Bart

Just read the receipt carefully!

I was here a few months ago they add a 20% service charge to the bill.  It was listed on the menu, but the server never mentioned it and we ended up leaving something like a 45% tip!  Hopefully they are mentioning the charge when they present the bill nowadays.

This is a few years out of date, but I had a great and interesting meal at Lotus of Siam (Northern Thai).   https://lotusofsiamlv.com/

It's off the strip, and I think the prices were reasonable/normal.  The online menu doesn't have prices for some reason.  I think I heard about this place via Antony Bourdain and more recently Padma Lakshmi.   My recollection is that we had some sort of chef's meal or something were we didn't have to order individual plates, but I don't see anything like that in their online menu.

This surprised me twice.  The first was they were closing at all, but then I saw they had been there for 10 years.  I assumed that the lease was up and their landlord compassionately jacked up their rent to an unaffordable rate.  But in Tom's chat yesterday he posted a comment from the restaurant:

I, too, was sorry to see the Adams Morgan fixture close, after a decade. In an email, owner Saied Azali wrote, "We are committed to continue to occupy this beautiful space and to create something truly befitting the neighborhood. It will take us some time." 

So they are closing a successful (?) and popular (?) place to open up a new restaurant in the same space?  Seems weird.  Was this place not popular and successful?  (I never managed to make it there but I seemed to read about it a lot over the years)

Note to future diners here:  You can order half portions of the pasta dishes.  It's not listed on the menu, but I was here recently and asked, and they were happy to accommodate.  

On 8/21/2022 at 11:30 AM, KeithA said:

 My backyard cukes have been prolific this year. I am now claiming a good 6th of the fridge space with my 16+ quarts of pickles. 

Have you tried canning them?  It's super easy and I'm eating two year old pickles that taste as good as ever.  (Probably famous last words, but so far, so good)

On 8/21/2022 at 11:27 AM, Kibbee Nayee said:

A group of us finally made it to Zenola on a Saturday evening. And in a word, it was excellent.

Missed you by one night!  ;-(

I was there on Sunday night before a show at Wolf Trap and it seems like we had nearly identical meals.  Perhaps the biggest difference was they had live music on sunday....a jazz piano player and a female singer.  I don't know if it was Tom's review, or the live music, or something else entirely, but the place was packed on a Sunday night.

I completely agree with your assessment of the Kibbe Nayyeh.  Very good!  I would have liked a little more herbs or mint or onions to add to the pita, but maybe that's just because they have a lot of that at ilili at the Wharf and I liked it.  (But in family meals, we never had any of that stuff!)  My fellow diner had never had it before and loved it.

I didn't like the fried Kibbe as much.  I thought the small size took away from the contrast that the filling usually gives and I wasn't a fan of the sweet sauce.  I mean, I liked it, but I wish they were bigger and didn't come coated in the sauce.

The stuffed squash was great and similar to what I'm familiar with from family meals, but for $11 I was expecting more than one lonely squash.  The Roasted Cauliflower was fine, but didn't have much of a "roast" to it.  If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were steamed.

We also ordered the Aleppo Batresh, mostly because Aleppo is where my maternal grandparents are from and it was a big hit.  It was almost hard to tell that it was eggplant!

I may have to go back to Wolf Trap just as an excuse to eat here again, because there were lots more items we wanted to try.

Happy birthday to a fellow Leo!!!

You, me, David Crosby and Jerry Garcia, just to name a few.

Amazing pictures as usual, Eric!!!   Thanks!!

3 hours ago, Pat said:

On the Resy reservation form, I had clicked the anniversary option in the notes. Both the host and our server wished us a happy anniversary, and we got a gratis piece of cake with berries and raspberry coulis and a happy anniversary topper. This was very nice and appreciated. I included the information because of the prompt on the form and was impressed by the response. The last Resy reservation for a different restaurant, I clicked "birthday," and it was ignored. (Not to bash the other restaurant; it's more a comment on how carefully Paraiso paid attention.)

Co-sign on this, big time!!

I'm never looking for a freebie either, but I do get annoyed when you answer their questions (Birthday?, Anniversary? etc) and they never mention it during the meal.  Like, why bother?!?!

Thanks for the legwork KN but why do these places always seem to only have vegetarian grape leaves!?!?!  Can I get some lamb over here, please?!?!  😃

KN:  I was just about to post this review to one of you Middle Eastern threads.  

I was thrilled to see the opening photo of Koosa Mishi in the article.  I don't recall seeing that on a restaurant menu around here.  Unfortunately, their grape leaves are only the vegetarian type, but that won't stop me from asking for version with meat!!  😉

Either way, I'm psyched to try this place!

Some asked for recommendations for places open Sunday nights, and this was a chatter's response:

This has to be @saf, right?!?!?!

When I saw "Petworth" and a Kinship fan, my first thought was @saf !!!

KN - When are you going to try this place?!?  I need a ruling!

Cranes.  Get the Omakase meal.  Unique and wonderful.

I haven't been here in over a decade, but Tortugas Lie in Nags Head was a good spot for lunch while killing time for the rental to be ready

https://www.tortugaslie.com/

It has a nice, casual beach vibe but also offers something other than fried fish.

Is there only one location of this place or four?!?!  And how do you contact them?!?

