chowfun

Thanks Chow Maine! Nice website! I wonder if the Town Hill Bistro took over Blue Sage Bistro. We'll have to check when we get there. I noticed that you reviewed Young's Lobster pound in Belfast. We went to Young's on our way to Mt Desert Island last year and we were very pleased. Excellent lobster and much better prices than on MDI. For years we stopped at five islands for lunch on the way, but it is a bit out of our way during our very long drive. Do you have any lobster roll recommendations on the drive up? We cant bring ourselves to wait in line at Red's. Such a production and so touristy.

I'm bumping this thread up because we are soon going to be back on MDI mid to late August and I am interested in any new information about good places to eat. We have been there many times over the past 20 plus years, but we most definately have not tried everything. We loved XYZ last year, we couldnt believe we hadnt tried it on earlier trips. Other favorites of ours are Thurston's, Cafe this Way, Morning Glory Bakery, Beech Hill farmers market (fresh produce to cook ourselves), the barbecue and beer at the Atlantic Brewing Company, and as overpriced and touristy as it is, the Lobster bisque at Jordan Pond house with popovers on the lawn is heavenly. I think Little Notch is pretty good for pizza and sandwiches and another stand by for us is the Lompoc in Bar Harbor. Havana sounds interesting but it also sounds like it is a quiet dining spot. Our kids are 12 and 8 and love to eat great food but they can laugh a little loud, not modulate their voices at times, so we may wait on quiet romantic restaurants for a little longer. We are going to have to try the Thirsty Whale this trip for the fried clams. We have turned our noses up at that place as a tourist trap for a long time. Given all of the recommendations on this board we will have to give it a try. Given recommendations here and on other discussions I am curious about Fiddlers Green and Red Sky in Southwest Harbor and Mache in Bar Harbor. Anyone with input about those places? Has anyone tried Blue Sage Bistro in Town Hill or their sister restaurant in Bar Harbor Cafe Bluefish? We are very excited that we have tickets to see the Rebirth brass band at the Criterion theater. We will probably need a quick and early dinner in Bar Harbor before the concert. Suggestions?

As a matter of fact, I DO remember my own beginnings. And that's exactly why we hired babysitters for our three children when they were toddlers and my husband and I had planned an adult evening out, either as a couple, or with our other adult friends. And since indeed I do remember that when I was a toddler my parents either took us to a family-style restaurant or left us with sitters, and since I also remember that I did the exact same with my children, I really resent being subjected to the ill-mannered children of others that are not so considerate. One does have choices, you know. If you are afraid of some sort of babysitter horror story, fine. Don't get one. Either trade off babysitting chores with another friend, neighbor or relative. Or go to a family-style restaurant. Or stay home until your children are old enough to properly behave. ← Just how often is this happening to everyone? Am I so lucky with dinner planning that although everyone else is being subjected to loud babies and ill-mannered parents, I cant remember the last upscale restaurant dinner that was ruined for me by a child? What I meant about the child intolerant comment is that all one has to do sometimes is walk into a restaurant, hotel or airplane with a baby or child who is not making a scene and be subjected to the evil eye or even worse, loud complaining by another patron. We recently had dinner with a group from work at 707 restaurant with a 6 month old baby. Not a multibelled restaurant but a sophisticated adult setting. She was an angel, not a peep out of her, all smiles. The adults in the group were a little loud, we were having cocktails, saying goodbye to a colleague and getting a little happy. No one complained about us grownups.

Try their buttermilk with berries and a little sugar. I could eat that for at least two meals per day, if not three. I picked up their buttermilk in a carton (no glass I'm afraid) at Whole Foods in Wynnwood.

