dgreen
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Everything posted by dgreen
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Anyone can serve themselves some soft serve ice cream! -
My wife and I have been going to Havabite in Old Town Fairfax for a while now. Our kids love it. In fact, my daughter picked it for her birthday dinner yesterday. My daughter and I are fans of the bacon pizza. Not bacon bits, but nice strips of bacon. My wife generally gets the chicken souvlaki. Last night, we ordered the hummus appetizer and enjoyed that too. They also have gyros, Greek salads, Greek appetizers, Greek entrees, pasta, calzones, subs, and burgers. This place is very reasonably priced and offers friendly service. That's friendly service, not necessarily speedy service. They sometimes take their time. But, I mainly wanted to post this to mention the friendly service they provided last night for my daughter's birthday. We ordered my daughter's birthday cake from Victoria's Cakery, which is on the same block as Havabite. Unfortunately, they close at 5 PM on weekdays and we weren't going to be able to get there in time. When my wife mentioned that we were hoping to get the cake when we were in the area at Havabite, they suggest we ask Havabite if they can pick it up for us. Well, we did and they did. They picked up the cake for us and kept it for us until we finished dinner (around 8 PM). Then they brought it out for us with plates and forks.
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No, really, I'd like to know. Pick one: "Since I will not be present at you birthday party, I will go ahead and present to you this present at this present time."
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Went to Present Friday night. We loved it. Based on some comments here, we got #3 and #37. We also ordered #17 Rich Folks Golden Crepes. Like the autumn rolls, the crepe came with a side of lettuce, herbs, and fish sauce and the waiter explained that we should cut the crepe into slices and hold it with the lettuce like a taco and dip it in the fish sauce. It was a good sized crepe and tasty. (A small gripe would be that we would have liked a few more shrimp in it.) Service was excellent. Like I already mentioned, the waiter explained how to eat the crepes. He said, "Do you know how to eat this?" I thought, "Um, the fact that you're asking makes me think I don't," so he then explained. A manager checked on us (to apologize that our meal was taking so long even though we didn't think it had been too long and later just to see how we liked our meal) and so did the owner (at least I'm assuming it was the owner since he looked a lot like the main guy I see at the Centreville Pho Hot). The waiter brought out a plate of steamed rice with the #37. Since we started with the crepe, he came back after a couple minutes and took the rice to heat it back up for when we were ready to start on the beef. They definitely seemed to care whether we were having a good meal or not. For whatever reason, their inquiries into our evening came off as very sincere. Also, while I'm not opposed to the authentic experiences at various ethnic restaurants, it was nice to have a hostess, waiter, manager, and owner who all spoke clear English and understood what we were saying. Oh, and one question: Is the name of this place Present, Present, Present, or Present?
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Pho Hot and Pho Bistro were the only two pho joints I knew of in Centreville. Was there another? Yes, Centreville is becoming Koreatown II. There was a WaPo article a couple years ago about it. Old Centreville Crossing and both parts of Centreville Square have many choices. I've only been to a few so far. Pho Hot and Tian are my favorites of the few I've tried. I haven't been to Hwang's. Below is a list I found on another web site. It's a post from about a year ago, so a couple of these are likely o/b and there are probably a couple new ones. But, it's an extensive list of what it's Centreville. Many of them are independent places or part of a small, local group.
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With only 30 minutes, I guess it depends where you are on campus. The Cheese Shop is easily accessible from the east end of campus. If you're closer to the football field (NW part of campus), the Green Leaf Cafe at Scotland St and Richmond Rd is good. I'm not sure what the vegetarian options are, though, so I can't help with that.
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Yes, we'll do that sometimes, too. Usually a large bowl of pho and some other dish will do a decent job feeding our family.
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My family's restaurant dining frequency has greatly reduced. Not because of the economy, though. It's kids. Those darn kids. Adding three of those wonderful things to our family and the wife not working equals less restaurant dining. (It was quite the disappointment when we realized we were no longer a one-pizza family after the second child.) However, I think we could easily increase our restaurant dining frequency a little if we didn't have to drop an extra $15 (food, drinks, tax, and tip) for the kids. Last night at Picante, we noticed Monday night is Kids Eat Free. We really enjoyed our meal and will probably go back on a Monday. Their regular-priced kids meals aren't too bad at $4.95 (drinks were an extra $0.95). But, I'd guess on a Monday night, we could go for about $25 instead of the $40 we spent last night. Jason's Deli has cheap kids meals. A few of their items are only $1.99 and the portions are fairly large. That price even includes a drink and a soft serve ice cream cone. The one time I went there (the Fairfax/Fair Lakes location), I didn't think it was great but it was passable and affordable. I'd say a family of four could eat there for $20. So, what else is out there? Where and when can you go for free kids meals? Any places that have really cheap kids meals?
