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NovaLawyer

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  1. Lunch at Zengo today. Living Social ran a $30 for $15 coupon which attracted me. They stock a very good inexpensive white wine (Argentian) called torrontes that I've been happily sipping for a dozen years. Decent rolls - better the "Angry Zengo" than the cream cheese-infused lobster roll. (I cannot get used to cream cheese in my sushi rolls). Food highlight was the tuna tacos, although the tuna remined me overmuch of ground beef. The guacamole served with it slathered over all shortcomings. And did I say the torrontes was excellent? Service was astonishing. I was actually recognized when I sat down at the table and the waiter came back to me occasionally to check on how my lunch was going. He was suitably rewarded. Richard Sandoval has not attacked me in a speech yet. Amazing.
  2. Over the weekend a friend mentioned a good meal they'd recently had here. I happened to be walking by at lunchtime yesterday and remembered the compliment. $18 lunch of a sizable medium-rare New York strip, cheese mashed potatoes, and a skillet of freshly baked corn bread. High concept fare it was not, but it definitely was a good meal at a good price. So mark this down as another place added to my Penn Quarter lunch rotation of Cedar, America Eats, Zaytinya, Jaleo, Fiola, and Zengo.
  3. Mr. Black wants to shoot the messenger. My May 29th post pointed out the abominable service I received (or perhaps more precisely, "didn't receive") on my visit to his Pearl Dive Oyster Palace. And my observation of the burnt BBQ platters sitting half-uneaten at the neighboring table - well, those plates not look to me like anything special. Instead of remedying the service problem that apparently has affected more than just me - it has affected multiple posters - he goes on a rant. Mr. Black, you've just given me a reason to avoid all your restaurants - the last thing I want to do is give my customer money to an owner who acts like an ingrate towards would-be customers offering honest feedback. That said, I've never had a bad meal at Black Salt, but it's been a long while since I was in and it will be around the time that hell freezes over that I try it again. Compare your social media approach with Michael Landrum, who took my criticism of his flagship here with grace and gave me a reason to give them another shot. My first job was in the restaurant industry. I probably washed more dishes before I was 18 than you've washed in your entire life, Mr. Black. Good luck remedying your service problem at Pearl Dive. And sorry you have a problem with criticism - I'm going to post the good, the bad, and the ugly of my dining experiences.
  4. Bacon has been around longer than rooftop bars. But a couple of years ago it seemed that every restaurant in this town rushed to put bacon on its menu. And now every restaurant in this town that can is installing a rooftop bar. In 2015 I think most of them shelling out the big bucks to install them will realize that they're only profitable about 90-100 days a year. Mmmmmmm......... bacon.
  5. Rooftop bars = the bacon of 2012!
  6. "What, me worry?" Sounds like a failed restaurenteur who refused to compromise his concept in order to be give the customers what they want, a/k/a BuddhaBar's quote in Eater.
  7. I think the veal chop was $37 when I ordered it a couple of times last winter. Man, was it TASTY. $50? Guess this means business is good at Fiola. Charge as much as the customers will pay. It's called free enterprise. I can't blame them for that. Of course I can eat elsewhere if I don't want to pay that much money, either, so the thing works both ways.
  8. I stuck my nose inside this joint a few weeks ago and was overwhelmed by the fragant scent of roasting meats. The line, however, was much too long for me to wait. I quickly fled and ate a meal at (probably) an inferior establishment. I am going to wait in line later this week and sample the real thing before it goes away.
  9. The BBQ place in that space wasn't bad - they had a wood fired oven to roast things up on. I think, however, that a nice Italian place could do a land-office business in that strip mall, which already has an Indian place (Aditi), a pan-Asian place (Sweet Ginger), and a noveau-American place (Maplewood Grill). The last two aren't bad, I've eaten at them both. Never at the Indian joint. A concentration of decent restaurants in a single location is generally not a bad thing.
  10. Last call! Get in and let Chef Karen cook for you before my favorite restaurant closes down. The "buffalo wings" (I say it in quotes because they aren't really buffalo wings that one consumes at a sports bar) themselves are worth the trip. And the $1 oysters at happy hour are a deal that can't be beat.
  11. I don't remember much. I do remember that the booze was outstanding. Maybe that second point has something to do with the first?
  12. Should I pile on here and say that I've eaten here twice in the last couple months and it was excellent both times? Nah, that would be overkill. No need for yet another "me too" post. Never mind, move along, nothing to see here. ;-)
  13. Saturday dinner here was a disappointment. The single highlight was good guacamole and chips. Lowlights - gooey, oily, distasteful mess of a mushroom/garlic/queso with corn tortillas, so-so jicama salad, uninspired pair of overcooked scallops in a faux-Mexican sauce, and sliced mole flank steak paired with not mole but more GUACAMOLE, also another gloppy mess of mushrooms and what I suppose they called mole. Dessert was a barely-cooked pineapple paired with what appeared to be some Breyers vanilla ice cream and a gooey, sticky pecan pie type of thing paired with reddi-whip that was advertised as crunchy toffee bars. Young, inexperienced college students as servers. Eager but clueless. Small room, so loud you cannot hear yourself think, even though it was only half full at dinner rush. $12 (!) for a small rail-tequila margarita. A small-plate dinner for two came to a whopping $115. Many other better Mexican places available. I will not return. The last time I ate at the sister restaurant next door - Bazin's on Church - I had an equally poor meal. I guess I will just steer clear of anything run by this owner in the future. I'm sure he's a nice guy, and I especially wish the "little guy" success in running and opening restaurants, but both of his places in Vienna are just not up to the task in my humble opinion.
  14. I ate here last winter on a very slow weekday evening. Chef Ron Tanaka's offerings were all uniformly excellent. The gin martini downstairs was superb. That said, there were probably only a dozen patrons upstairs in the dining room, so it would be hard to screw up service. I note that New Heights used to be on the savored.com website, but are gone now. If they came back, it would be a very good bargain, if my prior experience was any indication. But lacking the discount, there are still enough places using that service that I've yet to try that will keep me from coming back.
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