I wanted to leave the food and drink threads to be a discussion of home cooking. Making this so we can talk about experiences of meals weāve had/enjoyed while out and about 
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Shouldāve taken pics but yesterday i took my partner to check out Nandoās as a valentineās weekend thing to do. Nandoās is a popular South African restaurant that primarily does chicken related foods. I had seen videos about it for years, people seemed to like it and since thereās one in Austin iāve been wanting to see how it is.
Partner ordered a chicken breast sandwich and fries, i ordered a chicken sandwich with dark meat (thigh meat) accompanied with brussels sprouts and mac n cheese. My thoughts:
Did Not Like:
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The sandwiches cost about 12 bucks (not accounting the add-on for sides) and they are tiny. They looked like sliders.
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Could not taste the chicken, probably due to the ratio of chicken and bread. And partner said the chicken breast in hers was on the dry side.
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Trying their extra extra hot sauce i could not pick up on any amount of heat. And the extra extra hot tasted not great, kind of acrid.The āwild peri peri sauceā was alright.
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Not the hugest con, but was surprised at how i felt kind of disappointed that the servers will typically not take your order. They want you to order through their site while at the table by scanning a QR code. Servers were nice however but you just donāt really interact with them a lot.
Did Like:
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The place looked really nice (ok not the hugest pro, but for a date night kind of place it was a good vibe).
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Their freshly made lemonades were a highlight. Partner ordered a honey & lavender lemonade, i wasnāt looking forward to it but it ended up surprising both of us as to how fresh and nice it tasted. I was expecting the lavender to be more present and was thankful that it was subtle, and as a lemonade snob i really liked it.
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The sides quite literally saved the mood of the night. The sandwiches were a complete disappointment, the fries were nothing super special but they were ok. However the brussels sprouts and mac n cheese were a highlight for us.
Conclusion:
Would i go back? Mostly no, though both of us were curious to go back and give them one last try and have either their chicken wings or something like half a chicken. But for the price i wouldāve enjoyed my meal more at a local place that does really good Nashville hot chicken, and their spicier offerings are actually spicy.
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Not sure if I should post my overall distaste with dining out? I used to love it before American restaurants added TVs in the early aughts.
My husband and I remember one truly memorable dining experience in our 36 years together. We traveled to Paris before getting engaged and stayed in the 9th arrondissement. The front desk suggested a quiet restaurant around the corner. There was a bit of a wait and the maĆ®treād had us wait for our table upstairs alone in a library with an aperitif. We had the best server. He was friendly and attentive and, he had great recommendations for food and drinks. The busboy loved that we were from SoCal because he would vacation and surfed the Atlantic and hope to someday visit Huntington Beach. The chef (Bruno) who cooked us a lovely dinner and then came out to chat and gave us a menu to keep as a souvenirā¦it was so amazing. We were treated like locals. The cheery on top was that fine dining was crazy inexpensive, like US$45 total for both of us in 1989. Tax, service compris, and drinks.
It doesnāt have to be fine dining. We ate at a little Mexican food place in Dublin and chatted with the young owner who fell in love with Mexican food when he went to UCSB. We chatted about hot sauces and burritos, and there was no TV.
I realize that I have a noise sensitivity that gotten more pronounced as Iāve aged. Last month I went with my husband to LV for his job. We walked to our restaurant, but we had to first walk through the casino to get outside. My husband said I reminded him of cat experiencing fireworks. I was so overwhelmed by the noise of the casino and then the open court dining area, I basically trotted to get outside. The employees at Park MGM were incredibly friendly and attentive, but I donāt think I could handle staying on the strip again.
ETA: I also noticed that Las Vegas is where all the dying chain restaurants still live.
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I went to a Nandoās 6? or so years ago after we got one nearby. I was looking forward to it as it seemed like something Iād enjoy. I wasnāt impressed, & didnāt mean to spend that much at lunch (for me, that means back when it shouldāve still been $10 or less). It has since closed, but they did leave behind a very nice mural.
