cucas87

I'm sad to say I won't be able to make it tonight so if anyone is worried the bar area is a little small for the crowd, you can stake out my space. That said, I should warn you, I'm barely 5 feet tall, so I may not be leaving you too much room. Hope it's wonderful.

I'd love to come to a Korean $20 Tuesday dinner and Monday is fine with me. I also don't know much about Korean food and would prefer that someone or many someones who are familiar with the cuisine order or at least make strong recommendations.

Having lived vicariously through all of the TemptAsian posts over the last few months, I've been anxious to get there and was so happy to make it to last night's $20 Tuesday (of sorts) dinner. There's not much to add, so I'll just say that if anyone is on the fence about going, run, do not walk. The food is wonderful, surprising, well spiced and if I could go back today, I would. I don't know if all of the dishes were as hot as they could be or have been in the past, probably some dishes could be made hotter, but many were fairly hot . Here are my rankings of sorts: The best: the roasted fish (what intricate spicing. I need to eat an entire order on my own to decipher the secret spice mix), the beef jerky (hot, crunchy, chewy, delicious, why didn't I order an extra one to take home?), the fish and cilantro rolls (incredible), the mapo bean curd (really a hot and spicy custard), the baby wontons in chili oil sauce(more,please! and so very hot). The next best: the spicy and sour baby wontons, the sauteed greens (lovely, really, and I would absolutely order again, just not as much of a revelation as some other dishes), the dan dan noodles (I slurped with abandon, these are great), the fried dumplings, the tong po roast pork (really delicious and for me, something new, but the dish is a little rich for me to want to eat it again today). I actually didn't taste the Chen Tsang Spicy Beef or the steamed dumplings (d'Oh! I think I lost track after a while). And while I loved the sauce on the sliced pork with garlic sauce, I somehow didn't love the dish. Also, maybe I'm still in a food coma, but I thought we had the pork with ferny vegetable. If not, we ate something that looked similar (to me) that I really loved. We even got to thank the chef personally. What a great dinner and thank you everyone for such a nice time.

I'd love to come tomorrow but I'm not sure I'll make it for happy hour. I probably won't be able to arrive until 7.

I think the law must have changed. A few months ago I hosted a dinner at Oyamel for about 15 people. At the end of the evening there were three 1/2 full bottles of wine on the table and they were given to me to take home.

I'm still in, and I can meet at 7 or 7:30.

This thread is both inspiring and somewhat embarrassing. In an effort to balance out my restaurant week fun and holiday food extravaganza, I've been on an omelette, salad and seared fish kick of late, peppered with the occasional crabcake. Shogun, I don't know why I've never thought to cook with Lillet but what a great idea. Yum, Lillet. Is it too early to have some now? And CJsadler, the gnocchi look incredible, I'm impressed.

Just got back from a wonderful meal at Notti Bianche; how I wish this restaurant had been around when I used to work at the Watergate. All I can say is what a great experience. Incredible food, great wine pairings (wow!) and such good service. I will absolutely be back. I had the chestnut paperdelle, the cod and sorbets. My friends both had the butternut squash soup (yum, I was lucky enough to get a taste), one had the scallops, the other had the pasta with tomato sauce, and both had zucotto for dessert. What great wine pairings we had through the restaurant week menu. I'm so impressed. Even though the space is small (and I had been to Zuki Moon and Nectar), it didn't feel cramped. One complaint: the bread was cold (cold, not room temp). Otherwise, an excellent meal and such a pleasant experience. I will be back and am so happy to have had the benefit of restaurant week pricing, I feel like I got an extra gift. Thank you!

Had a nice lunch at 100 King earlier this week. With some colleagues, I tasted: the goat cheese pizza, hommus, swordfish, scallops, tabbouleh, portobello mushrooms (stuffed with serrano ham and cheese), all of which were great. I didn't taste the petite filet mignon but someone else at the table loved it. I can't wait to go back. Good service, nice atmosphere. The only odd thing was that we had to beg for more pita once the dishes came. I'll be happy to go back and work my way through the menu.

Went to Willow last night, for the first time, with 2 friends. Overall: ok but not great. If I go back, and I assume I will because it is nearby to me, I will go to the bar and not the restaurant. My friends and I were in the "overflow" dining area, which needs some kind of decorating help. The reviewers are not kidding when they say you won't be too happy if you are in the overflow area. If you sit there, it feels like you are at a conference or banquet that was oversold, so the hotel had to open the extra room divider and you are sitting in never never land, missing out on the real event. The tables in this area are too close together, which made it all the more fun when, 5 minutes after we had sat down, a waiter tried to squeeze between our table and the adjacent one, carrying a chair over his head. Not all of the menu items are available for restaurant week, (for example, not included are: the Willow flatbreads, the scallops, and the poached pear). The restaurant week menu is, however, pretty good, and offers a good cross section of the menu. There was a wine pairing option for an additional $15, and 2 of us had the wine pairings. The wines were ok but not great and I would not order those wines again, and there was only one wine offered per course, which meant my friend had port with his lemon sorbet. Not so great. The service was ok, but not coordinated, too many people asked if we wanted to order drinks (after we had) and no bread was offered to us. I know the restaurant wants everyone to order the flatbreads, but would it be that hard to offer breadsticks or something? The food: I had: the smoked salmon with potato latkes; roast chicken, and a walnut brownie with ice cream. The smoked salmon was very good (but the latkes were too dry to add much to the taste sensation), the chicken was great (and I liked the carrots!) and the brownies were ok, a little dry, but made better by the ice cream. I can't recall the wine pairings, except to say there was a white wine with the appetizers, a red with the mains and port with dessert. The port was nice with the brownies. Another friend (also having the restaurant week menu) had mushroom bisque (very good), the bacon crusted salmon (very good and served with a side of some kind of cauliflower puree and wilted spinach) and sorbets (fine, but not good with port!). My friend's wife did not choose from the restaurant week menu; she started with the potato gnocci (delicious), then had the scallops (really tasty and very, very large, but there were only 3 on the plate and while they were large scallops, I think there should have been at least 4 on the plate). She had the triple chocolate parfait for dessert, it was good. The service was fine. Nothing remarkable. I will go back and sit in the bar area, where I think I will feel like there's better atmsophere and better value, somehow. Right now the food is better than the overall experience, but I'm still happy to have Willow in the area.

Good for me as well. And if anyone needs a ride to/from Ballston, let me know.

I'm a long-time lurker and new poster. Looking forward to the $20 dinners. (Thought I could have made it this week but work got in the way). I am happy to be added to the list of people willing to pick up or drop off people who need rides. I plan to go to TemptAsian on the 26th and could easily pick up someone (or 2) and/or drop off someone (or 2) at Ballston.