I’m going to devote my blogs for the next few weeks to My Favorite Things. Up first–my top three restaurants of all time. Over the years I’ve eaten in some really good places, so it was a challenge to narrow it down to three. Unfortunately two of them aren’t in the US, so I haven’t been to them in a long time–but the memories of the meals I’ve enjoyed in them do not fade.
My #3 favorite restaurant–The Bone Island Grill. This is a local restaurant near where we live in ATL and we love it. Not only is the food delicious, but we love their weekly trivia night. Prizes are gift certificates to the restaurant (that you can use for that night’s dinner!) and we always have tons of fun there. Excellent food and fun games–can’t beat that!
#2–Casa Paco in Madrid, Spain. I used to frequently travel to Madrid and on every visit I’d make it a point to go to this fabulous establishment. It’s where I’ve eaten The Best Steak EVER. I haven’t been to Spain in years, so I can only report on how it was the last time I was there–only waiters (no waitresses), photos of the owner Paco (a dapper older man who walked through the restaurant chatting with the patrons) posing with hundreds of celebrities (these photos took up every bit of wall space). Fabulous garlic soup and flan. And the house red wine will render you giggly in three sips. The waiters run up and down the narrow staircases delivering sizzling platters of the tenderest beef on the planet. Ooooh–I can almost taste it now!
Casa Paco, Madrid
And my #1 favorite restaurant–Casa Botin in Madrid, Spain. This place was also a favorite of Ernest Hemingway. Their specialty is roast suckling pig and if you like pork, it’s the best you’ll ever have. The rooms are dimly lit and atmospheric, lined with fieldstones, and it’s fabulously rustic. The sangria comes in earthenware pitchers you can buy (and you should) and like the house wine at Casa Paco, the sangria will put a sonrisa (smile) on your face. If you’re ever in Madrid, you MUST go here.
Casa Botin, Madrid
So how about you? What are your top three fave restaurants? Any restaurants that you’d love to visit? Hope your week is going well!
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
The two best burger joints I’ve ever been to are in my area, one in Simsbury CT (Plan B) and one in West Hartford (Max Burger). They both have excellent gourmet burgers, hand ground, thick, with your choice of fries– my favorite are the green fries, which are actually green beans served up like fries. But you can get steak fries or krinkle fries or McDonald’s style fries, or tater tots- on and on. Worth Running for Burgers, all the way up to see me, Julia London.
Top three
1. Chuy’s in Austin, probably on North Lamar, only because that’s the one we usually went to.
2. Morton’s. Pretty much anywhere. Best. Steak. Ever. (Peter Luger is pretty awesome, but I’m a Morton’s gal!).
3. Chandler’s in Victoria, BC. We went there on our honeymoon, and it is the best salmon I have ever tasted. Wow.
Oh, I love Morton’s. Yeah, good choice.
Oh sooooooo many choices!
#3-Kings Arms Tavern, Williamsburg VA. In the heart of Colonial Williamsburg, the chicken pie is to DIE for.
#2-Lorelei, Islamorada, Florida Keys. An outdoor bar/restaurant. It was much larger but due to hurricanes they have had to rebuild several times. The sunsets are spectacular and their Mahi Mahi grilled sandwiches with a Pain in the Ass is well worth the visit. (Pain in the Ass is a Pina Colada and Rum Runner twirled together like a candy cane with a rum 151 floater on top)
#3- Columbia Restaurant, St Augustine, Florida. A MUST for anyone who loves Cuban/Spanish food. They do have several locations throughout Florida but this is the one I grew up loving the most. Suggestions are too many but a good lunch start would be a 1905 ensalada with a Cuban Sandwich and frijoles negroes soup. And dinner my fave is Ropa Veja. Dessert would HAVE to be flan and Sangria Cava to drink! A pitcher at a time!!
Since I am here in England, I really do not have a fave restaurant but I do have a few must do pubs including two near where I live for very different reasons.
The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary is a pub near the castle in Nottingham (city) more affectionately known as the Salutations. From 1240 it has had a building on the site and has had several uses. Famous for the small girl medieval ghost. And of course Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, built 1189 in caves UNDER the castle here in Nottingham, it has many famous haunts and ghoulies of its own and carries a brilliant pint of dark home brew bitter.
Wow, Ti, that Pain in the Ass sounds perfect. I think we should make it the Whiner’s Official Drink.
Ti, a friend of mine used to work at Columbia in St. Pete on the pier. Very, very good.
Sounds so yummy! Haven’t been to Spain but it is on the list! Taco Pronto in Hot Springs is my newest fav. Divey Mexican place with great tamales and cheese dip. We ate there twice! Currently heading home!!!
Those divey places always have the BEST food! Safe travels!
I don’t think I have a favorite. I am sitting here trying to think of a restaurant where I can’t wait to eat, and I can’t think of one. There is one in San Antonio that I like (downtown, near the theatre) but the name escapes me. Isn’t that awful?
For Austin. Hyde Park Grill!!!
I thought of Hyde Park and thought it was too pedestrian to mention here, LOL
Julia, we need to get you out to more restaurants! How about a road trip to Spain??
So many great restaurants, so hard to name just three. Aureole in Manhattan. Bistro de Paris and California Grill, in Disney World. Abigail’s right in my town.
One of my favorite meals was at Le Cirque in New York City, in 1994 during the baseball strike. There were lots of big sports people there. Al Michaels was seated not far from us with gossip maven Claudia Cohen. We had a multi-course, amazing meal, and some interesting seat-mates (an Australian family next to us who insisted on ordering and trying everything on the dessert menu, plus a few the pastry chef created for them – and then for us- on the spot). Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling well but I wouldn’t go to the powder room because Bianca Jagger had been in there awhile and I didn’t want to be sick with Bianca Jagger in the room (though, by now, I am sure it wouldn’t have surprised her in the least). Le Cirque has moved and changed a few times since then, and we haven’t returned, but that is a night we still talk about.
That sounds like an AMAZING night, Sherri! I’ve never eaten there–it’s on the list!
Love Le Cirque. The sole! I took my sis there and we still remember that dinner.
It was an awesome meal right from the start, and not just because it was our first weekend away from our kids when they were very little. We walked in and Sirio Maccioni (the owner) greeted us at the door by name, like he knew us and saw us all the time. I guess he had arrivals scheduled down to the minute back then. The Australians were a hoot, too.
St. Elmo’s in Indianapolis [a fave of Payton Manning, too]; Janko’s Little Zagreb in Bloomington, IN and my hometown favorite only open in the summer… Dick’s Drive-IN….
There’s a clam bar place near my parents’ house that’s only open in summer and every time I visit them I say I’m going to go there, and somehow I’ve never actually done it. It’s on my Bucket List to get there!
I think it was Pete’s Clam Bar. I also haven’t been there in years…:(
I don’t have a top three, but Provino’s (near the Mall of GA in your neck of the woods, I believe!) is pretty darn yummy! Plus you get to eat free on your birthday. Yummmmm…
Hi Rebe! Yes, Provino’s is indeed yummy. You gotta figure with a last name like D’Alessandro we’d be partial to Italian food, LOL!