sheldman

We had dinner here for the first time in a long while. There has indeed been a change in chefs, and the menu is very different. I think it's fair to say that the new menu is more "standard" in its format and content (salads, entrees, etc.), and somewhat less "interesting", than it had been before. I think that what I would say is that the level of execution matches the level of aspiration, more fully than it used to in my experiences. (I don't mean to be saying anything negative about anyone, because I know that execution is not any one person's sole responsibility.) You can see the menu online, and everything was as described. There were nice pasta dishes and some good happy hour drinks. In any event, it was a pleasant dinner, a solid B+, which in Woodley Park puts you high on the curve.

I would love to know, if anyone can tell me, whether (for restaurants that take reservations) no-shows, late-shows, late-cancels, and similar displays of selfishness are more prevalent in DC than in otherwise-comparable cities. My guess (consistent with my general view of the culture here) would be yes, much more prevalent. Anyone know if I'm right?

I am glad that I didn't re-read the decidedly mixed reviews, above, before dinner last night. The food was delicious, the service was just the right degree of friendly, nothing felt rushed, and the music and vibe were great. Totally agree that it is not at all like going to Seki - which is "better" in many ways, but really a completely different type of experience in terms of what it does to your head and heart. But when you can get an old-fashioned-with-pony-MillerHighLife for $10 (special), and things like those fried little potatoes, grilled avocado, fried garlic, a neat yam special (described aptly by the server as a cross between a white yam and okra) - Daikaya is also something to be thankful for. I realized yesterday how much things have changed. In the morning I passed City Lights of China and remembered that when I moved here nearly twenty years ago, this seemed like good Chinese food to us. Now it is so easy to say "this izakaya is not quite what I want in an izakaya ..." Not to say that we shouldn't parse and even criticize when warranted, but we prosperous eaters are very fortunate these days.

Yes, there is a "conspiracy" if you want to call it that, a conspiracy or group effort to sway public opinion against HSUS. The field marshal for this conspiracy is, as mentioned above, Rick Berman - famous/infamous astroturfer for corporate interests. He gets paid very well to do aggressive PR, hatchet-man "attack your enemies" kind of stuff that the corporations and industries don't want associated with their brand names. So they get him to do it. The very same Rick Berman who has been active in the PR effort to tell consumers that pesticides are safe (which you, knowing a good bit about the subject, tend to disbelieve). You note the difficulty of changing people's beliefs - but this is one way that it sometimes happens - once you realize that people have been lying to you about proposition X, you might be skeptical about proposition Y once you realize that the same people are behind it. (By the way, Rick Berman is also the father of David Berman, of the brilliant odd rock band Silver Jews, who loathes what his father does for a living.)

At the risk of being redundant, given the good descriptions above, I really loved our dinner here tonight. The "oyster back" shooter is the best thing ever. One shot glass full of an oyster and pickle juice, the other full of rye. Plus oysters, the fish pie, and "beach and beans," all well described above. The pastry on the pie, especially, was beautiful and delicious (not a surprise, given the pictures I had seen over the years, on dr.com, of Mr. Shapiro's work). Totally worth going to, from wherever in the area you are coming from. Really.

I had a drink called Boulevardier at La Piquette (nice new place across from Two Amys), but it was vodka ("Elyx") and Campari. I had never heard the term before. Are they misusing the name, or is the name ambiguous? Anyway, it was good. (Of course it was good! It was vodka and campari!)

My sad poem about dinner. Cacophonous cave; my broth was lukewarm, egg cold. And no alcohol. (on the other hand, the mushroom buns were very good).

It is possible that I am very stupid this morning. But I find it bizarre that I cannot easily find the 2013 Dining Guide on the Washington Post website. In fact, I can't find it at all, in the time I am willing to allot to the project. I find a link on the "Food" page to the 2012 guide. I find links to the article about places that barely missed the list. But the Guide itself has entered the dustbin of online history within a week. Strange. Unless I am very stupid this morning.

Malgudi's food was really excellent last night, on my first visit. The least interesting things were the Mysore Masala Dosa (crepe with potato etc.) and the Paneer Uttapam (thicker pancake-like thing with paneer etc.). But they were good. (They probably would have been much better if their accompaniments had arrived when they did. See note below about service). Better were appetizers (try the fried cauliflower) and the curries. Rice is extra (as at Heritage India) but comes in multiple varieties (e.g., tamarind, lemon) and is well worth it. If last night is an indication (and if Y*lp reviews are, too), you will do better here if you go when you have plenty of time, have friends to talk to, and are feeling good about life. It took a long time, for no discernible reason. Long time to get started, long time for wine, and long time for entrees. (About 2 hours total, or maybe a little more, and we decided against dessert so we could move on.) Staff were extremely friendly when present. The situation seemed especially strange to me, as we were among the very first diners on the weekend following the restaurant's appearance on the Sietsema Top 40 in the Post Magazine. I would have assumed that management would know that they had made the list, and would make sure that everything was firing on all cylinders in preparation for a possible surge in business. Apparently not. But still, excellent food.

