Upscale eating

El Faro in the Born district in Barcelona. The menu pricing isn't bad but the cab fare is a little steep. Best Bolognese I've ever tasted. At a Spanish steak house. Go figure?
 
Stewartb said:
El Faro in the Born district in Barcelona. The menu pricing isn't bad but the cab fare is a little steep. Best Bolognese I've ever tasted. At a Spanish steak house. Go figure?
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The best Thai food I've ever had was at a Thai place in Jamaica. I'm with you on the go figure
 
Ryanb said:
Here's one to add to the list. Casa de Benavidez in Albuquerque, NM. Talk about killer Mexican food. It doesn't get any better than this. I'll definitely be back next time I'm in town.
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@abqtj Have you been here before?
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Yeah, it's excellent! Lots of great New Mexican places here in town. Next time through here if you need other recommendations let me know.
 
abqtj said:
Yeah, it's excellent! Lots of great New Mexican places here in town. Next time through here if you need other recommendations let me know.
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Will do! Thanks buddy!
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
When I was a kid growing up in Oklahoma we didn't have a lot. It was a major treat for the family to go out to Casa Bonita for dinner. A few years back we were up visiting friends and we decided to stop there and eat. Oh my God it's not good at all it's like Pancho's here in Texas
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The Tulsa Casa Bonita used to be a real treat. It's been a long time, but I hear it sucks now. The place looked like it changed hands a few times.
We have Panchos in OKC too, or at least used too. Been a long time.

It's awfully hard to please everyone with steak. First and foremost, it has to be good meat. I don't know of a way to guarantee that all the meat you buy is going to be top notch. Some cows taste great, and some don't. I don't care how you raise 'em, it's just the nature of the beast. <---See what I did there. Beyond that, different people want different things out of their steak. Some folks like it to just taste like pure unadulterated meat, some like it heavily seasoned, some like what I consider to be tough, some like it to fall apart, some like the taste of grass fed beef, some prefer em' finished on corn, some like em' massaged daily and fed beer, and on, and on. I personally think a fancy restaurant has the same chance of putting out a good steak as a hole in the wall place. It's luck of the draw, and nothing fancy can cover up a subpar piece of cow flesh that nature or the feed lot has delivered. All that being said, I've had by far the best luck with steak at some of the chain restaurants such as Logan's or Texas Roadhouse. I've had the very best luck at Santa Fe Cattle Co. Of the major chains, I've had the worst luck with Saltgrass. The steak that currently resides at the top of my Best Steak Ever list came from Cattlemen's at the OKC Stockyards, and I take that list seriously!
 
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deonb said:
$50/$60 per plate is not a fancy place. It's at the uncomfortable high mid-end range, and you're not going to get fantastic food at that.

The next 10 times you think about doing that, save up that money instead. Then splurge it once at The French Laundry (or Le Bernardin from what I've heard, though I'm not crazy about having to pick my own menu at a 3-star level restaurant. Part of the experience is having the menu set by the Chef).

You're going to be paying around $500 per plate if you get all the supplements (which you absolutely should), and then wine is extra on top of that. But the experience is worth it in every single way.

I would MUCH rather eat out 10 times less, and the times I do make it really count.
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+1. The $50 per person are mostly trying to be fancy but will serve crappy wedding food. Think poorly cooked steak with an over steamed carrot/broccoli on the side.

Le Bernardin was fantastic. We did the tasting menu there. Eleven Madison Park was also very good (we went a few years ago and the food was very good, but the service was out of this world). I wouldn't do Per Se again (too much food and too rich).

But, if you want a real experience, try Faviken. Stay in one of their rooms, and do breakfast the next morning. It's a life changing experience. My only regret leaving was that nothing could ever be that good again.

We use Denverpilot's logic. We rarely go out, but when we do it's either to a really high end place (once a year at most), or a hole in the wall (maybe 1-2 times a year). The money we save by going out less frequently (and not owning an airplane) lets us do a really nice place once in a while. Pretty much everything between the hole in a wall and a Michellan Star place seems like a waste of money because as the OP noted you could do better at home for less than half the price with higher quality ingredients.
 
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I get a chance to eat out occasionally on someone else's dime and I enjoy it, that being said Ruth's Chris is WAY overpriced!! I took my wife and 3 children, plus my now son-in-law for my birthday a few years ago, wife had a couple drinks, everyone else had soft drinks, I think we shared a couple desserts and it was almost $600 with tip. Food was OK at best, better than Ponderosa, but no better than Longhorn. I don't have fancy tastes, so eating caviar and such isn't on my list of must haves. I want a good meal at a fair price and make sure my glass stays full, whether it's water, wine, beer or a mixed drink and I will be happy. :) If you are looking for a good steak place, McGuire's Irish pub in Destin and Pensacola are top notch!!
 
deonb said:
Yip. And I'd do it in a heartbeat again... Well, every 5 years or so. (I've only been there twice - it's incredibly difficult to get a reservation). It's not about the food, it's about the memory. You don't really do a $100 hamburger run for the $3 worth of ground beef, right?

