Walrus

We had a great meal here today -- in particular, two stars were the pork belly (crispy, fatty but not gelatinous) and the lamb with a rich and fabulous fava bean purée. Outstanding. Already looking forward to our next visit!

We often request specific seating when making reservations -- there's nothing I dislike more, in terms of seating, then to be marooned at a 2-top in the middle of the floor -- makes me feel like I'm on an iceberg...I much prefer booths!

Yay! (to both )

Had a great meal here with Tripewriter and a work colleague the other night. Also loved the fish dish -- superb -- as well as the avocado/pistachio and the roasted tomato dishes (served on crispy breads). Quenelles of goat cheese cheesecake were also a hit. The fries were good, and we finished them all, but they started a hankering for the Palena fry plate that's intensifying daily...I'm thinking we need to make a run up there soon. Also enjoyed the rose flight -- wines all around were interesting and new -- definitely not the same old, same old!

I'll second this and add that one year someone brought Ruffles and chip dip, and they were a HUGE hit! Nom nom!

to both

We went Thursday night with friends. They have a new line policy -- if the line is a certain (undefined) length, you have to wait outside, which was actually much less irritating than we first thought it would be, and it made a huge difference in terms of the comfort level as we ate, so good choice. There's a $10 special -- cheeseburger, any side, and any drink -- great deal. The burger was OUTSTANDING! Much better than the last time we were there, and with the improvement in the seating/serving/noise/crowding, it was a far superior experience and made us decide to start going back here more often :-)

Just thought I'd add that it's likely that we will have "extra" cheese to bring as well...

I don't remember which of my guests had the duck when we visited Rasika, but it was a hit with us all.

My parents just returned this week, having had a fabulous time, and said that they enjoyed this restaurant so much they went twice Thanks for the excellent recommendation!

We'll bring plates, cups, and silverware.

We'd be willing to contribute a little dough to help share the joy that is Antonio's chicken!(One side note here -- the last time we were at CommonWealth [too long ago!], a friend got the London Broil and let me try it -- excellent! Sometimes I get blinded by the chicken and forget to order other items, and this was a pleasant reminder that we have never yet had a disappointing dish out of that kitchen...)

Had a great meal here tonight. I'll start by saying that, honestly, I don't really love the space/decor at Tallula -- some white tablecloths would make a nice difference, in my opinion. I also wasn't so impressed with the wines that were chosen for us the previous time that we ate there, but after tonight, I'm thinking that was just a miscall by the server rather than poor choices available. I don't have the names of what we drank tonight, but we had a red that was pretty darn nice! Now, for my favorite part -- the food! We chose to have a tasting menu, which they'll do for anyone who asks for it -- a great way to sample a bunch of fabulous items. We started with a triangle of chicken liver pate on toast with orange/shallot marmalade -- excellent. I've not always enjoyed chicken liver in the past because of the intensity of flavor, but this was light and almost fluffy, and particularly with the marmalade, it was excellent. The next course was a surprise for me -- octopus tentacles with chickpeas. Man, was this dish good!!! The texture was almost creamy, the flavor roasted and crispy...fabulous. This item is apparently on the menu for EatBar and is definitely going to appear in front of me again in my near future. Next we had tempura soft shell crab with a lovely schmear of avocado cream. As much as I hate to admit it -- particularly on this board -- I still have trouble eating whole crabs. There's a story Tripewriter tells about his cooking instructor and soft shell crabs that I think about every time I eat them...still, Tripewriter thought this dish delicious. This was followed by one of my favorite spring dishes that we've had -- pea ravioli -- it's tangy and creamy and delicate -- a beautiful dish. Next we had olive oil-poached halibut. Delectable. It was so delicate and so flavorful -- very, very nice. I usually prefer my fish seared, to give me that delightful crispy edge, but this dish surprised me in how much I enjoyed it. The fish was cooked perfectly and was accompanied by a couple slices of Nate's sausage -- slightly smoky, slightly spicy, juuuuuust right...yum. Next we had some beautiful lamb -- again, perfectly cooked, with just enough sea salt to make the flavor pop. Also with this dish were sugar peas, artichoke, and fingerling potatoes (with a secret flavor -- I got it a little bit right, but not all the way). We ended the large-knife courses with a gorgeous piece of beef. Perfectly seared, perfect temperature. The accompaniment for this one was a combo of radicchio and pine nuts. I thought it was very good, but I'm not convinced that it totally complemented the beef. Tripewriter, however, thought it was a nice contrast. We took a pause to digest and then continued with beer and cheese -- love it! We were pretty full at this point but couldn't possibly have resisted the desserts -- I had the rhubarb cobbler with a miniature goat cheese cheesecake -- so light and creamy. Tripewriter had a turtle chocolate cake that was simply irresistible. It was a good thing he was so full because I was able to snag almost half of the cake, along with a good portion of the house-made pistachio ice cream. All in all, it was a great evening -- so good to see Barry and Joey rocking out the kitchen so soon. Rumor has it that the brunch menu has been overhauled as well -- so chances are good you'll see us at EatBar and for brunch soon!

We'd love to go but don't have a free day between now and then...:-(

I'm not uncomfortable, and if I felt it germane to my question/post, I would have done so. For what I was asking, naming the restaurant was unnecessary.

DCS, I didn't mention the name of the restaurant -- or even when I'd dined there, other than it was recently -- because it seemed to me that this was a pretty specific set of circumstances, and I was more interested in what other people on the board thought of what happened than in excoriating a business or a management team -- I was surprised by the vehemence of my reaction and wondering whether it was legitimate...

