Genevieve

Finally getting to Kinship next week!  So pleased, especially as I never got to CityZen.

One question: I am definitely getting the lobster French toast, and as a soft-shell crab lover, figured I would get the crab. But there's overlap in the ingredients, which I hope wouldn't make them too much the same.  The lobster French toast is currently served with cucumber, rhubarb, and sesame mousse.  The soft-shell crab says it's with rhubarb gazpacho, toasted cashew, and sesame oil.  I am very fond of sesame, and much less so of rhubarb (I don't affirmatively dislike it, I think, but have never enjoyed it particularly - but I don't think it would lessen my enjoyment of the lobster).  Are the two dishes likely to taste too similar?

The current online menu was not particularly appealing to my dining partner, but I know the menu there may end up being quite different.  I'm hoping there will be fish on the menu (I see sea bass and cobia on the current online menu), with a preparation that isn't too rich and doesn't depend on serving the fish rare, and/or a nice salad for one of the courses (no salad on the online menu right now, but I know they've had some good ones before). If they had the halibut with trumpet mushrooms people loved last summer, I might well get that myself instead of the crab, but I wouldn't choose the sea bass or cobia over it.  

Do people have recommendations on any of the currently listed desserts? They all sound pretty good. Can't do chocolate, but the blueberry blintz, strawberry-banana trifle, and pralines 'n' cream look appealing.

Any recommendations for soft-shells in Arlington that aren't mostly batter?

I strongly prefer soft-shells sauteed, not deep-fried, but I will take them fried if the batter is light. I had a nice soft-shell banh mi at William Jeffrey's Tavern last night, and the plump crab meat wasn't lost under the batter.

If you know other places in Arlington to get good soft-shells, especially if they're not fried, I'd love to know about them. 

Edit: also happy to know about places in DC and Alexandria, but some nights Arlington is all we have time for, which is why I'd love to know a place there.

In DC, I hope to get to Dino, BlackSalt, and Salt Line before long for some soft-shells.

Thanks!

Had a nice meal here last night. Very tasty soft shell crab banh mi (which included avocado - not typical banh mi inclusion, but it suited very well).  Elote corn on the cob was an option for the side and it was good.

I went to a get-together with a large group at Homestead last night (my first time eating in Petworth).  We were on the top floor of 3, where there was a bar and some tables, and they handled us well (large group of various people showing up anywhere between 6 and 9 p.m.).  I like the space and the host was friendly and welcoming.

I only had a small taste of the menu, but it was excellent.  The things I ordered aren't on the online menu at http://homesteaddc.com/starters/ because their menu changes daily, although a number of items on the online menu were on the menu last night (quail, raclette, catfish, buttermilk hot chicken, half roasted chicken, Homestead burger).

A salad of berries (blueberries and strawberries), goat cheese, hazelnuts and greens was great - very fresh, interesting greens that weren't the typical "mixed greens," though I can't tell you what they were. Good goat cheese and fresh, tasty berries. Large serving, too.

Grilled squid was tiny tiny whole squid (baby squid, but much smaller than baby squid I've had before, about the size of a thumbnail), with drizzles of a delicious yellow sauce that tasted of Spain (I don't recall what was in it, maybe saffron?), and bits of diced fruit (pineapple? don't recall), on top of salad greens. Not what I expected, but very good.

There was a saffron soup on the menu and I was very curious but didn't end up getting it. My husband got the half roasted chicken with vegetables and he was happy with it; someone else got the burger, and I snagged a few fries, which were good.  Someone else was very happy with her tuna tartare over avocado, which looked appealing.

There were many interesting cocktails on the menu (drinks menu isn't online). No mocktails, but I got a nonalcoholic version of a drink that had blackberries (or maybe blueberries, can't recall), cardamom syrup, and lemon. Very nice. Followed it with a ginger beer.

There's outdoor seating on the second level (maybe 8 tables) and lots of space throughout the building. I'd definitely go back. 

