@Lf82

Came here early with my wife for a 5pm seating at the chef's table. We opted for the tasting menu and all the courses were spot on. With that said, we were seated by the meat station and as we were wrapping up our entrees, you could see the line cooks artfully grilling & fanning a gigantic rib and whole smoked duck. It was then that we realized that we needed to make a follow-up visit to try their large format meats. Fortunately, the cook could see our longing gazes and offered us a pair of duck 'burnt ends' that were rendered fat and smoke flavor bombs. With all that said, the real reason that i wanted to comment was to talk about a simple, yet striking display of humanity that we had witnessed that night. Towards the end of our meal, a tall man had walked in. He was clearly a dear friend/family member to the staff, and one by one, several crew members (to include the chef) shared very very long embraces with this man. It was obvious that he had experienced a recent tragedy or loss. What had initially appeared almost awkward/uncomfortable quickly gave way to a thought - these people clearly care deeply about each other. As cliched as it sounds, I really could feel the love in the room that evening and it was nice to witness something so touching on our anniversary. (My wife joked that she wanted a hug too afterwards). In any case, we'll return some day for the meats, which were clearly cooked with love, as witnessed by all that evening.

Agree that we're on a slight tangent, but you still have a material percentage of millennial Big4 employees on the tax, advisory and back-office side that do report to their local offices regularly (I know because I used to be one of them), so I think your 90% figure is aggressive. In any case, we'll see how this venue fares to the bread and butter (upper-class stay at home moms and real housewives), since Urbanspace's target demo in NYC are white-collar professional millennials.

You have heavy millennial representation at KPMG, EY, PwC & Deloitte, whose offices are are all within walking distance to Tysons Galleria. As long as the price is right, I can see these offerings as viable alternatives to Sweetgreen.

Came here for brunch last Saturday around 2pm. The place was still packed, with walk-ins patiently waiting. Service was understandably slow as a result. We started with the cultured butter bing, which was nice and soft, though not as greasy as i had hoped for. The bing is undersized relative to the amount of dip they provide. There will inevitably be leftovers. Make sure to ask your server to leave the dip (they'll try to clear it; both my table and the table next to me had to intervene). To be honest, I would pay $7 instead of $5 if they would provide additional bing. The carolina smoked trout toast was delicious and full of smoky goodness. The porchetta po' boy, not so much. The meat to bread radio on this sandwich was way off. You're basically getting 4 slices of soft bacon and some veggies, but you end up tasting nothing but bread and picked veggies. I observed other diners eating this as an open faced sandwich due to the excessive imbalance. Overall brunch impressions? Meh...

Here you go. We were positively stuffed by this meal. Scannable Document on Oct 17, 2018 at 9_35_52 AM.pdf

Looks like it's closed for good. The current space is being subdivided for potential retail tenants. http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2018/Redwood-Wont-Return-To-Bethesda-Row/

Hung out at the bar for a quick happy hour snack before a Wizards game. The bar was buzzing for a chilly Wednesday night; dining area, not as much..Had a taste of their draft moscow mule ($6 HH special), which tasted like yuzu-infused Hawaiian punch, with nary a taste of alcohol. Also, not sure how you can call something a mule but not serve it in a copper mug. In any case, I would skip this drink and stick to their draft beer specials. I had the Victory black forest cake stout with cherry, which tastes exactly like it sounds. Bar snacks were...interesting. A miso-glazed camembert dish was literally a small wedge of cheese with 5 ritz crackers..and that is it. I mean, even for $6, this was an insult, when i could order a yakitori skewer for $3/$4. I have no idea how a professional kitchen could ever serve something so pathetic looking. On the other hand, the kimchi wrapped porkbelly was beautifully presented and looked a piece of meat nigiri. Albeit, it was only a single piece and felt really out of place next to that sad cheese dish. Simply put, skip the bar snack specials and stick to the regular izakaya menu, which is already at a low price point anyway due to the small portion sizes.

Had the omakase last week. The entire experience was peaceful and intimate, as the bar is separate from the main dining area and was relatively quiet throughout. One chef was busy preparing dishes for seated guests while Chef Ogawa was dedicated to preparing the omakase courses for the bar guests. Sake selection looked nice, but given that my wife doesn't drink, I opted for a cheaper beer instead (tangerine IPA, only $6), which was still delicious. We started w' an appetizer of raw oyster and oyster mushrooms as well as a very delicate chawan mushi. Both were very briney and delicious. Then moved onto a tempura course, which was also delicious, but maybe was left standing out for a few minutes too long. In the meantime, Chef Ogawa was preparing the fresh wasabi to add to our sashimi platters (generously portioned to ~8 pieces). Suffice it to say, I was already starting to fill up and we still had 10 pieces of nigiri to get through. I won't go into too much detail on each of the pieces, except to say that the progression was perfect, the fish was fresh, tasty, expertly prepared, and at the correct temperature. My only comment was that the rice seemed a tad bit mushy, but the seasoning was still on point. Oh, and those 10 pieces in the menu actually turned out to be 12 pieces. The only way i could keep count was from the pictures i was taking. We completed our meal with a delicious o-toro and uni hand roll. It was a decadent end to a decadent, yet reasonably priced dinner. Dessert was just a single scoop of matcha ice cream (tasted like haagen daez, to be honest), but at that point, i was too stuffed to really have a problem with that. Suffice it to say, this was the best omakase experience i've ever had in DC. My only regret is not discovering this place earlier, when the omakase was only $80.

