Kibbee Nayee

By coincidence, I went with a group to the Stanford Grill in Columbia last week. The Rockfish special that day was excellent. I didn't taste the rest of the menu, but I would return if only for the Rockfish when it's offered.

16 hours ago, DonRocks said:

My apologies - I didn’t realize this had gone into a new page!

Naxos got it - Et Voila! It was.

Everything was clean and everything was at least good. The only thing I’d have done differently was integrate the beet salad more (the grapefruit was on the side per our request), and maybe rethink the mayonnaise (?) in the Steak Tartare (if it wasn’t mayonnaise I have no idea what it was, but it did save me from needing any with my own excellent frites). Those mussels were in a cream of leak / potato sauce that was reportedly delicious.

I'm planning to have the same sequence of dishes at Bisto L'Hermitage in Occoquan in the near future. We'll compare notes.

Looks delicious. Brasserie Beck?

3-alarm fire at Mike's American Grill forced evacuation on Valentine's Day.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/large-fire-at-mikes-american-restaurant-in-springfield/3280157/

I hope they keep the employees and move them to the other GAR outposts.

18 minutes ago, noamb said:

So I’ve been a long time fan, but the last couple of times the non-meat component (rice and spinach) has been oddly bland, although the meat has been as good as ever.

What are the current alternative favorites, ideally in the same general area (northern Alexandria  / southern Arlington)? Is Ravi Kabob still the other local winner?

While I haven't been there yet, Kabobistan on Columbia Pike has gotten good reviews.

Springfield has a few decent Vietnamese options, but right now, Brothers Bistro blows away the competition. I've eaten my way through less than 10% of the 100+ item menu, but OMG, this is good food. It opened recently in the former Pho Hong Anh space, which provided respectable pho in its day. Brothers Bistro, with a chef from Saigon, is a really good Vietnamese restaurant. I had the Pho Bo today, brimming with powerful flavors of carefully prepared broth, with plenty of varied cuts of beef-tendon-tripe-steak-meatballs, and my lips are still coated with the gloss of the collagen. Wife had the Seafood Pho, which came with its own delicious broth and plenty of chunks of identifiable and quality seafood. We also scored the Shaking Beef, the Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Pork and Cha Gio, and the Quail appetizer, all of which were incredible. The menu is vast, but this kitchen is on top of it, and the food here is as good as Vietnamese gets this side of the Eden Center.

A few other observations.....the Springfield Dining Guide is very out of date. Just a few examples -- First, replace Pho Hong Anh with Brothers Bistro. Coco Rico has moved from the corner of Springfield Mall to a more expansive space on Commerce St. where the hideous Blue Pearl Buffet once resided. And Yard House, a very bad chain in the very bad Springfield Mall, deserves a separate entry while the Bozzelli's flagship doesn't? El Sabor Boliviano is under new ownership, Bonchon and Makchang Dodook are two nice Korean additions to Brookfield Plaza, and Nah Mor Hot Pot also moved into Brookfield Plaza. Happy to assist with field inputs. Not to worry, Afghan Bistro and Cervantes Coffee Roasters will remain at #1 and #2, but watch out for Brothers Bistro climbing that listing.

Another observation.....Springfield Plaza, once known as the K-Mart Plaza, has been undergoing a mostly-positive renovation. The old K-Mart building was repurposed into the nicest of the local Giant food stores, and in what was the former Giant on the other side of the Plaza is about to become the world's largest and newest Whole Foods. It certainly looks impressive from the outside. The Whole Foods down the road at Rolling and Old Keene Mill will close and be transformed into a Trader Joe's, replacing the smaller Trader Joe's in Springfield Plaza. Along the side where Brothers Bistro now sits, there is respectable lineup of Springfield Butcher, which might be the best butcher in Virginia, along with The Halal Guys, Bob and Edith's Diner, Gong Cha Bubble Tea, and the new Brothers Bistro. 

