jiveturk21

When I went (maybe about four years ago), the tasting at Archery Summit was $15 per person (it was waived when we bought some wine from them). I remember the tasting being three wines, so I would agree that $15 is a bit steep for three wines, but each wine that we tasted was being sold for more than $60. At the same time, we were there at 10:15 AM on a Tuesday, so it was just us and the pourer, and he kept filling up our glasses with a wide variety of other wines not on the tasting list. So, for us, it was a great deal. But, if they truly only pour you three wines for $15 and don't waive the fee and don't pour you extra and don't talk to you for an hour because they are jammed, then it could be considered a bad value.

A vacation with a three month old is not really a vacation, it is really just a trip where you have to take care of your daughter in a location that is different than where you live. Yeah, it is cool to see new things and go new places, but it is damn tiring. However, when you are on a plane for 9 total hours and your daughter cries a grand total of zero minutes, that's pretty badass. Elote was on vacation while we were there (two weeks). Boos all around on that one. Quince in Jerome was the surprise meal of the week, mostly because we had no expectations when we walked into it. To begin, they prepared the only margarita (for that matter, mixed drink) that I had all week that was great. Second, the food was outstanding. I don't know what authentic Mexican food is, but I will tell you that what we had at Quince overshadows anything that I have had in DC. Che Ah Chi at the Enchanment Resort was ambitious and hit on almost of the dishes that we tried. Dahl and Diluca was pretty good Italian. I didn't expect much out in the desert, but it surprised us, especially from a setting and service perspective. Heartline was terrible for breakfast, any diner would be better. Javelina Cantina is typical crappy Tex-Mex food. We went there because Elote was closed, so I was already disappointed, but once I began to ate there, I became much more sad (sadder?). The Golden Goose was surprisingly good for sandwiches, even if it is connected to a Super Eight Motel. Another great surprise was the Red Raven in Williams (stopped there on the way back from the Grand Canyon), definitely THE place to go if you are driving through town. Sedona Memories Cafe has incredible sandwiches and cookies, but they are only open 10-2:00 PM Monday through Friday and only have outdoor seating. Manzanita had solid German food (you wouldn't guess by the name) and is a good lunch stop if you are tasting some wine in the Verde Valley.

My winery recommendations for the Willamette Valley are Archery Summit, Four Graces, Penner Ash, Domaine Serene, Patricia Green, Sineann and Torii Mor.

I think that you have a legitimate gripe here. Even if you had a party of three, they would seat you at a four-top, so as long as you have three people there, they should seat you. Same with a party of two, with one person there, or a party of six, with five people there. This happened to me most recently at Circa in Clarendon, maybe a year or so ago, and I argued with the hostess about it for maybe ten minutes or so. In the end, she agreed with me and sat us, but she was very unpleasant about it.

Ha! We actually did get chips and salsa, I just didn't really have any because I was feeding our newborn at the time, so I can't speak to it, but my wife said that it was average, at best. My wife commented on how it was ridiculous that they had chips and salsa, because it is an Italian place, and one of our dining companions decided to order the appetizer anyway because it says on the menu that "it's super famous" (or something like that). He is one of those guys that is oblivious to his surroundings and would walk by a restaurant with a sign that said "World Famous Burgers", and he'd go in there and try one of the burgers because the Hamburger Board of the World deemed them world famous.

Went to Pelano's on Monday night for dinner. I have been wanting to go there for months, solely because it is around the corner from my house. I also want to see what became of the Tuesday's space, the only barber shop/restaurant that I have ever seen in my life! Since Tuesday's closed (maybe seven years ago?) it has been a pilates studio, some campaign headquarters, a halal butcher (I think) and maybe a few more places. Anyway, Pelano's is small and generic. It is family run, which was nice to see, we even had their third grader take our drink order when we got there on Monday night. He couldn't take our wine order, so he had to call in the big guns (mom). They have one white and one red, she couldn't really explain what either of them was, but we ordered the red anyway. It ended up being a merlot/cab/sangiovese blend from Italy that was served way too warm, but a few minutes in the fridge solved that problem (the wine still sucked). Food was a mixed bag. Actually, let me rephrase that. The white pizza that we had ($14.95) was awesome! Clearly, this crust is not in the same league as Orso or anyone of that ilk, but it was damn good with great toppings. The rest of the food (spaghetti with meatballs, chicken parmesan) was what you would generally expect of a local Italian restaurant in Northern Virginia - overcooked pasta, sweet sauce, processed meat. But, in the end, I will go back to support the family business and get the white pizza again. I will likely try other pizzas there in the future, if I can ever get over the crazy pricing structure that they have there ($9.95 for a cheese pizza, $13.95 for pepperoni, $14.95 for sausage - WTF!?).

