NovaLawyer
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Everything posted by NovaLawyer
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Lunch at Zengo today. Living Social ran a $30 for $15 coupon which attracted me. They stock a very good inexpensive white wine (Argentian) called torrontes that I've been happily sipping for a dozen years. Decent rolls - better the "Angry Zengo" than the cream cheese-infused lobster roll. (I cannot get used to cream cheese in my sushi rolls). Food highlight was the tuna tacos, although the tuna remined me overmuch of ground beef. The guacamole served with it slathered over all shortcomings. And did I say the torrontes was excellent? Service was astonishing. I was actually recognized when I sat down at the table and the waiter came back to me occasionally to check on how my lunch was going. He was suitably rewarded. Richard Sandoval has not attacked me in a speech yet. Amazing.
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Over the weekend a friend mentioned a good meal they'd recently had here. I happened to be walking by at lunchtime yesterday and remembered the compliment. $18 lunch of a sizable medium-rare New York strip, cheese mashed potatoes, and a skillet of freshly baked corn bread. High concept fare it was not, but it definitely was a good meal at a good price. So mark this down as another place added to my Penn Quarter lunch rotation of Cedar, America Eats, Zaytinya, Jaleo, Fiola, and Zengo.
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Mr. Black wants to shoot the messenger. My May 29th post pointed out the abominable service I received (or perhaps more precisely, "didn't receive") on my visit to his Pearl Dive Oyster Palace. And my observation of the burnt BBQ platters sitting half-uneaten at the neighboring table - well, those plates not look to me like anything special. Instead of remedying the service problem that apparently has affected more than just me - it has affected multiple posters - he goes on a rant. Mr. Black, you've just given me a reason to avoid all your restaurants - the last thing I want to do is give my customer money to an owner who acts like an ingrate towards would-be customers offering honest feedback. That said, I've never had a bad meal at Black Salt, but it's been a long while since I was in and it will be around the time that hell freezes over that I try it again. Compare your social media approach with Michael Landrum, who took my criticism of his flagship here with grace and gave me a reason to give them another shot. My first job was in the restaurant industry. I probably washed more dishes before I was 18 than you've washed in your entire life, Mr. Black. Good luck remedying your service problem at Pearl Dive. And sorry you have a problem with criticism - I'm going to post the good, the bad, and the ugly of my dining experiences.
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Bacon has been around longer than rooftop bars. But a couple of years ago it seemed that every restaurant in this town rushed to put bacon on its menu. And now every restaurant in this town that can is installing a rooftop bar. In 2015 I think most of them shelling out the big bucks to install them will realize that they're only profitable about 90-100 days a year. Mmmmmmm......... bacon.
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Rooftop bars = the bacon of 2012!
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"What, me worry?" Sounds like a failed restaurenteur who refused to compromise his concept in order to be give the customers what they want, a/k/a BuddhaBar's quote in Eater.
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I think the veal chop was $37 when I ordered it a couple of times last winter. Man, was it TASTY. $50? Guess this means business is good at Fiola. Charge as much as the customers will pay. It's called free enterprise. I can't blame them for that. Of course I can eat elsewhere if I don't want to pay that much money, either, so the thing works both ways.
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I stuck my nose inside this joint a few weeks ago and was overwhelmed by the fragant scent of roasting meats. The line, however, was much too long for me to wait. I quickly fled and ate a meal at (probably) an inferior establishment. I am going to wait in line later this week and sample the real thing before it goes away.
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The BBQ place in that space wasn't bad - they had a wood fired oven to roast things up on. I think, however, that a nice Italian place could do a land-office business in that strip mall, which already has an Indian place (Aditi), a pan-Asian place (Sweet Ginger), and a noveau-American place (Maplewood Grill). The last two aren't bad, I've eaten at them both. Never at the Indian joint. A concentration of decent restaurants in a single location is generally not a bad thing.
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Last call! Get in and let Chef Karen cook for you before my favorite restaurant closes down. The "buffalo wings" (I say it in quotes because they aren't really buffalo wings that one consumes at a sports bar) themselves are worth the trip. And the $1 oysters at happy hour are a deal that can't be beat.
