The Source Weekly's "Best of" Ballot
The Source Weekly is accepting your votes for their "Best of" list. Only a couple more days to vote although I'm not sure it matters. I mean is it different from year to year? Seems like the same people and places make the list each year. Let me guess, Kristi Miller will get the Best TV Personality for like the 20th time in a row....is there another TV personality out there?
Vote Here
Feel free to copy my answers for Best of Food since I am right and everyone that disagrees is just wrong.
Best Fine Dining - The Jackalope Grill
Best Place to Buy Fresh Veggies & Fruit - I don't buy either of these normally but the wife loves going to the Farmers Market so that's my vote. When the farmers market is not available, Rays has some good produce.
Best Casual Dining - Deschutes Brew Pub. Now, this has been a staple of mine for a long time but they have recently gone through a major restructuring. They lost some management, servers, and kitchen staff. All on top of a new menu. The service has been great especially when we get one of the waitresses that have been there a while and knows us. But the food has been taking forever to get out of the kitchen. Hopefully things will get back to the way they were.
Best Service - El Caporal or Les Schwab. Les Schwab counts doesn't it? They have popcorn and free beef.
Best Rookie Restaurant - Deep (of course)
Best Vegetarian - I didn't answer...I have no idea. "Vegetables are what food eats".
Best Bakery - Hurricanes
Best Grocery Store - I know you will all say Newport or something lame but for me it has to be Rays...they have a liquor store, hands down the winner.
Best Lunch - Toomies can't be beat for $5.95 you get a small salad with peanut sauce, rice, phad thai, and whatever your dish is.
Best Cheap Eats - Reyes Tortillaria
Best Breakfast - I now you will say The Vic but for me it's Westside Bakery.
Best Coffee House - Thump is pretty cool.
Best BBQ - Really? Does this really need to be a category. It's obviously Baldy's...is there another BBQ joint in town? Don't you dare say the all you can eat one on 97, when was the last time they were robbed?
Best Pizza - Cibelli's on the West Side.
Best Sushi - Another obvious choice...Deep.
Best Mexican - Nice category...sooo many places to choose from it should almost be top 5 Mexican restaurants. I listed Pepe's as my favorite even though I've only been there once. My top 5 would be:
Pepe's
El Caporal
Hola!
Reyes Tortillaria
Taco Stand
Now Hola! has been getting some jacked up comments on their post lately. I have had good experiences there but it's been a while.
Best Asian - I'm not even sure how to answer this one. I guessed SOBA since they have a variety of Asian dishes.
Best Italian - I didn't know Bend has any Italian restaurants so I said Cibelli's.
Best Steak - The Jackalope Grill...I know you didn't think the $32 Zydeco steak was going to get my vote.
Best Seafood - I think I made a mistake on my form when I submitted to the source, I put Cork. Why would I do that? I had fish there once and it was delicious....I should have said Bend Fish Company or even better, Baltazar's! Yeah that's right, I said it, Baltazar's Seafood and Spirits. Bring the hate comments on, I don't care. I like Baltazar's and many of my friends have admitted to going there knowing full well of the news coverage. And these are friends with kids. Why do they go there? "We wanted to go somewhere without kids on our night out". Interesting.
Best Dessert - Can't beat the sampler for two at The Blacksmith.
Best Bagel - Big O' Bagels
Best Burger - Dandy's. Skip Pilot Butte, they win every year.
Best Ethnic - I thought for a long while on this and finally decided that you can't get more "ethnic" than Reyes Tortillaria.
Best Patio Dining - At least until construction starts I like Bend Brewing Company's patio for it's location downtown but not on the sidewalk. The outdoor seating at the Bendistillery is pretty sweet too. I don't like outdoor seating when people can walk too close to your table...especially with their dogs...not a fan.
Best Wine List - Merenda's? I don't know. Oh shoot! I should have said Cork! My bad.
Vote Here
Feel free to copy my answers for Best of Food since I am right and everyone that disagrees is just wrong.
Best Fine Dining - The Jackalope Grill
Best Place to Buy Fresh Veggies & Fruit - I don't buy either of these normally but the wife loves going to the Farmers Market so that's my vote. When the farmers market is not available, Rays has some good produce.
Best Casual Dining - Deschutes Brew Pub. Now, this has been a staple of mine for a long time but they have recently gone through a major restructuring. They lost some management, servers, and kitchen staff. All on top of a new menu. The service has been great especially when we get one of the waitresses that have been there a while and knows us. But the food has been taking forever to get out of the kitchen. Hopefully things will get back to the way they were.
Best Service - El Caporal or Les Schwab. Les Schwab counts doesn't it? They have popcorn and free beef.
Best Rookie Restaurant - Deep (of course)
Best Vegetarian - I didn't answer...I have no idea. "Vegetables are what food eats".
