DPop

My wife and I went last night and had a fabulous time at the omakase bar chatting up Chef Ogawa, who might be one of the nicest people I have ever met.  I have to agree with Simon, I thought everything that came out of the kitchen was average at best, and I would even say that the Miyazaki Wagyu, while good, was not worth the extra space in my stomach that could have been occupied by the absolutely delicious, perfectly prepared sushi.  The chutoro and otoro were exemplary, perhaps two of the best versions of each that I have ever had, summoning up memories of that glorious time when Kaz got the Kindai Bluefin Toro 7 years ago.  We already have reservations to go back and sit in one of the private rooms with a larger group in a couple weeks, but next time we will stick with sushi and sashimi and eat our hearts out.

I've never been to Sushi Capitol.  Last night, the omakase (for $80) was: clear soup with shrimp ball; the "daily appetizer trio"; pomfret and fried shrimp head; Miyazaki Wagyu and uni; about sixteen pieces of nigiri; toro handroll; and dessert.  The starters, aside from the pomfret, weren't much to write home about, but the sushi was superb (as was the beef, of course).

Did you do the sashimi supplement or is the price $80 higher than the menu listed above?  $60 seems reasonable for what you listed, but $80 is starting to get a bit steep even if the sushi is really good.

Anyone know where Anthony is now?  I loved his pizzas when he was at Seventh Hill.

 I don't think there's a better roast chicken in town 

I'm not questioning your judgment at all, but have you had Frank Ruta's roasted chicken at The Grill Room (or Palena)? If not, I would suggest going to try it (if it's still on the menu), and if you still think that Requin's is better, I'll be heading there this weekend.

So I am planning to make my 3rd attempt to finally eat at Red Hen on my birthday this coming Monday. Since I only decided this right now, there appear to be no rez available though I will call to check. So my question to you is, what's the best plan of attack? I'd like to get our name in, have time for a drink at Boundary Stone (but preferably only one drink in my ideal world) then be able to be seated. And would your answer differ if it was a group of 2-4 versus 6 or even 8? I will be inviting people based on how it will affect my chances as I do not want a 3rd failed attempt.

You shouldn't have a problem on Monday if you are willing to go, give them your cell phone number, and wait for 45 minutes or so at Boundary Stone or Crisp and have a couple drinks.  Also, and this goes without saying, you will have a much shorter wait if you show up to put your name on the list either before 6pm or after 8:30pm.  My wife and I do this all the time and have no problem, but we are only 2 people.  I don't think you would have a problem with 4 people either, but getting up to 6 or 8 would probably be an issue, as there simply are not that many tables or the space to move table around to accommodate parties of that size.

Good luck, it's worth cutting down that party size to try the food now before the guys' attention gets divided when All Purpose opens in a couple months....

Come back to us Ferhat!

If I had to compare this to another restaurant (I've never been to Mintwood Place, so I beg your pardon), I would say Convivial is essentially 'Central Lite'. By that I mean that the menus are somewhat similar in style and execution (progressive French) with some crowd favorites like Bacon Cheeseburgers, Fried Chicken, some grilled fish, and a hearty stew/soup or two (although there was considerably more creativity in some of the dishes on Convivial's menu). Like Central, I found that Convivial had some very high points, and some rather ordinary points that neither turned me off as a diner but also did not necessarily grab me to want to go back for more.

From the Nibbles section my wife and I were split on the Duck Egg Beignet, which were two fried sticks resting on top of a bowl of tomato and feta sauce. My wife loved this dish, but while I thought the sauce was a pleasantly tangy and acidic, I felt like the Beignets themselves fell short.  I found them to be rather oily and devoid of flavor when not dipped in the sauce.  I wouldn't refuse a bite of this if ordered in the future, and maybe I was expecting too much when I read "duck egg" and "beignet", but this didn't deliver the way I hoped it would.

