Genevieve

Yes, they had the most amazing coconut cake. Bought one from there for my birthday one year and it was incredible. Far better than any other I've ever had. I told my mom about the closing and she was really sad about it - said "where will we go for Mothers' Day now?" and how much she'd miss them. And it's the last place one friend and I had dinner with another beloved friend who died a few months later. She wasn't doing a lot of outings by then, but she very much wanted to see the movie Julie and Julia -- we saw it at Ballston and then had a reservation at Willow afterward, because I knew we'd need a wonderful meal after that movie. Our friend told us that she once cooked the complicated duck dish that is the crowning glory of the Julie section of the movie. And we all delighted in our food and felt it was the perfect place to eat after watching people cook delicious meals for two hours. I never ate at the bar, but I didn't think service had gone downhill in the dining room. We had excellent service the past few times we went there, same as always. I hope that the chefs and pastry chefs and everyone else who works at Willow find good jobs, whether they start a new place (here's hoping) or go somewhere new. And I would dearly love it if the chefs and pastry chefs stay in Arlington or near by . . . but given the office vacancy rate, I don't know how likely that is. (Shirlington could use a new restaurant or two, but given the failures that have happened there, I don't know if they'd risk it.)

Oh, what a shame! It's a terrific restaurant, and has been our go-to spot for Mothers' Day as well as on many other occasions. And there are no other restaurants in Ballston nearly as good. They'll be missed.

Thanks very much for posting the menu!

Julia's Empanadas in Court House/Clarendon (attached to Boccato Gelato) has them also, though not with a lot of sauce. I believe some of the Bolivian restaurants in Arlington carry them, also, but some may have them only on weekends. Edit: I've heard that the Pan American Bakery on Columbia Pike has good ones. "The Best Salteí±as in Arlington? That's Easy." by Matt Leighton on rhlarlington.com

Went last night with a friend and had a really lovely dinner. Would most definitely go back. One small negative - they wouldn't seat me until she was there, and she had trouble finding street parking, so I was at the bar for a good fifteen minutes waiting. However, the bartender made me a terrific mocktail - I told her anything but grapefruit or bitters, and she made me a drink with ginger, lime (I think), mint (with flowers on top, which I've never seen before - the flowers were sticking up out of the glass, so only the leaves were in the drink itself), and rose hip syrup. I really appreciate a place that will go to the trouble to make a good mocktail, instead of saying 'we don't have any'. The bartender also gave me a menu at my request, and later asked if there was anything particular I was looking forward to, and chatted with me about the food (she was very knowledgeable about it). Also not a fan of the bathrooms - only two of them (it is a small place, though), frosted glass doors through which I could see people outside (not perfectly clearly, at least) and hoped they couldn't see me as well, and no hook to hang a purse. Seating: wooden seats/benches are not super comfortable, but there are throw pillows on the benches and booths, which I appreciated. Foodwise it was all wonderful. I ordered the poppyseed gougeres as soon as we sat down, having read here that they're cooked to order and take 10-12 minutes. The waiter then brought menus and told us about the specials (he was very personable and likeable and knew a lot about the food - on the other hand, he doesn't know how to read a room, because he went on for a very long time about the radish special - which had converted him from a radish hater - and didn't pick up that my companion had taken the specials menu and started looking at other items on it. His service overall was a little slow throughout the night, but no other issues.). The specials last night were a local radish salad, a chicken/pork terrine, and artic char tartare in an edible cone with caviar and something else. Not what either of us happened to want to eat, but they all sounded interesting. We ordered: the heirloom tomato salad, the whole roasted eggplant, half portions of both pastas (for me), and artic char entree (my friend). The gougeres came, and they were ethereal and fantastic. My friend has cooked gougeres before and she was very impressed with them. I love Central's gougeres, but these were better. The vegetables came, and my friend exclaimed at how fresh and herby everything smelled. The heirloom tomato salad was very very good, but it wasn't a transcendent experience as Don had. The tomatoes were great (a mix of large and grape-size, red and yellow), the burrata was a generous serving even when split in half between us (it's the second time lately, though, that I've had burrata without that creamy filling that I thought was a defining characteristic, but it was lovely tasting), and there was a little scoop of mint sorbet as well as regular mint. Didn't taste the vanilla much. We both adored the whole roasted baby eggplant. It came with yogurt, toasted hazelnuts, and dill, but the dill must have been light (which was fine by me as it's not my favorite herb). The combination was fantastic. With both vegetable dishes, the produce was amazingly good. I could not decide between the two pastas and got half-portions of both (which I think was a little more expensive than a whole portion of one, but I forgot to check). They were fabulous. I would give the slight edge to the corn tortellini, as the fresh sweet corn flavor was out of this world. The ricotta and spinach (no longer nettle, as on the online menu) ravioli with (two) chanterelles were also marvelous. In both dishes, the pasta was incredibly delicate and perfectly textured (unless you really wanted al dente - with these pastas, I preferred the so-light-it-was-barely-there texture), and the fillings were fresh and wonderful tasting. I wished for more chanterelles, because they were perfect (but it was a half-portion). The sauces were lovely as well. My friend was extremely happy with her arctic char, which came with ribbons of cucumber. For dessert, we shared the buttermilk panna cotta with cherry jam and the stone fruits en papillote. Both were wonderful, and I liked the combination (as the stone fruits alone, with their pour-your-own ricotta sauce but no other accompaniment, would not have quite satisfied my dessert jones). The panna cotta was silky and tangy and the cherry jam (housemade, I think) was great. The plums, apricots and peaches were cooked beautifully and the thin ricotta sauce was a great complement. Two housemade caramels (buttery and delicious) were delivered with the check. While portions aren't huge and we were not stuffed, we certainly were full enough and didn't feel as though we hadn't had enough to eat. The two things I'm sorry I didn't try were both vegetable sides: the grilled trumpet mushrooms with avocado and jalapeno, and the roasted cauliflower, which the bartender said was her favorite, and which I am generally exceptionally fond of. But seasonwise, both seem like they would be great in fall (assuming they stay on the menu, which will change seasonally).

