# Best Dining Experience



## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Totally subjective here however "most expensive" does not equal "best" if for no other reason than I am sure we've all paid big dollars for a so/so meal at one time or another. Limit this to the US and Canada. Please use the following format:

1) City
2) Name
3) Type of cuisine
4) Why it was the best

I'll add mine after a few entries but I'll start off by saying this place is not over the top money wise, two people can expect to dine for $70-$150 dollars including tip, tax, and drinks.


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## crs (Dec 30, 2004)

After mulling it over and considering seafood restaurants and pizzarias in New Jersey, all that Manhattan offers, Mexican restaurants in San Diego and Tucson, a barbecue place in Greenville, S.C., and the myriad Southern and seafood restaurants of Charleston, I have to choose:

1. Phoenix
2. Durant's
3. Steakhouse
4. The food is beefy and simple but of high quality. Great salad with Maytag blue cheese that tastes like what I make at home. Career waitstaff that is attentive but unobtrusive. A dark, red-leather interior circa 1950 founded by a shady character in a city that goes into search-and-destroy mode for most buildings older than 10. Traditional gathering spot for gangsters and lawyers (and sometimes lawyer gangsters), giving it a clubby feel. You give your car keys to the valet and enter through the kitchen. The food is very good, but the atmosphere is what does it for me.


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

1) Flagstaff Arizona
2) Cottage Place
3) Classic
4) The service. The food is stellar, the wine list is great but it is the service. Truly friendly, polite, respectful, and a fine eye for detail. Much of the meal is done table side, i.e. soup served out of a heated tourine table side, table side flambe desserts, several entres carved table side. The staff is well trained also, very non-pretentious as they slip that skinny fork into place before a shell fish appetizer appears or decant your wine.

www.cottageplace.com

P.S. Good spot to say see you guys in a week, I am off to see the in-laws in Hawaii next week.


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## Martinis at 8 (Apr 14, 2006)

Eastern & Orient Express. Train from Singapore to Bangkok, undoubtedly the best cuisine ever. To my surprise the chef was British. 

M8


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## Trenditional (Feb 15, 2006)

A couple places for me, not in any particular order:

1) Seal Beach, Ca.
2) Walts Wharf
3) Seafood is their specialty, but good beef and chicken dishes also
4) Great steak/seafood menu with a very nice wine list. The family who owns the restaurant (Babcock) owns a winery also. 

1) New York City
2) Mesa Grill - Bobby Flay's restaurant
3) Southwest style
4) Every time we've eaten there, the food has been wonderful

1) New York City
2) Gallagher's Steak House
3) STEAK
4) It's an old restaurant and the steaks are great.


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## LotharoftheHillPeople (Apr 30, 2006)

1. Indianapolis, IN
2. St. Elmo's Steakhouse
3. Name says it all. 
4. The atomic cocktail sauce that accompanies their shrimp cocktail could easily peel off wallpaper.


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Martinis at 8 said:


> Eastern & Orient Express. Train from Singapore to Bangkok, undoubtedly the best cuisine ever. To my surprise the chef was British.
> 
> M8


M8, thanks for the addition, but in my OP I did request it be limited to the US and Canada.

Cheers


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

1. Chicago
2. Seasons @ The Four Seasons
3. Continental
4. Food, service, surroundings, view. All perfect. A flight of wine may have helped.


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## samblau (Apr 2, 2005)

*LI, NY and BOS*

It's amazing...my whole life in NY and i do not know if I can call anything I have had a "fine experience" but I will give it a go.

1. Woodmere, NY (suburb of NYC on LI)
2. La Taverneta (sadly closed recently after a healthy run of over 30 years, times are a changing)
3. Continental/Italian 
4. One of the only places I have been that truly valued their customers, tuxedo clad waiters (our server was always Jerry "Jerome" who was more of a professional than most of the supposedly academic elite I spend my days with) still put out a wonderufl crudite and bruschetta, free of charge and prepared my favorite dish, red snapper livornese and cheesecake that was to die for (or rather it would kill you) and served super-strong real cappucino's with icebox cookies complimentary, just a wonderful place, carpeting on the walls

for the city.......unfortunately more show than go (i.e. NOBU), most of my lavish meals are at steak houses/sushi rather than truly fine establishments, I remember going to a particualt place as a teenager and being enamored, unfortunately I have gone back and it was much worse but going strictly on memory

