Favourite Restaurants - Chad Childers

Detroit - New Orleans - San Francisco - Paris - Edinburgh - Glasgow - Madison - Chicago

Paris

• The staff at Julien are warm and welcoming, the service exquisite, the restaurant an art nouveau masterpiece in stained glass and wood dating from the 1800's, and the food absolutely wonderful. The crayfish salad and their famous profiteroles with fresh cream and a silver tureen of chocolate are not to be missed. Also well-known for their wonderful goose cassolet.
  Chad 1997
  The food and service are still perfection - this is a place to take your Parisian friends to impress them with your good taste. The duck liver is unbelievable, even tried beef bone marrow. The neighborhood is really going downhill, though.
  Chad 2000
• A gorgeous Art-deco restaurant near Gare du Nord, worth a visit just for seeing. The waiting is quick and efficient, the food is fine and it is always crowded.
  
  by Sape Mullender 1995

L'Ambassade du Sud-Ouest
M. Lalanne
46, Ave. de la Bourdonnais (7ème)
(Metro Ecole Militaire)
Paris, France
$

• Specializing in the cuisine of southwestern France, there are at least ten different preparations of duck on the menu, and even the eel is good. Very convivial, country-style, toasters on each table for their homemade bread. You'll want to go back.
  Chad 2000

Edinburgh

Glasgow

• Best Indian food I've ever had. Large menu, including delicate dishes for people who wouldn't normally think they like Indian. Great service, friendly staff dressed in kilts, they even took a picture of us with a polaroid, put it in a little frame with a business card, and gave it to us when we asked them to pose for pictures with us. Don't expect hoity-toity service, this is Glasgow at its best, wi' a honest, sonsie face. - Chad 2004
• Mr. Singh's India is one of four restaurants chosen to represent Glasgow in the Curry Capital of Britain competition. Glasgow wins almost every year. - BBC News 2003

Detroit

• Moro's is unique. Impeccable service, wonderful food (primarily Italian, concentrating on a number of fantastic veal dishes). The salads, chateaubriand, and flaming deserts (all prepared at tableside) are out of this world.
  Chad 1999

The Whitney
4421 Woodward
Detroit, MI
phone: (313) 832-5700
Reservations Recommended, suitable attire
$$$$

• The decor and service are outstanding, the food somewhat overpriced. The lobster and the lobster bisque are the best things on the dinner menu. Reasonable, lovely Sunday brunch. You can walk in anytime without reservations and go upstairs for dessert, which is possibly the best plan.
  Chad 2001

Fishbone's Rhythm Kitchen Cafe
400 Monroe (Greektown)
Detroit, MI
phone: (313) 965-4600
$$$

• Best Cajun in the Midwest - Shane Cook 1997

New Orleans

Commander's Palace, haute creole
Brennan family
1403 Washington Avenue (Garden District)
St.Charles streetcar to Washington (Scheinuk's Florist is gone, so you have to look for the street sign)
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 899-8221; Fax: (504) 891-3242
Reservations Recommended, suitable attire
$$$$

• If you live in New Orleans, this is where you go for Mothers' Day (reservations a year in advance). If you're visiting, make reservations for a weekend jazz brunch at least a week before you intend to visit. You'll thank me. Sets a world standard for service, a team of waiters attending every table, with a head waiter in each room constantly watching to see that your glass is never empty, your wants are attended to instantly. Brunch is even reasonably priced, if you consider the quality of the food. The turtle soup and the bread pudding are justly famous. Menu varies frequently, I think my favorite that they still make is the Eggs Hussarde. Ask to see the garden, you'll have to walk through the kitchen, which is great fun in and of itself.
  Chad 1998
• Visited a month after they reopened, still great, but didn't have full staff yet. Had Poppy Brite's favorite appetizer, the shrimp and tasso Henican... great, but not as earth-shatteringly good as the turtle soup or the oysters Rockefeller (though the latter was created at Antoine's). The poached duck egg with duck debris and mayhaw jelly was great, the griddle cakes were good, but a bit too filling.
  Chad 2006

Bozo's, CLOSED
Chris Vodanovich RIP

• "Best broiled seafood in town, best raw oysters anywhere" - Zagat
• Typical old New Orleans neighborhood restaurant. Opened in 1928 in the city, the neighborhood turned bad around it and Bozo's son Chris moved it to the suburbs after the old man passed away. A common first stop for Y'ats who are living away from home. All of the seafood is extremely fresh, very lightly spiced. The broiled seafood is perfection, the fried seafood is very lightly battered and fresh oil is used every time. This is the only place I'll eat fried catfish. The shrimp po-boys are pure ambrosia.
  Chad 1998

Mandina's, Creole/Italian
3800 Canal St. (corner of Carollton)
$$

• Reopened! Haven't been back yet, but happy memories of Trout Almandine, this is the classic N'awlins family restaurant.

