Best Dining Experience in Vienna

Whenever we travel, we always eat local food.  We even do this when we travel within the United States.  So, no restaurant chains for us … except Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but that’s a story for another day.

While in Vienna the the summer of 2008, as usual we eat at a variety of places, “mom and pop” owned restaurants to 4 star gourmet.  One may think that the 4 star restaurants are always the best food, but this has not always been our experience; however, they tend to have the best service though.

As for Vienna, this is a must “eat at” restaurant — Mörwald im Ambassador.  This restaurant is definitely one of the high end restaurants and is located in the Hotel Ambassador.  Not only is the food to die for, but the service is excellent … even by pampered American standards.  You have a captain and co-captain ensuring that your dining experience is excellent.  The food is Viennese, but not necessarily traditional.  You can either order the 3 or 5 course dinner or order a la carte.  My foie gras was excellent … and grilled.  I have never had foie gras grilled.

While not inexpensive, the meal and the experience will be worth it.  As an aside, don’t forget to make reservations.  We were smart enough to do this, but also wear a business coat/jacket if you are a gent.  I was not smart enough to do this.  I felt a little under-dressed.

Enjoy your dinner …

Dining in Montreal … I love French food

Despite the bad attitudes that I encountered on my last visit to Montreal, the food was excellent.

My first night in Montreal, I stayed in Downtown, I visited Chez Alexandre, a French Bistro on 1454 Peel St. and the food was incredible.  The foie gras is among the best that I ever have had.  Sorry PETA.  Along with the excellent food, the atmosphere is familiar like an upscale neighborhood restaurant without the pretense.  The house wine is good and pairs well with the duck.  Like many restaurants in Europe and Montreal, Chez Alexandre offers inside and outside dining and sometimes blends the two by opening it’s large sliding French doors to the outside.  Highly recommended for good food and atmosphere; service, however, is only average.

Le Grill Bistro is located in Old Montreal at 183 Saint-Paul St, near Jacques-Cartier Square.  This restaurant offers inside and patio dining, as well as live music … the musicians want a tip.  The inside seating is small and unimpressive, but the food more than compensate for this shortcoming and the live music minimizes the stodgy fill of the inside dining.  The menu is quite extensive and the chef is not afraid to experiment and jazz up traditional dishes.  Unlike other dining experiences in Montreal, Le Grill seems to understand the importance of service.  Highly recommended for the food and the service.  Just remember, this restaurant is in Old Montreal and there’s a premium for eating in this area.

Bistro L’Arqmate is another excellent French restaurant in downtown Montreal.  In fact, it is at 1410 Peel St, a few block from Chez Alexandre.  While the food here is good, not as good as Chez Alexandre, the dining experience is somewhat eclectic and modern.  There are three levels at this bistro and I believe the best seating is on the third level where you can look down onto the bar and other patrons.  Here too, the house wine is a fine selection.  The French know their wines.  Good food, but better atmosphere.  Service needs a lot of work.

In spite of bad attitudes, rudeness, sarcasm, and perhaps some French nationalism, the food and wine was a treat!

Interesting Thanksgiving dining experiences

As Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching, I am recalling some past dining experiences … bad experiences.  I have rated my worst dining experience from the horrible to just plain bad.

1. Chinese food in Columbia, SC.  I don’t remember the name of this place, but it was terrible.  I am not opposed to eating Chinese food on Thanksgiving, provided it is good Chinese food, but this stuff was terrible.  It seemed like a cross between Chinese and soul food.  The first sign of something wrong was the smell.  It did not smell like Chinese.  I think that they were cooking Chinese collards.  I like collards, but not Chinese collards.  I have one positive thing to say … I did not get sick.
2. Another really bad dining experience was Philadelphia.  This was poor planning on our part.  I thought it would be neat to visit Philly one Thanksgiving, not even thinking about dinner.  Bad idea.  After driving around for seemed like forever, we finally found a cafeteria style restaurant.  We thought, “Wow, finally a place to eat.  This place must be good or the only place open … look at the long line.”  We soon learned that there was a long line because it was the only place open.  The most filling mediocre food you will ever fine, especially if you like dry turkey, tasteless stuffing, soggy green bean, and totally forgetful.
3. Probably, more of a disaster than interesting, but we prepared a really nice traditional Thanksgiving dinner for my parents who were visiting us in Lexington, Kentucky.  We had the turkey, stuffing, gravy, vegetables, homemade cranberry relish, breads, and a couple of desserts.  Sometime in the late afternoon we enjoyed a delicious dinner.  For those of you who do not like leftover turkey, we had none … I accidentally broke a glass over the turkey.  Thank goodness for KFC!
4. While not the horror story of my other dining experience, it definitely was interesting … Thanksgiving dinner on Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii.  Duke’s Waikiki is located on Waikiki Beach and was serving both a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner and their regular menu.    Thinking that we would be different, we decided to order Hawaiian food off the menu.  So my Thanksgiving dinner included fish, rice, vegetables, and poi.  Tasty, but not Thanksgiving dinner.  Then again, why risk eating something that they don’t cook all the time.

In closing, I have had far more awesome dining experiences.

Thanksgiving dinner in New York City

Last year, November 2006, I was on my way from Lexington, Kentucky to New York City to spend my Thanksgiving holiday.  New York is one of my favorite cities in North America.  There is so much to do regardless of your taste for entertainment.  While we took advantage of our time in NYC to visit the city and go to the ballet (Nutcracker), one of the highlights of the trip was Thanksgiving dinner at Town, featured in an issue of Town & Country.  If you enjoy a gourmet dining experience where the food is actually delicious, I highly recommend a visit to Town.  The modern ambiance only adds to the dining experience, even if you are not a “modern” person.  The cuisine is American and artful without being weird.  To be honest, I can not remember exactly what I had, except I thought I had died and was in heaven.  One word of caution, the restaurant is hard to find.  We were staying at the Affina 50, 3rd and 50th, and Town is located at 56th, between 5th and 6th.  In other words, we were close, but if you do not know exactly where to go (The Chambers Hotel), Town can be hard to find.  The experience is worth it.  If you are in NYC for Thanksgiving or some other town and you enjoy fine dining.  I recommend Town.