lotus125

The braised carrots was the weakest dish of the night, served with sticky garlic and a homeycomb broth. The carrots could have been braised several minutes longer and lacked flavor. The dish needed some acid to counter the sweetness of the honeycomb. At $13 not worth the calories.

We skipped the entree section, with the only pescatarian friendly option being the whole roasted porgy for two at $35. Overall the portion sizes fall into the medium plate range, and people with healthy appetites will ring up a sizable bill quickly. Dinner for two, sharing 6 dishes, plus 2 cocktails came to $125 with tax and tip.

Agree on the carrots.  FYI, the porgy is great.  And for another pescatarian option, the mushroom entree can be done without the chicken skins.

We went to the soft open (full disclosure: food was comped).  The place has huge potential.  The space is gorgeous.  The service is great, save a few hiccups that are to be expected on day -1 of a new restaurant.  And the food was generally delicious and interesting.  I'll post a more detailed review once I've eaten there again.

I have one of these four in mind, but I'm not current enough to answer with confidence, as things might have changed since I last went. A couple of these, I would stay away from, based on my *outdated* knowledge - ask again on Sunday if you need emergency advice that's less than reliable.

Hong Kong Pearl is solid.  For a much less traditional experience, have you tried Maketto's dim sum?

One thing I love is having my prejudices challenged, then destroyed.  I did a silent "oh, come on" eye-roll at "chocolate chip cookie dough soufflé".  Fortunately Mr P doesn't have my food snob issues; he ordered it.  It was excellent.  No comment on the rest of the experience, as other people have written much more and better than I could.

I'll do a longer combined writeup of a few meals at Kinship soon.  But there is one thing worth noting about the chocolate chip cookie dough souffle for the table: It's not really for the table -- unless you are dining alone or just want a small, sweet bite to finish.  It's labeled as for the table and costs $24.  But it's an entirely normal-size souffle; I think a bit smaller than the ones at Fiola Mare.  It has two quenelles of ice cream on the side.  Indeed, since souffles are mostly air, it's an especially odd dessert to call for the table.  Very tasty.  But quite surprising and a bit of a rip off compared to the rest of Kinship's price point.

There's a lovely bar and little front lounge.

Dry Furmint / Tokaji is really interesting.  At its driest, it has a sweet nose but tastes bone dry.  Ever have "Y" d'Yquem?  But it sometimes has a mildly honeyed taste and some residual sugar -- more like semi-dry Vouvray.  

JoshNE, just FYI, I've heard that the Ocopa chef is now at China Chilcano.

I admit that I was fully prepared to dislike China Chilcano, even as I made our reservation for dinner with the in-laws yesterday.  As Don and Waitman have mentioned, I snottily had my nose pre-elevated, sure that this corporate behemoth would fall far short of my scrappy neighborhood favorite, Ocopa.  About halfway through the meal, I shook my head, turned to my wife, and said it out loud...we were being served fabulous food that was on par with, and in some cases better than what we've eaten in our last few visits to Ocopa.

We ate through a good chunk of the menu, and frankly everything hit.  Stars of the evening were the Pegao Norteí±o (lamb potstickers with a crispy cumin "lattice"), the Hawaiian sunfish ceviche, and the Concolí³n (fried rice with a variety of meats).   A salad of hearts of palm served as a nice cool, acidic foil to the umami bomb of the fried rice.  If I had to replace anything, it may be the Aeropuerto (vegetable fried rice), if only because we were doubled up on the rice with the Concolí³n.

The scene is decidedly not small and comfortable, and the service is of the "may I explain Chef's concept" variety that annoys the shit out of me, but that aside, we had a very strong meal that I could comfortably recommend.

After reading a glowing review on Tyler Cowen's blog, I had extremely high hopes.  Unfortunately my dinner was mostly just "OK," and we left a bit unsatisfied.  After a confused conversation with the server about how many items to order (more below on service), we ordered two "planches," two small plates, and one large plate for the table.

