The Majestic Cafe - Lunch

Sweetmonger and I had lunch at the historic The Majestic Cafe in Old Town Alexandria today. The Old Town landmark was on the path to closing last year before it was taken over by Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve and his burgeoning culinary empire. He remolded and made Eve alum Shannon Overmiller the executive chef. Ever since, The Majestic Cafe's classic American food has been extremely popular, and the restaurant has been a tough reservation.

Perhaps it was what we ordered, but it is very difficult to recommend Majestic's food. The decor and the service are easy to praise. It's beautiful and simple. I just wish I could say the same for the food. At Restaurant Eve, I once had an absolutely fabulous version of an Oyster Po'Boy; thus, when I saw it on The Majestic's menu I knew it would be wonderful. It was perhaps the worst prediction I have ever made. First, the oysters are fried whereas they were sauteed at Eve. This, of course, was fine because I like fried oysters. Second, the kitchen uses the shredded lettuce you can buy at Giant. Yuck. That is just ill-suited for a Cathal Armstrong restaurant. Finally it was served on top of a french baguette. Not in a baguette but on top of it. The baguette was not even sliced so that a diner could make it a sandwich. This was the stupidest presentation I have ever seen. A Po'Boy is a sandwich and should be eaten as so. Thus, I was forced to eat my "sandwhich" with a knife and fork. This kind of stupidity makes me question how the rest of the dishes are prepared. It would have been acceptable if the dish was especially good; however, it managed to simply taste ordinary. It was certainly not worth the effort and definitely not worth its $19 price tag. To make matters worse, I talked sweetmonger into getting it based on my praise for the Restaurant Eve version. She eventually just gave up. Save your time and your money. Stay away.




Tha Majestic Cafe
http://www.majesticcafe.com/
911 King St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.837.9117
See Website for Hours

Ray's the Steaks

Ray’s the Steaks is a carnivorous paradise easily serving the best steaks in the area and some of the best in the country. I have eaten at Ray’s numerous times in the last couple years and its steaks are always really good and more often than not exceptional. Unfortunately, the steak I had last night only made it to the really good territory. This was as much my fault as it was the restaurant’s, as I simply ordered a steak I normally would not have.

The chateaubriand, the filets, the rib eyes, the hanger steak and the sirloin diablo at Ray’s are always superb and provide a level of culinary enjoyment that few other steakhouses can match. Furthermore, the béarnaise sauce is phenomenal and the creamed spinach is perfect (it’s creamy yet allows the diner to actually taste the spinach). However, after reading on another blog about the New York strip with brandy mushroom cream, I decided to try it last night.

First, however, I had the crab bisque, which is a must at Ray’s. I do not think it is too out there to say that it is possibly the best crab bisque in the country. The soup is creamy and filled with a ton of delicious crab meat. It is quite wonderful and never disappoints. I ordered my steak medium rare and it came out well charred and cooked to absolute perfection. It was juicy, tender and oozed with flavor. I prefer rib eyes and filets but this was a really good steak. The sauce, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but was a little too sweet and did not pack a flavorful punch to compensate. I much prefer the béarnaise and the spicy diablo sauce. All told, it was still a really good meal that left me extremely satisfied. I was with Simplemonger who got the cajun ribeye topped with garlic cloves. I did not taste his but he raved that it was amazing. Also, he greatly enjoyed his key lime pie. He said it was not as tart as he'd like but he loved the graham crust and the strawberries that came with it. Furthermore, simplemonger is a big fan of the waitresses at Ray's. To him, they are as big a draw as the food. He gave his meal 4 cutting boards.

No one goes to Ray’s because of the décor or the service. The service is fine but this is not a place to linger. It is all about turnover so there is no reason to go if you want a nice, slow paced meal. Furthermore, I personally like the décor, but it is a barren strip mall suite. The focus is on the food as it should be. They keep costs down by not worrying about the décor and shunning a typical management structure. Thus, Ray’s offers higher quality meat with superb preparation at prices that are $10-$15 cheaper per steak than at places like BLT Steak, Charlie Palmer Steak, Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris. Ray’s has only two drawbacks: long waits and a terrible beer list. Nevertheless, this is the area’s best steakhouse and one of its best restaurants.

