Jimmy Chandler
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Everything posted by Jimmy Chandler
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How big does a single prawn have to be to be worth $22? I want to try this place, but I think I'll skip the prawn.
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If I Was Dining Alone in DC or NoVA, Where Would You Send Me?
Jimmy Chandler replied to lovehockey's topic in Help Needed
I second the nod for Izakaya Seki, if you can go at a time when there is a seat at the bar downstairs, preferably in front of Chef Seki, and you talk with the chef and find out what he recommends today. My favorite place to dine right now in DC. -
I asked our waiter and he claimed they are fresh soba. I think I also discussed this with the owner (daughter of the chef, she plays hostess, brings food to and busses the tables upstairs, generally hustling all the time to keep things running smoothly) as well. Our waitress referred to the sauce as a mole. It definitely tasted of chocolate. I made a comment to the owner that it's not very Japanese to use a mole sauce, and she agreed with a smile. It's possible the sauce was different than the one you had.
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The Wife and I have made two recent trips to Izakaya Seki, and we are eager to return. This is the type of Japanese food I have been craving in DC; I don't think there is another place like it here in atmosphere, quality and price. These dishes are fantastic - Grilled Mero with miso - Special of Hamachi sashimi - Cold soba noodles - Fried rice with garlic and shiso leaf - Tsukune (chicken meatballs) Question: is there another restaurant in the DC area that serves freshly made Soba noodles? I've only had these twice before visiting Seki, once in NYC and once in LA. I love Soba, but I'm not expert enough to know how Seki's stack up. I do know there is a big difference in fresh vs. packaged. Good but not great - Cream croquettes (béchamel, crab and corn, served with a mole sauce. Yes you read that right.) - Assorted roasted mushrooms (The Wife figures out that mixing the mushrooms with the fried rice was a good combination, I don't know if the chef would be horrified by our actions or not) - Kyona salad (I think I'm just not a big fan of mizuna, otherwise this salad may rate higher. Nice balance with the vinaigrette and egg.) Price is quite reasonable -- we spent an average of about $70-75 for 5-6 dishes, though we didn't order any alcohol either visit. Both times we ate upstairs, and service was decent, friendly. I would not order all of my food at once, as they don't seem to have the timing down: on our first visit all the food came at the same time. I want to eat at the counter downstairs on my next visit.
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I've eaten at Passionfish 3-4 times in the past year, though only one time in the dining room, the others all at the bar. Excellent food each time, service friendly and mostly efficient, with a few minor hiccups. Overall, I recommend it highly, and haven't seen any of the problems Tom apparently has (and I usually agree with Tom's reviews).
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Just to be precise, Chez Francois moved to its current location in 1976, 36 years ago. Before that it was located in downtown DC.
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Value Added: Accountant’s love of pizza causes him to toss some dough
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Thanks for the history lesson!
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The last time I was at Rays -- in March -- the menu did match the online menu. I cannot believe that any steaks at Rays have increased from the 20s to $40+ in that time. You probably were looking at the prices for the dry aged steaks.
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I used to live about 2 blocks from here, and it's still my favorite of the C&J locations. The aromas are so amazing there because of the tiny amount of space. Probably the quality drop off is related to the time of day, as I still drop in occasionally and the bird is as good as always. I always order the Chimichurri sauce and the employee -- whomever is filling my order -- almost always give me a look that says "Why do you not want the yellow or pink sauce? Moron!" The answer is I like the Chimichurri better :-)
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While I cannot dispute that you didn't like the taste of your steak, this claim of prices being 40% higher than a year ago at Ray's is just plain false. It's not even true that prices there are 40% higher than 10 years ago. According to their menu, the bone-in "Cowboy" is $37. I don't believe this steak has ever been much less than $35 at Rays. The only $40+ steaks are dry-aged, which are $10 or more cheaper than anyone else's dry-aged steaks. So A. you are just plain wrong about the prices and B. I don't believe your complaint about the taste -- Ray's quality hasn't gone down in my experience there at all.
