Kibbee Nayee

Not much to add about this place. I enjoyed lunch at Joe's today, and it was really good. I had not eaten there before -- yes, I live in Virginia, so Rockville might just as well be in Mongolia -- but I seriously doubt (even after one lunch) that Virginia has anything close to this quality. At least until Peter Chang reopens in Richmond.... I had the sweet and sour (mostly sour) fish with cellophane noodles in broth. It was sensational, with about a pound of tender but firm-fleshed fish in a spicy-sour broth with some pickled veggies. It was really good, and every now and then a waitress would walk by and remark "Oh, sour fish, very good!" And the dish was more than enough for two people to share. I'd love to wander all over this menu, which is extensive, but the practicality of the logistics makes this a bit hard for me. I left my 2:00pm meeting in Rockville at 3:00pm, and by the time I got back to Springfield, it was 5:20pm....jeesh....! I could get to Richmond and back in less than that!

One place I forgot to add is Old Ebbitt Grill, a must for out-of-towners. It has a tremendous Washington DC history, and is now owned by Clyde's. It's across from the White House on 15th St., but I wouldn't go here for the sit-down food. Go to the bar in late afternoon, do the requisite Washington DC people-watching, and go for the half-priced raw bar, including drinks. DC's best oysters, at half price, as well as the orca platter, at half price, are the best deals in town, and you'll experience another true taste of Washington DC....

Fair enough. But our Vietnamese and Korean places might be as good as your Chinese places....

Welcome and we'd love to help you. But where will you be staying, what kind of food do you like and what price range are you looking at...? If you're going into the northern Virginia suburbs, for example, there are fine Korean places in Annandale and fine Vietnamese places in Falls Church. But we have a few not-so-hidden gems as well, like Ray's the Steaks and Ray's Hell-Burger in Arlington, or El Pollo Rico in Arlington, or The Majestic in Old Town Alexandria, or Layalina in Ballston....the Dining Guide is your friend. Downtown, I would trend towards the higher end. Jose Andres, Eric Ziebold, Koji Terano, Johnny Monis, R.J. Cooper and a handful of others rank with the best chefs in the country. Eat their food and be uplifted. But if you want a taste of DC, go to Ben's Chili Bowl and eat with the tourists. Or better yet, call your Senator and have him take you to the Senate Dining Room. Just stay away from the horrific places along the DC waterfront. You can also check the Washington Post Magazine or the Washingtonian for their "top" lists, but many on this board tend to disagree with a lot of their suggestions. I don't think that the Maryland suburbs offer the same quality and variety that Virginia and DC do, but the Rockville area seems to have the best Chinese food in the area. Good luck and happy eating.

Tysons is a relative wasteland, so this will be a welcomed addition.

The food in the general vicinity of Fair Oaks Mall is really dreadful, so when I had to drop off the MacBook Pro for some maintenance at the Apple store, my expectations were low. And being a Sunday, the Chik-fil-A was also closed. So I wandered around and found the international chain called Todai. It's a buffet, with sushi on one end, desserts in the middle, and hot foods on the other end, generally ranging from Japanese to Korean to Thai to Chinese, with plenty of Americanized offerings here and there. And surprisingly, I'm here to tell you, it didn't suck. It compares favorably to that buffet place close to the intersection of Rts. 50 and 28 in Chantilly, and beats the hell out of those buffet places with sickeningly lousy fried foods piled high, like King Buffet or Old Country Buffet....yukh! First, the place was wall-to-wall packed on a Sunday afternoon, and I'm going to estimate that 70% or more of the patrons were Asians. The food is, well, Asian fusion, but not quite as annoying as the PF Chang's of the world. The sushi here is good, not great, and the slices of fish on the sushi are rather spare. The rolls are somewhat unique, a few good and a few not so good. A few of the more interesting items on the sushi table were the mixed tempura -- sort of a fried ball of flavorful surprises -- and the seafood dynamite. The tofu salad was pretty good too. Moving to the hot items, I enjoyed the baked mussels, the chicken with cashews (nice spicy kick to it), the Korean beef, the Teriyaki chicken and the sauteed calamari (tender and flavorful). There were ups and downs all over the place, but for $18.95 "all you care to eat" you can just spit out the downs and double-up on the ups. And kid-friendly? Anyone under 3 feet tall eats free, and under 12 years old it's half-priced. Todai boasts locations all over California, Hawaii and Asia. Move over Tejas de Brazil and Cheeseteak Factory, whenever I'm in Fair Oaks you know where I'll be....

