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dinoue

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  1. dinoue
    Tried this restaurant for the first time after nearly 5 years living just across the Silver Spring border. My sister and brother-in-law were in town and staying at the Doubletree for the marathon and pasta was the desired meal for pre-race carb loading. Figured it was the perfect opportunity to give it a try. As mentioned previously, the mussels were fantastic, our daughter could not get enough of them and probably ate half of them herself. The various pastas we had were all great. I had the corvina which my son also loved. Pasta was very good, but when considering the price, was a great value. Not quite as good as Al Dente, but also much more affordable. Looks like this will be a regular place to stop by for a good family meal for us from now on.
  2. dinoue
    Went twice in one week a couple weeks ago, wife's birthday and then family in town. My mother loves going to the Classics. Anyway, our daughter was really upset that they didn't have the tiger butter aka fudge, so I had her go ask the owner, Nick, when they would have the chocolate fudge. He said they'd be switching over as it warmed up into summer. She was not so upset about the hot chocolate on our second visit.
  3. dinoue
    Unfortunately, the hanger is now back to regular sized portions. Enjoyed a nice quiet dinner tonight after finding Lebanese Taverna closed, presumably due to weather. Got the mushrooms for the first time and while it is a ridiculous amount of shrooms, they are probably over 90% plain white mushrooms. Would be nice to see some more variety in there, though our son loved them. Also for the complimentary dessert, they are now serving hot chocolate.
  4. dinoue
    Based on the menu posted on their website, it would seem they are probably Thai owned. Perhaps related to Khao Thai a few doors down? Just looking at the pictures, the sashimi arrangements are definitely not done with a Japanese aesthetic. If the fish isn't presented right, it doesn't taste right to me either. I know it's not rational, but one of my little quirks about sashimi.
  5. dinoue
    Is that the location of the Arthur Treachers that also advertised Bulgogi, even when it was still Treachers? I just showed that pic to a friend of mine who did peace corps in Korea years ago. I'll have to let him know that it is now a fully Korean restaurant.
  6. dinoue
    We like Pete's as a good place to take the kids, and our daughter often requests it. They've been doing a 1/2 priced Mondays deal in Silver Spring on any whole pizzas. We usually get the Cutlers, our daughter loves pepperoni and salami, and who's going to argue with that. I like the options with hot peppers, but rest of the family usually can't eat those. My wife's favorite is the arugula, which is basically a pizza with a salad served on top. That one solves the burnt roof of the mouth problem since the arugula provides a bit of a cooling barrier.
  7. dinoue
    Did Sunday brunch the other day for our son's 2nd birthday. (How many kids get to go to a restaurant like Range for their 2nd birthday?) Like others have noted, service was spotty. Sometimes very good, but more often frustrating in that we asked for things such as a second bowl to split the soup for our kids, and it took forever to come out, during which time the soup was getting cold. Since we were sharing dishes, timing wasn't an issue, though I would note that when they say dishes are meant for sharing, it really is for two people to share, not really any more. Amongst the 3 adults and 2 kids, we ordered two of the prix fix lunches and additional dishes of roasted carrots, goat cheese ravioli and lamb leg. For the prix fix, we got one of each choice as there are two options. The kale salad was the most generous portion of all the dishes and one where we felt it was really appropriate for sharing in that everyone got a decent portion, though this was also one where the kids did not want any of it. The soup was different in that the kids ate all the tomato soup and wanted more. Was tempted to order another bowl for them. The roasted carrots were good for the ones that weren't burnt, but about a third of them were charred black all the way through the carrot. The meat dishes were all delicious, but very small portions. The leg of lamb could have been any random part of the lamb as it was not distinguishable as any particular part. The swordfish and hangar steak were likewise very small portions. Fort he prices charged for those dishes, the portions should be larger. Most restaurants charge int he 20's for an entree size plate, these were appetizer sized. Desserts were very nice and light endings to the meal. Overall, the tastes are all very good for the food. I woulkd describe it as solid traditional cooking with some experimentation, but nothing too out there. Flavors are matched well in each dish and don't suffer from over thinking of the dishes which has been a peeve of mine lately. Food doens't need to be fancy just for the sake of being fancy. There has to be some purpose to everything the dish is trying to do and Range does this very well. Outside the prix fix, I found it to be very overpriced. While it is very good food, it's also not the level of technique that Volt utilizes and shouldn't be commanding the prices that Volt might.
  8. dinoue
    This is a big loss to those of us with families. Dino's has been a place where we can get a good quality meal at a decent price and a fantastic kids menu that let's parents feed their kids decent food instead of just chicken tenders. Would love to see a new location up in Silver Spring near where we live.
