Adam23

We did a bachelor party at Voodoo Lounge at the Rio two weeks or so ago that turned out well. Pretyt good steak, great view and not terribly expensive.

We are pretty much the same way. Every place gets one chance, but if it's a bad meal and the service was outstanding, we may give it a try again. But if it's a bad meal with bad service, it gets sent to restaurant purgatory and we never return.The wife and I travel all over the place in the area to try out cheaper restaurants, but when it comes to a higher priced meal we generally stick to our stable of favourites. I think generally the only time we stray from this for expensive places is if there is a grand opening of a higher-end place. We are willing to try it right when it opens, but then again, if i'm droping over $100 a person, the restaurant still only gets once chance. I also have no problem trying out new places on my company's dime, but that is a different story, since if I pick a place and its bad, I don't get to pick on work's dime again.

For NoVa - Eve or 2941. DC - We generally end up at Palena, Citronelle, Obelisk or Komi depending on the client. Vidalia is generally our expense account lunch spot.

Agreed - for the budget though, maybe Mai Tai or Firefly or Hudson - they aren't too far away - maybe 10 min walk.

I'd say expense accounts. They are always busy for lunch with the lawyers and lobbyists who couldn't get into the Palm or choose to go there. One of my bosses, for instance, goes to lunch there 4 days a week and the service he recieves is superb. I've been to lunch a few times with him and the food was decent but nothing blew me away.

Just heard that Nando's is opening their first US store in Chinatown at the Asylum Skate Shop space at 819 7th St NW. Don't exactly know when it will open though, but in the near future. Will update as I find out. If you are not familiar with Nando's, it is a South African chain that specializes in Peri-Peri Chicken. Their sauces have been on sale at Whole Foods and elsewhere for a while. This will be their first US restaurant. I've had many an enjoyable meal there in South Africa and the UK. Pretty excited to have another cheap dining option in Chinatown.

In Nice we had a superb dinner at La Merenda in the old city area. If you need another great meal, check it out. Its a tiny place and you need to stop by to make a reservation. In Aix we had a nice meal at Bastide de Cours. Quality was very good, food wasn't 100% perfect but very satisfying and reasonably priced. It would make a good lunch place. For wine - Chateau Revelete had some nice reds, though a lot of that is easily available here. If you don't mind a trek, we had a fabulous meal in Gordes at Le ferme de la huppe, easily one of the best meals of my life. About an hour drive from Aix

What is chinaboy? As for Jackey Cafe, its consistent and they take credit cards. I eat there probably once a week for take out. I generally stick to americanized dishes like lo mein or beef chow foon and its hot, fresh and rarely has it been very greasy.

Eve has really good bread. I like the biscuits I got at PS7s a few weeks ago if you count that as bread. I like the Pitas at the Perfect Pita. For a general good baguette, I think Cafe du Parc has outstanding bread (especially when it's still warm).

I go every so often and its ok. The dumplings are decent. I like the seafood filling ones or the pork ones. I don't like their vege dumplings which I find very tasteless. The fried noodles are decent. Usually very oily though. There are better options in the area (Jackey Cafe or Full Kee being the two best) but if you want something quick and a bit cheaper, Chinatown express will do.

They gave us a cookie plate at the end. I think we got two caramels, two candies, and 4 cookies of some sort. The caramels were really really good and soft and had a strong vanilla flavour. I can't remember much about the cookies and I don't think one was mushroom shaped, but the two pieces of chocolate they gave us were extremely bitter. I like bitter chocolate, but if you don't, beware.

