Genevieve
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Dining Guide
Posts posted by Genevieve
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Any further recommendations on what's good now since the re-opening? (I see the recommendations above for sea urchin with butter on bread - yum - and bacon-wrapped dates and mini-hamburguesas).
Going there tonight with out-of-town relatives who picked it for a celebration dinner.
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Hard Rock Cafe
The one next to Ford's frequently has tour buses full of high schoolers.
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Just in case anyone else faces the same quandary: 50 Things To Do With Fresh Sorrel
Thanks! I bought some at the farmers' market last week, since I remembered having a wonderful sorrel soup once, and they said to put it raw in salad or saute it. Raw on a sandwich and in a salad, it tasted like a basic leafy green, no lovely lemony taste. Maybe cooking it one of these ways will be good.
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Fireworks Pizza in Court House has a gluten-free crust available, and a gluten-free cookie sundae (as well as a regular cookie sundae, so ask). I think the menu may mark what items are gluten-free. Haven't eaten it as I eat gluten, but noticed it when we ate there.
Restaurant 3 in Clarendon has a gluten-free menu.
I know I've seen more and more gluten-free markings on menus in Arlington lately.
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After some bad experiences at Toscana Green and its predecessors, we had high hopes for the new management that took over in Summer 2011. We finally got to try it out last week. The staff is incredibly friendly, but that's the only real positive. There was confusion over who had our table, which never seemed to get resolved. We started with fried zucchini which was good -- very lightly battered and tasty. One of us ordered a fresh mozzarella and basil pizza, and the other had Fettucine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken. The pizza came out 5 minutes before the pasta, and then the chef (doing his rounds) noticed that it came it out without the basil, so he took it back to finish it (I appreciated that he caught the waiter's mistake and fixed it). The pizza was just okay - the toppings were good, but the crust was thin and a little crispy, which I usually like, but this was completely flavorless. The club soda had some strange stale flavor to it. Same with the pasta: tasted like it was boiled in week-old water. The chicken in the pasta was very bland, no grilled flavor to it.
We brought leftovers home and still haven't eaten them.
Listranis', across Wilson Blvd, is never gonna win any Beard awards either, but at least their food is consistently tasty. We like their pizza for a weeknight take-in (they're take-out only nowadays), and their subs are quite good (fresh mozzarella, mealball, chicken parm, etc.).
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Ate at Johnny's a few days ago. The soft-shells with spoonbread, which I found delectable a couple years ago, were good but not as good as before. The spoonbread was not as flavorful or as plentiful. The soft-shells were small but tasty - I don't know what made the difference, but last time I went away smacking my lips from a memorable meal and this time it was just nice. Some greens on the plate would've been good.
My husband had the trotter tots and didn't love them (a little heavy, I think). He liked his scallops but the dish was four small scallops and it was not really enough for an entree.
We did like the desserts very much -- a coconut custard pie that was not too sweet and had a full coconut flavor, and a chocolate hazelnut cheesecake that was light and silky (more like a mousse), more chocolatey than sugary, with what seemed like hazelnut brittle in the crust. That was the best thing we ate all night, and worth stopping there for dessert.
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Mmm. Wish they'd sell it by the slice, though! (I know, at that price . . . but I don't need 5 extra slices.)
Had a very good coconut custard pie (not the same thing, but delicious) at Johnny's Half Shell this weekend.
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Very much enjoying this team! (though last night's game was the wrong one of the Phillies series to attend -- a late-inning drubbing from the Phllies, and Jayson Werth's broken wrist, poor guy -- at least Harper stole home and we won the series if not that game.)
Taqueria Verano made a pretty good dinner -- sadly, no combo tacos, you had to order three of the same kind. Carnitas were tasty, the salsa was flavorful, plenty of fresh cilantro on my taco, and nice non-rubbery corn tortillas. My son didn't care for his quesadilla w/carnitas (you can get any of the meats on the quesadilla) as was too spicy for him (not for me at all), but I used his lime crema on my tacos too. Elote (grilled corn on the cob with mayo, cotija cheese and spice was good, much less spicy than last year this time (when I could barely eat it). Churros had good texture but were cold, which is probably inevitable but not the best way to eat churros. No complaining from my family, though.
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We have a reservation for Founding Farmers, who will be serving their brunch menu...with a seperate vegan menu. That's about as good as it is going to get!