Although not very recent (earlier in the year), we had an awesome team dinner here (about 9 or 10 people) and would highly recommend it to anyone doing that type of thing. The drinks were fun and interesting, and the menu was varied enough for anyone's taste. And, even though it was crowded as the night went on, we could have fun and still hear each other talk. So, while it is not a ground-breaking restaurant that will blow you away, it is a fun spot good for larger groups that are just trying to have a good time.

As you can see, when I wrote this one year ago, I was very disappointed with my experience at Virtue. However, since that time, there have been a multitude of positive comments from this community as well as from many of my friends. Thus, as it was dinner club night and Old Town is very close to our new office, I picked Virtue as the location for our party of eight last night. In short, I wish that I revisited what I wrote a year ago instead of being disappointed at Virtue again. The setting is still great, perfect for a Tuesday night as it wasn't too crowded and, thus, not very loud. Beers were enjoyed by most at the table, they were all very happy with the selections. The wine list seemed to be unchanged from my previous visit and, if it did change, it was still short and uninspired. I give them credit for not serving our multiple bottles of syrah (pretty bad) and zinfandel (quite good) too warm, but I would still like to see more of an effort here. As was the case with my first visit, we had a server in training. Again, I don't have a problem with that, but the person training that server has to be around much more as the new server clearly needed help. However, in the long run, all of this wouldn't have mattered if the food was great, but it just wasn't. Deviled eggs as an appetizer was the standout with the whipped yolks almost touching the ceiling. The Filipino style chicken wings were a good value, but the only flavor that I seemed to taste was soy sauce, making it too one note. The chips (fries) were undercooked and soggy, even if served piping hot. The cheese plate was actually quite good, but not served with enough bread or accompaniments. So, we ordered the bread basket, which had plenty of bread (seven or eight slices) for the $3 price tag, but the bread was across the board dry and only came with two pats of butter for the entire basket. We asked for more butter several times, but it never came. As far as the entrees are concerned, I only tasted my own (collard green ravioli with veal sweetbreads) and it was a mixed bag. The sweetbreads were awesome and I enjoyed the pasta itself, but the collard greens held too much water in them making the already watery sauce a puddle once I cut into the ravioli. On the flip side, the desserts (bread pudding, buttermilk doughnuts, cookies and cream) were outstanding, particularly the cookies in the cookies and cream dessert. In the long run, I will always frequent this group's restaurants, in fact, we have eaten at Eve and the Majestic in the last month, but I simply will not return to Virtue again. It may have been an off night, again, but I can't keep spending money hoping that they will get it right the night that I happen to show up.

Dear Chef Isabella, If you are going to charge $6 for six yuca fries, can you please put that profit into an air conditioner that works? Thanks, Tony PS: With that being said, I quite enjoyed our meal at Bandolero last night. I will agree with others that the pricing seems to be a bit high, as evidenced by my first sentence, but other than the absurd price on the yuca fries, I felt that the other five dishes that we ordered were worth the money. Would I have wanted to pay a dollar or two less for each dish? Of course, but I also have to remind myself that this is a restaurant in Georgetown with people literally lined up out the door to walk inside, so the prices were to be expected. Sopes were great, suckling pig tacos, nachos and short ribs were very good, pork meatballs were dry and the aforementioned yuca fries were overpriced. Drinks (five total) were solid across the board, with their version of an old fashioned being my favorite and one of the better drinks I have had this year. Our server was kind of a douche, but the runners were very nice and fun to talk to. Eye candy, as always, was an added bonus.

Before I rip apart Rustico in Ballston for the service debacle that we had to deal with on Saturday night, let me first say that the beer was cold, the drinks were flowing and the food, for the most part, was great. With that being said, how many times can a server use "we're busy" as an excuse for screwing up everything all night long? Him routinely forgetting to bring out drinks - we're busy. Him constantly pushing us to place our orders when we told him, repeatedly, to slow the hell down - we're busy. Him never once clearing a plate from our table all night, making for a comical situation when the food runners came out with our pizzas and had no where to put them - we're busy. Him not even asking us if we wanted dessert, even though we asked for a dessert menu several times - we're busy. Him disappearing for 20 minutes after we asked for our bill - we're busy. Listen, I know that you are busy, but being busy (it seemed like typical weekend night traffic) isn't the reason why you suck as a server, you sucking as a server is the reason why you suck as a server. But, he got the last laught, didn't he? Party of eight, 18% gratuity added to the bill before being delivered to our table.

