Thanksgiving:Who Ate What and Where?

[scrumptiouschef]

To keep it from getting shifted to homecooking let's keep the discussion to restaurants only.After reading of the horrors of the Driskill[home of the $13 dollar breakfast taco/coffee combo] I started wondering where the rest of the hounds had Thanksgiving.I'd really love a report on 4 Seasons and Chef Prambs work on this day.

[ridgeback]

We ate at home but many of our side dishes came from Central Market. The relief from having to cook everything was most welcome, but quite expensive and not as good as it would have been if home-cooked. The sweet potato casserole and whipped potatoes were quite good but CM's fresh stuffing was good but not great.

I wouldn't have bothered to post this but I wanted to strongly recommend a new technique I learned for cooking a turkey. The article from the LA TImes is headlined, "How we discovered the be-all, end-all turkey recipe," and it truly was a magnificent home-cooked turkey. The secret was a dry brine and the turkey was incredibly moist and flavorful. Also, it was a breeze. http://www.latimes.com/theguide/holid...

[Allison L.]

The CM sides have always been disappointing for us too. I started ordering sides from Food Food a few years ago and they never disappoint. The dishes are not cheap, but always reliably delicious. I like giving these friendly, local people my money. It's not thanksgiving now unless I have their cranberry orange relish, and my husband loves the cornbread dressing so much that I don't even think of making it anymore. Thanks for posting that link. I'm going to try that method and fry the turkey!

[ridgeback]

And thank you for the Food Food suggestion! I'll look into it for xmas.

[ding53]

I ate at Hill's Cafe with the family. Nobody really felt like traveling or cooking this year. First time in my life that I ate out on Thanksgiving, but that's neither here nor there.

You get two options. Ham or Turkey. Personally, I'm a ham person so that's what I ordered. However, the smoked turkey was delicious, very moist and flavorful. The ham was also very good with a pineapple glaze. Some of the best ham I have had ever. The dressing/stuffing was the typical cornbread dressing. I prefer to not have celery but there was some in there, but it was no issue. There was also some of the best sweet potato casserole that I have ever had, and it has pretty much been a fixture on the Thanksgiving table since birth. There were mashed potatoes, which were good as far as restaurants go. Actual fresh potatoes as opposed to dehydrated. There was green bean casserole as well, while delicious, it isn't exactly difficult to make. While it certainly wasn't served in the fanciest way style (seeing images of food piled high on he plate at a home cooked meal), it was all very good and I would recommend it highly, especially for $15.95 that they charge and the fact that you can get seconds, although it is not buffet style. There was also pie for dessert but I did not get any.

[gulch]

III Forks and it was good!

[judiftx1]

McCormick & Schmicks ...I chose it because they were actually cooking turkeys, not turkey breasts, so i had white meat, my husband was able to get dark meat , and my mom decided to have a non-traditional Thanksgiving and ordered from their seafood menu. The food was very good, the prices were reasonable, and the service was excellent.

[taliesin15]

The one place I did go to was the Taco Truck at S. 1st and Oltorf, El Pollo Rico, for Carne Asada, Al Pastor and Pollo (all on corn tortillas, natch)--outstanding salsa on the side. FWIW, I also had roasted Turkey Thighs served with Mole, wild rice stuffing, & cranberry (though at home).

[SlickTheCat]

We dined at the four seasons, which was pretty good, but definitely did not live up to the price tag ($68/person). I would go back for something more in the range of $40/person, but at their current prices, no thanks.

[scrumptiouschef]

slickthecat,
Please describe the food you ate.1500 words or so should be about right.

[hlk]

I agree completely. Not nearly as good as I expected from A) The Four Seasons, or B) for $68 a person. I wouldn't go back for Thanksgiving, and since a good portion of it was apparently just their regular Sunday brunch, I probably wouldn't go for that either.

[GenieinTX]

I ate the Shoreline and it was very good. It was very crowded and we had to wait to be seated even though we had a reservation. People just weren't leaving as quickly as management probably wanted. I had butternut squash soup as a starter and prime rib. It was very good and I loved the atmosphere. I'd definetly go back.

[Javeing]

I ate Thanksgiving dinner at Trio at around 7:00 P.M. Was Promptly Seated, Had fantastic service, I don’t think my champagne glass was more than half empty the entire night. The spread was fantastic and was refreshed often enough that I never had to wait for them to bring more of anything. Exceptional Smoked mussels, and prawns. Also had two types of stuffing, the turkey was perfect, and very good truffle oil infused twice baked mini potatoes. They had some sort of Lamb dish that I tried a piece of and found to be a bit on the dry side, but I wasn’t interested in eating it in the first place, as they had plenty of Turkey and Prime Rib. Good variety of deserts. Can’t comment on the price since I didn’t pay for it, but I defiantly enjoyed the meal.