and beau­ti­ful place, inven­tive haute cui­sine.  Very spe­cial wines (includ­ing vines they’re cul­ti­vat­ing on the prop­er­ty, a res­ur­rect­ed vari­etal the Doges used to keep on the island).  (Pricey.)

Ae Oche.  In San Polo, off a “local” qui­et square on the Zat­tere vaporet­to stop.  Wide­ly regard­ed as the best piz­za in Venice.

La Zuc­ca.  Near Ae Oche, this place is very nice, and a lit­tle more inven­tive than the usu­al Venet­ian stan­dards, while still firm­ly ground­ed in tra­di­tion.  Most­ly veg­eta­bles.

Tono­lo.  In the San Polo quar­ter across a bridge behind the Scuo­la San Roc­co.  The fiamma, a choux pas­try filled with marsala cream, is pret­ty much the best thing I’ve ever tast­ed.  But every­thing here is good.  Cap­puc­ci­no comes in love­ly lit­tle blue porce­lain cups.  Don’t get there too late in the morn­ing as their pas­tries sell out.

Da Fiore.  As far as I know the only place in Venice with a Miche­lin star.  We had a won­der­ful meal here, both haute and with a wel­come ele­ment of earth­i­ness.  The house-made pros­ec­co is deli­cious.  This was the first place I tried crudo, sashi­mi-style fish in olive oil, and prob­a­bly still the best.  (Update: Da Fiore remains excel­lent.)

Corte Scon­ta.  On Calle del Pestrin, in Castel­lo.  It’s worth tak­ing a long walk to dine here.  A bit pricey, like Da Fiore; and I think equal­ly great.  The meal begins with a long and cre­ative tast­ing menu of seafoods; the chal­lenge is to still be able to keep going by the time you get to the part you actu­al­ly ordered.  [Note: last vis­it in 2015 was under­whelm­ing.]

Ai Do Mori.  Near the Rial­to bridge, hid­den away on the Calle Do Mori in San Polo.  One goes here for an “ombra”, a glass of white wine in the after­noon and some cicheti (lit­tle bites at the bar, a bit like tapas or pin­tx­os).

rome

Enote­ca Cor­si. Near the Pan­theon. Unfan­cy but uncheap. Excel­lent Roman eat­ing.

lisbon

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100 Maneiras.  This place is (Adri­enne assures) amaz­ing.

Pap’ Acor­da

Rubro Aveni­da “had a beau­ti­ful inte­ri­or and was deli­cious. rec­om­mend­ed.”

corsica

Cam­pu Lat­inu is the fanci­er of two restau­rants in the pic­turesque vil­lage of Lama (pop­u­lation 176 in 2008 accord­ing to Wikipedia— an inland ham­let perched on a steep moun­tain­side about halfway between Ile Rousse and Bas­tia).  The set­ting is beau­ti­ful and atmos­pheric, with out­door seat­ing on a stone ter­race under fig trees and climb­ing vines over­look­ing the val­ley.  As dusk comes in, around 9 o’clock, lay­ers of moun­tain­ous sil­hou­ette rise soft­ly out of the clouds on the far side in pur­ple bands.  One of the tra­di­tional dish­es served by Cam­pu Lat­inu, a sort of beef pot pie with juniper berries in the stew, was a stand­out.

Café de la Place.  Place Pas­cal Paoli, up to the cas­tle, with its won­der­ful panoram­ic view­points, is rec­om­mended.  At Café de la Place on this square we had a very good hand­made pas­ta dish with san­glier, which are the wild pigs liv­ing on the island.

U Paglia Orba, in Corte.  We had a very nice meal here.  The place is focused on high-qual­i­ty region­al cook­ing.  The pro­pri­etor was kind and atten­tive to the kids, and the bill was very rea­son­able.

Emile’s on the water­front in Calvi is a Miche­lin-starred place with a sec­ond-sto­ry bal­cony.  It’s white table­cloth (what Miche­lin place isn’t?), but not exces­sively for­mal.  The meal was very good, and the wines excel­lent.

