Random restaurants ??

Often, I'll have a short list of restaurants to visit once the itinerary is set, but that goes out the window when hungry and locals seem to gather at a convenient restaurant when out and about.

There are planners and there are PLANNERS. We are not one of them. We tend to have one or two restaurants identified that we will want to hit but after that it is what is available. We have had a couple of poor ones over the years but the very good ones predominate. There are a million and one restaurants and not everyone can be reviewed.

I see posters who have their restaurants all picked out and reserved
-- does anyone else pick a place to eat by "I'm hungry, there's a place that's open" ?

While I love planning our trips, we leave the restaurant choice making to when we are already overseas. I like reading menus posted outside and seeing how the ambience looks through the window.

Where to eat is one thing I don’t plan. I will eat wherever. When the weather is nice I am going to pick some place with outdoor seating and a good view. My view is more important to me than the food! Occasionally I will ask for a recommendation at a hotel.

We have had exceptional luck in finding good restaurants simply by asking RS guides, local guides and/or hotel staff (or any local you talk to). When 2 or more of these recommend the same place you are going to find a gem. This often leads us to local, non touristy places with really good and interesting food. If you can't read the menu through yourself at the mercy of the restaurateur. Most of them are proud of their food and will serve your their best.

I have def planned to visit certain ice cream places or bakeries (the downside of following bakeries on Instagram - I have more bakeries pinned on my map app...lol) but I can't think of any restaurant that we've went out of our way for - unless it was one that we had previously visited and enjoyed - there's one in Paris we returned to on a diff trip because the burgers were so good and one in Venice I def plan to go back to. But for us, we just go until the hunger hits and then hope we stumble on something good nearby.

Well, hmm - I will say when we were in NYC, we made sure to go to Shake Shack once and also a pizza place that everyone said was so good. I still regret not going to In 'n Out when we were in California.

We will do that for lunch, but never for dinner. Dining out for us is an "event" and we want it to be good, so I do the research.

It the "that place looks good" method has worked well for lunch with us, everywhere but Italy.

In Vienna recently we passed Café Schwartzenberg with active hunger pangs ( noonish) and were fortunate to get a table. The waiters were pleasant, the menu appealing, and the food good enough to draw us back for a second visit later in the week.

Two disasterous experiences in Italy. The first in Florence, where we were foolish enough to grab the last open outdoor table at a place of on a square, right near a very popular ( and RS recommended) spot that was totally full. My motto then was "any meal outdoors is a good one" but I dropped that after this lunch. I ordered Risotto Giardinera and I swear it was Minute Rice with Birdseye Frozen vegetables (peas and cubed carrots).

The other bad experience was in Rome, on a side street leading to Piazza Navona. We scoped out the place carefully and the patrons eating lunch there seemed happy. The menu was appealing. So we sat down. It should have been a red flag that there was no price listed for water on the menu. Or other drinks, for that matter. Red flags went up when, after our plates were brought, someone near us was charged €10 for a Coke. The people next to us wanted to pay be credit card and the waiter sent them inside. We made the mistake of paying in cash and the waiter overcharged us by so me 25%, without giving us a written bill or receipt. We asked what the extra € 8 was for and he said "tax". We challenged that and he said it was for his "salary". We should have gone right then to find the finance police, but did not know to do that. I did write a complaint later and they responded, asking for more detailed information. I included a link to their reviews on TripAdvisor, as it appears this happens to many who make the mistake of eating there. I never learned what happened to the investigation but they are still in business.

I usually have a few picked out ahead of time - places that I am especially interested in for one reason or another. Sometimes it is a fancier place for a special dinner, sometimes it is a corner shop that happens to be known for having the best local specialty. But much of the time I just find something random. Occasionally this means settling for mediocre food because I'm starving, but I try to look at places I pass and evaluate them to find something good in the area I happen to be in when hungry. Sometimes I stumble on something fantastic.

I do some research ahead of time and mark places that are supposed to be good on an offline map. I know I won't get to most of these, and I don't make it a point to do so. I just have them on my map, pull up the map if I'm in search of a nearby restaurant, and if I had marked one in the area I might go there. I'll have notes, like "closed Monday" or "famous for seafood" so I can decide if it's a good choice at that time. Multiple times I've seen a marked restaurant a few blocks away, walked to it, and found an interesting area I wouldn't have seen otherwise. So it's a fun way to explore, too.

