Why do some people go out of their way to eat in especially bad restaurants?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I was taken to Maz Mezcal, an "upscale Mexican" place on E. 86th St. in NYC by a certain unnamed relative, and it was downright foul. Everything tasted like it came from a can, even the beans (!), and I felt sick the next morning. This relative swears by the place and has been there a bunch of times. I don't just mean the food was bland or uniteresting, I mean it was disgusting. Why do some people prefer bad restaurants to good ones? There must have been a dozen places in walking distance from where we were that are better.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

HI DERE INDIVIDUALIZED TASTEBUDS WAHT IS IT MADE?

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

maybe you were rude to them and the cook/waiter tainted only YOUR food?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

upper east side mexican restaurant in 'being unspeakably wrong' shocker!

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

This is not like the Mezcal "chain" strewn throughout Brooklyn (Park Slope at Union and 5th, CG at Court and 1st Place, etc etc), is it? Because that place is great.

― snumbers (snumbers), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

I utterly love those dodgy Thai cult food vegetarian all you can eat buffets. I'm sure lots of people would find the food revolting, even inedible. (Including a snobby, meat-loving relative I took to one of them once.) I don't know; I just love them. I recognise their faults, but sometimes you just want crap - salt and gluten and TVP and all that.

― Three In A Bed Socks Romp (kate), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

snumbers that place is alright - it's in brooklyn for starters! although there is a HIDEOUS brooklyn tex-mex place whose name I've blocked out, it has two locations, one in carroll gardens and one in park slope... the cheese in their quesadillas is LITERALLY nacho-cheese-from-the-movie-theater.. i think they have deer heads on the wall and stuff.. ugh

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

As a Chicagoan, I don't trust Mexican food in NYC at all.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

that place, whatever it's called, also comes to mind because a friend of mine has had TWO get-togethers there now, and he KNOWS what good mexican tastes like! he eats at los pollitos like twice a week! we've drooled in absentia over castro's in clinton hill! it makes no sense!!

xpost hmmmm

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

the thai places are alright, but you get much better crap elsewhere.. i went there looking for FILTH and it just wasn't bad enough for me tbh! it was too.. mediocre!!!

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

Deer heads really add tone to a place.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

Well, sometimes you want *authentic* food, and sometimes you just want the comfort food version.

― Three In A Bed Socks Romp (kate), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

Mr Wu's the place to go for proper gunk. oh yeah, it's bad.

we ain't talking authentic are we? i thought we're talking BADNESS! there should only one result of a comfort buffet and that is to feel ILL afterwards.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but this place wasn't even good in that Chili's Cheese-Smothered Tex Mex Enchiladas kind of way. It was just nasty.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

I've never heard of Castro's but I guess I've got a new place to add to my list of "must go."

― snumbers (snumbers), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

Ed, any particular way you like to prepare the deer heads?

Presumably you marinate the antlers until the antler velvet can be gnawed off?

Then DEER BRAWN is the obvious option I suppose, but I stand correction on that.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

oh yeah! seriously. los pollitos has just opened a new branch right near them on myrtle and while i love pollitos, love it very very much, castro's offers something different and it really deserves to live, it is the BOMB

xpost mentalist

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

are we counting the restaurants that are bad but somehow GOOD because it's really expensive?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

This place was not cheap. Oh, did I mention it was freezing cold, poorly lit, and generally unpleasant?

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

CASA BONITA HELLO? YUMMMM!!

― i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

Deer head pie I think, with the antler poking through. I don't think deer has enough fat for brawn.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.witz.org/images/haroldkumar.jpg

― got yourself a fish biscuit! (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

is this questionable even answerable? why do people like bad stuff?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

OMG I wish I hadn't done that GIS search, now I CRAVE THE WHITEYS.

― got yourself a fish biscuit! (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.onedigitallife.com/images/white_castle.jpg

I will eat you in one sitting motherfucker.

― got yourself a fish biscuit! (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

Oh god... oh god... oh no, I can't look. Those things don't even have any actual meat in them. I can eat a packet and not get food poisoning.

