Mark Dedrick

Singapore We absolutely loved Singapore. Great city, quite walkable (particularly compared with our other destinations on this trip), and just absolutely insane about food. We flew in and out of Singapore, and stayed there two nights on both ends of our trip. And I think that was a good and smart way to do it. Singapore is so easy to adjust to, it makes for a nice launching point into SE Asia, and it was also a wonderful finale to our trip, with incredible food in an easy to get around city. Lodging – We stayed at the Amoy Hotel for both portions of our stay, and I’d stay there again depending on price. The location of the hotel is fantastic, right at the edge of Chinatown and the Central Business District. It’s about two blocks from the Maxwell Road hawker center and the Chinatown Complex hawker center, and the Telek Ayer MRT stop on the Downtown Line. It’s also a very short walk to the Chinatown MRT station, which has the Downtown Line and the North East Line. They had free breakfast (which we never took advantage of as we were eating hawker food), and provided one trip to or from the airport on each stay. This was a nice feature as well. They were also extremely accommodating to us on our final day. Our flight home was at 9:35 pm, and they let us use a room to shower and clean up for our flight, which was fantastic. Transportation – It’s pretty easy. A cab between the airport and Chinatown is about $40. You could instead take the MRT. The MRT is extremely easy to use, and is very clean and safe. Taking cabs around town in general is pretty easy, although we did discover that between 5 and 7 pm they are extremely hard to find. Sights – We were very impressed by Gardens by the Bay. It’s free to walk around, and that alone is worth it. It’s a huge garden, and the most striking part of it are the Supertrees, which are 25 to 50 meter tall vertical gardens. You can pay S$8 to take a walk along the Skyway, which we did, and which gives you a very cool look at the gardens from above. There are also two conservatories, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest, which you can access for S$28. Definitely worth it, they are very cool, and well air conditioned, which came as a welcome surprise on the day that we were there. We also enjoyed the Botanical Gardens, which are absolutely massive. Our plan was to walk around the gardens prior to our dinner at Corner House, which was a plan we made while conveniently forgetting that the sun sets quite quickly right around 6 pm every day. Regardless, they’re very cool. We also went on the Night Safari based on several recommendations. It was cool, and I’m glad we went. The animals were extremely active, lions were roaring, leopards were stalking around, flying squirrels were leaping from tree to tree right over our heads, and the otters were putting on a tremendous show.

Oh, and a quick thought on Balinese wine. We actually drank Balinese wine a number of times on this trip and found it, on the whole, fine, and at times delicious. Given that it typically was 2/3 the price of French or Australian wine, we frequently went with it.

