An Espresso to Grind

Should you tip baristas, and if so, how much?

different. Luckily, Maria Hunt seems to be a rare thing in the food critic business... Someone who is fair, open minded, but not afraid to stick it to restaurants who repeatedly offer bad food or service. Thumbs up for her....

First, the grain of salt you need to take this with: I’m a pastry snob. I don’t like pastry with shortening in it (lard, yes; butter, yes), I don’t like artificial, bitter-tasting colors in my food, I’ve...

destination left no doubt as to (so far) who has the best croissant in the greater metro area - (drum roll) - none other than Vanille Patisserie (2229 Clybourn), who I already lauded in part 1 of my hunt. His croissant...

wow I have read Naomi Wise’s Reader column since I can remember and I think she is damn fair (and objective). CH is a great resource for blogs but the reviews here are rarely objective cough “San Diego Restaurants are...

The U/T food section (such as it is) publishes on Wednesday. In the Thursday Day/Night section (the not so equivalent to the Chron Sunday Pink Pages) has the weekly resto review. So far, Maria Hunt has been the most consistent....

steep - $12 for a plated dessert – for the area and not everything works or is worth that price. The scone was heavenly, the sea salted oatmeal cookie was so salty you couldn’t eat it. The SD Reader and U/T have both...

with such travesties as Olive Garden being the best Italian restaurant in the city. My benchmark for overrated is that it gets lauded by 1. Most if not all of the critics that write for the local papers (e.g. Maria Hunt, Naomi...

Naomi's Pizza on Main Street in Queens is a very good NY style pizza & freezes well if you must have a pie handy in an emergency. (They also have tasty falafel & I think I’ve had shakshuka there.)

to Bandini for The Great Taco Hunt, and have checked out some places because of his postings. Some major restaurants in SoCal recognize Chowhound, but fewer ethnic places than you’d think — even many of those that are...

://www.chowhound.com/topics/355995 Feb – Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid, Hot Sour Salty Sweet http://www.chowhound.com/topics/366679 March – Leite’s Culinaria http://www.chowhound.com/topics/376081 April –...

I really enjoyed cooking from LOP. As C kept saying, this was his favorite month ever. After hunting down the ingredients, the recipes used most of them, so I never felt that I was buying a product for a single recipe. And, I...

://www.chowhound.com/topics/355995 Feb – Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid, Hot Sour Salty Sweet http://www.chowhound.com/topics/366679 March – Leite’s Culinaria http://www.chowhound.com/topics/376081 April –...

Slight disagreement on the Joy of Cooking. Oh, by all means get it — but hunt out an old version from a used bookstore. The new version pales in comparison.

yes, NYC, LA, SF, Toronto (Senses was one of the best meals I’ve ever had!) all have great food at all price ranges but if you hunt and peck, you can find good food in SD. The better ones are: Market Cavaillon Jack’s La...