How a frugal economist finds the perfect lunch. Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide: Some places you must try. How to find good deals when food shopping for home. How to find the best food in a foreign city.
posted by mosessis on Apr 12, 2012 - 69 comments

You have only 128 days left to eat at Charlie Trotter's eponymous restaurant in Chicago. [more inside]
posted by Trurl on Apr 11, 2012 - 66 comments

From the How To Be A Retronaut archives: U.S SENATE DINING MENU, Thursday August 27th, 1964
posted by The Whelk on Apr 6, 2012 - 74 comments

Kitchen Nightmares shows Gordon Ramsay helping restaurants make miraculous turnarounds. Ramsay helped relaunch Austin, Texas's El Greco, but the restaurant still ended up closing. Some people are saying that Ramsay's interference may have been the final nail in the coffin for the restaurant.
posted by reenum on Jan 22, 2012 - 112 comments

Diner's Guide to the Working Conditions of American Restaurants [PDF] published by labor advocates at Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.
posted by Miko on Dec 7, 2011 - 68 comments

This had to be the most amazing merchandising operation I had ever seen! I don't remember whether I ate a hamburger for lunch that day or not. I went back to my car and waited around until about 2:30 in the afternoon, when the crowd dwindled down to just an occasional customer. Then I went over to the building and introduced myself to Mac and Dick McDonald. (very previously) [more inside]
posted by Trurl on Nov 1, 2011 - 45 comments

Reconstructing nostalgic childhood food at Grant Achatz Next Restaurant. Background on 'Eater'. Previous menu of 1906 Paris. The business behind Next. Moléculaire!
posted by growabrain on Oct 22, 2011 - 33 comments

Diner for Schmucks. GQ's restaurant reviewer Alan Richman had heard "nothing but great things about M. Wells, one of New York City's hottest restaurants—the food was amazing, the setting sublime, the ambience charming. And, in fact, everything was going quite well. Until..." More at Eater. (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq on Aug 17, 2011 - 238 comments

Fuck You Yelper, a collection of unhelpfulful Yelp reviews
posted by The Whelk on Aug 4, 2011 - 148 comments

Dishtip is a service that combs through restaurant reviews on other sites and attempts to figure out the best dishes of a particular type in a city of your choice (e.g. waffles in New York or tacos in San Francisco) or a particular restaurant's best dishes (say at Alinea).
posted by shivohum on May 7, 2011 - 20 comments

A few days ago, Los Angeles Times food critic, S. Irene Virbila, was photographed and kicked out of Jordan Kahn's new Beverly Hills restaurant, Red Medicine. [more inside]
posted by PBR on Dec 23, 2010 - 85 comments

The Taxi Gourmet Every week, I get in a taxi, ask the driver to take me to his or her favorite restaurant. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago on Aug 30, 2010 - 98 comments

Yesterday, reports leaked out that KFC was releasing a new sandwich, consisting of 5 layers of fried chicken skin between two (bread) buns. Sadly, it was later revealed to be a hoax. Undaunted, some people at the Chicago Tribune went ahead and made the sandwich anyway.
posted by reenum on Aug 19, 2010 - 99 comments

The Saint Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe opened Sunday, as an experiment by Ron Shaich, former CEO of Panera Bread. Customers are asked to pay what they can afford. [more inside]
posted by Karmakaze on May 20, 2010 - 67 comments

The owners of Casa Saltshaker in Buenos Aires have compiled a list of venues in what they refer to as the Underground Dining Scene. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago on Nov 30, 2009 - 14 comments

"Real Meals": Will Self's (relatively) new fortnightly restaurant column reviewing high street food outlets for The New Statesman. Thus far: McDonald's, KFC, Indian Restaurant, Starbucks, Subway.
posted by hydatius on Nov 27, 2009 - 72 comments

There have been precious few times that a restaurant review had me laughing out loud, even on page 2.
posted by aletheia on Nov 20, 2008 - 71 comments

Giles Coren is restaurant critic at the Times (of London). Last week he wrote a very angry letter to the subeditors complaining that they were "tinkering with his copy". The subs were guilty of deleting a single indefinite article. [more inside]
posted by MrMerlot on Jul 24, 2008 - 132 comments

According to the recently published book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, the best Chinese restaurant outside China is Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine, tucked away on the second floor of a mall along a section of Richmond, BC (a Vancouver suburb) that's known by the Chinese community as Eat Street. [more inside]
posted by myopicman on Mar 11, 2008 - 22 comments

DOH. Its Valentine's Day and you forgot to make a reservation, and now everyone's all booked up. Except White Castle. [more inside]
posted by allkindsoftime on Feb 14, 2008 - 57 comments

Tastier tofu courtesy of Shiok Food, a fantastic Thai cooking blog run by chef and restauranteur madman.
posted by klangklangston on Jun 20, 2007 - 29 comments

McDonald's UK goes Web 2.0 with a site answering user's questions. Apparently, all of them.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 on Jun 15, 2007 - 141 comments

You know Bruce Schneier the polymath security genius. Now meet Bruce Schneier the kind-hearted reviewer of local Minnesota restaurants. (He doesn't like to give bad reviews -- sounds like "security through obscurity" to me!)
[previously, also]
posted by grobstein on Feb 13, 2007 - 15 comments

At Dans Le Noir ? you can "experience the unique interaction between clientele and guides as your food and wine are served in total darkness". Is it really a pitch-black dining room? "Yes it is ! The room where the dinner takes place is completely dark! We aren't used to completely dark environment since you hardly find this level of darkness in daily life as, we are used to small rays of light from the streetlights or moonlight but in the Dans le Noir ? restaurant there is no light at all!" Worried about going to the loo? Don't be, because "the toilets are fully lit".
posted by mr_crash_davis on Mar 17, 2006 - 52 comments

The Epicurean online. Charles Ranhofer's 1893 book The Epicurean is available online from the Michigan State University Library and the Museum as part of their Feeding America digital project. Ranhofer was the head chef at Delmonico's Restaurant from 1862 to 1894; he popularized the Escoffier version of French cooking to America, modifying it to take advantage of American foods such as turkey, squash, corn, and Pacific salmon. Besides thousands of recipes, The Epicurean discusses table settings, menus, various methods of presentation, and kitchen management. The book may be downloaded as a PDF in two parts.
posted by watsondog on Sep 11, 2005 - 7 comments

World's best restaurant serves up molecular gastronomy.
(parallel thread)
posted by peacay on Apr 19, 2005 - 17 comments

We know that the French take their food seriously, and restaurant ratings are a BIG deal over there. But here's a sad illustration of that: famed chef Bernard Loiseau was found dead yesterday of an apparent suicide, and speculation centers around his downgraded rating from the influential GaultMillau guide. Shades of Vatel?
posted by Vidiot on Feb 26, 2003 - 17 comments

In the long stretch of culinary history, the creation of the menu was a notable development. In the U.S., New York is the restaurant capital, and the New York Public Library has an enormous collection of menus, many of which they are currently displaying in a third-floor gallery. If you're in NYC (or will be visiting this winter) and are interested in such things, don't miss it; it's showing until March 1.
posted by languagehat on Nov 20, 2002 - 14 comments