I spend a lot of satisfying times in Bozzelli's and I think it belongs in the dining guide. It is a family-owned and operated deli with a seating area on Alban Road in Springfield -- Backlick runs from Annandale to Springfield, changes its name to Alban roughly at the big oil tanks across I-95S, and then changes its name to Pohick when it crosses Rolling Road into Lorton and Fairfax Station. Bozzelli's menu includes some of the best subs in the DC area. They have a few "signatures" like the Metro (basically an Italian hoagie), the absolutely decadent Pepperoni, Steak and Cheese, the Senator (Italian cheeseburger) and many more, all of which I can tell you are as good as any in the northern Virginia 'burbs....at least this side of the Italian Store. What finally drove me to write them up was the best breakfast sandwich I've had in a long time -- ham, egg, cheese, peppers and ketchup on an 8" pressed Italian bun. Man, was that good...! And on Fridays in Lent, there isn't a better 12" tuna salad sub anywhere. Bozzelli's also offers salads, a few pasta dishes, fresh-made desserts and unusually good pizza. They also have cooking classes on the occasional Wednesday evening, where Mama puts on some displays of excellent Italian cooking. http://springfield.bozzellideli.com/

I would be hard-pressed to name another string of quality food within 20-25 steps from each other. Sahm Oh Jong, Ravi Kabob House III and House of Siam are literally side-by-side in Brookfield Plaza off Backlick Road in Springfield. When you're very hungry and very undecided, come here. You can eat to your heart's content all up and down the street. House of Siam is getting onto my Thai rotation. The food here is very good, and they've been doing it in the same place for 17 years. Girlfriend and I had four dishes tonight, thinking that we were going to bag up the leftovers for tomorrow. Uh....there were no leftovers. This is well-priced Thai food in a nice dining room, with fresh flavors and medium portions, lots of spice in the dishes and very friendly (family-operated) service. We had mussels in Thai basil, nicely spicy with meaty mussels. The sauce left behind was worthy of dipping lots of steamed rice into so as to not waste the flavor. Then we had duck in spicy Thai basil sauce, extremely good and with plenty of duck to share. The flavor of the duck was as good or better than any duck dish I've tasted this side of Present. On to the house special fried rice, which was a seafood combination, and pleasantly spicy. It was full of fresh and vibrant flavors, along with perfect textures. Lastly there was Pad Thai seafood combination, worthy of a repeat visit on its own, and as good as any Pad Thai I've had since Thai Basil in Chantilly last year. Start to finish, this was a very good meal, and at about $8.95 per dish, not a bad deal either. After the meal we walked a few doors up the strip to a halal meat market and bought about 10 lbs. of beautiful chicken for a meal for four on Saturday. OK, maybe that's a bit of overkill, but there will definitely be leftovers this time.

Had Nando's today for lunch. The quarter chicken "medium" was nice with a pleasant kick. It was flavorful and tender (I had white meat, but didn't ask or didn't care either way), and the side of pleasantly minty peas was an enjoyable diversion from the typical sides that come with quick Washington DC lunches. I'll happily put this place in my lunch rotation when I'm in Verizon Center neighborhood around lunch time. The emphasis on spiciness can make this an interesting stop for those adventurous times when I need to numb everything from my lips to my tongue to my throat to my stomach....and beyond....

I know, we all hate national chains. They are usually atrocious, or at best, indifferent. I was thinking, over a nice glass of libation, that a compilation of local chains would be a nice addition to the dining guide. Perhaps it would be a step in the right direction of sorting out the "multiple locations" category. After all, local chains are, well, local, so they're ours. And they usually start out as one place with family ownership and a nice following, after which they expand a bit. They are usually of far higher quality than any national chain. So let me take the first representative crack and let's see how it evolves. On the lower end of the spectrum (by low, I mean inexpensive and somewhat spare in ambiance) we have Ravi Kabob, Tippy's Tacos, Anita's....and many more. Maybe a few BBQ places, like Dixie Bones or Red, Hot and Blue. I'll leave out Five Guys because I think they have gone national..... In the middle, I would include GAR at the bottom, Clyde's somewhere in the middle of the middle, and Lebanese Taverna at or near the top of the middle group. And a few more..... At the top, we have the PassionFoods group, along with Jose Andres' empire, and I'm hard-pressed to think of another in that category..... So, what I am trying to stimulate is the possibility of a third dining guide, after the main one and the brunch guide, for local chains. Then gradually, we can phase out the 'multiple locations' portion of the main dining guide by tossing a few into the 'local chains' and providing distinct entries for others in the main dining guide.

Not sure if anyone realizes this, but Lebanese Butcher is also organic (and halal) and its chickens are free range. You just won't be finding any pork products there.