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Their web site doesn't say anything about a Springfield location.
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My wife and I also had lunch there a couple weeks ago. I had the fish tacos and I thought they were really good. A great value for $11. The guacamole and pico de gallo were quite good. Wife had the vietnamese spring rolls. We split a bowl of lobster bisque, which I was actually a little disappointed with. Just had kind of a funny taste. BTW, the fish and chips kids meal was the same fried fish as the fish tacos and was probably enough for two kids.
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But how is that different now than, say, 5 years ago?
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I agree the ultimate goal is to have a sustainable business. That's why in the Ray's the Heat thread I asked this: I never got an answer. Any ideas? What has changed regarding Ward 7? Why do Michael and now Gillian want to open restaurants there assuming their goal is a sustainable, profitable business?
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I guess I'm confused at what kind of bigotry you are referring to if Denny's is the one being applauded.
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So, my office picked Bistro Bistro for our holiday luncheon. Is this anything to look forward to?
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Actually, I asked my friend to buy me dinner in exchange for a ticket to the game Sunday night. He said, "Yeah, we can just get Johnny Rockets or something at the stadium." I replied, "Nah, I have a better idea. There's this great burger place in Arlington and we can get a much better burger, a side, and a drink for the same price as one Johnny Rockets burger at the stadium." So we went to this great burger place. He really enjoyed his burger. When I cut into mine, I laughed and thought, "Hey, maybe I should give a medium burger a try since so many people seem to like them that way." It was fine. I mainly didn't like how quickly it destroyed the bun, but it was still a good burger. Certainly wasn't as good as the perfectly cooked one I had the week before, but you can't win 'em all. My friend and I discussed how we'd each read some comments at various places on the innerwebs regarding doneness issues. We found that to be interesting. But, whatever, no big deal...or so I thought.
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How are the lunch portions? Lunch prices look decent, so that's probably when I'll give it a try.
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I ordered mine yesterday well done and it came out medium, at best. It may have even been bordering on medium rare. This truly baffles me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's an art, not a science. But why do so many other places seem to not have as many problems with this "art"?
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Foster's Grille, Home Of The Charburger
dgreen replied to Scott Johnston's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
I hear the Westfields/Chantilly location has $2 burgers 4-7 PM on weekdays. -
Tyler Cowen interviewed by dcist:
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Child-Friendly Restaurants
dgreen replied to babkagirl's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
I don't think I've ever taken my kids to a restaurant that didn't have a high chair. The staff at Rose Restaurant in Vienna were very nice and talked to my kids a lot. -
I was in the same situation as you this past Sunday. Wife and I (and kids) went to the Centreville location and tried pho for the first time. Looking over the menu, we just played it safe and ordered the #11 Chin Nam. It's the pho with well done brisket (chin) and flank (nam). For our first time, we avoided the tendon and tripe. They have a couple seafood options too.
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Went to the Centreville location yesterday. As others have mentioned, the broth is awesome. I thought the meat was a little blah, but not horrible. It wasn't super packed, but they were keeping busy at lunch. With such a high Asian population out here, they should have no trouble. Combining large portions (even when ordering the regular size) with low cost and good tastes generally works well. I forgot to ask if they do carry out. Anyone know? Also, anyone try the Bubble Tea?
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Very cool. But, I'll ask the obvious... There's a reason (or multiple reasons) businesses haven't been in this part of town. I'm sure Michael's done his research and is doing this with confidence. So, what's changed?
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Saw a Pho Hot magazine ad and they apparently have a Centreville location. Anyone been to that one?
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Rosemary's Thyme Bistro
dgreen replied to jiveturk21's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
Sounds like the hostess had no idea what she was doing and I'd say it's possible she misunderstood what the manager told her to say. Living behind Rosemary's, within easy walking distance, we used to go there quite often. (I say "used to" because our dining frequency has greatly decreased with three kids and one income.) Many nights before having kids, my wife and I would be walking through Giant and say, "Oh, forget it, let's just go to Rosemary's." There was one particular woman manager there who was always very kind to us and made a point of coming to talk to us when we were there. One time, she even held our young daughter and carried her around with her for about 20+ minutes while my wife and I ate dinner. I'm pretty sure she was part of the owning family, but I haven't seen her there in probably 3 years. Anyway, to the food. I agree with others that the pides are good. I also like some of their rollas (wraps). I usually get the Rolla California. Pizzas and pastas tend to be good. The couple of kebabs I've had were decent. I ordered the NY strip once...yes, once. It was flavorless. Oh, they also have a pretty good Saturday and Sunday brunch, although it's been a while since I've been.