Cathy2 wrote:Pollo Loco

EL POLLO RICO: There's only one thing to get here -- chicken -- it's just a matter of quarter, half, or whole. The plates come with a huge side of steak fries and cole slaw and two sauces (a mayo-mustard mix and a jalapeno salsa). The huge rotisseries in the back put off so much heat they almost cook you, too, while you wait in line. I got mine with an Inka cola, essentially cream soda. Very tasty. Love the blend of spices they use on the skin and the skin is delectably crisp and the chicken meat wonderfully juicy (now I know why Rico's Zagat competitor is called crisp and juicy). The fries are very good, too. I wonder if they season them specially because they seem like they have more flavor than just deep-fried potatoes. One of my favorite things was soaking up the juice from the chicken with my fries and eating it. ($5.50 for a half chicken and sides!)

Seth Zurer wrote:Full Kee! Fuuuulllll Keeeeee! If you do not go to Full Kee in DC's teensy weensy Chinatown, you will regret it the rest of your life! FullKeeFullKeeFulKee. ...

No, it is not barbecue, but a good pork sandwich, with decent homemade Carolina style sauce on the side. The place has been around for a while, and is apparently going downhill.

A quick roundup of some places I ate at a couple weeks ago in DC. Yeah, letter grades suck, but it'll provide quick reference on whether or not to bother to seek these places out. On my grading scale, A's mean it's in the top 10 meals I've ever had, B's are great, and C's mean an average restaruant/value.... say, McCormicks and Schmicks.

Overall, I think DC is a great dining town and I liked almost everywhere we ate. I'd rank it below NYC, SF, Chicago for sure. It's on a Boston/LA level in my opinion. There's a lot more quality options on the high end and in some of the ethnic areas than PDX, but once again, Portland's value really lies in the amount of very good restaurants that are reasonable in price. You're paying $25-$45 an entree in DC for what is $15-$30 in Portland at a restaurant like Ken's or Park Kitchen.

Anyhow, where I dined:

DC Coast - 14th and K NW- High-end seafood with a southern bent. Beautiful space, well-dressed DC crowd. Service here is *amazing*. Great wine selection, and there something for everyone on the menu. Highlights: Coconut-curry lobster bisque, oyster stew, truffle mashed potatoes, and a double cut pork chop with yams that was out of this world. I was less excited about my mushroom crusted halibut. DC Coast is a good pick if you want a higher-end american menu that can appeal to many palates. Letter Grade: B

21P - 2100 P St NW- Bistro style place just outside Dupont circle that has a nice glass roof patio for dining semi-alfresco. Good burgers, good chicken/rosemary pasta, and above average chocolate mousse cake for dessert. I'd say my burger ($10) was a couple steps down from Cafe Castagna. It was a really warm late spring night, so the atmosphere was more remarkable than the cuisine. Letter Grade: B-

Ben's Chili Bowl - 12th and U st NW- Ben's has been around in DC since 1958; it's sort of the DC version of Tommy's Burgers in LA, only for hot dogs. They serve up what's called a half smoke, which is basically a split grilled spicy smoked sausage. With this, they pile on their chili, complete with cheese and onions. I had a milkshake with it too. Let's just say we walked a LOT afterwards to offset the calories. The atmosphere is great in an 'old DC neighboorhood establishment' kind of way. The half-smoke was fantastic, with plenty of spicy bite and pop to it. The chili is ok...more savory flavor than any meat taste. Fries are pretty good, but nothing you can't get at a million places. Still, a good lunch in a classic DC spot if you've never been. Letter Grade: B-

Rasika - 6th and D st NW- Phenomenal. Rasika calls itself 'modern indian cuisine' which is how I think one might describe Vindalho here in PDX. Rasika, however, totally delivers on the promise. I'm very biased towards indian food, so I'm sure what's 'phenomenal' to me is someone else's 'very good' when it comes to this cuisine. But I'll add my girlfriend usually just tolerates my indian food desires, and she too was highly impressed with the food here. My only regret was there weren't more people in our party to try different dishes. I'd also be tempted to try out the Chef's tasting menu now that I'm aware of what the kitchen can do.