My sentiments exactly. The rising prices at Fiola will likely keep me from going every six months to maybe once a year. But, when they are packed to the gills every single night, I can't blame them. In a similar way, I think that the same can be said for many food trucks in the area. Food trucks, before they became super popular, used to be a cheap way to get relatively good food. Now you walk by and see places selling $10, $12, $15 sandwiches that, while tasty, are more expensive than similar sandwiches in sit down restaurants. But, if there is a 30 minute line for three hours for these sandwiches, what do you expect them to do!?

These types of closings are always interesting to me. The last time I was at Zola and Potenza, both within the last year, both were packed. So, in seeing that, I would assume that these places were still making good money. Thus, maybe the fact that the company no longer wanted to focus on restaurants is the real reason that they are closing down the spots. Is that actually possible? Do restaurants really close because people just no longer want to run them? Or, is this just a better way of saying it than, "The restaurants just aren't doing that well?" I guess that I am being too cynical here, but I liken this to sports coaches that retire to spend more time with their families, but they almost always go back to coaching because a great job opportunity comes along. And, just to be clear, I am not trying to be an ass about this, I am just generally interested in why restaurants go out of business and what percentage is for this reason vs. not doing well vs. bad management, etc.

Heading there for a family trip in August. Any recommendations of any sort - restaurants, wineries, attractions, etc. - would be appreciated.

I have watched this show on and off over the years and have not only been disappointed, but quite honestly, it made me pretty sad. But, we have been watching this season and it is light years better than it has been in the past. For starters, they split the contestants into three teams (Bobby Flay, Giada, Alton Brown) and it is awesome to see the competitiveness between those three people come out to play. Second, the quality of the chefs seems to be much better than in the past. Am I sure of this? Absolutely not, because I can't taste the food, but the technique seems to be there on several contestants. Third, and certainly not least, the annoying factor seems to be absent from most of the chefs, which means a hell of a lot to me. We will see how it goes, one of the better chefs (Eric) got kicked off this week because he didn't have enough personality, but here's hoping that they can find a few chefs that cook well and can handle a show.

Other than a pretty pedestrian glass of sangria at the bar on Monday night (isn't all sangria in restaurants pretty crappy these days!?) and a hostess that was clearly clueless, I have to say that my first visit to Boqueria was excellent. Sitting outside on a beautiful night with great company makes almost every restaurant worthwhile, but our server kept bringing out plate after plate of delicious food from the kitchen. Particular standouts were the beef and potato croquettes, quail eggs and chorizo on toast, lamb skewers and the squid ink pasta with shellfish that absolutely stole the show. In fact, other than a standard beet salad dish, every single dish that we had (a lot of dishes with seven people) I would grade at a B+ or higher. Overall, simply a great place to eat.

I don't know the details of her taking time off of Iron Chef, but I am pretty sure that they filmed this show in a matter of weeks, as opposed to constant back and forth to NYC for Iron Chef, so maybe that is why she is able to pull it off? It is not like she says more than 10 words per episode anyway. The concept for this show is great, but I am still iffy on the execution. I hate drama in these shows, which is why some seasons of Top Chef suck while others are awesome, so that has gotten to me thus far. I think that it would be much better if the judges voted off people as opposed to the contestants.

We were there in July 2010, but I still imagine that Vij's and West are still as good as ever. Vij's, hands down, is the best Indian food that I have had. Can it be expensive? Yes, but it is a laid back atmosphere and loads of fun to eat there. West is awesome as well, maybe a bit more formal, but not so formal that it is stuffy (maybe similar to Proof?). It can be expensive as well, but with both of these places, I think that you can comfortably go to both without breaking the bank.