I have kitchen-sink fritattas all the time. They are comfort food brunches. Many Saturday mornings, it's 3 eggs fried in a goodly 3 tbsp of Karousos extra virgin olive oil, with a sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper, then over easy, and the into a small bowl with a nice sprinkling of feta cheese on top. Black Mayorga coffee. To die for. Other Saturday mornings, it's scrambled eggs (or egg whites), gently seasoned with sea salt and pepper, and then plated atop shredded shankleesh, the Middle Eastern cheese that will change your life. A wedge of warmed pita with that, some black Mayorga coffee....mmmm....!

I am in for the 19th, but if you're going to choose Willow, I'll be a few blocks away at Layalina. I cannot go to Ballston without kissing Rima and hugging Sam.

Where and when is the next one? In addition to the Ballston-Clarendon-Courthouse-Orange Line corridor, there is also Old Town, with many options. Although a bit of a hike from the King Street Metro, The Majestic or Columbia Firehouse are interesting possibilities. Farther up into Alexandria there is Del Merei and the slightly cozier RT's across from the Birchmere. By the way, the Birchmere itself, bad food and all, won't charge for tickets if you just want to drink in the bar area. That means you can go to the bar when, say, The Average White Band or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is playing, listen to the music in the bar area, and drink away the evening....

And not one nickel came out of my pocket. You just described America, where getting rich without talent is an industry. Paris Hilton. Kim Kardashian. Zsa Zsa Gabor. The Jonas Brothers. I certainly hope you're mocking this phenomenon, not extolling it....

I've been here a few times. They serve mussels three different ways, and I was not all that impressed with the coconut milk curry version, but I definitely want to try the tomato-shallot-white wine version. Their daily entree specials are good, like bouillabaisse on Thursdays or BBQ pork ribs on Tuesdays. Good luck and give us a report!

No comments on this place since last August....? Had dinner there with a friend tonight. Overall it was just decent, not great, but not bad. I started with the mussels, clams and chorizo appetizer. Plenty of food, nicely sauced, and the mussels were plump and meaty. The clams were a little difficult to remove from their shells, and the dish had an unpleasant grittiness. The kitchen obviously did a quick rinse, but didn't put in the extra effort to really scrub the shells. Grittiness is very of-putting to me in a dish of this nature. In retrospect I should have ordered the fried oysters, which my friend ordered and declared quite good. The main course for me was the braised short ribs, a tough choice with the calf's liver and the meatloaf staring at me from the main course menu. These were tender, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth ribs, very meaty and very good. The sides were not hitting any high notes, with clumpy potatoes, some pearl onions and a few baby carrots, all adding up to an unimaginative accompaniment. But the short ribs were spot-on. So...in the end analysis, decent food, plenty of it, a bit of laziness and lack of imagination from the kitchen, but worth many revisits and better menu selection on my part.

My point about the dreaded "EVOO" refers to the obnoxious, raspy-voiced and talentless television personality who uses it as one of her badges of faux cuteness that makes most of us barf...

My son's Little League in Lorton has a concession stand that parents run on a rotating basis. It has a gas grill just outside for hot dogs. Everything else is sold from inside the stand, mostly drinks -- Gatorade being most popular, followed by bottled water -- and packaged candy and chips. The "Lorton Special" is a hot dog, chips and soda for $3.00. But then, if I were in charge, I would contact one of the really good food carts and tell them you have a captive audience of 100 (or whatever) for 2-3 hours, and invite them to send over a cart...what kid doesn't like tacos?

I'm not a beer geek, so I'll defer. But I have to admit, in addition to the food -- very good -- I was blown away by the Thirsty Bear's Irish Stout. It makes Guinness Stout taste like Bud Lite. The food is a real hit here, and it's right across the street from a surprisingly good Chinese place called Fang, and crawling distance to the W....hard to ask for more.

