dgreen

I've had some good sandwiches at Tastes Unlimited.

Went yesterday for the first time. Are the chips always that oily? They were nice and light and crispy, but pretty oily. Other than that, I enjoyed everything.

Went to Rose Sunday for lunch. I came here to post the exact same thing. Ordered the lamb and chicken combo platter and the chicken was just as you described. The lamb was good, too. The staff (family?) couldn't have been nicer.

This place just never looks busy. I hope these people didn't put all their money into this restaurant.

I have a 4:40 flight out of BWI. I'll be driving there from Fairfax. Any good lunch spots up that way? I'll be alone.

The word for the evening was: Disappointment. Wife and I went to Hooked last night. It was off to a fine start with the lobster bisque and crab chowder. I especially liked the goldfish crackers with the soup. From there, though, it wasn't so good. I ordered the fresh catch sandwich, which was halibut. It was dry in the middle. It wasn't horribly dry to the point that I couldn't eat it (I did finish it), but it did produce a some bad bites. The menu stated something about the Washington Post saying how great their fries are. After the first bite of my first fry, I said, "Did they get these from McDonald's?" They were almost exact matches for McDonald's fries, just with less salt. Now, I'll admit I do enjoy McDonald's every once in a while, but not what I was expecting from this place. We ordered a side of the Mile High Mac and Cheese. According to the menu, it is "Prepared with pico de gallo, chipotle seasoning & aged cheddar." Yeah, what we got was just a bowl of regular old mac and cheese. No chipotle seasoning. No pico de gallo. Then, we wanted to get a dessert for our friends who were babysitting our kids. So, we ordered the Black Chocolate Truffle Cake to go. That was the smallest dessert I've ever seen. It was maybe three bites, as long as you didn't take any big bites. The couple sitting next to us said they've noticed all of Hooked's carry-out to to-go items are significantly smaller than what they serve at your table. Is that a common thing in the restaurant business. Like I said, the overall feeling of the evening was disappointment. Probably because I entered with fairly high expectations. I mean, their web page does say they were "Voted Virginia's BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT!"

Just read Tyler Cowen's Discover Your Inner Economist recently and there was a chapter discussing how to find the best restaurants.

Another data point. Traveling back home over the weekend, we stopped at the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville. With the main dining room being too pricey for us, we went to the bar to order a couple sandwiches. While we were waiting, my wife was walking around with our one-year old. She wandered into the coffee/tea room and noticed the whole milk container for coffee. She asked a doorman if she could put some milk from there in a small cup. He did one better and went to the kitchen and filled up a 12 oz. cup with milk. Of course, there was no charge.

Went to the new location in Centreville. Service wasn't great and it's not like it was super busy. There were a lot of waiters just standing around while I wanted more tortillas (or some tortillas since they didn't originally bring any out with my fajitas) or a drink refill. The fajita steak was well done. The carnitas was ok, though. The chips and salsa were good, but they served the chips in really tiny baskets. Our table of four adults and four kids would run out of chips in about 3 minutes.

Is the lunch menu available Saturday and Sunday? Are reservations needed for a Saturday or Sunday lunch?

Havabite in Oldtown Fairfax since 1978.

What about The Fish Market in Oldtown?

Their web site has this for it's history:

The one game I went to, they were in an alley on the right side just before you hit N Street.

The only way to grab something fast for lunch is to actually eat in one the museums or from a cart. There's not much else really close. You'd have to walk a few blocks to find something. And, if you're going to eat in a museum, you should hit Mitsitam Cafe, as Don suggested, in the American Indian Museum. Even if you aren't planning on that being one of the museums you visit, it's right next to the Air and Space Museum and it won't waste a lot of time.

I've driven by Lowry's Crab Shack in Hamilton a couple times, but haven't stopped.

Looks like it opened in 2006 and is owned by Fairfax City Mayor Rob Lederer.

