Bistrot du Coin - Dupont DC

I've been hearing about Bistrot du Coin for quite a while now as a lover of good French food, I finally had an invitation to go!  The restaurant in located near Dupont Circle just a few blocks northwest.  Parking can be a bit of a nightmare in this area if you go during prime dining hours.

The restaurant has a very homey feel to it in spite of being placed in the middle a hot part of town.  I really liked what they did with the decor.  The bar is a massive wood structure and adds a bit of class to the restaurant area.  There is an upstairs dining room that appears to handle overflow.  Ambiance is romantic yet eclectic. 

The menu was great.  It's a french restaurant so there is a decent selection of french wines.   The first thing I did though was hunt to find Fois Gras!  Mission Accomplished.  It's harder and harder to find Fois on menu's these days.  In addition to the Fois, we also ordered their ravioli's (something of a specialty at Bistrot du Coin) and a small pot of mussels in white wine, tomatoes, thyme and garlic.  For a main, we went with the filet with Bearnaise sauce.

Fois Gras and risotto.  Fantastic

This is BdC's version of ravioli's.  Lots of cheesy goodness.

The picture doesn't do the thickness of the filet justice.

All of the food was excellent.  The filet was enormous! I have no idea how restaurants can uniformly cook steaks that are 4 inches thick at the thickest point.  I'd really like to try their mussels in a creamy sauce such as their sauce with light curry.  Taking pieces of buttered french bread and dipping it into an amazing mussel sauce is heavenly.  That could have been my entire meal.  The French fries.... were incredible.  They didn't serve ketchup with them but they didn't need anything. 

Service was spotty.  I had to get up and find my waiter on more than one occasion and the manager had to take care of getting my check at the end of the dinner.  To the restaurant's defense, the place became a mob shortly after we got there and everyone in the restaurant world knows how crazy that can be when 75% of your tables at seated within 15 minutes of one another. 

Bistrot du Coin is on my list of places to try again in DC.  Prices were reasonable for good french food in the Dupont Circle area.  Definitely check it out if you are looking for a good French meal.

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars.

Toki Underground

Toki's Classic Ramen with pork loin.  Minus the egg for me

The first thing I observantly noticed is that Toki Underground is actually above ground.  Wow, I thought, when I walked in.  How clever of them :)  

DC is an area of burgeoning Asian food influences.  While there have been some trendy sushi places and even a couple of good Japanese restaurants (Sushi Taro and Makoto), there are many other types of Japanese food that have not been well represented in DC.  Toki Underground is an attempt to fill in that gap.

I've heard of some noodle bars popping up in DC but this is my first time making it out to one.  Until now, my noodle adventures have been primarily surrounding finding the best Pho restaurants in the area.  Toki has a decent following so far and with a quick check on yelp before going, it is clear that you will be waiting in line for a table if you go during peak hours.  We decided to go at around 11 PM on a Saturday night to avoid dealing with the rush.

Toki's ambience is slightly sexy, dark and fun. We were seated at the bar right in front of the noodle chef.  My first impression was ohhh, he's not even asian!  Let alone Japanese.  That's a bit racist to notice but in an area that has almost ZERO Japanese owned/run Japanese restaurants, I was hopeful to see a smiling Japanese noodle cook, preferably one that is 82 years old and looks like Jiro.  But behind him, I did notice a couple of asian-looking fellows cooking and I proceeded to order.

Their menu is pretty simple although their website didn't seem to list the noodle soups when I checked.  The main section of the menu is a list of different noodle soups available.  They also offer a few different add-ons like pork cheeks or extra egg.  I really wanted to try their dumplings but I was so focused on the ramen soup that it didn't happen.

The ramen soup was amazing.  Here is the problem that you'll have by trusting reviewers.  You have some people who grew up eating Ramen for 25 cents a bag and they can't understand paying 10 dollars for a bowl of it nor do they have the palette to taste the subtle differences in some cases.  Then you also have people who have had great ramen in Asia and that's also a difficult comparison.  What you get at Toki is an influenced version of Ramen that should be evaluated on its own merit.  For me (recently visited Japan AND grew up on bags of cheap Ramen), the broth was excellent with a rich and buttery flavor.  The pulled pork was tender and I was able to get a little bit into each bite of noodles I picked up.  The noodles were noodles.  For me, Ramen noodles are either good or they are overcooked.  People try to get very descriptive and critical of ramen noodles and with Soba or Udon, I can understand that.  Not with Ramen.  To top off the above listed ingredients were a piece of Nori (dried Seaweed), a soft-boiled egg (I held this back), some sesame, scallions and their seasonal vegetable... mustard greens.  The mustard greens were actually a perfect addition.  You could peel away a little piece off the cooked roll floating in my delicious broth offering each bite a little contrast in texture and some bitterness. One of my friends got the pork cheeks and devoured them.

We finished our meal with some chocolate chip cookies and milk.  For 7 bucks for 3 cookies, this is the only thing that seemed a bit pricey since my world famous bag-of-cookies costs half that and yields me about two dozen cookies.

I can't wait to return to Toki Underground.  I'm even looking forward to bringing my kids when I come back.  It was worth the hype and the wait.  Hopefully they will quickly expand to another location now that they've proven that DC is ready for high quality ramen!  Avoid coming in big groups as they only have bar seating and don't take reservations.  Great place to bring a date and it won't break the bank if you are on a budget.


Rating - 5 Stars.

Persian Food

Persian-style Spaghetti with Potato

Many of my friends are aware of my obsession with Persian food.  Allow me to explain my love for it and where it comes from.

There are many types of cuisine out there and even more restaurants serving absolutely amazing versions of those cuisines.  If you want a good Italian restaurant, there are dozens to choose from no matter where you live and most serve pretty good Italian food.  If you want French cuisine, there are a wide range of places and in most major cities, you can get Michelin quality food if you want to pay the price.  However, great Iranian food is made in one place only.  Homes.  And more specifically, Persian homes.  And even more specifically, Persian food in Persian homes cooked by Persian women.  I'm sure there are some men that make great Iranian food out there but I just haven't met any yet :)  There are very few true Persian restaurants around and even the best ones in Persian-heavy areas come nothing close to what you would ever find at a Persian dinner party.

