Mark Dedrick
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Everything posted by Mark Dedrick
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I didn't realize Cusbah did delivery actually, but I'll give that a shot. I will say that we had quite low expectations going in, which is why I'm hesitant to rave about it too much. But all three of us at the table really enjoyed our food. I haven't tried Chicken and Rice. I'll have to give it a go. I've actually not been super-adventurous in trying the nondescript spots on H Street. Those that I have tried (Citi Pizza) have justified that decision, but I need to probably stop in at some of them.- 12 replies
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- H Street Corridor
- Indian
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I couldn't find a topic on this place. If it exists, my apologies. We went to Cusbah late last week, and were impressed. The food was very good, extremely flavorful (they were not afraid to use heat), and extremely affordable. My goat vindaloo was $11, while my wife's chicken tikka makhni was $9, and it was more than enough food for us. They had some decent drink specials as well (and some appalling sounding mixed drinks, which involved Goldschlager and Jagermeister mixed together). I wouldn't travel to go here, but it's definitely the best Indian food I've had on the Hill (which is, admittedly, a low bar).
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Mugaritz was the best meal I've ever had in my life. And I heartily endorse the wander and graze concept. I didn't have a bad bite of food anywhere in the town. Stop in wherever you see people and order what looks good. You won't go wrong.
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We ate at NoPa a few weeks ago. While our experience was good on the whole, I would say that it suffered in our opinion due to high expectations we had (Rasika, Bibiana, etc). I'd go back, but I think they have a bit of work to do.
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Absolutely love Spain, and Barcelona in particular (although Madrid is fantastic as well, and I don't know that I've ever eaten as well as I did in San Sebastian). I'd start your Madrid planning by checking out the suggestions Gerry Dawes gave me, both during his chat, and in the Madrid section proper. In Barcelona, our favorite single spot was Pinoxto Bar. Make sure you stop here. More to come later.
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I will say, the past two times I've been in the fish and chips were extremely disappointing (or at least the fish portion). Just way too much breading, to the point that it was like eating raw dough at times. I agree with JoshNE, we used to go very regularly, but have now essentially taken it out of the rotation. Which is a real shame, we used to enjoy the place.
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Given the ownership I'm not surprised this works better as a bar than as a restaurant. And, just looking in while walking by it certainly looks more like a bar than a restaurant.
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When looking for a place to grab a bite and a couple of drinks before a show at the 9:30 Club there are many worse options than Dickson. Much of the menu is not terribly exciting, but the ribeye banh mi remains fantastic. And they have a number of wines from $8-10 a glass, which may not sound like much of a deal, but I'm having a harder and harder time finding wines by the glass at that price point.
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No complaints on how it was listed/sold, we were informed of this when we ordered. It was described as a six ounce prawn, which might well have been the case, although a significant percentage of that was the head. It was very good, but we all essentially ended up with one bite of shrimp for $22. Again, I don't want to get too caught up in the nitpicking, we enjoyed our experience across the board, there were just a few things we didn't enjoy quite as much.
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This is a fair question, but I'd say definitely. The pieces of bread were small, we had a ton of meat left over, and we all left uncomfortably stuffed.
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I went with a group of four on Saturday, and had a very good experience. I'd recommend it. Here are a few thoughts while things are still fresh on my mind: The place is much more open now than when it was PS7. The bar here feels much more a part of the rest of the restaurant. It remains, however, a massive space, and it wasn't close to full, even during prime hours on a Saturday night (we were there from about 7:30 through 10:30). Pretty much everything on the menu has been on the grill. Obviously steaks, fish, etc. But also grilled, charred bread, smoked olive oil, smoked salt, charred beets, etc. The menu is designed for sharing, pretty much across the board, so that's what we did, splitting three appetizers and three entrees and three sides for four people. Our appetizers (Burnt Tomato and Grilled Bread Salad, Charred Beets with Goat Cheese and Grilled Octopus Causa) were all fantastic. Portions seemed appropriate for appetizers. Bread is complimentary, but a $2 charge is added for refills. This seemed completely reasonable to us, although each refill was progressively smaller (seven pieces with the original order, five on the first refill, four on the second). Not a complaint, just a comment. We kept ordering refills because the bread with the smoked salt is really good. For our entrees we ordered the 16 oz Dry-Aged Prime NY Strip ($44), the Grilled Jumbo Head-On Prawn ($22) and a smoked pork shoulder special (we didn't know it until the check arrived, but the cost of this was $24). When we asked about the volume of food we had ordered we were talked into also getting the Del Campo Chorizo ($9). You can pick sauces to come out on the side, and on our waiter's recommendation we got the Traditional Chimichurri and the Salsa Criolla. The food comes out on a giant cutting board, with smoked herbs underneath, and is a real show-stopper of a presentation. When it arrived it became very clear that we had ordered a ridiculous amount of food. This was in part because the kitchen sent out a complimentary massive marrow bone, but even without this we had way too much food. Everything was between good and excellent. The pork shoulder, with the Salsa Criolla, was the star. It was bursting with flavor. Everybody loved it. The steak was very good, and cooked perfectly. The prawn was a single prawn. Yes, it was large, but we all pretty much agreed that we could have cut that out and wouldn't have missed it. Same for the chorizo. It was good, but we certainly didn't need it. Service was fantastic throughout the night (with the one exception of the waiter suggesting we add chorizo to our order), including wine service. I'd like to come back and try the drinks at the bar.
