179 of 198 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
City Food, not Road Food, August 10, 2005
This review is from: Roadfood: Revised Edition (Paperback)
I just bought this book and am really disappointed. I had expected something like the reviewers said, "a bible for motorists", "dining options along America's highways and back roads", "regional maps", etc. I checked out Wisconsin first, because that's where I live and what I know best. 18 places reviewed and 10 of them are in Milwaukee, with 3 more in the 'burbs. 2 in Green Bay, neither of which I would put in a book on great food - 'tis true, Krolls is good, but it's the East side Krolls (different owners, vastly better food), not the West side one, although of course with the West side, you do get to mention Lambeau Field, Green Bay's Mecca.
Racine, Sheboygan and Manitowoc get the other state listings. Recap: 18 in Wisconsin, 13 of which are in Milwaukee. Two of the places virtually every Wisconsinite will cite as great food options are Madison and Door County, neither of which get a mention.
OK, maybe I'm being too hard on the authors. Maybe I should forget about the ethnic smorgasbord in Madison and all the tasty home made ice creams and other places in Door County and just admit Milwaukee has all the great road food - but see folks, the problem is, I wasn't expecting listings like Watts Tea Room or Karl Ratzsch's ($79 Porterhouse for 2). Guess my roadfood budget is different than others roadfood budget.
So get over Wisconsin. How about Illinois? 24 listings, guess where 18 are? Yup, Chicago. So if you didn't fill up, or shoot your budget in Milwaukee, just drive south an hour or so, and cruise the highways and backroads of the Windy City.
Hey, get out of the Midwest. Let's go South. How about Kentucky? I'm fairly familiar with that state, mmm, not a lot of good food in Kentucky apparently, only 5 listings. OK, maybe Kentuckians are just bad cooks. Again, though, the good cooks are clustered together (is it the same air, I wonder?). 3 of the recommended restaurants are in Louisville, 1 in Henderson, 1 in Owensville. Knoxville? Uh-uh. Lexington? Nope.
As for those "regional maps", don't leave yours at home when you travel. The maps are regional all right - 5 or so states in a clump and the restaurant cities listed. So, at the beginning of the Midwest section, you can see the trip to find all this great road food nicely hugs the Lake Michigan shoreline and goes down in a straight line.
All of the chapters I looked at (maybe 1/3 of the book so far) are like that. It looks like someone took A Trip, from city to city and stopped and investigated some restaurants in those cities.
If you love to travel from big city to big city, eat your heart out while you're there and have money to burn, this is the book for you. Wanna buy my copy cheap?
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49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing!, June 23, 2008
We recently purchased the new edition of 'Roadfood' to take along with us on our recent road trip through the Southwest. In the course of the trip, we tried three places recommended in this guide. The first, the Nevada Dinner House, had been acquired by new owners and our dinners bore little resemblance to those described in the guide. The second meal, at Pasqual's in New Mexico, was excellent. Unfortunately, the total bill was not the $30-40 predicted by the guide, but rather $100 dollars for three diners (including tip). We ordered no alcohol, shared a dessert, and one of the diners was a child. Our final shot with the guide, at Old Smokey's Diner in Arizona was also a miss. The guide described the excellence of the five varieties of bread, along with a number of sweet breakfast bread options included with the breakfast or available for sale by the loaf. In actuality, the restaurant's bread was the standard store-bought bread, available at any Denny's and NOT for sale by the loaf.
While I'm sure that all of the places mentioned in the guide were at one time as wonderful as described, it appears that the authors may not be doing careful research on the continuing quality of some of their old favorites.
Despite this, I'm still giving the book two stars because it is excellent, mouth-watering reading. I wish the places they described actually existed, though!
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensible for road trips, February 1, 2006
This review is from: Roadfood: Revised Edition (Paperback)
Roadfood isn't exactly the American Michelin Guide to fine dining, but it fills perhaps an even more important niche, in the sense that it covers the types of places real people might actually find themselves eating at. As such, it aims at finding places serving food unique or typical of the region, joints that do the seemingly ordinary, extraordinarily well.
The book is organized by region and then by state within that region. New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Deep South are likely the best covered area, the Great Plains the least. The maps won't help you find a place, and directions are hardly ever included in the reviews, but phone numbers are listed and a reader with a cell phone can do the rest. The Sterns visit lobster shacks in Maine, ethnic delis in New York, barbecue and oyster joints in the south, and so on. Their taste runs very much to the real and indisputably authentic; good service, friendly people and atmosphere, and pride in cooking always win out over fancy decorations. I have been to over 40 of the establishments listed here over the years, and only very few fall into the `fine dining' category of any other guidebook. There are some pricey places listed, but they are far outnumbered by places where a meal and a soda or beer can be had for under $15.
There are cities that are more thoroughly covered than others; but let's face it, Chicago and New York have a lot more and better places that fit the Roadfood mission than Billings, Montana might. It's not a guide to your neighborhood eateries, it's a guide to funky places around the country, wherever they may be. Someone looking for cheap and good grub in their hometown should consult their local phone book.
I take this book with me on every road trip. It invites the reader to explore the side roads, talk to new people, and connect with America. It is a delight to browse through, well written and with a love for the sheer pleasure of finding a place still true to itself. It is the antidote to a dull set of drive-through meals along the interstate.
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