Best ______(food) in your hometown
 

As an added bonus, today my class learned where to get the best hamburger (specifically, chili cheeseburger) in Houston - Bellaire Broiler Burger.

http://blog.chron.com/cookstour/2009...roiler-burger/

Where can you get the best food in YOUR town?

The best pizza in my college town (Bloomington) is Mother Bear's.

The first thing that popped into mind was Irish Nachos from J. Gilligans in my college town. They were apparently featured on a few channels/lists.

http://www.travelchannel.com/interes...drink-paradise

American Coney Island: The best (and first) coney island in the state of Michigan, but more specifically Detroit. :P http://www.americanconeyisland.com/home.htm

ETA: In general, though, the hole-in-the-wall coneys are the best!

Unrelated, there's also great beer everywhere.

WRONG. Lafayette Coney is way better.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...zHL4e1hv7qn9xg

Bub's Burgers in Carmel, IN has the best burgers around. I usually get the "settle for less ugly Elk" burger. The Sweet Potato Waffle fries go great on the side.

http://www.bubsburgersandicecream.com/burgers/menu/

LMAO

If you're in the Raleigh area...the best place for BBQ, is to go to The Pit in downtown Raleigh. The guy who owns it was in a throwdown with Bobby Flay and won! We also had them cater my rehearsal dinner for my wedding!

http://www.thepit-raleigh.com/

In so cal there is an abundance of good food, BUT i have to say we have some of them best Mexican food places. They are always a hole in the wall place... yum.

titos tacos.....pinks......

Pinks is good... oh but that line is killer!!

I know that this goes without saying buuut...

Fiori's Pizza, West Liberty Blvd, Brookline neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Best pizza anywhere, but especially the best in Pittsburgh. And I will eat your face off if you disagree.

This.

Sprinkles makes THE best cupcakes. Ever. Stores mostly in SoCal but also in a few other cities.


Yankee Doodles (on 3rd street in Santa Monica) serves the best sweet potato fries.

In OKC,

For burgers, 2 places:
1) Nic's Burgers--for onion burgers, which is a traditional OKC recipe which came about during the depression, where cooks would save hamburger by using fried onions as filler in burgers.
http://www.eataroundokc.com/nics-gri...oklahoma-city/
2) S&B Burger Joint--more traditional burgers and sliders, very creative combinations
http://sandbburgersokc.com/

For BBQ:
1) Iron Starr BBQ--calls itself "urban" BBQ. It's sort of upscale, very unique, extremely well done BBQ.
2) Leon's BBQ or Bedlam BBQ--tossup between these for your more traditional paper-towels-on-the-tables sort of joints.

For steak:
1) Red Prime--(pretty upscale, last time I went it was about $150/plate), steaks are excellent, 40-day dry aged. Sides are exquisite. They have a halfway decent happy hour as well.
2) Cattleman's--this is a more classic restaurant. It's more than 100 years old, which is significant since OKC was only settled in 1889, located in the middle of the stockyards. Their meat is wet-aged according in a process they claim is a secret. If you're brave, try the lamb fries (which are battered and fried testicles from steers).
http://www.cattlemensrestaurant.com/

Most unique:
Bobo's Chicken
This is a food truck which parks on lot at NE 23rd Street & MLK in OKC and is open up (not dependably) around 9PM and is open well into the night. Expect long lines. If you're travelling and don't know the city very well, this is in a very sketchy part of town, there have been shootings, but nothing random. They serve either fried chicken wings, fried catfish or fried shrimp. Go for the chicken. It comes with honey and rolls which I'm pretty sure are fried. The chicken is smoked and fried.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/46/15151...-Oklahoma-City

We also have a number of unique localvore type things popping up. Our whole food scene is getting fairly trendy as of late.

The frosting on those cupcakes is too much for me; I always eat them without it.

Although I have to disagree with Yankee Doodles, the best sweet potato fries are from Veggie Grill.

Ok...so I'm posting for recommendations in downtown Chicago, since I'll be going there in a few weeks :)

The best ANYTHING in my hometown is cooked by my mom. Too bad for the rest of you!

