Mark Dedrick

Of the food carts in DC I do like TaKorean, at least the bulgogi and tofu takos with the kimchi slaw. And I like both of the Fojol Brothers' offerings, and PORC. And of course the lobster truck. Although I will admit that at least some of the appeal is the novelty of them serving from a truck, and the fact that they're not the same three options that I end up hitting up every single workday.

Today I hit up the relatively new Chupacabra food truck on their stop at Metro Center. I believe they have some sort of connection to Sticky Rice, and there have been rumors on some of the neighborhood blogs that they may have launched this truck with an eye towards opening a brick and mortar place somewhere on H Street. Given my love of tacos and my residence near H, I felt obligated to try it out. They serve several weird tacos, including the Chupagobbler (turkey, stuffing, cranberry relish), a vegan pumpkin taco and a pot roast taco, but I went as traditional as I could, ordering up two carne asada and one al pastor. The verdict? Eh . . . As is the case every time I order tacos at a new place, I really, really wanted to like them. As is too often the case in DC, these were nothing special. The meat in the al pastor was probably the better, and more flavorful of the two, but neither were any great shakes. Both salsas were actually quite good. In the end, the poor quality of the tortillas and the relatively unflavorful meat kind of let the whole operation down. Among food truck tacos I'd probably put them behind District Taco and TaKorean. I'll probably give them another shot, but I certainly won't go out of my way for them.

So, despite the fact that earlier today I devoted approximately 30,000 words to the subject, I realized that I left a couple of places out, and I couldn't live with that. Sticky Rice - Out of every three meals I have here one is good, one is mediocre at best, and one is terrible. Depending on where we are in the cycle I am either boycotting the place or am willing to give it another shot. Since, for right now, it is the only sushi joint remotely near where I live, that cycle will continue. Once the new sushi place opens up further down the strip, I'm hoping that they'll blow me away and knock Sticky Rice out for good. That, or Sticky Rice starts delivering consistently good food and service. The former is more likely. Taylor Gourmet - I love sandwiches. When they first opened, I loved Taylor. I now only sort of like Taylor. The bread is worse. The toppings aren't as consistent in quality or ratios. But every now and then that Pattison Avenue is awesome. And that's why I'll keep going back. I'm curious about their yet to be opened cheesesteak spot, which I think is opening early next year.