Ubud Food Mozaic – By acclimation, the best restaurant in Ubud is either Locavore or Mozaic. We had dinner at Mozaic our first night in town. It’s great. The outdoor dining room is delightful, and everything we had to eat was very good. For some reason I don’t have as many specific recollections of dishes, but we very much enjoyed it. One thing they do is to bring out a big basket of fruits and vegetables, and they’ll then explain to you what they’re using in each dish as they bring it around. It was a good way to share with us some of the unique ingredients that are used in Indonesian cuisine. Naughty Nuri’s Warung – Loved this place. They’re known for ribs and martinis, which sounded like an odd combination to me, but worked fantastic in practice. The ribs are excellent, the short ribs were absolutely incredible, and the sambal that comes with the short ribs, or that you can order on its own, is good enough that I’d eat it by itself. The martinis were far better than they needed to be. Hujan Locale – This is an Indonesian restaurant in downtown Ubud. We ate there with a large group, about ten people. We got a huge sampling of the menu, and the food was very good. That’s about as much detail as I can go into, but I’d happily go back. Jimbaran Seafood – Rome – Sunday night seafood on the beach is a big deal in Jimbaran, which is just south of the airport. There’s a group of warungs along the beach. You pick your restaurant (in our case based on how good and fresh the seafood looked), pick out your seafood (we went with prawns done two ways, clams, red snapper, crab and squid) and they then grill it over coconut husks. You then walk through the very smoky restaurant interior out to the beach and grab a table and wait for them to deliver your seafood. You can order drinks while you wait (or just bring your own and open it there), and can also order grilled corn with a chili rub from the many vendors on the beach as an appetizer. It’s a wonderful experience. Eating incredible fresh seafood on the beach is just fantastic. Seminyak Food Warung Babi Guling Pak Malen – Babi Guling is Balinese roast suckling pig. The more famous place is Ibu Oka, which is in Ubud, and has been featured on Anthony Bourdain's show. My friends insist that it has really fallen off recently, and as a result we didn't go there. This place was delicious, and basically pig seven or eight ways (pork soup, satay, roast pork, crispy pork skin, fried crackling, and some other preps I can’t remember) served over rice with a spiced long bean salad. It’s really delicious, and absurdly cheap (less than $2 US per person). It seemed to be frequented exclusively by locals. Warung D’Sawah – Their specialty is a crispy fried duck, which is what we had. Like with the babi guling, you get a soup, a satay, a long bean salad, rice, and then your protein. It was absolutely delicious. The setting is also gorgeous. You enter, and then step directly back into a lovely garden patio overlooking rice patties. I’d happy go back. Revolver Espresso – Good, extremely trendy looking coffee spot. Mamasan – This place came very highly recommended to us, and we definitely enjoyed it. It’s an extremely cool space, and really the only criticism I can find is that you could easily drop this exact restaurant into New York or Miami and it would be right at home. Very good pan-Asian food. Sardine – This was our favorite meal in all of Bali. It’s a beautiful outdoor dining room, right on the edge of a field of sunflowers, and all of the plates were absolutely beautiful. My pan roasted Hamachi was fantastic. Sisterfields – We had brunch here on our first day. It’s a very nice brunch spot, good drinks and coffee, and filled with tourists. Still delicious and worth going. Ku De Ta – This is apparently a “famous” place, and it does have a Miami club kind of vibe to it. We had a drink here in the middle of the day, and it was a pretty relaxed scene at that point. Boss Man – My friend describes this place as having the best burgers in Indonesia, and he was really craving a burger, so we ended up here before our drive up to Ubud. It was a very good burger.

My wife and I loved Bali on the whole. Absolute paradise. We ended up spending two nights in Ubud with a group of friends, and then three nights in Seminyak by ourselves. Both were wonderful, and I’m glad we were able to experience both the mountains and the beach (and to a much lesser extent Jimbaran). Ubud was far more relaxing and peaceful, Seminyak is very much a tourist beach town (with a gorgeous beach), although not nearly as crazy or cheesy as Kuta. Ubud Lodging – In Ubud we rented a villa, Omah Padi, which was just outside of town (you could walk it if you wanted). It is an absolutely stunning place, five bedrooms, plus an outdoor living space and a pool, surrounded by rice paddies. You felt like there were no other tourists around at all. If you’re going with a group I’d strongly recommend it. The villa comes with staff, breakfast is included, and there’s a driver on site (you have to pay him for trips, but it’s quite inexpensive). Transportation – Basically you can walk or you can find a guy with a “Taxi” sign hanging out on the side of the road. You’ll flag one of these guys down and then start a negotiating process. If you’re traveling basically within the Ubud area you’re probably looking at 40,000-50,000 rupiah, but that will absolutely not be their opening offer. I had drivers start me out as high as 200,000 (I walked away even as he eventually got down to 50,000 just on principle alone) and as low as 75,000. Sights – One of our days in Ubud we took and afternoon, and our villa’s driver, on a tour of the countryside and a bunch of Hindu temples. We saw Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave), Gunung Kawi and Tirta Empul. These are all temples that are currently being used, and it was very cool to see them. If you don’t have a sarong at these sites one will be provided for you. Seminyak Lodging – We stayed at the Luna2 Studiotel, which is right on the beach in Seminyak. We were big fans of this hotel. It’s small, 14 rooms in total, and I believe only two or three other rooms were occupied during our stay. The room was also huge, incredibly spacious, and came with a nice sized balcony as well. The pool was seldom used and lovely, a very good breakfast was included with the room, and the staff was super friendly. I found the décor fantastic, but I could see it turning some people off. I read it described somewhere as what would happen if you went back to the 1960s and asked a designer to design the hotel of the future. It felt very Austin Powers-like. The hotel also had a wonderful rooftop bar, which was great for watching the sunset, and their cocktail program is really good. And since only people staying at the hotel can use it, it was never crowded. The hotel doesn’t have their own beach chairs, but you can borrow towels from the hotel and rest beach chairs for a pretty nominal price. And it’s a really nice beach. Transportation – Walking or cabs. From our hotel we could walk into downtown Seminyak, and to shopping bars and restaurants. We took cabs to dinner, however, as it was quite hot, and cabs aren’t that expensive. When leaving a restaurant, however, be careful that the cab doesn’t overcharge you. We fell into this trap one night, and ended up spending 100,000 for what should have been about a 30,000 trip. You need to ask the cabbie if the trip will be metered or not. When leaving dinner at Sardine we had actually started climbing into the cab when I asked him that question to which he responded “There are no meters out here boss”. I asked him the cost and he then quoted me 100,000. It was 30,000 to get there. We got out and immediately hailed another cab.

