Choirgirl21

Thank you to everyone who had feedback and suggestions. Sadly the wkd was too short (and I'm not wealthy enough) to fit in as much food as I would have liked, but we did have our meal at Le Bernardin and we stopped at both Milk and Ssam. We also had brunch at Supper in East Village, which I won't describe in detail, but it has some unique options and twists rather than your standard brunch fare. Le Bernardin was phenomenal. Service was seamless, dishes were amazing, wine pairings were spot on, everything was just fantastic from beginning to end (including them holding the kitchen for 15 minutes since we had the last seating and were late - thank you very much Amtrak for that embarassment!). I started with calamari stuffed with sweet prawns and shiitake mushrooms with a calamari consomme, paired with a chablis. The consomme was the highlight although everything was delicious. My friend started with an amazing dish off of the raw section - a kampachi tartare on marinated japanese cucumbers with an aged citrus vinegar. The dish was tart, citrusy (lots of lime) and just really delicious paired with a spatlese riesling. Second course for my friend was a nori crusted skate with poached oysters and braised winter greens with a ponzu vinaigrette. I found the dish too citrusy for my tastes, but the oyster with the braised greens was fantastic (and I am not a huge oyster fan). My second course - oh, my second course...the best dish I have ever eaten, I can't do it justice. 2 perfectly seared (med rare) pieces of hiramasa served with a black truffle risotto, these delicate little bites of tender, but not overcooked vegetables (brussels sprout leaves, carrots, mushrooms, and I think turnips) and a creamy black truffle sauce (sadly the online menu doesn't reflect teh current form of this dish so I don't know the exact description of the sauce). It was paired with a premier cru white burgundy that really wowed me, both on its own and with the dish. I thought the plates were quite generous, especially my second course so by dessert I was surprisingly full and was looking for something light. I went with the recommendation of one of hte servers and got the yogurt dish. It didn't disappoint in its lightness, and the basil ice cream was particularly refreshing. The base was a yogurt parfait served with blueberries and topped with a sponge "cake" somehow made out of yogurt (it was really more like pieces of yogurt cake fluffiness). My friend got the chocolate chicory, which when all of the components were eaten together blended flavors of dark chocolate, coffee, and orange. My dessert was paired with a slightly sweet sparkling wine - reminded me a bit of a moscato d'asti, but drier and somewhat less effervescent. My friend had a port style wine made from grenache. I have photos of all of our food if anyone is interested. They turned out poorly b/c I was learning how to use a camera I had borrowed from a friend, so many are somewhat out of focus or overexposed, but I can post if people are interested. The plates were certainly beautiful. Oh, and I did get a glimpse of Eric Ripert at the end of our meal. He came out to talk to another table and was then photographed posing in the coat check window. I have to admit, I'm not typically a person to get caught up in seeing stars, but I was pretty excited to see him in the flesh simply because I have admired him for some time. Whew, wordy. I will post info on our meal at Ssam later if people are interested. Oh, I meant to say that one of the things that really impressed me were the way the flavors came together so beautifully when you had a bite of everything in your dish. This was the case with every single dish, although more true in some cases in others (the chocolate dessert in particular). For me, the best dishes of the meal, the truly exceptional ones, were the ones that did this but also were outstanding with each individual bite (namely the hiramasa and the kampachi).

Thanks! Regarding Momofuku - I have heard the buzz, but don't know anything about them. If we just wanted to pop into a place for lunch or brunch, what would be the easiest/cheapest? The one concern I have is that I'm not necessarily on a budget (although I can't do Le Bernardin prices all weekend), but my friends who live in NYC are so I have to be considerate of them. There will be some opportunities to eat without them though.

