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Showing results for tags 'Stephen Cheung'.
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So, we've gone from zero to two "Fast-Casual Asian Bowl Places" on H Street over the past month or so. Last night I picked up carry-out from the brand new Pow Pow, which just opened this past Saturday. They don't seem to have a menu available online, so I can't remember the names of everything we ordered. This is refreshingly not a Chipotle-like concept, and instead has you just pick actual items off of a relatively small menu. They have bowls, with stuff served over rice, as well as gigantic, burrito sized fried egg rolls. We didn't go with one of the egg rolls, and instead got two bowls, Fugazi Osbourne (beef with hoisin sauce and a bunch of stuff) and something I can't remember the name of that had pork and a poached egg. Everything was solid, although I wasn't a huge fan of the coconut rice, in both flavor and texture. Between this and BAB Korean Fusion, I think I prefer BAB. But both are good, and I'm happy this is here.-
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- H Street Corridor
- Quick-Serve
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I could have sworn that I had posted something on this place last year after my first visit, but I can't find a topic for it, so I must have been a little more drunk that night than I thought. I recall having a decent fried baby artichoke appetizer and some woefully undercooked gnocchi with pear and gorgonzola--nothing that encouraged me to return. I had heard that they brought in a new chef this past spring, so Bob and I dropped in here for dinner on Wednesday night. Lavagna seems to be positioning itself somewhere between old-style Italian places like Trattoria Alberto and places selling more contemporary (and pricier) cuisine. The menu is brief and focuses mostly on simple preparations, house-made pastas, and fresh ingredients. It's an honorable concept, and I wish I could report that it is fulfilling that mission successfully. Unfortunately, my experiences at Lavagna suggest it falls smack-dab into the overall mediocrity that marks so many Hill restaurants. It's not a terrible place, and there is even some respectable cooking going on, but the lack of refinement and carelessness make it a frustrating experience. For instance, the two parmagiano arancini that served as my appetizer on Wednesday were perfectly cooked, well-sized, and on a mild but pleasing marinara sauce. Their problem was that the parmesan was erratically scattered through the rice, so the flavor was mostly bland except for an occasional pocket of cheese flavor--very different from, say, Taylor's arancini with their molten-cheese centers. Bob's fritto misto also seemed ungreasy and appeared cooked well, yet the taste of the calamari was muted by a taste of raw flour. Flouriness also marked the pasta in my fettuccine bolognese, though cooked more or less al dente. The sauce was okay, though no particular flavor stood out except pepper (the pork was so finely minced that one would be hard pressed to know this was a meat sauce). Bob's mussels were good-sized and tasty, with a rather peppery tomato broth, served with four thin croutons that proved inadequate to soak up the juices. The wine flights each of us had reminded me of similar service we had at Ezme a few years ago, and none of them stood out. Service was pleasant and even a bit overeager, with different servers duplicating others' efforts. If Lavagna were out-and-out bad, I think I would have felt less frustrated than with the erratic nature of our experience. (Even that earlier gnocchi entree showed they had a good idea going, but a major lapse in the kitchen spoiled it.) I like the simplicity of the menu, and there is some skill to be discerned, yet the kitchen doesn't seem to have the overall finesse and reliability to make this a place I want to return to anytime soon. Too bad. -
Since we are bashing on crappy Hill restaurants, has anyone been to Fusion Grill, I believe that is what it is called on 8th Street, SE Use to be a crappy Chinese restaurant, they remodeled, went all modern looking. The name alone should be warning enough...but I'm craving Chinese but can only eat on the Hill tonight. So no Virginia burbs or Rockville Pike snobbery please
