LATEST REVIEWS
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Sand Dollar Cafe
Port Saint Joe, FloridaSouthern comfort food served cafeteria style makes the Sand Dollar Cafe a Florida “Forgotten Coast” best bet for breakfast as well as lunch.
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O’Connell’s Pub
St. Louis, MissouriO’Connell’s is a popular Irish corner pub with excellent burgers, roast beef sandwiches, and famous house-made Mayfair dressing.
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Peking Restaurant
Westminster, CaliforniaPeking Restaurant makes excellent American style Northern Chinese food of all sorts, including its beef roll, which is a popular Chinese-Californian original.
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Edgar’s Grille
Augusta, GeorgiaStaffed by culinary arts students of Helms College but overseen by pros, Edgar’s Grille is a stylish beacon of “New American cuisine with a Southern flair.”
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Glee Donuts and Burgers
Anaheim, CaliforniaGlee Donuts and Burgers does both with gusto & with fun twists on each. You can get a simple burger, classic donut, or something utterly original.
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Killer Seafood
Mexico Beach, FloridaKiller Seafood is all good: shrimp in glorious Simmerin’ Sauce, outstanding grouper, and 4-star Key lime pie. A fun seaside shack, decorated with dollar bills.
GUIDES
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7 Best Casual Restaurants Near Disneyland
Anaheim is one of the most visited towns in the United States, but there is more to the area than just theme parks. Great cheap, local eats are plentiful near Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm if you know where to look. Here are our picks for the 7 best casual restaurants near Disneyland. Glee Donuts and Burgers … Continue reading 7 Best Casual Restaurants Near Disneyland
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Eat Your Way from San Diego to Los Angeles
The trip from San Diego up to Los Angeles County is only 115 miles or so, but with treacherous Southern California gridlock, the drive could eat most of your day. Instead, why not spend the day eating? Starting in San Diego, one of the most historic morning meals in the West can be discovered with the various permutations of house … Continue reading Eat Your Way from San Diego to Los Angeles
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The Best Local Restaurants in and around Palm Springs
Palm Springs is an eater’s oasis in the desert. If you come on I-10 from the west, stop in Cabazon at Hadley’s Fruit Orchards (where trail mix was invented) and at Crazy Coyote Tacos for hotter-than-hot sauce. From the east, visit Shields Date Gardens in Indio for a date shake, date pancakes, and date ice … Continue reading The Best Local Restaurants in and around Palm Springs
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The Best Gas Station Food in America
“Eat Here. Get Gas”: It’s a roadside jest as old as gas stations themselves. (Before gas stations, pioneering motorists bought gas in pharmacies.) The fact is that most food found in gas stations, if not actually odious, is forgettable. But the Roadfood roster contains a handful of places where you can fuel up, coffee up, … Continue reading The Best Gas Station Food in America
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8 Best Casual Outdoor Dining Spots in Chicago
Some of Chicago’s best Roadfood is eaten standing up at a counter or at outdoor tables. Here are eight of our favorite only-in-Chicago places where eating outside is the right thing to do on a beautiful spring day.
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Skyline Drive Detours
Skyline Drive, the 105-mile two-lane that threads through Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, has decent food at its National Park Service Oases. (Try the Smithfield Ham Monte Cristo or the roast turkey with cornbread stuffing at Big Meadows Lodge at mile 51.2.) But when big appetite beckons, we head for one of the four entry/exit points … Continue reading Skyline Drive Detours
DISHES
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Meat-and-Three
A term used through much of the South but especially in Nashville, “meat and three” quite simply refers to a menu template that lists two to five entrees and one or two dozen side dishes. From these lists, a diner picks one entree and three sides. Among the sides will be vegetables, but also congealed … Continue reading Meat-and-Three
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Whole Hog Barbecue
Whole hog barbecue is an arduous, time-honored ritual that few modern restaurants continue to employ. The process commences late in the afternoon, when the pitmaster starts burning oak and hickory logs until they turn to charcoal. The coals are pushed from the chimney where they burnt into an adjoining pit, where halved hogs are arrayed … Continue reading Whole Hog Barbecue
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Pimento Cheeseburger
The pimento cheeseburger was invented in Columbia, South Carolina in the 1960s at a long-gone restaurant called the Dairy Bar. The inspired pairing of carnivorous succulence and cheddar luxury, with a soupcon of spice, has become popular throughout the state and much of the Southland, but you still find the beefiest and cheesiest ones in … Continue reading Pimento Cheeseburger
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Crab Louis
Dressing is important in Crab Louis (or, if you wish, Louie). It is mayonnaise, cream, lemon juice, and red chili sauce, usually with green onions and spice. But of course, what matters more is the crab. Fresh Dungeness crab makes all the difference. No one knows for sure where the Louis formula was created, or … Continue reading Crab Louis
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Spiedies
Binghamton’s marinated, skewered, charcoal-cooked hunks of pork known as spiedies are quintessential bar food, wanting nothing more than cold bottles of Genesee beer to be complete sustenance. Their presentation is straightforward: the meat on the skewer rests on a slice of plain white bread which rests on a small paper plate. That’s all there is … Continue reading Spiedies
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Puffy Tacos
Scottsbluff, Nebraska, has been home to immigrants from Texas and Mexico for nearly a century; and it boasts restaurants that reflect that southwestern flavor. The custom in many of them is to flash-fry corn chips and tortillas so they puff up in the oil and become as three-dimensional as a sopaipilla – airy breadstuffs with … Continue reading Puffy Tacos
FEATURES
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Yellow Church Cafe
Expertly crafted artisan fare, including house-baked breads and world-class cakes, make meals in Ellensburg’s adorable former church restaurant truly heavenly.
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Model Pharmacy
A vintage lunch counter serving true New-Mex green chile stew, warm fruit cobblers, and soda fountain specialties, Model Pharmacy is a taste of old Route 66.
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Route 66 through Albuquerque
Route 66 did not bypass cities. It ran straight through their hearts. In Albuquerque the old highway is called Central Avenue, and it takes travelers right past or very near a bevy of excellent downtown eat places — some new, some dating back to the heyday of the Mother Road.
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Portland, Oregon in a Day
It would be possible to eat nothing but delicious breakfasts all day long in Portland, Oregon; and we don’t only mean the ne plus ultra offerings of Voodoo Doughnut and Annie’s Donut Shop. The original Original Pancake House remains a beacon of the highest quality breakfasts from sunup to sundown. But this tour goes beyond … Continue reading Portland, Oregon in a Day
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Jane’s Diary: The Thing is…
For those of you who may not have committed to memory the complete works of Jane and Michael Stern, here is an interesting factoid. At the same time we wrote the original edition of Roadfood, published in 1978, we also wrote a companion book called Amazing America. It is a lame title for a book … Continue reading Jane’s Diary: The Thing is…
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Jane’s Diary: Death by Chili
Growing up, I never liked spicy food. Then again, I was never served any. My default meal as a kid was chicken ala King, white meat, white sauce on white rice. The pizzazz came from a fleck of pimento and a few green peas. I did not start to eat spicy food until I was … Continue reading Jane’s Diary: Death by Chili