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sstamour

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Elvin Hayes

Elvin Hayes (12/123)

  1. I had my first meal at Maestro this past Friday night. 3 of us had the 7 course tasting menu, and let the chef choose all the courses. We also opted for wine pairings with our courses. The meal was phenomenal. While I don't have the notes we took in front of me, I felt like there wasn't a single dish that missed on the night. The oysters and champagne sabayon, in fact, contained the best oysters I've ever had. The wine pairings were also exceptional, the glass of champagne I had to end the night was fantastic. I also had a glass of the only sauvignon blanc I've ever liked. We opted for the dessert course instead of the cheese course to close the night (to the dismay of one of the people at the table!), but our server suggested that he would do different desserts for each person, only if we promised to share. That was the best idea anyone had of the entire night, as we were served 3 different plates of desserts, each with multiple desserts on them (for a total of 8!). The little serving of chocolate souffle sent me into spasms of ecstasy. There was no question that this ranks as one of the best meals I've ever had.
  2. I made my first trip out to Palena last night. I was surprised at how few people there were - there was a table and seats at the bar (where we ate) immediately available when the two of us arrived (around 8), and emptied out fairly rapidly thereafter. We started with cocktails and the fry plate, as recommended to us by the gentleman (and poster?) seated next to us. This was a great place to start, and their fried mashed potato puffs were indescribably good. I would gladly order an entire plate of those. Then, we weren't entirely able to decide on our entrees, considering that at least half a dozen looked really good. So good, in fact, that during the process of narrowing down the selection, the phrase "it's just kobe style beef" was uttered. We weren't, however, able to choose between the oxtail raviolini, the chicken, and the cheeseburger. So, in a move that's probably not unfamiliar to most of you, we decided to do all three and bring home the leftovers. Except there were no leftovers. The oxtail was excellent, not nearly as heavy as I expected it to be, and very flavourful. The chicken has been described at great length, and it deserves every bit of the praise it's gotten. We ended the night by splitting the goat cheesecake with blood orange sorbet...and even after consuming everything listed above, I think there was only a bite left on the plate.
  3. I made my first trip to Dino on Friday. Dean sat us immediately when we walked in, and we managed to stay until the place closed. Going in, I had expected the wine selection to be excellent, but based on reviews and this board, I didn't have too high of expectations for the food. The wine certainly lived up to the billing...I would disclose the bottle we ordered, but the menu warned us that Dean is trying to keep the only case he gets for himself, so I won't. But it was excellent, and I enjoyed the chance to discuss some of the wines off the list with him, as he's clearly very knowledgeable about his selections. The food, without question, surpassed all my expectations. We started with the crostini, and the dried cod with olio is amazing. We also ordered 3 cheeses, letting Dean pick the ones to pair best with the wine. I don't eat blue cheese, but my dining companion said the blue on the plate was the best he ever had. As for entrees, he ordered the pork osso bucco, and I had the lasagna. The pork was very good, but the lasagna was amazing. It's not a typical lasagna, using fonduta instead of tomato sauce, and incorporating veal, pork, and veal bacon, but I thought it was some of the best lasagna I've eaten. I was way too full to do anything else, but I definitely want a return trip to try the olive oil tasting and the vanilla gelato with balsamic vinegar.
