Restaurant Meme
ML tagged me to do this meme, and it’s taken me awhile to get to it…so many restaurants to think about…but I’m finally ready, so here we go:
The rules:
1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the state and country you’re in.
Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
J (California, USA)
2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location (locally).
I had trouble with this part…when I started my blog, it was supposed to be restaurant reviews, so really, I’ve already written about most of the yummy, favorite places that we’ve been in the last year and a half. I don’t want to bore the heck out of you by talking about the same restaurants over again, but to talk about restaurants that aren’t my favorites seems wrong, too. So…what to do. I’m going to link to my five favorite places that I’ve already written about, and then I’ll share five other places that I love around here. How’s that? 1. Cafe Esin, San Ramon. 2. Va de Vi, Walnut Creek. 3. Zax Tavern, Berkeley. 4. Foreign Cinema, San Francisco. 5. Thanh Long, San Francisco.
OK, 5 places I HAVEN’T written about before:
Rivoli– Berkeley. We honeymooned on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, as did the husband and wife who opened this restaurant, so we have celebrated a couple of anniversaries here. The room is beautiful, with one whole wall devoted to seeing the garden in the back (above). The food is always VERY good, and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a romantic dinner, or a nice celebration type meal.
La Folie – San Francisco. We’ve been here a couple of times (not since they redecorated, above) on special occasions. La Folie serves wonderful French food, and what could be better than that? The wine list is pretty top notch, the food is superb, and the prices pretty much show it. Yummy, but tres’ pricey, so save up and go!
Mudd’s – San Ramon. This local gem is located adjacent to the community gardens. You can take a walk around the gardens if you would like, and weather permitting (hey, this is California, it’s OFTEN permitting) you can eat outside. The food is tasty, the atmosphere and service are great, and the prices, while not LOW, aren’t insane, either. We celebrated an anniversary here, and Maya was with us. They brought us a complimentary glass of champagne to celebrate, and they brought Maya a complimentary glass of sparkling cidar. That’s a really nice touch, I think, to not exclude the child.
Namaste or Saroor Indian Restaurants – Concord and Walnut Creek. (Neither of these restaurants have web pages of their own, and I couldn’t find pictures for them, so I found one of ‘Indian Buffet” from Naweb Restaurant, in Virginia.) Both Namaste and Saroor have buffets at lunchtime, and full menu dining for dinner. We love the lamb curry at either place, so we often get that, but almost anything on the menu is a winner when you’re in the mood for Indian food. 🙂
Heavenly Cafe – Walnut Creek. Maya told me I really should include this restaurant, even though it’s not fancy at all, or even a place that we get in the car and go looking for…it’s just our little neighborhood cafe, where you’ll find us for breakfast pretty consistently on a Saturday or a Sunday morning. They don’t have a picture anywhere online, probably because it’s in a strip mall, next to a 7-11 and a Subway Sandwich joint, so sorry, no pics. The omelettes are pretty darned good, the pancakes are yummy, and their BLT is the best I’ve had so far, anywhere. When it opened, we feared it wouldn’t last very long, but it seems to get pretty busy on weekend mornings, and I suspect sometimes for lunch as well. If you’re ever in our neighborhood, this is the best breakfast that you can walk to. 🙂
3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.
V-Grrl – Because she’s in Belgium, and that would be cool to hear about.
Curiosity Killer – She’s in Hong Kong. Also, very cool and far away and all.
Ms. Mamma – Out there in the wilds of Wisconsin, what’s good to eat near you?
Tracy and Gina – They’re in California, but it’s SoCal, so different than here. I tagged them both, wondering if they would come up with any of the same places (unlikely in a region so huge), but only counted it as one tag, because it’s So Cal.
Michelle – She’s anchored down in Anchorage, and heck, Alaska sometimes SEEMS like another country. It’s certainly big enough!
Anyone else interested? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll come check you out!
15 Comments
Ml
Yeah you did the meme! I know you’ve covered a lot of restaurants in previous posts, but I knew you could come up with more. They all sound wonderful with good stories behind them!
