captcourt

We went on the last night of service.  Apparently all of Falls Church and environs did too, since they ran out of pizza dough fairly early, and I couldn't get my mission fig pizza (though I'd gotten one the night before, and so subbed in the excellent chopped salad for the pizza).  The place was packed.  It's a shame that they had too many nights when there were only a few customers at the tables (we usually sat at the bar and chatted with Denise while she poured our cocktails) and not enough nights like closing night.  I get that there are lots of places to spend your $, and always new places to try.  But please don't forget your old favorites that still need some love, now that they're not the flashy new kids on the block. 

Orso is closing as of Feb 18.  So many pizzas, gnocchi, and martinis have filled up my, and many others', bellies.  If you have a chance, pay some homage to them for all the hard work, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that this neighborhood joint will rise again.  We almost always sit at the bar - say hello next time! 

Have there really been no Orso posts since my last one in 2021?

We've been regulars at the bar for years.  Go this week to Falls Church and eat a pizza or some gnocchi with squash and sausage, have a generous alcoholic beverage, and pay homage to a local joint that started out as a proving/training ground for 2941 staff. 

We stopped by A&J several days ago and, per usual, we over-ordered because EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS SO GOOD.  Plus, I strongly believe in leftovers.  Honestly, for me, having some left over is my biggest nudge to return to a good restaurant again; the leftovers might as well be a billboard yelling at me to go back and order more.

Any recent in-person experiences here?  A friend is coming in and we're looking for someplace near-ish to Leesburg or Dulles airport (whoo!  Party at the airport!).

This is not at all time-sensitive, but can we change the topic header to reflect the fact that Tracy O'Grady, whose food my +1 and I love dearly, was several 1789 chefs ago?

We were at Orso last week and ordered the gazpacho to start, along with something else that I don't remember right now.   I got the gnocchi with sausage for my main; the gnocchi continue to be excellent little pillows of goodness.

The staff has turned over since the beginning of the pandemic, which isn't surprising, but the new crew has been kind and gracious on our couple of times returning there for dinner.  

We are also very relieved that they continue to soldier on.

10 hours ago, Bart said:

-- snip --

Don't know where your friends are coming from, but how many places have a high end mash up of Spanish and Japanese?!?!?  I love the crazy and wonderful options we have in this town!!!

-- end snip --

 

Thanks, Bart!  My friends are coming from LA.  I also love the crazy and wonderful options we have here, and I appreciate the recommendation.

Friends are in town later this week, staying at the Monaco, and we want to get dinner.  I have a couple of places in mind that are NOT in PQ, but would welcome your suggestions for PQ/PQ-adjacent places that are killing it as much, or mostly as much, as they did pre-pandemic.  I've had a couple of less than stellar meals recently at places that I generally used to enjoy, but I'm not naming any names given the awful circumstances.

TIA for any help!

Just reviving this thread yet again by saying: At this point, there are so many vacancies in the area that I find it hard to believe it'll be rented any time soon.    

11 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Does anyone know anything about “Federal Fritter” in Rehoboth Beach?

Not me.  But I do love the website's small-type text about visiting their sister restaurant Equinox in DC.  lol

Thankfully we have Tracy O'Grady's magic at Green Pig Bistro.  

That being said...we live walking distance from the old Willow location, whereas GPB is in the heart of Parking Hell.

On 8/8/2020 at 2:46 PM, Kibbee Nayee said:

You have just sent me on a mission. I will report back dutifully.

Any reports yet?  she asked, hopefully.

22 hours ago, Marty L. said:

What's traveled well from HKP?  thanks

We live a 10-15 minute drive from HKP (in the Ballston vicinity).  We almost always carry out, and order meat fried dumplings, spicy wontons, the bacon homestyle and chicken with stuffed peppers (both specials from the wall, in pre-pandemic days when they had dishes posted in Chinese on the wall, with so much ❤️ for the DR community for alerting us to those) and then something else, depending on our mood.  All of this generally travels well.  Yes, it's only two of us, but it's a good variety and we have easy meal choices for days.  We also like the szechuan green beans, and we ordered them, but I don't feel like those traveled so well this time around.  YMMV.

We also got carryout from them recently (last week, I think?  Time has no meaning anymore.)  and thoroughly enjoyed it.  What did we get?  Damned if I can remember everything right now, but we were happily overstuffed, with leftovers to spare.

Padaek and Hong Kong Palace constitute my personal favorite Restaurant Row right now.

I'm going to revive this thread by putting in a plug for Toby's Black Raspberry Chip ice cream.  Huge winner.  Hmmm, maybe I'll go scoop myself a bowl for lunch...

