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Frank Valenza, owner: The first appetizer you had was the salad de Palace, which is fresh lobster with truffles, walnut oil, artichoke bottoms and a vinaigrette dressing.

Rooney: I thought it was pecan oil.

Valenza: No.

Rooney: Walnut oil, aha. Well, they fooled me there. And then I had— this is the gazpacho?

Valenza: Gazpacho, very thin gazpacho, made with fresh vegetables and a little garniture on the side.

Rooney: Made of what?

Valenza: Tomato, garlic, peppers, onions, all your fresh vegetables. But just the essence of the vegetables.

Rooney: Garlic seasoned with a little tomato?

Valenza: Yes.

Rooney: And . . . fish.

Valenza: You had the fresh filet of sole filled with a mousse of salmon with a crayfish sauce. And then we had a little sherbet to cleanse the palate. Then, the main course, I believe you had the . . .

Rooney: The rack of lamb.

Valenza: Rack of lamb that was roasted with fresh aromatic herbs and naturel au jus. And for dessert, a little chocolate truffle. It’s ice cream mixed with pastry cream. It’s dipped in a very rich chocolate with little nuts and then we put it in the freezer.

Rooney: Do you get people in here ever who are surprised at the cost?

Valenza: Once in a while. Saturday night a lady came by and asked the price and I told her and she said, “I’m coming back with a boyfriend. I’m going to get a rich boyfriend to take me in.” They came down and made a reservation. They sat down. The gentleman opened the menu and there was the price and he jumped up.

He said, “Well, I just ate dinner and I thought this was just an aftertheater snack.” And we said, “Thank you, maybe another day.” And the lady winked at me and she said, “Well, we’ll try again.”

Rooney (to camera): The surprising thing about the Palace is how good it is. The food is excellent. As a matter of fact, I plan to come over here real often . . . and bring the kids.

Two of the best lunches I ever had, I ate standing up . . . and within an hour of each other. Both places serve the same thing, oysters. Felix’s is on Iberville Street in New Orleans and the Acme Oyster House is right across from it.

Every restaurant has its own way of doing things and if you don’t know what it is, it’s easy to look dumb the first time you go in a place.

Rooney: What is the difference between the ones that are three dollars a dozen and the ones that are two-seventy-five?

Man (cutting oysters open): . . . table.

Rooney: Oh, the table. If I eat them at the table, they’re more? Are some of them harder to open than others?

Man: Some of them are hard, some of them’s easy.

Rooney: But they’re alive until you open them, is that right?

Man: Yes, sir.

Rooney: You mean I just ate a dozen live oysters?

It’s always hard to find a good place to eat when you’re driving in an unfamiliar part of the country, particularly if there are three or four people in the car who don’t agree where you’re going to eat. You get to one place and it looks fair but you decide to pass it up. You drive ten miles and you wish you’d stopped there, usually.

The trouble with most country inns is the same thing that’s wrong with so many restaurants. They’re fake, an imitation of the real thing.

The food in most country inns now comes from the city . . . frozen.

Being good at picking a place to eat is a matter of experience . . . prejudice acquired over years of eating out. Deciding which restaurant not to go to is important. . . . There are little things you look for.

I have as many as fifty little reasons for steering clear of certain places. Just for example:

• I am very suspicious of a restaurant that says it is Polynesian and has flaming torches outside.

• If a Chinese restaurant serves chop suey and chow mein, I assume that it isn’t very good . . . or very Chinese.

• Cute names on restaurants, such as Dew Drop Inn, suggest that the owners aren’t very serious about their food. Watch out for places named after a new movie.

• Places that advertise “Home Cooking” don’t interest me. If I want