youngfood

At least once, on the metro, and need not be too pricey: Circle Bistro, Rasika, and Dino Repeatedly: Pasta Mia, where I never get to, but would live at if I called Adams Morgan home Happy Hour: Chef Geof, the Reef, or maybe Firefly Last Blowout: Citronelle or Eve, either of which would easily justify, and likely require, the cab.

Someone/Sebastian Is Leaving Rasika ? ? ? ?

Today's WP Weekend Section says Derek is landing at Citronelle later this month in a nice piece on his drink menu at Agraria and the underrated bar at Rasika.

We tried the new menu last night and it is good. They have Cava sparking wine from Spain and its great. We were also pleased to see a Rose from the rarely found Cote de Thongue region. Anyone who knows where I can find any other bottles from this region, please PM me. We've been looking all over for it since trying it in Paris a couple years back and have only twice found it in DC - at City Zen and tonight at Bar Pilar. The mojito, however, was boring - I'd stick to wine here. The pork and collards were a tasty piece of shoat leg, which was quite nice, though the greens, while quality produce, were slightly overdone and overspiced/vineagared. Chorizo n beans were white beans with delicious little chorizo links and a real highlight. Somehow the two really seemed to belong together. The dandlion green salad was great with super fresh greens, walnuts, and sweet peach bits. The rich dressing seemed to have a hint of bacon in it. The squid is a must for anyone who longs for squid without the batter. Fresh and firm - but not chewy - unsliced, with just a hint of garlic and oil these were a treat. They came with some sweet yellow tomatoes, which paired nicely. The cheese plate was less exciting. It had a Wisconsin bleu which was potent, but the bleu was paired with something from Georgia and a "camary?" both of which tasted like slighly aged, but not at all sharp cheddar. Neither was very interesting and they were definitely too similar to be together on a plate of three cheeses. Overall we were really pleased and will return soon. Oh, and dinner for two, with two drinks a piece, tax, and 20% tip was only $75. Hard to beat for the quality of the food.

We like it. I think "dumbed down" is fair, though we've had a few dishes that are denoted to be spicy and have been quite so. I also think Old Siam is world's better than the other Thai spots on Capitol Hill, for which I am extremely grateful. If you aren't looking for spicy, the Panang is very good.

In my experience Guajillo's food has been consistently great. I've found their service consistently poor. Examples include asking for more water three times and never getting it, ordering drinks that never come, being very unsubtly rushed out after a little more than an hour. I'll keep going back because I like the food and I don't go there looking for fine dining service, but I'm going to withhold my thanks for its proprietor/management until they start treating their customers better.

The old Foggy Bottom stand is now Miller Light, but also offers Pilsner Urquel. Also saw some Blue Moon further down the 3rd base line. The grilled dogs are still the winner for me.

Is this what replaced the old Foggy Bottom stand?

Armands is ok. Big thick crust, if you like that, and all you can eat for cheap. The sushi place went downhill since reopening as Kyoto. Yamato was decent, but this place I find a big step down. Near the Senate, my favorite is Bistro Italiano. Near the others on Mass Ave between 3rd and 4th Streets, but off of Mass so that lots of folks miss it. Its nothing special, but makes some decent southern italian food for cheap. I think its on D Street. Another option is the restaurant in the Washington Court hotel. Its a step up from these other spots, but not quite to the level and price of Bis/Charlie Palmer. I guess its called Bistro 525. http://www.washingtoncourthotel.com/pdf/Lunch.pdf

Absolutely. This is sad. Danny we look forward to your return and to seeing what you do for another lucky restaurant to be.

The olive oil poached tuna on the bar menu at Eve is a steal. Its previous interations have been described here before, but I was surprised at how nice and rare tuna could be after an olive oil poaching, and pleased to see a much more interesting than typical take on rare tuna. Whatever service kinks may or may not have once existed with eating in the bar area appear to be gone. Our bartender/server had to work hard to get to our table in the corner, but took good care of us and really knew his stuff. From details about each cheese and where they were from, to an impressive and delightful pairing of a slightly carbonated sweet italian red with the birthday cake, our guy was great. I was reminded of one of the early stories about Eve - how they like to hire energetic, young, less experienced staff and mold their great personalities and passion into seasoned experts without the pretensiousness that sometimes otherwise accompanies that level of sophistication - because they can teach the knowlege, but not the rest. I love the theory and from what I've seen, they really make it work. Eating at the bar last night was nearly as enjoyable as spending my birthday in the tasting room. I think that speaks volumes about Eve.