We were in Naples in January, and I didn't remember to post at the time, so I don't remember the details. But if you're going to be down there, strongly consider going to the terrific Persian restaurant Bha! Bha! Bistro.  http://bhabhabistro.com/

The food was truly delicious and interesting.  The menu says it's an "Innovative Persian Bistro," which is a good description. (Beautiful room, too.)

Looking at the menu, I think we had Flash Fried Eggplants topped with onions, whey, feta, and olives, and Ginger and Apricot Shrimp, with garlic, carrots, plums, and apricots, and spicy mango tamarind sauce. I also think we had the Duck Fesenjune with pomegranate and walnut sauce, mango sauce accent and jeweled caramelized dried fruits.  We ordered more from the "Innovative Persian" section of the menu, rather than "Classic Grills".

We loved everything we had.

On 6/19/2017 at 6:24 PM, Simul Parikh said:

Sounds delish... 

I made pav bhaji yesterday (yay, instant pot!) and used cauliflower in addition to potato and it definitely lightened the texture.

I have never attempted to make Indian food (other than a very basic curried chicken) at home as I am a so-so cook and not up to anything complicated, but I do have an Instant Pot....

On 9/16/2016 at 3:00 PM, DonRocks said:

I've been to the bar over ten times and only had trouble once, but even then I got one of those booths in the bar area. At some point, I'd guess the bar will become full on weekends, and then at some point, it will become full on weekdays; on the other hand, Palena's bar was almost *never* full.

On 9/16/2016 at 2:48 PM, jca76 said:

We've eaten or grabbed a drink at the bar about half a dozen times over the last few months and have never had trouble getting two seats at the bar.  Generally we go around 8:30 or 9:00 -- we're often late eaters -- on both weekdays and weekends and usually find it half empty.  (I actually prefer sitting at the bar to eating in the dining room.  I like the vibe more and enjoy the proximity to Kerstin, Nikki, and others behind the bar for getting recommendations/general chatting.)

Has anyone noticed whether it's gotten more difficult to get seats at the bar (particularly on weekends)? Possible impromptu dinner here tonight or Saturday, but no reservations available since it's very popular. Thanks!

Had the chicken bastilla again last night, and a rockfish tagine (with carrots, peppers, and tomatoes, I think - it's not on the online menu). Both were delicious. Ordered a side of saffron rice too, which was good for soaking up the rockfish's sauce.

15 hours ago, DaveO said:

Before revisiting Cedar the other week I scanned reviews (couple of thousand in total- most on OT and Yelp)

What grabbed my eyeballs were many raves for their vegan menu/dishes.  I'm not a vegan and never look for that--but there were enough to grab my attention.

Haven't had dinner there in over 2 years.  In the past mains were usually good to great. There has been chef turnover.

I can vouch for inventive cocktails and I've always had great service.  It's small and never been loud making it good for a close knit group that wants to hear one another.

I had a pretty bad dinner there about a year ago.

You're welcome! I've been to Garrison 3 times and really loved it. Just depends on if your vegetarians will mind having only 1 or 2 main dish options, given that there will be tons of great vegetable-focused sides. 

This list is out of date (has some places that have closed or where the chef left and they're not so good anymore), but could give you some more ideas of good restaurants where vegetarians will have options:  http://www.firstclassvegetarian.com/p/washington-dc-restaurants.html

Maybe Garrison - the vegetarian main dish is the only issue, since there are usually only 2 pastas and only 1 may be vegetarian. But their vegetable salads and sides are fantastic. Food is lovely, service is great, but it's not too formal.

We had Mothers' Day brunch at Arroz and it didn't feel too casual to me. 

Maybe Masala Art, Indique, or Rasika? Bindaas seems too bustling/casual for this.  

Sfoglina or Centrolina?

On 5/26/2017 at 5:27 PM, Rieux said:

The Brazilian Grill in Hyannis on Main St. is good for the whole rodizio meat on sticks thing.