I know this is really last minute (bad Jen for waiting so long), but figured I'll give it a shot anyway. I'm leaving in the morning for a wkd in NYC. Having a late lunch at Le Bernardin upon arrival, but no other food plans have been made simply b/c I'm meeting up with various friends and schedules are as yet to be determined. One thing I was thinking about, I've never had banh mi and I've heard it's really hard to find good ones here, so I was thinking maybe nyc might be a good place to find it. Any ideas or am I totally off base? Also, has anyone eaten at Le Bernardin (particularly recently)? Any specific menu suggestions, or would just love to hear your overall impression. My hope is that recent hype from Jen being on Top Chef hasn't caused any problems in the kitchen, but I was assume in a place with that reputation it would not. Also, I was told that dress is jacket required for men, business casual bare minimum for women. Normally I'll take any excuse to get dressed up and put on my highest heels, but I'm trying to be practical given that we'll be walking all through the city. Do you think I'll feel underdressed if I go in a casual dress? Also, any good recommendations for places in the East Village, in any price range? We're staying right by the Whole Foods on Eldgridge St @ Houston. I know one of my friends who will be traveling with me is a fan of a pizza place near there (I think the one he mentioned is Lombardi's), but we'll only do pizza once I would think. Any thoughts on DB Bistro? Other than that, I guess just any recommendations of places you think should not be missed if you were cramming everything into one weekend? I know, could I be more vague. Thanks!

Hi Jeff, I tasted your sauvignon blanc at a Blank Ankle staff meeting earlier this month and thought it was outstanding. Really great acidity, just like I like my sauv blanc. I mentioned it to a friend, who pointed me to this thread so I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed it and how I'm looking forward to a visit to taste more of your wines, as well as to reading your blog posts. Cheers, Jen

Can anyone tell me if there is a meat vendor at the market these days and if so, their name? I checked the fresh farm site and it doesn't appear that there is, but wanted to check.

Thanks, was actually just discussing Proof today, didn't realize it was right there. I'm adding a different location to my list. We may end up cabbing over to Schneider's to pick up a wine order so any suggestions by them would also be welcome.

A friend and I are attending a champagne tasting hosted by the Wine Tasting Association this Saturday. It's being held at the Four Points Sheraton on K Street, and we'll be walking to/from the Mt. Vernon/Convention center metro station. Any suggestions for a place nearby where we might order a few small plates if one of us needs to sober up (or just if we're hungry) before we head home? I'm thinking small plates b/c neither of us has a lot of money to spend right now, nor would we be up for a full dinner. I know Zatinya and Corduroy are in the vicinity, but I'm not sure what else. I wouldn't mind Zatinya, and we can just take the metro from Gallery Place instead (we need the green line), but I wanted to know what my options might be. Thanks!

As many of the markets close as we head into the fall season, I just thought I'd give the Greenbelt market, which is open until the weekend before Thanksgiving, a little plug. It's really a lovely community market. They currently do not have a dairy vendor and are working on finding more pasture-raised meat sources, but there is 1 meat vendor, 2 goat cheese vendors (Caprikorn and Firefly), a goat meat vendor who also makes goat milk soap, Stone Hearth bakery, Gunpowder Trading Co (bison), Gaylord Clark from Carriage House Farm/Two Oceans is there to sell his pasture-raised eggs and his fish products (local Chesapeake bay fish, fresh caught salmon, MSC cert halibut, and the most wonderful dry scallops), an ice cream vendor, Zeke's coffee, and plenty of great produce including fruit. Some of my favorite items are the cranberry beans from Thanksgiving Farms, the shitake mushrooms from Calvert Farms, the honeycrisp apples from Three Springs, and the jalapeno goat cheese from Caprikorn. The market is open from 10-2 every Sunday. http://www.greenbeltfarmersmarket.org/

This is a little off the restaurant help topic, but I didn't have any luck with my google searches so I'm hoping you can help. My rescue group is having our annual picnic this Saturday. We've got about 100 people registered at this point (it is technically supposed to be all pre-registration). I need to determine how many sodas, bottles of water, and cookies to get for the group. Lunch is being catered by Red, Hot, & Blue so meals are already accounted for. This is during the day, at Carderock so we are not providing alcohol and while people can bring their own, I don't expect many will. Any suggestions? Thanks!

No idea if it's back bacon or not, guessing not, but I find the bacon from Springfield Farm out near Sparks, MD to be quite meaty. Everyone once in a while a friend or I make a trip to the farm and pick up products when we do so I don't know much about where they vend, except that I believe they're at the Harbor East Market in Fells Point, Baltimore on Saturday mornings. I've also bought bacon from Truck Patch, but I've only bought the slab bacon and especially the second time, it was quite fatty. The other vendor you might try doesn't do markets, but does do community drops of sorts - Forest Fed. Although now that I think of it, I don't think he makes bacon (he does sell pork belly though). Still, the best pork I've ever had in the area so worth checking out for other purposes if the bacon doesn't work out. A friend of mine makes his own bacon from their belly.

