dinoue

I think it's worth mentioning that Seki is now serving a different draft from the traditional Sapporo which is much better. I forget exactly what the name of it was, reserve? Perhaps Cizuka-san can chime in? Food was fantastic as always, now two years in a row that our daughter has chosen Seki for her birthday dinner.

Oh, and there's always convenient store dining. Nothing better for a quick snack, especially for a toddler, than the onigiri where you need an engineering degree to unwrap.

We went to Tokyo with our daughter when she was just over 2 years old, which also meant we had to pay for her ticket. :-( First, for dining, a must is Hishinuma in Roppongi. It's a Michelin one star specializing in Japanese food, but also catering to children with a special children's set menu paralleling the adults. We went for lunch. Unfortunately can't find an English website right now, but this page has some english and you can see that the children's meal is a great deal at 900yen. http://www.axisinc.co.jp/building/shop/hishinuma Generally though, I think Japanese restaurants are actually much more accommodating for kids than US restaurants. They may not all have high chairs or even booster seats, but more often, they would have special kids place settings, even in neighborhood style bars we went to close to the weekly apt rental we stayed in. While we didn't go to a lot of the famous restaurants, we did go to several nicer restaurants including multiple sushi places, high end yakitori, fried food place - tempura and panko breaded items, and on and on. As another mentions above, ryokan are great for a Japanese experience with family bathing and then dining. Since the meals are served privately in your room, kids can run around in the room while you eat, or they may be fascinated by the food that comes out as well. The lobster sashimi served on a huge wooden boat intrigued our daughter. She still talks about how hot the hot spring bath was as well. I think tsukiji might be doable, if you all can get up. While we were fine getting up that early, our daughter's sleep schedule was totally off and she was sleeping at very weird times so be prepared for that to be a factor. The first night after arrival we ended up taking her out for dinner around 11:00 at night, and found a nice little place that specialized in congee, something like 30 different varieties and perfect thing to eat after a long flight. You won't want to take a stroller and should plan to carry him around most of the time, especially in a place like tsukiji. A lot of subway entrances are stairs so strollers are not very convenient since you have to carry them up and down. Newer lines have escalators. The biggest challenge with going to some of the more popular places is the lines which with a toddler will not be pleasant. Generally for restaurants, the thing to remember is that there are a lot of GREAT neighborhood places that while not michelin starred, will give you an authentic Japanese dining experience. We found some great places just walking around. For example, on a trip before kids, we were just walking around Ginza and felt like eating sushi. We ducked into a little place just off the street and had some of the best sushi ever, and for around $100 for two for lunch. In the neighborhood where we were staying, we ate at an izakaya that had great simple food, but certainly was not going to get any critical acclaim, but they were also super friendly to our daughter. The other thing about Japanese restaurants is specialization. Pretty much any place that serves only tonkatsu in Japan is going to serve better tonkatsu than most Japanese restaurants here that try to do everything under the Japanese culinary spectrum. Since we were mostly hanging out with my father, relatives and friends, we weren't totally pressed to do the tourist stuff, but some things we did do were: Toyko Sealife Aquarium - close to Tokyo Disneyland has a huge tank with bluefin tuna. I think I recall having some really good karaage chicken on our trip out here, though I think it was at a restaurant just outside the park. Also if I recall correctly there was a train too. Sunshine City in Ikebukuro - There was supposed to be an aquarium here too I went to when I was a kid, but it was being renovated when we were there. We went to Namjatown which is kind of like an indoor amusement park. A lot of stuff requires extra payment, but the carrousel was free for young children as young as our daughter was at the time. There is also a Gyoza "museum" where you can sample all sorts of gyoza representing various different styles. Great lunch. There is also an ice cream room where they have all sorts of different ice creams. And then there are various characters walking around to either greet or terrify your little one. Ghibli museum - As mentioned before, if you or your kids are into Ghibli, this is worth a visit. Get your ticket from the JTB office on K St, though you need to pick your date ahead of time, you can enter anytime on the date, as opposed to Japanese purchased tickets which are also time regulated, though you can get them from convenience stores. By the time we went, our daughter had already seen Tottoro, Ponyo, Kiki, and Spirited Away so she was pretty familiar with a lot of the things on exhibit, but might not be so great for little kids who aren't as familiar since it is more of a museum than an amusement park. Ueno zoo - We went within a month after they got their pandas and the lines were incredible. Nice thing though was that they have special lines for families with little kids so we were able to get through within a few minutes while everyone else waited in line. It's a nice collection of animals and very cheap to get in. One thing to check out is the top floor at Ginza Mitsukoshi where they have the kids stuff. What's really impressive is the diaper changing room and nursing rooms. There's also a small playground, as with most department stores. Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions about getting around with a toddler.

