From my perspective, Too Darn Many! WER

Over on http://austin.citysearch.com/ they list how many restaurants there are per each of their categories. There are 35 Italian listed, but I haven't had time to add up all the categories, and cross check for multiple listings. Sorry. WER

That's probably conservative. How many total restaurants do they list? I'd be curious to see the stats in each category.

On page http://austin.citysearch.com/Austin/Eat_and_Sleep/Restaurants/ it lists 1,271 locations, at least 100 are pizzas. WER

That's probably about a third of the actual restaurants in Austin?

Ah, but there is only one that really counts...*smile*

gosh... who cares how many?!??! just gimme the good ones! Man I miss Kim Phung!

Kim Phung is great, and it's right down the street from my house in town. I had an awesome diner at Trudy's last night. Beans, rice, chalupas, the works. And a marga reeta.

Terry, if you are into beans and rice, would you ever fit right in here in Hawaii. Everything is served with rice - stew and rice, beans and rice...but so far I have not seen spaghetti and rice...and it is served with every meal. Marga Reeta gets around. I have seen her name at watering holes around Hilo, too *grin*

next time you go Paul... have a Sangrita for me please!!! Trudy's was a weekly spot for me... TWO kinds of salsa... great patio... *sob* the memories...

OK Sangrita. Woo Hoo!

Are they still eating lotsa beans and rice out there in HI.

test

Oh Yes!!! It is not my favorite by any manner or means - but it works well for really runny chili and to feed huge hungry crowds. Since it is political season it will become the staple of open houses along with stew and rice. Absolutely everything is served with rice here - with the exception of pasta...

I just realized that there was no Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll in 1998. Those dogs! How dare they skip a year like that! There's no way you can skip a year and keep up with the volatile Austin restaurant scene. The dismal Italian restaurant scene (ok, Lil Italy excepted) has become a bright spot with the arrival of Vespaio, Bellagio, Siena, Cippolina, and Cafe Mia). And three new French places, Chez Noux, Jean Lucs French Bistro and Sardine Rouge with Aquarelle around the corner. Vietnamese and Mexy places sprout up like mushrooms in a cowpasterure after a heavy Austin Spring rainstorm.

And Castle Hill got voted this years best of all. It's a "date place".

Is that if you are a weathy businessman or dating one? Or is it reasonable to expect college kids on s special date to be able to afford it without taking out another student loan? Whatzit like?

Since you are talking about the restauants in Austin, I will not add my favorites to the list from Kona and Hilo...

Sure, Hawaii's restaurants are fair game. Maybe we can pit our finest against your best? How many restaurants are there on the Islands?

How many? I have no idea - but with 4000 sq miles on this Island alone, there are more than a few. I would guess Hilo has perhaps 15 really nice ones and dozens of local food and fast food establishments. All of the big and really plush hotels on the Kohala Coast and in Kona have at least one excellent dining room. One is a complex of 5 different-theme hotels each with its own very lovely dining rooms - very expensive and very good food. Since I hear everything is BIGGER and better in Texas, I would be surprised to find anything from one of the smallest states equal to your finest. Sadly, there are not many of the top categories that I have dined in since my dad died. He afforded me that pleasure whenever he visited.

Per John's suggestion, I counted the entries in the yellow pages and came up with roughly 300 on this island - at least those with phone numbers. However, some fine dining rooms in hotels are lumped together under one hotel phone number...so it is just a rough guestimate.

Perhaps that is balanced out by the fact that Subway Sandwiches is listed in there, too. I don't consider that a restaurant, even though you CAN eat there...

Yeah, I eat at Subway sometimes, it's a pretty healthy meal and low cal. They're running ads about how some 300 lb guy ate nothing but Subway sandwichs for a year and lost an incredible amount of weight. But boring? Yes. Austin has about 600,000 people now in just the city limits, I would guess the area has about 2 to 3 thousand restaurants. If I do an http://www.infospace.com search on restaurants, it gives me 1,134 restaurants in Austin. What happens if you do that for Honolulu or Hawaii? I get 1,059 for Honolulu. And 106 for Hilo. It won't let me do a search on Hawaii. What are the other big cities there besides these two?

So Honolulu and Austin are fairly comparable, I wonder what the census will show the population to be in 2000?

Interesting about Honolulu and Austin. I'll have to check the website. The second largest city in Hawaii is also on Oahu and is Kailua (different from Kailua-Kona) Also Waimanalo and Kaneohe on Oahu. On this Island, try Kamuela where the Parker Ranch is.