Best Bakery - Hurricanes
Best Grocery Store - I know you will all say Newport or something lame but for me it has to be Rays...they have a liquor store, hands down the winner.
Best Lunch - Toomies can't be beat for $5.95 you get a small salad with peanut sauce, rice, phad thai, and whatever your dish is.
Best Cheap Eats - Reyes Tortillaria
Best Breakfast - I now you will say The Vic but for me it's Westside Bakery.
Best Coffee House - Thump is pretty cool.
Best BBQ - Really? Does this really need to be a category. It's obviously Baldy's...is there another BBQ joint in town? Don't you dare say the all you can eat one on 97, when was the last time they were robbed?
Best Pizza - Cibelli's on the West Side.
Best Sushi - Another obvious choice...Deep.
Best Mexican - Nice category...sooo many places to choose from it should almost be top 5 Mexican restaurants. I listed Pepe's as my favorite even though I've only been there once. My top 5 would be:
Pepe's
El Caporal
Hola!
Reyes Tortillaria
Taco Stand
Now Hola! has been getting some jacked up comments on their post lately. I have had good experiences there but it's been a while.
Best Asian - I'm not even sure how to answer this one. I guessed SOBA since they have a variety of Asian dishes.
Best Italian - I didn't know Bend has any Italian restaurants so I said Cibelli's.
Best Steak - The Jackalope Grill...I know you didn't think the $32 Zydeco steak was going to get my vote.
Best Seafood - I think I made a mistake on my form when I submitted to the source, I put Cork. Why would I do that? I had fish there once and it was delicious....I should have said Bend Fish Company or even better, Baltazar's! Yeah that's right, I said it, Baltazar's Seafood and Spirits. Bring the hate comments on, I don't care. I like Baltazar's and many of my friends have admitted to going there knowing full well of the news coverage. And these are friends with kids. Why do they go there? "We wanted to go somewhere without kids on our night out". Interesting.
Best Dessert - Can't beat the sampler for two at The Blacksmith.
Best Bagel - Big O' Bagels
Best Burger - Dandy's. Skip Pilot Butte, they win every year.
Best Ethnic - I thought for a long while on this and finally decided that you can't get more "ethnic" than Reyes Tortillaria.
Best Patio Dining - At least until construction starts I like Bend Brewing Company's patio for it's location downtown but not on the sidewalk. The outdoor seating at the Bendistillery is pretty sweet too. I don't like outdoor seating when people can walk too close to your table...especially with their dogs...not a fan.
Best Wine List - Merenda's? I don't know. Oh shoot! I should have said Cork! My bad.
Labels: Bend's Best Restaurants
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9What? Got something to say?
You don't think Ernesto's or Zucca are Italian? Or at least quasi-Italian? :)
Quasi-Italian, I love that.
I think Ernesto's is about as Italian as the Olive Garden and I won't return to Zucca, at least not until they change their menu again...which should happen in 5, 4, 3, 2...
So I jokingly do not consider these places Italian.
Jumping into the Italian conversation... I know they are overpriced but what about Staccato? Or Johnny Carino's (they are slightly more Italian than the Olive Garden).
I have heard good things about the Italian places in Redmond (Puleo's, Guido & Vito)... maybe you should have lunch "North of the yuppie line" some day? ;)
Ah Jen, I will agree with you on Staccato, I just didn't classify them as Italian I guess. I need to get that review done. We were unimpressed especially for the price. But you're right, for Italian I guess it would be Staccato by default.
Johnny Carino's? Really? No, just no.
As for Redmond, I wonder what Redmond Reviewed would say about those places.
Actually, I like Guiseppe's downtown. I mean, they have Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Bacon sauce! How can you go wrong? At the atmosphere isn't great in the restaurant, but it's rather fun to eat in the bar. Ciao!
As far as italian in bend. i worked at both zucca and staccato. i think they have the idea right but when it comes to actual preperation in italian style i have to go with jodi over at merenda. even though it's not "italian" the food is done in a more italian style.
I've lived in Bend for thirty four years or something, so my "bests" are probably way out in left field...
Best supermarket: Erickson's on Greenwood. No yuppies; the staff get to know you and are super friendly, real get to know you; no parking problems, and again, no yuppies.
I also love the Grocery Outlet. It is like thrift shopping--you never know what you might find, and sometimes there are bona fide treasures. Also no yuppies.
What's wrong with the BBQ place that WAS on 97? Does it really matter if they were all you can eat or had been robbed? It was WAY better than Baldy's. It was amazing. And there's no reason why you shouldn't count it as a "real" BBQ place.
Way to join the conversation in a timely manner Anonymous. I guess your dial up AOL account is just now allowing that post from 2007 to load. Tonight the tv premier of Back to the Future III is on, don't miss it.
Read Kasey's BBQ Review Here, Jacknut
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