World record buffet at the Las Vegas Hilton.
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I'm not sure the blog format is the best way to handle this, but Tyler Cowen went that route. Nicely links to other reviews. I think Cowen doesn't give sufficient respect to the secret Thai restaurant, but I'm just as happy that only my closest friends know about it.
It's too popular, no one goes there any more
Ray's the Steaks apparently closing out of frustration with the customers. Which may explain why we couldn't get a reservation for the 18th a month in advance.
We had late reservations for Ray's this summer; the people occupying our table beforehand arrived late and took their sweet time, and Michael Landrum was very apologetic that we would be seated so late. It didn't bother us at all, because it so clearly bothered the owner much more than it would've bothered us. (And normally, it would bother me: I still won't go back to Butterfield 9 or Felix because of bad experiences I've had there with overbooked reservations.)
It's funny: politeness is very important to Landrum, so important that it (incorrectly) creates an impression that he is rude when he's simply trying to avoid being forced to violate his code of honor by failing to seat people when they have reservations. It's an interesting issue of market supply and demand: by providing such a high-quality meal at such a low price, Ray's has excess demand, which creates the problems that Landrum complains about, but raising the prices would change what the restaurant is. I hope he can find a happy medium, and I hope the place opens up again and will get around to taking reservations.
We had late reservations for Ray's this summer; the people occupying our table beforehand arrived late and took their sweet time, and Michael Landrum was very apologetic that we would be seated so late. It didn't bother us at all, because it so clearly bothered the owner much more than it would've bothered us. (And normally, it would bother me: I still won't go back to Butterfield 9 or Felix because of bad experiences I've had there with overbooked reservations.)
It's funny: politeness is very important to Landrum, so important that it (incorrectly) creates an impression that he is rude when he's simply trying to avoid being forced to violate his code of honor by failing to seat people when they have reservations. It's an interesting issue of market supply and demand: by providing such a high-quality meal at such a low price, Ray's has excess demand, which creates the problems that Landrum complains about, but raising the prices would change what the restaurant is. I hope he can find a happy medium, and I hope the place opens up again and will get around to taking reservations.
El Tiempo Cantina (Houston)
Tom Kirkendall had coffee with me and Slim on our weekend Houston visit, and, in between trading great war stories, pointed out the latest Laurenzo-family restaurant venture, El Tiempo Cantina. (I didn't know that Mama Ninfa Laurenzo invented the fajita. Good for her.)
Slim and I didn't need much of an excuse for a lunch quest, and we didn't regret the choice. In the giant menus, our eyes were seized by the same taco-enchilada-fajita combination, and everything (save the pea-ridden rice) was quite tasty; the chile-cheese enchiladas skimped on nothing. And, of course, there was green sauce with the chips. Best Tex-Mex I've had in recent memory, and just really puts DC to shame that noone has come close to duplicating it here while places like Rio Grande and Austin Grill thrive.
While researching this blog post, I learned that Marco's, a childhood favorite Mexican chain because of its ludicrously cheap fajitas, was launched by the same Pakistani immigrant who turned around Two Pesos and sold it to Taco Cabana. Slim and I stopped by one of the surviving Marco's, and the fajitas lived up to childhood memories. The neighborhood, a triangle around Main, Kirby, and Old Spanish Trail, in the shadow of Reliant Stadium, also has a Luther's and an Antone's within the same extended parking lot as Marco's (the anchor is a Fiesta), as if to provide a central location for all my childhood favorites.
Slim and I didn't need much of an excuse for a lunch quest, and we didn't regret the choice. In the giant menus, our eyes were seized by the same taco-enchilada-fajita combination, and everything (save the pea-ridden rice) was quite tasty; the chile-cheese enchiladas skimped on nothing. And, of course, there was green sauce with the chips. Best Tex-Mex I've had in recent memory, and just really puts DC to shame that noone has come close to duplicating it here while places like Rio Grande and Austin Grill thrive.
While researching this blog post, I learned that Marco's, a childhood favorite Mexican chain because of its ludicrously cheap fajitas, was launched by the same Pakistani immigrant who turned around Two Pesos and sold it to Taco Cabana. Slim and I stopped by one of the surviving Marco's, and the fajitas lived up to childhood memories. The neighborhood, a triangle around Main, Kirby, and Old Spanish Trail, in the shadow of Reliant Stadium, also has a Luther's and an Antone's within the same extended parking lot as Marco's (the anchor is a Fiesta), as if to provide a central location for all my childhood favorites.