Sette Oche Risorante (Restaurant) in Rome’s Trastevere district is simply amazing. To start with, walking trough the tiny streets of Trastevere at night with the romantic orange glow of the street lights is an experience itself. We did make a reservation. The few other restaurants that had enough Yelp love in Trastevere (such as Da Enzo al 29) didn’t pick up their phone. I assume that restaurants around here just stop picking up their phone when they are fill. I was a little concerned when Sette picked up. Why weren’t they full? Anyway, we jumped on the #160 bus from our hotel on Via Vento and were near Trastevere about 10 minutes later or so. Through a park and across a small bridge then a few more minutes and we were at Sette Oche. We requested a table outside and got our wish. This was very much a mixed blessing. The lighting, scenery and weather were beautiful outside, not to mention the violin player. Downside is that people smoke at restaurants in Rome (at playgrounds too). I am all for accepting the culture of others, I just really wish people could avoid blowing smoke on my daughter. Other than that, everyone was very nice and (like all over Rome) very accommodating to a young child. We ordered: </p> The large steak (maybe 400g). This was about 18 euros and came on a hot serving stone that continued to cook the steak. It was an ok cut but an amazing preparation. The ability to cook freshly cracked pepper into the steak just added so much to it. €18.50 The rigatoni cabonara was equally wonderful. It was a reasonable portion. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the cheese flavor was wonderful. It was a very simple dish but great. €10.50 The ravioli with spinach and eggplant was good, but our least favorite dish. It was a reasonable portion. The ravioli pasta was cooked perfectly. The vegetables tasted fresh but the flavors were relatively plain. €10.50 The caprese salad was excellent. The Bufula Mozzarella was perfect. My vegetable phobic 3 year old even was going to town on the tomatoes and tried Basil for the first time. €9.50 Neither the house red nor the house white was very good. But hey, at €5.50 a 1/2 liter, I couldn’t do much better at the Supermarket. Message to ownership: Sette Oche, I loved your food. I humbly request that you consider enter the vanguard of Italian society and disallow smoking on your patio. 81% of Italian women don’t smoke. Consider the marketing campaign. Sette Oche Ristorante Via dei Salumi 36 00153 Roma Italy +39 06 5809753 Neighborhood: Trastevere Read More ›

Best Vietnamese Ever! See review. Read More ›

Summary Rating: 4/5 Great Service! Great menu. Very good food, though they tend to overcook things a bit from my taste. We ordered the Pork. I would ask for it medium rare since we didn’t specify and it came out medium well+. They redid it for us and was medium and very good the second time. The pork comes with a side of mac and cheese that is amazing (can be ordered on its own) and 3-4 huge asparagus stalks. I believe it was around $36. We also had the potato encrusted fish. An interesting idea with a good sauce, but also came a bit overcooked. This is their signature dish though I found the pork better. This was also around $36 but didn’t include sides. Had a glass of Cline Old Vines Zinfandel for $10. Good. The had a bread basked that they implied was “coming out of the oven” but I assume it was reheated since it didn’t have a uniform temperature. Still good. And you can request olive oil (I don’t know why many fine restaurants still insist on putting out butter as the only side to bread in 2012, but that may just be me). The best part of the place apart from the great service was the atmosphere. I would call it high end casual. No white table clothes and could come in shorts (though they do technically have a dress code that says things like no swimwear or torn clothing), but granite counters, view into the kitchen, refined staff, etc. The chef’s bar is great. You can watch them cook during your meal. One of their managers, Kristin Duncan, was super sweet and helped us out a lot. Thank you Kristin! One downside is they are part of Disney dining. That means that they don’t have a phone number. If you try to call them you will go to central Dinsey reservations and talk to someone that is clueless. I called to ask how I get to this place from any of the shuttle drop off locations and she couldn’t help me. She also said that they didn’t have a bar inside (not true, they do). Flying Fish Cafe Disney’s BoardWalk Inn and Villas 2101 North Epcot Resorts Blvd. Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830 Read More ›

