eatruneat

I'm spending the next two weeks in San Diego with the family for Christmas and some quality family time. I'll be posting here intermittently to avoid one super long post -- my posts are long enough as they are -- once I get back to DC. A few things of note. San Diego is a sprawling city of various pockets of good food. For the most part, not many restaurants are worth trekking up and down the 5 for as each region has its own Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican, etc., restaurants that are on par with another region's. But I will write of my experiences and try to note the neighborhoods in case anyone here is in that area in the future. I am staying with my older brother in Eastlake (a community of the city of Chula Vista), which is south (like five minutes from the border) and east of San Diego. I will also be visiting friends and family in La Mesa, La Jolla, and Scripps Ranch. I'll probably go to the beach and the Gaslamp District a few times but in general I try to avoid those places. I find the Gaslamp to be pricey and the restaurants to be not particularly good so often not worth the drive and parking difficulties. Anyway...onto the reviews. Barleymash (Gaslamp) -- My flight arrive at 11am on Sunday and I was desperately hungry, not having eaten anything before my flight. My brother wanted to watch the football games and drove us to Barleymash. Lots of TVs playing the various games, a good selection of food and beer, and friendly service. I ordered the Bourbon BBQ burger (medium rare) with a side of chili beer slaw. The burger came out medium to my disappointment but the patty wasn't dry so I didn't mind too much. The burger was good and hit the spot but I really disliked the "tabacco onions." These were nothing more than French's fried onion, or something like that. I would have preferred just regular rings of onions or sautéed onions. This is one of my big problems with dining in the Gaslamp District. There's a lot of stuff that goes onto the plate and much of it doesn't add much to the finished product. It's a bunch of hot foods du jour thrown together and the end product isn't much better than a regular burger. With all the stuff on the burger, I could barely taste the cheese which was supposed to be aged cheddar but I couldn't tell. The bacon was good though. My brother ordered the beer brined chicken wings BBQ style. He enjoyed them and I thought the one wing I had was fine but back to my thoughts on overthinking dishes...do chicken wings need to be brined much less beer brined? Why can't places just serve a darn good order of wings? Despite all these complaints I had a good experience here mainly because I was starved and the service was friendly. Pho Hiep Grille (Eastlake) -- My brother and I go here often when I am in town. It is a five minute drive from his place and coincidentally we know the owners through our uncle. The pho here is good but that is not what we order when we are here. We enjoy the Vietnamese style calamari, the Vietnamese crepe, and the grilled catfish. Yesterday, though, we were there for the hot pot. We started with the calamari (half priced for happy hour) and the spring rolls (a bit disappointing). Then, joined by my brother's friend, we went to town with the hot pot. Since my brother is a regular at this place, we let him do the ordering. He decided to do a whole pot of the spicy sate broth (usually you can choose two broths) and a combo plate of tofu, bok choy, lettuce, enoki mushrooms, and noodles (we substituted egg noodles for vermicelli noodles). We also added plates of the shrimp balls, fish balls, and squid. This was super good. The broth was flavorful and spicy and the vegetables and fish were very fresh. I love the addition of the egg noodles. I haven't had hot pot in DC but this is the standard to which I judge all other hot pots. Next time we are here, we will order the grilled catfish. More eating to come...

Went to Izakaya Seki last night for one final great meal before heading off to San Diego for Christmas. My boyfriend and I have been to Izakaya Seki several times before and it is one of our favorite places to dine. Last night's meal was a great send off. We started with our usual medium plate of sashimi, an order of tako wasa (wasabi and octopus), and the trio of vegetables (cucumber with chili oil, spinach and sesame seed, and lotus and burdock salad. The sashimi plate was fantastic as always but the highlight was the cuttlefish which was extremely fresh and soft. It just melted in my mouth. Honestly, I can just have a large plate of sashimi and my own order of tako wasa and die happy. But then I'd also be missing out on some other very good items on the menu. We also ordered the chicken meatball which was also a treat. We forgot to ask this time but you can also ask for an egg yolk on the side to dip the meatball in, which is definitely worth it. Chef Seki, seeing that we had enjoyed the tako wasa so much, suggested a trio of cured fish for us. We also enjoyed this, but my boyfriend more so than me. Finally, we ordered the baby octopus kara age, which was a special. This is a whole baby octopus lightly battered and lightly fried. It was amazing. We enjoyed it so much that after I plopped the last octopus in my mouth, my boyfriend suggested we order another plate which I was totally on board for. We can't help ourselves sometimes. What a great meal to send me off to San Diego. Thanks to Chef Seki and to Cizuka for a wonderful meal all around and for a wonderful restaurant. I always look forward a dinner at Izakaya Seki and the place always delivers.

The last time I went to Thai X-ing, we sat in the basement and we had to hail a server to provide us with glasses. Also, a table across from us wheeled in a freaking cooler of beers and one person at the end was in charge of distributing the bottles upon request. Yesterday, we sat on the top level and had a corkscrew and glasses waiting for us. A very different service experience all around from the last time we went.