Beenzzz
MMMMMMMM…Thanh Long. Love that place. I wish they had one in Utah!
Lotus
I love the look of Mudd’s and the sound of Namaste…I can never get enough of those Indian buffets…I seem to crave one every day at lunch. Mmmmmmmmm!
CuriosityKiller
Will do for the Monday meme! Thanks, J.
Gina
I’m there!
Although I’ll have to go way back in time to when I went to restaurants that didn’t give you crayons and balloons!
V-Grrrl
Oh Jules, the sad, sad truth is that Belgian cuisine is considered superior in Europe to French cuisine–and yet we never eat out. Being a family of four and restaurant prices being so high, we put our euros elsewhere in the budget. Today I took my two kids out for Belgian fast food and meals for the three of us (including one Belgian version of a Happy Meal), cost me more than $25. And that was without desserts and with small drinks (no refills) and fries. They even charge 50 cents for the ketchup packets. “Real” restaurant food costs even more.
I will recommend two Belgian eateries that American expats love when they need a taste of home in Brussels. One is Fat Boys at Place du Luxembourgh. It’s a sports bar and serves American-style burgers and frites for about $15 a person (drink not included!). El Vergel, not far from the Trone Metro stop, offers “Latin American” food which is what Belgians call Mexican food. It’s the only place I’ve found that serves Tex-Mex here (other than the horrible Chi-Chi’s, which has been exported to Europe).
My advice to expats, never ever order Mexican food at the restaurant in Bruparck near the Atomium and MiniEurope! There’s no “heat” to the food at all, the salsa is like ketchup, kinda sweet, and nothing is spicy.
Starshine
Cool! This will be a good exercise for me. Plus, after I’m married, I’ll be living closer to Gina’s neck of the woods, so I can’t wait to try out some of her suggestions. I’ll work on this over the weekend, and post it one day next week.
Have a good weekend, J!
J
Lotus, I just got back from having Indian Buffet for lunch. Yummy! I always want to go back for seconds, but I’m too darned full. Sigh.
V-Grrlll, I never knew there was better food than French! Too bad it’s so darned expensive. Regarding the Mexican food, I would say to stay away from foreign cuisines in foreign countries (does that make sense?) but we all know the Indian food in England is yummy, and when we were in Paris, I had the best Chinese food in my life. Oh well. 🙂 Sorry you can’t play.
I’m glad the rest of you will be playing, and I’m looking forward to seeing your memes!
Lalunas
Yumm I’m so ready for a good meal. Great choices.
Py Korry
Sidebar on Rivoli: We went there for our anniversary and there was another couple who came in maybe 5 minutes before we did, looked at the reservations list, and said “Um, we’re Mr. and Mrs. J/Py Korry.” When we came in, we said our names, and the host was confused. He excused himself, and when he came back, he told us that a couple just walked in, said our name, and were seated. J took out her ID to proved we were who we said we were. They apologized and said they would give us the next table that was available. We were given free wine and appetizers while we waited, and when our table was ready, it was decorated with a lot of party flair. We had a very nice meal, and found the whole thing pretty amusing.
We went back to the restaurant a couple of years later (for our anniversary) and they remembered us and what happened that night. The host said “You know, you don’t have to wait for your anniversary to come and dine with us.” 🙂
It really is a great restaurant!
Michelle
Oh, I’ve been patching drywall/spackling/painting the kitchen all day today and just barely noticed this.
Thanks for the tag, I’ll see what I can come up with (though, like you I’ve done a bit about restaurants and may not have anything to say more at the moment, but knowing me the moment will pass and I’ll be running off at the mouth again).
I didn’t realize you’d done restaurant reviews. Next to travel writing, that sounds like my dream job.
MsMamma
I will try! Funny Ha HA
velverse
Rivoli looks like a really nice place. It must really be very romantic huh? 🙂
Namaste looks like they serve superb Indian food. Really wanna try 😀
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Nicole
Job well done!! the places look divine!! thanks for doing the meme and hope you had a great time