As part of the Lark Creek Restaurant Group which includes award winning restaurants such as One Market Restaurant in San Francisco, Yankee Pier also won an award from The San Francisco Chronicle as the Bay Area's Top 10 New Restaurants when it first opened in 2000.  Its casual dining cafe style serves New England seafood such as chowder, daily oysters, and dungeness crab to just name a few.

I had a chance to drop by Yankee Pier's airport location in San Francisco (SFO) for a late night bite.  Seating was very basic with wooden chairs, wooden tables, benches with hard wood backing, and a tiled floor.  It all felt like food court.  Being an airport location, the menu was targeted for the airport clientele with quickly prepared dishes such as salads and fried seafood that kept fingers clean.  Choice of oysters was limited and you won't find dishes like the flat iron steak.

I ordered a chicken breast sandwich which took quite a bit of time to come out but arrived hot.  The chicken was well cooked, juicy, and tender.  It had a hint of sweet BBQ sauce they added as the chicken grilled.  Interestingly, the chicken breast was skin in so that really helped preserve flavor and moisture in the chicken.  I wish more restaurants kept the skin on.  I was really hoping for sourdough bread since I was in San Francisco but it wasn't to be.  Bread was dry but easily masked by the yummy chicken.  Lettuce was already soft and was likely pre-chopped.

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Outside the busy Vancouver city center, along the pier, lies a jem of a seafood restaurant called the Cannery.

To get to the Cannery, you'll need to drive through a security check point, past a number of parked trains, and ship loaders.  It really feels odd to be driving here at night with little to no lights and no one around.

But when you get there, you're greeted with a little tug boat at the front and a little house named the Cannery.

The inside is all wooden decorated with various photos of boats, dining awards, and model fishing boats.  The main dining area is small but they have upstairs seating for parties.  The Cannery has wonderful windows that overlook the Vancouver Harbor.  A great view during sunset.

Sadly, the Cannery was closed earlier this year when its non-renewable lease expired.  The Cannery is located in the secure area of the pier so it could be seen as a potential security risk to the Port Authorities.

In case you've heard raves about this restaurant and wonder what it was like, you can read my review.

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Being named one of the best steak restaurants in any major US city is quite a big feat if you know how much people in the US love steaks.  Manny's Steak House, opened in 1988, has been one of these places and its name is familiar to anyone in Minneapolis.

Situated in quiet downtown Minneapolis, Manny's is close to a number of hotels and just a walk away from the popular Nicollet Mall street - which is full of life on weekends during spring and summer.

Manny's is designed like The Keg with a dark high class interior.  The waiting area's wall is lined with photos and signatures from various famous people.

The dining room was filled with people on a weekday so I recommend making reservations well in advanced.  For those of you of the old school steak house group, Manny's brings over a cart of raw beef under wrap so you can see what kind of meat you're going to get when you order.

Complimentary bread was room temperature and reasonably soft.  Too bad the butter wasn't the whipped kind.  It's just a little plastic container of cold hard butter.

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