LauraB

Our room bore no resemblance to that! It was more like a glorified dorm room. Obviously, the Inn has surge pricing, just like Uber.

This past weekend was especially difficult with the Tom Tom Festival and who knows what else. Our trip was kind of last minute, booked a week out and I contacted about a dozen hotels with no luck! We ended up at the Oakhurst Inn and even though it was ridiculously expensive (see my review in the DR hotels thread) we took it because otherwise we'd have no place to stay. I'd say, at this point, C'ville is more popular than its hotel capacity can hold.

Location and Rates for Tonight - Website We spent this past weekend at the Oakhurst Inn in Charlottesville, VA. This wasn't our first choice, but since this was a last-minute trip and most rooms in C'ville were already booked, we took it. Let me start with the positive: the staff are very friendly and helpful. Service-wise, you couldn't ask for a better experience. The location is great, very central, depending on your needs. It's literally across the street from the southern border of UVA, and not too far from the action on W. Main and the Mall. While not walking distance, the staff is more than happy to call you an Uber or a Yellow Cab. The Valet parking, which is required, is seamless and at no additional charge. If you need your car, it's there in 5 minutes. The Cafe associated with the hotel is very nice -- I just wish they opened earlier than 8:00 am. Now for the disappointing: I can't speak for all of the rooms, but the room we stayed in was ridiculously expensive, given the room itself. The room was well more than $400 per night and had a QUEEN bed. It was also lacking most of the amenities one expects at that price. I can tell you from experience that a $400+/night hotel room in DC would be way more luxurious and have a King bed. When we first entered the room, MrB's reaction was, "You've got to be kidding me." Definitely the most spartan room we've ever stayed in at this price point.So, while there are many things to like about the Oakhurst Inn, we consider it a poor value and wouldn't choose to stay there again.