Yogyakarta - Food Yogyakarta is the city we didn’t quite figure out the food scene. We didn’t have bad food, per se (or at least not much), but we didn’t have anything absolutely spectacular. Gudeg Bu Lies – Gudeg is probably the signature dish of Yogyakarta, and there are places all over serving it. Immediately east of the Kraton, on JL. Wijilan, are a ton of gudeg spots, one next to another. We ended up at Gudeg Bu Lies because I’d read about it somewhere, and we just liked the look of it. I’d never heard of Gudeg prior to this trip, but on its own it consists of unripe jackfruit boiled with sugar, coconut milk and a bunch of spices. It’s typically served with rice, egg, tempeh, chicken, and sambel goring krechek, which is a beef skin stew. It was good, but a bit sweet for my taste. Oxen Free – This is a beer garden located just off of Malioboro. It looked very cool, and we were excited to sit for a bit (we’d walked around 15 miles at that point in the day), have a beer and a small snack. While the space is very cool, their beer selection consisted solely of Bintang (ubiquitous in Indonesia), Bintang Radler and Bali Hai. Which did the job, but wasn’t particularly interesting. The food was very mediocre. Paprika – This was the restaurant at our hotel. Our first night staying there we decided to eat at the hotel for simplicity’s sake. We were quite tired, we didn’t really know the city, and we had to get up at 3:30 am the following morning. Unbeknownst to us, it’s a buffet every night, and was probably the worst meal we had our entire time on the trip. We did try a quite nice bottle of Balinese syrah, which was cool. Bedhot Resto – Our second night in Yogya we knew we didn’t want to eat at the hotel again, but we still had very little in the way of reliable recommendations. So we ended up at this place, located just off of Malioboro. It’s an art gallery, a hotel, and I think a tattoo parlor, located down this very narrow alley. It was populated mostly by backpackers, and had a very interesting vibe. The Bintangs were cold, the food was solid (Nasi Goreng, eggplant curry, fried tempeh, and lumpia) and the whole thing, including drinks, was about $15 for two people. I wouldn’t say it was great, but it was good, and interesting, and I’d recommend it. The bar at the Phoenix – I’ll put a quick plug in for Vino, the bar in the Phoenix. From 5-7 (I think) they have a happy hour, and the price of an extremely solid martini during that time is approximately $3.50. They also have a signature drink, the gin sling, which is also quite good.

