Ericandblueboy

Messi finally won one for Argentina but "it" didn't come home. The Italians took "it."

Saw O Dinis featured on one of Andrew Zimmern's shows. While I like Portuguese cuisine, their menu is too rustic and not enough seafood (only one bacalao dish!). Thanks for the tip on Cap 'n Jack. I plan on making reservation for Matunuck 3 weeks out but it's good to have an alternative. For fun, (day 1 Monday) Biomes on the way from the Bronx after lunch, (day 2) all day touring the Newport Mansions (only the Topiary Garden, Breakers, Elm and Marble are open at this point), (day 3) Rogers Williams Park Zoo. Not sure what else to do on day 3. Boat tour? Audubon Nature Center & Aquarium? Blitheworld? I think Waterfire is canceled this summer?

I love tripe. Will check out Old Canteen (if I get off my butt and call them for reservations) because the menu is huge (eels, escargot, frog legs!). Does Zuppardi's allow dining in?

Thanks. I'm going to try Mario's just across the street because they accept credit card and reservation on Opentable.

Had a wonderful brunch today. Started with the Pâté en Croûte (foie gras, duck breast, cured pork shoulder, veal sweetbread) and Brandade Beignets served on top of ratatouille. The brandade is mixed with mashed potatoes and then fried, so it's really more of a croquette than beignet, but delicious nevertheless. Then we had Shrimp & Grits, and Quiche with leeks and gruyere. I don't think the shrimp & grits are anything special but the shrimp were tender and the grits were creamy, so very well executed. I haven't had quiche in a while and almost never order it at a restaurant but the version here is fluffy and flavorful. The kids actually thought the quiche was the best dish of the day.

Going to the Met Cloister and the Bronx Zoo. Spending 2 nights at the Opera House Hotel next to St. Mary's Park and just north of Mott Haven. Have no idea where to eat. So far the only thing I found is Jalisco Taco, where they have pancita/menudo and tongue tacos. Found this guide from Eater for Little Italy.

Taking the kids to Rhode Island for 3 nights. What's good to eat in Providence these days? I already booked Oberlin and Hemenway's for dinner. Al Forno is already full. Also stopping at Matunuck Oyster Bar on the way there for lunch. Chengdu Taste looks like a back-up plan for authentic Chinese food.

I haven't been in awhile but Lotus Garden was terrific in Vienna. Nothing really good in McLean, Fahrenheit is decent but overpriced. Not sure if Asian Origin has reopened. Han Palace has good dim sum but i haven’t been there for a regular meal.

I've been to Vinh Kee several times recently. As a regular, maybe I get special treatment, but I doubt it. Dim sum quality has been the same since before the pandemic. I read those negative yelp reviews - sounds like they're mostly bitching about price. Dim sum costs more here than in NYC or Philly but Vinh Kee isn't more expensive than Mark's Duck House or Hong Kong Pearl.

I found Limoncello on Opentable. I know nothing about the place but the menu included pasta with sea urchin. Further digging found it's in the top 50 restaurants according to Baltimore Magazine. So I took a chance and booked a table. Upon arrival, I was told by our server that Limoncello is an authentic Italian restaurant, that the owners are from Italy. I thought I had hit the jackpot. Alas, the restaurant still has to cater to its base (I'm guessing). Grilled shrimp - totally overcooked. Fritto Misto was actually very good, nicely seasoned cod and calamari with crispy batter, but the shrimp was a little overcooked. We ordered 3 pastas. Paccheri Medusa - sea urchin, cherry tomatoes, blue crab. Nice al dente pasta, but there's not even a hint of sea urchin flavor. The crab was plentiful but dry. There's barely any sauce on the pasta. We ate very little of this dish. Linguine Vongole & Arugula - overcooked pasta but the sauce is flavorful. It would've been really good if they cooked the pasta al dente. A Genovese - pasta with braised beef and caramelized onion ragu. Again, overcooked pasta dragged down a lovely sauce. So they did not execute properly on a majority of the dishes. What a shame.

