Bart

I hate to come in here and get all negative, but as I was looking through the Mt. Vernon subsection of the Virginia section of the Dining Guide, I noticed this place was listed and I was a little (read A LOT) surprised it was included. I've only been there once (Jan 2012) so factor that in, but I have no desire to return. This is what I wrote for my first ever (and never submitted Yelp reivew):

The first line was based on the raves on Yelp and the crowd in the place on a random winter weeknight.

<<<< For the life of me I don't understand the positive reviews of this place. I went the other night with 2 other people and there were major problems with all the dishes.

The calamari app was obviously not homemade and was right of a frozen bag. That's not a deal breaker but it was horribly bland

Two of us got schnitzels which were ok, but one was ruined with the massive amounts of salad dressing they put on the salad on the same plate. The schnitzel ended up being a sponge for, and tasting like, the Italian dressing. The salad itself was one step above the most basic salad you could imagine at a supermarket salad bar.

My schnitzel plate came with fries so I didn't have the dressing problem but the fries were also right out of a bag (frozen not fresh cut) and also bland. I never salt my food but had to tonight on the fries and calamari

The third dish was the fish sandwich which was hard and dry and was left half uneaten.

I wish I could like this place because it's VERY local for me, but this was just bad. >>>>

If anyone has been more recently or has please post, because (as Tom S often says, and some here hate) I wanted to like this place!

Here's another review:

http://dcist.com/2013/07/first_look_kapnos.php#photo-4

Here's an excerpt and a counterpoint to the "shi-shi" menu items above:

"But the dish I'll be back for is the duck phyllo pie. It's got a little bit of everything going on: the crunchy, buttery phyllo shell gives way to tender duck meat, balanced out by a tangle of vinaigrette-kissed watercress, red onion, and bing cherries. It's a rare occasion when at least five different flavors and textures all play well together."

This one really grates on me:

tuck into something

to begin eating something vigorously. The kids really tucked into the stew. I could see from the way that they tucked into their meal that they were really hungry.

JK Rowling used it in Harry Potter a few times I think. But she's, you know, British.

I can't quite tell what you're trying to convey, but the use of "price point" when "price" is all that's meant really bugs the shit out of me.

Guilty.

I don't know what "ad.mich" means but I was the one who objected to "price point" to Tom S. It makes no rational sense, but I'm driven mildly insane whenever I hear or see those words.

So what would happen if you didn't fix these things? Is it just a matter of aesthetics (more grey space and a bigger box)?

$225 is an absurd price. You're competing with Alinea and the three starred restaurants in NYC for that much. I kind of understand the idea of increasing prices to match the demand, but that price point just displays a kind of hubris that's off putting.

The insanity continues. Eater is reporting that they are opening a more exclusive area inside minibar called "Jose's Table". It's for 6 people max and you get additional dishes not on the regular menu. The good news is they roll up drinks, tax and tip into the price. The even better news is it only costs 3 grand! Yes, three thousand dollars.

http://dc.eater.com/archives/2013/07/01/minibar-gets-even-more-exclusive-with-joses-table.php

He's responsible for the content of his reviews and posts. His name is on them. What you say may well be happening but it's irrelevant.

Oh and let's not act like the only use for social media is to post "hey guys, stay tuned, click here often, I am about to MURDER this restaurant."

I guess I'm just not that outraged or upset that he's hyping the fact he's about to "murder" a restaurant or the fact that he sometimes does murder restaurants in print. That's the job isn't it? Report the good, bad and the ugly.

I don't know if you saw he's chat yesterday, but someone wrote in about going to Masa 14 and asking if there was any shell fish in a certain dish because her child had a severe allergy. The server checked with the chef and gave the thumbs up, but soon after eating the dish, the kid couldn't breathe. After more checking, they found out that a cutting board was used for both chicken and shrimp and was likely the source of the contamination. Anyhow, the thing that made the writer seethe with rage was the manager wouldn't let them leave (to go to the ER) until they paid the bill!

Anyhow, if that happened to me, I'd want to murder the restaurant too, but that's maybe an extreme case, but I'm sure Tom has had some god awful experiences that go beyond bad to insulting to making you boil with rage. What's he supposed to do, bury the story?

I don't get your heartburn.

Is it bad to use Twitter?

Is is bad to give bad reviews?

And why is he bad for the city?

I'm asking honestly (not snarkily). I sometimes read comments like yours about Tom or Todd K or "DC food crititcs" and I'm never sure what the issue is or why we need to "throw all of them out and get some new blood in here"

Worth a detour? You're the only person I've ever known that's been. (Yours are the kinds of posts that put little mom-n-pops on critics' radar.)

I realize this comment is now out of date, but Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve fame likes this place.

According to the "Chef's Feed" app, he lists Kimchi House as one of his favorites (only 5 other places were picked by him). Specifically, he likes the Bi Bim Bap, saying, "The best spot for family Korean cooking. The kimchi is made from vegetables grown in the restaurant's garden."

NYTimes Magazine article by a classmate, done algorithmically.

You went to school with Nate Silver!?!? Wow.

