Finding restaurants

In article , PeterN wrote:

Sandman:
Of course, that's the freaking point. I've consistently said that
finding good food in America is hard - *especially* in the tourist
areas.

In prior posts some of us explained that it was not hard at all, and
the methods stated.

No methods were stated. Andreas agreed that in that area, there are no good
restaurants, and the methods proposed by nospam was "phone book"
(*snicker*) and using "the internet", which include Yelp, which he also
said was unreliable. And googling, many of the hits showed restaurants that
were *not* in the tourist area, supporting the original claim.

All you did was give a whining excuse that no method worked for you,
although you never tried any of them. The obvious answer is that your
above statement is completely wrong. I will let the readers come to their
own conclusion.

What you won't do is do anything to counter the claim, of course.




--
Sandman[.net]

In article , PeterN wrote:

Sandman:
That tacky area is on the way to the apartment, or at
least on the quickest route to the apartment. Plus, going
there, how do the tourist even determine that this is a "tacky
area"? You obviously know that it's a tacky area, but
non-locals (foreigners and americans alike) have no way of
knowing this, right?

PeterN:
Wrong.

Sandman:
Then how were we supposed to know?

Asked and answered.

Incorrect.

Sandman:
You made it your problem when you claimed we did
something wrong. If we had been in Eurodisney in France and in
the same circumstance, the route to the apartment would have
had plenty of good restaurants and we'd be hard pressed to
find one as bad as the ones we found.

PeterN:
Prejudiced, anti-American speculation.

Sandman:
Rather, actual experience with both France and America.

Prior answers were ignored.

What prior answers? Quotes? No? Didn't think so.

It's a moot claim - any supposed "answers" would have come when I was
already back in Sweden. I didn't ask for advice when I was in the states.

PeterN:
Then you made a choice, and have no valid grounds to complain. I
had business in Orlando and had no problem finding excellent
restaurants.

Sandman:
My claim has always been that it's really hard to find good food
in tourist areas in America. As a tourist, it's not really that
illogical for me to be in such an area.

You have been in all tourist areas here.

No, in one. I just extrapolate it to include other, similar areas - and
Savageduck seems to confirm that the same area for Disney Land would have
the same "problem".

It's really hard when you don't follow advice.

What advice? Don't be afraid to be specific.

PeterN:
Anything is hard to find if you don't look in the right places.

Sandman:
It's knowing what *is* the supposed "right place" that's the
problem. This is what I said from the very start:

"But, as I said, there surely ARE places with good food, it's just
that it's damn hard to find if you don't know where they are. "

already answered.

Incorrect.

--
Sandman[.net]

In article , Andreas Skitsnack wrote:

Sandman:
So, this is indeed the "corridor" you were in reference to when
you said this:

"A poster here has repeatedly whinged about not being able to find
good restaurants in the tourist corridor of the Orlando area."

And do you also agree that you yourself have helped me support
that claim, you yourself can not find a good restaurant in this
area, right? So my initial claim, my "whinge" and my assertion
has been 100% correct. Right?

No. The tourist corridor, in this case, extends from downtown
Kissimmee to several miles west of your location and south several
miles. There was no good restaurant, in my opinion, in the small
segment for which you provided a map.

Isn't this where you're supposed to:

1. List these good restaurants.
2. State how it would be obvious to a tourist they are good.

The tourist corridor includes the attractions - Disney and Universal
- and the high-end hotels in the area. It includes many good, and
even a few fine, restaurants. Victoria & Albert's is in the
corridor.

Ok, so we're *not* talking about the same corridor, then. My complaints
have been about the tourist area that stretches out along the 192, which is
the route to and from the parks from our location.

Is your understanding of English so weak that you do not understand
that the "area where most of the businesses are there to serve the
tourist market" would include the entire area and not just a mile or
so of one road?

Ironic.

And, you continue to whinge, and whine, and moan, and cry.

What you can't continue, since you never started, is to *counter* my so far
100% correct claim.

--
Sandman[.net]

In article , Andreas Skitsnack wrote:

Andreas Skitsnack:
Here's the Yelp review for that place:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/golden-corral-kissimmee-4

Sandman:
That said, there are some low-rated reviews as well, the rating
summary is three stars for the restaurant, and if it's as you
describe, it sounds like a no-star or one-star place, right?

Stars? You think Yelp is like a Michelin Restaurant Review?

Hmm, you didn't know that the reviews on Yelp were star-based? You can
review it with a 1-5 star rating. Each review shows the number of stars
that reviewer awarded the restaurant, and then the restaurant get's a star
rating based on those reviews.

Yelp can assign any basis they want to award a star.