  4. We were at Cafe Atlantico twice this weekend...once on Friday for the minibar (where we took notes and pictures and will be posting that later), and then once on Sunday for the dim sum. I had been to the dim sum brunch once before, and there were tables open the entire time, so I just assumed reservations wouldn't be needed. Granted, the last time it was just two of us, this time it was 3.5 (three adults and one 3 year old). When we got there, the hostess told us she could seat us, but would need the table back in an hour and fifteen minutes. We decided to go ahead and take it anyway. Frankly, I was glad to hear that they were pretty much booked with reservations, this is something that I definitely want to stay around. Now, you can order any of the plates ranging from $2 or so up to $9. Or you can do the deluxe tasting menu (which is all you can eat) for $35/pp. Personally, I think this may be the best deal in town. For a 30-odd course tasting menu, the portions are very large...if two people order it, you'll probably not want to finish each plate, otherwise you end up halfway through the meal counting the number of courses left and wondering how you're going to manage to taste everything. This time, we ordered it for three. I expected three people to be able to finish off what they would bring out. What I didn't expect is our waiter to bring out double orders of dishes he thought we would enjoy - and by that, I mean double orders of the most expensive items (duck confit, seared cigala). As he was doing this, he reminded us that we were more than welcome to request additional orders of anything we liked (we didn't, we weren't even able to finish off everything they did bring out, and didn't eat anything the rest of the day!). I'm used to places doing all you can eat brunches. I'm not used to paying $35 for all you can eat dishes like foie gras, scallops, duck, cigala, and a host of other expensive ingredients all excellently prepared. I think we very nearly spent more on the cocktails than we did on the meal itself (I'm doing my best to work my way through their cocktail menu - I had the tres mango daiquiri and dirty secret, which was rose champagne with lavendar and vanilla this time). Standouts of the brunch have to be the duck confit with passionfruit oil (I love passionfruit, and the skin on the duck is one of the best things I've had), the hot and cold foie gras soup (although I enjoyed it much more at the minibar than I did at the dim sum), the pan dulce, the seared cigala, the crispy rice/coconut rice/squid dish, oysters with mango lime oil, conch fritters, caviar with potato mousse and vanilla, red snapper, salmon-pineapple ravioli with crispy quinoa (again, though, the minibar version was superior), and the guacamole. Don't ignore some of their vegetable/fruit dishes either, the shaved pineapple with plantain powder is surprisingly good, the spinach with pumpkin and raisins is quite tasty (and I really don't like spinach), the asparagus with oranges is a classic, and I love the seared watermelon (now with a citrus vinaigrette, though it was better with the balsamic syrup they used to use). Even the traditional dishes, like the egg with black beans and pork stand up well to the surrounding creativity (I couldn't stop eating the black beans, even though I knew I should be saving room). I was quite surprised by the turnip soup with apple puree, I expected to hate it (I don't like turnips), but I finished it and considered asking for another one - the match of the creaminess of the turnip soup with the sweetness of the apple puree, and the differences in temperatures (yes, this is another hot and cold presentation) was so good. There were some dishes I didn't particularly care for (what's with all the beets lately?), and some that just aren't very memorable (seared corn, both jimica raviolis, the fried egg with veracruz sauce), but I can't imagine not having that experience on a menu of this size. Also of note, our server (Alex) was great. We told him about the need to turn the table over, and he made sure things came out very quickly. About 20 minutes after we were seated, the hostess came back and told us there was a cancellation, so we could keep the table as long as we liked. We let Alex know, and told him we'd prefer a little bit more of a leisurely pace, and he slowed the dishes down accordingly. We ended up spending close to 3 hours there, and he was happy to accomodate whatever time frame we wanted.
  5. 2 of us went to Firefly on Friday night, as sort of a spur of the moment decision. I was able to meet both Derek Brown and Chef Wabeck (who took the time out to speak with me, even after being at the restaurant for 14 hours!). We sat at the bar and started off with two of the cocktails, the Luxe Imperial (? - not entirely sure of the name) and the Pomorito. While my dining companion and I have similar tastes in wine, we don't in cocktails. He likes his strong and dry, whereas I typically pick out something extremely sweet and fruity (mostly, I don't like the taste of alcohol). This was, to the best of my knowledge, one of the first times we genuinely enjoyed both cocktails. The flavours in each blended together very well and both had a complex taste. I don't remember completely what went into the pomorito (although the main ingredient is pomegranate, but the Luxe combined gin, port, sparkling wine, and bay leaf syrup. We started off with the truffled parmesan freites and the crispy oysters. The freites were extremely good, better than the recent ones I had at Mannequin Pis, though I didn't think they needed the accompanying dipping sauce, which had a tendency to overpower the truffle and parmesan flavours unless only a minescule amount was used. The oysters were absolutely incredible. I enjoy oysters, but don't tend to have very high expectations for fried ones. The texture of both the oysters and the batter on them seemed to melt in your mouth and tasted wonderful. Chef Wabeck had mentioned the Greek sparkling wine he was pouring, and the woman sitting next to us was sipping some. Based on their recommendations, we each had a glass with the freites and oysters. We both enjoyed this quite a bit, although it was served maybe a little too cold for my preference...after a short while, the more complex and subtle flavours came through instead of getting mostly a lemon taste to start. We then ordered entrees, the lamb stew, the red snapper, and a side of macaroni and cheese. The lamb stew was very good, the macaroni and cheese some of the best I ever had (and I was born and raised entirely in the South), but the red snapper was the highlight of the evening. I don't typically liked cooked fish (I grew up eating most of my fish raw) but the taste and texture of this fish was amazing. Moist, tender, and flavourful (with chive oil?), this was clearly a standout dish. We asked Rachel to recommend wine to go with our entrees, thinking we would likely need to go with glasses, since it's not easy to pair a bottle with both lamb and fish. But she was up to the challenge and recommended 3 different bottles, all from different price ranges. Another moment when the service was excellent, she made it very clear that she wasn't trying to oversell or manipulate us into choosing the most expensive bottle, she just recommended it because she thought it would go very well with our dishes. Sure enough, it did. The 2002 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Gruenchers was a great recommendation for the two dishes, each one bringing out different notes. The fish highlighted the fruit and berry notes, while the lamb masked those but allowed the spicier ones to come through. It was enough to stand up to the heavier flavours of the lamb but didn't overwhelm the fish. We were very happy with the recommendation. All in all, I was extremely happy with the evening and can't wait to get back. Especially since we weren't up for dessert...maybe next time.
