Parkway Deli Visited 11/26/2012 3.5 Forks

Parkway Deli 8317 Grubb Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20910

I would have never associated the words "Jewish deli" with "Maryland".  But after my trip with Elissa to Parkway Deli I was quite surprised that there does exists a true Jewish deli in Maryland that rivals those in NYC like Katz's and 2nd Ave.  I would have never discovered this place if Elissa hadn't mentioned it.  It's literally in this random strip mall in the suburbs and on the outside it just looks like a regular deli and not a restaurant.  But then you walk into the deli and go to the back and there is this whole diner/restaurant.

It's quite a mom and pop operation and not super done up or fancy which is exactly what it should be.  It's a good old school place for a good old school meal.  The menu is overwhelming and is about 5+ pages long of delicious sounding deli sandwiches, soups, salads, and breakfast specials with a specific slant towards classic Jewish fare like matzoh ball soup, smoked whitefish, lox, blintzes, potato pancakes, etc.  I had no idea if I should order a roast beef sandwich or a lox plate.  In the end I chose the latkes, nova and eggs (I ordered my eggs over easy) for $9.35 and Elissa and I also split the cheese blintzes with sour cream and strawberry and blueberry syrup for $6.65.  As I watched everyone else get their food, I got really so excited for our food.  All the food that I saw was on this huge eye popping scale so I was expecting my dish to be the size of my entire plate.  So I was pleasantly surprised when my food looked very manageable to eat.  I will say that I haven't had tons of experience with latkes but the ones I have had in the past didn't look like the one I got.  The ones I've had in the past are made with shredded potatoes, pretty flat in appearance and crispy in texture.  These, however, looked like they were made with ground potato, shaped into a ball, deep fried and was very heavy in texture.  It wasn't bad just not what I expected.  I enjoyed the lox and happy to have found a place outside of NYC that serves fresh lox.  But the best part of the dish was the perfectly fried egg.  It was super yolky and the whites were fried but not overdone.  I just wished the potato pancakes were lighter and crispier instead of the doughy and heavy ones that I got.  The cheese blintzes were super fresh and nice and warm when they came out.  I actually kind of wished that the filling was a bit sweeter because it tasted it just a bit too light.  I had to dunk them in the sour cream and fruit syrups to get the flavor kick it needed.   Surprisingly I have never had matzoh ball soup before in my life and I got to try Elissa's matzoh ball soup and thought it was nice and cozy and homey feeling.  I can totally see why people love matzoh ball soup on a cold night or when they are sick.

I love the fact that this kind of place exists outside of NYC.  It's pretty unique to the Maryland area and I would totally come back to try a bunch of other items on the menu.  I also want to give a shout out to the staff there.  They were super sweet and really nice and really gave the whole diner a nice family feel.  Total bill: $42 total with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Matuba Japanese Restaurant Visited 11/24/2012 3 Forks

Matuba Japanese Restaurant 4918 Cordell Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814

So I wouldn't recommend going to a sushi restaurant after watching the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi unless you're going somewhere like Sushi of Gari because any other type of place will skew your thinking of what you're eating.  I had watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi the night before and anyone who has seen the movie will know that it literally makes your mouth water and makes to run over anything that gets in your way of putting sushi in your mouth.  Of course the quality of the sushi featured in the movie is beyond top notch and there are very few places of that caliber anywhere in the world, so it does put an unfair expectation level on any place you try. 

