Mediocre food scene in DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its really about the great neighborhood restaurants. They have the best food, good price points, and the atmosphere. They're not corporate and really care. My favorites, by neighborhood:

Logan: Cork
Chinatown: Full Kee
Friendship Heights: 2 Amys
Petworth: Hitching Post
Park View: EatsPlace
Columbia Heights: Maple
Shaw: convivial
Convention center: corduroy

This list is a example of what OP is talking about. All these restaurants are either not as good as the hype, or very over priced for the quality or originality of the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its really about the great neighborhood restaurants. They have the best food, good price points, and the atmosphere. They're not corporate and really care. My favorites, by neighborhood:

Logan: Cork
Chinatown: Full Kee
Friendship Heights: 2 Amys
Petworth: Hitching Post
Park View: EatsPlace
Columbia Heights: Maple
Shaw: convivial
Convention center: corduroy

This list is a example of what OP is talking about. All these restaurants are either not as good as the hype, or very over priced for the quality or originality of the food.

Huh? Most of these places get little to no hype. They're just an example and I'm sure there are better ones in the same neighborhood. Everyone's list is different. I know mine would include Panda Gourmet but I'm not sure what neighborhood that's in. NY Ave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best Chinese food in the area is Panda Express. Really.

Do you mean Panda Gourmet?

No. You can find them in malls.

Um, no. I'm the Chinese PP who recommended Tony Lin's. Don't get me wrong. I like Panda Express and we eat there periodically, but it's Chinese fast food. It's like saying that Popeye's is the best Louisiana Cajun. It's good and some of the best fried chicken around, but it's not the best Cajun. It's just good fast food. Same with Panda, it's good fast food, but it's not the best Chinese.

Um...that's your opinion.

Don't you mean

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree the food scene has improved but is still
Overhyped for the most part. I never got rasika's appeal for example. We like the more hole in the wall
Places like eden center, afghan places ethiopian places etc. What truly bugs the shit out of me is the lack of high quality bread. The only decent bakery i have found in bread and water in Alexandria and some farmers market options.
The rest is terribly over priced and dry and tasteless.

Ugh! The bread here is awful! Don't they know that it it supposed to have actual taste? But, there are no real bakeries here (other than overpriced cupcake or pie ones), so this should come as no surprise.

+1

I prefer Heidelberg bakery for German style artisan bread and Praline bakery for some cakes (they have really good almond pound cakes).

Noooooooooo.....

Bread furst
Also le pain quotidien

I don't get or le pain quotidien--the one near me seemingly has no items for sale and only a couple of customers. I saw one guy eating a single tomato on a plate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I find the food options here to be pretty good, overall. You can get almost any ethnicity of food you could possibly want without having to drive very far, and there are plenty of solid American places for taking less adventurous diners.

I have heard from friends that we don't have good Chinese here. I couldn't care less because i don't find it Chinese food that appealing anyway. (I'm more into Thai and Indian.) Though I can say that Peter Chang's in Arlington is probably the best I've had, and friends agree.

Sorry, there is no good Italian (and I know because I am Italian).

+1 I just cook all my Italian food at home. What really sucks is the lack of good Italian salumi or bakeries in this area! I have to order online or go to Philly or Pittsburgh to get ingredients sometimes.

I am the PP. I cook mine at home too, but, as you say, it is hard to find quality ingredients. Where do you order from? I get some stuff when I go home, but not everything travels well.

I go to old neighborhood butchers and grocers in both cities, because I have relatives in both places and can go visit for Easter or Christmas and stock my freezer, especially with my beloved basket cheese for Easter pie! I sometimes order from http://www.varallobrothersbakery.com/ if I'm craving pastries and don't want to spend 6 days making sfogliatelle! I'll check if any of the little places I go for meat and cheese deliver and post if they do.

Oh, I should add that I have found some good stuff at Let's Meat on the Ave in Del Rey. But for actual Italian sausage? Nothing as good as what's in Philly, NYC, or Pittsburgh anywhere near DC, sadly.

Preach sister. Been trying to figure out how to fly good Italian sausage, speidini and braciolone meat out of my hometown for years now.

I'm not a big sausage eater myself, but have any of you tried Baltimore? There are a number of family-owned Italian delicatessens in Baltimore that have been around for a long time.

Yes, tried it right away on moving to the area a decade ago and go every so often with high hopes. Unfortunately I don't get the hype (ha, the word of the thread) about Baltimore Italian. It's not good at all, and I've been to a number of places at this point. I think it's just good in comparison to DC, which is a low bar.

There's no point in going to Baltimore when Philly is just an hour more away. The italian food in Philadelphia is a million times better.

