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Kapnos, Kapnos Taverna, and Kapnos Kouzina - Greek in Multiple Area Locations - Closed


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First visit last night. We opted for the bar as the guys wanted to watch the games. We went through a variety of plates. Highlights were the lamb, suckling pig (totally yummy and 2 plates ordered), greek fries.Taramasolata was also tasty but 3 not large portions of spreads for $22 was not worth it. The scallops and shrimp plates were just ok. Flatbread was good and warm. My wife had a Santorini white and I brought in a bottle of CNDP which was decanted at my request.  Service was friendly, attentive and the food came out quickly as it wasn't that busy.  The bill reflected the price paid when visiting a celebrity chef establishment. I can't say we will be in a hurry to return.

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Yeah, personally, I find Graffiato to give much better value among Mike Isabella joints.  I was saying to a friend on Saturday night that one of the things I like about Graffiato is that most of the items seem like they could easily cost two or three dollars more, given its real estate and the general DC restaurant scene.  At Kapnos, by contrast, that extra two or three dollars is definitely baked into the price.

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First visit last night. We opted for the bar as the guys wanted to watch the games. We went through a variety of plates. Highlights were the lamb, suckling pig (totally yummy and 2 plates ordered), greek fries.Taramasolata was also tasty but 3 not large portions of spreads for $22 was not worth it. The scallops and shrimp plates were just ok. Flatbread was good and warm. My wife had a Santorini white and I brought in a bottle of CNDP which was decanted at my request.  Service was friendly, attentive and the food came out quickly as it wasn't that busy.  The bill reflected the price paid when visiting a celebrity chef establishment. I can't say we will be in a hurry to return.

$22 for 3 spreads is an eye-catching price - I did a double-take when I saw it.

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We had a delightful first visit at Kapnos last Saturday. I don't know what took us so long to get there, but we won't wait very long to return. There were 3 of us and we ordered 8 dishes to share.

First up were 2 of the dips with pita bread: Tyrokafteri: feta, smoked manori, grains of paradise, and Melitzanosalata: smoky eggplant, roasted peppers, walnuts, feta. Both of these were very good, but the smoky eggplant was outstanding. The pita bread seemed to be house-made, but I may be wrong about that. Wherever it was baked, it was quite good. Two very large pieces were delivered at the outset; our guest ordered several more and we were not charged for them.

For vegetables/legumes we ordered the Charred Brussels with white anchovy, black garlic, kalamata, and red pepper and they were fantastic. The anchovy added just the right amount of umami and the kalamatas the briny. The Fourno Patates with lemon, feta, pastirma, and scallion were a disappointment "“ while the potatoes were well-cooked, there wasn't much flavor at all. Rounding out the trio was the Gigandes which are giant beans prepared with onion seeds, bulbs, stems, flowers. I love gigande beans and whenever I see them on a menu, I'm inclined to order them. These were a tad mushy and not all that flavorful and were delivered at the end of the meal and so were a bit of an afterthought.

We ordered 3 proteins, starting with the Seared Diver Scallops which were dressed with citrus, brown butter, poppy seed. There were only 2 scallops and at $15 for the dish, that seemed over-priced. My two dining companions had one scallop each and weren't particularly impressed; I didn't taste this dish so I can't comment.

The Suckling Pig over orzo and flavored with dill and orange was exquisite. All of us loved this and my only complaint would be that there just wasn't enough of it!

Finally, the Saturday Classic special is Kapama, a kind of cinnamon-spiced lamb stew served over a grain. We used to be regulars at the original Cava in Rockville and our favorite dish there was the lamb kapama. So, we were enticed. It was very, very good "“ somewhat different from the Cava rendition, but delicious all the same.

Our server was very friendly, very knowledgeable, and very helpful. All in all, it was a lovely experience that we'd be happy to repeat.

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I had an outstanding meal on Monday night. A large group of us (11) went to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had a large table just in front of the open kitchen, which was a nice touch. Food, beverages and service were all outstanding throughout. The trade off is that you pay for it here, but I am eager to go back.

With such a large table everyone sort of ordered what they wanted within couples or individuals and then a lot of things got passed for others to at least have a bite so I got to taste a good bit of the food that way. Two of the three dishes I ordered individually were standouts to me, the roasted duck phyllo pie and the charred octopus, both of which have been highlighted in previous reviews. The smoky beets, with yogurt, green peppercorn, and citrus were also impressive. I wanted to round out my meal with another vegetable dish so against my better judgement (I was so full) I ordered the briam, a medley of roasted tomato, squash, onion, and purple potato served over a tomato sauce with fresh rosemary.  Delicious, just not the star of the evening compared to some of the protein dishes.