In a separate conversation with Don he had asked for my thoughts on different dining on options on H Street, NE, where I live, and this is what I came up with. He then asked that I post them here in this thread. Hope you find this useful, and/or that it sparks some discussion. In my opinion, the Atlas Room is by far the "best" restaurant on this strip, and it is consistently good to great. I wish they would change up their menu a bit more (they switched out vegetables, for example, on their beef entree but the dish remained essentially the same), but that's really my only complaint. Love the bar and cocktails, and I think wine list, while small, is interesting and gets the job done. Toki Underground is my "favorite" H Street restaurant, which is a slightly different thing. It doesn't aim to be high end food, but it is the place I crave if I haven't been for a while. In fact, in typing this, I'm craving kimchee hakata right now. If I had to rank them myself, I'd rank H Street as such (and my apologies for what is a very lengthy missive): 1. Atlas Room 2. Toki Undergound 3. Ethiopic - I don't go as often as to most of the other places, since it is at the far end of the strip from my house, but I think they're worth another look. They are my favorite Ethiopian spot in the city. 4. The Queen Vic - This is probably the place on H where we eat most often. The food is good to very good, some items are excellent, the specials are interesting, the service is typically very good (particularly when Amanda is behind the bar) and they've always been willing to put my game on the television when I've asked. My wife doesn't love their beer list, and hasn't been able to find a go-to yet on their list, which is really our only quibble. 5. Granville Moore's - I tend to really like Granville's. I like the beer list, I really like that their menu is very focused, and I love mussels. I love the look and feel of the place. Usually when I'm there the service is good, and it tends to be excellent when I sit at the downstairs bar, particularly when Matt or Amanda (same as Amanda from the Vic) is working. They are just inconsistent enough, both with food and service, for me to not have it as my favorite or second favorite spot on the strip. I'm still quite happy it's there, but I don't love it as much as I wish I did. 6. Smith Commons - I've had four meals here and have been to the bar many more times than that. There's a lot here to like. They did a great job with the space. The service is usually good to great (with one exception in my experiences there). The beer list is good. Of the four meals I've had there, three were good, and one was terrible. The food seems to be priced about 10 to 20 percent higher than I think it should. The wine list has a lot of interesting choices (a Malbec from Idaho! An Oregon Pinot Noir, but it's from Southern Oregon! A dessert wine from Ohio?), but I think it is more designed to get reactions than it is designed to produce good drinking wines. I've had some fantastic cocktails here, but I've also had to send a Manhattan back because they failed to use bitters. So I like the place, and I will be back, particularly for drinks, but I can't say that I love it. 7. Liberty Tree - Food here is solid. I've never left really disappointed, but with the exception of my first visit during their first week of being open, I've never said "wow" while eating here either. I won't rank the other places on your list, because I don't really see the point, but I will offer some thoughts: Shawafel - I've been once, quite liked it. Worthy addition to the strip, great in the middle of the day when you just want a sandwich. Pho Bar and Grill - I've only been once, about two weeks ago. They still hadn't found a bread vendor, so weren't offering Banh Mi, which is what I wanted, but the food seemed at least worth anther try. I hope they are awesome, but my expectations are a bit more modest. Biergarten Haus - I think the food is terrible. The only thing here I'll eat are the pretzel rolls. Now that the weather seems to be cooling off I can't see myself darkening their door until it's warm enough to hit the patio. Argonaut - You've seen my thoughts. H Street Country Club - When they first opened I was impressed with some of their food and cocktails. I am no longer impressed, and we've taken it completely out of our rotation. Souk - Eh. I want to like it, but I have trouble telling right now if they are even open, they seem to be closed on some evenings that don't make any sense. Sova - For me, the most disappointing stop on the entire strip. I really, really want to like it, and on several occasions I have REALLY liked it. But they hemorrhage staff, losing their best bartenders whenever they attract any level of talent, they are always out of things, and the service can be infuriatingly slow. With other places around now serving decent wine (Smith Common and Atlas Room), and Church and State making better cocktails, we haven't seen a lot of reason to go back. Star and Shamrock - Eh. Totally average. The Big Board - Haven't been, but have heard really good things. Fruit Bat - I don't go very often because I tend to not much like really fruity and sweet cocktails, but it isn't a bad spot. The food, when I've gotten it, has been solid. Church and State - Not on your list, but they probably have the second best cocktails on the strip (after Atlas Room but ahead of Smith Common and Sova). I also like the space, and I'm very glad they're there. Philadelphia Water Ice - I have no idea how they are still in business. They are open very strange hours, they seem surprised to see you when you show up and actually order food, and then they take forever to prepare your order. Not a fan. Horace and Dickies - I like them, and I'm glad they're there. I seldom go there, but I'm glad they're there when I have a hankering for fried fish. The Pug - I love the Pug. I would never eat there, but I love the place. They have a nice beer selection, there is no pretension at all, and you can take your beer upstairs to Toki if you're waiting for a table. Tru Orleans - Not on your list. I'd place it near the bottom. Disappointing. Inspire BBQ - I've been there twice. Solid bbq. Khan's - I've never been, but should probably be on the list somewhere. Dangerously Delicious Pies - Not on the list, their pies are good, if a bit expensive. We tend to only go at the end of a night of drinking. Tacos Impala is now closed, although their full, non-pop-up spot, Impala, will be opening next year. I'm very fired up for this place, which means it will probably be a crushing disappointment, but I love tacos. Hope that's at all useful.

I've gotten eggs on my pizzas there before, but only sunnyside up. Which makes essentially anything better. Would be interested to try it scrambled.

