eating out

I'd like to add a tentative +1 please. Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

Any updates here? Was thinking this might be a nice place for an Easter Brunch off the beaten path, but the reviews have got me thinking again...

This is great, thanks all. I've heard the cold water theory, but didn't know if that would take longer than running warm water while making sure not to cook it. Yes, my microwave does have a low setting, and I believe different defrosting settings depending on the food/weight.

I want to cook for myself more these days, but one thing that really *frosts* my attempts is defrosting. If I fail to plan ahead for the evening or the week, I am stuck with frozen chicken packages or frozen ground beef/turkey or the like. Now, I realize this is a stupid/lazy question because ultimately it doesn't take that long to defrost any or all of the above. But, somehow, someway, I've managed to screw it up and defrosting annoys me. Just last night I was trying to defrost a package of chicken breasts. Put it in a pot with hot water coming down on the packet, for about 15 minutes... Came back and found the top of my chicken had turned white, disgustingly so. Frustrating. Here are my questions: What are your quick and easy defrosting methods? Does anyone actually use the microwave? Do you run the packages under cold/warm/hot water? I know it would also be easier to defrost things if I removed them from the original packages and placed them in ziplock bags, but I don't always do that. If the top of your chicken/meat turns white/brown while defrosting, is that bad or can you still use it? Anyway, apologies if this has already been discussed somewhere or belongs within another thread. Thanks for the help in advance!

I was wondering and will give it a try - thanks for posting!

Is this the same as the Hogs on the Hill in NE on New York Ave before Bladensburg, right behind the Checkers? Have passed the place a few times and wondered if it might be any good. Anyone been to this outpost?

not gonna be able to make it today enjoy the feasting on this beautiful day!

Same deal, I have this on my radar and very much want to attend, but can't yet say what Monday will have in store for me with work... Is it okay to make a game day decision?

Thanks, I'll give this route a shot! (but not during rush hour )

Compelled to give another post of praise to this place. Tried Mama's special dumplings pan-fried for the first time, and enjoyed them much more this way as opposed to steamed. Twelve big, plump and lightly fried dumplings with little to no greasy-ness to them (shockingly so). This time I also noticed a small amount of liquid inside reminiscent of soup dumplings. Next time I need to pry myself away from just dumplings and order some of the handmade noodles. Also got a Mango Bubble Tea here which I again recommend. Ugh, I wish I could make it out here more often. Even on a lazy Saturday afternoon, it took me 45 minutes to get there from Woodley Park. But, it was worth every second of the drive. I absolutely think this is a destination restaurant, IF you are in search of delicious dumplings. If only the Rockville Pike wasn't so hellacious

I vote for the 26th. Hope to make this one, love $20 Korean meals with you all, and was actually just thinking it'd been a while

Ohhhhh boy this is exciting. I can't wait to try it myself. Thanks for checking it out and posting Daniel! Happy Holidays everyone

For any Mint Julep fans out there - Vidalia's version is delicious and comes authentically served in a slippery silver cup with crushed ice and a spring of mint on top. I love it.

Ditto that, and thanks to you Don for conceiving of this idea and seeing it through to present all of us with such a tremendous opportunity! For me everything about this event was worth it: The beautiful setting, the great company, the talented chefs using their days off to create and present such delicious morsels, the staff for being so accommodating and helpful and giving such generous 2oz pours of fabulous wine pairings, the wonderful volunteer coordinators who put in all the time and effort to pull this off seamlessly and of course the moo-cow that gave us such a sensational piece of beef (wait, what's the Japanese for moo?). I very much enjoyed the carpaccio with a dab of the black eggy salt, but that piece of seared beef was among the best things I've eaten this year or any other year really, and certainly the most flavorful steak I've ever tasted. The salt selections made both presentations sparkle on the plate and palate. And I loved the garlic fried rice, could eat an entire bowl. So, to reiterate, thank you all and hope to see you again soon!

I think if you can get Heritage Glover Park to deliver, you don't need anything else (try the makhani!! and saag). If you want to go out, I think Indique in Cleveland Park is your best/closest bet.

This is great! Thanks for the report. Interesting though, I was driving up 14th earlier this week and was planning to get a kebab. But when I hit G St., the cart was nowhere to be found... Wonder if there's only one cart after all.

I'm in. Thanks Don!

Is it really that bad? Like, not worth trying once even if I live around the corner, bad?

LOL! Seriously, she must have been starving.