Came to the DC location for lunch on New Years day and the space was pretty full. My party was promptly seated but it took another 10 minutes before a server finally welcomed us. Waited another 5 minutes before our glasses were filled with water. We had ordered several plates to share, but still had to ask for additional plates after our food arrived. I'm assuming the servers were shorthanded that day, given that it was a holiday, so I tried to not be too hard on them. At least the food came out relatively quickly after we put our order in. Fried chicken and waffles were well-seasoned, but the chicken was on the dry-side (not sure how this is possible w' brined meat). Shrimp and grits were tasty but the fried egg on top was overcooked with burnt edges and the dish felt like it was missing something, like an acid component. Mac and cheese was under-seasoned and looked like it was prepared the night before and simply put under a broiler. Collards/kimchi/ham were tasty and the only thing we ate that had a semblance of Korean influence. Given the reasonable price point (by DC standards), i can't be too disappointed by the food, but i was honestly expecting stronger/spicier flavors from a chef of this caliber. Instead, the whole experience was quite 'meh'. Service was pretty slow and inattentive (again, probably due to the holiday), and the food was just inoffensive at best. A space this beautiful deserves more inspired food.

Stopped by Street Kitchen, a new fast-casual concept for lunch at Tysons Corner Center (located near Panera and Panda Express on 2nd level). At first glace, this place looked like your typical short-order deli/sandwich but upon looking at the menu, I could see how flavor packed these dosas/naan wraps would be. I ordered the masala steak frankie, which was the most intense steak wrap that i have ever tasted. The naan bread was freshly fried, piping hot and crispy, and the meat was similarly packed with intensely marinated flavor that I cannot really describe (my vocabulary in describing indian cuisine is sadly lacking). Nothing here seems to be blandly flavored, and the wraps come with a side of chutney as well, in case you need additional flavor bombs. There was about a 5-10min wait for our food, but only because our food was cooked to order, so I do not mind. With that said, I can imagine the wait being longer if there were a line. If you want to try an exciting indian fast-casual concept that doesn't seem like glorified buffet fare, I highly recommend dropping by here.

Dined here last Friday at 5:30pm. Only a few tables in the dining area were filled, but the bar area was already filling up. The place was jampacked by around 6:30. Parking was a cinch since their building has a garage and offers free validation for up to 2-hours. The latkes were fried perfectly and went well with generous portions of dry-cured lamb on top. My wife removed some slices from hers, which meant more for me! Leeks dijionaise were presented beautifully and also tasted delicious. This is a more strongly flavored dish (in terms of the onion-like leek flavor) that we kept as an accompaniment to our remaining dishes. I can't imagine anyone ever finishing this plate as a standalone, unless you're really into onion breath. Pickled rockfish was flavorful and felt like a deconstructed ceviche dish. Scallop boudin blanc was playfully presented and texture-wise, reminded me of Asian fish cake. The snow peas were slivered and had a perfect crunch to accompany the richer scallop boudin. The fried chicken coq au vin definitely lived up to the hype. It was the most glorious piece of boneless fried chicken that I had ever eaten and I pray someday to eat it in sandwich form. The flavors were very rich and intense, and the breading had a very dense yet satisfying crunch, almost rice-krispie like. If Che Maupillier were to market a coq au vin sauce condiment, I would buy gallons of it in a heartbeat. Beer selection was interesting. I ordered the Strawberry-Olive Berliner Weisse, which was delightfully acidic and verging on sour beer (gose) territory. Definitely not your typical IPA and lager heavy beer selection. This is definitely a place that I would take out-of-towners to. The dishes are just that unique and interesting and not re-formulations of existing fare in larger cities. Yum!

Dropped by last night at around 9:30pm with a party for 4 and were seated immediately. Restaurant was still buzzing, but with some empty tables sprinkled about. Beef Noodle Soup had the beefiest broth I had ever sipped, with very buttery, dry-aged steak notes. Very tasty and unique, without the funky star anise notes that many people find off-putting in traditional beef noodle soups. Noodles were cooked perfectly and remained firm to the last slurp. Momofuku ramen was also delicious; really liked the smoky bacon notes in the broth. Again, noodle texture was springy and perfect. Would have preferred to see more chopped scallions in the soup to offset the richenss, but still a very good dish. Vegetarian ramen was polarizing. I really enjoyed the slightly fatter noodles and the rich hozon broth, but my wife found it to be a huge salt/msg bomb. Shitake buns were not very remarkable. I think using larger pieces of mushroom would help, but the whole thing was just overly seasoned. Pork buns were reliably awesome and tender, and the least salty dish of the night. I think the meat/veg ratio is slightly off on this, and would taste better w' more cucumber or even kimchi. In all, our meal was very rich and hearty, yet somewhat one-noted, due to our noodle and bun heavy selection. Going forward, we would probably order a side of kimchi or something else acidic to help cut through this intense richness. In terms of vibe, this is definitely the nicest momofuku space i have ever been to. Lighting was overly dim at first, but was brightened later on so we could see our food. Restrooms seem too small for a space of this size. Service was friendly and not overly intrusive. We stopped by Milk Bar afterwards to pick up cookies at around 10:30pm. Only one other party ahead of us, but they ended up waiting 10 min for their soft serve order. When it was our turn to order, their iPad-based POS system went haywire, so our transaction ended up being comped.