PatDC

Vidalia is also open on Sundays, but that Sunday is the last day of Restaurant Week, so I imagine they're booked.

They know their market, especially in a downtown location. Do you know how hard it is to prep a pineapple at the office? How how long it might take one person to finish a watermelon? I can't get that worked up about WF selling cut fruit. I just hope the containers are recyclable. Some of their prepared food containers aren't, and that's a shame. ← I agree. Cut fruit serves a good purpose, especially for people who want something quick and don't have the immediate resources to cut up a variety of fruit or melons and more challenging fruits. I won't say it's better than potato chips , but it's certainly healthier.A couple of years ago when we were renovating and didn't have a kitchen for 6 months+, I bought precut fruit at Whole Foods pretty regularly (though I did most of my shopping at the erstwhile Landmark/Pinecrest location). We didn't even have a water source on the main floor of our house, so just washing fresh fruit was a pain. It was their precut fruit and anything that could be peeled. I also bought a fair amount of their prepared food, which I haven't done before or since, and it filled our needs adequately at the time. Even though I live in the district, I've shopped at the P Street store probably no more than half a dozen times since it opened. I hate the drive over there, and taking metro halfway across the city with any quantity of groceries is impractical. Each of the times I've gone, I've found it less satisfactory than the previous times. Hearing accounts like this doesn't make me want to rush over there.

Le Bon Cafe, on 2nd, between Independence and C, SE (opposite Madison Bldg. of Library of Congress) has nice simple cafe fare. It's a bit pricey and seating is limited (if it's warm enough, there are tables outside). You order at the counter; no table service. I love the curried turkey salad sandwich, which comes with a side of delicious potato salad.

This also puts you in walkable distance to Georgetown. I don't have much in the way of food recommendations there (Pizza Paradiso has locations both there and at Dupont), but there's lots of shopping. Unfortunately, the quirkier Georgetown shopping locations have been paved over by chains. If you have a nice sunny afternoon, though, walking P Street west to Georgetown and meandering could be fun. The architecture is gorgeous, if you're into that kind of thing. Thomas Sweet shop in Georgetown (Wisconsin and P) is a great place for ice cream.

I got what I thought was a pretty good loaf of rye at the MM on Capitol Hill last week. I thought it was better than Firehook, but I can't say I remember the original MM/Breadline or have a good enough sensory memory to do much reliable comparison.

In addition to the other suggestions, you might enjoy Sonoma on the House side of the Capitol. I'd call it a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel. If you check a map, you'll see it's not as far as the the addresses might seem. The two are just located on opposite sides of the Capitol. (Walk along the West side of the Capitol grounds because the East side is torn up with construction.)

Given that you posted this 2 months ago, you may have your answers already, but I just saw this thread. There's Eastern Market, which has produce, deli, butcher stands (Markey Poultry is great for chicken and turkey), and a fishmonger, as well as breakfast/lunch stand. On Saturdays and Sundays, it has outdoor produce vendors and a flea market (Sunday is more the flea market day). That's on 7th St., SE, between North Carolina Ave. and C St. It's not a really long walk from where you are, but it depends on how much you're carrying. The owner of Canales Deli has a Salvadoran/Mexican carryout with a little seating across the street (Tortilla Cafe). There is a producers' only farmers' market at 6th and H, NE, which is walkable from where you are. It's open Saturday mornings, but I'm not sure how far into the fall that runs. (The Eastern Market produce vendors are not necessarily producers and prices can be high, though they bring in good-quality produce from the region.) There is also a wholesale farmer's market (also meats, etc.) which sells to the public up around Florida Ave. and 6th NE, but it really requires a car to get there: http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one...d=224&type_id=0. Litteri's is a great little Italian market right nearby. ETA: I forgot that a metro station on the red line opened near the Florida Avenue market. It's the New York Ave./Florida Ave./Gallaudet stop. Pat

One of the flyers I saw indicated that they planned on reopening at another location in 2006. I don't know how firm those plans are, but that sounded encouraging.

Or maybe they don't know where to eat after all. ← It's been my experience that the food at the CCBC near the convention center is better than at the one by Union Station, but I haven't been to either in a while.