Highlights from some of the other dishes ordered by our group, the melitzanosalata (eggplant) spread with fresh made pita, the gigandes, giant beans in a creamy yellow pepper sauce which were highlighted by some perfectly roasted cippolini onions, and the classic that night, the moussaka. I'm not sure that the latter would be considered entirely traditional, but it was so delicious that I stuffed several more bites in my mouth at the end of the meal when frankly there just wasn't room left.

The spiced baby goat was also very nice, with a lot of heat from the harissa, and the tuna tartare was enhanced by what I believe was a harissa oil on the bottom of the plate.

For dessert we shared the toukoumades, crispy fritters with pistachio and spiced honey, which were to my surprise and delight not particularly sweet and the pistachio cake with brown butter ice cream, which I enjoyed but was frankly too full to appreciate fully I think.

All of the food was beautifully plated and worked well despite the larger number of components on many of the dishes. I also enjoyed my kegged lemonade (I opted for the one with gin, grilled lemon, honey and thyme) and was happy to see the Fingerlakes cabernet franc that I've enjoyed at Graffiato on tap here. I finished with a glass of the Kapnos red, a blend of syrah, merlot, and xinomavro and it was exactly what I had hoped, medium bodied with a nice amount of acidity.

I have eaten at Graffiato quite a few times and always enjoy it, but I feel like the food at Kapnos is on another level. The service was as well - perfect from the moment we sat down until we paid our bill. I wish I had caught our server's name so I could mention it here as she really was outstanding. I am eager to go back and am certainly eager to root for Chef George on Top Chef having had such a great experience at Kapnos.

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$22 for 3 spreads is an eye-catching price - I did a double-take when I saw it.

I just noticed this comment and have to say that I don't understand the pricing on this and wouldn't recommend ordering the trio. We had a couple at our table order the trio and had quite a few people order full size portions of a couple of the dips. I would say the portions on the trio were about half the normal portion (or 2/3 at the absolute most) so in essence, you are getting about 1 1/2 - 2 portions for $22. Individual portions are all $8 with the exception of the tarmosalata, which is $12. Unless you really feel you must try 3, I think it makes more sense to just order 1 or 2 full portions. The smoky eggplant spread won't disappoint.

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I just noticed this comment and have to say that I don't understand the pricing on this and wouldn't recommend ordering the trio. We had a couple at our table order the trio and had quite a few people order full size portions of a couple of the dips. I would say the portions on the trio were about half the normal portion (or 2/3 at the absolute most) so in essence, you are getting about 1 1/2 - 2 portions for $22. Individual portions are all $8 with the exception of the tarmosalata, which is $12. Unless you really feel you must try 3, I think it makes more sense to just order 1 or 2 full portions. The smoky eggplant spread won't disappoint.

 

Bethesda location is closed per Bethesda Now.

"Vapiano Closes In Bethesda" by Aaron Kraut on bethesdanow.com

And, you'll have your chance to try it in Bethesda because Kapnos is going to be replacing (the just-closed) Vapiano there.

---

[ETA: I originally posted this afternoon at around 12:15 PM, inside of Choirgirl21's post (I was trying to do some fancy cut/paste work, and obviously failed). My apologies if I caused any confusion - my post has now been correctly extracted, and Choirgirl21 had nothing to do with the mistake. Not a big deal, but the above one little sentence apparently caused a mini-storm on Twitter (once again, I underestimate the power of television - it is one potent medium, and Mike Isabella has become a pretty significant commodity because of it). Well, at least one person (a commentor on Robert Dyer's blog) became confused due to my ineptitude - that was some pretty sloppy organizational work on my part.

At this point, there isn't much I can do about the accompanying tweet, as it has pointed to Choirgirl21's post all day long. Breathe, Don, breathe, and better copy editing in the future, young man.]

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I just noticed this comment and have to say that I don't understand the pricing on this and wouldn't recommend ordering the trio. We had a couple at our table order the trio and had quite a few people order full size portions of a couple of the dips. I would say the portions on the trio were about half the normal portion (or 2/3 at the absolute most) so in essence, you are getting about 1 1/2 - 2 portions for $22. Individual portions are all $8 with the exception of the tarmosalata, which is $12. Unless you really feel you must try 3, I think it makes more sense to just order 1 or 2 full portions. The smoky eggplant spread won't disappoint.