Uh, no, it's the ones leaving reviews that award stars. Here's the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PniMEnM89iY

No cases of ptomaine reported in this restaurant? Five stars! No rats
scurrying around diner's feet? Five stars!

You're running around in the woods now, Andreas.

Great God, but you can come up with a lot of excuses and justifications
for choosing bad restaurants! You have gone on post after post, line
after line, whining about your bad food experience, arguing with all
suggestions of what could have been done, refusing to acknowledge that
you limited your search to a very small area, and admitting that you
always have a problem finding good restaurants in tourist areas.

All I ever did was convey the situation that surrounded the events that led
to poor restaurant "choices". This has led me to believe that it is
exceedingly hard to find good restaurants in this area, which you have
supported.

I have repeatedly said that I'm sure you can find good places to eat in the
states, but in the area we were in, it was hard. No whining needed, just an
observation.

Go to a Disney hotel concierge is met with the argument that you
weren't in a Disney hotel. You were there for a week and couldn't
find the time to solve your own problem?

For us it wasn't much of a problem. We didn't go to America for the food,
we were there for the parks. When we were in the "corridor" and necessity
led us to seeking a place to eat, we knew that our expectations couldn't be
all that high.

Get a guide book was met with "Where?". You don't have book stores
in Sweden?

Ok, so go to America, visit book store, buy guide book, find great
restaurants? That's how "easy" it is to find good restaurants in the
tourist area we were in? I mean, if we really wanted good food, we might
have gone out of way to seek out advice from such sources, but as I said -
this supports my initial claim; that finding good food in this area is
hard. Being forced to buy a guide book at a book store sure elevates the
threshold, wouldn't you say? I mean, it's a bit ironic that buying a guide
book is even necessary to find good food.

Airports don't have guide books for sale? You don't pre-plan a trip?

Not where we're going to eat, no. I'm not much for planning altogether. My
wife likes it a bit more, but she was more concerned in finding places of
interest rather than places to eat.

You don't have internet access and the ability to type in "best
restaurants in the Disney area" and make a comparison of reviews from
several sources? Instead you use Yelp; a source using reader reviews
(25% of which are bogus) instead of restaurant critic reviews?

Ironically, a google search for that lists Yelp and Tripadvisor as the
first hits. Well, if I search for "Kissimmee" instead of Disney area. If I
search for Disney, Tripadvisor is second and third hit and Yelp is seventh.

The first hit is "urbanspoon":
http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/26/2508/Orlando/Disney-World-Area-restaurants

And, as you can see, no restaurants in the tourist area I have been in
reference to. No help there.

Expand your search was met with "We were hungry".

There is a problem with that?

Ask for suggestions in advance was met with something about not
thinking that I would know of good restaurants. I've lived in this
area for over 35 years, an experienced and frequent US traveler for
both business and personal reasons, a person who has visited over a
dozen foreign countries, and of sufficient income level to have
considerable experience with restaurants from very good to
top-of-the line. And you think I can't tell a Golden Corral from a
Victoria & Albert's?

Huh? I know nothing about you other than you're an argumentative asshole
online. I have no frame of reference about your food taste or anything of
what you mentioned above.

Plus, prior to the trip - and even during the trip, we didn't find this to
be a problem enough to warrant advice from anyone.

As I understand it, you are very tall. How tall do they stack a
pile of blubbering "poor me" and "it's not my fault" whining Swede?

See what I mean?

Suck it up, man. Either prepare better for your trips or stay home.

If I ever go to America with the goal to eat great food, I would make
better research before, or during, my trip.

--
Sandman[.net]

In article , Andreas Skitsnack wrote:

nospam:
if you don't want fast food, pizza and burgers, why the hell did
you go to taco bell?

Sandman:
We're going in circles, here. I dislike junk food, and especially
the American junk food I've tasted.

Actually, I can't fault Jonas for trying a Taco Bell. Once.

Travelers should try new and different things, but they should
always understand that there's a risk. So, he blew a couple of
bucks trying something that he didn't like. Big deal.

In any country, there are restaurants and menu items that seem like
it would be OK to try, but turn out to be a disaster. You try, take
a few bites, leave, and chalk it up to experience.

Instead, Jonas makes a huge production about his little disaster and
then whinges on for a few posts about how it wasn't his fault and he
would have had better luck trying something in his home town.

Adult and mentally stable people accept that not all of their
choices turn out to be good ones and shut-the-****-up about it. For
Jonas, it's a source of perpetual whining and don't-blame-me posts.