My only experiences here have been with donuts to go. Some of the donuts have been excellent while others have merely been very good. For those who (like me) prefer donuts that are not too sweet or goopy, try the cake donuts in flavors including grapefruit campari, passionfruit, or espresso.

I think that "criticizing the critics" is very useful for a site like this one, if it provides information that can help put the critic's output into perspective for the purpose of deciding where to eat - e.g., "Critic A's taste in Armenian food tends towards the bland and greasy, as evidenced by his praise of Place X over Place Y, so watch out before you decide to rely on his recommendations there" or "Critic B loves to be the one who 'finds' unknown spots (or maybe his employer pushes him towards that sort of output), and this tends to lead him to exaggerated praise as when he reviewed Places W and Z so highly, so watch out for that." (just pure hypothetical examples). By contrast, there are many types of "criticizing the critics" which are more about their writing, their personal style, etc., or about general reactions to their work as a whole - and I know that I have done that occasionally - but are not actually useful in determining what restaurants to go to. For instance, the thing this week about the Kliman chat. I have strong opinions about that chat (re the guest who declined the pasta), and was sorely tempted to chime in with my opinions here - but they would not be opinions that are useful to anybody else, and the internet is already full of people complaining about other people.

I ate here for the first time tonight, and enjoyed it enough to write. I make no extravagant claims about the place, but it was good food (I had Caesar salad, and salmon entree, and bread pudding) with nice waitstaff, and a good French/Django jazz trio. In the culinary sadness of west-of-the-park NW DC, it is nice to find such a place. (A dissertation, or a bad Slate article, could be written about why this area is so lacking in midpriced good food. )

Nothing lasts forever. Based in two recent dinners, Central is not as good as when it opened. Still a fine place to eat if you're there, but not worth special effort at this point.

I may not be the first to have said this, but I fear we have reached the point where all food is trite. My bag of Lays "limon"-flavored potato chips says (with emphasis in the original): "It all starts with farm-grown potatoes -"

I think it's really uncool of chef Mike G to compete against other restaurants by gaming their Yelp reviews. Plus, he's obviously confused about which izakaya is which. (joke!)

Thank you for prompting me to think about Palm Springs - spent most of April there, and am eager to head back in a few weeks. Cheeky's, Birba, and Jiao [Closed in 2014], mentioned above, are all still fantastic. Those would be my top recommendations to anyone, unless they said that they wanted a different particular vibe. I have had very good food at Tinto (under the auspices of Chef Jose Garces, who I guess is a nationally known "somebody" but I am a rube) - the menu (this seasonal link will wither someday) is worth a look, because it's not the same old menu you see everywhere, not even the same as other "tapas"-y places. In the same hotel is a cool tequila and taco bar, with uncomfortable chairs but really good food. One new place, since I posted last, is Workshop - which has cool interior design, good buzz, and good concepts, but my impression from a single visit is that the cost is high and portions were small - but I don't mean to write it off too soon. If you or other readers are looking for something less (forgive me) "foodie"-oriented but more about "Palm Springs style" (including the "gay" and "gray" and "gray gay" variants thereof), PM me and I will think further ...

I am now ready to go on record as believing that shoyu is the best of the three non-vegetarian options. All are good. Shio is more subtle and delicate. Miso is miso-y. Both are very good. But if you are looking for intensity of experience, shoyu. This is not a brilliant insight, as all are well-described on the menu itself.

#9 (tofu) at Song Que in Eden Center. Mmmmmmm.

If going for lunch on a weekend, I would suggest getting there at 11:30 when they open. I have been once on a Saturday and once on a Sunday (yesterday), and it has gotten crowded not long after that.

