BBQ World, Burke, VA

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Don

Burke has numerous strip shopping centers dotted with independently owned restaurants that many Washingtonians will never lay eyes on, and BBQ World is one of them even though it’s been open since 1993. The best way to describe its location is that it’s in the Wal-Mart Center.

Two days before, I’d ordered some really middling ribs at Dixie Bones in Woodbridge. Trying to be more rigorous than hedonistic, I figured, well, why not torture myself a bit more.

The atmosphere here is very old-school suburban (think of the old McLean Three Pigs), and there’s a certain veneer of decrepitude that can never be undone.

I was very skeptical about the preparation of the ribs here, so I asked the gentleman behind the register if they were really smoked. “They’re smoked, then baked,” he said.

A Smoked Pork Ribs Platter ($15.50 for 1/2 rack with 2 sides and cornbread) made me pine away for Dixie Bones. The ribs were wet and flavorless, as if they had been boiled before being baked, and there was no smoke ring at all. Both the mac and cheese and collard greens were exactly what you’d expect at a place like this, and the meal was rescued by dumping as much sauce on things as possible. A self-serve Diet Coke ($1.75) had unlimited refills.

The life of a masochist – it’s never dun (unless you consider the color of the rib meat he endures).

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Wu’s Garden, Vienna, VA

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Don

I’d been very curious about David Chang’s praise of Wu’s Garden since I read this piece over a year ago. I think I’d been here once before, and had no special memories of the restaurant.

I ordered a dish Chang raved about – Koh Tah Tofu ($11.95), a Shandong dish that’s as simple as it could be: braised tofu, in sauce, with steamed rice on the side.

(Naturally, since I ordered it as carryout, I dumped everything on top of the steamed rice.)

This dish, to me, was compelling despite its simplicity. I’ve thought back on it several times, and it literally makes me salivate.  Why is it so good? Two reasons: the texture of the tofu which is braised, not stir-fried, is like custard despite the curd being in rectangular prisms – it almost literally melts in your mouth – and the saucing, deceptively Americanized-looking and brownish, which has just the right amount of salt and tang (and yes, probably MSG) to make this dish have an endless finish on the palate.

As I type this, there is not a single dish that I crave more than this one. Right. Now. And according to Chang, the boneless, braised chicken is just as good.

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Dixie Bones, Woodbridge, VA

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Don

We’ve all seen it – the sign for Dixie Bones on I-95 going to or coming from Fredericksburg. Reviews on donrockwell.com have been very mixed, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

On Sundays, they have a lunch buffet, and the restaurant was packed, with people waiting to get a seat. Fortunately, we were on the road, and just getting a carryout order.

A Full Rack of Pork Spare Ribs ($24.70) comes with two sides (in this instance, mac & cheese and french fries (65 cents extra)) and we opted for cornbread instead of a roll (45 cents extra). We also ordered a Pulled Chicken Sandwich ($6.15) which is breast meat only.

The ribs were mediocre at best. For as much as Dixie Bones’ website touts “real pit BBQ,” these ribs had no smoke ring, were dry, lifeless, and had very little flavor. Although I have no reason to believe they weren’t smoked using “hickory wood,” they tasted baked to me.

If the ribs were mediocre, the chicken sandwich was downright lousy. Tasteless, dried-out breast meat, possibly yanked from the buffet table, and slapped on a bun. This meat was so cotton-mouth dry that even dumping barbecue sauce on top didn’t help it, nor did chasing it with coleslaw. Half the sandwich was discarded.

I’m not sure it even matters at this point, but the fries had no salt, and were only salvaged by a barbecue sauce dunk. The cornbread was okay, and the mac and cheese was cheesy and harmless.

As I waited for the order, I walked over to Pupuseria Doña Azucena (a small, local chain with a branch in Arlington and Woodbridge). Having cased this pupuseria, and having seen what people were being served, I have no doubt that it has the best food in that shopping center.

Dixie Bones offers a small discount if you pay with cash (the above prices are with a credit card).

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Pizzeria Orso, Falls Church, VA

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Don

(See the February, 19th, 2011 Review here.)

Having just had two very, very good dinners at 2 Amys, I was curious to try Pizzeria Orso again – I had not yet been after the (unceremonious) departures of Edan Macquaid and Adam Litchfield. The new pizzaiolo is Chris Nye, who came from 2941, and in fact, he was manning the oven went I went to pick up my carryout pizzas.

Surely, I thought, the pizzas here would be shadows of what they were.

I ordered a Margherita DOC ($13) with tomato, buffalo mozzarella, and basil, and a Crudo ($15) with tomato, mozzarella, basil, arugula, Grana Padano, and prosciutto di Parma.

