Koozebanian Fazoob
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Everything posted by Koozebanian Fazoob
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This might be stretching it a bit, but Laurienzo is sort-of technically in Clarksburg. It's physically located up in Hyattstown but they have a Clarksburg address. Anyway, I have not yet been to this location yet, but this is a second location for the Mt.Airy restaurant. As far as I know this is a locally run place, so probably worth checking out.- 5 replies
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Well, that was fast. I wonder how Jaymar has managed to survive for over 10 years hiding over on Main Street less than a block away. Maybe the rent is much lower over there.
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There's also a new location opening up in One Loudoun, same development as where the Alamo is located.
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At the Frederick location I've noticed recently that things on the menu are rotating around quite frequently. They seem to have different desserts every time I go there, and there are entrees that cycle in and out periodically. Of most obvious note, the dohnuts seem to change flavors every month or so. There have been Gingerbread, Red Velvet, and some kind of Strawberry just off the top of my head. They also had a Jambalaya on the menu one time I went there, but it was not there when I went last week. It was quite good, but it almost felt too 'clean' for what I expect out of a jambalaya. The Restaurant week menu also had a few completely different items, which was annoying because they were only available if you got the whole prefix. MOST of the menu is static mind you, but there seem to be x number of slots in certain categories that change up. This seems to be a pretty common strategy to me.
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Well, in the last year RTC has lost Cosi, Pho&Rolls, Oro Pomodoro, Taste of Saigon, No. 82 Steak Out, Potomac River Running, and Carbon. Apparently. Meanwhile, moving in are "Miso Cafe" and Samovar, a Russian restaurant that will be run by a couple of folks from Tajikistan. Link Also open now is Ev & Maddy's, which is apparently "contemporary, French-inspired cuisine in a trendy, yet cozy atmosphere." I wonder how many more years Jin River and Bob's will continue to be able to exist in the area? Development has been pretty slow, but those buildings are going to get torn down sooner or later.
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Just to clarify if you missed it in my other post, but my one and only trip here was a few years back, so I couldn't say anything about the current state of the place. I only really brought it up because it's been so long and I still get kind of mad when I think about it. Basically it's what Don is getting at, the terrible service just made everything else seem that much worse because it instantly made everyone unhappy or uncomfortable. The only place I can think of that I've had close to this level of "Fuck You" service was the Casa Rico in Frederick, but I don't think we even have a thread for that here. Also I completely forgot about the Geoduck rant, I'm glad to see it again because I needed the laugh.
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The place was pretty small, and expectedly it was extremely crowded. Not even that rare kind of "fun" crowded where people are being social and having a good time, just a lot of people packed into line waiting to order something. Making this problem much worse however, is that the line layout was just unbelievably bad, there was no 'linear' path to follow to enter, order, and leave. You had to horseshoe into a very small area and it was as confusing as it was unpleasant. This is largely to blame based on how thin the row house it was built in itself was, but even still, you could definitely find a much better layout than what they did. Next big problem, the place was Not Clean. The seating areas were so packed and busy that I can understand there being issues here. The real problem is the kitchen was dirty, and it's an open kitchen so you can just see right in. Not just a little dirty either, like, "have you cleaned the place in the last couple of days" dirty. I know the place was hammered, but wow it was an immediate turn off before even getting my food. Ordering. Here's really the big part. I have never felt so loathed by someone trying to sell me something before in my life. Active disdain for my existence. Glaring off to the side, sarcastically asking "Yeah what do you want." Basically 0 verbal communication after that, I was going to ask a few things about the menu but, ehhh nope. Working fast food sucks, I know. Busy days suck, I know. Serving endless tides of hipsters and faux-foodies much suck even more, I'm sure. But faking being nice and friendly to customers to make them feel comfortable and welcome is sort of the entire point of the person being there to take your order, if you can't do that, you need to swap in someone who can, or hire someone who can. Otherwise, just remove the register and line entirely, and order by cellphone or touch display, because that will be a dramatically more pleasant experience. Seating. Not happening. Got a buzzer and went to sit outside, it was winter and it was pretty cold. It took about 30 minutes for our buzzers to start ringing, they apparently failed to bother to ring us when my Milkshake was done so it had been sitting there. A hobo started harassing us for money while we were eating, before a policeman came over to tell him to buzz off. I'm not really going to get into detail on the food itself because frankly I wouldn't go back to this place or recommend anyone ever go here just based on service alone. But for completion's sake, I will tell you this about the food: Five Guys is better.
