Nice modern space inside a venerable old house. Friendly and accommodating staff. We went for Saturday brunch. The smoked salmon was served with all the possible accompaniments, including a nice dill cream cheese. Chilaquiles were also very good. The highlight was the best margarita I’ve ever had, served chilled, with a salty foam.
Carnitas torta with saladAppetizer comboExteriorBarInterior
***** (5 stars)
Really good family Mexican restaurant in a shopping center. The service is terrific and the food is good. The lunch carnitas torta was huge and came with a delicious salad option rather than rice and beans or fries. Great blue cheese dressing. The appetizer sampler is also a nice variety. Very reasonable.
Located in the Grand Hyatt at SFO, Quail and Crane is a dramatic two story space that offers a nice selection of sushi and Asian inspired hot dishes.
The sushi quality was excellent. We also tried the mussels, a generous serving in a lemon grass broth, accompanied by grilled sour dough.
Service was friendly, and pricing was reasonable given the upscale location. There’s a great view of the International terminal gates and taxi way across the street.
This is a nice remodel of the Bar Louie space, and it’s sure more popular! The vibe is excellent, and the servers are really good. Food is just okay, and at tourist area prices.
We went for brunch, but the menu had many non-breakfast items, which was nice. The Nashville hot chicken was good, with a nice crispy crust (that could have been spicier). It was served as sliders on biscuits, but couldn’t possibly have been eaten that way.
Buffalo chicken wings were large, but otherwise not noteworthy.
The Crispy Potatoes in sourcream onion dip were a disaster, with many ladlefuls too much of the white glop burying the otherwise nicely roasted potatoes.
There’s an extensive cocktail list, and some interesting beers on tap, too.
This nicely themed restaurant is near the Lake Buena Vista outlet stores. It offers both indoor and outdoor seating. The menu emphasizes burgers, with some other sports bar type food.
I tried the house specialty burger, and it was excellent. The included potato wedges are just okay, so I upgraded to onion rings. The rings were better, but not as good as the fried pickle appetizer, which is battered rather than breaded.
There’s a nice selection of beers including a lot of dark beers, which are my favorites.
KFC food is tasty and usually good for a solid three stars, as it was here. But this place wins the award for most inefficient KFC in the world. The staff were sleep walking, and obviously would rather have been anywhere else.
Here’s how they set the record:
People in line: 10 Minutes to order: 30 Minutes to fill order: 30
This place was a delightful surprise. The interior decor is colorful and festive, and the food is top notch.
We started with cheese nachos, a simple preparation with lots of jalapenos that was just what we were looking for.
I had the La Bamba combination, which included a beef taco, chicken enchilada, and chile relleno, plus rice and beans. The standout was the taco, which was deep fried with the beef in, then stuffed with cheese and lettuce. This is a fairly rare style, and is my favorite. The rice was also quite good.
The perfect margarita was, indeed perfect, with plenty of lime to offset the sweetness.
What a beautiful setting, with a lovely outdoor patio overlooking the Miami skyline across the water.
The best dishes were the ones that were the most traditional, including some of the ceviches, and elements of the causa. The scallops were also very good. A combination of cold noodles, seaweed, a Korean style beef and vinegary kimchi didn’t really work.
I’ve found that when celebrity chefs take a classic cuisine and try to “celebrityfy” it, it’s rarely an improvement, and that’s the case here. I love Peruvian cuisines, and all the favorites are represented here, but few if any have been improved by unconventional treatment.
This extended to the Pisco Sour, which had so much egg foam the drink was unrecognizable.
To really know Peruvian food I suggest starting with a family run Peruvian restaurant in a strip mall!
This is a very modest counter service restaurant with limited seating. The proprietor was friendly, and the food was prepared to order, served hot, and generously portioned. The pork lo mein was excellent, with crispy vegetables and noodles that weren’t overcooked, and very succulent pork strips. Very good!
