Marty L.

Had another just wonderful meal at Seki this evening--including a yosenabe hot-pot I hadn't seen before and an especially delectable order of ara yaki.  As I wrote upthread, Seki is conducive to easy conversation, extremely consistent and innovative, and very fairly priced. Truly one of DC's gems. 

The reason I'm posting again, however, is to flag that Seki is now taking reservations, at the counter and in the dining room! (but also holding a certain number of tables/bar seats for walk-ins, which was no problem at all tonight).  So if you've been reluctant to take your chances on a wait, just head over to this site and click in:

https://www.giftrocker.com/secure/reservationtables/?c=6ca50bec

9 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Those are some pretty steep prices--$22 for snow pea tips?

6 minutes ago, saf said:

So, a good experience to share.

Went to pick up a friend at Union Station last night. And since we were all the way down there, we thought we would try one of the places on H Street that we never get to. The staff were lovely. Since we had never been there before, we had no idea how it worked. They explained, and we snagged bar seats on the main floor of Maketto. There was a wait for a table on the main floor. But we like bars, so it was all cool. There were plenty of seats upstairs, but we wanted to eat off the big menu. There were 4 of us.

The bartender was fabulous, giving good advice on wine and cocktails and food. So we started with steamed pork buns and gruyere dumplings. Both very tasty. Then we each got a big plate. We SHOULD have shared, but we each wanted something different, and the bartender assured us that the food would keep and reheat well. So one order of fried chicken, one of spicy laab with marrow, one of spicy lamb noodles, and one of wok fried rice noodles with roasted pork added. All very good. The spicy things were far too spicy for me, but the folks who ordered them are heat lovers, and they said their meals were GREAT! I loved the chicken, and the noodles were also excellent. And yes, we brought at least half of each dish home.

We did stop a bit before we were totally full, as we wanted to try the very interesting sounding desserts. One affagato, 2 Thai tea crunch, and one amaro for dessert. All very delicious. 

We will do this again. We will make a point to get over to that side of town for this. The food and service were exceptional, and we had a good time. We agree that next time we will order more appetizers and then split one or two big plates, depending on how many we are that night.

You should edit the heading, Don--James is no longer there (he's now running his own joint(s) on 11th Street), although he was an important part of setting the high standards at Maketto, with EB-Y.

2 hours ago, deangold said:

We had a catering gig X-Mas day which ended at dinnertime and we were hungry. So we decided to have Jewish X-Mas and head to Rockville. East Dumpling House. Good choice {mainly}

After the remodel, they have a more ambitious menu which mostly works based on our 5 items ordered. 

Egg and chive bun was a flatbread stuffed with Chinese chives and egg. This was a superb dish totally addictive. The bread outside was crispy on the browned surfave and stretchy/chewy inside. The filling was applied with a light hand {a good thing} and was oily in a fabulous way. I dunked mine into hot oil and black vinegar.

Wide homemade crystal noodle was a plate of chewy noodles, fried chiles, cucumber, green onion in a tangy sauce. Fantastic! A better deal as a $6.99 small plate than as a $18 entree.

Soft Tofu with Szechuan seasonal. Seasonal what was not revealed. Silky tofu that was truly up to the moniker, in a broth with Szechuan pickle, Szechuan peppercorn and fried chiles. If you ate the chiles it was fiery hot. It is served with a single soup spoon but we split it between two.

Pan Fried Dumplings with dried shrimp, shrimp and pork were wonderful. Very juicy to the point of juice spraying out if you bit arelessly. Nice crispness on the bottom, the dough thick but not doughy. The filling were smaller meatballs but very tasting. As good a pan fried dumpling as I ever have had a Mama's dumplings. 12 to an order.

The above let us almost full, and less glutinous folk might have stopped. But if they did, they would have missed the absolute worst grilled/steamed whole scallops I have ever been served. They left the bands whole but took out the roe/gonad sacks. They used acrid minced garlic that looked like it was out of a jar. They did not use enough sesame oil and soy so the shells were filled with a broth that was more water than flavorful. And just to top it off, they overcooked the scallops as  much as Five Guys overcooks their burgers. All for only $27 for three sad scallops. You could almost hear them complain "I died for this shit?"

Our drink was soju yougurt and it was a massive serving for $16.

It was Christmas Day so they were slammed {we were the last table to get in without  a wait} and the service was as sad as the scallops but not because of anyone giving bad service, just too many people to few servers.

