Bart

I popped into the Penn Quarter location (without a reservation) at 5pm on Friday hoping to grab seats at the bar, but we were able to score a table so long as we vacated in 90 mins or so.

The food and service were as good as ever but what really struck me were the prices.  The prices here seemed to pre-pandemic, "normal" prices for food and drink.  In fact, they seemed a lot lower than many run of the mill places.

As a point of comparison, two of us had the palak chaat, two entrees, two sides (small portions) and a couple orders of naan, and a bottle of wine and the bill before tax and tip was $105 each.  I went to Tail Up Goat for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was $105 per person just for the food! (And the drink prices were absurd:  the cheapest GLASS of wine was $17 and most were in the $20s).  At Rasika, we also took home enough food for probably 3 more meals, and at TUG, we didn't have any leftovers.  And the food at TUG was fine, but nothing that I'd run back for (the menu is very small, the portions are small, and only one dish out of four really moved me), but Rasika on the other hand, could have me eating there for a week straight and never get bored or run out of options.

tl;dr - If you arrive early you can score bar seats or maybe a table without a reservation.  It's a great bargain for top quality food and service.

I'm always up for a food adventure!

Very sad.  I never met him, but remember his fab posts.

https://www.ieggyou.com/menu
 

They don’t have their hours listed on the website yet, but it appears that they are open every day for breakfast and lunch. There’s a blurb on the menu that says they are an event space in the evenings.

In honor of their grand opening, they are doing a giveaway to the first 50 people who show up this morning 

Two thumbs up from Tom:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/11/17/padaek-arlington-restaurant-review/

On 11/3/2023 at 9:26 AM, Ericandblueboy said:

There has to be some transparency in pricing so we can decide which restaurants to go to.  I don't like it when the menu price doesn't include all the "fees" and you're still expected to 20% on top of the fees?  

 

This article is from May:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/25/dc-tipping-guidelines-after-initiative-82/

Here's an excerpt:  The attorney general said restaurants and bars must “clearly and prominently disclose fees” at the start of the ordering process, and they must accurately describe the reason for the fee. 

Here is another:  The D.C. attorney general has said service charges must be disclosed at the beginning of the ordering process and restaurants must use the money for the purpose stated on the menu or via the server

Seems like 99% of the places I eat at are not doing that.

I think the only time a server has said anything at the start of the ordering process was recently at Maketto.  They guy mentioned a 20% charge at the start of the meal and again when he brought the bill.  That was a first for me and I tipped him extra for being so up front about it!  

I'm going to throw myself on the mercy of the court and rely on the wisdom of the group for guidance on two tipping questions in the modern era.

Question #1 is about ordering food via app and picking it up yourself at any restaurant (fast food, middle tier, or high end).  The process is the same regardless of the price of the food:  you order on the app, pay on the app, go to the restaurant and someone hands you a bag of food and you leave.  During the entire process from ordering to eating, you have approximately 4 seconds of contact with an employee.  What do you tip on that?  You are getting less service and doing more work than when you go to McDonalds and you wouldn't think about tipping there.  And you probably wouldn't tip at Chipotle (where I think you can order on an app), so why would you tip at say ChiKo, or Chang Chang?  What do you folks tip, and does it matter if it's a Chipotle-type place vs a Chang Chang?

Question #2 is about Initiative 82 (the fair wage tax or whatever the proper term is).  My normal tip is 20% after taxes, and rounding up, and then maybe a little more if the service is good.  Lately I've been seeing various "fair wage" charges added to some bills and they have been from 3% to 5%.  What do people do in these circumstances?   Personally, I get annoyed that the restaurant owner's have put me in the middle of their business expenses and payroll process and I've been reducing my 20% tip by the amount of the "fair wage" charge.  I realize I'm probably penalizing the exact people I 82 is trying to help, but I'm tired of being nickel and dimed with these additional charges.  Just raise the price to cover the cost of doing business!  

This is a weird first post for a place, but Crazy Aunt Helen's closed abruptly this week.

Anyone read the chat this week?  He opened with this note about Mark Slater among others, but I don't understand what he's saying.  The link doesn't have any info on Mark.

The food world has lost of number of beloved DC-area figures recently, including wine master Mark Slater , cooking school founder François Dionot and baker Gerard Huet . I’m sharing links to some of their stories .

Since I haven't seen anything about it in DR.com, I'm assuming "lost" means left the DC area and not the worst case scenario.

1 hour ago, Pat said:

They promise old favorites,  so I'm hoping for popcorn soup 🍿 😃

I was in there a couple months ago and we got it as freebie/gift from the kitchen, so I bet it will be offered for this special.

I went to Da Hong Pao on 14th St a couple months ago and thought it was great.  Need to go back!

https://www.dahongpaodc.com/

Closing October 14, 2023.

https://dc.eater.com/2023/2/6/23585137/dc-restaurant-permanent-closings-tracker

According to the article, Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby sold the place in October 2022.

20 minutes ago, Pat said:

Market price for a lobster roll at Navy Yard yesterday was $37. My friend loves their lobster rolls, so it was worth it to her.

I was up in Bar Harbor, Maine this summer and the going rate up there was $38!  😨

Here's a recipe for tomato soup using fresh tomatoes.   I once found a five year old frozen container in the back of my freezer.  It tasted as good as the day it was moade!

The ingredients are few and the quantities are approximate, but that’s the nature of the recipe… not a lot of measuring, and no chopping, just grab the items and throw them in the pan.  Quick and easy!