Okay a clarification - Hanger or being hangry is more like great hunger -> anger = hanger. It's the experience of becoming irritated or angry solely based on being very hungry. Thus, hangry or having hanger issues before eating. The hanger goes away once you stuff your face

While I think I understand what you're saying, I don't think that there is any way in this case that my expectation that something might go wrong at Bebo could have caused the lack of dough that night... I played that game with myself as I was leaving, the "if I was at another restaurant, would I feel the same way?" and the answer in this case was Yes - Because the point of this meal was that we wanted pizza. I had billed it to my friends as a pizza place, that's what we went there to eat, and that's what we were denied. We couldn't order anything else because the vegetarian didn't want/couldn't eat anything else. If I had been alone, I probably would have gotten pasta or something else. The only difference I can see between going to Bebo and/or 2Amy's or Paradiso (which I like!), is that I would not have thought something might go wrong at those places. Had those restaurants run out of pizza in this situation, I would have been just as perturbed and mystified. But to your point, I would not have thought, oh boy, another misfire in a long line of lapses in 2Amy's/Paradiso's service record. I would have thought of it as a one-time thing. Also, the kicker for me is that my friends knew nothing of the potential for something to go wrong here, and they had the same reaction as I did. That's why I asked them afterwards if the restaurant should have done something differently. If anything, in my head, knowing of all the service issues and the great potential for it to happen to us, and still choosing to take my friends to Bebo was me giving Bebo the benefit of the doubt. Also, I wasn't that irritated with the waiter himself as I was with the failure in the system - it very much appeared that he had just found out about the lack of dough the instant before he told us. He had ample opportunity to tell us they were out of pizza before hand, and absolutely knew we intended to order pizza, "broken english" or not, as we discussed it multiple times. This is why I sought out the General Manager. I don't think I'm as angry as much as I am disappointed with Bebo - I wish they could get their act together, because I really do want to enjoy Chef Donna's pizza at some point. FWIW, I asked for the special Smoked Mozz pizza because of the raves it got on this Board - I was not sure of what all the ingredients were, just that it had the smoked mozz and onions. I do not consider it to be a complicated task for either a wait staff and/or kitchen to know of off-menu items that are ordered from time to time. I wasn't making it up. Most of the time I come to boards like DR just for this reason - to find out the hidden gems on and off the menu, just like this pizza.