Our neighbor table enjoyed skewers {we usually load up on skewers but not tongiht, we could have had 8 skewers for the price of the terrible scallops}  that looked crispy and coated with cumin,salt and chile, & a potato and eggplant dish that looked and smelled great {we were that close} and a couple of soups. One of the runners tried to give us a neighboring tables fried rice which also smelled delicious.

This is a seriously great restaurant. It ranks up there with the best of Chinese. Right now I'd rather go here than Xian Gourmet or Panda Gourmet. It is far superior to the sadly overrated Peter Chiang empire where my bad/mediocre meals keep piling up to the point of my not caring to go to any more. There are hot pot restaurant that I like as much {Hot Pot Legend being the leader in that bunch.}

This is not the same restaurant it once was: a few OK things with a lot of boring dumplings. It is now top notch dumplings, skewers, cold plates, hot starters. soups and casseroles etc. I just can't recommend the fresh seafood. But do go. And they are open late {2 or 3 am on weekends, 1 am Christmas.}

Thanks, Dean -- that's an extremely useful post about a place I Iiked but didn't love before its expansion.  Will definitely check it out again soon.  (Jin River still excellent, btw.)

3 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Where did I have dinner Monday night? (This is two orders of small nibbles to go with our party-of-four's aperitifs: Winter Squash Tart.)

TuG

7 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Can you describe the Cauliflower Dry Hot Pot?

https://thewoksoflife.com/dry-pot-cauliflower/

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/dry-fried-cauliflower/

7 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Can you describe the Cauliflower Dry Hot Pot? Is it worth getting as a main dish, or is it better as an accompaniment?

It's definitely a main dish--complex combination of flavors, with many veggies and a bit of pork.  Not especially spicy--more of a vinegar-like taste. Not at all bland.

The family that long owned Sichuan Jin River retired this past year and sold it to a group consisting of some of the longstanding employees (or so I was told).  Menu and quality (and some of those cooking in the kitchen) are pretty much the same, with a smattering of welcome additions, including a cauliflower dry hot pot and cumin lamb.  FWIW, well over 80% of the patrons this evening were Chinese.

37 minutes ago, deangold said:

Months ago. Seemed to be same people. Good but tired: worn booths and tables, indifferent service even for them. Perhaps a change in ownership would be good.

Fair to assume, then, that it's not where you'll be spending Jewish Xmas tonight?  In the lamentable absence of our usual 12/24 haunt Grace Garden (may it rest in peace), we might give SJR a shot, having had dozens of great meals there over the years.

Have heard rumors of an ownership change (but not necessarily a downhill turn). Anyone been lately?

Open to the public beginning New Year's Eve.

And it's just as good as you'd imagine.  [Disclosure: my son works for the TuG/RH folks--but I wouldn't rave if I didn't mean it.]

https://www.revelershour.com/

Cornucopia in Bethesda has very good, if somewhat pricey, Italian cookies.

1 hour ago, The Doctor said:

So I arrived on a cold and slightly rainy Friday afternoon in December at 4:15 and I was third in line. On this particular evening, one could have arrived at 5 p.m. and still gotten in to the first seating. Unfortunately my companion arrived late, so I had to put us down for a second seating. (The Iron Gate is a great nearby place for a cocktail to pass the time.) At 6:47, I got the text that they were ready to seat us.

This was my third visit, but I hadn't been in at least five years. The overall experience is still great, but the food this time had probably the highest average level of spiciness. The pacing of the meal doesn't leave you much time to recover from the last spicy dish before proceeding to the next.

The number of (significantly) spicy dishes varies from week to week.  

50 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

For a Tiki bar, this seems like one heck of a Szechuan menu (interestingly (and probably tangentially), there's an apparent correlation between Taiwanese aborigines and Polynesians). We could also get into the Cook Islands, the Sandwich Islands, etc.

Tim Carman likes it, too.

4 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

What do you do to occupy yourself in the interim?

Go home or to work or to visit friends.  The possibilities are endless!

4 hours ago, The Doctor said:

How's the opening line been lately? Weather permitting, I am hoping to visit this Friday.

Depends on the day of the week and size of your party.  If you're willing to eat during the second or third turn (I prefer it), you should be fine almost any day if you arrive by 5:15, if not even later some days.

