Great iDine Restaurants Thread
 

I have an idea. Why don't we start a thread dedicated to those great iDine spots, the ones that are so good you would go to them even if they didn't award miles? <yeah right>

I will volunteer to edit this first post periodically to add restaurants. You FTers need to tell me which restaraunts that you have been to are worthy of inclusion.

Format is Airport Code - Region of city as defined by iDine - Restaurant Name - Cuisine - (Zagat food score) (optional). Please use this format as I don't have time to edit for everyone.

I'll start things off with the first example (and yes it is wonderful):

(Use the vertical and horizontal slider buttons):

Los Angeles favorite
 

LAX - West Los Angeles - Bourbon Street - Cajun

LAX - Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles - Rouge

Thanks, zakami and MarkS, I have added your suggestions to the master post.

Lurkers - submit your favorites too so we can built up a great resource here!

I promise to update the master post at a minimum weekly. I will also look into making it available to download to a handheld if it gets big enough.

Here's another
 

TUL - OK, Tulsa - Full Moon - Southwestern. They brag about their tortilla soup and margarita chicken. They're right! Unlimited benefit, 10mi/$ and part of National Trivia Network.

Thanks, Points Scrounger - Added!

Great idea gardener
 

The upper end restaurants that I continually like to visit are in Long Beach: La Opera, Madam JoJo's and Lashers; in Orange County: The Anaheim White House. The best value (and unlimited dine to boot) in Long Beach is a Spanish Tapas place called Alegria on Pine.

BTW, I have found almost every 20 miles per $ place kind of bizarre.

And gardener.....congrats on your 1000th post.

LAX - Downtown, Hollywood, E of Highland - R23

Excellent sushi in the very cool downtown warehouse near Little Tokyo.

LAX - Beverly Hills, W. Los Angeles - Gangadin

Indian food, nice decor, excellent hostess!

LAX - South Bay, Long Beach, Central LA - Madison

Beautiful setting in an old bank in downtown Long Beach.

LAX - West Hollywood, Sunset Plaza, N of Beverly - Pearl

On Robertson just of Santa Monica Blvd. in Weho, great food in a very trendy space (if that's your thing...)

LAX - Downtown, Hollywood E of La Brea - Paladar

Great Cuban food just off Hollywood Blvd.

LAX - Glendale, Pasadena - Delacey's Club 44

One of the older restaurants in Old Town Pasadena, great sandwiches at lunch.

SNA - For some reason many restaurants on Main St in Huntington Beach are iDine - not like I mind :)

May fav is Spark -Woodfire Grill. Signed my friend up in the afternoon and later that night she got 3,000+ AA miles AND she threw me a great B-Day Party AND we had a killer dinner including great wine from their extensive wine list AND we got to watch the sunset from our kill spot on the outside upstairs patio under a heat lamp next to the firepit!

Next is Momo's. dhammer53 and kenjih joined me here. ONCE AGAIN, like to mimic the night before, Kenji was without cash so he got to put lunner on his card. With bonuses he got over 1,000 miles for dinner for just 3 people (!) AND we got to sit on the outside patio, primier table right on the street by the car parade, with people busting out of every restaurant, up and down the sidewalk, and upstairs off the balconies on one of the hottest, busiest days of the year. Guys and girls with their shirts off, GOING OFF! (Okay, the girls had on bikini tops.)

Then there's INKA GRILL - A little farther up the street from the big scene but YYYYYUUUUUMMMMM!

LAS Nevada Las Vegas - West of Strip- Mama Jo's- Italian

SNA California Orange County - South Coastal - Amelia's- Italian/Seafood

MRY California San Jose - Monterey - Old Bath House - American


One vote for Mama Jo's in Vegas. We eat at the Durango location every time we're in town. Calamari appetizer is not to be missed. Portions of most every entree are huge. When we split a Lasagna, they made up individual ones and baked them in seperate boats. Modest decor, unassuming location. Noted mostly locals and regulars during our visits. Full bar. First time we ate there, we went back the next day because we liked it so much. 10 miles per dollar. I think we collected 1500 miles that trip :).

Worth a look...Amelia's on Balboa Island (adjacent to Newport Beach, CA). Recently ate there for wife's BD. Weekday evening, driving rainstorm so only a few locals there. Dinner, with champagne, was 68.00, including tip. Had house minestrone and spaghetti with meatballs. Good but not as good as Mama Jo's. Will have to try seafood next time. Great waitress (ended up talking half hour with her after done with dinner) 5 miles per dollar, weekdays only. Nothing on weekends. Things are pretty relaxed on Balboa in the off-season. Will have to explore more on next trip.

Nice romantic spot....The Old Bath House in Pacific Grove, adjacent to Monterey, CA. 5 miles per dollar, except Saturday. You can spend a bundle here. We ate on the cheap with the early bird prix fixe menu on a Sunday evening. Place was packed by the time we left. Worth every penny, with a great view of the bay. The filet was memorable, as was the pork tenderloin. The creme brulee was heavenly. With drinks, half bottle of merlot, dinner was just over 100.00 with tip.

lisamcgu....couldn't find momo's on UA or AA iDines; I wonder if they dropped off. Also, do you think the Inka Grill can handle a group of 15 or so OK? We've got a number of Mustang owners looking for some good grub after Fab Fords next weekend. Last year we went down to Duke's but I found the food average and the service mediocre, especially for the price. TIA for any help.

Pat

Hey folks,
This is a great idea, but the requested format was airport/section of town/restaurant name. Let's get back to that so it's not a huge pain for the OP to organize or other folks to use.

ORD/Chicago City, River North/Rumba
They used to give miles every day, now there are no miles on Friday or Saturday. But the "Nuevo Latino cusine" is interesting and delicious, and it's a good place for a business lunch. At night (about 8, I think), they have a band that makes the in-demand booths pretty loud. The drinks are phenomenal, though pricey.

ORD/Chicago City, Loop, Downtown Area/Monk's Pub
Laid back (peanut shells on the floor at night) place to grab a great burger. Popular with downtown workers for lunch, at night it's people who live downtown getting dinner or office workers getting a drink after work. Definitely not fancy, but pretty inexpensive.

Sorry to stray off-topic but ...
 

The old printed iDine guides used to have a disclaimer that for parties of 7 and more, one must check with iDine first. I'd call them to see if that's still true before a savvy restaurant manager legitimately blocks the (potentially whopping) idine credit from going through.

Great Job folks
 

Lots of great sounding submissions. You guys are going to keep me real busy.

Please try to stick with the format:

3 letter airport code, iDine state/city, iDine area of city, restaurant name - cuisine

That way I can just cut and paste :)

Although I am also validating the entries against MP dining.

Theater district
 

DCA - DC Downtown - Andale - Mayan/Mexican
DCA - DC Downtown - Capitol Q - BBQ
DCA - DC Downtown - Galileo - N. Italian
DCA - DC Downtown - Les Halles - French
DCA - DC Downtown - Old Europe - German

My resturant interest in DC centers on the theater district

JFK - Manhattan - Firebird - Russian

Thanks, scubadiver - updated!