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Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,504
Registered: ‎05-23-2010

Yesterday, I had lunch at one of my go-to places. It's somewhere I can go where the owners and staff are friendly and cheerful, the surroundings pretty, and the food delicious. It's not fancy. It's family run. It doesn't have a trendy, super-ambitious menu but what they have is well-prepared and worth the price. It's in a high tourist area but doesn't really shout out for tourist business. I'm sure they get a lot of tourists, but probably more than half  their business is locals.

 

A standard order for me? They do an open-faced sandwich  with whole wheat covered by sauteed zucchini and yellow squash slices, fresh sauteed mushrooms, tomato slices, and topped with three different cheeses, then stuck under the broiler for a second. To.die.for and I'm not a vegetarian. It's served with a salad and really good fresh cut fries.

 

Another favorite place is high tourist-expensive, on the water with dynamite views. The service is tops, the drinks potent and the food delicious and well-presented, every time, so to me very worth it.

 

Tell us about your favorite place(s) and why you keep going back - food, service, price - or all three.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all
Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,682
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

I usually pick up something at the deli.....and share it with Kitty.

♥Surface of the Sun♥
Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,916
Registered: ‎05-23-2015

My area doesn't have great places to eat anymore. We used to be just loaded with great little Italian restaurants, but as the older folks passed on, the quality went down, and now most of them are gone.

" You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts."
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Honored Contributor
Posts: 69,272
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

I wish I had a little place like yours @Moonchilde.  All we have are fast food and chains like Chili's and Applebee's.  Tonight I'm having a salad from Wendy's.  That's about as good as it gets.  We don't even have a decent Mexican restaurant. 

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,590
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Interesting topic.  I love to eat out and divide my dining between family run places, some touristy spots, and even fast food or chains at times. 

 

Sad to say,  but many of my favorite family owned restaurants are now gone. The Japanese restaurant closed when the new Safeway opened up next door, and had a sushi bar.  My favorite pub closed when the older parents wanted to retire and their daughter who worked there, decided to go to nursing school. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,316
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

We have to drive to Waupaca County Wisconsin to eat at our favorite place. Family run bar with tables in the middle of the room.  The food and the reasonable prices attract us.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,237
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

My friend and I eat out at least (usually) 4 times a week.  Never fast food but chain restaurants.  We spend about 1 1/2 hours eating and talking, most of the time around 12 or 1:00.

 

Our favorite place is a chain in our area called Glory Days.  We've become specialists on Nachos!  Ha!  We always get Nachos first at this place and then something else along with it.

 

We go to several of the same places most of the waitresses know us.  We don't have to tell them what we want to drink (they all know).  What we order varies.  Other than the nachos we eat different things.

 

That's mainly all I eat during the day.  Just not hungry otherwise.

 

She's visiting Hawaii for 1 week so I've been inviting other friends out to eat each day.  It's been fun reconnecting with other old friends.

 

Two days I had to take Bill the cat to the RadioCat place and leave him there and then today I had to pick him up.  A friend drove me (it was about 1 hour away) and helped me with the cage, etc, so we at out both times.  I paid as a way of thanking her for helping me.

 

Sometimes we eat at Olive Garden, Red Robbin, Glory Days, Chipolte (but not lately...Ha), every now and then Pizza Hut (not a lot), Panera, Several chain steak restaurants (we both like Filet Mignon), a well known restaurant in our area where they will cook what you like how you like it (it's fun to eat there), sometimes TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesday, IHop, and so on.

 

Some would say we spend a lot of money on eating out but that's mainly the only meal I eat.  We usually divide up the amount but sometimes she pays and sometimes I pay.  

 

It gets us both out of the house and we enjoy the company.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,802
Registered: ‎12-09-2016

I'm going to eat Thai and more ThaiWoman Very Happy But I have to go 60 miles to get itWoman Sad Found a great place in Springfield and one in JoplinHeart

 

Then Red Lobster is my second choice. I want everything grilled not breaded. Lobster, shrimp and scallopsHeart

Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,504
Registered: ‎05-23-2010

@Kachina624, my super close by options are not so exciting. One Mexican place I tolerate, one good Chinese place and one Chinese place that's yuck, pizza, two country coffee shop type places, neither of which do much for me, Subway, Burger King and McDonald's.

 

I have to drive about half an hour in any direction to get more options.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,124
Registered: ‎07-05-2012

A topic near and dear to my heart! We are fortunate to have a wide variety of terrific options despite living in a relatively rural area. There's a winery 5 mins away, owned by a couple we adore, whose cook (their niece) is in the culinary program at DH's college. They have a standard menu of wine-complementing apps, and a few innovative specials every weekend that are delicious, huge, and well-prepared. We have been going there just about once a week for a few years now, and she's still barely ever repeating specials! On weeks we can't go, we joke that we should mail them a check for our normal tab.

 

We also have an unbelievably good BBQ joint, that's just as good as the places we love in TX (we had been searching for years to find someplace decent in our BBQ-wasteland area), that also specializes in bourbon varieties and drinks. That's in a town about 15 mins away.  We go there less frequently (heavy charred meat mostly).  Also in that town are great family-owned Chinese, Thai, and Indian places. 15 mins in the opposite direction is a gourmet pizza place that has my favorite pie ever. The only thing I'd like to have closer that I don't is sushi, but I have good options near work, and my DH isn't that big a fan, so lunch is perfect Smiley Happy