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

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

Zaytinya - DC

Jose Andres is one of my favorite chef's and someone who introduced me to the world of small-plate eating.  For my entire life previous to dining at his restaurants, I'd been forced to eat massive sized entrees of pasta, steak or burritos with that being my entire meal.  I always craved multiple tastes, textures and sensations but that isn't how Americans dine.  And then I ate at Jaleo and realized, food doesn't have to be limited to picking one giant entree!

Zaytinya is Jose Andres's Mediterranean tapas restaurant.  It is widely recognized as one of the best tapas restaurants in Washington DC.  It has a lively bar scene and it's hip interior, complete with 30 foot high windows, men in vests and fake eyewear can turn even the biggest "bro" into a hipster for the night.

My group of six sat down a little tipsy on tequila and began firing off suggestions to one another and our waitress.  Within minutes, huge football sized pieces of hollow bread appeared along with oil for dipping. The hummus came out first and we dipped our steaming pieces of bread in with great pleasure.  Great hummus is test number one for any restaurant claiming to have Lebanese influences.  It was very good and two plates of it disappeared in minutes.  Their hummus style is a very smooth blend versus a slightly grainy texture which some hummus lovers prefer.  Just a note so you have an idea of how they prepare it.

I've always said you can fry just about anything and it tastes great.  But that statement would not do justice to Zaytinya's fried appetizers.  First, the fried eggplant came out.  A testament to my fried food theory, I am not a fan of eggplant, however, it was beyond tasty.  After selling the fried Brussel Sprouts to my friends all night leading up to the dinner, I was impatiently waiting for the double-order I had placed to come out.  When it did, I made my mom proud by loading my plate up with about 15 sprouts.  Each sprout was lightly seasoned with coriander and barberries, fried in some miraculous way and then drizzled with a yogurt sauce that perfectly complemented each bite by adding cream to crunch.  The cooked texture is like a crispy-edged, juicy, flavorful artichoke.  The dish didn't let my friends down as we finished both plates.  For greek food lovers, don't miss the spanakopita which they make very much like a ho-ho.  Puff pastry shell filled with spinach and cheese.

The meat courses did not let us down, either.  The first to come out was the beef tartar.  Raw beef scares a lot of people but 5 of us lathered the tartar onto the supplied crackers.  Tartar is so dependent on seasoning and making sure the meat has a little texture left to it.  American diners don't like meat mush!  Zaytina's tartar gets it right.  One guy in our group has a very.... conservative palate.  Which means, he only wanted Calamari so we ordered two rounds.  Calamari is a very subjective dish and people prefer it all different ways.  I like it lightly fried and lightly seasoned and SUPER fresh.  I'm not a fan of chain restaurant methods of using frozen squid/octopus and heavily frying/seasoning the morsels and requiring the diner to rely on the supplied sauce to help it go down easily.  Zaytinya's squid is light and I could only detect salt and pepper in their seasoning.  It was so good that it did not require any dipping into the garlic-white sauce which led to a conversation about men having an aversion to white sauces, in general.  This was just one of the many hilarious, inappropriate conversations that booze and great food seemed to encourage.

Let's not forget one of the best dishes.  Be sure to get the HÜNKÃR BEĞENDI which is a braised Lamb Shank with puree'd eggplant.  This appeared to be Zaytinya's interpretation of Roast Beef and Mashed Potatoes using Mediterranean ingredients.  A second round was definitely required after the first round vanished before everyone could try it.

Coffee and dessert were no let down as one friend declared that their regular coffee was the best he had ever had.  I shared the soft-center chocolate lava cake with a couple of the group members but the highlight wasn't the cake.  It was the fresh whipped cream that Jose Andres has mastered making that accompanied the cake.  It is also accompanies their famous Flan at Jaleo that is my all-time favorite dessert.

Unfortunately, there are no photos to go along with this post.  Taking time to snap photos would have resulted in missing entire dishes as we gorged ourselves on tapas.  In other unfortunate news, my full belly and frantic ordering resulted in missing the opportunity to try the goat , the crispy veal sweetbreads and crabcakes.  But I'll be ready to go back very soon!

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Thai X-ing DC

Thai X-ing:

I'll break this review down into three sections:
1) Location/Ambience - Thai X-ing is in a row house in northeast DC. You can very easily walk right by the front door because of how inconspicuously it is marked. The main entrance to the restaurant is on the main floor and it is very easy to miss. My friend and I walked straight upstairs without realizing we had missed it. The atmosphere is as homey as any restaurant in DC. The service is authentically asian which comes with being able to understand about every other sentence based on which server you are talking to. In addition, I had a table that was both by the door AND the coatrack. Since there is no waiting area, I had people standing right on top of me my entire meal. I'm sure other people's experience was not this bad since I had the absolute worst seat in the restaurant. Make sure to request a table away from the door, if you can but the feeling in here is cramped no matter where you sit. I'd give the location/ambience both high and low marks and a 2 of 5 star score.

2) Service - The service is very average. The server even admitted forgetting a course (salmon cupcakes) for my table and the table next to us. We also saw another table getting served a fish entree that we never got either. Would have loved to try it. No-menu restaurants are cool in my book but not when you end up coveting the neighbor's dishes. I needed extra napkins, refills on our water pitcher and clean silverware and there was no one around most of the time. Some of the help speaks no english and simply nod and smile. For spending over 30 dollars a person, I'd say the service here falls short. 2 of 5 stars.

3) Food - The food was delicious. I understand why people come here in spite of the other issues with the restaurant. The first courses were a spicy shaved cabbage/radish dish along with a bowl of lemongrass soup. Initially I thought the soup had a big piece of soft potato in it along with a meatball but it turns out it was a big piece of melon! Very tasty. Subsequent courses were classic thai and heat was consistently medium with each dish. I like spice but can only take so much before the sweat is an issue :) But the dishes are not "mild" by american standards so you are warned. By the time I was to the hybrid drunken-noodle-pad-thai dish, I was full. Dessert was a sticky rice coconut concoction steamed inside of banana leaves. I didn't care for it too much because of the heaviness when I was already full but it was extremely sweet. Almost forgot! The best dish was the pumpkin curry. Actual full pieces of pumpkin cooked in a delicious curry sauce. The smell was divine and I really liked this dish. I'm not even a fan of pumpkin. Food score - 4 of 5 stars.

This restaurant is BYOB and savvy patrons brought bottles with them and cracked them open as soon as they sat down.

Reservations are not easy to make as you need to leave your phone number and they call you back at their convenience.

Overall, I rate Thai X-ing as one of the better Thai food experiences in DC but overall, I rate it a 3 of 5 stars.

Visited December 2011