Went last night to celebrate a friend's birthday. I have to admit, once I realized what the prices were going to be, I was terrified. I've had really expensive meals that I was happy to spend the money on (Charleston, Restaurant Eve) and I've had others where I left totally disappointed (Gary Danko comes to mind). I can now add BLT steak to the list of places that have not disappointed me. Started off sharing the grilled bacon and tuna tartare apps with a friend, and paired the tuna with the sauvignon blanc by the glass from the Loire Valley. The bacon was good, but the tuna was outstanding and paired perfectly with the wine. My entree was the hanger steak - I was leaning toward it because I was trying to be cost-conscious, but when the server mentioned it was LT's favorite cut of meat, I was sold. It did not disappoint - thick, meaty and cooked to the most perfect medium rare. Sides shared were the blue cheese tater tots (mixed reviews but I really liked them, although in a simple fried food kind of way - they reminded me just a bit of an upscale version of the fried mac 'n cheese at TGI Fridays; I mean that in a good way), jalapeno mashed potatoes (less spice than people were expecting), and the roasted tomato mushrooms over polenta and roasted brussel sprouts, both from the specials menu. I think the general consensus was that the sides didn't wow, but they were all good. Certainly the meat was the star. Bites were shared of everyone's steaks, which included the waygu skirt, the ribeye, a flank that was a special, and the short ribs. The skirt and ribeye stand out, but again everything was really good. I think the most common criticism I had read of BLT was of the service. Not for us, our server was informative, knowledgeable, and friendly. He also sent the sommelier over to make recommendations on bottles for our entrees without us asking despite being knowledgeable about the pairings by the glass, which I appreciated. Service in general was ideal, unobtrusive but everything was always taken care of, and I thought the timing on when our various courses arrived was good as well. Oh, desserts. I nearly forgot we had them - a trio of pumpkin from the specials menu. The pumpkin creme brulee was the favorite of the table, as well as mine (and I NEVER order it b/c I generally find it boring), the pumpkin ice cream was quite delicious, the cake was only so so. The other dessert was the chocolate PB mousse, which Walrus mentioned and which I won't even bother to review b/c that is the last dessert I would ever order. I will definitely happily go back, and with a little more time to prepare myself for the costs and knowing what I know now, I would feel confident opting for one of the pricier steak options. Sorry, one final comment (blah blah blah...), in a shocking twist of events, I actually took leftovers home b/c I could not finish my meal and I didn't even eat my whole popover (most, but not all) so I do think the portions are quite generous.

Not sure if this was last night or you still need suggestions. Inner Harbor would actually be closer, but I don't know of anything that would fit the bill off the top of my head that isn't a chain. Fells is a bit of a hike from Sonar, but it would be a cheap cab ride. Cheap and decent - there's Elevation burger in the Harbor East area. Fast, cheap, and you can't beat a good burger. There's also Ze Mean Bean. It's slavic food - they have 2 levels of entrees, The standard fare runs in the $15 ballpark, not sure if that's cheap enough for you. I find their service can be slow though. Red Star is solid burgers, salads and bar food, but it's on the wrong side of Fells for where you're going. I also like Liquid Earth if that's your sort of thing - vegetarian and vegan fare, all kinds of crazy juice drinks, and wheatgrass. Definitely inexpensive and would be quick. I hope that helps.

Hi all, just wanted to say thanks again for the input. The cream sauce turned out really great - it's one of the few dishes I've made that I thought could have come out of a restaurant. I think the key was that I took great care to brown the mushrooms well on a higher heat spread out in a huge pan, in a mix of evoo and butter. When they were cooked, I added a little more butter, then cooked the shallots and bit of garlic, then "deglazed" with a good bit of sauv blanc. Reduced, then added a mix of milk and heavy cream (mostly heavy cream) and reduced. Added grated parm and once melted, added the ravioli to finish cooking. Topped with grated parm and chives. Picture attached for "fun". I cooked the ribeye using the method I learned on here (oven at 275, then sear in the pan) and served with an Eric Ross cab I had been saving for something like this. Thanks again!!

