StarStraf

I knew there had been changes since I was there last (15 years ago) but I was expecting better. we went last wednesday and wished we would have gone somewhere else. our "waiter" took forever to come to our table, then took one drink order and the drink menu and walked away (I guess I was the only one allowed to order drinks - though the Coconut Dream was yummy) after my drink was made he came back for food order - our guest asked if she could order a drink and he took her drink order and then walked away. We asked another waitress if she could get us water refils. Then he came back with that drink and took our food orders - after I told him what doneness I wanted mine without him asking he remembered and asked the others - but he obviouly didn't write it down because we all got 'medium' (when medium rare and rare were our orders) Sweetie and guest both had the Queen Cut Prime Rib and I had the Filet with Bernaise sause. The meat was good cut (but there are times like this when I miss Kansas) but a bit dry. he came back 3 times to ask if we were done with our plates (it was only 6pm so not like they were closing) and then appeared with our check (no offer of dessert). Have to say I will not be returning, and will have to seperate out my prior great memory as obviously some other place and time. Dinner for 3 with drinks was $117.54 plus tip.

Being newish in town we didn't have a favorite spot to goto for EATAPETA Day (Eat A Tasty Animal for PETA Day), we considered Fogo de Charo (we celebreated last year at the one in Kansas City) but decided to try a local place with Malibu Grill since it is close to Sweetie's office and about half the price (was just over $50 for two of us with a caparina each). Next time we will goto Fogo - The food was good but was not the wonderful decadent experience we expect from brazillian grills. The Caparina's were average (he makes better at home), and there was only one Gauchos who would be carrying aroud two or three options at a time for a total of 7 (chicken, turkey, pork sausage, lamb, pork lion, sirloin steak, and another steak). Now I admit it was a monday night so not their busy time. but the meat was dry (espeically the pork) and overcooked (especially the lamb), but the sausage was much better flavored then the sausage at any of the other Brazillian grills we have tried (3)

We stopped in at Red Velvet cupcakery after dinner last week (we saw nothing on the dessert menu we liked, but could see the Red Velvet across the street) and though we had died and gone to cupcake heaven. We were at the Penn Quarter location, they have no seating but have an agreement with the ice cream place next door that you can use their tables. I had the Southern Belle - red velvet cake with a whipped cream cheese topping - WOW - so light and delicios. Having been so disspointed in the last few times I've tried red velvet i was quite happy. Sweetie had the Key West - Key lime cake and white chocolate buttercream frosting. Even with pouting I wasn't able to get a taste - it must have been great. but the high point is that our out of town guest who was planning on passing was able to have the Black Velvet - which is Vegan but even more so it GLUTEN FREE - she was estatic and says it was delicious. cupcakes are $3.25 each or $36/dozen They have two locations in DC Penn Quarter 675 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20004 Dupont Circle 2029 P Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 Website

Four of us had a late dim sum (2pm) today at Mark's Duck House. We had a yummy feast including shrimp dumpling (great shrip but the dumpling was a bit chewy) sui mei, Roast Duck (quite yummy and tender), bbq pork, fried shrmp ball (more a hush puppy with touch of shrimp) Fried shirmp in seawed, pan-fried turnip cake (one 'loved it', three okay) pan fried chives dumplings, stuffed crab claw (dry), chinese broccoli with oyster sause, steamed roast pork bun, fried pork and shrimp turnover (very yummy) Once you slow down they bring you a placement of options to see if you want to special order anything you missed - but the things we wanted (baked roast pork bun, scallop dumpling, fried sesame ball, pineapple buns, were all 'sold out' so if you have special wants I suggest going earlier, but be prepared to wait (a friend was there at noon and had an hour wait, by 2 there was a 5 min wait) Tea was good but non-discript. Tables were tight. Service was friendly and quick. Lunch for 4 was $78 including tip.

My other half is Catholic which means that I get lots of sushi during lent. What are people's favorite fish / sushi and/or vegetarian places in the Alexandria Area? -- Star

We might be interested depending on the location - metro accessable for right after work, or Alexandria for a bit later.

