KeithA

I've never been to Eastern Market, but am planning on going on Saturday morning, what shouldn't be missed? Please advise on what are the best counters/stands and what if anything should be avoided. Thanks.

We went on Monday night and started with the salt cod croquettes (second time we had them in the past month), they are indeed delicious. Then we stuck with the staple Margherita pizza, why mess with simple perfection For dessert with had the special sfogiatella with sweet cream ice cream (the ice cream actually had some fancy italian name, but I'm pretty impressed I could get even close to the correct spelling of the pastry The pastry was triangular and made up of a bunch of extra crispy flaking layers and filled with some type of cream which I think contained a good dose of almond paste. It was heaven and the ice cream was extra rich. No surprise why everyone seems to like the ice cream so much - must be LOTS of cream in it. Since this was the second time for the salt cod croquette appettizer, I was curious what other apps are tried and true favs (besides the various chartucherie)?

The THREE dishes of butter were just ridiculous. Why would any one crowd a small table of 4 with so many extra dishes. The table was so crowded with extra plates that my wife's entree was placed to her side (where a bread plate would normally go) because the server couldn't fit it in front of her. Like I said all of the service issues were small, but all together they added up. As for the food, everybody has different tastes. I'm all for simply prepared dishes, but I don't usually rave about them when they come out of professional restaurants. I was expecting to be wowed after the great reviews. Look at how many times in this thread, the words "reputation" and "scallops" are used. Maybe next time will be different. I can only hope.

Went to Corduroy last Saturday night for RW. It was the first time there for all 4 of us and after reading so much praise, we were sadly disappointed. Maybe we expected too much because of the hype or maybe it was an off night, but it sure wasn't great. The food was ok, but not spectacular. The service was not good (more on that below). We started with 2 kabocha squash soups, one cauliflower-parmesan soup, and I had the mozzarella porcupine. I was told the squash soups were ok. I tasted the cauliflower and didn't think it was anything special. My wife who ordered it thought it was way too salty. My mozzarella porcupine was an interesting presentation but was basically just warmed over cheese with crunchiness. It was a pretty good course though, but definitely not spectacular as I expected. The entrees were 2 scallops, beef cheeks, and a roast chicken. The word used by the others for their dishes was "satisfying" - not tasty, not great, just ok and filling. There hunger was merely overcome. As for my opportunity to taste these great scallops and I really like scallops - I was rather disappointed. The scallops were a nice size portion and properly cooked, but were very basic. The accompanying sauce and mushrooms merely added a light accent, but not too much flavor. The garlic mashed potatoes were good, but overwhelmed the flavor of the scallops. This was a good dish, but again nothing spectacular. For desserts, we had chocolate hazelnut bars (sadly I didn't get a bite, but my guest said simply they were rich and chocolately - not sure if they were good or not), Alsatian apple tart (which my wife said was tasty, about the only dish she enjoyed), and I had the white chocolate tart with carmelized bananas with white chocolate ice cream. The bananas and ice cream were nice and something different, but the tart was super dense I had to use a knife and lacked flavor. I mention all of the food first, because I think food is more important than service when dining and usually don't nitpick over minor service snafus. However, there were so many service mistakes that cumulatively it is worth kvetching about. First, while waiting for the rest of our party to arrive, I sat at the bar, which was empty and asked for a glass of water. The bartender said sure thing and then proceeded to do other work and disappear. After 15 minutes, I had to ask another server behind the bar for the water. Then our server and the rest of the dining room staff proceeded to ignore and confuse us. We were given a wine list which did not include wine by the glass. When one of us asked the server what wines were available, he said he'd bring a menu. He then returned with a mini-menu listing various wines by vineyard, but not by grape variety. This was odd because then we needed to ask the waiter whether this was a Malbec or a Pinot Noir or what not since none of us had any clue. Then when our waiter placed the proper wine glass out for the orders, he didn't remove the empty one from my setting even though I didn't order wine. Then followed the oddest part. 4 people at a small table were given not 1, not 2, but 3 plates of butter (each with enough for 4 people or more). These plates took up so much room that the large bread basket had to be place directly in front of one of us. This caused further problems when our appetizers arrived because there was no room on the table for these plates. The servers squeezed our plates on the table requiring us to consolidate the butters and bread plates to make room. Next appetizers arrived very quickly, but the entrees took 25 minutes or so after we were done with the appetizers. Finally, when we were finally done with our desserts. 3 plates were cleared and 1 which still had some dessert on it was left. After a buser asked to take the last plate, the plate was left and so were we for 20 minutes or more until I was able to flag down our server to ask for the check. All of this occurred during RW, not known for great service, but the restaurant had a lot of empty tables on a Saturday night between 8pm till 10:30. As I said a lot of these service issues are nitpicky and if the food had been great, I would overlook them, but the combination of merely ok food and lots of bad service make me give this dining experience a C at best.