FWIW, the trio of spreads is $12 at the bar during happy hour (5-7pm). Have no idea if the portion is the same as you'd get in the dining room.

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Across the street from my parents place. Great news! Really enjoy the original on 14th. Should be the best restaurant on the Bethesda Ave side of town, if they can keep the quality controlled.

Certainly an upgrade over Vapiano!

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I read some article or blurb about Kapnos Taverna and it said it was going to have a different focus and a different menu than the original. This one is going to be more seafood focused (Greek islands). The same article said the Bethesda version is going to be different from still from the first two. Sounds like a great idea. I hope they all work!

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http://kapnostaverna.com/menus/dinner/

Can you spot the spelling error...or should I say "keystroke".  Will wander over soon.  As soon as the wind-chill is above freezing.  Or I get really curious.  One.

My first impression is that the neighborhood will not support these prices in the long term, and I'm generally pretty confident in my first impressions.

And now you can watch the rest of the media reproduce the press releases without scrutiny.

This is going to be very interesting to see if the power of television and marketing can take what Fabio Trabocchi has tried to do in Georgetown, and pull it off in Ballston.

I'm looking at these prices and literally cringing.

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If you want to talk about underrated, after a second visit, I hardly feel that Kapnos is getting the attention and credit it deserves for what it's doing. And what it's doing is consistently putting out delicious, complex, well-balanced, and beautiful plates of food.

We were set on Red Hen. Finally we were arriving early enough to secure a table in a reasonable time frame. Alas, upon our arrival shortly after 6 pm the wait was over 2 hrs. Kapnos was the first place that popped into my head within a reasonable distance so off we went, calling on our way to secure a table. We were told there were only seats available at the bar or the open kitchen seating. Oh darn, I guess we'll just take those shoddy kitchen seats. :P

The only disappointment of our entire meal actually was the cold, well really absent welcome when seated. The chef at the station in front of us never acknowledged us, then or throughout the night, despite a 10 min or so wait before a server even appeared to take a drink order. However, Chef George did occasionally pop over to that station and made a point to check in the first time he did. Our server, after an initial apology for the wait was fantastic in terms of him feeling us out and pacing our meal accordingly, frequently checking in, making sure we had clean plates, and giving excellent food and wine pairing recommendations.

I won't detail all of the food we had except to say that the eggplant dip, duck phyllo pies, and charred octopus were all repeats for me and well worth it. The tuna tartare, smoky beets, suckling pig, and goat were all excellent as well. I'm most impressed by the chef's ability to always balance a bright, acidic note with even the richer of dishes. The only thing here that hasn't really moved me are desserts. Tasty and generous, but not memorable.

People have commented that Kapnos is on the pricier side, but sneaking in at the tail end of restaurant week, we left absolutely stuffed, having not quite finished a few dishes at $55/person for a 5 course meal. When I looked at the menu prices, that only saved us a few bucks with the addition of dessert so I believe you can easily leave here well fed for $50 before tax, tip, and alcohol. Even after my 4 drinks (yeah, we paced ourselves into an enjoyable slow meal) I came in around $100 inclusive.

I admit all of the expansion Mike Isabella is doing concerns me. I understand the new location in Ballston is a different region of cuisine, but our server also mentioned a ramen place in Ballston (wtf) and something in Reagan National, along with the Bethesda restaurant slated to open in the fall. Graffiato has always been a place where I've enjoyed good solid food at a reasonable price in a lively setting, but Kapnos is doing something unique and it's doing it well. I can only hope it stays that way.

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of cuisine, but our server also mentioned a ramen place in Ballston (wtf) and something in Reagan National, along with the Bethesda restaurant slated to open in the fall. Graffiato has always been a place where I've enjoyed good solid food at a reasonable price in a lively setting, but Kapnos is doing something unique and it's doing it well. I can only hope it stays that way.

Since I agreed with Don upthread in teams of cringing at the Taverna pricing planned for Ballston, just wanted to clarify here that I am, like Choirgirl, a fairly unqualified Kapnos fan. Agree with the above wholeheartedly which pains me more to some degree on the expansion. That pain driven by an owner working to grow absolute profit through expansion while also trying to boost unit level margins as I'm guessing is the behind-the-curtain attempt with Ballston.

What the market will bear indeed. Caveat emptor. But, yes, long live Kapnos in the current incarnation.