That sounds like an excellent choice. Kudos to you for going to so much trouble.
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With no replies, and other reviews online that sounded like the last two reviews, we opted for Johnny's Half Shell tonight instead. A little further walk, but not too bad, and I know the sauteed soft-shells and spoonbread were wonderful when I ate there a couple years ago.
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Has anyone been here lately? We're going to be right by there tonight, I can't walk terribly far at the moment, so it would be a good choice for dinner if the food's more like the earlier reviews and less like the last two reviews.
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It'd be worth calling Urbana and asking them - it's a pleasant place to have a meal, your mother would probably like it, and Urbana could tell you if the minestrone is vegan, if the eggplant sandwich would be vegan if the goat cheese was omitted, if the "market pizza" could be done cheeseless, etc. SIL could have hummos, olives, and the fancy field greens salad for sure.
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I have a problem with this at Northside Social -- a few times we've gone for dinner and people have been clearly squatting with their computers and an empty or nearly empty drink at many of the tables.
At Java Shack, take a look at their specialty drinks. I'm fond of Java the Nutt -- a latte with hazelnut, vanilla, and a drizzle of caramel (the "gold bikini"). Also check the walls - there's often (maybe always, I'm not sure) local artworks on exhibit and/or for sale.
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I always liked Java Shack. Good memories - nice to hear they're still rolling.
Weren't they christened "Sugar Shack" once upon a time?
When they first opened, indeed, they were Sugar Shack, but that was a different owner/manager, and it didn't last long (less than a year, maybe much less?). It's been Java Shack ever since Dale's been running it.
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I agree, the Clarendon Whole Foods sushi is awful - or at least it was a few months ago.
In my experience, the grocery store sushi pecking order is Foggy Bottom WF>Deana and Deluca>>Harris Teeter>>Other Whole Foods.
I only get the shrimp California rolls, and they've been good (they went to less good a while back, and back to good again, which must be the Sushi-Ko/Genji/Kaz evolution Don mentioned). But my friend who got regular fish sushi a couple months ago was happy with it.
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I finally checked out the made to order Kaz sushi at the Foggy Bottom location and was pleasantly surprised. Best grocery store sushi I've had, better than Deana and Deluca's and better than a lot of restaurant sushi too. Price is steep but they were generous with the fish portion. Interesting options in the make your own - spicy sprouts, sweet tofu, etc.
True of the Clarendon location too. I get their shrimp California roll all the time. (They stopped including the soy sauce in the box, so if you get it, make sure you take a packet when you take chopsticks.)
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and I've never done take-out from there, but an enthusiastic yes to La Caraquena.
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Liberty Tavern in Clarendon offers their full menu out of the Liberty To Go door. Minh's or Nam Viet can satisfy a yen for Vietnamese food in North Arlington. In Falls Church, I have carried out lunch from La Caraquena in the past. I see no reason why they would not let you take out a dinner.
Seconding Liberty To Go, Minh's (if when you said fish you were including seafood, try the yam cakes topped with shrimp appetizer, grilled shrimp over rice vermicelli, and mint scallops), and Nam Viet. And Lyon Hall, they do a nice job with takeout (love their shrimp and lobster burger and they have excellent salads). I am extremely fond of Kabob Bazaar takeout, but have never tried the swordfish or salmon kabobs - the grilled veggies on the kabob (tomatoes, mushrooms, green pepper, onions) are tasty enough that I usually get a vegetable skewer side order to stretch my meal out for leftovers. If you order from there, try the zeresh polo rice (with barberries, delicious and tangy and unusual) and get an extra order or two of their delicious soft pita bread, also perhaps the noon paneer sabzi salad, which is blocks of good firm pungent feta, walnuts, and mixed herbs (parsley, cilantro, and maybe basil or something basil-like, as well as scallions and radishes) and some of the pita. I get that salad and alternate bites with bites of my kabob and rice. Must-o-kheyar dip, kind of like a raita, is also great - not essential b/c you get little containers of yogurt sauce, but I like a lot of it so I usually get that too. I'm not seeing all these listed on their website's menu, but the full menu is here: http://www.allmenus....ob-bazaar/menu/
Listrani's will give you a pretty good fresh mozzarella sub.
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This was Don Arturo until a couple of months ago.
That explains it - I was racking my brains trying to figure out where Sibarita was.
