jeffmhunt

19 hours ago, SwillBilly said:

Hit up Hot Lola's at Ballston Quarter for lunch.  Tenders a thick and juicy with minimal breading.  The OG sauce is spicy enough to keep you interested.  Might go the Too Hot sauce next time.  You get a side of bland slaw and pickles for around $8 not a bad deal.

Yeah I wrote about them later in the Nashville hot chicken thread. They're great!

A friend and I spent the weekend trying three recent additions to the Northern Virginia hot chicken scene - it just so happens that all three have an Asian influence thrown in for good measure. Here are our results:

🥉Mama Mei's (inside The Block food hall in Annandale) wings look perfect - great color, slight shine, and good size. While the skin is pleasantly crispy and the meat is juicy, the flavor is dominated by oil and not very interesting - even the spiciest level ("hot mama") barely registers. Highlight is the hot honey walnut nuggs - chicken nuggets mixed with candied walnuts and broccoli in a Chinese takeout box.

🥈Wooboi (Herndon) wings are substantial and simply presented - the satisfying crunch is apparent even before the first bite. The meat could be a little juicier* but level 4 ("code red") has great flavor with mild Szechuan seasoning and strong heat. Level 5 ("code blue" - they make you sign a chalkboard waiver) ranks among the spiciest hot chicken I've eaten in the past 15+ years, but the intense and numbing spice mutes the flavor - even the level 3 sandwich has a noticeable kick but pleasant flavor. Good crispy waffle fries reminiscent of Arby's curly variety.

*caveat - these sat in the car for about an hour

Friends and I are doing a version of Hot Ones this summer - we've procured a selection of hot sauces, so now we need the chicken. My first thought is to just buy a pile of pre-cooked wings from some place and then heat and toss at home, but of course I want them to be plain vehicles for sauce - any suggestions? Thanks.

At the risk of overrating a place that has been underrated in the past, my low expectations were blown away this past Saturday night. My party of 4 had 6:45 reservations (and needed them - the nondescript exterior makes Buck's seem less lively than it was that night, at least) and we stayed until almost 9, not least because we enjoyed our meal so much. Great for out-of-town guests with less adventurous palates (hey, one man's boring is another man's safe), the menu is simple, homey, and almost perfectly executed.

Deviled Eggs were unremarkable (not bad! just had better), but Gordy’s Fried Pickled Jalapeno w/ Yogurt Dip was a nice change of pace from the fried pickles (i.e., cucumber) more prevalent in this kind of restaurant - just a little zing of spice.

Crisp Iceberg Wedge Salad w/ Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Applewood-Smoked Bacon & Horseradish Dressing was fresh and well-balanced, but the revelation in the Starters was Carrot Dip w/ Grilled Flatbread - I was sure it would be a cloying glop, but it turned out to be so much more subtle (cream cheese? sour cream?) and satisfying.

Aforementioned out-of-towners raved about their matching cheeseburgers, but everyone was jealous of my Pan-Roasted Halibut w/ Sauteed Green Beans, Cauliflower Puree & Roasted Pepper & Herb Sofrito Sauce - perfect from first bite to the last.

Service was friendly and not too attentive, and price is very reasonable for DC. Everyone liked that the decor was cheesy on first glance, but quirky upon further inspection. Limited draft selection, but Bell's Two Hearted is always great.

Surprised to see no discussion about this place beyond a final post in the old L'Enfant Cafe thread. Hoping to check it out this weekend and wondering if anyone has recommendations.

Write-ups in Washingtonian, Eater, City Paper, and the Post all skew very positive.

15 hours ago, DanielK said:

were the wings themselves flavored/marinated at any of the places, beyond salt and pepper in the batter?

If there was any additional seasoning/marinade, it was very minimal - some (most?) places didn't even seem to use much of a batter beyond flour. Henry's (top right above) had the most substantial batter and complex seasoning, but even that was fairly subtle.

Don, I saw this discussion in the Shopping and Cooking topic, but I thought my taste test might merit its own discussion in the Restaurants and Dining topic. As always, I defer to your expertise if you think this post should be shuffled elsewhere.

This coming weekend, inspired by this video and article, some friends and I are heading out to compare several versions of mumbo/mambo sauce.

I made a map of 11 restaurants and plotted a course that will hit 7 of them in about 4 miles of walking, weather permitting: http://bit.ly/mumbomap

I also made a simple scorecard that you're free to use: http://bit.ly/mumbodoc

Of course I'll share the results once we complete the taste test, but I wanted to check with the group to see if I missed any places, can improve the scorecard, or if you have any general advice for how to best enjoy this local specialty.

