I don’t have a pic but there’s a local cafe we like where we always order their Reuben. Side choices are fries, coleslaw, potato salad, fruit, side salad or soup. Really good! My mom used to make Reubens often.

This trio of two salads and cheese bread is a huge lunch favorite at another restaurant here called The North Woods Inn. It might not look like much but people get major cravings for this tasty combo. Red cabbage is especially TDF.

I live out in the sticks and have been working from home for 95% of the last 3 years so rarely do I go out for lunch.

On the rare occasions that I do go out when in the office, I go to the same 3 places. a Mexican place a couple blocks away, a Chinese buffet, or a Cajun joint. So my lunch looks like a chicken burrito slathered with cheese and chips, a mix of Chinese dishes, or in the case of Cajun it is blackened something or Chicken a la Mer.

Sorry no pics to post.

Katz's Deli NYC. Pastrami on rye. Late fall 2019 we had a massive snowstorm. My car was safe in a parking garage. But roads were not plowed in time. Too fast of a snow fall. I got a hotel room. A block from Katz's. 😀 A dozen of us, co-workers, stayed in a botique hotel, --last minute reservations are super cheap but work paid for it. Katz's and a rooftop hotel bar like a holiday party. Only ate 1/4 but had a room mini fridge for a breakfast pastrami. --and the rest DH had for dinner....

I've always wanted to go to Katz's deli! That sandwich is phenomenal.

Don't usually have much of a lunch but we were in Mexico recently and met a friend of his from home

for lunch. His friend stays in Mexico for two months every winter but doesn't much care for Mexican food so we went to Fuego Santo and I had the most delicious grilled chicken sandwich. It was huge! I ate almost half and took the rest home for my dinner.

yum!!! These lunches all look great!

LoneJack, I haven't seen the inside of many restaurants these last few years either. My sister had asked me what the food was like at this new place, and hence my photo. :)

chloebud, I would LOVE the salads -- especially the red cabbage! I made some just the other day to go with rouladen.... perfect. And I am totally jealous of all the great side choices you have!!! Around here, it's either automatic french fries, or maybe potato chips. Other choices are rare. I will note that this new place makes the best sweet potato fries EVER! lol!

Lars, o m g, your dim sum looks fantastic!!! We don't have any restaurants near hear that could or would produce anything looking like that. What a treat to have such variety and all at once! The only dim sum that I regularly make is pork fried dumplings. :)

wow, sleeve, an inside view of a real NYC deli!!!! I can only imagine how good that is! My only trip to NYC was at the tender age of 8. lol! My BF has a niece who works in NYC, and her husband once brought me a few enormous fresh bagels from the city. They were soooooo good!

nekotish, that bread is calling me!!! and if it's filled/dressed right, a grilled chicken sandwich can be awesome in so many ways.

Post away! I love good food pics. :)

I love dim sum! If you’re ever in Australia, Lars, I’ll take you out for dim sum 😁

DD and her husband went to Katz’s Deli a few yearts ago when they were in NY. They split a Reuben and DD said tthey were in a ”meat coma” for the rest of the afternoon.

I don’t often go out for lunch as I still work, but on a recent holiday in Melbourne we did have a pretty good pizza

Also an okonomiyaki

with miso cheesecake for dessert.

The cheesecake was surprisingly good: the filling was creamy and the miso just a light frisson around the edges of your mouth 😁

When we’re in town here, if we go out for lunch it’s usually banh mi from a local deli. They know us well there.

That looks really good. Interesting about the miso cheesecake, yum.

When we eat out we want something new or special or what we don't have at home. And does not need to be expensive.

Yes, Katz's is a dietary coma. Once every few years and only with house guests.

I have a few culinary walking tours. A few dozen choices depending on our guests. My BIL and his wife love this walk.

Williamsburg Russ and Daughters for a classic stuffed smoked salmon bagel. Cut into 4 to share.

Walk over the WillyB bridge to Manhattan. Katz's pastrami shared 4 ways. I just want a single bite--(DH caries a small backpack with a foil quilted bag and small ice pack) 😜

Downtown tour includes ChinaTown for soup dumplings.

I have a hard enough time taking pictures of food I've made. Here's a pretty picture from Trip Advisor of a favorite in L.A.. Buckwheat galettes.

Colleen, the closest I've gotten to Australia was Fiji, but most of the tourists there were Australian - or Chinese, since it was Chinese New Year when we went there (big mistake). I did not see Chinese food there, but there was some Asian food. In Fiji, Asian means Indian, but there was also some Indonesian food on the menu. They have an American style buffet breakfast, but we were the only Americans there at the time. Everyone assumed we were Australian, which I thought was odd because we do not speak with an Australian accent at all.

I make Okonomiyaki frequently - it is one of my favorite brunch items, and there are a couple of Okonomiyaki restaurants very close to us. Once I had it, I decided to make it myself, and there are plenty of Japanese markets in my neighborhood so that I can get the ingredients.

We were planning to go to Palm Springs Drag Brunch on Feb 18, but I could not get tickets - the event was sold out 😞 This is peak season for Palm Springs, and so I should not be surprised. Also, they advertise on billboards on I-10 from Los Angeles.

