Adam23

I'd stick with the chicken, cod and the grouper if its the special. We were there fairly recently and the grouper was fabulous. I think its better than the cod. The fries were a tad off - a little greasy and less crisp than normal when we were there but overall, excellent meal. The chicken is wonderful if you don't like fish. My only warning if that the place is amazingly popular with families with little children. I think the Washingtonian said it was a great restaurant for kids, so beware if you don't like lots of little kids running around. We were there in the afternoon on a Sunday and it was packed with families.

Keeping Kosher isn't terribly hard. I did it for most of my life and kept a kosher home until a year or so ago. I prefer Kosher chicken and turkey to non-kosher stuff. Go to Trader Joes and pick up some Empire chicken. Grill it or cook it any way you like, absent putting cheese or a cream sauce on it and you'll be fine. Look around and you can sometimes find Kosher lamb and bison and whatnot which is something for a change. For beef - while properly cooked brisket is truly one of the best things you can always do ground beef for hamburgers or skirt steaks or rib steaks or hangar steaks which really isn't too bad. Though I agree on the tasteless part of some Kosher meat. It is heavily salted and often isn't very good. Try to find a good kosher butcher. I believe there is a good one up in Baltimore, i'll find out the name. We used to travel a few hours to Philly to get superb kosher meat and would stock up on it every few months. Our butcher had prime kosher beef which was superb and a price to match. And there is always the Hebrew National hotdog - easily the best - though if you eat one you might not want a non kosher dog ever again. If you must go out and eat kosher meat, the options in town are pretty limited. When I kept kosher we bent the rules a bit. Ask him if he will do italian or seafood restaurants. Whie Definately pick up a few cookbooks like the above have said.

We stopped by last Friday to put our name on the list around 345 or so and it was no problem - er it was a slight problem since the person taking names was one of the grill guys and he only spoke Spanish and kept repeating the instructions in Spanish. Quite humorous when another couple came in and were so flustered. Based on my experience, you won't have a problem.

Absolutely horrible. There really is no good sushi in Chinatown. Your best bet is to just go to Whole Foods and pick up some if you can't travel far.

Haven't tried the salmon so can't comment but I highly recommend the Avgolemono soup and his Gyro or Souvlaki. All are superb. His soup is rich, lemony, and loaded with chicken. I love his tzatiki sauce on his Gyro which is loaded with dill. I haven't really been able to find better greek food in DC. Too bad it is only open for lunch.

If I really want a grilled cheese, I hop a jet to London and go to the Grilled Cheese guy at Borough Market. I have dreams about these sandwiches. The best grilled cheese ever. Yummy Grilled Cheese But when i'm stuck in DC I generally stick with places like Ihop or Stoneys. Stoneys varies quite a bit but when the super is grilled properly, it is pretty good. The cafeteria at the Georgetown Law School also will grill up a nice grilled cheese for a few bucks. Just be specific about the bread you want and the cheese - sourdough and cheddar would be my rec. I have a hard time paying over $5 for a grilled cheese and fries, so the best is probably making it yourself.

Had dinner on Saturday evening with some friends. Place wasn't 100% filled, a few empty tables where we were seated. I had the onion soup as a starter. Two had the frisee salad with lardons and one had the leek soup (i'm blanking but I believe that is what it was). I found the onion soup to be very good. Nice broth, lots of onions and the shallots added a nice touch. Good bread and good cheese. The broth was not as rich as other places in the area (Central/Cafe du parc) but was very good. I tasted the salads and they were tasty as well. I did not get to taste the other soup, but my friend cleaned her plate so i'm assuming it was quite good. For mains, one ordered the Rabbit, two of us ordered the beef carbonnade and one ordered the mussels. The rabbit looked very nice and my friend cleared his plate quickly. I had the beef carbonnade which was very good. The beef was fairly tender, it had a rich sauce and pureed root vegetables. Probably not the ideal DC summer dish but it would be quite nice in winter or fall. My wife had the mussels. The mussels were large but they were extremely gritty so that detracted from them quite a lot. They should probably learn a thing or two about cleaning their mussels before I break my teeth. I also found the broth to be a bit lacking, watery almost. Lots of better places for mussels in town in my opinion. The mussels were served with frites which were very good. Hot, crisp, nicely salted. The dipping sauces served with them were very good. Three different mayo based concoctions. The beer list is rather nice and large. Lots of familiars that one can get at the Brickskeller but lots of new faces at well. The fact they have quite a few belgian beers on tap was very nice for a change. The waiter was very helpful in picking a beer that we would all enjoy. Overall it was a pretty good meal. Not sure how quickly i'll be back since I think there are better options in town, but if you like belgian beers, definitely check it out.