Watch this space. More to come....

On 1/19/2023 at 5:34 AM, DonRocks said:

Every time I go to Smoking Kow in Alexandria and get out of my car, I see the sign across Duke Street for Frank Pepe Pizza, and roll my eyes. I haven’t been, and am in no rush to go because I keep forgetting it’s there. Last year, I went to the one in Danbury, CT (only a 35-mile drive from New Haven), and that location was merely good, local pizza. (As to why I didn’t complete the drive to New Haven, I was coming south from New Milford, and didn’t want to make a 70-mile detour.)

Cheers,
Rocks

Don -- Yours is the tale of chain expansion with reduced emphasis on quality control. It's everywhere, although I do find that In-N-Out has done a better job than most. The first "flagship" of every chain had a certain something that couldn't be duplicated or scaled to dozens or hundreds of outposts. The quality and passion that went into the flagship has been subordinated to corporate profits to pay the investors. Or so it seems....

The family went to the Chantilly outpost of Habit Burger yesterday, and sadly, it wasn't the California version of this chain. Setting aside the obvious difference in weather, the burger was too salty and the bun was fall-apart flimsy. The sweet potato fries were flaccid, but the tempura green beans were a solid hit. I was disappointed, primarily because this is easily the best hamburger chain on the West Coast, despite the cult-like following for In-n-Out Burger. The East Coast expansion is not up to the standards of the West Coast Habit Burgers, at least not yet. 

16 hours ago, saf said:

I loved their New Orleans Cafe, around the corner in the space that eventually became Pasta Mia. More affordable than the Emporium, and the BEST onion rings!

We need more places like that around here. My co-workers and I would decompress after a day of wallowing in national security crap by hitting the bar for a basket "Cajun Popcorn" (fried crawfish tails), plenty of Dixie beer, and a few oyster shooters, before retiring to the absolutely perfect blackened lamb chops in the dining room down below. I miss the experiences, but most of al, I miss that food.

11 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Sep 21, 1980 - “Dining 1980” by Phyllis Richman on washpost.com

I just stumbled across this - for perspective, this article is the same age as 1938 was when this article was written.

Thanks for posting this, Don. It's a really nostalgic trip back through Memory Lane.

1980 is when I landed in the DC area. Bamiyan and Kabul Caravan were my go-to's for Afghan, and Bacchus and Mama Ayesha's were where I chased down Lebanese fare until I discovered the original and (at the time) little-known Lebanese Taverna in Arlington. "Clyde's food is more famous than good" is an interesting take in 1980. Crisfield is the restaurant where time stood still.

If I could conjure back a few oldies but goodies, they would be New Orleans Emporium in Adams Morgan, where the popcorn crawfish tails at the bar and the blackened lamb chops downstairs were excellent, plus Vincenzo for Italian and seafood and Italian seafood, plus any of the Blackies for reasonable steaks, plus Queen Bee for Vietnamese when Clarandon was the center of Vietnamese eating in our area....

On 12/17/2022 at 2:50 PM, malokd said:

This brand used to be all about hospitality— what a shitshow.  I am contemplating writing to them but not sure if it’s even worth it.

I can't thank you enough for helping me scratch this one off my must-visit list. It's already a long list, so knocking one or two off the list is welcomed. For $400 my wife and I would be able to enjoy multiple pleasant meals elsewhere.

18 hours ago, DonRocks said:

My best guess is that this is a tired, male (*) cook, working at a dying - perhaps even a chef-less - restaurant which was initially well-funded enough to provide marble counters and attractive plates and cutlery.

Is that a Roquefort salad?!

Viewed as a whole, this is as if a prison decided to do something special for Thanksgiving.

(*) No female has an aesthetic this bad.

Could be one of those retirement communities where they invite you for a presentation over lunch....

Saturday night check-in at Zenola produced some highs and lows, but this is still the best place in northern Virginia for a Lebanese taste of high-end cuisine that is not very traditional but very good.

