jpbloom

With this and Inox right next door, Tysons suddenly becomes a major fine dining destination instead of just chain steak places and inferior seafood restaurants. Who'da thunk? Good for those of us who live close, though.

I had the best duck ever there. But I've also had the worst service also. It's kinda bitter sweet to see it go away.

This has been my experience at every one of Yannick Cam's restaurants, even when he was at the hotel in Alexandria. Excellent food, but the service was always horrible. My one visit to Le Paradou was enough to show me it was the same there, and the food alone was not enough to justify going back.

this fine meal composed entirely of small plates.

Why is it that so many restaurants lately seem to be more enjoyable if the meal is entirely small plates, rather than the traditional appetizer/entree combo? Time and again, I'm finding the spark in the apps, with the mains being unexciting or routine.

Thanks, nice tool to find parking, but it highlights what I expected - nothing close but the Reagan Building. Street parking isn't really an option for 6:00 opening.

My first visit was last Wednesday. One fabulous mouthful after another. It also got my wife to try some things she normally wouldn't (unfortunately with some she was not swayed to try them again in the future).

Is there somewhere convenient to park nearby? (parking in the Reagan Building is not really "convenient.")

This is a great cause and a great event every year. I had to miss last year because I was out of town, but I'll be there Monday the minute they open the doors for the VIP ticket holders.

Okay, so having anxiously waited for over a year, my wife and I had to go to Inox last night for what turned out to be a very soft opening, with the number of tables intentionally very limited. All I can say is WOW! With surprisingly few glitches for opening night, the meal was excellent from start to finish. There were a number of jokes throughout the evening about the restaurant still having the new car smell and the pages of the wine list still being warm having just come off the printer, but things appeared to be running very smoothly already.

Very nice modern decor, limited only by the view (but what can you expect on the ground floor in a Tysons office park). Comfortable seating with a decently sized two-top. The windowed kitchen is down stairs from the dining room but in easy view.

We of course had to have the tasting menu (while $93 is steep, it was reasonable for what was delivered), although there were a lot of interesting things on the a la carte menu I regretted passing up. I didn't take notes, so excuse the lack of detail on some of the courses.

The amuse started things off well, artichoke three ways. Quite a lot of flavor in two small bites. This was followed by a smoked diver scallop cut in half with foie gras in the middle. Not very smoky, but everything blended together well and it was not nearly as rich as I anticipated (which is a good thing to me). Next was black cod in a vegetable broth (sorry, I don't remember the primary ingredient) with pieces of lobster. I don't know when black cod started getting so popular, but it's a trend I support.

I had asked about the preparation of an escargot tortellini, which is a side to the grouper on the a la carte menu, so they next brought out a tasting menu size portion (apparently you get one with the grouper). I had know idea what to expect, but this was unlike any escargot preparation I've ever had. Flavorful and tender, it was so good I recommended this become a tasting menu course on its own, rather than a side to something else.

The breast and leg of quail that followed was the stunner of the evening for me. Served with a black truffle on truffled noodles, it had a rich slightly gamey flavor that I love. To the frequent embarrassment of my wife, I tend to nibble on the bones of small game birds at restaurants, but this was so tender and well prepared, every bit of meat came off the bone easily so there was no need for that.

The venison was the only slight disappointment, but that had nothing to do with the preparation. While very tasty, I've noted here before that I continue to be unsatisfied with the venison that now fills the market. It doesn't ever seem to have the gamey flavor that makes venison venison. While this was better than some I've had lately, it still to me seemed like just a nicely prepared piece of red meat.

The elderflower and blueberry "soup" with buttermilk ice cream was an interesting dessert appetizer. More gel than soup, an intriguing mix of flavors.

I'm not normally a dessert guy, but last night's was one I could easily go for again. A soft chocolate bar with a chocolate crunchy substance inside accompanied by Earl Grey ice cream was a joy. I love Earl Grey tea but have never had it as ice cream, and now I'd love to try to make it on my own.

A couple of words about the bread. Served by the slice, rather than in a basket, which I prefer. At 2941, I always ate too much of the bread or felt guilty leaving this woderful bread to go to waste. As expected, it was wonderful. Last night's choices were olive (yum), rye and French. One suggestion - while we were offered out choice on the first serving, when replaced the servers apparently just pulled slices randomly ( I had to stop one to get another slice of the olive). Since I would expect diners to want to try each of the offerings at some point in the evening, a choice should be offered each go round. I don't know if there is the intention down the road to give diners a loaf to go (a la 2941), but one was not offered last night, and I miss that (although we did dart out pretty quickly after paying our bill).

