While this popular American restaurant changed hands shortly before the pandemic, new owner Jarrett Walsh and executive chef Nathan Johnson have only enhanced the window-wrapped dining destination in Frederick, Md. Stick around for Rochelle Coopers desserts, a favorite of which is her ritzy twist on smores, its honeyed meringue teased into little flames.. WaPo 's Tom Sietsema released his 2010 Dining Guide online yesterday, and in between other . Such beautiful food! 202-751-3958. queensenglish.com. All of Zuluagas food is interesting, but two main courses stand out. The cooking, from chef Katarina Petonito, mirrors the setting. No takeout or delivery. I envision many more meals in whats become my choice Chinese spot in the region. Ramps near the entrance and roomy restrooms make the restaurant wheelchair-friendly. Those chopped collards have lots of garlic, ginger and red onion going for them. Patrons can still find filet mignon and lobster chowder longtime draws on the menu but Walsh has asked the servers to ditch their ties, and Johnson, the former chef de cuisine of the late Volt, is helping to fill seats with seared scallops, which at a May meal arrived dappled with a froth of buttermilk and staged with a green garden of asparagus, peas and fava beans. Follow Tom Sietsema as he dines, drinks and browses at 271 restaurants, bars, and shops while reporting for his America's Best Food Cities project. For now, their staff of eight is doing its best to accommodate patrons, who are reminded they cant camp out for the evening. Seemingly a bushel of arugula shows up with a hailstorm of pistachios, goat cheese crumbles and juicy blackberries. The food is tasteful in every way. The Indian oasis, 32, looks like a million bucks following a makeover this summer that kept memories of the original club design a dining room carved into zones of privacy, a white piano that gets tickled Thursday through Saturday while offering new art (love the 3-D dancers) and a color scheme that changes with the light (silver on my evening visits). For his 14th Fall Dining Guide, Tom Sietsema selects his 40 favorite Washington D.C.-area restaurants, reflecting a much-changed dining scene with exciting new flavors. These days, customers can still count on Smiths high standards in every order of carryout. An earlier illness found the self-described mad scientist researching food that would restore his health. Diners choose a centerpiece (chicken, lamb, goat, wild boar, potato-cauliflower curry), which is positioned on a long wooden board with a changing vegetable, buttery black lentils, baby spinach sauteed with ginger, garlic and cumin seeds, plus a bite of dessert. Knowing that Tyler and her colleagues, chef Jon Sybert and wine maven Bill Jensen, are also behind the nearby Tail Up Goat is reason enough to pay respects. My vote goes to Daru, whose black-and-glass door commands attention with concentric white rings inspired by Himalayan mandalas and a welcome written in Sanskrit: The guest is god. 2,240 followers. Try the dumplings filled with shredded cabbage, carrots and potato, each bite improved with a swipe through roasted tomato sauce. Wells Silverman and team seem to have sweated every detail. The bill? No barriers to entry; ADA-compliant restroom. A tangle of slippery lo mein noodles shows up slick with chile oil, crisp with fried shallots and colorful with red cabbage and chopped scallions. The owners earth-to-table philosophy is based in part on her wide-open pantry. Go now, and you build your own adventure by ordering two dishes from a roster of some of the most novel food around. They were positioned to adapt quickly to offer takeout at Anju, then, and even have fun with the menu during the pandemic. And I cant imagine a Nepalese meal without momos. Few chefs have more fun getting us to eat our vegetables than Rob Rubba, whose (mostly) plant-based tasting menu is a garden of good eating in Shaw. Ive saved the best for last. Takeout available for breakfast and lunch, not for dinner. (The wine list is a dream, if priced for tech czars.). Indoor seating only. I like the way Brandwein thinks. Indoor and outdoor seating. Mostly seafood, based on crab from Maryland, the model comes with French fries and. Sundas clearly learned a lot at Rasika West End. Dinner Thursday through Saturday. Tom Sietsema, 2021 Fall Dining Guide Top 10 The Washington Post Fall Dining Guide, 2021 BEST RESTAURANTS 2021: INCHEON RESTAURANT Northern Virginia Magazine, 2021 The 21 Best Restaurants in Fairfax County Northern Virginia Magazine, 2021 The 5 Best Places In NoVA To Order A Tasting Menu Northern Virginia Magazine, 2021 A host of memorable restaurants has rolled out during the pandemic. The sisig is one of the best pork dishes I've eaten all yearimagine a sizzling skillet of fajitas, only swap out the steak or chicken for crispy pig ears and belly, and give the whole thing a good dousing of calamansi