My mom and I had actually originally planned on having lunch at this place called Grapeseed in Bethesda but it was closed for lunch on Saturday.  So I noticed that there was this sushi place across the street and suggested that we try it out.  I knew it wouldn't be 5 star quality but I was craving sushi so badly after watching the movie that honestly any sushi place would have been fine with me.  The place is totally fine and your standard mom and pop type of sushi place.  It's definitely not high end or sleek or even what I would say is a hidden gem like Sushi Yoshi.  It's just your run of the mill sushi place that has lots of lunch specials that totally has it's place in the sushi spectrum.  My mom and I both ordered the sushi/sashimi lunch special ($16.95) and the fried oyster appetizer ($7.50).  I will say that the one unique thing about this place is that has a "salad bar" that is all-you-can-eat if order more than $6.50.  The use quotation marks because it's literally a slow budget fixin bar shoved in the corner.  They have all the ingredients of a typical green salad:  lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes,  carrots, carrot ginger dressing, bean sprouts,  and some raw and fried tofu.  I have a soft spot for the green salads that you get at sushi places, so I was secretly a bit thrilled that they had an all-you-can-eat bar.  I probably got about 3 servings of salad.  The fried oyster appetizer was surprisingly well done.  I was expecting it to be over battered or super dry but the oyster inside was a decent size and the overall bite was crunchy and not over done.   The sushi/sashimi lunch was pretty hefty as it came with 1 California roll, 1 piece of salmon sushi, 1 piece of tuna sushi, 1 piece of eel sushi, 1 egg sushi, and  9 pieces of sashimi (3 pieces each of salmon, tuna, yellowtail).  The quality of the fish was good...definitely not the level of a melt in your mouth but it did satisfy my craving.  After seeing the movie and having ok sushi, it makes you realize and appreciate how amazing real high grade sushi is and why it's so expensive.  All in all, Matuba got the job done and I was a big fan of the green salad buffet (which is pretty unique) but it's not the kind of sushi that Jiro would probably dream of.  Total bill: $50 for 2 with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Sushi Yoshi Visited 11/21/2012 4.5 Forks

Sushi Yoshi 101 Church Street NW, Suite B, Vienna, VA 22180

Usually when I come home to MD I have a few key staple restaurants I go to.  One of my favorite experiences is getting sushi at Tachibana.  I almost never miss out on going to lunch there when I come back to MD.  But this time I came home, my mom suggested trying out a new place that actually isn't too far from Tachibana.  I'm always game to try new things so I said "Let's go!" My mom said that she had to make a reservation which I thought was a bit extreme since it was lunch on Wednesday afternoon.  But I'm glad that she did because when we got there, they were basically pretty full and those who came without a reservation were left waiting for a bit.

The place is pretty tiny, about 9-10 tables total and about 6 seats at the sushi bar.  The menu is on the border of traditional and one of those Americanized places that has freakin cream cheese in their special rolls.  I usually hate places that have weird ingredients like mango or cream cheese but they did have a very good line-up of traditional, more pure rolls.  My mom got the chirashi ($12.95) and I got the sashimi lunch ($13.95) and then I also ordered a spicy crunchy scallop roll with avocado ($5.30).  I know I always say this when I leave NYC, but my god, the prices here are so freaking reasonable, I almost wanted to cry.  The lunch specials came with soup and salad (love that you get both and don't have to choose between the two).  The soup and salad are your basic sushi miso soup and green salad with carrot ginger dressing.  It's hard to get them wrong and they were perfectly fine here.  They served the scallop roll first which was great because I was starving and couldn't wait for all the food to come out at once.  I get that that a spicy crunchy roll isn't the most "pure" of rolls but I do need a little something with my rolls and I usually stick to simple ingredients like an avocado or cucumber.  This type of spicy roll is the kind with whole chunks of scallop with a small amount of crunch and heat.  It was amazing.  The scallop was super fresh and it came with the perfect amount of rice (I hate rolls that have too much rice - there should be just enough to hold the roll together but I shouldn't feel like I'm eating a rice dish instead).  The roll almost made me wished that I had ordered more rolls, but as soon as my sashimi came out, I was glad I didn't order anymore food.  For $13.95, there was 12 pieces of all kinds of different fish (salmon, tuna, yellowtail, white tuna, squid, seared tuna and seared salmon).  It was so incredibly fresh and everything was melt in your mouth.  I usually don't like squid sashimi but even this one was pretty damn good (crunchy but still tender).  But the surprising dish of the afternoon was the chirashi.  Usually this dish is just sashimi served on a bed of seasoned rice.  But here, they actually serve the raw fish on the side and the star of the dish is the HUGE bed of rice served with tons of "toppings" (as my mom calls it).   It's covered with the sweet egg, cooked pieces of tuna, lotus root, seaweed, and other vegetables.  It was quite a lovely dish to look at and I was shocked that all that food was $12.95 and a lunch size portion.