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Honestly, Genevieve, I don't get much Chinese, as I find Chinese-American to be one of my least favorite "ethnic" foods. I've been known to make late-night runs to X.O. Taste, requesting no MSG - they've upsold me in the past, however, and I certainly can't rave about them although if you order correctly, their food can be pretty clean. Mark's is great when you want to bring wine to have with Peking Duck; Fortune has gone down the tubes. Hong Kong Palace has a lovely cumin fish (thanks Eric), but that, along with Bangkok Garden (yes, I know it's Thai and Laotian), are the Twins of Terror when it comes to MSG, I think. Believe it or not, the decrepit Happy Family in Falls Church advertises no MSG, but it's filthy and the food is pretty awful. I haven't tried Hong Kong Pearl, but that sounds like it's best for Dim Sum. I don't like Asian Kitchen, and that backs me into recommending Oriental Gourmet for carryout Chinese (for Americanized Chinese, I think it's pretty good) they will make their food without adding MSG if you ask them, but advise that there are pre-made sauces which contain it. So ... Oriental Gourmet is my off-the-cuff answer. I've also heard a couple positive murmurings about the dicey-looking China Kingdom in Chesterbrook, and once had a good meal at House of Fortune in McLean (the friendly owner specifically told me to ask for her, saying that she'd help me with the Chinese-language menu), but I don't know anything about their use of MSG.
Thanks, Don. I've pretty much stopped getting Chinese years ago other than the dim sum trips with friends, and very occasional stops at Peking Gourmet (I still like their duck) and Ping (not terribly good but an okay place with a group when you're in Shirlington anyway - my son likes their pork belly buns - but the last couple time I got sushi there instead of Chinese, since their dumpling soup went downhill).
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One thing I *always* ask is the following question (and this goes for just about any Asian restaurant):
"Is it possible to get it the entire order with no MSG?"
Depending on their reaction, I know, nearly 100% of the time, whether a restaurant serves MSG as a matter of course, or not. Typical reactions are as follows:
"Yes, one moment please" [as I write it down, or type in special instructions to the kitcen] = They use MSG
"We don't use MSG in our cooking" = They probably don't use MSG
"We don't add MSG, but it's in some of the sauces" = They absolutely don't add any MSG
"It depends on the dish" = They probably use MSG in their long-cooked stews, but maybe not for a-la-minute items
Once you start asking this question as a matter of course, it becomes very easy to determine a restaurant's policy without them coming right out and saying it.
I don't think MSG is any great crime against humanity, but it's nice to know who uses it and who doesn't, and with this technique, you develop a knack for being able to figure it out with a pretty strong degree of confidence.
So Don, who do you recommend in Arlington for no MSG? We never get Chinese takeout or delivery because my husband reacts badly to MSG. I used to love eating at Hsian Foong before they closed (would love to find a new purveyor of sesame broccoli!).
And do you know any dim sum places that don't use MSG? Years ago, I called around and they all used it, except for the Taiwanese dim sum place (Seven Seas?). We have a dim sum gathering with friends a few times a year and my husband has had to skip it since he started having MSG reactions.
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Heading to Acadiana in a couple weeks for a group lunch. Glad to be going there when crawfish is in season! Etoufee for me, unless I go for the seafood chopped salad (spiced shrimp, crawfish, marinated crab, grilled corn, cucumbers, fresh basil - and radish which I'd skip), which would leave more room for flaky biscuits with pepper jelly. I love good etoufee - haven't had Bayou Bakery's yet (since it's a weekly special and I haven't been there on the right night).
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My favorite are at El Charrito Caminante, on Washington Blvd. in Arlington. I like the loroco, son gets some chicken and some cheese, husband gets one bean and a burrito. Curtido is very good and it's plentiful. We usually order the excellent plantains as well.
We like to call our order in ahead of time, since there's not much space to wait (take-out only). Good horchata. Our Salvadoran visitor last year concurred that these were excellent pupusas.
(Though after reading this review of both, I think we should try Doña Azucena some time.)
The Dining Guide
in News and Media
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I definitely agree! I was having a hard time finding Jaleo in the dining guide (also Rasika, for some reason) and eventually did a search in the forums, which took a while. The Dining Guide is so incredibly useful, and keeping restaurants with multiple locations listed in each of their locations would make it still more useful!