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Are the prices at Kapnos Taverna, other than the crazy expensive seafood platter and tower, and the whole lamb shoulder, more than at Kapnos downtown?  We would definitely pay Kapnos downtown prices in Ballston (assuming equivalent quality), and the mezze didn't look that pricey to me.

Edit:  I pulled up Kapnos DC's menu, and the prices look very similar, other than those crazy towers  (2 items on the Ballston menu).  The whole lamb shoulder is also super-expensive ($75), but it's the same in DC.  Am I missing something?  The mezze prices look comparable to Zaytinya, and not that far off from Me Jana's in Arlington (a few dollars more per item).  I wish the wood-roasted suckling pig and lamb mezze were on the Ballston menu, but otherwise, I'm not seeing the problem, if the food is as good.  We'll probably go try it this weekend.

Edit again:  the phyllo pies, I've been wanting to try those so I'm sorry they're also not on the Ballston menu.

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that is exactly what I was going to ask. How was it, cheeze? ;)

She may not have given her social media and online search skills have to be top 1%. But guess she'll let us know soon enough.

My main target for ire on this btw, isn't even the ridiculous towers. It's the oysters. And I'm even more riled up after paying $2.75 per oyster yesterday at the Four Seasons Baltimore. It's only a quarter or fifty cents but three dollar oysters strike me the same as the handful of gas stations in DC still charging $4 a gallon for premium gas despite the recent petroleum market free fall. Kind of outrageous.

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FWIW, I find the portions to be quite generous at Kapnos, which really mitigates the higher prices. My 5 course meal the other night was the eggplant dip, tuna tartare, duck phyllo pies, suckling pig, and baklava. I very reluctantly left behind portions of the dip, the pig, and the baklava and I can put down food, especially when my number of drinks are keeping pace with the number of courses. :P I could have easily passed on dessert and still been stuffed with my 4 savory plates, which would have run me about $50. Take that FWIW since I know nothing about Ballston or the Taverna menu/dishes.

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FWIW, I find the portions to be quite generous at Kapnos, which really mitigates the higher prices. My 5 course meal the other night was the eggplant dip, tuna tartare, duck phyllo pies, suckling pig, and baklava. I very reluctantly left behind portions of the dip, the pig, and the baklava and I can put down food, especially when my number of drinks are keeping pace with the number of courses. :P I could have easily passed on dessert and still been stuffed with my 4 savory plates, which would have run me about $50. Take that FWIW since I know nothing about Ballston or the Taverna menu/dishes.

I totally agree, ChoirGirl. Kapnos is the known quantity and I'm a fan. My critiques above are solely of the new Ballston spot's (Kapnos Taverna's) menu. Definitely need to try it out and more fairly assess once open and several of us get there. Maybe their oysters will be a bit different, more special or more innovative than all the others. OK, just kidding with that but will look forward to the early reviews.

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FWIW, I find the portions to be quite generous at Kapnos, which really mitigates the higher prices. My 5 course meal the other night was the eggplant dip, tuna tartare, duck phyllo pies, suckling pig, and baklava.

Was it 5 courses that equaled 5 plates? Or was it 5 courses in which each course consisted of multiple plates?

When I first went there (July 2013, post #11) my recollection was something like:  the first course was 3 or 4 different dips/spreads, the second course a couple plates of something (fuzzy memory), the third course was a few different fish dishes, the fourth course was 3 different meat plates and the fifth course was 3 different dessert plates.

It's been a while and my memory is fuzzy,(the details aren't really important)  but we ended up with a lot more than 5 courses or dishes set in front of us. Is that still the way it is?

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Did you go, cheeze? If so, how was it?

that is exactly what I was going to ask.  How was it, cheeze?   ;)

So you're not letting me get away with my short post. :lol:  Yes, I did go to the new Ballston location, and I've actually been twice already.   I liked it.  Bright space with kitchen counter seating.  My favorites were the half roasted chicken with barley (lots of dill and lemon), the eggplant spread with fresh hot flatbread, and the spit roasted lamb.

I've only been to the DC Kapnos once over a year ago so I can't tell you how the dishes compare.

Are the prices at Kapnos Taverna, other than the crazy expensive seafood platter and tower, and the whole lamb shoulder, more than at Kapnos downtown?  We would definitely pay Kapnos downtown prices in Ballston (assuming equivalent quality), and the mezze didn't look that pricey to me.