The wine list is quite large, diverse and very well selected. There also seems to be gennuine enthusiasm about the wines and a willingness to discuss them. Good choices at various price points. If I can get a bottle and a half of good wine for $100, that's a good list in my opinion.

I loved the food at 2941, so if you did not, YMMV. One concern I had over the years at 2941 was the pacing of the meal. Last night it was perfect, even with the unplanned course thrown in, but there were very few tables filled. I hope they can keep up that level as the restaurant gets crowded.

At these prices, this is not the kind of place I can go to every week, but as you can no doubt guess, we'll be back frequently. Particularly since Maestro is gone, it's so nice to have a top notch restaurant this close to home (and so nice to have something in Tysons other than steak and inferior fish restaurants).

It's showing on Open Table for tonight but the phone message says reservations are being accepted starting tomorrow. Is tonight a soft opening?

Any update on opening? I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

I'm heading to Westend in a week or so for lunch, first visit since the changes. Anyone been recently? Suggestions or comments?

The menu looks great and I'm really looking forward to going tonight, but I'm having a hard time understanding why this is $20 more per person than the Thanksgiving and Christmas menus that had some of the same offerings.

If it's at 18th and M, it could well be an invasion. I just saw a sign for one at 18th and I as well.

My wife and I went Wednesday night for dinner. It was very good and we'll definitely be back, but . . .

First, the space is very nice and the sound level very reasonable. The service was attentive and efficient, with the various members of the staff seeming to work well as a team. The wine list is limited, but well selected, with decent choices at various price points.

The starters were better than the mains. I had a grilled baby octopus which had a very nice grill flavor and just the right texture. My wife had a Kamikaze roll that had a very nice mix of flavors and just the slightest crunch which helped the overall appeal. One down side to the roll - the pieces were too big, such that they were difficult to handle and quite a mouthful for one bite.

While the mains were good, they were a little disappointing. We went with standards, for comparison purposes. My wife had crab cakes, which she enjoyed, but thought were missing that certain someting and she was bothered by several pieces of shell in the cakes. I had the cioppino. The shellfish and fish were high quality and tasty, but the broth was quite bland and needed additional spice of some type. Even the garlic bread didn't seem to have any garlic.

One personal pet peeve. Why do servers feel compelled to offer assistance with wine choices when they don't even know the wines on their lists? And how tough is it to teach the staff the wines, particularly at a new restaurant? While well intentioned, the waitress had no clue of what I was ordering when I ordered the wine (as often happens, fall back to the bin number) and totally mangled the name of the producer (Chehalem - okay, maybe a little unusual), the region (Willamette Valley - okay, maybe if you're not familiar with the area) and the variety (Pinot Gris - even though it's French, it shouldn't be that tough in a restaurant). Sorry for the kvetching, but this stuff bothers me.

The classic idea . . . is that the fish should barely cover the rice, that the entire nigiri should be consumed in one bite, and that one should be able to savor the freshness of the fish and the rice in tandem, without one dominating the other.

Actually that is just what I meant, depending on your definition of "barely." If I wanted just fish, I'd order sashimi. Several places I've been to recently, however, have had too much rice relative to the fish.

During the course of the Vidella Bird Dinner, RJ Cooper discussed one of the issues with venison. He said that there are only two farms in the entire country that produce venison (EDIT to correct the locations: Broken Arrow in Texas and Underhill in Kansas), all the rest comes from New Zealand and Australia (he seemed dismissive of the imported products). He also said that the American produced venison was prohibitively expensive. So that may explain why most restaurants that choose to serve Venison use the imported product.

That's what I had heard elsewhere, and was hoping Todd Gray had somehow found a good local source. I think it's time for me to stop ordering venison.

After having been to Equinox a couple of times for lunch, my wife and I went for dinner for the first time the other night. I have to say we were very disappointed. It's not that anything was bad (except the service, which was weak), but it was all just so average. At those prices and with its reputation, I expected better.

We got the tasting menu. Unlike qwertyy, I was very unimpressed with the potato crusted scallop. It was quite rubbery, and the dish had very little flavor. The mustard greens were tough and tangled and difficult to deal with. (In contrast, two days earlier I had scallops to die for at 112 Eatery in Minneapolis - definitely go there if you're in that town.)