Their 3 course meal for $36 (went up a buck this year) is back on now through September. A link the coupon is on their website.

The cobb salad is generally the only thing I order and its decent. The sandwiches are ok. I'd put it in the same range of restaurant as Clydes

Agree with Kotobuki. Its great and a superb value. If you want to really cheap it, Costco has the premade platters but the sushi is pretty lousy.

Had an excellent meal last weekend. The restaurant was fairly dead when we arrived (though we had an early dinner) but filled up as the evening progressed. The free valet parking is a huge plus - I was afraid we would have to drop $25 to park at the Willard, but parking turned out to be free. The servers were very friendly. Our server was from France and since it was pretty empty, we talked a while with her about France. The wine list had some good French wines and wasn't terribly overpriced in my mind. It had a few selections in every price range. As for the food, we were first served some delicious baguettes and butter. This bread was outstanding. The waitress told us it was baked about an hour ago and is all made in house. For appetizers, I had the Onion Soup. The onion soup had a rich broth and more of the delicious baguette soaking in the broth. It is probably on par with the onion soup at Central and easily one of the top two in town. My wife had the Asparagus salad with poached egg for an appetizer. The egg was perfectly poached and the asparagus were very tender. The salad was very good. She cleaned her plate. As for mains, I had the Bouchee ala Reine which was good. The veal and mushrooms were extremely tender. The small gnocchi were very tender and flavorful as well. The sauce on the dish was light but a little bland. It could have used something like some nice herbs in it to add some flavor. I probably wouldn't order it again. For her main, my wife ordered the mussels. If you like mussels, I highly recommend ordering them here. They were fantastic. They were extremely plump, the biggest i've seen in town, and the broth was very flavorful. They served a huge portion which is enough for two to share (had to be over 3lbs of them). We attempted to eat all of them but couldn't finish. For desert we ordered the Profiteroles. They were very good. The ice cream was rich and had a nice vanilla flavor. The chocolate sauce was very good and a little bitter which is how I prefer my chocolate. Overall, it was about $100 including tip for the meal. I thought it was a pretty good value for the quality and portions given. We'll both be back.

The Wednesday night special sounds great. More of a reason to stop in. On a different note, I was in Dino earlier in the week for their Passover feast which was superb. All of the food was great as usual. However I must say the standout of the meal was the gefilte fish. Generally I find the stuff absolutely disgusting and unbearable to eat, however my hats off to Dean and the chef for making such a nice flavored, not overly fishy version. If only the stuff you can buy in the store tasted like this, i'd consider eating it more regularly. Dean - Hopefully your Passover feast was a success this year and you plan to offer it next. Great job!