  6. We ended up at Firefly last night...had a great time and was very pleased with the restaurant, Chef Wabeck, and all the staff that took care of us (Rachel, David, and James). Definitely a place we'll be going back to. I'll post my more detailed thoughts in the restaurant thread. Don, feel free to take care of this however you'd like.
  7. So I'm unexpectedly headed down to DC for dinner, and have no plans at the moment. Essentially I'm looking for a place to have a nice dinner, some wine or cocktails. Bar or dining room seating is fine. I'm looking at Firefly or Corduroy (though am trying to make plans to do the tasting menu there soon, not tonight) as potential ideas, are those ones that would fit the bill? Would you recommend sitting at the bar or in the dining room? Other suggestions? Thanks for any help. Normally I don't make quite this last minute of plans!
  8. They also do tastings every Tuesday at CWC. Usually $25 a person for 7-8 different wines, all based around a particular theme. There's also a discount that evening on any bottles tasted. It's a great deal, and the owner, Mitchell, is incredibly personable and knowledgeable.
  9. This is my first review here, so no promises about quality! This past Saturday, we were looking for a nice dinner that didn't involve a full trip down to DC. My dining companions had been to Mannequin Pis before, but I hadn't, so we decided to go. Most of the reviews and posts I read indicated that the restaurant had very good food, but was extremely lacking in the service department, and was certainly not child-friendly. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but the food seemed worth a try at least. We made reservations that afternoon for 4, they could only seat us at 6:00 or 9:30. Since one of the 4 was a 3 year old, the 9:30 time was out, so we took the table at 6. Upon first walking into the restaurant, the host and surrounding staff seemed distinctly unimpressed that there was a small child in tow. In fact, we were left standing in the rather cramped front area as the staff went back to discuss which table to put us at now - having a child present meant they'd no longer seat us at the head table that was originally ours. However, that would be my last complaint for the night about the service. Our waiter, David, was excellent. He made sure to do a little bit extra for the youngest member of the party (bringing him a small plastic toy with his drink, taking the time to listen and communicate with him) and showed none of the attitude displayed at the front of the restaurant. For the adults, he was exceedingly knowledgeable about the menu and specials, describing them all and competently making suggestions when asked. He was even better when it came to the beers on offer. David was able to describe all our selections, making sure they met our preferences. When asked for a general recommendation without any specific requests, he said he'd bring out a few bottles he'd suggest. A few turned out to be half a dozen or more bottles of different styles, and he took the time to fully describe each of them. Towards the end of the meal, he even brought out a glass of a beer he was trying for the first time as well, on the house. We stayed for over 2 hours and had absolutely nothing but praise for the service we received. The food itself was fantastic. Unfortunately, I don't have a menu in front of me, so this is recreated from memory and I'm sure I'll miss some ingredients. The most difficult part was narrowing down our choices, between the standard menu and the nightly specials, it wasn't an easy task. We ended up being unable to decide on fewer than 4 appetizers, two from the menu and two on special. 1 - Frisee salad. This was every bit as good as other reviewers had noted, with an abundance of extremely flavourful bacon, fresh frisee, and an excellent dressing that pulled everything together very well. 2 - Escargot. Cooked in herbs and cheese, the texture was excellent, with none of the overdone chewiness that you find with some escargot. Nothing too surprising in this dish, but one that came out very well. 3 - Asparagus with smoked salmon. This was on special, it was smoked salmon wrapped around white and green asparagus spears with creme fraiche, topped with salmon roe. The salmon was lightly smoked but had a very good flavour, and the asparagus was fresh. 4 - Avocado cocktail. Also on special, this appetizer combined lobster and smoked trout with avocado in a martini glass. The 3 year old was amused with food being served in a glass, as well as the top portion of the lobster shell used for decoration. All the flavours in this dish were very good, however, they didn't necessarily come together to create something more than the individual parts. While the entrees looked very good, the mussels were fairly irresistable. After 4 appetizers, we might have reconsidered the idea of each getting a kilo of mussels, but with all the different types, we decided we wanted variety. Each order came out in a large pot, and they don't exaggerate about it being a kilo of mussels. Even sharing, I left a number of mine uneaten. 