I left lunch thoroughly full and ready for a nap.  I was thrilled to have tried a new place but now my hometown sushi love is split between this place and Tachibana.   Oh well, there are worst struggles in life, right?  But the best part of this meal?  The total bill with tax was $34 for two people, which is such a crazy deal for all the amazing fresh fish.  I am definitely putting this on my home restaurant visit rotation.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Steak Frites Visited 11/17/2012 2 Forks

Steak Frites 9 E 16th St., New York, NY 10014

Steak Frites is one of those places that I've walked past a millions times in Union Square and it never really ever crossed my mind to go in.  Not because I had any preconceived notion about it but it was just one of those places that was always here and I figured I would end up there at some point in my life.  The time came this past Saturday when I and a few friends were wedding dress shopping with my good friend, Virginia in the neighborhood.

Steak Frites looks like a cute French bistro and usually French bistro places have pretty decent brunches.  This place also had unlimited mimosas, so that's not to like so far?  The menu was your basic bistro brunch of benedicts, omelettes, croque madams, steak sandwiches and mussels.  I opted for the Scandinavian benedict ($16)  and originally I just wanted 1 mimosa but I guess when you say you want a mimosa they just assume you want the unlimited meal because they kept re-filling my glass without really asking me.  That was a bit annoying but I guess there are worse things in life.  The other girls all got omelettes or a salad.  When my benedict came out I couldn't put my finger on what was missing but then it struck me.  They totally didn't finish putting the hollandaise sauce on the dish.  It's like the started because there was a little bit on there but it's no where near what's shown in the picture above.  How can you serve a benedict with just a dribble of hollandaise sauce? It's the most important part of the dish!  The overall presentation of the dish was really ho-hum.  I've seen better presentation at a TGI Fridays.  At least the good thing for them was that the egg was actually poached well and runny but the overall dish was just meh.  The fries were fine, nothing to really write home about.  I thought they would be the nice big steak fries, but they were more medium cut, super salty fries.  I didn't try anyone else's dish but honestly all the omelettes looked a bit sad.  Julie and Joanna both got the market vegetable omelette and Joanna had asked for no mushrooms.  When her omelette came out, it was just spinach and goat cheese.  So I guess when they say market vegetables they really just meant spinach and mushrooms?

When the bill came, the total was $34/pp which I thought was outrageous for a eh benedict and 3 glasses of weak mimosas.  For that amount of money, I would expect an amazing meal or at least strong cocktails.  I didn't really get either one here.

Photo Credit: Yelp 

BrisketTown Visited 11/16/2012 3.5 Forks

BrisketTown 359 Bedford Ave., (between 5th St & 4th St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

I was totally expecting to be wow'd by BrisketTown and to have it dethrone Fette Sau as my favorite BBQ place in Williamsburg.  It has been talked up to rave reviews in many of my favorite food blogs such as the New York Times, Eater, Gothamist, and Grub Street.  Even though I usually don't like to go to restaurants the first couple months of opening (they almost always need some time to work out the kinks), I just couldn't resist a new BBQ and had to go the first night it opened. 