There has a been a lot of discussion on the internet about the demise of Pizzeria Orso since the departure of the brilliant Macquaid. Likewise, Tom Sietsema downgraded them to one star in his Spring, 2011 Dining Guide. So what was my opinion?

These pizzas were simply not good.

And the reason they weren’t good is because they were GREAT. Completely caught off-guard due to my preconceived notions, I sat there tearing into these beautiful pizzas, not believing the complexity of flavors and texture in the crust, how well- assembled and cooked they were, and how long they retained my interest. I ate both pizzas in one sitting.

Okay, now, I’ve had better pizzas here under the Macquaid regime than these, but I’ve also had worse ones. These were both better than the pizzas I had at 2 Amys, just days before, and I really liked the ones at 2 Amys.

Has Pizzeria Orso really instantly declined after Macquaid’s departure? It certainly hadn’t on this night, and that should be a testament to his abilities to teach and consult. Will there be a slow decline over time? There usually is, once the Master departs, but all I know right now is that Chris Nye made me two sensational pizzas on this particular evening.

(I’ll also add that I used a fake name and a different telephone when I ordered these pizzas, so there’s no possible way they knew I was coming.)

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Market Salamander, Middleburg, VA

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Don

Today was a very special day, shared with a very special person, and for lunch I found myself driving east on Route 50 through Middleburg. Every time I do this, I think I’m going to go to Upper Crust bakery, but always get waylaid by Market Salamander.

I ordered the aptly named Hottie ($6.95), an awesome panino on grill-pressed sourdough – you know, the kind that has streaks of char running through the ridges. Stuffed with Virginia ham, Colby Cheddar, really good arugula, roast tomato, and spread lightly with maple mustard, this was pretty much the perfect “in-car” sandwich on a long stretch of road.

It comes with the choice of slaw or potato salad, and I can recommend the latter, made with redskins and not too much mayo – tougher to eat while driving than the sandwich for sure, but manageable.

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2 Amys, Cathedral Heights

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Don

(See the March 27, 2011 Review here.)

It was a looong wait for a patio table at 2 Amys – a four-top was lingering, and we were relegated to the bar while we waited for them to <Terminator>GET OUT</Terminator> (there are worse fates than being relegated to 2 Amys’ bar).

As we waited, a local culinary celebrity walked in from the patio. For privacy reasons, I won’t reveal his name here, but I will say that his initials are J.M., it was not John Malkovich, and his name rhymes with Bonnie Bonus.

“Did you order pizzas?”

<nods head>

“Any good?”

“Yep. Just make sure to ask for them well-done.”

That was good enough for me. We started with a bottle of great rosé, the 2009 Masciarelli Rosé d’Abruzzo (a gentle $24) which 2 Amys’ menu wryly describes as, “Bright, flashy, and so much fun, just like a cheap date. 100% Montepulciano grapes.” While this description is funny, I think this wine is better than that!

Potato and Prosciutto Croquettes ($5.95) are perfect for picky eaters, hungry children, and gourmets alike – other than vegetarians, there may not be anyone in the world who wouldn’t like these, and they went so well with the wine.

We quelled a hungry child on some Root Vegetable and Prosciutto Crostini ($3 each) at the bar, and it looked so good that we got two more for the table (it’s always, always a great idea to take a peek at the little snacks behind the bar before ordering – if something looks appealing, it’s a safe bet you’re going to like it). The root vegetable here was, if I’m not mistaken, primarily celeriac purée, and there was an ample amount of prosciutto, too.

The star of the night was the Radish, Celery, and Fennel Salad with Mustard Dressing and Hard-Cooked Egg ($6), an astonishing salad with the half-egg served on the side. It is imperative, repeat, imperative, to mash that egg up into the salad because an even distribution is what takes it from “great” to “earth-shattering.” This simple little salad was one of the great food items I’ve had in 2011.

The pizzas were indeed ordered “well done” (and I strongly urge everyone not to forget to do this), and my special Asparagus, Caramelized Onions, Anchovies, and Grana ($13.25) was the best pizza I’ve had at 2 Amys probably in years (I’ve come here many dozens of times over the past 15 years or so (can’t remember what year they opened)). Asparagus is in season, and this was a darned good use of it. The crust was beautifully cooked, with good char and good flavor – 2 Amys took a hiatus with their pizzas for a long time, but based on this evening? They’re back with a fury – still not quite what they were before, but better than they’ve been in a good while. Something has changed here (the dough? the pizzaiolo?), and 2 Amys now gets pushed back up to the pinnacle of pizzas in DC proper.

—

Back a couple days later, I wanted to see if the pizzas were really that good, or if it was just an “on” night. We snagged a deuce on the patio.

