seanvtaylor

I spent about four days last week in Miami and had a few dinners out. Dinner at Doya in Wynwood was probably the food highlight of the week, with a nice Mediterranean/tapas menu. Nothing really stood out more than another, but the dips (including a great beet root hummus) were all very nice. Service was efficient, and the space is large and very nice. The bar cabinet was about two stories tall and very interestingly-stocked, at least for Miami. Dinner at Log (also in Wynwood) was fine, nothing overly special. Again, the space was cool. The steak tartare was very good, and the ribeye was a well-prepared medium rare. They were a bit weird with how they handled wine; the bottle didn't sit on the table or in a tableside bucket, but rather at the bar. The weird part was that they brought wine refills in mini-carafes, whether it was the red or the white wines that we had. We saw them pouring from the bottles, so it wasn't a bait-and-switch (and honestly, we hadn't ordered especially expensive wines). Not sure what that was about... Dinner Chotto Matte was also really good, a Peruvian/Japanese fusion restaurant. The space is really something, with the massive (and I mean, really massive) entrance door the size of a wall. The inside is very cool, and the retractable roof gives you something cool to look at. Service was fine, as was the food. This is a cool restaurant that wears its hipness on its sleeve (or its wall, I guess). Breakfast at San' Gines in Miami Beach was a great option; we got there early and sat out at a sidewalk table. My cappuccino (and then, later, a second cortadito) were both delicious and the coffee highlight of the week. I only did an almond croissant, but it was very good, even in the Miami humidity that was developing. The sandwiches also looked (and, I heard secondhand, were) very good. It was humming when we left, with quite a line between it and its next door neighbor, an Italian deli counterpart called Rosetta Bakery.

Wow, that aspic looks so worthwhile. Nice to see it on the menu. As always, while the pizzas are great one could (and does) make a nice meal of the non-pizza items when at 2 Amys...

We've now been a few times to Compliments Only, and have been very impressed each time. The marquee sandwich is the Crunchy Boi, a turkey (or other meat) sub topped with Utz Chips, shredded lettuce, a good amount of mayo, and an oil/vinegar combo. It's exactly the sandwich you want when you are hungry--but it's definitely one for eating right away. Other sandwiches have been just as good, including a very solid meatball sub and their take on the Thanksgiving sandwich--the "Big Dipper" (served with turkey jus, thus the name). The people are friendly, there are some nice tables, a good selection of chips, and what else do you need? This place is a winner.

We tried Bearcat, a new restaurant in West Ashley/Avondale, outside of 'downtown' Charleston, and came away impressed. It's a nice spot, with a nice outdoor seating area and an indoor bar with some hightops (and some low tables as well). The bar menu has a small and (to me) annoyingly-named collection of cocktails. My "Wolves in the Throne Room" was a nicely balanced bourbon-based drink. The dining room is really nice--nothing overly sleek, just comfortable. We started with the dumplings--the only holdover, our server told us, from the original menu--and the smoked maitake mushroom. The dumplings were really nice, but wow, that mushroom was amazing. Beautiful, thoughtful, and deeply flavorful. For mains we got the cobia--a nice piece of fish, perfectly prepared--and the Carolina crab rice, a hearty bowl topped with hollandaise and some sliced hot peppers. It was the only dish of the night where we thought we might be able to replicate it at home--where our cooking techniques might have been sufficient--but it was still significantly elevated compared to what we would likely ever be able to do. We split a bottle from Kivelstadt Cellars--a tannin-y but surprisingly easy-to-drink syrah, and finished with a banana tart. We would (and will) happily return.

Had a few days in Chicago, and a few meals. Breakfast from Do-Rite Donuts in the WIllis Tower was only a donut and a coffee, but what a donut--a valrhona chocolate cake donut that was perfect; I ate it as a I walked to my meeting, and was seriously tempted to turn around and get another of their donuts. We had a group dinner at Beatnik. My expectations weren't very high--it was a group dinner, after all--but we ordered a la carte from the menu versus a set deal. Dishes were very good. The lamb shoulder was delightful, a huge platter with pita and gyro-style toppings to pair with the lamb. The dips were all interesting and worthwhile--particularly the beet dip. Shrimp with couscous was fine, and the short rib was very popular. We sat in a lower level of the restaurant, which looked out over the river, and had a very nice evening. Several from our group wanted to try deep dish pizza, so we ended up at Giordano's on Jackson. It was what it was...

It took a moment for us to find it, but Chuan Tian Xia was worth the search. This is a very impressive Sichuan restaurant in Rockville, a few minutes walk from the Twinbrook Metro garage, at the corner of Fishers Lane and Twinbrook Parkway. The mixed fry plate (not sure exactly what it is called was a nice starter, a mix of fried tofu chunks, fish, and pork. Salty in the best way. The double cooked pork is an old favorite of ours, pretty commonly seen on Sichuan restaurant menus, and was a nice rendition. The Hunan style bamboo shoots was a delicious dish, mildly prepared but with a deep wok's kiss that amped up the savory flavor. Finally, the Chongqing spicy diced chicken, with a 'normal' level of spice, was very, very spicy, even for someone like me that enjoys spicier dishes. This was truly ma la, and I loved it. Service was very friendly and helpful. We look forward to going back.

While in Berlin for a few more nights, I ended up at Noblehart & Schmutzig, a Michelin-starred delight, not so far from Checkpoint Charlie. Wow--this was one of the most expensive dinners (195 Euros for dinner, plus wine pairings on top!) I've ever had, but was a beautifully-prepared 11-course dinner. No photos allowed--a very strong focus on eating as a social activity. The food was, as they refer to it, 'violently local'--somewhat over the top, perhaps, with even spices and herbs being limited based on what is available within Germany. But the results were impressive. The wine pairings were almost entirely German, perhaps a wine or two from Italy? The owner of the restaurant is a renowned sommelier in Berlin, and he almost seemed like a wine DJ, dropping an interesting wine into the mix here and there based on what he knew would work. It was likely perfectly orchestrated, but was impressive nonetheless. Service was warm, enthusiastic and professional. I would go back, even at the steep price--as someone blessed with so many great Asian restaurants in the DC area, Tim Raue's menu just doesn't seem so interesting to me, and Noblehart & Schmutzig really delivered a great, fun dinner. Final night in Berlin: pizza at Mamadi, at the edge of the city (more or less). This was a semi-neapolitan style pizzeria, with very interesting combinations. It was good--the dough was a very nice sourdough (I think); I ordered the doner kebab pizza and it was a doner rendition done with restraint (just the right amount of doner fillings on top--veal shawarma, I believe. A very small but nice selection of local beers, some good wines, and this place is worthwhile.

After shying away the last time I was in Berlin, I decided to stick out the line at Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap in Kreuzberg. On a breezy and cold Sunday afternoon, there were close to 100 people in front of me, and as I got closer to the food cart and would look back, the line stayed very long behind me. Was it worth it? Based on my one experience, no--it was a good doner, but not splendid. And for the Döner connossieurs, at the risk of being truly heretical, I enjoyed by Kebap the next night much more--this time from Zaddy's right near the Kurfürstendamm U bahn station. This one, using veal, had brighter flavors and was delicious. Could have been my jetlag when I visited Mustafa's, but Zaddy's won this round. Dinner at Repka Spatzlerei, just off of Savignyplatz, provided a filling and very nice spätzli plate with cheese and fresh spinach. With a red Berliner Weisse (a summer drink, maybe, but for me a nice counterbalance to the cheesy, heavy spätzli), this was a very nice meal.

I've now had dinner twice at Menssa, and it is spectacular. A beautiful space with both counter/kitchen seating and tables. Service is refined but very welcoming. And the food is very impressive; creative, thoughtful, perfectly-sized portions. The sommelier interactions have been incredibly friendly, knowledgable and fun. This is a no-pressure restaurant, with very serious cooking but a focus on making your dinner relaxing and enjoyable. If you have a chance, It is so worth making the effort to drive out to the edge of the city (it's really not that far at the edge, though it isn't directly downtown).

This gas station has hosted a number of eateries over the years, if I recall correctly (including Corned Beef King, at one point). We had a decent meal here recently at Amore Eats, an oddly named Taiwanese restaurant with very friendly service and some nice dishes. Out 9-yeard old wanted calamari, and an ample portion of salty (and perhaps a bit peppery) fried calamari came out quickly and was a nice starter. The eel with rice (and vegetables) was also a very large portion, kind of a bento-box creation of eel with sauce on top of white rice, served with broccoli and squash. The "Taiwanese hamburgers" were the classic pork belly buns, and really good, with a nice pork flavor and not overwhelmed with any sauce. Finally, the chicken fry noodles were nice, with a good wok 'kiss'. It's a gas station, so ambiance is fluorescent lights, keno/horseracing on wall-mounted TVs, and a faint (and sometimes strong) aroma of gasoline, so takeaway would have been a better option. We are glad we tried it, and would grab carryout again.

Splendid dinner this week at Corduroy. How can this restaurant, through a location change and a pandemic, have stayed so much on top of its game. My tuna tartare was an ideal vision of what this dish could be. The roast chicken was absolutely perfect--flavorful, moist and complemented by a spinach leaf salad that undercut the richness of the chicken. Service was flawless and friendly, and I only wish that I could come here to be pampered and impressed on a more regular basis. If you haven't been here in a while--it is so worth revisiting!

Stunningly good lunch at the Annandale location on Friday. Our group of four included two regular A&J visitors, and two guests from Europe (including one who is from Shanghai and relocated to Europe about 15 years ago). The regulars thought it was as good as it had ever been; our guests from Europe could literally not get enough, and we ended up going back to the menu two additional times to order more food. Everything that we had was loved, with our European guests lamenting the lack of anything even close to this in quality and authenticity in their city (Brussels). We had the usual suspects, skipping one (the potstickers) and adding in the beef tendon and tripe dishes at the request of our EU friends. For me, it was the first time dining at the Annandale location, as I was taking some visitors on a circuitous route from downtown out to Dulles. After a big dining week, with Korean and Vietnamese earlier in the week, this was the perfect capper.

I participated in a large-group dinner here recently, and enjoyed it. The flavors were bold, and some in our group may have been less familiar with Korean cuisine than others, but I think everyone walked away happy. The panchan were mostly worthwhile--nothing to far out of the ordinary. The chayote panchan and the Brussels sprout kimchi were both really good, as were (as noted above) the lotus root. We tried several mandu, including the impossible mandu, and had no complaints--all were flavorful, very competently prepared. The Korean fried chicken, despite the appearance being (perhaps) a bit less than beautifully plated, was absolutely delicious. It was also something that brought the table together, so to speak--everyone grabbing a piece (or three) from these big bowls of chicken. A little bit spicy--nothing over the top--combined with that white BBQ sauce, and everyone loved it. We had leftovers--plenty of them--not because it wasn't popular at the table but because we still had mains and dessert on the way. Mains were a bit more traditional, I would argue, and the portion sizes were arguably too large after what we had already eaten, but everything that I saw was nicely plated for what it was. I had a piece of branzino over stewed (I think) daikon, and it was very good. Others who had different versions of bibim bap were happy. Desserts were (again) too large, but nice, including a Pina colada bingsu that was the lightest dish of the night, and a good way to call it after eating way too much food.

We had a fun, mostly great dinner here on Thursday night. The five of us did all three of the current snacks--the foie mousse tart was delightful, and the cornbread was also very nice, but the sesame mochi was a miss--a good amount of sesame flavor but not much else. Interesting experiment. Our medium-sized dishes were the kombu scallops (delightful), the prawn (a few orders, and perfectly grilled) and the tuna crudo with beets (a bit underwhelming in flavor, to be honest; but perhaps it just paled in comparison to the other dishes that were on the table). The large plates that we ordered were the flounder (really nicely-done) and the whole fried chicken--a mountain of a dish, with a powerful amount of fish sauce. It was the showstopper and I would absolutely order it again. I'd had Anju's KFC earlier in the week, and while both were amazing, I'd probably tip my hat to Moon Rabbit's if for no other reason than that heroic fish sauce, boldly standing up in the middle of that mound of fat-fried chicken. Cocktails were very impressive, and service was generally pretty good.

We had a very good dinner at Bindaas, with an opportunity to taste a number of dishes. For a Sunday night the dinner rush was on, with a number of larger groups in the restaurant and only a few open tables. We started with the Pao Bhaji and the Bhel Puri--both were really good. The Puri was very spicy, even to my (accommodating) palate--it was just right! The Pao Bhaji almost seems like a standard order, as we observed that almost every table there had at least one order. The Uttapam (corn and pepper) was delightful, as were the spinach kofta (which we ordered as a main) with saffron rice. We also tried the Dahi Papdi Chaat and absolutely loved it, as we did the sweet potatoes. Great meal and nice to see a busy restaurant.