For the Cold section, we split the lauded Cauliflower and the Veal Tartare.  I enjoyed both (although I found the $14 price tag on the Cauliflower dish to be a bit silly, it was only $3 cheaper than the Fried Chicken!), but while everyone is raving about the Cauliflower I will say that the Veal Tartare was the single best thing I had that night. I love a good tartare, so perhaps I'm a bit biased, but damn did the kitchen take this version up a notch. Along with the oyster leaves that Don mentioned in his post, the use of the poutargue (mullet roe) was brilliant for me, the salty fish flavor might have overtaken a lesser dish but it sung right in tune with the delicious ruby red veal and nicoise crackers I was using to shovel every bit of this gloriousness in my mouth with. The Cauliflower was bright and creative, although I personally thought that the use of full mint leaves was heavy handed in this bowl, dominating the few bites they were in. My favorite part of the dish was the variety of textures in use, every bite was a bit different, ranging from crunchy to the silky and soft blanc manger.

From the Hot section, we ordered the Fried Chicken and the Grilled White Perch. I'm with Don, the combination of the sticky coq au vin sauce with the extremely crispy breading was off for me. Also, I felt like the breading dominated the dish, when I cut into the pieces I found myself searching through the deep burgundy sauce and breading for some signs of meat, which were few and far between.  I love fried chicken and I like coq au vin, but combining the two felt like a misstep to me, and not something I would order again.  My wife loved the Perch, all of the elements (perch, octopus, and crab) were cooked to perfection and presented in ample portions.  My issue with the dish was that the liquid in the bottom of the bowl did not resemble any bisques that I have had before, lacking some of the weightness and depth that could have punched up this light dish a bit.  I was also looking for something in the flavor realm that was missing.  Perch, octopus, and crab on their own are fairly tame in the flavor department, often times relying on a complementary element to bring out their best (some smoke, butter, heat, herbs, etc). I felt that the kitchen either underseasoned the portion that we received or were purposefully trying to let the fish speak for themselves, which I respect, but it didn't work the way I would have hoped it would here.

Aesthetically, I would question the use of wood walls along with wood floors in the dining room, which along with the dull lighting made for a somewhat less intimate and formal experience. Contrast would be good in this space, although it seemed that the bar and some other areas of the restaurant did a better job with this, so maybe it was just the room that we were seated in. Also, it doesn't necessarily appear so as you walk in the front entrance, but this is a pretty large space for a Shaw restaurant. As I was headed to the restroom I found myself walking through 4 different rooms, all packed with diners and service staff, to get to my destination.  I hope this isn't the case, but part of me wonders if this team will have trouble filling all of these tables once the new car smell wears off and the numerous hyped restaurants in the immediate area start opening up in the Spring and Summer.

I can't wait to try this place, I have heard nothing but stellar reviews from people thus far. The area of Shaw -> Bloomingdale is quickly becoming one of the best areas of the city to eat and drink.

In retrospect, I was wishing I had saved room for dessert, because I'm sure they were both fabulous and partly savory. My bartender handed me the menu, and I had to decline because I had been pleasantly sated. Midway through the meal, I ordered one item from the "Family Style" section of the menu to take home with me for lunch the next day: Smoked Brisket, White Bread [Actually, Texas Toast], Horseradish, and Slaw ($29) which was delivered and explained to me just as I was paying the check (perfect timing, Rose's, and a good all-around job with the service!) I was encouraged to make sandwiches, and so I did - I had enough for two full sandwiches: four pieces of Texas Toast, five generous cuts of brisket with a good proportion of fat attached, a tub of horseradish, and a tub of beautiful, red cabbage slaw. One of the two sandwiches is pictured, in two perspectives, in this post. You might be asking yourself two obvious questions: 1) with tax and a 20% tip, the price of each sandwich came out fo $18.85. Is this a crazy amount of money for a couple pieces of brisket on toast? 2) Equally as interesting, is this the type of thing you'd expect to see in an absolute, very best, top-of-the-top, lines-down-the-street, nationally recognized, restaurant that has critics fawning and assigning the highest possible rating? I have enough faith in our readers where I feel no need to answer either of these questions.

Bravo to this whole post (I'm calling this section out because I felt the exact same way when I ordered this dish).  I also agree that Rose's did not seem to seek out all of the attention it has gotten, so this isn't a dig at them, but I'm not sure I have ever encountered a more over-hyped restaurant.

