Long Island, NY - and I will narrow it down to Suffolk County
Lake House - a former chef at Veritas started this place about 10 years ago - as close to NYC dining as I have found on Long Island. Creative food and better than average service.
Chachama Grill - great flavors on South American inspired dishes. Excellent service.
Onsen - best sushi on LI
Trattoria - free corkage byo, delicious food, sweet service, tiny, cramped quarters - good luck getting a reservation
Kitchen A Bistro - the mother of Trattoria. Free corkage byo, good to very good food. Moved from the tiny Trattoria location to larger quarters, but still jammed and cramped, and painfully noisy.
Stone Creek Inn - sophisticated dining at the gateway to the Hamptons.
Downtown Napa… these are all within walking distance of each other. It’s amazing how Napa has gone from no good restaurants when I moved here in 2005, to starting to creep up on Yountville in terms of quality, now. It has already surpassed anywhere else in the valley for options. Places like Morimoto, which I consider over-expensive, and Cole’s Chop House, don’t even make my top 5 anymore.
The Thomas: criminally under-mentioned, this is one of the best places in the whole valley. Great outdoors/upstairs patio. Kobe beef burger with bacon, egg and truffle is the bomb. Great stemware. One great dish after another and zero pretense. Might be my favorite non-Michelin-star restaurant in the whole valley. $15-30/entree. Has replaced Yountville’s “Bistro Jeanty” as my go-to restaurant.
Zuzu (Napa): Great Tapas restaurant, can order lots of small dishes loaded with flavor, $8-12/tapas. Only weakness is limited stemware.
Angele: Good for weekend brunch or dinner, my favorite is the sweetbreads. $15-25 per entree. Nice, covered outdoor patio in spring and summer.
Celadon: Beautiful, rustic decor with excellent, although a bit more expensive, comfort food, $20-30/entree.
Oenotri: excellent salumi plates, salads and some slightly southern-styled dishes. $15-25/entree.
Bad management and indifferent food. Too many bad experiences. I haven’t been for over ten years but I haven’t heard anything good from anyone I trust. Oh, and they limit corkage to two bottles regardless of how many people at your table.
1. The Kitchen at Grove Station - High end cooking in a casual atmosphere at reasonable prices. Excellent friendly and efficient service. Free BYO. Just opened 6 weeks ago but we’re eating here at least once a week.
2. Madame Claude - a longtime favorite and a regular visit for their rustic but perfectly executed bouillabaise, escargots, steak frites and other bistro favorites. Mmm, garlic butter.
3. Roman Nose - Great pastas and pizzas and a fantastic cocktail list. Their bartender really knows his stuff.
4. Park and Sixth - top notch pub food, great burgers, fries, lobster cobb salad, chicken wings, etc.
5. Grand Sichuan - whenever I want my Gui Zhou Spicy Chicken fix I come here.
If you ever have to eat in Des Moines, the best bets are:
Baru 66 (well executed, french inspired food)
Table 128 (good food, but loud atmosphere)
801 Chophouse (best prime steaks in town)
Bistro Montage
Django (brasserie with hit or miss food, but it’s cheap and offers free corkage)
My favorites in metro Denver may not be the best, but they are what I enjoy the most.
Fruition, small, but spectacular.
Cherry Creek Grill. Where else can you get rotisserie lamb in Denver? Awesome enchiladas.
Del Friscos. Best beef I’ve ever had. Huge/fun wine list.
Perfect Landing. Weird location in the Centennial executive airport, but great people and plane watching, surprisingly good food and well priced wines. Piano bar too. Can’t beat that.
Creekside Winery, Evergreen. Nothing better than dining on the back patio over Bear Creek having the antipasto platter and wines made right on the premises. Great place to take out of town guests.
If my hometown of San Francisco then there’s plenty. Sadly I live in San Mateo and while there’s plenty of dining options the quality is just so-so. Some of the places my family goes back to:
All Spice
Vault 164
Ramen Parlor
The Attic
Thai Basil
Belmont doesn’t have squat, but San Carlos has some nice places.
Panda Dumpling - Screen door Chinese decor. Two Chinese women making noodles and dumplings from scratch. No corkage so I bring Rose, sparkling wine, Beaujolais, Loire white, or German Riesling.
The Refuge - Many think they make the best pastrami in the Bay Area. Also, great selection of Belgian beers on draft.
Speederia Pizzeria - Even ex-pat NYers who I have brought here think this is the real deal.
Saffron - Very good Indian and they’re not shy on the heat factor.
Cuisinett - Bare bones French bistro. Order at the counter. Not fancy, but well executed.
Small? Our population exploded from 2,300 to 3,300 in the last 10 years. Was 1,776 when I moved here in '92.
Aside from the Chinese, Pizza and Taqueria we have 5 restaurants which normally would be a lot for a small town but due to our location they seem to all do well.
The Farmhouse Inn tops the list for overall experience but it generally out of our budget.
The Backyard is always good and gets the nod whenever we want to eat in town. Casual indoor/outdoor dining, every fruit, vegetable and animal is grown, raised or line caught locally.
Canneti Roadhouse Italiana offers Tuscan California Cuisine. Admittedly we have only dined there once on opening week and it didn’t leave us thrilled. I understand it has developed nicely since but we have not returned. They also offer Tuscan wine tasting/food pairing and Wine Shop sales.
Twist Eatery is a small upscale lunch counter/caterer open mainly during the week while we are at work. Have tasted plenty of their wonderful creations at local food/wine events but have never had the opportunity to eat on premises.
Corks Restaurant at Russian River Vineyards has the best outdoor dining area around. The food is OK but not great. If they could ever get the right chef/menu in that place it would be the best overall experience in West County. Unfortunately the restaurant is on par with their wines which are middling.