The cat is was straight chillin. At least that was the case when my party of three dined at Thai X-ing Tuesday evening. We sat on the third floor where service and pacing seemed more relaxed than when we sat in the basement a few months ago. Tuesday is vegetarian night with (optional) two fish dishes which we were on board for. In total, we ended up with ten courses at $30 per person plus we brought a bottle of Verdelho from my personal stash to enjoy with the meal. It was gut busting to say the least. The first three courses that came out were a papaya salad, lemongrass soup, and fish cakes. The papaya salad was my favorite of these three even though it was heavy on the tomatoes (but I love tomatoes so I was a happy camper). Lots of spice and freshness. The lemongrass soup was also very good. Kind of reminded me of the Thai tom kha soup but without the chicken. My only issue with this soup was that the aromatics (lemongrass, bay leaves, chunks of ginger) were not removed from the soup prior to serving which made it a little awkward when someone ended up with a bay leaf in their mouth and had to discreetly remove it. The fish cake was the least successful of our first three courses. The fish was salmon that had been finely chopped (maybe in a food processor) and then formed into cakes and pan fried. It was served over a sweet chili sauce. Without the sauce, the fish was rather tasteless and it was only slightly better with the sweet chili sauce. Once we dispatched of our three appetizers, the server brought out the next three dishes and a huge bowl of steamed rice. The dishes were, stir fried eggplant and tofu, pineapple and tofu curry, pumpkin in curry. I had the pumpkin in curry before and loved it so I helped myself to a huge wedge over some steamed rice. Oddly, I started feeling full half way through this serving which put a damper on the rest of meal. Although, I didn't have much of it, the pineapple and tofu curry was also really good and a favorite of one of my dining companions. My other dining companion preferred the stir fried eggplant while I picked up some of the tofu in that dish. I thought all three of these dishes were good though I preferred the two curries to the eggplant and tofu stir fry. Also of note is that none of these dishes were particularly spicy. The next two dishes that came out were pad se ew, a fish cupcake, stir fried watercress. Everyone at my table enjoyed the fish cupcake which was served in a banana leaf. I love Thai noodle dishes and had as much pad se ew as I could. I thought it was good but didn't think it was much better than what I had at Beau Thai. The watercress was just simply stir fried in garlic and some fish sauce. It was good, but not particularly special. I think we would have preferred the watercress served in the second round of dishes rather than towards the end of the meal. To top off the evening, the server brought out the dessert. I tried to figure out what it was but have not been successful. The bottom seemed to be rice pudding and the top seemed to be sweetened coconut milk that had been congealed (maybe with gelatin?). It was served cold, I liked it enough but wasn't crazy about it. Overall, I would say that the meal was a great value and also very tasty. The sum of the meal was greater than it's parts given the price and amount of food that came out (we ended up bringing home most of the watercress and pad se ew home for leftovers as well as parts of the two curries and the eggplant and tofu stirfry) but I think I would be disappointed with the meal if this was an a la carte restaurant and we had paid as such. Also, I felt that the food the last time we went (with meat dishes), was more interesting and had a greater variance of flavor and spice so my preference would be to go back on a non-vegetarian or non-vegan night. Overall, we left full and happy and at the end of the day that is what makes for a successful restaurant outing.

The boy and I mozied over to Boundary Road after several drinks at my office holiday party. We've enjoyed lunch and late afternoon snacks at Boundary Road before so it was our top choice for a casual dinner within walking distance of the party. Overall, I was very satisfied with the meal, but like JoshNE above, I was a bit taken aback at the prices of the entrees. I'm not saying that the entrees were overpriced -- I can only speak to the two we ordered which I will go into below -- I just wish there was one or two additional entree options that hovered around around the $18-$20 range. Since we had been drinking prior to our arrival at Boundary Road, the boy and I stuck to one beer each: a can of Natty Boh for him and a pint of Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve for me. To start, we split an order of the Rapini Salad. The rapini -- a good amount -- is served chilled with pickled shallots and bleu cheese (Firefly Mountain Top Bleu). There is no dressing with this dish, which was a good thing, as the rapini was perfectly cooked, drained, and chilled. Both the boy and I loved the pickled shallots as well as the bleu cheese. We've had this dish previously when the cheese was either fresh mozzarella or burrata, which I preferred, but the bleu cheese was good nonetheless. This was a simple dish but very well executed and a good choice for a starter. When it came to entrees, the boy and I didn't find anything to suit our mood and appetite at first. We contemplated making a meal out of a few appetizers and the charcuterie board but in the end ordered the Bison Flank Steak (medium rare) and the Autumn Farro Risotto. I'm really glad we ordered the bison flank steak. It was cooked just the way I like my steaks and the portion was generous. I would have enjoyed the steak by itself but the accompaniments took the dish to another level. The steak was served on top of a delicious roasted cauliflower puree and with a small side of spicy kale. Also, the steak was topped off with two good sized dollops of lemon bone marrow butter. The puree was enjoyable and paired well with the steak. The butter, while not necessary, added a richer flavor to the steak. The kale wasn't particularly spicy, but still good as it offset the richness of the butter drenched steak and the puree. Since I touched on the price issue above, I will mention that the steak was either $24 or $26, which I thought was fair for what was presented to us. We also liked the farro risotto ($18) though I enjoyed it more than my date. The risotto also included brussels sprouts and butternut squash and served on top some sort of sauce I cannot remember (maybe goat cheese?). While the risotto was enjoyable, I felt the sauce was a little too much and overwhelmed the farro and the vegetables and all I could taste was the sauce. And while the sauce was good, I really would have liked to taste the other elements of the dish. Any disappointment did not stop me from asking the leftover risotto to be packed up for lunch today though. While our meal was good, it is more likely that we will return for lunch or a light bite rather than sitting down for dinner.

