David Greggory in DC

I can take mediocre food but I hate it when a place pretends to be all that when it really isn't. Combine this with the rude service and you have an ideal restaurant for this particular post.

Trader Vic's at the Beverly Hills Hilton

Again, food may be good but if service sucks then the restaurant goes down as BAD in my book. Well the food actually sucked here as well haha. My food came out way too salty. When I told the waiter, they brought me another plate...but it was remade using the same dish but added more ingredients to tone down the saltiness. I'm not stupid so I told the manager. The manager couldn't hold down his personal anger and threw down a fork forcefully on the waiter's tray but missed and fell loudly onto the floor. Yeah I left and let the hotel know of my dissatisfaction. Unacceptable.


Fare Nui Restaurant at the Intercontinental Resort & Spa Moorea

No taste to the food. Zilch. Bland. ...though most food I ate in Moorea was similar. I somehow expected food to be great on this island... I did have a fantastic burger at this joint called Blue Cheesburger..think that's what it was called.

Makoto in DC

This sushi place was a total disappointment. Food was good but way overrated. I found the place to be a bit gimmicky with a pretension of being authentic.

Any restaurant in the Philippines that has its name written by hand, doesn't have a menu, has stools for chairs and where the food is cooked right in front of you.

These joints are called turo, turo, which literally translates to point, point. Since they have no menus, you basically point to the food you want to order... which are often in huge pots in front of you. Locals love it... our stomachs on the other hand, won't be able to handle it.

I've noticed that the bread and butter is quite regularly the best part of my dining experience as expensive resteraunts...

Call me hoy paloy, but just like wine, the the price increase after a certain point really does not corrospond to any increase in deliciousness of the food.

Don't avoid !!
 

Il Desco has stunning food in addition to big theatre and an incredible dining room (as long as you in the one on the left as you come in). Agreed it is expensive but the quality of the preparation and food easily merits the 2 Michelin stars and the cost. We have been there 3 times in the last 2 years and are about to go again - I expect the usual mix of about 2/3 local and 1/3 tourists.
Don't be put off by Vienna Resident!

Wong Kei in London Chinatown, definately avoid. Having been to LON for business many times, this is definately one of the cities very difficult to find descent chinese cuisine for myself who is a native HKer. When visiting here I prefer to dine myself at the trobadour cafe.

Urmmm, don't really agree with your statement. IMO London has better chinese restaurants than YVR or NYC. (I am also a native HKer)

Agree that Wong Kei is not that good, but really there are so many good chinese restaurants around London. You just need to look carefully. I noted that u did comment that you don't like Yauatcha, but my recent experience there is really good.

Indian cuisine restaurants, I have not found a good one anywhere. The bread is usually good but the food taste like dirty dish water swells.

Perhaps you could list the restaurants and cities you've had Indian food in a restaurant?

I would also be interested where you ate/drank dirty dish water swells :D !!

Anything in the Skytower, Auckland (except Peter Gordon's Dine in the next door hotel). Overpriced and terrible service, but of course - great views.

One terrific item Legal has is FRESH, RESTAURANT MADE clam strips. Juicy, tender and sooo damn good.
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good but VERY VERY Expensive, one can dine two-three times at a “normal” Korean restaurant with just as good/better quality as Woo Lae Oak (which is a chain). Now that I’ve found normal/non-upscale Korean restaurants, I can’t justify spending the $$ for Woo Lae Oak. That said, it is a wonderful place to send people who have not had Korean food to as it is not as intimidating and is also more upscale than the cheapo excellent Korean places.


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My worst resturant is a little different. It is Charlie Trotters in downtwon chicago. I know it is supposed to be one of the best resturants in the world but if you have ever eaten there you will no what I mean. I am a big guy and I like food. I like a lot of it too. CT has great food in the smallest portions in the world. I took my wife out for V-Day and we had to stop off for dinner on the way home and my wife is only 115 pounds and 5'6. dinner is a preset menue so you get what they feel like giving you. Dinner and some wine was $650.00. The service was great but then again if I was a waiter making 90k a year I would be all over it too.

Maybe not the best question for a thread on restaurants to avoid, but what is your recommended counterpoint to Woo Lae Oak? What's the best cheap hole-in-the-wall Korean place in the DC area that's clean, fresh and tasty and good value for the money?

Worst chain restaurant - well, there are so many, but my vote has to go to Outback. Someone mentioned a "cup of salt" in every Macaroni Grille item. You can double that for outback. I'm not salt adverse, but everything at Outback on multiple trips was so salty that I couldn't eat it. Even the SALAD was salty.

Worst local restaurant - Bistro 100 in Chicago (well, it is part of a small Chicago group, but still qualifies as local). Trip 1 - so bad in every respect that we wrote the management. To their credit they issued a large credit toward a return trip. We went and received the VIP treatment. Service improved immeasurably, but you can't hide bad food. Nothing good to say about this place at all.

