FranklinDubya

I think my last post sounded a little overly-negative in retrospect - I've only had great meals there to date. Rigatoni primavera sounds great *and appears to actually a new / recent menu addition so that's good to hear!

I ate there last spring / summer and while the food was still quite good from when I'd been previously I do think the bold perhaps applied a bit. Two of my favorite items I had that night for instance were Parmesan churros (essentially the best "mozzarella sticks" ever) and the tortellini of baby back ribs with 'Alredo of Rome' sauce... I assumed that the latter wouldn't mean bbq style ribs but that's essentially what it was. Mind you this was still very tasty, but was also kind of surprisingly un-elegant for a Trabocchi place. The previous time I went it almost felt like a more straight-forward better bargain Fiola by comparison. The main obstacle for preventing me from returning right now is that I've been monitoring the online menu for a while (as I do for places I like) and almost nothing has changed in about a year. Before I'd be enticed to go back by seeing particular new pasta preparations but even if the execution is strong seeing the menu on auto-pilot is a little disappointing.

*I'm happy to report the seasonal subs at Taylor I've had have been really good! *Despite my somewhat negative feelings towards the chain I end up going back fairly often because it's within < 1 minute walking from my apartment. The Penn's Landing chicken salad sub is one of the better versions of this I've had (not typically a chicken salad guy), and the Arch 2.0 is a nice riff on a bahn mi. The special edition ChiKo collaboration sub however... definitely falls into the Taylor trying to do way too much at once category. Heavily sauced + Kimchee + American Cheese

I noticed this last week as well while going to Esaan for lunch (derp for getting to post it here). I know at one point this place was the "hot" thing in downtown McLean and would be packed on weekend nights. Definitely seems like it's tough for places to survive in that general location even with quality food - seems like a lack of available diners to overcome McLean's high rent.

I just discovered this entire section of the forum... one of my favorite things about this site is the historical context you get. Jessica Sidman is now obviously with Washingtonian, but the "drive" mentioned is above is sort of how I feel about Laura Hayes who currently runs the "Young and Hungry" column - interesting detailed stories, lot's of breaking news, and overall just a bit different feeling than the writing coming from the larger organizations.

Thanks for the shout-out Kat There's a chance I'll be traveling for work in July but hopefully it's wrapped up by that point - if so I'll be there.

I don't know if this warrants a different thread but I recently had a very enjoyable meal at "The Dabney Cellar" which is a wine bar located under the normal Dabney Space. The food menu however is completely different (I think the wine menu is largely different as well but can't confirm without it being posted online), and the cellar isn't even accessible from inside the main restaurant but rather from some semi-hidden stairs on an adjacent street. Food here is simpler than upstairs but you can expect the same high quality ingredients. Lot's of raw stuff (oysters, crudos), country hams, cheeses, and a few other things. My meal consisted of splitting Oysters > Black Pepper Crackers > Tuna Tartare > Buttermilk Bacon Biscuits > Broadbent Country Ham, Foie Gras Parfait, and a full serving of buttery Lobster Toast made with brioche. Hams and raw things where expectedly high-quality - the tuna was very citrus-y like a ceviche but pulled off very well, buttermilk bacon biscuits were insane (coming from someone who doesn't normally freak out for biscuits or things with bacon), and the Lobster toast was an awesome entree-ish course. The obvious comparison on the last one is Kinship's lobster french toast but while that is more of an app with some nice subtitles to it (although by no means light), this is more of a kick in the teeth with a ton of lobster blasted with brown butter and herbs. The only thing we didn't like was the foie which was disappointing as that's usually an easy home run for me - the foie itself didn't taste great, nor did I care for the preparation. In this case it hardly mattered though given the many other great courses and the fact that it was only $10 for the dish. I don't remember exactly what I drank but thought the wines were impressive - I was worried they'd be locally focused but it definitely leaned more Italy / France / Spain than anything else (no complaints here). Our bartender / server was on point as well and even hooked us up with a delicious dessert drink on the house, which was greatly appreciated. This made me want to go back to the main Dabney restaurant, mainly because this was actually a bit better than my first meal there at maybe half the cost food-wise.

I didn't know they were owned by Nestle but I guess it makes sense given the sleek design and on point heavy branding, but also agreed on Nespresso machines which are quite good. I will say my palate for coffee is sort of less keen these days mainly because we have free kureig coffee in my office means that now when I drink almost anything else it tastes great by comparison... still though, at minimum this place's brew was way above average at least.