1. NYC (Lexington Ace. in the low 50's)
2. Mr K's (there is a DC branch)
3. Chinese (well, its been americanized slighlty)
4. Ordered the special complete meal, peking duck course was outstanding as was my main dish "firecracker fish", obviously a Szechuan inspired dish, deserts were prepared off site but were wonderful as well, service was impecable, jade/gold chopstick/sppon holders, velvet throne like seating, gracious dining room AND they made a pair of custom chopsticks for my younger brother

and last,

1. Boston
2. Grill 23
3. Steaks + other American/classic fre
4. Came in like slobs from a day out, my dad was wearing a "hand me up" sweatshirt from when I was in middle school. Great mix of classic steaks + a more traditional menu for the refined folk, magnificent dining area, extensive win list etc. a truly fine experience, oh and never judge a book by its cover, we had an adorable young waitress who was very polite despite our truly unsightly appearance, my father left an enormous cash tip for which she thanked us profusely


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## Martinis at 8 (Apr 14, 2006)

Wayfarer said:


> M8, thanks for the addition, but in my OP I did request it be limited to the US and Canada.
> 
> Cheers


Ah so! My mistake. For the US my favorite is https://www.bayona.com/

1. City - New Orleans.
2. Bayona.
3. New Orleans Creole.
5. Taste, service, presentation, ambience.

I was just in New Orleans last week. Things are recovering in the CBD and Fr. Qtr. nicely. My first return trip there post-Katrina.

Cheers,

M8


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Hogates...on the river
3. steaks and seafood
4. Those incredible glazed sweetrolls that they bring you to snack on, as you wait for your dinner to come up! Without a doubt, the best sweetrolls I have ever eaten!


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

1. City: New Orleans
2. Restaurant: The New Orleans Grill, aka The Grill Room (the restaurant in the Windsor Court Hotel). 
3. New Orleans/Continental
4. Best food, best service, best ambiance. They have never disappointed. The height of civilization. 

M8 already mentioned my other favorite -- Bayona. 

Also fantastic are Upperline, Brigstens, Commander's Palace (which either just reopened or is reopening soon).


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## agnash (Jul 24, 2006)

1) New Orleans
2) Delmonico's
3) Steaks and Classi Creole
4) The food, the service, the lack of tourists. Before Katrina, this was the Emeril restaurant that the tourists rarely found. When he took over Delmonico's there was concern over what he would do with the place. Emeril kept the classics, added a few touches, and brought the place back to it's former glory. Dinig in New Orleans spoils you for eating in other cities. The food may or may not be as good in other cities, sometimes it can even be better, but I've never been to a place where the service is as good. Before the storm, there was a cadre of people who earned a good living (for the area) as professional servers. Fortunately, some of them have found their way home. If Emeril ever opens the place back up, I will take the day off for a long lunch that will lead into afternoon cocktails followed by dinner.


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## whnay. (Dec 30, 2004)

1) Las Vegas, NV
2) SW Steakhouse
3) See above
4) Service and food was wonderful


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## tabasco (Jul 17, 2006)

1. Bayfield Wisconsin
2. Wild Rice
3. classic, with local specialties

A vanity restaurant by a wealthy fairy godmother, the dining room surrounds an open-to-the-elements courtyard. In late autumn, with snow falling against dark night and white birch, the setting is stunning. An excellent wine celler (best petit Sirah ever), glass fronted kitchen, and local treats: whitefish livers, smoked lake trout, venison, elk, morels, and of course, native wild rice. Quite fine. https://www.wildricerestaurant.com/


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

My favorite local dining experience is actually a little mom and pop Mexican restaurant in Lansing called Famous Taco.

Great things and pretty authentic, at least for Lansing, MI. (I'll confess that those who live in the Southwest will know a lot more about the authenticity than I would.)


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## Laxplayer (Apr 26, 2006)

1. Seattle
2. Ivar's Salmon House
3. seafood
4. great atmosphere, nice view, excellent salmon

The Whalemaker Lounge has a giant petrified "whalemaker" above the bar...interesting to say the least.
Salty's on Alki Beach was also very good.


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## Martinis at 8 (Apr 14, 2006)

Phinn said:


> 1. City: New Orleans
> 2. Restaurant: The New Orleans Grill, aka The Grill Room (the restaurant in the Windsor Court Hotel).
> 3. New Orleans/Continental
> 4. Best food, best service, best ambiance. They have never disappointed. The height of civilization.
> ...