This almost happened to me in December at Al Tiramisu. A group of 6 of us went their for dinner for my wife's birthday and we thought it would be perfect because it was supposed to be a nice restaurant but the menu on its website wasn't too expensive and some of the folks were on a budget. Well it turned out that the menu was the same as the website with very reasonable prices. However, they also had a long list of specials which were all recited without prices. When I asked the server the price of the specials, he very quickly said "Oh around 25 or so dollars each." (which was significantly more that the average $15 entree price on the menu) Later after we all perused the menu and were making up our minds, I asked the waiter a question about a pasta special that had sounded intriguing. This time when he recited the ingredients, my ears perked up when I heard truffles. So I double checked "that dish is $25?" and recieved this astonishing surprise, "oh no, that dish is $50". I couldn't believe it!! While we all had a wonderful meal and with otherwise great service, this bit of stealth or even trickery was a surprise. However it didn't ruin my evening because thanks to boards and online reviews I knew that Al Tiramisu had this reputation for significant higher priced specials. Note: as I'm writing this, I just checked their website and their menu no longer has prices. Interesting.

I haven't been to Corduroy yet, but after my upcoming RW visit on Saturday night, I too hope to be in the C Fan Club! Can't wait after reading so many good things. Any recs from the RW menu?

Anyone know what Spezie offers for restaurant week? limited choices or full menu? Thanks.

QUOTE(hillvalley @ Nov 21 2005, 05:50 PM) It's the same reason why we can't get decent pizza, bagels, or affordable Italian. Let me know when someone figures it out. Ok I agree about the pizza and the affordable Italian. However, I firmly disagree about the bagels. As a native and Jewish (surprise - there are tons outside NYC) Washingtonian, there are good bagels to be found - but just like New York there are plenty of mediocre bagel places around the DC metro area as well. My recommendation is Bagel City on Rockville Pike in the same shopping center as TGIF Fridays. It has been around for decades and has great bagels, fish, and all kinds of sweets. Just to get my NYC bona fides across for comparison - I lived there for 4 years. On a related subject for everyone who wants good kosher-style deli food - head to Parkway Deli in Silver Spring. It has been around forever and is the real deal. If you didn't figure it out yet, the problem with DC is that most of the Jews live in the MD suburbs so you have to trek out of the city for the yiddishe yummies.

I was surprised this topic didn't exist. I know there has been dim sum discussions and there are those that think DC's Chinatown is sub-par, but hey its ours and its on the metro. So what are people's favorite places for Chinese in Chinatown and seeing as most of the restaurants have their specialities, what are you favorite dishes? I'll start with hands down the best cheap, good meal in the city: Chinatown Express at 6th and H. It is the one with chef stretching fresh noodles in the window. You can't beat fresh chinese noodles in soup or stir-fried with your choice of chicken, beef, or vegetables for $5. And it is a large serving (think pho size soup and a heaping platter of stir fried noodles). I like the beef soup and the stir-fried chicken the best, but you can't go wrong with those noodles. They also have $5 leek with pork, vegetable, or shrimp dumplings. I've only had the vegetable ones which are ok. Another fun note for those like me who love condiments, they have 3 different vinegary sauces of garlic, parsley (i think), and red chili pepper that are all good and of varying levels of heat. Plus the usual Sriracha, soy sauce, etc. Time to go eat my leftovers for lunch

Is Pesto any good? What dishes does the kitchen make well? I've walk by there but never stopped in. It always looks so empty.

While I too can't stand a smoky bar when enjoying fine dining, I thought the main dining room to be very nice and elegant. You are right that there is no natural light, it was a very bright room with light bounces off the light colored marble floors. Just wanted to clarify in case anyone thought the place was dark - it wasn't at all at least at lunch. They might turn down the lights at dinner for a romantic feel (don't know myself though).

