Zaytinya

[vengroff]

I've followed Jorge from Catalan West to Colvin Run to Zaytinya (he was the reason I first went to Z.).  Raconteur extraordinaire (though he is a Real Madrid supporter).

This could become a real problem. I support Arsenal, and it seems Real Madrid is looking to steal Arsene Wenger from them.

[Monica Bhide]

I am headed there for lunch today. Can someone help me with directions. if I take the train to Metro Center is it walkable? I am still quite unfamiliar with DC so any help would be appreciated

Thanks

Monica

[Rail Paul]

I believe it's just opposite the entrance to the red line Gallery Place station, in the Pepco Building

Eighth and G, maybe?

[Monica Bhide]

Thanks!! I am off now, will report later today.. I am so thrilled to be eating there.. this should be a treat!

[theakston]

[i support Arsenal.

My condolences.

[Monica Bhide]

First, let me apologize for the delay in posting. Thanks to all for the wonderful directions.. I did not get lost and was even on time!!

We ordered multiple dishes off the menu since I really wanted to taste as much as I could. I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart that this was some of THE BEST food that I have ever eaten in my entire life over the three continents that I have lived on!!

I would describe the service inside the restaurant as really attentive. It was quite busy, yet despite no reservations, we did not have to wait.

I would love to go there again -- this is a place to go with a whole bunch of loud friends!! It is full of energy and life and chef is passionate about his food -- its shows in each dish!

If I can provide any more information, please feel free to PM me

[jparrott]

I've followed Jorge from Catalan West to Colvin Run to Zaytinya (he was the reason I first went to Z.).  Raconteur extraordinaire (though he is a Real Madrid supporter).

This could become a real problem. I support Arsenal, and it seems Real Madrid is looking to steal Arsene Wenger from them.

<OT><french>

Really?

I did not see it.

</french>

West Ham here. I know, I know.

</OT>

[jparrott]

Transferring over from the Matchbox thread, Zaytinya is doing one (1) whole spit-roasted lamb (about 40 generous meze-size portions) for Sunday lunches.

Jake

[vengroff]

Transferring over from the Matchbox thread, Zaytinya is doing one (1) whole spit-roasted lamb (about 40 generous meze-size portions) for Sunday lunches.

That sounds like it's worth a trip. How is it served? Do you specify the cut that you want?

[jparrott]

Transferring over from the Matchbox thread, Zaytinya is doing one (1) whole spit-roasted lamb (about 40 generous meze-size portions) for Sunday lunches.

That sounds like it's worth a trip. How is it served? Do you specify the cut that you want?

Definitely worth a trip. It's rich, rich stuff--I was verrrry happy to be drinking the new Xinomavro rose they were pouring by the glass, rather than a thick red, with the lamb.

It's served as 4-5 generous-sized nubbins. I wasn't given the opportunity to specify a cut--but I'm pretty sure I got a shoulder, leg and saddle piece, as well as one I wasn't sure about (maybe foreshank?) It didn't seem that they were from the same part of the animal. Also a little bit of skin (?!). A rich sauce that felt like a stock reduction with some pomegranate molasses finished the plate. Nothing fancy. Definitely built for sharing (very rich). Apparently from one of the local farms, not from Colorado or Jamison Farm in Pennsylvania.

[tan319]

The cake we've talked a lot about on the site, it is "a la Conticini" (not Jean-Georges and not Bras) baked for only a few minutes at very high heat (500) in an exclusive aluminum timbale mold by JB Prince in NY which heats up very very quickly.  That's what gives you the texture contrast between outside wall and inside.

Steve,

is the timbale mold the 4 oz. mold on the JBprince site? M183 D?

I was looking last night on the site and saw them.

Also, do you bake the cake ala minute?

[Steve Klc]

Yes and no, respectively. I have a few hundred in the freezer at any given time, thaw before service; you can either hold some warm or zap in the microwave a la minute.

[tan319]

Yes and no, respectively.  I have a few hundred in the freezer at any given time, thaw before service; you can either hold some warm or zap in the microwave a la minute.