What makes the food so good?  Well, the best word I can use to describe the flavors is.... Savory.  Their food is primarily comprised of three things.  Kabobs (cooked meats), Rice(cooked many incredible ways), and Stews (called khoresht, with a gutteral 'kh' sound).  I'm sure there are other forms of great Persian food but these three seem to be present at every feast I've attended and dominate the menu's at their restaurants.
Kabobs are extremely common throughout middle-eastern cooking.  This is the one part of Persian cooking that restaurants crank out in high volume and it tastes about as good as you are going to get in a Persian home.  This isn't a piece on kabobs as they are pretty much maintstream in our country at this point and served by a variety of cultural restaurants (Greek, Turkish and Afghani to name a couple).

Where things really get crazy-awesome is the rice.  I never knew how complex and difficult it is to make Persian rice.  Let alone the deliciousness if it is done right.  For starters, Persian rice is of the highest quality.  The love super long grains and they can appreciate rice that costs a lot.  They liberally use saffron in their cooking and especially with their rice.  Given the price of saffron, it's unlikely that most restaurants are using real saffron and not something else to give rice a yellow color.

Where Persian rice is unique from say Indian rice or Asian sticky rice is in what they call Tadig.  Tadig is a crunchy layer at the bottom of the pot or rice cooker.  Whereas with asian rice, it would be rude to serve rice with crunchy parts, in Iranian culture, they will have dinner table fights for the scraps of Tadig on the plate.  This is because it is extremely rich and has a fantastic texture.  The richness is normally because secret ingredients are used such as oil, butter, and even yogurt to create a fantastic outer layer.  Some Tadig's will even use potato or pita bread at the bottom to provide a really nice crispy crunch with some extra body.  If your host really loves you, they may add barberries to the rice to add a little sweet/sour taste and a nice texture.  I've only ever even heard of barberries in Persian cooking but they are similar to a dried cranberry.

My Tadig is getting better and better.  Check it out:

With Potato on the bottom

Persian stews (khoresht) are made in many very different ways and almost complemented by rice.   If you speak to a Persian mother, she will tell you that making khoresht is an extremely difficult way of cooking.  It requires a lot of time slaving away in a hot kitchen.  Or so they'd like you to believe  :)  But I will say that with every khoresht I've had, you could taste the love that went into that food.  And the cook will watch you as you eat it looking for validation if it is truly as incredible as she believes it to be (Persians are not short on confidence).

The most common khoresht's:

Ghormeh Sabzi

Ghormeh Sabzi - This is a Persian herb stew.  Some would say this is the Iranian national dish and I've seen it at every Persian restaurant I've been to, many times as a special on certain days.  It is far from the most appetizing dish to look at but oh let me tell you.  It is extremely complex in flavor and incredible over rice.  The recipe can be done many different ways and if you ask the cook what their way is, you can be guaranteed a halfway response or even a complete lie :)  But the primary ingredients are various stewed greens, kidney beans, persian limes and a protein, usually beef or lamb.

Gheimeh - This is possibly my favorite stew of any kind and pretty easy to find in restaurants.  It is essentially a tomato-spiced stew with split peas and a protein, usually lamb.  When done to impress, it includes some fried crispy strips of potato on top.  Again, super savory and delicious with Tadig.

Gheimeh with Tadig on the side.

Fesenjun - This is a pomegranate stew made with ground walnuts.  Pretty exotic and again, not a pretty sight to look at.  But it is really tasty and a favorite of some. 

Fesenjun in the blue bowl with a nice Tadig

Why have most of you never heard of Persian cooking or never had it?  Because Persian cooking is very closely tied to Persian women and passed down through them.  In their culture, hospitality and impressing one's guests is very important.  As a result, their recipes are very closely guarded.  While as a guest in a typical American house, you may think to yourself, "oh, this tastes really good.  I'm going to ask the host how she made it" and the host would probably not only tell you but probably write up the recipe for you and check in with you the next day to see if you needed some help in making it!  A Persian host might smile and change the subject or even tell you the wrong recipe to throw you off the scent of her secret ingredients.  I've even asked Persian women how to make the most basic things like rice and they'll give me the most vague answers or even just laugh right in my face and say "please.....no." True story.

While this might seem a little rude, I actually love that food is considered almost sacred in this culture.  When you really think about it, besides sex, does anything really make us consistently happier than good food?

Oh, and one cannot forget the tea.  Persian tea is darkish with an amber tint.  This is a culture where ceremonious tea servings can determine if a woman is a suitable bride for a man when he comes calling.  Ok, I'm not sure if this tradition still exists, but I do have friends that have actually performed the ritual.  There is an importance tied to the color of the tea and to perfectly nail down a person's strength preference, all tea in Persian culture is served in clear glass tea cups.  The strong tea is poured and then it is followed by the appropriate amount of hot water to dilute it to the right strength and color.  I'm still learning the art form myself but I'm a huge fan of the strong flavors of tea and cardamom.  If you go to a Persian restaurant, they will even serve special sugar cubes that dissolve slowly in your mouth that you can keep in your mouth while you drink!

I'm a big student of culture and as Bourdain says, there is no better way to learn about a culture and their history than through their food.  Persian food, the culture and the Persian people are extremely interesting as well as unique. Check it out, if you are lucky enough to have Persian friends!  Happy eating!

New York City!

Mid-July marks the time when I make my annual trip to Mecca.  Which in this case for me is Chinatown, NYC.  No, I am not Chinese, but I salivate over this trip for 364 days of the year until it is time.  As has been the tradition the past few years, a large group of my friends and I hit up Atlantic City and then moved onto Chinatown, NYC feasting along the way.

Our first stop in AC did not have much in the way of culinary adventure but I must say that free 24 hour room service at the Golden Nugget is AWESOME.  We had a connection that we took advantage of and had the pleasure of staying in one of their biggest two bedroom suites with all the treatements of a Las Vegas whale.  We probably ate about 500 dollars of room service in less than 24 hours :)   Thank you, Golden Nugget Hotel.  I love this place now.