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta, which can be shorted to Yogya (and pronounced Jogja, and per the t-shirts I saw for sale can be spelled any damn way you please), is the cultural center of Java. I’d never heard of it before doing research for this trip, but it’s quite large (around 4 million in the metro area, which is extremely sprawling). We came to Yogya for one reason, to visit the temples at Borobudur and Prambanam, and it was totally worth it for those reasons. Lodging – At the recommendation of our friends, and confirmed by our guidebook, we stayed at the Phoenix Hotel. It’s a Sofitel, and is in a beautiful 100 year-old building, and you can book it for like $60 a night. I’d highly recommend it. The hotel is nice, and the staff are incredible. Transportation – Cabs are cheap. I think the cab from our hotel to the airport was something like 30,000 rupiah, which is just over $2. We got ripped off going from the airport to our hotel, and paid something like 100,000 rupiah, which is like $8. (as an aside, the exchange rate right now is about 13,000 Indonesian rupiah per one US Dollar, which makes calculating price on the fly slightly challenging, although I got much better at dividing by 13,000 by the end of the trip) You can also hire a rickshaw for a negotiated price, which we did one day as we were trying to navigate around the city and didn’t see any cabs. Given my earlier comments on traffic in Indonesia (Yogya is nowhere near as bad as Jakarta, but the same lack of rules and number of motorcycles applies) this is a slightly frightening proposition, and our guy would simply pedal directly into any intersection we can to, just trusting that the cars and motorcycles would go around us. Which they did. Sights - Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, and it’s one of the coolest and most impressive things I’ve ever seen in my life. We had a limited amount of time here, so we booked a tour through Smailing Tours for Borobudur and Prambanan in one day. It wasn’t the cheapest quote we got (ended up being around $100 per person for a ten hour tour, inclusive of everything, including admission to the sites, a driver, an English-speaking tour guide, breakfast and lunch) but they did a fantastic job and I’d recommend them. If you're staying at the Phoenix they also have an office in the hotel, which is also convenient. We did sunrise at Borobudur, which was pretty spectacular. We arrived at the temple a bit before 5 am, and hiked up to the top where we hung out and watched it slowly get lighter and lighter. It also had the added benefit of allowing us to complete touring the temple before the big tour buses and such showed up around 8 am. I don’t really have words to describe the temple. Just incredible, beautiful, and massive. I’m really happy we went. On any other trip, Prambanan would have been the highlight. Prambanan is a Hindu temple compound, like Borobudur built in the 9th century. Borobudur is about 40 minutes north of Yogyakarta while Prambanam is about 11 miles east of the city. Words will fail me on this as well, but it’s gorgeous and incredible. The complex is so huge, there are so many buildings, and yet there are also so many more buildings that they’re in the process of restoring. Breathtaking. In addition to these two sites we also spent a portion of another day wandering around the city. The main drag, Malioboro Street, is pretty cool. There are a ton of shops and vendors, and a lot of warungs, or small food spots, lining it, and particularly at night it was fun to walk along it. We visited the Kraton, or Sultan’s Palace, and it was fine. There is, however, apparently some sort of dispute among the royal family, and as a result there are two entrances to the Kraton. We only found one of them, and that portion of the family only gets you access to some stuff that’s outside of the physical palace. Another thing that Indonesia in general, and Yogyakarta in particular, are known for is Batik, which is a traditional form of Indonesian artwork, typically represented as either a painting or fabric or clothing. We visited two Batik workshops, Batik Winotosastro and Plentong Batik. Winotosastro was very cool. They gave us a quick tour of their (operational) facility, and we got to see how Batik was made. You can, apparently, sign up for a class where you make your own Batik, and go through the entire process, which sounds pretty cool. We also purchased some shirts, scarves and fabric.

