Simon

This place is very promising. I just returned from dinner and was largely impressed with the food -- a few quibbles, and a couple outright misfires, but mostly successes. The atmosphere can't quite shake the feel of a mall food court, as the setting isn't disguised as in most of the restaurants at the Time Warner Center. (There was an interior space, not in use tonight, that has a warmer, more intimate feel.) The service was a little green but well-meaning, and certainly on the way to being well-trained. Like Mark, I had the bay scallops from the raw bar ($18) as my first bites, and they were indeed wonderful, though (very minor quibble) a couple were dressed a little too heavily with olive oil (I skipped the accompanying sauces entirely). The tagliatelle with beef cheeks ($10) was also one of my favorite dishes of the evening, capturing a kind of refined rusticity that reflects Range's cooking at its best. Delicate noodles with a nice chew, and subtle but unfussy flavors. Note: though the dish was called tagliatelle on the menu, the server presented it as pappardelle, which seemed to more accurately describe the width of the pasta. Kimchi linguini, uni, bay scallops, nasturtium ($14): full disclosure -- I'm one of the only Koreans in the world who hates the taste of kimchi. But my mother raved about the "authentic kimchi flavor" of the noodles, and I had to admit, it was pretty damn good. It captures the flavor, but not the sheer pungency, of kimchi. A smartly conceived and well-executed dish, with everything in balance. Roseda beef cap of ribeye ($15): rib cap, with its richness, is the only cut of steak I like to cook to medium, rather than medium-rare or less. This preparation was sliced thinly and didn't quite capture the sheer indulgent quality of the cut I'm used to from cooking Bryan Flannery's rib caps at home. But it was still a good and serious cut of beef. The kampachi collar with soffrito ($14) was a pleasing marriage of fish and sauce; I only wish the meat-to-bone ratio had been higher for the price. The oyster and shiitake mushrooms were the only serious misfire of the savory courses. Finding it seriously over-salted, we sent it back, and the second batch we received was still inedibly salty. I suspect the marinade is over-seasoned and couldn't be adjusted mid-service. Our server kindly took it off the bill. This was my first time tasting one of Edan's pizzas, and after everything I've heard, I was ultimately disappointed in the margherita pizza ($12). I appreciated the lightness and chew of the crust, and the pizza was clearly not just the work of an ordinary craftsman. Yet the crust didn't have the depth of flavor I crave in a Neapolitan style pizza, and the cheese tasted overly salty. It was a perfectly pleasant pizza, but it just didn't sing to me (as the pizza at Keste did on a recent visit). Given everything else on the menu, I doubt I'll order the pizza again. Incidental note: my pizza had less char on it than the one pictured in rockcreek's post. I also observed that my pizza appeared to be made by an assistant, and not Edan, who seemed more preoccupied with preparing the other wood oven dishes. The desserts were a let down. The rice pudding ($10) was boring and flat, with no depth of flavor, and the melange of accompaniments (quince, chocolate, brazil nuts, marshmallows) just made for an uninspired muddle on the plate. Not good. The trio of sorbets were pleasant but nothing special, with the quince being the most interesting. One final note on value: I didn't have the chance to try one of the larger meat dishes, but it seems to me that the relative values on the menu are the $30+ meat courses shared by 2 or more people, rather than the $10-15 dishes. This post probably sounds a bit more mixed than my overall impression, which was quite positive. I'm eager to return, though they seemed to be quite booked up for a while.

Why does all their bread contain obscene amounts of sodium?

Gerry, Stepping back a bit -- for the first-timer in Spain, how would you recommend spending a week to ten days? Presupposing a strong interest in food and wine, with a modicum of knowledge of Spanish wines, but no real specialization. All best, Simon

Another small data point that reinforces my report above: I ordered the charred grilled spiced octopus with mashed potatoes and mushroom ragout off of the lunch bar menu. The octopus itself was everything it should have been: tender, but still with a nice chew, and tasty. But the mashed potatoes and mushrooms tamed and weighed down the dish, bringing it into another, less interesting country, with a lone, fried basil leaf standing forlornly as a token gesture to what might have been.