The highs? Well, deliciousness was one, and uniqueness of capturing Levantine flavors was another. Again, this is far from a Me Jana or Lebanese Taverna traditional Lebanese menu, but rather, it's an accomplished chef taking these flavors to new directions and dimensions. Highlight dishes were the kibbe nayyeh, which is the best version around (albeit a spare serving), Aleppo Batresh, pan-seared sea bass, and grilled octopus. 

The lows? Noise should be managed better than the 85 decibels that prevented easy conversation across a 6-top round table in the middle of the dining room. Service was spotty, and occasionally disappeared, but evened out with other servers jumping in to take orders and keep the plates moving. The list of four specials became a disappointment when the chicken livers were unavailable, but at least the sardines were there. Cost is high, such as in $22 for kibbe nayyeh, which is absolutely scrumptious but a mere 4-oz disk of meat with not much garnish, or $7 for a plate of about a dozen olives. Then there was the poorly-timed arrival of two baskets of fresh bread, right at the end, just prior to ordering dessert, with nothing left to scoop with the bread. Most portions were on the small side, such as a single tentacle of octopus or a smallish stuffed zucchini, but most prices weren't.

We like this place and will continue to return, but the prices will make our returns more occasional. Zenola is certainly a welcome addition to the growing abundance of northern Virginia flavors -- Afghan, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Italian, Chinese -- and that list is growing more interesting all the time.

Johnny's is still slinging it. With the arrival of an outpost of Pupatella in Springfield, it's worth pointing out that the only real competition for best pizza in the area is Pupatella and Johnny's, the former in Springfield and the latter in Kingstowne.

Slices are available here, and the selection is varied. The vegetarian is loaded, as is the sausage with onions and peppers. These are high quality slices. The linguini with shrimp fra diavolo and the linguini with sausage and peppers are really good too. You can pick your pasta and the topping will be added to order.

Salads are top notch too. Wife and I had the Greek salad with grilled chicken, and it clobbers the competition from local mom-and-pop Greek restaurants. 

This plaza lost Lucky's to the pandemic, but is recovering -- Kumo has surprisingly good sushi for delivery, Shawarma Guys moved in successfully, and Amazon Fresh is the recent anchor establishment. Johnny's is about as good as it gets for fast-casual suburban Italo-Greek. Or is it Greco-Italian?

1 hour ago, Bart said:

Wow!  This is surprising.  I was there on Sunday night for a show at the 9:30 club and had a different experience.  

Yes, you had a completely different experience, and we would have been thrilled with your experience. You were armed with some foreknowledge and you had the benefit of a helpful server. We had none of that, plus we were freezing from the heater not being on, and the annoyingly loud music track, and a server who had no interest in drawing our attention to the hidden delicacies on (and off) the menu. We will never set foot in that place again, because the joys you extoll were simply denied to us. I'm not sure how to explain how or why, but what you enjoyed should be available to all of us.

Was it an off night? Or has this place really fallen? Wife and I had tickets for the Lincoln Theater last night, and dining options in the area of the venue are limited. Alero for bad Mexican fare? Ben's for greasy counter fare? The Smith closed, or at least consolidated and the U Street outpost was sacrificed. So Izakaya Seki was the choice.

In a word, it was poor.

Start with the general ambiance. From the outside it comes across as a dive bar, and it sort of is a dive bar. The bathrooms are down the hall on the ground floor, but getting to them requires quite a bit if shimmying past the end of the food bar and takes a lot of effort not to dip any body parts in the vat of tempura frying oil. Climbing to the upstairs dining area, which is as spare as a high school cafeteria room, the first thing we noticed was how cold it was. "Can you please turn on the heat?" we asked, and a few minutes later, so did one of the diners at another table. The heavily accented response was unintelligible. Menu? Scan the bar code and try to figure out the handwritten scribbles and Japanese characters. Music? A bit too loud and ranging from Grateful Dead to Indy poetry reading. So let's give the overall ambiance a grade of D.