Exactly.

Likewise and I agree, though its worth noting that you can eat outside as well. The food is great, the prices outstanding, and I've never seen the place anywhere near full.

Metrocurean has details , including a July 17 target open. Can't hardly wait!

Glad to see so many other Rockweilians hit up the underrated Citronelle Lounge recently. We had a great Saturday evening there. I was shocked that there were both seats indoors and out on the terrace during prime time on this lovely, not-yet-sweltering evening. The lobster burger was, of course, delicious. Mark was kind enough to recommend the dry Grand Cru Riesling as a pairing for it, which I second. Some other not previously posted about yummies: the mojito is classic and excellent (reminds me of Danny's explanation about how to make the perfect Mojito - simple, high quality ingredients, lots of serious muddling and shaking); the tuna burger is very nearly as good as the lobster burger - and similarly rich; the apple four ways is a delightful dessert and includes a great ice cream, and a spicy cream-topped shot of some sort of cider; and they are in the process of adding an after dinner rum from the West Indies to the menu that tastes as much like a fine, complex cognac as it does rum.

Has anyone tried Bazin's for brunch yet? We were thinking about trying to do one there for Father's Day.

Alright, who are the wise guys that ate ALL of the bugers and ALL of the softshell before we got there tonight at 8:30? Seriously, that was not funny. The mushroom frisee salad is still great, but that was a colossal dissappointment. Honestly, how did this happen? I thought we told all the tour busses to go to Buca, not CB! We contemplated trying Dish, but even TS isn't recommending it anymore. We would have gone back to Notti, but for the thread about the great burger AND great softshell. For them to have neither, at 8:30, when the place was nearly empty? Well maybe that's why it was empty. To keep the string of bad luck going, we called Danny to see about getting back into Notti for a plate of pasta and they were so full he couldn't even squeeze us in at the bar. I hope someone at well tonight...

And its not even good. This place is totally overpriced.

I love Jimmy Ts. It's far from fancy, but it's a great little greasy spoon. It's awfully unprentious, and quite tasty. If you are lucky, you can get them to make a mean milkshake, though unless they know you, think you're cute, or really aren't busy, your more likely to just get a snarky "get real!" Don't ever go there thinking you will be in and out quickly, but it's the dive bar of breakfasts for me. A capital hill must in my opinion.

We had the best time celebrating my birthday in the Tasting Room at Eve last night. The food, the service, the atmosphere were all amazing. Thank you to everyone at Eve for a really special evening. I pitty the place that host's my next birthday celebration. It was our first visit to Eve, so everything really charmed us. After each course, and each unexpected additional between courses treat, we stopped to ponder our "favorites." Everytime, we refused to pick just one or even two because it wouldn't be fair to slight any of the many lovely dishes we got to try. Looking back, I enjoyed the great treatment we received from the delightful staff at Eve and the beautiful environment we were in every bit as much as each delicious bite. What a beautiful place to relax on a lovely spring evening and what a pleasant, informed, and unpretentious staff. Both kitchen and front of the house staff got every detail right. We did the five course tasting menu. They started us off with three canapes/amuse: the previously-discussed deviled quail's egg; a mushroom fritter of sorts on a spoon, and a halibut carpaccio with lobster roe and micro-cilantro. Each was delicious. The carpaccio was so interesting - the micro-cilantro really added something and delighted the palate. Our firsts were the renowned Hog's Head "Burger" and the Maine Diver's Scallop Veloute with Mock (potato) Risotto. Mmmm. Both were great choices. The "Burger" exploded with interesting flavors. Like several of the treats we tasted its labelling was a playful choice of a creative chef. Scallops are my girlfriend's favorite and she promptly declared this big beaut to be "the best ever." It was a lovely scallop in every way and the Mock Risotto was the first of many dishes we wiped clean with our bread. Between courses one and two, an incredibly intense bowl of pork broth of some sort arrived. Wow. Super intense. We figured it must have been cooking down since well before we awoke that morning. For seconds, we had Butter Poached Maine Lobster with Heirloom Carrots and Ginger and Gnocchi with Spring Garlic and Beets. Both were great. Lobster with Carrots & Ginger was so interesting. One of those dishes that make you say "will that work?" and "really?" and somehow just does. My mouth was just astonished by the mix of flavors. Both cheeses were great. How fun that they serve great cheese and do great things with it too. I love how many restaurants are doing cheese courses these days, but more should attempt to emulate the interesting things Eve is doing with them. We had Colsten and Basset Stilton Flan and Mountaineer (cheddar-like) with Cardoon Panna Cotta. A sip of grapefruit soda was a delightful palate cleansing treat and our Lost Bread and "Strawberry Shortcake" desserts were both tasty. The Lost Bread was compared to a french toast and may have ruined my previous favorite at Bis. The petits four were a lot of fun - especially the passion fruit gum and the birthday bonus treat of take home bags of coffee and scone mix was a lovely touch to the end of a perfect evening. Thank you to everyone at Eve!!! If you haven't tried it, get there in one way or another now!