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Well, to burst yours, since I live here, and you so obviously do not: 1. The city of Falls Church is not 4 miles away, but mere steps away. The Arlington County/Falls Church boundary runs right through the same building that the restaurant is in. Look it up on Google Maps if you don't believe me. 2. The neighborhood "East Falls Church" is in Arlington County. See this PDF map of Arlington at the left corner and note the neighborhood designated as "Arlington-East Falls Church." Everyone who lives here drops the "Arlington" part of the name. I assume the name for our wonderful little suburban 'hood originated after the opening of the Metro station. :-)
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Went with The Wife for dinner tonight. Got there a little after 7 PM, the wait for a table was almost an hour. There weren't a lot of people hanging around, and later we noticed some tables sat empty while there was still a long wait. So I guess management was trying to keep the kitchen from being overwhelmed, which is understandable. We sat at the bar and watched the Kentucky v Louisville game on one of the many flat screens. Fully stocked bar with a decent beer selection. I had a glass of Caso de Campo Moscato and The Wife a Corona. We ordered a 2 lb bag of crawfish, which also came with a couple of potatoes and corn on the cob. You can order one of three sauces or get all three combined, which is what we tried. They serve it piping hot in the bag with a bucket to toss your shells into. Messy but pretty tasty. Check with tax and tip a little over $40, but I'd expect a higher check on average (normally I think we'd get a little more food). The bartenders seem friendly and knowledgable. I spoke briefly with one of the owners -- he said once crawfish are out of season they plan on using frozen rather than imported crawfish. And that they plan on adding to the menu options as they settle in and changing the menu seasonally. There are growing pains with this, as to be expected. One of the friers is broken so no beignets now, they were out of some items on the menu, etc. I'm glad to have this addition to the East Falls Church neighborhood.
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I think Spices is an underrated and under-talked-about DC restaurant. Went there with the wife last night, about the 4th time I've been in the past year. One of the best values in the DC area IMHO. Last night we shared: Ginger salad (with cabbage, peanuts and crispy shallots) 1/2 Big Duck (as good as always, best Peking Duck I've had in the DC area) Several sushi items, including the Dragon Roll (avocado on top of spicy crunchy tuna) and Nigiri (toro, salmon toro, kanpachi, madai) I had a pretty good lemonade, the wife a decent glass of rose, dinner totaled $75 before tax/tip. Our complaints were minor and service-related: the plates that arrived with our sushi were too warm for sushi, and the Big Duck arrived before we had finished eating our sushi. On previous trips just about all dishes I or my companions have eaten were good or better. I love the Laksa, but I haven't had Laksa anywhere else to compare it to.
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To compare Raku in Bethesda to Kitchen Nightmares is ridiculous beyond words. You may have had a poor experience -- I'm not doubting that at all here -- but Raku is always busy and generally gets favorable reviews here and elsewhere for a reason. KN showcases horrid restaurants where the food and service are awful. The food at Raku is good to very good for a reasonable price. You didn't mention in your post any of the dishes I or my wife have come to order regularly (see my post above). I have had the ocean roll and it tends to be too greasy but it always had seafood in it. Not among the best items on the menu IMHO.
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Has anyone been for dinner -- not at the bar -- since RJ left? I'd like to know if it's still fit for a special occasion dinner. Vidalia was possibly my top go-to spot while RJ was in charge. Thanks.