The same wonderful bottle of Rosé (please do get this), and another one of those titanic salads (actually not as amazing as the previous one, mainly due to sloppy dressing, but still squarely in the “great” category). We also ordered a 16-ounce bottle of Sprecher Root Beer which is one of the best root beers I’ve ever tasted. If you like root beer, get this.

My young dining companion got a Norcia ($12.95), as he often does, with tomato, salami grilled peppers, fresh mozzarella, and grana (he gets torn between the salami and the pepperoni). I got the Calabrese ($11.95) with tomato, onion, anchovy, fresh mozzarella, parsley, olives, and pecorino. Both were ordered well-done, and both were just as good as the pizzas from the other night.

They were good enough where we ordered a third pizza to go, a Two Amys ($8.95) with tomato and fresh mozzarella, which we enjoyed for breakfast the following morning – it was left out overnight at room temperature, and not reheated the next morning (this is my preferred way of eating well-made Neapolitan pizza as leftovers).

I have been somewhat critical of 2 Amys’ pizzas over recent years, but based on these two visits? I can’t get back here soon enough.

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Black Market Bistro, Garrett Park, MD

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Don

Black Market Bistro gets my vote as “Best Restaurant in Garrett Park.” Then again, I’m pretty sure it might be the only restaurant in Garrett Park. No matter – it’s a wonderful place, and understandably overlooked in the online restaurant community (because it’s hidden in a hamlet few people know about, even though it’s just a few minutes from Strathmore Hall).

Every time I dine here, I kick myself for not coming more often, but they’re certainly not hurting for business, at least on weekends – it was pretty crowded with locals fairly late on a Saturday night.

On the menu, there will be a little insert with the daily specials, and you’ll do well to take a close look. Black Market Bistro (like it’s “sister” restaurant, Addie’s) pays ample respect to local farms, and will often have fresh produce that they don’t have time to place on the regular menu.

I took a look at the daily specials, and decided to make a meal of them. Going a step further, I decided to make it vegetarian because everything looked so appealing (plus I’d just eaten a slice of Dominic’s pizza and felt mildly guilty).

They have a pretty nice selection of beers here, and I was in the mood for a Red Seal Ale ($6.75) which went well with the pepitas in my Butternut Squash Soup ($4 for a cup), mingling with a pool of crème fraîche. A very pure and mild soup, this benefitted greatly from a couple shakes of salt.

For my main course, I went with the Vegetable Plate ($17), and I’m so glad I did because it was fantastic, and a very good deal at the price. It was big plate, full of farmer’s market-fresh grilled haricots verts, Brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, marinated beets (terrific), baby carrots, and also an unadvertised bonus, some baby bok choy. By the time I’d finished, I was stuffed, but it was a guilt-free, healthy stuffed, the kind that makes you feel really good about what you just ate.

So of course I ruined it by getting the Toffee Pecan Cake ($8), a lovely dessert served with butter pecan ice cream, caramel, and chocolate sauce. I plowed through this, and it was gone within minutes. No regrets, either.

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Tachibana, McLean, VA

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Don

My young dining companion and I wanted sushi the other night, so we stopped into Tachibana – a restaurant that I often use for carryout lunch, but rarely for dine-in dinner.

We walked into a packed restaurant, and who spots us but R J Cooper. He waved us over to his table, where he had just sat down for dinner with his mom. Within a few minutes, small plates and hot sake began arriving. During the meal, R J entranced Matt with tales of his upcoming Rogue 24. His mom is a wonderful, charming lady, and one must wonder how such a lovely human being could have spawned something such as R J Cooper.

Ordering a la carte sushi at Tachibana is a fool’s game – it’s absurdly expensive (nigiri is often $6, $8, sometimes $10 for two pieces), and it’s only of good (not great) quality. For that type of money? I demand excellence.

So your best bet is to get an assortment if indeed sushi is your path of choice here (Tachibana has a huge menu, with a full array of Japanese dishes you won’t see at many other restaurants in the area).

There are three levels of sushi sets offered: regular, special, and delux[e]. Matt ordered a Regular ($27, 14 pieces) with tuna roll (6 pieces), tuna, flounder, white tuna, mackerel, octopus, salmon, squid and shrimp. For variety, I went with the Special ($31, 11 pieces) with tuna, white tuna, flounder, yellowtail, eel, salmon roe, shrimp, flying fish roe, clam, smoked salmon, and salmon.

I wish I had a whole lot to say, but I really don’t. The sushi rice was above average in quality, and the fish was about the same. Nothing stood out as extraordinary until the bill arrived which, with tax and tip, was almost $200 for the four of us. While that doesn’t sound like that much, we really didn’t have all that much to eat.

