dgreen

Went to China Star for the first time Saturday night. Wow, what a let down. As DanCole42 mentioned in his experience, it's possible we just ordered horribly wrong. Whatever the reason, it was not good. We ordered Phoenix and Dragon and Seafood Pan-Fried Noodles. The Phoenix and Dragon was ok. The Seafood Pan-Fried Noodles was full of imitation crab meat and tasteless scallops. Even the fried rice was fairly gross.

That location seems horrible. Glad to hear there's a Thai place. I'm enjoying all the Korean places, but it's nice to have something different open. For Centreville, that makes this new place and Bangkok City. I've had some decent meals at Bangkok City, but I'd still prefer to make the trip to Chantilly for Thai Basil. Maybe this new place will help raise the Thai bar in Centreville.

Yeah, I'd guess Lorton would produce almost no lunch crowd. Other than Reston and Tysons, the best bets for a strong lunch crowd in the further suburbs would probably be Dulles or the Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks area.

Maybe Mambossam?

Bon Chon coming soon next to Wow Fresh Meat.

I had the same feeling, especially about the meatballs, Saturday night. Overall, it was just an ok dish, which is kind of disappointing for $17. I was deciding between the lasagna and the other pasta that had the wild boar bolognese and I opted for the lasagna since it had meatballs. Like you, I ate them and didn't really like them. Minor nitpick. I wasn't the biggest fan of the lasagna being served in a hot cast iron pan. I just don't get why they would serve it in something like that and tell you to be careful not to touch it because it was so hot. They nicely asked whether I was right handed or left handed so they could have the pan handle on the opposite side, but for some reason I was slightly annoyed that they'd serve it in a dish that I had to work around in order to eat my meal. How about just put it on a plate so I don't have to worry about burning myself? Not a big deal, though. I think I was just already somewhat annoyed at the lack of interesting options on the menu. Not sure I really expected anything different and maybe I just wasn't in the mood for Italian. But, I was really hoping something would jump out at me as something I really wanted to order. I almost just went with a steak or the Italian Panini. My wife had the Chicken Panini and the mushroom soup. She really enjoyed the soup and the panini was pretty good and served with the typical thin fries. We called at 5:15 to put our names on the list and we were told it would be about an hour and a half, so I think they are in full GAR swing with long waits.

Drove through the Spa World shopping center and didn't see Honey Pig. But it's definitely on the sign facing 29. There's one spot with a coming soon sign, but the rest of the sign is in Korean so I'm not sure what it is. I did quickly walk through Hanaro Food (in the same shopping center) the other day. It's a much cleaner and nicer space than the one time I went to Grand Mart. They have aisles and aisles of Korean and Japanese specialty food. They also have plenty of the "American" brand name grocery items like any other grocery store. There may have been a few other cuisines (I know I saw some Vietnamese labeled items), but those were the two most prominent. Anchovies were everywhere. They had a bin of live blue crabs for $0.99 per pound. They looked pretty small, though. There's an area with small appliances which I'm pretty sure included kimchi makers. There a couple restaurants inside and a bakery. Pho Duong has taken over Pho Hot's spot and appeared to be open when I drove by yesterday. Korshi has taken over O'Toole's place.

I think I saw a Honey Pig sign for the IHOP/Glory Days/Spa World shopping center.

I guess it's time to try Pho Bistro.

Bluberi appears to be open. We plan on trying it this weekend. Here is their facebook page.

After looking at the menu, I guess the question for coming in under $100 is based on whether appetizers and desserts are large enough to be shared. That should make it easy enough to keep the cost under $100, but will we leave hungry? I haven't done much French dining, so I'm not sure what to expect.

I went in Red Rocks once a long time ago (10 years?). I just remember walking out after a few minutes for some reason and have never been back. I don't remember exactly why we walked out. Something like they were only serving a buffet at the time? I can't remember exactly, but it wasn't anything like horrible service or anything really bad. I noticed the old O'Toole's place has a coming soon banner hanging. I think it's another Korean establishment. After some internet research, it appears to be named Korshi.

We had reservations for 6. Maple Avenue called us around 4:00-4:30 to say that their a/c had gone out. They were working on it, but they wanted us to know so we could make alternate plans if we wanted to. Within about 15 minutes, they called back to say the a/c was up and running. It ended up being a little warm in there, but we definitely appreciated the heads up from them. In the car, on the way to Maple Avenue, we had picked out what we wanted to order. I was going with the Dr. Pepper Ribs (how could I not?) and my wife was interested in the crab and asparagus mac n cheese. We sit down, open the menu, and, of course, the menu had changed. Neither of those dishes were on the current menu. The thai okra, another dish my wife was wanted, was also missing from the small plates menu. Disappointment was starting to set in. We looked over the menu for several minutes trying to regroup. My wife ended up with the thai cauliflower small plate and the apple and asparagus fried rice as her main plate. I went with the shrimp and grits and bulgogi wraps. We added the funnel cake and chocolate dumplings for dessert and we both overcame the initial disappointment and really enjoyed our meal. It was just an all-around solid meal. Nothing blew me away, but everything was good.

I did that a few weeks ago. I was really expecting to leave a little hungry since $15 is such a great deal for a lobster roll (comes with fries) and soup or salad. I did not leave hungry. In fact, I'm pretty sure there were still a few fries left on my plate...or maybe I stuffed them all down my throat, can't really remember. But, the point is, this is a great deal.

I was headed to Pho Hot, noticed this place, and remembered this thread so I went in. Ordered the rice with boiled squid in a spicy sauce. She took one look at me and said, "It's spicy." I think she ended up putting my order in as medium, but I'm not sure. It was spicy without being over the top, so I'm guessing it was medium. Came with kimchi, soup, and a couple sides I had no idea what to do with. A lot of the squid was way too tough, but overall it was a tasty dish. Korean isn't usually high on my list, so I'm not sure what to say. It has a pretty large menu; probably over 50 items, ranging from $7 to about $30. The marquee says "MOM BOSSAM" and the carry out menu seems to have it as "MOMBO SSAM".