Lars, I make okonomiyaki myself as I really enjoy them and it’s hard to find anyone who makes them unless there’s an occasonal food truck at a market. Every Japanese restaurant I’ve been to that has them on the menu, when I order one they say, ”Oh sorry, we’re all out.” ???? How can you be ”out” of something that’s essentially eggs and cabbage? One place we went to the (Australian) lass behind the counter said, ”… but we have something similar, takoyaki.” DH thought I was being ungracious when I replied that takoyaki were nothing like okonomiyaki, but seriously.

It got me thinking, so I Googled and apparently you can buy them frozen 🤮 So I guess that’s why some places ”run out”. In Melbourne DH was a sweetie and went to some trouble researching for somewhere that made their own fresh 😍

I'm pretty easy! We rarely eat out (get something on Fridays to warm up for dinner), but lunch every couple of months is a shared McDonald Ave burger (our street) at SUPERBURGER, along with a large order of tots! The burger has mushrooms and bleu cheese, and the tots are (probably deep fried) just sooooo crispy! We always reheat the leftover tots in the air fryer for another meal! Yum! I think we're due!

Salmon Tartine, one of my new local favorites!

wow, what absolutely beautiful food photos!!! (plllog, you cheated! :) I'm envious of all your choices!

eta: nancyjane_gardener, I've had deep fried tater tots from a popup bbq place here a few years ago. They were the bomb! Definitely addictive. lol!

Since Lone Jack mentioned Cajun food, here's some from The Ragin' Cajun in Redondo Beach:

We started with fried okra, which I will always order, if it is on the menu.

I had a fried oyster Po' Boy, and Kevin had gumbo.

Mardi Gras decorations - it's coming up again soon!

But it's not cheating! I really ate it! Just didn't take that particular picture, and credited it to be honest. They have a bunch of these galettes. They're beautiful to look at and delicious.

Lars, I like the way that okra is served. I'm also a big fan of fried okra!

There’s a new place here that serves “french fries” in a basket like that, but the fries are cut like a thick shoehorn. Very strange.

Like Lone Jack, I live in the sticks and I seldom go out to eat for any meal, we cook at home. I haven't been to my local favorite dive in at least two years, not even for take out.

I did take the grandkids to Slow's BBQ at the Downtown Market in Grand Rapids for lunch after the public museum over Christmas Break. Hamburgers and brisket tacos, and the tacos were really good. They had boba drinks from one of the vendors too, but I didn't take any pictures of anything. That was the trip that resulted in me getting COVID, there were a LOT of kids at the museum touching everything (which was encouraged, there were a lot of exhibits for the kids on Christmas Break) and I was a lot less careful that I should have been. I had been so busily avoiding anything that would make Mother sick, even the flu, and then when she passed away I just shrugged it off. I should have used the hand sanitizer and worn a mask.

So, it may be another two years before I go out to eat again, I've found that I did not miss it at all, don't particularly enjoy it or look forward to it. Of course, there aren't a lot of great options here, mostly chain restaurants and fast food, and I'm not inclined to make another trip to the "big city" anytime soon!

Annie

We are as likely to eat breakfast as we are lunch, since we aim for between 11:30-12noon. However, we recently got back from the Wine Country, where we went specifically to eat at Solbar Restaurant @Solage Resort in Calistoga (Napa Valley). In fact, we visited to order chef Gustave Rios' Reuben, which only rotates on to the menu during winter months, so I think it fits here, LOL.

I had his housemade corned beef Reuben back in 2020 when Rios had recently taken over the kitchen. The pandemic/lockdown kept us away, but on our last two Napa trips since Fall 2022 we just did not have time to make it up to Calistoga, which is a fair drive north of the city of Napa.

So last week we made a special 3-day trip to just focus on Calistoga, and enjoyed Solbar so much we canceled a last-day reservation at another restaurant so we could return to Solbar a 2nd time for lunch.

Sadly, I am not a photographer of my meals, so I had to snitch this photo from Christine F. on Yelp, which she took 9/28/2020.

The Reuben looks a bit different in 2023. Chef Rios has switched to a high-quality Jewish rye with caraway seeds, much better than the marble rye (which I dislike, actually). The corned beef is still made in-house and is superb, without the excessive salt that mars so many versions. Sliced thin, piled generously, served hot and juicy on lightly buttered toasted rye. Aged Gruyere, not Swiss. Housemade Russian dressing.

Most importantly, from our POV: properly braised sauerkraut. FYI we always order extra sauerkraut, too.

Spouse also ordered the same, and agreed with me the quality of the rye and the extra thin slicing of the corned beef made this rate as the best Reuben we've had in the last 30 yrs. The true Jewish delis are almost all gone in the SFBA and altho Reubens are currently making a comeback onto pub menus, most are just average.

The potato salad in the Solbar photo has been dropped for housemade chips. I sent a note via Resy that I thought the chips were sliced too thick; previously they were thin and crisp, but these were like eating corn tortilla chips so the texture contrast didn't quite work as well.