Blue Ribbon Sushi.  Blue Ribbon is our traditional first stop on the Friday before we play.  It's a small place in Soho that does not take reservations.  As such, we typically wait 1-2 hours for our table at a local bar around the corner each year.  The sushi is very pricey but excellent.  I also imagine the super large bottle of sake my friend bought for everyone to share was also super pricey.  I don't want to know :)  We had a celeb sighting, Vera Wang, who apparently custom-made my friend's wife's wedding dress.

simple and delicious

The sushi was fantastic and we ordered a lot of it.  The portions were Japanese-style which means big enough to actually fit in your mouth.  I had some bluefin and yellowtail nigiri which all melted in my mouth.  The rolls were pretty good but rolls aren't really how I judge a Sushi place.  I judge it by the quality of their raw fish and on this night, Blue Ribbon excelled.  The ambience is great.  Also, if one of your friends is crazy enough to eat a big ball of wasabe on a dare, poney up the five bucks or whatever to make it happen.  It's highly entertaining :)

I nice assortment of sushi and sashimi

Tight quarters and lots of lively conversation make it feel very homey and there is a nice ethnic feel to the place. I really don't care for Japanese restaurants that feel too sterile or American. I highly recommend Blue Ribbon if anyone is in Soho.

I love yellowtail nigiri

North Dumpling.  Ahhhh, I love this place.  I've already commented on North Dumpling in other reviews so I'll keep this short.  Let me rant....How dare they raise their prices on me.  Previously, dumplings were 5 for a dollar.  Now they are 10 for 2 dollars!?!?!?!?!  In this economy, how can I afford my 20-dumpling-lunches if they keep raising their rates!  Oh well, I'll suffer through the empty wallet and continue enjoying these greasy, soy-sauce-and-sriracha-drenched bundles of perfection.  I set a new personal best this year of 33 dumplings from this place over a 48 hour period.

The World's best value - North Dumpling

"Public".  We stumbled onto this place after the first suggestion we were given turned out to be a complete bust.  Public specializes in American cuisine and had a nice bar next door for us to pass the time until we could be seated.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't until 11 PM until we took our seats and I was in desperate need of sustenance after playing volleyball all day.  The menu was fairly interesting.  I decided to pair up with a friend next to me who was brave enough to attempt to eat Kangaroo.  I love trying new things and it's pretty rare to find kangaroo on the menu and even more rare to find a woman who will share it with me since they are cute (women try to only eat ugly things for some reason). ***My apologies.... As I'm finishing my review almost a month later, I cannot really remember what else we ordered except that we were all mildly satisfied yet quite a bit poorer. 

I believe this was the kangaroo.  Not bad!

Or perhaps this was the kangaroo?

I already miss NYC.  Hopefully I'll make it back up there before next year's summer trip.

Versailles - Miami

You can't visit a cultural hub and not experience some of their authentic cuisine.  So my friend and ventured off the beaten path of our hotel room on the South Miami Beach area and hit up Versailles, a cuban restaurant not too far from Miami-Dade airport.  Quick sidenote - Miami-Dade airport is an embarrassment to our country.  It is an international hub and its english-language signs are completely useless even to Americans!  The service is terrible and the design of the building had us walking around in circles.  ::end rant::

The Cuban Flan at Versailles, Miami

I didn't call ahead for reservations since we were eating around 5 PM on a Sunday afternoon but sure enough, there was a line out the door.  It's bittersweet seeing that.  On one hand, I'm going to have to stand in a line which is one of my least favorite things in the world to do and perhaps the worst way to spend our precious time on this earth BUT it also means the food can't be awful, right?  The time the line provided us did allow us to glean some recommendations from some potentially Cuban-looking patrons in line next to us.


After a short wait, we were seated in the back corner.  We went with an order of Yuca fries to start and two entrees, a Shrimp al Ajillo and the Criolllo Cuban sampler platter (Yellow Rice, Black Beans, “Ropa Vieja” Shredded Beef in Tomato Sauce, Fried Pork Chunks, Ham Croquette, Sweet Plantains, Cuban Tamale, and Cassava with Cuban Mojo).  Then I saw the dessert menu.... This place is my wet dream come true.  They had not one, not two, not even three or four... but FIVE types of flan!  It was at that moment that I decided to completely bypass the Yuca fries and try all of the flans.  Which meant that my foodie partner was left holding the bag eating a whole plate full of fried Yuca :)


The Yuca was pretty tasty but with all that flan in my future, I just had one or two small pieces.  The Shrimp (al ajillo is essentially a garlic oil sauce) was very fresh and garlicky, just how I like it.  The sampler platter was surprisingly good, too!  I say surprisingly because the restaurant had the feel of an American diner inside.  Yet eat meat dish was cooked really well.  It was interesting to notice that none of the dish had any fire to it, like many other latin styles of cooking.  That was almost a let down until I realized how much of a bad idea spicy food is just before you get on a plane :)


But by now I'm getting full and the cab driver has just rolled up to take us to the airport and it actually calling me every 3 minutes to let me know that he's out there.  So I just went with one flan and the check.  We chose the Cuban flan.  I have no idea what the different between the Cuban flan and the rest of the world's flans are.  Nor do I think anyone but me really cares this much about flan.  However, it was very tasty and I rated it a 9/10 on my flan-o-meter which is the world's authority metering system on flan as far as I am aware.  I wish I could have tried their double-egg-yolk flan but alas, I'll have to save that for the next trip to Miami!

Service was fairly good for a diner-style restaurant and people seemed very happy with their Cuban comfort food.  It's proximity to the airport is great so if you want to do Miami Anthony Bourdain Layover-style, try out Versailles.


Rating 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

Kumo Sushi - Herndon, VA

I cannot believe how many times I've passed on this place which is a stone's throw from my house.  Kumo sushi is nestled into the Woodland Park shopping center in Herndon and is a little tough to see from any nearby roads.  The background on this place is that it is about 2 years old and is Chinese-owned.  It is extremely common in the DC area for sushi restaurants to be owned and operated by non-Japanese.  Even though I am Japanese myself, I've learned to let that go although my favorite Japanese food experiences are typically authentic ones.

The interior is pretty swanky. They plumped a lot of money on the decor of this place.  I know this because they used the same "wavy wall" product that I used on my new office building.  It costs a pretty penny.  The feel of the place is very loungy which in DC always seems to be synonymous with sushi.  If you want to impress a date with a sushi place and don't want to drive to DC, you might be able to trick him/her into feeling like they made the trip with Kumo.

So what to order!  Kumo has a pretty diverse menu.  The first that jumped out at me was the softshell crab appetizer.  This is sometimes incredible at restaurants so we tried it out.  I was indifferent toward their frying method.  It wasn't awful but I like a very light fry or tempura fry with softshell crabs and theirs was a bit heavier and crunchier than I'm used to.  The crab taste great though.

