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This Looks Legit of the Day: I think it’s safe to say this is by far the most honest review on Yelp.
[reddit.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqhunwfeG01qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
This Looks Legit of the Day: I think it’s safe to say this is by far the most honest review on Yelp.
[reddit.]
(Source: thedailywhat)
DC foodies — Woodberry Kitchen is worth a trip to Baltimore on its own!
since I’m already day-dreaming of the weekend’s eats…
We met up with some friends for brunch a few weeks ago, and I’m still dreaming about it. Built in an old mill complex, Woodberry Kitchen celebrates the farm-to-table movement with local and organic ingredients, and it is situated in a space that manages to be cozy and airy, comforting and innovative all at the same time.
My dish was the Morning After, a heavenly collection of fried egg, BBQ pork, pan fried potatoes, and a biscuit to sop it all up. The biscuit had the perfect dense and flaky combination, the potatoes were crackly on the outside and soft on the inside, but the pork really stole the show. I can’t do justice to it, but I’ll try to describe the pork, which wasn’t shredded to bits like you often get, but was rather a mix of larger and smaller pieces, and it was tender enough that I could have eaten it with no sauce at all. Fortunately I didn’t, because the sauce was a perfect blend of vinegary tang and sweetness.
The other dishes at our table were great, too (a burger, and a couple of ricotta pancakes, which tasted better than they sounded to me). The French press coffee was divine, as well!
For foodies in DC wondering whether it’s worth the trip to B’more, it totally is. And the Charm City prices don’t hurt either.
An Extra Yelping: Thunder Burger and Bar
Cross-posted on Yelp! (3 stars)
This review is just for the drinks, as we haven’t tried the burgers yet. Thunder has a well-selected draft list of American craft beers, including what seemed to be a heavy seasonal rotation, from spots like Ommegang, North Coast, and locals like Flying Dog and Dogfish Head. And what they don’t have on tap, they supplement with a bottle selection.
The vibe is a bit strange, as it’s halfway between standard Georgetown (exposed brick and preppy clientele) and quasi-dive bar (soundtrack from your neighbor’s garage as he was tuning up his Camaro in 1988).
Service was good at the bar, and the bartender was very helpful in helpin to craft flights. All drafts are available as standard servings or 4-ounce (I think) tasters, which can be be combinedin threes for a flight ($1 off).
All in all, seemed like a good spot to meet up with a beer loving friend, or to kill the middle of an afternoon in Georgetown, but probably not a destination.
Penn Quarter Yelping: Carmine’s and Hill Country
I’ve been catching up on Yelp! this week, and added a few new reviews, including two NYC transplants on lower 7th Street NW, each of which adds to the Times-Square-ification of Penn Quarter, though not necessarily in a bad way. (Click for full reviews).
- Carmine’s brings family-style Southern Italian, like Maggianos or Buca di Beppo, but a step up in the food quality. A bit raucous at times, but great for a group dinner before heading to an event at Verizon Center.
- Hill Country is Texas Hill Country BBQ, by way of NYC. The food is good, and the atmosphere is fun for a night out—especially if you like live music, Blue Bell ice cream and/or Shiner drafts— but the prices and experience aren’t great if you’re just looking to get some good BBQ with friends. (For that, I’d try Capital Q, just up the street).
GPOYW: Getting numb, before getting a filling repaired by Dr. Francis Surprenant, the best dentist in DC (according to Liz and me, and a bunch of other folks on Yelp).
Despite the look on my face—I blame the camera angle— it was a nice and easy procedure.
Low pressure, doesn’t try to sell a bunch of unnecessary elective treatments, and a genuine nice guy and highly competent professional. If you’re looking for a new dentist in DC, check out “Dr. Frank.”
The Minneapolis Pedal Pub. Think: Rickshaw meets Beach Bar meets Parade Float.
We had the pedal pub experience while in Minneapolis for a friend’s wedding, and it was totally worth the trip. I’ve found in the last few days, that it’s nearly impossible to describe the experience, other than as a cross between a parade float, a tour bus, an exercise bike (with 15 of your friends) and a beach bar.
It’s BYOB (essentially cans of beer only, no glass), but there are plenty of opportunities for pub stops along the way. And not only that, but you and your friends feel like the star of your show, as all pedestrians you pass are amazed at the site, and going up Nicollet Mall, you get lots of cheers from patio-side diners.
We started out in St. Anthony Main, and our route took us into downtown. Our guide, Ross “the boss,” was friendly, took his job seriously (but not too seriously), and enhanced the experience with some great pub recommendations.
It was an awesome experience for we tourists, and i imagine it would be great for locals as well. It’s not very cheap, but the price point is similar to a standard hop-on, hop-off tour bus, and if you fill the “pub”, it winds up costing about $30 per person for two hours (including tip), which is somewhat made up by the savings of bringing your own 6- or 12-packs.
The word we got is that there are attempts to create similar pedal pub experiences in other cities, including Chicago, Houston, and possibly New York City. I personally think this would be great for DC, though I can’t imagine how something like this would navigate the zoning/regulatory landscape of our fair District!
A few recent Yelps!
I did some yelping over the past few weeks, and thought I’d share them more widely. Click here for the full reviews of these spots and more:
Surfside (4 stars, Glover Park)
The food is simple but well-seasoned “Baja-style” beach food. Your choices include burritos, tacos, salads, and dinner plates that combine proteins and delicious veggies and starches.
