Restaurant Reviews

I really don't have a rating system. -- means I didn't like the restaurant. More --'s are worse. *** means I liked it, and more is better.

New York Restaurants - Oct 9-10, 2004

Aalborg, Denmark Restaurants - Jan to May, 2004

Asolo, IT Restaurants - April, 2004

London Restaurants - April, 2004

Asolo, IT Restaurants - April, 2004

These are some of the places that I enjoyed during my stay in Asolo. I liked every place that I ate, so I'm not rating these. Only describing. Asolo is so small, it's not hard to find any of the first three. "Alle Torre" is in the country. Its website shows directions. For more places see this list of Asolo's restaurants on the web.

This cafe seems to be the gathering place for all of Asolo. In the morning, everyone hangs out to read the paper and chat. The spremuta di arancia - fresh squeezed blood orange juice - is heavenly. The pastries always fresh. Of course, the coffee has is great. It's also a nice place for lunch. Pizza, fresh salad with seafood, quiche, salad with mozzarella, tomato, and tuna. Everything always fresh and high quality. Also not too expensive. Just like the name says - right in the center of everything. You sit outside and see the cathedral, the fountain and the ancient streets. Top

The taxi driver who drove me from the Venice airport to Asolo recommended this. It was very good. It was located off the main square under the ancient covered walkways of Asolo. I had fettucine with asparagus and shrimp, rabbit, and creme caramel for dessert. The house red wine was probably the best that I had on the trip. The fettucine was light with just a little cream sauce that helped out the shrimp and asparagus. The rabbit was a highlight. It had a little brown sauce with rucola to highlight the taste. It was served with polenta that was perfect. I love polenta done right and this was it. Soft, but a little firm and grilled to give a slight crunch on the outside. Coniglio and polenta is the dish that I'll remember. The other detail that I'll remember is that they don't take credit cards. I had to walk down the street to find the ATM. Top

  • Ristorante Ai Due Archi

Of the due Due, I think I liked the Due Mori a little better. Mostly because I liked the dishes that I ordered better. Except - the pasta. Here I ordered agnolotti alle erbe. Agnolotti are stuffed pasta squares similar to ravioli. When they are homemade, as they were at Due Archi and Due Mori, it's a totally different experience. Agnolotti alle erbe is a spring dish. The pasta is stuffed with the fresh herbs of the season served with just a little butter and fresh paremesan. The main dish was lamb cutlets served with artichokes on the side. It was very good also.Top

Other highlights - we started with Prosecco, the sparkling wine of the area. I love it. It's like immature Champange. Very happy.

The CIMBA administration invited all of the faculty to dinner here, so we were a large group with a preset menu. The restaurant is out in the country on a hill surrounded by ancient towers. The trees were flowering and the fields were green. Really a lovely setting. I would love to come back and have another try because the food and the area was really exceptional. Asparagus risotto was fantastic. This place is known for its wine. The white that we had was my favorite. Al took us on a tour of the wine cellar which was ancient. Top

Ristorante "La Tavernetta" - very good grilled meats. Wonderful salads. Great house wine.

Ristorante Pizzeria "Cornaro" Specialità pugliesi - The local student hangout. Students call it Maria's. A Sicilian place in northern Italy. Very good, inexpensive food. Always packed. I had a salad. Pizza is supposed to be great.

Aalborg, DK Restuarants

  • Layalina Restaurant - February, 2004

----- Layalina's is a Middle Eastern restaurant in downtown Aalborg. It is roomy with lots of tables that are very close together. We sat by the window that looks out onto the street. There are Middle Eastern and Danish appetizers and entrees. We ordered the Middle Eastern combination appetizer. They served hummus, baba ganoush, and pita bread. All were very good. For the entree we had Spicy Steak. What a big disappointment! Spicy Steak turned out to be a hamburger patty with some uninteresting tomato sauce with a lot of canned jalapeño peppers sprinkled on top. On the side were heaps of french fries. Even the hamburger patty was over-cooked and just not very good. We also ordered mineral water to drink. The mineral water was served with a lot of ice and cost almost $6 each! Avoid this restaurant. Top