  9. dinoue
    Sorry about the delay in posting, but we did make it out to Volt a month ago for brunch on our way to pumpkin picking. While I can't say it was one of the top ten meals I have had, it was probably one of the best brunches I have had for a very good value at $35 for three courses. For the first course: I had the calamari bolognese which the bolognese was not particularly memorable, and actualy a little salty for my taste, but the squid ink cavatelli was fantastic. The pasta actually had some squid flavor to it, beyond the ink just coloring it black which is what the ultimate effect usually is. I didn't think the squid ink pasta and the bolognese was the best match either. The linguine and clams seemed really good, but I didn't get any since my 2 yr old son ate pretty much all of it. Likewise, my wife and daughter finished off what I think was a lobster bisque without getting me a taste. Mains: I had the chicken which was good, but nothing especially fantastic. I think the most notable thing about the chicken to me was that it was cooked perfectly. The kids split the lamb dish, which I did get a piece since they especially liked the barley component and didn't eat as much of the lamb. I think this was the best of the three mains we got. Wife had the arctic char which she really enjoyed in spite of the celeriac component, she hates celery. The fish was barely cooked giving it a nice texture. This was the most appealing dish visually with the beautiful piece of fish. Desserts were the chocolate, meyer lemon, and concord grape. All were quickly devoured by us, but nothing blew me away. Just nice tasting desserts to end the meal. Additional sides we got were the bacon and donuts. I think the bacon is one of the best deals if you compare it to getting bacon at any other restaurant. Cost is the same for much better quality bacon than you might get at Denny's or Bob Evans restaurants for a side order. As you can guess, I was not blown away by the meal, but it was quite enjoyable and of high quality. For $35/person, with the kids splitting a three course meal, it is an exceptional deal from the quality of food for the price. They were also very accommodating of the kids offering to do single dishes a la carte for the kids. They went to the trouble of splitting the dishes for the kid's courses onto two plates saving us from having to split them. In some ways it was like our meal at Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas several years ago where the quality of the food and preparation is clearly exceptional, but the flavors were not especially notable.
  10. dinoue
    I assume this has something to do with why he walked away from his restaurant to spend more time traveling with his wife, etc. Had a great meal with my family there a few years ago before kids. We were there pretty late so our server took us on a kitchen tour as they were cleaning up. I was amazed at how tiny the kitchen was compared to most restaurants of that caliber. One would have to be an old-school chef to run a brigade efficiently in that space. Grant Achatz talks about his time at Trotter's in his autobiography. As I recall, the dinner itself was amazingly good for what I considered to be not a lot of money. Sensible Chicago prices for "NYC quality" food perhaps?
  11. dinoue
    Great dinner the other night. Fantastic o-toro if you like the really fatty stuff. Nice sanma, which apparently according to my father is in short supply in Japan right now and more than double, nearly triple, normal prices. Another plus was the background music sounded like they were playing straight from my ipod.
  12. dinoue
    Went back for family night on Tuesday. Kids eat free. Yeah! First, there was some notable improvement since our last visits. The Berkshire pork tasting seems to have evolved per some of my previous critique in that it is now larger pieces and more substantial. Didn't taste it, but it was definitely enjoyed by my father. I had the halibut which was prepared perfectly. Wife's steak was still suffering from slight overcooking and the piece I tasted was very dry. For appetizers we tried the tuna sashimi at the recommendation of the waiter. While I can't say it was bad, it wasn't exactly good. This is one of those dishes where there is just way too much going on. The individual components were good, but together it was like a Jackson Pollock painting. Kind of a mess that you're expected to find creative, but in reality, aren't all that impressed. The tuna was fresh, but the sauce overwhelmed it. The avocado was in a little mousse cake with ikura on top and neither really complimented one another. Kids ate the ikura straight and the avocado was kind of left on its own. Also got the oysters which were quite good, though one of mine didn't have much of the liquor in the shell. Things are moving in the right direction, I think the chef just needs to stop trying so hard. Creativity is not trying to put as many things on a plate as possible. He just needs be more selective in which flavors he wants to highlight or play off one another, rather than throwing everything on the plate and hope it works.
  13. dinoue
    Things are back to normal, and even better. Ate last night and huge chunks of crab in the bisque and the hanger steak portion was probably 25% larger than before.
  14. dinoue
    Ate at a table last night (Wednesday) and there was a group sitting there. We got all of our usuals and everything was great. Service could have been better. Our waiter didn't really seem to give a damn, but it made me feel like I was back at Galileo. Just admit that you forgot to put in the order for one of the dishes instead of telling us it's coming up any minute.
