Adam23

Spoke with the owners of Banana Leaf, a new Sri Lankan restaurant opening next to Jakes on Connecticut Ave in Van Ness/Chevy Chase. I don't have a whole lot of information other than they tell me this will be the first Sri Lankan restaurant in the DC metro area. It is affiliated with Banana Leaf in NYC, but the primary day to day operation will be by two guys I met who live in DC. They expect the restaurant to open in the next few weeks with a liquor license to follow.

The ANC supported his liquor license last night, so alcoholic offerings should be available very soon.

So good. So good. Easily the best corned beef in the DC metro area. Dare I say, possibly anywhere? (and i've eaten a lot of corned beef) We went to the pop up on Saturday. Had a pastrami reuben, corned beef sandwich and a farro ratatouille. All were excellent but the corned beef was the star. It was very very tender, juicy, not particularly salty and tasted delicious. Highly recommended. The pastrami is good as well. It is more or less like their corned beef but a bit peppery and spicy. You could easily mistake it for corned beef though. So if you like very peppery pastrami, thick cut with a crust, this isn't what you are looking for, but if you like corned beef with some spice, you will like this a lot.

lt had some delicious soft shells yesterday at BlackSalt. Not cheap but damn good. They fried them up with some succotash. Yummy lunch.

I would recommend not parking behind the BK and going to Bread Furst. They are going to start enforcing the parking quite aggressively soon, if not already, for reasons not related to Bread Furst. Bread Furst has 8 spots directly behind their store on the other side of the alley for customers. Or just park on Albemarle or Yuma and walk over - tons of parking at all times of the day.

Appears to now be open. Will check it out. Found this interesting tidbit on the Forest Hills Connection: "The restaurant does not seem to have an online presence yet. But the search revealed something interesting. If this site is accurate, Dawa Tamang is the registered agent for Laliguras DC LLC. Dawa Tamang is also the name of the (former?) executive chef at Heritage India, who is also a native of Nepal. Coincidence?"

In the old 867 Cafe space. Signs are up in the windows. Have zero information but high hopes. Last I heard this was supposed to be a second location of Steak and Egg. I guess that deal fell through. Looks like it is Indian and Nepalese food now.

Would highly recommend the Florence Eats app for Florence. We used it a lot to figure out lunch and dinners and the reviews were quite accurate. By far the best food we had in Florence on a trip this past summer was Enoteca Pitti Gola. Amazing rustic, home cooked food. Not a restaurant really, more a wine bar with a small menu. But food was amazing (as was the wine).

We had dinner back in November at the Painted Lady in Newberg. The restaurant is housed in a nice old Victorian house which has been converted to a restaurant. The food and service were quite good and it supposedly one of the top two or three restaurants in the area. We did a multi-course tasting menu which was quite delicious and a good value as compared to DC at $65pp. A lot of the food had some Asian influences - a nice custard with a miso-like broth comes to mind and all of the courses were well seasoned and well cooked. The wine list is quite good and the sommelier is very friendly and helpful. He introduced us to a number of new Willamette wineries we did not know from previous trips. If you are in the area, highly recommended.

Did a quick Portland trip over Thanksgiving and had to pick one special meal for our one free evening. It was rather difficult to decide on a restaurant given there are so many good restaurants there. In the end, we chose the Chef's menu at Roe, a restaurant in the tiny back room of Block and Tackle. The food was exceptional - probably my best meal of 2013. All fish-based, all cooked with a microwave or single induction cooktop. We sat at the counter and watched the chef's prepare each of our courses and the food and entertainment was great. Highlights were an exceptional scallop dish and an amazing tuna tartar with foie gras. The wine pairings were perfect with lots of interesting wines and varietals I had never had before. If you like seafood I would highly recommend checking out Roe.

As I'm sitting at work eating my mediocre Taylor Gourmet meatball sub with a lousy hard roll that is so crispy it rips apart the roof of my mouth, I reminded myself that I should write a quick review of Capriottis. I stopped by on Wednesday to try it out. The line was 40 deep but I was in an out in 10 minutes. Very efficient. I ordered a small meatball sub and enjoyed it quite a lot. The bread was soft (which I prefer) and the meatballs were quite good. They looked like actual meat, lasted like meat, were tender and quite flavorful. And the sub was huge for $8 or so. I enjoyed Capriotti's significantly better than Taylor Gourmet. Based on Taylor being entirely empty today at prime lunch hour, I think the Farrgaut office workers are in agreement.

Was in San Fran two weekends ago. Hit up Rich Table for a pre-flight 5:30 reservation. Restaurant was entirely packed at 5:30 on a Sunday. Generally speaking lived up to the hype. We had the porcini donuts which I didn't really like (the porcini was far to overpowering) but the octopus salad and pasta we had were delicious (and aesthetically beautiful).

Really depends on availability of non-stop versus stop and the price. DCA is 15 min from home; IAD is never more than 45 min any time of day; BWI can be brutal (taken me up to 2 hours once). For me to fly out of BWI, it needs to be a lot cheaper and the times need to be right. I don't like how Southwest at BWI has no TSA Pre, though lines are never long. I do like BWI has an Arbys.

Sort of following it. I spoke to CM Cheh about it back in August and recommended two changes based on discussions with a leading food safety expert. I'm glad to see she incorporated them - mainly requiring labels to have all ingredients and not mandating nutrition labeling which would be costly for producers and bring them into USDA/FDA jurisdiction.