Thanks! I absolutely believe in the Blerch. It almost convinced me to sleep in and skip my run this morning.

I have been a long time lurker on these boards, finally stepping up to the plate to write about Sichuan Jin River and give it a more recent review. The boy and I rented a car for a little road trip over Thanksgiving and decided to take advantage of our new and temporary freedom from public transit to grab dinner some place we normally wouldn't be able to go. We decided on Chinese food because there is a serious lack of good Chinese food in the District and after some scouring, settled on Sichuan Jin River. Much to my surprise there hasn't been a post on this place since 2009, but the place was highly by Todd Kliman and I couldn't tell the boy that I didn't want to go to a restaurant because of it hasn't been discussed on a message board in four years. So off we went to Rockville with a friend who was more than down for some feasting on a cold evening. Our waitress -- who seems like the owner or manager -- sat us at a booth and handed us the menus. When we inquired about the Chinese menu (as opposed to the Chinese American one), she said that they have combined the two because people kept writing about the two different menus so they wanted to eliminate confusion. We proceeded to order entirely too much food and heavy on the appetizers which lead the waitress to jokingly (?) scold us, "too many appetizer. Only two entree." Pickled Cucumber and Lotus Root Salad: We ordered these mainly to offset the spice of the entrees. They were both good, crunchy, and cooling. Although I generally don't like cucumber at all, I thought it was fun. In the future, I would probably only order one of these, likely the pickled cucumber. Hot and Sour Soup (large): This bowl was huge, and a great deal for $4.50. I love hot and sour soup and while this version satisfied my craving, I think it could have been more hot and more sour. The versions I ate growing up had lots of bamboo shoots and mushrooms, both of which were lacking in this one. Still, a good soup for a rainy and cold night. Wontons with Hot Sauce: Eight large-ish steamed wontons on top of a pool of what looked to be chili oil. I'm a sucker for dumplings and thought this was very good. I'm used to wontons being made with both ground pork and ground shrimp, but I think these were purely pork wontons. I believe the hot sauce was just chili oil, but I like chili oil so didn't have a problem with that. Steamed pork buns with "ya cai": Two huge, doughy buns. Ya Cai is pickled bean sprouts, which was a pleasant paired with the pork. I didn't think this dish was worth the stomach space. The buns to be a little too doughy and while not bad, the filling seemed rather tasteless next to the other food we had ordered. Dipping the the buns in the chili oil of the wontons helped a little. Dan dan noodles: A seemingly simple dish, but very good. The noodles came out overflowing from a bowl which lead to someone remarking that it just looked like a bowl of angel hair pasta topped with ground pork. Mixing this up with the chili sauce underneath revealed a smoky, fiery, and addictive dish. I thought this was terrific. General Guan's Cumin Chicken: We were pretty stuffed at this point and only had courtesy spoonfulls of this dish as well as the other entree. This was thinly sliced chicken and scallions sauteed with cumin and some kind of sauce, not goopy though. I had most of this dish Saturday night and it reheated well. Both at the restaurant and after reheating, I thought this dish was fantastic. Very spicy and flavorful and not too overwhelming with the cumin. Ma Po Tofu with Minced Beef: This was my absolute favorite dish of the evening. The tofu was swimming in a very spicy sauce and the minced beef was minimal, leaving the tofu to be the star. Eating this dish definitely left a numbing sensation on my tongue and lips (I had to convince my dining companions that this was due to the Sichuan peppercorns and not MSG), which was thoroughly enjoyable. Even though the dish was very spicy, I found it to be pretty well balanced in that I didn't have sweat coming down my face and needed minimal water to go from bite to bite. I also enjoyed the sauce which nicely coated the tofu but wasn't cloying or overpowering. This dish also reheated well and I hope to finish it off this evening. $68 for three people (including tax and tip), with enough leftovers for 3-4 non-gluttonous leftover meals left me thinking about getting a zipcar membership. I need to eat out of the District more often. Thanks for reading my first post.

Hi all, Long time lurker who decided after years to finally take the plunge and join the forum. A Mt. Vernon Triangle resident who is very excited for the restaurant boom that is coming to the area and Shaw. Look forward to posting my two cents.