Haha, hilarious. I am not the one making Taco Bell a big deal. I ate there
once, just to try it out like you said. The food was worse than horrible,
it was a crime against humanity itself. But sure, whatever, bad choice -
we're not going there again, that's for sure.

Nospam is the one making a huge deal out of it, making it seem like I was
looking for a great restaurant and picked Taco Bell, which just isn't true.


--
Sandman[.net]

In article , Andreas Skitsnack wrote:

Sandman:
Isn't this where you're supposed to:

1. List these good restaurants.

I am quite willing to do research for anyone who going to visit this
area. I am not willing to spend any time doing any research to
counter your continuous whining and moaning.

So don't start a thread claiming it was easy if you can't do it yourself.
You're making a huge argument and whining like a baby over something that
was hardly even a problem for me.

I am not the one who started this thread, remember? It was you. But as
usual, just hot air.


--
Sandman[.net]

"Whisky-dave" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 23 January 2015 16:02:05 UTC, Sandman wrote:
In article ,
Whisky-dave wrote:

Whisky-dave:
It depends on why you are where you are. In London it's not
that
difficult or far to travel from a burger van to a 3 star
Michelin approved resturant in central London. I won't go to
either. There's lots inbetween these options.

Sandman:
Irconically, I had a Taco meal in Covent Garden once that was
awful.

I've yet to hear of anyone have a good taco meal, like burgers they
are what they are, you can pay a premium price for a burger too.

Well, tastes differ, but taco meals in Sweden are really good. Crispy
nachos, high quality ground beef, fresh and tasty produce, good
sauces.

I'm sure they can be nice but they aren't the sort of things you get
in top quality resturants I'd have thought. I guess if they used
truffle oil etc..


Sandman:
It was even recommended by an acquaintance.

'clock' was recomended to me in stockholm. I think the
recomentation
was more of it's similar to what you'll eat at home.

Not familliar with "Clock".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_%28restaurant%29


Sandman:
But, finding good food in downtown London is dead simple.

yes you choose your place carefully.

Well, not that carefully. Most places serve really good food. Apart
from
that taco meal, I don't think I was disappointed in any London meals.
But
the typical English breakfast leaves a lot of improvements.

typical, traditional or a quick cup of coffee from costa and a bun
seems to be breakfast to those on the tube, I don;t bother with
breakfast.


Sandman:
Indeed - the area was the Disney and Universal theme parks. That
most certainly "depict" what kind of persons we are - we really
like theme parks, and especially roller coasters.

And those places aren't well frequented by those that like high end
michelin style restaurants which are also very unlikely to have
kids
menus or play areas for them.

No one was looking for five star restaurants. Good food would have
sufficed.

That's more difficult to achive at a reasonable price in expensive
cities.


They'll be little point in opening a good resturant in an area
where
there poverty as the chance of a person wanting good food in such a
place
is unlikely, any more they you'd have comforatble seating in a
burger
bar.

False logic - this area has a lot of wealthy Europeans that have paid
lots
of money to fly over the atlantic, most of them would willingly pay
extra
for good food, and there's enough of them to sustain a lot of that
type of
restaurants.

For the tourist season maybe.

Consider the fact that food in America is dirt cheap, so if I was to
go to
USA and pay the same amount for a meal there as I would at a "medium"
restaurant at home, that would by definition be an upscale restaurant
when
compared to the prices there.

So what you need to ask is why there's such a differnce.Why is food
dirt cheap in the USA, I was quite shocked at the price of a Mars bar
in sweden half the size and still over double the price I was
expecting.

There are a lot of factors that influence the price of a product. We
don't have a 20% VAT tax here, sales tax varies from one place to
another and I don't beleive there is any higher than 10% in the USA.
Also, someone has to pay for all that free stuff the government hands
out in a country like Sweden.

and they


The price ranges Yelp have seem to be this:

$ = under $10
$$ = $11-$30
$$$ = $31-$60
$$$$ = $61 and above

By that rating, most dinner restaurants here would be in the upper
"$$$"
range, since a meal and drink can be up to 400 SEK per person (about
$50)



--
Sandman[.net]

In article , Whisky-dave wrote:

Sandman:
Well, tastes differ, but taco meals in Sweden are really good.
Crispy nachos, high quality ground beef, fresh and tasty produce,
good sauces.

I'm sure they can be nice but they aren't the sort of things you get
in top quality resturants I'd have thought.

Oh, no, of course not.

Sandman:
It was even recommended by an acquaintance.

Whisky-dave:
'clock' was recomended to me in stockholm. I think the
recomentation was more of it's similar to what you'll eat at
home.

Sandman:
Not familliar with "Clock".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_%28restaurant%29

Oh! Yeah, I recognized the logo now. Yeah, as it says, it's been gone for
quite a while. Never ate at it. That was a fast food burger joint.