As was recommended to us, we had the Palak Chaat and Ragda Patties for appetizers. The spiced potato/tamarind patties were pretty good, texture seemed a bit off. The Palak Chaat was delicious and addictive. It is spinach leaves fried lightly until crisp, mixed with sweet yogurt and tamarind, and served with a date chutney. I seriously could've eaten about five plates of it myself. Entrees were Lamb shank roganjosh for me, chicken makhani for her. Side of naan and jeera gobi muttar (cauliflower, chickpeas, cumin). The lamb was amazing..easily one of the best indian dishes I've ever had. The garam masala it was in was perfectly balanced savory and spicy. The GF's chicken makhani may have converted her to the indian food darkside..muhahhaah. We actually took the leftover makahni back to the hotel and ate it at 2am at room temp. Yum.

The space has an interesting light wood/color material mix, sort of like Taqueria Nueve. The service was impeccable. We were seated under an AC unit that was chilly, the waiter and maitre'd had it fixed within 3 minutes. Oh, and total check including 1 drink each was $70. I unreservedly recommend seeking Rasika out. Letter Grade: A-

Full Kee - 5th and H st NW - ExtraMSG pointed me towards the LTH Chicago-foodboard for some LTHers who had done DC. I didn't hear or read about Full Kee anywhere else. It's a great place for Cantonese food in not-so-nice Chinatown, just across from the MCI Center. It's cash only, and the atmosphere won't make you liable to hang out for long periods of time after you're done eating.

Don't let the atmosphere or dingy storefront fool you. Based on the LTH post I read, I opted for the spicy fried softshell crab. The crab was fresh, batter was done with a light hand, and it was tossed with fresh green onion. The girliefriend had kung pao chicken, which I rolled the old eyes at :rolleyes: as it's a common way to get the caucasian special. Not so. It was wonderfully spicy and contained a very smoky complex flavor, unlike most kung paos. I missed out on an apparent speciality, the shrimp dumpling soup. Next time. Anyhow, here's a good example of ethnic you can have a tough time getting in PDX. Lunch for two was $23. Letter Grade: B+

Acadiana - 9th st and New York Ave NW - I had originally wanted to hit Vidalia for the high-end southern experience, but we ran out of time and wherewithal. So I opted to casually 'guide' us to Acadiana for lunch on our last day in town. Hey, how about lunch here? Acadiana is much like Acadia here in PDX, only a *lot* bigger sized dining room and a few more tricks up its sleeve. I started with the smoked chicken and andouille gumbo, which was rich and spicy. The shrimp in the gumbo were perfectly textured, so I went with the BBQ shrimp po' boy for my entree. Unfortunately, it was simply shrimp stuffed into a po' boy roll, which was great but the gravy served with it wasn't much more than drawn butter with some pepper in it. The shrimp were still very good but I expected more. The girlfriend had the roast beef po' boy with a rich drippings gravy and butter pickles. It was the real deal. Carved roast beef and a cajun gravy that was unbelievably rich. We finished with beignets served with a chocolate/coffee pannacotta. Then we sat on the curb outside in a food coma. Letter Grade: B, although I suspect I'd feel it was a B+ if I ordered differently.

Great trip for dinin' and drinkin' (We went to some great bars too), and my only two regrets were not getting to Komi or Meskerem. All the locals we talked to affirmed that Meskerem is a pinnacle of ethiopian cuisine. Something to look forward to next trip.

Seth Zurer wrote:I live in terror that one day all my urgings about people hitting Full Kee will come back to haunt me if someone goes and has a miserable meal.

Sister of Mike G wrote:Okay, on to your foodies-I think some of the food in Crystal City is lame. There are a bunch of cute looking ethnic mom and pop places on the main food street-but we haven't been overly impressed. Then again, I haven't eaten in any of them for a number of years. With one considerable exception that is. The Kabob Palace on Eads street is one of our favorite restaurants in the whole metro area-really good Pakistani food.

I even went and looked up a review for you. (Well really to find the address)
http://www0.epinions.com/content_120691658372

There are no doubt some other good places-I'll ask a neighbor who works in Crystal City. But the Kabob place stands out.

chezbrad wrote:I'm going to be in the Crystal City area about once a month for the next several months on business and have my doubts about food quality. I presume, having never chosen to stay in that area on personal trips to DC, that it's all chains or overpriced continental--can anyone point me in the right direction? And I don't mean the direction of the Metro: much as I'd like to high tail it out of there, I really won't have the time to travel very far...walkable, please.

thanks!