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Showing results for tags 'Fredericksburg'.
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Hello all! I've been lurking here for some time, but I've been a bit shy about posting. My husband and I, and another couple are taking the short trip to Fredericksburg for the long weekend next week. We've heard that we can't miss Carl's for ice cream, but know little else about the dining scene. We are most likely looking to do one "nice" dinner, and several less expenisve meals. All cuisines are up for grabs. Does anyone have any suggestions for places that shouldn't be missed? Or places that should be avoided? We are staying in the historical district, but can/will travel a bit for a good meal. Thanks for any advice you can give! Ann-Marie --- [The following posts have been split into separate threads: Allman's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q (Joe H) Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen (darkstar965)]
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The Confident Rabbit. -
Website. The chefs here work on using locally sourced produce, meats, poultry, and other proteins. They are creative with their dishes as well as cocktails and do an excellent job with wine parings. I have been there 3 or 4 times now and will definitely go again mostly because they are trying to do the right thing by staying away from factory meats and produce. I think they are a bit pricey compared to other restaurants in the region doing the same thing, but they are one of a very few in Fredericksburg going this route. Because their finished product consistantly well balanced, flavorful, and worth the visit (we are 45+ min away & we meet friends there; this is the one place we can agree on) we will continue to patronize Bistro Bethem. -
Had a chance this past weekend to visit a farm-to-table place that has received some real acclaim in recent years called Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen. Seems it really hit the map thanks to epicurious a few years ago, who had this to say (2008): Cutting to the chase, that sounds like a pretty different restaurant from the one we tried for brunch. Of course, take with the requisite grains of salt since it has been a few years since the "top 10" designation and we were there for brunch, which may not be a fair representation of what a dinner would be. That said, I'm usually not inclined to give a restaurant a pass for non-dinner meals. Either they are what they say they are or they're not. This feels kinda not. Specifics on food and service below. Food: App#1: Garden salad. Fine but nothing special. Greens were somewhat varied, a few small grape tomato halves, thinly sliced carrot. Mild viniagrette. App#2: Tomato bisque. Evidently a hallmark of the place and headline like the garden salad. No complaints and we did finish it. Tomato was the dominant flavor (whew) with lighter touch on the cream. Probably the best thing we had. Main #1: Sausage red pepper frittata. Flavorless. We were first very surprised followed, a few bites later, by deep disappointment. It's unusual to get a flavorless sausage but this was that. Likewise the overall dish. Main #2: Ricotta pancakes with "maple syrup." Also pretty disappointing. The 'cakes were huge, heavy, and much more dense than ricotta cakes should be. Kind of shocking given the huge "farm to table" and "health" reputation, they served artificial syrup with it. Can you say corn syrup? C'mon! Service: Our servers were friendly and nice but also distracted, disorganized, and seemed to lack basic instincts or experience for table service. We waited 15-20 minutes before a waitress appeared who then wanted to take a drink order before telling us about specials. About 10 minutes later, coffees appeared. Condiments (incl the syrup) were served absent-mindedly in near empty containers. Again, they were very nice but just didn't seem to care much about providing a good (forget about great) level of service. I'd recommend skipping this place if in F'burg, at least for brunch. Another spot called Bethem Bistro down the street looked more promising. Related media issue. Epicurious.com isn't one of my go-to websites for restaurant reviews and this reinforces why. But, I'd be interested to know if others value it since I haven't really given it a fair chance beyond a few disappointments like Poppy Hill.