The wife and I went to Palena for new year's eve for dinner. We have never been to Palena (back room or cafe) and did not really know what to expect. We've read all the good reviews but for some reason, we never ever got around to going there. Overall, it was the best meal either of us have had in the US this past year and we were wowed... The quick rundown - service was great. The server was knowledgeable, the service was at a good pace, wine and water were refilled often. No complaints whatsoever. Bread - They served us three breads. Two white breads and one darker bread with seeds. This was probably the only part of the meal that wasn't perfect. While the three breads were fresh, and the two white breads were tasty, we did not like the dark bread. It was just too gummy and too heavy with seeds. Also, the butter was served ice cold, and hence impossible to spread (we both hate being served ice cold butter). Fix the butter and nix the dark bread and it was nearly a perfect meal. Appetizers - I had the crudo, a Tasmanian sea trout with truffles and a truffle/parsnip sauce. This stuff was amazing. The delicious fish, the amazing, rich, creamy sauce and the truffles. Lots of yummy truffles. Amazingly the appetizer was balanced. You could still taste the fish without being overpowered by the truffles. My wife fought me for it and tried to eat it all. When we go back, and if it is on the menu, I would order it in a heart beat. The wife ordered a pate which was fois gras and oxtail. The pate was very good and rich. She enjoyed it. Next course - My wife ordered the potato gnocchi. These were easily the best gnocchi I have eaten in a long time. Large, tender and delicate. They were so good, I could eat plates of them. It was served with a rabbit ragu I believe which was very nice. For my second course, I ordered the house made sausage which was served in a ravioli. The ravioli was very soft and the sausage was great with a nice strong taste. The ravioli was served in a rich broth and with some perfectly cooked carrots and celery and the like. The broth was out of this world. Rich, flavorful, and the veges were perfectly cooked and tender. (We both noted how throughout the meal every single vege was perfectly cooked. We were amazed.) If I could be served a bowl of the broth and veges, I would order it and just eat it for a meal. So good. Main course - I ordered the fois gras and veal. The fois gras was a perfectly cooked piece of fois gras. I let my wife eat it since it is her favourite food. The veal was a small piece of veal loin I believe. It was perfectly seared on all sides yet so warm and tender and perfectly cooked on the inside. The veal was flavorful and delicious. The presentation and cooking was perfect. My wife ordered the fish that evening. I am blanking out on what type of fish it was, but it was a very nice piece of white fish. The skin was perfectly crisp and the fish itself was wonderfully cooked. The fish was not a bit overcooked at all and was fabulous. It was cooked perfectly throughout. Cheese course - The meal came with a cheese course. The cheese were good, the fig bread served with it was very good. Dessert - My wife ordered the canolis which were very good. I ordered the chocolate hazelnut cake. It was very nice, moist and had a nice texture. We were so stuffed at this point, I can't really remember much about the desert. I remember it didn't 100% wow me, maybe a 90% wow, but I remember it being better than most desserts i've gotten elsewhere in town except the kit kat at Central which I love. Overall, Palena was fabulous. Frank Ruta clearly is making some killer food in his kitchen. We'll be back again and I can't wait to try the cafe in the future.

Our friend recommended Fonfon over L'epuisette, buts its definately the top of the bouillibaisse world. Fonfon was very good. I don't think you will go wrong in any event.

Sadly, my favorite place is Carlyle in Shirlington. That being said, I really liked the calamari i've ordered at Dino and Bebbo

Had lunch at the Hudson with some co-workers since it was on the company's dime. I'm pretty confident it will go the way of the previous restaurants that have graced this expensive real estate. A few of us had the onion soup which was quite good - nice rich beef broth. I'd order it again. The rolls everyone raves about were merely ok. They were warm, which is always nice on a cold day, but they were stale. The onion roll I had was very stale, the other rolls, not quite as stale, but not freshly baked. For mains, one guy had the burger which was fine. He said it was pretty good, but nothing special. It looked to be pretty juicy and cooked medium. Another co-worker had the crab cake sandwich. He did not like it at all. His comment was "it just wasn't that good." Coming from a guy who will eat the nastiest food without complaint, I was surprised. Another co-worker and myself had the chopped salad with chicken. We both agreed the chicken was terribly overcooked - very very dry - and the salad was merely ok. It didn't seem to have the freshest taste, and personally I hate frisee, which I think shouldn't ever be in a chopped salad. It was lightly dressed though which is nice for a change. Service was quite slow. The soup came out in about 5-10 minutes. Entrees didn't appear for about 35 minutes. Would have preferred a faster pace to the meal. I don't think i'll be rushing back anytime soon. Overall, not that impressed, especially with all of the other sit-down options in the neighborhood.

I was going to say call the Greek Deli guy and have him cater. It would be a lot less than $30 a person and good.