One of the things I am truly enjoying about living in the DC area is the number of friends that I get to see. My friend B and his wife K were in town because B had a speaking engagement and they had Friday night free for dinner - so we jumped at the chance. B had eaten at Vermillion (http://www.vermilionrestaurant.com/) on a prior visit so wanted to share that with the rest of us. We beat them there by 10 min so started with some of the January specialty drinks that focused on pineapple. I had a "promises, promises" which is tequila, basil-infused pineapple juice & citrus - I tasted no basil but I loved the drink, sugar rimmed it was like a sweet pineapple version of a lemon drop. Pooch had "the resolution" made of maker's mark, kahlua, ginger beer, lime & pineapple - I didn't care for it but he liked it. Most of the seating is upstairs so if that is a problem for you let them know that when you make your reservations. We had a lovely corner table that gave us some privacy, half bench half seats, everyone was comfortable, though the bench side of the table had poor lighting and B had to hold the candle up to read the menu. We ordered our starters (making sure to all order something different so we could do a pass around and try the others - I love enjoying meals with friends that do that). B ordered us a 2007 riesling-kabinett - willi haag (mosel-saar-ruwer, germany) that was wonderful. (Pooch is starting to become a person that can pick a bottle for the table so was nice to have someone else do so, and talk thru the why with Pooch) Starters ordered were roasted scallops yukon gold potato gratin, path valley leeks & black truffle sauce - I was very glad this was my choice cause I think it was amazing - the scallops were so flakey and tender and the gratin was a perfect match. The sauce was a gentle flavor addition. slow cooked pork belly alsatian purple cabbage, red wine sauce & petite herb salad - oh the crispy skin was amazing! Special starter of smoked artic char. - good flavor served with capers and onions butter lettuce charred mediterranean octopus, fried bread & everything Caesar - good but the octopus was a but tough at the ends. Pooch and B had glasses of 2006 domaine philippe plantevin (côes du rhí´ne, france) with the meal while K and I finished up the wine. I tried to have the rare yellowfin but they were out (waiter lost a point when he didn't mention that when I asked questions about the sides with that dish). I had the forest mushroom cannelloni path valley swiss chard, garlic breadcrumbs & parmesan froth - yummy with a rich earthy taste. Other dishes ordered were maryland rockfish kent island little neck clams, celery 3 ways & chowder froth, very tender and not overpowered by sauces like last time we had rockfish. duroc pork loin slow cooked brussels sprouts, york apples & little sweet potato biscuits good but nothing to remark about, probably suggest something else. pennsylvania duck breast duck sausage, pecan dirty rice, cranberries & turnips 2 ways - Very good almost a sweetness to the rice. We looked over the dessert menu but nothing grabbed us so we skipped it. Our waiter was attentive but not in the way, and was good about refilling water Dinner for 4 with wine and cocktails was $280 with tip.. Overall very good food, nice noise level - we were able to easily talk and laugh without feeling like others were so close we were disturbing them. There is a small of gas in the entryway because of the gas lighting on the outside and first floor and the bar area gets pretty crowded so getting back to the restrooms can be a case of "excuse me" a bunch of times. As a bonus I now know that a cab home for the two of us from Old Town is about $10 with tip - nice to know for taking a walk / metro down there and being able to enjoy drinks and wine. And they get bonus points for finding my electronic brain that I had dropped on the floor and having it at the desk when I came by the next day.

House guest wanted to take us out for dinner along with his daughter and son-in-law. We wanted somewhere that the football watchers could watch the game but the food was good and we could still have a conversation. And the son-in-law had commented that he had not had a good burger since moving to Alexandria. So we suggested Murphy's. Now I have only been in town for four months and this was our third trip there, and will not be our last. Murphy's Grand Irish Pub ( http://www.murphyspub.com/ ) has three locations, we goto the one in Old Town Alexandria at 713 King Street. We were seated right away, the tables are pretty close together but staggered in a why to give more privacy then you would expect. The wait staff is wonderful, attentive but not in the way. They refilled water multiple times, checked on food quality, and to see if we wanted refills. We did have the wrong specials list in our menu so had to change my mind on what I wanted. We started with beer, hard cider (Hornsby's) and some breaded mozzarella sticks, which all got there quickly. They would get extra points if they had a better cider on tap but at least they have cider. Son-in-law and I both had the charbroiled Murphy Burger (6oz burger with Canadian bacon and melted provolone) with cottage fries. They asked how we wanted it done (both medium rare) and WOW were they good. Juicy, rich, flavorful, sturdy bun. Just how I like a burger to be. There was disagreement about the cottage fries (thick sliced potatoes fried) - some liked and others didn't. Daughter had a baked potato, our guest had the Beer-battered fish & chips which he really liked - batter was good, fish was tender, not too 'friey'. Pooch had the blackened rock fish special - fish was tender but the blackening overpowered the fish. We decided to have dessert, though in hind site that made us all pretty stuffed. Apple crisp was amazingly wonderful, chocolate cake and bailey's Irish cake were both quite satisfying for the chocolate people and but the pecan pie was okay but not exceptional. Dinner for 5 was $110 with tip We have had the Sunday brunch in the past - quite good, and Tuesday is half price burger night from 4-9pm