Tempura Soft Shell Crab

Now the next course caught me completely off guard.  The waitress recommended trying the live scallop for 12 dollars.  I recently had a very nice live scallop dish down the road where they made three pieces of nigiri with the fresh scallop and I enjoyed it.  But when I asked if they could prepare it nigiri style, she gave me a firm "no".  Most servers are trained to never say no, but to instead provide an explanation of why that's not in your best interest or why it's not possible.  After another attempt, I gave up and just said to go ahead and bring it how they prepare it.  Take a look at what they brought out.

Live Scallop Special

The dish on the left is sliced Scallop Sashimi in a lime-vinegar sauce.  Each slice of Scallop is paired between pieces of thinly sliced lime.  The Scallop (why am I capitalizing Scallop now?... because it deserves the capital S) is incredibly fresh and the flavors surrounding each bite are perfection.  Good raw seafood always seems to warrant a description of "melts in your mouth" and that's exactly what this did.  I could eat three platefuls of this stuff.

The dish on the right I didn't care for.  They took all the rest of the scallop parts and tried to disguise it as something appetizing.  It had a very mayo-cream flavor that completely drowned the protein.  They could have just served me the sashimi Scallop and I would have felt that the flavor and presentation were well worth the 12 dollars.

I really enjoyed their presentation and it was shocking, to say the least, for strip mall sushi.

Next came the sushi.  The yellowtail was just how I like it.  Big enough to feel like I know where the money went but not obscenely sized so that it is awkward getting it into my mouth.  I don't remember which spicy roll that was but it was good, as well.

Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomach (missing from the review is the salad and soup) and we decided to try their Japanese chicken curry.  I really enjoy curry in just about every form and my mom sometimes served Japanese style curry growing up although I turned my nose up at it then :)  Kumo's chicken curry is pretty good!  It was much different than I had expected it to be and was a medley of 29 different vegetables.  Ok, maybe not 29 but I swear I got a different vegetable in every bite.  If I tried this again and didn't eat it LAST (and after the Scallop), I would probably rave about it.  I recommend you try it if you enjoy curry.

Chicken Curry (white rice, not pictured)

Kumo sushi is a very solid Sushi restaurant with good service, sexy ambience (for a strip mall) and so close to my house that I can walk there.  They will be seeing me again soon and often.

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars

Ford's Fish Shack

Strip malls normally do not attract good restaurant's but every so often you get a new place that turns out to be a gem.   Ford's Fish Shack is one of those gems in a very modest location on waxpool in Ashburn, Virginia.

I've frequented the restaurants that tried to make it in the Ford's Fish Shack location prior to their opening, but they all failed.  When I saw Ford's go up and read their name, I rolled my eyes thinking, here we go again!  Another poor attempt at a restaurant in the same cursed location.  However, I was sorely mistaken.  Ford's is here to stay!  My first visit involved a lengthy conversation with the manager (his name escapes me but he's a redish haired guy that blends in with his staff pretty easily) who explained to me what they were trying to do with Ford's.  It's been a while since I first visited but my trip there this past week made me realize that they were due for a review on Brian's Food Adventures, along with the accolades and fame that go along with a good review on here :)

Ford's has one of the best fish sandwiches I've ever had.  Understand that when I say this....I've had a lot of great fish sandwiches on the coasts of many ocean-front restaurants.  I have fond memories of amazing fried fish and chips in the pacific northwest as well as fresh fried fish that I have caught hours prior to eating it.  Ford's has an excellent frying technique that leaves the fish slightly oily, extremely crispy, yet light.  If you are a fried seafood lover, you can't go wrong with their fried fish sandwich, fish tacos or their fried shrimp taco's.  Both will leave an impression.  I've also tried their crab cake which blew me away for a strip mall location.  I believe the head chef was previously the creator of the crab cake recipe for bonefish grill, another popular Ashburn seafood restaurant.  A very respectable crabcake, indeed.  One of the best parts of living in the Maryland/Northern-Virginia area is the availability of a great Maryland style crabcake.  And you know what they say.  Crabcakes and football, that's what Maryland does!

Ford's puts out some solid appetizers and good side dishes.  Points for me for putting broccolini on the menu instead of your standard steamed broccoli.  The deviled eggs (which I've seen but obviously didn't try) make me wonder if there is a trace of Great American Restaurants in the lineage of the head chef somewhere.  Last but not least, I've enjoyed several nice desserts at Ford's including a wonderful fresh fruit shortcake last week.  If this seasonal item is on the menu, definitely try it out.

Service is normally pretty good at Ford's.  I had a couple of minor blips during my initial visits there but was taken care of with comp'd food and visits from the manager as expected from a great restaurant.  As a restaurant transitions from being occasionally swamped to consistently swamped, things normally can be a little dicey but it appears they have worked everything out.   Oh, I almost forgot... Their jalapeno cheese muffins with sweet butter rank up there as one of the best bread courses in Virginia/DC/MD.  And yes, that means they are better than Ozzie Rolls!  You can try not to fill up on these before your entree but failure is likely!

Overall, if you are in northern virginia and have not tried Ford's yet, head out there and check it out.  The word is out though so I recommend calling ahead, especially on busy nights or even at lunch!  I couldn't get a table there on a Monday at 12:15 two weeks ago!  

Rating - 4.5 stars out of 5

(I dropped the ball and inhaled my food before getting pics.  I will try to update with pics from my next visit!)

Parallel Wine Bistro - Brambleton, VA

Ahhh, wine bistros.  Self-service wine by credit card.  Ya gotta love it.  I've been to a few Wine places that allow self service wine and have always been pleased.  When the coupon came across my screen for Parallel, I looked forward to heading back there for some wine, a nice meal and a new review!  Parallel is located just off the greenway in the newish shopping area in Brambleton or you can cut through Ashburn on Waxpool and avoid the 14 dollar toll.

Unfortunately, my return trip to Parallel was not nearly as enjoyable as the first one.  Let's start with the first phase of the meal; seating and introduction to our server.  Parallel has a really, really nice patio so we requested to sit outside.  When I say nice, it is stocked with expensive patio furniture, different table settings and for Ashburnites, is a great setting for a Happy Hour or a late night winefest with friends.  Be warned, like most outdoor patio's, smoking is allowed.  The unfortunate part of our seating was, no server was anywhere to be found.  At some point, I had to give an evil eye to one of the other servers who then came by to apologize for the guy who was supposedly assigned to us. He eventually came out and offered another apology.  No problem.  Just hook us up with a winecard, bro!