I hate to slag them since they're both the closest bar/restaurant to my house and a place where I've had a number of wonderful evenings, but I really feel that the Argonaut has slipped to the point where it isn't worth going anymore. The last few times I've been the service has been atrocious (having to wait 20 minutes for our waiter to acknowledge us after being seated, some food items arriving ten minutes after the rest of the table, etc), and the food has really fallen off. I was so encouraged both by the look of the place after the fire, and by the dramatically improved quality of the food, but I think they're actually putting out worse food now than before. Their beer selection remains solid, but if I want a pub dining experience we'll go the extra block to the Queen Vic. I hope this changes, because I do want them to succeed.

I agree with many of the others above, this is my favorite pizza in the city by a pretty clear margin. My wife and I will typically just reflexively order the special and know that we won't be disappointed with the results. I enjoy the overall experience more when I can sit at the bar and Anthony is working, but the quality of the pies seems to remain constant regardless. Not a bad beer selection either.

Went again to Toki Underground last night for dinner, and right now this may be my favorite place in the entire city. Folks complain about the wait time (and it is true, last time I went on a weekend we did have a two hour wait to be seated), but I've found that on week nights the wait seldom exceeds 20 minutes. The fact that you can bring your drinks upstairs from the Pug makes things go even more smoothly. Yesterday, one of the specials was a pork bao, which, having loved the bao served during the "pop up" with Eddie Huang a couple of weeks ago, we had to try to start things out. Verdict? Eh. It was tasty, if a bit doughy and dry. On previous visits we have also found the dumplings to be good, but not great, and since we were a small party we elected to focus on the ramen. The kimchi hakata ramen is always my go-to, and delivers a wonderful punch of flavor, and solid heat. I like to throw in some endorphin sauce as well. The egg is pretty much perfect. I've never ordered a second one as an add-on, but I'm sorely tempted. We did order the fried prawn head add-on, and they were wonderful, crispy and flavorful. Service was friendly, knowledgeable and fast, and I love the atmosphere of the place. And it won't break the bank. I'm really happy this place is in my neighborhood.

This is the same thought I had when I saw their intent to charge $5 for a can of PBR.

Thrillest put up a copy of their menu, linked to here: http://www.thrillist.com/files/menus/244531menupopup.jpg I've been excited for that place to open in part because I've been watching their renovations, which have been extensive. The menu looks fine, if a bit expensive for what it appears to be, but the beer and wine list is rather underwhelming.

