Filomena Ristorante, Georgetown, D.C.

After a long, long day of playing tourist and discovering "cold" weather, my Floridean friend Joe and his family joined Ryan and me last night for dinner in Georgetown at Filomena Ristorante. The place was jam-packed, and we had to wait sardine-like a good twenty minutes past our reservation time for a table in the waiting area between the bar, dessert cases, restrooms, and maitre d' stand.

Filomena has been around for a couple of decades or so and it quickly became one of the most popular Italian eateries, not only in Georgetown, but throughout the city. It's a comfortable place that teeters on the brink of being maudlin and kitschy as it attempts to make patrons "feel like you've come home to an Italian grandma" with its lace placemats and homey, folksy wall hangings and decor, but this is a sin I'm willing to forgive because the food is unpretentious, well prepared, and always delicious.



That comfortable feeling leads people into relaxing and letting their wine release their ebullence that, coupled with the size of the large dining room, creates a raucous hubbub of happy diners. In other words, this is a loud restaurant. And we managed to get a table in a particularly loud section, near a long, long table of young women holding a bachelorette party that, judging from some of the adult gifts I was seeing on their table and the obviously enormously large amount of alcohol they had drunk, probably should have been hosted in a private dining room or perhaps, even better (especially considering the rather "slutty"-looking wardrobe choices of most of these young women), in a private residence. I suppose, though, it was just part of the "love" ambiance in Filomena last night, as they were fully decorated for Wednesday's St. Valentine's Day.

With the noise level last night and because they put our party of eight at a long table instead of one of the round ones, it was hard for me to hear what everybody was ordering and get their opinions of their food, so I'll just have to do what I can here.

For our first courses, Joe and Evelyn shared a plate of arancini, racquetball-sized, golden brown spheres of rice stuffed with meat and cheese, accompanied by a red sauce. Susan took one and tried it, then told me about their Christmas Eve family tradition of making softball-sized arancini.



Ryan chose the mozzarella in carrozza, some interesting triangularly-shaped pieces of mozzarella cheese breaded and deep-fried, then served with a spicy marinara sauce.



Mary and I both had salads. She had the insalatina di stagione, a plate of mesclun greens tossed with gorgonzola cheese crumbles, toasted pecans, and a balsamic vinaigrette.



I did the insalata di lattuga, featuring Bibb lettuce and tender, juicy endive mixed with fennel, green and black olives, and shavings of parmesan cheese dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. It was nice, and made up for the disappointment of them being out of the tomato and bread soup of the day.



Meanwhile, since everyone wanted a different kind of wine, we all ended up doing by-the-glass selections instead of a couple of full bottles. I had a very nice chianti classico, but I don't recall what everybody else had (although I'm pretty sure Ryan had a merlot).


Joe's Kody Pose™

Soon, our main courses came. Joe and Evelyn both liked the idea of "pocket pastas." She had a lovely looking agnolotti alla panna, with the pasta stuffed with spinach and cheese and covered in a white cream sauce. He had a more traditional looking ravioli di pollo featuring chicken-stuffed ravioli in red sauce.





Mary chose the fish of the day, a grilled mahi-mahi topped with a tapenade of capers, tomatoes, and olives.



Her sister Susan ordered a manicotti, and seemed to have gotten the canelloni classico. Now, in Italy, I'm pretty sure that manicotti and cannelloni are essentially synonymous terms, meaning a rectangular sheet of pasta wrapped around a usually-cheese-based filling in the shape of a tube, then sauced and baked, though I often see dried pasta in pre-formed large tubes in grocery stores labelled "manicotti." Her cannelloni were topped with bolognese sauce and white cheese.



Ryan, extravagant as usual, ordered the most expensive entree at the table, a luscious-looking linguini cardinale—"linguini for the cardinal archbishops". Cardinals of the Church are known for their scarlet red vestments, so this dish was reddened with a lobster rosé cream sauce and large, bright red chunks of lobster tail.



My dish was equally exquisite, the vitello allo filomena, their version of a veal marsala. It was delicious! Three veal cutlets were pounded thin into scallopines, then stuffed with prosciutto ham, fontina cheese, and fresh sage, then sautéed before being topped and finished with a marsala wine reduction sauce scented with shiitake mushrooms.



Giving us a short respite before presenting the dessert menus, our waiter next took coffee and espressi orders and brought us decanters of complimentary Sambucca and amaretto. We all got little miniature brandy snifters and he gave us coffee beans for the Sambucca (it's a tradition to put three beans in the Sambucca glass). Now, I rather detest the taste of licorice, so I passed on the Sambucca most of the others were drinking, and Susan, Ryan, and I had amaretto.