One planche was a mix of vegetable items:  The highlight was curried cucumber.  Eggplant-tomato ratatouille was pretty good.  Shishito peppers were as expected, though perhaps a bit undersalted.  Celery root pastrami could have used more pastrami flavors.

The other planche was a seafood assortment: The mussels escabeche were very good -- certainly the best bite of food of the night.  Fluke ceviche was tasty.  Smoke blue catfish rilletes tasted like any ok-but-not-great smoked fish salad.

Sweet and sour prawns with fennel confit and citrus glaze was too much sweet, not enough sour. The prawns were large, mildly underseasoned, and just tasted of sweet, orange glaze.  This was the worst dish of the night.

Escargot with puff pastry and garlic bechamel was better. My dining companion noted that the puff pastry was either undercooked or soggy in places.  But the dish was otherwise very tasty.

We split the "small" bouillabaisse.  They did a good a job solving the all-too-common problem of fish being overcooked in bouillabaisse.  I assume that they cooked each fish component separately then combined with the larger bowl of broth at the end.   But I just wanted more flavor.  It needed salt.  It lacked the strong garlic flavor you usually find in bouillabaisse (or its accompaniments).

The other wrinkle was service.  It's calling itself a popup, so easy enough to excuse the service, but: Our server was hard to communicate with.  She didn't understand some of our questions.  And some of her explanations were hard to follow.  This led to a who's-on-first back and forth about how many dishes to get.  She also curiously told us that in the category of entrees for 2-4 people, the smaller bouillabaisse was for 1.  (Fortunately we went with the small, which was easily for 2).  She gave next to no detail on various items.  (We listened in to the waiter talking at the next table to learn more)  She often just tossed items onto the table, e.g., place settings left haphazardly and an upside down menu.  Other servers seemed better, though we were not the only ones who couldn't track down a server to order additional drinks.

I'll certainly come back.  But i think it needs time to come into its own. (And I may wait for the menu to turn over a bit).

The online menu seems rather out of date.  Has anyone been recently?  Is the menu turning towards Fall flavors?

Don't miss the cauliflower blanc-manger, tabbouleh.  It's a brilliant dish -- the beet mountain pie of Convivial.   

I totally agree with JoshNE,

A Yelp reviewer reports that Ancora is not reopening.

This has become one of my favorite DC-area places.  What a tremendous loss.  RJ, I really hope that you reopen in another location.

I think their wine pairings have always been great. But I'm confident that the current team would not leave your glass empty if you wanted it filled.  The pairings are often interesting and the pours (and top offs) generous.  Give them another try. 

I agree with Deac.  The food is as great as ever, but I think there are fewer small bites than there used to be.  I also miss the full-sized pasta course and the plated cheeses they used to do as a pre-dessert. 

Any recent visits to Table?  I'm curious about how the new chef is doing.

Haven't been to Ocapa. No dis to Toki, but it's an (excellent, maybe I'll go there for lunch) one trick pony. And, while I liked Maketto, I think that SMN comes in a cut above.

Ocopa is in a league of its own on H Street -- many tricks, almost all great.

This is absolutely not a knock on RJ and concededly a slight detour off topic, but just a general comment: I really like when restaurants keep their menus updated.  We can know when there are new things to try.  And we can decide where we want to eat tonight by looking at what is actually being cooked.  I gather that restaurants have different philosophies on this.  RJ's usually seem pretty up to date.  Fiola Mare does a brilliant job with this; they change their menu daily and update their website to match.  (On multiple occasions, my girlfriend and I have been drawn to a post-work dinner at Fiola Mare just because we glanced at the menu and it called to us).  In contrast, for quite awhile, Ocopa hardly ever updated their online menu.  I never know if the menu has turned over until I decide that it's been a little while and I'll go again.  (I notice that this may now be changing at Ocopa).

