Jump to content

cheezepowder

Moderator
  • Posts

    2,143
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

Everything posted by cheezepowder

  1. I don't understand this expectation. He was writing a review of dishes that he ate at restaurants. Would you expect Tom Sietsema or Todd Kliman to talk to the restaurant about how XYZ dish wasn't very good and refrain from writing a negative review?
  2. I don't think the article is saying that someone should be able to request a special, vegetarian dish off the menu with no notice (nor am I saying that should be the case.) The question is why doesn't the vegetarian entree that's on the menu at many white tablecloth restaurants showcase the chef's skills, which come through in their meat entrees? I agree with you (and I believe the article states and Jonathan Krinn's comments indicate) that it seems chefs would have the skill. I thought the article was an interesting review of the vegetarian entrees at white tablecloth restaurants (as someone mentioned, kinda like a review of all the mini burgers in town, or whatnot).
  3. Bob - I really enjoyed your article! My husband's a vegetarian and I'm a carnivore, and your article really echoed our experiences. What frustrates me is that I love going to white tablecloth restaurants, but I'm effectively shut out of the restaurants that don't have any vegetarian options because most of the time, I'm dining with my spouse. For example, I've wanted to try Palena, but I'm not aware that they serve any vegetarian entrees so I haven't been able to go. I did manage to go to Citronelle and Marcel's when my spouse was not available, and I'd love to go back again but when it comes time to pick a white tablecloth restaurant, I choose one that has something for my spouse to eat. (And, like you, I was unaware that Citronelle offered any vegetarian options -- neither the website menu nor the menu I received when I dined there had any vegetarian options.) I'd also like my husband to love restaurants and restaurant food as much as I do. Not to be completely negative -- my husband enjoyed the Tasting Room at Restaurant Eve, Laboratorio at Galileo (we've gone twice), and other white tablecloth restaurants. I have a question for the restauranteurs -- as highlighted in your article, certain chefs simply do not want to cater to vegetarians, which is their prerogative. The other reason often cited is business reasons. I'm curious -- does it cost much more to offer a vegetarian entree on the menu than I realize and does it outweigh losing the business of the vegetarian's dining companions who may not be vegetarian?
  4. That happened to me too, my opentable reservation for Majestic Cafe during restaurant week got changed. I noticed it a few days before the reservation when I was looking at my current reservations on opentable. I was wondering if there were computer elves.
  5. This may be the branch that Heather went to -- on Friday, I saw a display of Vosges chocolates at the Balducci's on Old Georgetown Road.
  6. I'm a meat eater, but I cook a lot of vegetarian dishes for my husband. I just make them up as I go along and often modify a dish by omitting the meat or using a vegetarian meat substitute. But, in case it helps give you some ideas, I can tell you some things I cook. -Vegetarian chili (beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, I also throw in textured vegetable protein if I have it. It comes in dried bits and makes it seem like you have little bits of chicken in your dish) -Vegetarian lasagna -Lentil soup -Vegetable stew -Mushrooms and garlic sauteed in olive oil with parmesan cheese mixed with pasta -Spinach and feta cheese pie (like spanakopita) -Dishes with Morningstar Farms fake chicken strips (comes frozen) -- these are actually pretty good, and I use them to substitute for chicken in dishes like chicken fajitas, chicken stir fry, chicken enchiladas. -Morningstar Farms burger crumbles (comes frozen) -- These are also pretty good for fake beef, and I use them to make tacos or stuffed peppers.
  7. it's now motorized. http://www.shopatron.com/product/product_id=HGW10475/208.1
  8. We like Mr. Hibachi in Courthouse/Clarendon for cheap, quick, filling and tasty. http://mrhibachi.com/
  9. ahem. I actually got one as a gift. I haven't had a chance to use it yet because the battery seems to have gone dead (it might have been left on) and I need to get a new battery.
  10. I went to the new huge Whole Foods (my regular WF is the Clarendon one). Everything looks so pretty and new. They have quite a large selection of salt (fleur de sel, smoked salt, hawaiian salt, salt in coconut shaped containers, etc.)
  11. The restaurant website is: http://www.dcbethesda.com/ Address is 4924 St. Elmo Avenue in Bethesda.
  12. Once at the Balducci's in Old Town, I was buying a tin of cocoa nibs. The tin had a price sticker on them, and there had been other tins on the shelf with the same price. At the cashier, the tin's UPC code rang up at a higher price, like one or two more dollars. I pointed out the discrepancy to the cashier and pointed at the price sticker, and her response was to start peeling the sticker off the tin! I took the tin from her and went to find a manager. I found someone (not sure if it was a manager) and explained the situation and that this tin and others had this lower price sticker. The person explained to the cashier that she had to charge me the price on the sticker.
  13. Circo's is no longer there, it's now (last I saw) Toscana Grill, also Italian. I went to Toscana Grill once and haven't felt the inclination to go back.