The pasta with duck confit again had no real flavor, and tasted like a chewy mush. My wife placed the thin duck bone she found on the side of the plate to try to point it out to the waiter, but since he didn't come by any time near when the course was served, she forgot to mention it.

The tuna was the only stand out course. Seared perhaps a little more than I would have preferred, it was still very tasty and the shrimp and sausage in the sauce added some very nice flavors.

The biggest disappointment was the venison. I love venison, and am continually disappointed at all of the restaurants using the flavorless New Zealand farm raised venison that seems to be everywhere lately. Without the gaminess, it's just red meat. In light of Equinox's use of local products, I had hoped for something with a bit more flavor, but it was the most bland venison I've had in a long time.

Finally, the banana caramel bread pudding. It sounds a lot better than it tasted. It looked and had the consistency of my mother's old potato kugel (which might be expected with banana bread pudding), but the various flavors didn't really come together well and the crispy honey tuille was a distraction.

I might have been more forgiving if the service was better. We were there at 6:30 on a Wednesday evening. This was not a crowded time, yet we barely saw the waiter. We had 1 1/2 bottles of wine and poured most of it ourselves (fortunately the bottles were in easy reach). With a tasting menu, I tend to expect some description of each course as it's served, but when we got any, it was mumbled and not understandable. As noted, the duck bone didn't get mentioned because the waiter was not around.

Sorry if this sounds too negative, but I really look forward to trying new (to me) places with good reputations, and this was a let-down.

Based on this thread, my wife and I gave Sakana a try recently and I'm very glad we did. I'm a regular at Yama (mainly carry-out), but that will now change. Yama had gone way down hill and while there's been some improvement, it's nice to have a good option.

The fish was all very fresh, with a good ratio of fish to rice. While I've only gone with standards so far for comparison purposes (tuna, salmon, hokigai, squid, spicy tuna roll), I've been impressed and will definitely try other things. I hope they survive, though, because that location seems jinxed.

That location has had a bit of turnover, I think perhaps because people don't realize parking is in the back. I wish them luck. My one experience with Kansai didn't excite me enough to switch from Yama, though.

I'm a regular here, although more frequently carry-out than dine in. Your description is spot on.

The top dining destination in that area is L'Auberge de L'Ill, http://www.auberge-de-l-ill.com. Three Michelin stars forever. It's been several years since we've been there, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. We had an excellent meal, albeit pricey. Factor in the current exchange rate, and plan accordingly.

Being Chef Krinn's last week, we had to go, so my wife and I had dinner at 2941 last night. No coasting for the final week here - we had the tasting menu and every course was excellent. For me the stand out was a squab and chantrelles dish. While my wife really enjoyed that, the star for her was wahoo with a saffron sauce and little neck clams. Wonderful breads, as always, with a loaf to dig into in the morning.

Jonathan was out periodically shaking hands and chatting with repeat guests. While he wouldn't give details on the new location, he said it will be about 11 months before it opens. He's going to take some well deserved time off and travel a bit.

Service was very good throughout the evening. Interesting note - someone must have read my post from Wednesday and put it together with the name on the reservation. When being seated, the following comment: "Welcome back. I understand there were some problems on your last visit, but everything will be perfect tonight." I had never complained before.

Thanks Jonathan and 2941 for a great run. I'm sure I'll be back to see what the new chef is like and am looking forward to Jonathan's new place.

I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Krinn, but I really hope at the new place the front of the house is up to the quality level of the kitchen. I've been to 2941 many, many times, for special occasions, with guests and for spur of the moment dinners, and have loved every meal. I have never been there without some problem with reservations, seating, service or the like, though. Tysons is closer for me than Falls Church, so I'm sure I'll be there very shortly after opening and probably frequently thereafter.

People grab the wine list before looking at the menu and go right for the "heavy reds", as they usually say.

This cuts both ways. I've noticed an increasing tendency of waitstaff leaning over you shortly after seating asking what wine you'd like and I've been to several places recently that seat you with the wine list but no menus, expecting the wine to be ordered first. They seem shocked that I want to decide what to eat first.

There is no way I would have normally considered ordering bluefish, but, boy, was this dish tasty! The fish was flavorful without being in the slightest bit oily, and the spicy tomato marmalade was killer. Thanks for the recommendation, Ferhat.