  15. dinoue
    We're thinking of going up there next Saturday for brunch at Volt since we have kids and the brunch is perfect for us in that situation. Then maybe doing dinner at Family Meal after pumpkin picking and other activities at one of the farms. Is Family Meal worth dinner there since we're already there, or should we just leave with the pleasantness of our brunch at Volt and do dinner back home or somewhere along the way? Different situation from making a special trip for it since we're in the neighborhood as were you. Lunch at Family Meal was disappointing in many respects. Floor service was great - contrary to other reports - and our waitress was helpful in navigating the menu. Chicken pot pie fritters were very good ( 5 small tidbits per order) & an "adult" milkshake with Buffalo Trace bourbon, vanilla ice cream, mint and cookie crumbles were the only two standouts. The rest of the meal was not note worthy - fried chicken and duck fat fried potatoes were, um, average. An upscale diner best left for local Frederick-ians, not worth a special trip.
  16. dinoue
    Really like this place, but hate trying to park. We've gone a couple times and given up on parking in their lot, sometimes unable to even pull in. With little kids, we're not going to park down the street and walk over. That's a pretty busy street.
  17. dinoue
    Interesting this thread is rejuvenated. When we first moved to our new house just across from Silver Spring on the DC side, we were actually excited to see Piratz Tavern. At the time, we had a relatively newborn daughter that we figured would enjoy the pirate theme eventually. also remembering my childhood trip through the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. So once we figured she was old enough to enjoy it, we ventured in. Decor was as expected, Pirate kitsch. Waiter was the goofy guy featured a lot on the show and seemed to genuinely enjoy entertaining our daughter. We went during happy hour when all appetizers were 1/2 price so we ordered everything. Everything SUCKED big time. Majority of it was inedible. I had a beer, but my wife tried the grog, which she barely drank. Fast forward a couple years to when we're driving by and notice the place is closed then suddenly re-branded a couple days later as the Corporate Board. We thought it was interesting, but what the heck is up with the name. Was it some sort of exclusive club for old white guys into weird hazing rituals? We really thought it was a private club of some sort. Then we were further surprised to see it back to Piratz Tavern. I don't think we ever actually sawit open for business under that moniker. The Thai restaurant, Charm located next door is actually one of our daughters favorite restaurants so we go by their pretty often and they do typically have some business, so perhaps they are just barely staying afloat. I really think the bar rescue show screwed up in that I think a pirate themed restaurant/bar could be really successful if it did have edible food. The poor service to me is forgivable if done with a smile and some pirate bravado. You don't go to a place like that for great service, or even great food, but the food at least needs to be edible.
  18. dinoue
    Ate last night with the family. The one plus was that everything came out VERY fast, always a plus when you have kids in tow. We ordered two of the premium sushi assortments and an assortment of other dishes for the kids, including some additional sushi. Everything we ordered in our first round of ordering was on the table within 40 minutes of walking into the restaurant. I think it helped that we were there early in the evening so there was only one other table when we walked in. First, the premium sushi is not so premium. The biggest ripoff is the rolls that it comes with, half a kappa maki and half a spicy tuna!!!! Since when has spicy tuna been considered "chef's choice of traditional roll"???? Plus, since when is kappa maki considered premium? The core fish included were run of the mill maguro, hamachi, hirame, and I think sea bass. It did have botan ebi, and uni on it, which I guess made it premium, and one pieces that had been torched. The eel was unagi, which is also not premium. I can get that at H-Mart for $10 for a whole eel. Like experience above, the tamago was VERY cold. Makes me long for the time we were at Makoto and the chef prepared tamago fresh for us on order. I will give them props on having about the right amount of rice, though a little bit too much for me, but not as much as some places do. The rice itself was a little clumpy though as if it had not been properly mixed. Also WRT sushi, if you are sitting at a table, don't expect it to be made by Ota-san. There is another sushi chef in the kitchen that I think makes the stuff for the tables. At the end of the meal, our daughter was still hungry and wanted some unagi nigiri. We went up to the front so she could watch her sushi being made, but it magically appeared form the kitchen without any action from Ota-san. The tofu dengaku was fine. Three skewers of tofu with three different sauces. Just had a little of one of them since this was mostly for the kids. It was miso based and as expected, nothing special about it. Edamame were good, but came out ice cold. I prefer my edamame straight from being boiled, though this was probably better for my kids so they didn't have to wait for it to cool. Ohitashi was also what one would expect for normal ohitashi. Tsukune was quite generous with large pieces of chicken meat balls. While I could see pieces of ginger inside the meat, I couldn't really taste it, which was kind of weird. Wait staff and hostess were all very nice, especially to the kids, which is a plus. At $130 for dinner with two beers, a very underwhelming dinner. Can get much better sushi at Taro, and better quality for your money at Seki. Wish it had been better since it's so easy to get to from where we live, and that's always a plus when you have young children.