Just got this from Malmaison's listserve about the event. Wish this was nearly any other Friday so we could go. By the way, it is $200+ tax and gratuity.

She's now in NYC.

I too have always found their crust to be very crispy. Haven't gotten the clam pizza in a while but the last time I did, it was fine. As others have noted, very different from neapolitan style, like at Pacci's, but good in it's own genre. It's definitely not pizza to be eaten cold as leftovers, lest you really get into the jaw breaking chewiness, but when reheated as they suggest in cast iron pan, it is almost as good as fresh as the crust regains its crispness.

Doesn't matter which dialect (Mandarin, Cantonese, Toisanese etc) as they all use the same written characters, just read differently.

Looks like the Silver Spring site is getting a new tenant. Drove by last night and looks like Vietnamese or Thai name. Will try to get more on my next drive by so a new thread can be started with the restaurant name.

Resumed Monday Madness 50% all medium and large pizzas through end of March. Dine in or take out only. Also this month (February), their email subscriber deal is buy one get one on desserts. Then if you combine in their Front/Flip deals you can get a very complete meal, with leftovers, for very cheap. Got a free salad yesterday without any additional purchase via Front/Flip.

Sooooo, the danger of this group is that we decided to go for dinner last night. First, although it's not on the menu anymore, they were offering the prix fixe for $32. Kids got the chicken tenders and cheeseburger with sides of fries and brussel sprouts. Sides were the highlights of their dishes with lots of fries that we all had some as well as the sprouts which were also very good. Burger was way overcooked to being dry, though I'm guessing they do that for kids to ensure no chance of food borne illness. For our first course, wife had the ricotta gnudi which was really nice with a nice serving of meat, though she forgot to look what exactly it was. I think it was a braised brisket from the small taste I got. I had the tempura sweetbreads, which were very good, though I would not call the batter a tempura batter, more of a beer batter, kind of like onion rings. I also thought it was a little overcooked as the sweet breads did not have quite the creamy texture I was expecting. For mains we had scallops with risotto which was a huge serving of 4 scallops on top of the risotto and greens on top. All the components went nicely together, and the dish held up well considering my wife had to take our daughter to the restroom just as it was delivered to the table. I had the porcetta which had a nice crust on the outside and very tender meat on the inside. It was served on top of a bed of beans with a slightly spicy seasoning on top. Not sure how to describe the seasoning as it was a bunch of things chopped up very small. Beans were a little bland, which was good for my son to eat, but when everything was combined together, it meshed well. Can't emphasize how nice the crust on the porcetta was. Desserts were a chocolate cake with ice cream and pistachio mousse. Both were very nice endings to the meal. With two beers the full meal was $100 and change before tip for a ridiculous amount of food.

Sorry, went last fall the week after Restaurant Week and never did a write-up. (I remember the time because they were still doing RW menu, which I thought was kind of stupid given they regularly had a 3 course dinner for $30, less than the cost of RW) Food was much better than our last previous visit. Dishes were much more sensible in the mixing of flavors, he's still trying hard on the creativity side of things but not letting it overpower the dish like he seemed to be early on. He seems to have a lighter touch on the slat now as well, which was one of my criticisms previously. I think Jackies is one of the best deals in dining in the area with their prix fixe dinners Sun-Thurs. We keep wanting to go back, but with so many restaurants and so few dining out nights, haven't. Maybe sometime this month...

