Top Ten (x2): H & B’s Favorite Restaurants on the Planet

Back pre-kids we used to go out to eat a lot. I’d venture to say that we (especially I) were getting very close to the edge… the edge of what might be considered Food Snobiness. We were getting a little too close for comfort to that category of people labeled ‘Foodies.’ You know, people who are totally up-to-speed on the latest trends in food, wine, and Zagats. I read cooking magazines and cookbooks as if they were engulfing novels of literature. They were stacked up on my bedside table with sticky notes and pens in piles neatly beside them. I watched The Cooking Channel. We dined at fine restaurants regularly. Very regularly. I knew wine. Like, really knew wine. Like, we spent a few days exploring the vineyards of Burgundy, France and I was not at all intimidated or overwhelmed. Well, times have changed. Oh, how times have changed. Back then I would not have touched a hot dog with a ten foot pole. Tonight, I just grilled hot dogs for dinner. Back then I would have poured the bottle out if the wine wasn’t tasting just so (regardless of how pricey that bottle was). Right now, I’m sipping a glass of mediocre (very mediocre) wine. Back then I would not have stepped foot into a Red Robin if you had paid me (let alone a McDonalds!). But now… well… Red Robin is one of the boys’ favorite restaurants (and although they refuse to eat the food at McDonalds –other than the french fries; they will eat those– they LOVE the playspaces at “Ronald McDonald’s” and we go there sometimes… not out of desperation but totally voluntarily and with smiles on our faces [and yes, I eat a Quarter Pounder With Cheese about 3-4 times a year]). Yes, yes, yes, times have changed. Oh, how they’ve changed.

The one thing I’m proud of though is that even in our food snobbiest of Foodie days we were always adventurous eaters, and we still are. Ethnic food? Yes. Holes-in-the-wall with mis-matched metal chairs? Yes. Restaurants that nobody ‘who knows’ has heard of because they are never reviewed in The New York Times? Yes. We have been there, and we go there. And we will admit, too, that we have dined in some of the most exquisite places on earth. Literally. And we’re not ashamed to tell the stories with sparkles in our eyes (and memories of unbelievable fois gras and champagne). So, when it comes to restaurants, we’re kind of a mixed bag. And proud of it. Or, at least, not ashamed of it. Here is our Top Ten (x2) Favorite Restaurants on the Planet List.

{in chronological order based on our own discovery of them… websites linked whenever the restaurant has one; some of these places are, unfortunately, now out of business}