@Tom Sietsema gushed about this new restaurant so I had to check it out. We started with some seafood and boucherie. I've had blue crab fingers (cracked claws) before in N.O. so I know they're easy to eat. In this case, they were dipped into a slaw of tarragon remoulade & celery root, very delicious (beware of small pieces of crab claw in the slaw). The fish dip was a bit bitter due to the preserved lemon salad (tasted like zest). From the boucherie, we had some banh mi chicken liver mousse, rabbit pate, and mortadella. The chicken liver mousse served with pickled veggies was fantastic, and the rabbit pate was almost as tasty. However, the mortadella did not make an impression on me. We ordered the $10 bread basket to go with the boucherie (which comes with crostini), but it had only one small baguette, 2 small biscuits, and 2 slices of toast. From the cooked foods, we ordered the Oysters Dauphine, chargrilled oysters with spinach, pecorino and supposedly horseradish (which I didn't taste). They were plump, juicy and perfectly cooked/seasoned. In addition, we ordered hangar steak and potato puffs. The steak was tasty but a little chewy. I'm definitely returning to check out more of the menu.

They're supposed to open at 8 am. Went in at 9 am on a Sunday morning, only 1 person was working the counter (who said others failed to show up for work) The bagel with nova was undertoasted, way too much cream cheese, but the salmon was good. The New Yorker (hot pastrami and chopped liver) was made with cold pastrami and a heavy dollop of tasty chopped liver. Maybe Sunday morning is not a good time to go to Attman's. Or maybe the people who work there are just lazy and not motivated.

We went in Faidley's at 10 am on Saturday. The lady at the counter says they're not open but she can help me?! So she took my order, back fin crab cake, 2 coddies, fried clam strip, steamed clams, mac n' cheese, and onion rings. The clams were just steamed, with a side of still congealed butter. The crab cake was delicious as usual, so was the coddie. The rest was to make sure the kids didn't leave hungry.

We had dinner at Bistronomy and Hank's. Bistronomy is mostly French with some Asian touch, creative and generally well executed. Hank's feels like just another corporate seafood restaurant. Our peel and eat shrimp weren't even deveined. The fried flounder had a strong and not fresh smell. The fried shrimp were overcooked. I tried to make a reservation about a month in advance but The Ordinary, Fig, and Darling Oyster were all already booked. If you want to book The Ordinary or Fig, I suggest staying up to midnight. At 9 am, you'll only get 5 pm or 9 pm tables.

After 3 nights in Orlando, we drove to Savannah. On the way, we hit Timwah for dim sum in Jacksonville. The dim sum was decent and thankfully not really out of the way. In Savannah, we checked out the JW Marriott Plant Riverside, a new swanky hotel with a museum of natural history-like lobby. We stayed at the Embassy Suite and ate at Husk. The peel and eat shrimps were served deveined, but not shelled and served on ice. The white BBQ sauce and old bay seasoning were served on the side just in case the kids couldn't handle the spiciness (probably not necessary). The kids loved them and the chicken liver pate. I tried the kohlrabi caesar and decided that it's just okay. A balanced diet may be over-rated. For entrees, we had some seared scallops with Carolina gold rice and NY strip steak with chimichurri. Every dish is well executed. I just wish they have a more interesting menu.