Hi Sara, I had refrained from responding to this thread for a while because it got very kid unfriendly very fast and I will reiterate that I have had far more expensive meals ruined by adults with no manners than by babies. Number one rule for parents is that you know your own baby or child, plan accordingly and be ready to bail when it is needed. We took our first son to restaurants when on vacation being careful to dine early or once very late when baby was asleep in his stroller and the restaurant was near empty and to choose noisy lively places. For example in Philly I think that you stand a chance at a place like Amada. That is one loud restaurant. If your baby begins to wail you must be prepared to wisk them out of the dining room and not return until calm has been restored. We have had some wonderful servers who have done things to appease baby, and once at a lobster pound in Maine our wonderful waitress took a walk with baby to allow me to eat. We knew our own and our kids' limitations. We could not handle toddler and preschooler at anything other than Chinese or similar ethnic restaurants and spent years not going out to eat much. We brought a sitter with us on vacation a couple of times so we could play all day with the kids and go out at night together as a couple. My advice is to choose your times carefully for baby and choose restaurants carefully as well. For you a high decibel level is your friend. A larger, roomier space is also better. Outdoor space as mentioned is also good. Dont rule out sitting services while on vacation. We used one in New York City many times, baby sitters guild, and we got a sitter twice in Hawaii through our hotel. Jennifer

Well said Tim! Babies can be loud even when not screaming, but I think a happily chirping and happily squealing baby has a right to be so in a noisy restaurant where the adults are doing the same. There is a difference between a quiet restaurant and a boisterous restaurant.

This is sure to become contentious. I can see where you stand on this topic by your use of words. Squeal and plop being the most telling. My babies are now 8 and 12. When we had only one kid he did accompany us to dinner at a few high end restaurants. We were careful to pick places that were already noisy and dining early or late when the place was not packed was often a good solution. A quiet, romantic, candlelit place wouldnt be a place to bring a baby unless you are blessed with an extremely quiet baby. Our eldest was not one of those. If he did scream, one of us walked him out of the dining room, often outside if needed. We did successfully eat at many places with him, Roy's on Maui, Emeril's in nola (boy was that place terrible!), Lulu, etc... We did have a pretty disastrous meal or two, but they were a disaster for us, because one of us had to be somewhere else with the baby. There are many baby and child intolerant people in this world. I guess they dont remember their own beginnings. Sometimes I think people are hypervigilant about noise from a baby or child, but would never angrily confront adults making lots of noise in a restaurant. For example a large party getting a little drunk in a nice restaurant or the guy sitting next to us one meal at a small restaurant loudly discussing his prostate continuously. My husband and I are still relieved when we hear a baby making noise in a restaurant because it isnt our kid! So now to the question. Should a restaurant agree to seat a couple with a squealing 9 month old? I think if they do not set a minimum age for their diners they probably should seat the family. There was an article in the NY times this weekend about a British couple who left their young children in their hotel room in Portugal while they dined close by, and one of their children was kidnapped. The article was about parenting mores in different cultures and how in Spain and Portugal parents bring their young children out to restaurants and bars as a matter of course and that this is expected and accepted by the restaurants as well as the other diners.

Mazel Tov Rae! Standard Tap upstairs on a Friday night gets very loud and very crowded, it will be a madhouse at 8:30 and it will be packed to the gills. What about the new restaurant on Walnut St. 707? It looks cool and I read a nice review somewhere recently. It is casual and moderately priced. Next door is Aqua, a little Malaysian and Thai place. The food is served beautifully and it is not particularly challenging even for the uninitiated and they have a very nice upstairs room that you may be able to reserve. Mixto has an upstairs room if you like Cuban and Colombian food and it is a very nice place. If Pif is in your price range what about restaurant M? The food prices are similar to Pif and it is a really nice place to celebrate a special occasion. These are all in Washington Square West, which tends to be a quieter option than Old City, South street or the east side of broad in Center City on a Friday night. Another thought would be some of the restaurants in Fairmount section, not too far from your temple (if it is Rodeph Shalom). There are many to choose from. I havent been to any of them in a long time. Another thought is White Dog Cafe. They might be able to give you a private room.

The last time we went to Ravenna I thought the food was a C. Savona would rate an A on my scale.

Where is it located?

Very close to the convention center there is an excellent vietnamese restaurant called Ong's on the corner of 11th and Race streets.