And Red Hen is most definitely the better of the 2 "neighborhood" restaurants for me 

My wife and I did the 5 course in early November and this restaurant is solidly in the top 5 best restaurants in the city for me.  Nothing that was delivered was anything less than "Very Good", with the Trippa (Beef Tripe, Lobster, "Brodetto"), Linguine (Masseria Spicy XO Sauce, Olive Oil, Garlic), Maccheroni (Maccheroni Molinari Domnus, 'Nduja' Tomato, Eggplant, Ricotta Salata), and Vitello (Chapel Hill Farm Ruby Veal, Bone Marrow, Fairytale Eggplant, Charred Eggplant) being the stars of the show.  If you can afford it (and it is not cheap), this is a must-visit place in the city for serious diners.  I'm really looking forward to it warming back up outside so I can enjoy a cigar out on that very cool, West-Coast-style patio after my next dinner.

Had lunch today.  The pork ragu was just ok, and at times unpleasant.  While the pasta and tomato sauce were good, the suckling pig in the ragu was not good.  The shredded meat was fine, without much pork-y flavor, but there were large (very large) chunks of fat and/or skin that I had to remove in order to eat it.

My friend had the tomato soup (which was a very small portion) and the burrata, which was very mealy (as noted in a review above) and not unctuous.  Service was strange - overly chummy, with periods of over attentiveness (no you don't have to ask if we need anything to drink on the same trip to the table when you drop off our glasses of wine and the water).

At $100 for two starters, a pasta, two glasses of wine, and two weak cappuccinos, including tip, it was a pricey, disappointing lunch.

I got the Gnocchi instead of the pork ragu, but my lunch experience yesterday was similar to yours. The gnocchis were the anti-Frank Ruta version; very plump and soft, texturally and visually looking more like golf balls made of ricotta cheese than what I have become used to when it comes to this pasta.  This would all be fine if the flavors were there, but sadly this dish tasted more like something you would get at a red sauce Italian joint in Old Town, very tomatoey and gooey from the ample amount of melted mozzarella.

Or maybe I was just grumpy from my appetizer of Grilled Mortadella, which didn't work on a number of levels for me.  It read well on the menu, but looked nothing like the picture they posted on their Twitter account (https://twitter.com/CentrolinaDC/status/592127665357901824).  It was two cold cut slices of mortadella like you would get at the deli counter at the Italian Store that had been grilled a bit, making them somewhat rubbery and tough, over top of some greens lightly dressed with balsamic and pine nuts.  The flavors were OK, but at $10 this dish is absurdly overpriced and could use some more conceptualizing if it is to stay on the menu.

Also, and this is a bit of a minor quibble but might wind up being significant as we enter the Winter months, but I question the choice of treated concrete floors in a space like this. I walked in from the rain yesterday in my wingtips and felt myself sliding as soon as my foot left the rug at the entrance.  I would imagine that they will have to get creative when there is snow on the ground outside, I would imagine that it will get quite slick inside on a busy dinner service if rugs aren't put down.

I've had plenty of great meals at David Chang's restaurants (I can still vividly recall the first time I had the sichuan crawfish at the original Momofuku) but the continuously self-effacing public persona is wearing a little thin for me. From the Washington Post feature:

Could not agree more re: his public persona.  I have found 80% of the stuff that he has written for GQ to be a bit silly and trying too hard to evoke some reaction from the reader, whether he believes what he's saying or not.  I don't know where this faux-badass act came from, I seem to remember him coming across as a nice, easygoing guy when he first started showing up on shows like No Reservations and the like.

Wow, that was unsettling to read.  There might be another side to that story (or some other motivation on the side of the daughter) but I am sure that attitude will not sit well with folks, myself included.

I had a long write up that was lost when my computer crashed and I don't have the energy to do over, but I'll still make a post about a dinner I had here two weeks.  I don't always agree with everyone's favorite Washington Post food critic, but on this place him and I are on the same page.  Everything that both my wife and I ordered was somewhere between Good and Fantastic, with the highlight being the Schnitzel, which did not suffer from the excessive pounding that Don experienced (there's a joke there).  Mine was about a half inch thick, tender and cooked just below medium in temperature, which took me aback at first as I have never seen the inside of a schnitzel be anything but white but our waiter assured me that this was how the chef prepared the dish and it was delicious.  My portion was also huge, so perhaps someone read Don's review and responded appropriately.  The one commonality between his dish and mine was that the schnitzel, on it's own without a squeeze of lemon or any accompaniments, was a bit bland, but this was fine because this dish is meant to be eaten with a bit of anchovy, egg, and caper in every bite of the meat if possible.  