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Sic gloria transit.
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I don't remember much. I do remember that the booze was outstanding. Maybe that second point has something to do with the first?
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Should I pile on here and say that I've eaten here twice in the last couple months and it was excellent both times? Nah, that would be overkill. No need for yet another "me too" post. Never mind, move along, nothing to see here. ;-)
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Saturday dinner here was a disappointment. The single highlight was good guacamole and chips. Lowlights - gooey, oily, distasteful mess of a mushroom/garlic/queso with corn tortillas, so-so jicama salad, uninspired pair of overcooked scallops in a faux-Mexican sauce, and sliced mole flank steak paired with not mole but more GUACAMOLE, also another gloppy mess of mushrooms and what I suppose they called mole. Dessert was a barely-cooked pineapple paired with what appeared to be some Breyers vanilla ice cream and a gooey, sticky pecan pie type of thing paired with reddi-whip that was advertised as crunchy toffee bars. Young, inexperienced college students as servers. Eager but clueless. Small room, so loud you cannot hear yourself think, even though it was only half full at dinner rush. $12 (!) for a small rail-tequila margarita. A small-plate dinner for two came to a whopping $115. Many other better Mexican places available. I will not return. The last time I ate at the sister restaurant next door - Bazin's on Church - I had an equally poor meal. I guess I will just steer clear of anything run by this owner in the future. I'm sure he's a nice guy, and I especially wish the "little guy" success in running and opening restaurants, but both of his places in Vienna are just not up to the task in my humble opinion.
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I ate here last winter on a very slow weekday evening. Chef Ron Tanaka's offerings were all uniformly excellent. The gin martini downstairs was superb. That said, there were probably only a dozen patrons upstairs in the dining room, so it would be hard to screw up service. I note that New Heights used to be on the savored.com website, but are gone now. If they came back, it would be a very good bargain, if my prior experience was any indication. But lacking the discount, there are still enough places using that service that I've yet to try that will keep me from coming back.
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Stopped by here yesterday to grab a bite of lunch, preferably consisting of a few succulent bivalves. Normally this is the place where I would insert my comments on the food, but unfortunately the service was so abominably rotten that I never got any food. I also did not get any drinks. I also did not get even an acknowledgement of my existence by the service staff, who apparently had other things to do for the 15 minutes I sat at a booth and waited. And waited. And waited. I did, however, get a look at what other people were eating and drinking. It didn't look anything special. The room is loud, and not very appealing. I will not give them a second chance to make a first impression. There are too many other places in town that value my patronage and want me to be a customer. This place did not want me to dine there, and I will not disappoint their future expectations of me.
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Don, 2941 was one of my favorite restaurants, and I was equally dubious with respect to the makeover. But earlier this week I managed to convince a beautiful woman to join me there for dinner (she's blind) and was pleasantly surprised by the result. No, it is not the same as it was, but the location is still marvelous, the food is still excellent, and the service, at least for us during a weekday evening, was both knowledgeable and attentive. No more linens, but also no more $400 tabs for a couple. Four a la carte courses paired with a glass of wine apiece (eggplant was the star of the appetizers, gnochetti of the pastas, duck breast of the entrees, and lemon-olive oil cake) filled us to the brim in a way the old 2941 never did, and for about half the price. In the late winter Sietsema hated it, foolish me, I KNOW my inner voice tells me to discount half of what that guy writes. Problem was, I paid attention in this case and waited half a year to head back. Sorry I waited. 2941 is still excellent.
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I was there shortly after he was hired but did not notice any differences from the menu I had tried before his arrival. This is an excellent up-scale steakhouse (up-scale in both price and quality), perhaps the best in DC in my opinion. One way I try to save a bit of dosh on the tab is to go by at Happy Hour, have a couple $5 cocktails at the bar, perhaps one of their $5 appetizers (always very good), and then sit down at the table to buy yourself a single entree: a great big hunk of roasted cow flesh. Saves probably $25 a head off what you'd pay if you had the whole meal at the table.