A few of my friends and I had a very good meal at Liberty Tavern a few days ago. My wife had the Tavern salad which was superb. Fresh, beautiful looking lettuce, nicely dressed. She enjoyed it. I had the Clarendon chopped salad. Not my favorite. It was under-dressed and the taste of the romaine/iceberg lettuce really overpowered the salad. It tasted, well like, raw lettuce. My one friend ordered the soup special which was a cream and roasted vegetable soup. The soup was nice, a bit too creamy, but tasty nonetheless. We seriously enjoyed the rolls they brought out with the appetizers. So good. We ate two baskets of them in minutes. Hot and delicious. And served with room temperature butter - hooray, (I hate bricks of frozen butter). They also brought out bread with the rolls which wasn't nearly as good. We all agreed we would go back and just eat the rolls if we could. For mains I ordered the Garganelli. It was rather good. It was served in a small cast iron skillet. It was about 1,000 degrees when served and needed literally 20 minutes to cool down before I could eat it. But when at the appropriate temperature, it was nice. It had a nice smoky flavor from the pancetta and was very cheesy. I enjoyed it. My friend had the classico pizza. I thought it was rather good and everyone enjoyed tasting it. It was not as good as 2 amys or American Flatbread but was an enjoyable alternative - the crust was sweet (which I don't mind), the crust was crisp, the toppings were hot. It was good. I'd go back for the pizza and grab a salad and it would make a nice inexpensive meal for the wife and I. My wife had the gnocchi. These were fabulous. Tiny, little, tender, fluffy gnocchi in the most wonderful mushroom butter sauce. We could have eaten plates of then. I nearly ate all of the wife's gnocchi but got yelled at. In my mind, this was the perfect fall dish and the best dish of the evening. My other friend ordered the roasted eggplant entree. The first one served was very cold so we sent it back. The manager came over, introduced himself, apologized and handled the issue perfectly - a rarely-seen feat in the DC culinary world, a textbook example on how to deal with restaurant patrons. The manager brought my friend a soup as she waited for a new entree and a new entree was served promptly. I was extremely impressed with the management working that evening - someone went to a good restaurant management school ala Cornell or UNLV. As for the entree itseld, the second eggplant entree that was served and was much hotter. The entree looked good but I didn't have a taste. It was a very nice presentation of thin eggplant slices surrounding a very dense goat cheese core. My friend enjoyed it. For dessert we had the house made ice cream and the red velvet cake. The ice cream had a nice smooth texture and creamy taste, but I found the chocolate ice cream had that "off" chocolate flavor, very reminiscent of Breyer's chocolate ice cream. The red velvet cake was also very good and had a tasty cream cheese frosting. Overall, we enjoyed our meal. The food was fresh, flavorful and priced well. The management is superb. I'll be back again soon.