It is not really Mexican, but rather than Tex-Mex, think California-style beach shack. Ginger, garlic, mango, pineapple, cilantro, corn, yum. Most of the proteins are either blackened or grilled (chicken, tilapia, shrimp, etc), and the veggies are fresh, crisp and tasty.
If you’re eating in, definitely get chips and guac while you wait, the guac is tasty if not very spicy. You can also grab a beer from the cooler or a drink from the back bar. The seating is great (including the upstairs outdoor patio) if you can handle the popped-collar crowd…
Bar Louie (2 stars, Gallery Place)
Bar Louie has a few things going for it. It’s convenient to downtown, Metro, Verizon Center, the regal cinema, and my office. They have a very good selection of domestic (and a few imported beers). And they have tasty pretzel sticks.
They also have a great happy hour special, with all their beers $3 for 14oz pours, 1/2 price apps, and specials on wine and martinis. Bartenders are (usually) pretty friendly and will help with getting your game on one of the many LCDs in the bar.
However, the service is fair at best, and they have a nasty habit of running out of glasses, all the time. It gets ridiculously crowded, and when it does, the service grinds to a halt. One time, we had a friend order three martinis, and the glasses they came in got progressively smaller, with the final being essentially a test-tube shot glass. The “Night of the Incredible Disappearing Martini” has entered into our lore…
Domino’s Pizza (1 star, Georgetown, because it had two 5-star reviews, and somebody needed to adjust that downward a bit).
TweetNot too much going for it other than a captive audience and reasonable delivery times.
Pros: speedy, and cheap
Cons: frequent rats in the driveway, relatively tasteless crust, sauce, and cheese, everything except the convenience. …
We picked up Pete’s for takeout yesterday, and have immediately become big fans. We generally lean toward the neapolitan pies in DC, because they’re usually a bit better quality (2 Amys, Comet, Paradiso), but after having visited one of the biggies in New Haven — Modern Apizzeria — we were ready to see how Pete’s stacked up.
For two of us, it stacked up quite nicely. The New Haven style crust has a bit more body than a neapolitan, while still packing flavor in the sauce and cheese that most DC delivery/takeout places can’t offer. We had an 18” original, with meatballs on half of it (especially delicious), and it made for a very satisfying dinner and lunch for each of us.
It was definitely worth the money, and we’ll be ordering from Pete’s again sometime soon.
(Photo via arugulafiles)
DC Dining Out: Masa 14 okay, but not worth the hype
(cross-posted on Yelp!)
Masa 14 was okay, but not great. We met up with some friends in Borderstan to check it out, and found the food to be uneven. But the drinks were worth a return trip.
On the food side, the small plates make Masa 14 seemingly ideal for sharing, but the menu could stand to be a bit more descriptive. We were seated near the kitchen, so we got to see many of the plates as they headed out to the floor, but it was difficult to guess which of the great looking or smelling dishes corresponded to what on the menu. It was also difficult to tell which dishes were meant for sharing, and which were more suited to one person. (e.g., at a tapas place seems like it could be great for sharing, but all of Masa 14’s sushi were handrolls, and therefore impossible to share).
The food quality had some hits and some misses, and even the hits weren’t memorable, compared to similar versions at Zengo or other tapas locales in the District.
On the other hand, the drinks (which we chose in lieu of dessert) would probably be worth a return visit, particularly the hisbiscus margarita and the strawberry lemonade.
All in all, Masa 14 is probably not worth the considerable hype it’s received on the 14th street corridor (we thought the food at Policy was much stronger), but a nice stop for early drinks or a nightcap.
We checked out We, the Pizza, Spike Mendelsohnn’s new pizza place on Capitol Hill, with a couple of friends (and fellow Top Chef fans) visiting DC for the weekend. The man himself wasn’t there, but someone else in the kitchen was sporting a fedora.
Spike has said that he wanted to go away from the Neapolitan style popular in most of DC’s best pizza joints, and aimed for more of a New York style. In terms of the simple cheese pie, it didn’t quite work. The crust is a bit too bready and crispy, and it’s thickness dominates the cheese and sauce. If they’re trying to emulate the best of NY-style, they haven’t gotten it yet.
However, that same crust becomes an asset when the slice is loaded with more toppings. A sausage and peppers pie was well-balanced, and the toppings definitely shined. Similarly, the pancetta and potatoes slice was punctuated with spice and crispiness.
The prices are reasonable ($3 per cheese slice, $4 for a topped slice). Generally speaking, I’m glad that we checked it out, and it was pretty good. If friends were interested in going, I’d be happy to pop in again (but I’d stay away from the regular cheese), but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to cross the city, when there are significantly better pizza options in the District.
(cross-posted on Yelp)
For all DC area foodies, or folks stuck in the District during the dog days of August, make your reservations now! From RAMW:
Join us this August when nearly 200 of metropolitan Washington, DC’s finest restaurants offer awe-inspiring, multi-course meals prepared especially for this gourmet event. Destination DC and the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington are proud to present the 16th annual Washington, DC Restaurant Week from August 16-22, 2010, sponsored by Cadillac and American Express. Lunch: $20.10 for a three-course fixed-price meal Dinner: $35.10 for a three-course fixed-price meal Beverages, gratuity and tax are not included.
Make your reservations via OpenTable and check out Yelp, or these local foodieblogs for news on which restaurants are running great specials or have in recent Restaurant Weeks.
