charlie palmer steak

washington, dc

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charlie palmer is best known for his restaurant aureole, which i've never been to but heard good things about. after several days of hotel catering, i was really looking forward to a real meal and a real steak. when i lived in manhattan, derek and i went to many excellent steakhouses. palo alto, not so much. in california, they tend to drench their steaks in unnecessary sauces. ridiculous.

charlie palmer did not disappoint. my steak was excellent - perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. the right amount of char and the right amount of fat. a pleasant surprise was the amazing starter salad, served with a poached egg to add yolk to the dressing. dessert, a berry cobbler, was also very good.

ben's chili bowl

washington, dc

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i first heard about ben's chili bowl from stacey, who went when she was in DC for president obama's inauguration. i was in DC for a much less glamorous reason - a three-week trip for work. work was very busy and we rarely made it outside of our offices to see sunlight, much less eat a meal ... but a group of us managed to escape long enough to make a pilgrimage to the famed ben's chili bowl. if you have a certain number of people in your party, you can go straight to the back and grab a table. someone will come by to take your order. we didn't realize that, so instead we ordered amidst the chaos of the front of the restaurant.

ryan recommended the "half smoke," which is a quarter-pound half-beef half-pork sausage, doused in chili. yes, it tasted as good as it sounds. i've never had chili like this before - it's spicy, meaty, and thick - more sauce than soup. however, when ordering, i made a tactical error by assuming that the massive amount of chili that they poured on the sausage would be sufficient and i ordered my fries plain. big mistake. next time, i gotta go with the chili cheese fries just to get more of that amazing chili sauce.

1331 bar & lounge

washington, dc

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in town for a week of meetings, i managed to escape long enough to have drinks and snacks with anthony at 1331, located inside the marriott near the white house. it was surprisingly spacious and modern for a hotel lounge. instead of booths, the lounge has small couches set up that face eachother, with a coffee table in between. it's a little awkward for eating, but theoretically we were only there for snacks.

but we were hungry, so we ended up ordering grilled vegetables, hummus, bruschetta, and buffalo wings. it didn't sound like a lot at the time, but our little coffee table was overflowing with food. everything was good, the bruschetta was probably my favorite. 1331 also had a decent and reasonably priced list of wines by the glass. overall, a nice quiet spot to hide from the summer DC heat and catch up with a friend.

bar pilar

washington, dc

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my meeting ended up getting extended to a second day so i had time for a quick late night snack with anthony. we went to bar pilar, a drinking spot in his hood. i had an excellent glass of wine and anthony enjoyed his cocktail. he had already eaten, so i just ordered a couple of tapas for my meal - arugula salad, sausage, and octopus.

my favorite was the grilled octopus (pictured). it's hard to cook octopus correctly, but this was done perfectly. just the right amount of char on it, the texture was chewy and tender, and it had a hint of spice from the smoked paprika. delicious. this is definitely a good spot for some late night snacks and drinks.

west end bistro

washington, dc

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the best part of having meetings in DC is that it gives me a chance to catch up with friends - anthony, eric, and jenny met me for dinner at the westend bistro in foggy bottom. westend bistro is billed as "by eric ripert" - whatever that means. eric ripert is a famous chef in nyc, known for his three michelin-starred restaurant le bernadin. a big name, so i had high hopes for the meal.

unfortunately, my escargots and wild mushrooms over grits was a bit heavy. i prefer escargots when they're kept in the shells and doused in butter and garlic. the heaviness of the appetizer prevented me from enjoying the hamburger, i could only eat about half of it. it could be i just ordered poorly, everyone else's dishes looked great - especially the ribeye that eric ordered.

good stuff eatery

washington, dc

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neither derek nor i watch top chef. but i do read food blogs so i've heard about spike mendelsohn and his dc burger place. we were excited to try it. what we weren't prepared for, though, was the very very long walk it takes to get there. turns out capitol hill is actually a hill! anyway, by the time we got to good stuff eatery, we were very very hungry. there was a long line, so i made derek wait while i snagged a table upstairs. it took about 20 minutes to get the burger, a bit faster than the shack.

derek had the big stuff bacon meltdown - "double patty, lots'a bacon, double cheese, ruby tomato, lettuce & pickles with good stuff sauce." as i write this blog, he is literally salivating just thinking about it. i really enjoyed my burger, it definitely comes close to shake shack level quality. juicy and flavorful meat, soft bun, good veggies. the fries had a ridiculous amount of rosemary and other herbs sprinkled on top, but they were still crispy and tasty. the burgers, however, were the highlight. definitely worth climbing up and down capitol hill for.

vidalia

washington, dc

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another rec from our guidebook was also described as serving southern food. given that georgia brown's wasn't that great, we decided to give vidalia a try. it's located in foggy bottom, which is a bit of a hike from downtown, but dc is pretty easy to navigate. plus, its fun to say foggy bottom. fortunately we were semi-dressed up because vidalia turned out to be quite a fancy restaurant. the yellow-beige decor looks like it was designed in the early 90s, but the food more than made up for it.

dinner started with amazing cornbread and rolls. my favorite dish was my appetizer - perfectly cooked asparagus topped with orange slices, salmon roe, and a light dressing. it was delicious! it was salty, sweet, and refreshing all at once. it was a remarkable dish, unlike anything i've ever had before. the rest of the meal was also excellent - i had yummy shrimp and grits. for dessert, the georgia pecan pie. so good. this is how fancy southern food should taste!

sculpture garden pavilion cafe

washington, DC

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amidst all of the monuments and museums, there's a cool sculpture park with some really interesting pieces of art. and a cafe! after walking from the white house to the washington monument to the cherry blossoms to the smithsonian, we were pretty tired. the pavilion cafe in the middle of the sculpture garden was perfect to sit down for a "light" snack, a cold drink, and air-conditioning.