After paying 7 and 9 dollars for a miniscule taste of a nice French Bordeaux and something else red and wet, my friend and I settled into a half-glass of something reasonable and headed back to our table.  Minutes later, the waiter trotted out with ALL FOUR dishes we had ordered at the same time! There was barely even room on the table for all four items.  I gently asked the guy, do you normally bring out every single thing all at once?  He mumbled something back to me about the kitchen just does it like that but seemed taken aback at the concept of staggering delivery of food so half the food isn't cold before starting to eat it.  When it clicked in his head that I may be a bit annoyed, he started to take dishes away.  Now I don't know about you folks, but when amateur waiters do this, it makes a lot of people squeamish at the concept.  A) because many friends of mine are paranoid that annoyed waiters go back and desecrate your food before bringing it back and B) because most times they just stick the food under a heat lamp and bring it back which is also no-bueno!  So I said, no, no, we'll just make the best of it.

We proceeded to dive into our four dishes.  I was starving so I dove into almost all of them before remembering to take photos for the Blog. So I apologize for the half-eaten picture in advance :) The first thing I wanted to try was the Pork Belly.  On my first visit to Parallel, I was blown away by the pork belly.  It was a large piece and cooked to perfection.  I've found that Pork Belly must be a fairly complex piece of meat to cook well.  Cook it too little and it is incredibly fatty and disgusting (unless you are like some of my Asian friends who salivate for fatty meats).  Cook it too long and it turns into bacon.  This particular piece was a quivering pile of fat.  Really.  I trimmed off a bit of the caramelized crunchy edges which were delicious, but I truly couldn't stomach eating another bite.  It's one of the few times I've been actually repulsed by a piece of meat.

Essentially, a Tuna Tartare

I am a big fan of warm Brie.  I've never had a bad experience with the stuff.  I'm sure it is really awful for you because it tastes divine.  I did some major damage to the melted piece they put in front of me, with some slathered apple butter and cracker to go with each bite.  They also throw some walnut/raisan compote in, as well, but I focused on the butter/cracker/brie combo that was working for me.  The other two courses were a Tuna tartar/cracker medley with assorted greens on top that lacked flavor and a soggy Blackened Shrimp flatbread... which was still good enough to eat.  Most flatbreads I've had were like eating a thin-crust pizza and this particular one was very "doughy".  It wasn't that it was awful, it was just that I think they missed the mark when they cooked it.  I'd be curious to hear from the owner or chef if this is the desired texture they are hoping for.

Blackened Shrimp Flatbread

The waiter made up for the earlier part of the meal by comp'ing the Pork Belly when he saw the massacred, uneaten parts on my plate.  Or maybe it was the face I made when he took it away, which looked something like a person afraid that the Pork Belly would turn into a zombie and eat into my body through my stomach to rejoin with the pieces I had cut off and eaten.

I've been to Parallel before and my positive experience may have had something to do with the fact that I went with good friends of the owner who gave us personal attention.  My negative experience this time may have had something to do with having a rookie waiter, who knows.  But if you want a nice wine hangout, hit their patio up this summer for some live music (which they provide from time to time) and the chance to hang out with some of Ashburn's white-collar middle-class suburbanites.

Rating - 2.5 out of 5 stars.

HoneyPig Izakaya - Good Local Japanese food

Good fortune hit a few weeks ago as HoneyPig Izakaya released a livingsocial deal just days after I heard about it from a friend.  After visiting Japan this spring, I'm extremely motivated to find good Japanese food here in the DC area. So off I went.

HPI is in Annandale, not too far from the DC beltway of Gallows road.  As I was walking in, I think I saw the owner outside talking on the cell phone.  I think she was the owner because she has "uniquely identifiable hair" and her picture is all over the restaurant and the billboard holding the front door open :)

We took our seats and perused the menu.  The menu is fairly large and has a variety of Japanese food items as well as some Korean ones, as well. I was hoping to find a really cool dish I had in Japan at an Izakaya called Monja but after checking with the owner and their "consultant from the kitchen, they definitely don't serve it.  The menu did feature a traditional Japanese comfort food called Okonomiyaki, which the Japanese call "Japanese pancake".  I tried this in Japan and while I appreciated that HPI serves it, it is a bit too eggy for me to want to order.

The presentation of the seaweed reminds me of something evil with the pools of brown and

 yellow sauce

We opted for some traditional items starting with some seaweed salad and dumplings.  The dumplings tasted fresh and not frozen and the seaweed salad was very large compared to what I usually am served. 

Next round was some traditional ramen and some skewers.  Ramen is so hard to screw up and HPI does a fine job of serving it as they do in Japan complete with egg, green onions, sliced pork, fish cake and a slice of dry seaweed on the side.  I'm still not sure what the point of one piece of dried seaweed is sitting in a wet soup but this seems to be how the Japanese do Ramen!  The skewers were well-cooked but while I love fresh grilled meats and veggies, it's painful how pricey these Yakatori items can be for such small morsels of food.

Very oily but authentic and good

Overall, the experience didn't do as much to remind me of Japan as my trip to Makoto did last month, but it was still good to get out and get some Japanese food.  The service and prices were nothing spectacular but I'll probably be back again if I'm in the area.

Rating - 3.5 stars out of 5.

Sax DC - A Unique DC Experience

Sax DC is a unique DC dining experience.  Sax is a relatively new restaurant in DC a couple of blocks west of Chinatown.  The idea for the restaurant is reasonably sane.  Let's build the absolutely most opulent restaurant in the city, serve some expensive French cuisine and have a stage with scantily clad dancers that pop on every 15 minutes or so.  Sounds great, right?

Unlike most people that go to Sax, I actually had very low expectations.  I expected everything to be over-the-top, trying too hard, gaudy, poor yet expensive food and tacky dancing.   What I got was a luxurious interior that wasn't disgusting, tried just hard enough, was semi-tasteful, better than average food and entertaining dancing.  The setup as you enter the restaurant is a very beautiful entryway and hostess stand.  The amount of gold used in this place is more than anywhere else in the city.  Everything is intentionally made to look expensive with nothing spared.  The stage is actually set above the bar and encased in glass so it has the feeling almost like you are watching TV instead of a stage.  The dining room is darkly lit and extremely sexy.

