Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

I'm a big fan of this show. I know Fieri gets a lot of grief (why, I'm not really sure) but I think he's great. He does a tremendous amount of charity work, and his show spotlights culinary Americana like no other, and gives a tremendous boost to local eateries.

The only fault I can find is that when I've searched out some of the Jersey places that have been featured, I haven't been terrible impressed. They were ok, but nothing to write home about. To be fair, every place I went to I just got takeout, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Still, I love Fridays because the Food Network is wall-to-wall Triple-D.

Here's a recent appreciation of Fieri
.


Guy is goofy but I love the food joints. 

Been to, I think, 4 of the places.  


Yeah, I've been to about 4 myself. Can't remember names, except for the Ritz in Livingston, which is not too far from me.


Friends own/operate Highland Fried in the Boston area which was featured on DDD.  Food was excellent.  Also, they said really nice things about Fieri.


I ate in a Johnny Garlic's once. Overpriced and unimpressive. But I do like him as a presenter.


I have watched occasionally. I like his other show: Guy's Grocery Games 


I was thinking about the DDD places I've been to, including a pizza place in Minneapolis called Lola.  Channel surfing today, we stumbled into some other food show that happened to doing a segment on the same place.  


drummerboy said:

I'm a big fan of this show. I know Fieri gets a lot of grief (why, I'm not really sure) but I think he's great. He does a tremendous amount of charity work, and his show spotlights culinary Americana like no other...

 I like the show and Fieri too. I think he gets a bad rap from his own branded restaurants. Very mass-market and bland.

Just torn too many different ways, I think.


Has everyone seen the NYT review of his restaurant in Times Square? Possibly the most famous restaurant review ever.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html


The Ritz Diner didn't escape Guy's notice, nor he theirs...

-s.


Haven't been there in years but the Ritz is worthy.  Way better than average diner food.  The one downside I recall is that its a very loud place.


A friend of a friend handles all the camerawork and production for the show. He said he is a great guy and really generous. The friend of a friend has had his family travel with him to certain spots and Fieri had his daughters appear on one episode. 


this is one of the places in NJ that I went to, Dolce & Clemente. Down in Robbinsville, about an hour from here. It was OK, but not great. I tried a bunch of different things, spent almost $100, including the prosciutto bread highlighted below. The bread was certainly the heaviest I've ever had, but not the best. Pastosa's Ravioli in Florham Park has a better, simpler version, IMO.

Pastosa's is actually very similar to Dolce & Clemente, and is similarly disappointing. They both have a wide variety of prepared foods, but most seem to fall short of the mark.


He also loved Marie's Italian Specialties in Chatham, as do I...

-s.


soda said:

He also loved Marie's Italian Specialties in Chatham, as do I...

-s.

 I actually went there once. I bought a sub (forgot which one) and was disappointed.  Though it was definitely the heaviest sub I ever bought.

Do you have any menu suggestions?


drummerboy said:

soda said:

He also loved Marie's Italian Specialties in Chatham, as do I...

-s.

 I actually went there once. I bought a sub (forgot which one) and was disappointed.  Though it was definitely the heaviest sub I ever bought.

Do you have any menu suggestions?

 Yup. For starters at lunch...

-s.


kthnry said:

Has everyone seen the NYT review of his restaurant in Times Square? Possibly the most famous restaurant review ever.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html

 Yes, I read it when it first hit the paper.  Such a great, sorta, review.



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