In my opinion, our dinner at Mintwood on Wednesday night was our best meal of the year so far. Granted, we have limited our night's out some in 2012 (The Hamilton, Masa 14, Fat Canary, Blue Talon Bistro, Liberty Tavern, Pikayo, Budatai, Marmalade, Adour, Freddy's, Green Pig, Avra, Babbo), but I think that we have been enough places to state that Mintwood clearly is an awesome place for dinner. I don't love Adam's Morgan, in fact, I kind of dislike it, but the setting in the restaurant took you away from that. Service was solid as well, although they asked too often if they could take plates off of our table when we weren't done. As far as the food is concerned, it was top notch across the board. The only thing I wouldn't order again are the maple pork cracklins, but that is more my dislike for pork rinds than anything else. Every single other dish was great to stellar, simply impressive all the way around. Standouts were the lamb tongue moussaka, duck breast and stuffed lamb neck. These are dishes that I would order over and over again, simply that good. The other five or six dishes that we got were great as well, but these were memorable. Great job, great restaurant, looking forward to our trip back there when I can experience more of what they have to offer (alcohol).

Taylor Gourmet. Five Guys. Although, I will say that many Five Guys are just as good as the originals, but there are some bad ones out there as well. Elevation Burger. I never really liked this place, but my wife loves it and has been increasingly disappointed each time that she goes to the one in Falls Church.

I agree with RWBooneJr. above, the prices at Green Pig Bistro will likely rise along with its' popularity. I would prefer that they stay the same, or in the same ballpark, and have them slightly decrease the portions because the best way to eat here is to try a little bit of everything. With that being said, our dinner last night was a promising start to a place that is pretty great already. The bar area was packed, but they have a pretty cool app when you check-in so that you can monitor your waiting time and the groups in front of you. Even though I am currently not drinking, the bottles behind the bar looked interesting and varied. A quick glance at the cocktail, beer and wine list confirmed that they take all seriously, but don't take themselves too seriously (the value was there). The dining room can be loud, lots of hard surfaces all around. It didn't seem like they were filling all of their tables at once last night (people were waiting, tables were open, maybe they didn't want to overwhelm the kitchen?), but when they are packed, with people drinking all night, I guess it will get deafening in there. But, it is a bistro, so I think that you can expect that to happen from time to time. Service was helpful and pleasant, but scattered. I will give them a pass for now, lots to learn and still early on. However, the thing that I did like is that lots of people (servers, hostesses, managers, owners) stopped by the table last night to see how things were going. The food, overall, was very strong. The rabbit cake was superb. The skate was good, but not great. I liked their version of poutine, flavor wise, but I wish they would crisp up their fries more before putting the gravy on. The twice baked potato gnocchi were light and fluffy, but I felt that the sauce was pretty bland. The sweetbreads, in my mind, had too many things going on and not enough sweetbreads. The pieces that I had, however, were cooked perfectly and were flavorful. Duck confit salad was another winner. The parker house rolls were gone in 10 seconds, but please put more butter on the plate next time (everyone loves butter). For dessert, the doughnut was not what we expected and, quite honestly, a bit disappointing. The ice cream and chocolate was solid, but the doughnut itself wasn't quite right. On the other hand, the butterscotch pudding gets early nomination for the best dessert that we have had all year (even better than the Reese's eggs that I am scarfing down from my Easter basket). When all was said an done, the four of us ate for $160 (which includes tax and tip). There were two pregnant ladies and sober me, but my friend was trying to make up for it with several beers and some glasses of wine. Overall, this place is going to be a home run, but still has some things to work on out of the gate. When I pick up my drinking habit again, I see myself sitting at the bar many afternoons and eating my way through the menu.

I go play golf today and I miss all of this discussion, so I am a bit behind and don't have the time to read all of the comments. I make a lot of reservations, as many people on this board probably do. I probably cancel 5% of my reservations, mostly within 48 hours of my reservation because something has come up that I cannot really control (I have to go out of town for work, etc.). On the rare occassion, maybe 1% of the time, I will cancel within a few hours of my reservation, again, always for a very legit reason (I am on my death bed at home, etc.). I have been a no show once in my life, it was at Me Jana, I totally fucked up and spaced on that one, my fault. If they wanted to charge me for that, that would be fine, because it was my mistake. Overall, I don't care if a restaurant takes credit cards or makes me sign a contract because, imagine this, IT IS THEIR CHOICE! They will likely get a hell of a lot less customers, but if they do it, fine with me, it is up to me on whether their conditions are acceptable to me or not. Some restaurants take reservations, some don't take them at all, some take reservations for part of the restaurant or only for certain times or only for certain party sizes. Other restaurants take your credit card number or make you sign a contract, cool with me, sometimes I will take that risk (I really want to go to this place and I can't imagine what we keep me from making my reservation), other times it is not acceptable to me and I don't make the reservation. Listen, I think that everyone's opinion here is valid, I understand this from every single angle. That is why I will always firmly believe that each restaurant should decide, on their own, how they want to handle it (an industry standard would be miserable, just think about the airlines, it is a standard, but everyone hates the airlines). In my mind, this is the only way that all of the consumers will be happy because they are able to make their own decision based on the guidelines laid out before them by the restaurants and restaurants will be happy because they can make their own decision on how to handle their business.