Had lunch at Spezie today for the first time. It is a very pretty and elegant restaurant with white tablecloths and marble floors. It is also at a great location a 1/2 block from Farragut North metro. It was a business lunch so while all 4 of us said we enjoyed our meals I wasn't able to try any but mine. I started with Spezie's different take on a Caesar salad - a light, not creamy Caesar dressing on watercress with small croutons to match the mini watercress leaves and a few shavings of parmesan. A nice alternative to a traditional Caesar. For my main course, I had their ravioli filled with porcini mushrooms and ricotta cheese coated in a pistacio cream sauce. This dish was EXCELLENT. Perfect fresh pasta with the right mix of ingredients so that you could taste each one and enjoy them in combination simultaneously. The sauce was so good I had to use some of their tasty bread to sop it up. I wasn't surprised by this dish as it seems to be the favorite of alot of folks if you do a search for reviews of Spezie. Even the waitress mentioned that I had made a very good choice. So thanks to all of you who recommended it. For dessert, I chose something that I thought was unusual and would be yummy. I was not disappointed. It was their Crostata...(sorry don't remember the exact name - check out www.spezie.com which has their full menu). This is a small, palm-size (or alittle smaller even) tart with crystallized sugar on top like you would get on a creme brulee. The tart is filled with sweetened lemon curds on top of a base of chocolate ganache. It is a delicate dessert that is just the right size for someone who ate a filling pasta or other main course. Overall, a great meal. However for the non-expense account diner it was somewhat on the pricey side (at least in my book). Lunch Menu: Appetizers were all around $9-12, Side Salads $7, Entree Salads (which might be the best bargain, not sure how big they are though) $13-4, Pastas $15 (although they are probably worth it being as they are fresh and sauced nicely and include lots of unusual shapes and sauces you won't find in most places), Entrees $15-20 (I think, didn't pay much attention I was in the mood for pasta). Anyone one else had good or bad experiences there?

Middletown I wanted to share a great place from last weekend. The Inn at Vaucluse Spring is in Middletown, VA about 20-30 min north of Front Royal and the northern entrance to Shenandoah Natl Park/Skyline Drive. While the Inn has very elegant and comfortable rooms in a beautiful setting, my wife and I were very pleasantly surprised at the wonderful meals we had there. The innkeepers Barry and his wife Neil (who does most of the cooking) are very friendly and use great local and fresh seasonal ingredients to make 3 course breakfasts and Friday supper and Saturday dinner. The breakfasts begin fresh squeezed OJ and a "bread" like blueberry scones or zucchini bread with cinnamon/sugar butter. Followed by a fruit course that included ambrosia mix of melons. Then a "hot entree" of gourmet crossaint with heavy cream and peaches or potato and cheese frittata. I'm not doing these entrees justice as they were very creative and presented beautifully. The dinners began first courses like fresh corn and chipotle soup, mozzarella and tomatos from their garden, simple portabello mushrooms on spinach with balsamic dressing and red onions. The Friday main course was a nice grilled rare flank steak with corn seasoned with cilantro and paired with a homey, roast potato salad with scallions. The saturday dinner was almond crusted halibut with watermellon salsa (fresh dice, not gooey sauce) rice medley and another side I can't remember. The desserts were great too taking advantage of late summer peach season. Individual peach cobblers topped with vanilla ice cream and a vanilla bombe with praline crisps inside drizzled with fresh peach sauce. We stayed for 3 nights and we were upset when I found out they don't serve dinner on Sunday night (just friday and saturday). In addition to spectacular countryside only 2 hours from DC, these were great eats!

Went this afternoon at 5:00 and sat for the first time in the patio outback, which was just lovely on such a nice fall afternoon. When did it become fall all of a sudden. I had the chanterelle mushroom pizza special which was great. The woodsy mushrooms were complemented by cherry tomatos, fontina cheese, and slivers of garlic that roasted when the pizza cooked. They said this special had been around a while, so go get it while it lasts. Also, if you haven't skipped the pizza and tried one of their paninis yet, I recommend the smoked mozzarrella and lamb meatballs. I had it a few weeks ago and spotted it on the menu today. It is super.