I'll start a war but I don't think you can beat Giordano's for Chicago style pizza. Sausage & mushroom or spinach & mushrooms. Order less than normal unless you can store leftovers.

I haven't made it to Sprinkles yet even though I work at Fashion Island. I'm looking for recs for best Lebanese and Persian restaurants inOC or LA. Good Lebanese is worth the drive!

The BEST BBQ joint in L.A. is Philip's BBQ.

Ended up there one day after a meeting in a part of town I'd never been. It was amazing.

One of my kids worked at Sprinkles. We got freebies. Not a frosting lover

I was a huge Giordano's fan, but I think the quality has gone down lately. If I'm downtown, I'll go to Uno's; if I'm on the Northside, Malnati's; Southside, Beggars.

We spend a lot of time in Greektown, too. We're a Parethenon family; my husband likes the Greek Isles. Both are good (the Parthenon's better, though).:)

I'll second Lou Malnati's for pizza in Chicago - there are two locations in downtown Chicago, one in Lincoln Park, and locations in many suburbs. I would suggest that you have Chicago-style pizza at more than one place! :)

IMPORTANT FYI: not all suburban Malnati's locations are sit-down. Visiting out-of-towners get very disappointed arriving with family and being told "this location is take-out only" (not even my Dad knew his local Malnati's did not have sit-down).

Thanks for the reminder! I always go to one location and it is sit-down, so I forgot about this. :)

Hilarious!

And oh, so true.

If you're ever in Nashville and want a really amazing popsicle, head to Las Paletas in the 12South neighborhood.

Two sisters who moved to Nashville from Mexico make both ice cream based and fruit based pops, and they're incredible. I'm an ice cream junkie, and I have only deviated to that side of the menu once - for an avocado pop (amazing).

The plain fruit pops are just that good. My favorites are grapefruit, watermelon or raspberry lime, but I've never had one I didn't love.

And I'll cast my deep dish vote for Lou Malnati's in Chicago, but then, my heart truly belongs to Superdawg.

Chicago
-best pizza to me is Giordano's, but I haven't been in a few years
-best place to eat after you've had a few too many: WEINER CIRCLE!!!

You really also should try Ed Debevic's just for the experience

Bloomington (aka IU)
-best pizza hands down is Mother Bears
-best Thai food I've ever had at Siam House
-also amazing: the fries at Farm, ice cream at Jiffy Treet or Chocolate Moose

The Detroiters are failing by only addressing Coney dogs.
Pizza- Buddy's (several locations) and second best.. Pizza Papalis, Greektown, Detroit
Burger- Miller's in Dearborn
Mexican- Mexican Town, Xochimilco or El Zocalo (equally good)
BBQ- Slows Bar BQ, Detroit
Custard- Bob Jo's- Wyandotte
Italian- Too many to mention. Any family owned place on the east side or downriver is excellent, honestly. We have lots of Italians
Perogi- Polish Village Cafe, Hamtramck (we have lots of Poles also!)

Loving the Chicago pizza discussion. This will be the third summer in a row that fiancé and I have visited Chicago. We did Gino's the first time, Giordano's the second, and are planning on Lou Malnati's this time around. Yummmmm.

Ohh, AGD brought the Poles into it.

Seriously, if you're in Pittsburgh, and you want Pierogies (As one is want to do) you need to find yourself a Catholic church (either RC, Ukranian Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, and some of the Orthodox churches) and pig out (admittedly, this is easier during Lent, but the orthodox fast throughout the year so you'll get better luck there). There is an amazing church near where my husband and I live, St Mary's Byzantine, and I have to tell you, the army of little old church women pinching pierogies are absolutely awesome. And the pierogies are to.die.for. Also: fish fry.

Let's talk BREAKFAST while we're at it

Around the Flint Michigan area:

Halo Burgers for hamburgers You can get real cherry cokes and olives on your burgers
Little Joes for pizza
Dawn Donuts- my personal fav is the cinnamon rolls with the peanut butter frosting and nuts.
AND ONLY IN THE SUMMER the hot dogs and home made root beer at the A&W drive up stand.