― Three In A Bed Socks Romp (kate), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

Why do some people go out of their way to eat in especially bad restaurants?

a) happy hour drink specials
b) to watch "the game"
c) they have a coupon
d) they just don't know any better
e) they are stoned
f) they are orcs

― got yourself a fish biscuit! (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:36 (nineteen years ago)

Mmmmmm antlery pie.

What else could we make brawn from, surely not only our chum the swine?

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

There's a particularly fine one in ol' Durham Town...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

I has to be fatty meat, I shall investigate.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

As a Chicagoan, I don't trust Mexican food in NYC at all.

rawfull

― 0xDOX0RNUTX0RX0RSDABITFIELDXOR^0xDEADBEEFDEADBEEF00001 (donut), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

OH GOD THAT WHITE CASTLE LOOKS SO GOOD

― Fluffy Bear, among 100% of the population (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

As a Minnesotan, I don't trust Lebanese food in NYC at all.

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

A brief google and it appears that even predominantly non-piggy brawn requires a pigs trotter. So maybe venison brawn would work if you threw in a bit of pork belly as well. Need a lot of heads though.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe if we used cute ickle baby deer? With suckling pig belly.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

Mmm suckling pig belly.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

I swear White Castle got better since that movie came out

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

this is my nabe. i've never been to Maz Mezcal, which I had gathered was good but not great. however, there's a cheap hole in the wall just a few blocks away called Taco Taco that serves very good Mexican food. there's also a pricier nouvelle Mex a few blocks in the other direction, Zocalo, that's suppposed to be better than Maz Mescal. and the UES, writ large, is also home to Maya, arguably the best creative Mex in NYC, and some taco place up by Mt Sinai that's supposed to be great. so it would seem to be a pretty good neighborhood for Mexican food.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

but to answer the question, many people pick restaurants based more on looks or ambience or menu style than on how the food actually tastes. they pick them for comfort, for familiarity, for how welcoming they are, sound level, etc.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

As a Minnesotan, I don't trust Lebanese food in NYC at all.

Is there a sizeable Lebanese population in NYC? I'm not sure. Maybe if you said Somali, this statement might make sense.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Is there a sizeable _____________ population in NYC?

― Allyzay lives aprox. 200 feet away from a stadium (allyzay), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

Is there a sizeable flatworld population in NYC? OH NO, I JUST RAN INTO ANOTHER F*CKING TRIANGLE!

― Fluffy Bear, among 100% of the population (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

We keep em ghettoized in Flatbush.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

http://cdn.euroclick.com/contents/5668/chilis_728_animtan.gif

― roc u like a § (ex machina), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:56 (nineteen years ago)

To seriously answer your question, I will totally go to a bad restaurant if they have one dish I particularly love. Unfortunately, this dish is usually an appetizer.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

jaymc, your spreadsheet has failed you!

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

Also, one of the things about eating in NYC is that sometimes the hole-in-the-wall restaurant will give you the shits, and sometimes it will be the best $3 of food you've eaten in your life, and it's hard to tell the difference. So if you're just out somewhere wandering around you'll go with the clean, well-lit place with nice menus.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

"You" meaning "Eppy."

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

Burger Kebob
A fabulous platter featuring shrimp, onion rings, french
fries, feta cheese, cole slaw, lettuce, tomato, beets,
olives, chili seasonings, and 1/4 pound Grecian
Burger Croquette - A BJ Original

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 92 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

There are a lot of restaurants and joints on the west coast/southwest owned and operated by whites, asians, and mexicans. I've been to one run by a Korean guy that way actually not bad! So I guess what I'm saying is that the point seems weird to me. If your area has a higher population of X culture, you'd assume that your area's X culture restaurants are better but that doesn't always correlate. Especially since the person working in the kitchen making the food is 9 times out of 10 not actually Mexican/Italian/Chinese on any given day. The only types of restaurants that it ever seems to hold true that X Culture cooks X Culture's food all times are Japanese restaurants.

So, in closing, I think the point is weird and maybe romantic!

xpost Tracer I think you might be right. He is the zen answer to the zen question.