Been to the one in Largo. It was OK, for the area, but there isn't a lot of competition either. When we lived EOTR, this was an easy place to head for dinner, and they participated in the mileage dining program so we got 5 miles per dollar spent. It's been probably 6 years since we went too. It is basically like Panda Express for "southern" food. Everything was on steam tables and they probably do more carry-out business than eat in because the line to order food took up half the space inside the restaurant. Better alternative at that location was the Gladys Knight Chicken and Waffles place, which I think has since closed.

Had to cancel the October trip but did actually go up over the New Year. Ended up eating two dinners at the Doubletree resort where we were staying to maximize pool time for the kids. Food was decent for a Doubletree, though I pretty much stuck with bar food getting wings one night and fish and chips the other. For lunch one day we ate at Isaacs since it was closest to the Railroad museum. Gumbo was the soup of the day which I got since I wasn't too hungry. Was surprisingly spicy and though not the best I've had, satisfying on a cold day. On Saturday, the day we left, we went to Central Market and then ate at the Pressroom which was just across the street. I had the mussels with fries, though disappointing the fries had to be ordered in addition to the fries. The best deal was the kids meal my son got with cheese pizza which seemed to be an adult size portion ad kids price. Had hoped to eat at John Jeffries where we ate a few years ago when it was just our daughter and us, but couldn't get a reservation on the Friday we were there. For anyone else planning to go up with kids, make sure to do your trip before January 1 because a lot of stuff closes after that for the season. For example the train wasn't running.

That's disappointing. Ate there once and really liked it. Parking is a pain of course in this neighborhood and probably doesn't help towards the success of these restaurants.

Go Big Red!

Had a very nice dinner for Restaurant Week tonight. Appetizers: Escargot - several plump snails on top of spinach, but the highlight, especially for our son was the parmesan flan. Add in the crunchiness of the croutons and it was well balanced with texture and flavors. A very nice preparation different from the usual straight snails in garlic butter. Pork belly with lentils - This was for the kids and both loved the lentils as well as the pork belly.Didn't get to eat more than a bite of this. Beet and Persimmon carpaccio - Wife had this and she really liked it. I'm not a big fan of beets, but this was pretty nice. Overall, the takeaway on the appetizers was balance. Just the right amount of differing contrasting and complementary flavors that all came together in a cohesive dish. Entrees: Pasta bolognese - Definitely for the kids. Very generous serving of bolognese so that there was even too much bolognese to go with the pasta.Not sure the wild boar aspect added to the flavor so much. Could have just as easily been beef to me. Venison stew - Here, the venison did add flavor and it was cooked until very tender. I am not a fan of sweet potatoes, but the puree went really well with the stew. I think the one thing I wish it had more of was the braised cabbage. Grilled octopus - The octopus was so tender. I thought of the scene in Jiro Dreams of Sushi when they are massaging the octopus to tenderize it. Entrees were more marked by the simplicity and really focusing on primary flavors of the main ingredients, or at least for the venison and octopus. Really wish the bolognese had some more meatiness to it which I would have expected from the wild boar. Cheeses: Got an assortment of cheeses on an impulse since our son liked the cheese so much in the escargot app. There were six cheeses so we got all six. Felt a little ripped off on the price for these since 5 cheeses cost $15 and 3 cost $12 so they charged us for two sets of three or $30 for the six cheeses when I was expecting it would be more like $18 or $20. Guess I should have just gotten the 5 and left one off. The cheeses themselves were a nice variety of hard vs soft and included one blue. Also got some saucisson since our daughter wanted salami. Dessert: Got all three desserts and all were good. Chocolate mousse included a leaf of some sort which unfortunately I couldn't really taste. The gingerbread it was served on top of was a nice pairing and the kids ate all the pomegranates so can't comment on that component. The pear ginger cheesecake was a little dense and the crust base was a little too hard so it was actually kind of difficult to break up. Pineapple upside down cake was probably the best of the three with a very light cake texture with the pineapple crust on top. Overall, this was a very nice meal and the proximity to the kitchen was great for the kids to watch the food being prepared. I was impressed when they called to confirm our reservation and inquired about the kids ages so the kitchen could be prepared for making special meals for them if necessary. Also our son was late waking from his nap, so we were running late for our reservation time which they let us adjust without any problem. Definitely a place we will be going back to.