We decided to meet downtown for dinner so I took a look over my restaurant wish list and picked two for Pooch to decide between - he decided burgers would satisfy his cravings and we meet up at the Capitol South metro stop and walked over to 303 Pennsylvania Ave - Good Stuff Eatery. We are fans of Top Chef and this is co-owned by Spike Mendelsohn who was on Top Chef Chicago. We figure of the Obama’s go there for burgers we should give it a try. About 5:30 on a Friday night the place was maybe ¼ full. You order at the counter and then are given a pager that goes off when your order is up. Most of the seating is upstairs, so don’t forget to get all your ketchup, straws, spoons and such before you go upstairs. I had a Farmhouse Cheeseburger (Handcrafted Burger on sweet, buttery soft, freshly baked Pennsylvania Dutch bun and good stuff sauce), Spike’s Village Fries (Topped With Fresh Thyme, Rosemary & Cracked Pepper) and a Toasted Marshmallow shake. Pooch had the Spike’s 5 Napkin (Original burger with dairy fresh cheese, apple wood bacon, a farm fresh egg on a broche bun with good stuff sauce), Cliff’s homegrown Vidalia onion rings, and a soda. Our total bill was $30.26 The burger was good but not exceptional. It failed Pooch’s first test of burgers since they did not ask how we wanted our burger done. Just because you use multiple words to describe something doesn’t make it good. My buns were nothing special but Pooch liked his broche bun. The onion ring batter was good but sweet, the fries were a fun change. I thought the shake was yummy, but I have never had a shake I didn’t find yummy, and there was no ‘toasted’ taste to the marshmallow shake. So overall it is a fine corner burger joint but not worth the surcharge for being famous and not worth going out of your way to get to. Star & Pooch

We have tried MoMo and it is in the running. How much further for the mexican or cannoli?

We had a friend in town staying at the Marriott Wardman Park (about a mile from Dino's) so figured it was time to try this place that I have had three different folks recommend to me. Definitely made the right decision. Used Open Table to make reservation which kept me from having to call back 3 times to change the number of people (wasn't sure about babysitter availability for some until that afternoon). We had walked by this a month ago and were interested based on the menu displayed in the window. I lucked out with parking right by the door, our friends had to park two blocks away. There were 5 of us, friends from college and this was the first time we were all together for about 15 years. Comfortable sitting and nice conversation level, though I can see this getting very loud on busier nights. (We went on a monday night) Seems that Sunday and Monday nights are 33% off bottles of wine costing $50 or more so we took some time to read the wine list and pick a bottle out for our table. A request for white, and another for not to sweet, and one for not to dry lead us to the 2001 Zilliken "Kabinet" Riesling Tedesco which we were very pleased with. We all took advantage of the Restaurant Week special (All January long) 3 courses for $35.10 including an anti-pasti, entree, dessert, and moscato / grappa / lemonchello. We did a round of plate passing for the anti-past and entree courses and had a great time. The waiter knew his stuff and was able to answer questions and make suggestions, and one of the owners stopped by before dessert to see how we were doing. Antipasti I had the Pio Tosini 500 Giorni Prosciutto di Parma Crudo Prosciutto ~ made in the old fashioned manner by in the small Tosini family prosciuttificio ~ they age these hand salted gems a full 500 days ~ setting the world of prosciutto back 100 years! ~ house pickle WOW - this was amazingly wonderful thin slices of pig perfection. I'm glad this was my choice since it was my favorite and I got to finish it. The pickle was okay, not great. Antipasti di Cinghiale Wild Boar ~ wild boar prosciutto ~ wild boar sausage ~ house-made wild boar pate ~ duck liver crostini ~ ginger mostarda the pate was good, crostini was okay, but the wild boar proscciutto was wonderful and the wild boar sausage was AMAZING Polenta ai Tre Formaggi con Funghi Soft 3 Cheese Polenta ~ white Friuli polenta with Asiago, Fontal & Gorgonzola ~ topped with balsamico roasted mushrooms I'm not a big Polenta fan but this was quite good - very smooth. Burrata Bufala Cheese ~ air freighted from Puglia, Sundays & Thursdays ~ fresh mozzarella outside ~ fresh curds & cream inside ~ olive tapenade ~ red pepper tapenade ~ oven roasted tomato ~ olio & basil Yummy Pappardelle ai Funghi (half order) Wild Mushroom ~ a “sauceless” condimento: chanterelle, black trumpet & shiitake mushrooms, garlic, sage & olio ~ ribbon pasta This was good and I might have this as an entre some time in the future Entrees Two of us had the Lasagnette al Ragu Free Form Lasagna ~ a very non-traditional, over-the-top version ~ fonduta ~ crispy bacon ~ rich pork & veal puree ~ grana cheese ~ house-made pasta sheets This was amazingly yummy, especially when you came across a bacon bit. Maialino Milk Fed Young Pig ~ heritage breed Yorkshire pig raised on a small farm in Canada ~ slow cooked in duck fat & crisped ~ rosemary, allspice & pear scented jus ~ house-made ginger pear mostarda ~ braised young broccoli greens Oh so tender and delicious Pappardelle al Cinghiale Wild Boar Ragu ~ a light stew of cubes of wild boar ~ a touch of pork belly ~ crushed tomato, onions, golden raisins, currents, celery, carrots, red wine, garlic, herbs & spices ~ grana cheese ~ house-made ribbon pasta The pasta was wonderful - the dish was a bit heavy for me but Pooch loved it (which is good since it was his order) Arrosto di Zucca Roasted Stuffed Squash ~ local organic squash stuffed with farro “risotto”, studded with barberries {similar to sour currents} cavalo nero, wild mushrooms & grana cheese ~ garlicky Tuscan 4 bean & farro stew ~ sauteed pea shoots I'm not a squash fan but this was yummy, no 'sqeeky'ness' that I usually expect from squash. no one had the Capesante “Elephant’s Trunk” Scallops - pan seared ~ Aperol, white wine butter ~ onion infused mashed potatoes, so that is on my list for next time. Dessert: Pooch enjoyed cheese with Guffanti Eborinato di Pecora con Miele {sheep ~ blue} Val Pusteria Beware of this cheese!! Cave aged, using only wild blue molds from the Alpine valley of Valpusteria: more complex & stronger than others of its type. Served with honey to tame its fire Guffanti Branzi {cow} Lombardia Mountain style cheese with fine eyes and a slightly funky smell leading to a creamy, earthy flavor he enjoyed them both Suzi refused to share her Mela al Forno Heyser’s Farm Spencerville red apple ~ baked with currents, brown sugar & butter ~ amaretti crumb, but it looked quite good. K and I both had the Torte di Ciccolato dense chocolate cake ~ whipped cream - Very good without being overpoweringly rich T had Budino di Pane warm bread pudding ~ vanilla gelato ~ whipped cream After dinner Drinks: Grappa is an unaged distillate of grape skins left over after wine making. It is powerful and not unlike rocket fuel! - we had one and not to our taste but was fun to try I enjoyed a Limoncello and a cup of coffee Pooch had a Moscato and enjoyed it . Overall a wonderful meal and a great time re-connecting with friends. Dino's is good for either a romantic dinner or a group of friends (though leave the kids at home) Dinner for two with a bottle of wine and tip was $150 Glad I gave it a try - will recommend to others. Star & Pooch