Here are the reviews of the Rome restaurant from TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187791-d3598432-r378651120-La_Fraschetta-Rome_Lazio.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d3598432-Reviews-La_Fraschetta-Rome_Lazio.html

Although the most recent is from December 12, 2017, a Google search under the name says it is "permanently closed." I hope so.

But please do not confuse this one, near Piazza Navone on Via Sant'Agnese, with other Rome restaurants with a similar name. Apparently they are quite nice.

We ask at hotels or the TI for restaurant districts. Then we go and look at menus and ambiance. We look at 3-4 and usually choose one of those. We almost never choose a restaurant from a guide book or TripAdvisor. We make sure that we are off the main square or the heavily touristy areas. But we have had many wonderful experiences in small restaurants where we simply chose it from the menu. If a restaurant is in a "restaurant district", and seems to be older than 3-4 years, it probably has good food at reasonable prices. That's our rule. We

Yikes, Lola! Your post scared me as one of our very favorite places in Rome was called La Fraschetta del Pesce, but it was way out past Tiburtina in Casal Bertone. So I went to look it up and it is completely gone! No website, no Google, no TA. Perhaps il padrone passed on. I am sad.

Vis a vis the OP's request, though, I do research a bit before we go, especially if we are only going to have 2 or 3 dinners out in a place (we rent apartments and cook about half our dinners). But final decisions are on-site, based on walk-bys, chats with locals, etc.

I use google maps and yelp to find good options nearby when I travel. I have also created color-coded maps on google noting all the restaurants I’ve read about. Did this recently for my trip to Paris. It was great as I could always find an excellent place within a 5-10 walk.

Laurel, there are at least two other establishments named La Fraschetta in Rome, and both get good reviews. One is a pizzeria in Trastevere; the other is named La Fraschetta di Castel San' Angelo and is ranked #94 of some 12,000 restaurants in Rome. Our charming place is somewhere below 10,000.

My husband looked up the meaning of La Fraschetta and found "bitch" as the translation. My more discreet iPad says "coquette". Which is correct?

We usually do a little bit of both. We assemble a list of restaurants from guidebooks, but sometimes we just wander around for a place that looks good. We've been pleased both ways.

--Dav

If we have a "must eat at" and one that we all are looking forward to, then I will go ahead and reserve. We have done this a few times. Other times and what most often happens is that I will have researched an area that I know we will be in so that I have some ideas of what is good/recommended... this has always worked well. To be honest, I hate the complete let's go by what looks good.. we waste SO much time walking around, looking at menus, 2 of us are on abroad, 2 of us are not then we walk some more, then come back to the original place etc. My biggest pet peeve is wasting time :)

I will have a few ideas from guidebooks (we'll have the RS guide with us), but we won't go far out of our way to find a place to eat. We'll ask around, or just use our instincts to pick a place.

Yes and no. We are foodies so I do research restaurants in advance and even make reservations. That was the case with Patrick Guilbaud restaurant in Dublin, a two star Michelin restaurant.
Often there are one or two great restaurants that I want to eat at where we are going, so I book in advance. But, not all the dinners and certainly not the lunches.

Forum members and Mira,
How do you make an offline map and pin places to it?

We are always completely random when it comes to lunch and we have rarely, if ever, had a bad meal. For dinner, we ask the front desk of our hotel for recommendations on the first night. After that, we usually see places during our rambles that appeal to us, and we check them out.

For the offline map, I use an app called CityMaps2Go. There are other apps for this, as well. The tech forum here might help to find options. Google maps can be offline but last I looked the pinning part wasn't (this was a couple years ago, I've been using the other app so haven't checked to see if it has changed).

What I do is download the map in the app for the cities/countries I am visiting, then it is fully viewable offline. I go and read reviews of places/restaurants and if there's something interesting I can put a pin (actually a star on this app) there - and I can choose the color of the star, I have restaurants purple, sights blue, my hotel yellow, etc. Theres a section for notes when you open each pin, so I can note hours or specialties or whatever information is relevant.
So when I am on my trip I will have my phone and I can open the app anytime and see what I pinned nearby, and go there. The GPS is also offline so I can see my actual location AND it updates in real time so I can be sure I'm going the right way - follow the dot moving on the map.

I am for sure a PLANNER. I have just about every place to eat laid out in advance, with reservations if we can... my family does not do well once hungry and lots of our travel stress would be over figuring out where to eat. So I just handle that in advance. Even lunch places... I will research options in the area I know we will be, so I know where to go.