View of the stage at Sax

Service was very good.   The only way they could really have served us better would have been to be around more and in a place like that, you want to watch the show and look at the beautiful people and not have a team of servers in your face. 

It's the kind of place you take someone when you want them to be impressed by how much money you are spending. Will it ever be a Washingtonian top 10 restaurant?  No.  You are going there primarily to say you've gone and to tell people just how bling everything is.  Many of you are probably wondering about the entertainment.  Every 20 minutes or so the stage would light up and 2-4 dancers would dance.  It was always a decent show but perhaps not necessarily a sexy cabaret show.  Still, I enjoy being entertained while I eat and that's an uncommon experience in this city.  I appreciate what they are trying to do here.

The food was good but nothing blew me away given the prices they are charging.  It's also hard for the food to top the ambience and that might work against what was actually a pretty decent meal.  I will mention that anyone that pays full price for food at Sax is a fool.  If you are there for the food, try a weeknight when they offer special discounts on their tasting menu.  If you are there for the ambience and to drink on a weekend, eat before you show up and party it up.

Lobster sliders with seafood bisque

The dinner started out with an Amuse Bouche that I cannot recall and then was followed by Wagyu Beef Tartar and YellowFin Tuna Tartar.  Both were very good but nothing remarkable to report.  The Tuna tartar was a very large amount of raw fish but the presentation was completely uninspired.  But as I love raw fish, Sax was forgiven for the sheer quantity of tuna.

Next came a seafood bisque and Lobster sliders. Again, both were what I would expect from a nice restaurant but not more than that.

A very average Beef Short rib

For mains, we decided to get the Short Ribs and the Crab Cake.  I must preface what I write by admitting that I am a huge crab cake snob.  Having grown up in Maryland, I've had MANY crab cakes and obviously, the only good way to make it is Maryland style.  Sax's crab cake was dry, boring and had a little too much filler in it.  It's just a total turn-off eating an average crab cake.

The short ribs were ok.  I guess the memory of Citronelle's 72 hour hour short ribs was still in my head and that's not really a fair comparison to two completely different dishes.  But as you can see by the photo, it didn't even look very appetizing.  I wouldn't order either main again.

More mediocrity with the mains.  An average crabcake.

Good recovery with the chocolate cake!

I love apple pastry for dessert.

For dessert we tried the Sax Chocolate cake and the apple tart.  Both were pretty good.  A decent apple tart is such an easy win for me.  Unless it is too sweet somehow or soggy, I'm always happy by my last bite.  The chocolate cake was very rich and if you are a chocolate lover, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.































Sax is what it is trying to be.  The sexiest location in town for dinner and drinks.  We should all consider ourselves lucky that the food is decent too, as we drop 200+ dollars trying to impress a date. 

Rating - 4 out of 5 Stars.

Cityzen - A top 10 DC Dining Experience

One of my closest friends was coming to visit me and she coincidentally is one of the inspiration for this blog due to taking me to Komi years ago and showing me some of the joys of cooking.  As we always do, we booked a table at a place we've never been to with the hopes of if being so good that we'll remember the meal when we talk about it years later.  The choice for this particular adventure was Cityzen with head chef Eric Ziebold.  Foodies will remember that Ziebold is a former James Beard regional winner and Cityzen was a Gayot top 40 restaurant in the US in 2008.  As such, Cityzen has been on my radar for a while now as is housed in the gorgeous Mandarin Oriental Hotel in DC and is consistently featured in Washingtonian magazine as a top 10 pick. 

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is very nice.  Everyone you see inside is wearing a suit coat or a blazer.  High end clientele, indeed.  We arrived a bit early for our reservation so we ventured a few steps away to their live jazz bar.  Not only was there a female jazz singer with an incredible voice, but I had one of the better cocktails I've had in the city.  A strawberry basil mojito. 16 dollars for a cocktail though? If paying that much for a pre-dinner cocktail doesn't piss you off, I suggest hitting the jazz bar before dinner.

The only knock I can give the restaurant is what took place at the entrance.  When we first came in to check in, there was no one there to greet us.  Extremely strange for a very nice restaurant.  We stood there for a couple of minutes before anyone came to the front.  A woman looked us up on the reservation list and told us to come back in 15 minutes which was fine as we were 15 minutes early.  Upon re-entering the restaurant later, the Matre' D was talking to three female patrons who were trying to score a last minute reservation.  Even though our table was ready, we had to stand there for 5 minutes while he dealt with them.  This may seem nitpicky but when you are about to drop over 100 a person on a meal, you expect them to be able to afford to staff the front entrance properly.  You never want to mess up a person's first impression of anything in life and especially not FOOD.

Thankfully, that was just a solo blip on the service radar map the rest of the way.  We had several staff help manage our table including the Matre 'D himself taking our drink order.  I'd have to rate the service at Cityzen very high. If not for how they manage their guests upon entry, I'd rank it up there as one of the best. The ambience was great.  The kitchen isn't totally open but it isn't hidden either. You can see inside and witness some of the action as the staff works diligently to get your food out to you in perfect condition.  All of the courses came out in perfect symphony.  Not too soon, not too long between servings.  While we were eating, a table of bigshots next to us had the privilege of Chef Ziebold talking at their table for what seemed to be at least 10 minutes!  Pretty cool.

On to the food!  We both opted to do the four course menu instead of the Chef's menu for the day for serveral reasons but most important of which, the fois gras was on the four course list :)  The first course was a tiny Amuse Bouche of scallop flan with Peruvian potato Salad.  I love a tiny bite to start off a grand feast.  The server then brought some bread out to us.  I chose the foccaccia which also came with butter.  Thank you, Cityzen for getting the butter right.  I much prefer room temperature butter so it is spreadable and that is how it was served.

Pure Heaven - Fois Gras with Crawfish Fricassée

And then my favorite course of the evening - Moulard Duck Foie Gras with Crawfish Fricassée served over roasted leeks.  This dish was perfect.  The crawfish tasted as if they had been poached just enough that they were tender without being soggy.  The best I've ever had.  This dish hit the spot for me and my friend both.  A not so fun fact for you Foie lovers out there.... Many states are beginning to ban it from being served.  California's ban begins this summer.  Inhumane practices in raising the geese in some areas of the world are ruining it for the rest of us unfortunately.  But if you want a final
Foie Gras experience, you can't go wrong with this one.

