Cook In / Dine Out
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Everything posted by Cook In / Dine Out
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Eater DC reported on Monday that Daniel Singhofen has left Macon Bistro and been replaced by Ryan Hackney (Charlie Palmer Steak, Nonna's Kitchen). The article his title will be "executive sous chef" and that he'll also be working with Tony Brown on the Macon expansion, the Magnolia Room. Will be interesting to see how this change the menu at Macon again. -
It was a list published by Thrillist, which included some pretty noteworthy places (DBGB, Fiola Mare, The Partisan).
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We had dinner here tonight. I chose it because it saw it on a list of best new DC restaurants this year. Frankly, we were disappointed. It wasn't awful, but there wasn't a lot that was really great. I liked the look of the restaurant and the service was friendly, but the food was inconsistent. My husband and I ordered the same thing: the ribeye steak. Mine was very good, but he received a poor cut--way too much large fatty pieces, and thus very little actual meat. I liked the Brussels sprouts. The creamed corn was fine. The salad we ordered sounded good; shame it never materialized. Given the plethora of restaurants offering this kind of hearty farm-to-table fare these days, I don't think I'll be giving Second State a second chance.
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A nice idea, but would be even nicer if they published the comments they're getting. They've only done a couple (and not mine, which was not a complaint per se but a constructive suggestion).
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I'm loving this new bakery. I've been about 5 times, including for breakfast on a Sunday. The bread is the star attraction. I've really enjoyed all of them: palladin, levain, whole grain and baguette. I got really lucky one day and snagged a baguette fresh from the oven, ran it home and enjoyed a hot slice with butter. So good. The pastry items are good too, although not as phenomenal to me as the bread, partly because I'm pretty good at baking cakes and cookies, but have no bread-making skill. Here's my blog post.
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I wrote a "Farewell Palena" story for my blog today. This has long been one of my favorite restaurants and I will miss it, especially the famous cheeseburger and roast chicken, which were deserving of all the accolades they received. Let's hope that Frank Ruta pops up again in a kitchen near us very soon.
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- Cleveland Park
- Modern Italian
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I really really hope this isn't true, but sadly I fear it may be. Palena is my favorite restaurant in DC. I love the roast chicken, which I had fun attempting to re-create in my blog. I also love their burger, which I named my favorite in a "Burger Madness" I did a couple years ago. Everything else I've had there has been great too. Many fond memories.
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We ate at Diego last weekend. I was really looking forward to it and had heard good things. I didn't realize the chef had left in November. All the interesting things he was doing seem to be gone. I found a menu from his tenure that was a lot more interesting than what's on the menu now, which is pretty standard fare you can get at other Mexican/Tex-Mex restaurants. The place was fun and the food was fine, but not interesting enough to warrant a trip across town if you already have a similar Mexican restaurant in your 'hood. The most interesting part of the menu I thought were the cocktails.
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I went for lunch yesterday and really enjoyed it. I had the "smokey" pizza, which lived up to its name with smoked mozzarella, guanciale, sausage, pepperoni and scallions (nice to have that little bit of green freshness on an otherwise meat pizza). The smaller size (10") was just right for one person. Good selection of beers on tap. Friendly staff. Would definitely go back.
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I wrote about Table on my blog this week. I like what Discojing said above about the food: "complex, but not complicated." The appetizers and entrees that arrived were fairly simple: proteins with vegetable sides and lovely arrangements without much adornment. The food at Table doesn't seek to surprise like so many restaurants. Just to delight and satisfy. We enjoyed everything we ordered. I would love to go back in the winter, by which time I'm sure the menu will be completely different. The service needed a little work. We got traded back and forth throughout the night between two servers, which seemed a little odd and perhaps accounted for the fact that after our plates were delivered no one came back to check on us. Like a couple of the posters above, I was surprised the menu didn't include cocktails. Would seem like a perfect fit for a place like this to offer a few selections made with ingredients as fresh as what goes into the food.
