aklewis78

In addition to great atmosphere and solid food (love the fresh juices, btw), I think the service deserves special praise. Their unobtrusive yet extremely attentive manner make this a regular stop on my business lunch circuit.

My gf and I just returned from a trip to the Pacific NW (just added a SEA-specific post in that thread), and sadly had time for only one dinner in Portland. We chose Olea, led by a chef formerly of the French Laundry. Like Chef Ziebold's at CityZen, the food at Olea is simply conceived and flawlessly prepared. However, Olea is far more modest in ambition, far more casual and incredibly cheap, relatively speaking of course. We started with grilled fava beans with serrano and manchego, and grilled dates with parma ham and vanilla-pepper oil. Both were outstanding and -- dare I say -- the dates were comparable to those served at KOMI. For mains, I chose the duck -- breast and gnocchi accented nicely with sweet potato foam -- and my gf went with the lobster "pot pie", which was basically a whole lobster stewed in what I could only assume was a pound of butter and topped with puff pastry. All this, plus a bottle of local pinot, for around $130 including tax and tip...a great meal and, comparing quality with cost, quite a bargain as well.

My gf and I just returned from a trip that included two dinners and a lunch in Seattle. The first dinner was at Union. The service was great and the food was good, but I feel like we may have been a year or so late in terms of seeing the chef's adventurous side. As our server explained, Union no longer offers a tasting menu because the kitchen couldn't handle what amounted to two different types of service on a given night (i.e., a la carte and tasting menus), and they wanted to focus more on the a la carte side of things. That's a nice way of saying the masses are paying the bills, and the masses don't want to be challenged. Case in point -- our server called our half-bottle orders (sancerre with the fava salad and grilled barramundi starters; Willamette Valley pinot with the black bass and duck) "refreshingly civilized" and visibly shuddered when a guy at a nearby four-top was trying to order another bottle of Bud Light. Lunch the next day began with a chees plate at The Tasting Room, the retail presence of a collective of Washington wineries locatged in Post Alley, pleasantly above the fray of Pike's Place. The secret gem here is that they offer a charcuterie plate of Salumi products; the perfect complement to big chewy reds, and without the legendary wait in line at Salumi proper. On our vine-mistress's recommendation, we continued on for lunch at Saito's. Having lived in LA's Little Tokyo for a couple years, my sushi bar is set pretty high. But this place was awesome. Impressive selection of pristine fish, and equally impressive sake list. Oh, and natto. Yum. The blowout dinner went down at a place called Mistral. Next time you're in Seattle, have some extra cash and three+ hours to spare, GO THERE. I'll spare the blow-by-blow -- google a few reviews for that -- and just say that Miles and Mingus were playing in the background, there wasn't a menu (just a choice of 8 or 9 courses), and the wine and service were beyond compare. The space is small and intimate yet fully refined, the food is challenging yet comforting, and the overall experience is truly special.

I hit the Peninsula Grill and FIG during my last visit, about 9 months ago, and would recommend both. Peninsula Grill had an old-school clubby atmosphere, and the service was commensurately formal but not cold or stiff. The cuisine matched the vibe of the room -- killer martinis, large steaks and chops, and lots of chilled shellfish appetizers. FIG was cozier, with a more adventureous yet still restrained menu. A good DC analogy is Cashion's (whereas the Peninsula Grill is more like the Capital Grille or Palm), with similarly styled adaptations of low-country comfort food.

My gf and I swooped in last night to dine at the bar. Let me just say this -- I feel like we stole sixty bucks. It bears repeating again and again and again and again!!! until everybody on this board has been -- you pay $45 at the bar for what costs $75 in the dining room. Exact same excellent food and exact same excellent service, from the amuse to begin to the server announcing each course with vivid descriptions of what you're about to ingest. But for $30 less. In addition, the bar offers a wine pairing of three half-pours for $25. The bartender (Scott) explained that the sommelier has been out of town, meaning wines chosen specifically to compliment the current menu unfortunately were not available. But he happily suggested matches from the by-the-glass list, with great results. (Note -- flights can be done absent a meal; you choose any three half-pours for the same $25 cost.) Our selections were as follows (and please forgive my murky recollection of the wines...we had attended an open bar event at Le Paradou earlier in the evening): Amuse -- Mushroom fritter with white truffle sauce. As delicious as ever. Firsts -- Tuna tartare studded with avacado and served with mango sauce and impossibly thin toast crisps (chardonnay). Gf's comment: I'd be content with just a big plate of this. Veal tongue with freestyle macaroni (reisling). Presented as three discs, breaded and crisp on the outside, supple and moist on the inside; the best tongue McNugget you'll ever have. Pasta was fine, but not as noteable. Seconds -- Barramundi in a vegetable and scallop squash broth, with black olives (another chard). The key here was the salty-sour accent of the olives; it really made the dish. Rabbit loin (Morgan 12 Clones pinot). Ringed with grits suspended in a hearty sauce. Simultaneously meaty and light, comforting and exciting. Desert -- "Peppermint patty" (madeira). Riff on the silverwrapped candy, with chocolate ice cream and pistachio cream. Would have been perfectly satisfying to stop there, but... Drink -- ...I discovered the list of single malts. I took a Laphroaig 15-year, which can be difficult to find at any time, not to mention when you really want it. CityZen's bar has a complete "vertical" selection of Laphroaig (as well as others). I'm already looking forward to sampling the 30-year next time. All told, it wasn't a cheap meal, but CityZen isn't a cheap place. What's important to remember is how much more it would cost if you were sitting at a table a mere 20 feet away.