Blackfish.  Excellent!

The next course was seafood and we both opted for fish.  I really enjoy a perfectly cooked piece of fresh fish.  Hers was a Potato Crusted Halibut with an oyster scallop broth.  This was actually my first choice but she stole it and we wanted to try different things.  So I opted for the Sauteed Pave' of blackfish as I have never had blackfish before.  Both dishes were cooked perfectly and while I liked how my fish was cooked, I liked the overall flavors of the Halibut and the oyster scallop broth a lot, too. 

Potato Crusted Halibut

Beautifully prepared rabbit.  Just not my favorite.

As seems to many times be the case when I "dine finely", the mains are never as good as everything else.  I'm not sure if it is because I'm always trying new things instead of going for what I know I'm going to love or what it may be.  In this case, I didn't love either main dish as much as the fish or the Foie Gras before it.  I opted for the Rabbit with crushed potato over top some vegetables and a Pesto-Rosemary Jus.  Hers was Roasted Shoat (which we determined was a young pig) with Apricot and Favre beans.   Both were good but I just wasn't excited to talk about either one. 

Look at the grill marks on that Shoat.

This is no fault of the chef's.  It's just that neither protein would be my first choice in the future.  I prefer my pig meat cooked in any way that results in a crispy skin and some of the fat melted away.  The rabbit was similar to chicken to me but not as good.

Bread in a box

Amidst all these wonderful courses, the server came by with a box that contained 8 rolls in it.  I was about to say, you've gotta be kidding me to fill me up on rolls with dessert still to come.  But when my friend groaned with pleasure and said I had to try one, I did.  Three, in fact :)  They look so simple but they were a buttery, salty deliciousness that you should not skip if you go to Cityzen. 

A Sour Cream Chiboust

Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Meyer Lemon Mousse

Desserts were really good.   Even though the Rhubarb Dessert I wanted wasn't on the side of the menu I was supposed to be ordering from, the server said, not a problem. The formal description of the dish was this - Sour Cream Chiboust, Oatmeal Crunch, Mint and Rhubarb Sorbet.  Sounds so intricate.  Very delicious.

My friend ordered the Chess pie which was Buttermilk Panna Cotta, Meyer Lemon Mousse and Heirloom Cornmeal Tuile.  I actually prefered hers over mine as the Meyer Lemon Mousse gave
me heart palpitations it was so good.

Kudos to the dessert chef at Cityzen.

While we drank our coffees and reminisced on the meal and our fat bellies, the server brought out our checks and some bonus desserts.  Each one was a gourmet candy in itself and I only wish I had the room left in my belly to enjoy each one properly.  It was a perfect way to end a fabulous meal.  I look forward to returning to Cityzen one day soon.


If you are trying to get there, the hotel is in the southwest corner of DC, almost equi-distance from the 395 and route 66 entrances into the city.  It's location is also prime for great water views of the Potomac River. I was able to secure a table for Cityzen for a Saturday night several weeks in advance but when I checked a few days before just to see, they were completely booked up.  I highly recommend booking well in advance of a Friday or Saturday dinner.


Rating - 4.5 out of 5 stars

Victoria's Gastro Pub

Victoria’s Gastro Pub - Columbia, MD.

http://www.victoriagastropub.com/

When I was in Montreal last summer gorging myself on Poutine, I wondered where I could get this magical creation when I returned to the US.  So I did a quick google search for Poutine on the internet and came up with a surprisingly short list of places that serve it.  A couple of food trucks and a place called Victoria’s Gastro Pub in Columbia Maryland.  Fast forward 9 months later and I finally had the chance to visit Victoria’s and sample a few of other things.

Victoria’s is a short drive west of 95N off Route 100 and are open for brunch, lunch and dinner.  My visit was for a late dinner and by the way, they have live music in the bar area some nights, as well.  The restaurant is a stand-alone establishment and is pretty large from the outside.  The interior has a certain British pub feel to it.

I absolutely love Poutine

The food was pretty good!  I tried the poutine, a side spinach salad with maple balsamic vinegrette and their Seared Sea Scallops with Mustard and Mushroom sauce.  The poutine was sublime.  Victoria’s makes their fries with duck fat and they come out crisp and rich and cut in a similar style to Five Guys.  The gravy was very tasty and again, they use duck to make the gravy, as well.  Traditional Poutine uses cheese curds but they chose to smother melted gruyere on the fries and gravy instead.  The verdict on this approach?  Loved it.  I think I prefer this to actual curd chunks.  Finally, there is duck confit mixed in, as well which gives a nice contrast of texture as well as beefing up the protein content a little.  Quite possibly the best poutine I’ve had to date.

The salad and scallops were both very good but I’m on a bit of a downer with scallops these days.  It’s really hard for me to love them after having a very average scallops dish a few months ago.  Still, the scallops at Victoria’s were cooked very well and the sauce and accompanying vegetable salad in the middle were quite nice.

One of the restaurant’s obvious strengths is their beer/wine/cocktail menu which is several pages deep.  I didn’t have the opportunity to try one of their many rare beers but beer-hounds will surely find something to whet their whistle. 

Victoria’s is exactly what it is trying to be; a pub with a large selection of drinks and some good pub fare.  Prices may be a little more than your traditional pub and this may hurt Victoria's in the long-run.  However, in this case, it was worth the trip.

Rating – Four out of Five stars.

Makoto - DC - True Japanese Dining experience in the nation's capital

As part of my late food enlightening, I've been on a recent mission to discover great Japanese food.  I think I'm making up for missing out on sushi for the first 30 years of my life.  However, it's slim pickings finding great Japanese food on the east coast and when you do find it, get ready to shell out serious clams to pay for it.  However, when a foodie friend of mine came to visit last time, he let me know that the next time he was in town, we were going to hit Makoto.

Makoto is just west of Georgetown and is reachable by crossing Glebe road across Potomac and then heading east.  It is slightly hidden but is directly across from the CVS.  As you approach the restaurant, you'll notice another sushi restaurant directly above it.  A friend of mine said that it is a sister restaurant that takes all of Makto's sushi after 24 hours have passed as Makoto uses nothing that isn't extremely fresh.