Then came dessert. Filomena is well-known for its bakery and even offers whole cakes for shipment via an Internet Web site. The dessert menu is bigger than the dinner menu, since it includes large, mouth-watering photographs of each dessert item.

Evelyn had the tiramisu. Ryan and Susan each had a "cookies n' cream" white chocolate mousse cake. I had the strawberry cheese cake. None of us needed it, but we ate it anyway.







Finally, it was time to wake the kids and head out. We got them into their taxis (hailing taxis is cut-throat business on a Georgetown weekend night!), then Ryan and I walked on home. I don't know where they'll tour or eat today....Thursday night they were at Cafe Milano, yesterday they breakfasted with me at Old Ebbitt, then they lunched at Rosa Mexicana before our dinner at Filomena. I've given them the names of a number of good Asian restaurants for today, so we'll just have to see what they end up doing. One thing about Washington, though, there's never a shortage of restaurants!

Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington, D.C.

My friend Joe from south Florida is in town this weekend with his wife, his two daughters, and two of his granddaughters so they can show the girls around town. It's the first time the girls have seen snow or experienced "cold." In preparation for their visit, I arranged for them to get a tour of the White House. Since the Secret Service doesn't allow cameras in the White House, I wandered over there so I could snap some photos of them coming out of the house and down the drive—it's the only way you can prove you were there! LOL

After Joe's family came out, they invited me to join them for breakfast at Old Ebbitt Grill. His daughter Mary ordered a vegetable-cheese frittata; she liked it and commented on how the little miniature cast iron skillet kept the food warm while she ate it.



I had the strata, and I was quite surprised and pleased at how good it was. The custard-soaked brioche was scented with nutmeg and just a hint of cinnamon before it was baked in a miniature skillet. It came with some nicely done fried potatoes with onions and peppers and a little bowl of fresh fruit including blood orange, pineapple, cantaloupe, and grapes.



All of the rest of the group got the "All American breakfast, with two eggs, choice of breakfast meats, fried potatoes, and toast. That big white space in the picture was Joe's two fried eggs.

The coffee was very good, and it wasn't just the fact we were coming in from the cold. The others all had freshly-squeezed orange juice.

I thought the wait staff was very attentive, and they were particularly good with the young girls.

Afterwards, we had to show the kids the restaurant walrus, so I took a picture.

Meiwah Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

After the symphony tonight, Max, Robert, Ryan and I all went to Meiwah Restaurant for a spot of Chinese food. Our friend Bill Cosby was in town again today and we ran into him there. Robert had never met him before, so we had to take some pictures of Bill with the kids. ;-)

We started our supper with a shared appetizer, a hot, spicy Squid in Seasoned Salt. I thought the lightly battered and deep fried pieces of squid were tender and quite good, though I noticed the other three guys weren't eating them with as much enthusiasm as was I. Oh, well, all the more for me.

For main courses, Max had moo shu pork, Ryan had sweet and sour chicken, Robert had shredded beef with peppers (which looked to me like it should have been called beef with scallions!), and I had Hunan lamb. My dish had very tender, flavorful slices of lamb tossed with an assortment of vegetables in a light brown sauce.

I was drinking heavily and had *two* pots of jasmine tea. Meanwhile, the other guys had two glasses each of wine, Max with chardonnay, Ryan riesling, and Robert sauvignon blanc.

We had a fun waitress from Shanghai, China, who was having her very first day of work! We, of course, had to chat her up to get her story. She's a graduate student at Strayer, and recently moved here from Canada.

Gotta get up early tomorrow, so that's the Thursday evening food report.

California Pizza Kitchen, Arlington, Va.

I picked up Ryan at Reagan at 1:40 today, then we headed directly to Pentagon City to do some shopping and have lunch.

I was in the mood for Mexican, but he'd never been to a California Pizza Kitchen (I was just there last week!), so we went there, where he ended up doing Mexican anyway. I had the steakhouse chopped salad (which has lots of bacon in it, but no steak!) with dijon vinaigrette and Ryan had a tortilla pizza, an odd little creation that resembled a black bean taco salad on a pizza crust.





I liked mine; Ryan was rather blasé about his.

Morton's Steakhouse, Downtown, Washington, D.C.

While most of the Great Unwashed Masses were glued to their television sets watching a bunch of grown men run around with a little ball and all spending enough money to totally fund the educational system of a large state, I continued my tradition of doing something fun and different during that time period. Leo and I went to dine at Morton's Steakhouse in downtown Washington.