Blah. I don't normally mind corporate steakhouses but Del Frisco's Grille is blah. My boss wanted to go there for lunch. He's really likes steakhouses. I figured, why not, never been. I ordered a 6 oz filet mignon, medium rare. For my accompaniments, I had the fresh vegetable of the day and the frites. Sadly, the steak came medium well. A sorry hard hunk of overcooked beef. The fresh vegetable of the day - sauteed spinach - was tasteless and less than sauteed. What appeared was a sorry, under-salted, half cooked mixture of cooked and uncooked spinach leaves. No salt. No garlic. Nothing. Sadly, the "frites" were no better. Soggy, over-salted potatoes that could neither be classified as a "frite" or even pass as a french fry were delivered. I did like the cute ketchup served in miniature squeeze bottles. I thought about taking mine home. Feel free to skip this place. Clearly since i'm the third post since 2012, most of you have.

Black Cherry soda was quite popular growing up in PA. I used to drink a can a day of A-Treat Black Cherry soda. It's a fake flavoring and is basically a duplicate of Dr. Browns, which I also like quite a lot. Kutztown Bottling Works in PA makes some quite good sodas including a good version of black cherry soda. You could probably pull together a huge comparison of different brands and see what is best.

The Ritz Cleveland has to be the cheapest Ritz in the US even on a non-government rate. Depending on why you are in Cleveland, the location isn't great though.

I believe they will be seeking a liquor license as well - so hopefully they sell some nice beer and wine to go with the items.

The fries that came with the hotdog were perfect - They are the shoestring variety but were hot, perfectly crisp, not greasy, lightly salted and topped with some herbs. I could eat bowls of them.

A bit of a delayed posting. We were in Florence a few weeks back in August. I found it to be a huge PITA to plan the better restaurants in August given most of them are closed. After countless hours of research, we tracked down a few places with some memorable meals: 1. Il Santo Graal - Interesting restaurant off the beaten path past the Pitti Palace. Entirely an American and Russian crowd but excellent food and service. The menu is split into two - old-school Florentine cuisine and modern interpretations. We ordered a few items from both menus. Particularly memorable was a "Roasted Chicken 2013". Effectively, it was a sou vide chicken breast that they then grill so the exterior is crisp and interior is tender, juicy and creamy. It is topped with a nice au jus. It was quite tasty. 2. Il Salviatino Restaurant - This was the restaurant in our hotel located in Fiesole, about 10 minutes outside downtown Florence. The food was pretty good. We had a nice roasted sea bass and I had a perfectly cooked, juicy, tender veal chop. Service was excellent. Gorgeous views off the hotel balcony overlooking Florence 3. Ino - We found Ino through the "Eat Florence" App. It is next to the Uffizi but in a quiet alley. They have about 20 different types of paninis. We settled on a spicy sausage and blue cheese panini which was delicious. Wonderful crispy bread. Very enjoyable and cheap. 4. Lots of Gelato - We pretty much stopped at every gelato place that was open in town. Of particular interest was Gelateria del Neri - they had an interesting blue cheese gelato which was quite delicious if you like blue cheese. SAlty and very rich. 5. Zeb - Zeb was quite delicious. It is a mom and son that make numerous items each day. You sit at a counter and eat whatever they got. We had a delicious fresh pici with pesto which was very good. We also had a wonderful eggplant parm which was easily one of the best I have ever had. Gorgeous perfectly cooked eggplant (not bitter at all), gooey cheese, tomato and loads of herbs and olive oil. Amazing. 6. Enoteca Pitti Gola - This was the best meal we had in Italy, destroying the many Michelin-starred places we dined at. This is a small wine bar across from the Pitti Palace. The hosts are gracious, speak perfect English (not a requirement, but nice when you want to learn about wine) and love wine and food. We basically told the owners to bring us food and the best wine they had and they obliged. We had a number of wines from small producers (and a nice 1971 Chianti - delicious) and some delicious food. We had a bucatini with burratta and tomato which was delicious. Perfectly cooked, tender, and flavorful - very simple but clearly the chef is very skilled. Best pasta dish I have had. We also had an amazing tomato and tuscan bread terrine. Deceptively simple but amazing flavor. The menu is very limited, but this food was superb. And a great value. I think we had 9 1/2 glass pours of wine and a number of entrees for less than $100. Highly recommended.

This was my favorite item I had at Casa Luca so far. Really good tomatoes, creamy mozzarella, a few crumbles of something (not really sure, I think bread) and a delicious sauce that was somewhat reminiscent of Kraft Catalina dressing (in a good way). I could have eaten several ramekins of this.

If had the pleasure of trying a pretty nasty energy drink at the Fancy Food Show a few weeks ago. This product, new to the market direct from Austria, provides all the energy you are looking for in an energy drink AND freshens breath. Take two parts Red Bull, 1 part Listerine Cool mint and shake and you have a liquid that is quite similar to what is in their cans. http://www.powerfresh.eu/product.php No, really, this is for real.

Went yesterday. Thought it was pretty good, though I have little or no experience with bibimbap. It is basically like Chipotle - pick a rice, pick a meat, pick your veges. Rather filling meal. The location is very odd and doesn't get much foot traffic though. It is on the 19th St side of the Kramerbooks block.

Mugaritz was one of the worst meals I have ever had. What courses were standouts for you?

I'm inclined to say this isn't opening. While the build out appears to be done, all signage is down and it has been dark for weeks.