Restaurant Books

This book is full of large and detailed pictures of many pubs, right alongside the written histories, pub times, beer served, etc. If you like pubs (or London) at all, you should buy this book.

I spotted this Lonely Planet guide for the Cape at the library. Using it during a long weekend at the Cape made me realize I needed to own it. It contains a wealth of useful, interesting information about what to see and do--and every restaurant evaluation from it was accurate. This guidebook is worth every penny for a family or a couple traveling alone.

I bought this book during an extended stay in Frankfurt, to get to know the city. I was so happy with my purchase because it didn't weigh itself down with wordy descriptions of hotels, etc. Instead, this is a very practical, carry-with-you book that gives great ideas for food, shopping, entertainment and activities. The best part about it was that I felt that it gave you the highlights of the city up front, then showed what other things you'd like once you covered the not-to-be-missed stuff. A great section also is Quirky Frankfurt. You get a great idea of the special things about the city throughout the book.

I think this is useful for younger travelers who are looking for what to see, where to eat and where to hang out. It's also perfect for longer-term visitors and people new to the city.

The Lonley Planet condensed guide to Hong Kong jumped off the shelf at me as it was bright pink. The colour isn't the only hot thing about it, let me tell you! For a small guide, this product really packs all of the relevant information in to its 128 pages starting with important facts about Hong Kong from history, orientation, environment, culture and society to arts, economy and climate! The text isn't the largest I have ever seen, but this guide is very easy to read, and fits easily in to your top pocket, thus making it the ideal companion for long day trips on foot. Obviously, it is advisable to read from a selection of guide books, but this one is the perfect size to take along with you on the day.

A whistle-stop tour of the highlights of Hong Kong proved particularly interesting and useful to me as I could simply mark off each landmark in order and visit accordingly when I was in Hong Kong. Unlike some other guides, there are also sufficient photographs to help you recognise all the most important landmarks and to give you a bit of insight in to the city before you arrive.

I particularly liked the colour-coded sections for sights & activities, Out and about, Shopping, Places to Eat, Entertainment, Places to Stay and Facts for the visitor. This provided comprehensive information on a variety of activities, sights, tours, restaurants, markets, bars and hotels which were both up to date and objectively remarked upon. Although the guide cannot go in to detail and include every place of interest in Hong Kong, the top places were mentioned, hints and tips given as to where not to miss and a good range of places were written about to accommodate any budget or any interest.

As is always useful in a large, non- western city, good directions are important, and the Lonely Planet condensed guide book certainly provided this. Tram, bus and MRT information was provided for all of the attractions in the guide as well as detailed road and street maps for Central, Causeway Bay, Kowloon, Wan Chai and other parts of Hong Kong Island and the outer lying territories.

Interesting and funny anecdotes also make an interesting read, both preparing the visitor for what you will see and providing a cultural insight in to the more unusual side of life in Hong Kong. I particularly enjoyed the extra information about eating out in Hong Kong - from tea drinking to dim sum culture, vegetarian life in Hong Kong (or lack of it!) and where to eat late at night!

The hotel listings are perhaps the least well covered in this small but sweet offering from Lonely Planet, but there is still a decent enough selection of lodgings from cheap to super delux to suit any budget. Obviously, the reason that the accommodation section is not as comprehensive as other guides is that it focuses more on the real, day to day Hong Kong - emphasising the fact that this is a great guide to keep with you at all times as it is easy to carry and a really useful companion.

Lastly, the travellers facts combine all of the must-know information at the back of the book in an easy look-up section. Getting to and from the airport, travelling in the city, health and safety information, events, public holidays, brief vocabulary section and conversion tables mean that if you are staying for 24 hours or a week, you will have sufficient help to enjoy everything that Hong Kong has to offer. This book really was the best one that I found!!

Well worth the money!

My wife and I spent one week in Hong Kong during March, 2004. We found the 2nd edition (published March, 2003) Lonely Planet Hong Kong Condense pocket guide to be a great reference source.

Because the guide is pocket-sized, it fit conveniently in my jacket and looked inconspicuous when I carried it in my hand. I found the fold-out maps on the covers to be handy and easy to use when I navigated the streets of Kowloon and HK Island.

The guide is well organized and broken into categories such as "Highlights," "Sights and Activities" in addition to the obvious ones such as "Shopping, "Places to Eat," and "Places to Stay."

