The Best Restaurant In Town

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The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby Absentia » Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:27 pm

A lot of you guys live in places I'd like to visit someday, and as someone who enjoys food and finding new places to enjoy food I thought it would be fun and informative for us to talk about our favorite local eateries. That way if one of us is ever in somebody else's neck of the woods, we'll know where to go for a bite. I'll start with three.

  • In Chesapeake, VA, where I grew up and lived until recently, there's an unassuming little pizza place called Chesapeake Pizza that's been owned by the same Greek family since it opened in the '80s. They serve the best pizza I have ever had anywhere. I think they must use some kind of fancy cheese, because it just tastes richer and saltier than regular pizza. It's phenomenal.
  • In Richmond, VA, where I'm living now, there's a barbecue place called Buz and Ned's. The story is that Buz worked in restaurants in BBQ Meccas like Texas and Kansas City, but he decided to open a restaurant in Virginia so he scoured the state until he found this old guy named Ned with the most incredible hickory-smoked barbecue he'd ever tasted and got him to teach his secrets before he died. I don't know how much of that is true, but the part about incredible barbecue is spot-on. They've got pork, beef, and chicken, and it all tastes like it's been smoking for a year. It shouldn't be possible to get a piece of meat that smoky. I thought I'd eaten good barbecue before but this puts everything else to shame.
  • And in Charlottesville, VA, where I went to college and only one fatal racist invasion has happened in the meantime, there's a local chain of three places called Bodo's Bagels. They make real, boiled bagels, which are damn hard to find this side of New York, and they make delicious deli sandwiches with them. Their prices are very student-friendly; I wouldn't recommend trying to hit the one near the University at lunchtime unless you're ready to wait. I used to eat there twice a week and I still make sure to stop by whenever I'm in town.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby phunkyfish » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:18 pm

I'm in the UK, but should any TCS-ers find themselves in the beautiful city of Exeter, Devon:

On The Waterfront on Exeter quay does the best pizzas. Seriously amazing. It's pretty much always busy, but you can get delivery from Deliveroo.
Hubbox on Sidwell St by the bus station, excellent hand pressed burgers & a variety of hot dogs, plus craft beers. That's always full of students, but if you don't mind the wait it's well worth it.

Also, if you're in Exeter hit me up. We'll drink cider. Lots of cider.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby Australia » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:59 pm

There are two pubs in Brisbane across the block from each other who both claim to have the best pizzas in the world. On a busy street though so I've never had the chance to taste either.

In Melbourne, there's a cafe called Brunetti's that has awesome gelati.

I can put frozen meals into the oven. That's what we in the business call cooking.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby Eternauta » Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:02 am

phunkyfish wrote:I'm in the UK, but should any TCS-ers find themselves in the beautiful city of Exeter, Devon:

On The Waterfront on Exeter quay does the best pizzas. Seriously amazing. It's pretty much always busy, but you can get delivery from Deliveroo.
Hubbox on Sidwell St by the bus station, excellent hand pressed burgers & a variety of hot dogs, plus craft beers. That's always full of students, but if you don't mind the wait it's well worth it.

Also, if you're in Exeter hit me up. We'll drink cider. Lots of cider.


When you're in London, if you want a proper pizza, go to Pizza Pilgrims in Kingly Court (have a fried calzone as a starter!) easily the best pizza in the capital.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby iMURDAu » Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:40 am

Original Ledo's Pizza. Not the crappy chain version. The restaurant in College Park, MD with the ovens that have been used since 1955. You should definitely check it out if you're in the mood for good Italian food in the D.C. area. Again, I must stress there's only one location because the corporate locations are imo nowhere near as good. Pretty much do you want a Ferrari or a Fiero with a body kit? That's the difference.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby BROWNRECLUSE » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:37 am

What about a Fieri with a body kit?