I finally made it to Dino last night for the first time. And I'm still kicking myself that it took so long seeing as I live in the neighborhood. Well as I told our waitress last night, we will definitely be back very frequently. There were four in our party and we had a great time making our way through the menu. First, while waiting for our table we sampled the very nice assortment of olives at the bar while sipping the old vines Pellegrini that Chris recommended (thanks! it was delicious). It was a group of very close friends and my wife - so I was able to get bites of almost everything Then we started our meals we two salads: the special watermelon, olives, and watercress which was such a perfect mix of sweet and tangy flavors and the insalata misticana which was quintessential italian cooking - simple preparation of great ingredients. Both were delicious. I also had the scamorza which was not what I expected. It was like a gooey cheese dip that you then spread on the toasted bread that accompanies it. Albeit a smoked mozzarella, scrumptous gooey cheese dip. It was a little heavy for my taste and could use a few more tomatos in my opinion. Then we had a full portion of the Bogoi in Salsa whole wheat pasta full of salty capers, anchovies, and aromatic onions and garlic. I loved this dish - pretty much because I'm a sucker for anything with onions and capers. My friend didn't like it at first but as he dug deeper in the very large, very full bowl (read great deal to share for $11), he liked the dish better because the pasta at the bottom had more oil. I think the dish was right on, but the bites from the top of the bowl were alittle dry which was exaggerated I think since it was whole wheat pasta. Maybe a extra toss of the pasta before eating it would fix this minor problem. Then we moved onto entrees: the special whole sea bass with herbs, lemon, and olive oil, the cheese ravioli special with tomatos, and the agnello lamb. All were good, but the first courses were better. I mostly ate the sea bass which was delicious, but not very different from similar preparations at other restaurants nor their price at $25. So if you love this kind of fish and don't mind the price, go for it. If you'd rather take advantage of Dino's greater, typically lower price search elsewhere. My wife and her friend raved about the ravioli as not only wonderful tasting but extremely filling and with such great tomatos. Maybe I shouldn't be upset at myself for waiting to go to Dino's until prime tomato season. The lamb dish was probably the least favorite. Only my friend ate it and he said it was kind of dry and needed some more sauce. Lastly, we were so excited about the great menu, we ordered everything at once at the beginning which left us with too many leftovers including only a nibbled on panini of grilled vegetables and goat cheese. This was sad though because I tried it and it was wonderful. Next time I'm looking for a quick meal, I'm going to go straight to this $7 panini. We finished with just one dessert since we were mostly stuffed. We had the gelato/sorbet combo which typically comes with 3 scoops. I think it is primarily 3 scoops to go with the cute 3 section dish it is served in. However, my wife and her friend each wanted 2 scoops of peach sorbet and mint chocolate chip gelato(which was very different - lots shavings of chocolate with mint cream holding it together - very unusual and good) and were told they could get an extra scoop on the side. Now, I made the classic mistake of forgetting to ask how much for the extra scoop. Well the check came and the dessert of 3 scoops was $7 and the extra scoop was $4. Not sure how an extra scoop costs almost double (maybe cleaning the dish , but it was a small annoyance at the end of an otherwise delightful meal. Overall the service was friendly and helpful. The only awkwardness was the giving and taking away our plates since we were sharing lots of dishes. On occassion I had a plate but no food and then when I still had food, my plate was gone. But I could see the staff working hard from our cozy table across from the kitchen where I had a great view of special prosciutto slicer. We'll be back soon hopefully. I bet next time, we'll try more small plates and some of the tastes of wine. Oh I almost forgot I have to complement Dean on the great little extras like the salts and the very good oil for dipping the bread in.

The whole DC area lacks kosher restaurants. Eli's is the only full scale kosher restaurant in DC. One other place to get prepared kosher food is at the DC JCC at 16th & Q. Outside DC, here are a few options: Siena's on Rockville Pike near White Flint Mall (it is run by the folks that own Eli's) Max's in Silver Spring There are a number of kosher supermarkets in Rockville and Silver Spring and kosher meats are available in a lot of regular grocery stores depending on the neighborhood.

I wholeheartedly agree. For non-OT restaurants, it is annoying to only be able to call them in the afternoon or evening (often when they are busy) and try to make a reservation, when I'd rather make the reservation at 10am and not worry about it all day. OT is great and I will repeat the sentiments of others - I definitely go to more restaurants on OT than those not on the list. (I also do it to rack up the free points for dining dollars )

Thanks for the rec. The fried zucchini appetizer was a big hit. You have to love good ingredients with a simple preparation that lets the food shine. Also, last night was admittedly on the cool side, but we were just fine temperature wise and we sat pretty close to the oven.

That IS the reason. And, I know a lot of folks here like the meat balls and salami, etc hence the reason for providing that tidbit. Any one else with real suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Haven't been to 2 Amys for awhile. Going tonight though with a crew that doesn't eat pork, any suggestions? Any new specials that are worth trying? Thanks.

Please enlighten the rest of us: what is a bavarois? Sounds like a great dish.

Living behind Ardeo for about a year, I been there a handful of times, and my sentiments echo those of the earlier posts. Good food, not great with the exception of a great taglitatelle with a sage cream sauce which was a real delight one time. Service has always been ok. Never been to brunch though, I'll have to give that a try. I'd say Ardeo is good for a nice meal if your in the area, but definitely not worth making a special trip across town.

I was at Ceiba last night for dinner and we had a very positive experience too. All four of us found our soups, salads, and ceviche to be great and the salmon, grouper special were very yummy. My wife's whole red snapper was a sight and equally tasty. Our ethusiasm was only dulled by lackluster desserts. We got two key lime panna cottas and two chocolate cuban coffee cakes and none were good. We couldn't figure out if it was intentional or not that the cake had a "burnt" flavor - something that isn't usually a good sign, especially with a dessert.

Need help deciding between Tosca or Taberna del Alabardero for lunch. Never been to either. What should I expect for a RW lunch?

Another pickles on the table, real-deal deli which is just outside the city and worth the trip IMO is Parkway Deli in Silver Spring - which has been around for ever and is still great. Good meats, great Matzah Ball soup, and all the usual deli goodness.