March 17, 2004

  • San Giovanni Restaurant - February, 2004 [top]

*** San Giovanni advertises as a slow food restaurant. The tables are antiques and each is different. There are columns and many Italian touches. We ordered from the prix fixe menu. I wanted the venison and Prakash wanted the cannelloni. Unfortunately, the venison was only available for 2, so I also had to choose the cannelloni. The prix fixe menu included antipasto, cannelloni, and dessert. We also ordered a bottle of the house red wine. The antipasto was a plate of delicate, wonderful mix of grilled vegetables, olives and other delicate tidbits. The bread was excellent. It was served with a dish of three salts and olive oil. The salts were plain sea salt, sea salt mixed with herbs, and sea salt mixed with black pepper. The main dish was a huge casserole of cannelloni. Much, much too much food. However, it was very good. Tomato sauce was not too heavy and the filling was interesting mix of meats and cheeses. For dessert, I had a cheese plate and Prakash had a pear tart. My cheese plate had 5 pieces of Italian cheese with mostarda di Cremona. I don't remember the names of the cheese, but each was delicious. The serving size was perfect. About two bites of each. By this time I was pretty full, but the cheese was a perfect end of the meal for me. The wine was bottled for the restaurant in Italy. It went perfectly with the food. San Giovanni has a small wine store next to the restaurant. I will buy a bottle of the wine.

San Giovanni's was not inexpensive. The prix fixe menu was about $50 per person, and the wine was $25. For the quality of the food and wine, it is a great dinner. Overall - Great food. You should eat here. Top

March 17, 2004

  • Alanya - March, 2004 [top]

** Alanya's is a Turkish restaurant with very interesting decor and good food. This is the restaurant we were looking for when we went to Layalina's. Alanya's is also fairly inexpensive. You can have a two course dinner for 69 DK ($11) and a three course dinner for 79 DK ($13). The ceiling of the dining room was covered with carved wooden squares and Turkish carpets and kelims lined the floor and walls.

The appetizers included falafel, hummus, dolmas, shrimp cocktail and soups. I had dolmas and Prakash had falafel. Each plate was piled with carrots, cabbage, lettuce, tomato and small ears of corn in addition to the main appetizer. The yogurt saucy over the dolmas was very good. The only problem with mine is that the grape leaves were slightly tough.

Lamb was very prominent on the entrees. The waiter encouraged us to order the lamb chops. Unfortunately, after we ordered, they ran out. I ended up with sis kebab and Prakash had a dish of lamb with green, red and yellow peppers. Each was excellent. My lamb was perfectly down and very tender. There were crunchy roast potatoes and a bulgur wheat dish on the side. The house red wine was also very good. They didn't charge us for a pitcher of water. Top

March 25, 2004

London Restaurants - April, 2004

**Dehli Brasserie
44 Frith Street, Soho, Tel: 0207 437 8261

Ok. Not Great. We had Onion Bhajee, Vegetable Bhajee, Lamb Achar Top

**Vama
438 Kings Road, Chelsea, Tel: 020 7351 4118
Vegetable Pakora, Pindi Chole, Zeera Aloo, Gosht
My husband, originally from India, and I visited during our vacation. The reviews seemed good, and we were especially looking forward to some good Indian food after two months in Denmark.

The starters were very disappointing. We ordered vegetable pakoras. They were cold with almost no chutney. Even the pappadums were cold!

We order pindi chole, zeera aloo, gosht, rice and naan. We asked about the bread of the day, but the servers didn't know anything about it. The food came within 5 minutes after we ordered. Obviously, it wasn't prepared fresh. It would have been good except it wasn't hot. The potatoes were especially disappointing and cold. I make much better aloo. The other were good. The pindi chole was exceptional. One of the best dishes I've ever had in an Indian restaurant. It almost made up for the disappointment of the rest of the food.