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- Shaw
- Modern American
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The review for the restaurant I mentioned earlier is up. I'd welcome any feedback. http://www.cookindineout.com/2013/08/restaurant-becco-new-york-ny.html
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Thank you! How embarrassing.
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I also had lunch at Eataly while in New York for the 4th. We ate in the vegetable section (Le Verdure), and it was also really good. My favorite dish was the grilled peach salad with mixed beans but I also liked the polenta pizza squares. Our server was very friendly too, which I wasn't necessarily expecting at a place like Eataly, but she was one of the best servers we had that weekend. I wrote about our trip to Eataly in my post about where to lunch while shopping in Manhattan.
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Lupa is one of my favorite New York restaurants. I've been several times--each time I've had pasta and it's always excellent. The service is very friendly too. I particularly remember the great advice of the sommelier during my first visit 2 years ago. My review of Lupa from last year: Lupa Osteria Romana
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Yes, I definitely don't want to slam anyone. If the restaurant in question were someone's first-time startup, I would probably not bother with it (I've passed on writing about some D.C. restaurants for that reason). But the place I visited is connected with a very well-known food personality--food empire sort of person--so I feel I should say something, since I know they can do better (I've eaten at one of their other places and it's fabulous).
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Interesting post. Thanks for sharing it. I'm wrestling with a "negative" review for my blog about a very disappointing restaurant experience I had recently. My plan is to be fair but also honest, which is the approach I take for all my restaurants posts (which generally tend to be quite positive). There were a few things I liked, and I'll state that, but there were many things that were not up to snuff--too much for it to have been just an "off" night.
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I had a nice dinner here with my husband and his mother this last weekend. She ordered a seasonal spring pasta that was really great: spelt pasta with ramps, oyster mushrooms, nettles and mint. The rhubarb dessert was really good too, as was the caesar salad, which had more mustard in the dressing this time but still had its usual brightness. Chris and I were in the mood for the burgers, so we got that with some fries, which were as good as usual (to the previous poster who's never ordered the chicken or burger, I would really encourage trying them; there's a reason they've become so notable). Started the night with interesting cocktails and the service was friendly and efficient.
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I put up my post about The Carving Room today. I really like this place. The sandwiches are interesting and show some care in how they've been put together with different breads and condiments. And I love the emphasis on pickles. It's a nice contrast from Taylor Gourmet--the area's other popular sandwich place--since the style of sandwiches at Carving Room are so different. I agree with hoosiereph that the half sandwich with side salad (topped generously with pickles) is the way to go. It's a pretty big half sandwich.
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- Mount Vernon Square
- Deli
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I made a return visit to Range and wrote about it on my blog today. I first wrote about it in February and really liked it a lot. Recently, I've been hearing gripes about its service, which I found surprising, given that our service earlier this year was excellent. So I had two aims for the piece: 1) sample the spring menu and 2) see if the service has changed. I was delighted to find that I was still quite happy with both. Really liked the pea ravioli in particular and we were treated well by the host, server and the manager.
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We had an early Sunday night dinner here recently after seeing a play at Studio and enjoyed ourselves. The place was already packed by 5 p.m. It is a really cool space with a nice patio too (we ate inside but with all the windows opened up to the patio it almost felt like outside). The food was good. Not particularly creative, but definitely satisfying. I really liked my roast chicken and our dessert--a decadent dark chocolate napoleon--was incredible. Another highlight is the bread basket, which everyone mentions, but I think it's pretty cool that they provide for free such a high-quality product when so many restaurants are charging for things like bread and chips-and-salsa. It's a nice gesture at the start of the meal. The only thing that wasn't really great was the steak frites, which was tasty but not very tender. Like many restaurants these days they're serving hanger steak, which is known for being tough (I'd love it if ribeye made a comeback as the steak of choice for restaurants that offer one steak option). Here's my write up I posted today on my blog.
