bilrus

My wife and I managed about $95. We ate a lot, but it's not like we were ready to explode or anything either.

Does it say something about my level of humor that I laughed when I read that? By the way I am : 1. Pistachio 2. Cashew 3. Pecan (in pie preferably)

When visiting last year I did Yank Sing and really liked it, although it is a tad expensive. Others have complained that it is not authentic enough, but I've yet to see anyone say it is not high quality.

Why not, if it makes the dish worse than the sum of its parts, as Bruni seemed to think it did? there's two, maybe three, deconstructed dishes on the menu.. the onion soup and the lemon tart.. that's it.. but everyone who goes and reviews this place harps on them.. why?? maybe because everything else is done amazingly competently but competency doesn't make for one star reviews.. the gruyere comes in a warm water bath that keeps it at a nice consistency.. i'm amazed at how everyone here seems to be jumping all over this place, and two specific dishes, without visiting it.. if luger's really does have three stars, there's no way this place deserves one by the same reviewing body.. luger's coasts by on the quality of their meat.. nothing else on the menu is done consistently well, nor does the decor or service merit anything near three stars.. I agree with you on Luger's. The meat is great, but if you look at the full experience - is it really possible for one dish alone to pull a restaurant up from what would probably be at most one, but more likely zero stars all the way up to three? And it strikes me from the descriptions (admittedly not having been there) that V is less a steakhouse than a fine dining restaurant that happens to feature steaks on its menu. If that is the case, is it really a good comparison to lump it in with Luger's (or Wolfgang's or Smith and Wollensky or Ruth's Chris)?

I say eat it. Bland food (or even food that is aggessively nasty) isn't going to kill anyone. Than you can complain about it afterwards.

That one reminds me of soemthing Bobby Flay does on Boy Meets Grill that snaps me (although I otherwise really like the show). He'll pick up something (a bowl of marinade, a grilled piece of meat) hold it close to the camera and say - "Smell this. Doesn't that smell great?" No - it smells like my TV screen.

One of my favorite things in the world is cloyingly sweet, sugary birthday cake. No amount of well prepared subtle desserts will ever turn me off of them. So I think my tastes might approximate those of a five year old in this case. This year for my birthday I bought a regular birthday cake from Giant and it was very good - moist cake and sweet frosting that was not overly grainy or tasting of shortening.

I went for dim sum at Fortune in Reston a few Sundays ago and didn't love it. It was OK, but the flavors seemed a little muddled and the cart service was irregular. I saw the same cart of dumplings five or six times, but as we were ready to leave two new carts with good looking stuff came by, but by then we were full. This was only my third experience with dim sum, but my first two were at Sweet and Tart in New York and Yank Sing in San Francisco. I loved the bright, distinct flavors at each. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Reston, VA didn't quite measure up.

I would love to cook in the Emeril Live kitchen. I like having everything in front of me and having the sink on the same counter as the stove. And I would enjoy having the built in grill and deep fryer too. I could do without Doc Gibbs and the fawning audience though.

I recieved this e-mail this morning from Yanyu via Open Table. Looks like they aren't doing the full menu this time, but this sounds pretty good and appears to be a pretty good value for $30. "In conjunction with up-coming Restaurant Weeks festival, yanyu Restaurant is offering 5 courses Tasting Menu with only $30.00 per person. Please find the menu as follow:- 1st Course - Lily Bulb Dumpling (Delicate egg white wrapped with minced chicken & Asian vegetables) 2nd Course - Big Duck (yanyu signature item. Peking roast duck served with pancakes, scallions, cucumber and homemade plum sauce) 3rd course - Crab Cucumber Sunomono (Tossed with chef special sauce) 4th course - Honey roasted Seabass (Roasted with bed of scallions, Shanghai style). 5th course - Crispy Garlic Shrimp (Jumbo shrimp flavored with garlic, spicy salt & pepper) Wine pairing is available with additional $15.00 with 3 glasses of wine pair between every 2 courses."

There are no old threads around here, just topics that need to be brought up again. Just wait until you resurrect a thread from 2002 before you apologize.

What are the advantages of writing about restaurants for an 'alternative' paper? Does it free you up to do more unusual reviews and / or be more critical of the places you do review?

In the last few RWs I have done Corduroy (the best RW experience I have had yet, full menu available), Tosca (pretty good, with more than a few choices), Equinox (very good - several nice choices that I supplemented a little bit) and Colvin Run Tavern (also pretty good with several choices). This year I have made reses at Corduroy again and Yanyu. I'm glad to hear they do a good job. This is my first time in several cycles not to go to the Dem convention. I thought it would be too much hassle with security, a hometown nominee. And that was before I knew it was RW. Good choice.

Love it or hate it. Customer or employee. It's that time of year again. List of participating restaurants and link to Open Table participants here: DC Restaurant Week

Black beans and chicken make this a "Southwest egg roll" - pretty good stuff IMO. In my experience the difference between egg rolls and spring rolls is that spring rolls are made with a rice paper wrap, while egg rolls are made with a wonton-type wrapper. Lots of cabbage is also a characteristic of most egg rolls.

That came from a thread originally about the French Laundry that was spun off into its own thread here: Restaurants and eGullet

Everybody's favortie Rick Bayless seems to recommend rinsing chopped onions to remove the 'strong' taste in nearly every recipe I have tried from his cookbooks. Doesn't the technique of salting the onions make the onions a little mushy?

chef kats - I think it would be more acceptable to do this at the Minibar, which is a more unique experience and where people might be less likely to know how to tip because most of their serving is being done by the chefs themselves. In this case, it might even make sense to do this for all diners, not just large parties (although the perception would be that the cost of the meal itself is less than a bargain). Has tipping been an issue at the Minibar?

Did they give a reason why there were no wine pairings? Most people have been able to get pairings for $75-100 per person with teh nine-course menu.

I signed up after reading the original thread here, but haven't done anything beyond that.

Anyone see the mention of Palena in Newsweek and think it a little odd? It was part of a blurb on places offering "Small Plates". That's not the first thing I think of when I think of Palena unless they are talking about the bar menu. Palena in Newsweek

It appears that my original post included some misinformation - according to Sietsema the Herdon location WILL stay open after all. Good news for both the 'burb and city dwellers. Weekly Dish

Greens - with some sort of pork or (only if pork is to be avoided for religious and/or vegatrian issues) lots of garlic.

Vilaggio in Yountville was one of the nicer rooms we have stayed in anywhere.

On my last visit there I was given a flyer about this and was going to post something about it too, but forgot once I started talking about the impending move. That veal cheek and garlic flan course sounded great, even on the menu. I am headed there for lunch in about a half an hour. Maybe they'll have leftovers.