Had a superb meal this evening at Central with my wife. The scene: Lots of fancy cars parked out front - A Bentley, two Astons and a Maserati on this fine evening. Made my Ford feel at home. Tons of yuppies and tons of single women on the man hunt, particularly around the bar. If you stay away from the bar though, its a very comfortable restaurant. Love the open kitchen where you can watch the chefs at work. Surprisingly quite a few empty tables. The service: Great. Our waiter was extremely friendly and was on top of everything. Though the service staff did forget to bring us bread, which the waiter quickly rectified. The food: Great. Easily the best meal i've had in quite some time. There is little doubt that I will be back time and time again. For appetizers, we ordered the cheese puffs, the Ahi Tuna Tartar and the Onion Soup. I wasn't that floored by the cheese puffs. I found them kind of bland. The wife enjoyed them, but we both agreed they were not the highlight of the meal. The Ahi Tuna Tartar was awesome. The tuna was delicious, everything was seasoned properly and it was very fresh. We'de order it again. The onion soup was amazing. Truly one of the best onion soups i've ever had and i've probably ordered onion soup at 100's of restaurants. Lots of bubbly cheese, a rich flavorful broth, delicious bread floating in it - nearly a perfect onion soup. If you like onion soup, you MUST ORDER THIS. For main courses, my wife had the fried chicken, I had the 72 hour short ribs and we shared a side of brussel sprouts. Both the chicken and ribs were served with a salad and mashed potatoes. The brussel sprouts were unnecessary to order since there was so much food without them. Even so, the sprouts were very nice. They were roasted in lots of bacon and were very tender and tasty. The mashed potatoes were great. Very creamy and smooth. The salads were ok - definitely the low point - they were way over dressed. Though the vinaigrette dressing was rather tasty. As for the mains themselves - the fried chicken was superb. It wasn't your standard fried chicken like KFC or anything. It was perfectly cooked, juicy, tender, and had a very nice Panko-esque crust. The Bearnaise sauce served with it was very nice. My wife cleaned her plate of the chicken. Lots of people were ordering the chicken and were clearing their plates as well. As for the short ribs - excellent, tender, and flavorful as everyone else on here has said. Truly very good. Though, I wasn't wowed by the sauce. Reminded me of Oyster sauce which isn't my favorite. But the meat itself was so good. Tons of short ribs being served from the kitchen as well. For dessert we had the Kit Kat and the Banana Split. The deserts are rather large. The Kit Kat is awesome. Rich chocolate flavor, a nice side of ice cream, truly an outstanding desert only to be compared to those Hazelnut bars at Corduroy. The Banana Split was good. A nice bananas coated in whipped cream, gently placed on three sauces - caramel, 2 chocolate sauces and a strawberry sauce. It was then served with a delicious chocolate ice cream, a delicious strawberry sorbet, and a vanilla ice cream (which I thought was the weakest of the ice creams - it was lacking something in the flavor department). Their wine list is good. Didn't really analyze it too closely but they had some interesting selections. Corkage is $15 if you bring your own. Total bill for our food and corkage for a bottle was $128 + tip. Not bad considering the copious amounts of food we ordered. Definitely check it out if you haven't. It was definitely a memorable meal for us.

Awesome meal over the weekend. They had a very very good duck confit salad starter. The parsnip soup is fabulous. Seems like it has a seafood broth in the background and its very good. Scallops main course was excellent as always. We also had the beef cheeks entree which was superb. Perfectly braised, tender and delicious. A perfect entree for a cold night. Overall, a superb experience again.

Had my RW week dinner at DC Chophouse last night. Now before you laugh, it is probably the best deal going during RW and the only restaurant I consistently visit every restaurant week. If you do it right, two people can get very filled for $40 + tax and tip and probably have some leftovers...... All of the food we ordered was fresh and hot and the service was good. First, we shared a nice large plate of calamari - properly fried and tasty, not chewy at all. I had a decent salad (though this RW they changed it from the normal salad to one without the cheese and bacon). We also shared their hot and fresh pan of cornbread. For the main meal I had a properly cooked, juicy and tasty strip steak and a vat of mashed potatoes. For desert we shared the white chocolate mousse desert. Add on the wife's superb burger and fries at $10 (which I believe is the best burger in DC) and thats the best $40 meal going for two people.