I was in San Francisco the weekend before last and grabbed a cup from here while ambling around the ferry station at the waterfront (it had a line even though there were probably 5-6 other places serving coffee so I figured it must have some level of quality). Very good cup of Colombian coffee - not the best I'd ever had or anything but I can't recall anything I've had recently that was better from a coffee shop. If I were in the area I'd absolutely grab a cup.

I don't know if I should be worried that I eat this kinda of thing and feel totally fine the next day.. I generally eat pretty healthy during the week and I guess my stomach just gears up for potentially a ton of food every Saturday. While I definitely like a lot of richer foods and sometimes just can't help myself I have found recently that I get enjoyment out of a little more balance... provided the balancing options look just as appealing.

Wanted to do a quick little review / write up from my recent meal (Saturday 1/13) here. I've eaten at Fiola a couple of times but recent meals had been either lunches or their special Sunday Dinner deal ($95 for four courses and a bottle of wine for two people). I was excited to go back and try dinner as all those meals had been but on my original dinner trip I certainly enjoyed my meal but didn't think it was particularly worth the price... then again I was also a much less experienced diner at the time. Going in my dining partner and I decided going in we would do the four course prix-fixe menu but add an additional pasta course to the middle as a supplement since we each wanted to try multiple pastas but not have pasta for 2/3rds of the savory portion of dinner. As I expected would be the case given the typically excellent service at Trabocchi restaurants our server was happy to oblige our request here. We also did the “cheaper” wine pairing option. As an amuse-bouche we received a small cup of soup along with a small toasted stick of bread with a nice dab of foie gras and a smaller dab of jam of some kind. The soup was delicious although I cannot for the life of me remember what it was (may have just been a parmesan-y broth) and the foie was even better - a perfect bite of the foie pb&j style, which is one of my favorite things to eat. This also helped me sidestep the fear of missing out by not getting foie as one of the my courses. My first “real” course was the tuna crudo with black truffle vinaigrette, ikura, and porcini crema. This was the one thing I had that fell a bit flat for me which was surprising as the two other tuna crudos I’ve had in the past at Fiola were some of the best I’ve ever had. The dish wasn’t outright bad but the black truffle vinaigrette definitely overwhelmed the taste of the tuna which in my opinion should be front and center with high quality tuna. I’m not someone who outright hates truffle oil, but I don’t think high quality tuna is a good place to apply it. Other people appear to love this dish though so what do I know… the bite I got with just the tuna and ikura roe and minimal sauce / vinaigrette was very good at least. Next up was egg yolk capellacio with sweetbreads, mushrooms, marsala, and topped with a parmesan foam. This was delightful all around. The resulting egg yolk, marsala, and foam all worked nicely together, the pasta was perfectly cooked and the high quality ingredients really sang here. The sweetbreads in particular were phenomenal. The 3rd course was the obvious highlight of the night - gnocchi with black truffle fonduta and pears. My companion and I ordered this course to be split, however based on the size I have to imagine they just gave us each a full portion despite only charging us for one order a la carte and throwing in the pairing wine for free as well. I’m just gonna pull the text I wrote on my Instagram post I did about this (which was something of a personal writing exercise… don’t ask why…) : “While I expected the dish would contain an element of truffle flavoring incorporated into it I did not anticipate the winter Perigord truffles featured at the restaurant to be directly shaved on top. The gnocchi hits the table and I’m immediately struck by the pleasant fragrance of cheese and butter emanating from the dish. Not a moment later to my supreme delight the white gloved server appeared... truffle and shaving utensil in hand. I expected a light drizzling of the luxury ingredient, but instead beamed ear to ear like it was Christmas morning as a blizzard of truffle descended onto the gnocchi. The freshness of the truffles was undeniable as their distinctive funky perfume lifted off the plate. As I take my first bite of the delicate clouds of pasta I’m struck with a feeling of pure bliss from the taste. The richness of the sauce along with the unique pungency from the truffles and the light sweetness from the pears is the image of perfection. I no longer like to declare things “the best I’ve ever eaten” - but this dish transported me back to the first time I experienced real truffles at Casa Luca - a dish that kick-started my food obsession.” Now at this point I was certainly feeling a bit full as getting a full portion of heavy as hell gnocchi (no regrets though) had pushed me further than expected. I still had one final savory course though : Australian wagyu steak with bone marrow hollandaise and brasato sauce. Despite being stuffed I absolutely loved this dish, the steak had a fabulous sear on the outside but basically fully rare near the center which is perfectly to my liking. A lot of times I find heavy sauces on already rich steaks can be overkill but here everything played very nicely together. For dessert I had this fantastic pistachio dish… I’m not great at describing desserts but was just a lovely more savory dessert with a nice blend of crunchy from the pistachios on bottom and sweet from the pistachio ice cream and mandarin orange on top. All in all an excellent meal. I don’t remember the specific wine pairings but those complemented each course effectively and I also got the impression we got hooked up with some especially high quality stuff (The somm seemed happy someone ordered the pairing option), although remembering I have no way to verify this. While Fiola I don’t think is a place you’d want to (or be able to) eat at regularly, as a special occasion or splurge night option this meal moved it close to being in league with Kinship for me for that sort of experience.