Oh, I forgot, I have marsala wine too. I think I may just stick with the white wine - I'm afraid I'll end with something cloyingly heavy/rich otherwise.

Thank you! I was just reading up on making a cream sauce online and thinking it wasn't helpful b/c everything I was finding was about making a roux first and while I suppose I could do that and cook the mushrooms separately, I was hoping to just do everything in one pan. Two questions - I have an open bottle of sauv blanc so I can use that, or I was also thinking something like sherry would be nice with the mushrooms. I think I have an oloroso sherry, a madeira, and some kind of port. I also have sherry wine vinegar. Also, I noticed that the cream sauce recipes actually call for whole milk, not cream. I have either skim or 2% - I could mix the milk and cream together to essentially make whole if that would be better than using straight cream (or alternatively, as good of a result, but healthier). Thoughts on either (I know, I'm nitpicking now)?

Surprise, Dave and I went to Jack's together. So I'll just add that the vichysoisse that I had as my appetizer was really excellent as well. I could have eaten a whole plate of the fried leeks that came on top of it by themselves. And the dessert was good too, but we were stuffed by that point and it was so rich - a frozen sabayon w/basil syrup and an almond tuille. I really like this place. It wasn't just Baltimore good, it was good, and it's reasonably priced to boot. I will definitely be back, hopefully soon.

I'm preparing a bit of an indulgent meal for myself tomorrow (calorie wise) - seared ribeye, wild mushroom ravioli w/cream sauce, and some CSA veg TBD (sadly, probably zucchini or yellow squash). Anyway, it dawned on me that since I really got into cooking, I have not attempted to make a simple cream sauce for pasta from scratch. I've got cremini and shitake mushrooms, butter, 2 kinds of parm, and heavy cream, plus chives, parsley, garlic, and shallots. Help me put something together? I was thinking saute olive oil, garlic and shallots for a minute, then sliced mushrooms. Once they're cooked, add heavy cream, a little butter and some parm, serve over ravioli, and garnish the dish with freshly grated parm and chives. But I'm wondering if deglazing at some point with wine or liquor of some sort would help (otherwise, there's no "acid" and I used my last lemon tonight). I'm also worried about the sauce "breaking". Sorry this is long. Tonight was crabcakes and sauv blanc, heavy on the sauv blanc.

We went back on Friday, this time for burgers and beer, rather than the multi-course RW menu we had last time. We did share an order of the fried oysters, good, but couldn't taste much oyster. But the burger, I couldn't stop talking about it as we ate. I think it competes with some of the best burgers DC has to offer. Excellent airy homemade bun, really beefy taste to the burger, cooked perfectly (I ordered med-rare), with some cheddar and really delicious bacon added. My only word of caution is that it's very greasy. Side of duck fat fries is a must. I'm curious to try the more expensive burger, but given the reviews here and how much I enjoyed my regular burger, it will be tough to convince myself to do so.

JPW, thanks for the tip! I couldn't find galangal at my asian market last weekend either, but if I understood the guy correctly, they were just out of it. I think I will look into growing the plant at home. Maybe not until next year though, seems like I'd have more uses for the leaves in summer. Although I'm happy to have curry through the winter.