We had dinner at Evening Star Cafe on Sunday (1/3/2010) and it has made our 'return to' list. The restaurant selection was made my one of my new co-workers who was dining with us (and also turned me onto Open Table for reservations). Though we had driven by before and seen the menu when we stopped in the wine shop next door. Parking was easy across the street, entry is thru the side door during the winter to keep down on freezing the dining room. Booth was comfortable even for this plus size diner. Service was friendly and the place was busy when we started (6:30) and packed by the time we left. Noise level was loud but we could carry on a conversation but did have to have each other repeat things once in a while. Started with Pepita Crusted Brie Sliced Granny Smith Apple, Crackers. Truffle Maple Syrup - Very yummy Pooch had Duck 2 Ways Roasted Hudson Valley Duck Breast, Lentil & Duck Confit Cassoulet, Braised Greens, Peppercorn Demi The roasted was wonderful, the confit was good but not great, but not attractive on the plate. Star had Seared Sea Scallops Bacon & Sprout Hash, Celery Root Puree, Fennel Sauce I almost licked my plate everything was so good, she Scallops were seared perfectly and the sauce and hash complemented it well. Dessert was the weak point of the meal Star had Chocolate Creme Brulee Good chocolate yummy but not really a creme Brulee Pooch had Rocky Road Bread Pudding which was fair. Dinner for 3 with glasses of wine $110+tip Star & Pooch - Looking for some great Mexican, Sushi, and a good Canolli in Alexandria area.

Hello all, I'm Star Straf, my sweetie is Pooch and we are new to the area having moved to Alexandria, VA last fall. Pooch used to live in DC a decade ago and we have both been in Lawrence KS for him to work on his PhD at KU. We have a dog (Sheltie) and a cat that let us share their space in a townhouse rental in Alexandria until our house back in KS sells and we start house hunting for them. We enjoy eating thus our interest in the board. Pooch does all the cooking and I do the dishes. His specialties are biscotti, pasta, and Christmas Lasagna (wish it happened more often). I only bake once a year to make Cranberry Bread to take to our thanksgiving feast / gathering of the tribe. When eating out we enjoy sushi, mexican, good burgers, and a huge variety of food. We have probally tried 30 places so far The places we have found that are on our 'try again' list are Murphy's pub http://www.murphyspub.com/ which have great burgers and a yummy brunch HeeBeen Korean Grill Buffet http://www.heebeen.com Lots of great food with a wide selection La Tasca http://www.latascausa.com Great selection of Tapas Looking forward to being part of the board, Star