Arcturus

2.5 stars from Sietsma

Fantastic. I love Chipotle, and have for a long time. The value can't be beat, and it tastes fantastic, always. All of the salsas, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, pinto beans, and the slow-cooked pork. A beautiful thing indeed.

Here's (roughly) the one that I make at work. Learned it at an Indian place that I used to work at. 8 cardamom pods, smashed 1/2 hand ginger, cut in half 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 1 teaspoon star anise 1/2 teaspoon cloves 2 tablespoons earl grey or any sort of loose-leaf black tea 1 quart water, filtered (All boiled in a pot together for about 15 minutes) Add in 2 cups half and half or whole milk, boil for another five minutes. Strain, add sugar to taste.

I'd say that the pacing was definitely an anomaly last night. After the review, we've been doing double or triple the business that we did before, so there's a bit of an adjustment that we're all going through. Good to hear you had a good time, though!

It's an interesting thought, for sure. Logan's got some serious skills. In time I could definitely see him doing big things, but I think he'd laugh at the suggestion at the moment.

It might be a good idea to stay away from Yelp in general, the whole idea of Yelp and its business practices has left a bad taste in the mouth of many a restauranteur. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/yelp_and_the_business_of_extortion_2_0/Content?oid=927491&page=3

Ate here with the wife last night, and I have to say that it was excellent. I know my comments may be seen by some as biased, so take them for what you will. The meal was, as stated before, superb. We started off with two cold appetizers- the summer vegetable salad, and the mahi pastrami, both beautifully executed. The pastrami is cured in-house and served with marinated melon balls and curry-water sorbet, introducing a great deal of sweetness and peppery/gingery spiciness to the dish. The salad is a combination of beets, saffron-poached potatoes, fingerling potatoes, beech mushrooms, and maybe another vegetable or two with three vinaigrettes- truffle, potato cream, and balsamic. It was one of the best salads of my life, with the truffle vin, you know, doing what truffles do and making it delicious, with the potato cream sauce and the balsamic interacting marvelously and adding acidity and body to the mix. Second appetizers were uniformly standout- the tomato water risotto and vanilla pork belly were both nothing short of mindblowing. The risotto was exactly as it sounds- made with tomato water, with a hint of basil, and a beautifully made parmesan tuile. Normally not a fan of the tuiles at all due to the propensity to have a texture like freshly cooled plastic, this one was immensely surprising in that it was ridiculously delicate and very crispy, which complemented the risotto, well, as well as it should have. You really can't go wrong with mixing tomato and cheese in any form, but this dish was spectacular, as was the one that came with, the braised pork belly. The flavor of vanilla shone through, and the pickled rhubarb on top of the pork interacted very well with the fatty-vanilla combo of the belly. Outstanding. Then the entrees came- the ribeye with king trumpet mushrooms, and the skate with maitakes. The ribeye was perfectly cooked and seasoned, the mushrooms scored like foie and covered with a very tight butter-stock glaze to accent the delicious rosemary-parsnip puree and the red wine jus that accompanied it. The skate had the misfortune of being one of the dishes that was off-the-mark. While still tasting delicious, the cornmeal crust on the outside wasn't exactly a crust. Either the pan that the skate went into was too cold or it sat too long after it was cooked because it was most definitely soggy. The skate itself was cooked perfectly, flaking apart without much effort using only a fork, but the maitakes were, I thought, a bit underseasoned (my wife disagreed). The smoked corn pudd'n that came with it was phenomenal, and the olives, capers, and red pepper jus provided excellent accents to a dish that, if it were crispy and had all elements seasoned properly, would be another in a line of solid ones. We felt gluttonous and had three desserts (wife is a pastry cook), which were all very well done. The chocolate soup is very nice, lending a bittersweet chocolate flavor to the cake, meringue, and sorbet that accompanies it. The brown butter pudding is very refreshing and complex, being a gelatin-held pudding served with brown butter sauce, lemonade sorbet, blueberries, and pecans. The coconut ice cream was very well-done, even enjoyed by a wife that doesn't like coconut, coming in a clear glass cup balanced on a bowl of sugar and being topped with raspberry foam (whipped, held with gelatin). We also had a chance to try Stefan's cocktails, and they were really good. She had the Titanic, with sorbet (I think verjus), champagne, and flavors of six grapes playing nicely with each other. I had the sage, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's got elements of sage and elderflower, as well as a good helping of vodka, and was a fantastic way to start the night. All told, the place is highly recommended.

I'm not speaking for anything but the meal that I had at Susur, which was nothing short of spectacular. I understand that he hasn't had the success in NY that he did in Toronto, and that opening another restaurant in DC so relatively soon after the opening of Shang is going to be viewed as sort of a suspicious move in terms of food quality and execution, but I still remain hopeful that a meal at Zorak.. erm... Zentan could come close to what I had at Susur.

I'm fairly sure that's pliable ganache, or something based off of it. It's normal ganache supplemented with, I believe, an invert sugar or two and Iota carrageenan.

Do your thing. Susur was one of the best meals of my life.

Having eaten at Susur in Toronto, I can say that Susur Lee has the talent to place him among the top chefs in DC. That is, if he is there, or has someone very capable with/under him. Either way, it's definitely a restaurant to check out in my book. (edited for accuracy)

This place is going to be huge. Haven't dined there yet, but started working there, and the food is outstanding. It's somewhat similar to Citronelle and CityZen in terms of food pairings and presentation, but definitely enough of a difference to be able to distinguish it. Beautiful dining rooms, too.

Another vote for trying this stuff. Robb's products are amazing.

Al-Zaytoun in Woodbridge is very, very solid. Pakistani/Afghan food executed beautifully, with fantastic customer service. They have a buffet for the timid (or the really hungry), but you can also order from the menu, and they do everything in-house.

He had the tuna Nicoise, she had the softshell crab for apps. As far as desserts, I'd guess that Mark did some sort of VIP sampler thing for them.

Wegman's generally has it. If not, I'm sure a trip to Chinatown would probably bear some fruit.