On 12/5/2019 at 11:04 AM, DonRocks said:

See "Shoplifters," trust me - it's one of the best films I've ever seen in my life.

What does Shoplifters have to do with Snowpiercer or Parasite?

34 minutes ago, dpamlin said:

I was there yesterday for lunch as well.  Just curious, around what time did you dine?

2:15ish

Had a very good, creative chirashi today ($21) at the Chinablock location.  Only 12 seats; approximately the same pricing as Takumi, perhaps a bit higher.  Two levels of omakase available: $38 for nine pieces plus handroll; $50 for 12 + handroll. It'll likely be the best sushi in that price-range in the District.

On 9/22/2019 at 6:52 PM, Griffin747 said:

In late 2019, where will we find the best bowl of pho?

Generally, I prefer Northern Virginia and Pho Thang Long or Pho Saigon. I also enjoy Pho Duong.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jim

Any further suggestions w/r/t Jim's query (best pho these days)?  I haven't tried any of the three he mentions, nor Balo.

6 hours ago, DonRocks said:

We went back to Shouk today, and it wasn't merely disappointing compared to our previous visit; it was bad on absolute terms. 

...

The restaurant was humming, the kitchen was fully staffed, and everyone was quite tuned-in and friendly, so I'm not sure why today was such a miss. I love what Shouk is trying to do, and I hope this was just an off-moment for them - even though this is fast-casual dining, the food still needs to be cleaner and more delineated than what it was this afternoon (at least if it's going to attract diners from Virginia, which surely isn't their target audience (unless they end up opening in Virginia)).

I got the burger yesterday and it was better than other things I've had there--but not exceptional.  I, too, love what they're trying to do, and DSLee and Tim Carman are to be trusted, but perhaps it's simply not to my taste.

27 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Has Chef Li personally manned the wok by himself all these years?  If not, his second may still be at the restaurant wokking out the same dishes.

Yes he did.  His "second" was Mrs. Li.

On 11/18/2019 at 10:37 AM, DaveO said:

While visiting in NY we ventured down to the Lower East Side (LES)/Chinatown to check out what had become of the buildings that once housed my paternal grandfather's and his relatives business.  My first cousins and I will be getting together next spring and I thought I'd bring photos of the old neighborhood that housed that business, the "store" that all of us visited, worked at, and knew intimately in our childhoods and beyond.

The area/neighborhood is of course completely different and is mostly a function of the ever increasing Chinatown in NYC.  The building that must have housed our grandfather's business for about 4-5 decades is now evidently owned by a Chinese gentleman.  Upper floors are now apartments.  The first floor is a restaurant, Noree Thai Bazaar, operated by a tenant.  The restaurant markets itself as featuring Thai street food.  My friends and I ventured in. 

Street food it is and utterly delicious.  We didn't stay long, but shared Pad Thai and skewers of chicken and pork and a few beers.  My goodness it was delicious.  All of us were blown away and my upper East Side friends said they would come down there again.  Light, extremely tasty.  The young chef/cook came out (it was quiet) and asked us how it was.  He got big hoorays and a high five.  The place has terrific reviews on the standard web review sites.  I can't speak for the entire menu but the small plates and apps we had were way over the top and very inexpensive.  Stop by if you are in the neighborhood.

FWIW, just three blocks from there, on Grand Street, is a great new (and very inexpensive) Cantonese place, Green Garden Village.  Make sure you order the dried scallop/shrimp rice roll if you go in the a.m.; barbecue thereafter.

15 hours ago, Toogs said:

I just called, they are open.  The website has a message saying Mr and Mrs Li no longer own it.  No clue about the presence of fish noodles.

These two statements are mutually exclusive: "They are open."  "Mr. & Mrs. Li no longer own it."

Someone else might have bought the name and the fixtures, but the restaurant that is the subject of this thread is, I assure you, no longer open for business.

Sorry, I think there'd be a copyright issue there.  The principal theme, however, is that inconsistency is rampant.  Here's the Top 10:

10. Hammerdown Barbeque
9. Liberty Barbecue
8. Garden District
7. Monk’s BBQ
6. Rolling Rib Part II
5. Sloppy Mama’s
4. DCity Smokehouse
3. Hill Country Barbecue Market
2. Federalist Pig
1. Texas Jack’s

"The Best Barbecue Joints in the DC Area" by Tim Carman on washingtonpost.com