  19. dinoue
    A little tardy in posting this as it's been a few weeks since we ate at Jackie's for the second time with the new chef. So maybe these things have been corrected, but it has been two visits with pretty much the same experience. In short, the food tends towards oversalted and very dry. For appetizers, the highlight was the bone marrow. Nice and fatty, because who doesn't like fat? Our son loved this one. The not so good were the truffled cheese fries. Although the portion seems larger now, they were so salty, almost inedible. The cold corn soup was disappointing in that the corn didn't really shine the way it should in a good corn soup. The calamari had a nice breading, if it could stay stuck to the calamari. It was nice and light, but just didn't stay stuck to the squid. Main courses have been most disappointing. The Berkshire pork tasting comes with very small pieces of pork, all very dry. I think they were trying for crispy, especially on the pork belly, but it was just way overcooked, probably due to the small sizes. This is one dish which I think screams for a sous vide preparation. Great in concept, but poor in execution. The same can be said for the smoked Amish chicken. It smells fantastic, with a nice smoked smell, but the meat is so dried out it's painful to eat. The Roseda culotte was promoted as having been dry aged 28 days. Compared to other dry aged meat, this didn't have a lot of aged flavor to it. The problem with the salting on the beef was uneven salting, some bites perfect, others too salty and some no salt at all. I didn't taste enough of the salmon to get a really good opinion of it, but it seemed OK. We have been fairly regular at Jackie's for the past 4 years since moving to the DC side of Silver Spring and are really disappointed in the turn that they have taken with their new chef, who certainly has great credentials. Perhaps it's just a matter of working out the kinks in the transition, but right now, it's not the restaurant it used to be under the previous chef.
  20. dinoue
    Korin is definitely worth a stop in NYC. What you will get there is a chance to talk to someone about what you are looking for and they can help guide you to the right knife. Though I didn't get a knife at Korin, made my purchase in Japan, where this was particularly helpful for me was to discourage me from getting a longer blade than I needed, and therefore a cheaper knife.
  21. dinoue
    Saw pics posted by a friend in Philly who went to the preview night. Food certainly looks good. Huge portions, which would match with the Midwestern roots of Mitchell's restaurants. Ate at several Cameron Mitchell restaurants in Columbus, OH back in grad school in the 90's. The Fish Market was pretty good and fresh fish, but also quite expensive. Always a place to go when parents were in town. Ate with regularity at his Cap City diner where I pretty much always got the grilled salmon BLT. Fatty fish and fatty bacon are always going to be a good combo. His food empire has grown considerably since those days. Molly Woo's did not exist back then so I need some enlightenment as to your experience there.
  22. dinoue
    This is so sad to hear. We used to go to Makoto very regularly until the birth of our daughter 4 1/2 yrs ago, and actually hadn't been back since then. Food and service were always impeccable.
  23. dinoue
    Did dinner last night since our daughter had a ramen craving and I had to pick up both kids and son's daycare is out in that direction. First in spite of it being nearly totally empty on arrival, they insisted on us waiting until everyone got there. I understand the policy, but sometimes it can be ridiculous. Anyway WRT the food, the noodles are still fantastic here. I made a departure from my usual shoyu and got miso ramen which was superb. Very nice flavor and not as salty as I had expected given the saltiness of the shoyu. Both kids loved it and ate a lot of my ramen. My wife got the shoyu which remains very salty which is too bad as the underlying broth is really good, just too much salt for me. The only complaint I would have is that the boiled egg is cold. While it worked out fine since it was for my kids to eat, if it were for me, I would not want such a cold egg, though it is boiled to just the right gooey-ness in the yolk and re-heating it would probably overcook it.
  24. dinoue
    Can't figure out how to split the quoting up, but just wanted to respond to a few lines in this one. If this person is such an expert on Japanese food, the remaining quoted lines would refute that premise. Costco Udon? Who the hell gets their udon from Costco if you really care about the quality of your udon. Do you also eat Maruchan ramen for $.10 a pack? Convenience store onigiri - Yeah, this was what I ate as a study abroad student. If you were eating this regularly as your version of onigiri, you don't know onigiri. They are cool from the aspect of how they package the nori though so it is fun to get for the kids. Kalbi - So your favorite food was Korean food? Toki - I haven't been there since long lines are not conducive to a 4 1/2 year old who really wants her ramen now, but I heard it was Taiwanese style ramen, not Japanese.
  25. dinoue
    We had been there for lunch before, I guess it was a Friday. I do work in Adams Morgan and love having Pho 14 a block away from work. They certainly do pretty good business for lunch. Mixtec is usually about as far as I walk for lunch, so rarely make it over to Sakuramen unless family is joining me after work or for a getaway lunch, then we hit places like Sakuramen and Astor. Other places I do go for lunch are Doner Bistro, Pica Taco, Old Jerusalem, and Pollo Granjero. Of course I get free lunch at work, so that's always the first preference.
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