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.