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hopsing

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Everything posted by hopsing

  1. hopsing
    I think the OpenTable strategy works. I was browsing OpenTable recently to see where to eat and saw Ray's listed. I hadn't thought about Ray's in ages. Guess where I'm going for my birthday this year?
  2. hopsing
    My husband and I ate here for the first time last night. The atmosphere is very relaxing and friendly--although voices from other tables can echo. Service was a little slow but not bad. I really love all the wines by the glass they offer. Normally we just get a bottle mostly to avoid getting a pour from a bottle that has been open for days. Not so here. We enjoyed 3 different reds and they all tasted fresh. I also like their wine suggestions with each dish. The food itself was okay--not superlative but strong enough for me to go back and try again with different dishes. I had the eggplant parmesan starter which was more like chopped eggplant re-imagined as falafel. Not bad but was served at room temperature which did not help the cause. My husband had a pricey spinach salad which he liked. My entree was chicken roulade which the waitress confirmed was slices of a rolled-up stuffed chicken breast. Instead it was some sort of de-constructed roulade where the silver dollar slices of chicken (which was very tasty) was on one side of the plate and the stuffing was on the other. The stuffing consisted mostly of re-constituted mushrooms (which I never like more than fresh ordinary mushrooms) and some almonds and sauce. It tasted okay but I would order something else next time and they shouldn't call it a roulade. My husband had the pork shoulder pasta and he liked it. If I can find a couple of dishes that I like I'll just order those and will be a regular at this restaurant. Otherwise, I'll miss the wines BTG feature because I won't be returning.
  3. hopsing
    I love their pizza. I always order a margarita pizza with olives. I like the pizza crust and I like the mozzarella cheese and the tomato sauce. Maybe it reminds me a bit of the pizza I had as a kid in Brooklyn. In the early days, I ordered a mushroom pizza and didn't like it as the mushrooms were not fresh but re-constituted. Maybe my positive feeling is due to always ordering the same tried and true thing. My husband orders the Honolulu and he seems to like that a lot. I am a pizzaholic as pizza is my favorite food. And maybe I like throwbacks to my childhood pizzas because if someone offered me a Pupatella pizza, Orso pizza, Liberty Tavern pizza, Vapiano pizza, I would pick the Piola pizza. Don't judge me!!! And in my book it is way better than zpizza and Joe's Pizza.
  4. hopsing
    We just ate at Piola's tonight. I really like their pizza.
  5. hopsing
    We were there Saturday night, our first post-Will visit. The fried calamari was much better than before. The porkbelly was definitely not as good--sort of too soupy. The new poached pear salad my husband said was ho-hum. We split on the spaghetti and meatballs - I preferred the old way (Artley era) and he preferred the new way (post-Artley).
  6. hopsing
    After reading this thread, I made a note to myself to try the Peking Duck. Lo and behold, Tim Carman writes a review today so the place will be mobbed for a while. Guess I'll wait until January...
  7. hopsing
    I'm always looking for a good Peking Ducks place so I will try this place out. Thx!
  8. hopsing
    Song Long.
  9. hopsing
    I just had my usual #4 bahn mi xiu mai. It tasted pretty good but had raw onions on it. I will ask them to omit them next time. They used to use radish. Nonetheless glad they are in business. Did notice that it was pretty empty on a Saturday at noon-ish. So please patronize this store so it doesn't go out of business like the previous store. BTW, check out the new Chinese supermarket. Pretty cool!
  10. hopsing
    I love the convenience of Open Table and would never think about not showing up. I feel bad even if I show up 5 minutes late (usually my husband's fault) because I worry I've screwed up their turnover timing. One policy I used to hate but now don't mind is GAR call-ahead. I tried it recently at Carlyle and it worked pretty well. I wonder why more restaurants don't try this.
  11. hopsing
    According to this article, it is Rosmeri Espinoza.
  12. hopsing
    We used to be fans of La Strada before it closed, but only recently found out (via a Daily Deal) that a new restaurant had long since taken its place. I'm surprised that I didn't hear of its replacement before. Apparently, the new place has been in operation about 2 years. Before we went, I read that it was owned by the same owners as Pines of Florence, of which I had not heard good things. Nonetheless, we gave it a try last night and were impressed. We enjoyed the caprese, mussels with linguini, and spaghetti bolognese. Bread was good too. My husband said the minestrone soup was the highlight of his meal. We like the menu choices - solid Italian-American which I miss from my childhood in Brooklyn. We will be back to try other tempting menu items like eggplant parmesan and seafood pasta! The only nit was that the mussels were small, but they were tasty and the marinara sauce was delish. I recommend that people give it a try. I am worried about the survival of the mom and pops.