We spent this past weekend in Charlottesville and we ate well! Lunch on Friday was at Bodo's Bagels. We went to the location on Preston Avenue. Obviously, bagels are the life-blood of Bodo's. However, I want to point out that you can get something other than a bagel at Bodo's and it is good! I had a caesar salad and a cup of tomato soup with raviolini. Both were great! The lettuce in the salad was really fresh. MrB had a chopped liver sandwich on an onion bagel and he loved it. I'm sure we'll be back to Bodo's on a subsequent visit. Dinner Friday evening was at The Alley Light. Given all of the hype around this restaurant, it was a set-up for disappointment. Good news! It did not disappoint and came through on every level. The hype is real! We had early reservations on Friday evening and were grateful to be seated at one of only 6 normal-height tables. The rest of the seating is at the bar, at high-tops in the bar area, or at sofas with a low-table in the lounge area. You can order from the printed menu and/or from the specials menu on the giant blackboard on the wall. We chose 3 of our dishes from the blackboard and all were excellent. MrB loved the duck foie gras and even I, who isn't normally a fan, found it really delicious. The rack of lamb (3 small lamb chops) was perfectly cooked and very good. The star of this show to me was the Halibut Ceviche. This was so light, refreshing and flavorful! It was so good, I was tempted to place a second order. Finally, we ordered the carrots off the regular menu and they were very well cooked and the yogurt was a nice accompaniment. (Not nearly as good as the carrot dish we had at Rose's Luxury awhile back, but tasty anyway.) The only off-note of the evening was the dessert -- I ordered the 'raspberry tart' and it was very disappointing. It was a pistachio cream set atop a round shortbread cookie, surrounded by fresh raspberries. (So, actually not a tart.) The shortbread was so dense that it would have taken a jackhammer to break it apart. The pistachio cream didn't have much flavor at all. I sent the dish back and asked that it be taken off our bill -- something that's extremely rare for me to do. The service was just right, with a perfect tempo. We'd return any day and will definitely do so on our next trip to Charlottesville. Breakfast Saturday morning was at the Oakhurst Cafe. We stayed at the Oakhurst Inn (I don't recommend, more on that elsewhere). The Cafe associated with the hotel is very nice -- I just wish they opened earlier than 8:00 am. The ambiance and the food were very good and the service, which started out a little bumpy, improved immensely once the more experienced staff showed up. They have a lovely outdoor patio area, but it was a little too chilly for us to opt for that. I'd happily dine here for breakfast/brunch (the only meal they serve) anytime. Open from 8:00 am-2:00 pm daily. Lunch on Saturday was at Bizou on the Mall. The weather was gorgeous, so we were able to sit on the patio. We had very few expectations going in and so we were pleasantly surprised that it was really good! I had the lobster and shrimp salad which was fantastic -- the lobster/shrimp had been marinated in spices such as saffron, cumin, coriander that rendered them a lovely orange/yellow color and the salad was just delicious. MrB had their pulled pork bbq sandwich which he loved. Service was good. We wouldn't hesitate to return. I will offer this caveat: the interior of the restaurant is very dark and was quite smoky when we first arrived. We were grateful we could sit on the patio. Dinner on Saturday was at Oakhart Social. It was a beautiful, warm evening and we would have loved to sit on the patio, but it was full. No matter. We were seated inside and since the giant doors were open, it almost felt like we were outside. To be truthful, we didn't have great expectations going in, but we left feeling really pleased. The menu is very limited. We ordered 3 small plates and one pizza. The wood-fired oysters were fantastic. The oyster mushrooms were smoked, apparently, but I didn't care for them, while MrB really liked them. The chicken wangz were my suggestion and they were great -- whoever heard of elegant, asian chicken wings? Well, here you go. Loved them. Finally, the pizza we ordered was the chile lime roast shrimp. I think the pizza itself was cooked perfectly. I found that I didn't care for the bechamel sauce. That didn't stop me from eating it, though! We ordered a bottle of wine, Domaine Seguinot-Bordet Petit Chablis, France, 2014 for $39, that was lovely. I'm still thinking about that wine. We arrived fairly early in the evening and for the most part our service was very attentive. However, as it got later and the crowd grew, it waned. Still, we have no complaints about the service. We'd be happy to go back to Oakhart Social. Breakfast on Sunday was at MarieBette. Following a tip from our realtor, we had breakfast at MarieBette's on Sunday. The cafe is on Rose Hill Drive, just off Preston Ave. What a delightful experience. The minute you walk in it smells and looks like a French patisserie, with a cafe attached. The dining room is delightful and was sun-filled at 8:00 am. The brunch menu is quite varied and it was hard to choose between the many options. MrB decided on The Atlantic (baked eggs with smoked salmon, dill, and pickled onions) and I chose The North Garden (baked eggs with mushrooms, pearl onions and tarragon). Both were very good, although his was better. We also had a side of the JM Stock sausages which were quite tasty. The coffee and tea are excellent and the ambiance is lovely. We'd return anytime, and will the next time we're in C'ville. On our way out, we couldn't resist the offerings in the bakery display cases and left with a croissant, an apple galette and a petite kouign amann, all of which we devoured in the car on the way home -- every one of them delicious! We had a late lunch on the way back to DC at the BBQ Exchange in Gordonsville. It was a gorgeous day and we were lucky enough to be able to sit on the porch. We both had the pork platter which consisted of pulled pork and 2 sides. The pulled pork was fine, although I felt it needed help from the Hot bbq sauce that was one of 6 sauces on the table. I found my two sides, potato salad and spicy coleslaw, to be disappointing. The spicy coleslaw was spicy alright, but it didn't seem fresh at all and I stopped eating it after a couple of bites. The potato salad was very pedestrian. MrB had the baked beans which he liked, but frankly they looked to me like they'd come from a can. Overall, I found this place disappointing. We went a bit out of our way to come here and I don't think I'd do that again.

Signs on the windows say 'Yindee Thai'. I've googled, but can't come up with any info about Yindee Thai, other than a FB page that lists the address as that of this location.

Don, glad to have you and DR.com back again! From what you've said so far upthread, can I assume that the current configuration is the way it's going to look going forward? You're not going to be able to tweak some things and have it looking like it used to? I ask only because I was really attached to the previous functionality and this new look is a bit jarring.

