I can’t eat out too much these days, which is too bad, since there seems to be a resurgence in interest in finding decent places to eat in the area.
[The 100, episode 4](http://ideastransform.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-100-episode-4) had a great discussion about the local restaurant scene. Although I took some exception to the Kitchenerite panel disparaging the selection in Waterloo. Come on, Kitchener is more than twice the size of Waterloo, people! Of course it has more restaurants!
The main argument was that while Waterloo had some nice, upscale eateries, it didn’t have any of the great, family-owned, hole-in-the-wall ethnic places where you could get a decent lunch for cheap. Which isn’t true at all. Just off the top of my head, there’s Classic Indian, Home Garden, Jia Jia Lok, Al Madina (expensive, but they use local, unofficially organic meat and produce, even if they don’t advertise the fact), Brady’s Deli, Masala Bay, Kismet… and then there’s a few new places that have opened up that I’d like to try if I was able to eat out.
I can eat out vicariously through others, though. The [Food in Waterloo Region Facebook group](http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=nf&gid=106445362726415) just started up this week and may end up being more useful than the venerable [kw.eats newsgroup](http://groups.google.ca/group/kw.eats/topics), which can be a little crotchety at times. [Loudlunch](http://loudlunch.com) is a brand new blog dedicated to finding decent lunch spots in the area, mostly around downtown Kitchener. Well worth keeping an eye on. [Sapphire Martini](http://sapphiremartini.blogspot.com/) posts fairly infrequently, but has been around for ages and has a decent catalogue of reviews.
I always wonder how to attract people to these smaller venues as often when I am out with my friends we almost always default to the big chain restaurants.