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Interesting to find only four posts on this place. Ate here last week and had an excellent meal. A couple of well-made bourbon cocktails, an appealing caesar salad (thankfully with anchovies, the way it's supposed to be made), excellent lamb chops on polenta, and turducken! A reasonably-priced bottle of 14 vines rounded out the proceedings. (Ooops, forgetting a couple of snorts of Woodford Reserve for dessert!) Service was efficient and pleasant, the downstairs room is lively, with a young-skewing crowd happily indulging at the bar (upstairs closed when we came in). I had stumbled upon Smith Commons only because it has 30% off availability through savored.com - showing why restaurants ought to look carefully at using that site's excellent service. I definitely shall return, and unreservedly recommend the place. Even if you can't get a discount, their menu prices are very reasonable for DC (i.e., $19 turducken entree, $21 for the lamb chops).
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Eaten here recently once for lunch at the bar once for dinner. I can echo Sacrilicious' favorable comments on the $19 bar lunch menu. What impressed me most was the range of entree options. There were a dozen or so different items, running the range of the kitchen's options. I had a fettucine ragu, standard Italian kitchen stuff, and they did it very, very nicely. Two dessert items, I chose a chocolate cake which I didn't really care for - technically it was good but it was in a deconstructed presentation and struck me as a little bit too busy. I definitely will be back to check out the other entrees on the list. As for dinner - we constructed a little impromptu tasting menu, and of it I must say that I don't remember a whole lot because we were considerably inebriated with pre-dinner bar and cocktail hopping (ha ha ha). I remember enough to say that we liked it a lot (two dishes I can specifically recall - sweetbreads and the ribeye). Perhaps most memorable, given the liquor consumption of the evening, was a nice Lamole Chianti Classico Barrique on the menu for $48. I shall have to dine in the evening again whilst sober, in order to appreciate the kitchen's specific qualities. Service and ambience very positive, on both visits.
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One thing I will say, it has always been clear to me that you are loyal to your employees. I admire this, especially in the food business. I can perfectly accept a kitchen can have an off night. Classy response, Michael. Kudos.
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New Foodie gives the rundown on the very-good-priced $5 happy hour appetizers. I have been in here three times in recent weekday afternoons after work. I found each of these small plates to be excellent. I also can recommend the $5 cocktails, starting with very servicable margartias, proceeding to a good mojito, and ending with a caprihina (which I did not try, but noticed plenty of people imbibing). Happy hour downstairs has been very busy on each of the three times I have come by. With a pretty constant 60/40 female/male mix, boys, I think there are worse places to stop by on a weekday afternoon after you have done your best for your employer.
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The potatoes were gummy and cold. The spinach was better, but mainly in the sense of coming out hot. I call it a wash.
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I often find negative reviews to be superior to positive ones. I have given you a series of good luncheon places in downtown/Penn Quarter. Let me tell you a few words about the WORST meal I have had in a long time. It was here. I will never return. A 12-top, specially phoned in for dining, bringing in our office people. This was not my choice. I got here a half-hour early, to scout out. A glass of overpriced, too-small Italian red at the bar. An ambience reminisencent of Buca di Beppo or Maggianos. Not too bad, in theory. Our group arrived. And sat. And sat. And sat. Let's just say that service was a challenge. Hey! Give me a salad and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Easy order for an Italian joint, yes? Let's just say it took these guys a full 90 minutes to get out our order. Excuse, excuse, excuse. Yes, it was busy. No, we were not difficult customers. To their credit they realized their poor service and comped us a dessert apiece. Which took another 45 minutes to get served! I wish it wasn't an office lunch, if it hadn't of been I'd have had plenty of the cheap boxed red wine they serve, and I wouldn't have noticed. Instead I had to gulp iced tea like every other pathetic DC office worker nowadays, and I was soberly aware of every shortcoming. Plus, the pasta really was not pleasant. It really was poor, truth be told, but I am not the crotchety type. Except that I will never, ever, eat at this joint again. You have been warned.