I asked a server if I could get the recipe for the chole and she said one minute in her eastern european accent. 5 - 10 minutes later someone else comes and to explain that the first server didn't understand what I said. Must be the American accent. He finally grasped what I was asking and was gone for another 5 - 10 minutes. He finally came back and told me it was a chef's secret. We spent more time waiting to learn the secret than we did waiting for our food. I don't like extremely slow service, but I felt rushed and unwelcome. Despite the chole, I'm not sure I'd return. Top

****Rasa Samudra
5 Charlotte Street, Tel: 020 7637 0222

Great seafood and vegetarian dishes from Kerala. We had Kappayum Meenum,Kovakka ulathiyathu, Lemon rice, appam, masala dosa.

Very nice people running the restaurant. A little expensive, but worth it. Top

****La Brasserie Town House
24 Coptic Street, Tel: 020 7636 2731, email - Labrasserietownhouse@hotmail.com

I loved this tiny whole in the wall. It seemed like people stopped by here after work. They also had a big group of definitely working people. No tourist. Here's what we had: me- Chicken Liver Paté & Rump of Lamb with oyster mushrooms, Prakash - Cream of vegetable soup &Toulon sausages and mashed potatoes. We shared Tarte Tatin for dessert. Very good wine, too. Chateau de Campuget Costieres de Nimes 2001. Top

  • Prèt a Manger - this is a chain all over town. Fresh food to go. Sandwiches, quiche and many other goodies. Great to take on the train.
  • Bugis Street - Singporean chinese food. Very good also. Great for lunch.
  • Every day we stopped for a beer at a pub. I didn't keep track of the names, but most were great.

**Les Halles
15 John Street @ Broadway -----Telephone: 212 285 8585

Cozy atmosphere. Feels like Parisian Brasserie. Food was very good. Service wasn't. Not too expensive for New York. I would have given this place 3 *'s if the service had been better.

Sushila and I were seated in between two couples. These tables were very close together, eventhough there was lots of empty tables in another room. The couple to my right was very loud. After we ordered we heard our waiter talk about the specials to the next group of people who arrived. They sounded great.

Sushila ordered Mignon de Porc (pork tenderloin) with garlic confit & mashed potatoes. She thought it was wonderful. Looked great. I ordered Confit de Canard with truffle fried potatoes. I couldn't taste any truffles in the potatoes, but they were crispy and yummy. The duck leg was tender, juicy and not too fat. The highlight of the meal were the desserts. Sushila ordered Crème Brûlée and I had a special dessert - Poached Pear in wine sauce with cinnamon ice cream. Yum! The dessert and other specials all featured New York State ingredients. The dessert portions were generous. They could easily be shared.

At the end of the meal, the waiter became more friendly. They had a computer goof and couldn't figure out what we had eaten. They finally asked. After that they actually noticed us and talked to us. Top

**Azalea
224 W 51st @ 1633 BROADWAY ----- Tel: 212 262 0105

We picked this restaurant because it was in the Theatre District. It features 'new' Italian. The food was good, but not excellent.

We had Prosecco as an appetizer. It was very good Prosecco - La Riva dei Fratti - and the pour was generous.

Sushila had Three Bean Salad with Cheese Croquettes for appetizer. She really enjoyed it, especially the croquettes. I got Mozzarella with Zucchine. It wasn't so good. The zucchine had been deep fried, then chilled and tossed with vinegar. All I could taste was the frying oil. I ate the fresh mozzarella, but even that wasn't wonderful. The bread was ordinary, also.

The main courses were Linguine al Pesto and Veal and Shrimp in Lemon Chardonnay Sauce. Sushila said the linguine was good, but it was a big portion and needed something else with it. My entree, the veal was good. The veal wasn't the most tender, but was flavourful. There were three pieces of veal with a shrimp on top of each.

For dessert I had Baci di Modena and Sushila had Tiramisu. My dessert was very good and Sushila liked her's, but it wasn't like any Tiramisu we had ever seen before. They also serve eggplant with chocolate for dessert. Neither of us was willing to try.

All in all we enjoyed ourselves. It's a nice bright restaurant. Good modern decor. The waiter was nicer after I asked him where he was from (Capri). He made me practice my Italian with him. It's a little over-priced

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