juice. Reservations, required for now, are for 90 minutes. The restaurant isnt flawless. Brandwein can also be dramatic, evinced by poached sablefish paired with black chickpeas, a monochromatic moment worthy of a frame. You can still sit inside the handsome bungalow. Lunch and dinner daily. Rutas menu is a master class in execution. Dinner Tuesday through Saturday, lunch Tuesday through Friday. Waves of yellow draw eyes to the ceiling and, as at Jaleo, glass-topped foosball tables double as dining spots. Tom Sietsema spotlights 48 DC-area restaurants, including his 10 favorites. Takeout, no delivery. Chef Yuan Tang and his wife and co-owner Carey say theyre too busy with guests in the dining room to juggle the former and that wine pairings involve too many interactions ill-advised in pandemic times. (read more) Opinionated About Dining April 2017 minibar ranked #15 in Opinionated About Dining's Top 100+ U.S. Brunch and dinner daily. While every other chef in town is pushing chicken, Deboy invites us to try pheasant brined in lemon, onion and bay leaf and better for passing over a charcoal grill before you slice in. Proof of vaccination required for indoor dining. Happily, the four-course tasting menu that diners can design for themselves remains a staple of one of the citys most creative restaurants. Fans can rest assured that the original details remain in place and that the new hosts have no plans on making any changes, says Jake Addeo, who last cooked in Washington at the Occidental and Bibiana. Have you been? patrons asked me. The multiple rooms soothe visitors with aqua and fuchsia seating, cascades of greenery and servers whose smiles are backed up by polish. blend111vienna. At one time, more than seven thousand bakeries dotted the city streets. Here are the cities most prepared for climate change | Camille Squires | August 26, 2021 | Quartz When hes not minding his ever-expanding culinary empire, Andrs is saving the world. Hang in there, Pennyroyal Station! And this in a honey-lit, wood-bound dining room that factors in sheepskin stools for purses, local rocks to ferry the bread and tiny anvils with your partys name written on it. Takeout and delivery. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday. Takeout and delivery. When Onyona was able to partially reopen the space for on-site customers in June, his target audience of nearby embassy and World Bank employees was mostly working remotely. If the operation sounds strict, it still holds great appeal. My current fascinations include crisp spring rolls bursting with shrimp, pork, wood ear mushrooms and taro root a truly filling filling a strapping stew of sweet potato noodles, sour mustard and squiggles of pork, and (new to the lineup) cumin lamb skewers. Fun is a side dish here. In true izakaya fashion, the menu, illustrated with Sekis doodles, leans to snack-size plates meant to be washed back with drinks. [Open for 53 years, Henrys Soul Cafe proves that comfort is always in demand]. 2021 Fall Dining Guide Tom Sietsema spotlights 48 DC-area restaurants, including his 10 favorites Line cook Sam Hoefer works at the dessert station in the open kitchen at the Dabney in. While the siblings have in common hospitality and great things in glasses, Revelers Hour is the more relaxed of the two, a model pasta and wine bar in a room thats dark as a movie theater but illuminated with candles and surrounded by wine. The candles on the tables are oyster shells filled with wax. The truth is, there are lots to like here: housemade sodas that change with the season (fall finds pumpkin pie and Concord grape), a small dining room decorated with old cooking utensils and Mason jars-turned-lights, and warmth beyond that of the oven. Proof of vaccination for indoor dining required. Linns sly sense of humor resurfaces in the terrific Porky Marge, a margherita pizza punctuated with crisp nubbins of bacon and showered with Romano cheese. (Anticipate fingers stained red with paprika, chiles and cayenne, too.). I have yet to encounter one. Tom Sietsema unleashed his annual fall dining guide today. The long line outside the cute bungalow has us worried when we pull up before its doors open for dinner. The combination of nine beans mung, kidney, soy and fava, among others warmed with bay leaf, cloves and chiles is fuel you wont forget. Dinner Wednesday through Sunday. It really ought to be in pictures. Open for indoor and outdoor dining. Pizza! Indoor seating only. Crispy potatoes stuffed into pillowy housemade pita is a lot of carbs almost too much fun. Eat out with any frequency and you cant help but notice changes on the restaurant scene wrought by the pandemic. If youre the kind of customer who appreciates eye contact or acknowledgment it takes seconds to say Good evening. A meal begins with complimentary sel roti rings of honey-sweetened rice bread accompanied by a bowl of fermented daikon, slick with mustard