I could take or leave the rest of the restaurant, but the Chef’s Table at Sushi Taro is, in my estimation, the best restaurant in DC right now. The fish has always been stellar, but in the past for me, the cooked dishes have lagged somewhat in both imagination and execution. But not so on Saturday night. It helped, of course, to have real Japanese Wagyu beef on offer, thanks to the USDA recently relaxing the import ban. Served both as sashimi and in a shabu shabu (with a wonderful red snapper and mushroom broth), it was the most intensely marbled and subtly flavored beef I have ever tasted. But the other cooked dishes, including abalone baked in a salt crust, were equally impressive in their way. Perhaps best of all was the chawanmushi with lobster and uni, remarkable for the clarity of its flavors amid the richness of the ingredients. The fish was outstanding, as usual. The quality is simply on a higher level than at any other sushi restaurant in DC. The tuna wasn’t the fattiest I’ve ever had here, but it was more than made up for by a parade of superlative fish: arctic char, flounder, snapper, golden thread, bonito, diver scallop, and sweet shrimp. Of the four or five times I’ve visited the Chef’s Table since Sushi Taro re-opened, last Saturday’s dinner was by far the best and most satisfying. Thanks to the step-up in the cooked dishes, the meal now has greater coherence and consistency. It hits its highs earlier and stays there throughout the evening. Even the desserts, once an after-thought, have improved in both quality and variety. Not inexpensive at $150 per person, but I think it’s the best value of all high-end restaurants in DC, if simply for the quality of raw ingredients alone. And I would humbly submit that the Chef’s Table at Sushi Taro is deserving of consideration of Don’s highest honor, a bolded superlative ranking in the Dining Guide.

Some brief thoughts on my dinner at Elisir from a couple weeks ago -- Intrigued by the various reports here, I ordered the hand-cut spaghetti. The noodles were ever so delicate, and the flavors of the dish subtle and refined. A gimmicky preparation, perhaps, but here, modernist technique serves old-fashioned ends: clarity of tastes and perfection of texture. An immensely satisfying dish. Alas, my main course was a disappointment. The pheasant roulade felt like it came from an French restaurant in England stuck in a 1970s time warp. The pheasant itself was better cooked than you'd find in such a restaurant (it was moist and not overdone), but the overall preparation was stodgy and French-ified. The gravy was heavy and salty, and the brussel sprout/pancetta/corn accompaniment supremely unimaginative. I expected better from the chef who gave us the "cigar box" carpaccio. The olive oil and sea salts tasting is more than a curiosity, but the accompanying breads should be much better. I found the service to be an odd mix of studied informality and a somewhat cloying, and clumsy, fussiness. Yet it was earnest, and its heart was in the right place. I only wish Enzo would more consistently hit the highs that he's capable of.

Some scattered thoughts from a former violin player: -Don is right about instrument selection. -Viola may be easier to tolerate in the early going, but no beginning string student is pleasant to listen to, unless your daughter is Midori. -Your question about suggestions for superb pieces of viola performance leads to another issue you've raised - choice of instrument, violin or viola. There's simply far less interesting writing for viola than violin. Probably not an issue in the early years when all student pieces are uninteresting, but if your daughter sticks with it and ends up playing in a school orchestra, her music will be generally less interesting than the violin parts, which will have more of the melody. And the solo repertory is also more limited. That being said, viola is less competitive and could -- could -- provide some kind of advantage in the future. If your daughter's method of selection was simply alphabetical, you should have her listen to some examples of both instruments and see which sound quality she prefers.

Never been here before. What should I order?

Wow, Don, I have not heard this one before. So if this the case, what changed in bottle manufacturing, c. 1995-1996?

Going here for lunch this week on the company dime. What should I get? (Plastered is not an option.)

