jca76

don, may I put in a request to have discussion of himitsu broken off into its own thread, rather than buried past the discussion of two other restaurants that formerly occupied the same space?  

himitsu is quickly becoming one of my happy places for dinner.  cocktails continue to be excellent, but we particularly loved a round of sherry-based dirty martinis (which i believe carlie calls a "bad rap") that we'd loved on an earlier iteration of the cocktail menu, garnished with one of the best olives i've had outside of komi.  (in general, i'm a big fan of carlie's use of sherry.  the adonis -- essentially a sherry-based manhattan -- was also very good, and such options make for a nice lower-alcohol choice.  useful when you want multiple rounds on a tuesday!)  

we reordered a number of dishes that we'd had before, including the excellent hamachi to orengi (yellowtail, thai chili fish sauce vinaigrette, orange, and yuzu tobiko); this time we did ask for rice to soak up the vinaigrette.  shishito elote -- blistered peppers subbing for the corn in the Mexican street food classic -- made for a tasty snack to start.  standout new dishes included ora king salmon (replacing the spanish mackerel listed on the menu) in caramel fish sauce, like the fanciest version of a vietnamese restaurant favorite of mine.  such a good sauce (and another use for our rice).  meat-eating friends enjoyed the peking duck, and we loved the light biscuit that we stole from their platter, along with garnishing cucumber, pickled onions, and a scallion-garlic heavy sauce.  a cold dish of madai with cucumber and pickled onions was an elegant, light way to end when we wanted just a bit more savory food.  the bread pudding with caramel sauce is another dessert hit.  

this isn't a personal experience, but a friend went to the bar last night and told me about it today, knowing that i'd be interested.  she said that the drinks and food that they tried were both good, but while the cocktails that they ordered weren't outrageous at $14, the plates were "laughably small" for the price: "there were 4 baby carrots on one plate and it was $14.  we had 10 shrimp chips and 4 tablespoons of guac for $16.  scratch that, more like 3 tablespoons of guac."  bottom line: "i will go there for cocktails in the future but no snacks."  

Eater reports that cocktails are $14-17. 

"More on the Shaw Bijou's Bar, Plus Other Intel" by Missy Frederick on dc.eater.com

1 hour ago, DPop said:

What was the reading on the decibel meter, Tom? 

I tend to find TS whiny on the subject of noise levels, but I've also found the back room to be acoustically unpleasant. 

i was disappointed when crane and turtle announced its closing; while subsequent meals didn't always live up to the promise of our first c&t dinner, we had a lot of interesting, enjoyable food over its short tenure, and i was sorry to see it go.  but after dinner on saturday night, himitsu's arrival is more than ample compensation.  this was the best first meal at a new restaurant that i've had in recent memory (beating some very good dinners at hazel, kyirisan, etc.).  i wasn't sorry to see that the space is essentially unchanged since its c&t days, with the minor exceptions of differently colored seat cushions (i believe) and a delightfully crass, giggle-inducing mean girls homage in the bathroom.  

we were quoted a 45 minute to an hour wait, giving us time for a few very good cocktails at the twisted horn (soon to be rebranded as hank's cocktail bar, apparently) across the street.  our your-table's-ready text arrived about 50 minutes after we left a number; props for accurate estimation.  we sat at two bar seats, giving us a prefect perch from which to watch the action, especially carlie's not-to-be-missed cocktail skills.  she is making some of the most interesting cocktails in town right now -- think pineapple vinegar, green tea, and sake -- and cheerfully making conversation/answering questions while doing so.  (when i commented that the multiple-amaro cocktail she was making for another diner looked like my worst cocktail nightmare -- my dislike of bitter aperitifs is my failing as a cocktail lover -- she poured me a bit to prove me wrong.  it was like the long island iced tea of amaro cocktails, tasting sweet and easy drinking and nothing like i'd expected from the fernet et al. that went in.)  