Bern's for dinner followed by a trip to Mons Venus. I had enough of those nights in my 20's, I can barely stay awake for a 9:00 PM reservation these days.

Just got back from our trip to Puerto Rico. I could go on for hours about our trip - the good (Old San Juan is great for history buffs) and the bad (it would be nice if the police dealt with traffic issues as opposed to hitting on women non-stop) - but I will stick to the food. Breakfast at La Bombonera was good, but not worth going out of your way for. The mallorca with bacon and cheese was definitely a different dish and good to try once in your life, but like everything in Puerto Rico, it was way too sweet to have on a regular, or semi-regular basis. Pikayo was our top choice for dinner and it didn't disappoint. Actually, let me rephrase that, what we ordered and ate didn't disappoint us, but I was slightly disappointed with the entree portion of the menu. I can't remember the specifics, but it read something like this - Maine Lobster, Atlantic Salmon, Alaskan Halibut, Colorado Rack of Lamb, etc. Being in Puerto Rico, at the top restaurant on the island, I expected more than what I would normally see on a standard restaurant menu in Anytown, USA. Granted, my guess is that the execution of these dishes would have been better than most, but it was still sad to see. In the end, it didn't matter to us, we ordered all small plates and desserts, and were very happy with what we had. Service was good and attentive, but lacked much personality. We didn't drink, but the wine list was varied and well valued. It was pricey, but the value was fair, they just didn't have many lower priced options. The next night we went to Marmalade. Was it good? Yes. Would I recommened anyone to go there or would I go again? No. They seemed to have a bit more creativity than Pikayo, at least from an entree perspective, but the execution wasn't great. Two appetizers, two entress and two desserts all missed the mark in one way or another. Again, we didn't drink, but the wine list was extremely overpriced ($118 for a 2009 The Prisoner). Service was hot and cold, great at some points and absent at others. The funny thing is that we were talking to some locals the next day and chatted about Marmalade. They said that we did a bad job ordering and if we ordered better, we would have liked it more. Seriously!? If a restaurant is great, it is great, ordering well as opposed to poorly means that the restaurant just isn't good enough. The final night we went to Budatai and, in the end, it was the best place we visited. Maybe we wanted a break from Puerto Rican food, but the Asian-Puerto Rican fusion was solid across the board, no disappointments at all. We were going to go all small plates, but we ended up with some fried rice and sushi to balance it out. Portions were huge and very well valued except for the sushi, which was outrageously expensive compared to the rest of the menu. Service was great and the place was hoppin' on a Monday night, seemed to be a strong mix of locals and tourists. I don't remember looking at the wine list, so I can't comment on that (not drinking is booooooring). Our bills, before tax and tip, were $107, $113 and $114 each night, kind of crazy how that worked out. So, while not drinking sucks, it sure saves a hell of a lot of money. Also, everywhere I went, not just these restaurants, I looked at the cocktail lists and was completely uninspired. Even at the nicest places, I felt that you could easily get a margarita, sangria, mojito, etc., but there was nothing on any menu that made me think, "Hey, I may break my New Year's resolution just for this one drink."

In my experience, the food at PS7's (bar, dining room, tasting menu) has always been awesome. Having Gina there is an added bonus, but I have had many fine cocktails there made by someone other than her. I wouldn't think twice about canceling your reservations if I were you.

Thank you Bravo for ruining my favorite show. I realize that it may say a lot about me that Top Chef is my favorite show, but I don't freakin care, I always look forward to the episode's on Wednesday nights. With that being said, I am fine with them going from Texas to Canada for the finale, they always do it in another locale, but why the terrible challenges? The gondola was bad enough, but having them use an ice pick to get food out of ice blocks was even worse. But wait, they weren't done yet! Then they made these people who have never gone skiing before go cross country skiing and shoot targets to get ingredients!? Are you freakin kidding me!? If Paul doesn't win, I may throw my TV out the window.