It was merely my guests who were shocked with the alcohol prices. I personally could care less. I merely put the prices there for reference or whatnot. I always enjoy seeing how much one can mark up a $10 bottle of wine. Though not the top for a DC area restaurant (that goes to Capital Grille) I find it amusing. I did find the managers reaction to be quite hilarious. I nearly pissed myself at her responses as did the neighboring tables. What should she have done? Said, yes that is the correct price. And she should have apologized for the cold food. Handling it as a professional would be expected. But when your dealing with my friends, feisty New Yorkers, its always exciting. The manager's tirade on how cheap all the diners are for packing her restaurant during RW was unecessary (especially considering my meal ended up being about $10 or 15 less than it would be on a non-RW night). But anyhow, my final assesment of food being reheated is how I felt. The food was ok - varied from excellent to poor. If you were the one person who ordered the salmon and the duck, you had a great meal. if you were like me and ordered squid and a short rib, your meal was pretty bad. For a restaurant like this, everything should be good to superb in my opinion. Most of the food was cold to warm, none was hot - the whole meal had that air of a fancy wedding meal. I personally won't be back anytime soon - too many very good restaurants in DC to spend my $$$ at than Colvin Run. Based on the food we had and my mediocre experiences at Kinkeads the past month or so, i'd be inclined to hint that Bob's restaurants are in a rut. But anyhow, enough of my rambling.

Decided to hit up Colvin Run last night for restaurant week with a few friends. I've been to Colvin Run numerous times in the past, and have always had excellent service and excellent food. Though last night was rather bad. Waitstaff - Service from the waitstaff was great. Waters were always filled. Wine was always refilled. No complaints, though the food came out very fast. Wine/Alcohol - One guest ordered a martini. He said it was decent, but nothing special. We also ordered two bottles of wine. Markup was rather high. The pinot grigio we ordered retails for $12 (we paid $39) and the merlot we ordered retails for $9 (we paid $42). But hey, you gotta make money somewhere. Too bad you can't BYO in Virginia. Food Starters - 2 guests ordered the Salmon tartar starter. It was a drop of salmon tartar the size of a nickel, another nickel sized portion of smoked salmon, a drop of sour cream and a "tomato and cucumber salad" which was a piece of cucumber and a half of a cherry tomato. The portion was very small, but rather tasty. Both enjoyed it. One guest ordered the chestnut pasta. It came out as a large plate of pasta and it had a large piece of confit of chicken and came topped with some onions and mushrooms. The portion was large for a starter and very tasty. My guest remarked that she would have liked it as a main course. I tasted it and it was quite flavorful. I'd recommend it. One guest ordered the smoked duck starter - it looked like a nice sized portion. He cleaned his plate and said it was good. I had the thai fried squid and papaya salad. The papaya salad was tasty. The squid itself, while a nice sized portion, was overcooked and gummy. I hate when restaurants overcook squid! The thai spicy sauce on the side was good though - very spicy. Mains - Two of us ordered the short ribs. The portion was pretty small. It came as a small short rib on the plate, 6 or 7 white beans, and a little piece of green veggie (I think it was endive or something) that was terribly bitter. My short rib was warm, my guests was cold and he sent it back to get heated. He was rather angered at this. The short rib itself was not cooked very well. Generally, you order short ribs and the meat is falling off the bone. Here, it was chewy and seemed as if it needed to be cooked longer. One guest ordered the pork loin. It was good, somewhat flavorful. No wow factor here, but it was tasty. Portion size was reasonable. Two guests ordered the duck confit. This was a nice leg of the duck, came with some chinese sauce and some pancakes and some asian slaw. It was supposedly pretty good (I didn't get to try). Deserts - 3 of us ordered the warm chocolate cake with the vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was very good and the cake was delicious. Two of the guests ordered the miroir of passion fruit which was superb as well. Overall, the food was ok. Nothing special. Portions varied from tiny to good sized portions. In all honesty, most of the food tasted pre-made and reheated, as if it was pre-plated that afternoon. None of my guests or myself were really impressed at all, and this meal did not compare to any of the past meals i've had at Colvin Run. The Grand Finale- To finish up the mediocre meal, we received our check. Instantly, our guests eyes lit up - $13 for a mediocre martini - is this a joke? (To give some quick background - my guests were from NYC and are used to very high alcohol prices but they found this to be absurd. $13 for a martini at Eve is one thing, but for a half assed drink its quite a lot). My guest asked to speak to the manager of the restaurant and said, "is this correct? $13?" The manager said yes - that is market price in Northern Virginia. I laughed. Then the manager continued - that is high quality vodka - 3.5 ounces of it - thats a good price. My guest laughed. I laughed. Then my other guest said, oh yeah, my food was cold. He continued, our meal was just not that good. The managers response - "this is restaurant week - dinners at Colvin Run are normally $75 a person - what do you expect? I think this was a pretty good value for $30" We were stunned. Someone's manager was clearly not a graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. My guest deicded not to pursue talking to the manager any longer and they paid the bill and we left. Based on my experience, I don't think i'll be back in the future. The managers behavior was rather stunning. Maybe we were wrong for questioning the drink charge or mentioning the cold food to the manager. But her handling of the situation was absurd. Well anyway - another restaurant tonight. I think we can only go up from here.

