Jump to content

jiveturk21

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    517

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Everything posted by jiveturk21

  1. jiveturk21
    I went to lunch here today. I am happy that I got takeout because the restaurant definitely had a funny smell (not a food smell, it was more of a this-place-needs-to-be-cleaned/renovated smell). I don't believe that I have ever had Malaysian food before, so I am happy that I went, but I don't know if I will return (unless someone that knows something about Malaysian food is my companion). The chicken lo bak was interesting, but I expected more flavor from it (it looked like it would be packed with flavor). My entrée - char kuih teow - was even more flavorless, kind of like Pad See Ew's flavorless cousin.
  2. jiveturk21
    I have a serious love/hate relationship with the Whole Foods in Fairfax. Their seafood "restaurant" consistently churns out great quality dishes that are a good value, but the service is always painfully slow and they only have REALLY TALL chairs, making eating there with a one year old impossible. I also love their wine bar upstairs, a good, comfortable place to waste some time and drink some wine. At the same time, I find that about half of the wine in the wine coolers/machines is different than the descriptions/prices posted and that much of the wine has been there for a LONG time. Overall, they have this great concept with the wine bar, but they clearly do not take care of it appropriately. And, in my mind, the food at Whole Foods is always top notch. Yes, it can be pricey, but they have a wide variety of items and the people there are always willing to help (much more so than Wegman's). However, if you want to do any "regular" shopping at Whole Foods (paper towels, deodorant, etc.), be prepared to pay out your ass and maybe not smell that great (recycled roots and berries and leaves don't make the best deodorant). And, yes, I am kind of kidding about that last one. However, I finally realized this weekend why we only visit this Whole Foods maybe once every three or four months as opposed to several times a month. It's the pretentious assholes that frequent the store (I guess I may be considered one of them, I don't know). We wanted to eat at the "sports bar" there on Saturday. I was in line to order at the counter behind a mom (I'd say early 40's). During the course of her ordering (a good 8-10 minutes for 3 people), this is what happened. She asked to see the packaging for the buns that they use for their burgers. She, or her family, didn't have any allergies, she just wanted to make sure that the buns they used were up to snuff. She asked to have a taste of EVERY wine that they have before ordering a glass. She asked what kind of sour cream they use on their nachos, not if it was full fat or fat free or whatever, but she wanted to know the brand. At the end of her ordering lunch, she told the staff, "You did such a great job taking care of us, when I am done eating lunch, I am going to go home and blog about my experience here." When she finally was done ordering, the guy taking the orders apologized for the wait and actually gave us our fries for free (that was $4 worth of "upgrades" for our 2 dishes). I almost wish that he hadn't been so nice so I could definitively shut the door on going there again. I guess I will just have to go back and try to avoid these freakin people that somehow I encounter on almost a weekly basis these days.
  3. jiveturk21
    If you are staying at the Borgata, or want to visit, I think that you can pick Old Homestead or Bobby Flay Steak and walk away happy. The food at Old Homestead is a bit more traditional, Booby Flay Steak is a bit more creative. I also heard good things from a fried about American Cut at the Revel, but who knows whether the resort will even be open in September. One place that I would definitely avoid is Simon Prime at the Hilton. We got dragged there by a friend several years ago and it was borderline terrible.
  4. jiveturk21
    I had the Andouille po boy for lunch today. Simply put, it was damn good. I am not a po boy bread expert, but whatever bread this was, whether traditional or not, was very good. The sandwich was loaded with Andouille, but was not overpacked. It was also juicy enough, but not so juicy/greasy that the sandwich was falling apart. Overall, this is one of many sandwiches that I will get here over the next few months. On the other hand, I will not be returning for the crab boil potato salad. While I give them props for serving a legit amount for a legit price ($1.50), I can say that I only finished half of it because it was devoid of flavor. I felt that the "sauce" had almost no flavor and the potatoes really had no flavor. When making potato salad, I don't think that it is as simple as making the sauce, making the potatoes and slapping it together, the potatoes should be seasoned as they are cooked. Next time I go there, I will stick with one of the many flavors of Zapp's chips that they have. And, does anyone know the story behind the Heinz Ketchup costing like $50+? I meant to ask the guy working there, but forgot until I was already a block away.
