Jump to content

Bart

Members
  • Posts

    1,518
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    63

Everything posted by Bart

  1. The Barracks Row location has reopened for dine-in seating. I never ate inside the place pre-covid and was hoping for a set up more befitting the quality of the food but it still has the fast food vibe. In the very first post in this thread Simul (what ever happened to him?!?!) described it as "It's "Chipotle-esque" inside, industrial look, done quite well. There isn't a whole lot of seating, you get in line, take a number and then hope a table opens up." And that still seems to be the look and vibe. While I look forward to eating the dishes as they were intended to be served, and not out of take out containers, I must admit, I'm not thrilled about the food court aspect of eating a meal there. But hey, takeout is still an option! They are also having a bunch of New Years specials/celebrations/classes: https://www.mychiko.com/lunar-new-year
  2. Damn! I'm almost surprised that story didn't end with them tripping you on the way out, or slashing your tires as you got in your car.
  3. Tom is mostly positive: https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/01/26/almeda-restaurant-review/
  4. I'm happy to go to Old Town too!
  5. I've been there once when they didn't mention the included tip and once when they did. When they didn't mention it, I felt it was an attempt at a shakedown or a double tip so I left nothing. When did mention it, I left a couple extra bucks, but the service was really great as well. Then again, if the second guy didn't mention the 20% fee, I would have left nothing. In a town like this where there are lots of tourists and visitors eating out who are unfamiliar with our new reality, if they don't tell the customer there is a mandatory 20 or 23% tip, I feel it's an unscrupulous attempt at trying to take advantage of the unknowing and the unsuspecting.
  6. If The Roost is the choice, we could just commandeer one of the tables in the back at Shelter, the bar area. The tables hold 8 people I think. Whoops.......I totally missed the poll. 😬
  7. How can you eliminate the pizza mecca that is Barracks Row?!?! There's &Pizzia, and a couple doors down is Ledo Pizza, and RIGHT NEXT DOOR is Pizza Boli and on the next block in Xtreem Pizza. Oy veh! Four pizza joints within 100 yards and not one of them is worth a damn. But you should try La Casina DC at Eastern Market. Their pizzas are great, but pricey. They run from $18 - $25 for what is essentially a pizza for one and they have some cool/weird options like a Carbonara pizza or a Cacio de Peppe Pizza. https://lacasinadc.us/washington-capitol-hill-la-casina-food-menu
  8. L'Ardente had a private room and so does Kinship. I'd love to eat at either! Also check out Cranes, across from Zaytinya, for a Japanese/Spanish mash up.
  9. From their website/Resy page: Need to Know The classic Rose's experience is now a five-course "choose your own adventure" menu, priced at $105/person. The price per person will increase to $115 on February 1st. Yikes. So from June 30, 2023 to February 1, 2024 (8 months) the price rose by 20 bucks or over 20% for the same meal. Again, yikes. For two people you're looking at over $300 before any drinks. I love this place and had great meal there when it was $95 but it was A LOT of food and we couldn't even finish the fish entrée (didn't take it home because it was fish and over salted to the point of being unpleasant). I know I'm screaming into the void here, but I wish they would go back to the ala carte menu, or at least have the option of tasting menu and ala carte menu.
  10. Hahaha! Good eye! I’m assuming that is a relic of the pre-Covid era, because for the last couple of years, they just would hand you your bag, 3 feet away from the front door
  11. I nearly had a heart attack when I walked by this place tonight, and saw this scene through the front door at the Barracks Row location. I checked their website and there’s a note saying they are closed for remodeling, and they will open again in January I hope this means they will start serving food inside the restaurant again. The takeout option is nice, but the food definitely loses something in the containers.
  12. Ahhh, interesting. I never made to either of those places but wanted to. Never really knew where they were either. Thanks!
