Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to 700 of the Best Barbecue Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, and Much, Much More (Paperback)

by Jane Stern (Author), Michael Stern (Author)
Key Phrases: cozy corner, brick pit, little diner, New York, Coney Island, Kansas City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“[ROADFOOD] is a bible for motorists seeking mouth-watering barbecue or homemade pie.” --USA Today --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

“[ROADFOOD] is a bible for motorists seeking mouth-watering barbecue or homemade pie.” --USA Today

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767928296
• ISBN-13: 978-0767928298
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,998 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #6 in	Books > Travel > Reference & Tips > Food & Lodging > Dining
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a 'delicious' book, April 8, 2008

By	wogan "the book reader" (Severna Park, MD United States) - See all my reviews

As usual the Sterns have published another delicious book. They list eating places all over the 48 states. These are those road food diners and joints where you might not stop, sometimes because you wonder what might lie in wait for you behind that door. This even includes new ideas for places you might not have known about in your own area. With this book you can have confidence that here is real food, not that processed, frozen brought to the building and warmed up stuff that passes for most food you get when traveling or even eating locally; but food like your mother - if she was a fantastic cook would have made you. It is true you can get this information and more on their web site, but this is so wonderful to carry in the car. I have never been to a place that they recommended and been sorry. In fact sometimes the places we have stopped have led to the highlights of a trip. We have met locals, gone down roads and stopped at spots we would not have traveled to. It has been our experience that when we enter these mostly beloved local eateries, we are welcomed and we know we are visiting the real America.
With this edition some much needed corrections have been done; there were a couple eating places that had been closed for a long time before their previous edition.
I do wish that more of an effort was made to review and include places that are nearer well traveled tourist sites, so we can avoid the chains and the same restaurants we could eat at while at home. There is a huge lack of information for central Florida and that would have been very welcome. There is almost nothing for traveling along the east coastline in ocean areas and the Outer Banks area with the exception of along the Maine coast; and some western states especially have very little listed. I know it would add to the effort and bulk of the book, but some more directions from interstates would really be nice.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing!, June 23, 2008

By	Nancy Miller "Booklover" (San Franciscoc, CA) - See all my reviews

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!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a great guide to hard to find gems!, May 29, 2008

By	Timothy B. Riley "Traveling Fool" (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Although I am a serious home cook I tend to eat out a lot due to my busy travel schedule. I am always looking for the out-of-the-way places that only the locals know about. This book is my inside guide to those hidden treasures.

First I checked out the cities that I know best and was amazed at how many of the small, jewel-like restaurants that I have visited in the past were included in this book. However, some cities get a lot of coverage and some equally deserving cities got little or no reports. I live in San Antonio and although some of the surrounding cities have restaurants that are included in this book, San Antonio, one of the largest and most unique cities in Texas, gets nothing. Same can be said for many other cities, especially in the Northeast. I understand that no book can adequately cover a subject as broad as this and still please everyone, but I would pay three times as much for a more extensive tome.

I have this book in the Kindle version and though I wish I could get to specific cities quicker, I am not as unhappy as other Kindle version reviewers.