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noamb

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Everything posted by noamb

  1. noamb
    Yafa Grille, from what I could see (and taste) and the pita is much more to my taste than almost any place else.
  2. noamb
    I haven't been to this location yet, but I happen to really like it at the Clarendon location. I especially like the texture (I guess that's probably inherent to liquid nitrogen ice cream), and they've also done a good job with the flavored I've had. So I, for one, am quite looking forward to one more ice cream place in old town.
  3. noamb
    Drove by earlier today and seems to have been replaced by a Nepalese place with Royal in the name. Too bad - they were always nice.
  4. noamb
    We generally go to Golden Hong Kong in Springfield, which is more reliable and friendly than amazing. However, we recently got a tip about Gourmet Inspirations in Silver Spring, and it was really good (but completely impractical for us location wise in general). Service wasn't great, with somewhat infrequent carts, but maybe that's because they don't overstock so everything we got seemed really fresh and hot. It was a few weeks ago so I don't really remember details. We got the mundane sort of things, and they were all very good.
  5. noamb
    Seems to have abruptly turned into a burgers and shakes place, Flat Top.
  6. noamb
    So did you ever make it to the new Mongolian restaurant, which I assume is Mongol Nomads? At least that's what I saw on my way to Thai Square tonight. Yelp has one or two reviews that make it seem promisingly interesting, but I know nothing about Mongolian food, so I'm reluctant to try it without guidance.
  7. noamb
    We'be been a couple of times, although not for quite some time (a couple of years?). We did really like the ice cream, especially nice texture, but the baked goods (a cookie one time, maybe a brownie another) were very disappointing.
  8. noamb
    I guess maybe my expectations are just lower. Except maybe Pete's I agree that none of those places is special or impressive. But I don't equate no place that impresses me with going to hell in a hand basket.
  9. noamb
    You don't think this is a bit of an exaggeration? There's still Pete's, and (maybe a step down) Kabob Bazaar, Four Sisters grill, Amsterdam Falafel and Northside Social.
  10. noamb
    We finally made it to the new Ethiopian place on East Glebe just off Rt 1 in Alexandria (I guess I'd call it east Arlandria). Very quiet on a weekday lunch. I hope they get more customers, because we thought it was very good. We had lamb tibs and the veggie combo. Both were good, nicely spiced - I like Ethiopian a lot, but I don't think I can call myself well informed, so I'm not exactly sure how to describe why I thought it was good. I guess I'd say that everything tasted distinct, not muddy flavors like I've had at Ethiopian places I like less. Service was quick and friendly. Good place to have close by.
  11. noamb
    We really wanted to like this place, but were underwhelmed. We had a salad, spicy chicken, hummus, and falafel. Nothing was better than OK, and everything needed more flavor. The hummus was kinda cold and bland - desparately needed something, lemon juice or tahini or salt. The spicy chicken was just spicy, not much else. Some of the toppings were decent, but not enough for me to remember specifics. We'll give them a few more weeks to see if some of the recipes improve.
  12. noamb
    Our current favorite is Golden Hong Kong in Springfield. It's small, so the selection isn't great, but then things they do they do pretty well. My very (if atypically) picky kid even has several things she likes. And there's never a line at 11:45 or so when we get there. It's been a couple of years since we've been to any of the seven corners places. We did really like Hong Kong pearl when it opened, but it definitely went down hill after a year or two. We then switched back to Fortune, but found that we only really liked the fried stuff, and I'd rather have good steamed things, in general. We also used to be regulars at China garden, but after 2 or 3 of the worst dim sum experiences ever, we gave up (this was about 5 years ago, so could easily be different now).
  13. noamb
    I think we saw it on the sign outside Ichiban, but it isn't on the online menu, no.
  14. noamb
    Zento on N Washington in Alexandria (bad, but for completeness), and Ichiban on King St in Old Town Alexandria (decent). Still have to go to Tanpopo for reasonably good ramen, if we don't want to go to or through DC.
  15. noamb
    Went to Sinbad last night and overall liked it a lot, although not everything was great. Service was nice, if a bit language limited, and slow to get the first batch of food (which consisted mostly of not cooked to order appetizers like hummus and baba ganoush). I've heard good things about Iraqi kubbe, and in general I really like it, so we ordered the cheaper one (jerich, not Mosul), fried, and the flavor was good, but a bit tough. Iraqi kabab was good, ground meat, cut with sometimes soft (bread? Reminded me a bit of English sausage in texture), on good rice. Msakhan was a smallish piece of chicken with great spicing on a very thin flat bread and amazing soft cooked onions. Lamb shank on rice totally didn't do much for me, but I'm not a big fan of lamb shank to begin with. The dish described as kubideh (?) in a tray was good, if not exactly what I was expecting. Basically baked ground lamb with a good tomatoey sauce, loose (not like meatloaf). Kanafe for dessert was ok, but cheese was a bit saltier than I expected. I suspect I was thinking about kataif when it was being ordered. On the whole, we liked it a lot, and will probably be back. Have to try a few more things like the makluba, maybe masgouf, and the lamb shwarma (which we had on hummus). And the bread was great. Can't believe I forgot that. Fluffier than most pita you get around here, which is my preferred style. There's also the thinner bread which came under the msakhan (more like lafah, but even thinner than the lafah I've had), but I didn't notice that on the menu by itself anywhere.