Edit:  I pulled up Kapnos DC's menu, and the prices look very similar, other than those crazy towers  (2 items on the Ballston menu).  The whole lamb shoulder is also super-expensive ($75), but it's the same in DC.  Am I missing something?  The mezze prices look comparable to Zaytinya, and not that far off from Me Jana's in Arlington (a few dollars more per item).  I wish the wood-roasted suckling pig and lamb mezze were on the Ballston menu, but otherwise, I'm not seeing the problem, if the food is as good.  We'll probably go try it this weekend.

I was wondering what I was missing too.  I'm not a raw bar fan so I skipped to the rest of the menu, and I didn't see the issue with the prices.  Going by the online menus, some similar items are even a little cheaper in Ballston:

$21 for the spread sampler in Ballston, $22 in DC.

$75 for the whole lamb shoulder in Ballston, $79 in DC.

$20 for a half spit roasted chicken with spanakorizo in Ballston, $21 for a half spit roasted chicken with potatoes in DC.

$9 for spanakopita in Ballston, $11 for spanakopita in DC.

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Was it 5 courses that equaled 5 plates? Or was it 5 courses in which each course consisted of multiple plates?

When I first went there (July 2013, post #11) my recollection was something like:  the first course was 3 or 4 different dips/spreads, the second course a couple plates of something (fuzzy memory), the third course was a few different fish dishes, the fourth course was 3 different meat plates and the fifth course was 3 different dessert plates.

It's been a while and my memory is fuzzy,(the details aren't really important)  but we ended up with a lot more than 5 courses or dishes set in front of us. Is that still the way it is?

Are you talking about a RW experience specifically? I admit I'm a little confused by your description :P but what we got was 5 courses, one dish per course. The dishes were all straight off of the regular menu (you had an abbreviated list to choose from for the RW week menu, but there were plenty of selections and all of my favorites were included) and were the same portion size you'd get without RW. There was also a 3 course option that I didn't really look closely at.

Ah, I just saw you referenced your post and see that you had the tasting menu. I don't know how they do the tasting menu these days, but it sounds like it's a different experience than what they chose to do for (extended) restaurant week.

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With one pretty significant exception, me, my wife, and our five year old had a pretty good dinner on Wednesday night.

For starters, you'd never know that this place just opened.  The waitstaff was knowledgable about the menu and drink list, bussers kept our waters full and the tables clear, and food was paced pretty well.  Our waitress explained that they are looking to focus on fish and seafood the same way that Kapnos downtown focuses on meat.  This doesn't seem evident in the menu, so it will be interesting to see if they make any changes going forward.  They did tell us that they were out of the scallops, because of weather in Mass, and the whole lamb shoulder.   Both Chefs Paganis and Isabella were in the kitchen while we were there.

I started with a papa-bear cocktail.  Great if you like sweet, which I do. 

On to the food . . . our first dish was the king crab.  I know that this isn't ever cheap, but $25 seemed pricey for one leg and part of a cluster.  In any case, it was cooked fine, although the lemon yogurt served on the side, which was tasty on its own, pretty much overwhelmed the crab.

Next up was a serving of three spreads.  We had the hummus, the melitzanosalata, and the taramasalata.  Of these, the melitzanosalata was the favorite, with lots of fresh veggie flavors.  The taramasalata was great, too, almost like an eggy lox blend?  But, it was too rich to have more than a few bites.

For bigger plates, we got the crispy eggplant, Brussels sprouts, meatballs, and spit roasted lamb.  All were pretty great.  The eggplant came out as inch thick discs with a crispy panko coating and whipped interior.  Texturally, these were perfect, although the honey and orange sauces underneath were a bit too sweet for me.  I can't really remember the specific flavor of the meatballs, but they were fantastic.  They came on a bed of, like, eggplant mousse which was my wife's favortite thing of the night.  Brussels sprouts were also perfectly cooked and the lamb was really good and lamby, too. 

Which brings us to dessert.  We ordered the greek sundae which is described on the menu as like a brownie sundae with baklava instead of a brownie.  I don't know if there was some mistake, but this should have been called a salt sundae.  It literally tasted like someone dumped a shaker of salt on each scoop of ice cream/whipped cream/cherry.  It did have some nice like brandied cherries, but there was no baklava to be found.  Embarrasingly, we finished it since we thought the next bite wouldn't be salty so didn't complain.  The waitress said that one of the items was salted caramel ice cream, so maybe someone screwed up?  In any case, it was probably the worst dessert that I've ever had in a restaurant, but not enough to prevent me from coming back.