After collecting our car in Sanford, we drove to Winter Garden for brunch. First meal was at Orlando Meats. It's a butcher/restaurant, which I saw on one of Andrew Zimmern's shows. We had some pretty awesome country fried steak, something I can't get in the DC area. It wasn't made from cubed steak though. After visiting Leu Gardens (a nice little garden), we went to the Ritz for Knife and Spoon, where valet parking is complimentary. Knife and Spoon is a spin-off of John Tesar's Knife in Dallas. Its claim to fame is the 240 days aged steak. They also offer angus and wagyu (akaushi). With respect to the akaushi ribeye, our server recommended 45 days aged, so that's what we went with. Our server also recommended King Crab Scampi, served with garlic froth. The crab meat was so tender, I would guess it was alive shortly before our arrival. If you like crab, get multiple orders. The other app we got was Diver Scallop with mushroom dashi and shaved black truffle. It was impeccable. To be honest, the steak was just good compared to the great seafood. We asked for the steak medium rare. I think it came out more rare than medium rare. It was well seasoned and very tender. We also had a side of mac 'n cheese but it was way too much food. If we go back, I would order more seafood. I highly recommend this place. Day 2 was at Discovery Cove, where mediocre food and drinks were included. That evening, we went to Bice at Portofino Bay Hotel. Self parking was $28 The food was authentic but not creative. We had some crispy fritto misto, some al dente linguine alle vongole, and some tender rack of lamb. The atmosphere is pretty casual, with lots of kids. While the piazza is pretty, there's not much in terms of shopping. With the high price and parking charge, probably not worth going back. Day 3 was spent at Mount Dora. It's a quaint little town with lots of little shops and restaurants. We took a canal tour to see gators and other wild life. On our way back, we went to check out Universal Citywalk. What I didn't realize is that Citywalk is connected to the theme parks and costs $26 just to park. And there's really nothing interesting in Citywalk (lots of crappy fast food restaurant). So a big waste of time and money. That evening we went to Dragonfly. The maitake mushrooms fritters (maitake tempura) was pretty awesome (but the tempura batter can still be lighter). The didn't screw up the miso black cod and gyoza either. In fact, everything was pretty good, just nothing unique. They also have happy hour prices on some stuff until 7, so pretty cheap compared to our other meals. ETA: We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. No one cleaned our room while we were there. Self-parking is $28 per day and the garage is about a block away from the hotel. I also hate paying $40 per day for "resort fees" when we didn't use the pool at all and the "free" wi-fi was about 10 Mbps.

We booked a family room, which span the width of the train. It was pretty roomy and comfortable enough. We were located downstairs while most the people had rooms upstairs, so we had 3 bathrooms and a shower to ourselves for the most part. The food was mediocre at best, but we were allowed to bring a cooler and drinks onboard. The next day, unloading the cars can take 20 minutes to 90 minutes. We did not pay for priority unloading and was unfortunate enough to be one of the last cars unloaded. The wifi was pretty nonexistent even though I have Verizon.

Boarding starts at 2:30. No need to arrive much earlier, you just end up sitting and spinning.

Asparagus, kohlrabi, and orange vierge sauce, according to the menu. I took them with my iPhone and cropped them. I don't claim to know anything about photography.

Both Steve and I went to Metier for the first time last Friday. It's the best meal I've had in over 1 year - even though I just came back from NYC and ate at Michelin 1 star restaurants 3 nights in a row (Marea, Tempura Matsui, Wallsé). In fact, Metier blew them out of the water; nevertheless, I will proceed to point out things that could perhaps improve. 1. Bluefin toro sashimi (potato croquette under the tuna, avocado purée, and passionfruit-tamari emulsion). The weakness in this dish is that the texture and flavor of the croquette competed with the star of the dish, which is the bluefin toro. Neither of us really enjoyed the combo. I should've just left the potato alone. 2. Softshell crab from Chesapeake Bay. I think this is the best softshell crab I've ever had. The batter is well seasoned, light, and greatly enhanced the natural deliciousness of the crab. 3. Garlic chive tagliatelle (foie gras enriched breadcrumbs). I didn't really detect much foie gras flavor but I really enjoyed the pasta dish. May not have been the best pasta dish ever but thoroughly delicious. 4. Veal sweetbread and crawfish with puff pastry. Everything was cooked beautifully. The sweetbread had a nice crunchy exterior but still very tender. 5. Grilled Australian Wagyu with grilled tofu. I was getting full at this point. I think grilled steak at fine dining restaurant is a tad boring. But I really enjoyed the sesame crusted tofu. Price now is $200 pp excluding tax and tip. The deposit was $175 pp, which I paid. They then refunded the deposit upon request and split the bill evenly.

Are either Shanghai Lounge or Dumplings & Beyond worth visiting from across the river? Which one has better soup dumplings? I'm in McLean, for decent soup dumplings I have to either go to Alexandria (Kung Fu Kitchen) or Rockville (Bob's Shanghai 66). Do either of these restaurants compare to KFK or Bob's?

It doesn't specify whether tax & tip is included in the $995. OTOH, maybe if you can afford $995 pp, it just doesn't matter.

@gnatharobedAny idea when dine-in will resume?

Saw someone recommend Nak Won on Facebook (Washington DC Foodies). Anyone been?

I like Nina May but not THAT special. Some place on the water? Jackie? Albi? Compass Rose? Maydan? Tails Up Goat? I like the atmosphere of Le Dip but Convivial has better food.