The first thing I noticed as I entered was the traditional shoe alcove before you enter the dining area.  The hostess was very clear in her instructions.  Remove shoes and place in the cubby and put on slippers.  She also said they have an absolute zero-tolerance policy for cell phones.  Her exact words were, "we will not serve you if you cannot abide by this policy".  There is always something humbling about entering a Japanese residence or restaurant and I felt like I was back in Japan as I entered the dining area.  The dining area is fairly small.  A counter that seats about 12 people is along the left wall and a series of 2-top tables that adjust to accommodate different sized parties are on the side of the room and seats another ~24 people.   The coolest part about the room was that the sushi bar actually looks down into the kitchen, which is recessed.  So you are almost eye-level with the chef's instead of looking up at them.

I really enjoy fantastic restaurant service.  I feel that it is almost always under-appreciated when I go out.  Poor service is a disjointed, inattentive mess while great service is like seeing a symphony orchestra catering to your senses.  Makoto has 5-star service.  Their servers are dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and several servers tended to our table.  We never had a sense of having one person taking care of us but rather a team.  By the end of the meal, I'm fairly certain that my tea-cup had been refilled 15 times.  I'm not joking.  My friends almost all opted for plum wine which was a good value for a small carafe for 8 dollars.  Their plum wine glasses never got lower than 3/4 full because the servers were so incredibly good at filling their glasses.  If you truly appreciate good service, Makoto is a place to remember.

We all opted to do the chef's menu (if you don't, you really don't need to be dining at a place like Makoto).  The only options you are provided are a sashimi upgrade and a choice of tenderloin or one of three cooked fish for course #5.  I opted for the fatty yellow-tail upgrade which I think was 10 dollars.  Most of the party opted for the 35 dollar upgrade which included quite a bit more premium sushi including o-toro (super fatty tuna).  If I were to go back, I'd absolutely get the 35 dollar upgrade.  There is a 50 dollar upgrade that also includes uni, as well.

The courses began to arrive and the wait staff did an excellent job of explaining each dish in great detail.  It was immediately clear that Makoto cares very much about quality, freshness and presentation, while also exposing people to an extremely wide variety of traditional Japanese food. 

We started with a bowl of mussels in a complex broth.  I wasn't able to determine exactly what was in the broth but it was good enough to drink afterwards.  And yes, I had no qualms about picking up the bowl and drinking the broth, Japan-style while the rest of my friends used their spoons :)

The second course was the head chef showing off.  The top dish was a mini-Japanese salad of chopped vegetables with an egg-yolk sauce on top.  It is hard to make my stomach roll over any more but this sauce looked more eggy than anything I'd seen and I have a very love-hate relationship with eggs that is well-documented :)  However, the sauce was really nice and went down smooth.  The bottom right were pieces of bamboo covered in bonito flakes.  Bottom left were fresh strawberries with a tofu creme.  I ate the leaves, as well, which had a slight bitter taste.

My yellowtail and fatty yellowtail

And then came the sashimi...

I feel as if I've had really fresh fish now that I've been to Japan.  However, it is clear that one does not have to travel halfway around the world to experience incredibly fresh, high-quality sushi.  Anthony Bordain explained to someone on one of his shows that there are places in New York that actually have some of the best, freshest sushi in the world.

Look at that color on the slices of tuna. 

I opted for the yellow-tail upgrade and it was exactly as I had hoped.  Normally yellow-tail hits my sweet spot better than any other type of fish and this was really good stuff, however, after executing some trades with my friends, I was able to try everything.... and the pieces of tuna instantly became the best pieces of sushi I had ever put in my mouth.

Our table sounded like an orgy was taking place with all the moaning and mouth orgasms going on as we enjoyed each succulent bite. 

With the purchase of an upgrade, the restaurant provides you fresh wasabe.  How do I know it is fresh and not just colored horseradish?  Because they bring the root and a metal grater out to your table.  If you haven't had fresh wasabe, it is more grainy (because it is actually grated) and has a more pleasant burn that it's fake counterpart.  In fact, I'd put entire chunks of it directly on my sashimi and avoided tearing up.

On the right is the 35 dollar upgrade which included a fresh raw prawn, some Toro and some O-Toro. Toro is the fatty part of the belly and is normally very expensive.  However, apparently there is another level of fatty tuna called O-Toro which is even more premium.  My buddy was gracious enough to let me try a piece and it almost dissolves in your mouth it is so tender and wonderful.  If you go to Makoto and they have this upgrade, you've got to try it once in your life.

Probably my least favorite course, this is a soft-shell crab fried in a mystery crunch substance.  The frying process seemed to overwhelm the fish with fried crumb and the soft-shell crab got lost in the mess.  On the side is their version of salt and pepper.  The salt is actually green tea salt.  It didn't help fix this dish though...

I've heard of Japanese hot-pot or Shabu-Shabu before but have never had it until now.  The chinese have their own version of hot pot, as well.  The Japanese style seems to center on the cuts of what almost has to be Wagyu beef at Makoto.  Note - if this isn't Wagyu, I've got to know what cut of beef they use.

In addition to the meat are various fresh vegetables.  Each piece is individually swirled in their special broth and then placed into one of two dishes in front of each patron.  One dish is a ponzu sauce and the other is a sesame sauce.  I asked for my meat to only get 2-3 swirls so it was nearly rare coming out...

I really loved this course. Great flavors and fun!  The meat was extraordinary in flavor and texture.  My only wish was to have a small bowl of rice to pour some of the broth over afterward.  Instead, they pour broth into your ponzu sauce so you can drink it if you choose.

Left to Right - Scallop, Tuna and YellowTail Nigiri

It almost caught me by surprise that the next course was three pieces of beautiful nigiri.  This is how nigiri is supposed to look, people.  The rice should be smaller than the fish, not the other way around.  If a place gives you a huge mound of rice, they are probably hiding the freshness of the fish.  And everything should be bite-sized.  It makes women feel awkward putting things in their mouth that they can't fit in one easy bite.  It just isn't lady-like.  Oh, each bite was heavenly and my first time enjoying raw scallop!


The meal was overall an incredible experience.  You always hope that a meal is something to remember and talk about with your friends for years to come.  If that is what you are looking for, you will find it at Makoto.

Rating - 5 out of 5 Stars.

Shave ice infused with Grand Marnier