But, at the risk of having beer cans thrown at my head, I will attempt to make an argument here for "value" about what you're actually getting and that it's not just crazy overpriced food...

First of all service is included, so you actually just pay $500. This brings it down to the equivalent of $425 (18%).

Second, the dinner event takes 3 to 4 hours. It's really 2 dinners rolled into one over 8 to 10 courses. It's a LOT of food - more so than what would be comfortable to eat in an hour. You are definitely satiated after.

Third, they use ingredients that would be expensive even to cook at at home - e.g. on the menu right now (part of the $500, but listed individually):
* $60 for Kaluga Caviar -- Kaluga runs around $35 for 0.5oz.
* $30 for Fois Gras -- Goes for about $70 per pound. Let's say $18 for 4oz.
* $100 for Japanese Wagyu (not just American raised Wagyu-descendants) -- Goes for around $150 per pound. Let's say $75 for 8oz.
* Not on right now, but $75 for black truffles when it's in season - they shave it in front of you, you get to say "when". I stop when I have about 5 little truffles equivalent, which would run ~$50 in Whole Foods. On top of that the ones in Whole Foods are really hit or miss (I've actually returned truffles to Whole Foods before - only time I ever returned fresh ingredients to a grocery store).

So their markup isn't actually that high over the raw ingredients. If you prepare let's say Kaluga at home for 2 people, the ingredients alone will run you ~$90 and you still have to prepare it. And you risk screwing it up - which is fairly easy to do with caviar - OR - you can pay $30 more and have it prepared by one of the top-rated chefs in the world and he'll either get it right or he won't serve it. I'd pick the restaurant prep every time.

You just don't generally go and eat Kaluga, Fois Gras, Wagyu, Black Truffles etc. all on the same night. If you did, it would be expensive as well - even at home.

Yeah, it's a lot of money. But if I have to give up one Ruth's Chris a year to go to the French Laundry instead once every 5 years - it is absolutely worth it. Think about it, would you rather go to Catalina 5 times, or once to Hawaii?
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Catalina.
 
I'm really not very good at eating on a business budget. If I'm with my coworkers, sure I'll go to the fancy place with the chef everyone has heard of. But if it's just me I'll end up at Gott's Roadside for a burger or Cooper's for some BBQ, or that random hole in the wall Chinese place and probably come away happier than the fancy Farm to Market small plate place .
 
I can skip the upscale...I just found out there's going to be a food truck lunch deal, about 15, not far from where I work in a couple weeks.
 
I will admit to being a high end food junkie. Alinea in Chicago is an amazing experience that is worth it...once. Arpege in Paris has been on top for a long tine for a reason. El Bulli was just hard to describe.

I love dive food and am certain I can cook a steak better than any "steakhouse", but I love art and food mixed.

'Duck 50 ways' - Alinea

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James_Dean said:
I will admit to being a high end food junkie. Alinea in Chicago is an amazing experience that is worth it...once. Arpege in Paris has been on top for a long tine for a reason. El Bulli was just hard to describe.
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Alinea is on our list to try. Looks like quite the experience. We want to make it out to Chicago at some point anyways. Might try to combine it with a pilgrimage to Oshkosh one year.

We're trying Blue Hill at Stone Barns in a couple months. Can't wait.
 
skier said:
Alinea is on our list to try. Looks like quite the experience. We want to make it out to Chicago at some point anyways. Might try to combine it with a pilgrimage to Oshkosh one year.

We're trying Blue Hill at Stone Barns in a couple months. Can't wait.
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My wife about to enjoy the edible balloon full of helium. We booked about 3-4 months in advance.
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N747JB said:
:) If you are looking for a good steak place, McGuire's Irish pub in Destin and Pensacola are top notch!!
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Concur, and just down the street Deweys Destin (the original) is a great seafood dive joint. Get there as the sun sets over the sound, perfect!
 
All food is up-scale for me.
Ask my scale.