Damn!!!

A few hundred?

Nice one.

Thanks for the info.

[jparrott]

So if anyone wants to sample the spit-roasted lamb and other goodies, shall we meet for an impromptu eG offline at Zaytinya, tomorrow (6/15) at noon/12.30? If people respond by, say, 11am, I'll be in the bar by 12.15 (my first name's Jake).

[VivreManger]

Sorry I could not join the lamb-bash on Sunday, but we were on our way back to Massachusetts.

Earlier I promised a review of Zaytinya. I would have liked to give a fuller description of the menu, but they didn't provide one for the taking -- though I asked. The proffered alternative, their website, www.zaytinya.com, is cool and long on razz matazz and bells and whistles, but skimps on content. The actual menu is about ten times as long as what is offered on the electronic site.

We got there for lunch at 12:30. Since I thought there were no reservations at all, I had not bothered to book them. Now I realize lunch is reservable. Dinner is not. (By the way a number of DC friends have been similarly misinformed and had given up trying to do lunch.)

The cool steel and blue soaring decor creates a dramatic entrance. My 12-year old thought it was the biggest restaurant she had ever visited. She was very excited by the ambiance. Without reservations we were still able to get into the bar which on a Thursday prime lunching time was practically empty so reservations or not, we were seated immediately. It took a bit longer to get our orders taken, but soon everything was on its way.

The bread service is, as Steve Klc, described it, very good. Fresh warm pita bread is regularly replenished in its own stand, created to hold the breads upright to avoid the stacking flattened quality which typically afflicts them. They are brought still puffy with their baked heat inside them.

Bread -- carbophobes beware -- is as essential to Middle Eastern food as rice and chopsticks are to Chinese. The bread is both a complementary filler and the preferred eating utensil. All one needs to eat Middle Eastern food is warm bread and fingers -- preferably of the right hand. Thus a well-structured bread service makes the food even better.

Accompanying the bread was a dish of olive oil, with a few swirls of pomegranate juice. I liked the combination. My daughter is a purist so she avoided the swirls. I think it was the sweeter version of pomegranate juice, rather than the Lebanese (e.g. Cortas brand) that is more sour than grenadine. I prefer the sourer taste.

While the bar is not as dramatic a space, it does have one advantage. Being almost empty and with a lower ceiling, it is not as noisy as the rest of the dining space. The one disadvantage is the tolerance for smoke, but the lone smoker rapidly drifted away in the puffs of his cigarette so the problem did not persist.

The mezze menu is long and daunting and it took awhile to decide with all the tempting choices. The hunkar begendi is one of my favorites. Havuc koftesi, I had never tried, so I ordered it. The first dish is chunks of baked lamb in a sea of pureed eggplant. The second is a carrot-apricot croquette in a pistachio sauce. My daughter had imam bayildi (vegetable stuffed eggplant) and spanokopita. The waiter-bar tender -- I couldn't tell if he was Greek or Slav by the way -- had suggested the hummos, but that is something we rarely order out since it is so commonly available. Incidentally a friend we spoke to later had tried the hummos and pronounced it mediocre, so our instincts were right

Earlier posts on the hunkar begendi had suggested the eggplant was better than the lamb. My take is the opposite. The lamb was tender, in a rich brown sauce, a very pleasant morsel. On the other hand, the eggplant was disconcertingly bland, almost as dull as cream cheese, not a favored taste. The problem is the cheese mixed into the eggplant, which dulls the tart acedic smoky garlicy oniony taste that the dish, when well-made, possesses. I am not aware that hunkar begendi is normally made with cheese. In this case the cheesy imagination and creativity did not improve the result. The havuc koftesi is a dish I had never tasted before and I am not certain I would want to try again. It is an interesting combination of tastes, a bit like fried tsimmes. (For those unfamiliar with it, tsimmes recipes can combine carrots and apricots, along with the more familiar prunces and pineapple.) The problem I sensed was that the oil in which it was fried was not quite hot enough and so it was a bit greasy. At some point it is worth another try to figure out what I think of it and to establish whether the problem is the recipe or the execution. The pistachio flavor did work well.