Thank you! That's good to hear. I will head back. (My other concern right after the change had been that it seemed like the most interesting items had been taken off the menu and it was looking dull to me, but their latest menu looks significantly more appealing.)

Are Orso and Vermilion on y'all's lists based on cooking by the current chefs? I'm curious, because I liked both very much under the former chefs, but heard negative things about the replacements and haven't been back. I'd definitely have Willow, Rays the Steaks, Water & Wall, Restaurant Eve (though I haven't been in a long time), and Me Jana.

A Chinese restaurant, Secret Chopsticks, is supposed to open in lower Rosslyn by the end of September, and I believe it will be sit-down and feature dinner as well as lunch. They can definitely use more dinner options!

I'm looking forward to trying it! Glad they have wings and the like, which will get my other family members in there who might not eat ramen. The pictures of the food on their FB page look very appetizing.

I miss Kite Runner - but I'm excited to try Gaijin Ramen Shop. The pix they posted on their FB page looked very appetizing. And since they carry more than ramen, I'll be able to get the family there too (the kiddo will want the wings). If it's good, the only downside will be that ramen doesn't seem like a great takeout food (Kite Runner delivered and we'd done that a few times, as well as eating in there a few times).

My first time at Pitango was last week after dinner at Oyamel - wow, the cardamom flavor was terrific! Unusual and delectable. And I like the idea that you can get a regular size with up to 2 flavors - you get to try twice as many without indulging in a second scoop. Went back today and had half coconut, half hazelnut. Both delicious, and the hazelnut was subtle and I would get it again in a second. Though if they have the cardamom, I'll have to have both, but I really did like that coconut ....