1.       Cut the stem end off of tomatoes (about a half inch or so).

2.      Place the tomatoes cut side down in a lightly olive oiled casserole pan (update: you don’t need to oil the pan first)

3.      Fill the pan with as many tomatoes as you can (one layer deep)

4.      Stuff a handful of fresh (or dried) oregano into the “corners” between the tomatoes (put a little pinch in 10 or so of the “corners”).  No need to chop them up.

5.      Stuff a handful of fresh basil in the “corners” (same as oregano).  No need to chop them up.

6.      Insert 15-18 or garlic cloves into the “corners”

7.      Sprinkle with salt and pepper

8.      Pour ¾ cup olive oil over the top

9.      Bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees (or a hour and 15 minutes if the skins aren’t black)

10.   Let cool and remove the skins by hand (they will have risen up above and off the tomato bodies.  You should be able to just pull off the skins and leave the pulp behind.  Some may take a little squeezing out.

11.   Dump the entire pan into a big bowl and mix with a wand mixer until it’s smooth.

12.   Serve, refrigerate, or freeze.  For a little texture, leave as is – the tomato seeds will provide some crunch!  If you want a completely smooth and creamy version, strain it through a mesh sieve.  (update: I always put the soup through a strainer before freezing)

13.   For reheating frozen soups, use the wand mixer again to completely mix everything back together and make it creamy.  (update: I never re-wand the soup after it defrosts.  Doing so would probably improve the texture, but it’s not worth it for the dirty dishes)

You can make it with all red tomatoes, all yellow, all green or a mixture of colors.

On 8/9/2023 at 1:20 PM, Keithstg said:

A very good friend was in last week. His comment was "not ready for prime time".

They still don’t appear ready….

I took my kids here a month or so ago.  It was good, expensive, but good!  Very loud (the upstairs is covered in subway tile so imagine having a dinner party in a giant bathroom).  The other lasting memory was it was a long meal.  The waiter made a point of telling us that at the start of the meal, and noted their logo is a snail, but still, there some long (too long) pauses between courses.

I dislike squirrely pricing and the endless fees.  I-82 fee, service fee, support your local business fee, covid fee, employee wellness fee and of course the mandatory 20% tipping fee.  Just raise the menu prices to cover the costs.

And as Don has taught in past, you used "begs the question" incorrectly.  You are not begging the question, you are asking the question.

I long for the days when they fancied themselves as a neighborhood restaurant where you could "come in and have a few dishes and then come back tomorrow and have some more".  (They used to have a message similar to that on their landing page).

And adding a BS fee to the bill seems like a very un-Roses thing to do.  But I guess they figured they would soften the blow of a 10% price increase to the menu by adding an additional 3.5% extortion fee to the bill!  🙄 

I was basing my comment on the abrupt departure/closure of both places and the nearly identical wording in the statement from the hotel.

And shame on those workers for trying to get a living wage, amirite?

Closed.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/05/22/moon-rabbit-closing-kevin-tien-union-fight/

This sucks.  

This hotel is two for two, for killing unique and successful restaurants.  That should be a huge red flag for anyone thinking of opening a place here.

More on the earthquakes, please!

I had the pleasure of getting the rudest service I've ever experienced in my entire life last night at this place.

I ordered a pizza and salad and got a message saying they would be ready at 8:04 pm.  Then, at 7:58, I got a text saying my order was ready so I sprinted over there (on my bike) and got there at about 8:02 and asked for my order.  The woman behind the counter brought out the pizza and told me the salad wasn't ready yet.  So I said, "But you guys texted me 4 minutes ago saying my order was ready".  She didn't say anything but stared at me with a look of contempt that I don't think I've ever seen before.  She was telegraphing a very strong "you are a complete asshole and I hate you with every fiber of my being"  vibe.  After about a minute of her just standing there in silence, I said, "well, didn't you text me saying my order was ready?".  She replied, "It's not going to kill you to wait"!!!!!!!!!   

WTF!?!?!?  At no point did she ever apologize for the text coming too early or the order coming too late.  Never!  Not anything approaching an apology or explanation!   The only thing I got from her was dead silence and a rude and condescending look, and the "it's not going to kill you to wait" comment.  I would have been totally fine with. "Sorry about that, we got a little behind"   I would have left happy with a simple "sorry" comment, but now I hate her, I hate this place and I want it to fail miserably!  If I hadn't already paid and tipped, I would have walked out without my food, but since they already had my money, that wasn't an option.

As for the food, the pizza was great.  I got the Nonna which is the middle thickness dough/crust.  The Caesar salad was an overpriced joke.  The photo below shows what you get for 13 bucks!  Lettuce, a bit of cheese and some very run of the mill croutons. 

So to recap:

Pizza: good / Salad: over priced and crappy / Service: rude and obnoxious shitshow

11 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Just thinking of (often great jarred) Kimchi, and the wholesale neighborhood you’re in … how do you keep the quality so high, given that you’re not an ultra-high volume restaurant?!

I’m impressed.

Don't hold your breath on an answer.  I once asked for the recipe for this dish and Debbie wouldn't give it to me!!!  😉 

😂

I remember seeing it a Wegmans a few years ago.  This was the one off Telegraph Road in Alexandria, but maybe call the one closest to you to see if they have any.

Turns out they don't have the all you can eat dim sum (or full menu option) listed on the paper menu that I took home, but I remember seeing on the actual menu they give you at the place.  Sorry about that!