  5. jiveturk21
    Don, I agree with you on this. I have complained to managers in the past and, to be honest, it makes the rest of the night kind of miserable (and wary of the food coming out of the kitchen). Since my dad doesn't go out to eat often, and never in the city, we just dealt with it and enjoyed the food (and company). I did consider saying something to the manager after we had dinner, but decided against it. Then again, I come on this board and bitch about it, so I'm not sure if that is any better. It basically seems like a lose, lose, lose situation all the way around. I do chalk it up to one bad server though. I think that he saw two people eating dinner at 5:30 PM and determined that we were rubes and could be bullied into ordering whatever he told us to.
  6. jiveturk21
    Way back in the day, I want to say 2000 or 2001, I had dinner at Equinox. I don't remember any specifics of dinner that night, but it was early into my foray of "fine dining" and I remember liking it quite a bit. I have not returned since that night, for no reason other than there are a ton of restaurants in DC and I want to try them all. So, my father and I went on Friday night for dinner because it is close-ish to Constitution Hall, where we went to go see something later that night. Even though it was a relatively nice evening, they did not allow us to sit outside when I asked. They did, however, allow us to sit by the window on the inside, so it gave us sort of an outdoor feel, I guess. After sitting down, I ordered some Pappy Van Winkle ($16) from the spirit list. Our waiter came back to me, stated that they had run out of it, but showed me a bottle of Basil Hayden's and said that I could have that for the same price. It would have been generous of him except for the fact that it was $2 less ($14) on their spirit list than Pappy Van Winkle. So, I ordered a Sazerac which ended up being so sweet that I let my dad drink it (he has a higher tolerance for terrible drinks than I do). As we started looking through the menu, we realized that a pre-theater menu was not put on our table, so we asked our waiter for it. He went to get it for us, came back five minutes later without it, and asked us if we were ready to order. We asked for the pre-theater menu again and he did the same thing again. So, I walked up to the hostess stand, asked for the pre-theater menu and she gave me two of them. When our waiter came back around, we ordered from the pre-theater menu ($35) and asked what wines were included in the wine pairing ($12), to which he told us, "You don't want to order those, those wines are terrible." He then opened up the wine list for us and recommended a bottle of Pinot Noir that would go "perfectly" with our meal. If I remember correctly, the bottle that he pointed to cost $135. Whatever. My dad quickly looked at the menu, ordered something that was much cheaper (I don't remember exactly what it was), and we were thankful that our order was in and that we would have less contact with our waiter the rest of the evening. As bad as the service was (a jackass simply trying to line his pockets), the food was rather good. The selection on the pre-theater menu was small, but the red pepper soup, hanger steak and pistachio cake were a great deal for $35. In the end, my second visit, 12 or 13 years later, wasn't as good as my first, but minus a bad cocktail and a worse server, Equinox is still putting out good food after all of these years.
  7. jiveturk21
    Just got back from lunch. I really liked my roast pork sandwich, even if a bit pricey at $14 ($12 for a whole, $2 for broccoli rabe). I also wish that they would mix the ingredients together before stuffing the sandwich (pet peeve of mine), but I was able to rectify that messily. Overall, I would say that it is quite good, but there is room for improvement. I think that they were heavy handed with the salt on the chips. I also think the prices were not only high, but sometimes not well thought out. It's $2 extra for broccoli rabe, whether you get a half or a whole, which doesn't make sense to me. They were JAMMED pretty much from 12:30 to 1:00 PM, some of that was simply the crowd, but I think that a good chunk of that was not being too swift with their process yet. Like I said, I like it. I prefer it over Taylor, although it is tough judge since I have only been to Bub and Pop's once. I would say that the chivito is a better sub, but other things that I have had at TakEatEasy haven't been as good. I guess we are going to DC Po'Boy tomorrow to begin judgment on that place as well.