Tim Carman just posted a fairly positive write-up of this latest franchise from the Tennessee-based chain. Having dined at a couple of the Memphis-area locations over the years, my expectations are very high and I will be investigating shortly.

It's pretty spicy (but nothing like Nashville Hot) fried chicken and typical southern sides (menu here) in a relaxed atmosphere - at the downtown Memphis location, it was common to see folks waiting on a table with a 40oz bottle of malt liquor from the shop around the corner.

Opening this thread in the hopes that someone has beaten me to the spot and can tell me if I should make the trip or just wait until I'm back in Memphis to visit family.

Visit was tainted a bit because they claimed they couldn't process my Groupon since it was printed (as opposed to displayed via the app). I try to put the food above all else, but that was very frustrating. Waitress was extremely nice, but the tight basement space made the few loud patrons at the bar absolutely overpower the room. 

I had the egusi with goat and a side of jollof rice. The entree (menu: "Ground melon seeds cooked with spinach and palm oil") was very good, but I was especially impressed with the rice ("cooked in mild tomato sauce and savory seasonings") - very flavorful and pretty spicy.

My wife ordered vegetarian combo #1 - essentially an assortment of sides. Waakye ("Brown rice slowly cooked with black eye peas and our homemade shitto sauce"), Nkontombre ("savory spinach sauteed in tomato stew with red peppers, onions and garlic"), and Yor Ke Gari ("Stewed black eye peas in palm oil"). All were exceptional.

$40 + tip. We left extremely full, but we'll probably try another Ghanaian place before we come back - that Groupon bust bummed us out and the loud space just wasn't ideal for conversation. If you can, I would recommend carryout.

I'm trying Appioo for dinner tonight and was surprised to find no discussion on here. Anyone been? Recommendations?

It's billed as African but seems to be Ghanaian - a cuisine I'm not familiar with. I will report back on this thread later this evening or tomorrow.

Appioo on Facebook

"A Taste of Ghana in DC: Appioo African Bar and Grill" by Jaimee Swift on blackfoodie.co

Planning to check out the outdoor market at Union Station tomorrow and looking for recommendations. Does that location have the same menu as their Georgia Ave location?

Full disclosure: this review is biased by the fact that last night's dinner was my first experience with Uyghur cuisine and my wife and I let our Uyghur friend order for us in the language. That being said, I think this restaurant is a unique opportunity for our region and everyone on this board should give it a shot. We were the only customers in there for an early dinner (4:30-6:30) on Thursday, so I hope that they get more traffic during peak hours. I didn't take pictures of our meal, so the links below are to Yelp pictures from other users.

We started with the Uyghur style salad - our waitress (attentive and friendly) mentioned blueberries, but they didn't appear in our version: fresh vegetables, cheese (think feta), and a subtle (lime? fish sauce?) dressing that reminded this novice of a cross between typical Mediterranean and Thai salads I've had in the past.

I've seen a few different anglicized spellings of our next dish - the menu goes with Polow (think pilaf). Again, a slight discrepancy with the picture menu and what arrived: we got rice (oily, but our friend indicated that this was a feature and not a glitch), carrots, and lamb, but no raisins. Subtle flavor, but probably my least favorite of the evening - still, I'd like to give the full picture version another chance.

The lamb kabobs were a highlight - well seasoned and perfectly grilled. For the full effect, eat them as soon as they arrive.

I was pleasantly surprised by the meat nan - I expected the pastry to be flaky or doughy, but it was closer in texture to the chewy potstickers I grew up eating at Americanized Chinese restaurants.

Everyone's favorite dish was the dry-fried noodles - clearly hand-pulled thick noodles, well-cooked vegetables, and beef lightly spiced with something like Sichuan pepper all added up perfectly. That's the dish that will call me back to this place. We ordered "spicy," but I came away with the understanding that Uyghur cuisine just doesn't go for the heat-spice of Indian, Thai, Latin, etc. - more aromatic and, with this dish in particular, mildly numbing.

Not cheap but not outrageous - five substantial dishes for $75 plus tip. We left very satisfied.

Based on the reviews above, I definitely want to try the Big Plate Chicken, and a few other Yelp pictures stood out - Ding Ding Noodles and cold black wood ear.

I have reservations at the Dabney at 6:30pm tomorrow, with time to kill when I get off work at 4pm. Can/should I walk in the Columbia Room at 5pm? Or just Lost & Found happy hour at 4pm? Or Baby Wale at 5...

Thanks in advance for filling me in.

I had been to the Charlottesville restaurant a handful of times, but last night was my first experience at the Rockville location. I split a few dishes with my vegetarian wife, so I can't comment on the meat dishes yet.

The Hot and Numbing Tofu was a little less numbing and a lot more oily than the version we'd had before - still good.