Camillia Grill, lunch counter
626 S. Carrollton (Riverbend)
St.Charles streetcar to Carrollton
phone (504) 866-9573
$

• The place Tulane students have had breakfast (usually in the afternoon) for over a hundred years. - Chad 1997
• Reopened 2007, have not visited yet, no longer owned by the Schwartz family.

The Bakery, Po-Boy shop
Coz
5321 Franklin Ave
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
$

• An old Gentilly UNO hangout, try the BBQ beef po-boy, any of the daily specials, or if you're brave, the Chamber of Horrors. Central Grocery is more famous, but this is my personal favorite. - Chad 1998
• Destroyed by the hurricane, Koz opened a new place in Harahan, (Koz's) just not the same. Fallback po-boy shops: Central Grocery in the Quarter or Mother's in the CBD.

Palace Cafe
Dickie Brennan
605 Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Reservations Recommended
$$$

• A new restaurant in the old Werlein's building, and the Brennan family have outdone themselves as usual. The service is not quite up to Commanders' standards, but it's a much more relaxed atmosphere, and the food is exquisite. All of the appetizers are must-trys, the tournedos are magnificent, and every desert is amazingly wonderful. I would consider just getting every appetizer, salad, and soup on the menu and sharing.
  Chad 1998

Coop's Place
1109 Decatur St. (French Quarter)
New Orleans, Louisiana 70116
$

• My friend Harrison's new favorite hang-out... Coop's looks like a seedy old bar, and is a bar, but has a menu that you would not believe until you realized that Coop started out as a cook at Commander's. I had the pasta Opelousas, with shrimp, tasso, chicken, & shiitake mushrooms, incredible. Went back and had the smoked duck quesadilla... wow!
  Chad 2006

Deanie's Seafood
1713 Lake Avenue (Bucktown)
Metairie, Louisiana 70005
$$

• Only survivor of the Bucktown seafood restaurants... good, dependable fresh seafood, large portions, but I'm still missing some of the others.
  Chad 2006

San Francisco

• Gorgeous architecture and design, great service, great food. Not just a meal, an experience, from the jellyfish light fixtures to the free amuse bouche that starts the meal, everything is fresh and delightful. - Chad 2005

Cinque Terre
641 Vallejo (North Beach)
San Francisco, CA
phone: 415-402-0895
$

• Fantastic, friendly neighborhood restaurant, specializing in northern italian seafood dishes, might have been more expensive, but they brought us crostini and the best tiramisu I've ever had in my life, both on the house. - Chad 2005

Ti Couz
3108 16th St (Mission)
San Francisco, CA
phone: 415-251-7373
$$

• Perfect crepes, many kinds of cider, including Magners on tap and Kir Breton.... - Chad 2005

Fog City Diner
1300 Battery St. (Embarcadero)
San Francisco, CA
phone: 415-982-2000
Reservations Recommended
$$$

• Great fun, very good food. Try the "hoity toity stuff" or a number of the "small plates". - Chad 1996

Stinking Rose, Garlic
325 Columbus Ave. (North Beach)
San Francisco, CA
phone: 415) PU-1-ROSE
$$

• Very entertaining, great for those who LOVE garlic. The Bagna Calda should not be missed. - Chad 2001

Madison

• Truly, the best prime rib around. Thurs/Sat sees the 32oz special, which is enough meat for a whole year. The Bavarian platter is a wonderful assemblage of schnitzel, spaetzle, red cabbage, too much ham, and sauerbraten, all wonderful, but too much for 2 people. The liver dumpling soup is not to be missed. Recently opened the "Come Back Inn" for breakfast, next door. - Chad 1998

Chicago

• My favorite Chicago stuffed pizza. The spinach is particularly good. - Chad 1998

Berghoff, german
17 W Adams St
Chicago, IL
phone: 312-427-3170
$$

• Only visited once, want to try again. - Chad 2000

Giannotti's, Italian Steakhouse
closed/moved to Oakbrook Terrace?

For Austin and Detroit, don't forget Shane's Good Cheap Dining
For a more continental flavor, try Sape's restaurant list