I always like Washingtonian's best of and find it to generally a bit less head scratch inducing than some of Tom Sietsema's dining guides. Still though, I don't know how you put stuff like All Purpose (which I really enjoy mind you) above Kinship and Rose's Luxury. They also seem to have a habit of putting a Trabocchi place (Del Mar this year) way higher than what would seem correct, but then again I haven't been yet. Interested to see the rest of it. EDIT: It seems like they don't repeat any chefs / restaurateurs in the top 25 which would better explain no Fiola, Roses, Little Serow, Kinship. I don't necessarily agree with that logic if that's the case but it would seem to better explain it.

I've been to both a multiple times (J Glberts dozens of times as it was a typical family celebration spot growing up) although not super recently to either. This may come across as dumb or obvious but I'd say if you want steak go to Gilberts and if you want fish go to Eddie V's. J Gilberts I would say to me has superior alternate options than steak if you are so inclined but if you are at Eddie V's your best bet is definitely to get fish as a entree... I always found their fish to be quite good but everything else to be a bit lackluster.

Originally heard about this place from Tyler Cowen - and later realized it's directly across the street from Takumi in Falls Church. I have yet to eat at that place itself (there's only a few small tables) but gotten delivery from here I think 3 times now since I happen to fall just within the radius. Delivery has always come in about 30 minutes and the food has been hot / fresh on upon arrival each time. I'm certainly no expert on Uyghur food but from what I've sampled so far I've really enjoyed it (had it from here and also Eerkin's in Fairfax). The simplest way I can describe how it tastes to me is a a cross between Chinese and Middle Eastern food - which makes perfect sense when reading about the people / region where the cuisine originates. Silk Road has an extensive selection of other American-Chinese and other assorted szechuan stuff but I've only ordered off the Chef's Specialties section. Anyway onto the food! The main dishes I've had so far are : 1) Chopped Fried Noodles - My personal favorite thing I've had here thus far. The chopped noodles have a nice thickness and a texture that is soft but also has a nice amount of "bite" to them. There's also a nice amount of stir-fry vegetables (peppers mostly) in here and some nice pieces of red meat (pretty sure it's beef) as well. Not exactly sure how to describe the flavor other than that's if very hearty and tasty without being overly heavy . 2) Chili Pepper Chicken (says "Paper Chicken" on their website but is correct on GrubHub) - When I opened this up I thought there were a borderline concerning amount of chili seeds covering the chicken... my concerns were unfounded - this is certainly a spicy dish but not a brutally spicy one. I was very impressed by the quality of the chicken here - seemed to be all r mostly dark meat (my preference) but very tender and delicious. I'd love to describe the sauce more but this one I had about a month ago and just remember it being spicy, complex, and very good. 3) Lamb Polo - Very fragrant aromatic rice with some spices, little bits of carrot and topped with chunks of lamb. I'm not sure the exact type of rice used here but it was a thicker grain that I very much enjoyed. The lamb was good but not terribly interesting on its own, however the rice was really awesome. FWIW I definitely think is worth checking out if you're close by.

