How did LaBan miss THESE Northeast Philly restaurants?

When you're in the restaurant-recommendation business, you learn to expect feedback.

But when I published a list of 50-plus recommendations for Northeast Philly in a mega-package last week, my email inbox and Twitter and Instagram feeds threatened to explode.

By far, most readers were friendly and even excited to learn of more dining options in a part of the city that's all too rarely featured for its food. But then there were those who took issue with my choices and omissions.

"You missed a big one!" one reader wrote.

"How could you forget ...?" another cried.

"We feel slighted," wrote a restaurateur who didn't get a mention.

"DUUUUUDE, you have got to be kidding me," Jay Doze wrote. "I don't want to attack you, but I sincerely hope you don't call yourself a food critic."

My travels -- which ranged from the foods of Transylvania to Brazil, zigged from Hong Kong to South India, then lingered over crab cakes at the Mayfair Diner before heading to hoagies in Tacony -- did not deter Mr. Doze from criticizing the list as a "botched gander at attempting to capture the diverse culinary landscape that Northeast truly has to offer."

Yeah, Philadelphians can be a tough crowd. But the fact that Doze then rattled off a long list of legitimately worthy places I hadn't made it to -- Spanish Island, El Provocon, the Flavor Spot, "celebrity chef" Jordan Johnson's Gourmet Seafood -- only speaks to how vast and varied Northeast Philly's dining landscape really is. My nearly 60 meals there really felt like only the beginning.

Of course, a number of places did not make my list because I did eat at them, and they didn't measure up.

"I can't believe you left out the COUNTRY CLUB DINER," Steve Lapin wrote.

In fact, the Country Club Diner is Exhibit A. I once gave three bells to this old favorite as a paragon of Jewish comfort food. But it has slipped so far since the Perloff family sold it, that, among other offenses (like a terribly dry Jewish apple cake), they forgot to put a matzo ball in my matzo ball soup. When I pointed out the oversight, the waitress brought a coffee cup with a sad little replacement ball that was slimy, tasteless, and broken.

The Northeast's longtime Jewish population is increasingly dispersing to suburban frontiers, so talk about matzo metaphors! And yet that wasn't even the worst soup I ate during this project.

That dubious honor went to Jack's Deli, which dredged up such a thick and lukewarm sludge of split pea, its solid khaki green peaks were closer to spackle than soup.

A spoon stood up straight in my cup of snapper soup at Kelly's Seafood, too. But its old-school flavors were proper. It was instead a dish of flounder imperial that was broiled to disintegrated oblivion that X'd the venerable fish house off my list.

Steve's Prince of Steaks at Bustleton and St. Vincent, a favorite for many readers, didn't help itself with an exceptionally rude counter guy (gruff even for a steak place) and a grill man who hissed "no pictures!" even though he was cooking behind, um, a picture window. Someone needs a closed kitchen. But it was mostly the steak itself that unimpressed. Steve's comes from the unchopped steak school, and those sheets of flat meat were simply too lost and dry inside the bready folds of its puffy roll, with only a miserly stripe of half-browned onions, to boot.

My superior steak at Joe's about 20 minutes later was in another league. And then there was that charming little Italian corner cafe in Tacony where I encountered a first -- a chef behind the counter who made my meatball hoagie with a pistol sticking out of his gym shorts. (A nice complement to the rusty machete also on his counter). OK. No critiques from me on that lunch.

It wasn't all grouchy service all the time in the Northeast, not by a long shot. Crystal Hennessy didn't hesitate to insist on a redo when our $15 Mighty Joe Young burger lined with pork roll at Three Monkeys Cafe was seriously overcooked. The second time, they nailed it.

Jim Kambouris was an outstanding and cheerful guide through the vast menu of old-time fish house specialties at Gallo's Seafood.

The Primavera twins, Davide and Gianni, are so charming I can understand how they've managed to grow a little BYOB with a name as mundane as Macaroni's into a full-service Italian destination that's one of the city's hidden gems. And, seriously, Gaeta's needs to hire the adorable little boy who stood tall on a stool behind the cash register and made perfect change for my tomato pie. Some A+ math skills there.

Even Betty Woods, who made it clear she was not my biggest fan, deserves to be in the diner waitress hall of fame after 46 years of expert service at the Mayfair Diner, seasoned with inimitable sass, counter wisdom, and crossword-puzzle expertise.

And I felt that way even before I got her most gracious note this week. She wrote: "Had to write to say I loved your review. Not just of the Mayfair Diner but of all the restaurants ... and getting to talk to you without knowing it was you, I've changed my mind about you. I guess I like you now. "

Of all the feedback I've gotten over the years, that note is one of the highlights.

Many of the other notes I received, however, have provided more worthy recommendations of other places in the Northeast for me to investigate.

More than a few readers touted classic German bakery Haegele's, a true oversight on my part that my esteemed colleague and former Northeast resident, Rick Nichols, described as "beyond classic, perhaps my favorite, favorite authentic family bakery in the city...tucked in a residential neighborhood in Mayfair. Pristine!"

"Very surprised to not see House of Thai on Cottman Ave. included," @CMD215 wrote on Instagram. That recommendation was echoed by Mike "Scoats" Scotese, owner of the Grey Lodge Pub, who wrote: "I've had Thai food at many places over the years, and House of Thai is easily one of the best I have encountered. House of Thai's three-course lunch, which maxes out at $14, is the best deal in the city."

My search for a great diner also apparently missed a gem in the Four Seasons (2811 Cottman Ave.), which, according to reader Ellen Zucker, has "the BEST London broil, well-seasoned and moist. Get it on the early bird, which is quite affordable. Their salad bar rocks, too."

If it's just like the London broil my mom used to make, I'm game -- for the Four Seasons and the many other Northeast destinations I plan to continue investigating. The only readers with whom I could not commiserate were those who insisted, somewhat angrily, that I'd neglected to mention some favorite places - even though they actually sit just beyond the city's borders, if only by a few blocks. Like the Austrian Village in Rockledge.

"It's literally 30 SECONDS AWAY!" a fan of the Austrian Village wrote on Instagram in an exasperated screed of posts that have since been deleted. "What kind of project is this?!"

I'm sure I'll get to the Austrian Village (and the great Leonardo's Italian Bakery in Feasterville) someday soon. But this project, which I thoroughly loved doing, was an exclusive spotlight for Northeast Philly that was long overdue.