Cicily and I met up at 6:30 right when they open up the line to non-pre-orders.  Over the summer, you were able to reserve your meat on line and then come into the restaurant to claim your meat.  Otherwise, the restaurant opens at 6pm and then is only open until when they run out of meat.  I was a bit worried that if we didn't get there early, we would be shut out but luckily it looks like they had enough meat that night until at least 9 or 10pm.  The restaurant is super super small, maybe about 8 or 9 tables max.  You walk up to the counter and there is basically one thing on the menu: brisket.  There are 2 cuts, either lean or fatty.  It's $25/lb and the super nice owner, Daniel, told us that for 2 people, he recommended about 1/3 to 1/2 a pound per person.  We decided to go for a mix of lean and fatty and got 1 lb total.  The only other things they serve there are potato salad ($4) and coleslaw ($4).  We went for the potato salad and a few slices of Texas white bread.  Now the issue with the seat yourself style of restaurants is that sometimes you can get your food and find that there is no where to sit.  I literally jumped on top of a group of people as they were leaving their seat.  Not my ideal way to enjoy a meal but when it comes to BBQ by the pound, it usually is easier to order yourself.  The food looked great and I was super excited to cut into it.  One problem.  There were no knives in the place.  Only plastic forks.  I ended up pulling most of the meat apart with my hands, which was fine, but a knife and some wet naps would have gone a long way here.  People around us were raving about the meat (the guy in front of us in line was already in line for 2nds) so I was ready to tear into it.  And you know what? It was good but my mind and stomach didn't explode from joy.  The lean meat was indeed lean and the fatty meat fatty (almost a bit too fatty - and not in the good kind of pork belly fatty) but the outside of the brisket had too much black pepper flavor for me - it was very in your face.  And while I know this may be sacrilege, I wanted some BBQ sauce to go with it.  It just seemed to be missing something that I couldn't put my finger on and I think it was the sauce.  While I appreciate that the pace was focused on one kind of meat that they did well, the reason I love Fette Sau is because not only can you get brisket but you can get ribs, pork belly, sausage and all kind of other delicious meats at the same time.  As they say, variety is the spice of life.  As for the potato salad, it was a nice side dish to help cut some of the meatiness of the main entree.  And the 1/2 lb per person was the perfect amount of food for 2 people as I was definitely more than full when we left.

For now the restaurant is BYOB which actually isn't so bad but it is nice to have some whiskey with your meat and it's a bit hard to go down to your local deli and buy a small size of whiskey.  So we opted for wine but a lot of people brought their own tall boys or 6 packs.  I will say that the waitstaff there was awesome (shout out to Alex for helping us in a wine bind) and really friendly.  Location-wise, it's a bit out of the way (it's in South Williamsburg - which I know is the new hot spot of Brooklyn so I guess it does make sense to be where all the action is these days).   Even though I thought the meat was good, I just didn't have the come to jesus moment I was expecting based on all the reviews.  But if you're a BBQ freak like me, I do think it's worth a try at least once.  To quote Cicily "It's good but I wouldn't go out of my way to come back here".  Knowing that Fette Sau is so much closer, I would tend to agree.  Total bill: $42.

Photo Credit: Free Williamsburg

Tue Thai Visited 11/9/2012 3.5 Forks

Tue Thai 3 Greenwich Ave., (between 10th St & Christopher St), New York, NY 10014

I have been to tons of restaurants near Greenwich Ave such as  Rosemary's, Whitehall, and Kingswood, yet have never noticed Tue Thai.  The reason is that there are no windows to the place.  There's a glass door but then the rest of it has this wood paneling that prevents you from seeing inside the restaurant.  They could get so much more business if they installed some giant windows so that people can see inside (and vice versa).   If Allison hadn't been there before, I would have walked right past it.

