The WordPress/JetPack writing prompt for today is:
Which is the best restaurant in your city?

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not a foodie. When it comes to eating, I prefer a fairly boring, spice-free diet. So on the one hand, I’m not the best person to ask about restaurants. On the other hand, I’ve lived a ton of places and have eaten in interesting restaurants in many cities.

So, I’ll offer some memories of restaurants I’ve enjoyed. But be warned, I’m not a foodie. I may remember the restaurant fondly, but it doesn’t mean I remember what I ate.

My first memory of an outstanding restaurant was one near Stratford, southern Ontario. Back in the early 1990s I was taking my girlfriend for a romantic weekend in Stratford (we had tickets to two plays at the Stratford Festival: Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing*). My girlfriend was a vegetarian, which was still a novelty back then, nowhere near as mainstream as it is now. Finding a restaurant that would accommodate her was not easy.

When I called this restaurant to see if they could accommodate her, the receptionist put me on hold, and then came back and said that while the restaurant didn’t specifically offer vegetarian courses, that when we arrived, the chef would present a menu of vegetarian dishes he could make that night, given the day’s specials.

When we arrived, the Maitre’d had a printed menu just for my girlfriend. It had perhaps four options, and not just some pasta.

The other memorable element of our dinner was that the restaurant had a wine list, a special reserve wine list, and wines that were on neither list. They stocked some specific vintages at the request of guests, and we could browse the wine racks along one of the dining room’s walls to see if any of those appealed. I’m sure, given our budget, that we picked off the general wine list, but my girlfriend, who kept a wine diary, was in heaven, both for the wines and the special treatment of her dietary needs.

I just searched for the restaurant, only to discover that it is now an event (weddings etc) hall and no longer a restaurant. You can not make individual reservations to dine there. Such a loss.

There’s a famous restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya called Carnivores. It’s a place where meat lovers can eat many African delicacies. Eventually they opened a second one in Johannesburg, South Africa. I got included in a dinner party at that one when my employer was hosting an important guest.

I’ll tell you right now there’s a reason why people in general don’t eat giraffe, zebra, and crocodile, and it’s not because they’re ‘cute.’ I’ve sampled all of those, and no, they’re not a delicacy. They’re a novelty, and once you’ve sampled them, you won’t want more.

Having said that, I’d never eaten venison before moving to South Africa. Kudu is the local source of venison, a deer-equivalent hoofed herbivore. Kudu have the misfortune of having three things humans want: delicious meat, a leathery skin that makes good work gloves or rugged clothing, and horns that locals think are medicinal. But you don’t have to go to Carnivores to eat Kudu. It’s on the menu at most braai (barbecue) restaurants and in many local communities.

Where I live now, Malaysia, is considered a foodie paradise. But I’m not a foodie. I don’t like spicy food, nor seafood, two of Malaysia’s strengths. So the best restaurant that i’ve been to here would be Samba Brazilian Steakhouse in Kuala Lumpur. This isn’t a place where you order a stake. This is a place where waiters walk around with massive skewers of meats cooked in various incarnations. If you see one you like, they slice the meat straight from the skewer onto your plate. By the local standard, it’s pretty pricey, and sometimes it’s hard to eat enough to feel like you’ve gotten your money’s worth. But what you do eat will be so good.

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*Both those plays had the amazing Colm Feore as the lead. Lately he’s been appearing in some high profile American TV shows like The Umbrella Academy and Landman. He was also King Laufey in the first Thor movie (2011).