Excellent choice. We did the Mother's Day brunch there one year. Their bar is also excellent. Wonderful hotel with a British motif, best in New Orleans.

M8


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## Jordan (Mar 2, 2006)

1. New York
2. Babbo
3. Italian
4. My favorite restaurant in New York. Mario turns peasant ingredients (beef cheeks, squab liver, etc.) into exquisite works of art. Spectacular wine list.


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

*Gentlemen*

Gents,

I have enjoyed many places, even some mentioned here. My best and most enjoyable restaurants are:
Le Petit Auberge, Maynard, Mass. I had the best french meal, with my wife.
This was in 1975 time frame. Classic, cheap! French restaurant.
I was a young soldier, with the 10th SFG, at Ft Devans then.

The Montcalm, on the hudson, just below Peekskill, NY.
Again, gorgeous views, again, fine frenche food.

The Hotel Thayer at the point!
West Point, in the fall, best eats, cheap housing for a soldier, sailor or airman.

Middletons, at Annapolis Md, great pub, on the water.
George Washington, John Adams ate here.

Harris crabs house, in Stevensville, Md!

The best fish, crabs and bar on the Eastern shore of Maryland.

Nice weekend my friends


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## Martinis at 8 (Apr 14, 2006)

DukeGrad said:


> ...
> 
> The Hotel Thayer at the point!
> West Point, in the fall, best eats, cheap housing for a soldier, sailor or airman.


Is this a joke or what?


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

*Thayer*

Martinis at 8

No! Great in the fall. The Thayer is a nice place that time frame.
Have nice day my friend


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## Trilby (Aug 11, 2004)

Not sure why this should be limited to the US - we've got a pretty international membership here.

A couple of my faves:

1. NY
2. Le Bernardin
3. Fish - French
4. Superlative food, knowledgable and attentive service, and a NY power scene at lunch (although there are better options if you want more of a buzzy scene).

1. Sanlucar de Barrameda
2. Casa Balbino
3. Tapas
4. On the main square in Sanlucar, a small seaside town in Andalucia near Jerez, where Manzanilla is produced. Wonderful tapas, with a great selecton of classic recipes and some more unusual things. Fino or Manzanilla by the glass for about EUR 1. Last time I was there, the TV above the bar was showing a live broadcast of bullfighting.


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## Martinis at 8 (Apr 14, 2006)

DukeGrad said:


> Martinis at 8
> 
> No! Great in the fall. The Thayer is a nice place that time frame.
> Have nice day my friend


Well, it's nice up there in the late fall when the leaves change color. I've stayed at the hotel many times (various renuions, alumni visits, etc.). It has a nice setting, motif, etc., but I didn't find their restaurant to be extra special. In fact I usually go into Highland Falls to get a good meal.

So let's see, Duke and West Point - do you hang out with Coach K?


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

*Martinis at 8*

Martinis at 8,

My apology. I stay at the Thayer, go to the Montcalm, across the river. Above Peekskill, across from the Bear Mountain Inn!
I agree, the Thayer has a so/so restaurant.
I am not a West Pointer, many friends from there, who went on to teach there as well. As they advanced in their careers.
I love the point in the fall, even caught Duke/Army football games when they played one another.
I have also been stationed there as well, on and off my military career.
I have met coach K on and off in my life, at basketball games, with friends.
Actually, I know a former player, from my area who introduced me to the man.
I have become a big Duke Lacross fan, since they are number one in pre season.
The basketball team this year is so/so.
I do enjoy the history at the Point. It has always been a joy to go there.
You a graduate from West Point?
God Bless my friend,
Have a nice day.
And weekend!


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## Martinis at 8 (Apr 14, 2006)

DukeGrad said:


> ...
> You a graduate from West Point?...


Yes, I'm a graduate.

Coach K was coaching there at the time. He's a good guy and an inspiration. That whole Hudson River Valley is so trad. Lots of hidden mansions up there and a bunch of cool little towns with fine eateries and B&B's. Great history in that area not only for the American Revolution, but also the Industrial Revolution, i.e., the so called "Robber Barrons".

Cheers,

M8

P.S. Sorry for the threadjack, back on topic now.


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