Sesuit Harbor cafe is a great Bay-side place for all the typical lobster, scallops, fried fish you could want.  One of my favorites and we drive down a fair bit to get there. http://sesuit-harbor-cafe.com/

Also, not to be pedantic, but if you ask locals for suggestions this will matter - the lower cape is Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans.  Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and P-town are the Outer Cape.  Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich are the Upper Cape (like the upper arm), and Barnstable, Dennis, Yarmouth are the Mid-cape.  So you are really looking for Mid-Cape suggestions.  Again, not trying to be annoying, but these terms will matter when google searching, talking to locals, etc for suggestions.

 

 

 

Thank you - I appreciate the clarification so I use the right term and search correctly!  Also the recommendations (and our slew of teenage boys would be happy to hit a Brazilian grill, I'm sure).

On 5/17/2017 at 2:00 PM, silentbob said:

Yeah, I think they are called "bolo bao" and sold in much larger form at most Asian bakeries in town.  I like the ones at Bread Corner just fine, but anyone ever traveling to Asia should try the ones at BreadTalk if possible.

Are there Asian bakeries in Chinatown (DC) that you would recommend? I love pineapple buns, sesame balls, etc. and I know a few places in Chinatown have them, but I have fared badly just stopping into random places (couldn't find pineapple buns or sesame balls, and while I'm happy to try new treats, I got a mooncake that was utterly stodgy and not worth the indulgence, and another not very good bun or two).

I haven't been to these places, but having had surgery last year and eating lightly/blandly for quite some afterwards, I think you might consider these to accommodate your post-op friend: 

Lapis might work b/c a chicken kabob and rice would be pretty bland.

Tail-Up Goat doesn't seem to have any bland options, unless I'm missing something. Maybe the pasta primavera w/o the aleppo breadcrumbs, but post-surgery, this menu would look daunting to me.

Mintwood Place has a roasted chicken w/veggies and jus, so that could work well.

Johnny's looks tougher, because the chicken is cooked in chiles, unless your friend feels up for grilled halibut (and maybe they can do the sauce on the side).

Perry's has miso soup and rice (though miso is not low sodium), and some other foods that could work.

re Iron Gate, a tasting menu (even if made special) could be difficult for someone recovering from surgery with a lower appetite, and their dinner menu doesn't have much in the way of blander/lighter options. 

Any recommendations for the lower portion of the Cape? We're going to spend a few days, with a big group of adults and teens, in the south part of Barnstable (between Hyannisport and Osterville), so we won't be anywhere near places recommended above.  Mostly looking for casual food, especially lobster rolls and other seafood; also good ice cream. We might do one slightly fancier dinner.

Thanks!

Ate there last night. I enjoyed the sake chicken ramen, which came with bok choy (yay, I haven't seen that as a ramen addition in the couple of places I've gone), bamboo shoots, chicken breast, and scallions (way too many for my taste, but they were all on top in a fluffy tangle and I should've just lifted them off as I prefer only a little). I added wood-ear mushrooms which are a nice option to have.

Good broth, springy ramen, good flavor all around. I think I prefer the milkier chicken broth at Gaijin Ramen, but this was an excellent option. 

That's very good to hear! Thank you!

We went here for brunch for Mothers' Day, and generally had a lovely meal. (And I appreciated that there wasn't a prix fixe brunch for Mothers' Day.)

We all liked the room and the decor. If I went with just one other person, I would ask for the side booths with the keyhole openings.

The flaws were that when we asked the waiter how big the dishes in the "plates" column were, he said small though some larger than others, so we over-ordered, thinking they were tapas sized. The "plates" turned out to be quite large. I also wish that the waiter had explained that the burnt eggplant dish was a dip, as nothing in the description gave that away (other than that it came with flatbread which I guess should have been the tip-off). 

Other than that, service and food were excellent.  

Mostly, my mother and I shared dishes, and my husband had two separate ones and then tastes of ours. We started with jamon serrano, and it was delicious. No bread, though (if you order an entire cured meat and cheese board, it comes with bread), and that would have been good to know. It came with a couple pickles, a couple olives, some pickled turnip that was very interesting (we had to ask what it was and the waiter checked with the chef - he said they change ingredients based on what's good at the market, which is definitely a good thing, but they should keep the waitstaff informed), and a little cauliflower (yellow, but didn't taste curried, maybe just cooked with turmeric).