  8. jiveturk21
    I was in Philly for less than 24 hours this weekend, but you can do a lot of damage in that amount of time (especially to the wallet). Lunch at Parc was nice. It was JAMMED at 1:00 PM on Friday and it is a big space, so they must be printing money there. Wine by the glass list was uninspiring, but I had several good cocktails. Lamb sandwich with fries tasted great and was a good value. As is the case with many restaurants trying to replicate the Parisian bistro experience, it was loud as hell and the tables were packed in there. Since most of our lunch was eaten outside of the crazy time, it was OK, but the first few minutes were tough to have a real conversation in the chaos. Drinks at The Dandelion were fantastic. Great choices behind the bar and the bartender knew her stuff. We had one drink at the Hyatt at the Bellevue. The drink was fine, but the space is truly incredible. It was on the 19th floor (I think) and you got a panoramic view of the city as you walked from window to window (easy to do at 4:00 PM). Cool space, I would tell people to go just for that. Dinner at Stateside was solid across the board, but I think that I expected more (it was impossibly hyped up by my friend). Since we ate so early (5:00 PM), they had some good deals on oysters, but the prices are pretty cheap across the board, so you get a good value without a happy hour deal. My rabbit risotto was the best thing that I had, I would say it was a superb dish, but the bites that I had off others plates were merely good. Dessert tasted good, but the portions were small for the price (which seemed strange because the rest of the meal were all good values). We were stuffed, and tipsy, by the time we got to the baseball game, but I did have room for a donut from Federal Donuts that my friend brought to me. It was only one donut (cinnamon sugar) and I have no idea how much it cost, but it was damn good and incredible for something served at a stadium.
  9. jiveturk21
    I had the Faluche Roast Beef ($7.95) for lunch today. The bread was good, but that is where is ended. While I like a good balance in my sandwich (i.e., it doesn't have to be loaded with stuff), it does have to have something in it. Miniscule amounts of roast beef (one piece), grilled artichoke (two pieces), tomatoes (two slices) and spinach (plenty of that), no Roquefort (even though it was advertised as having it). It also took them almost 15 minutes to warm it up for me (to go order, when I ordered it, I was the only one in line). At the same time, the pastries looked awesome, but the prices also were quite outrageous.
  10. jiveturk21
    I often give credit to Top Chef for keeping it fresh all of these seasons, but the format last night was a real shame. The Iron Chef feel to it was fine, and I did like hearing the judges feedback from course to course, but whenever you make it clear who the winner is going to be, it kind of kills the whole purpose of the show. And, while it was interesting to see all of the past winners and what they have accomplished after the show, do we really need to see Ilan talking about anything!?
  11. jiveturk21
    I am still watching the show. I like it better than the first two "audition" episodes, which I thought were terrible, but I still don't really like it very much. The judges, other than Malarkey who is a big dummy, are more bearable than at the beginning, and I like the competitions better as time goes on, but I really don't like the contestants. I think that there is some talent there and they may just edit the show to make everyone seem like a bitching group of donkeys, but they are not a very likable bunch.
  12. jiveturk21
    I agree. I have had very good and very bad experiences at Jose Andres' restaurants in my life. In addition to that, I almost feel that he has become a caricature of himself (not in the most flattering way). But, with that being said, I think that it is generally unfair to criticize a place before going to it, especially when people are criticizing it for having high prices when their prices, for the most part, are in line with their competition. Yes, if you get the most expensive drink at Barmini it will cost you $20 and maybe the least expensive cocktail at Blah Blah Blah is $12, but when you average it all out, you are likely going to pay $14 to $16 for a cocktail at a more upscale place in DC whether it is Barmini or somewhere else.
  13. jiveturk21
    Brunch here yesterday was superb. We have never been to Dino for brunch, we only get here about once a year for dinner, but it was as good in the daylight as it is when it is dark outside. No restaurant will ever be in my regular rotation. I live in the suburbs and have a nine month old. We still go out a lot, but when we do go out, we always want to try somewhere new. Thus, we don't often make it back to Dino, not nearly as often as we would like or other people on this board. But, I will say that if anywhere in DC was going to be in our regular rotation, it would be Dino. And, whenever anyone asks me where to get Italian food, I always will tell them to go to Dino.