We walked in at 6:30pm on a Friday and it was completely empty.  But slowly the restaurant did start to fill up as we were eating and by the time we left it was pretty packed.  The menu here is pretty standard mom and pop Thai food with pad thai, pad see ew, fried rice, curries, and sautees.  While I do love fancy, high end food, there's something really comforting about a good pad thai or fried rice dish.  Allison and I split the grilled calamari ($7), papaya salad ($7), and the shrimp pad thai ($13) and since it was a bit cold I also got a wonton soup ($5) for myself.  The grilled calamari came out first and it reminded me how much I prefer a good grilled calamari dish to a fried one that you get a lot of bars.  This one was marinated and grilled with Asian spices and served with a spicy cilantro fish sauce and a mild sirracha.  It was a pretty tasty dish and it was a great starter dish.  It really makes me never want to eat a greasy calamari dish again.  Next came mine wonton soup and this came with 3 fairly large homemade chicken and shrimp wontons in a clear broth and bok choy.  It was a a good basic clear soup but they didn't cut up the bok choy which made it difficult to eat.  It would have been better if they had made them smaller and not so bulky to chew.  Next they brought out the pad thai and papaya salad.  The pad thai was nice and saucy and had great flavor.  It really hit the spot.  Meanwhile the papaya salad was a good standard salad served with cherry tomatoes, peanuts, and string bean with a lime juice dressing.  It could have used a bit more heat to it but overall all the components were fresh and just right.

All in all, this was a good non frills Thai place in the West Village.   I don't mean to make the place sound bare bones because it's not but given it's location it's definitely not super trendy either.  But the best part of the meal was that Allison had a Groupon for the place and the total bill with tip was only $10!  I usually am not a huge fan of restaurants that participate in Groupon but I gotta say that this deal actually did what its supposed to do for a restaurant.  Meaning, it introduced me to a new restaurant that I ordinarily wouldn't go to but now that I've tried it, I would come back again.

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Flying Saucer Visited 11/5/2012 3 Forks

Flying Saucer 1123 N California Ave., (between Thomas St & Haddon Ave), Chicago, IL 60622

Flying Saucer was another hippie-dippie type of brunch place in Chicago that Deanna and I decided to try right before my flight took off.  Unlike Victory's Banner, this one isn't run by "devotees" but instead only had 1 New Zealander basically running the entire place.  The poor guy had to wait on 10 tables, bus all of them and serve them.  So while I most definitely felt bad for him, the service was so god forsaken slow, Deanna and I were on the verge of serving ourselves coffee and getting our own silverware.   The only reason why I didn't give this place a lower ranking was because I really did enjoy my food and thought the whole diner kitchy decor was cute.  The inside reminded me of a old fashion yet hipster feeling diner.  It totally looked like a place that would fit right in in Williamsburg or the East Village.   

The menu here has a very healthy, yet has a weirdly Mexican slant to it.  For anyone who loves a good breakfast menu, this place will overwhelm you.  They have your basic omelettes, breakfast samplers and pancakes.  Then they also have tofu sweet potato hash, huevos volando, biscuits and gravy, eggs benedict, and several breakfast bowls - so it's definitely a wide variety of food.  Since I had spent the majority of my time in Chicago gorging on pork products and egg products, I opted for the la bazza bowl ($9.95) which is a vegetarian breakfast bowl.  It came with brown rice topped with two eggs, black beans, mixed sautéed veggies, tofu, kale , chihuahua cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo served with corn tortillas.  It tasted great and healthy.  I felt my cholesterol lowering with each bite of brown rice and tofu.  I should mention that the bowl is huge and I was able to split it into 2 separate meals.  The brown rice was nice and moist which is usually very hard to do with brown rice as it can easily get to be hard and dry.  Then there was a hefty amount of kale, which is my current favorite veggie so I was a huge fan of that part of the dish.  The mix of the cheese and sour cream also ensured that the entire dish was moist and delicious.  Essentially it was just a giant burrito bowl with some eggs thrown in which actually is totally fine with me.

All the other food on the menu also sounded  delicious and looked (based on my snooping of other people's food) great.  I'm not sure if it was because it was a weekday afternoon or if they were just cheap, but to only have 1 person working the restaurant just made a not so great customer experience.   Another watch out is that it's cash only, which is also usually a strike for me.  But the whole place was just so endearing and sweet looking (plus the fact that I actually had a lot of cash on me for the first time) that I don't want to dock it below 3 forks.  Total bill: $30 total.

Photo Credit: Yelp