Last week they had strawberry cupcakes on special. I believe they were called Red Velvet. Mmm. I haven't tried any of their other stuff, but this was delightful. The most intense red strawberry flavor with a rich creamy white frosting. My NYC friend said it was better than Magnolia's - though she says Magnolia is #2 or 3 in NYC in her book...

Totally agree. Both times we've been Vincent was a real highlight of the experience. He's very easy and pleasant to work with and he's willing to share good stories about the most and least expensive bottles on his extensive lists. One of my all time favorite evenings was a wine tasting class he did a year and a half ago. Let him work his magic for you and ENJOY!

We too dined at Corduroy last night. It did seem like something was a little off in the dining room, but our food experience was probably the best we've had there. If you haven't had your first soft shells of the season, get over to Corduroy ASAP. We got the soft shells entree and it came with two of the biggest, meatiest, juciest soft shells. Mmm, it was really the perfect soft shell dish. Others have touched on how Chef Powers seems to somehow bring out the underlying flavors in his ingredients in an unadorned fashion to reveal their essence in a more intense way. That was absolutely the with our soft shells last night. They had porcupine ala buffalo mozzarela appetizer and were plated on a nice bed of greens. The sauce was tasty, but that was all background to the pure, meaty soft shells. I don't know how you guys did it, but they were awesome. I love soft shells and I don't have a hard time saying these were my favorite. We also had the scallops, a similarly lovely dish. 4 large, firm, perfected seared to a nice brown crisp on the outside without being the slightest bit overdone on teh inside. Again, simply prepared plated atop little ponds of garlic mashed with a Chardonay sauce and some tasty (grilled portabello?) mushrooms. Again, this entree was quintessentially Corduroy - relatively simple preparation, but perfect execution. The strawberry tart was our only real disappointment. The tart itself and its crust were both really bland. That being said, the accompanying candied stawberries and strawberry sorbet were intensely delicious. I'm sorry others had mixed experiences last night. One of my favorite things about Corduroy is how pleasantly relaxing I find it for a high-end restaurant. It sounds like one server made an honest mistake, the diners made an honest, if not entirely well-thought out mistake, and the restaurant eventually went above and beyond to fix the problem. That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong with hoping for a little more graciousness in interaction, though surely even the best managers will have trying nights where they aren't at their best at every moment.

Where would you go if we slightly altered the parameters as follows: 27th birthday Dancing & music not important Good food, but mid-range prices (~$15 entrees) is important Group dinner for about 15 Preferably in DC Saturday night, so probably would need somewhere that would do a reservation. Thanks!

I've only been once, but very much enjoyed what we had to eat. I did feel a little condescended to by my server and wondered whether he might have assumed I was too young to belong there. That being said, this is a problem that is not specific to Citronelle, I do not think. Don't you think its a little unfair to be criticizing service you had 5 years ago, though? Surely, no one deserves to be treated that way, but I don't think the current employees at Citronelle deserve to be maligned for bad behavior of what may well now be past employees. Just a thought. Sorry you had negative experiences. If you are tempted to try it again, the bar area offers food that I found both tasty and interesting at more reasonable prices and presents an atmosphere where you might feel more comfortable.