  14. jiveturk21
    I never ate at the gas station back in the day, so I can't speak to what the chivito tasted like previously, but it was pretty damn good at TakEatEasy on Friday for lunch. While the $15 price tag (it also comes with fries) may be a bit steep for a sandwich, the sandwich was almost worth it. And, when you consider that you are now eating it in a nice setting, as opposed to a gas station, it makes it close to a good value. By the way, even though I didn't come for the fries, I would appreciate it if they at least tried to put some good fries on the plate. I don't care if they are frozen out of the bag, but cold and soggy is just plain wrong.
  15. jiveturk21
    We had a very good dinner here on Tuesday night. Loved the corned beef, knish and flanken. The DGS appetizing board, schmutzy fries and kreplach were also quite good. I could have done without the striped bass (good, but seeminhly out of place) and the latkes were mediocre (although those apple preserves were out of sight). Cocktails were solid across the board, although I do think that the pours seemed on the small side. Wine list had a good mix and was reasonably valued. The standout dishes, however, were the desserts, especially the babka bread pudding, easily the best dessert that I have had this year. If I had one suggestion, I would find a way to create more bar space. Not that adding more bar space is easy, but in that area, it is going to be a lot easier to get someone to buy an $11 cocktail than a $13 pastrami sandwich.
  16. jiveturk21
    If Brooke doesn't win, I will be shocked. I have watched every season of Top Chef and I can't remember a chef dominating in a way that she is. Now, I am getting older and my memory is turning to mush now that I change a million diapers each day, but she is killing it. By the way, I think that it is BS that the Last Chance Kitchen winner has to face the Save a Chef winner. I didn't even know that there was such a thing, but God forbid a reality show without the audience coming in and fucking everything up by voting a crappy ex-contestant back into the competition at the very end.
  17. jiveturk21
    I'm not sure if this fits into this thread or not, but I am getting sick and tired of servers coming to the table and saying, "I have a wonderful blah blah blah for you tonight." First of all, they don't have shit, the restaurant has it. Secondly, this has gotten so out of control that traffic reporters on the radio are now saying the same thing. "I have a backup on 66 eastbound." Give me a break!
  18. jiveturk21
    I'll still keep watching, but my patience is running short. I liked this episode much more than all the others, but I'm not quite sure how they decide, at the very end, who to kick off the show. Yes, the bottom four get there becasue their food is tasted blindly and scored poorly against the competition, but it seems like the judges discuss who will go home after they know who made the crappy food.
  19. jiveturk21
    That is surprising, given that they should have money to burn at this point, but I will always attest to the fact that running a business is way harder than simply having a good idea (or being a good cook or having good PR).
  20. jiveturk21
    This show, so far, is a piece of crap. Three hours of "auditions" was a bit much to me. I am also convinced that producers are pulling the strings quite a bit (need to make sure that we get enough home cooks in there, and an equal number of men and women, and some young and old people, and some people with compelling life stories). I also think that becomes pretty obvious when all of the judges say, "This taste is outstanding, I loved everything about it, no quibbles, but I just didn't pick you." Then they turn around a pick some dish that most of them hate, but one of them thinks that it shows that they have potential. With ALL of that being said, I will watch next week to see if it gets better after the auditions are done. I have not watched American Idol for years and years, but I couldn't stand the audition episodes of that show either, but I liked it once they got down to business. Maybe it will be the same for me with The Taste.
  21. jiveturk21
    I learned two things today - who Cool Disco Dan is/was and what the hell geliebt is. I would be interested if the owners were actually worried about litigation or if they just didn't want people hating them (for, in my mind, no reason) before they even opened their doors.