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Went to Sushi Taro for the second time since the re-do. Currently our favorite sushi/Japanese in DC by a significant margin, but you're paying for that quality. Compares favorably to a meal at 15 East in NYC this summer, which was about as good sushi as we've ever tasted (note: with one exception, the sushi rice itself is just OK, as Don has noted elsewhere it's oddly inferior to the quality of the fish). Tonight the +1 and I shared the following: * Omakase sushi, which included 2 types of tuna, hiramasa, scallop, mackerel, uni, salmon roe, salmon, toro, prawn, snapper, tuna roll * live orange clam nigiri * spicy tuna roll (quite spicy) * grilled miso marinated black pork skewers (best grilled pork I've ever tasted) * grilled matsutake mushrooms ($23 but amazing) * glass of Gruet Brut from New Mexico * glass of Bethel Heights Pinot Total w/tax and tip ~$150 (I'd say we average under $100 at Kaz and maybe slightly over that at Sushi Ko; our best value is Raku in Bethesda where we eat on average for maybe $75 at most). Validated parking (worth $10) Only complaint, and I think this happened on our earlier visit, was that ordering a la carte the food is not paced properly. On our next visit we plan to pro-actively ask our waiter to pace the food more leisurely, maybe have the hot food first then the sushi.
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Thanks for the thoughts. I think this is a case where it's not worth stressing about it. If we end up at RFD/GB etc people will still have a good time. It's not a foodie convention after all.
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Thanks for the ideas, though I had thought of all of them except Carmines. Zaytinya is way more expensive than I'm looking for -- you can't eat/drink there for less than $40-60 per/person, that's 2-3 times what I'm looking to spend. Matchbox doesn't do parties on Saturdays, we'd just have to crowd in with everyone else. That's just not going to work for this group.
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So I'm helping to organize an after-party for a one-day conference in DC at the Martin Luther King Library in DC at 901 G St NW. We need a space for afterwards. Requirements: - not expensive (they went to RFD last year, that's the right price range) - walkable from the library - party space accommodate 40+ people on a Saturday evening (starting at 5:30 or 6 PM) - wheelchair accessible - decent vegetarian options I don't want to go back to RFD but am running out of ideas. Ella's is too small (already spoke with their manager). Thanks for the help.
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I guess I need to better understand what your ratings mean. My interpretation of 3.5/10 is that the sushi is nearly inedible, which just doesn't jibe with my Sushi Ko experiences. Assuming you've eaten at top sushi restaurants outside of DC, how would you rate your favorites? I just came back from NYC and had dinner at the sushi bar at 15 East, one of the most fabulous sushi experiences of my life, 8 or 9 out of 10. I had similar quality at Sushi Yasuda a few years ago. Both were fresher fish and better rice than I've had at DC's best sushi establishments, but not enough to rate Kaz a 5 or Sushi Ko a 3.5.
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RTS serves both shrimp and scallops in multiple ways, and both are available as either appetizer or entree size. You can get the scallops grilled, blackened, and one or two other ways. I love me the blackened scallops. The shrimp are grilled either diablo or white wine/garlic/herbs. My wife gets the shrimp when we go (she's a non-steak person) and likes it enough that we eat there regularly. Also the mixed green salad is much improved over the early days at Ray's.
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There is no bar at Rays. Rays the Glass is probably a ways off -- waiting on permits from the county; and Michael and Co. are concentrating first on getting their new restaurant in NE DC open. In know this because I asked about The Glass when I was at Rays tonight and this was Mark's response. That said, dining alone at RTS is fine -- so next time just walk in ask for a table for one. Enjoy!
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It's great to see you start calling people names. It's fine with me that you disagree, but I don't appreciate being called a hypocrite. I have a limited budget and time in this life to spend on dining out. I choose to spend it at establishments where I will enjoy the food, drink and service. If I know that an establishment mistreats its employees, I will choose to spend my money elsewhere. This is in no way hypocrisy. I will spend that money somewhere, and that restaurant's employees will benefit in some small way from my patronage. Since it won't be at PS7's, at least I know that Chef Smith will not be one of those people. I'd much rather go to one of Mr. Landrum's growing empire, as I know he cares for his employees and would never treat them in such a callous manner. If you can't grasp this concept, there's nothing I can do to help.
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I just re-read your post and want to say "my bad." At least no one will get fired at random for my misunderstanding.