I'm pretty sure Greek Lady doesn't own that truck anymore. They should call it Taiwanese lady instead I remember one day I went there only to find new people working the truck, Greek Lady logo removed from everything, but the same menu and the same food. I don't know if the food has changed much since then. I used to go out of my way to Koch's once and awhile for a hoagie, but they've really gone downhill. I hear a rumor that the family sold it off (is this true anyone?). Ever since Bob died the place got slower (that was possible?), all the fun went out of it, and the sandwiches got skimpier. ← Thje remaining Koch broither runs the Koch's Deli now, and it has maintained its quality, so I'm curious what made you say that it had gone "downhill". ← The only Koch brothers who ran the deli for many years were Bobby and Lou, both gone. Is there another Koch running the deli or is it someone else?

Are you looking for a casual lunch or something high end?

Happy Birthday, Katie! We are dying to try Osteria, maybe with our kids in tow.

The tables are close together and they have one in the window that doesnt have enough space between the table, chairs and the wall to comfortably sit. I didnt mention that we thought it was a good value. The check was a hundred dollars for two apps, two entrees, two desserts, two espressos and mineral water. For the quality, it was well worth it.

Finally, a really, really good BYO destination restaurant for us rubes out in the hinterlands! My husband and I rarely get to a new restaurant while it is still new and we never get to a 3 bells by Laban restaurant while it is still new. Somehow we were able to score a 6:30 reservation tonight for Blackfish to celebrate my birthday. It got an excellent review by Craig Laban, and it is deserved based on the food. Laban's review We started with hamachi tartare that was served cubed with jicama and garnished with thinly sliced fresh kumquats, diced jicama with stewed kumquats and a little pile of microgreens. It was a perfect play of soft and crunchy, sweet and tangy. We also had the chestnut risotto. It came in a small crock topped with currant foam. The risotto was cooked perfectly, and the currant foam was a nice foil to the taste of the rice, broth, parmesian and butter. The chestnuts were in chunks in the risotto, they were cooked but still quite firm which was good, so that you could taste them distinctly from the risotto. For entrees we ordered the striped bass served over pumpkin puree, with exquistely prepared celery root, and quince. It was surrounded by more foam, this time apple cider which was tangy and a nice foil to the sweet pumpkin. The fish was cooked perfectly, just barely done. The bouillabase had skate wing, clams, scallop all just barely cooked and delicious and a nice piece of striped bass with crispy skin. The broth was good with the fish and with the toast and aoili, and should have been served with a soup spoon to lap up the delicious broth (I did get a soup spoon but I have been known to slurp my broth with a spare clam shell). Dessert was tasty, but not up to the creativity of the food. Hubby's beignets were delicious and served with a custard sauce and a raspberry puree. I was pretty full and not inspired by the dessert choices so I ordered seasonal fruit with sabayon. This was good. I know, it is winter there really isnt any seasonal fruit in this area. The blackberries, raspberries, pineapple, and kiwi were as good as you can get right now but I'm sure once local fruit is available this will be even better. Some quibbles. It is a small BYO, the room is plain but cheerful, and noisy with a crowd. Service was mostly efficient, friendly and professional, but more than once servers asked to remove plates that we were not finished with, and the check was plopped on the table as soon as dessert was served. There was a four top next to us taking an inordinate amount of time at their table after they were finished which is not a nice thing to do to a small BYO on a Saturday night, but they are not us, and I did not appreciate feeling rushed while we were eating. We had to ask for more of our wine to be poured multiple times during the meal. It was placed in an ice bucket on the far side of the table next to us, one of us would have had to get up to get more wine.

It is this kind of assumption that makes the Philly board unkind. Guess what cinghiale, some of "us" cant get to a dinner out in Philadelphia unless it is a Saturday night between 8-10. Some of "us" work long weekday hours and have kids and perish the thought, live in the suburbs. I guess we cant all be single, childless, urban and cooler than thou.

