lion

Never was a fan of Busara in RTC, but losing The Bike Lane was their loss. 

Thinking of potential upcoming trips and wondered if anyone has seen the Northern Lights in a setting where there is a unique culinary experience. It doesn't have to be the 'best' meal but rather an experience which would match with the light show. 

Thanks!

On 8/19/2017 at 2:11 PM, LauraB said:

Frank Bruni considered the Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye to be one of his 5 favorite experiences (as distinguished from best restaurants) while he was the restaurant critic for the NYT.  Three Chimneys is not just a restaurant, it's an inn as well.  Well worth considering. We loved our experience there in 2010.  

Wow, that looks and sounds like an incredible experience. Definitely have to keep that in mind if we get to Scotland. 

Amex Platinum I think it's worth it if you travel more than once a year internationally. We're still just starting to get out our trips being short quick driving excursions outside of DC with our young son but think next year if we go to New Zealand or Japan will get it beforehand. 

Definitely get a local wifi modem or if possible a SIM card. Using a local SIM card in India with my iPhone made it very easy on many fronts such as coordinating with private drivers, Uber and Ola when there was a traffic jam on the road which can add hours to trips. 

The Japanese don't really eat spicy food in the Indian sense even though there are plenty of standing curry fast food places. During one trip I cooked Indian food at Japanese friend's house for a small gathering. I purposely made it as mild as possible while still retaining some flavor and still some of the guests broke out in a sweat! They finished the seafood dish though. 😊

17 hours ago, silentbob said:

Based on the initial research thus far, the impression that I get is that an inability to interact with non-English speaking sushi chefs about the fish/nigiri/etc. being served -- and of course we don't speak Japanese -- will inevitably limit how great the dining experience can be.  Does that sound about right?

P.S.  We actually have no prior experience dining at sushi counters, whether in DC or elsewhere, so it seems like that has to change as well before our trip, otherwise it would likely be a waste of time and money to want the high-end sushi experience in Tokyo.

There is significant issue for local restaurants and non-English speaking sushi chefs which is that it is difficult with getting an accurate impression how much you are willing to spend. It is important to keep in mind that a lot of places that you will 'find' have already been visited by foreigners and unfortunately sometimes there have been issues with them complaining about the bill. Again a lot of places don't have a menu or written out price list so the bill is when you find out how much things cost and it is easy to go from $100 to $300 per person. 

Once I traveled to a local sushi place in northern Tokyo that was highly rated. Even the review spoke of it's unique status as it was more a local neighborhood place that had grown over the years in stature. I actually walked past the door 2-3 times before finding it. Once inside, the owner and kitchen staff were surprised to see a foreigner and actually thru broken communication asked how I heard about it. As I sat down at the counter, they communicated to me the price of the box lunch which was reasonable for such a high end place. I thought I would be able to order more pieces. That was not the case. This establishment didn't take credit cards so I had traveled there with yen in the amount of $500 US dollars. The lunch was only $40. 

This place was old school and the sushi chef even at the time 15 years ago was in his late 60s so plainly he ran his establishment in that vein. The two men next to me having lunch clearly were regulars and were eating the most interesting pieces of sushi right off the counter. Also they didn't make any payment when leaving so they must have had a monthly bill arriving in the mail or by some other means. 

I'm not saying this as warning but rather to acknowledge some difficulty that exists when going off the beaten path. Keep in mind, the younger generation of chefs will most likely have someone on staff who can speak rudimentary English if not fluent but it would be helpful to have some learned or written phrases with how much you would like to spend if the restaurant does not take credit cards. 

We're hoping to make a trip to Japan next year and I plan to use Tablelog as it looks a great resource. 

Looks good!

19 hours ago, Ferris Bueller said:

This crepe place just opened in Hunter's Woods Plaza - it's not RTC, but positive news for the area.

My wife just texted me about the place and the good reviews! She got the scoop on me this time. 😀

15 hours ago, Simul Parikh said:

Ha... such a pain. And they screwed it up. Had to end up having my cousins buy it from India. We didn't do the traditional 'India shopping trip'. Whole family was just too lazy for it..  

Hopefully they got it from Benares! Real old school cool 😎style.

Actually yesterday we bought my son an outfit for the wedding we are attending. 

Bahut-bahut badhai on your upcoming wedding!

We are currently in India attending a family wedding. Decided to try Emirates for the first time since reading good reviews for child options traveling with an almost 4 year old boy. Ended up being a good flight, service was pleasant and meal choices for plentiful for our combined individual needs. 

After spending 4-5 days in New Delhi and now, this second week in Varanasi unfortunately won't have much to report on food restaurants as my relatives are cooking fresh food every meal. It's hard to convince anyone to be interested in checking Indian Accent or other places when every family favorite is being cooked at home! 

We did try a chain South Indian restaurant in New Delhi called Shree Ramnath which was pretty darn good. And ice cream at McDonald's after seeing the Taj Mahal was rewardingly delicious during the hot mid day sun.

It is amazing how much growth there has been since my last trip here. 

Reading this thread is making me hungry for dim sum. 

17 hours ago, SilverBullitt said:

I assume you've got the Chivas and Johnny Walker covered.

Hahaha! That was my first thought, too being Indian. It was one of the most important facets of the reception for my Dad.

At our wedding reception in VA we have 350 and also did it DIY style. We did Blue Vin Riesling for white and can’t remember the Malbec we had. The Blue Vin was very popular with Indian food and the Aunties!

Opening was good yesterday. They gave out free wine bags that are reinforced, some coupons and a free wine tasting class for two. The store is slightly smaller than the McLean store. 