oil and tossed with mustard and fenugreek seeds. Such a reassuring restaurant. Adler stands in front of the visible kitchen, inspecting plates as they go out: some of the best, and most photogenic, pesto-sauced pasta, veal cutlets and shrimp scampi in memory. Maryland blue crab draped with lemon beurre blanc and presented on a crisp wonton nets another rich pleasure. No restaurant fed me more often, or better, throughout the pandemic than French chef David Deshaiess whimsical tribute to American comfort food near the convention center (hence the name). The appeal extends to the liquids and the hospitality: The $10 cocktails are improvements on throwbacks, and a spot on your shirt (hello, tomato sauce!) [Italian restaurants can charm and soothe, even without their dining rooms]. Chocolate chess pie is a slice of heaven made possible with a coffee- and orange-flavored cream and candied ginger. Indoor and outdoor seating. But we dont give back to staff., LEFT: Bartender Maurizio Arberi at Imperfecto in Washington. Alone, the stewlike wild boar, cooked with onions and tomatoes, hums with mustard powder, chili powder, lemon juice and sage. In contrast, Obelisk feels like a poetry reading graced with sublime food. Rooster & Owl is newly comfortable, thanks to a handsome front patio set with table lamps and a dining room that has replaced concrete floors with wood. Food lovers will appreciate the restroom doors. The joyride might start with a wispy bite of fried julienne celery root so light it melts on the tongue, along with a surprise center of silken smoked tofu and move on to dishes that trumpet the season. (It helps that the family who owns the bistro works in construction.). Dinner Wednesday through Saturday. Other places might write happy anniversary on a plate in chocolate. [Frankly 2021 FALL DINING GUIDE TOM SIETSEMAOCTOBER 6, 2021 WASHINGTON POST The key to picking an aqua scooter that will deliver fun safely is to know what factors are important to you. No takeout or delivery. Count on bold flavors, as on one nights Provenal, a special trumpeting capers, olives, juicy sungold tomatoes and salami slices practically thin enough to read through. Mezze $16-$25, shareable entrees $52-$65. A celebration of the bounty of the Mid-Atlantic look for quail with wild grapes the Dabney occasionally incorporates truffles or foie gras into the menu, and I couldnt live without olive oil, jokes the chef. New head chef Samuel Meoo, 27, is behind the whole chicken, brined in a host of goodies ginseng tea, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, honey then air-dried for a day, roasted, lacquered and gussied up with so many colorful flowers, its as if the chicken encountered a ticker-tape parade en route to the table. 202-742-3570, rosesluxury.com. One of the areas best ambassadors for the food of southern India is this retreat, opened nine months into the pandemic by chef John Rajoo, a native of Tamil Nadu, whose capital is Chennai. The single best starter is a plate of calamari, sprinkled with semolina and fried to a fine crunch. 3410 11th St. NW. The drinks are as much fun as the food. Three Blacksmiths invites more to the table. Sure enough, his steamed egg custard, fragrant with sesame oil, gets finished with birds-eye chiles, fish sauce and lime juice a very Thai touch. But even Monday nights pack in fans of the chef. Indoor seating only. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday, brunch weekends. . 2021 FALL DINING GUIDE TOM SIETSEMAOCTOBER 6, 2021 WASHINGTON POST It's nestled between a handful of other quick eats, bars and restaurants. What started as a glorified 7-Eleven in 1968 quickly morphed into a source for soul food as founder Henry Smith added a grill, fryer, chicken dinners and sweet potato pie to his storefront on U Street NW. [The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm, under a new chef, calls for a road trip]. The mistake is to think of the youthful 45-seat restaurant as yet another Korean outpost in an area brimming with similar menus. Like before, the courses are restrained, and sharing them is encouraged. $10.99. Because of a step at the entrance, wheelchair users should enter via door to the left of the storefront; ADA-compliant restroom. Dinner $125 per person, Sunday supper $95. Law-Yone asked the hotel kitchen staff to make a dish they would typically cook for themselves, nothing fussy. OUTDOOR DINING REOPENED RESTAURANTS FOR ALL BUT ADDED TO BARRIERS FOR DISABLED BRITTANY MAYES, MARIA DEL CARMEN AGUILAR VELEZJULY 13, 2021 WASHINGTON POST Pair the citys best-known host with one of its premier chefs, and what you get is a night to remember courtesy of Ashok Bajaj and Frank Ruta. I want to be the change, she says. Theres a reason Henrys, which also has a catering arm and a second, lesser branch in Oxon Hill sells about 100,000 sweet potato pies a year. 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