(this takes into account many past meals. last night's meal was worthy of 3 cutting boards.)

Ray’s the Steaks
1725 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22009
703-841-7297
Open Daily for Dinner

Zaytinya

A friend, sweetmonger and I dined last Friday night a Zaytinya, José Andrés’ mezze restaurant in the Penn Quarter. Mezze are small plates of eastern Mediterranean cuisine. Given my recent fascination with Middle Eastern and Greek food, I was extremely happy to satisfy my urge to eat at Zaytinya and was genuinely impressed by the quality of the food.

Zaytinya is extremely popular and only takes a limited number of reservations thus making our wait around an hour. This was expected and didn’t bother me and gave us a chance to hang out in Zaytinya’s large bar area. It has a couple good beers on tap including Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA (a 4 hop beer) and the cocktails (I tried sweetmonger’s) are inventive and very good.

We were seated in the loft area which provides a slightly quieter dining experience and allows you to enjoy great views of the restaurant below. After studying the menu, we picked 6 of the over 70 small plates to share and I ordered 1 extra course to have all to my self.

The hummus and piping hot, fresh pita bread were delicious, maybe the best hummus in DC (not positive about that though). My cauliflower soup with Moroccan truffles and lemon was light, creamy and wonderful. The scallops with yogurt dill sauce were perfectly seared, sweet and super juicy. The arayes, ground lamb and tahini stuffed pita bread, was well seasoned and quite enjoyable. The lamb and beef sausages were tender and bold and the skewered lamb melted in my mouth. The red wine braised rabbit was not quite as good as the other mezze but it was cooked well and well cooked rabbit is always welcome in my mouth.

As good as the mezze were, the desserts at Zaytinya were every bit as good. We shared two: Turkish coffee chocolate and Turkish delight. The first was warm chocolate cake, bittersweet chocolate flan and cardamom espuma finished with espresso syrup. It was not super inventive but rather very well executed and showcased great flavor. The Turkish delight combined walnut ice cream with goat’s milk yogurt mousse, honey geleé, orange-caramel sauce and caramelized pine nuts. The walnut ice cream was particularly good and was an intriguing end to the meal.

My only complaint about the night is that our waiter inexcusably brought me some radler (beer and sprite) tasting concoction even though I had ordered another Dogfish Head. It was beer so I drank it instead of complaining but it pretty much sucked. Anyway, go to Zaytinya, make sure they understand your drink order and then enjoy. It will be hard not to.

Zaytinya
http://www.zaytinya.com/
701 9th St. NW
Washington, DC 20004
202-638-0800
See website for hours.

Hook

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I once considered Hook one of my 5 favorite restaurants in Washington, DC; however, after my last three meals there, Hook would be hard pressed to crack my top 25. After the first of these meals, I did not think much of it. The food wasn’t great, but I was willing to give it a pass because of other excellent experiences. Next, sweetmonger and I had the worst brunch of all time. My eggs benedict and her omelet were inedible. Again, I gave it a pass because it was . . . well . . . brunch. However, after last night's disaster, Hook is no longer on my must dine list in DC, and it will be a long time before I pay for another meal there.

We went to Hook last night expecting a great meal, but what we got was utterly forgettable. We sat down, looked at the menu and noticed a huge change that foreshadowed the entire evening. Hook has always served crudos (seasoned sashimi), and the menu used to allow you to choose 3 of roughly 8 different seasoned raw fish. However, now, you can order only 1 fish seasoned 3 different ways, with the option to get 1 sampler chosen by the chef. This was a little disconcerting because I had grown so comfortable with the old menu. I would not have minded the new way so much if it had been good. Unfortunately, my sampler was pretty bad. The smoked scallop and the sardine were regrettable choices. The cured tuna was good enough but it is not something I would ever asked for again.

