Trip notes from our 2024 first time visit to Amsterdam, The Netherlands A beautiful city full of top notch museums, history, impressive sites, lots of bike riding, and great people and food. Keep in mind we hit mainstream restaurants and vegetarian oriented ones. If you are a fellow cycling fan, take a bike city tour to learn the etiquette and ride around town. Also be sure to take a countryside biking tour. It is fantastic! We visited when nearby Keukenhof Gardens had their 8 week longs INCREDIBLE tulip festival. March 21, 2024 – May 12, 2024.  Be sure to time your visit. Where to buy a ..read more

Prik Hom is a small Thai restaurant in San Francisco’s inner Richmond district. It has 4.5 stars on Yelp right now. It was recommended by a friend and was also on the NY Times 25 best restaurants in SF 2023. Reservations are a must unless you want to walk in right when it opens. The menu has limited selections in each of its different section, not like the usual Thai spots. No pad thai or pad see ew here! Simple concise menu with several options for vegetarians. Prik surprised us with food that was clearly a cut above the usual fare. Prices are reasonable, unlike the expensive top spots Nari ..read more

   Why did we dine here? – Hummus Mediterranean Kitchen has become our goto place when looking for this type of food. They have expanded to four locations including Palo Alto, San Francisco and Mountain View. Hummus Mediterranean Kitchen is owned by Onur Alkanoglu and Yasar Bulutoglu, who are immigrants from Turkey that wanted to further Turkish cuisine into the Bay Area with the original San Mateo location. In 2020, Amir Hosseini joined the Hummus Mediterranean Kitchen team as a partner and helped open the Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Francisco locations. Surprisingly decent M ..read more

Spoon is one of those rare finds in the Lake Tahoe region. The food is simply really good. Its easy to pay a lot up here, but not easy to find a spot like this. We’ve dined at all the stalwarts that have existed for decades and none match up. “Spoon is a funky, off-beat and cozy restaurant with an eclectic american dinner menu.” Closed Tu/Wed Gluten free and vegetarian options. Specials change daily. Last visit end of 2023. Much of the seating is outside with heat lamps during spring/summer, so dress warmly. Why did we dine here? – Spoon is a highly rated American restaurant on Yelp in this b ..read more

We visited Osaka, Japan in December 2023 and made a list of interesting finds.  Our goals are to eat local and seek out authentic experiences.  Sushi, udon, soba, yakitori, oden, whatever! Yelp and Trip Advisor were not helpful in spotting places to eat at, only Google reviews were useful. We did not seek our Michelin rated spots. The exchange rate was US$1 = 143¥, very favorable.  Many meals cost 50% less than in San Francisco, with BETTER quality too! Where to buy a SIM Card at the Osaka Kansai Airport (KIX) After you clear customs, you will see vending machines down the hall ..read more

When we get asked, “where do we get the dim sum in Chinatown?” The answer usually is.. Great Eastern Restaurant San Francisco has been serving Cantonese Chinese food in this location for many years. They serve dim sum during lunch and traditional items during dinner. We visited for dim sum lunch lunch, early on a weekend day. Great Eastern Dinner was reviewed on a separate visit. President Obama famously ate here in 2012. Our last visit for dim sum was in the fall of 2023. Be sure to read our Introduction to Chinese dim sum article and Chinese restaurant San Francisco post. Cuisine – Cantones ..read more

Exciting food in an energetic atmosphere. Why did we dine here? – Liholiho Yacht Club is a Hawaiian influenced restaurant from Ravi Kapur, formerly of Prospect and Boulevard. He returned to Hawaii and found inspiration in the cuisine he grew up with. It is a very popular restaurant with hard to get online reservations, so book on Resy weeks in advance. You need to wait 30 minutes or more before it opens to grab one of the open butcher-block tables if you walk in. Last visit in fall of 2023. They also run Good Good Culture Club Insider Tip – Get there early Cuisine – Hawaiian Fusion Location ..read more

Best cornbread in town! House of Prime Rib opened in 1949 and concentrates on one dish, Prime rib. We have been coming here for many decades, whenever we have a desire for beef. They use corn-fed Prime beef Midwestern beef that is aged for 21 days and cooked in coarse rock salt. Our last visit was in Summer of 2023. We arrived at 5pm as did a ton of other folks, and had our food within 15 minutes. We tried Pandemic takeout in 2021 and found portion sizes small and a ton of packaging waste. Hope it never comes to that again. Our first visit to this fine establishment was way back in the 1970’s ..read more

Lai Hong Lounge Restaurant is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of Chinatown. They have been around since Lichee Garden closed, 2012. They are VERY popular for lunch (Noon had a Wait for a Monday lunch), but it was much more quiet at dinner. We were in the neighborhood so we decided to try it out, being big Chinese food fans. This restaurant is a sister restaurant to Hong Kong Lounge. The menu is similar, but we found the food better here. Be sure to read: Foodnut’s Beginners Introduction to Chinese Dim Sum Best Chinese in San Francisco Be sure to read our article How to order i ..read more

City View Restaurant is a Chinese dim sum restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown. that only serves lunch.. Our last visit was in the middle of 2023 when they moved in to a new location next to Portsmouth square. Be sure to read our Introduction to Chinese Dim Sum Decor, Vibe – Modern clean decor with nice ambience, a lot better than the old location. People of all ages, tourists, families, friend get togethers. City View Menu City View’s menu has the usual classic dim sum dishes. Pictures are next to each entry.  Not much in the way of modern inventive dimsum. City View Food Picks: Blac ..read more