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It's been a few years since the one trip I made to this place. In those years, I've eaten at places where I was the only white person in the entire place. I've eaten in neighborhoods where I felt like I was pretty likely to get robbed. I've eaten at places where I couldn't read the menu or even talk to the waitress. And despite all of those things, I've still never eaten at a place where I felt less comfortable and less welcome than Good Stuff Eatery.
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What in the name of god
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The north Frederick location has been open for a little while now by the way. The structure of it is different than the other two however, it's done cafeteria style, so you get in line, get a tray, order what you want, then fight for a table. Only stopped in at that location once so far, right after it opened. Most everything seems about the same as the other locations to me, the one big exception was the Brisket. When I got the brisket at this location, it was bad, straight up. Early kinks being worked out maybe? I'm not really sure, I should stop by again at some point to give it another try, it's right next to the gym I go to anyway.
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Decided to give this a try after deangold's recommendation. The place was pretty good overall and the spicy beef was in fact excellent. This is definitely my #1 choice for hotpot now as well if, for no other reason, it's very close by and no worse quality food than any of the others I've been to. The cheaper non-seafood option is great to have as well since my wife does not eat any seafood at all. The drink list is pretty terrible but what can you do. I am, however, somewhat baffled at his mention of quality of service. I've been to Hot Spot several times and always had very good service, very prompt and friendly. Might help that we always sit at the bar and order lots of drinks, I dunno. When we went here, the service was frankly pretty bad. We had to hunt down our waiter every time we wanted something. We consistently got the wrong food brought to us, several times they brought things we didn't order and every single time they failed to bring us something we did. The server was not rude or anything however, just extremely inattentive. I'm not sure who is ultimately responsible for making sure the right food is brought out, but they were clearly not even remotely paying attention to their job that night. Anyway, like I said I still really like this place despite the flakey service so I'll be back soon enough.
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They finally closed it down huh? They tried to sue the mall for the right to stay open but it got dismissed so it seems. I wonder if they managed to find a place to relocate? More importantly, I wonder if they are selling any of their arcade cabs on the cheap? There seems to be a lot of drama surrounding the changes they are trying to make to the White Flint area. I'm not really keen on all the details, but I would certainly welcome the dedicated bus lane for 355 they want to put in. I think the plans for the Mall area itself is another commercial+residential center like RTC.
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Website 301-663-1036 9 East Patrick Street Frederick, MD 21701 Closed on Mondays, like a lot of places in downtown. Located in a fairly small storefront along E Patrick Street, right across from Nola and very close to the Carrol Creek parking garage. It's small, but it's pretty hard to miss, with a nice bright blue sign, and some outdoor seating even. This place is pretty darn good I have to say. Most of the entrees are simple platters of <Meat> + Rice + Black Beans + Plantains, with boiled or fried Yuca as a substitution option. Which is great. There are also sandwich options, soups and salads, and some pretty good desserts. The online menu seems to be a bit out of date with the one at the actual restaurant, there were many different options when I was there than what appear online. We've tried both of the Empanada appetizers, both were good but I think I prefer the ground beef one better. My wife tried two different beef entrees, I tried one that was a fried chicken breast with cheese and tomato sauce, and another that was simple fried morsels of pork. All of the entrees were good, I would recommend the pork as it was delicious, fairly salt, extremely dense, just a nice lunch for a Sunday afternoon. The Tres Leches here is good, my wife also liked the Guava Empanadas. The Espresso they have here is no joke, made my tongue tingle to drink it. Also make sure to grab a Cuba Libre to enjoy while you watch the hipsters waiting 3 hours for a table at Cafe Nola across the street.
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Website 240-439-4010 7810 Wormans Mill Rd. Frederick, MD 21701 This is a nice bar and grill up in northern Frederick, right across from the Wegmans. The food here is what I would categorize as 'above average but not worth going much out of your way for', but the beer selection here is one of the better ones in town. Most notably, the beer selection is constantly rotating. Usually there will be one or two craft brewers from the area taking up 4-6 taps each, as well as a decent staple selection. Troegs, Dogfish, Duclaw, Flying Dog, Victory, and Heavy Seas are all locals that frequently appear here. It's good to keep your ears open because they occasionally will do full tap takeovers, and sometimes have special deals or pairings or freebies. They had a Duclaw takeover once where a $5 12oz pour let you keep the glass, which was nice. They also have a Nitro tap, of which Old Rasputin is frequently on board, please make sure to get this if you go here and see it. They also have a Randal, which rotates in and out. Finally, they have some decent bottles and cans to choose from, including Ten Fidy, V12, Blasphemy, and I've even seen Avery's Mephistopheles here for a disturbingly low price before (about $6 for a 12oz bottle). In general, the prices here are Pretty Good for beer. Food wise, definitely do not pass up on the Goat Cheese Brulee Dip, this stuff is just all kinds of amazing. I have not had anything else here I thought was exceptionally good, but nothing has been bad either. I usually go for a chicken sandwich or the Jambalaya myself, my wife always gets the steak with blue cheese. Also peanut butter pie. I just can't help myself.