As to prices, it ain't cheap, but not out of line for Ballston.  Our total was $140, before tip, for the food, one cocktail, one milk, and three glasses of wine.  I don't think that this is way out of line for the area, comparing favorably to our daughter's favorite restaurant, Mussel Bar, down the street.  We'll definitely return.

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My husband had a work lunch at Kapnos Taverna today.  They got the pikilia assortment (hummus, taramasalata, and melitzanosalata).  He especially liked the eggplant (melitzanosalata).  All three of them got gyros (2 lamb and 1 pork), and it sounded as if everyone was happy with everything.

He said that they made reservations but it wasn't really necessary for lunch since the place is so huge.  They were happy with the service and pleased that they were able to linger and effectively have their meeting there.

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We had lunch at Kapnos Taverna today - delicious.  The servings were considerably larger than expected, so while my husband ordered 2 dishes and I ordered 3 (thinking they'd be Zaytinya size), we would have had plenty to eat if we'd had two each, or two each plus one shared.  I thought I might be over-ordering but wanted to try a few different things. My son was not very hungry, and had one dish (aleppo marinated short rib souvlaki), which was about four or five large pieces of short rib (which he said were excellent), on top of shredded vegetables (radicchio, several types of cabbage, and some interesting spices).

I ordered the melitzanosalata spread (eggplant, feta, crushed walnut, roasted red pepper, and some spices) which came with a large folded flatbread and was lovely.  A fairly large serving of a rich flavored, well balanced spread.  The feta was particularly tasty.  My husband and I shared the spread. We ordered an additional flatbread (my son wanted some but not the spread), and the second one was hot from the oven and softer than the first one (which was a bit crisp).  We preferred that one, but they were both good.

 

Next came the cauliflower with olives and feta and red peppers (which turned out to be small circles of somewhat spicy red peppers rather than bell peppers - I ate one or two but otherwise we avoided them) - this was twice as big as I had expected, nearly as big as an entree, and was delicious.  Luckily, we were sharing it. The cauliflower was roasted and nicely browned, there was a slightly creamy sauce I could not identify (maybe it had tahini in it?), and bits of mint, and everything went together beautifully. 

 

Finally, I had the charred octopus with skordalia, radish, caper, and red pepper.  Very tender and very tasty.  Not for the squeamish, since all the suckers were visible and the little circles on the suckers came off while slicing the tentacle (I'm squeamish about some things, but not octopus).  It wasn't overly charred, just the right amount, and was seasoned beautifully, and the skordalia (garlicky yellow smashed potatoes, more than a smear but less than a pile of potatoes) complemented the octopus very well.

My husband had the dolmades and the felafel gyro, and said both were very good.  The gyro was huge, with I think 4 large pieces of felafel).  We barely left a bite of any of our meals. As a downside, though, he said afterwards that everything had peppers or pepper in it (for the dolmades, he had asked them to hold the hot pepper labne that would have been spread underneath, but the dolmades themselves were spicy for him), and as someone who doesn't react well to heat in food, he is not likely to go back.  I will go back with friends or other family.

 

The desserts didn't appeal to us that much and we were pretty full - my son had the Greek sundae with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, crumbled baklava, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream, and he liked it (what's not to like?).

 

One fyi - the upstairs seating is on a narrow balcony with a wrought-iron railing, and one of our party had vertigo so that did not work for him, but they were happy to re-seat us downstairs when we asked.

 

We each had a house soda (five-spice ginger beer, apple cider with cinnamon and orange (which was red), and sarsparilla ginger beer), and my husband and I had tea.  The total bill was on the high side (especially for lunch, but it was our big meal of the day), but I would order less next time and be perfectly happy.  The quality of all the food was extremely good.

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I guess I'll be the first to give a mixed review. My friend wanted to try the new Ballston location, so we made plans for dinner last night. We split the melitzanosalata spread, falafel, and the fava, which was plenty of food for two.

The misses of the night were the melitzanosalata spread and the falafel; both were over-salted and both of us drank at least 5 glasses of water for the rest of the evening.

On the other hand, the fava and flatbread were really well done--the lentils were nicely cooked with very little seasoning (thankfully), while the flatbread was warm and fluffy.

The music was a bit too nouveau chic for me, which contributed to a slight headache, but the interior is well-designed and it was neat to see Chef George IRL, instead of on TV.

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I'm surprised that there hasn't been more posting on Kapnos Taverna; I didn't expect to have to dig so far back to find this thread!  Maybe that's a reflection of mixed experiences similar to what I had last night.  It had been on our list for awhile now because we've liked Kapnos for dinner and brunch (a general lack of respect for reservation times and a few bad dishes aside), and this more seafood-focused effort sounded right up our pescatarian alley.  So when a visiting vegan friend said that the menu looked vegan-friendly enough, we trekked out there during last night's deluge.  

