Your favourite restaurants off the beaten track?

It doesn't matter what part of Chicago I'm in, if I'm in a 100 mile radius of it I always go here.
https://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/xoco/

 

Off the beaten track?!? Hmm.

This place has been written up a good bit and been on TV, but when it comes to "off the beaten track" - Cattleman's Steakhouse in Fabens, Texas - about hour east of El Paso is good.

Nearer to home, Mcgehee's Catfish restaurant in OK on the Red River is very good.

Hashknife BBQ in Peadenville, TX is very good
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Old-fashioned burger stand in Anna, Texas.
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https://www.google.co.uk/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x4f2b1fcf78caef77%3A0x62b9895354ff7fd9!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMSWjEniqhNldopZm4CjRD9gJOk0GLehTafXX4Z%3Dw260-h175-n-k-no!5srestaurants%20isafjordur%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipMSWjEniqhNldopZm4CjRD9gJOk0GLehTafXX4Z&hl=en

Northern Iceland , literally the arse end of nowhere and , without doubt , the finest seafood restaurant you will ever visit.

 

I need a more specific definition of "off the beaten track"?

Do you mean unknown place?

Or literally out in the middle of nowhere?

Or grubby little dive places?

 

interesting topic to chat about...and that definition helps...I'd further define/equate "go out of your way to eat there" to mean "outstanding food".

Of course there were loads of those places before the internet...now all the little so-called hidden gems (a phrase that still gets a chuckle when used on the interweb) are well-known and often full of tourists.

My favorite example of that phenomenon is many years ago when I was on a date in Rome and the woman (who lived there) said she wanted me to get on the subway for a ride to the best tiramisu in Rome and it was a secret little place. I googled it quickly and said oh, you must mean "Pompi". She was shocked and disappointed that I knew of it (I confessed I did not, rather that google did). That place has seen a mob of people ever since...(the story of course can be repeated for pretty much every place).

Another example would be pretty much the top few dozen BBQ places in Texas. They get so much pub, that idiots like me make trips to drive the countryside of Texas gobbling it all up. If someone is making outstanding Q in Texas, its known. (sure there are so many little places that many are still not getting the tourists, but *if* they had top-rated level Q, they would be. Heck, I've driven 2 hours round trip to eat at one Q place in Texas several times already, and would have driven more if there were worthy destinations.)

PHX - I drive an hour+ RT to eat at Tacos El Chino. Its "on the lists" for best tacos in PHX, so its a bit hard to argue it isn't well-known, but its not crowded and I don't think many other folks make a special drive to eat there as I do (perhaps because they are driving past a few dozen good taco joints on their journey to this place).

Oh, I've flown from London to Rome for a weekend just to eat at Da Enzo (also extremely crowded with people now, but early on it wasn't all that well known).

And I've made overnight trips to eat at special (and very well known) places on many times. But methinks that doesn't fit the bill here...

hmm...so I can come up with many "go out of my way to eat there", but its hard to come up with "not well known". I pretty much live to eat and have traveled to eat for nearly 20 years, but every place with outstanding food (and some without) are now the subject of tens of thousands of online reviews, hundreds of food blogs, dozens of TV shows and so on. If it has great food, its been discovered on the interweb. (there may still be a few exceptions waaaay out there, but I'd also venture the food isn't all that great, or they would be in the first category).

 

I was on a backcountry ski trip and had flown up to isafjordur in northern Iceland from reykjavik on a little prop plane and had dinner there the night we arrived.
got a boat into the Hornstrandir nature reserve- no roads up there ,accessed skiing by rib and ,moored on a different inlet/beach each day, climbed and skinned up and skied back to the sea.
Didn't see another soul for 7 days
I you like remote backcountry skiing then I highly recommend northern Iceland

 

Lots of places like that when we lived in Tennessee. Any down-home cooking spot off the beaten path that served "a meat and two" was likely to be good. Gus' fried chicken in Mason, TN - which we "discovered" before it was made famous on TV - is probably a favorite.

In Texas, I cannot recall too many non-chain Tex-Mex or steak places that we have been to that were not good, even before Yelp made many of these places more accessible.

I think if you stick w/ local grub, you should be in good shape...T

 

It took me several trips to Rome and the internet to even start to crack that nut.

3 recs:

da enzo
Pizzerium Bonci
Katie Parla

 

This is true as @arizonaitalian and I know from previous experience!

The problem is, you can find bad Q in Texas.
Based on my experience, the only way you can miss on Tex-Mex in Tejas is to go to a chain restaurant!
T

 

Maybe not favorite but qualifies as well off the beaten path in Oark, AR.
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Some great driving roads in that neck of the woods! Is that your 575 to the right?

T

 

"Is that your 575 to the right?"
******
IIRC, Al and I were parked across the road but that 550 is a spitting image of my 575!!

 

"Some great driving roads in that neck of the woods! "
It's a well organized, high class event...~5 days and 1100 mile of driving on some great roads. This year is Sept. 14-19.

https://crescentclassicrally.net/

You should sign up....about a 5 1/2 hour drive from Dallas.

 

I guess that Marietta, GA is a bit off the beaten path, since most of greater Atlanta's more renowned restaurants are in the Buckhead neighborhood. But an excellent new Italian restaurant, with a Ferrari connection (!), has opened a little west of downtown. I've eaten there three times and all the meals were excellent.

https://www.facebook.com/modenaristorante

 

Panama City Beach, FL

https://davidssnoballs.com/

The best New Orleans style hot roast beef sandwich I've ever eaten. I'm in the area once or twice a year and usually go at least twice. Also the best sweet tea ever, poured over shave ice in a big styrofoam cup. If you're there on gumbo day, get that too. And red beans and rice. And beignets.

I'll bet @tatcat knows about it. Maybe even @Dr Tommy Cosgrove .


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Where’s the grouper?


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I knew that rang a bell but couldn't place it. I fly in and out of O'Hare quite a bit and ALWAYS eat at the sister restaurant Tortas Frontera in the AA terminal.

 

I'm a Bayless fanboy so anything his name is attached to I recommend.

 

This is my second favorite off the beaten track restaurant: bbistrosinglemenu.pdf choice of 27 sides with a meal, including sandwiches. Beef dip and poutine is awesome. My favorite for Italian is Vancouver Italian Restaurant | La Piazza Dario Favorite is nostalgic: Main menu | Fresgo Inn – Restaurant in Surrey BC 604-588-0878 (fresgorestaurant.com), but I wouldn't send tourists there alone. Its in a bad area.

 

27 sides?!? Holy moley!
T