On 7/20/2020 at 2:02 PM, DonRocks said:

I suppose I know Thai Square’s menu as well as anyone, so if anyone has any questions, please just ask.

Say hi next time. 

As big fans of Tracy O'Grady, we've ordered carryout from here twice during this pandemic (like other restaurants in VA, they're now open for table seating outside and, to some extent, inside) and the food was terrific both times.  Tonight, we got:

The Perfectly Porked Panini (it comes with a basil mayo.  I am a mayo h8er, asked to hold the basil mayo and, btw, could I get a small container of the chimichurri that goes with the hanger steak?  Why yes, and it actually went really well with the sandwich.)  I got the side salad with it - lovely baby lettuces, with carrot and fennel, and a balsamic dressing).

Hanger steak - cooked perfectly.  Accompanied by a black bean and bacon cake, plus a grilled ear of corn with elote.

Desserts - salted toffee cookie (awesome, and it went surprisingly well with some (EDIT: black raspberry, not blackberry, as I typed last night in a food coma) chip ice cream from Toby's in Westover) and a cherry pie for "at least" 2.  We haven't had the pie yet.

I'll add photos in the morning. 

Support GPB if you can.  Is it $$$?  Yes.  Worth every penny in deliciousness?  Also yes.  

59 minutes ago, Harbinger said:

Hard to compare to other places when the dishes are mostly different, but the old Baan Thai was definitely my favorite. Only one meal so far from the new location, and it seems every bit as good.  The menu is slightly different-many items have edged up about $1, and a few old dishes are gone. But favorites like the Vermicelli with Shrimp, Chicken and Peanut are still great.  They are also selling a couple of spice/chili pastes for use in home cooking-I used too much of the red chili one and the spice blew my head off, so use sparingly, but great flavor.

Agree on the difficult comparison.  Little Serow, Baan Siam and, for example, Thai Square have completely different takes but I would happily eat at any of them.

Thanks to eatruneat's post, we ordered carryout last night and I'm going to enthusiastically second the thumbs up.  We live in the Ballston environs, but drove downtown to pick up the lotus root and shrimp salad and chicken tapioca dumplings (both magnificent, and while I was initially a bit skeptical of the texture of the dumplings, after my first bite I didn't care WHAT the texture was, they were so good - and totally +1 on them putting the lotus root in a separate container).  We also got the stir-fried rice with crispy pork bits and garlic shrimp, and the Thai vermicelli in chili peanut sauce, which has ground chicken in it.  Both were cooked perfectly and held up well from the drive back home.  Finally, we ordered the young coconut milk with sticky rice, but were too full to eat that, so into the fridge it went, and we'll try that later today.

Worth every penny and more.  We didn't order anything above one pepper, since we wanted to check heat level first (we both love spicy, but we also know how spicy Thai can be).  The food definitely had heat, but we'll happily try a 2-pepper dish next time.  Agree with eatruneat on making plans to go back.

AND a surefire way to keep vampires (and spouses?)  away!!!  (Fortunately, my spouse also loves it, so we're in sync.)

We get the cucumber salad Every.  Single.  Time.  So, so good.

On 6/26/2020 at 1:14 AM, DonRocks said:

"The Birchmere in Alexandria To Reopen" by Abigail Constantino on wtop.com

Coronavirus issues aside, the idea of the Birchmere being discussed in a food forum still cracks me up.

First time at Mangialardo's for lunch today.  Picked up a G-Man for my +1, and a G-Man double meat/cheese, heavy on the sweets/hots, for me.  Exactly what our souls, though perhaps not our arteries/blood pressure, needed.  They seemed very pleased to see me, as there were only two other customers in there at 1:30.  I tipped heavily, and fervently hope they can keep going.

On 6/12/2020 at 5:25 PM, DonRocks said:

Yep, the Roma is my sandwich as well.

I haven't had a sandwich here in a couple of years, and I've waffled about hard vs. soft rolls in the past (the hard is too hard, and the soft is too soft (actually that isn't accurate: The rolls in general are wildly unexciting)).

I've always been a hard roll kind of girl; the soft is definitely too soft.  At some point, the hard rolls became more crumbly than chewy.

What's your go-to sub these days?  (I realize that will now be OT in the Italian Store thread...)

I love (and almost always get) the Roma, extra sweet and hot peppers, at the Italian Store.  I once tried the muffaletta, and while I ate it, I kept wishing it was the Roma (I too am spoiled by Central Grocery on the muffaletta).