Jakarta - Food We were only in Jakarta for about 36 hours, so we didn't get to go too many places. The Hermitage – Great rooftop bar in a great old hotel overlooking Jakarta. This isn’t a place to go for a fancy cocktail, but it’s pretty great to watch the sunset and drink a gin and tonic. Por Que No – A rooftop Spanish restaurant in the Menteng neighborhood. It’s perfectly fine Spanish food. I wouldn’t seek it out, unless you happen to be tired of Indonesian food at this point in your trip. I'm sure if I lived there I'd be very happy that this place existed. Café Batavia – This is a very old restaurant right on the edge of Fatahillah Square in Kota Tua, the old town portion of Jakarta. To paraphrase my friend, Hemingway never came to Jakarta, but this is the sort of place which he would have frequented. I’d strongly recommend it for a drink, although we didn’t eat here so I can’t comment on the food. Beautika – This is a more traditional Indonesian restaurant, and serves Manado cuisine (north Sulawesi). It’s spicy and funky, and generally delicious. You order from what looks like a buffet bar, and they then bring it to your table. The food doesn’t look like much, and the ambiance is non-existent, but the food was very good. They have a wide variety of juices, but I don't think they serve alcohol. I also tried bat for the first time, which was interesting. Prohibition – We didn’t make it here, because we had to wake up at 3 am the next day to fly to Bali, but I wanted to include it because it’s apparently a very cool speakeasy-type bar with great drinks. Lara Djonggrang – My friend who lives in Jakarta says that this is the Indonesian restaurant she takes all of her friends to, in part because it’s pan-Indonesian, so you can taste your way across the archipelago. It also, in her words, makes you feel like Lara Croft as you enter the restaurant. It’s a very cool space. We went here unsupervised as our friend had a work event over lunch, but we ordered very specifically based on her suggestions. And her suggestions were very necessary as the menu is freaking huge, and I had basically no familiarity with Indonesia cuisine before this trip. They unhelpfully don’t have their menu online, but we ordered a beef satay (served on a comically large platter that featured three large conch shells in which they had the stay, the sauce, and something else I can’t remember), a delicious oxtail soup, Rendang Padang (which was by far the best rendang I’ve ever had), Nasi Kajongan Wayan (a Balinese rice dish with duck, vegetables, coconut, eggs, seafood salad, and of course sambal), and something else that escapes me. This was our favorite meal in Jakarta.

OK, so we got back over the weekend from 16 days in SE Asia. It was an incredible and epic trip. I'm going to post a few things about it here in case it's of any interest to folks. For each location I'll do a post on general tourist stuff (lodging, transportation, sights, etc) and then one on food and drink. Jakarta We were visiting friends who are currently living in Jakarta, and that was the only reason this city was on our itinerary. We met them there, stayed at their place, and then flew with them to Bali. Jakarta is an absolutely insane city. It has by far the worst traffic I’ve ever seen in my life, and it seems to be horrible 100% of the time. The traffic is in part fueled by the most motorcycles and scooters I’ve ever seen. They are everywhere, they travel on both shoulders, and in between every “lane” of traffic (lanes are more of an idea than an actual thing that exists in this city). They weave all around all of the cars and seem to be everywhere at once. There’s essentially no relationship between what color the traffic light is and whether or not cars will go through the intersection. In fact, throughout Indonesia, most intersections involve all of the cars simply entering the intersection together and then figuring out how to get where they need to go once they get there. I’m shocked that we didn’t see any accidents while we were there. Cabs are cheap, and everywhere, and really the best and only way to travel around the city. On the tourist side of things, we started out our one full day in Jakarta in the Kota Tua neighborhood, which is the old town portion of Jakarta. It’s apparently been run down for a long time, but has been recently somewhat restored, and it was cool to walk around there. Amusingly, we were frequently approached by groups of Indonesian schoolgirls to have their photos taken with us. We then went to Monas, which is their national monument. It’s similar to the Washington Monument but with a flame on top, and it’s located in the center of a gigantic park. To address crime in the park, however, they erected a gigantic fence around the whole thing, and restricted entry to four locations in total, and as a result basically nobody uses it. Which is too bad. Across the street from Monas is the National Museum, which we also visited. The museum was quite inexpensive (10,000 IDR, or about 70 cents) and nice, and also had groups of students who wanted photos with us, and a teacher who wanted to ask us questions about where we were from and why we were in Jakarta. A quick aside on crossing that street to get to the museum. That road is approximately five lanes across (again, lanes are more a suggestion than a hard and fast rule), and there didn’t appear to be any lights or crossing signals (in fact I never saw a walk signal in Indonesia). So while there was a crosswalk there were no breaks in traffic, and there were the aforementioned motorcycles just relentlessly buzzing by. The way to cross in Indonesia is to use the “magic hand”, where you simply hold your hand out, and then confidently and slowly step directly into traffic. I was not super comfortable using this method, but it seemed to work, and we’re alive today to tell the tale. One final thought, massages are insanely cheap in Indonesia, and we took advantage of that fact. You can hire a masseuse to come to your place and give you a 90 minute massage for about $12. It's unbelievable. Quick conclusion, this is the one city we visited that I wouldn't strongly recommend visiting.