Today's lunch special, Hiyashi Chuka (cold ramen) -- cold egg noodle topped with ham, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, egg, red ginger, mustard, vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce -- was amazing. That is all.

Agreed. Had the Chef's Choice burger for the first time today. Ordered medium rare, it came out past medium -- but it didn't matter, because it was just so delicious. I'd say that, as individual components, the meat and bun are superior chez Ruta. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts here.

Is there anything worthwhile to eat here? I have to have lunch here (Rockville location) this weekend.

Actually, the restaurant has slipped significantly since Chef Kudo went back to his hometown in Japan. I know there are a number of less than glowing reports upthread, but in the past, if you knew what to order, you could get far above average fish for good value. Not anymore.

I wish Don hadn't deleted his 3am post.

Had a very mediocre assortment of small plates here last night. Dozen oysters on the half shell: mix of Washington State and California oysters, nothing special, and many not properly shucked (got bits of shell in my mouth). Popcorn shrimp and calamari: shrimp were flavorless, and the calamari had an off-putting after-taste (something like raw flour from the batter?). Shad roe: somewhat overcooked, and therefore a bit gritty. A shame. Steamed manila clams and bacon: the bacon completely overwhelmed the taste of the clams -- the clams could have been anything. Fried ipswich clams: best dish of the night, comparable in preparation and flavor to those at Freddy's. The restaurant appeared to be very much "a scene," with other priorities than the sourcing of quality ingredients and their careful preparation. Basically a waste of $100 for two people. Will not return. Edited to add: This was the DC location.

The Badger burger I ordered (pork and veal) was downright mediocre: dry, with uninspired flavors and an off-putting texture. I probably should have ordered a beef burger.

Has anyone bought anything from here recently that they've enjoyed?

I think the seafood main courses at Fiola outshine the meats. On my last visit, the brodetto was excellent, and the turbot has been consistently my favorite dish here. Among the pastas, the lobster ravioli is indeed a stand out. You may wish to order that, along with the bucatini, for contrast. The tuna tartar was interesting but not one of the best dishes on the menu. I enjoyed the raw scallops that were on special recently much more. I know the temptation at an Italian restaurant may be to concentrate on antipasti and pasta and forego a main, but to do so at Fiola -- where the seafood mains are so outstanding -- would be a crime. At least share one among two people.

I went in January 2011 and thought it vastly overrated. In general, I thought the cooking lacked the kind of clarity and precision required to bring off its brand of novelty. The most satisfying dish was the main course -- a rather conventionally prepared duck breast -- and of the more "innovative" courses, only the shaved foie gras lingers positively in the memory. Everything else, to me, was muddled or simply lackluster. Didn't live up to the hype.

I bought some great Bettelmatt cheese here, which I've never before seen available in the U.S.

Lunch at JG may be considered a great bargain, but I had a very mediocre lunch here a few months ago, the level of cooking well below that I've encountered at dinner. Maybe the kitchen overall has declined -- certainly, the seafood courses I had could not hold a candle to the cooking at Le Bernardin. The meal was redeemed only by a copious array of wonderful desserts, brought out after I expressed my general dissatisfaction with the savory courses to the waiter.

But not the attitude. The service was endearingly friendly (cf. Zooey Deschanel and the MPDG). I do have to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by the overall experience. While I enjoyed most of the dishes and thought the quality of ingredients good and the kitchen well-drilled, there wasn't a single dish that had me dying to come back. Slight (and I mean slight) imbalances of flavor in some of the dishes prevented them, for me at least, from fully satisfying; these appeared to be issues of conception rather than execution. I did enjoy the atmosphere, except for the aggressively loud soundtrack (though understand the rationale for it). My one suggestion: I'd like to see the kitchen really showcase seafood in one of the courses, instead of using it just in preparations like the catfish or the shrimp toast.

I've mainly heard "The District" in local news broadcasts but rarely in conversation. Joe Gibbs always used to say "Warshington" on his radio show.

Wow.