I've eaten dinner there 4 or 5 times. I ordered the gnocchi once, and it was good but not great. I don't recall that it was oily, though. I'm having trouble remembering the dish so many weeks later. I've enjoyed most things I've gotten there. And, yes, the beverage prices really do add up. I've liked the wines I've had there, but the last couple of times I stuck with the beer. I like Italian beer they have on tap (I always get the name wrong).

We shared a meatball sandwich and white pizza last night at the Ugly Mug. Both were pretty good, as were the fries that came with the sandwich. My husband found the sandwich "more bready than meatbally," but I prefer not having to fight the meatballs in a meatball sandwich and these were well-contained in the roll. The service was okay, an improvement over my previous experience there. (I think I must have posted that in the general Capitol Hill thread, but I'll bump this thread back up.) There were a fair number of people at the bar, but there were more empty tables than I expected, given the time we were there (7:30-8ish). The hostess offered us a booth, even though there were only 2 of us.

Tunnicliffs finally has its new menu. I can't speak for the whole thing, but I liked the seared tuna appetizer. It's $12, I think. It's got a wasabi cream sauce and seaweed mix with cabbage. Very nice. They have a couple of other tuna items on the menu that are similar (sesame, seaweed, wasabi), but I don't know how they are. Most of the menu didn't change much, except a lot of offerings went up by a buck. They've also got a pigs in a blanket app that looked interesting (fairly substantial). Now that I've had an appetizer, I plan to try pizza at Sonoma for dinner. I'm not full yet, really. . Bring it on. We want good food on Capitol Hill. Bring it on!

I like Kawasaki for sushi. http://www.kawasaki-restaurant.com/restaurant/index.html

We ate at Equinox last night and were somewhat underwhelmed. The dinner menu is in a tasting menu format only now, and we went with 3 courses. Unfortunately, I didn't write down what we had, and the menu we ordered from was different than the one on the website. My husband had hearts of palm salad, a pasta dish with cavatelli, and beef of some kind--tip loin?. I had the oysters, which came with three different toppings: caviar, a creamy sauce that I think had a mustard base, and a mignonette of some sort. The oysters tasted fresh and had been chilled but were not served on ice. They tasted fine but were not anything special. I also had a risotto, which, unfortunately, was gummy. Very gummy. The seared scallop served on top was very good, though. For a meat course I had the lamb, which was quite good, but since it was a tasting menu, there wasn't much of it. We declined dessert, but the server brought us a few complimentary dessert bites, which were good. I think my favorite part of the meal was the bread. I had a slice of raisin bread and a slice of sun-dried tomato bread and both were excellent. Service was fine. It was freezing cold when we got there. We didn't say anything but someone who came in shortly after us did complain and the temperature was adjusted. We've eaten a number of meals out recently, so perhaps Equinox suffered from the comparison. Maybe we'd have enjoyed it more another night. Because of the obligatory tasting menu, in order to get enough food, one really has to order more than 3 courses, which ups the cost considerably.

Garrett Park is the only Black's I haven't been to. I like the raw bar at Black's in Bethesda a lot, but I'm not out there that often. Honestly, it's not the most scientific sampling, but I like Addie's the best of the three Black's I've been to, based on the food and overall experience.

We stopped at Addie's for dinner last night after hours of home renovation shopping in Rockville. (We're redoing our kitchen. We currently have no kitchen and are eating lots of meals out). I've wanted to go there for years and it's never been convenient to stop there. We had about a half hour wait for a table, which would have been less of a problem if we weren't so exhausted. The wait was absolutely worth it. We both started with black bean soup (with chorizo, cilantro, and sour cream or creme fraiche drizzled over the top), which was the soup special of the day. It was the perfect soup for a cold winter's night in late May . It's the best black bean soup either of us had had in a long time. My husband got the roasted chicken and could not stop raving about the sauce. The menu described it as lemon thyme jus, but I tasted a flavor in there I couldn't recognize. Maybe it was something caramelized. I don't know. The jus was very good. I didn't get any of the chicken . That came with mascarpone orzo and baby vegetables. I got the Gulf shrimp linguine with spinach, which was done very well. It was a wonderful meal in a cozy environment and the antedote to a long, frazzling day. I know where we're going for dinner next time we have to be out in Rockville.