Had dinner with the wife here on Saturday night. In general, when i'm going to a restaurant that charges 30+ for an entrees, I expect near perfectly cooked food and good service. My expectations were pretty high, and in some respects met, but in others not. We entered the restaurant and saw a packed bar with young, yuppie types (pretty much people like the wife and I). The same kind of people you see at Central, Proof and other places around town. But something was different, and I couldn't put my finger on it till later in the meal. The restaurant was dark, very dark. It was nicely decorated, as far as I could see, but felt cold. A lot of concrete going on which gave it a sterile, almost doctored up government building kind of feel. We were met by a friendly, hostess who took us up the stairs the to dining room. The ground floor, as others discussed is a bar area. The upstairs was dark. It was hard to see. The wife complained she couldn't see much. It was Outback Steakhouse dark on steroids. The restaurant was also rather small, surprisingly small with less tables than I expected a Puck restaurant to have. We were seated at our table and our waiter promptly came over and gave us the wine list. The wine list is pretty extensive and expensive. There are a few under $40 bottles, but my quick perusal showed most bottles clocking in at over $70 or so. Corkage was conspicuously noted as $25 per bottle ($65 for a magnum). The wine list had a nice variety and some odd stuff I haven't seen on a list in a while, like Lemelson Pinot Noir from Oregon. The menu had a large number of choices. The left side of the menu was about 10 choices of appetizers and the right, 10 entrees or so, as others have discussed. The wife ordered the tuna and hamachi sashimi for her appetizer. I ordered the tandoori arctic char with raita and chutney. For mains, I ordered the wok fried sea bass and the wife had the duckling. We were first served an little taste of green beans and candied walnuts. Honestly, they can keep them. Overcooked, and the rank taste of chili oil. (I hate chili oil - its good on tom yum soup, but shouldn't be used everywhere in asian cooking. In moderation its nice, but much like truffle oil to Italian and French chefs, its overuse overpowers everything. As we would soon find out, the chef at the Source loves chili oil - yuck). The appetizers though were superb. The wife's sashimi was fresh and a nice sized portion. It was served with some micro greens and some sushi rice which was superb. My arctic char was superb. Beautiful crisp skin, wonderful flavor. The raita and chutney on it were outstanding. I wish there was more to dip the fish into. The main courses were served shortly. My wife was served a huge portion of duckling. Two large breasts and two legs. A wonderful flavor and some nice huckleberry sauce on them. Excellent in every way. Also served on top of the duckling was a nice micro green salad. My wife said it was the best salad she has ever had - I thought it was very good. The duckling came with a side of fried chow fun noodles. They were good, not too oily, mixed with nice mushrooms and bok choy, but then the chili oil attacked again. Somewhere in there, tons of it. Overpowering the chow fun. If there was no chili oil on them, it would easily be the best chow fun noodles i've ever had. The chili oil ruined it for both of us. My bass was good. They carved it table side. It was entertaining to watch for a few seconds as the waiter did possibly one of the worst fillet jobs of a whole fish i've ever seen. After some coaching by the wife, the waiter accomplished his task. Luckily the fisk was so huge (could easily serve two), there was plenty of sea bass and leftovers even after his poor filetting job. The fish was very tender and had a wonderful crisp crust. I ordered the ponzu sauce which was nice. The fish was topped with "fragrant herbs" - very tasty. The fish was served with rice. Pretty unflavorful and uneventful - it was rice. I wish some veges or something else were served instead. For dessert, the wife had the Mango desert - a small mango cheesecake, mango sorbet and a donut type thing filled with wonderful mango creme. Her desert was good, but pretty unextraoridnary. We've had mango deserts elsewhere, like 1789, which were better. I had the chocolate purse served with caramel sorbet. The sorbet was outstanding - wonderful chocolate caramel flavor. But the purse itself, for lack of a better description, sucked. It was a large fortune cookie thing (which was extremely salty) filed with melted chocolate. I think if we went back, we would pass on desert and get it elsewhere in town. Overall, the meal was good and definitely something different than normally available in DC. I think the asian influences will do well as there are few restaurants to get higher-end asian influenced food (may 10penh but thats about it). Like others have said, some of the food is superb. Other food needs work. I'll probably be back in the future but will definitely make my selections carefully. Not for the oddness - as we sat thru dinner, I put my finger on what was different. Generally, when I go to higher-end restaurants in town, I know someone or have seen some of the people around - you know locals dining there. As we ate, it dawned on me, the restaurant was filled with tourists. The people on both sides of us were tourists, and the people who were reseated at those tables later in the meal (all puck junkies). The people at the bar were tourists, talking about their trip to DC from Milwaukee or whatnot. The waiter mentioned it was a popular place for tourists. It was interesting. Unexpected in a way but interesting.

We went on Wednesday with some friends. Ordered a few bowls of the lamb pasta. I'm going to agree that the pasta, while excellent tasting, didn't really work with the lamb sauce. It was very cumbersome to eat though tasted great. I think I would have preferred rigatoni or a flat noodle. But anyhow, the wife got some of the squash flan which was very good. Nice flavors, nice texture and the balsamic worked well with it. We also ordered a few of the Wine wednesday things. Some very nice wines and some very nice little eats to go with it. We enjoyed the beet carpaccio and the polenta cake. But the third item, and i'm blanking out what it was exactly (maybe Dean can help) was outstanding. A nice crisp breading around some pork? and cheese. Delicious. My friends were fighting over them. With I could have ordered a plate of them.

My wife and I will be there as well. In any event, a friend of ours has two tickets available for it. Its sold out, so if anyone is looking for two seats, send me a PM.