Thanks to the forum, we tried the Cilantro Flounder Fish Rolls - crispy and flavorful, excellent.

Grandma's Noodles were also a bit oily, but had a pleasant spice and good chew.

Since all of the above were basically beige, we asked them to add steamed broccoli to our Mapo Tofu - probably sacrilegious, but it worked better than you might expect - excellent dish that rivaled (but probably didn't quite best) the version I love from Hong Kong Palace.

Slightly off-topic, but I'm wondering if someone can point me toward more vegetarian-friendly Chinese restaurants in the area - in my very limited experience, it seems like other Asian cuisines (at least locally - particularly Vietnamese) have more options in that regard, but hopefully I'm wrong. I found the Vegetarian Dining topic, but it's more generic and a bit of a ghost town.

Stopped in last night for a Brisket Champ sandwich and $3 Naragansett Lager tallboy. Friendly staff, cool crowd, delicious sandwich, cheap beer = I will return.

It's not too far from the NoMa Metro stop, which I hadn't put together before - sweet!

I think the premise of the place is that some dude was cheating on his boo, and when he got home from a dalliance his wife had chicken ready for him, and it was ridiculously spicy. But, the dude loved it.

Here's my favorite longform article on the history of the dish.

Oh, is Nashville Hot Chicken supposed to be some kind of Scoville Tolerance Test like vindaloo? Ugh, not for me - the chicken at Fremont Diner was too spicy for my tastes, and it wasn't *that* spicy.

I have friends that routinely cry when eating Prince's mild. I rarely order the hottest heat level (X Hot at Prince's, Shut the Cluck Up at Hattie B's, 800 at 400 Degrees, etc). Here's my favorite evidence of the challenge:

Based on their other food, I strongly suspect this chicken compares favorably with the real item (although it was served atop homemade waffles - does that disqualify it?) It was pretty darned spicy, but the spice was something akin to a dry rub - you can see a picture of it under the "Menu" section on their website.

I wouldn't disqualify it outright because of the waffles - a couple of HC restaurants in Nashville offer that option at least once a week. Granted, they're the newer places (I'd be remiss to leave out: white proprietors) but the food tastes good, so no love lost. I'll raise an eyebrow at folks that only order tenders (or, god forbid, grilled chicken), but other folks raise an eyebrow at my choice of ranch dip and extra pickles, so...

Well, I just had it a few weeks ago!

Unfortunately, it was at the Fremont Diner in Sonoma.

How was it? Can you compare it to the real thing?

I just joined the forum yesterday and did a quick search, so please forgive me if I missed a topic or posting about Nashville hot chicken. I did see one great post in the Nashville, TN topic - shout-out to ol_ironstomach.

I lived in Nashville for about 12 years and frequented all the hot chicken joints there, even going so far as to make a customized Google map and host a blind taste test. Please feel free to contact me for any Nashville travel recommendations.

Not long after my wife and I moved here last summer, Eater DC posted a guide to local options for hot chicken. I have tried the dish at the Maison Dixon pop-up (pretty good!) and at CRISP Kitchen + Bar (not as good!), and even just bought some GBD fried chicken (RIP) and coated it with spice from one of my favorite Nashville restaurants. It's an addiction.

Has anyone tried the versions offered at America Eats Tavern, Due South, or The Chesapeake Room? I don't see it on the menu for DS, but it's $23 on the brunch menu at AET and $19 on the brunch menu at TCR (for the record: ridiculous).

It looks like we can look forward to attempts from Trummer's out in Clifton and maybe another Carla Hall restaurant somewhere down the line. Are there any other options out there?

Is there any news about when they will return to the original location?

Some friends and I stopped here a few months ago after catching The Hateful Eight over at AFI. I built the place up for the first-timers, as I'd always enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, the extensive beer list, and the greasy bar food.

For the record, I have to say that I usually roll my eyes at service reviews - if the food's great, I'll tolerate a long wait or negligent staff. I'll have to dock QHT a star, however, for our experience that afternoon.

We walked in a few minutes before they opened - the door was unlocked. Staff rushed out to tell us that they weren't open and that we could wait outside (in the cold). We complied, and they locked the door behind us. We waited well past the time they were set to open (I confess that I've forgotten what time) and gave up.

Hopefully they'll return to the original location and the original friendliness soon - they haven't lost me yet.

My wife and I killed time at the bar here before going to a very stupid party over at the Omni Shoreham. We both loved the vibe, the service, and the drinks and we look forward to getting a full meal here.

This is what their website says, so maybe:

Screenshot 2016-03-31 at 19.07.42.png

Thanks!

I'm confused about the DCity Smokehouse pop-up while they build their new location. Is the whole DCS menu available at WB all day, every day?