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Eating D.C. – L’Avant-Garde

Aug19

Location: 2915 M St NW, Washington, DC 20007. (202) 652-1855

Date: November 24, 2023

Cuisine: French

Rating: Great food and great service

My friend Dave brought us to this excellent French restaurant.

L’menu.

An amuse of pepper mouse. Very creamy.

Bread and butter.

Bouillabaisse soup with macaroni & Marseille. rouille topped with puff pastry. I’ve never seen it in a puff pastry before!

The guts.

Scrambled egg topped with Pétrossian. Caviar “Tsar Impérial”.

Burrata di bufala, grapes, cherry tomatoes, with sherry and pomegranate molasses dressing.

Duck foie gras caramelized beignet with Port wine reduction. Foie donut anyone?

That’ll beat out the chocolate cream filled!

Duck foie gras over black truffle celery root rouille topped with puff pastry remoulade served with grilled brioche.

frisée salad to offset the foie.

French turbot fillet with citrus broth. baby vegetables.

Beef Matelote with wine, Taggiasche. black truffle coulis olives, Pecorino fregola pasta.

Pecorino fregola pasta.

Farmer Amish rabbit persillade, with all the baby vegetables vegetables wrapped in Dijon mustard, tender pork belly.

Pretty amazing meal with not only great food but super friendly, top service. Great fun.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: French Cuisine, L'Avant-Garde, ThanksGavin, Washington D.C

Eating Washington – Kapnos

Dec27

Restaurant: Kapnos Taverna

Location: 4000 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22203. (703) 243-4400

Date: November 21, 2017

Cuisine: Greek

Rating: Some dishes good, some dishes less so

Kapnos is a small chain (2?) with one located on the Virginia and one the Maryland side of Washington D.C.

It’s kinda new upscale Greek.

From my cellar: 1999 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 94. Raveneau’s 1999 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre is in a marvelous spot right now. Petrol, smoke, slate, apricot pit and wild flowers are some of the many notes that grace the palate in an utterly vivid, vibrant Chablis endowed with magnificent purity and pedigree. At fifteen years of age, the 1999 Montée de Tonnerre still has a lot to say. What a beautiful wine!

On yelp people raved about the Shellfish Tower (shown here in large).

The spiced shrimp were good and the oysters nice.

I was less enamored with these weird complicated clam bits.

And actually found the king crab here fishy, frozen tasting, and a bit gross.

The tower overall was a bit disappointing and when downhill as you climbed the tiers.

Trio of dips: Hummus, tzatziki, and melitzanosalata (smoky eggplant, roasted peppers, walnuts, feta). Pretty solid.

Nice flatbread.

Spanakopita (pastry with cheese and spinach). A little amusing by itself on a plate — at a normal Greek place you’d get 3-5 of them per order.

heirloom beets. whipped goat cheese, ruby streaks, pumpkin seed crumble.

Hamachi crudo. tarragon labne, grilled grapes, pine nuts. Only Greek inflected, but tasty.

From my cellar: 1997 Maison Roche de Bellene Clos de la Roche Collection Bellenum. 92 points. Dark in color and loaded with dark fruit. Holding up well. Brambly/herbacious midpalate after a decant.

Out comes this giant lamb shoulder.

Check it out in comparison to my Dad!
Whole lamb shoulder. tabbouleh, cucumber, sumac. A touch over cooked, but very tender and full of flavor. There was tzatziki on the side which is totally necessary.

Overall, Kapnos was okay, but they had issues. The Shellfish Tower was “flawed” and service was friendly but very uneven and slow. They took FOREVER to bring wine glasses and take our order, assuming that we wanted to just hang and chat — but it’s best to check as we had a child. Plus when he did take the order he took a few items from half the table and then just left for 15 minutes. He was nice, but you need to deal with the table. They did try to make (reasonably) good on it later.

During peak time it was quite buzzy.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Kapnos Taverna, Washington D.C

Eating Washington – Oyamel

Dec25

Restaurant: Oyamel

Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222

Date: November 21, 2017 & November 20, 2018

Cuisine: New Mexican

Rating: José Andrés is a stud

I try to hit a new José Andrés place every-time I’m back in Washington and this time it’s:

His New Mexican joint.

Funky bright decor.

Guacamole station. lol.

The menu.

