Food | TravelTips

Fabulous Food Finds

Do you love good food? We do and we seek it out. We watch cooking shows and learn about delicious restaurants around the country. We visit as many as we can. When we travel outside the USA we ask the locals. We have eaten in homey places, fancy places eclectic places and restaurants we will not go back to. Restaurants that qualify to be awarded "Fabulous Food Find," have three things in common.

Exceptionally delicious food in a clean restaurant with excellent service.

We visit the restaurant, enjoy our meal (or not) and evaluate the restaurant for our criteria. We don't tell the restaurant employees who we are until we are leaving. If they are a Fabulous Food Find, we let them know how much we enjoyed the meal, ask to speak with the manager and let her/him know that the restaurant will be receiving a frameable Fabulous Food Find certificate from Travel Thirsty Toes.

It's exciting and fun to pass on tips for great food. Hopefully some of these Fabulous Food Finds will be on your next trip route. Enjoy!

The Iron Skillet Restaurant

Bryson City, North Carolina USA

July 2017

We were so hungry and the the locals pointed us to the Iron Skillet. The restaurant was full, very busy, and served delicious homey food. We had tender breakfast pork chops, eggs just right with light and fluffy pancakes. Not fancy just exceptional. We hope to get to dine there again.

Family Feast Crab Boil

St. Simon's Island Georgia, USA

The very best food is when your family gathers around the table to eat but when you make it a crab boil, well, that is exceptional! Our son and his family went crabbing off the pier, caught some delicious crabs and brought them back to the condo. His sweet wife cooked a fantastic crab boil. It doesn't get any better than that!

The Tiki Hut at the Marina

Lake Keowee, Seneca SC, USA

We decided to see the eclipse in Seneca SC. neither of us had been there before so it was an adventure. We found Lake Keowee. It is beautiful and was the perfect place to watch the eclipse as it turned the sky sunset across the water. We ate at The Tiki Hut at the Marina. It was an open air restaurant that is not open year round. I ordered The Dark Side of the Moon burger in honor of the eclipse. The chips were homemade. Bob ordered a burger with guacamole. Both burgers were so tender and juicy. The food was outstanding. We plan to go back there again.

Hodad's

Ocean Beach, San Diego CA, USA

Sept. 2017

Bob found Hodad's on Diners Drive-in's and Dives. It's in Ocean City CA. A beautiful old time city that is thriving with surfers. A quaint beach town. Hodad's is not quaint. It has a feel all it's own and food that is worth going to California for. We ordered our burgers and ate every bite. Juicy, tender and worthy of an award. It was interesting to watch the people come and go while we ate. A beachy vacation crowd. Relaxed and comfortable. The feel of Hodad's is memorable, casual and open air in the front. Surf boards and licence plates adorn the walls. Hodad's stickers are everywhere. Stuck on everything. One special table for two sits in the front end of an old Volksvagon Beetle. It was already taken so we will have to go back. How often do you get seating like that? The wait staff was constantly moving because the line at the door doesn't stop. We did not add our stickers to the collection at the restaurant. Our printer now boasts a Hodad's sticker and I smile when I see it.

Luau

Maui, Hawaiian Islands USA

Sept. 2014

While the pig finished cooking in the traditional pit. I learned to dance the hula with a hundred or so new friends until the conch shell sounded to announce the Hawaiian King's arrival by water. He and his court made their way to the stage to declare the opening of the Luau. The barbecue was so good. Even if it had tasted terrible in that atmosphere I would have eaten it but the pig played his part well. The show was great and I ended up on stage doing the hula with a narrower group of friends but it was fun. It was a five star Luau.