Was just looking for a place to eat in Georgetown and was thinking of Malmaison. No longer.

This was posted on the TakomaDC listserve regarding the new place: Kin Da Thai and Sushi Restaurant will be opening in Takoma at 6923 Laurel Ave, Takoma Park, MD in the space formerly occupied by Takoma Bistro. This will be the second location for experienced restaurateur, Somjet Prompharsit and partner, Chanpen Teeranon. The team's original location, Aroi Thai, in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of DC has been a popular part of the community for the past two years. The restaurant will have approximately 60 seats and a beer and wine bar. Additionally, Kin Da will offer catering, delivery and carry-out options to its customers. Opening February 2014. http://aroithaidc.com Laura Barclay | executive director Old Takoma Business Association *Your Main Street Takoma* mainstreettakoma.org cell: 240-535-0187 office: 301-891-6789

Oversees and leads the operations of the Christ House kitchen and dining room which includes: - Planning and preparation of meals in accordance with dietary needs of a medical facility - Supervision of kitchen staff and volunteers - Supervision of dining room service volunteers - Budget and purchase food and supplies - Develops and implements kitchen and dining room policies and procedures Must be familiar with dietary requirements of medically vulnerable populations including those with diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and mechanical diets. Previous experience with vulnerable populations and working with volunteer groups and individuals highly desirable. Must also be able to coordinate regular food services with those provided and prepared by volunteer groups. Minimum two years experience managing a professional kitchen including preparing food for large groups, food purchasing, budget management, staff supervision, menu planning and implementation. Christ House offers excellent benefits including comprehensive health insurance, 403(B ) retirement plan with employer contribution, 10 holidays per year, and accrued paid vacation and sick leave. To apply, please forward your cover letter expressing your interest in the job and resume via email to jobs@christhouse.org or via fax to 202-328-1100. Christ House is a 33 bed medical shelter serving homeless men and women in Washington, DC. For more information about Christ House, please refer to our website at www.christhouse.org. Feel free to personal message me with any questions about the position or the organization. Thanks for looking, david

Sorry, forgot to post this earlier. Talked to the guys out at the Silver Spring farmers market last week and they anticipate January re-opening. Now problem was with the insurance companies sorting out the claims on different pieces of equipment covered differently.

Can anyone recommend a temp agency? We are short handed in our kitchen at the non-profit I work at and need to get someone fast as we have Thanksgiving dinner to prepare this week for our patients and residents as well as the normal meal preps. Will also be looking to hire a regular cook which I will post separately. Thanks in advance.

Went without the kids for the first time last week Friday close to 11:00 at night after a friend's birthday party. Unfortunately for us, restaurant was packed so we still had to sit at a table. Great sashimi platter with generous slices of toro and what I assume was buri (fatty hamachi). Also had a a wonderful aji tataki with both green onion and shiso. Rouget karaage was also great where the whole fish is eaten. Waiting for them to start serving whole sparrow on a stick like I ate in Japan when my classmates thought it would be fun to get the exchange student drunk and start feeding him all the weirdest things on the menu. Seriously, where Seki continues to shine is doing a "simple" seasonal menu and doing everything very well.