I love to find an good up-scale place to eat.
But:
I love to cook, and I'm pretty good at it.
If I go to a restaurant, they get one chance. If I can't find something they cook better than I do, I don't go back.
There is ONE local restaurant that I will eat in. The cook (don't call him "chef" or he will get pxssed) is amazing.
I found a French place, a couple of towns away to which I will be going back.
I have yet to find a fancy restaurant in NYC worth eating in twice, and I've been in almost all of them.
On the plus side:
I'm less than 20 minutes by car away from the Culinary Institute of America. Amazing place. An entire campus full of people with which I can talk food.
The have a bunch of different venues, all different food, all good. But you have to make reservations months in advance.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Concur, and just down the street Deweys Destin (the original) is a great seafood dive joint. Get there as the sun sets over the sound, perfect!
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Destin??!!!??
Times have certainly changed.
When I was stationed at Eglin back in the 1970s, even the military wouldn't go to Destin, because it was such a low rent, pxss-poor, tourist trap.
The only thing you could get there was the clap and ptomaine.
"No one has fresher crabs then the women in Destin." Was a popular saying back then.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Concur, and just down the street Deweys Destin (the original) is a great seafood dive joint. Get there as the sun sets over the sound, perfect!
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We have been going to Dewey's for close to 15 years, usually by boat and it's always great! Our Friday night go to is the Boathouse, shrimp in a basket, cold beer, strong drinks and good music! Thank heavens for the Water Taxi!! :D
 
Shepherd said:
Destin??!!!??
Times have certainly changed.
When I was stationed at Eglin back in the 1970s, even the military wouldn't go to Destin, because it was such a low rent, pxss-poor, tourist trap.
The only thing you could get there was the clap and ptomaine.
"No one has fresher crabs then the women in Destin." Was a popular saying back then.
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It has changed a lot since then!! I remember coming down as a kid in the early 70's to go fishing, pink motels and a couple liquor stores, not much else. Now it's getting too big, condos everywhere, still a few good places to eat that are all tourist oriented. We tend to go to the same few places or better yet, eat at home! :D
 
I like Chez Quis, Chicago.
 
I could have eaten at a nice, upscale place for lunch yesterday and written it off. I opted for Inn n Out.
 
Wife and I like eating out, but have had mixed experiences at all price points. We live in a pretty rural area, but there's a summer tourist season, so there are at least 7-8 restaurants within a 10 minute drive. Not all stay open year round, but a few do.

The "fancier" one ($15-40/entree) has almost universally disappointed. Once ordered 14 oz prime rib, rare. I was delivered what was clearly the last two pieces, one cooked somewhere around medium, one cooked to grey prime rib hell.

Picked at the medium piece until waiter returned, expressed my concern, he went to kitchen and returned with "the chef said they were out of rare, but she put two pieces on that are medium rare".

A.) Cool story, but I ordered 14oz of rare.
B.) They aren't mid rare either.
C.) If this was Applebee's, and I were paying $9, I'd be choking down my shoe leather and cussing whoever forced me into an Applebee's, but this is an ostensibly nice place, and the price is commiserate.

That was my last visit for 18 months until a friend informed that they'd hired a lot of new folks, both front and back of house.

Meanwhile, the local bar can't provide service to save their lives, but sit at the bar, and the bartender can't hide or screw up but so bad (unlike the waitresses) and rarely is the food anything short of excellent for much less money.

Just occasionally have to listen the woes of various old dudes drinking alone. I'm okay with that. Adds to the experience in most cases.

Out of town, had an excellent dinner at a high end joint in Montreal where I had a rare baby horse steak, won't soon forget. Had a so-so experience in Maui at fancy place, but really enjoyed a dinner the next night at random, much cheaper, seafood joint.

Hit and miss...
 
I quit ordering steaks in restaurants years ago... now and then I have a relapse and remember why I don't.

Usually you either get a tiny portion of steak or something that's obviously a poor quality cut grossly over or under cooked. Sometimes they get it right but the price for restaurant steak is usually $15-$30 which to me is a lot to pay for a disappointment.

I can buy steak for two for $9 at the grocery store and cook it on my grill with no more than a little seasoning for prep and it will be better than 90% of the restaurant steaks I've had.
 
James_Dean said:
I will admit to being a high end food junkie. Alinea in Chicago is an amazing experience that is worth it...once. Arpege in Paris has been on top for a long tine for a reason. El Bulli was just hard to describe.
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You ate at El Bulli?? Wow! I'd be willing to part with a small fortune for that. Do you have pictures?

I never knew why Ferran Adria closed it down, rather than just raising the cost to e.g. 1000 Euros per plate. Two million requests per year for 8000 dining spots seems like you should be able to make that work.

Alinea is definitely on my bucket list. I better get on that seeing what happened to Moto :(. I missed out on wd-50 as well - I dined at Alder once, but that's not the same.
 
deonb said:
You ate at El Bulli?? Wow! I'd be willing to part with a small fortune for that. Do you have pictures?

I never knew why Ferran Adria closed it down, rather than just raising the cost to e.g. 1000 Euros per plate. Two million requests per year for 8000 dining spots seems like you should be able to make that work.

Alinea is definitely on my bucket list. I better get on that seeing what happened to Moto :(. I missed out on wd-50 as well - I dined at Alder once, but that's not the same.
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September 2009 IIRC. Got invited by a vendor while we were on a trip looking at equipment. I didn't understand how big a deal it was at the time and have no idea how he got the reservation.
 
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