The website lists the Capitol Hill location, a Chinatown location and a Convention Center location but as far as I can tell via Google Maps, only the Capitol Hill location exists.  Then there's the discussion up-thread about an H St. location which adds more confusion.  

The website is bare bones and doesn't appear to be updated since 2020, based on the copyright date at the bottom of the page.  Their Facebook page doesn't seem to updated since 2015 and they don't appear on OpenTable, Resy or Tock.

Do they take reservations?  Is it only via the phone?

It's kind of amazing that their web presence is horribly out of date or non-existent!  Then again, the brand spankin' new, Shoto, seems to be following their lead!  (If you are unaware, Shoto is a new, high end, glitzy place that opened a couple months ago that still doesn't have a website or menu posted online because "they want it to be perfect before going live".  SMH)

On 6/14/2022 at 11:10 AM, Keithstg said:

Fiola Mare is now a Miami restaurant (well, Coral Gables) which happens to be located in DC - adjust expectations accordingly. Maybe it always was, but the feeling that I first experienced in 2018 seems all encompassing now.

I'm not the sharpest bulb in the drawer so I need some help understanding this.

The first sentence seems like a put down, but I'm not sure why.  Is Miami/Coral Gables not a good restaurant market?  Or does it mean this place has morphed to just a generic outpost of a once unique restaurant? The line about "adjust expectations accordingly" seems like you need to adjust your expectations downward, but I don't get the Miami connection.

The second line seems like a compliment but I don't think it is.  I first took it to mean "that feeling I first experienced was fantastic" (as in, the restaurant was new and hot and firing on all cylinders with Fabio behind the stove).  But the addition of "seems all encompassing now" coupled with "adjust your expectations" makes me think otherwise.

What was the feeling you had in 2018?  I'm guessing it was not being overjoyed at an amazing meal and experience?

On 12/18/2018 at 10:15 AM, Keithstg said:

Overall, service struggled to keep up with the kitchen. Granted, the place was filled, but we experienced waits to be seated, to receive our cocktails, wine, second half bottle of wine, etc etc. Service was perfunctory, but pleasant enough. The waits were nothing egregious, but enough to be noticed as glasses were empty. I came away thinking a few things - I'm not sure if the goal for Fiola Mare is a Michelin Star but our meal and service in no way merited one, the wine pricing is ruinous, bordering on predatory, and I bet they will do super in Miami.

To follow up my own question, I found this (above).  [When you mentioned 2018, I went to the beginning the thread and started looking for your post.  Little did I know it was just upthread a few posts!]

And I think I understand the Miami reference now too:  People with more money than sense, over-paying across the board, to go to a hot place to be seen, regardless of the overall quality of the evening.

Cape May is just down the road and although I haven't eaten there in years, I'd highly recommend Louisa's.  They do a lot of fresh and local meals with a lot of vegetarian and fish options.  Last time I was there, they were a bring your own alcohol type of place which helps keep your costs down.  They also seem to be much better priced and much less stuffy than a lot of the Cape May options.

If you're into birds or nature, the Cape May Bird Observatory holds bird and nature walks every day.  Most are down around Cape May Point but they also do them up in Avalon and other places in the area.  There's a small fee for the walks, but it's worth it.  The leaders know EVERYTHING about every bird, bug, mammal, plant, etc in the area.  Even if you have no interest in nature, I think it would be damn near impossible to not enjoy one of their walks.  Bring binoculars or call to see if they have loaners (they used to, but they stopped when Covid first came along)   https://njaudubon.org/calendar/category/cape-may-bird-observatorys-northwood-center/2022-07/?tribe_events_cat=cape-may-bird-observatorys-northwood-center&tribe-bar-date=2022-07

If you're looking for other options, Cape May has a ton of events and festivals that happen every week.

Sorry for the lack of Wildwood info!!

Excellent news!  Thanks for the update.

Great show!  If you go, there is free parking until 1pm on the street right across from the museum.  

Thanks Eric!  I've been to ilili and Moon Rabbit a couple of times and was looking to change things up a little.  Never been to Del Mar......every time I look at the menu it seems very pricey.  I'm sure it's great, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger on it.

Has anyone been in here in the ~4 years since Tom's review?  I need a place to eat at the Wharf on Saturday and was targeting Officina but they are fully booked.   (Lots of Yelpers have nice things to say about it, whatever that's worth)

Panda Gourmet is very close.  Don't know if that's what you're looking for as far as cuisine goes, but I was there about a month ago on a Saturday night and just showed up (no reservations) and there were plenty of open tables.  I used the DR thread as a guide.  Dean Gold posted some very detailed reviews of large meals with multiple dishes.

If you go, I'd skip their "signature" "burger" dish that's described on the first page of the menu.  It was ok, but didn't live up to the write up.

It's a little west of Cascade Locks, but there are great waterfall and hikes all along the river, the most famous being Multnomah Falls. There are short hikes just from the parking lot to the falls, but then there are lots of trail networks where you can get away from the crowds and get into nature.  If you're going to do Multnomah, make sure you get there early.  It's definitely a tourist trap and gets crowded!  But there are tons of other waterfalls and hikes along that road.

The town of Hood River is a great place to stop for lunch and watch the wind surfers who gather there.  Lots of micro brew/lunch places along the river to eat at.  The rest of the town is pretty cool.....an old west town with interesting shops.