They dont make reservations in the suburbs.....120 walk ins last night  

Made a reservation and went last night -- just in case we wouldn't have another chance.  Excellent as always.  Place seemed very busy.  Great smoked tuna dip and fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese.  Great soft shell crabs with succotash.  Solid (but not as great) salmon with yogurt, smoked cucumber, and pea hush puppies: Salmon was perfectly cooked -- crispy skin but rare on inside.  Smoked cucumber didn't taste smokey.  If the dish were plated differently, i.e. more overlap of the ingredients so that the yogurt was on everything, it would have had more punch.  (A bit more salt would have helped too).  Side/small plate of grilled apricots was a tasty salad with excellent tarragon, almond pesto underneath.

Flight is an underappreciated gem.  The wine list is quite extensive, very well priced, and full of interesting and unusual options.  They have an extensive by the glass list (around 40 or so wines), which is probably the longest and most comprehensive in DC.  They have many thematic flights, good bottles in the $40-$60 range (and some above that), and some slightly higher end bottles (around $100-$200) available to taste by Coravin.  While I haven't eaten there in awhile, the food I've had was quite good.    

Any recent experiences here?

After a very good, early meal here, I've been back twice and had varied experiences.  The place has a great vibe.  The wine list is interesting.  And the desserts I've had have all been great.  (Make sure to get the plated cheese!)  I've had much more mixed experiences with the rest of the food.  I loved the hamachi and tuna tataki on my first visit.  But on subsequent visits, the tuna tataki sauce was less smokey and a bit gritty; and the hamachi sauce tasted too mayonaisey.  I found the banh xeo (vietemese vegetable crepe) to be dull -- the kind of thing that would be an impressive vegetarian dish at a dinner party. The katafi wrapped fluke was very tasty, but the fish was a bit dry -- a combination of being slightly overcooked and there not being much of the delicious sauce on the plate.  I've enjoyed the scallop and salmon items that are on the menu, but was not wowed at all.  I have high hopes for the this place.  And I'm encouraged by Astrid's, DMVdining's, and Mark's reviews.  But, unfortunately, my last two visits were not as good as theirs.   

So I've been reading up on the most popular dishes, and I've found the dry fried eggplant, bamboo fish, and scallion pancakes on the appetizer menu. But I'm coming up empty handed on the main courses. I don't know if I see the fish with special sauce. There are a couple of fish dishes with pictures, but none of them looks like the one in the Andrew Zimmern vine posted a while back. And I suppose we can ask the server for recommendations for someone who wants to experience ma la for the first time, but recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

We recently tried the new location, having been to the Richmond and Fredericksburg locations a few times.  We got most of the standard go-tos -- bubble pancake, dry fry eggplant, and bamboo fish (we let the mapo tofu go, to try on another trip).  All were very good, though I thought the eggplant was a bit weaker than I recalled from past trips --not as much seasoning.  We tried two new (to us) dishes, which were great successes.  One (for those looking for entrees) was flounder with eggplant and pickled peppers; great acid, plenty of spice but bearable.  Perhaps our favorite, however, was the grandma's noodles appetizer.  These deceptively simple noodles appeared dry, with a bit of oil, vinegar, and soy pooled below, and some chili dusted on top.  This was a truly elegant dish, with subtle floral notes and delicate acid, up against the simple palate of dry noodles.  

These aren't standard scallion pancakes, but they are a standard Chang item.  And yes, they are served with a curry sauce.  

Fiola Mare hasn't gotten a lot of attention on this Board, so I just wanted to put in a quick post.  I've had a number of recent dinners here that were very good.  Strong appetizers (e.g., prosciutto made with swordfish, and clever preparations of burrata).  Excellent pastas.  Very well done simple grilled fish.  Good desserts and cocktail program.  I also appreciate that they change their menu often.  It's certainly not cheap, but it is putting out very good food.  

I hate to dissent from the recent dissent, but I just had a very good meal there.  One so-so appetizer special; a very good salmon tartare; good mussels as always; and two excellent entrees -- smokey swordfish and whole branzino.  The prices are high and the food has some variance.  But Blacksalt is still able to put out great food.  I hope that they read this board and focus on consistency.