We had the burnt eggplant with flatbread and liked it, though my mother was disappointed that it turned out to be a dip. The dip itself is a rather odd grey color, but the flavor was unusual and quite good, and the array of spring vegetables on top (also not mentioned on the menu) were really lovely and presented a variety of textures and flavors, all lightly cooked. It was a little awkward to eat on the flatbread as the pieces of vegetables had a tendency to fall when I was trying to spread them on with the dip. The squash was especially nice, tender yet crisp. It was a much larger serving than we anticipated. I liked the flatbread a lot.

The crispy potato "tortilla" was one of my favorite dishes - it had a different texture than the typical tapas tortilla, with egg custard and a crisp-textured bottom and sides. Very tasty. Maybe almost twice as big as the tortilla you get at Jaleo. The accompanying chorizo crema was a pink mayo-textured sauce with small chunks of chorizo inside.

My husband ordered had chermoula lamb ribs and spring vegetable salad, and liked both very much.

Then the bomba rice came, and we had really had enough to eat for a meal. I had ordered the half-order spring vegetable bomba and had added a farm egg on top, forgetting that we had eggs in the tortilla. The waiter had said the half-order was intended for one person but would be enough to share, and indeed it was larger than I expected (maybe the size of a regular dinner plate). It was a terrific dish (though I would have been happy for more crispness in a little of the rice as it was almost all not crisp and the contrast  between some almost burned and the rest swollen with liquid would be good). The vegetables were perfectly cooked, mostly tender-crisp, and in great variety. There were three or four foraged mushrooms (I think maitake) that were luscious, tiny peas in edible pods (a couple of these on the eggplant dish as well - the insides were more like English peas but the peapods were more like sugar snaps, so I wasn't sure exactly what they were other than good), radishes with a little of the tails and/or greens left on, squash, something firm that was cubed (not as firm as jicama, but I couldn't identify it) and other vegetables. The sauce was delicious though a tiny bit too salty, and the egg was lovely (runny inside, firm but not too firm white, and very fresh tasting). 

We took home some leftover bomba and a small piece of the tortilla. They took the leftovers and gave me a coat-check ticket, and then when we left, we presented the ticket at the desk to get our bag of leftovers. Nice.

I did still order dessert as the churros were calling my name. This was a portion of several (maybe five) churros that seemed lighter than usual ones, with little jar of a coconut espuma that had chunks of pineapple (probably roasted) and mango jam. I would like all my churros to come with that jar in future, please. 

I would definitely go back and would get the bomba, but would order less overall. We would probably skip the eggplant next time, as long as we ordered the bomba with the similar vegetables (or the salad).  And we'd skip the ham just because it was a lot of food, but it was excellent quality jamon serrano (comparable to Jaleo and Ser, though it didn't taste exactly the same).

Edit: I forgot a dish! We also had the fried cauliflower with pig tails, grilled ramps, and mitmita lebne. This was closer to a tapas-sized portion but still larger than we expected. Very very tasty - I always like fried or roasted cauliflower but this was a very good version of it. The mitmita was an unusual spice, and I have never been excited about ramps but they were really good, with more of the green part than I expected and even some leaves, I think. The pig tails had given my mom pause about ordering it, but the waiter said they were shredded and not noticeable as tails, and I did not notice them. 

Yes to Daikaya and 701. Rasika maybe - can't remember noise level. Graffiato had reasonable noise level when I had lunch there with a friend a couple months ago.

On 5/1/2017 at 2:54 PM, sandynva said:

And the ice cream yesterday was awesome--delicious orange campari sorbet, and a chocolate hazelnut ice cream which was lighter on the hazelnut flavor than i would have liked (as i find many chocolate hazelnut things are, maybe it's a hard flavor to infuse?) but had an amazing texture and the chocolate went nicely with the orange sorbet. 

I really like Pitango Gelato's hazelnut flavor - it's like Nutella without the chocolate but with tons of hazelnut flavor. (I haven't tried their chocolate hazelnut as I unfortunately can't have chocolate anymore - but that keeps me on the lookout for good non-chocolate desserts.)