My obsession began with the Berrio jug at Costco, and I washed out an old bottle of wine, filled the bottle with the Berrio, put in a wine stopper, et voila, I had my first stove-side extra virgin olive oil, ready to sprinkle here, there and everywhere. Then I picked up a bottle of my old stand-by, the Lebanese extra virgin olive oil Saifan, placed a stopper in it and now I had two bottles, side-by-side. Then the nice man behind the counter at Victor's Pizzeria in Springfield showed me the bottles of Greek Karousos that he had next to the cash register. They are from olives grown on his property in Greece, and every year he goes back to supervise the pressing and bottling. His recipe for eggs cooked in Karousos and then topped with feta is one of my favorite weekend breakfast treats. So...a bottle of Karousos with a stopper joined the party, and eight more bottles of Karousos were purchased as Christmas presents. With Greece, Lebanon and Italy covered, I next found Columela (thanks to a comparative tasting on America's Test Kitchen) and Mas Portell Arbequina, and thus Spain was covered. Morocco joined my mix when I stumbled upon Mustapha's First Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I forget where I found it, but it's very good, even a little spicy. Drizzled over cous-cous is its calling. Here and there I picked up another Spanish bottle at Trader Joe's, an entirely Kalamata extra virgin olive oil, a Kirkland brand Tuscany extra virgin olive oil, and a Berrio spray for quick and light applications. Then two weeks ago, I visited Sonoma County, and tasted my way through some of the fruitiest and spiciest extra virgin olive oils I have ever experienced, some of them very bold, and a few of them crafted as heirs to their various European roots. These are very artisanal, and I find myself sipping them by the tablespoonful (when nobody is looking). I shipped a box of them back to Virginia, put stoppers in them, and they joined the club. There are 20 bottles next to my stove now, and there is no dish I prepare that can be spared an adequate drizzling or sprinkling or pouring of these treasures from the olive tree. My girlfriend suggests that professional help may be required, and wonders why I occasionally smell like olive oil (OK, so I occasionally dab some behind my ears). There isn't anything I won't dip into their nectar, from bread to cheese to my neighbor's dog. I'm actually running out of stoppers, but I'll probably never run out of extra virgin olive oil! Oh yeah, here's a picture....

Having spent the past two weeks out west, I was hungry for some good northern Virginia comfort food, AKA Peruvian chicken. So it was off to Delia's we went. As always, the food was excellent. What's not to like about this place? Family owned and operated -- check. The obvious favorite lunch choice of the Fairfax County police -- check. Award winning pizza, featured on the Discovery Channel as well as in Mario Batali's "Everybody Loves Pizza" -- check. Friendly waitresses who have worked there for a dozen or more years -- check. Greek and Italian fare that is competently prepared and plentiful -- check. Strong community support and generous contributor to various charitable causes -- check! Girlfriend and I split a whole Peruvian chicken tonight, along with rice and Greek salad. It really hit the spot, which is exactly what we needed after eating our way through San Francisco for the past two weeks. I have eaten here many dozens of times and I look forward to many dozens more. [The DR community would benefit from the Springfield location being called out separately in the dining guide. The two other locations in Sterling and Alexandria are hardly the draw of the Springfield location, and as the dining guide goes, this place is worthy of the no. 1 or no. 2 spot in Springfield. Just saying....]

Hard to argue with that sentiment. Fully concur, and then some. And you can't beat the kibbee nayee! We are blessed with some doggone fine Middle Eastern food in this part of the world. Lebanese Butcher is at or near the top of the list, but the sit-down ambiance is a bit lacking. Therefore, I use it for carry-out most of the time. Same for Mediterranean Gourmet Bakery in Franconia, which has very good food, but not much sit-down ambiance. These two are my go-to carry-out spots, far and away. Go, go, go! Still thinking of a $20 Tuesday at Lebanese Butcher, but the size of the place would be a challenge for any crowd above about a dozen.

As I was stumbling through Springfield on a round of errands today, cursing the Toyota dealer for not inspecting my gas pedal on a walk-in basis, and marveling at the many Indo-Pakistani options available for lunch, I decided to try one. I move for a separate entry in the dining guide for Aabshaar. The $7.95 all-you-can-eat buffet (Monday through Thursday, lunch AND dinner) may be the best food deal in Springfield. That's $8.43 with tax, and I happily round up to $10 just to make it simple. Here's what was available today -- bear with me as I'm not an expert on this cuisine -- but there was plenty of salad with a house-made herb dressing, two fried appetizers (samosa and a wonderfully spicy fried ball of onion slices), about five or six hot dishes (spinach with cheese, mixed vegetable biryani, chicken peshwari, ground beef keema, basmati rice flecked with peas and herbs, and chick pea stew are all I can remember) and a very nice dessert (gulab jamun, which was heavenly). Oh, and all the fresh tandoori nan, right out of the oven, that you can eat. Talk about a $10 Tuesday! The food was good, probably not great, but certainly fresh, tasty, somewhat spicy and very hearty. I know it's possible to do much-much worse for ten bucks, but I'm not sure it's possible to any better for ten bucks. They also do catering and they have a hall that can seat 200....hmmm....a DR.com inclement weather picnic venue....?

I tried 21st Amendment and Magnolia as well, plus quite a few other bars. Thirsty Bear had better food and had the additional advantage of being within crawling distance of the W, where I was staying.