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- - Restaurants to Avoid Worldwide — and Please Name Names! (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diningbuzz/376251-restaurants-avoid-worldwide-please-name-names.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by obscure2k (Post 3705883)

Picasso at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is widely heralded as the best restaurant in the city. IMHO it is highly over-rated. The food was just a bit better than average; prices were stratospheric and portions very small. Very pretty setting, however and the service is good.

We enjoyed the fountains and the art. Food was OK. But, the wine service was terrible. We ordered A Duckhorn Sauv Blanc and it came ice cold. We were told that all the whites were that cold because that was the way Americans like them. The sommelier tried his best to find something less cold and eventually found something. We were surprised, but impressed that the sommelier actually knew what he was doing. He was just catering to the crowd.

No names but a rule of thumb:

AVOID: Local restaurant serving local cuisine without any local patrons.

NEVER BEEN WRONG: Lineups of locals.

Pino's Pizza, Boston. Completely overrated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRAVELSIG (Post 3777596)

Harry's Bar in Venice- go for a drink (please please NOT a Bellini)- that is nice.... but a meal is a terrible way to spend a couple of hundred euros (or more) in a city with (otherwise) fantastic food.

Taken by friends on our last visit to Italy, I would have been shocked had I not been fore-warned. Pretentious, over-priced and with food that would have to rise in quality to exceed mediocre to the level of modest. The best approach would have been to have taken a photo out in front, as with revisiting the "Kit Kat Klub" in Barcelona after being away for 4+ decades. It was probably worse than I remembered it to be.

Has my memory gone astray, or was (1963) and is there a "Harry's" in Florence? Pink tablecloths and napkins, lunch also served at the bar, a "hangout" for well-heeled expatriates (but you didn't have to be that well heeled to live well in Italy in 1963).

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILuvParis (Post 11862020)

Really? Actually, strange as it may seem, I believe China is the biggest producer of pineapples in the world. However, most of the pineapples eaten in the U.S. (including Hawaii) are indeed grown in Hawaii.

"Most of the (fresh) pineapple eaten in the US" (but I can't include Hawaii) is grown in Central America. A fair amount of canned pineapple may originate in Asia.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bocastephen (Post 11770484)

I was seriously underwhelmed by their location in Markham, ON just outside Toronto. Pretty much everything we ordered was a giant overbaked carbohydrate bomb - not at all what we expected. I'd rather find some semi-unknown Taiwanese style hole-in-the-wall spot in LA than line up at DTF again.

I have been to that one many times (a personal favorite) but just so you know, they are not part of the official Din Tai Fung group. They just have a very similar name (Ding Tai Fung). Here is a complete list of "real" Din Tai Fung restaurants worldwide.

I have been to their outlets in HK and Beijing and thought both were sublime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMOliver (Post 11881733)

That's about $25 more than I would have left (and would have called for the manager long before the check "arrived").

I don't understand most of my fellow countrymen, and their unwillingness to "create a scene" in the face of bad food and bad service. Management certainly doesn't want the other diners to see and hear the plaintive wails of a really dissatisfied customer standing up for his principles that bad food, bad service or a combo thereof is essentially a violation of the "contract of carriage"..

Will a manager call the police? I actually had one once start to do so, then at the encouragement of some of the staff, desist. Obviously, threatened with arrest, I guess I would have paid, but surely would have made a scene.

I rarely attempt it, a dozen or so times in memory, but only that once did I ever face the threat of a legal challenge. Why are a people quick to take back clothing, return gift items, and claim refunds buffaloed similar tactics in the face of an unsatisfactory dinner. It's far better thing to alert management than to simply "cut" your tip. After 5 years of writing resturant reviews for a "medium circulation" newspaper (back in the early 80s) anda fair amount of domestic and foreign travel, I'm appalled at what we "Merkins" routinely put up with, not only abroad but at home, and often in "upscale" restaurants.

+1

Unless it is strictly a service issue, cutting the tip is not the answer. Problems need to be escalated to management on the spot - including serious lapses in service.

The server doesn't 'taste test' each dish or ensure that everything is satisfactorily cooked to order - that's a kitchen problem. Reluctantly paying for a bad meal - that's tantamount to buying an unsatisfactory product and being too timid to return it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chollie (Post 18034081)

Unless the issue is at the top. Many a restaurant I have had issues with, the service culture stems from the Management. If the GM or Maitre D'Hotel doesn't get it, neither will the staff.

I would add:

Hawksworth Restaurant in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver to this list. Hype hype hype and more hype. Service is haughty, aloof and pretentious. Food quality and execution is average to good; value for money is poor. Nickle and diming is the name of the game here. $4 for bread sums it all up.

Skyline Chili

What the hell is that stuff? And plastic bibs? Come on.. Really?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsmeeker (Post 18040070)

Skyline Chili

What the hell is that stuff? And plastic bibs? Come on.. Really?

LOL
Some people hate it....others (including myself) love it.
Chili served over pasta is the way to go.

Local tip. Use the squeeze bottle of hot sauce to put a bit on an oyster cracker for pre-service munching. Repeat many times.

And never use the plastic bibs :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsaced (Post 18032639)

Pino's Pizza, Boston. Completely overrated.

Mi Luna tapas restaurant on University Blvd. in Houston, just west of Rice University. Oversalted food that's swimming in olive oil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodeats21 (Post 18041457)

Agreed. That stuff is like a drug as far as I am concerned. Cant get enough of it. And yea, never used the bib.

Any place with "auspicious, lucky, dragon, happiness" or any permutation of those translated into another language on the sign is where I'll never go. Auspiciously for them, I'm quite partial to their mainland China counterparts.