  13. hopsing
    We were there Saturday evening for extended RW. I finally got to try the eggplant flatbread. Amazing! Plus the porchetta was new to me and quite delicious. It was topped off with passionfruit layer cake. I have to say I'm in love with the layer cakes and am contemplating ordering one as my birthday cake for January. I'd post some pictures if I can figure out how to do it on this forum.
  14. hopsing
    Is it possible that it is not the distance that is off-putting but the possible lack of sidewalks? I haven't walked over to the Galleria side yet, but even on the Tyson's side, they had traffic cops guiding us to Tyson's so we wouldn't be hit by some car driving to the garage. I had an evening meeting at Pinnacle Drive off of Chain Bridge Road and I was thinking of taking the subway, but I was worried there wouldn't be any sidewalks on Chain Bridge Road or Pinnacle Drive. Just my ignorance. Daunting to cross over all those lanes of Chain Bridge Road.
  15. hopsing
    I also go to CG Tyson's sometimes, but only for Restaurant Week. It's a little stuffy, but not too bad and it has a special occasion feel to it. The food is pretty good but not great, but good value for RW.
  16. hopsing
    Hmmm. I feel differently. I like the crust (and I generally don't eat the crust) and I like the mozzarella they use. I usually get the Greco, which has kalamata olives on it.
  17. hopsing
    We tried out this Turkish-Lebanese-Greek restaurant tonight and it was really good. We had falafel, dolmas, grilled squid, boregi, and moussaka. Everything was pretty good. We will definitely go back again. They have only been open 2-1/2 months but the place was very busy tonight. It is located near the Chasin' Tails restaurant.
  18. hopsing
    I contacted them and they are looking into it.
  19. hopsing
    I wanted to contact Republic about this problem, but there was no email on their contact-us page. So I posted a link to this thread on their Facebook page.
  20. hopsing
    I used to order regularly from zPizza, but a couple of years ago, the service started being terrible: late delivery and the toppings were all wrong. One time they gave me the whole wheat crust which was almost inedible. Then I realized that this pizza wasn't all that great and certainly not worth the service hassles. I have since switched to Joe's Pizza and Pasta in Arlington. It's no Pupatella but it is a convenient and not bad (although I wish they had kalamata olives as a topping). Service is great--they use the Grubhub system so you always know the status of your pizza.
  21. hopsing
    Do they offer sauerkraut as a condiment. As an ex-New Yorker, it is a must on my hot dog. Thx.
  22. hopsing
    Is that nearest garage the Ballston Mall garage? Is it too far? Too expensive? Luckily I can sort of walk there. Depending on what I hear from this forum, I'll decide if I want to.
  23. hopsing
    We have this restaurant on our regular rotation. We used to like the Aegean Taverna -- maybe more for the live music on Saturdays and the vine-covered porch than for the food. We like the aforementioned olive bread with garlicky olive oil for dipping, the Taverna special (we aren't very adventurous), the saganaki, fried zucchini, and calamari. Not to mention the Kouros red wine. The restaurant would be perfect if they got the musicians from the Aegean Taverna to serenade us on Saturday nights.
  24. hopsing
    We went here for the first time last night. I was looking for a French restaurant to replace my beloved Lavandou in Cleveland Park. Well, this restaurant isn't it although we might try it again. My husband's beet salad was interesting; he liked it. My onion soup was pretty blah. Watery, tasting more of oregano or something other than onions. Thin slice of melted cheese (not sure if it was really gruyere) on top. Won't be ordering this again. My steak frites was much better. The meat was outstanding and tasty, but they served it lukewarm. When I mentioned this, they said it has to sit for 5 minutes before they serve it. Well, I think I'd rather they serve it right away because lukewarm steak isn't doing it justice. The frites were pretty good. My husband liked his beef burgundy but it had few vegetables in it and not much sauce. The first round of bread was really good, the 2nd round all burnt and dry. The wine list was pricey so we stuck with the cheapest bottle of red which tasted pretty good, but it was still $35. Hit and miss, maybe we will be back, maybe we won't. Service was friendly though.
  25. hopsing
    I'm heading there on Saturday. I took a peak at the menu and was so disappointed that my favorite starter, mussels in smoky fennel broth, was gone! These were my hands-down favorite mussels of all time. I hope they substitute it with something just as good.
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