Despite my misgivings, I had no problem finishing the two dished.

My daughter quickly scarfed down her spanokopita, pronouncing it among the best she ever had. I was surprised by its appearance since it looked more like an egg roll than the familiar phylo, cheese, and spinach napoleon. I only got a small taste, too insigificant to form a judgment of my own. It seems that this method does avoid the problem of dry browned flaky crumby bits of phylo dough that go jumping through the air onto one's tie with each forkful of the common preparation. Whatever manages to stay on the fork usually gets stuck in one's gullet on the way down. By compacting and forming the ingredients into a solid unit, free-floating phyllo is grounded. The imam bayildi was a bit bland, similar to the other eggplant dish, the hunkar begendi. It needed lemon juice, salt, and pepper. We were able to get the first two, but the last never arrived. Perhaps because we finished the dish before we could wait for the pepper mill.

I had wanted to try both the Turkish Coffee Chocolate Cake as well as the Ravani (semolina) cake. But my daughter was in an ice mood and she opted for the orange blossom sorbet instead. Since chocolate trumps cream of wheat, the Ravani cake must wait another visit.

The dessert I had is a very imaginative take on a cup of sugary cardomon- flavored Turkish coffee, a favorite combination of tastes. I am not sure if the chocolate flan came through. The dessert was more cakey than flanny. I don't know if the cake was cooked too long or if the liquid chocolate is only a few thimbles full to begin with, but I would have liked a bit more flan. It is certainly worth ordering again.

The orange-blossom sorbet was very subtle and tasty. There was a distinctive waxy element within the sorbet that I could not identify, but it was still worth finishing.

I enjoyed the meal and hope to explore the menu again.

[Steve Klc]

Maybe there was a browser/connection issue when you looked VM? I just counted 62 mezze described on the site just as I remember them on the menu--including all of my favorite dishes and yes, the ones I tend to order again and again don't include eggplant--and that's not including entrees, sandwiches and desserts, which are also on the site. Specials don't seem to be online and neither does that spit-roasted weekend lamb.

[VivreManger]

I stand corrected.

You are correct that it is possible to see the menu (or more precisely the many separate menus), but...

I don't think the problem lies in my browser or my connection, but rather in the convoluted way in which the Zaytinya website is organized.

It is possible to access the menus, but each category within category within category requires separate access. There is no single file that lists the entire menu. Instead one has to click on the many separate entries, ten by my quick counting, and then down-load Adobe to access the ten or so separate related PDF files. One can't move quickly from file to file, but instead exiting the file requires reloading the homepage initial site connection, which offers a choice of connection speed, all over again.

Furthermore unless one realizes that the summary under each category is not the full menu, one would not think it necessary to take the added step and download the PDF file. The button for the PDF file should state, for a fuller or complete menu, hit this point, or words to that effect.

In general I dislike websites that send the visitor from pillar to post like a mouse in a maze. The site is cool with lots of bells and whistles (literally listening), but it fails the basic requirement, to convey information clearly, quickly, directly, and thoroughly.

That said, what cheese is added to the eggplant puree in the hunkar begendi?

I am sorry that you don't order the eggplant dishes. The preparation of eggplant is one of the most imaginative arenas for Mediterranean cooking. One could do an entire menu -- almost -- of eggplant, though I have yet to try an eggplant dessert!

Also within the orange blossom sorbet, what is the waxy bits I tasted?

Is the flan portion of the dessert the gooey bit within the cake or is it separate and outside of it?

Thanks in advance for taking the trouble to answer these questions.