unfortunately, i can't find a menu posted online, so my reconstruction of the details of our order will suffer accordingly.  (i'm pretty sure we had one nigiri, one roll, two cold dishes, four hot ones, and dessert.  more food than we needed but not so much that we felt terrible.)  we started with the porgy nigiri, which carlie selected for us after we gave her the rest of our order and asked her to pick a nigiri.  the rice was more aggressively seasoned than i'd expected, in a good way -- the slab of fresh pink fish tasted more like a composed bite than your typical nigiri thanks to the savory-sour rice.  the non-sushi dishes run the gamut from refined to homey fare.  from the cold section, silvers of yellowtail and tiny orange supremes floated in a delicate, bright broth that i reluctantly abandoned for lack of a spoon.  (i'm sure that i would have gotten a spoon had i asked, but we had plenty of food still to come.)  my memory of the tartar is of large-ish chunks of deeply red tuna, delicious if not stand-out creative.  from the hot section, nicely cooked cobia was served in a lovely, creamy coconut broth.  agedashi tofu was a familiar dish done well: crispy on the outside, very soft on the inside, with ample bonito flakes that i dredged in the scallion-ginger broth until there was nothing left to pick up with my chopsticks.  but the tofu standout for me was the vegetarian karaage, a hearty plate of fried tofu served with addictive pickles to balance the sweet-spicy sauce.  (we don't eat meat, so skipped the chicken version.)  a bowl of seared bok choy, mushrooms, and other vegetables, topped with a poached egg, was simple umami deliciousness.  a soft, sweet panna cotta balanced with crispy, at-the-edge-of-bitter brittle -- honey? caramel?  i asked but have forgotten -- showed that offering a single option doesn't mean that dessert is an afterthought.  

as with any small plates restaurant (especially one with excellent cocktails), it's easy for dinner to add up quickly if you're not careful.  we ended up at around $100/person pre-tip, for more food and drink than was probably good for us.  the range of dishes means that it would be possible to focus on raw fish and have a lighter meal, or look to the heavier hot dishes and leave stuffed.  (or order some of everything, because you're a glutton like we are.)  no matter how you order, go now, before the waits inevitably get long.  we will certainly be back soon.  

32 minutes ago, TedE said:

This town does not want for high (and *very* high) income earners, that's for sure, and they certainly eat out a lot

. . .

People who come into DC for a high-end meal will go wherever their Uber will drop them off these days. "Tourists" won't come here, but "foodie tourists" (gack) certainly might.

I see places like Shaw Bijou akin to clubs that offer bottle service.  You aren't getting your money's worth, but that is beyond the point.

It seems like this is conflating potential audiences, and I'm not sure that Shaw Bijou seems poised to capture either of them particularly well?  If you're a "foodie tourist" coming from out of town, why are you going to go to the second most expensive place in DC unless it's also getting stellar reviews?  People who travel for food do their research.  (The bf and I certainly do.)  If you're a rich/expense account diner -- with so much money that you truly do not care about value or so little taste that you don't care about food -- are you going to go to a place that gives you so little flexibility and forces you to flit around a townhouse from course to course?  (This isn't San Fran with its tech money or NYC with its finance money.  I'm assuming that sort of money in DC means an older diner/more conservative tastes.)  Maybe the trophy-collecting rich diner goes once, but is there really enough of that to keep a place with this sort of overhead in business regardless of food quality?

3 minutes ago, TedE said:

If you won't bat an eye at a $300 for two for dinner at P&P, etc., what's $500?  $600?

As someone who spends the vast majority of my (government salary) disposable income on food, that's not a trivial difference.  I think a lot of diners do bat an eye at P&P's or Komi's or minibar's pricing, but decide it's worth the splurge.  I haven't left P&P hungry, and $250 for everything seems like an excellent "value" for what feels like a special experience.  If Silverman charged twice as much, I'd be a lot more hesitant about recommending P&P to a friend.  I left my sole dinner at minibar's new location still snacky and annoyed by how expensive it was compared to the old location, which has kept me from rushing back in the two years since, even though the food was very good (and some of it great).  Overall experience isn't determined by the quality of the food in a vacuum; cost matters.  

CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING AT KINSHIP

Thursday, November 24, 2016
First Seating 12:00 pm  |  Last Seating 4:00 pm
 

Join Chef Eric Ziebold and his team for a Thanksgiving feast featuring Chef's take on holiday favorites.
From Whole Roasted Capon to Pumpkin Bread Pudding, we will be offering a special A la Carte menu
with plenty of options to enjoy by the entire family.  

-  Some highlights from the menu  -

BRAISED FAIRYTALE PUMPKIN
Melted Savoy Cabbage, Peanuts, Fermented Black Beans

MAINE LOBSTER FRENCH TOAST
Asian Pear, Cucumber and Sesame Mousse

LOW COUNTRY BOIL
Rockfish, Clams, Shrimp, New Potatoes and Corn

STUFFED BROKEN ARROW RANCH QUAIL
English Thyme Bread Pudding, Cranberry, Celery and Clementine

WHOLE ROASTED CAPON 
Gratin Dauphinois and Multi Grain and Chestnut Stuffing

WHOLE ROASTED TURKEY
Sweet Potato Purée and Pain au Citron Stuffing

MAPLE SYRUP DUMPLINGS
Red Currant Broth, Braised Sweet Potato, Golden Raisins and Crème Fraîche Ice Cream

PECAN PIE
Guanaja Chocolate and Bourbon Ice Cream

The full menu is available for review upon request. 

A friend picked up some of those ice cream sandwiches a few months ago and they were delicious! 

Kinship announced highlights from their Thanksgiving menu via email recently, which sounded good as I recall.  (I can dig it out later if interested.)

5 hours ago, DonRocks said:

The cornicione, or "periphery of the crust," badly needs work: It's way too big - an inch long, and about a half-inch thick, and is dense and has a flavor not much better than a decent cracker. If you don't mind spending $18 on a pizza, only to ignore the end crust, you may well like these pizzas; for me, the crust is an integral part.

this was exactly our (disappointing) experience, which was so far from sietsema's raves that i'd been wondering since whether we hit a totally off night.  seems like not.  

On 10/17/2016 at 3:09 PM, Bart said:

That's a very cool option.   I wonder how often people take them up on it?  I also wonder if some on nights, they get 10 rounds bought?

does kitchen staff actually consume the alcohol being sent to them, or is this an indirect way to tip the kitchen staff?  i'll admit, when i saw this on the menu at dinner (which was excellent) a few weeks ago, i was nonplussed.  what's the expectation?  was failing to use this option the equivalent of leaving a bad tip?  

totally agree on the boqueria surprise.  its defining feature for me is the reasonably priced happy hour/brunch drinking options of unobjectionable quality.  i have fond memories of barcelona locations in greenwich and new haven from years ago, and i enjoyed the one dinner i've had at the d.c. location.  i haven't been back (or dying to go), however, because the crowd (both in size/scene-iness) is more of a deterrent than the meal seemed worth.  re jaleo, i haven't been in almost a year, but it did get a revamp when they did the remodel a few years ago, which corresponded with an uptick in quality, i think.  in particular, their drink menu improved, including an extensive selection of gin & tonic options.  i rarely find it exciting, and i tend to find the cult of andres vibe so prevalent in his restaurants off-putting, but it had been reliably enjoyable in my experience.  it's the sort of place that i would be unlikely to suggest, but would happily go along if someone else suggested.

and then he knock's tail up goat's receipt of a star at the end, a restaurant to which his fall dining guide just awarded three stars.  what does that say about his rating scale?  

edit: as i get over my indignation on behalf of tail up goat, i'm not actually sure that he's saying the star is undeserved.  but i'm also not sure he's saying it isn't. 

19 minutes ago, Gadarene said:

I was looking forward to Amass so much, and I was so disappointed.

ugh, i'm so sorry to hear that.  it always pains me when a restaurant where i've had great experiences -- we loved it both trips -- doesn't deliver for others.  the service issues in particular seem ridiculous and so easily avoided.  

but you're reminding me that i still have a bunch of meals (including noma) to write up, and my trip was much longer ago than yours.  