Had a nice dinner on Saturday. Service was very good. Food was served promptly, but not rushed. Had the pleasure of sitting next to Martha Raddatz who kept telling us how she disliked the food (she had the salmon and lentils). I found it a bit amusing. Anyhow... I had the onion soup to start - delicious as always. A very nice rich beef broth, gooey cheese - The best onion soup in DC. My wife had the cucumber gazpacho. It wasn't our favourite thing we've had at Central. We didn't like the jalapenos in it and it was a bit too salty. For mains, my wife had the fish and chips. Superb - amazing, flaky, flavorful fish in a delicious breading. We both agreed it was a bit better then Eamonns. Two nice large pieces of fish were served with a very nice tartar-like sauce which was superb. The fries were very good and crisp as well. I highly recommend it. I had the beef cheeks. The beef was flavorful and very tender. No knife needed. The beef had a very nice flavor - almost pastrami like - since it was coated in a nice thick pepper coating. The beef was served with some pasta. Not my favourite part. Some mashed potatoes would have been preferred. The pasta was hard and more or less tasteless. I didn't really eat much of the pasta. For dessert we had the Kit Kat - superb as always. Corkage is down to $15 a bottle - was $20 the last few times. Overall a good meal. A few changes in the food would have made it perfect, but overall very enjoyable.

I went a few months ago for dinner with a group of people. We had their mezze for four which was pretty good. The food was pretty good overall. The schwarma had a nice flavor and wasn't over cooked. Their hommus and grape leaves were good. On the spectrum of mediterranean/lebanese restaurants i've gone to, I found it to be quite a bit better than Lebanese Taverna but not nearly as good as the Lebanese Butcher.

Had a superb dinner here on Friday. This was my fourth time at Cafe du Parc and I can honestly say it is now churning out some of the best French cafe/bistro fare in town - After our meal I could see why the place was packed with francophiles. The prices are extremely reasonable, portions large and quality excellent. I started with the onion soup which was superb as always. A nice light broth, loads of cheese. For mains, I ordered the mussels. A huge portion of the largest, juiciest, plumpest, freshest tasting mussels i've had had in a long time. These were the best mussels i've had at any DC area restaurant. All were perfectly cooked and no grit. No overcooked mussels hiding in my plate and the chef actually took the time to pick out unopened ones. The broth was excellent as well. If you like mussels, this is the place. The mussels came with a side - I chose the fries. They were good, crisp and very hot - exactly what I look for in a french fry. My wife ordered the roast chicken and the lentils side. The chicken was perfectly cooked, juicy and tender. It had a delightful crisp skin and a delicious light sauce. After spending a month this summer traveling throughout France eating roast chicken, I can honestly say it was comparable to some of the best I had in France. The lentils were also very nice, though the lentils are a bit heavy - loaded up with bacon and drippings and whatnot. Service was fine. Glasses were refilled quickly, no complaints really. The fresh baguette they bake and serve with the meal is superb. Overall, they seem to have kicked up the quality and flavor of the food a bit since my last visit and the food is now really good. Had an excellent experience again and highly recommend this place.

Whether Dino will work depends on your guests. If this is your first business dinner with them and you know they don't eat pork, I don't really think I would pick Dino. Don't get my wrong, Dino is one of my favourite restaurants in DC and its outstanding, but I took a few guests of mine there a few months ago who do not eat pork and they found the menu a bit overwhelming with pork products. One ended up with a mushroom risotto, one with fish and one with the roasted chicken, so it worked out and everyone was happy, but it made for a few uncomfortable minutes as they perused the menu. I honestly find Dinos menu to be a bit heavier on the pork/boar/bacon side than other places in DC. That being said, their wine list is superb and if your clients love wine, there are a lot of interesting bottles to impress them with. If you've eaten with your business guests before, and this isn't your first meal together, then by all means go to Dino and have a great time.

Assuming you are a healthy person who is not immuno-compromised, in theory you could eat beef at the Giant raw if you really wanted to and probably won't get terribly sick. That being said, if I was going to eat beef or lamb raw, I would go to a butcher that I trust in the area- but I don't have one so no recs. As for lamb - there is a guy that sells lamb at the Dupont market on Sundays. His lamb is rather superb - so if I was going to eat some raw lamb for whatever reason, i'd personally trust him. Otherwise, the Lebanese Butcher in Falls Church slaughters his own and his lamb is rather good too.Pat > for your above question, as far as I know, it depends how it is packaged and what gas they use in the packaging. Depending on the gas and packaging method, you can make beef appear redder or darker.