Or at least it was 35 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree the food scene has improved but is still
Overhyped for the most part. I never got rasika's appeal for example. We like the more hole in the wall
Places like eden center, afghan places ethiopian places etc. What truly bugs the shit out of me is the lack of high quality bread. The only decent bakery i have found in bread and water in Alexandria and some farmers market options.
The rest is terribly over priced and dry and tasteless.

Ugh! The bread here is awful! Don't they know that it it supposed to have actual taste? But, there are no real bakeries here (other than overpriced cupcake or pie ones), so this should come as no surprise.

+1

I prefer Heidelberg bakery for German style artisan bread and Praline bakery for some cakes (they have really good almond pound cakes).

Noooooooooo.....

Bread furst
Also le pain quotidien

I don't get or le pain quotidien--the one near me seemingly has no items for sale and only a couple of customers. I saw one guy eating a single tomato on a plate.

ha ha that's so random! Like the guy who pulls pineapple out of his suitcase during jury duty. I like the breads at Swiss Mart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree the food scene has improved but is still
Overhyped for the most part. I never got rasika's appeal for example. We like the more hole in the wall
Places like eden center, afghan places ethiopian places etc. What truly bugs the shit out of me is the lack of high quality bread. The only decent bakery i have found in bread and water in Alexandria and some farmers market options.
The rest is terribly over priced and dry and tasteless.

Ugh! The bread here is awful! Don't they know that it it supposed to have actual taste? But, there are no real bakeries here (other than overpriced cupcake or pie ones), so this should come as no surprise.

+1

I prefer Heidelberg bakery for German style artisan bread and Praline bakery for some cakes (they have really good almond pound cakes).

Noooooooooo.....

Bread furst
Also le pain quotidien

I don't get or le pain quotidien--the one near me seemingly has no items for sale and only a couple of customers. I saw one guy eating a single tomato on a plate.

Seriously, le pain?

And no thanks, I'm not paying $3-4 for a tiny muffin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its really about the great neighborhood restaurants. They have the best food, good price points, and the atmosphere. They're not corporate and really care. My favorites, by neighborhood:

Logan: Cork
Chinatown: Full Kee
Friendship Heights: 2 Amys
Petworth: Hitching Post
Park View: EatsPlace
Columbia Heights: Maple
Shaw: convivial
Convention center: corduroy

These are not neighborhood restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here - I am an avid diner, but off the top of my head:

Blue Duck - Very mediocre (used to be better), but always extremely overpriced.

Red Hen - Fine but simpleton. I've been three times (in my neighborhood) and the menu always lacks a sense of adventure.

Rasika - here I will make a NYC comparison. In NYC I would go to Tabla (now closed) which made Rasika seem like a mall franchise.

Le Diplomate - I consider this the number 1 "hype" offender. These dishes wouldn't make it past the hostess stand at Balthazar (which Le Dip is trying way too hard to be).

Founding Farmers - Organic Applebee's.

Del Campo - mediocre from top to bottom.

My takeaways are this:

- Mid and high-end DC establishments are offensively overpriced. Is there a reason for this?
- many big production restaurants where food is second to ambience.
- DC is big on commoditization, as soon as a restaurant is popular, the immediate reaction is to build another. (Why? this does not happen anywhere else)

OP, as other PPs have mentioned, the places you have listed are primarily places people go for expense account outings and not our "most acclaimed restaurants". You're also heavy on the Italian-French-American cuisines in your list. DC, like many other cities, excels in types of foods where it has a large immigrant population.

Have you ever tried Ethiopian food? When I lived in NYC for a decade, I would always try to eat it when I visited DC because it's so good here. How about Asian foods? Like the other Indian PP, I think Rasika is fine for some a night out, but there is much better Indian food in the burbs (ex: Woodlands, Mayuri). Thai X-ing or Little Serow are great for Thai. There's a Laotian restaurant called Thip Khao that was one of Bon Appetit's 50 best restaurants in America. As others have mentioned, there is excellent Chinese in the burbs (you complain it's mostly chain restaurants, but try closing your Fodor's guide and go somewhere recommended on the Washingtonian Cheap Eats list).

But if that's all too adventurous for your palate and you want to complain about how mediocre the food is here in DC, go ahead, but please retitle your post "Mediocre European cuisine at expense account restaurants in DMV "

There is no excellent Chinese, not even in the burbs. There is only good enough Chinese.