On to the food, which we sort of blundered our way through. Highlights were the whole squid, and the tiny chunks of dark meat chicken on skewers -- 2 little skewers with 6 little pieces for $9 -- and that's about it. Fried oysters -- 3 to an order for 2 people? -- were a little "gamey" and greasy. Chicken meatballs on skewers weren't cooked all the way through. Yellowtail collar was tasty but loaded with bones and scales, as was the whole sardine and the whole mackerel. Bones and scales everywhere, and with just some wooden chopsticks and a single napkin provided per diner, a wet nap or finger bowl would have been nice. Food gets an overall grade of D.

Wine was ridiculously expensive. So was everything else. Overall grade for $300 worth for 2 covers was a D, maybe D-.

We won't be returning here. Please offer us some good dining options within walking distance of the Lincoln Theater, which is one of our favorite music venues.

Steak Frites at the Hamilton last night was about as good as it gets. Very nicely executed for a place that does a few hundred covers every day. The strip steak was a perfect medium rare, and the fries were right out of the fryer crispy. Not sure what to make of the clump of cress that accompanied the dish, but I ate half of it and it provided a palate cleanse between bites. For a cavernous restaurant such as this, I'm surprised at the quality of individual plates. Around our table was a strip steak entree, with a side of brussels sprouts, a few sushi rolls, and plenty of beverages. Pretty good meal, all in all.

At the front of the house, we had a bit of an issue as I arrived and asked for our reserved table....the deafening noise at the bar inside the main door was headache-inducing, and the hostess' attempt to stuff us into a booth was thwarted by my protestations. She wanted to wait for our party to arrive before seating us at a table, and I told her I couldn't wait right there and have my eardrums shattered by the jet-engine-level noise. Luckily, we were seated before I lost my hearing and my temper.

According to my daughter, the bread offered at Patty O's in Little Washington is top notch, but that's probably not what you're looking for with respect to travel and ease of scoring a reservation.

I'm not a fan of the Great American Restaurant Group, but if you are, they have solid bread baskets and will refill them if you request.

You're right about Best Buns, and they provide the bread for most of the GAR restaurants too, but I would try their in-house menu in Arlington. 

Del Ray Cafe also comes to mind.

This is the kind of question that would be ideal for one of Sietsema's Wednesday online chats.

And a slightly different slant on your question is the warm pita bread served at all Lebanese and Levantine restaurants, so as to serve as a scoop for most of the foods. The piping hot pita basket at Lebanese Taverna hits the spot every time, but don't forget Me Jana in Arlington and Zenola in Vienna, among quite a few others. At Zenola, there is a warm disk at the bottom of the basket to keep the bread warm throughout the meal.

(When Jon Krinn was at Clarity in Vienna, and 2941 and Inox before that, you could rely on his father's bread baking to be extraordinary. Wherever Krinn ends up you can be sure that the bread service will be quite good.)

I dipped back into Lancaster for a few days this week, for a conference no less. I stayed at the Marriott Convention Center, so I stayed in the gentrified downtown area mostly. Wow, has it changed from the Lancaster where I grew up!

Had dinner at the Belvedere, and the last time I ate there was over two decades ago when it was the Harmony Inn. It wasn't bad, but where this place is a standout in Lancaster, our area has a few hundred of these dark-lit bistros with chefs trying to improvise with local ingredients. My beet salad was quite good, but the game meat duo was only average and overpriced. Still, not a bad meal, and by Lancaster standards, it was quite good.

The next day I had lunch at the Pressroom, which has recently re-opened. We were told by the waiter that ours would be the first covers of the new Pressroom, and I had a really enjoyable crab and avocado appetizer followed by a very good wedge salad topped with perfectly medium-rare slices of steak. 

