I recently submitted some traveling smarter tips for Darren of Travel Rants, including “eat at the shabbiest looking restaurant you run across, they tend to have the best food.”
I received some responses in the comments from readers who disagreed.
Erica from Blissful Travel responded,
I probably wouldn’t eat at the shabbiest looking restaurant, but I’d much rather go to a place where there are more locals than tourists.
and Diane from In2Town added,
…you would never go to the cheapest eating places. You would speak to the locals and find out the best places to eat and my moto is, try everything while on holiday.
and both Mark H and Jack noted that it won’t be a long walk to find a unique places off the regular tourist path.
All valid and insightful points, but my question to you readers is – do you visit the shabbiest looking restaurants for the best food when you travel? I’d like to hear from you all in the comments – I know that many of you are visiting to vote for the sexiest story contest and this is a perfect time to add your first comment!
[photo by: dbz885]
Nope, not the shabbiest one, still. But… It should be said I tend to stay in some very cheap places… So the shabbiest won’t just have a chicken running on the floor, it’ll hang out with the cook!
What I’m trying to say is, the shabbiest place in some destinations is guaranteed to give you food poisoning or worse.
Oh, and so are many of the cheaper places in London… But that’s another story.
haha – great that you noticed the chicken in the picture, I didn’t think anyone would notice!
I like the adventure of finding the great food with the risk of a foul stomach, but that’s not for every traveler for sure.
It was nice to find you via Travel Rants, I’ll add you to my RSS reader to follow along.
i would tend to agree with you on this one. in malaysia, all the open air restaurants with cheap plastic furniture and a slightly dirty look to them serve the tastiest food. i won’t order non-bottled drinks but the food is delicious. i also like to eat the food from the carts, its usually the tastiest and most authentic.
While traveling (and I’ve traveled a lot), I always tried to ask locals where the best places to eat were. I’m not a fan of over-priced touristy restaurants, so I thought that was the best way to avoid that. Eating authentic food is definitely a must. And, I have yet to have a bad experience from eating food from a cart off the street…it’s always so good!