My gf and I had a great meal there at the end of March. IMHO, the food and service managed to exceed my already lofty expectations, which were based on past excellent experiences. To avoid boring everybody with a blow-by-blow of the tasting menu, here's the "USA Today" version of why CityZen is among the area's best and merits your consideration: My gf is a lobster freak, yet she deemed the culotte steak the best course of the night...not that the butter-poached lobster was bad (it was incredible!); just that Chef Eric's seemingly humble steak was SO good that it made her rethink her food hierarchy.

The chicken and waffles at Creme aren't nearly as good as those served at Roscoe's in LA (everybody should make the pilgrimage at least once), but they're definitely the best I've had in DC. Coupled with a few bloody marys ($10 for unlimited, btw), it's a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I'm also partial to Charlie Palmer, which is not open Sunday evenings, and the Palm on 19th, which is. You can do either for under $200 if you stick to a glass or modest bottle of wine. Although not a steakhouse, Ceiba serves a nice cowboy cut (ie, bone-in ribeye) with a very tasty chimichurri sauce. It's less expensive than Palmer et al, and you'll have more interesting non-steak options if that's your thing. One more thing worth considering -- instead of Saturday or Sunday dinner, see if you can both take that Friday afternoon off and hit either Palmer or the Palm at lunch. You'll pay less than at dinner and enjoy the same great DC power scene. And IMHO there are very few things more satisfying than tucking into a big ribeye and bigger cabernet while the sun's still out.

As a long-time lurker, I thought my Citronelle experience this past Wednesday would make a good first extended post. My girlfriend and I had a 730pm reservation and were seated promtly and graciously. The room had a great energy. We both found ourselves turning, glancing and outright staring when different delectables zoomed by; surely a sign of good things to come. Although many of the items in the 3-course section of the menu looked interesting, we're of the mind that the tasting menu is really the best way to get to know a chef. And because this was our first time at Citronelle, we opted for the promenade gourmande, with matching wines. The Amuse Bouche was the already-reported-on trio of egg surprise, mushroom cigar, and haricots vertes tartare. Quite good. Next, the Lobster and english pea bisque nearly put my girlfriend in a "When Harry Met Sally" state. If I hadn't also been happily slurping away, I may have actually felt jealous of, and threatened by, a soup. The liquid was velvet, and the peas -- both pureed and whole -- cut nicely through the over the top heaviness/creaminess I normally associate with lobster bisque. On the Soft shell crab, tempura, provencal compote, we disagreed. I liked the airiness of the tempura batter, which accentuated the slight crunch of the fried soft shell and worked well with the pepper-inflected compote. My girlfriend called it too plain, although it's possible her mood was soured by the simple fact that it wasn't another bowl of the bisque. The Halibut, kohlrabi, celery, verbena-lime emulsion was excellent. Perfectly cooked. Savory, salty and sweet tastes in the sauce and garnishes, with a thread of citrus holding it all together. Our next course, Lobster medallion, citronelle sauce, japanese eggplant, was a mixed bag on two fronts. First, the food. The lobster and sauce were amazing, but the eggplant was a bit weird. Mushy and bland. I would have preferred a slab of foie gras. Second, the service. This is the one and only point in the evening when the staff faltered. When the plates arrived, our server and wine pairing were nowhere to be found. After a few minutes of confused looks at each other and unsuccessful attempts to draw the attention of other staff, our server reappeared, carrying drinks down from the bar for another table. To his credit, he immediately noticed our situation and nearly sprinted over with an apology and the next wine. And what a wine it was. A 2003 domaine Borgeot Chassagne-Montrachet "Les Embrazees". All the wines were exceptional (kudos to Mr. Slater!), but this really stood out. What came next was pure goodness. Duck, served medium rare, duck leg confit, "tutti frutti" bordered perfection. Fat-laden breast that hinted of bacon. Leg confit that was externally crisp and internally succulent. The other elements on the plate swirled together in a way that let their presence be known, but still kept the focus on the duck. Yum. The Selection of imported cheese was nice, especially the one that may or may not have been epoisse (the wine was catching up at this point), and the desserts -- Raspberry Vacherin and Chocolate 3 ways -- were great as well. I normally don't like vacherin but this one worked, with the cream and fruit moistening the meringue walls. And given that I think chocolate one way is very good, it's obvious that chocolate 3 ways is even better. The Petits Fours were large sweet wafers studded with nuts sliced very thinly into discs so as to almost look like sopresetta, presented in a bed of toasted cous cous. With coffee, a gentle end to an excellent meal. In light of some recent posts, I'd like to note service was in no way was affected by our age (we're both mid-20's). As is typical with many of the higher-end places we frequent, we actually found ourselves doted on. Future business, after all, depends on the ability to turn new faces into regular faces irrespective of age, which places like Citronelle surely understand. To end an already too-long post, we eagerly anticipate our next visit, and hope Mr. Slater won't mind a PM beforehand to see if we might be seated nearer the kitchen next time

Santa Fe -- I'll also vouch for Coyote Cafe for dinner and Pasqual's for breakfast. At Pasqual's, as is typical in New Mexico, note that chili peppers come on almost everything. It's up to you to specify red, green, or a mixture of both, which locals call "Christmas". Scottsdale -- For a more casual meal, Pizzeria Bianco is worth the drive into Phoenix if you have a Neapolitan style craving. Vegas -- I thought Mix in the Mandalay was good, though it certainly isn't on the same scale as the Mansion in terms of quality or price. Burgers -- As Joe H noted, you should seriously consider trying In-N-Out if you haven't already. Order a "double-double, animal style"; it won't disappoint. In addition to Henderson, you can find In-N-Out in Vegas proper, as well as the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. And if you want to take the west coast version of the "Pepsi challenge", both NV and AZ also have outlets of Fatburger, which is In-N-Out's main rival.