Then came an impromptu dinner with old friends at Plough, the lounge/restaurant on the main floor. My meal was the pretzel-crusted pork schnitzel over a potato and apple salad, which took forever to arrive and was slightly overcooked. But hey, this is Lancaster, not Brooklyn, so what the heck.

Downtown Lancaster isn't what it used to be, and if you're on the youngish side of the spectrum, you're probably welcoming the transformation. Even us oldsters welcome the refreshing change of scenery, which is bringing in new businesses, and raising the property values. So yes, it's somewhat of a welcome change, and I know that the old Lancaster had some tired old charm that needed to be kicked in the pants a bit. My consolation is that the surrounding county is mostly unchanged, and that's a good thing.

I was right about the Springfield location. Yes, it's the best pizza in Springfield, but that's faint praise. The Classico was pretty good, the Diavolo was very good, and the Sausage with Onion was not good -- it was limp and soggy. The Burrata was passable and the Caprese salad was just OK, but the Arancini sampler was very good. The wine list was mostly mass market swill, some of which had Pupatella labels. Overall, maybe a C+, but again, it's the best pizza in Springfield.

Pardon my confusion but I wrote a lengthy review of Sfoglina in Van Ness after my daughter graduated from UDC Law in June of 2022. Four of us went there and ate with wild abandon, ran up a $600 bill, and loved every bite and sip. Where did that review go?

I have mixed feelings about the Pupatella that recently opened in Springfield at 8434 Old Keene Mill Rd, in the Whole Foods Plaza (although Whole Foods will move to the Springfield Plaza down Old Keene Mill to a large renovated space formerly occupied by Giant, and Trader Joe's will move from that plaza to where the Whole Foods is now located.)

My daughter has checked it out and says it's pretty good, but we all know that it will simultaneously be not as good as the original yet still probably the best pizza in Springfield.

2 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

I have an idea.  My old law firm's HQ is at 2550 M St.  The only time I ever ate at La Perla was a client meal.  I suspect many client meals took place there since there aren't many restaurants within a short walk.

There also seems to be a lineup of VIP visits as well --> HERE <-- (scroll down) and I'm not sure what that says about the draw....

I was invited to Ristorante La Perla by a colleague who was picking up the tab, and having read all the foregoing comments, rest assured I would not have picked this place. He was staying at a nearby hotel and he has eaten here often, claiming that a non-chain that is run by an affable grandfatherly-type chef was right up his alley.

It was awful. How can an establishment survive 23 years at this location, at this price point, and with food that doesn't quite meet the quality standards of Olive Garden?

We ordered appetizers of calamari fritti and mozzarella caprese, neither of which were offensive but neither of which stood out in any way, except for the ridiculous price. But I wasn't paying and he was happy so what the heck.

On to the mains, and I focused on the list of daily specials. After all, the menu is as vast as Cheesecake Factory, and I never trust a kitchen that tries to master scores of dishes. On the list was soft shell crab linguine, and I wanted to order it. They didn't have it. So I went with the snapper stuffed with crab meat, and it was horrible. It came out rolled in a tube, but the center wasn't cooked. It was cold and raw in the center. The accompanying side of spaghetti with olive oil and garlic, topped with pre-grated parmigiano, was about as Olive Garden as it gets, right on down to the flaccid pasta.

The grandfatherly chef came out and made his rounds at the three tables with occupants, asking us how we enjoyed the meal -- we lied -- and telling us he's there 7 days a week and has been going for 23 years and his family will not be the beneficiaries of this place when he passes. Here's hoping that the next owners of the property put an actual restaurant there.

Two positives to add -- one, the place is quiet enough to carry on a conversation with table mates, and two, the kindly chef-owner comped us each a shot of lemoncello at the end of the meal. 

While I haven't tried it yet, Makchang Dodook has two locations in the world -- Springfield (Brookfield Plaza) and Ho Chi Minh City -- and offers an AYCE option. I will be attacking it soon.

×