  22. jiveturk21
    I may get killed for this, but here it goes. Why the outrage over the name of the doughnut shop and the calls for them to change it? I have never heard of Cool Disco Dan. My guess is that most people that will frequent this shop have never heard of him. The owner made a point to say that this is a homage to Cool Disco Dan, so he has no ill will. As far as I know, Cool Disco Dan has not trademarked his name and, even if he did, I'm not sure that calling your place Cool Disco Donuts would cause some sort of legal issue (I am not a lawyer, I have no idea about this). Has Cool Disco Dan come out and said that he is pissed about this happening (I don't even know if he is alive)? If not, why are people posting comments like these on Washingtonian's site. "You steal a mans name and fame, what a shitty way to get yourself noticed." "I'm positive Cool "Disco" Dan would like more than just a nod to his name. I hope this place fails miserably." "I'm sure when Dan was risking legal and physical well being walking every inch of a crack war-ravaged city, writing his name EVERYWHERE to inspire a little awe and give a little identity/character/culture to this city, he thought, "maybe someday, a trend hopping business group can pimp and exploit my sacrifice, for some money for themselves." "This is a very poor attempt to co-opt the name & legacy of cool "disco" dan....not to mention the aesthetic looks awful. this place does not deserve a single customer and i hope they go away as quickly as they came." Somehow all of these people KNOW how Cool Disco Dan feels about this happening and are wishing complete and utter failure on a business by trying to have a little fun with their shop and naming it after someone that they like and respect. To me, it seems completely over the top.
  23. jiveturk21
    Dinner last night with another couple was great (in some ways), not perfect (in other ways) and utterly overwhelming (sometimes good, sometimes bad). I am still undecided on the setting. Part of me wants to say that I shouldn't care that much that it is in a mall, but sitting in Range, looking out of that wall of glass into a mall (or a hotel or whatever the hell it is), is a little weird. Our table for four was quite small. Not sure if all four tops are like that, but it became almost comical when they started bringing out our food (it felt like we all ordered fajitas at a Mexican restaurant). The restaurant was cold and never really seemed to warm up. The service was OK, not bad, but definitely could have been better. No specific complaints with this, but I walked away thinking "meh." On the flip side, what isn't to like about Range! The cocktails (los rudos, mother-in-law) were spectacular. I liked the layout of their wine list and I enjoyed the selections that they offered. Markup seemed to be reasonable and they definitely took all price ranges into account. The bread basket was a complete and utter success (especially the cheddar chive biscuits). I felt that the pizza (bacon, charred onion, fresh cheese) was just so-so, but everyone else loved it. Pasta was another big hit, especially the goat cheese ravioli, as well as the pumpernickel cassarecci (although if you shave the lamb's tongue in it so that it is almost a negligible amount, you should say that on the menu). Loved the veal heart, pork cheeks and rabbit, pissed that we were too stuffed to get the sweetbreads. And, if you think that the savory dishes at Range are great, wait until you get the dessert. We turned a blind eye to the full desserts and picked off the dessert cart that they were rolling around. Standouts included everything (seriously!), but if I had to pick, I would say that the crinkle cookies and the blondies were my favorite. By the way, I am pretty sure that the dessert bar is going to be a gold mine for Range. I counted up what we ordered and it came to $39, way more than we would ever spend on dessert for the four of us. In the end, the food and drinks were exceptional, the setting and service could use some work. The service, I assume, will get better over time. The setting will be a tougher thing to fix, but minor tweaks can make it more enjoyable overall. But, we will keep coming back for the food, because there sure the hell is a lot of it to go through and everything that we've had so far has been great.
  24. jiveturk21
    This likely will never, ever help anyone, but what the hell. About ten years ago I was on a project in Dublin for a month. We often went to this small stretch of old town and there were several pretty good restaurants down there. The best part about these places is that they were only allowed to charge $5 more per bottle of wine than they paid for it. Whether that is still the case or not, I don't know, but it was pretty sweet.
  25. jiveturk21
    One more thing, the judges were drunk as shit while tasting the fried chicken. I don't get jealous often, but it would have been awesome to sit at the table with all of those people (especially Padma), eat that chicken, drink that wine and look out onto the water. I was impressed, and shocked, but how funny Wolfgang Puck was on the episode. He had some definite laugh out loud lines.
×
×
  • Create New...