I find it funny that some of the famous restaurants around the area, including current hometown and metro-Atlanta, I find that I don't like their "famous' food, including:

Sprayberry's BBQ (made famous by Southern writer Lewis Grizzard).:( Lived here 13 years so far and probably won't ever go back. I am very picky about bbq..prefer beef over pork (too greasy); chicken is okay if I am in the mood.

Atlanta's Mary Mac's - "southern" :rolleyes: Went to visit relatives this weekend in small SE town near Savannah...theirs was A LOT BETTER!

Varsity hamburgers and french fries - only want when I am in the mood. I prefer their Cokes (b/c I LOVE the crunchy ice..that should be a restaurant requirement for everywhere!)

Italian-- When I first go, I usually order the basic spaghetti w/meat sauce or lasagna.. I figure if I don't like those, I won't like the rest of the menu.

Oh! So was in the UP (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) and went to this place called Bimbo's in Iron Mountain, MI. They only serve 3 things: pork sandwiches, boats, and some other sandwich that I didn't try.

Anyway, it's super cheap (I paid $4 for my meal, with drink) and delicious. A boat consists of 2 sausages sitting in their special red sauce. Soooo goooood. :D

I went to Varsity when I was in Atlanta last year :) It was on my "must" list. I also went to The Flying Biscuit, which was great too!

If in Lexington, you must get a Hot Brown. I got it at Ramsey's but I understand that's not the original, but it was great!

I had shrimp at many places during the past week (my trip to Hilton Head/Savannah/Beaufort. Everyone recommended The Boathouse in Hilton Head and while the view was pretty, the food wasn't as good as it was at Tubby's in Savannah.

When I traveled to Austin, the employees of the company I audited said we had to go to The Salt Lick for barbecue and it was definitely wonderful.

Since push sex brought up the Upper Peninsula, there are no better pasties than you'll get anywhere in the Upper Peninsula.

I'll agree with Halo burgers in the Flint area :)

If we're talking breakfast, then the famous place in Michigan is Tony's near Birch Run (exit 144 off of I-75). It's not so much that the food is great, but the quantities are massive. They make an omelet with a dozen eggs. At lunch, their BLT has a pound of bacon. I'm not in a place where I like to get stuffed anymore, so it's not my thing, but they are definitely famous in these parts.

The best thing about traveling is exploring the amazing restaurants. I try very hard to not eat at chains and always ask the company employees from the area what the "can't miss" restaurant/food is for the area. We had so many recommendations for Beaufort ... I think each person recommended a different place and we ended up with 9 or 10 recommendations!

In and around the Norwalk, CT area:

Best sushi: Henry's, better known as Little Tokyo (Henry is the owner)
Best Indian: Coromandel (or my house, if you ask very nicely :p )
Best Thai: Thai Spice
Best Chinese: Unknown as the Chinese restaurant I used to order from closed not too long ago. :(
Best chocolate: Chocopologie. The restaurant has some nice dinner offerings, and if you're lucky (EXTREMELY lucky if it's a Friday or Saturday night - they have a tiny dining room and don't take reservations) you can enjoy a nice dinner there. You can also buy their chocolates (and, IIRC, their non-alcoholic chocolate drinks) to go.
Best deli: Rye Ridge Deli, right off the Merritt Parkway in Stamford. Awesome matzo ball soup. They don't run a kosher kitchen (they offer grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches, for crying out loud :) ) but you can get some nummy sandwiches there. And did I mention the matzo ball soup? ;)

If you are ever in Las Cruces,NM
Pizza- Dion's
Burritos - Go Burger
Mexican food - La Posta, Chopes, Delicias
Rolled tacos- Burger Time
Sandwiches - DG Deli
Bagels - Durango Bagels

Double Eagle and Peppers is really good too....just don't know what category they go in

In the (west) Los Angeles area:

Best deli: now and forever...Nate 'n Al's

Best gourmet: Spago's

Best traditional steakhouse: The Grill On the Alley

Best burger: the Apple Pan (the real life Peach Pit from the original 90210)

Hot Dog: Pinks

Tacos: Titos

Bagels: St. Urbains

Truer words have never been spoken! :D