Our waiter was very nice, but service was a bit inattentive.  This made sense at the beginning of the meal, when the restaurant was pretty full and we were preemptively and apologetically informed that there were only two servers on the floor, but it became frustrating when the room emptied out and our waiter still didn't come back to ask after our empty drink glasses.

Of the spreads, we ordered the favosalata (yellow lentils, scallions, black garlic - $7 and vegan), taramasalata (carp roe, caviar, cauliflower - $11), and melitzanosalata (smoky eggplant, roasted peppers, walnuts, feta - $8).  Sounds like goodeats and I had pretty opposite views on the two we both ordered.  The eggplant was excellent and our clear favorite -- good smokiness, nicely contrasting crunch and creaminess.  No one really loved the lentils, although they were fine.  The drizzle of black garlic (syrup?) was a bit oddly sweet, while the lentils themselves were bland (they could have use a bit of salt, I think).  A little gremolata-ish dollop in the center was surprisingly spicy and would have been better if we'd figured out immediately to spread it around instead of eating our way to it from the outside of the dish.  I liked the taramasalata more than the bf did; although it's definitely inferior to Nostos's lighter, whipped version, I wasn't as bothered as he by its greater fishiness or runniness.  I appreciated that when we asked for crudite, we got two flatbreads and one crudite plate without charge instead of three flatbreads.  However, the drizzle of olive oil on top of the sliced tomatoes and cucumbers was unnecessary and weird given that we wanted the vegis for dipping; I'd have asked them to leave it off if I'd internalized its mention on the menu.  (As others have noted, the trio for $21 seems like a terrible deal; we would have saved $5 ($4 from the most expensive spread on the menu) and gotten what appeared (from our view of another table's order) to be about half the amount of food.)

The main lobster flatbread (lemon yogurt, caper, dill - $17) was very tasty, but exactly what you'd expect from the description.  The lobster itself was nicely tender, and the portion was large (although it would have been easier to eat if the half-a-square triangles had been halved again).  The most disappointing dish of the meal was the taylor bay scallops (apple, grapefruit - $16).  Five little shells each held a pretty mound of cubed scallop, apple, grapefruit, julienned radish, and dill, topped with a slivered disk of green chile (I'd guess serrano).  Other than the chile, I could only identify the components visually or from the menu description.  The overall impression was of moist, cool blandness followed by a punch of flavorless heat.  Badly in need of salt, the later bites were better once we requested some.

My first thought on reading the description of the crispy eggplant (spicy honey, orange pith puree - $9) is that pith puree sounds disgusting, but I am happy that I risked it.  I loved the orange and honey combination -- I didn't get spice, but it did have a slightly burned-in-a-good way flavor that reminded me of Gypsy Soul's excellent carrots.  In contrast to Cooter's view, my complaint about the dish was about the texture of the eggplant itself. Although the outside was nicely crisp, the insides of the half-inch-thick slices were just unappealingly mushy (which didn't seem whipped to me).  Better were the smoky roasted oysters (ras el hanout, pastirma - $10); the four oysters tasted more raw than I'd expected from the "roasted" description, but they were delicious.  (However, after the fact I am potentially annoyed: I'd asked the waiter what "pastirma" was, and he said a spice blend, which I found kind of funny at the time given that the dish also listed ras el hanout, but I took him at his word.  Google suggests that it's actually a cured meat, which means that (1) as pescatarians, we inadvertently ate meat, and (2) it wasn't even good enough that we realized we were eating meat.  Maybe they just use the spices that would normally go with the meat -- the way that you can find pastrami-spiced non-meat things, which would explain why we didn't see/taste anything meaty.  And now that I write this, I assume that pastirma and pastrami have to be etymologically related.)

Our vegan loved (and I liked) the roasted beets (walnut, orange coriander dressing - $8), particularly the dressing.  (I found the beets over-roasted into softness.)  The horta (kale, chard, chickpeas, baby tomatoes - $9) was odd, its broth so salty that my friend worried from the smell that it couldn't be vegan, although she was assured that it was.  It was basically a mound of wilted greens, chickpeas, and grape tomatoes (cooked to the point of softness but not yet popped) in a briny puddle.  It made me long for Jaleo's superior, hearty spinach and chickpea stew.