  14. Dino's expansive Restaurant Week menu motivated me to try it last night, and I'm glad I went. I really appreciate Restaurant Week menus that let you choose off the entire menu, and even though Dino may not be as expensive as other Restaurant Week restaurants, I don't think I wasted a Restaurant Week meal here (and in fact, I'm really glad I went). My dinner would have been well over $30 otherwise so it was a good deal. When we sat down, I noticed the pepper and salt grinders and sea salt at the table. I really liked that, although I didn't need to use them. The restaurant gives a basket of bread and a little carafe of olive oil for the table, and last night, each person received a complimentary crostini with butternut squash and a crostini with a paste of cheese and basil (I don't know the official description) to start, which was a nice touch. I started with the calamari fritti which I really enjoyed. It came with rings and tentacles, and the calamari was tender, not like rubberbands. The pomodoro caldo that comes with it isn't a "sauce" in texture but more like a tomato tapenade, it's finely chopped and flavorful. You don't so much dunk your calamari in it as use your calamari to scoop it up. Like most places, the calamari was a big portion for sharing, and since it was just me eating it (husband doesn't eat calamari), I had to wrap up the rest to go and was happy to see that they also gave me the pomodoro (I can't tell if they added more or if that was the amount I had left) in my to go box as well. (I know, reheated fried calamari probably won't be the best. ) I had the pasta with mushrooms and prosciutto for my main course, which I also enjoyed but the dish had more oil (or maybe it was from the prosciutto) than I would like. I picked the 3 cheese plate for dessert. The server asked if I wanted to look at the cheese menu, but I didn't feel like choosing (maybe I was still overwhelmed from Dino's menu) so I told the server to choose. My favorite cheese was the marscapone with basil and pine nuts. The others were a cow cheese and a sheep cheese, and I can't remember their names. The cheese plate came with raisin bread, currants, a little cup of raisins and other dried fruits, and blackberries. I'm curious to try the other appetizers/small snacks so plan to try more of them next time.
  15. We enjoyed our Restaurant Week dinner last night at Tabard Inn. They gave you the regular menu with happy faces next to the items that were on the Restaurant Week menu, approx 4 or so choices for each course. I had the smoked trout and corn fritters to start. There were 3 of them, each maybe the size of a golf ball, and they came with a small salad and something that seemed like a thin hollandaise sauce on the other third of the plate. You could taste the smoked trout in the fritters (as it should be). For my entree, I had the beef ribs in a Dolcetto sauce with spinach and a very custardy polenta. The ribs were very tender. For dessert, I had the upside down pear black walnut cake with cinnamon ice cream and surrounded by butterscotch sauce. The cake was moist and not very sweet, in a good way. The butterscotch sauce was very sweet, though so I left most of that on my plate. (I'm not a big dessert person.) Overall, I liked the food. The odd thing was that they had a vegetarian entree (papardelle with peas and lemon) on the Restaurant Week menu, but no vegetarian appetizer/salad (usually it's the other way around) so my husband, a vegetarian, had to order off the regular menu. It wasn't a big deal since the vegetarian entree is usually one of the inexpensive items on the menu so his appetizer, entree, and dessert ended up only being a few dollars more than $30.06 anyway. I asked about vegetarian choices when I made the reservation, and I think someone just overlooked it when making the selections. My appetizer/entree/dessert would have been a few dollars more than $40 so Restaurant Week was a good deal. His appetizer was buffalo mozzarella on top of a tomato compote rather than the usual tomato slices, which I thought was interesting change. The tomato compote had a very strong tomato flavor, and he thought it went well with the mild buffalo mozzarella. I had a taste of the tomato compote by itself and my first reaction was, woah, you shouldn't eat that stuff without the cheese.
  16. I went to Willow for dinner last month, and I'm pretty sure I had 4 scallops in my entree. From this thread, it looks like the number has varied from 3 to 5. I wonder if the number depends on things like the size of the scallops or how many they have left.
  17. goldenticket: It sounds like Woo Lae Oak fits what you're looking for. Being Korean, I would say that Woo Lae Oak is somewhat watered down Korean food. The food tastes good, but its like they toned the flavors and spices a bit (but that's to my palate, maybe not to someone who's never had Korean food before - they still have spicy food! Also depends on the particular dish.) It seems to me that Woo Lae Oak caters to (and are used to) non-Korean customers more than some of the Annandale restaurants, and that works since you're looking for a less ethnic place where your group can feel comfortable. Also, I go to Woo Lae Oak because my significant other is vegetarian, and Woo Lae Oak has a vegetarian section on their menu (unlike most Korean restaurants), so if you have any vegetarians in your group, that would also work for them. I like the restaurant fine, it satisfies my Korean food cravings, and my parents like to go to Woo Lae Oak when they come up to DC. You can see their menu on http://www.woolaeoak.com/ For a group of 20-25, you might check with the restaurant on whether they have a private room with a grill -- I've noticed a separate room when I've gone there, but it looked like a conference room and I really don't remember if the conference room had grills or not.
×
×
  • Create New...