My wife and I were fans both of Zaytinya and of Top Chef, so as a result we were both very excited to secure a reservation last night to Graffiato. First of all, the restaurant looks very nice, and is actually a bit smaller than I was imagining from the photographs I had seen online prior to opening. We were seated upstairs, which is unfortunately away from the action around the wood oven, but was nonetheless very pleasant. The menu is all small plates, with the exception of the pizzas, and they recommend about four per person. I'd say that's probably on the high side, and many folks could get away with three very comfortably. Because we were having trouble figuring out things on the menu that we did not want to order, and to take the decision-making out of our hands, we went with the chef's selection option, which is $45 per person. I would recommend against doing this. While we liked our meal very much, everything on the tasting was on the regular menu, and it isn't as if you get some sort of deal by getting the tasting. It was a good meal, and a good lesson about how their menu operates. We started with a selection of two American hams and a prosciutto from Italy. The standout of the group was the Benton's smoked country ham, which was outstanding. At about the same time, the Honey Glazed Cippolini Onions came out. The onions were cooked sous vide with garlic and peppers and topped with onion seeds. This dish was definitely good, but not really a standout. It wasn't something that was jumping off the menu at us when we were initially looking it over, and isn't something that we'd necessarily order again. At that point, out came the Escarole Salad, which was warm escarole, baby purple potatoes, guanicale, and a sunny side up egg. It was outstanding. Both my wife and I are a sucker for pretty much any dish that comes with a runny egg on top, and we loved this salad. Only quibble was that the chunks of guanicale could have been a bit larger as they occasionally got lost in the mix, but we would happily order and devour this again. Our next dish was the Sweet Corn Agnolotti, served with chanterelle mushrooms. Again, we were really pleased with this dish. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and each bite exploded with the taste of fresh sweet corn. An excellent dish. We next got the Jersey Shore Pizza, with fried calamari, provolone and a pepper aioli. This was two firsts for us, the first time we had pizza as part of a tasting menu, and the first time we'd had calamari on a pizza. We liked, but didn't love this dish. The calamari was cooked very well, and the pepper aioli added some nice heat to the dish. I think the pizza crust could have been a bit more charred, but on the whole it was a good pie. I'll definitely give one of the other pizzas a shot at some point on a return visit. Next came our two dishes from the wood oven, Octopus, with chickpeas and artichokes and Pork Ribs, with a coriander yogurt sauce. The octopus was by far the better of these two; it was cooked perfectly and was absolutely delicious. The ribs were tender and flavorful, but were a bit dry, although that was rectified a bit by either the yogurt sauce, or by including one of the small orange segments with a bite of pork. To finish, we had the Pistachio Gelato with Nutella Cookies. Both were very good, I really enjoyed the Nutella cookies, in part because of the salt on the outside. Service throughout was very good. We went in expecting a bit of a disaster, as the place was absolutely packed, and had only been open for four days. Instead we found very professional service throughout, and were quite impressed. There were a couple of times that plates came out when our waiter wasn't ready to describe them, which he was very apologetic about, but which didn't bother us at all. He was knowledgeable, friendly and attentive, and the service didn't have the feel of a place that had just opened. We will be back, we won't order the tasting again, we will order the sweet corn agnolotti and the escarole salad, and we're looking forward to working through other parts of the menu. A good addition to the neighborhood.

I ate there today for the first time in about a year. I obviously only had one sandwich (prosciutto piadine), but it was as good as I remember from before. My companion enjoyed his merguez sausage sandwich. If I were you I'd give it a shot.

After my wife and I were discouraged on two previous attempts by reported wait times of around two hours, we finally made it to Toki Underground on Wednesday. Arriving at about 7:45, the wait was only about 20 minutes, which we were happy to spend downstairs at the Pug. The place, as reported elsewhere, is tiny, and features only bar-style seating. We were at the bar facing directly into the kitchen, which we enjoyed as it gave us a chance to interact a little with the chefs, and to see some of what they were doing. Everybody, from the hostess to the waiters to the chefs themselves were extremely friendly. Short review: food was great, and we’ll definitely be back. In a little more depth, we each got an order of ramen (Kimchi for me and curry for my wife) and an order of steamed pork dumplings. I also got the endorphin sauce add on, which is like their version of Sriracha. We loved the ramen. The broth was very flavorful, the kimchi in mine added a really nice level of spice, and the noodles were outstanding. As somebody mentioned up above, the egg is excellent. The dumplings were good, although we preferred the ramen. We'll definitely return, and they're a welcome addition to H Street. I wouldn't wait two hours to eat there, but I'm looking forward to trying the sweetbreads, and some of the other add ons on future trips.

Had dinner there on Saturday night and it was excellent as always. We actually began the evening hoping to eat at Dr. Granville Moore's. The two hour wait left us looking elsewhere, and we were able to get in at the Atlas Room after a less than 45 minute wait, which we spent pleasantly at the bar. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the lamb fritters and pork dumplings were definitely the two most disappointing things we ate all night. The fritters were dry, and while there was plenty of sauce to add moisture, they still came off tasting under-seasoned. The dumplings had an odd texture, and again just didn't seem to have as much flavor as we were hoping for. The third appetizer we split, the short rib raviolis, were fantastic. For entrees, two of us had the duo of pork while I had the duo of lamb. Both were fantastic, with the meat prepared perfectly. The vegetables and sauce were delicious as well. Very nice meal, good service, top notch all around. Will happily return.

