It’s quantifiable for me in that in my (roughly) 45 years of dining at Italian restaurants in Germany, Italy, and the US I have, on average, been disappointed more often at an Italian restaurant in the US, than in Germany or Italy.
Simple math, really — but I’ll admit it does not favor another outcome and is slanted bc we barely seek out Italian places traveling to larger cities anymore literally because of previous, often very expensive disappointments, like an incredibly mediocre meal at a much touted fancy Italian in NYC, owned by a guy who runs several restaurants and continues to get rave reviews .
Instead, we seek out other cuisines not available in our podunk town, of which there are numerous. I’m also a very good cook and can satisfy any pasta craving we may have in a pinch
We know where to eat which cuisines and be happy: Italian and its many regional varieties, Turkish, Greek & German are great examples of cuisines we save for our Germany trips.
I was hoping to get back on topic, but then I couldn’t resist and wrote
Clearly there are HO’s who are unimpressed with Italian or Mexican food in New York, but fortunately most people can find exceptional food of some kind in NYC, even for $50
No. I don’t find it all that exceptional. It can be good for certain dishes (the blackberry crisp for example) but there are better places that have opened in the last 7-10 years.
It’s been a minute since I lived in New York, and we weren’t fancy, but my mom tried hard, and in the 70’s she always took us to Mama Leone’s for our 16th birthdays.
More recently we have always made time for a very satisfying slice of pizza!
Thanks! I only ate there once about 15 years ago. We didn’t go in expecting much. It seemed like a big, prosperous, broadly people-pleasing restaurant. We’d been hiking, were cold, wet, and hungry, and figured there’d be big portions. But we ordered only the daily specials across the board, and they gave us one of the best meals of our lives (I still think about the incredibly well-prepared sand dab and an extraordinary tagliatelle). I’ve always wondered if it was just a very lucky alignment of stars that night or if Nostrana consistently puts out insanely good food.
I have had some of the best and worst (Frannys!) Mexican and Italian meals of my life here. Just like I had some of the worst bbq of my life in Texas-- undercooked Mutton. Horrible. From a legend. Go figure.
i grew up across the hudson in bergen county. mama leone’s was my parents’ favorite.
as i recall, it was swiss cheese, not mozzarella. one time my mother pulled a plastic bag out of her large purse and wrapped up the remaining cheese. thought my father was going to crawl under the table. my mother told him “they’re just going to throw it away.” a true child of the depression.
Not to mention the more recently arrived italian restauranteurs who are cooking legit “Italian Italian” food including high quality pizzas in our major cities. I havent been to Olive Garden for more than 50 years (and that was in Columbus Ohio) and have Never been to Taco Bell. Its true that there are a lot of mediocre italian and mexican restos especially serving a gringo clientele in surburban and small town areas but in most cities these days if you want to sample something more genuine you can get it, Ive been really surprised at the diversity of cuisines that can be sampled in Central Ohio of all places.
But how much of that diversity has made it down to Athens, Ohio? L, sorry just had to ask, and unfortunately haven’t been there in 50 years. I do remember a “healthy” restaurant in Columbus ~ Sevá. And then a Jefferson Starship concert-
I can think of a handful of places in the city I liked. Crispo comes to mind, where we actually went twice, and then there was a tiny place on the LES that looked like a bakery. Maybe 5 tables at the most, very small menu. I think it was a CH recommendation.
Taco Bell is its own thing! Taco Bell is not trying to compete with the real deal!
It scratches an itch in the burbs, or when the other options are KFC and McDs, or much worse than KFC and McDs.
I order things that I wouldn’t be ordering at a taco truck or taqueria. Such as Border Fries, Bean Burritos, various Limited Time Only features.
I have ordered a bean and cheese burrito at a Manhattan Taco Bell, decades ago, when I lived there.
Over the past 30 years, my amount of time spent in NYC is typically very short, usually 4 to 6 nights, so I typically avoid all the multinational chains and focus on the local stuff.
Granted, it’s not exactly diverse and maybe a bit too plebeian after going to NYC, but how about a place like Schnipper’s. Basically a nice but upscale burger joint?
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Keste, I think.