7 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Tom Seitsema's hissy fit.

so this is his defense for minibar's right to three stars: "The avant-garde restaurant, basically a 30-course magic show, is very much in the vein of Arzak, a Michelin three-star in San Sebastian, Spain, where I had the great good fortune to eat two years ago and where one of multiple astonishments was an ocean-fresh lobster displayed on a tablet computer, its screen animated with blue waves. Was it “worth a special journey?” Absolutely."  arzak is probably the most disappointing/baffling-that-it-has-three-stars restaurant i've ever been to; it felt incredibly dated.  

6 hours ago, Marty L. said:

Actually, not a bad list beyond the Top 10 ranking, although the absence of Thip Khao and 2 Amys is ridiculous:

From his recent discussion of the bib gourmand list, it seems like Sietsema has a (baffling) lack of appreciation for them: "Other names on the roster suggest the inspectors ate at the restaurants in their prime rather than recently. Both Thip Khao (Laotian) and Two Amys (pizza) show signs of resting on their laurels these days."  I'm increasingly finding that he and I have differing food preferences in some significant respects.  I do not get the All-Purpose adoration, and 2 Amys is one of my favorite places in DC.  

3 minutes ago, silentbob said:

FWIW, Etxebarri would be one of the best restaurants in DC and it's not particularly close IMO.

oh, totally agree.  i meant both food and atmosphere/service.  the latter is, i assume, self-explanatory, and a big part of etxebarri's michelin hurdle, i think.  with respect to food "formality," i think that michelin has a penchant for more obviously technical/precise/artistic/"refined" (for whatever that word is worth) cooking and plating.  it's not about quality in some sense of ingredient quality or deliciousness.  etxebarri's style of presenting dish after dish that focused on one or two beautifully grilled ingredients is a sort of haute comfort style that i find immensely appealing but (i suspect) doesn't impress inspectors as much an intricate tasting menu does.  (we didn't try mugaritz and akelarre, so i can't really compare, but i suspect they might be particularly incongruous regional comparisons for etxebarri.  shortly before our trip, we had a number of conversations with people who had done the basque food thing, and everyone uniformly raved about etxebarri, while assuring us that we would be fine missing akelarre.)  

(i realize this response is going off of the dc topic, so don should feel free to delete/move/whatever.  for anyone who is unfamiliar with a remote spanish one-star but curious, here's my write-up of our trip.)  

On 9/3/2016 at 1:47 PM, Gadarene said:

For my personal tastes, it blew 3-star Geranium out of the water.

totally agree!  (as is being discussed in the dc michelin thread, michelin has a bias for formality that explains the star difference, i think.)  we've done two trips to copenhagen (over memorial day weekend this year and fourth of july weekend two years ago, both planned around securing a noma reservation), both trips preferring noma.  

your comment on radio seems spot on.  (we didn't make it back on this trip, unfortunately, but had a lovely lunch there two years ago.)  funnily enough, when we went to daniel berlin (a day-trip worthy drive into sweden) and did the (delightfully) obligatory "where else are you eating" conversation, it came up that radio is the chef's parents' favorite copenhagen place. 

how did you like amass?  (another standout in my opinion, although more laid back.)  where else did you eat?  i also love kadeau; it was our second favorite two years ago but edged out noma this trip. 

1 hour ago, Josh said:

Amazing that Asador Etxebarri and Elkano in Spain have only 1 star each.  Very different grading scale for US restaurants, obviously.

we went to the basque region this summer and loved etxebarri (but sadly had to cancel elkano thanks to some pintxos-induced food poisoning).  from my experience/what i've read about elkano, both seem to be good examples of michelin's bias in favor of formality in awarding american/european stars.  (something that doesn't seem to be an issue in asia, although i've never done any culinary tourism there.)  plume seems to be exactly the sort of place that benefits from those biases: excellent wine list, classic cuisine, more formal environment.  (how arzak keeps its three stars suggests it's also benefiting from those biases.)  