Neither of us were fans of the entrees. I went with the sablefish at the recommendation of our ridiculously perky Rachel Ray-esque waitress. The fish was cooked in an "amazingly expensive machine" at 100% humidity. Rachel said the fish was super tender which it was, but it was also super bland. The blandness was also all over the potatoes and almond "water" that came with it. It's not that the dish tasted bad; it's just that it didn't have much taste at all. Sweetmonger’s on the other hand had plenty of taste. It was just a taste that I would never want to subject anyone to. Here is her description:

"I noticed the first problem as the dish was coming towards the table. I ordered the mahi-mahi with roasted beet risotto, and black olive oil. The dish was plated horribly. The plate was practically covered in the roasted beet risotto, which was a fairly bright pink color. On top of this huge pile of pink risotto was the piece of fish and then a small amount of greens on top of that. The risotto appeared as if an overzealous toddler had dug into a huge amount of rice, washed it down with some red kool-aid and then puked it up onto the plate. I am not kidding. Now, don’t get me wrong, the risotto was actually the redeeming quality of the meal as far as taste goes… but the appearance just lacked any sort of thought process. If they had plated the fish with a small portion of the risotto and a larger portion of greens, the dish had the potential to appear whimsical and intriguing. Instead, it just disgusted me. Despite this, I was curious to taste the risotto because, as of late, I have become obsessed with beets. I can say without reservation that the first four or five bites of the risotto tasted good. But after, you know, like twenty of them the taste was quickly waning. But, as I said, this was the redeeming part of the dish. The fish and the greens tasted as if the chef had plated the dish and then taken a salt shaker and dumped salt all over it. The baby greens were salty, and the fish was totally overpowered by salt. I made the Monger taste because, I admit, I am very sensitive to salt. After the first bite he did not think it was too bad, but after I made him take a couple more he agreed with me that the salt overpowered any of the more delicate flavors of the fish or the greens. The more I think about it, the quicker the dish is moving from the “bad” category to the “inedible” category.

On a related, yet totally bitchy, note, our server was nice and attentive but so perky that it was practically unbearable. We could hear her describe the various dishes to the patrons around us in her high-pitched, nasal voice, and I swear that she described every single dish as “a delicate white fish with a medium flake.” I mean… is it possible that every fucking fish on the menu can be described that way?? I think not."

I am not sure what has happened to Hook. Perhaps, the chef has gotten lazy or perhaps he was just cooking above his talent level for a while, but I will not be going back anytime soon. The meal was so bad that we actually skipped dessert, which is usually a must at Hook. We just didn't want to take a chance.

(this takes into account my previous experiences. last night's meal was worthy of only 1 cutting board)
Hook
http://www.hookdc.com/
3241 M St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
202-625-4488

Sierra Nevada ESB

I had Sierra Nevada ESB on tap the other night and found it quite enjoyable. It is nothing spectacular but is a very solid beer and definitely worth checking out if you can find it. It has a golden/amber color and a mild but nice American hop smell, which is complented by a slightly bready malt and caramel aroma. There is some hop bitterness up front in the taste which then gives way to the bready and caramel malts. The finish is a little bitter so to reiterate its hop profile. This is not a must drink beer, but it is still a very respectable "American" ESB.

http://www.sierranevada.com/

Russian River Pliny

Last weekend at San Diego Brewing Company, I had the pleasure of having a pint of Russian River's Pliny the Younger. (11.0% abv, pictured)

Pliny the Younger is a very limited release Double IPA by Russian River. San Diego Brewing Co only got one keg into their brewpub, and it was rumored that all of SoCal got only 20 kegs.

This beer was a beautiful bright pale color in the pint glass. Lots of piny and citrusy floral notes in the powerful aroma. Flavorwise it was beer nirvana: lots of clean, strong hoppy flavor with only a bit of bitterness. Complex but drinkable, delicious and wonderfully enjoyable.

I actually prefer their more common Pliny the Elder (8.0% abv), which is very similar but a slightly milder verson of the same Double IPA style. These are two amazing beers by an amazing brewery, a must have if you ever see it on tap. You cannot go wrong either way.