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Been here a few more times and feel like I should add a few negative notes from our experiences. The big thing, that both me and my dad have noticed, is that the red sauce here is kind of weak. If you've read my previous posts you've probably noticed I prefer white pizzas and similar, so it took me a while before I even tried something with tomato sauce on it here. Anyway, I wasn't real impressed by the one I had, so I suppose I'll stick with other types of pizzas here. (My dad had harsher things to say, but considering he makes his own pizza routinely and grows all his own vegetables for his own sauces in his back yard, he's a little harder to impress when it comes to pizza.) Second big thing... acoustics. I have no idea what is going on with the walls or ceiling or whatever with this place, but holy cow is the noise level here high. We made the horrible mistake of coming here during the World Cup, and a single table of people cheering and pounding on the tables and walls was ear splitting. Maybe a better question to ask is why nobody asked them to keep the noise down, but you know how hooligans get. Anyway, not to make this an entirely negative post, my dad did have very high praise for the Gorgonzola salad that he got. I still quite enjoy this place in general... and somehow still haven't had a change to try a pesto and chicken pizza here yet. Next time's for sure.
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For whatever it's worth, I go to the Frederick location periodically and haven't noticed any change in the quality of the pizza or other food there since it opened. I'd been to the Kentlands location a few times prior as well, seems the same to me as that. Maybe the quality had already started to decline by the time I started eating there? Or maybe I just haven't noticed the change or haven't ordered the right things. :I
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Well, I have no idea when this happened, but apparently this place reopened in a new location. http://thatcubanplace.com 506 E Church St. Frederick, Maryland 21701 Phone: 301-760-7776 It's about 2 blocks east of Shab Row. Not exactly a primo location, but if you miss this place maybe stop in and see how it is.
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Fountain Rock Management is the name of the group that owns these restaurants, and it appears that group is owned by both Nezih Pistar and Phil Bowers. I don't really have any good details on how the company operates or owns their restaurants unfortunately. Articles seem to give the impression that either one or the other is the owner of each, but the business end may be much more complicated than that for all I know. They also own Monocacy Brewing, which bottles and distributes locally, based out of what used to be an ice cream factory.
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Pizza time! I had some sort of bizarre creation called the Sunday Surprise. It had panna, mozzarella, speck, sausage, egg, potatoes, and maple syrup. It tasted like breakfast. All the breakfast. Wife ended up getting the Blue Fico again, and my in-laws decided to split a regular old Pepperoni. Pictures of all three are attached. My dad also went here and mentioned that he got the Bianca and really enjoyed it. He also said he liked the spinach, fig, and gorgonzola salad, and the artichoke appetizer. So we're 2 for 2 so far here. I failed to try a pesto&chicken pizza this time, but there's always next time I suppose.
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Just in case you missed the followup on why it closed: IRS wasn't too happy about that.
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Website 221 N East ST Frederick, MD 21701 This is a new place from the same group who run Brewer's Alley, Isabellas, and Ayse. It replaces what used to be the Shab Row Bistro and Wine Bar, in a somewhat awkward to reach part of East street adjacent to a tiny park. As you can probably guess, they specialize in Neapolitan pizza and feature beers from Monocacy Brewing (the Brewer's Alley guys). We heard about this place from my dad actually, who heard about it from the FOAM club. We'd been wondering what was going on with this building for a while, since we drive past it fairly often and they had covered all the windows for a time. Turns out this place had opened in early April, and has quickly become a new trendy spot in Frederick. There appears to still be a side of the building dedicated to wine casks, I'm not sure if that's in use, planned to be put to use, or planned to be turned into an expansion for the restaraunt. We got there pretty early on a Tuesday, around 5:30. The place has a decent amount of seating, a number of oversized tables which they may seat multiple parties at, two bars right next to each other (a proper bar and a bar overlooking the pizza oven), and outdoor seating. It was still pretty empty at this point, so we got seated immediately. Down to the important stuff. My wife decided to try the Blu Fico (gorgonzola, yukon gold potatoes, figs, mozzarella, rosemary oil), and I dared try recreate a favorite of mine (panna sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, prosciutto). The pizza here is fantastic, this is easily the best pizza you can get in Frederick. People who have eaten at Pizza CS in Rockville are going to find the style and taste of the pizza very familar. Delicious crust and toppings. We've only been here the once so far so I can't speak for any of the other options, but I'm desperate to go back and try a pesto & chicken pizza next. As far as desserts go, I got the Chocolate Bundino (which is the same one they serve at Ayse), wife ended up getting a Cannoli. These were fine, but next time I'm definitely going to try out some of the cookies instead. Beer selection is mearly okay, they have a few of the Brewer's Alley beers on tap, and a few random bottles and cans from Maui, Monocacy, and Oscar Blues. While I'm a fan of Monocacy's stuff, it's kind of a small and boring list by comparison to many other places in town. I don't know beans about Wine, so someone else will have to chime in on the quality of the wine list. Our food came out pretty darn fast I should mention, only took a few minutes for the pizzas to come out. The service was very good, friendly and fast and answered my many dumb questions. By the time we were leaving at around 6:30 or so, the place was already completely full and people were waiting for tables, and keep in mind this was on a Tuesday and two months after opening. I suspect this place will be quite impossible to get into on a Friday or Saturday, at least for a good while anyway. So there you have it. I'll be back here soon enough to try some other items, but if everything else is as good as what I had on my first visit, I'm pretty sure this will be locked in a tie with Pizza CS for my favorite pizza in Maryland. Give it a shot and see what you think, just make sure you go early.