Forward So I don’t usually write articles about restaurants in Boston since the focus of the website is on travel. However, others also travel to Boston so I decided to start. In general I use Yelp and TripAdvisor to decide where I am going to eat out of town. However, they are not perfect. I find that they become especially unreliable for restaurants with under 25 reviews since the owners and competitiors end up writing more reviews than real patrons. Outlier experiences also get overrated. So hopefully my reviews will add extra value with my readers that I have built up trust with. Review Rating 5/5 In my experience India Quality is the best Indian food in the City of Boston. It has some real competition in Cambridge and Somerville, but in the city, this is my goto place. It is in Kenmore Square, slightly below street level. Also its ambiance is very good for an Indian restaurant. While not a special occation place or where to go if you are trying to show off, you could certainly feel comfortable bringing a date here (unlike many Indian restaurants). It’s priced higher than the typical Indian take out joint, but lower than most any other restaurant of similar food quality and ambiance. I consider it to be a great value for a dine in experience. For take out it is a bit more fully priced, but I still splurge for it’s quality. Discounts and Freebies Well, this is the Free Travel Genius, so let’s focus on what’s really imporant to us - living the life for free / less. So, India Quality is both a small business and takes American Express. Can my loyal readers guess where I am going with this? It is the perfect place to go on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for American Express’s Small Business Saturdays. Each Amex card you have (and pre-registered) and use will earn you $25 off your check. The staff at India Quality are very gratious about using multiple cards. Now what if you have more Amex cards than your little belly can handle? Use them to buy gift certificates and come back to each some other time. India Quality is also very gratious about running multiple cards for multiple gift certificates. There is one small nuissence, however. India Quality uses old fashion physical certificates won’t give change or a new certificate back if the bill is less than its face value. Since they use a physical system, I can understand why they want to keep it simple, however, this gives the astute buyer an incentive to purchase very small demoninations (I go with $25) so not to risk losing too much or needing to supplement their bill with cash. I will need to recomend to the restaurant to look into an electronic gift certificate system. There are so many smartphone enabled applications nowadays to moderize payments, gift certificates, loyalty programs, etc. Hopefully, they give one a try. India Quality also gives 10% off to students with a valid student ID. I guess if you eat there often enough, you can look into the arbitrage of singing up for a night class, but we are talking one hell of a lot of Chicken Tikka Marsala here. India Quality Kenmore Square Read More ›

We chanced upon Palermo restaurant in downtown Liberia (Costa Rica). Wow, what an amazing find. This may go among my top 25 dishes ever. Read More ›

Water Bar at the PGA Commons in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Read More ›

Review of Tucci's Fire and Coal Pizza in Boca Raton, FL Read More ›

Review of Roaring Fork in Scottsdale, AZ. Cliff notes: good food and amazingly cheap "happy hour" menu that is available all night on Sundays and Mondays (just like Wildfish). Read More ›

Review of Wildfish Seafood Grill in Scottsdale, AZ. Cliff notes: great food and amazingly cheap "happy hour" menu that is available all night on Sundays and Mondays. Read More ›

We had a wonderful meal here. This place is not cheap, but fairly reasonable given the ambiance, service, food quality and being in Midtown Manhattan. I would certainly come here again for a special occasion or a business dinner. Read More ›

Review of Room Service in New York's Hell Kitchen. Amazing lunch special. Read More ›

Overall: 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. I went with my wife in November 2011. It is a pretty good Japanese place in Hell’s Kitchen. The fireball was excellent. It basically was a ball, the skin of which was thinly sliced salmon and the insides were some great mix of something that I can’t explain. Their vegetable teriyaki dinner was excellent as well, it came with interesting veggies and a very sweet sauce. The wasabi tuna roll was ok. The spicy tuna inside was of the type where you can’t really taste the tuna. I didn’t like the coconut chicken soup but that may have been me. I did not like their miso soup. The service was ok, a bit slow, but otherwise fine. Went on a Friday night around 9pm and was able to sit right away. For those from out of town, this is in Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood with lots of good restaurants at reasonable prices. Though probably best not to approach the place from the south, the area directly surrounding the Port Authority bus terminals is one of the least nice parts of central Manhattan (though I pretty much consider the whole island relatively safe). Ajisai Japanese Restaurant Address: 615 9th Ave, New York, NY 10036 Neighborhoods: Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown West Phone: (212) 757-2688 Read More ›