Um...it was Ray's the Steaks where I officially stopped being a vegetarian after 11+ years...I blame Tripewriter -- he just looked like he was enjoying his steak soooooooo much, how could I resist?!

Ditto the shrimp/calamari with remoulade...yum! I've also enjoyed their lobster roll.

(To give what seem to be some necessary details, my friend I'm sure was prepared for disaster -- but should it really have to get to the point of disaster before we are seated or offered something to eat? And there were three people at the host stand when I arrived. The one to whom I spoke -- and I don't know which one my friend spoke with -- was a 40+ male who clearly had the authority to do whatever he wanted. Also, when I called and spoke with whomever answered and explained the situation to them, at no time was I told that seating my friend early would not be possible or even given a standard spiel about only seating full parties, even during the phone call during which I was informing them that we would be unexpectedly and unavoidably late. On the plus side, they did seat us as soon as all four of us arrived and at no time were rude or unprofessional to us -- just curt and completely 100% inflexible, no matter the issues at hand.)

So I thought I'd solicit the opinions of the other members of this board on an experience that left kind of a sour taste in my mouth. We had reservations recently for us and two of our friends. One of our friends is diabetic and has had severe heart problems and needs to eat on a very regular schedule. I mentioned this when I made the reservation, and the very pleasant reservationist said she had a diabetic relative herself, so she completely understood. On the day of the meal, Tripewriter was stuck in traffic on the way back from work. He called me, and I called the restaurant, saying that we were going to be a little late for the reservation, but that one member of our party had diabetes, so please seat the other two as soon as they arrived, and we'd be there right away. She asked how late we'd be, and I said I wasn't sure, but about 5-10 minutes. When we got to the location, about 8 minutes late, Tripewriter had to find parking, so he dropped me off and I went in, only to find that the restaurant had refused to seat my friends because their policy was to only seat complete parties. I then spoke with the host myself and explained again -- for the third time -- that one of our guests had diabetes and had to eat on a regular schedule. I said that Tripewriter was parking and would be there in just a few minutes. They simply restated their policy -- we don't seat incomplete parties -- and basically sent me away. They were polite throughout, but completely inflexible. Also, at no time did they offer us any food or drink while we were waiting. I was pretty peeved by this -- I mean, on one hand, I can completely understand the complete-party policy, and under normal circumstances I'm happy to abide by it. On the other hand, it seemed pretty unreasonable to me that if three out of four people are present, the missing person is simply trying to find parking, and you've been informed (twice in advance and once on the spot) about a specific medical condition that requires a guest to have food, that it would behoove you to seat the party. I can even understand that if there are only two of four expected guests there you wouldn't want to give them a 4-top on the off chance that the other two never showed up. But three people are going to use a 4-top no matter what, so what would the harm be in seating the three guests and seeing to their needs? I will say that it turned out ok in the end -- we were seated as soon as Tripewriter walked in the door, and they brought us bread almost as soon as we sat down, which enabled our friend to eat only a little bit late -- and we had a great meal, with excellent company. I'm just still a bit steamed about the stiff-arm that we got in the beginning because it seems 100% unnecessary to me. What do you think?

Hi everyone! A great way to dive into this board is to join everyone at the DR.com picnics. The next one is Sunday, June 7 -- see the thread for more details. You're invited to bring something to share, but there is always a ton of food, so it's totally not a requirement!

We are pretty sure we'll be there...probably not early! Have no idea what we'll end up bringing -- we always start with grand plans and then end up desperate...

Had a great time here tonight -- ended up completely, totally, absolutely stuffed and very happy. After a few little tastes -- some charcuterie, chicken liver, and lovely little cheese toasts -- we started with oysters from the raw bar for Tripewriter and with the burrata for me -- a HUGE piece of lovely, creamy cheese with a multitude of tomatoes in a vinaigrette. We also enjoyed the amazing tuna tartare, with crispy shallots and an avocado base -- devilishly delightful. Accompanying these starters were the famed popovers -- so huge, so crispy, creamy...yum. For mains, Tripewriter had the Kobe skirt, which he allllllmost finished, and I had the sole. The sole was wonderful -- perfectly cooked, even though it was a long, thin, delicate piece of fish. It would have been tremendously easy to overcook, but it was lovely -- slightly crispy on one side, delicate, but -- particularly with the caper/lemon butter sauce -- intense. For sides, we split the blue cheese "tater tots" (fluffy, creamy, and just blue enough to make me happy without being so blue as to overwhelm me); the potato gratin; some excellent asparagus, which I dipped in the butter/lemon/caper sauce -- yum; and green beans with crispy garlic. For dessert, I had the rhubarb crumble, with a fabulous, buttery biscuit crumble, and Tripewriter had sorbets and a chocolate/peanut butter mousse cake with banana ice cream. We were getting full after the starters, were stuffed by the end of the mains, and just about died by the end of dessert -- plus, Tripewriter has lunch for a couple days next week -- but it was all good food in a lively location with excellent company . I am ashamed to admit that I don't remember which wines I had, but the red we shared with our mains was lovely -- I have to admit, although I really liked it on first taste, I was...curious...to see how it would fit with the fish, but it was superb. Now to go sleep and recover

Any word on what the menu will be?

Why is all this awesome stuff happening the weekend we're in Delaware?!?