That said, we have made changes to the plan once we get there... we see something better, we are too tired to go to that big dinner, we change up our sightseeing plans... but I just like to have the options ready!

Kim

Lola I am apopleptic with laughter! Here is Wikipedia as a normal dictionary is not really sufficient:

Con il termine popolare "fraschetta" si è soliti indicare un particolare tipo di osteria la cui diffusione è limitata principalmente alla zona dei Castelli romani nella regione Lazio.

It is an osteria particular to Lazio's Castelli Romani.

The restaurants you mention are not THE ONE. We got it from this list many years ago.

Laurel, I read that to my husband and we both got a good laugh! So that explains why there are several,under that name.

I love the article about the taxi-drivers' favorites. I probably do not have the courage to just get into a cab in a big city and ask the driver to take us to his favorite restaurant.

That is too bad about your favorite if it is indeed closed, though.

In Austria and Germany I ask the locals, ie the hotel/hostel staff. Recommendations given by them are usually small places frequented mostly by locals, some tourists too. I got to know "Schnitzel Wirt"/Wien by reading its little brochure at the hotel.

I used Frommers once in 2003 in Berlin, nice place, have been a regular ever since. I never use Trip Adv.

On "random restaurants"... I've done that a couple of times when going out the the center, such as out to Nußdorfer S-Bahn station or on day trip to Wiener Neustadt in 2014.

Great comments, everybody!

Fred - Nußdorfer Straße is not on the S-Bahn line. Did you mean the U-Bahn?

Laura B - just FYI, the little sandwich place is Trzesniewski, which has numerous locations in Vienna. Link - https://www.trzesniewski.at

I travel solo and tend to just pick a place when I start getting hungry, helps if I can see what people are eating who are sitting outdoors. Sometimes I have a few recommendations that I make a point to visit, but it's mostly a random thing. If I like a place and I return to that city I will always make a point to eat there again--Frauenhuber and the Englischer Reiter (the grossmutterschnitzel is fabulous, don't care that it's in the Prater, love it) in Vienna, Urban Betyar in Budapest, a restaurant in Szentendre whose name escapes me are all favorites.

oops, yes. I meant the U-Bahn to Nußdorferstraße. Sorry.

Not far from that station is Pulverturmgasse, (ca 20 min or so walk), where I stayed in the HI hostel, Pulverturmgasse 11, for the three nights on my first visit to Vienna the first week in Sept 1971. The immediate neighborhood is all changed, as might be well expected in over 45 years.

Yes, I was going down memory lane but keep going, you'll see the house of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, (if you're into his absolutely lovely music) who fled in 1938, got to Hollywood, and then went back to Vienna after the war. The dates are indicated on the house when he lived at the site.

I like what Sharon said :

To be honest, I hate the complete let's go by what looks good.. we waste SO much time walking around, looking at menus, 2 of us are on abroad, 2 of us are not then we walk some more, then come back to the original place etc. My biggest pet peeve is wasting time :)

And if I weren't on my phone and could copy and paste easily, would also add what Kim said
about her family's crankiest moments being when in search of food. I can so identify with that!

I'm borderline phobic of reservations. Why? Maybe it's because I might unavoidably miss my reserved time and be out time, money and/or my reservation. It probably stems from that gnawing feeling I was forgetting something when I closed my door and headed to the airport going overseas. (I solved it reducing to a small, easy to manage, bag and having a good travel checklist and a minimum of things to remember or keep track of.)

Part of it is flexibility. I also dread the thought of structuring my day/vacation around a reservation(s).

Obviously, I have plane and train tickets reserved, but I don't really like even those. There are many sights, restaurants, etc. I'll skip rather than make a reservation. If I need reservations, I'll get them as late as possible (Uffizi and Alhambra come to mind). I'll travel outside of high season so reservations are less critical.

I may ask, when I check in at my lodging, if they have a good recommendation for dinner. It's not unusual for them to suggest a place and call right then to see if they can reserve a table. My last three trips have been to France, where dinner reservations seem more necessary than other countries I've visited. My (almost) rule in many parts of France - if it doesn't need a reservation, it's probably not any good. I'd rather get a Gyro or sandwich from a corner shop than sit down to a bad meal, so I do.

All that said, I either ask someone for a recommendation or wander until I see something that looks good. If I'm not ready to eat, I'll make a note of the place and try back later. Another pretty good rule, get at least a few blocks from the main touristy areas before you settle on a restaurant. The ratio of horrible to good places isn't in your favor when you're close to the mobs.