― Allyzay lives aprox. 200 feet away from a stadium (allyzay), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

I feel really, really sorry for you if you actually think this is acceptable. Speaking as someone who spent many years in the southwest.

where? this is such a tex mex standard. can we get a ruling from a texan plz.

I also feel really, really sorry for you that you couldn't tell my previous post to this thread was a joke.

i have no idea what yr talking abt is this a joke help oh no. but thank you for feeling really really bad for me. wtf.

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

they do have these kinda funny huge margaritas tho.

so does dallas bbq

yeah there's lots of velveeta cheese in TX texmex, but that doesn't make it good

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:43 (nineteen years ago)

VelVEEta?? I thought Monterey Jack shredded with cheddar was the proper TexMex substitution.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

i don't know if it's actually velveeta - my palate is not sensitive to that product (:D) - but my understanding is that it might as well be

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

i didnt say it was good - i was just telling tracer that it was a standard dish not a weird movie theater nachos aberration created by a fake ass brooklyn mexican place.

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

I really don't order queso b/c it's typically bad and for the whiteys. What jon is describing is standard at keg parties as far as I'm concerned.

― . . .and a soda on the side (Molly Jones), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

they use velveeta cause it melts into a perfect goop - doesn't seperate, congeals slowly. the wonders of processed food.

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

seriously though actual real queso in con queso dishes keeps getting rarer and rarer because apparently the velveeta version is right up there with voting republican and drinking bud light with shit huge numbers of americans prefer to do that boggles my goddamned mind every time

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

wasn't tracer talking about velveeta in a quesadilla? that really is a travesty. i did see that in a "mexican" restaurant in new york once. ::shudder::

― . . .and a soda on the side (Molly Jones), Thursday, 12 October 2006 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

If your area has a higher population of X culture, you'd assume that your area's X culture restaurants are better but that doesn't always correlate.

Ally, this is what I was saying up top about (e.g.) the southwest having its own particular Mexican-food culture and standards, authentic or not. It's not just a matter of having more Mexicans around to make the food -- it's more a matter of having Mexican food being enough of a thing in the area that styles and standards can develop. Hopefully that makes sense. I think one of the reasons NYC Mexican isn't often good is that NYC tends to have zero idea what kind of Mexican food it's going to eat, so you get loads of places half-assing it in any given direction, and eaters who aren't likely to demand any particular type of quality. (E.g. you can serve a "burrito" around here that's just 90% brown rice in a spinach wrap and call that "Mexican," and nobody's gonna argue with you too much.)

One reason Florencia 13 is so damn tasty = it's so damn self-conscious about recreating a fully developed and fine-tuned regional Mexican style. Whereas most places in NYC seem to me to just be casting around wildly with no idea how to go about it, with the result that lots of the cheaper Mexican places are basically selling health-food burritos -- you know, rice + whole beans + dry not-very-spiced steak + a tortilla that seems like it should be on a salad wrap at Whole Foods + some salsa.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

I think we can all agree that mission style burritos are the number one food in the solar system tho rite

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

The simplest "Mexican" food in NYC seems fine to me -- but then, in Michigan we like our "Mexican" in "taco" form, in a hard corn shell with iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese, and Old El Paso ground beef seasoning. Therefore this whole conversation is happening several miles above my head.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

there's a place opening around the corner that claims it's real new york city barbecue. i'm v worried abt what this might mean.

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

i'm going to open a puerto rican restaurant and call it the latin kings

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

Americans like Mexican food!

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

Yay!

(Someone seriously mentioned Velveeta? Oh dear.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

I AM JUST TELLING IT LIKE IT IS PEOPLE

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 12 October 2006 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

GOOD, I THINK WE CAN ALL AGREE THE BEST FOOD IS IN NYC AND NOT IN THE PROVINCES.

― ▒█▄█ ▄▄▄ ▒█▄█ , Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

there's a place opening around the corner that claims it's real new york city barbecue. i'm v worried abt what this might mean.