The Chopped Salad  was refreshing and exactly what I was looking for, the NY Strip Filet was perfectly cooked and had a delightfully acidic bearnaise, the Caesar Salad was good but the lowlight of the meal as it was overdressed even after we sent it back and got it replaced, and the Strawberry Shortcake was divine, the best version I have had of this dessert (although I have to admit that I don't remember the last time I had it before last week).  This wasn't cheap (~$135 before tax and tip) but between the relaxed 80s Brown Derby atmosphere and lovely familiar flavors of all the dishes we ordered, I'm sure we'll be back.

On 9/28/2015 at 7:20 PM, cheezepowder said:

Oz is an Australian restaurant and has replaced La Tagliatella at 2950 Clarendon Blvd in Clarendon.  According to Oz's Facebook page, Oz is having soft opening dinners for the public today, Sept. 28, and tomorrow.  Oz also opened this past Saturday, Sept. 26, during Clarendon Day from 12-5 pm for drinks and appetizers.  

That's a shame, as noted above it would be nice for the residents of Clarendon to have a nice, independently owned restaurant in that space again.  The stretch of Clarendon Blvd has really become a chain wasteland.

Update on the concept. I can basically walk here, so I am hopeful it is good:

Based on my multiple visits to the Oval Room under his tenure, I would be shocked if it is anything but fantastic.  Conte is a detail-oriented perfectionist.

Don, did you post a review of your meal somewhere?  I'm tempted to try this out but at that price it needs to be firmly in the "Very Good" category to deal with loud noise and uncomfortable chairs.

I hope this place can hit the early quality peaks of DCity Smokehouse, it sounds like it has potential as a Cheat Day go-to spot for me.

It's a shame, I have some great memories of this place, but I agree with the posters that noted that the dining room prices were simply too high for the inconsistency and relatively uninterested service that one would get a times.  I hope they find a new (better) spot for what they are looking to accomplish and hope that the space doesn't get overtaken by some lifeless chain looking to do nothing other than put butts in seats to consume reheated foods filled with cream, butter, and sugar.

I've always thought that the reason that Filipino food has never caught on as a restaurant trend was the same reason that Puerto Rican or Russian food hasn't; at its base, it's just not that exciting.  One of my good friends is Filipino and I have to say, his mother cooks a mean lumpia and some tasty rice based dishes, but of the many dishes of hers that I've tried, I can't say that I've had anything that I would be hankering to spend one of my few nights out for dinner going to eat.  Maybe that's a personal preference, but I can't see myself standing in line on 11th street this Fall for a table here.

I was thinking about this restaurant the other day, knowing that it was supposed to open in the Spring (but figuring that it would be delayed) and realized that we went the whole summer with no news on when exactly it will start service.  I figured I would come here to see if cheezepowder or any other members had heard any rumblings and was shocked to see that no one had posted a thread about it yet.  There has been quite a bit of buzz on the internets for over a year now, and dare I say that if David Chang and Eric Ziebold did not have anticipated openings this year or early next year that this would be the hottest reservation in town when it opens.  I'm sure everyone has at least heard in passing about it at this point, but wanted to see if anyone had any more insight into what sounds like a very cool new restaurant.

Website / @thedabneydc on Twitter

"Jeremiah Langhorne's Restaurant, The Dabney, Will Open in Blagden Alley" by Missy Frederick on dc.eater.com

"Meet Jeremiah Langhorne: Picking Composters, Pigs, and Potential Line Cooks" by Tim Carman on washingtonpost.com

I should have been more specific, as that concept sounds perfect for us pretty much any other time, but I have a pregnant wife in tow so sushi is going to be a non-starter.

I got reservations at Hakkassan based on a recommendation from a friend.  Is it worth it?  If not, any other (prego-friendly) recommendations?

I need help figuring out the best special occasion restaurant in Miami for this weekend. Any suggestions? Price is not a concern, just want great food.

I live a 10 minute walk from here and have yet to take the time to go and try it out.  That will be rectified in short order.  Hang in there, Ferhat.

The Szechuan Double Cooked Pork Belly is the exact kind of dish I am always hoping to get when ordering from a white carton Chinese place.  Everything else we had last night was good to very good, but the pork belly was excellent.