Hannah

The Shakey's in Annandale didn't close until '02 or '03, and could still crank out highly acceptable pizza.

Your mistake was ordering the regular pancakes - the buckwheat pancakes and potato pancakes, and some of the non-pancake stuff like the baked omelets are actually pretty good. That being said, the place gives off weirdness for some reason.

In short, don't count on quality control or consistency from that kitchen unless you see the chef plating your food himself.

Never mind that, they can't even spell Jamie's name consistently throughout the site (look at the end of Mitch's bio). Even for a placeholder site, that's bad.

Absolutely. In addition to being one of this country's finest historians, he was also one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Technically, it's in Mclean - 123 is the dividing line. However, it couldn't be more in the middle of Tysons if it tried, since it's physically between the two malls. It's absolutely lovely and the food and drinks are great, but inexpensive it isn't.That being said, it's about the only place in the immediate Tysons area I'd say has anything approaching ambience. I think Busara's better than Neisha for Thai, but that's undoubtedly a personal preference thing - I don't like Neisha's pad thai. Busara does have the benefit of a good beer list as well. Lebanese Taverna in Tysons II is meh for ambience, but they do have the fantastic pita bread, which makes up for a lot.. Tachibana in Mclean has pretty good sushi and is a good place for conversation even when it's busy. Ray's, especially at that time of the evening and with the option of reservations, should definitely be on the list - it's only 20 minutes from the Westin at that time of day in a real worst-case traffic scenario.

I drive through Tysons every day at morning and evening rush hour, and other than the occasional snarlup from an accident, like yesterday, the construction doesn't seem to have made much difference. There's certainly no reason to think that the sky is about to fall, or that Tyson's will suddenly become undriveable - in fact, one of the HOT lane construction reroutes has made the entrance from the toll road onto the outer loop of the Beltway better, and I wish they'd made that particular change years ago. The only time Tyson's is a real traffic nightmare to be avoided at all costs is between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that's not going to change no matter how much construction occurs or doesn't.

I'd be surprised if a place in Columbia were able to get higher quality fish than Yasuda (3 stars from the Times under both Grimes and Bruni in case you consider Zagat less than reliable) or Masa without charging significantly higher prices than they list on their web site. This is not to say that the chef may not have some kind of hookup somewhere - I'm fairly sure that Hama Sushi and Mikaku in Herndon take advantage of the fact that there are a couple of direct flights a day coming into Dulles from Tokyo, and there may be the same or similar coming into BWI. At the same time, I don't think for a second that Hama or Mikaku have their own personal agent at Tsukiji Fish Market picking out the prime toro like Masa does. There's a difference between personally liking a restaurant, and demanding that everyone else on the planet agree that it's the best place ever. It's perfectly okay for GeorgetownFoodie to love Sushi Sono and rave about it. The "everywhere else is icky" approach is a little offputting, but if that's going to be his/her style, that's fine too.

Per various citations, collected at Wikipedia, "I didn't make Gordon cry, he chose to cry!" He's also reputed to have thrown a sizzling skillet full of scallops at Mario Batali's head, and filmed an episode of Martha Stewart Living featuring his first on-air cooking demo with a hangover after an evening of flaming sambuca shots. He's, um, colorful.

Please tell me there's turkey on the menu.

You probably would want to avoid anything they'd had a hand in. Or on.

Yep. Godwin's Law by proxy is still Godwin's Law. The argument was technically over when that analogy was used.

Indeed - the point was not that this was The Only Way to Make Broccoli Soup Dammit , it was that, in this case, you could make a perfectly acceptable broccoli soup without adding stock, cream, truffle reduction, aardvark toenails, or the 47 other things the chef in question would have put in.

And now, to his buddy Apprentice, 1994-2009.

If I'd walked in off the street not knowing this was Inox's second night of service, nothing I ate or drank would have given me that impression. There are some really interesting dishes on the menu, including the grouper with escargot tortellini mentioned downthread, and an appetizer of pumpkin pierogi in onion bouillon that was far more savory and meaty than I'd expected. The seared duck breast entree is excellent as well, and the table next to ours had entrees of Wagyu steak and salmon that also looked very promising. Desserts are just right - the pastry chef (first name Scot - I can't recall his last name) came over from 2941, so a lot of the desserts have the wonderful ice creams and sorbets that were a feature there. We tried a milk chocolate bread pudding with fleur de sel and olive oil ice cream, and a warm pineapple mousse with pineapple sorbet. I remember seeing a banana-cardamom ice cream on the menu as well, but don't remember what it accompanied. The wine list is (of course) solid, the space is lovely, and while things are obviously still ramping up capacity-wise, I think we're looking at a winner here.

Harris Teeter will occasionally have it in their freezer section, if you can't find it anywhere else.

What a marvelous choice - congratulations to all.

Instant ramen, no. The real stuff? Even seeing it on a menu in the DC area is rare enough that it should be pointed out.Back to the discussion at hand, Hama Sushi in Herndon does a passable version, and is the only place down here I've run across that offers the choice of miso or shoyu broth. The roast pork bits in the soup are pretty good, and while I don't think the noodles are made on site, they don't look or taste like Nissin's finest either. Hama does regular business with the ANA crews on layover at Dulles, so I've always taken that as a pretty good vote of confidence.

Yes, but the "theme of the time" you keep pointing at here was the slogan of the opposing party - Roosevelt himself would have been mightily offended by your attaching that particular slogan to his name. The fact that he was in politics at the time is meaningless.

Shame you had to miss it - as it turns out they did Root Down at the beginning of their set. (And technically, discussion of the Beasties is on topic since they name-check food, wine, and even chefs in the songs. So there.)

Er, I'm sure there needed to be a chicken dish on the menu, but this is quite a stretch in historical terms. "A chicken in every pot" was one of the slogans for the Republican party in the 1928 election, 4 years before FDR ran. If anything, he would have pointed to this particular slogan as a massive failure.

Really enjoyed the braised oxtail with buttermilk mash, and the turnip and potato latke that comes with the duck confit is good enough to be a dish on its own. And yeah, the pecan pie is very, very good, particularly when paired with the Lancaster old fashioned.

It's the same "oh look, I've found restaurants in DC that are actually good" snark piece she always writes. Different publication, slightly different list of restaurants. Yawn.

And to Patrick McGoohan as well. Bad day for classic sci-fi.

Anybody know how far in advance they take reservations? I called to ask yesterday and the person answering the phone wasn't sure.