Labassin Waterfall Restaurant, Philippines. 

The photographs are taken from here, here and here.

Cabaña Verónica Restaurant, Mercado del Puerto, Montevideo.

The BEST.

Here comes my favorite! It’s sad that we couldn’t find any Turkish restaurant as good as Oleana in NYC —and believe me we’ve been to almost all of them. Being away from home makes you miss things that you wouldn’t normally think of, things that you don’t always eat at home as well, but as soon as you go to a different place you realize their absence. 

As soon as we entered the restaurant, the familiar smells of food made me extremely happy. The food smelled good, looked good and of course tasted unbelievably delicious. We love Meze (appetizers in Turkish), so instead of having 2 entrees, we ordered four meze’s, one side and one meat dish as the main course. The main course wasn’t that big as well so we can actually refer to every dish we ate as appetizers.

So here’s what we had:

• Warm Buttered Hummus with Basturma & Tomato
• Farm Greens & Red Pepper Lamejun with Urfa Chiles & Yogurt
• Spinach Falafel with Tahini, Yogurt, Beets & Crinkled Cress
• Moussaka—Minced Lamb & Eggplant Pie with Whipped Fava
• Vermont Lamb with Turkish Spices, Pide & Everything Green with Garlic & Yogurt

There are not enough words for me to explain how good each of them were, I cannot even tell you my favorites because it’s almost impossible for me to rank them. Even though I don’t like fava, I could have eaten the whole cup of Moussaka. Falafel, with that sauce was spectacular, the Hummus was perfect with the Basturma (it’s actually “pastırma” in Turkish) which is something I really miss in the US. The lamb was perfectly spiced. Lastly, Lamejun (“lahmacun” in Turkish) was a little different from what we are used to but that’s a good job done by the Chef Ana Sortun —changing a well known dish, making it her own and still making us like it a lot.

I’m really proud to see the richness of the Turkish cuisine represented so beautifully.

Another 10 out of 10 for me, but this one is with a star next to it!

Koreana is a great Korean BBQ restaurant. It seems impossible for you to leave there without being 100% full because the food keeps on coming. As an appetizer, we had the Seafood Scallion Pancake, which was ordered by all of the tables around us, and it was delicious.

To use the BBQ oven on your table you have to order at least two orders of meat. Since we really wanted to try that, we ordered the Jumullok Galbi (boneless prime beef rib meat) and Bulgogi (thinly sliced beef rib eye). I ate too many scallion pancake slices and there wasn’t too much room for the meat, but it was so delicious that I probably had more than I should have :)

Well, since I survived from an increased probability of heart attack that night, I don’t regret going to Koreana!

On our first night in Boston, we went to the Legal Sea Foods Restaurant. We had the New England Clam Chowder, which was one of the best soups I’ve ever had. Then we had Legal’s Signature Crab Cake, which was again delicious, especially that yellow sauce on the plate tasted great together with the cakes. As side dishes, we ordered french fries and corn bread —they were not exceptional. The main dish, of course, was the lobster which we tried to crack open. I actually find it fun most of the time, but when we saw the whole lobster with the internal organs, we had to ask for help from our waitress :) Lastly, for dessert we had the strawberry shortcake which I wouldn’t recommend.

So, as long as you stick to the seafood, you’re in good hands! The only reason we had the shortcake was that they had a fix menu for 35 dollars which happened to include the dessert as well.

The second restaurant we went at South Beach was Ago. As an appetizer, we shared the Polipo, which was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted! For the main dish, I ordered the Gnocchetti alla Sorrentina (Gnocchi with tomatoes, basil and Buffalo mozzarella) and my husband had the Branzino alla griglia. (Mediterranean Sea bass with steamed mixed vegetables) They were both really good, sea bass being a little more tasty than the gnocchi, but the only unforgettable thing was the taste of that octopus! 

On Friday night, we went to Joe’s Stone Crab, which was recommended to us by family friends.

For the appetizers, we had Grilled Octopus & Shrimp Ceviche, Coconut Shrimp and Oysters. (for four people, obviously!) Then for the main dishes, we had Grilled Killer King Crab Claws and the famous Stone Crab with Hashed Brown and Sautéed Summer Corn as sides. Unfortunately, we learned that the stone crab season was until May 15th, which meant we had to have them frozen. They catch the crabs for June and July right before May 15th, cook them and then freeze them. So since you cannot cook the crabs again, they have to be served cold. It was the restaurant’s signature dish (hence the name) so we had to try it, but none of us were big fans. However, everything else was great, especially the Killer King Crab Claws.