M*.  We had a very nice upscale lunch on the water at Saint-Flo­rent, but I’m now unable to find the name of the restau­rant, which is quite frus­trat­ing.  It began with an “M”, and one accessed it by walk­ing down a some­what hid­den ramp off the main square.  The lan­gouste in lemon but­ter sauce here made it clear what all the fuss was about.  This place also served deli­cious stuffed sar­dines, in which broc­ciu was deployed to bet­ter effect than in the ubiq­ui­tous can­nel­loni.

paris

Buvette Gas­trotheque.  Very cute atmos­pher­ic place with nice food, focused on small dish­es tapas-style but most­ly tra­di­tion­al­ly French.

kb cafeshop.  Very nice lit­tle spot, prob­a­bly makes the only prop­er cap­puc­ci­no (or “cafe creme”) in France.

Par­adis.  We had a good lunch here.

L’O­gre.  Good steak frites place.

Ren­dezvous au Marche.  A sim­ple place run by a dude who loves his meat, and loves to cook.  Clas­sic and deli­cious.

Lou Pescadou Chez Julien.

Helene Dar­roze.  Birth­day lunch for Adri­enne here– deli­cious and del­i­cate, impec­ca­ble ser­vice with­out obnox­ious­ness.

D’Chez Eux.  Very tra­di­tion­al bistrot.

L’Ar­doise.  Cute place.

Le Petit Ven­dome.  Tra­di­tion­al steak frites place (and sand­wich shop by day); legit, big por­tions.

Angeli­na.  Fan­cy tea house with lots of com­pli­cat­ed sweets.

madrid

Tas­ca Cel­so y Manolo.  Favorite place in Madrid so far.  Deli­cious and cheeky giant-sized menu focus­ing on the very local.  Inven­tive and tra­di­tion­al at the same time.

Tri­Ci­clo.  Deli­cious cre­ative fusion‑y tapas.

Tan­dem.  Small­er place down the street from Tri­Ci­clo run by the same guys, also very good.

La Ardosa.  Super cute bar with great ver­mut and tor­tilla.

Ten Con Ten.  Great high-end yet casu­al place, on the spot seat­ing for one or two gen­er­al­ly avail­able at the bar.

La train­era for fresh fish from the north.

St. James for the best pael­la. And arroz Negro.

Cafe de la opera and taber­na del alabardero.

Platea, the movie the­ater turned tapas extrav­a­gan­za in Calle Goya.

Lava­pies neigh­bor­hood: great tra­di­tion­al restau­rant that serves coci­do next to Tir­so de Moli­na sub­way.

Mer­ca­do de San Miguel.  Full of cute tapas places and food mer­chants.

Cerve­ce­ria San­ta Bar­bara.  The type of beer they sell is very spe­cial, the shrimp are to die for.  Order berbere­chos, and get their chips.

La Castela.  Tra­di­tion­al tapas place.

Ultra­mari­nos Quintin.

Casa Gon­za­lez.

Choco­la­te­ria San Gines.  The clas­sic chur­ros place, indus­tri­al scale, open 24h.

Choco­lat.  Calle Sta. Maria 30.  Excel­lent choco­late con chur­ros.

Microteatro por dinero.  Super cool con­cept and exe­cu­tion– 5–15 minute plays run­ning con­tin­u­ous­ly through­out the evening, staged in a for­mer broth­el.

london

10 Greek Street.  Cute place in SoHo with mod­ern Ital­ian-ish food, Aussie chef, nice short menu.

Ter­roirs.  Super-pop­u­lar place in Covent Gar­den serv­ing a few nice small dish­es and good wine.

bar­ra­fi­na.  A cou­ple of doors down from Ter­roirs is a bright­ly lit, fas­tid­i­ous­ly clean Cata­lan bar with a long, stain­less steel bar, and lots of deli­cious things.

notes.  This arti­sanal cof­fee place in Covent Gar­den is pret­ty seri­ous, and makes fan­cy stuff like shak­er­a­to.

belgrade

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Saran is a very good fish restau­rant in Zemun, a town on the banks of the Danube which has been engulfed by Bel­grade (though it still retains a very local char­ac­ter).  The fresh­wa­ter fish is best, as this is local and fresh.

Stara Koli­ba, also on the riv­er, looks promis­ing.  Reser­va­tions need­ed.

Vuk, which means Wolf, is a very old-school place in the old city.  The food was good and kept com­ing.  Meat, meat, meat!  This is best enjoyed on the out­door patio.

 

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