Dead hookerz

― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

crivens, a meme

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:31 (nineteen years ago)

From the way I just ate my burrito from Chipotle you'd think I was one a them snakes what dislocates its jaw and just wraps itself around the food like

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

Chipotle >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Qdoba

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

NYC/SF latino cuisine >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DC latino cuisine

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

I just want a big bucket of Chipotle's lime-cilantro rice.

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 12 October 2006 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

Punching yourself in the stomach a few times >>>> Chipotle

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

Not true!

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:05 (nineteen years ago)

IS CHIPOLTE "BARBACOA" RILLY BOILED COW HEAD???

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

l.a. restaurants >>> chicago restaurants >>>>> nyc restaurants

― gear (gear), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

xpost Well I do enjoy venveeta and Bud Light.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

Er velveeta. Venveeta is Dave Eggers' pet name for his wife.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

Real Mexican food is high-end. If you eat at restaurants in Mexixan City, it's much like French food, heavy on sauces. Which is why I'm not a big fan of it.

oh god this thread

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

that's the food of the Castilian oppressors.

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 12 October 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

I've had great real mex food on Elizabeth St too

I just want a big bucket of Chipotle's lime-cilantro rice.

I'm convinced that stuff is coated in high fructose corn syrup. something they serve is, at least

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

Adjunct to the original question: Why do people go out of their way to eat at a Indian/Mexican/Cajun/spicy-menu restaurant and then spend hours giving the wait staff a hard time because the food is spicy.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

xpost Chris, my point was that large piece was missing all over the east coast; the point you/jaymc are making seems odd to me, it'd be like LOL@Arizona for not having a huge Cuban population.

Ally, but:

Is there a sizeable _____________ population in NYC?

...is all I'm saying, if you see what I'm saying.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

i think we can all agree that food.

food.

yes.

agreement.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/m/mfdoom~~~~~_mmfood~~~_101b.jpg

― gear (gear), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

-- Elvis Telecom (quartzcit...), October 12th, 2006.

The other day in the local Taqueria, some dude with a kid started arguing with the owner about the fact that he doesn't serve guacamole. And there's a Chili's like five blocks from there too.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

gear otm.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

i have the opposite problem, indian and thai places never make my food as hot and spicy as i want it. it's gotten to the point that i have to subtly emasculate the waiter to get it hot enough.

― ▒█▄█ ▄▄▄ ▒█▄█ , Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

u tough

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:20 (nineteen years ago)

i had a guy send back a dish that was two fillets of fish with the head still on eyeballs and all because it tasted too "FISHY".

― researching ur life (grady), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

you been to Sri Pra Phai, mike?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

nah, i don't think. i've had thai in woodside before, so maybe?

stencil, i'm overstating. it usually goes like this:

me: i'd like it hot
waiter: ok
me: no, real spicy, like what you ate before you started your shift
waiter: i don't think you could handle that
me: oh, i didn't know this is one of those trendy "fusion" thai places..
waiter (evil grin): no problem, we'll make it very spicy sir

― ▒█▄█ ▄▄▄ ▒█▄█ , Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

there's a bunch of other Thai places in Woodside, but spp is unique.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

supposedly most authentic that outside of thailand...most of the dishes there don't look or taste like the kind of thai food you get at every other that restaurant everywhere else in america. I've had problems with dishes being too spicy for me there even when I asked for mild.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, do you go to high-end Chinese joints too? What's the purpose of that?

????!!!!

Are you serious, Ally. Chinese cuisine is one of the most varied and exqusite on the planet. High-end Chinese food is amazing, and incidentally, there have been some fancy Mexican and pan-latino places like the late Alma (before Johnny decided to move to Tahoe) which were excellent and well worth it.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

Amma

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/35158451

Is one hell of an upscale Indian restaurant. Devi is almost as good.

Never had upscale mexican in NYC, the only good mexican I've had has either come from a truck, or places in Sunset Park or Sunnyside. There are good tacquerias in manhattan, but they're all hole in the walls.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 12 October 2006 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

Real Thai food is horrible! I basically prefer the American version to any kind of authentic food, except for Japanese.

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 12 October 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.