I want to thank everyone for all of your help. We had a wonderful time and thanks to you all we were able to find some good food. We arrived in DC in the afternoon and we experienced the legendary downtown traffic. It motivated us to leave our car parked our entire stay and walk and use the metro. We made a quick dash to the mall before the museums closed. We saw some of the air and space museum and then had some buffalo burgers and squash salad at Mitsitam. It was the most interesting food I have had at a museum cafe. Unfortunately, many of the stations were closed as we caught them just before closing, and many of the foods on the menus that were not available looked good. That night we ate at Firefly, which really was just around the corner from our hotel. It was nice and cozy and the food was tasty and homey. The best thing we tried was a flounder and cauliflower gratinee with curry. I didnt like that they held our food on warmers and brought the whole order at once. I think if a restaurant is offering small medium and large plates they should be brought to the table as they are ready. I thought their artisan cheese selection needed work, but to be fair maybe their cheeses just didnt suit my taste. Why not feature some of the locally available artisan cheeses like the cheeses at the Dupont farmers market or from Cowgirl Creamery? We enjoyed their wine by the glass. The next day after a very long day at the zoo we went to Cowgirl Creamery and had a hotel room picnic of cheeses, prociutto, bread, olives, quince paste, and almonds. We are familiar with their cheeses from our visits to the bay area. It is an awesome store. The staff is very helpful and they have no problem with you standing at the cheese counter and tasting multiple cheeses. They have an overwhelming selection. I wish they would open a Philly branch. The zoo was great, thank you Hshorter for the recommendation. The animals were all very active especially the giant pandas. Pontormo, we would never have found our way to the Museum of American Art and the Joseph Cornell without the tip. What an incredible museum! I loved the modern art collection on the 3rd floor and the building and ongoing renovation. We tried Zaytinya that day for a late lunch. That was our favorite meal of the whole weekend. We had tired ourselves out at the museum and walked out into a Chinese New Years parade. We made a silly attempt to walk two blocks to Full Kee and soon realized that we couldnt move at all on the sidewalks, especially with my son on crutches. We were hungry, tired, miserably cold, and it had started to snow. We doubled back to Zaytinya and were seated immediately at a round booth near the gas fireplace. We had a very knowlegeable, very good waiter and we quickly ordered an incredible middle eastern feast. The chicken soup avgolemono was the best I have ever tasted. The broth was poured into the bowl at the table so the soup was nice and hot and it made for a nice presentation with all of the goodies piled in the middle of the bowl and the broth poured around it. The broth was lemony, light and creamy. The kibbe was excellent served with a lucious thick and sour labneh. The chicken stuffed with apricots and currants was delicious. The goat cheese in grape leaves with a sweet tomato jam was yummy. The fried squid were perfectly crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside and the mussels were cooked to perfection, just barely done with a tomato feta broth that was excellent. At another table we saw the giagantic sea scallops and the sauteed shrimp served and they looked great. The basket of house made puffy pita bread was wonderful. Service was attentive and perfect. That afternoon we went to the East building of the National Gallery and saw the Jasper Johns exhibit. I loved the building by I.M. Pei and the Andy Goldsworthy sculpture Roof. The next day we decided to try Jaleo for lunch. The meal came to an unauspicious start when we walked into a half empty restaurant at about 3pm on President's day and we were shown to a table that was in front of the bus station and kitchen door. The service was not good,we were left with dirty plates on our table for long periods of time, more bread was not offered, we had no olive oil on our table, water was not refilled. The food came out at uneven intervals, a bunch at a time and then a long wait. They forgot to serve one of our dishes. The food was good, but I have had better tapas. We ordered a special seafood paella as they were having a paella festival. It was good but the rice was overly salty for my taste. It had a nice seafood flavor and the fish and seafood in the paella were cooked nicely. It lacked a socarat, something I have not been successful in achieving in my home attempts to make paella, so I was dissappointed that they did not make it this way. I asked the manager about it and he said that the Spanish chef Mari Carman Velez whose paella recipe this was based on makes a quicker cooking paella with more broth and no socarat. The flan was incredibly good, light and eggy served with orange flavored whipped cream. We had very spicy (as ordered) delivered Thai food from Sala Thai one night and we were very happy. I also want to thank those who mentioned the Dupont circle farmer's market. We enjoyed pastries from bonaparte breads and we picked up a delicious cheddar cheese from one of the dairies. We saw a free concert at the Kennedy Center on Monday. We ended the trip by heading out to the second Air and Space Museum out by the Dulles airport. We saw the Enola Gay and the Enterprise space shuttle. We should have inquired about food out in that direction, because we didnt find anything worth eating. How could they have McDonalds at their cafe! We were unable to do so many of the great things everyone mentioned and we couldnt eat everywhere! We shall return.