Thanks, Rieux, this is very helpful. It was hard to tell exactly what flours were being used since there was only a photo and no list of ingredients. I'm more hopeful now that this could work for us. I'm looking forward to checking out the links you sent to individual dishes -- thanks for taking the time.

It turned out fine, Don. Pizzeria Vetri had recently opened basically across the street from the Barnes, so we had lunch there. It was a great choice. I wrote a post about it in the Philadelphia thread.

I've been considering PC for awhile. I've hesitated to sign up, however, because it seems like every meal contains pasta or bread or other wheat-based items. We try to avoid these types of carbs. Also, as far as I can tell, there isn't much description of the meal other than the name of it and a photo. And, I've only been able to see the meals for the following week, they don't seem to list anything further out. Is this correct, or have I missed a link somewhere?

Flame Kabob is one of our reliable carryout places in Springfield. We usually get the kabob platters: MrB gets the Flame Kabob 1 combo plate: chicken and lamb; I get the bone-in chicken kabobs. These plates come with salad, vegetable, rice, and bread. For the vegetable, we love their Spinach Sabzi. If spinach isn't available, we get the chickpeas. We usually decline the bread as it's not that good. My favorite thing to order is their Sambosas-- they come 4 to an order and I usually get 2 orders -- they can be a little inconsistent, every now and then not as good as most times, but when they're on they're really good.

River Bend Bistro

Thanks, that worked.

Well, that's interesting because I've got neither circles nor squares. After Don's report that the problem was fixed, I went back to vote for my 2nd choice and discovered I couldn't vote for anything -- no circles or squares. Thought you'd want to know, Don.

Don, As the person who nominated Trummer's, I was happy to see that it had the most votes (apparently I'm not the only one who's curious), and I am very grateful to you for having written the review. As you know, we've been living in southern Fairfax county for awhile and Trummer's is one of the very few fine dining restaurants near us. We and several others went there for Thanksgiving dinner and found it to be just ok. (Certainly nowhere near as fine as our previous Thanksgiving dinners at Corduroy and Ashby Inn). I was surprised to see Austrian wines on the menu and I mentioned that to our server. He told me that the chef was from Austria. It turns out the chef spent some time in Austria, but he's not actually Austrian. We subsequently went there for brunch in January and it was pretty good, but I don't ever judge a restaurant based on brunch or a holiday meal. So, I'm very happy to have your expert review of an evening meal there. I'd describe your review as lukewarm, so I'm not in a real hurry to book a dinner meal at Trummer's. Although, I might go to the bar and order that $8 Wild Turkey. I agree that their bar area is very nice. Thanks again, Don!

Don, I tried to vote for 2 entries, but when I clicked on the second, my first vote was erased.

Sign in the window today says 'Closed for renovations.' Uh huh. Windows are covered with paper. I'd be very surprised if this place reopens as the same restaurant. The food was not good at all and there was rarely anyone in the place.

Tweaked, thanks for bringing this to our attention! Somehow, I had missed the news reports about this.

Osteria Marzano

I'd like to nominate Trummers on Main.

+1000 For me, this was a perfect film. A suspenseful thriller without the violence and the car chases. One of the most moving scenes in the film for me was when the editor was sitting in his car in the pre-dawn hours outside the printing plant, watching as the trucks started rolling out carrying the edition containing the bombshell story. The anticipation of what was about to happen was goosebump-inducing.

Who's your contractor? How did you select them?

I could be wrong, but after having lived quite a few years in Germany, I believe it's just a difference in regional dialect. Charlie, the owner of Schmankerl Stube, is from Bavaria. The original owners of Old Stein Inn appear to have been from Rheinland Pfalz. So, it's the same thing, just called something slightly different based upon geographic origin.

American Crime

Thanks, Scottee! This place looks great and we didn't know about it before. We will definitely check it out.

I stayed at the Park Hyatt in November and LOVED it! Everything was perfect. The service was impeccable. The Asian-style decor was serene. The breakfast at Blue Duck was scrumptious. I didn't want to leave.