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Had a wonderful visit to Graffiato, which I wrote about on my blog today. I went several times when it first opened (and liked it a lot then), but hadn't been since. Knowing that Chef Isabella is poised to open his third restaurant, and having been disappointed by his second (Bandolero), I wanted to revisit Graffiato to (hopefully) be recharged and excited for Kapnos. I wasn't disappointed. We enjoyed everything we ordered and the service was excellent as well. I was really impressed with the menu. Because it had been recommended by several posters here, we started with the broccolini, which was really quite good (I was tempted also by the charred asparagus and smoked beets). We also had the pepperoni sauce, which I like is now offered with bread instead of just chicken thighs. At the server's suggestion, we had the Luigi, a seasonal ramp pizza with ramp pesto and ramp greens, which may have been our favorite thing. Sounds like some people felt rushed. We didn't feel that way at all. Felt perfect actually, with the food nicely timed to not crowd our table nor make us wait too long for the next thing. I think we took a full two hours with cocktails and dessert.
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- Chinatown
- Modern Italian
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I've become a big fan of The Carving Room, which is convenient to my workplace, so I've been having lunch there frequently. Tonight I finally got to try their cocktails, which are also quite good and include house-made syrups like the agave-habanero syrup that spiced the margarita-like cocktail. Really enjoyed the drinks.
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As reported by The Washington Post, tonight is the last dinner service at Buck's overseen by its current chef, Vickie Reh, who is leaving to design wine programs for a couple of unnamed upcoming restaurants. I know Buck's has received mixed reviews during her tenure, but I've always been very happy with their food and service (my blog post from last year). Since the departure of the previous chef (Carole Greenwood), I've really appreciated that the once spartan menu has greatly expanded (and become nicely organized into favorites and seasonal offerings). Reh has added some great dishes, like the homemade cottage cheese starter with beets and carrots, inspired by what her grandmother used to make (great story about that in the Post a couple months ago). She also retained many of the restaurant's classics, like their sirloin steak. I'm particularly fond of their hamburger, a newer addition to the menu, which is a Friday night favorite at our house. It will be interesting to see what happens next. I hope whoever comes in is able to pay homage to the restaurant's past while putting whatever their personal spin will be on the menu (just like Reh did). If they can accomplish that, I'm sure we'll continue to be regulars. I wish Reh well in her next endeavor.
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- Chevy Chase DC
- American
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We had dinner here recently for my birthday. I was very curious about this restaurant. I remember after it opened it received quite a few accolades; however, I knew the restaurant had recently changed its concept to be more casual, so I wasn't sure what to expect with the food. I'd seen older pictures of the dishes, which were beautiful, almost sculptural. The new menu, while good, is not that. The dishes are well-made but nothing unusual. We enjoyed what we had (the pastas were particularly good), but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that whatever modern flair existed previously seemed to be gone. The service, on the other hand, needs some attention. Our server was friendly and polite, no problem tehre--it was the other aspects of the service that were disappointing: the bar was quite slow and the staff was way too eager about clearing our table. My cocktail was whisked away with about 1/4 of it left, platters were taken with bits remaining we would have eaten, and my husband's plate was taken away while I was still clearly eating, a move that's common to lesser restaurants and a personal pet peeve (I'm a slower eater than he is). For more specifics about our visit, here's my blog post. Overall, while I certainly wouldn't say we had a bad time (again, we enjoyed everything we ate), I was hoping for more.
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I'm irritated with this restaurant right now, which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to trying it. My husband made reservations for us to go here last weekend for my birthday, but unfortunately I got really sick last week and we had to cancel. He called the restaurant several times to let them know and try to reschedule. Each time he was transferred to their voice mail, never to a maitre d', and he left apologetic messages and indicated our desire to reschedule, but they haven't contacted us. At this point, I'm very much looking forward to celebrating my birthday this coming weekend somewhere else.