Stock Image I’ve been to Bistro Jeanty twice, on 4/21/2008 and back on 4/2/2010. On my first visit we had a good bottle of wine, the mussels appetizer, a pork dish, a fish dish, fries, chocolate crème brûlée (great, and I am not such a big crème brûlée fan) and 2 coffees for a total of $131 including the tip. And all the food was excellent. On my second visit we had a sole filet, side of spinach, dinner size mussels (I didn’t like them this time), a glass of Blockheadia wine and a hot chocolate. We were eating light so this time it was only $81 w/tip. I was a tad less enamored with the food on the second time around, but it was still very good. And the service was excellent. My, now, wife asked for a fair number of substitutions and they were extremely accommodating — it isn’t usually easy to get french restaurants to substitute oil for butter. Also note, you can bring your own wine with a $25 corkage fee. Anyway, I plan to go back anytime I am near Napa. Address: 6510 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599 Phone: (707) 944-0103 Website: https://www.bistrojeanty.com/ Read More ›

I went for a quick bite in late October of 2011 and again in November. On my first visit, I had the Udna Chicken Roll and the Chana Masala Roll, both on Paratha. On my second I had the Unda roll and the Achari Paneer Roll, probably on regular Naan since I forgot about the choice in bread. I really loved the concept since I would often make similar styled rolls myself when sitting at an Indian restaurant with Nan in front of me. All the rolls were very tasty. The first time it took about 15 minutes to get the rolls which was a bit surprising since the ingredients appeared to be made in batches ahead of the rolls. The second time it was probably only a 10 minute wait. Anyway, I would certainly go back for lunch or a quick bite when I’m in the area. Address: 49 W 39th St, New York, NY 10018 Phone: (212) 730-4280 Website: www.thekatirollcompany.com Read More ›

We had a great casual dinner here in late October of 2011. The pulled pork sandwich was the best I have ever had. They sweet potato fries were excellent and my wife loved the bbq’d mushrooms on her salad. They had Sam Adams Octoberfest on tap, my favorite, and available in a pitcher for under $20. We were there late on a Friday night and the noise didn’t bother us. It was a very casual atmosphere which is exactly what we wanted. Address: 37 W 26th St, New York, NY 10011 Phone: (212) 213-4871 Web: www.hogpit.com Read More ›

I love B Good. They serve mostly food that is a healthier version of what you may normally buy, have friendly managers and a fun spirit. My only concerns: 1) There is some inconsistency in their locations. The one on Newbury St can be a bit slow. 2) They are very expensive when compared to fast food. It is certainly worth it to me since I think it is 1000x better than traditional fast food, just something to be aware of. As compared to fast causal, their sandwich sizes may be considered a bit small given their price, but, again, worth it. I do think, though, that their fries are simply overpriced. They seem to have priced them to encourage the combo meal. However, the combo meal only allows for Coca-cola products. How can a place trying to promote their “healthy-ness” require you to eat high fructose corn syrup to make the meal a semi-reasonable price. They also sell Snapple and other premium products, but add those to fries and a burger and now you are around $11. Read More ›

I love this place. I grew up in Dartmouth and live in Boston and go almost every time I come home to see the family. Their pecan pesto halibut is just amazing. Also love the whole BYOB thing (as, I expect most of the Free Travel Genius’s readers would) along with their very very reasonable pricing. Place is small and can get crowded. Also very casual (which I like, but maybe not a place for an anniversary, etc.). Margarets Restaurant 16 Main Street Fairhaven, MA 02719 (508) 992-9942 Read More ›