New York
In case any of you may be travelling to New York in the near future, I have two recommendations.
1. Serendipity. Home of the frozen hot chocolate (big enough for 2-3 people), and plenty of other ice cream/dessert treats. Five out of Five stars. (The only negative is that you need to put your name on the list about 3 hours ahead of time, because the guys that own/run serendipity refuse to expand or even offer "To-Go" services, so there's always a huge wait, even though there are always several tables open at a time.)
2. Carmine's. Delicious italian food, with menu options that feed at least two people per menu item. Lemon Butter Chicken is a personal favorite. Also a must-eat, the "Titanic," (or for smaller groups, the "tugboat" portion). Five out of Five stars.
Tyson's Cheesecake Factory
My past experiences with the Tyson's Cheesecake Factory have been disappointing. Not only has the service been mediocre, the food has missed the mark, totally surprising because I love the Cheesecake Factory.
Last week I received a gift certificate in the mail for the Cheesecake Factory from a family friend. My feelings went from gratitude to excitement to mild disappointment, especially when I thought I might have to use it at a local Cheesecake Factory.
Much to my delight, my certificate was not wasted. In fact, I was able to help buy dinner for the Sister missionaries and not only was the food terrific our waitress was excellent.
Discussing the
anomaly with Kim, we determined the date and time may have influenced our experience. In the past I have usually eaten at the Cheesecake Factory in the evening on a Friday or Saturday. This instance was on a Tuesday at around 5:30pm. Perhaps, we should test our theory by going again on the same day and time to see if we are correct.
In short, the experience was so good I am willing to give the Cheesecake Factory more credit than I have in the past.
Join the fun!
So I don't have everyone's e-mail addresses. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll add you to the blog so that you can join the fun. Because reviewing restaurants is a lot of fun.
Rock Bottom Brewery
This is located in the Ballston Mall. We went here for Perry's un-birthday party, and it was all around okay. I could be persuaded to go back if we were in the area, but not to go out of my way to go there.
Service was a little slow, our waiter seemed a little dense. The food was okay. I had the chicken fried chicken with white cheddar mashed potatoes and coleslaw with gravy on the side.
The chicken looked huge, but actually wasn't. It was a bit thicker than deli meat when you order it cut thick, so not very. The potatoes were actually kinda gross. For those of you aware of my cheese issues, cheddar is a green light, so for them to be yuck meant that there were a lot of filler (ie, fake potatoes) in there. The gravy was so thin and had corn in it, not to mention tasteless, and the coleslaw had onions in it and barely any sauce.
The chicken itself was good, though, and I would be inclined to try it again for lunch, but not for dinner.
Slades
4 Stars. More of an upscale barbecue/steak house. I had a ribeye and Jen had a rack of ribs. I've been there once before, and enjoy the pleasant atmosphere. It's attached to Tyson's Corner Mall (not the one with PF Chang's and such) so it makes for a nice stroll afterwards. (Nothing worse than eating way too much and then sitting in a car for 15 mins on the way home.) Waiter was very polite and addressed me as sir, and jen as "Lady". (Mexican version of ma'am?) If it weren't for the steep price, I'd go there much more often.
Welcome to the blog!
So we go out to eat. Probably far too much.
Here we get to talk about it. Pros, cons, goods,
bads, bests, worsts... you get the idea.
My first post? The Blue Iguana in Fairfax.
LOVED IT!
Great spinach artichoke dip, great pulled pork
sandwich. It had the coleslaw on the
sandwich, which was yum, and the pork was like covered in sauce so that it saturated in then dried so it was kind of crispy but still
barbecue-y. Yum. The waiter was a
moderately dotty old man that I found charming, though others did not agree.
Perhaps what we'll do is have a unique post for the restaurant and everyone can add their comments to that post?
Thanks,
Kim