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After sampling at a number of the new (or at least new-ish) taco places in DC itself, we hit up La Placita this past Saturday. Until a new place delivers me a taco that is half as good as what I got at La Placita (for less than $2.50 per taco) I'll be disappointed. There's just no comparison right now.
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Definitely second the Fiola recommendation. I'd throw Rasika into the mix as well.
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I stopped in last night, looking for a relatively fast and inexpensive dinner before another engagement. On that front it succeeded. Overall, however, just meh. Everything was fine, but nothing really stood out. I got Al Pastor, carne asada and legua. I didn't have the same overpowering pineapple problems that others did on this thread, so perhaps they've fixed that. It was probably my favorite of the three, but it wasn't spectacular. The lengua was surprisingly flavorless. And I agree with the comments upthread on the tortillas, they were not a good base on which to build these tacos. And, DanielK, you're right, the guacamole was an incredibly small serving for $5.50. In conclusion, I'd return if I were looking for a similarly cheap and quick meal, and I wouldn't veto it if somebody else really wanted to eat there. But I certainly won't travel out of my way to get there. I'd also like to ding them for getting Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" stuck in my head. This is nearly unforgivable, and persistent, and I caught myself humming it just now in the elevator.
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- U Street Corridor
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Thanks, that's useful intelligence. Bobby Flay Steak and American Cut were the two places we had been considering, but you're right regarding the status of the entire Revel operation at that point.
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I'm headed to Atlantic City later this year, in September with a group. One of our dinners there will need to be at a steakhouse. Does anybody have any strong recommendations in this area?
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Good to hear. I'll make sure to get there earlier next time and pick one up.
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The H Street market has added two vendors this year, neither of which I've actually purchased anything from. They've added a crab vendor, although all of the products are pre-made, either crab cakes or various crab dips, not just whole crabs. The person who runs it claims that the crab came out of the water that morning, which I can't comment on. I looked into the crab cakes last weekend, but the cost was a bit steeper than what I wanted to pay ($20 for two crab cakes). The other new vendor is a baker selling croissants. This past weekend was their first day at H Street, and they were completely sold out before I arrived at around 11 am.
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Not sure if they ever get completely "full", but I know walking through the Hamilton at lunch (I work in the building so I'll enter through the back) that it certainly looks full, or at least very close to full (not counting the downstairs). And I know that's the case often on weeknights as well for dinner. All three bars will get slammed, and reservations can be impossible to get. I essentially never seek out dining at the Hamilton, but it's extremely convenient, it is way better than the other option in my building, and the food is acceptable to a wide range of diners, which makes it work well with clients. The half price sushi from 3-6 is also a fantastic deal, and is great if I had to skip lunch.
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Even as large as it is, getting a reservation for lunch at the Hamilton can be a challenge. The secret is to just walk in and have a seat at the sushi bar. These seats are almost never full (in fact today, at lunch, my wife and I were the only people at the ten seat counter until halfway through our meal), and you can order anything from the entire menu. The sushi is totally fine, and the menu across the board is way better than Old Ebbitt.
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By the White House Farmers Market
Mark Dedrick replied to zoramargolis's topic in Farms and Farmers' Markets
If you're looking for ramps, two different vendors at this market have them. Less expensive than at the Penn Quarter market, and you don't have to purchase mushrooms to have the option to buy ramps. -
Just a quick post to remind folks that Vinoteca has a pretty dang good happy hour, and with the weather turning nicer they have a quite nice patio as well (although I will warn folks that Monday-Wednesday on most weeks DC Bocce plays matches back there, which doesn't mean that the patio is closed, but does mean that there will be a lot of people). Many glasses of wine are $5, they have some number of beer specials, and all of their food on the back patio is discounted. My roast beef and kimchi sandwich last night was delicious.
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This may not be totally fair since they're either in between chefs, or just breaking in a new chef, but Friday's dinner at the Vic (due to a tight dining window on our end, and traditional H Street crowds) was extremely disappointing. Service was great, beer list was fantastic as always. But when I finished my fish and chips I had a pile of breading left over on my plate, not because I'm opposed to eating it, but because there was probably more breading than fish in my order. The chips, traditionally the strong suit, were also disappointing, and quite overcooked. Not great.
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I went to their Cinco de Mayo party in their outdoor space yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Good crowd, good beer (from 3 Stars), and quite good food,although nothing too involved given the setting. The real stars were the tortillas (homemade, to the point where occasionally they would have to delay selling tacos because they tortilla making had fallen behind) and the tamales (chicken mole, chicken poblano and something else that I can't remember). They were wonderful. Anyhow, I'm excited about them opening, my expectations are reasonably high.
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Per Frozen Tropics they're aiming for a soft opening this week. I hope they're good. http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/2013/05/chupacabra-soft-opening-thursday.html