[Anonymous]

There's some good places outside of DC. I know you said "DMV" (ew) but have you actually ventured outside of the D in DMV? Magnolia's on Main in Purcellville is good and there's a whiskey distillery right down the street where you can get drinks made from locally distilled whiskey. The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm in Lovettsville, Trummer's on Main in Clifton- all are pretty acclaimed. Tom Sietsema said some of the best food he ate all last year was in an anonymous strip mall in Nova-- can't remember the cuisine, I wish I could.

It's also just goofy to compare DC to New York. It's not, never will be, nobody tries to say it is. So to expect New York dining in DC is your fault and you're setting yourself up for failure there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its really about the great neighborhood restaurants. They have the best food, good price points, and the atmosphere. They're not corporate and really care. My favorites, by neighborhood:

Logan: Cork
Chinatown: Full Kee
Friendship Heights: 2 Amys
Petworth: Hitching Post
Park View: EatsPlace
Columbia Heights: Maple
Shaw: convivial
Convention center: corduroy

This list is a example of what OP is talking about. All these restaurants are either not as good as the hype, or very over priced for the quality or originality of the food.

Huh? Most of these places get little to no hype. They're just an example and I'm sure there are better ones in the same neighborhood. Everyone's list is different. I know mine would include Panda Gourmet but I'm not sure what neighborhood that's in. NY Ave?

Wrong, most of these are talked about among DCers as places to go, and my experience and the experience of friends are that they disappoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree the food scene has improved but is still
Overhyped for the most part. I never got rasika's appeal for example. We like the more hole in the wall
Places like eden center, afghan places ethiopian places etc. What truly bugs the shit out of me is the lack of high quality bread. The only decent bakery i have found in bread and water in Alexandria and some farmers market options.
The rest is terribly over priced and dry and tasteless.

Ugh! The bread here is awful! Don't they know that it it supposed to have actual taste? But, there are no real bakeries here (other than overpriced cupcake or pie ones), so this should come as no surprise.

+1

I prefer Heidelberg bakery for German style artisan bread and Praline bakery for some cakes (they have really good almond pound cakes).

Noooooooooo.....

Bread furst
Also le pain quotidien

I don't get or le pain quotidien--the one near me seemingly has no items for sale and only a couple of customers. I saw one guy eating a single tomato on a plate.

le pain quotidien is awful! It is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its really about the great neighborhood restaurants. They have the best food, good price points, and the atmosphere. They're not corporate and really care. My favorites, by neighborhood:

Logan: Cork
Chinatown: Full Kee
Friendship Heights: 2 Amys
Petworth: Hitching Post
Park View: EatsPlace
Columbia Heights: Maple
Shaw: convivial
Convention center: corduroy

This list is a example of what OP is talking about. All these restaurants are either not as good as the hype, or very over priced for the quality or originality of the food.

Never heard of anyone mention these places. What about places that are in one of the other quads of the city?
Huh? Most of these places get little to no hype. They're just an example and I'm sure there are better ones in the same neighborhood. Everyone's list is different. I know mine would include Panda Gourmet but I'm not sure what neighborhood that's in. NY Ave?

Wrong, most of these are talked about among DCers as places to go, and my experience and the experience of friends are that they disappoint.

[Anonymous]

Clydes used to be a good deal. Expensive now. Other than that, I gots nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried Baltimore? I agree with your assessment.

I find DC restaurants pretty overrated. And I'm not a fan of chains.

Helmand (Afghani food)

Thames Street Oyster House (seafood)

There used to be a wonderful vegetarian place called The Zodiac on Charles Street, but it shut down.

Sotta Sopra is an Italian place on Charles Street.

And if you are willing to venture into the Baltimore suburbs, Bombay Nights is an Indian restaurant in Perry Hall that is absolutely fantastic.

Agree with all except never tried the poster house. Baltimore has,way better food. A hole in the wall has better pizza/subs than just about anywhere here.

But I think overall, it's not the real fine dining DC is missing so much as everything else- there's virtually no good lunch food or carryout food or middle of the road places. Just nasty reheated pizza slice places, fast food, or yet another restaurant that's some type of mediteranianesque, barely decent, limited menu fare with a geographical point of reference in the name. Honestly, I'm a native and I've never eaten at a good deli in DC in my entire life. I think the MD burbs have better options by far than DC for lunch and carryout, but not VA and definitely not DC.

I think you're on crack. There are a ton of small lunch places in Farragut that are cheap and delicious, like the little greek place on 19th, or Moby Dick, or Bub and Pop's, or Wicked Waffle, or the Korean noodle place on 19th, or a bunch of other sub-$10 lunch places that are delicious. Sounds like you don't know what you're talking about at all, or you're a tourist who thinks the Smithsonian is "downtown."