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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby ghijkmnop » Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:02 am

Redacted
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Last edited by ghijkmnop on Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby cmsellers » Fri Feb 16, 2018 7:09 am

If you're ever in Western Massachusetts, you should check out:
  • The People's Pint in Greenfield: A nice place with a lot of local food. Best wings I've ever had, and all their main dishes and deserts I've tried are excellent. If you like fancy microbrews (I don't drink) I hear it's even better.
  • Hillside Pizza in Deerfield: This is the best pizza I've ever had. They use fresh local ingredients whenever possible, but unlike most places that do this they don't skimp on the cheese. Also the meat toppings are amazing. And it's located in a little plaza built by a Tibetan guy.
  • Lhasa Cafe in Northampton: Speaking of Tibetan stuff, my family says I overrate it though because I like the spicy yak dishes. Northampton has almost many great restaurants as Austin does in a much smaller area (Austin has a lot more mediocre ones), so if you don't want to try what my mother calls just a cross between Chinese and Indian food, there's plenty of other options.
  • Herrell's Ice Cream in Northampton: No matter where you eat in Northampton, if you're in Northampton you must skip desert and go here instead, for the best ice cream in the world. The guy who founded it invented smoosh-ins, but I never do that, the ice cream is good enough as it is. I never do toppings either except for chocolate sprinkles, which are made from and taste like chocolate, and are free.
  • Red Rose Pizzeria in Springfield: The food pickings in Springfield are slim (most people there go out to eat in Northampton); I'm only including this because of all the restaurants in Springfield this is by far and away the best. The pizza is way better than anything you'll get in Texas but only somewhat above average for the Northeast, however the canolis are outstanding.

As for Texas:
  • Freeman's Barbecue in Austin West Campus: My favorite restaurant in Austin, best BBQ I've had in Texas. I've been to all of the "best" BBQ places in the Austin area except Franklin's (the lines are deliberate and I won't endure them) with my mother and/or father and this easily tops them all except possibly Micklethwait's Craft Meats, but the hours are more convenient and it's a proper restaurant with a nice atmosphere rather than a food truck. It's in West Campus which is probably why most locals I've met haven't tried it.
  • The Salty Sow in East Austin: My second-favorite restaurant in Austin, though picking a non-BBQ favorite of the many great restaurants here is hard. I'm not a fan of the atmosphere. It's too loud and all the seats are elevated so you can't put your feet down, which I hate. And the portions are on the small side for Texas (not too small, just smaller than you'd expect). But the food makes up for all that everything I've tried here is amazing. I'm a particular fan of the chocolate truffle cake, though my mother likes the one at nearby Eastside Cafe (also quite good) better.
  • Pappadeux's Seafood Kitchen in Austin (or several other cities in Texas): This is a chain, but a fairly small one, and their seafood is on par with Legal Seafoods. This is my mother's second-favorite restaurant in Austin, hence why I include it. It also serves the best fried alligator I've had anywhere, and I got fried alligator wherever I can find it.
  • Cranky Frank's BBQ in Fredricksburg: The brisket is almost as good as Freedmen's but the specialty is pork. It's a bit apples-to-oranges, but I like their BBQ pork as much as Freedmen's brisket.

Bonus places in New England:
  • Code Ten in North Boston: I can't claim to have tried every restaurant in Boston, however this sandwich shop in North Boston is my favorite place to eat.
  • Legal Seafood in the Boston Area: If I'm mentioning Pappadeux I have to mention Legal Seafood. Before trying the bluefish here my mother thought she didn't like bluefish. They can do anything well and their rolls are amazing too.
  • Bob's Clam Shack in Kittery, Maine: Unless you know a fisherman, this is the best seafood you'll find in the state of Maine and last I checked they were serving Gifford's Ice Cream (something you can only get in Maine), which is my third-favorite ice cream after Herrell's and...
  • Brickley's Ice Cream in Narragansett, Rhode Island: Herrell's ice cream is a world of it's own, but Brickley's is pretty damn amazing all the same. Amy's in Austin might compare, actually (though it's not "skip dessert no matter where you're eating" good, no place but Herrell's is) but I haven't had Brickley's in awhile.

Bonus places not New England
  • Byblos in Manhattan NOMAD: I'm not going to claim that this is the best restaurant in NYC (that would start a fight) but I love Lebanese food and this is the best Lebanese restaurant I've tried in the US, possibly in the world. Plus, for the price you pay, the portions would be generous even in Austin, let alone NYC.
  • Sweet P's BBQ in Knoxville: On our way to Austin from MA my father and I had BBQ for every meal, generally the top-rated place in a given city. When we got to Knoxville the top-rated place was closed, so we went to the second-rated place, and it remains to this day the best BBQ I've ever had. Which is funny because when you think of "Tennessee BBQ" you think of Memphis.
  • İmam Çağdaş in Gaziantep: If for some reason you end up in Gaziantep (you poor, unfortunate, SOB) there is an upside. Gaziantep is known throughout Turkey as the best city for food, and the people of Gaziantep almost universally agree that this is the best restaurant in the city. I've been twice and the food is outstanding, though I think I've had food as good in Istanbul. However the atmosphere—the restaurant dates back over a century—is gorgeous.
Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your perspective), there are some truly outstanding restaurants in other places I've been to sometimes multiple times in Brattleboro, VT (Thai); Troy, NY (North Italian, basically French); and Boerne, TX (American); New Orleans (Cajun, obviously); San Diego (Mexican); Beijing, and Batumi, Georgia (Lebanese), which I can't identify based on web searches or my list would be even longer.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby JamishT » Fri Feb 16, 2018 7:15 am