1 - Jamaican Isle. These mussels were cooked with a coconut cream curry sauce, giving them a fairly unusual creamy, curry infused taste. 2 - Bruxelles. These came with goat cheese, bacon and beer. They did a very good job getting the goat cheese to flavour the mussels and stay on them, and the bacon and beer flavours were at just the right intensity. 3 - Snob. These mussels had been cooked in lobster bisque, and very much picked up the flavour. As you worked your way through the shells, you ended up with a couple inches of concentrated lobster bisque with mussels left swimming in it. Luckily, they brought out a spoon to enjoy this experience - I enjoyed these the most out of the three. Of course, the frietes must be mentioned. They were perfectly cooked, salty, and addictive. Even after I was full, I couldn't stop eating them. The garlic ones are excellent. Served the Belgian way with a side of spiced mayonnaise, even one of my dining companions who is repulsed by all things even resembling mayonnaise was dipping his and mentioning he was enjoying it...after swearing us to secrecy (oops.) After all that food, I was definitely satiated, but after hearing the dessert menu...well, there wasn't much resistance. The little one had the profiterole, with light chocolate puff cookies, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. The adults split the bread pudding (normally, I don't like bread pudding, but this had a very good taste) and what they called their chocolate terrine. This dessert had two slabs (for lack of a better term) of a dark chocolate with almonds (essentially with the texture of fudge) and plated them with a raspberry sauce. A simple dessert, but absolutely amazing, I was tempted to lick the plate afterwards in order to make sure I got all the raspberry sauce. The tartness of the raspberry cut through the sweetness of the chocolate nicely, so although it was a very rich dessert, it didn't feel nearly as heavy as you might expect. I've been using the receipt to remember the dishes, since it was itemized, and I notice now that there's a discount listed as "chef's special peeps." I'm not sure what that was for, but it does cement in my mind the impression I had as I walked away - while the place is small and a bit cramped, and the front staff could use a little bit of work on their attitude, the reputation for good food is well deserved, but the reputation for bad service isn't. The meal was nothing but excellent in every way, right down to the little unexpected touches that take it from "good" to "memorable."
  10. I've heard of these, why would you recommend those specifically? I'm just trying to get a sense of how I should prioritize...since while I gather many restaurants will accomodate special requests, requesting them to puree my food would probably lose something in the presentation.
  11. Hi all. This is my first post, so forgive me if this is out of line on this forum. I've been a fairly regular lurker, but just signed up today. I've recently moved to the DC suburb area, so I haven't yet gotten to try many of the restaurants mentioned on here. The catch is that I only truly have a limited time to eat - my jaws are in the process of self-destructing, and even a replacement joint isn't a possibility. So before I go on a liquid diet entirely, I'm trying to go after all the food experiences in the city that shouldn't be missed. Price isn't a major consideration (we did Laboratorio a couple of weeks ago and loved it, and have reservations in a couple of weeks for minibar). Essentially, I'd like to hear the "cannot be missed" experiences. Your best meals, where the food quality, service, ambiance, and the rest made for an unbelievable outing. I'm sure a number of places offer amazing food, but I'm looking for ones that go a bit above just that to elevate them into that "special" category. After all, I truly am picking out some of my last meals, so I want the "I would go here for my final meal" type places. Chefs, managers, affiliated staff, please feel free to chime in as well. My thoughts so far are Maestro - Chef's tasting menu Makoto - I love Kaz Sushi wholeheartedly, but being part Japanese, my friends thought I might enjoy the more traditional restaurant Zayatinya - heard good things about the desserts, but this seems a little low on the priority scale Jaleo - heard great things, but is it something you need to make a dinner experience out of? Citronelle - Chef's tasting menu Firefly Corduroy - The reviews from posters here have been amazing, it definitely seems like a place worthy of a visit. Are there other suggestions people might have? Thanks, and sorry for coming right out to make a request on my first posting.
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