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Thereās a place near this that serves Northwest Chinese food, calledā¦ Northwest Chinese Food. Everything Iāve had there might be described as in-your-face. Thatās the place where, now & then, Iāll splurge (relatively speaking) on lunch. There are Thai & Ramen places also nearby that I mean to give more business, and a Falafel Inc. where one can still get lunch for under $10.
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One of the places I like to eat at in town, one of the Asian restaurants in a strip mall up Buford highway has their chef up for a James Beard awardā¦
I think I posted it in a different thread, but thought Iād share it hereā¦
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I have experienced quiet restaurants in recent history, but i do share your mighty annoyance at restaurants with TVs blaring some kind of content.
Austin, TX food scene i can describe as pretentious and lazy. Yeah thereās good food but for the price itās not really worth it, they get away with it because of tourists coming here or people with too much disposable income. But there are gems worth oneās time and money 
For Las Vegas itās been over a decade since i lived there but my favorite Japanese restaurant should still be there. Itās not quiet, but itās fairly well hidden, pretty small, and prices used to be reasonable with high quality food. Looking it up i am glad that it is still doing well
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Lanzhou ā¦ Hand-Pulled Noodles
That sounds very similar (at least geographically) to our NW Chinese restaurant. Iād forgotten that we briefly had a food hall where one vendor sold hand-pulled noodles, & they were delicious but the place didnāt last long. Thatās now a Colombian restaurant that I keep meaning to try.
We really have a lot of good food choices around us, including numerous taquerias that (if not quite Tex-Mex, but nevertheless) give us fewer & fewer reasons to move back to Texas (our extended families are there, but so are current events).
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our island has become a food truck destination. we now have some very fine food trucks in addition to the original taco stand, Jaliscoās Tacos (their tacos de lengua are exceptional!).
there is a really good sushi truck, called Wok N Roll, with very fresk offerings and a true artist making the sushi. there are several Cuban coffee trucks that also have croquettas, mini Cubano sliders and pastries, one āCuban pizzaā truck (havenāt tried), a couple burger and hot dog trucks, two donut trucks and now a Greek food truck (so new, i have yet to see what they offer). one burger truck offers burgers with goat cheese, blackberry jam and arugula. that one is just amazing! then the āworld foodā truck has fusion tacos like Korean BBQ tacos or Thai-style shrimp tacos, both with pickled red onions and tangy slaws topping them and a Chinese dumpling and noodle truck that does a very good soup dumpling. love those.
there are a few more, but they are similar to the Cuban ones - one specializes in breakfast, the other has some pretty weak tamales (full disclosure: i do not like Cuban tamales. it is as if they forgot to put anything inside the roled up masa!) the best tamales are the Mexican ones we get at the farmerās market from Juanita the Orchid Lady, but thatās not a food truck offering.
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Iām providing an Amazon link only so you can read reviews, etc.
There are many different types of high-fidelity earplugs, but these are the ones I use. They dampen the decibels to a reasonable level, calming the noise but you donāt lose the ability to hear and understand because theyāre not āsound-cancelingā.
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My partner likes earplugs like those, she also is sensitive to nose and it helps a lot. Reminds me I need to get her a new pair
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Any suggestions? Weāve tried a few places but not been impressed.
We had a date planned to go to our fav expensive place a few weeks back. Had to cancel because we came down with CoVID. Even if we felt well enough, weād both temporarily lost our sense of smell. Which is critical for sushi!
The restaurant is Uchi in downtown Austin. They do kind of a tapas style service but with sushi. Itās an expensive place (easily $200 for two). Which is why we typically donāt go more than once a year.
Sitting and letting the sushi chef choose our dishes was so delicious and fun the last time we went. The chef asked if we had any food sensitivities or allergies, anything we didnāt care for (Iāve never liked sea urchin for some reason). Then he served us a bunch of little bites at a good pace.