BROWNRECLUSE wrote:What about a Fieri with a body kit?

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Side note: Hot Ones is a fantastic YouTube series that everyone should watch, even those featuring people that you might not know or be fans of.

Anyway, if you find yourself in my hometown, Butler, Ohio...uh, what are you doing there? Anyway, you should probably head over to The Whiffletree to get some food. It's literally the only restaurant in town that's open year round. There's like three bars that might serve food, but IDK, I left there before I could drink. If it's summer, however, go to Lumpy's 5 Points Drive In, where a massive cone of soft serve ice cream is only $2.

If you're in Kansas City where I currently live, let me know! Also head over to B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ and get some meat.
If you're looking for pizza, go to Waldo Pizza (Waldo is a suburb of KC), especially during their lunchtime buffet. They only put up 3 or 4 pizzas at a time, so they're always fresh.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby cmsellers » Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:03 pm

ghijkmnop wrote:I've been to the "best restaurants" in Albuquerque (and spent the hundreds of dollars involved), and have decided that the best place to eat is my apartment.

If you ask anyone from Memphis (or at least the three people I did it to) where the best BBQ in the city is, they'll tell you "your neighbor's backyard."
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby reallifegirl » Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:54 pm

So, uh, recommending "places to eat and drink in New York City" is mildly overwhelming, so I'm just recommending random ass shit that might be enjoyable.

1) Barcade -- it is a small chain of bars that also have classic arcade games, and a pretty good beer selection
2) The Gallow Green -- it's this very pretty rooftop bar that overlooks the High Line. It's also got a 1930s vibe, because it's on top of the theater that shows the play Sleep No More
3) Barcelona Bar -- they do custom nerdy shot drinks, such as a Harry Potter shot you take while wearing a Sorting Hat, or a Star Wars one that you drink while the bartender wears a Vader mask and plays the Imperial March
4) The Dead Rabbit -- a fantastic cocktail bar that is made to look like an old-timey Irish pub from the late 19th century, and has a Gangs of New York-esque (fictional) backstory to it
5) The Back Room -- a speakeasy that's on the site of an actual speakeasy from the 1920s, which you have to access via a back-alley
6) Videology - a bar/restaurant that has a movie screen in its back room and does frequent movie nights with themed drinks


Also, if you wander off to Long Island:

1) The Witches' Brew in Hempstead, which is like if a Tim Burton carnival exploded onto a house and they had a fantastic menu of teas and coffees
2) The Nautical Mile in Freeport, which is a stretch of road by the water with lots of restaurants/bars where you can get some amazing sea food that's fresh out of the ocean
3) Literally any diner at all. Try a reuben. Like, a real reuben.
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Re: The Best Restaurant In Town

Postby jbobsully11 » Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:42 pm

I’ve been to a Barcade before. I didn’t realize that was a chain.

Rails Steakhouse: It opened up a few years ago by the train station in the town where I grew up (you can’t hear the trains from inside). My brother in law worked there for a few months when it first opened, along with one of the bullies from my sister’s high school class. I finally went there a few months ago, and it’s pretty good. There’s a speakeasy section that you can only get to by pulling a specific book on a bookshelf.

JR Cigars: “Because there’s no law against drinking in a cigar shop” [not their actual slogan, but it should be]). They have a huge selection of cigars, and their food is good, too. I’m not sure how they can legally have a bar where smoking is allowed, but whatever.

Harold’s Deli has giant, awesome sandwiches and a huge selection of pickles.

New Jersey also has a lot of diners, which are mostly awesome and serve mostly the same stuff, but here’s a list of what are supposedly the best diners in each county in NJ. Park West and Pompton Queen are good, but I haven’t eaten anywhere else on that list.

EDIT: I forgot to mention Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.
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