  16. noamb
    Since this is our favorite Thai place right now, and it was nearly empty tonight, I feel compelled to point out how good it is. They reformatted the Thai menu, and while some things seem to have disappeared (most obviously the various noodle soups, which I didn't actually love when I tried them), it has some really good things on it. The best one we had was a crispy rice and sausage salad that was great - reminded me of some things I've had at Bangkok Golden. Also a pork collar appetizer special cooked with a sweet sauce and served with a spicy (ish) dipping sauce. We also had fried pork belly with Chinese broccoli that was just OK, not really interesting. And (I seem to recall this came up in another thread recently?), they'll make (good) pad woon sen if you ask for it, even though it's not on the menu.
  17. noamb
    By the way, very good flavor in the espresso and salted caramel gelati (is that how it's pluralized?) at the Mosaic Center location, although the espresso could have been smoother (not sure if it was the ground espresso or the gelato itself that was a bit grainy). The mango champagne sorbetto was also good, although we would have preferred a less creamy version.
  18. noamb
    Does anyone happen to know if any of the Dolcezza locations still serves churros? Many years ago the Glover Park one did, but we just discovered that the Mosaic Center one doesn't. N
  19. noamb
    We went to Bati Friday night, thanks to one of these threads. The parking lot was a zoo, as promised, at 7:30. It was nearly empty, but filled up by about 8:30. We had the veggie combination and the beef equivalent of YEBEG BERET METAD TIBS, since they had no lamb. The meat was great, the veggies were good but not amazing, but the service was some of the nicest I've had at an Ethiopian restaurant. There were some sort of really good spices (reminded me of chai - cinnamon and cardamom?) in their tea (which made it much better than the Lipton bag would lead one to expect), and they even gave us (free) coffee ceremony coffee.
  20. noamb
    Tanpopo in Annandale, same little mall as A&J (I think). Certainly not the best I've ever had, but I do think it's good. They do have tonkotsu broth based, which is far from universally available, and is my favorite. They used to have a spicy beef ramen which was unusual (to me, anyway), but good. I'm not sure they still have it.
  21. noamb
    (sorry about the blank initial post - McDonalds seriously redecorated, but their WiFi still has issues) Note that this is true given a rather generous definition of "Old Town" - it's at the corner of Fayette and Pendleton, a couple of blocks from the Braddock metro.
  22. noamb
    Went to Hawwi a few days ago, thanks to this thread, for lunch. The menu is a mix of Ethiopian (maybe 2/3) and Egyptian, as well as several interesting looking breakfast options. We just had one of the combos and baklawa. We _do_ like Ethiopian, and we really liked it, although it wasn't as spicy as we would have preferred. The combo had doro wat, a couple of veggies (red lentils and greens), and a couple of beef dishes. I think it's better than any other Ethiopian we've tried close into that part of Alexandria (namely Caboose Cafe and Njera, or however it's spelled, on 23rd St in Crystal City), but maybe not as good as we recall places like Dukem, Etete, and Eyo from a few years ago, although it's been quite a while since we've had Ethiopian, because family taste/geography constraints. There are also other interesting looking things on the menu, including some kinds of date and honey stuffed bread whose name I forget, and a range of middle eastern things (falafel, hummus, baba ganoush), and also koshari, that we'll try some day. They were pretty empty (I guess that location also felled Cafe Nicole and the Caboose expansion), so I hope they manage to stay in business.
  23. noamb
    Caphe Banh Mi, I believe. It's not the best Vietnamese I've had, but it's probably my favorite of any Asian cuisine in the Old Town area (with the possible exception of Momo Sushi, although in practice if we get sushi we usually end up in Bonsai II in Crystal City, to also get udon). And I have to agree with someone's previously expressed sentiment - I live in Del Ray, and yet I never seem to eat anyplace in my own neighborhood except for Del Ray Pizzeria (and there never for the pizza - entrees, sandwiches, and Monday night trivia). Any opinions on Cheesetique's eat-in options? I just looked at the menu, and it was more diverse than I was expecting.
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