Generously, I picked up the tab to R J’s protestations. “No, no, I insist,” I said. “You can just take care of us at Rogue 24.”

I might be generous, but I’m not stupid. 😉

—

About a week later, I hit up Tachibana on a Saturday afternoon at 2 PM for my usual carryout Sashimi Lunch Special ($15), and it was packed, with a line of people out the door (really?)

This is an order I’ve placed many times over the years, and it has crept up in price, but only by a little bit. The default soup is miso, but you can also request osuimono (not advised, as it’s quite bland). The special comes with a container of white rice which I heretically advise dumping into the container of miso soup. It may not be traditional, but when you’re eating by yourself, who cares – the rice swells with the broth and makes the soup much more ample and interesting.

I’ve always thought this special represented fair value – it comes with thick-cut sashimi, and is a pretty hefty portion. On this day (and this day was typical), there were four big pieces of salmon, five big pieces of tuna, five small pieces of flounder, five medium pieces of seared bonito (always a highlight), and a little cucumber bowl stuffed with various chunks of fish. If you break it down, it works out to about 70 cents a piece, not taking into account the soup. It’s pretty decent sashimi and it’s worth getting if you don’t mind dropping fifteen dollars for lunch.

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Ruffino’s Spaghetti House, Arlington, VA

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Don

Ruffino’s Spaghetti House opened in 1975. It closed for renovations last September, and stayed closed for about six months, but it’s now reopen once again.

The last time I’d been to Ruffino’s was in the 1990s. I vaguely remembered it as being a harmless, family-owned spaghetti joint, and was very curious to see what it might be like to my palate, at least ten years later.

Many patrons park (and enter) around back, and so did we. Doing so, you can peek in the kitchen, and after the two seconds of window time I had when I walked by, I muttered something under my breath – I didn’t like what I saw.

Nor did I like the list of wines and beers, and was relegated to ordering a Peroni ($4.25) which is as good as it gets here.

We skipped the appetizers, and went straight for the pasta. My young dining companion, nursing his Diet Coke ($2, cheerfully refilled), ordered a Gnocchi with Meat Sauce ($11), and I custom built a Spaghetti ($7) with Sausage, ($2) and Capers, Olives, & Marinara Sauce ($2). A bread basket arrived with a little seasoned oil for dipping.

There was nothing to hate here, and there also was nothing at all to like. All the food, everything, tasted like it came straight off a Sysco truck, and while decently cooked (the spaghetti wasn’t complete mush), the gnocchi were heavy and gummy, the sauces bland (my dining companion said his meat sauce reminded him of Hunt’s Manwich), and the sausage very ordinary.

Even though this is a spaghetti house, it’s technically unfair to cast judgment on a restaurant that serves all sorts of traditional chicken, veal, and seafood dishes as well as pizza, when all you order is pasta.

And it may surprise you to hear that this food, as boring as it sounds, was still better than the abysmal meal I had the week before at Kora. The difference, however, is that Kora is capable of doing better (I’ve seen it in the past); this place, I’m not so sure.

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Bourbon, Adams Morgan

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Don

After a mob-scene launch party at Fiola, my friend and I took off for Adams Morgan where we met Bill Thomas and Jake Parrott at Bourbon – he was doing a television segment on Bourbon (the drink, not the restaurant), and I wanted him to chat with two of our area’s greatest experts before he left for Kentucky.

Chat we did, and also sipped a few wheat-based and rye-based samples – pretty much going through the same primer I experienced four years ago before writing this article. My friend was well-armed by the time we walked out the door.

Between the Prosecco at Fiola, and the Bourbon at Bourbon, we were pretty hungry, so ordered (and paid for) a Bone-In Ribeye ($19), a 14-ounce cut (which was actually served without the bone) on a plate with roasted corn and shoestring fries.

This was a large cut for the money, and although the quality of the meat itself was ordinary (think Rustler Steakhouse), it was well-seasoned and filling. I ordered my steak medium-rare, and that’s exactly how it was served.

The food at Bourbon has never done much for me; I’ve always looked at it as competent survival food to go along with their unparalleled selection of Bourbons, the largest selection in the DC area.

The largest selection, at least, until Jack Rose opens down the street (also owned by Bill Thomas) which will have the largest selection of Bourbons in the country, perhaps the world – not to mention Michael Hartzer, former sous-chef at Citronelle, as chef.

I should also mention that Bill ordered for himself a Bison Burger (which I’ve also had before, and have had mixed experiences with). When the owner of a restaurant orders something, it’s often a recommendation to take seriously, so use this to your advantage.

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