you got it

After a recent Wednesday night shoe sale shopping frenzy at Pentagon City Mall with a few friends, we emerged hungry and in search of a good meal that would sate a non-red meat eater, a vegetarian, and three omnivores. As the known foodie of the group, it was my call, and I chose Bebo. At the time of the decision, in my gut, I knew that this choice had a very real chance of backfiring. But, I love Roberto Donna's food, I had been wanting to try the pizza again for the second time, and was on a mission to try the infamous Smoked Mozzarella special. So off we went. I dropped my friends off at the door and went in search of parking. By the time I got to the restaurant a few short minutes later around 9pm, they had been seated, and had waters and breadbaskets in front of them. "Good sign," I thought. Although, when I walked in I had taken immediate notice of Roberto Donna's absence in the kitchen and at the oven. "Maybe not such a good sign," I thought. Sat down with my friends, grabbed some bread to head off the hanger that was beginning to set in, and checked out the menu. Everyone was thinking pizza, and we were trying to figure out how many and which ones to order. Male waiter arrived, nice and polite, and in broken English asked if we were ready to order. I said not yet, but we have some questions. Friends proceeded to ask about the sizes of the pizzas, toppings, etc. I asked if the pizza chef could make the Smoked Mozzarella pizza - the waiter had no clue what I was talking about and couldn't quite understand me. I explained that there is a special pizza with smoked mozzarella and onions that Chef Roberto Donna makes, and perhaps the GM or someone in the kitchen would know what I was talking about. He gave me a quizzical look and said that he would check. I was not optimistic. My girlfriend ordered 2 glasses of wine, one for herself and one for me, and the waiter left the table. Return of the waiter. He comes back to the table with one glass of wine, places it in front of the GF. Comes to me, asks if I'm ready to order. I ask him to start with the rest of the table, as I'm still figuring out what option two will be if Smoked Mozzarella is not doable, and he has yet to check on that. Also I mention that we ordered a second glass of wine - I'm not sure he understands me. He goes around the table, taking pizza order after pizza order, and stops at my GF. At that moment, a waitress appears with a credit card that she picked up from the floor and asked if it belonged to any of us. No, it didn't, and confusion seemed to set in on both waiters' faces. Within about 15 seconds, before taking my or my GF's order, our waiter runs back to the front of the place near the pizza oven. I assumed that he was going to check on the possibility of the Smoked Mozz special and deal with the credit card. About a minute later, he comes rushing back, stops at me and announces, "No pizza." I thought he was talking about the Smoked Mozz. I was disappointed but not surprised - I said, "Nobody knows how to make the Smoked Mozzarella pizza back there?" He said, "No, there's no pizza." I was like, what do you mean there's no pizza? It was 9:15pm on a Wednesday night, the place wasn't completely full and pizzas were flying by left and right. I asked what he meant and he said "There's no more pizza, we're out, there's no more dough." At this point, the hanger was rushing in on me. I said, "Then we're leaving." I looked around the table at my friends faces which registered disbelief, apologized, and asked everyone if there was something else they wanted to order. Veggiehead said nothing else appealed to her that she could eat. Non-red meat eater pontificated on how a pizza place could run out of pizza so early. Everyone agreed, "Let's get out of here." I took a few sips of our one glass of red wine, put on my coat, and headed for the door with my hangry group of friends. On the way out, I wanted to check with the General Manager about what had just happened. Spoke with a man hanging out near the hostess stand who had an accent and who I believe was the GM. I said that we had just been informed that they were out of pizza after we ordered, and I was wondering if this was a typical occurrence on a weekday night at 9pm. Also wanted to know if he thought there was any way they could have informed us of this before we were seated and ordering pizzas off the menu. He basically started in with an explanation, and I believe he apologized, but it wasn't very sympathetic and was given with more of a "too bad for you nothing I can do" tone in a brick wall way. He went on about how busy they were all day, how they only make a certain amount of dough every day, how it has to be made 10 hours in advance, and how as soon as he found out the pizza oven chef was out of pizza dough he let all of the servers know. I could tell that the conversation was not going anywhere else from here, so I just said we wished they could have informed us when we walked in or at least before we had ordered, that they were running low/out of pizza. We would have gone somewhere else, and avoided this unpleasantness. At least they didn't charge us for the one glass of wine, but in reality we didn't even give them the opportunity as we almost immediately headed for the door. After we were out the door, I asked my friends - "What could they have done differently?" I wanted to give Bebo the benefit of the doubt, that maybe this wasn't just another case of bad service and a seemingly mismanaged floor. My friends unanimously decreed that they could have told us when we walked in or even as we were debating the merits of the pizza at the table with our waiter that they were running very low on pizza and it would not be available. Or the waiter could have said they were running low on pizza, and to let him know right away if we wanted it and he could put in our orders. To seat us, answer numerous questions about the pizza on multiple trips to the table, whet our appetites and then return only to hastily add that in fact there is no more pizza, was very upsetting to a group of very hungry ladies. To myself, I was thinking, ah yeah, that plan backfired just as I thought it might and hoped it wouldn't. Disappointing to have this experience anywhere, but especially so to have it happen while putting myself out there suggesting the place as a great pizzeria, even knowing that something could potentially go wrong. Here's the thing - I have always loved Roberto Donna's food, still do. Have no qualms with him, nor his delicious meals, whatsoever. In fact, I like him, he's always been nice to me, even at the Grill when some thought of him as the "grill nazi." But, I am very well aware that all of his establishments have had multiple reports of major service issues, and I've experienced them myself. When I dined at Galileo, it was unusual to have a meal without a service incident of some kind. But again, the food was always great. The first time I went to Bebo, I did not have any service issues. What's sad to me, is that I feel that first experience was probably an anomaly. For me, the best restaurant experience I've had at Chef Donna's establishments was at the Grill (I never had the opportunity to do the Lab). Zero expectation of service. Get your great food and get out. Perfect. So here we are with another testimony of an incident at Bebo. As for me, I have decided only to return to Bebo on one condition - I can go with Joe H if he'll let me and is not offended by my post . He seems to be the only person who is capable of securing an amazing meal at Bebo without fail. Joe H, if you read this and decide to again challenge the Board to meet you at the bar for some of the best pizza in the country, I am there. It seems to me that with Joe H at your table, you're guaranteed a great time at Bebo, and that is not easy to come by. I'm still hoping to experience Chef Donna's great pizza some time soon.

Wednesday special at Taqueria Nacionale behind Johnny's Half-Shell is chicken pot pie - it is very tasty, but small. Probably could do 2 of them. Worth a shot if you're around and have the craving.

Any chance of an edible and filling bahn mi in chinatown, in dc??