Well, Cedar's website doesn't list a chef that I could find, so they may be using an interim chef right now. If so, I'm not likely to go back to Cedar until they get a replacement chef - we weren't that happy with our meal last night, and there are plenty of other good options in the area. There were a bunch of service issues, including not being brought a second plate for sharing (either appetizer or dessert) despite the fact that I specifically requested one when placing the order, both times. I'll give them a plus for having good mocktails, though they don't list them on the website, annoyingly, so I can't tell you what they were, besides the one I had - a V Red Burro, which was blackberry puree, ginger beer, honey, and lime. It came in a huge glass and was delicious, tasting very much of blackberry. We shared an appetizer: warm wild mushroom and goat cheese salad (crispy chevre, arugula, pine nuts, brandied vinaigrette). Because they didn't bring the extra plate and it was awkward to put in the middle of the table, we waited till the extra plate came, by which time the crispy goat cheese was no longer very warm. The mushrooms were very tasty, though there wasn't much finesse in the plating (there was one gigantic intact one, about 10 times the size of the others, and all the rest were chopped fairly small; the goat cheese fritter was buried under the arugula). I had pan roasted rockfish (Himalayan red rice, pickled fennel, apple, Pernod butter sauce). The rockfish was good (though there were more bones than I remember when I've previously had rockfish - I think it's usually been boned), with a nice crust on top. The red rice was good, but overwhelmed by the large amount of butter sauce - it would have been much better without. The slivers of apple were a good contrast but the pickled fennel wasn't a particularly good part of the dish - it just didn't seem to go with the other ingredients that well. My dining companion had duck (roasted breast, confit rillettes, turnips, baby carrots), and she didn't like it much. The duck was all either overcooked or undercooked, in her opinion, and the rillettes were not appealing - just a brown lump in the middle of the plate that didn't taste particularly good. She got the sauce on the side and didn't use it - it didn't seem like it would have improved matters if she'd had it on top as intended. She ate the vegetables and a little of the duck (which was hard to cut with the regular knife provided - it needed a steak knife) and left the rest behind. We ended with the coconut tres leches cake (guava sauce, sorbet). The sorbet had many small chunks of ice crystals in it, rather than being smooth. The cake was moist, but had no coconut flavor other than the shredded coconut on top. The guava sauce was nice.

Oh man, when I was a kid we had the box of "ends" once or twice, and it was sheer heaven.

Had a tasty but overpriced lunch here yesterday. It's hard to tell from the item descriptions which items will be large and which ones small - my friend's Arroz a la Cubano (White rice, fried eggs, fresh tomato, cucumber, fried plantain, fried potato) was at least twice as much food as my Dorado (7pc siu mai - golden egg, shrimp, pork, jicama, shiitake mushroom). The siu mai were smaller than I'm used to (though each was topped with a soft-cooked small egg - maybe a quail egg? - so that made them a little more filling), and I had thought 7 of them would be enough for lunch with a side of veggies, but I was still fairly hungry after eating them. They were delicious - though I definitely could have done w/o the gold leaf on top, which wasn't listed and which I'm sure added to the price - and I did not taste the peanut, but something crunched. The arroz a la Cubano was a large bowl full, with two large eggs, two plantains, and everything else smaller and diced on top of the rice (along with an orange pepper that wasn't listed in the ingredients and that was very tasty) - since it was bigger than my friend wanted for her meal and I was still hungry, I had a fair amount of it. We also shared the Jolantao (wok-charred sugar snap peas, jang, ponzu air), which were very tasty and in a nice flavorful sauce (soy-based, I think, but unusual tasting). We shared Suspiro Limeí±a ("iconic dessert of Peru: sweetened condensed milk custard topped with soft and crunchy meringue, passion fruit"), which was lovely - the custard tasted a little like dulce de leche and we left none behind. The horchata (which contains quinoa as well as almond milk and cinnamon) was excellent and had a bit of a different flavor from ones I've had before. Service was extremely slow, though friendly, and lunch took much longer than it should have. One annoyance to beware of: the bathrooms contain chalk in the main outer area, and the stall walls are completely covered by many people's chalk writing - including on the stall door. I hung my new purse on the hook on the back of the door without noticing this, and took it down covered in chalk that had rubbed off. Luckily it came off with water, but if you have a delicate bag or jacket, do NOT hang it on the door.

Teaism is casual and inexpensive, and I've loved their new menu (I tend to get the cauliflower pasanka and the exotic mushrooms, which make a filling and delicious lunch). Multiple locations. I'm a fan of Bayou Bakery in Arlington, though I haven't tried their new DC outpost yet. Seconding the recommendation for Daikaya.