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We actually stopped in here with a big group a month or two back. Basically everything we had was between good to great. Among other things, we tried the XLBs, some of the different big dumplings (spicy pork ones and vegetarian ones, I think), spicy beef jerk, several noodle dishes, and a rice cakes + pork dish. It's been a while so I don't remember all the details unfortunately! I'll counter porcupine on the Beef Jerky and say I much, much prefered the jerky here over Jin River's. I love this stuff to death, and the leftovers even reheated well. The dumplings were good, though I'm not sure if I prefer them here over Jin River's or not. When we were there the place was pretty busy, but the service was good and moved quickly. I'm pretty sure we were the only non-Chinese group eating there. Even ordering way too much food, the bill was only around $20 a person including tax and tip. Overall, I think this place is pretty solid. It's not the kind of place you'd go way out of your way to get to, but if you live or work in the area you'll probably enjoy adding it to your rotation.
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I got this joke like a day after reading it and I feel really bad about it. :I
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Alright, ending up going back here with a couple of friends and tried another set of things. Nobody took pictures, so just assume it all looked delicious. :I Samsa - rockcreek covered the details on this one pretty well, though mine didn't have any trouble holding together. I thought it was pretty good overall, but honestly I will probably give it a pass in the future because I liked the Manti much better. Manti w/Meat - Noodley dumplings stuffed with meat, onions, spices. Same idea as the Samsa in a different package, basically. Very good, I could easily make a meal out of these. I actually did have considerable trouble keeping them from falling apart, which made them a little tricky to eat. These also can be made Crispy, which I'm assuming is pan fried as opposed to steamed, so I'll probably try that next time and see if they stay in once piece better (though the waiter actually recommended them non-crispy when I asked which was better). And you can also get them stuffed with Potatoes or Pumpkin, which I will certainly have to give a try as well. Turkish style liver - Believe this is what my friend ordered. I'm not a huge fan of liver but I thought this was very good. I would describe the liver as being "not too livery" if that makes any sense to you, fairly mild in flavor but still good. It comes with a vinegary(?) sauce on the bottom of the plate which went really well with it. I was kind of surprised I liked this as much as I did. Kutabi w/Greens - It's the same as the Kutabi w/meat except it's stuff with <something green> instead. I'm picky about things colored green so this wasn't my kind of thing, but both of my friends (who are less picky about things on that part of the color spectrum) said they liked it. So if you are into crispy things stuffed with leaves and covered in spices, give this a spin and see what you think. Quails - I didn't catch the name of this dish, it was on the separate Chef's specials menu. It's two quails (which might have been brined?) and a side of potatoes & mushrooms. My friend who ordered it thought the whole thing was really great, and later said he wished he had gotten another order to go (lol). I only took a couple of bites of it myself, I thought it was decent but wasn't super into it, thinking it might be one of those things where the more you eat of it the more you like it. Again, all of this stuff, plus 3 more sides and drinks, only cost us around $50. Everything we've had here has been anywhere from solid (if not super exciting) to excellent, and the price being so fantastic means we'll probably be back here again soon enough! Overall favorites so far: Lamb Kebob, Manti, and Kutabi.
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Yes, there does seem to be a third location opening soon. It's up in the new shopping center in north Frederick, off 26, near the giant Sport & Health (which is not too far from the Wegmans if you know where that is). Should be a really good location for them, tons of traffic up there.