A number of people in the DC area haven't even heard of Clifton. My address is Clifton, but I live on the edge of Centreville. When I tell people where I live, I have to say Centreville for them to have any idea. I just get blank stares when I say Clifton. (Then again, for those who do know about Clifton, they don't really consider me to be in Clifton. Heck, I don't even consider myself to be in Clifton. I just happen to be in the zip code, but it's definitely more of a Centreville feel.) The town obviously doesn't want to blow up into anything huge (the quaintness is important), but it could be much more than it is. Outside of the restaurants, there really isn't much reason to go to Clifton. It could probably use some more shopping and maybe something else to bring people to town. The town is packed on their annual Clifton Day and I think their Wine Festival does ok. They also have annual home tours. If you attend one of those, you can quickly see that this nice little town really doesn't have much to do. There's now a winery nearby, so maybe that will help some. Who knows, maybe the town residents don't even want big weekend crowds walking around their town. My wife and I have taken our kids to the town park/playground. Kids like to go there since we usually get ice cream while we're there. Once, one lady asked if we lived there and we told her where we lived. She responded, "Oh, you don't have playgrounds over there?" OK, so that's just one story and maybe that lady was an outlier. I believe the owner of Peterson's is also the mayor, so I'd think he'd want to really market the town. Anyway, it would be great if Trummer's could flourish. We haven't gone yet, but we probably will soon.

I stopped by last night. Definitely part of the local chain. The Centreville location is known as Food Corner IV, since it's the 4th location. All I got was the lamb sandwich ($6.40), which came with a side of the spicy chutney sauce. Pretty good sandwich. I've heard good things about Food Corner, so I'm excited to make a few more visits. I've been to Kabob Express a few times (in the Five Guys/Ciros area), which has been pretty good. A competing kabob place should help, though.

Good to know about Rasoi. I always gravitate towards Pho Hot whenever I'm over there and just haven't given it a try. I think I've heard a few good reports now. Is that Kabob House Food Corner coming soon (the Pancheros spot, I think) the same as the local chain in Annandale? If so, that could be good news.

Shockingly, Bombay Cafe's $5 buffet is, well, a $5 buffet. Had I paid more, I probably would have been disappointed. But, for $5, I'm really not going to complain.

Got take-out the other night. Rice and naan were just meh. Not bad, but nothing great either. Boneless chicken was pretty good, but, again, nothing great. The chickpea curry, though, was really good. I was there around 6:30. There were several guys smoking and playing cards and then a table of young women in the corner smoking. Definitely a different atmosphere.

This Indian place operates at two locations under two different names. Bombay Cafe is the Fairfax location on Lee Highway (29) between Jermantown and Shirley Gate. It's across 29 from the K Mart shopping center. Aaoji is the Herndon location on Pine Street in the "old town" area of Herndon. Months ago, I had stopped at Aaoji and got carry out. They were running a curry special that day. I ended up getting 3 curry dishes, rice, and naan for just under $10. I don't remember exactly what I got , but I do remember it was a ton of food. It provided me lunch and dinner that day. The curry was dripping out the sides of container that must have weighed about 5 pounds. I know I had the lamb rogan josh, but I don't remember the other two curry dishes. I chose goat biryani as my rice. The curry sauces, containing some kick but not too spicy, were just right for someone like me. All in all, it was a good meal. I had been by Bombay Cafe once and saw the buffet tables packed on a weeknight. Apparently they do a $5 buffet if you pay with cash ($6 if you don't pay with cash) Monday through Thursday. I think it's $7/8 Friday through Sunday. Last night I stopped in to place a to-go order so I could get home in time to watch Strasburg's debut. I went with their wraps. They're cheap and I'm kind of cheap, so it seemed like a good match. They have chicken, paneer, vegan, and omelete wraps (using naan for the wrap) for $2.99 each. Or, you can get two for $5. I ordered 2 assuming they would be small. They weren't. They weren't huge, but they definitely weren't small. They were stuffed with chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, and included a sauce (I think it was a curry sauce). For the price, I thought they were really good. I hope to get back soon to try the buffet. There was a $10 minimum for credit card purchases at Bombay Cafe. I didn't have any cash on me, so he just charged me an extra $0.50 or so to use my credit card. So, if you're just doing something small, bring cash.

Some of the latest Centreville news. Jireh Bakery Cafe, a Korean bakery, has taken over the Jamie's General Bean spot on 29. While technically a Clifton address, Bluberi Yogurt will open in the old McDonald's spot in the Colonnade at Union Mill. I can't find much information on this place yet.

Several weeks ago I saw a taco truck driving along route 50 in Chantilly on a Saturday. A few days later, my wife saw one parked at a residential construction site at route 50 and Rugby Rd (Chantilly/Fairfax area, just west of the Fairfax County Parkway). Haven't seen it again, though. Anyone familiar with this Western FFX County taco truck?

Today's Groupon is for Evo Bistro. $20 gets you $40. How is this place?

Since we're within walking distance of the Clifton location, I'm not sure why I don't go more often. My daughter (6) and I were going out Saturday night and she picked Rosemary's. She loves their bread and pizza. I ordered my first lahmacun. I had never seen it on the menu before. Oddly enough, I happened to catch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Turkey episode the other night and saw him eat one. I didn't realize I was ordering the same thing until they served my lahmacun with a side bowl of greens, onions, and a lemon. It was nice that I immediately knew exactly what to do with them. The lahmacun ($10.95) had minced lamb and various herbs and spices.