Excellent cocktails.  I started happily with the papa-bear (bourbon, cardamaro, cinnamon raisins infused sweet vermouth, pimento bitters, alleppo) -- a bit sweet, the cinnamon strong, kind of a winter-breakfast-in-a-glass thing going on.  The bf went first with the hannibal (mezcal, cointreau, lime, ginger, harissa), which was nicely smoky while remaining light.  I liked the lucky charms (flor de cana 4yr rum, lime, allspice, mint, angostura bitters) -- heavy on the spices flavor, to the exclusion of really picking up on the lime and mint -- but preferred the shepherd (beefeater gin, mountain tea, grilled lemon juice, oregano).  (Grilled lemon has featured in Kapnos: Original Flavor cocktails that I've liked.)

Dinner was good, but didn't reach the same heights as Kapnos (or Zaytinya) have, and we had nits to pick with most dishes.  I want Kapnos Taverna to be better than it currently is.

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Kapnos Arlington tonight with friends-we worked our way through 14 courses including several excellent:  nontraditional saganaki is not flamed but delicious and flavorful, superb hot flatbread frequently replenished, lamb dish was excellent, shrimp pireaus was flavorful, eggplant dip was outstanding-all four of us thought it was the best dip presented; cauliflour was the best vegetable-amazingly delicious;eggplant, the vegetable pesentation of it was excellent, too.  Pikilia with three spreads were uneven (although, again the eggplant dip was preferred), meaatballs, lemon cake were both mediocre.

My real complaint is the room:  it is nothing. It's a suburban two story room with no character, for me a "vanilla" dining hall on two floors. Parking is very difficult-I personally walked over four blocks after parking my car.

For myself I would give Kapnos two stars for the food but less for the overall experience.

Having said this we went to Baltimore's Ouzo Bay late Thursday night which won an award from, I believe, Baltimore Magazine as the best restaurant in Baltimore in 2013 beating out Charleston and Woodbury Kitchen.

It is still Baltimore's best restaurant.  We loved it.  For all the world it feels like Miami's South Beach located in Harbor East.  It is oozing cool but also really delivers on fresh Greek seafood.  Frankly, Kapnos didn't have a chance coming after our late night visit to Ouzo Bay 40 hours earlier.

From their own dips (roast garlic, fish roe, etc), tender wide "sheets" of calamari which enrobe several cheeses, a superb flaming saganacki, properly and deliciously prepared fresh fish (more than a half dozen are available and expensive) and on and on this is a luscious upscale indulgence that has, in several years, became a landmark Harbor East location.

We will deadhead from Reston to Harbor East for Ouzo Bay again in the next several weeks.  Kapnos, for us, is a one time visit.  While much of the food was good we felt let down by the lifeless office building location.  For Ouzo Bay we will return for an upcoming anniversary in a room well suited for a celebration.

To the best of my knolwedge nobody in D. C. has reviewed it.  Not sure I really understand why.  I believe it is easily the single best Greek restaurant in the greater Baltimore/DC area.  Certainly it is the nicest.

Ouzo Bay is special.

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This may have to be broken up into two or three threads, but it looks like Mike Isabella is going to take over the Gypsy Soul space and turn it into a Kapnos Kouzina (casual, home-style Greek), but before that happens Isabella and Jen Carroll (a Top Chef buddy and Philly chef) will host a pop up of "Requin", an intimate French-Mediterranean seafood restaurant which will end up being located at the Wharf development in DC.

Read the deets here.
 

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A group of us ate at Kapnos Taverna for Restaurant Week.  Based on today's lunch, I'm not planning a return anytime soon.   The smoky eggplant spread did not taste smoky and did not taste like eggplant.  It tasted vinegary or astringent.  My shrimp entree was pretty good but not WOW!  The baklava was dessicated.  I tried to cut off a piece with my fork and the whole thing broke apart.  If I blew on it, all the nuts and pastry would fly away.  The only WOW was the mandarin sherbet - now that was good!  In all fairness, my fellow diners all liked their food.  Not sure if they were being polite or it was the truth.

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Not sure if they were being polite or it was the truth.

A mixture. The Mike Isabella restaurants are becoming wildly inconsistent. A good cook was pumped up by investors, is expanding as quickly as the (PR/TV-subsidized) free market will allow, and you're beginning to see the logical conclusion of such P.T. Barnum-style foolishness.

No more elephants in circuses. The suckers have all died off at the rate of one a minute, and now it's their grandchildren who are reading the internet.

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