I'm way behind on my restaurant reviews
I haven't been eating out as often, but it's been months since I did one of these:
Burma (Chinatown). I got a group together for this second-floor walkup hole-in-the-wall. Burmese cuisine is sort of a cross between Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese, as you might expect. The food was very good (people were especially enamored of a noodle dish with chicken) but perhaps we ordered wrong, as many of the dishes tasted like one another. They forgot to bring us a second order of Kokang chicken, like we had requested, but there was still food aplenty, and it was remarkably cheap.
Tempt Asian (Alexandria). I got another group together for this one. Normally, one can rule out restaurants with names like this, but the Washingtonian suggested that it was an aberration and, indeed, it was. Good Szechuan food, lots of interesting dishes I haven't had elsewhere. The orange duck was a little disappointing; I loved the spicing of the rabbit hot pot, but just can't stand meats that involve so many hidden bones. Everything else was excellent, and remarkably reasonably priced. There are three menus: a standard Americanized Chinese-food menu that we avoided, a more exotic menu in Chinese and English, and then a secret menu completely in Chinese too dangerous to be translated. We'll see what happens if I ever bring Barak and Lora here.
Pho 75 (Roslyn/Courthouse). They serve pho. If you like pho, you'll like this place, because it's good pho. If you don't like pho, but you're still open to the concept, it's worth a few bucks to risk it here at this no-frills place to see if it's pho you don't like or ersatz Georgetown attempts to make pho.
Eden Center (Seven Corners). Went here twice, once with Ruth and Kevin. Ruth was skeptical that it could measure up to her trip to Hanoi, but seemed satisfied with the caramelized fish at Viet Royale, though we both felt the fish was unusually... soapy, as was the sour fish soup. I'll still be back. The other time, I explored some of the delis: for $1.00, I got an amazing chicken bun, warm from the oven, sort of like the rolls I used to covet in my elementary school lunchroom, but filled with spicy Vietnamese chicken. Yummy. I still haven't found the shop that sells the banh mi that measures up to the first banh mi I had in a hole in the wall underneath a bridge at the foot of Manhattan with Eric, but there are still a couple of dozen places at the Eden Center I haven't tried and I'm confident one of them will do it just right. The place looks like a huge strip mall, but there's actually an even huger warren of shops hidden within it. If you're in DC and have never been, it's worth a half-day trip that's almost like visiting a foreign country.
Bombay Bistro (Fairfax). If 66 wasn't such a parking lot, and if it wasn't so difficult to make a left-turn onto 123 from the restaurant, I'd go here more often: it's my favorite Indian lunch buffet. This weekend, they had whole bluefish, various kebabs, goat curry, three kinds of bread, two kinds of rice, raita, chutneys, salad, and six vegetarian entrees, three of which are as good as anything in the area: a sublime and spicy aloo bhaji, a very good paneer makhani, and saag chole. And only $9.95, $7.95 weekdays.
Sushi Taro (Dupont). A regular for me, and will be more so now that I work four blocks closer to it. This is the place to go in DC if you want a traditional Japanese sushi bar. I'm still unsure if it would break the top twenty in Los Angeles County, though. I was a little annoyed that they had a $7 sushi special that was served overwhelmed with too much wasabi; a real sushi chef that had that little faith in the fish would discard it. Anyone know which night they get their fish deliveries? Some nights the place is just perfect, but other times it's off, and it's clearly a matter of timing. I'm still amused by the twenty-foot ramp that leads to an impossibly steep staircase to the second-floor restaurant.
the secret Thai restaurant (I'm not telling). I made it back here because I was in the neighborhood for other reasons, and the crispy duck was as good as ever. Sorry, even though the place isn't in Zagat's or the Washingtonian, and even though it's about as expensive as any other Thai restaurant in the area, and even though it's a ridiculous 45-mile roundtrip for me, it's already too crowded from word-of-mouth, so no public announcement.
Burma (Chinatown). I got a group together for this second-floor walkup hole-in-the-wall. Burmese cuisine is sort of a cross between Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese, as you might expect. The food was very good (people were especially enamored of a noodle dish with chicken) but perhaps we ordered wrong, as many of the dishes tasted like one another. They forgot to bring us a second order of Kokang chicken, like we had requested, but there was still food aplenty, and it was remarkably cheap.
Tempt Asian (Alexandria). I got another group together for this one. Normally, one can rule out restaurants with names like this, but the Washingtonian suggested that it was an aberration and, indeed, it was. Good Szechuan food, lots of interesting dishes I haven't had elsewhere. The orange duck was a little disappointing; I loved the spicing of the rabbit hot pot, but just can't stand meats that involve so many hidden bones. Everything else was excellent, and remarkably reasonably priced. There are three menus: a standard Americanized Chinese-food menu that we avoided, a more exotic menu in Chinese and English, and then a secret menu completely in Chinese too dangerous to be translated. We'll see what happens if I ever bring Barak and Lora here.
Pho 75 (Roslyn/Courthouse). They serve pho. If you like pho, you'll like this place, because it's good pho. If you don't like pho, but you're still open to the concept, it's worth a few bucks to risk it here at this no-frills place to see if it's pho you don't like or ersatz Georgetown attempts to make pho.
Eden Center (Seven Corners). Went here twice, once with Ruth and Kevin. Ruth was skeptical that it could measure up to her trip to Hanoi, but seemed satisfied with the caramelized fish at Viet Royale, though we both felt the fish was unusually... soapy, as was the sour fish soup. I'll still be back. The other time, I explored some of the delis: for $1.00, I got an amazing chicken bun, warm from the oven, sort of like the rolls I used to covet in my elementary school lunchroom, but filled with spicy Vietnamese chicken. Yummy. I still haven't found the shop that sells the banh mi that measures up to the first banh mi I had in a hole in the wall underneath a bridge at the foot of Manhattan with Eric, but there are still a couple of dozen places at the Eden Center I haven't tried and I'm confident one of them will do it just right. The place looks like a huge strip mall, but there's actually an even huger warren of shops hidden within it. If you're in DC and have never been, it's worth a half-day trip that's almost like visiting a foreign country.
Bombay Bistro (Fairfax). If 66 wasn't such a parking lot, and if it wasn't so difficult to make a left-turn onto 123 from the restaurant, I'd go here more often: it's my favorite Indian lunch buffet. This weekend, they had whole bluefish, various kebabs, goat curry, three kinds of bread, two kinds of rice, raita, chutneys, salad, and six vegetarian entrees, three of which are as good as anything in the area: a sublime and spicy aloo bhaji, a very good paneer makhani, and saag chole. And only $9.95, $7.95 weekdays.
Sushi Taro (Dupont). A regular for me, and will be more so now that I work four blocks closer to it. This is the place to go in DC if you want a traditional Japanese sushi bar. I'm still unsure if it would break the top twenty in Los Angeles County, though. I was a little annoyed that they had a $7 sushi special that was served overwhelmed with too much wasabi; a real sushi chef that had that little faith in the fish would discard it. Anyone know which night they get their fish deliveries? Some nights the place is just perfect, but other times it's off, and it's clearly a matter of timing. I'm still amused by the twenty-foot ramp that leads to an impossibly steep staircase to the second-floor restaurant.
the secret Thai restaurant (I'm not telling). I made it back here because I was in the neighborhood for other reasons, and the crispy duck was as good as ever. Sorry, even though the place isn't in Zagat's or the Washingtonian, and even though it's about as expensive as any other Thai restaurant in the area, and even though it's a ridiculous 45-mile roundtrip for me, it's already too crowded from word-of-mouth, so no public announcement.