"light" is in quotes because as you can see, i chose to go with the red velvet cake. it was actually really good! the cake was moist, the cream cheese frosting was sweet-but-not-too-sweet. tasted homemade. a really excellent find in the middle of the touristy area of dc. another reason that "light" is in quotes is because i'm pretty sure derek had a hot dog and a bag of chips for his snack.

ten penh

washington, dc

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work has been extremely busy so i apologize that i have not been updating regularly. i have, however, been eating regularly so i have quite a backlog to catch up on. okay, back to our recent trip to washington DC. we walked past this restaurant on pennsylvania avenue a few times while seeing the sights and derek was very intrigued. given the name "ten penh", he thought that it might serve cambodian food. unfortunately every time we walked by, it was closed. finally, on the third try, it was open and we went in.

summary of derek's thoughts: "ten penh? i think zero penh." basically, it's fake asian food in the middle of downtown. it's not cambodian at all, but has a mix of asian cultures and cuisines -- peking style duck rolls, shanghai filipino lumpia rolls, roti wrapped tilapia with wasabi -- and it doesn't mix well. wasn't cheap either. bottom line - don't bother. maybe hike a couple of blocks north and check out chinatown instead.

georgia brown's

washington, dc

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our guidebook explained that bill clinton came here to get his soul food fix. so we had to try it. derek and i love soul food. i think it's pretty typical for asian-americans to love soul food. i find that chinese food and southern soul food cooking have a lot in common. for example, when i was ordering my shrimp and grits, the waiter initially asked me if i wanted the heads on. then without waiting for me to answer, he said "yeah, you want it with the heads on." of course. i'm chinese.

my shrimp and grits were pretty tasty but i still preferred the version i had at the redhead. georgia brown's version had too much sauce and it drowned out my grits. my favorites dishes were the appetizers - deviled eggs and fried oysters (pictured). delicious, but the little decorative extras were unnecessary. turns out georgia brown's is fancified soul food. tastes good, but not worth the extra price. overall, not a huge fan. sorry bill.

elephant & castle

washington, dc

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there's an elephant & castle in the west village. i've walked by a few times, thought it looked interesting, but never tried it. when derek and i walked by elephant & castle in DC, i thought it was a branch. it's not. unfortunately.

it is, however, a theme restaurant. the theme here is british pub food. the quality of the food here is okay, but prices are reasonable. it seems like a good spot to meet up with friends for a cheap drinks and bar snacks while you're downtown. i enjoyed my curry chips (apparently a popular british pub snack) - french fries with curry. for my entree, i had a decent shepard's pie. anyway, it was good, but not great.

j&g steakhouse

washington, dc

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we were staying at the W in washington DC, which has great views of the city from its rooftop bar - you can see the top of the white house! in an effort to be fancy and exclusive, there's a velvet rope and a bouncer managing the line. derek and i managed to skip the line by flashing our room key cards (a nice perk). we wanted to get a good spot in order to see the cherry festival fireworks. once we got up there, however, it wasn't that crowded. (but maybe DC has a different definition of crowded). we snagged the perfect spot with a view of the water and enjoyed yummy strawberry lemonades (infused with alcohol, of course).

by the time the fireworks were over, it was pretty late for dinner. after browsing through a few dinner options in our hotel guide, we learned that the j&g in the hotel's lobby restaurant actually stood for jeans-georges, a famous new york chef. an easy choice for lazy people of somewhat discerning taste. for my entree, i had the snake river farm wagyu sirloin, which was amazing. derek had the bone-in rib eye, which he enjoyed (and considered just a small step below primehouse's 40-day aged rib-eye). for dessert, i had a cookie plate which made a pretty picture and a nice treat. derek had the famous jean-georges molten chocolate cake, which is one of the few desserts he truly enjoys.

ollie's trolley

washington, dc

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so begins our vacation in DC. we were hungry when we arrived and our room wasn't ready yet, so we wandered around downtown to find some grub. ollie's trolley looked a little out of place among all of the office buildings and fancy power-lunch restaurants. the entire restaurant is painted in bright red and yellow with a carnival theme. in fact, the whole place looked like it belongs on coney island.

derek and i decided to stop in for a mid-afternoon, pre-dinner snack. because that’s what we do. we eat burgers and fries as mid-afternoon, pre-dinner snacks. i had a burger and derek had a cheeseburger. they were pretty good but nowhere near the level of BLT or little owl. there was some interesting seasoning sprinkled directly on the patties (as opposed to being marinated into the meat before cooking), but i’m not sure it added much to the meat. the same seasoning was found on the fries and those were very tasty. overall, while we wouldn’t go here to satisfy a specific burger craving, it satisfied our mid-afternoon, pre-dinner craving.