SanFrancisco

More French Laundry Reservation tips. This time from Aimee (thanks!). In brief: book lunch, book the private room and 'war dial'. More details in our updated French Laundry Reservation Saga Part 3.

Aren emailed us a link to his tips on how to get a French Laundry Reservation. Thanks! Check out the full details on our updated French Laundry Reservation Saga Part 3.

Famous blogger Dave Winer and his associates like André Radké have been singing the praises for years of Spicy Noodles (Dan Dan noodles) at Jing Jing in Palo Alto (in Silicon Valley which is close to San Francisco).

Tom Peterson, one of our readers, wrote in (thanks!) to say that walk-in reservations are no longer accepted at the French Laundry. I will update our French Laundry Part 3 soon. Looks like the only way to get reservations (other than through the painful manual phone and the online process) is through a local concierge. This is not good. There has got to be a better way that keeps both customers and the restaurant happy.

This quote from In San Francisco, Good Things Come on Small Plates makes my mouth water: "Several Moroccan-style tagines are available, and I can't imagine one better than the version composed of meltingly tender shredded veal cheeks, eggplant, dates and chickpeas."

We need to start saving for a trip to San Francisco!

Meanwhile, anybody know where I can get good Moroccan-style tagines in Vancouver? Please leave a comment if you do!

Zuzana Ponca successfully made a French Laundry reservation using a tip she found from us: reserve in person at the restaurant by getting there at about 9a.m. two months before your desired date. I've updated our French Laundry Reservation Saga Part 3 with her story.

As always, please leave a comment if you have any tips on making a reservation, or a report on their food.

An anonymous reader sent us some tips (thanks!) on how to best use OpenTable.com to get a French Laundry reservation. Check out our updated French Laundry Part 3 story for the full details.

And leave a comment to let us know whether or not this works for you!

The French Laundry finally has an official website hosted on their own domain, Frenchlaundry.com. Thanks to one of our readers for pointing this out to us!

The site is beautiful but some pages (such as the menu page) only work on a PC and don't work on Mac OS X with these browsers: Internet Explorer 5.2.2, Mozilla 1.3, Mozilla Firebird 0.6, Camino 0.7 and Safari Beta 2.

Luckily, we have a PC as well as three Macs and therefore I can download the menu for the French Laundry using my PC.

I've updated our French Laundry Saga Part 3 to include information about reserving tables through OpenTable.com. WARNING: only a very limited number of tables are available through OpenTable and it's probably just as frustrating as trying to reserve by phone from out of the country or state. IMHO, the best way to successfully reserve a table is in person or (if you can afford it!) to stay in one of the expensive local hotels and get the concierge to do it for you.

Dennis Walker emailed us that he successfully obtained a French Laundry reservation by following the advice that we gave in our French Laundry Saga Part 3. Namely to reserve in person!

So, if you live in the Bay Area, head on down and reserve it in person. If you don't, then get somebody who you know who lives in the Bay Area to apply in person for you!