For those that don't know him, in the last election, he successfully predicted the electoral outcome of every single state and (I think) all the congressional elections. He was predicting Obama to win by a wide margin for months prior to the election and was the whipping boy of lots of right wing media outlets as being just another liberal media type shilling for Obama. Turns out, he's just a guy who pours over tons of data, does some statistical analysis and and bats at nearly 1000 in the prediction business.

I still do not understand why restaurants do not link their addresses to a map – even more frustrating is when the address is part of an image file so you cannot just highlight and copy it (Cizuka, I am looking in your direction).

I'll echo this frustration with phone numbers.

I was looking up some place recently and I wanted to call them for some reason, but the phone number was a scanned image and not clickable! I had to go back and forth between my phone screen and the web page about 5 times before I successfully typed in the number. Hardly the end of the world, but in this day an age it sould be punishable by a weekend in jail and 400 hours community service!

I'm nearly ready to give up drinking wine at dinner because of the prices. Or maybe I'll start pounding down a couple glasses in the car before going to eat!

My wife and I were at Rasika a few weeks ago and the only Chardonnay they had was 60 bucks ($22 at Total Wine)! And that was one of the cheaper wines on the list.

I don't buy $60 wines for home consumption, so why do I do it when I go out? Hell, for 60 bucks I could have had another meal!

It's a lose-lose for me because if Five Guys wins, they'll have it plastered all over their wall and I'll live in disgrace; if Palena wins, Frank Ruta won't care enough to act on it and I'll live in anonymity.

That is hilarious and should be your signature line, or be put on a T-shirt or something.

As for burgers in the running, I'd nominate the "Le Burger" from Bastille in Alexandria. My wife and I tried that place the other night and couldn't resist a burger that was topped with foie gras. Here's the description from the menu:

Le Burger

Smith Meadow Farm beef burger*, duck confit, foie gras 23

Caramelized onion marmelade, aioli*, tomato, lettuce. Pommes frites

Apparently, they've discontinued production of the 600 series, and have began offering a $1,400 pair - the 800 series - which is reportedly not only 3.5 times the price, but of *inferior* quality.

Have you tried to find the 400's on ebay or craigslist? Maybe the ick-factor of used head phones is too much for you, but sometimes you can get new but discontinued items on ebay.

It's surprising that they didn't include Hartland Orchard in Markham (Exit 16 on Rt 66). It's the same exit you take to get to Hollin Farms, which they did include.

The other surprising thing was that all the travel times were from Mclean, not Del Ray!

The line about DC places looking to Philly and NYC was well timed with this tweet yesterday from Tom Colicchio

Thanks for the info!

I was orginally asking about freezing because I figured that $28 for a 5 pound order was pretty cheap, so I was thinking of ordering 10 pounds and storing it until it was needed. It was only then that I realized that it was $28 per pound with a five pound minimum! Sadly, that priced me out of both the 10 pound and 5 pound order. That was probably a mistake but it's too late now.

Would I be able to come to your shop and get a pound or half pound of Sablefish or is it always sold in five pound portions?

, fruit and veggies from Kuhn's, .

I get a bag of their Gold Rush apples every week. If you've never had a Gold Rush, check them out. For my money, they blow away Honeycrisp or Fuji or Pink Lady or any other. Their sweetness is incredible (but make sure you eat them cold for the best flavor)

Is it a good or bad idea to order extra to freeze and use later? (the sable fish)

and Charentais cantaloupes.

Have you grown them before? Have you had success?

I gave up a few years ago becacuse they would always split and start to rot before they got fully ripe.

Is Best still open? Their website has a 2008 copyright date and a number of dead links.

Yep! They're still there.

They have great prices on plates and bowls too. We just redid our kitchen and my wife wanted plain white plates from Williams Sonoma. WS sells them for about $25 per plate. Best had damn near identical plates for $75 for dozen!

Don -

I can't do myself and I'm not sure it even matters, but the Arcadia Farm dinner that was supposed to be on May 19 has been moved to this coming sunday, June 2nd. Here's the calendar link: http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?/calendar/event/1368-arcadia-farm-dinner-and-benefit/

I have no idea if this thing is sold out or if there are tickets still available, but it looks pretty cool.

Anyone else going?

Interesting article on why it's so hard to get a table.

"The Waits Are Too Damn Long: With So Many New Restaurants, Why Is It Still So Hard To Get A Table?" by Jessica Sidman on washingtoncitypaper.com

This place is worth a stop if you're in the area. My wife and I have been there a few times in the last couple of months and have always enjoyed it, and shocker of all shockers, the executive chef was there, *cooking* every time we've been there! They have two main dining rooms and a bar area in the back with a porch that looks out onto a nice yard/garden. They also have rooms available upstairs and if you hit it right, you can get some great deals. Back in Dec or early Jan, they had rooms for 70 bucks a night I think, and this is a B&B style place.

Anyhow, we were there last friday night and I was thrilled to see that four and a half pages of their five page wine list was Virginia wines!! Even more exciting was they had some wines $12, $15 and $22 per BOTTLE! They had them in very limited quantites, and our first choice was sold out, but it was still a refershing surprise.

They also have lots of events like wine dinners and tastings and music festivals.

Tom S's Spring Dining Guide is out (in the paper this sunday) and he's doing the thing he's done for the last few springs - - - checking back in with places he's reviewed years ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/spring-dining-guide-2013/we-meet-again/