I may have mentioned this before, but the LTHForum Great Neighborhood Restaurants is also a terrific list.

Good to hear about Kurah...it's just a few blocks from the boyfriend's and we haven't tried it..

I would second this suggestion. I use it all the time (and contribute when necessary)

Barack Obama was on that show once. I seem to recall he chose Hyde Park's Dixie Kitchen to review.

That's correct. It was filmed for the first season (2001) when Obama was a state senator. It wasn't run at the time, then was run just before his inauguration in 2009.

The producer said they didn't run it back in 2001 because the flow of the episode wasn't right. The other two reviewers were somewhat quiet and Obama ended up doing most of the talking. Amanda Puck didn't do much to get the others involved (Alpana Singh did much better in similar situations).

I think I'm in the minority in that I actually enjoyed Amanda as host. She worked for me in sort of a not-very-polished way. Alpana did grow on me eventually and was like-able, but the current host isn't interesting or entertaining at all.

I haven't seen all that many Amanda episodes, I didn't really start watching it until season 4 or 5 and they don't rerun the really old ones very often. Alpana was fine, but annoyed me whenever wine would come up. Yes, we get it, you're a sommelier, fine. Shut up and let the people talk about the restaurants not about how some obscure wine pairs with what they ate. Catherine doesn't bother me, she's okay. One thing that's clear now is that the stupid puns about people's jobs came from the producer, not Alpana.