i'm not surprised that nothing in dc got three stars (although i'm shocked that komi didn't get at least one; i'd expected two).  had any place gotten three, i would have assumed it would be minibar -- in large part because it aims for a more traditionally fine-dining atmosphere than p&p or komi -- but none of our two stars strike me as hitting the level that i'd expect from three stars.  (in fairness, neither do a number of the u.s.-based three stars, but so it goes.)  i think p&p has the potential to get there, so long as michelin doesn't hold the casual vibe/lack of wine list against them (which it very well might).  i haven't been to minibar in about two years, but our last experience (our only one in the new location) struck me as more formal and more expensive without being demonstrably better (and in some ways, was worse) than in the cafe atlantico location, and has kept me from rushing back.  there is a bit of soullessness to the experience.  i was surprised that the inn at little washington got included in what had been touted as a district-only guide for this year -- and somewhat indignant on behalf of blue hill at stone barns that it has never gotten such a dispensation from the nyc guide -- and so hadn't really considered it in advance.  but for all its charms (and the strong affection that many locals have for it; i'm sure many members of this community will disagree), my sole ialw experience was much too kitschy -- that ridiculous mooing cheese cow should be disqualifying -- for my taste and the food, while good, wasn't as consistently or innovatingly good as i'd hope for from a three star place. 

although less so than komi's, rasika's and little serow's exclusions are glaring to me.  and an indicator of the silliness of the bib gourmand price cap as applied to dc, as i assume neither would qualify and yet both are in line with what you would easily spend at a number of the places that did qualify.  

15 hours ago, sheldman said:

I ate here again tonight for about the 50th time maybe.

you had me wondering how often i've eaten at 2 amys, so i searched my calendar (where i track pretty much all my restaurant meals).  it turns out we've dined in or done take-out/delivery from 2 amys thirty-three times in 2016.  the bf and i may have an addiction simply, well prepared ingredients with a lot of olive oil.

i don't recall exactly, but they match the number in the alcoholic pairing; both have some drinks that bridge more than one dish.  as best as i can recall from a dinner about three weeks ago, there were at least four mocktails and at least two wine-esque juices (pear cider and gewurztraminer juice), but there may have been something that i'm forgetting.  

(fyi, they've replaced the souffle and the doughnuts, neither of which is a huge loss in my opinion.  i know some will disagree on the souffle, which i'd found technically well executed but a bit rich/boring.  the meal ended with a (preferable) trio of petit fours rather than doughnuts, although i would have liked if they still brought those last bites in a little box in case one wanted to take them home, as was an option with the doughnuts.)  

13 minutes ago, Tweaked said:

And all this tasty goodness is the wine bar menu?  Is the wine bar upstairs? 

The physical bar is in the back of the first floor, but the wine bar menu is given to all the tables, so you don't have to sit at the actual bar to partake.    

39 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

all dishes that are on the white wine bar menu that come from the actual wine bar are better than the normal menu items that come from their kitchen.

I generally agree with Jonathan's post (although my list differs because I'm pescatarian).  Because the white menu changes daily, there's no go-to that you can be assured of ordering.  Various gazpachos (sometimes tomato, sometimes fruit) with poached seafood (lobster on a few occasions, shrimp on Monday) have always been excellent.  Get a corn, mushroom, or green bean salad if available.  The savory tarts and pies also tend to be really good.  Roasted eggplant also appears regularly and is worth trying.  If they have a smoked butter crostino, definitely order it.  

If you are ordering off of the regular menu, I second the vote for the Etna pizza.  I also like the fizzy Gragnano, although I prefer it room temp to cold (they'll ask which way you'd like it).  The C.O.S. Rami is a slightly funky favorite.  And the few cocktails they do -- only listed on a board near the bar, and oftentimes the servers won't know what they are when you ask -- are generally very good.  I'm a particular fan of the Hollinger, which has echoes of a mint julep.  

We've eaten or grabbed a drink at the bar about half a dozen times over the last few months and have never had trouble getting two seats at the bar.  Generally we go around 8:30 or 9:00 -- we're often late eaters -- on both weekdays and weekends and usually find it half empty.  (I actually prefer sitting at the bar to eating in the dining room.  I like the vibe more and enjoy the proximity to Kerstin, Nikki, and others behind the bar for getting recommendations/general chatting.)