My husband and I had an enjoyable meal at Ceiba last night. I really loved the tortilla chip/crackers and their accompanying dip. When I asked one of our servers about the ingredients in the dip (I could have sworn there were beans in there somewhere, but it was the roasted pumpkin seeds I was tasting--great flavor), I got a very helpful response. We also got a detailed description of the various ceviches in the sampler, including their arrangement on the plate from mildest to strongest flavor. We started with the ceviche sampler and duck empanadas. I was inclined just to get the shrimp ceviche but opted for the sampler to try all of them. I'm glad I did. I liked the shrimp the best in the end and then the grouper. My husband liked the tuna the most. I think I liked the striped bass preparation a bit more than the tuna. I loved the empanadas but was not that fond of the mojo. If I order them again, I believe I will ask for a bit more of the pepitas dip to dunk them in (I tried it with the tiny bit that was left and I liked it better than the mojo). I ordered the jerk chicken for my main course and was quite pleased with it. I was hoping to have some to bring home, but we polished it off. The watermelon that came with it added something I wouldn't have expected. It was delicious. My husband got the plantain salmon, and I didn't like the taste of it I had as much as I expected to. The flavors didn't work for me, for some reason, but he liked it and got to have it to himself...and since he's the one who ordered it, I guess that worked out just fine They brought us a dessert sampler, which was nice with my coffee. I loved the caramel popcorn (though my husband didn't), but I was too full to eat it all To drink with the meal we had a Chilean white by the glass. I think it was a sauvignon blanc. The wine list is not online and my memory for these things is terrible

Thank you for mentioning this! I haven't been there in years and have been wondering about heading out there for a meal. I used to love that restaurant when I lived in PG County and it was remotely nearby, but I wasn't sure if it was still as good as I remembered.

Bumping this back up because I had great steamed dumplings at Full Kee for lunch today. I went to the Baileys location and had a great meal. I really loved the dumplings. I may not be too good with the search engine because I couldn't find something for the VA location--and I think I've seen it discussed here. Maybe not I had hot and sour soup, steamed dumplings, and eggplant in garlic sauce. It was a wonderful meal. Leftovers for dinner. [edit because I just realized I spelled the name of the restaurant wrong ]

I second this. I like Bis for brunch, but it isn't cheap and it's heavier on lunch than breakfast foods. I had a wonderful meal there last month of a belgian endive salad and French onion soup. I took a friend for her birthday, which I've done a few times. Steak and eggs is her favorite breakfast, and they do it up right there.

Yes. I just attempted going there recently, and GACK. The service was awful. I really want to support 8th Street and Hill businesses, but this was bad. Eventually I may try again--because I do that--but this was bad.

Go! You will have a wonderful meal. The shutdown was over a technicality.

In addition to the other suggestions, Pizza Paradiso, 2029 P Street, just off the Circle. I don't usually go there for lunch, but it should be a lot shorter wait than attempting dinner there. I love their pizza, and there's a great used bookstore right across the street.

Joe, while I think you may have a point in general, I'd have to disagree as regards this particular topic. The reason the Sietsema thread covers so much territory is that it responds to the weekly chats, which also cover a lot of territory. When I check the new posts in this thread, I expect them to be about the current chat in some way or other. On the topic of the dress code, I personally enjoy getting dressed up to go out to eat. My husband does not, and it's frequently a nagfest. While he's okay with the jacket and tie for Citronelle or Laboratorio, I sure get the evil eye from him when I push the jacket and/or tie and we end up at a place where the other male diners are in jeans and collarless shirts .

My husband and I had dinner at Blacksalt tonight. The small plates were phenomenal. We had the white anchovy, ham, shittakes, and grilled sardine. I also had half a dozen Bay oysters and the Ipswich clams appetizer. My husband had the Florida Jack fish and couscous, etc., as an entree. The plates seemed to lose lustre as they got larger. The small plates were the best. We also got the peanut butter/chocolate dessert, which was quite good. I loved the coffee. I just got the plain old regular coffee. It was the best I've had in a restaurant in a long time. Our server was really helpful and generally wonderful. Nice meal.