I also want to mention what a great beer joint the San Diego Brewing Co is, where I enjoyed my pint of Pliny the Younger along with many other great beers over the course of many visits. This brewpub is located on Friars Road in the Mission Valley neighborhood of San Diego, a bit east of Qualcomm Stadium. It has been around for over 15 years. They brew several house beers on premises, including a fantastic Amber Ale and their popular Hopnotic IPA. Their house beers are very rich and well crafted, and they are able to hold their own in comparison to the other great (mostly local) microbrews that are on tap. In all, there are over 30 constantly rotating taps to try as well some very good bar food. SDBC is a great place to have a beer, watch some sports, and chat with great people. Highly recommended.

Pliny the Younger:

Pliny the Elder:
San Diego Brewing Co:
Russian River Brewing: http://www.russianriverbrewing.com/
San Diego Brewing Co: http://www.sandiegobrewing.com/

Town House - Chilhowie, Virginia

Sweetmonger and I spent the weekend in rural Southwestern Virginia visiting family. While there, we dined at Town House in Chilhowie. Town House may very well be the best restaurant in Virginia (and yes I am including the Inn at Little Washington), and it is certainly a dining experience that is not to be missed.

A little background first. Town House has been in operation since early 2002 serving fairly traditional, upscale food. I have dined there on multiple occasions and found the meals to be enjoyable. However, in the fall of 2007, the restaurant and its chef parted ways over creative differences, and the owners engaged in an exhaustive search for a new chef. They eventually hired the team of John Shields and Karen Urie, who started cooking for the Town House in late 2007. Immediately prior to Town House, John was a sous chef at Alinea, Gourmet Magazine’s Best Restaurant in America, working under Grant Achatz in Chicago, and Karen was head pastry chef at the world famous Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago. Their blend of cutting edge techniques and high quality ingredients create a one of a kind dining experience.

The meal began with some “snacks.” These included a green curry rice crispy treat, an “Oreo” (my description) cookie with an olive oil cream filling, a clam chip and some dehydrated mango and pink peppercorn ribbons. A delicious way to start the meal. (This is a pic of the plate that the snacks were on)

Chilled geoduck, oysters, razorback clams, mussels, horseradish cream, leak confit, dehydrated beet, and granny smith apple sorbet

The sorbet created a wonderful blend of savory and sweet flavors and the horseradish cream added a bit of spice, which was an interesting yet delicious contrast to the cold shellfish. At the time, I didn't expect anything to top it. Superb.

Barely seared ahi, white soy bean paste, spinach and cucumber foam

This course did indeed top it though. The tuna was seared perfectly and was full of flavor. The sweetness of the cucumber and the bitterness of the spinach worked to create a balanced and delicious foam. A beautiful blend of savory and sweet. Excellent. (This is a picture of my paritally eaten tuna)

Blue crab, sunchokes, brown butter, meyer lemon mayonnaise.

This deconstructed crab cake was a stunning achievement. The best savory dish of the night and one of my all time favorite plates of food. Excellent. I had dinner about a month ago at Le Bernardin in New York City, the world-famous three star Michelin seafood temple. There was not one dish on my tasting menu that compared in taste, texture, or creativity to the three seafood courses at Town House.

Rack of Lamb, giant shallot, FAGE yogurt and honey foam

The worst course of the night, yet still very good. As the lamb soaked up the foam, a near indescribable flavor combination worked wonders in my mouth. The sweetness of the foam provided the perfect accompaniment to the robustly flavored lamb. Very good approaching excellence. (This is a pic of sweetmonger's partially eaten lamb . . . . I had already eaten too much of mine by the time I remembered to take a picture).

Our cheese course was a frozen explorator triple crème cheese was a perfect segue into the desserts.

Venezuelan chocolate, curly fries, pretzel ice cream, caramelized mustard seeds.

I was not prepared for this dessert as I hadn't expected to be eating chocolate "pudding" topped with salty curly fries. No matter, after the first bite of fries and chocolate, I thought, “Oh, this is good.” In the second bite, I incorporated the ice cream and thought, “Wow, this is really good.” After tasting all the elements in the third bite, I said, “This is the best dessert I have ever had.” A pitch perfect mixture of salty and sweet and it would still be the best dessert I have ever had had the kitchen not sent out the second one.