Oh - let me add a vote for Emeril. Emeril's in NO was a disaster. We were seated in the room with the wine coolers, with my back to them. Everytime someone tripped over me to open the door I got hit with a wave of mustiness - Yes, I know its humid there, but must in a wine cellar is NOT a good thing. This summer I was forced to go to NOLA, and actually had a decent meal, much to my amazement. Emeril seemed to have his staff fairly well trained, something that is not typically true in NO at this point in time.

Can't help you with DC as not my backyard and I don't get there often, but I imagine Korean spots are there if you look.

A good place to start might be Tyler Cowen's ethnic DC area food guide, here are his Korean picks:

http://www.tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com/korean/

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Thank you...excellent resource for all kinds of cuisines

The old favorite favorite and probably still kicking butt (haven't been there for a few years) is Hee Been in Landmark.

It's funny how many people comment on the DC metro Woo Lae Oaks and how good they are. I think this is because Woo Lae Oak is the only mainstream Korean restaurants in the area...but the food is mediocre at best. Woo Lae Oak NY is the one to go to if you want Woo Lae Oak. Unfortunately I can't recommend any other Korean restaurants in the area since when the food is good, the service lacks and vice versa...usually it's the service that is :td:

My best advice would be to try to befriend a Korean and get invited for dinner :D

I can't agree with you here. I also found that London's Chinese restaurants to be generally poor. While YVR is head and shoulders above both NYC and LON.

One for the ages
 

Here in Denver there's a place called Brittany Hill. Big Tudor-style place on a hill in Thornton, just north of downtown, right off I-25. Very nice views, very bad food. You know, one of those places prom-date kids like to go. Here's a review from the web:

"The food, like that of its sister restaurants, Chili Pepper and Baby Doe's, is disappointing and overpriced. Beer cheese soup tastes synthetic and seems nearly beerless. A hollowed-out whole-wheat round is wasted on a bland, gelatinous blob of artichoke-spinach dip. Alfredo sauce is gloopy. Marinated in briny vinegar, the rosemary chicken is unpalatable. Prime rib ordered medium-rare may arrive well-done, dry and stringy. Service in the kitschy-quaint dining room is cordial and attentive, but a bit stiff--awestruck, perhaps, by the lofty prices."

Those other two places had terrible food, too, also with nice views of downtown Denver. A theme, perhaps? Don't you hate it when that maxim "great view, terrible food" is true?

The good news is that it's now closed. Drove by there yesterday and it still looks empty.

I agree with with the exception of Nick's Fish Market. I love their lamb and Tristan lobster.

sky chef all countries

Go to Cabana Las Lielas in puerto Madero, Very Good, NYT gave it five stars

Chuckle! Wish I'd seen this post first, it's a perfect description of the dish I had here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...38#post6215938
The place even calls itself "Spices Indian Cuisine"

And I agree that Wong Kei London is to be avoided. I was first exposed to Chinese food here as a child and would go regularly (it's where I learnt to eat with chopsticks). We were usually the only non Chinese family dining at that time. The service was always shocking! However, although the food was good in the late 70s/early 80s I noticed a steady decline, and by the early 90s the food was downright horrid. I haven't been back in nearly 20 years, when the food got as bad as the service, it was easy to draw the line.


I'd also say avoid the 'bento' options at the rapidly expanding British take out chain "Wasabi". The salmon teriaki option in particular is incredibly poor. Out of curiosity I ordered it once - the offering was so anaemic and pathetic I refused to take it. My husband had a yakitori and thought it was dreadful - just like a plate full of stodgy noodles from one of those cheap Leicester Square Chinese buffet places (the non veg ones).

For a wonderful and well priced Bento (or rather 'Donburi') go to the Japan Centre (Picaddilly). The restaurant there has started selling some of its more popular dishes into bento boxes to take away - just on the right as you go in. All are £3.80. I recommend the spicy fry tuna don. There are some magnificent bentos for under £9 that look very good indeed.
Yoshino has a stall in the basement and you can get sushi here from under £2. Both options are cheaper and better than anything 'wasabi' or 'pret' have to offer.

This can be caused by a genetic condition which makes corriander taste like soap to some people.

Agreed, Hype is a wonderful descriptor, Charlie didn’t live up to the hype for me either. Do you think maybe people say they loved it even though it might have been just ok so maybe as not to appear foolish for spending that much $$ for something that was just ok?

Bad food is not made good depending upon who paid. Bad food is bad food.