I visited The Sweet Life Cafe with two of my kids Saturday night. Located on the first floor of an historic home in Old Town Fairfax, The Sweet Life Cafe serves sandwiches, breakfast, ice cream, other desserts, and various coffees, tees, and other beverages. There are a few tables inside, but much of the seating is along the wrap around porch overlooking Rt 123 and in the small back yard. While looking over the sandwiches, trying to decide what to order, I noticed a crab cake sandwich on the specials menu. Priced at $12, I wondered what I was going to get. There are those places that have "crab cakes" for like $8 and you just know it's going to be 98% filler and 2% crab meat. (You just can't use enough crab meat and charge only $8.) So, at $12, what was I getting? Will it be full of lump crab (as the menu suggested) but kind of small or a larger crab cake leaving you asking, "Where's the crab?" Much to my delight, it was neither. It was a nice sized crab cake with a good amount of lump crab meat throughout. It wasn't the best I'd ever had, but for $12 I was pleased with the quality and portions. You just never know with crab cakes. After dinner, we hit the ice cream. My son wanted the strawberry ice cream. This wasn't your typical strawberry ice cream, at least I didn't think so. You know how strawberry ice cream tends to be called strawberry ice cream because it's pink, tastes somewhat like strawberries, and even has some tiny pieces of strawberry in it? Well, this had huge chunks of strawberries in it. Like chunks the size of half strawberries. You don't take a bite and just get the strawberry taste; you take a bite and get a strawberry. My daughter and I each had mint chocolate chip, although I was tempted by the banana pudding ice cream. As with the strawberry, the chocolate chips were whole chocolate chips. They weren't just tiny pieces of chocolate mixed in with mint ice cream. Again, probably not the best ice cream I'd ever had, but the quality and the portions exceeded the price. I'm not sure how long they've been open, but I think it's fairly new because I don't remember seeing it before a few months ago. With the redevelopment of Old Town Fairfax bringing in Potbelly and Panera across the street, The Sweet Life Cafe is a nice, quaint addition.

Went to my first game yesterday. I had my first ever Ben's halfsmoke. Unfortunately, by the time I bought it at Ben's and got to my seats up in 418, it was cold. Next time, I'll have to just get it at a Nats Dogs close to wherever I sit so I can actually have a warm one. I wasn't impressed with the fries from Ben's. With Boardwalk and 5 Guys there, I'd probably lean towards getting their fries to go with a halfsmoke. Has anyone tried the taco/bbq stand on Half St.?

From a WaPo chat last week: and...

I noticed the exits for National Harbor are now open. Looking at their website, it appears a few restaurants are now open. Looks like there's a steakhouse, seafood place, sports bar, and Italian place. A Potbelly is coming soon. Just last week, they started water taxi service between National Harbor and Old Town, Georgetown, and Mount Vernon. --- The following posts have been split into separate threads: Old Hickory Steakhouse (goldenticket) Ketchup (dgreen) McLoone's Pier House (jandres374) Pienza Italian Market (dpop) Thai Pavillion (anhdeluxe) Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats (tfbrennan)

Not a horrible price on the half smoke. That's only about $1.50 more than on U street.

Well, we all walked to Vermont Ave after hitting the National Geographic Museum's Frog Exhibit and everyone got stuff to go from the various establishments on that block. My family and my parents went to Juice Joint and everyone else went to Quiznos. We ate in McPherson Square. We got there a few minutes before noon and just beat the rush. I had the Gobbler Wrap with the chili tortilla. Loved it. I especially liked the raspberry/pear sauce. Wife ordered a chicken and fennel wrap from the specials with the spinach tortilla. I had a bite and I really liked it. She mentioned how good it was several times during the day. Glad to know about this place and I'll be going again whenever I find myself in the area.

I'll be downtown tomorrow with 6-7 other adults and 6-7 children (8 and under). Will this place work? It looks good. What kind of seating is available? Does it get really busy?

Anyone been to The Sideline (Lavar Arrington's restaurant) yet?