apples

Ya know... I might be over Central. I hate to say it, I really do. Its a place that I want to love, just for being so ornery (tuile on a burger? really?), but I think I'm done. BF and I stopped by last Thursday after a lecture at the Willard. We grabbed a lounge table and ordered drinks-- Irish coffee for me, beer for him. The coffee was tasty, but really not $11 worth, in my opinion. And it wasn't hot. I ordered the French Onion soup and he had the burger with cheese. The soup was fine-- tasty, savory, satisfying-- but for $9 I want either more soup or a small nugget of gold in the bottom of the bowl. The burger looked like a quality piece of meat, but I could almost hear BF saying, "I wish we'd gone to Ray's." There's a distinct possibility that I'm just too young and inexperienced to appreciate a place like Central, but having eaten there several times, I think I can say that I'm not buying the hype. There are plenty of places where you dollar goes farther and the food is just more interesting.

I love Ray's, I love the (brusque, honest) service, and I love the steaks. That said, the bf and I had a slightly weird experience last night. We both ordered our steaks, and the waiter let me know that the onglet (usually $19.99) could be had, along with a salad (or soup) and dessert, for $24.99. I believe my response was "Hellz yes" and I ordered a ceasar salad and, later, a chocolate mousse. When the waiter was clearing the bf's steak plate, his hand slipped and he dropped the steak knife into bf's lap. Nobody was hurt and we all chuckled and moved on. (And, we're not the kind of folks to make a fuss over that kind of thing-- no harm, no foul.) Then when the waiter brought the mousse, he made sure to tell us it was "on the house" b/c of the knife-dropping incident. The thing is though, the dessert (and the steak, and the salad) were already included in the $24.99. And while the dessert didn't show up on the bill, the overall price wasn't affected a damn bit. Now, to be clear, I've never been "comped" anything in a restaurant and this incident was certainly not a big enough deal to warrant it. Just seemed weird. Can't comp it if its already included in the price. Other than that, a wonderful evening.

Had a really stellar dinner there with my Mom on Friday night. We were late for our reservation (she got lost on the Metro-- I'm a bad daughter for making her figure it out by herself) but didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes to get a table. I started with the Eros, a honey vodka based cocktail with rose bits in it-- yum-- and she had a glass of chardonnay. The bread was, as usual, hot, fresh, and delicious with the pomegranate dipping stuff. We had the pipedreams goat cheese (with sweet/savory tomato jam), the giant beans salad, which was rounded out with some spinach and a delicious lemony garlicy sauce, the baby octopus, a really amazing phyllo dough pocket filled with spiced lamb (a special), and a quail couscous (also a special). Mom then had a glass of port, and I had the muscatel. (As a note, they've raised their prices on dessert wines considerably since they last updated the website). I had the turkish delight dessert, and she had the chocolate visne-- both sweet but not overly so. Overall, a really stellar meal. We agreed that the goat cheese was our favorite, and it was also the simplest, but everything was very tasty. I had to get over my moral quandary about going so soon after Mike Isabella demonstrated (or was edited to demonstrate) on Top Chef that he's a pretty big jerk, but I'm glad I did. Of course, just about everything tastes better when I'm not paying. Thanks, Mom!

Treated myself to a Kaz sushi bar dinner last night, in honor of my I'm-now-closer-to-30-than-18 birthday. I was seated at the end of the bar closest to the entrance to the kitchen, which made me feel a little in the way, but thats ok. I ordered green tea and ended up paying $5.25 for what tasted to me like a very normal garden-variety sushi bar green tea, but maybe I'm just a tea philistine? To start I had the soup special ($8.50, I think), which was a cold, velvety-smooth butternut squash soup with huge hunks of blue crab, topped with a light sprinkling of chives and roe. Delicious, substantial and oddly refreshing at the same time. For sushi I ordered KAZ Sushi Tasting 009 (Chef's Choice), $32.00: 8 pieces nigiri & 1 roll (mostly from KAZ's signature sushi). The roll was actually 4 pieces each of a smoked eel w/ pickled daikon and a spicy scallop, of which I could have eaten an entire bowl... sweet, spicey, smooth, creamy, lush. Yum. If I remember correctly, the nigiri included Tuna w/Italian white truffle, Flounder w/ume & shiso, Sake Poached Sea Scallop w/lemon-cilantro, a huge and wonderful piece of smoked mackerel (I think), an ama-ebi (sweet shrimp) with some kind of fruity tapioca pearls, Seared Salmon Belly w/ soy-lemon sauce, a large piece of tuna... I wish I had taken a picture. To be perfectly honest, I've had better sushi for much less money, but it was a different kind of good, a simpler, more classic good that comes from perfectly pristine ingredients and faithfulness to the flavors that have propelled sushi through a culture for generations. This is not that. Its creative, inspiring, fascinating, and a nice distraction from what everybody else is doing. Its not something I would want to do every day, but damn, is it a tasty way to spend a birthday. Edited to add, because I forgot but wanted to mention: I'm not impressed with the sushi rice here. It strikes me as bland. I think it works, because it lets the fish and the sauces be the star, but... I don't like it.

Stopped by Willow last Thursday with a girlfriend, after hearing great things. Sat at the bar and had attentive (but not overly so) service from the very knowledgeable bartender. I wish they'd had a cocktail list, but I was very happy with my dirty martinis. My friend and I ordered and split the mushroom and thyme flatbread ($10), which was a little overly cheesy/greasy and under mushroomy for my taste, but was very well seasoned and enjoyed. We also tried the grilled cheese poppers ($5), which were breaded squares of something akin to cheddar jack with a really tasty tomato-bisque-esq dipping sauce, and the fish and chips ($5), which included several tasty onion rings, a couple fried shrimp, a couple nice hunks of white fish, and, I think, a ring or two of calamari, plus a fried lattice of potato-y goodness. That was plenty of food for the two of us, but I left with an intense craving for something green, and a need for a wetnap to get all the grease off my hands. Luckily, I was too sauced off two martinis to do much about it. Overall, a very pleasant experience, and we'll be back.

Never ceases to please. I'm there probably once a month, almost always Tuesday nights, for 1/2 price burgers, rosemary fries (love those fried garlic cloves) and a beer-- or, lately, the dirty golfer cocktail, which is probably overpriced at $9 but is a delicious mix of Firefly sweet tea vodka and lemonade. Wish it had the sugar rim like the bubble drop. In any case, the burgers are always good, the pickled veggies are fantastic (and I get to eat BF's too, which is nice) and the service, while not always the most refined, is efficient, friendly, and comfortable. I vote yes.

Today's Washington Post article on chowder has conjured up a wicked craving. Where have you had the best (metro-accessible) chowder in the DC area?