Will we be able to walk to Dupont circle from our hotel location at 23 and N? Its the embassy suites. On the map it looks close. Is it relatively safe to walk from that area to Dupont circle?

Wow! You guys are great! So much information, so many responses, so quickly! My kids are 8 and 11. They eat a wide variety of food. Favorites are sushi, tapas, chinese (real chinese, not americanized strip mall chinese) and they are open to trying new things. We will be in town Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues. We are staying at 23 and N street, two blocks from Washington Circle. I have no knowledge of the neighborhoods in Washington. All of your advice including Washington restaurant sites, places to see and things to do are greatly appreciated. Is there a particularly good neighborhood to try to stay in with regard to eating? We are currently booked at a hotel that serves full breakfast, which limits choice but does get you going more quickly in the morning. The Ethiopean food sounds interesting, as does the tapas, Indian and Mongolian Barbecue. Are there any bakeries to seek out? I am psyched about the Jasper Johns exhibition. We saw the Rauschenberg exhibit in New York at the Met (last year?) and it was fantastic. My older son likes modern art. We will have to get to the Phillips. I've never heard of it before. Here in Philly we have the Barnes collection and it is the most breathtaking collection of impressionist art work.

We are a family of 4 coming for a weekend of fun in DC. I would love some advice on lunch and dinner spots. Kids are school age and they have sophisticated palates, so we will not be needing kids menus or bland food. I think we will be seeing as many Smithsonian museums as we can stand and maybe some of the typical tourist activities yet to be determined. Ethnic food, anything not to miss?

For a sophisticated, grown-up buttercream birthday cake, Cake in Chestnut Hill is the place. I am partial to the yellow cake with buttercream icing and raspberry mousse between the layers. They also do chocolate cake, chocolate icing, mocha filling and probably a few other choices. I like Isgros in the Italian market for buttercream sheet cakes.

I think the place you are referring to is Tara. It is up a hill above Upper Black Eddy PA. It is like eating in the hosts living room and they serve you as if you are their personal guests. The food is Italian. You dont have to know someone to eat there but you have to call ahead for reservations.

I want to report back on our ladies night out dinner. It was a great success. The private room upstairs is beautiful, tall ceilings, hardwood floors, with a wall of windows looking out onto Chestnut Street. They had a karoake machine in the room that they offered to turn on, but this wasnt the right crowd for it. The only negative about the room is that it got quite noisy in there. I didnt know ahead of time that we had a couple of vegetarians in the crowd and someone who couldnt eat shrimp. I had ordered ahead, but the server and the kitchen quickly adjusted some of the platters to not include meat or shrimp. For example we had 4 pad thais served and they made one platter a vegetarian version. Their food is not too challenging but tasty, perfect for a large group with varying tastes. They presented the food beautifully. The pineapple fried rice was served in a hollowed out pineapple , the mango chicken in two half mango skins. One of the dishes came in a mini wok. The cost of the meal was very reasonable. It came out to be about 19 dollars per person including the tip that they added on to the bill. We each chipped in two extra dollars and left a much nicer tip for the excellent service. I think I might try to take my office staff there for a dinner. They love karoake, and they expressed a willingness to try Thai food (they are generally very limited eaters).

I heard that Matt is making sushi in Manhatten temporarily.