  13. This place is cute and small. I counted 18 seats. Both the food and drinks menus are also small and it they only offered wine by the glass and a few mixed drinks. They didn't appear to have any beer on the menu, but we didn't ask, so they may have some. They also include a 20% on all bills which was never mentioned to us at any point before, during or after the meal. Other than that, the service was great and friendly. The prices seemed reasonable and refreshing. We weren't going to get the bread service, but the table behind us raved about it so we got it. It was good and interesting (see the menu and photo below). They probably should have included one or two more pieces of bread to accommodate the amount of spread they gave. ($12) Next was the Spicy Awaze Galbi Ribs. You used lettuce leaves to make a wrap for the meat, tomatoes and sauce. Unfortunately, the meat that was on top, and that we chose first had bones in it which made it difficult and messy to eat. The lower levels of meat on the plate didn't have bones and was much easier to eat, but the first attempt at eating this sort of tainted the dish for us. We even asked the server how to eat it with the bones in, and said just eat around them. I wish he would have alerted us to the fact that most of the meat was boneless before we started! Eventually this turned out to be a good dish, but it was still very messy - think licking your fingers to get the sauce off. ($24) From the "Large" portion of the meal we got the Jollof Risotto and the Fried Catfish and Spaghetti. Both were excellent and I'd order them again. The risotto/cabbage was unique and interesting and I wish I had more of the bread to clean and sauce from the plate. The fried catfish was perfectly cooked - crispy crunchy outside and moist and tender inside. In retrospect, we should have skipped some of the early dishes in favor of one or both of the platters. Next time! The photos are of the menu (somehow I managed to take two pics of the drinks menu and none of the food menu so I took a screen shot from their webpage). Bread, Ribs, Risotto, Catfish The final two pics
  14. My big issue with PGI was the (lack of) speed at which they carved the duck. By the time the carver is done removing the skin, the fat and cutting the meat, the skin was cold and wasn’t crisp. However, the last time I had the duck in Annandale, (at Peking Duck) they didn’t roll the first pancake for everyone at the table which I always liked. I think they do that at PGI but it’s been ages since I had it. Also, they didn’t carve the duck table side at Peking Duck which they used to do, which was also a nice touch. I’m not sure that answer was much help!
  15. https://www.almedarestaurant.com Has anyone been here? I’m going tomorrow night and looking for some intel.
  16. That should be the name of the restaurant that occupies this building. Komi - I miss them terribly Happy Gyro - I miss them terribly Little Serow - I miss them terribly I'm not even sure what they are now, but with no dine in option, it's not really an option for me. I've done take out from them, but by the time I get home, the food is cold. Such a shame at what we had and now have been denied.
  17. No other interest! I can put them in a box and send them your way. I have no idea what the cost will be, but they're pretty heavy!
  18. I have about 20 Cooks Illustrated, 10 Bon Appetite, and 10 Fine Cooking magazines to give to a good home. They are from the late 2000s and early 2010s. If anyone wants some or all, please let me know. If there is (somehow) lots of interest, I'll do a lottery. Cooks Illustrated are on the bottom, Bon Appetite is in the middle and Fine Cooking is on top.
  19. I popped into the Penn Quarter location (without a reservation) at 5pm on Friday hoping to grab seats at the bar, but we were able to score a table so long as we vacated in 90 mins or so. The food and service were as good as ever but what really struck me were the prices. The prices here seemed to pre-pandemic, "normal" prices for food and drink. In fact, they seemed a lot lower than many run of the mill places. As a point of comparison, two of us had the palak chaat, two entrees, two sides (small portions) and a couple orders of naan, and a bottle of wine and the bill before tax and tip was $105 each. I went to Tail Up Goat for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was $105 per person just for the food! (And the drink prices were absurd: the cheapest GLASS of wine was $17 and most were in the $20s). At Rasika, we also took home enough food for probably 3 more meals, and at TUG, we didn't have any leftovers. And the food at TUG was fine, but nothing that I'd run back for (the menu is very small, the portions are small, and only one dish out of four really moved me), but Rasika on the other hand, could have me eating there for a week straight and never get bored or run out of options. tl;dr - If you arrive early you can score bar seats or maybe a table without a reservation. It's a great bargain for top quality food and service.
  20. I'm always up for a food adventure!
×
×
  • Create New...