lathomure

I had a nice dinner at Birch & Barley. Honestly my favorite part of the meal was the bread board that was served! It's an incredibly generous bread board; the night we were there each person got three rolls: a pretzel roll (served with grainy mustard), a ciabatta roll, and a cranberry/nut bread. So good and everything is baked in-house by their pastry chef. As did many other people on the board, we split the artic char tartare which was very, very good but I wanted more chips! For entrees, my friend and I ordered together and split both entrees. We had the rabbit tagliatelle which I we both thought was quite tasty. The rabbit had a great texture and I think it was a very approachable dish; even less adventurous eaters would surely enjoy it. We also got the pistachio crusted cod which I did like but I am less of a fish person than my friend is, so this was her choice. It was good though. For desert we got a peanut butter chocolate tart that was served with ice cream and a mini vanilla shake. It was soooooo good if a bit decadent. We walked out of there very pleased and I will definitely be back!! This is a great new restaurant.

This review is of the Barracks Row location. I went there on a Monday night with a friend (in all honesty we had actually set out to try the new Seventh Hill Pizza, but it's closed on Mondays!). Lucky for us, she remembered that Cava has 1/2 price bottles of wine on Mondays, so we opted to go there. We had a very nice meal and the wine was great! I love Greek white wine such as Roditis and they had a nice selection. We had: Saganaki - this was probably my favorite dish of the evening, partly because it was fantastic and partly because it's an old family favorite. I've had this dish in some pretty old-school, authentic Greek restaurants, and this saganaki was just as good! Cremini Mushroom Risotto - just ok. It was my friend's decision to order this and probably wouldn't have been my choice. The risotto wasn't quite the consistency I've come to expect from risotto. Spicy Lamb Sliders - delish!! When you come in and sit down, you are given some pita, olive oil and a red pepper dip. The red pepper dip, as others have written on this page, is great! And there is a healthy spread of this same dip (I'm pretty sure) on the sliders. The lamb is quite tasty and the buns stand up to the slider (i.e., they don't fall apart). Opa Opa Shrimp - this was just alright. I guess I was expecting that the shrimp was going to be similar to the dill shrimp at Zaytinya since they both have dill as a main ingredient, but it wasn't nearly as good. All in all I had a nice evening though, our server was very nice and I will definitely go back. I would order the saganaki and lamb sliders again, and would try some other things too.

I also ate at Central on Saturday night (May 9th). I went with a friend who says that Central might be her favorite restaurant in the city (and she knows what she is talking about). I, however, had been once and was slightly underwhelmed although obviously willing to try again. This experience was heads and shoulders above my last visit, and I think it had a lot to do with where we were seated. Somehow, extremely luckily, we were seated at a huge 2-top right next to the open kitchen. Sitting here is much less noisy than the main dining room, with a great view of the kitchen, and the wine cellar, etc. - next time I visit, I will request a table in this section. It made such a huge difference in my opinion of the place. We started with the salmon and tuna carpaccio, which was fresh and light and perfect for kind of a muggy night. The fish had what we thought was jicama on it, which added a nice textural crunch to the fish. My friend ordered the fried chicken which was out of the world good. Easily the best fried chicken I've ever had. I definitely had order envy! The crispy outside was so tasty and light, almost like a panko breadcrumb but less greasy, if that is possible. The chicken itself was light and juicy and moist. The mashed potatoes are more like a potato puree which are very garlicky and delicious! But far and away the best part of this dish is the horseradishy tasting ranch-ish dipping sauce. Oh. my. god. Slather worthy. I on the other hand got the lobster burger, which I thought was good but not outrageous. It is true that the burger itself is made up of big chunks of juicy lobster, so that was enjoyable. However the bottom bun was not substantial enough to stand up to the burger and the sauce and the tomato. It was all soggy by the time I was through with about a fourth of the burger. The sauce seemed tasty, but there wasn't enough on the sandwich itself; I wished they had offered a little extra on the side for dipping. I actually think that if I hadn't had the fish burger (also available in mini versions, called fish cakes) at Westend Bistro a couple of weeks ago, I would have been more impressed with the lobster burger than I was. The fish burger is heavenly, and it set my expectations really high for the lobster burger, which weren't exactly met. All of this we enjoyed with a bottle of the Ferrari-Carano chardonnay, which was incredibly good and went well with the chicken and the lobster. That is such a great bottle of wine. And of course we ended our meal with the chocolate bar - not to be missed!!! The service was attentive though not over the top. We actually had two waiters, one male and one female. The female was smiley and nice, and the male, although nice seemed like he was either bored or sad. I could have used a smile from him too. All in all a really enjoyable meal, which again I credit in large part due to our V.I.P. seating! Still not sure how we scored that table.

Hi everyone - I am a DC transplant originally from the Midwest. I have been living in DC for about 4 years now. I became a foodie after having gone to a very small school in a very small town about 3 hours southwest of here. Upon arriving in DC I was so excited at the prospect of the amount and variation of restaurants that I commenced eating and haven't stopped since! I don't blog or write anywhere about food, and I'm not connected to a restaurant in any way (aside from some strong loyalties I have to some places); I just really like good food!