Blumie, this probably is not the correct thread but if you could share your New Orleans faves it would be very appreciated ^

I too prefer Schwartz’s, for a thread on smoked meat in Montreal, see: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=308989
Also Montreal bagels are the best, see this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=308981

Well we can agree to disagree. But many will agree with me that when it comes to Chinese restaurants, there is no way in the world London can compete with Vancouver. Not even close.

I have sampled many myself and has been invited to many as well by others and I can come to the conclusion that London is one of the worst cities to dine Chinese cuisine. The Abalone at Yauatcha has got to be one of the most bland, tasteless, and greasy piece of dish I have ever had. Same can be said for their Dim Sum.

Don't get me wrong, London has some of the best restaurants a city can house. But their Chinese dining is no where near top notch. I basically have given up eating Chinese here especially when there are many other better restaurants serving other cuisines to choose from.

Those London Chinese restaurant lovers can continue to patronize, but I'll be happy to stay away from them.

It's been a while, but I do love the smoked meat at The Main,
almost right across the street from Schwartz's. It's a down-
and-out place with a down-and-out clientele, but I found the
food superior. Did a head-to-head smoked meat tasting, and
The Main's won hands down.

Couple weeks ago I found Moe's in IAD Concourse D, and as
I had a yen for smoked meat, I had a sandwich there. Utterly
mediocre :mad:

Avoid Pizzicato Gourmet Pizza Encinitas, CA
 

Avoid Pizzicato Gourmet Pizza Encinitas, CA

We went to this restaurant by recommendation. It was just horrible and dirty and the staff took our order and then stood around and laughed as they watched us eat it. Thought the world should know where not to go for pizza in San Diego!

What a shame to read about Charlie Trotters. It used to be a favorite when I lived in Chicago 20 years ago :(

My two cents on the East Side Marios chain: STAY AWAY!

A weak take on Italian where they figure the more calories they can convince you to eat will result in a happy experience. Uninspiring food for the obese.

Sadie's in Albuquerque, NM - folks asphyxiate themselves when talking about how authentic and wonderful this place is...but after about four visits there over a period of a few years all I've seen is a damned revamped bowling alley (aren't we too cool for school!) that sells high school football stadium quality New/Mexican food, and stumbles all over itself in trying to be lowbrow pretentious and thrist shop chic. For good New/Mexican food in ABQ go to a downtown or South Valley dive instead - the kind where they sell chicle at the front counter and the place is heated with a 50-year old wall heater - that's where you'll find the real stuff

AKA Cheese Penis.

Absolutely top notch.

^^^

Also worth trying the sister restaurants La Trompette, Chiswick and The Glasshouse, Kew.

Pizzeria Giardini, Estellencs, Mallorca
 

Piazzeria Giardini in Estellencs, Mallorca has the worst food I have eaten in a restaurant to date. We went there for a pizza, it being a pizzeria, and I was stunned to find that the pizza base was the worst kind of supermarket pizza base (the ones that seem like small, wooden chopping boards) smeared with a thin layer of tomato 'stuff' and topped with cheap cheddar type cheese. It was inedible. My son had a steak which had been lavishly covered with some kind of chemical-based rub or sauce or something. I am a trained chef with many years experience, but this was something else. The pity about this restaurant is that it has a certain tatty charm, in a truly idyllic setting. The service was poor and grumpy and we fled after a mere 40 minutes (a normal supper being many hours in it's duration). Do not go to this restaurant-you have been warned. I am still having flashbacks.

A trip down memory lane in another thread leads me to recall
a place that was hideously overpriced and had horrendous food:
the Pantheon Bar right by the Pantheon in Rome.

Glad I stumbled on this one. By far the most overrated restaurant I've ever experienced, having decided to try it based on the reputation of the chef (Todd English) and the recommendations of friends: Olives, in Boston (Charlestown). Overpriced crap exemplified.

OTOH, Blue Ginger in Wellesley, also with a celebrity chef (Ming Tsai), was excellent, one of the best meals I've ever had.

FWIW, I went back to Fifeteen in London and it was still crap. Aimed clearly at the celebrity gawking market from the home counties. The highlight this time (after being served several very unimaginative wines)

Sommelier: I've got something very imaginative to go with your lamb
Table (in unison): Is it New Zealand Pinot Noir?
Sommelier: Yes, how did you guess. :rolleyes:

He is now trying to make a media career for himself....remarkable.

TGI Friday's in Westbury, NY - I had a dead fly in my beverage, which I didn't realize until the fly was in my mouth. How nasty! When I pointed this out to the server, I received a lame "sorry about that" with no real attempt to address it. It took a conversation with the manager to receive a satisfactory response. I will not be going back there.

Any dining chain, anywhere, ever.

Orange County
 

George's Thai Bistro
3732 S Bristol
Santa Ana, CA 92704

Although the owner is Thai, the food is not Thai, French or any other type ... just badly prepared meals :td::td::td: