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Adam23

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About Adam23

  • Birthday 07/23/1980

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  1. I enjoy the show but personally find Phil a bit painful. But then again I never liked Everybody Loves Raymond either.
  2. I stopped by the Corned Beef King truck a few weekends ago in Potomac. Was quite satisfying. Prefer it to DGS and others. But it is super thin sliced pastrami and corned beef.
  3. So many good choices in both locales. Here are some recs for BA. Remember, pay cash and Dolar Blue is your friend. High-end: Chila. Best restaurant in BA. Superb, expensive but compared to the US, very cheap. Experimental Cuisine: Aramburu - great cutting edge items; great value for what it is Closed-Door Restaurants - BA has lots of these. I particularly enjoy Ocho Once - superb value. About $30 pp for multi course meal and wine. Other options: Hernan Gioppini "“ great food and great value Alvear Palace "“ Afternoon tea "“ this is posh, no need to dress up though really. Share one tea and order an extra tea "“ about $30 Don Julio "“ One of many steakhouses "“ arrive early or you wait (but they give you free beer). I like this one the best. Parilla Pena "“ near Recoleta "“ locals joint; no english really but english menu "“ Literally steak, two apps, desert and wine was $20 for 2. I like it for lunch. Ice cream- I cream is amazing in BA. Way better than the US. The best are Volta and Arkako (unreal).
  4. Couldn't find a thread on this restaurant but surprised there have been no postings (or i'm bad at searching). Thai Pad opened in Van Ness a few months ago in the old Quiznos space at 4481 Connecticut Ave. I've been there a few times now including this past weekend. I must say, this is by far, in my view, the best thai restaurant in DC (maybe even the metro area). I am slowly working my way through the menu but so far have found everything to be well balanced and everything is very fresh. This past weekend I had a Massaman Curry which was quite delicious. If you are in the area or craving thai, I would highly recommend it.
  5. I really like my Napolean which is working on 5 years. Very similar quality and features to the Weber and was quite a bit cheaper. Very satisfied.
  6. We bought a reconditioned one. No problems with it at all. Looked to be brand new.
  7. Been watching a few episodes so far. So far, agree it is quite good. It has inspired us to plan a trip to Modena. They do a really nice job showcasing the various famous dishes each of these chefs makes.
  8. I really like my Napoleon grill. Quality is similar to Weber and the price was quite a bit less. Make sure you get the one's made in Canada though. Supposedly they hold up much better.
  9. Agreed. If you can track down his sparkling wine, it is quite nice and I like his Chardonnay quite a lot as well.
  10. Just got back from Tokyo for a quick trip to dine at Noma and did a few days in Osaka and Kyoto. Here is my quick run-down. If you ever get the chance to go to Japan, go. Food is amazing. It is clean. It is safe. The people are very friendly. TOKYO Sushi Yasuda "“ I'm honestly not sure why I booked this place. I think it was the combination of the lower price point and the possibility to have a conversation with a Sushi Chef who is fluent in English. In hindsight I should have skipped this. The Sushi bar clientele was all American. We did the omakase. I think it was 15 or so pieces and miso soup. The sushi was standard US quality and ok but very poor as compared to most anything in Japan. All of the sushi was pre-cut which detracted from the experience. This place was highlighted on Bourdain. You can skip it. Sushi Iwa "“ One Michelin star "“ Lunch is a great value with 5,000 (12 pieces) and 8,500 yen (15 pieces) options. Quality was superb. 6 seats. All clientele was Japanese. No one piece stood out as compared to the others but the quality was excellent. Takazawa "“ I describe this as seasonal dishes with french influences. Wine list is extraordinarily marked up - 300%+ on every bottle, something I saw at no other restaurant I dined at in Japan. 4 tables. Clientele was 50/50 US/Japanese. Chef speaks some English and his wife speaks perfect English. Wonderful service. The platings are very intricate and a bit crazy. For example, a grilled fish was served on sticks next to huge pieces of red hot charcoal which heated the room and placed at your table. The room is set up with a small kitchen to one side so it is a bit theatrical. Very good food. Very enjoyable meal. Sushi Kanesaka "“ Ginza Branch. One Michelin star. We were the only non-Japanese there for lunch. Superb sushi and chef spoke great English and was very friendly. The chef liked us so we got around 18-20 pieces for the 10 piece price which was a steal. The 10 piece lunch normally is a great value, so even without the extra pieces lunch is a great value. This is a larger sushi counter with two sushi chefs working "“ maybe seats 12 or so. Quality was excellent and we had some very nice Uni. Gen Yanamoto "“ Former bartender at Brushstroke in NY who moved to Tokyo. Superb drinks focusing on seasonal vegetables and fruits. Gen speaks perfect English. All guests were American. Bloody Mary cocktail was among the best I have ever had. I would drink dozens of these. Also had an interesting drink made of squash. He likes using rare or hard to find liquors. Quite tasty drinks. Gives the drinks at Eve a run for the money. Noma "“ Noma. We dined in Copenhagen a few months prior and this was different but I think better. The setting and view was amazing. Service was outstanding. My wife had a sake pairing and I had the wine pairing. The sake pairing was amazing - tons of unique sakes and so delicious and pairs extremely well. One particularly interesting Sake was a red rice sake made by a female brewmaster outside Kyoto. The wine pairing was also quite good and had nice pairings. House Champagne was Prevost La Closerie, which is quite difficult to get in the US but extraordinarily easy to get in Japan (now I know where it all goes). All dishes were great and for me the tofu and walnut dish was a standout as was the aged duck. Sushi Tokamai "“ Sushi Chef is wonderful and friendly and speaks perfect English. He has traveled in the US a bit. He talked to us most of the night. Loads of conversation and a very happy guy who clearly enjoys what he does. His assistants also speak English and chatted with us a lot. This sushi was rocking - the best we had all trip and it seems be firing on all cylinders. Every piece was good to excellent. It was also a good value at around $220 or so per person. All clientele was Japanese except us. He said he doesn't get many Americans or English speakers but supposedly Renee Redzepi was there the prior week to us. Omakase was great. Numerous cooked dishes, this night focusing on fugu every which way. Wonderful sushi "“ probably the freshest of all of the places we went to. Of note, his tuna is ridiculously good "“ easily leaps and bounds over any tuna we had on any trip to Japan. Life-changing good. I still remember each piece. So good. One Michelin star. Highly recommend it. Sushi Sho Masa "“ I enjoyed this quite a lot and will go back on next trip. Quality was as good as Iwa and Kanesaka and a tiny step down from Tokamai. I think we had 30 or so pieces with lots of cooked dishes. Chef speaks English and other guests were from Taiwan that evening. The chef has a little book he brings out to show pictures of each fish. The meal was quite enjoyable - I liked how he served the same fish several different ways and did some unique pieces. Very good. Rokurinsha Ramen - We hit it at 9 AM once and at 11:30 and had limited to no wait. This ramen is very heavy fish based "“ so if you don't like a strong fishy broth this might not be for you. It is hard not to like this, but many American palettes would not like this. Very good. Kagari - Tori-paitan ramen. So good. Amazing chicken flavor. So good. We waited about 15 minutes near closing. There was something special about this place - the ramen was outstanding. Or maybe it was the cover of Sweet Child of Mine playing over and over again with the chef singing along. Or maybe it was the tiny closet of a place that seats maybe 8 at a tiny counter. Really enjoyed this a lot. OSAKA Fujiya 1935 - 3 stars - Probably the cheapest 3* meal I have had - great value ($120 for 12 courses). Very enjoyable space, great service and the food was good. Wine list is competitively priced. Had a very enjoyable pasta dish, a wonderful radish dish and a wonderful grouper dish. Solid food in a nice setting. Hajime - Two stars currently - Beautiful space. Amazing platings. Extraordinary price for the meal - I think our most expensive meal. We did a wine pairing and a non-alcoholic pairing with our meal. Both were nice with very high quality wines/non-alcoholic drinks. Interesting the mark ups on wine were quire fair, with a few bottles prices less than I can buy them at retail in the US. The platings of the food are the star here - they are to another level I have never seen anywhere and intricate and a bit insane. Food quality was excellent - I particularly enjoyed how a different piece of bread came with each course. Of note, a lamb course was excellent as was a sous vide/grilled mackerel course. Food was excellent but a poor value. Also no pictures allowed - very annoying. It is not clear to me why this doesn't have 3 stars. Service and food was perfect. Kani Doraku - We wanted crab for lunch. It is touristy. But it was quite good. We had crab grilled, steamed, in soup and sushi. All were tasty. We did a lunch sampler which was $20 a person which was a good value and filling. Tako-yaki - We got them from one of the places with a long line in the Dontonbori area of Osaka. I didn't love them. I thought they would be denser like a hush puppy but instead they are creamy inside. Daruma - Excellent kushi katsu (tonkastsu on sticks). Everything was perfectly fried. We picked a dozen or so meat and vege items which came perfectly fried and served on sticks. I liked the dipping sauce. Mizuno - We wanted to try a okonomiyaki. Wait was short. We had one with shrimp and scallops. Tasty and filling but I would skip it in the future unless drunk.
  11. Eucalyptus was quite good. Had a very nice tagine there. Recommended it to some neighbors who enjoyed it a few weeks ago as well.
  12. Having been in London the past few months, I have to say, nearly every single restaurant here requires a credit card and I have yet to find a "better" restaurant that would take a cancellation less than 72 hours without a substantial fee. I personally have no issue providing a credit card or agreeing to a cancellation policy several days out. I will also note that nearly ever restaurant in London has limits on how long you can dine. 2-2.5 hours and you are out - whether it is the pub around the corner with terrible food or The Ledbury. Someone asked if I cared if a restaurant overbooked tables and cancelled on me. Interesting question. It is pretty routine in most industries. Doctors overbook. Car rentals. Hotels. Airlines. etc. etc. etc. So in a way, why not restaurants. If I ran a restaurant, I probably would overbook a bit. I'm somewhat convinced some restauranteurs in town do to this given how often some restaurants never quite have that table ready until 45 minutes after your reservation time. I think it presents an interesting business opportunity for the programmers who figure out airplane loads and hotel loads. Figure out who is most likely to cancel a reservation using some complicated algorithm and restaurant owners can maximize profits and loads and figure out the right way to overbook their restaurant.
  13. I bet they did still serve two people in my seats. It reloaded the seats on their online reservation system instantly and they were gone quickly. I sort of contemplated sending my assistant over there to make sure the seats sat empty. In one sense, I paid for them. Frankly David Chang doesn't seem like the type of guy who would refund my money even if he did fill those seats. Regarding the ethical issues of multiple reservations, I see none. I routinely make multiple reservations for hotels and transportation and car rentals and figure it out all later. I don't view a reservation as a commitment until day of (unless, I have agreed explicitly to some sort of contract). In some ways Opentable has caused this. It lets me make reservations semi-consciously. I don't need to think much. Just tap tap, done. Before Opentable you had to call, and speak to a human, and it took effort to make a booking. There was a connection with the person who picked up. You felt obligated to show. That has all changed. If Opentable was smart, they would charge for reservations at prime times. They incentivize you by offering 10,000 points to dine at 5:30. Why not charge $20 a reservation for an 8 pm prime table and pass the money on to the restaurant owners.
  14. For what it is worth, we have multiple open table accounts and actually do this quite often. Do we want Rasika or CityZen Friday? Let's book both on Monday and decide on Wednesday (or whatever the cancellation policy is). For trips it is worse, we often have 4 reservations at different places simultaneously on multiple days so we can build an itinerary depending on when we can get hard to get tables. We do eventually cancel the ones we don't want. We don't no show though. We always cancel as early as possible. I think I've only been stung once for a cancellation fee - Momofuku Ko. Wife and I was terribly sick day of and I unhappily sucked up $500 or so of cancel fees. I agreed to it to secure the reservation, so I guess I can't really complain.
  15. Yes. Two dishes featured ants. One was a Beef tartare with ants and the other was a smoked baby cucumber that was coated in ants and then you dipped it into scallop "butter". Both were quite delicious. The ants gave some good crunch and a hit of acidity.
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