I'll post at greater length soon, but we absolutely loved Bali. We stayed two nights in Ubud, and then three nights in Seminyak, and loved all of it. It's absolutely gorgeous, and quite inexpensive once you get there. Singapore was also awesome, and once you're in the region it's pretty inexpensive to fly around.

We leave on Sunday for SE Asia, including Bali (staying in both Ubud and Seminyak). So once I return I'll be able to report back on it. I know my friends, who are currently living in Jakarta, absolutely love it.

For my money, having an airport location shouldn't push them into the "Multiple Locations" category. I think those are very different beasts.

I find it hard to believe that this topic hadn't already been created, so if so please move this. I looked and couldn't find anything. We had dinner last night at Hazel and absolutely loved it. We arrived around 7 pm and were able to grab seats at the bar. The bartender provided fantastic service, and was extremely knowledgeable about the entire menu, cocktails, wine and food. The cocktail, wine and beer lists all show a great deal of care, with very interesting choices available. Both my wife and I enjoyed our cocktails very much. I went with the Power Play, which featured a barrel aged gin, montenegro amaro, paw paw vinegar and lime juice. Delicious and interesting. We initially ordered the Barbecue Carrots (fennel kraut, hazelnuts, buttermilk); the Hamachi Crudo (crispy rice, black lime, radish, hibuscus, smoked yogurt); the Octopus a la Plancha (roof top basil, shaved carrot & fennel salad, nuoc cham); and the Gnocchi Bokki (pork kimchi ragu, sesame seeds, smoked pecorino). Our bartender suggested that we probably needed one additional dish, and at his suggestion we ordered the Steak Tartare (tater tots, egg yolk, pepper cress, carmelized onion dip). He was 100% correct, and this was the exact right amount of food. First off, we loved everything, and will absolutely return. It's location directly across the street from the 930 Club immediately makes this our pre-show destination for the foreseeable future. Our two favorites, by far, were the Barbecued Carrots and the Gnocchi Bokki. The carrots were incredible. They cold smoke them, and then roast them with cumin, smoked paprika and a bunch of other spices I can't remember. The hazelnuts provide a great textural element, and the fennel kraut gives it some fantastic acidity. It was wonderful. And the gnocchi was just delicious. We will be back.

We also arrived around 7 pm (although shortly after) on Saturday. We were told upon arriving that there were no seats available, and that it would be around 45 minutes. Not knowing that there was an upstairs bar, we staked out some space on one of the ledges across from the downstairs bar for about five minutes, and then grabbed two seats at the bar that opened up. They also have a fair amount of outdoor seating, which is first come, first served, and they have a server out there as well, but we didn't want to melt. We absolutely loved Anxo. The ciders are all fantastic, and the bartenders are all very knowledgeable about them. In particular we loved the Millstone/ANXO Collaboration #1, which is funky and sour. I tend to like everything Millstone does, and they have two collaborations with them on the menu, as well as one regular Millstone offering. The place, at least the downstairs, feels more like Spain than basically anyplace I've been to in DC. We ate primarily from the "Pintxos" section of the menu. The best thing we had was a special, which was a montadito with fried calamari on top. It was fried perfectly, and was delicious. The Bacalao was also fantastic, as were the marinated mussels. We also quite enjoyed the grilled green onions with romesco sauce. Across the board, loved it. I wish it were closer to my house as we'd go all of the time.