Went in last week for the first time. Don't know why it took so long since I work just down the street. Love the concept, but the flavors weren't to my own preference. Sauce was a little too strong and over powering. Just wasn't quite rounded out enough to me, not sure if it was not enough dashi or too much soy sauce. I had the katsudon and wife had the ebi fry don. We also had an order of karaage. The karaage was good though and I could see going back for the karaage don. Like the mugicha on the counter, though it could use some longer steeping before they set it out. Prices IMO are very reasonable and unlike so many other places today, they don't charge for extra rice or pickles. I never know for sure if these are connected, so I hesitate to mention it, but both wife and I had severe stomach aches that afternoon. Our son seemed to be OK, or at least his daycare didn't say anything when we picked him up that evening. Totally agree with previous sentiments that we need more restaurants like this. Of course, then we would start looking more like Tokyo, not such a bad thing. I'd vote for a dedicated yakitori-ya and wife and I were talking the other day that a specialized udon/soba place would be nice, but doubtful if it would be viable. NYC has demonstrated that the dedicated yakitori-ya could work with several options there. The yakitori was always my favorite part of dining at Makoto when they did that as a side a la carte menu.

Couldn't get into Woodberry Kitchen so had to find another restaurant close to Loyola University where we were for a basketball game. Food Market fit the bill for an interesting menu and within 10 minutes of the game. Unfortunately for me, as interesting as the menu was, it became one of those dinners where you can't decide what to get so you order everything and get so stuffed, it actually gets almost bad at the end. Started with several small dishes, focused on things for the kids, pretzels, fried oysters, cream of crab, and lamb "porterhouses". All were fantastic. The oysters in particular were a really generous portion and perfectly prepared, though the hot sauce was not so hot. The cream of crab was a little too thick for my preference. Just ate at the Classics in Silver Spring and I prefer the consistency of their bisque, though the cream descriptor would indicate it would be thicker, so can't really complain. The lamb was fantastic, you can't go wrong with little lamb steaks. Didn't eat the pretzels at all. For entrees, we had the short ribs, scallops and bronzini. The short ribs was a ridiculous amount of meat. Wish there was a little more whipped potatoes as the meat was quite disproportionate to the potatoes, and likewise, the three carrots. While the meat was tender, it was a little dry. The sauce on it was a little too sweet for me but did go well with the meat. I've never been a big fan of BBQ sauce, preferring my meat to taste like meat, rather than sauce. Wife's scallops were nice as was the risotto it was served with. Full disclaimer, I've never been a big fan of squash. Sister-in-law's bronzini was really good with a nice char to the meat, but cooked perfectly. Our daughter did not like the char though as it was fairly strong and perhaps was close to overpowering the taste of the fish, but I thought it actually matched really well. In spite of being really stuffed, we got the strawberry tiramisu. A little heavy on the cocoa, but interesting with the added strawberry powder. Total damage was $250 for all this plus a bottle of riesling, and an extra order of bronzini to go for sister-in-law's sig other who couldn't make it, which in my opinion was very reasonable for the ridiculous amount of food we ate. Probably better strategy would have been for us to just get more small plates, rather than the entrees. Perfect place to go for a variety of dishes all very good.

Wow, didn't know I was going to start a whole discussion on eating sushi/Japanese food. I think all the previous comments, especially Don's extensive tutorial cover everything pretty well. The sashimi at the beginning is to provide a taste of the fish and demonstrate how good it is. Once you start mixing it in with the rice, it does alter the taste. Some fish are just better as sashimi vs sushi as well. There is also a dish or a few dishes in between as well so you essentially re-start once you go on to the sushi so you're not dealing so much with the re-setting of strength of fish flavor. One other thing that can be irksome is the transfer to the Western tradition of serving the miso soup at the beginning of the meal. It's served much later in the meal in traditional Japanese ordering of courses basically towards the end. For a great tutorial on how a traditional Japanese meal is conducted, I can't recommend Sushi Taro's chef's counter enough. That meal is exactly what one would expect with regard to components and how Japanese counter service should be. Following on Don's comment about rolled sushi being at the end, it's often a way to fill up, either if you're spending too much or if the chef is running out of fish and needs to get you finished. At Sushi Taro on our last visit, he had some amazing nori that I just had to have some more of so I finished with a hand roll. Think of your $250 spent on dinner like paying for a class in Japanese dining.