Pit Stop Restaurants
 

My wife & I have always liked going out to eat. We always like to try a different restaurant every time we go out. The last restaurant we ended up going out was a local restaurant in st. john's called The Press & Bean. It was literally one of the best meals me and my wife ended up having even though it was very expensive.

Even though we like going to lot of these expensive restaurants within the city. If its one type of restaurant we've always liked are usually the trucker/gas station restaurants that are out in the middle of nowhere. Anytime we end up going on a trip anywhere in the province we always like to stop at one of these types of restaurants because even though a lot of the food is probably the most greasiest fattening food on the face of the planet. The food literally just tastes that good and more often than not it is usually cheap.

One of our favorite places to eat anytime we're traveling is a place called Monty's in Whitbourne. I've never had one bad meal from that place. Sometimes you don't have to truly count on a popular restaurant chain or a very posh restaurant to get a very good meal. Even though if I keep having meals from these pit stop restaurants I'll probably eat myself to an early grave.

To the GFF community, do you have any particular restaurants you like to go when your traveling. What are your opinions of the trucker/pit-stop restaurants and do you think that there are some local restaurants out in the middle of nowhere that serve incredibly good food that people should know about.

The more cops and semis you see out front, the better the food is going to be. The greasy spoon is as much art as a high end restaurant is. Some of the best food I've ever had has been in diners all over the US. And the further south you go, the better it gets.

When out on road trips, we generally like local flavor. We try to find non-chains, and ideally something the locals recommend. It seems kind of hit-or-miss, though.

In West Virginia, I asked about a decent place to eat. They pointed me in the way of Denny's.

I'm more of the culture whore in the group of friends I have. My girls like to stick to chains since it's safe and you know what you're getting. But that defeats the purpose entirely too me. I go places to try new things - especially food. Being a fattie, I like to open the doors to all the possibilities.

Within the region, however, everything is generally the same. There are some areas you go to for specific foods (North End in Boston for mint Italian, North Shore for delicious roast beef, Maine for great lobster, yadda yadda yadda), and even more famous hole-in-the-wall places for specific specialties.

One day, when I get around to that national road trip, I am going to have to pick up a book which indicates all the Best Of's on my trip around the nation. Food is a VERY important part of my travels, if not the MOST important.

It's also thrilling to talk to the locals when you're in these places, provided they're Yankee friendly. I've been to a few places in the south which saw my plates and automatically shut me off. ;_;

Sandwiches That You Will Like

From a documentary aired on PBS last year.

And for further TV recommendations, Travel Channel's top places to pig out.

This isn't a place I hit when I'm traveling, it's close enough that I go there sometimes for lunch. But it's a little diner called Broadway Cafe that serves philly cheese steaks and Korean food.

The couple who own it are Korean and presumably used to live in Philadelphia.

It's good stuff.

There's actually a show on Food Network called Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri [I think that's how it's spelled] that I like to watch. He basically goes around the US seeking out all the best greasy spoon spots, essentially looking for the 'best of the best', so to speak.

At the corner of the turnoff to the highway that goes to Manitoulin Island, there used this awesome truck stop restaurant that served some of the best [all day!] breakfast food I've ever tasted. They've since moved about a half-hour's drive up the highway, which isn't so bad.

My parents actually wound up going to one of the places featured on Driners, Drive-ins, and Dives that was about a 30 minute ride from our house and they said the food was absolutely spectacular. The chef did, like, fancy fusion cuisine in a normal diner setting with typical diner pricing.

I really liked trying as much of the local foods as possible while driving across the country. I think the only chain restaurant my dad and I stopped on our trip together was a Carl's Jr as soon as we crossed the Arizona border into California.

I have to say, the best pit-stop/gas station food I've ever had was in Italy. Our bus stopped randomly at this place off the highway and said that we were going to stick around there for lunch. I remember they had a buffet of Italian food, and I had the best Tortellini I've ever had there. At a gas station. It was ridiculous.

Being in Austin (which loooooves it's 'Austin original' chains), I find myself eating at a lot of local greasy spoon type places, like Kerbey Lane Cafe, Spider House or the Lava Java coffee shop that's by the School of Music. I always feel better going to those places than, say, Chili's. Ughhh.

Was it an Autogrill? When I went to Italy I was amazed first by the quantity of Autogrills along the highway and secondly by how nice they all were. It's too bad a similar level of quality isn't really present along the highways here, but I suppose it's got something to do with the difference in country size.

There's a pit stop restaurant near the border of the Strawberry Wilderness in Oregon that has some of the best breakfast food I have ever tasted. Potato pancakes and sausage omelets and all kinds of other heart attack inducing breakfast food. My dad and I swung in there due to a travel guide recommendation after we had been out hiking in my teens and I wish I could remember the name of it so I could go back.

These days, while on work travel, I tend to frequent IHOPs, if we're not going out for group meals, as they seem to have consistently higher quality than other breakfast places. For ski trips or hiking, I almost always try to swing through a diner style restaurant on the way down as they just have a nice atmosphere to unwind in.

It's nothing eccentric, but I always love going there with my friends whenever we're in the vicinity.

So if anybody is passing through Las Vegas, stop by the Iron Skillet at the Petro in the North end of town. It's right off the exit at the speedway.

Hollywood Cafe in Tunica, MS (southern food)

Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, AL (rib joint)

i'm suprised the buildings of these two places haven't fallen in on customers at this point but the food is awesome.