We found the places to visit recommended under "Highlights" and "Sight & Activities" to be worthwhile. For instance, our son, who is spending his junior year of college studying at the University of Hong Kong, suggested we visit two obscure sights: the Chi Lin Nunnery (which has a beautiful Japanese-style garden) and the Wong Tai Sin Temple (a large colorful Taoist temple and garden bustling with activity). Both sites were listed in the guide.

The huge shopping malls such as Pacific Place (on HK island in Admiralty) and Harbour City (in Tsim Sha Tsui) were fun to wlak through.

If I had a single complaint, it would be that some of the recommended restaurants under "Places to Eat" were duds [such as Luk Yu Tea House (past its prime and overrated) in Central and Peking Restaurant(overrated) in Tsim Sha Tsui]. In other words, take the recommended eating establishments with a grain of salt. On the other hand, some of the eateries such as the "Happy Garden Noodle & Congee Kitchen" (located across from the Harbour City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui) and "Yung Kee" (a famous roast geese restauant located in Central)were great. It should be noted that restaurant meals are quite expensive in Hong Kong. My wife and I found the food courts in shopping centers (where the locals dine) to be good places for inexpensive and delicious Chinese food).

I've spent a year in England and have made >30 visits all together.

Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for pubs, hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the underground and the double decker buses. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the city centre. When you get to be an old London hand, remember that the classic Londoners guide will always be an A to Z (zed) map and guide. If you want to go a bit beyond the central core of the city (perhaps to Windsor, Hampton, or further away) you really need the proper AtoZ to be able to find exact routes and streets.

Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

The collaborative effort of Jane Stern, Michael Stern, and Doug Shook, The Louie's Backyard Cookbook wonderfully showcases island cuisine recipes of Key West that made the Louie's Backyard Restaurant an innovative trailblazer of gourmet dining. The more than 150 recipes by Doug Shook range from Mango Slaw, to Chilled Celery Root Soup, Zucchini Spoonbread, Ginger Rhubarb Cobbler to pack the pages of this "user-friendly" cookbook of delightful, classy, taste-tested Key West restaurant sensations.

This cookbook captures the essence of Cajun and Creole cooking.

Ever since I lost nearly 200 pounds on the low-carb lifestyle, people are always asking, "So, Jimmy, where can you go out to eat and stay on your low-carb lifestyle?" I always laugh at this because they act as if when you are livin' la vida low-carb you live in some kind of shell cut off from the rest of the world. But the flexibility of low-carb allows you to eat virtually anywhere and still remain on your low-carb lifestyle.

But, it can be difficult to know what exactly you can and cannot eat when dining out, especially when you are new to low-carb. It sure would be nice to have a handy dandy manual to whip out and reference anytime you are out and about and need to stop by a fast-food or sit-down restaurant for a bite to eat.

That's where The Low-Carb Restaurant Guide comes in extremely handy.

Written by Cheri Sicard, she did all the footwork for you to locate the bountiful choices that await you at nearly every restaurant known to man. From Applebee's to Wienerschnitzel and everything in between, Sicard invested a lot of time in providing you with options galore.

As you can imagine, restaurants change their menus quite often so she even includes the web site address of the restaurants so you can visit them directly for the most up-to-date information, some of which is already dated. But Sicard provides some excellent advice regarding making the best decisions about what to eat when low-carbing, including various practical tips for eating out low-carb style, explaining the difference between good and bad carbs, and help with counting carbs.

Each restaurant featured in The Low-Carb Restaurant Guide contains four distinct sections.

In "The Good" section, Sicard gives an overview of the positive aspects of the particular restaurant from the vantage point of someone on a low-carb lifestyle. Conversely, in "The Bad" and "The Ugly" sections, she explains the foods you DEFINITELY need to avoid and keep yourself from being tempted with when dining at that particular restaurant. Finally, the "Best Things To Eat" section gives a step-by-step guide for how and what to order from the restaurant to keep on livin' la vida low-carb.

This book is small enough to carry around in the glove compartment of your vehicle, in your purse, or even in your back pocket. If you worry about ordering something that has a questionable carb content, then you will want to pick up a copy of The Low-Carb Restaurant Guide for yourself. It will keep you from blowing your low-carb lifestyle.

I grew up eating at Luby's with my family and I love to cook, so having a cookbook that contains my Luby's favorites is a real treat. Whether you know Luby's or not, this is a great cookbook full of comfort food favorites.