A Guide to Finding the BEST Food

You don’t always need a silver fork to enjoy good food. But you may need a little help finding that good food. No one wants to be in an unfamiliar place, hungry and have no idea where to eat. How do you find the tried-and-true chain or mom & pop restaurants?  A little pre-planning helps! Follow this guide for finding the BEST food before traveling:

TVfoodmaps

If “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives,” “Man vs. Food” or “Best Thing I Ever Ate” ring a bell, try www.tvfoodmaps.com.  Simply type in the city you’re interested in and let the site find the best restaurants.  You’ll see any and all restaurants that have been featured on a tv show.  Some shows featured the whole restaurant.  Others featured a specific menu item. The establishment’s website and info will be posted for you to take a peek at the menu and decide for yourself. 

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor.com is one of my FAVORITE sites for restaurant reviews & hotels, too.  They make it easy to find the best food before traveling. Again, type in where you’re visiting and “restaurants”.  You’ll see a ton of options.  View or sort them by neighborhood, price (cheap eats, mid-range, fine dining), meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner), or food (seafood, Italian, steakhouse, BBQ).  You can even specify dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten free).  Some restaurants will let you make reservations right on the tripadvisor page, too.  Never fear; most of our favorites through the years are still in the “cheap eats” category!  I often return to tripadvisor after our visit and add my own reviews of the restaurants, too.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth-literally.  Ask others. If you know someone from the town you’re visiting, went to school there, or travels often, be sure to ask them for recommendations.  Facebook users can use the “recommend” option on posts to ask Facebook friends for their recommendations. People love to give their opinion, so why not make it work in your favor?  You never know what deliciousness you’ll uncover.  Word of mouth is a great resource in finding the best food before you travel.

Local Input

You may not have to travel far to find that diamond in the rough. Don’t forget your hometown may have a few gems you aren’t aware of…yet.  Some of our favorite hometown restaurants we found 15 years ago when we first moved to our home.  We found the “Top 40 things to eat in X before you die” article from a local online magazine.  We started hitting those restaurants that looked good and tried the to-die-for dish the magazine recommended as our monthly date nights.  I think we hit 4 restaurants (?) and kept going back to those same ones!  (so yummy)  Also remember that you can use tvfoodmaps and Tripadvisor for your hometown, too.  Be sure to check them out to perhaps find a new favorite place waiting to be found in your own backyard. For our family, “mom and pop” restaurants that have won the praise of many are still our favorites.

I make note of restaurants that look like a good match for us and have it handy during our trips. I’ll usually list it by breakfast, lunch and dinner & always have their days/hours of operation and a simple “burgers” or “pizza” to remind me what meals there would interest us. (I keep this on my computer in case we return or someone else asks ME for recommendations.)  These notes came in very handy when I was recently in Europe.  We knew where the restaurants were, which ones had x when we were craving that, and we knew they were in our price range.  No trying to figure all that out in the middle of the street, bus or subway!