We had a lovely dinner at Tupelo Honey last night, with excellent service. The first moment wasn't promising - we arrived twelve minutes before our reservation, and the hostess said, "We'll seat you at 7:30." Nothing about "a table should be ready soon, I'm sorry we can't seat you yet," or anything more hospitable. We were seated a few minutes later, and it took a little while longer than expected for any waitstaff to make a first stop at our table and take our drinks orders. However, once our waitress did arrive (maybe eight minutes after we were seated), everything went very efficiently, hospitably, and deliciously. We gave both our drinks orders and dinner orders (since we'd had time to peruse the menu), and she brought them right away (rosemary-peach lemonade was wonderful). She quickly followed the drinks with complimentary biscuits, which were nicely crusty on top and light and tender crumbed inside. The biscuits came with blueberry jam and honey, and disappeared quickly. Quicker than we expected, our meals arrived. I had Southern fried chicken breast, which was terrific - moist and flavorful with tasty skin (slightly crisp and well-flavored with herbs). Both my meal and my husband's came with a choice of sides, and there were many to choose from. The smashed sweet potatoes were good, and the blueberry lemon quinoa with feta and arugula was just lovely - fresh and light tasting, with the quinoa fluffy and cooked perfectly. My husband said his Carolina mountain trout, edamame/pine nut/raisin salad (which I meant to taste, but forgot), and mac and cheese were all delicious. Our waitress was friendly and helpful as well as being efficient. We ended with banana pudding, which was excellent, with a strong banana taste (which I think meant it was cooked fresh from bananas, no pudding mix), what tasted like fresh whipped cream, and what I think were house-made wafers (lighter, thicker, and softer than Nilla wafers). They only have two desserts on the menu, but this one was very good and I'd be happy with it any time. I saw that Tom Sietsema gave Tupelo Honey a bad review, but ours is a definite thumbs-up.

Has anyone been back to the Arlington location since the Rockville one opened? I'm wondering if there's any point to going, since it sounds like the chef is in Rockville most of the time. Wish he hadn't opened that one so soon after.

Ah, so sad! It was a delicious little quick-service restaurant, with very tasty food. And such nice people working there.

Thanks!

How do Jettie's lobster rolls compare? New location opened in Penn Quarter, and if their lobster rolls are good, I'll go check them out. There's a Luke's not too far also, though I haven't been.

Has anyone eaten at Beefsteak yet? Heading to a show at GW tonight with the teen, will probably take him to Burger Tap Shake (since District Commons is booked), but curious about Beefsteak. Though expect it would be much more to my liking than his (he likes Andres places but is more meat-centric than me and only likes some vegetables). (Edit - really a Foggy Bottom question rather than precisely KC area, but since the whole discussion above was about Foggy Bottom places, it seemed to fit here. Plus I'm taking the above recommendation of BTS.)

I'll look for the roasted carrots at Peche, thank you! Unfortunately, we won't be there for lunch on Saturday. The Bayona light lunch looks tasty!

I've ordered delivery from the Arlington Bon Chon twice now, to feed a hungry horde of teenagers (and myself). The soy-garlic wings were delicious each time - crispy, very flavorful, and very meaty. The spicy wings were far too spicy the first time -- the teens left more than half of them behind, even though they were still hungry enough to check if any regular wings were left. The second time I ordered far fewer spicy, and they were also much less spicy. Definitely tolerable that time. But I prefer the soy-garlic. Pickled radish was a good foil for the wings, and I like the white-or-brown rice option for sides. Delivery was easy, and the one time that it was going to take them longer, they warned me before I ordered that it could take up to an hour and fifteen minutes (after she got my address, she re-estimated the time to 45 minutes, and it took 40). So much better than places that wait till you order to tell you it will be a long time. The zucchini fries were delicious - perfectly fried zucchini, great texture, huge amount (too much for one person as a side). I hadn't read this thread before, so now I know to get pork buns.

Oh! Sorry about the mistake. Thanks. In either case, I feel like Bistro 29 is a blander, less memorable name. I suppose the 29 is because it's on Lee Highway/Route 29, but it's not as interesting as Pasha Café. Edit: well, heck, I think our last couple meals I was thinking of were at Pasha, not Portabello's!

They're changing their name soon, I believe - I think to "Bistro 29" but am not positive. Our last couple meals there have been good, as has the service. They're not a place I seek out, but when we need something convenient to that location they've worked well.