I probably should write about this place more in depth at some point. We probably eat here three times a month, always at lunch. Absolutely love it. The crab cake is always a winner, I love their oysters, and they typically have one or two raw fish preparations that are always good. And those baked clams are a star, and this is a reminder that I need to order them next time I'm there (probably Sunday).

This is perhaps a bit of a shot in the dark, but later this month my wife and I will be taking a trip to Singapore, Jakarta, Bali and Yogyakarta. We're visiting a friend in Jakarta, and only there for about 36 hours, so I think we're relatively covered there, although I will always appreciate recommendations. Has anyone been to the other places, and have any thoughts about where and what to eat? In particular I'm interested in thoughts on Yogyakarta. A lot has been written on Singapore, and to a lesser extent Bali, but I'm somewhat in the dark on other Indonesian locations. Thanks in advance.

We ended up here after the close of the Democratic Convention Thursday because we wanted a bunch of food and drinks, and there weren't that many spots still serving those things after 1 am. We were able to roll in here with 20+ people, order drinks (cocktails are $5, and they have the extensive faux-tiki drink menu that I love at older Chinese restaurants) and a ton of food. It's not the best Chinese food I've ever had, but it was quite solid, and I'd even rate the pork dumplings and fried chicken wings higher than that. And it may have saved our lives, so I'll add another star for that. Full food menu until 3 am.

Good tacos (non-traditional tacos), fantastic beer list, and they serve their entire menu until 1:30 am.

Had an enjoyable meal here. I chose the location primarily because I was able to get a reservation for ten people (expanded to 16 later) on quite short notice. But it works well for a larger group. Everything is good, there's something on the menu for everyone, and the service is good.

Had dinner here at the bar by myself and absolutely loved it. Just a great, classic place. Fantastic cocktails, great oysters, and I also enjoyed the grilled octopus. The only thing approaching a complaint would be that the clam chowder was a bit short on clams. But otherwise just a great experience.

I very much enjoyed our late lunch at the Khyber Pass Pub this past Friday (and appreciate the explanation for the name above, we were definitely wondering about that). As others have said, the beer list is fantastic, and I quite enjoyed my gumbo and fried oyster Po' Boy. We were looking for somewhere near the tourist sites to meet some people for lunch and this fit the bill admirably.

As it's closed on the weekends, I had never been to John's until this recent Philadelphia excursion. But I'm glad I went out of my way to have lunch there. I'm not certain that I like it more than DiNic's (this could be that I like the broccoli rabe more than the spinach) but this is one hell of a sandwich. My friend loved his cheesesteak as well.

It's the pre-evolutionary Le Dip. It's very obvious that they took Parc and then tweaked it around the edges to make Le Dip.

I ended up eating here twice during my two week stay in Philadelphia. While it's definitely not my favorite spot I've been to in the city, I'm not upset about that fact. They do what they do very well.

We went here this past Friday and absolutely loved it. Both food and service were wonderful, and it was fun sitting at the chef's counter looking into the kitchen. At the recommendation of our server we went with two items from the far left column (best described as small appetizers), the raw fluke and a tomato and corn salad that was a chalkboard special. We then ordered the summer corn agnolotti, and then the slow poached halibut (in a celery dashi broth with mushrooms, and one of the most beautifully composed dishes I've ever eaten) and the duck breast. I'd happily return. We opted against the tasting menu in large part based on price. It was $125 a person, plus $100 for beverage pairings. I didn't really notice anyone else near us ordering that either.

This sums up my feelings on the Argonaut quite well. I don't go that often because there are so many misses on food, but I still really hope they stick around.