Whisky-dave:
And those places aren't well frequented by those that like high
end michelin style restaurants which are also very unlikely to
have kids menus or play areas for them.

Sandman:
No one was looking for five star restaurants. Good food would have
sufficed.

That's more difficult to achive at a reasonable price in expensive
cities.

Price was not a factor. I would have paid good money for good food.

Whisky-dave:
They'll be little point in opening a good resturant in an area
where there poverty as the chance of a person wanting good food
in such a place is unlikely, any more they you'd have
comforatble seating in a burger bar.

Sandman:
False logic - this area has a lot of wealthy Europeans that have
paid lots of money to fly over the atlantic, most of them would
willingly pay extra for good food, and there's enough of them to
sustain a lot of that type of restaurants.

For the tourist season maybe.

Not sure if there really is an off *season* for Disney World. This chart
suggest some times over the year which is less crowded:

http://yourfirstvisit.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Disney-World-2015-Week-Rankings-from-yourfirstvisit.net-960x1280.jpg

It seems that january, april-may and september-october are the best times
to visit. We were there in the middle of April last year, and on a hot day,
the park was packed tight, so I don't know how reliable this chart is.

Sandman:
Consider the fact that food in America is dirt cheap, so if I was
to go to USA and pay the same amount for a meal there as I would
at a "medium" restaurant at home, that would by definition be an
upscale restaurant when compared to the prices there.

So what you need to ask is why there's such a differnce.Why is food
dirt cheap in the USA, I was quite shocked at the price of a Mars
bar in sweden half the size and still over double the price I was
expecting.

Well, the obvious answer is VAT, of course. We have very high taxes in
Sweden. But the VAT for food/restaurants is a "low" 12% (standard VAT is
25%).

Secondly, less of our food is made in huge meat-packing factories, and most
meat comes from farmers around the country, and in a nice restaurant, the
meat is local.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Sweden is nota tourist-heavy
country, so we don't have huge influx of people that crowd an area where
necessity and time constraints lead to them accepting lower-quality food
and/or leading to a huge marget of margin-surfing restaurants.



--
Sandman[.net]

In article , PAS wrote:

Whisky-dave:
So what you need to ask is why there's such a differnce.Why is
food dirt cheap in the USA, I was quite shocked at the price of a
Mars bar in sweden half the size and still over double the price
I was expecting.

There are a lot of factors that influence the price of a product.
We don't have a 20% VAT tax here, sales tax varies from one place
to another and I don't beleive there is any higher than 10% in the
USA. Also, someone has to pay for all that free stuff the
government hands out in a country like Sweden.

That VAT in Sweden is actually 25%, however - for restaurants it's a "low"
12%


--
Sandman[.net]

In article , Tony Cooper wrote:

Airports don't have guide books for sale? You don't pre-plan a trip?

Not where we're going to eat, no. I'm not much for planning altogether. My
wife likes it a bit more, but she was more concerned in finding places of
interest rather than places to eat.

Guide books are quite useful in pre-planning a trip. On one trip to
the UK, I wanted to view National Hunt (hurdles) racing. (Only flat
racing is done in Florida) The guide book said that hunt racing was
on at Market Rasen during the time of our visit, so we included it in
our itinerary.

Having never bought a guide book in my life, I went to an online book store
here in sweden and searched for one:

http://www.bokus.com/cgi-bin/product_search.cgi?ac_used=no&search_word=guide+ma t+florida

Maybe the Net Geo one is a good choice? I have no frame of reference...

That guide book also included restaurant reviews, and it showed that
The Box Tree in Ilkey was (at the time) a Michelin five-star
restaurant.

Just so you know, there exists no Michelin five star restaurant in the
entire world. The highest rating is three stars.

Experienced travelers use sources like guide books to pre-plan.

I don't know, I think printed guide books is a bit last century.
Experienced travellers plan their trips ahead of time, using mostly online
sources - like we did. Only, we didn't include any dining plans into those
plans because we had booked an apartment and we already knew that good
restaurants were hard too find in that area.

Ignorant travelers end up dining in a Golden Corral.

I'll take your word for it.

Ignorant travelers end up endlessly justifying their mistakes saying "It
wasn't my fault".

Again, I'll take your word for it. Don't remember making many "mistakes"
myself with regards to planning.

Evidently, "ironic" is another word that you don't know the meaning
of, but like to use. Something that is "ironic" is paradoxical; the
opposite of what you would expect.

Indeed - like when an illiterate person like yourself says something about
another person's fluency in a language.



--
Sandman[.net]