Total wine sometimes has the stuff but its generally Hazlitt or Bully Hill which is nasty (unless you like sweet grape juice). Total Wine (Alexandria store) generally has Salmon Run which is Dr Frank's 2nd Run stuff which is decent. Sometimes Whole Foods has Dr. Frank or Wiemer. A wine store should be able to get you Wiemer or Dr Frank though on order from their distributor since its widely available. You best bet may be to order direct from the wineries (Dr. Frank's shipping is very reasonable last time I ordered) or find a neighbors kid who goes to Cornell and have them bring it back for you. If you need any wine recommendations from up there, give me a hollar.

I have always found Pita Pit to be fairly nasty. It makes decent drunk food but I wouldn't dare eat it sober. But if you must, the chicken pita with Tzatiki sauce is edible.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Went up to Leesburg and hit up a few wineries. Enjoyed Tarara quite a bit (had some very nice reds in the reserve tasting) and also enjoyed some of the wines at Waterford Vineyards (Vintners Reserve Chardonnay is quite good - not very oaky). Thanks again.

Stopped in over the weekend on Friday night with the wife. Wait for a table was 35 minutes or so, so we decided to eat at the bar. Ordered the eggplant appetizer and the calamari. Eggplant appetizer was very good - nice sweet caramelized onions and eggplant - very nice. The calamari was superb. A touch salty, but very crisp and perfectly cooked. Both were a steal at under $5 each at the bar. For mains I had the meatballs and garlic bread, my wife had the Bucatini with tomatoes, onions and proscuitto. The meatballs were very good - not the best i've ever had (that goes to 2 Amys) but good. My wife’s pasta was superb. I ended up finishing her plate (she doesn't eat much). For dessert, we had the strawberry salad (essentially creme brulee topped with strawberries and vanilla ice cream) and the cannolis. The strawberry salad was awesome. Easily the best dessert i've had in a while. Almost overkill with the ice cream on top. As for the cannolis, I didn't like the cannolis much but the wife enjoyed them. There was some spice in them - maybe cardamom - that was too strong. We also had several glasses of wine. The list is very nice by the glass and prices are cheap. Overall, I was very impressed. Service was fine, food came out quick. The check was a little messed up - some things came up a buck more on the bill, others a buck less- overall a wash. $62 + tip for dinner - cheap cheap. I'll definitely be back several more times. The quality of the food and prices are outstanding.

Agreed. Ordered the veal chop special once. Ouch that was expensive.

Thinking about going out towards Warrenton or Leesburg one of these weekends to do some wine tasting. I know zero about Virginia wines. Which wineries are pretty good out that way? Thanks!

GE has some nice looking ones they are producing which seem good for the mid range. If your a Costco member, you can get Vinotemps fairly reasonably too on their website.

Agree as well. Get one larger than you think you will need. On a random note - check out Best Buy's web site. They often offer free shipping on the fridges they sell. We picked up an 80 bottle one very cheaply, and with the free shipping it was significantly cheaper than prices we got elsewhere.