Classic mojito. Somehow they were out of sugar cane!

New style mojito with foam. Tasty, but went quick.

Chips and salsa. Classic, but I like the roasted salsa and the chips were light and freshly fried.

After seeing the guacamole station how could we refuse?

Freshly made to order, with green tomatillo, serrano chile, crumbled queso fresco and a basket of fresh tortilla chips

Queso fundido con tequila. Melted Chihuahua cheese flambéed with tequila and served with fresh hand-made tortillas. Yummy and gooey.

Cheese quesadilla for my son (11/20/18).

Ceviche verde. Striped bass marinated in lime juice with avocado and tomatillo. VERY zesty.

Ceviche de atún Pacífico. Ahi tuna with Maggi-lime marinade, scallions, avocado, toasted pecans, fresno chiles and crispy amaranth.

Ensalada de palmitos. Fresh Hamakua Farms hearts of palm, orange, radish, chayote, peanuts with a tamarind dressing. Nice flavors.

Ensalada de Alex-César Cardini. The classic Caesar salad of Romaine lettuce, anchovies, Parmesan cheese, a soft boiled egg and house-made croutons.

Pescado Baja California Taco. Crispy masa tempura-battered mahi-mahi with shredded cabbage, house made chile de arbol mayonnaise, Mexican crema and a salsa Mexicana of tomato, onion and cilantro. A little bit of heat.

Yucatan style bit barbecued pork taco with pickled red onion and Mexican sour orange (11/20/18).

Camarones a la parilla. Grilled wild caught Gulf Coast white shrimp with sautéed squash, red chile, epazote and avocado. Like Mexican gambas pil pil.

Albóndigas enchipotladas con queso doble crema. Meatballs in chipotle sauce with crumbled ‘double cream’ cheese and cilantro.

Black beans stuffed with cheese.

Tamal de mole Poblano. Shredded chicken tamal with a mole Poblano sauce of almonds, chiles and a touch of chocolate, topped with Mexican crema, sesame seeds and onion.

Costillas de res con salsa huitlacoche (11/20/18). Local dry-aged beef ribs in ancho and arbol chile rub, mesquite smoked with salsa huitlacoche.

Like all of Jose’s places this was fun and full of zesty flavors. So beats out our local modern Mexican Tallulahs. Wish we had one nearby.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: José Andrés, Mexican cuisine, Oyamel, Washington D.C

More Mark’s Duck House

Dec11

Restaurant: Mark’s Duck House [1, 2]

Location: 6184 Arlington Blvd # A, Falls Church, VA 22044 703-532-2125

Date: November 30, 2011 & November 25, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Very very good cantonese.

Mark’s Duck house is an amazing Cantonese place I go to when I’m home in Washington D.C.. There’s nothing fancy about them other than the food but they make a lot of stuff, and they make it all really well.

Below is the menu to end all menus.

Picking from that menu can be a bit of a challenge!

We tried to entice my three year-old with this “pasta.” (pan fried noodles with Buddha’s delight) but he declared “that’s not pasta!”

But he did go for this lo-mein with garlic.

Hot and sour soup. Classic, but delicious.

The hot and sour soup is so good it was almost finished by the time I got the camera pointed at it (in 2011, the above photo is from 2017).

Beer really goes best with Chinese. If you’ve ever had Chinese wine (I have) you know why.

Succulent “Har-gow” (shrimp dumplings).

The whole peking duck and a glimpse of the green onions and hoisin.

The pecking duck here is incredible. They make the pancakes for you if you want, but the whole assembly was brought out to the table. I had photos of it the last time I was here.

Lobster causeway style. Fried with lots and lots of garlic and a little chilies. One of my favorite Chinese lobster preps.

“Lightly” fried shrimp with the heads still on.

Stir-fried chive-blossoms. It sounds weird but they are incredibly good.

Baby bok choy with garlic. I don’t love full sizec bok, but these were quite nice actually.

Sizzling beef short ribs with black pepper sauce. These were tasty, but the hard part was getting the meat off the bone with chopsticks and teeth!

Filet Mignon with black pepper sauce. Very tender and delicious.

Sauteed mixed seafood in a nest.

“Sweet and sour pork.” At the Panda Express and the like they always have those fried pork balls (which I call fried lard balls). This is the ultimate version. Incredibly tasty!