My husband and I were walking in Clarendon Saturday night looking for a place to stop for dinner (we had planned to get a salad at Northside Social, but squatters who weren't eating were still taking up tables for work at 7:30 p.m.).  We walked past Bar Bao, which we've been looking forward to trying once they opened, and saw activity inside.

It turned out they were having a soft opening and it was their second night open. Because it was a soft opening, I won't report in any detail other than to say we enjoyed our meals thoroughly.  (We liked the music, too - it was loud, but it was not EDM which can set off headaches for me, but rather a good mix of some '80s/'90s/'00s energetic music).

They had a more limited menu than they will for the true opening, but there were still plenty of things on it and we were quite happy. It's mostly Asian-inspired street food / bar food (including several kinds of bao, steamed dumplings, and at least one vegetable side). We had one of the nicest and most attentive (in a non-annoying way) servers we've ever had, too. We definitely plan on going back and may become semi-regulars.

Where do y'all recommend for arepas? Especially interested in Arlington, close-in NoVa, and DC (ideally near a Metro stop). I had tasty ones a few times at Gua-rapo (Arlington) in the past, but atmospherically that place is just not my scene (in terms of music and hookahs). 

The last really delicious ones I had were from La Caraqueña, which is closed, and this post in that thread made me remember to ask for new places.

n 4/29/2017 at 11:59 AM, ScotteeM said:

Oh no!!! I was ready for my arepas fix today, only to see that the website was down, and Google Maps lists it as "permanently closed," and then this!

On 9/24/2015 at 3:30 PM, GaijinRamenShop said:

Yes, our hours are weird (we are very sorry for any inconvenience that this causes our potential customers). We are open from Tuesday through Sunday from 4pm-10pm......These are the hours that we must maintain in order to control the quality of our food. With the staff we have now, we can only commit to these limited hours of operation. If you want to know more please keep reading.

We consider ramen soup as an art form- and our cooking techniques are authentic Japanese (despite our name "foreigner" or "non-Japanese" "outsider" ). Our methods require us to cook 4 different types of broth for 7-10 hours daily before serving. We use fresh ingredients daily (pork and chicken bone, cabbage, carrots, corn, apple, bonito) and boil the soup for hours before we can serve. Once we perfect our processes, then we can hire more staff and train them to cook in the very early morning (1 am) to serve for lunch around 12 noon.

We **hope**   that we can open for lunch on the weekends this winter, but we still have concerns with having the space to sustain our soup line for lunch/dinner on the same day. Basically, to keep our promise of fresh cooked soup, we would have to cook the soup we are serving for dinner during lunch, which is difficult to do given the volume that we serve for dinner and projected for lunch. With long cooking times, and a promise for the best we can in every bowl, our hours are limited.

We often wonder if our customers would be okay with a "lunch menu" no ramen served, that would help us a lot- but we have concerns that it would upset customers (no ramen for lunch at a ramen shop?!). We do have really tasty small plates and wings... but not sure if that would suffice for hungry lunch crowds.

So far either people love us or hate us. We LOVE what we are doing and are very proud of the products we are serving.

I hope that explains our hours of operation and I hope to see you give it a try!

Thanks,

Gaijin Ramen Shop Co-Owner Nicole

gaijinramenshop.com

Went back to read the thread from the beginning and noted that they have different hours now than they did when they first opened -- lunch and dinner Thurs.-Sun., closed Mon-Wed.  Glad I checked as we often like to go there before an event we have semi-regularly in the neighborhood, which is usually on Thursdays but will be on Wednesday this month. 

I think it must be a not-nailed-every-time issue, since I've had the Tonkotsu ramen (not spicy) with very flavorful broth a few times. So I like your advice to the chefs.

I've started getting the chicken ramen lately, since I ordered it once when I was sick and liked the broth so much. (I always add marinated mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and usually add roasted sesame seeds and an egg. I want to add bok choy too, but that's a lot of food already.)

Very good to know, thank you!