I'm definitely interested to try this burger at some point soon. For my taste I'm not a huge fan of Taylor's subs overall though. I have one within immediate walking distance of my apartment in Mosaic Fairfax so I still go every now and then but have a couple issues. 1) As mentioned above their subs tend to be massively over--seasoned : oftentimes subs will be topped with a creamy cheese (Ricotta for example) and then a sauce and then smothered in oil. As one would imagine this tends to taste like too much is going on. 2) This may be specific to my location but my order tends to come out wrong about one in every say 7/8 times, which is far too often especially considering I almost never modify my subs. The ingredients are good but given that I normally go when looking for a quick easy lunch lot's of the options come out too heavy without being tasty enough to justify it. Definitely missing Chase the Submarine in Vienna...

I'm going here this Saturday - while looking over the website I think I may have uncovered something of a scoop. Earlier this year Ed Scarpone (previously at DBGB DC) was named the executive chef at Fiola - but while looking through the "About" session on Fiola's website I noticed his name was mysteriously absent. I thought maybe it was possible that they just didn't keep that section up to date but upon inspecting https://archive.org/web/ (a tool that allows you to view websites as they existed on specific dates in the past) I noticed he previously was listed under that section in September 2017. Although his social medias still say "Executive Chef at Fiola" there's no posts from the him regarding the restaurant in a little over a month. I also noticed Maria Trabocchi's Instagram talking about Fabio being back in the kitchen at Fiola. Given this info I'd say it looks somewhat likely that Ed Scarpone is out at Fiola and that at least for the time being Fabio Trabocchi may be leading the kitchen there instead. This is speculation of course, but I have no idea why'd you would remove your Executive Chef's info from your website were he still working there.

I'll start doing this on my future IG posts!

I had a fantastic meal there this past Saturday night. I've been here around 5 times, and almost every time I've left the restaurant with a sensation of giddiness / extreme satisfaction that I've only really felt with sushi (maybe this is just the sensation of excellent food minus excessive fullness or drunkenness but I digress...). If Mercury poisoning wasn't a thing I'd probably eat here multiple times a week. Anyway I got my usual order of the Sushi fresh cuts of the day for $40 - one thing I did not realize is that at lunch they'll bring you out a small salad and miso soup with this order while at dinner this is not included - not a complaint, just an FYI. *Apologies for the giant image size. From left to right / top to bottom as best as I can remember : Branzino with a hint of lime, Artic Char (I think the topping was a small bit of Japanese mustard), white fish I can't quite recall, lean tuna, Japanese yellowtail with uni, Monkfish liver (I think with a bit of yuzu jelly), other white fish I can't recall, fatty tuna, I think some time of jack fish, torhced salmon belly, and then 3 fatty tuna rolls, and 3 rolls with a white fish and jalapeno. Except for the one in between the fatty tuna and the salmon every single piece was a knockout. I recently got what would be the equivalent of this order at Sushi Taro at the bar for lunch and to my taste thought this was definitely a bit superior. The freshness of this fish is fantastic, but what sets Takumi apart in my book is the little individual touches on each piece of nigiri that perfectly complement each fish. My main dining companion has never been as big of a sushi fan as I am was also blown away by this meal. I had room for a little more and decided to spring for the Bluefin tuna tasting pictured below for $22 (I know from a sustainability POV I shouldn't order this, but I'd never tried it before). From left to right : lean tuna, fatty tuna, I think they called the 3rd a tuna carpaccio roll, and torched tuna. One again this was phenomenal. A waitress had previously told me during a mid-week lunch that they had the best variety of fish in on the weekend which definitely seemed to be the case from the tasting and the large number of specials listed on the sign outside. Next time I can get a seat at the counter I am definitely looking to try the Omakase option mentioned on here.

Hey everyone! Name is Frank - I'm on Instagram as "frankeatsfoods" (super original I know) in case anyone happens to know me from there. I'm a software developer currently located at the Mosaic District in Fairfax. I love eating out and exploring places in NoVA / DC / wherever I happen to travel to. I was super excited to stumble upon this forum for a couple of reasons : 1) getting to discuss food with like-minded people, 2) Getting to see the guide after hitting 10 posts, 3) I don't think IG is a good format for posting restaurant reviews and I only post pictures of stuff I actually enjoyed, so I'm excited to actually share more candid write-ups of restaurant visits on here with you all! Other hobbies include alcohol (tend to cycle through beer, wine, and whiskey phases), video games, and music. Cheers!