Chang brings up some difficult topics in the culinary world, such chefs striving to have authentic food and the issues of fusion. Additionally, another topic that was interesting to hear was René Redzepi discussing having a single restaurant and Chang's mini empire of restaurants in terms of work/family balance. I'm sure my wife will be happy to hear that Redzepi's wife never cooked anything from Noma's cookbook at home as she is not a fan of that style of cooking. Overall found it an interesting series discussing how to continue their evolutionary journey as Chang/Meehan did with restaurants and magazine respectively. 

Jeez, I didn't know the details and size of the Reston Gateway project. 

It is more work to get a non-hotel for an event like a wedding reception. For example during our reception, my sister handled the decorations and ended up buying $1000 of chair covers and resold them on eBay. But we were able to have a unique reception with a mixture of American and Indian traditions that included the different families needs since we had more flexibility in allocation of financial resources in a non hotel setting.

Another example was getting more servers and bartenders from the catering company which was possible since the cost for alcoholic beverages was lower. We mixed more cheaper and top shelf beverages such as John Walker, Chivas Regal and Glenfiddich which are a requirement for a Desi wedding and higher quality wines for my wife's side of the family. I ended up getting the wines from Total Wine which was a lower cost and we were able to return unused bottles and even cases of beer. 

If it is a business event then going the hotel route makes sense. 

Sherwood Community Center

We had my parents 50th anniversary party there about five years ago with 350. Nice modern venue, brightly lit that looked good with decorations. 

On 2/19/2018 at 9:58 AM, Simul Parikh said:

Last time I flew (prior to their direct to India from Dulles), it was pretty good. In the ancient past (1980s-early 1990s) my parents said "no way" but I've flown them a few times as a grown up and found them to be pretty good. Let us know, b/c I want to try that flight next time I go.

Air India was pretty terrible in that era. I remember taking Pan Am flights to India in the 70s, looking back at it the seat size would be considered business class for economy. 

Hat's off to Chef Andrés, he walked the walk that many just talk. 

I like Menomale but it has been a well since our last trip. Never been to Darnestown, will keep it in mind if up in Gaithersburg. 

This is why I like to rent venues where I can bring my own drinks or bartender. 

11 hours ago, DaveO said:

My gut is if the developers lay off the parking mess the retail center will remain as the popular downtown of Western Fairfax.  The major issue for the current time being that eating and retailing denizens of RTC found other places to eat drink and dine while the parking snafu/attempted ripoff occurred.  

From Tysons to Reston to Loudoun you have one of the strongest bases of technical talent in the nation.  I don’t see it moving out in mass anytime soon.  

Development and growth tend to have a very erratic pattern though the long term trend has been astoundingly up. I don’t see anything changing on the current horizon

I definitely agree with DaveO, unfortunately Boston Properties' generational leadership change has resulted in taking the let's wait out the situation and keep doing what we are doing.

My question is how much money are they getting for generating shopping data and data mining for commerce from their app. As license plate readers (~$500) become more prevalent due to their low cost of implementation expect more food related industries to be effected. 

1 hour ago, reedm said:

I’m off to Delhi Sunday for work, and it will be my first trip to India. Not sure how much free time, if any, I will have , and while I usually loathe hotel food, I’ve heard plenty of first hand reports about food safety, so it’s likely I’ll have to break my own rule and eat in the hotel. I’ll be staying at the Imperial, which is supposed to be a wonderful “Heritage” (colonial style) hotel, and I’ve read the restaurant prices border on the obscene. Would be happy for any advice.

I am also rolling the dice and flying Air India direct from Dulles, since that route will save several hours. Air India’s reputation is not the greatest, and even though I’ll be flying business class, my expectations are low after reading many trip reports.  Has anyone flown AI recently?

 

Most hotel restaurants on the upper end will run at last $100 US for dinner. Avoid wines as they are usually overpriced and the quality is lower and mixed drinks are perfectly fine. Certain kind of cuisines like Japanese for existence I would not bother but something like Thai would definitely seek out. There are plenty of American chain fast food places within walking distance of the Imperial if you don't want to risk getting sick such as Pizza Hut, KFC, and McDonalds which I would definitely try out just for the experience of eating a chicken Maharaja Mac. There are plenty of hotels nearby which may be slightly cheaper in terms of the meal but Connaught Place is a major tourist area so a lot of places should be ok, a bigger issue will be traffic. Most likely you won't want to go to far as traveling will be a hassle. 

I've heard good things about Indian Accent but again keep in mind even a 5km trip and take a lot of time especially during rush hour. 

Have not flown Air India in over two decades! Of course the direct flight from IAD to DEL is the shortest trip around 14-15 hours, however the service has been lacking. A lot of Indians I know like Emirates for the layover in Dubai and the service. Personally, I haven't tried them out yet and have liked KLM or ANA. United is always a mixed bag, better than domestic travel but less amenities than other foreign airlines. 

Let us know where you go and how the trip goes!

(*Tweaked's recent review is pretty good. Didn't read it again before writing this one.*)

We went back at the Galleria for lunch and tried the coffee and pizza stand as well. We liked the ice cream joint.

On 2/9/2018 at 4:54 PM, Ferris Bueller said:

Gourmet Food Store Opening At Reston Town Center

Balducci's is giving Reston another shot, after having closed a Reston location some years ago in favor of a McLean store.  Should be interesting as the location is on the main level of a new apartment building, with garage parking.  

Remarkable they are going to give it another go. I use to frequent the Reston location years ago, this was before there was a Whole Foods locally as well, and at it's best the store usually felt a little bit busy. The location set empty for many years until it became a PetSmart! The new location will be on the 'dead side' of the RTC which use to house FedEx and before that a Ruby Tuesdays, I believe.

Next there is a Lotte going into the Herndon Centre as well as a Sprouts grocery store. All will be in the same plaza as Mom's Organic Market. Finally a Total Wine also inside the Plaza America center with Whole Foods.