Chocolate chip sherbet, gorgonzola, pine nut torrone

This dessert is mind-blowing. The chocolate chips absolutely melt in your mouth and the sherbet is so good and so sweet; then at the very end, the taste of the bleu cheese rears its beautiful head and completely boggles the mind. This is the best dessert I have ever had. Karen Urie is a master.

This was an excellent meal and a dining experience that few other restaurants can match. Town House is an oasis nestled in an otherwise barren culinary desert. The cuisine easily rivals some of the very best restaurants in the country. It is well worth making a trip to Southwestern Virginia to dine there. You will not be disappointed.


Town House
http://www.townhouseva.com
132 E. Main St.
Chilhowie, VA 24319

(276) 646-8787

Kansas City Barbeque - San Diego

I went to Kansas City Barbeque for lunch today and got myself a sliced pork sandwich. This place is not really famous for its food. It is kind of a dive, most of the clientele are blue collar or tourists despite. The old man behind the bar moves very slow and takes forever to get your food and drink. The reason why this place is famous is because they filmed the famous piano scene from the movie Topgun here. They don't let you forget it either, with every inch of the wall being plastered in movie memorabilia and the back of their menu talking about how they got the chance to be in the movie.

Anyway, the food itself is pretty decent. The menu is pretty cheap, about 6-7 bucks for sandwiches with one side, 10-11 bucks for platters with 2 sides. A few local beers on tap. Everyone should have a stop in this place when they visit San Diego.

Famous Topgun Piano:

Famous Topgun Jukebox:

610 W Market St, San Diego, CA 92101

11am-1am daily

http://www.kcbbq.net/

Mackeson's XXX Stout

In the interest of not constantly reviewing just the types of beer I personally enjoy, I will be trying and writing about some lesser known styles of beer.

So, I picked up a six pack of Mackeson XXX stout (5.0% abv), which is a Milk Stout, brewed using lactose (milk sugar) and very dark roasted malts.

The beer pours an extremely dark black with a very dark head, which it maintains well. There is a weak aroma of roasted malts.

Initially, there is some malty flavor on the front of the tongue, but by the time the stout reaches the back of the mouth....no hoppiness at all. Very little flavor. Very watery. The rest of the beer was the same way, fairly bland and flavorless.

Normally I would give any beer at least a "1 hop" rating, because beer contains alcohol and at least it gets you buzzed or drunk. This beer did not give me any buzz. So I had a couple more. Nothing, oh well. However, thanks to the unfermented lactose that is in this unique style of beer, I lost 3 hours of sleep in the middle of the night because I got massive [descriptive word removed] from this god damn beer. So I threw out the rest of the six pack, never wanting to experience that again. And I never want any of you to experience that either. So stay away.

If you do want to try a milk stout, go for Left Hand Milk Stout if you can find it. I have had it on tap and it was very solid. Rich and flavorful. A much better example of the style. http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/

Mackeson XXX Stout: 0 hops

Firestone Walker Pale Ale

Firestone Walker is a California brewery that expertly hand crafts their beer with an oak barrel brewing system. Their recipes tend to resemble British brewing methods rather than the hoppy style of their fellow west coast brewers.

I recently got a six pack of their Firestone Walker Pale Ale (4.6% abv). The Pale Ale pours a beautiful pale amber color. It drinks wonderfully - a slight bit of grassy hoppiness combined with a touch of maltiness. Perfectly balanced. Tasty.

I have also had their excellent Double Barrel Ale (5.0% abv) which I would describe as an English-style amber ale, and their IPA (6.0% abv, draft-only) which was a bit closer to a West Coast style IPA but not as hoppy. Both were delicious.

These are not hop head beers or EXTREME!! or crazy fruit beers. These are well crafted session ales; clean, drinkable, flavorful, enjoyable. Good beer.

Firestone Walker Pale Ale:
Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale:

Firestone Walker IPA:

Firestone Walker Fine Ales: http://www.firestonebeer.com/