Edited June 17, 2003 by VivreManger (log)

[Steve Klc]

I guess I'm just spoiled by my Mac and hi-speed modem VM, none of that happens to me. I never get thrown back to the homepage, don't have to download a thing and click maybe five times total to see the 5 submenus. I kind of get swept up with the music and just move my cursor from box to box--the menu language just appears and the text changes all the way through without clicking--and imagine what it must be like surrounded by all that blue and white, not caring about time. There is a kind of serendipity to the site which perhaps appeals to the creative side in me. Would that real life always be this tranquil. But then, that's how I eat at Zaytinya--I order very few mezze at a time, then some more, then some more. So in a sense, the site mirrors my experience in the restaurant as a customer. Assessing restaurants, cuisine (and websites) are all tough because we all bring a different array of tools and experiences and preferences to the table (or screen). And that also explains why there are as many graphic and web designers out there as chefs (and eggplant dishes). Everyone has their own idea of good design and how things should be. I don't in the main share your critique of the site--I find it gorgeous, accurate, current, inviting and complete--but I still think perhaps I'm experiencing the site differently than you wrt browser, platform and connections.

As far as the desserts, the sorbet has little bits of candied orange rind and that flan is indeed separate from the cake; it's the first thing spooned into the bowl, so it ends up under all the other elements.

[VivreManger]

Many thanks for the reply and explanation.

For the record, my connection is DSL, probably as high speed as yours, if not more so. On the other hand my computer is PC, not Mac and that might be the cause for the lesser ease of access to the site. I would be curious if others are aware of the same difference.

[Mark Sommelier]

Zaytinya won the Restaurant Association of Greater Washington's "Best New Restaurant" award on June 22nd.

[Millikan]

Just wanted to thank everyone on the DC-area part of the board - went to Zaytinya while in DC last week and it was fabulous! I used everyone's recommendations to compile a few dishes I wanted to order and none disappointed.

I live in Seattle now, but lived in DC for 4 years during grad school and Jaleo was one of my favorites, so I was very excited to try Zaytinya. I was MORE than rewarded. All our dishes (Hommos, Shish Taouk, Kolokithokeftedes (zuchinni patties), Spanakopita, Imam Bayildi, Htipit ) were wonderful, the service was great (very helpful with the wine selection b/c my companions and I know nothing about Greek wines but wanted to try), and the desserts were out of this world. For dessert we ordered Medjool Dates and the Turkish Coffee chocolate. The Medjool Dates dessert was sublime - indescribable.

Thanks again for everyone's recommendations..... As an aside, it was last Friday night around 7:30 and a group of 3 of us waited approximately 15 minutes, enough time for a quick drink in the bar!

[Rail Paul]

There's a nice write-up on Zatinya in the May 2003 Conde Nast Traveler (page 160). It's listed among the "75 hot tables of the world"

Steve Klc's "dessert to order" is the "warm semolina cake with orange water compote and pomegranate seeds and dried fruit." Unfortunately, Steve's not mentioned by name, but they liked his work. Only a few restaurants among the 75 had a detailed description of a specific dessert.

Zola and Ortanique are the other DC restaurants mentioned in the article.

[vengroff]

There's a nice write-up on Zatinya in the May 2003 Conde Nast Traveler (page 160). It's listed among the "75 hot tables of the world"

Steve Klc's "dessert to order" is the "warm semolina cake with orange water compote and pomegranate seeds and dried fruit." Unfortunately, Steve's not mentioned by name, but they liked his work. Only a few restaurants among the 75 had a detailed description of a specific dessert.

Zola and Ortanique are the other DC restaurants mentioned in the article.

It sounds like those "hot table" ratings heavily weigh the design, ambiance and crowd. That's what the three DC choices you listed absolutely share. Both Zaytinya and Ortanique are also good places to eat. Zola I think is more about the bar than the dining room--although the new chef is supposed to be changing that.

[Monica Bhide]

Ate there this weekend again -- my new line is "My paycheck and I go to Zaytinya"

Food and service were both superb as usual!!!

Someday I hope to run into Steve Klc there.. someday

[bilrus]

This has been our favorite sopt since we first went not long after it opened. The last time we went, everything seemed just a little off. I'm glad to hear that this may have just been an off day and not a sign of any decline. I will be back soon, though I am sure.