See how I craftily wait for my friend to write his review and then I only have to write a few lines. I basically agree with Dave's assessment. Re: the poutine, I think I'd prefer to have just the fries with the duck gravy, and I'm also anxious to just try them with the truffled sea salt. The fries themselves were really my favorite component, they were nicely seasoned with a good bit of rosemary. I was underwhelmed by the confit - seemed a bit dry and there wasn't much of it. It was still a tasty pile of fattening fatty goodness all around though and it's worth ordering if you go. My tuna tartare was served with a salted boniato chip. No idea what boniato is (I should go look it up), but it gave a slight touch of sweetness and a good bit of salty which was necessary for the dish. The tartare itself was pretty average, but did have a little kick when combined with the aioli on the plate. My crabcake came on a sauce of sweet white corn, must have had some mustard in it as well as I could see the seeds, and sat on a slice of tomato with a dollop of lemon basil aioli and corn shoots. As Dave said, the crab meat was mostly nice lump and the dish was very good, again when you combined all of the components. It was also a generous portion imo. My main complaint was desserts, especially b/c they tout the fact that their desserts are homemade on their website. I really wanted to try both the coconut banana bread pudding and the pineapple upside down cake. They were out of the bread pudding so we opted for trifle instead, only to learn that the last one had just been given away, at which point we had no choice but to have the chocolate praline cake (although to our servers credit she offered us berries instead if we didn't want the chocolate). I was underwhelmed by the chocolate cake and the pineapple cake was just so sugary sweet, both the cake and the pool of rum sauce it was sitting in, although I will say I liked the tartness the few cherries on top added to it. We had contemplated getting only 1 RW menu and sharing the app and dessert, but ultimately got 2 b/c we wanted the bread pudding as well. Had we known, we would have ordered differently. Oh well, in the end, it was the only real disappointment and I expect stuff like that will happen during restaurant week. Otherwise, everything was very good. We were able to enjoy a bottle of Conundrum and a bottle of Mollydooker at about what we'd pay for them in a store b/c of half price wine night, and we got to sample some interesting beers. There were a few I liked, but agree the star was the Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA, which I have since confirmed Corridor (in Laurel) carries (the others were the Flying Dog Porter and the Arrogant Bastard). I would definitely go back for burgers, duck fat fries and beers. Oh, one other note, they do have a beer club that would seem fun for anyone really into beers. I'm more of a wine drinker and don't live quite close enough to justify that many visits, but if I lived nearby, I bet I'd join. Anyway, it's definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.

Some day I will get to Helmand. We settled on B Bistro in Bolton Hill. I'll post a review after we eat there.

I hope I'm putting this in the appropriate place. List of participants Does anyone have any recommendations? I had hoped to eat in Cinghiale's Osteria, but their menu has only 2 options per course and looks like it comes from the Enoteca, very disappointing. Curious if anyone has eaten at Abacrombie's before - their RW menu seems to offer a good selection. A friend threw out Black Olive, but the choices seem slim there as well.

I think you have to do restaurant week "smart". If you don't, you end up with the experience the author describes. By smart, I mean find restaurants that are offering their full or nearly full menu instead of an anemic menu with only 2 or 3 choices per course. Look for restaurants where the entree prices are high enough to make the 3-course meal a deal, and places that offer desserts you would actually want to try were it not restaurant week. Finally, there are plenty of sources for reviews of restaurants' performances in previous restaurant weeks - look for ones that rate well among diners. PS 7's would actually be one of my recommendations ironically - it's how I fell in love with the restaurant and they offer their full menu I believe (maybe with an optional upcharge on a dish or two). They're also extending their restaurant week for the 2 weeks prior. My RW experience with Mendocino was also memorable, but that was years ago. Last year's Oval Room was a disappointment, but our group seemed to be the minority opinion (there were 6 of all who all left disappointed though). I think the longer you dine at higher quality restaurants here, the more difficult it is to find satisfying RW experiences, but I think they are out there. If nothing else, it's an excuse to convince my friends to join me for a night out.

Hector; Lodi I am just seeing this thread now. I had posted to another section to get winery advice before my trip last month. Thankfully, I happened upon Stonecat Cafe somewhat accidentally. One of the best dishes I've ever had honestly, it was sort of bizarre since it was "just" a corned beef hash served over potatoes with 2 poached eggs and a dijon thyme sauce. But it was phenomenal. Had a rasberry mojito alongside - ate on the deck with our pups hanging out in the grass beside us. It was a very leisurely pleasant brunch. I will make that a must visit every time I go back. Went to Dano's again as well - as good as always. They were kind enough to allow us to eat on the patio with dogs (all 5 of them) in tow. And were very accommodating when, right after desserts and coffee were served, it started to pour on us (I mean a torrential downpour). As we huddled under the eave, the servers came out with umbrellas and moved our belongings and desserts out of the rain and brought our coffees to us so we could stay warm. We sampled quite a bit and the food was good as always. Some favorites were the pumpkin seed oil spread, the sausages, and the knudel. Those were the only opportunities I had for meals out, but I look forward to trying some of the other suggestions on here next time. Am thinking I might go back in the fall - I've really been enjoying the whites I've brought back so far.

Huh, we got the Detroit goat as well, but it didn't have a rind. Maybe just the piece we got.