If you are going to Buenos Aires, check out this five-room boutique hotel in the Las Canitas neighborhood: Tailor Made Hotel. I love small intimate hotels that provide personal service and emphasize good design, and this one has it all.

Not only that, they are “Apple friendly” meaning bring on those Macbooks and iPods, but if you happened to leave yours at home, don’t worry: rooms have flat screen LCDs connected to a Mac Mini and free VOIP service so you can call overseas for free. Guests have access to private terraces and common lounges, as well as a salon where they can get drinks and small bites. The hotel is only 15 minutes from the trendy Palermo area, but even in Las Canitas, there are many good places to eat.

Tailor Made Hotel
Arce 385
Las Canitas
Buenos Aires, Argentina
+5411 4774 9620
www.tailormadehotels.com

After my wonderful lunch at Burma Superstar, friends told me to check out their sister location, B Star Bar, which is not a bar but a restaurant serving “an eclectic mix of traditional and contemporary Asian fare.” (quote from the website).

B Star is located down the street from Burma Superstar and it has a different menu, a bit more trendy and light than Burma Superstar. The food is very delicious and the service is excellent. My favorite dish is the vegetarian samusa soup which tastes nothing like any soup I’ve ever had in a restaurant in SF. I won’t even try to describe it here, you’ll simply have to go there and order it. The other dish I like is the wild rice salad (hijiki, pickled gobo, avocado, coriander, cucumbers) because it’s healthy but filling. And don’t forget to try their avocado shake — a thick, rich concoction that seems to have five or more avocados mashed up with crushed ice. The lychee shake is also delicious but I prefer the avocado.

• Vibe: simple, stylish decor of a neighborhood restaurant;

• Pros: very delicious savory Asian food at reasonable prices, good service;

• Cons: Parking on Clement during lunch hour is horrible — park a few blocks away on California Street.

I’ve added B Star Bar to my list of favorite “recession friendly” SF restaurants.

B Star Bar
127 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
+1 415 933 9900
www.bstarbar.com

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Check my map of favorite San Francisco restaurants and cafes.

If you are planning a trip to Paris, don’t panic. The euro has diminished in value against the dollar but just as importantly, the city has so many good bistros and brasseries that continue to serve very good food at reasonable prices. The French have always eaten well, during good times and bad. Visitors, however, don’t know where the locals go so they’re stuck in restaurants that serve expensive trendy, unexciting food. Thank heavens for bistros like Allard, which have been around since before the Second World War. Located in the Left Bank (6th arrondissement), they have a loyal clientele who have been coming to the restaurant regularly for years. Their specialties: canard aux olives, poulet de Bresse, escargots de Bourgogne, turbot in beurre blanc, cassoulet, foie gras, coq au vin and baba au rhum.

• Vibe: classic French bistro, unpretentious; people come here for the food.

• Pros: very good value for money — dinner three-course prix fixe is 32 EUR; lunch two-course menu is 24 EUR.

• Cons: always crowded, whether lunch or dinner.

ALLARD
41 rue St André des Arts
75006 Paris
France
+33 1 43 26 48 23
Frommer’s review of Allard
Métro: Odéon

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Click to see my Paris favorite restaurants, cafes and hotels on a Google Map.

*Bonus: see my Paris shopping Guide on Shopplr.

I am always on the lookout for delicious Indian food in San Francisco. My favorite right now is Mehfil on Folsom at 2nd Street in SOMA. What do I like about it? The samosas are very good and they come with three sauces, two of which are spicy. They’re gigantic and at $3.50 per dish, quite a bargain. The vegetable, seafood, lamb and chicken dishes are very good, too. My favorite vegetable dish is the punjabi channa paneer which consists of chick peas, pomegranate, cumin, red onions and other spices; for chicken, I like the kachri murag which is chicken cooked with star anise, ginger, dry baby melon spice, garlic and tomatoes. Because I like my food extra spicy, I ask the kitchen to go crazy with the peppers. Mehfil is good value for money. My friend and I enjoyed a filling dinner consisting of samosas, one vegetable and one chicken dish plus basmati rice for $26.45. And we could barely finish it. Make sure you try the lassi, especially the zaffrani lassi which is not as sweet as the mango lassi but has a very unusual flavor.

You can also order for takeaway or delivery. Their lunch time takeaway specials are extremely good value: at only $5 you get a main course and basmati rice. Their online ordering system is the best I’ve seen so far. Why don’t more restaurants have this?

• Vibe: bright airy restaurant in SOMA, a cut above the typical Indian dive.

• Pros: very delicious Indian food at recession-friendly prices — seafood dishes are around $13, lamb dishes at $12, chicken dishes at $11 and vegetable plates at $9; huge savory samosas at $3.50 an order; excellent service — they have a lot of staff running around helping customers.

• Cons: lunch hour can be crowded, but mostly because of people getting takeaway so don’t be frightened off by the long queues.

Mehfil
600 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA
+1 415 974 5510
www.mehfilindian.com

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Click to see my San Francisco restaurant favorites on a Google Map.

I love Mediterranean food. I realize that the term “Mediterranean” encompasses the cuisines of many regions around the Med but that’s exactly what many restaurants are cooking these days, including The Flytrap which is back in action after Hoss Zaré took over the kitchen. What makes Zaré at Flytrap one of my favorites in San Francisco? The food is indeed very “Med” but it’s got a lot of strong Persian influences. Not surprising given that Hoss Zaré was born in Tabriz, Persia.

My favorite dishes are the pistachio meatballs with a honey pomegranate glaze, lamb shank abgusht with flageolet beans and torshi (a piquant Persian pickled vegetable relish), grilled sardines, and sumac couscous salad. The service is close to perfect: attentive without being intrusive. Most SF restaurant staff tend to rush you, keep pouring water every 5 minutes and generally disturb your dining experience. Not here. Zaré knows how to serve his guests.

• Vibe: elegant, French bistro interiors; quiet enough to have conversations with your dining partners, lots of privacy in the back room.

• Pros: Persian-influenced cooking, fresh Mediterranean food; excellent service – the staff do not rush you and they are not intrusive. They are attentive to your needs.

• Cons: nothing I can think of.

Zaré at Flytrap
606 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
+1 415 243 0580
www.zareflytrap.com
Reserve online at Open Table

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Read reviews of Mapplr’s favorite restaurants and cafes in the San Francisco Bay Area.