We will go soon. The friend who volunteered to watch our kid (parent of kidās bestie) is very amenable to taking her for the evening.
We donāt eat there often but always go very early in the evening. Otherwise, it gets too loud for me to enjoy myself. I wish theyād invest in more sound dampening but we suspect that the noise is part of the vibe they want to cultivate.
Our favorite not-as-expensive sushi place is a very small strip mall joint called Osaka Mansun off 183 in very north Austin. Itās such a a cozy place, the food is really good, and we can usually eat a lot, including some pricey harasu I love, for about $80 for the two of us, no alcohol. Itās a quiet restaurant, probably due to how tiny it is.
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For fried chicken Iāve had good things about a couple of places but since I havenāt been to them Iāll only recommend the one I know I love. Iād recommend Tumble 22, they have a couple of locations in the Austin area. My partner doesnāt like spice so she orders the mild and she loves it, I usually order medium but I have gotten the hottest before because I like to remind myself Iām an idiot.
Their margaritas are great and Iād also give an enthusiastic recommendation for their pies.
Iāve heard high praise for Uchi but Iām just not spending that kind of money on food. Some day perhaps.
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We have many great ones, but this Detroit food truck sounds exceptional:
We have many nearby and nearishby eateries of varying types and quality.
This pizza place is a few blocks away. Expensive and worth every penny:
They do limited edition weekly and monthly pizzas - I was V fond of their Jimmy Pesto pizza. I rarely like tomato sauce, but neither Dean nor our pal Ms V complained about its loss. Their BLT 'za (also avail as a vegan pie) is fantastic, with halved cherry tomatoes, fancy greens, and an herby mayo drizzle which is to die for. No one misses the tomato sauce on that one, either!
This jernt aināt cheap, neither, but their BBQ is legendary:
Bucharest began Downtown, and now has eight satellite shops all over the greater Detroit area:
The website says there are four, or seven! It wants updating 
I always order their hummus and grilled chicken. The curly fries are really good, and their toum (that whipped garlic/oil spread) is incredible. They also use and provide excellent pita, which can make or break Mediterranean nom noms.
Greektown has been taken over by a casino and other nonsense, and I havenāt gone there in years. Itās no longer the place I once knew like the back of my hand. There may still be a place or two worth patronizing, but Iād first do some research. Nikiās Pizza in Greektown is superb, and their staff was always an excellent group of hardworking and diverse weirdos who provided great service.
Detroitās Mexicantown has loads of Mexican and a few S American restaurants. Iāve been going here since they opened, when I was tiny:
https://armandosmexicantown.com/
AFAIC, they are the best Mexican place in town. Never been disappointed in any way by anything. We took my BF from Los Angeles there, and he said heād never had better Mexcan food!
B/c Armandoās, I saved the day at a restaurant in Nogales, Mexico when I was a kindergartner.
Grandma and my 13-y-o cousin opened their menus and freaked TF out. Neither one had ever tried Mexican food, and everything was in Spanish. They made scared noises, but I told them to put down their menus and relax, that Iād order for them. 
I was familiar with all the dishes on the menu, and knew exactly what to select for each of them.
When our absolutely gorgeous waiter came to take our order, he looked at Grandma expectantly, but to his surprise, tiny MerelyGifted piped up in her ordering-at-a-restaurant Spanish. I got us guacamole as one of the appetizing appetizers, which really frightened them. I put a big blop on my plate and gleefully dug in after explaining it, and when they finally tried it, they loved it, too.
I explained each dish as it arrived, then at last I set about my tostadas. Grandma and my cousin, to their surprise and delight, loved the food Iād ordered for them. We naturally tried a little of each otherās dishes. They decided everything was really good, but both of them were happiest with their own.
I knew Iād done well w/the ordering, but hearing that confirmed it, and I was briefly a little proud of myself. I was too busy with my tostadas to think about much else.
More than 50 years later, I can still summon the flavor of those magnificent tostadas, which never happens. The restaurant was brilliant.
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