I've now been twice, most recently last night, and had very good experiences both times. I agree that it is definitely the best restaurant on H Street, and provides a type of dining experience that doesn't really exist otherwise on that side of the Hill. Last night I had the Seafood Salad (mussels, calamari, scallops and shrimp on couscous) to start, and the Pork and Beans Stew (roast pork loin with white beans, Swiss chard and roast pumpkin) as my entree. My wife went with the mixed green salad with blue cheese and the saddle of lamb. Both the pork and the lamb were cooked perfectly, and everything we had on the plate was delicious. Very happy this place is now in the neighborhood.

I would tend to agree on the Cherry Street. The sandwich I had this weekend was a very good sandwich, and the bread, roast beef and garlic spread were all good. The brie, however, was not a good choice, in my opinion, and was almost unnoticeable. I'll continue to stick with the Pattison Avenue (pork), the Broad Street (chicken cutlet and broccoli rabe) and the 9th Street Italian.

My office is just a block away, and occasionally have to go there for work. I find it consistently terrible.

I was last at Bar Pilar on Wednesday, May 5, and the restaurant was as good as ever. Service was, at times, a bit slow, but that is not unusual for Bar Pilar on a busy night. I can't remember exactly what we had, but I believe we had the anchovies on grilled bread, the frisee salad, the roast pork, the halibut ceviche and at least one other item. It remains one of my absolute favorite places in the city, and my wife and I attempt to eat there every time we see a show at either the 930 Club or the Black Cat.

I've enjoyed both of my meals at Souk, and it is a very affordable dining option on H Street. The space, as you mention, is tiny, although my understanding is that they're opening up their back room soon, which should add an additional 20 or so seats. Also, when I last ate there they still had not received their liquor license, which in my mind was a positive as you could bring your own.

I will try to post with more detail when I have time, but my wife and I were sick of DC this past weekend and made our way to New York. Dinners at Bianca and Momofuku Ko, lunch at Katz's and Serafina's Fabulous Pizza. Two of the four were really, really good, Ko was ridiculous and Serafina was fine (not a destination, just happened to be near the museums we were at). Getting a reservation at Momofuku didn't prove as difficult as I feared. I actually had two at one point, one for Friday and one for Sunday. I think it just takes determination and a fast internet connection. Highly, highly recommend it. I'll be back with a more detailed description of the experience.

I agree very strongly with this. I've been enjoying Taylor sandwiches since they've opened, but since trying the Pattison Avenue I've been unable to order anything else on the menu. I love broccoli rabe, and the hard roll they use stands up very well to the pan drippings. Must try for everyone.

Went today for lunch. It was relatively crowded, but not overly so. You can tell that they tried to design the space to move people through the restaurant efficiently. For the most part this worked, although the big menu near the entrance created a bit of a choke point in front of it. I had the Banh Mi, which I thought was very good. The bread was excellent, the meat was flavorful, the pickled vegetables added a nice spiciness, and it was overall a very nice sandwich. There were a number of other things on the menu that looked tasty as well. As for the comparisons to Breadline, it is, of course, similar. It looks like there are fewer options at this time on the menu, and today they weren't quite as fast in getting their food out. I'll have to eat my way more thoroughly through the menu before I make a final judgment, however.

My co-worker and I took a field trip to Hyattsville and Taqueria La Placita today for lunch, and it is the real deal. Between us we sampled five of the fourteen available options, and all of them were delicious. We sampled the barbacoa, bistec, cesina, lengua and chorizo. All fantastic. If forced to choose, at this point, I think I'd go with the cesina, but from what we tried you just can't go wrong. We followed our meal with some pastries from La Flor de la Puebla next door. All in all an excellent Friday field trip. We will definitely return. I am curious about the other taquerias in the immediate vicinity. Tacos Azteca was completely empty when we went by, but one further south appeared full.

Really? I was there last night (Tuesday night) and paid with a credit card no problem. My experience last night was much better than before. Almost no line, and as a result the food came out very quickly. Burger and fries were both good, and if it remains that quick to get in and out I'll certainly return.

As an FYI, Breadline added tomatoes to the menu for the summer about a week or so ago.