Foodle

🔥 Meet @starbirdchicken Indian Hotbird – where crispy chicken + bold masala spice = pure magic 🌶️✨
Think Hot Masala seasoning with a fiery Masala Fire Shake, cooled down with tangy Tamarind Mint Raita + creamy Tikka Sauce. Every bite is heat + flavor perfectly balanced.
But let’s talk about the real star… the Masala Street Fries 🍟👇
Golden fries loaded with masala spice, raita, tikka drizzle, Nashville oil & fresh herbs. Spicy, saucy, crunchy – basically fries that deserve their own spotlight.
A little spicy, a lot flavorful 🌶️ Who’s down to try the Indian Hotbird lineup with me? 🙌 #yum #starbird #lafoodie Less

The awesome & hard-working owners at Chicanta — my Restaurant of the Year in 2024 — had to relocate after a fire recently. Their temporary roost is the second-floor dining room at nearby 1400 Meridian Place NW. The food, drink and service makes me feel like I’m at the original: at home! I especially love the seafood “cocktail” and beefy tlayuda washed back with a mango margarita. Go! #mexicanfood #dceats @chicatanadc Less

With style and soul, Enomah debuted in Detroit’s Harmonie Park this year with sushi, elevated comfort food and colorful craft cocktails. This is the second venture for LaDonna Reynolds, who also owns Good Times on the Ave. Enomah is open for dinner Thurs.-Sat. and brunch on Sundays. Read the full review in today’s Detroit News 🐉💙🧡 @enomahdetroit #detroitrestaurants #restaurantreview Less

I can’t pinpoint the dish that first made me fall for @spoonandstable .

My earliest dinner there, four years ago, was on a hot late summer night, a month after I had moved eastward from the Bay Area. The ceilings were extraordinarily high; the steel bar counter seemed to run forever; all life flowed from a bright open kitchen, where nothing (openly) misses a beat; and my dining companion, a former colleague who shall remain nameless, ordered a margarita while he perused the menu for half an hour.

Because this was a Gavin Kaysen restaurant, I expected — and received — the hedonistic cues of a decorated chef in Daniel Boulud’s orbit: a surfeit of dressy components finishing the entrees; the rebellious, barely opaque fish cookery; the thin but potent sauces, like the Americane, throttled with butter. Spoon had the soul of a French-leaning New American restaurant, but in guise it leaned Midwestern. Which meant service without the (overt) airs — not like at Cafe Boulud, which I had visited as a wide-eyed, culturally-hungry student, when Kaysen was there. That’s when I realized that there was a totem pole of diners; that a maître d’s could sneer at you and still make a positive impression; and that you could pretend to be a critic — scribbling notes on a card — seeding a fantasy that would eventually come true.

Before that fantasy did, I had already found the grace notes of a restaurant where hospitality mattered. In turn, I showed affection by haranguing patient, kind servers with my unsolicited feedback on dishes both terrific and almost so.

Over the years, I’ve re-ordered only a handful of them — mostly for visiting guests — because the thrill was always the rotation: lamb two-ways; gnudi in a potent broth, crowned with purple radishes; crudos under a hail of granita; that sweet corn ravioli with nasturtium-sunflower seed pesto; roasted grouper with smoked scallop XO; and Alexandra Motz’s desserts, including a spumoni and a savory-ish cornmeal-strawberry tart that stands among the best sweets I’ve had all year.

Seventy-six dinners in, I still can’t name the dish that hooked me. But I can name the place. Thank you, Spoon, for the memories. Less

There’s always a bit of Robuchon in the rooms where his alumni land. You may recognize many of his signatures, like the uniform ring of dots as precise as a watch face and the foie-stuffed game bird. But at Gaddi’s, the luster of place takes over.

Seventy two years on, there’s still nothing quite like dinner at the Peninsula Hong Kong’s crown jewel: the discreet private elevator; the blue Tai Ping carpets; the generous acreage between tables, so wide you could snake a tuk-tuk through; the centerpiece of chandelier, as big as palm tree at full mast; the mister and his mistress at Table Four canoodling over caviar and Krug; and the live band enabling these naughty advances. Gaddi’s is where servers take hospitality seriously and who happily field requests for rowdier songs like the ‘Power of Love’. No one, alas, comes here to be judged. Not even the (apparently) single Mr. King.

Those who take food seriously, as they often do here, will find ab accessible, mostly a la carte menu peddling old-school classics, with refreshingly sizable entrées you rarely see in Michelin rooms these days — outside of, say, Le Cinq or L’Ambroisie. Yes, the restaurant’s latest chef, @nicolas.annesophie , is a Robuchon disciple, but the foundation of her training shows up most in the precision of her cooking. Consider the taut, glossy jus; the uniform bronzing on those shatteringly-crisp, potato-wrapped paupiettes; the trio of celtuce, tournéed into miniature canoes, escorting sweet, judiciously poached langoustines.

But Nicolas, unlike her predecessors, smuggles in notes of levity here and there. Which means beneath those heavy, silver cloches and the familiar choreography, you’ll find bearnaise with an electrifying snap or an undercurrent of provencal-ian brightness, like a delicate crab tart set over tomato gelée.

I’ve been lucky to have eaten at Gaddi’s over two decades, and though there have been lulls, I’m happy to report that the kitchen is back in tune, and that the captains still straighten a fork by feel. Less

Last week, after a long day packing up the house, we went to our dear Michelin-starred @tailupgoat, two blocks away.

We had completely forgotten it was Restaurant Week. @jillmarietyler found us a lovely table, and we had what may have been the best of all the many wonderful meals we had at this charming neighborhood spot, where Chef Jon Sybert’s cooking has shone through the years.

Plus the usual tiptop service - how lucky we were to have Tail Up Goat in our own backyard.

#tailupgoat #dceats #restaurantweek #michelinstar Less

Five years later, and I’ll never get over the quesabirria tacos hype — this spot has my absolute favorite in the Tampa Bay area, and my favorite tamarindo agua fresca!

📍 Tacos Las Californias
5635 Memorial Hwy in Tampa
7007 N Armenia Ave. in Tampa
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#ThisJennGirl #TampaInfluencer #TampaFood #TampaBayFoodie #TampaFoodie #TampaEats #ThingsToDoInTampa #TampaRestaurant #Quesabirria #QuesabirriaTacos Less

We usually celebrate our anniversary @fioladc, but this year there was a special surprise. They took us to the rooftop as the sun was setting and chef and owner @fabiotrabocchi was there to greet us and wish us well. It was truly touching and brought back a flood of beautiful memories.

Dinner downstairs was spectacular, thanks to the always gracious staff and @chefantoniomermolia’s extraordinary cooking. Bread piping hot out of the oven, the most divine oysters I’ve ever had, gossamer-like gnocchi, exquisite lamb.

They even brought out cake lollipops, a reference to our wedding there in 2013. Fiola is eating better than ever. A memory we will never forget. Less