If I am right that you are responding largely to me - I think that you misunderstood me. (If not responding largely to me, then I am misreading, and in any event don't mean to pick a fight.) I don't think, and didn't say, that artists in any medium (visual, performance, food, whatever) "have to ... speak to everyone" or that their works "have to be instantly accessible to everyone" - and didn't even say or mean that "food about food is a bad thing." Artists in all media, including food, should by all means do what they want to do. But when artists do something that appeals to a smallish group - or when artists want to push the envelope and do something that changes the way people perceive the form - artists are wise to figure out a way to fund that work, if the artists want to make art their source of income. For the "fine arts" (dance being among them, in our culture) this very often involves finding ways to make the rich willingly turn over lots of money, to build concert halls with their names over the door, to buy paintings and sculptures that cost tens of thousands of dollars, etc. In the food-as-art world, I guess this is what Minibar has figured out (though I've never eaten there). Very few seats, with very high prices (so high that even most of the people in this city who care, were squirming and grumbling at the recent prices). The business model (combining high prices and exclusivity with an element of celebrity, drawing on a nationwide or worldwide audience) seems to work - and that's cool if that's what they want to do! Good for them. I guess I was saying that, for me, "food about food" is better in smaller doses. That's just me - just as I would not want to listen to "Rock Around the Clock" (ugh) followed by "We Built This City on Rock and Roll" (double ugh) followed by several more songs about rock and roll.

Not to take this very interesting discussion too far away from theories of aesthetics - but to me, the analogy to modern/abstract/nonrepresentational art is also interesting because it calls to mind the enormous differences in the commercial (to be crass, "where's the money coming from?") aspects of the two practices (visual art, and food). When we learn about modern/abstract/nonrepresentational art, and learn to enjoy or appreciate it despite any initial misgivings, we are able to access it without enormous expense - because of museums ($20 or so at MOMA, free in DC, and free or inexpensive through cheap reproduction). The artists who make a living at it, probably mostly do so because the prices for their original works are very high, and because there are a relative few who can/will pay to sustain the "industry." Some other artists make, without making a living. When we eat at restaurants, by contrast, we pay the whole cost. And there are very few people who want to pay substantial money for food that gives the intellectual pleasure of understanding a challenging artist's work. In practice, then, food is therefore more like music, or like art purchased for the home. There are not very many of us who buy records, or buy things to hang on our walls, in hopes that they will grow on us despite our initial shock and that we will learn something. (I do, to an extent, and maybe many DR.com readers do too. But more people listen to, and hang on their walls, the stuff that they "like" without hesitation.) When we venture outside comfort zone, it is much easier to convince ourselves to pay $20 for a meal that will expand our horizons (e.g., at a restaurant serving the food of a country or region that we don't know much about) than to pay $100 for a meal that might leave us scratching our heads. One more thought, and then I will be quiet: I love Roy Lichtenstein's art. But I went to the retrospective at the National Gallery a few months ago, and left (after seeing a huge number of works) with a hollow feeling: that it was only "art about art" and not "art about anything else." Sort of like listening all day to rock and roll songs about rock and roll itself - just too much. A smaller portion is better. The danger of modernist/clever cuisine is that it is "food about food." If it has a viable future that is not just being a fringe for the few most prosperous and food-obsessed among us, maybe the route is to have *some elements* of it at a time, rather than a whole meal.

Just a quick note from non-expert to add another very positive review. Me: shoyu ramen + wakame + corn. Son: vegetarian ramen + bamboo + wakame. Both delicious. Staff was very energetic, positive-minded and helpful. They seem proud of what they're serving (the origin of the noodles, suggestions about toppings, etc.), which is nice. The bamboo is a very nice add-on. Getting crowded even by a few minutes after 11:30 on a Saturday.

Maybe I am just reading the wrong websites, but it is funny to me that Unum seems to be "off the radar" for the most part - even though, judging by my one and only dinner there (last night), they seem to do good business. Don't know if this is a matter of their not spending $ on publicists, or what. (I realize they were on the Washingtonian 100, but otherwise there is little "buzz" on the "buzzy" sites as far as I can tell. Contrast opentable reviews, which are numerous and positive - a different part of the online world, I guess.) Anyway, dinner was quite good, and reasonably priced. I especially liked that I could make up my "main course" as a half-order of grilled branzino (at $12, it seemed to be not much less fish than I would get at some restaurants as a full-size main) and a half-order of gnocci ($10). Good food, pleasant place. Good bread with good accompaniments. Good cheese plate. Not sure about lemon buttermilk ice cream to accompany bread pudding, though. Menu is pretty much (maybe not exactly?) as stated at link.

In the annals of the ups and downs of delivery food in NW DC, let the record reflect that we got some perfectly good food from Banana Leaves tonight, including an interesting and unusual mushroom skewery thing. Not saying that it was OMG delicious, but it was all good enough to eat too much of. And, grading on a curve, that gets you at least a B+ in this part of town.

One more thought is Pleasant Pops, which started out as a truck selling "artisanal" (they may not have used that word, but probably did ...) popsicles and now has a sandwich/market place - I stopped in once and didn't see anything that grabbed me, but it seemed pleasant (hah) and is probably worth checking out the website.