Morton's is the Chicago-based chain of high-end steakhouses with over six dozen locations all over North America. They refer to themselves as the "legendary" steakhouse and they go to great lengths to get themselves on top restaurant lists in major cities around the country (yes, that sort of thing can be manipulated). Their locations all have that dark, clubby atmosphere and they reward their frequent patrons with their own wine lockers near the entrance with the patron's name prominently displayed on the locker. They also pride themselves on being expensive—their Web site proclaims "[t]he average check for a full dinner for two is about $170 not including tax and gratuity."

Well, I'm not sufficiently profligate as to plan a $220 dinner with nothing special to celebrate. So, why Morton's, then? Because I had a $100 gift card to Morton's.

So, our challenge for the evening was to try and eat without spending more than the value of the giftcard....and I knew that would be a challenge, since Leo always insists on a cocktail and a high-dollar appetizer every time we go out to dinner. And, we almost made it: our pre-tax and pre-gratuity total was $101.45. We'd have made our goal if he hadn't caved and petulantly insisted on ordering a glass of wine (that he ended up not liking).

So, let's talk about the food.

They began by bringing us a great big, round loaf of delicious bread with a little onion cooked into the top of it. A large square pat of butter came on a small plate on the side. The only problem was that they never brought us a butter spreader or butter knife, so we had to use our great big "gaucho" style steak knifes. By the time we had finished our appetitzers, they cleared the bread (we had about half a loaf left) with the plates and didn't bring us any more. Alas. I liked it.

Leo started with a jumbo crab cake appetitizer. It didn't look particularly jumbo to me; actually, it was pretty average for D.C. He said it tasted fine, but, again, average for D.C. It came with a dollop of plain mayonnaise as a dipping sauce. He drank a glass of Cavit pinot grigio with the crab cake.



I had the Morton's salad, which is their version of the classic steakhouse iceberg lettuce wedge. They took a two-inch thick full slice from the center of a big head of lettuce, laid it flat on the plate, sprinkled it with blue cheese crumbles, diced tomatoes, and crumbles of crisp bacon, then drowned the entire plate in blue cheese dressing. It was easily a salad more than big enough for two. I was a little disappointed with the salad, because the slice included an awfully lot of the "core" of the lettuce. I also noticed that they provided no salad knife; I was forced to cut my salad with my "gaucho" knife that I'd had to use as a butter spreader.



A slab of grilled salmon made up Leo's main course. It looked very pretty on the plate and appeared juicy, seemingly cooked about medium. While Leo ate it, he did note that it had a strong onion taste and he said that it was way too salty. The salmon rested atop what Leo called a "hollandaise" sauce, but what the menu calls the "chef's sauce beurre blanc."



I had a New York strip steak, one of the specialties of the house. Now, I've eaten at all the major high-end national steakhouse chains like Ruth's Criss and Fleming's, plus top quality elegant and mid-range local steakhouses throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri, and even top steak places in D.C. like the Capital Grille and Charlie Palmer's, so I had some idea of what to expect here. Generally, the steaks arrive hot and sizzling on a heated plate with that wonderful scent of burning cow flesh fragrancing the air. Not here. I didn't smell the steak. I gingerly touched the plate to find it normal room temperature. And, as I cut into the steak, it wasn't hot-hot. Obviously, they had plated the steak and let it sit in the kitchen before bringing it out to the table. Then I tasted it. It tasted fine, obviously a cut of aged beef, and it was cooked to the "medium rare plus" I had requested. But, the steak was not a top quality cut; it had grizzle and connective tissue in it beyond what I would normally expect that made it overly chewy and somewhat annoying. I didn't eat all of it. When the waiter came to take the plate at the end of the meal, he asked if I wanted him to box it up for me. I waived it off with my hand and said, "It wasn't that good," and, rather than addressing that comment, he immediately went into his canned spiel about "Can I interest you all in some coffee or espresso?"



And, such was the problem with the whole evening. The service at Morton's was significantly substandard for a restaurant of its price point. Even though there were empty tables the entire time we were there, the service was rushed. I've mentioned my issues with the knives. While taking drink orders, when I told the waiter I wasn't drinking (alcohol) that night, he didn't suggest any iced tea or mineral water. The waiter had a long, memorized litany describing the meats (with examples wrapped in plastic wrap and displayed on a big tray) and showing off a large, four-pound, live lobster, that he quickly recited, and when I interrupted to ask a question, he was clearly annoyed to have to answer before continuing with his speech. Twice during the evening, a waiter pushing the meat cart around bumped my chair; only one begged my forgiveness. Another staff member came to get wine from the room divider and squeezed between Leo and the table behind him and clanked bottles together with no comment or apology. When we ordered, our waiter didn't make any suggestions or attempt to sell side dishes like baked potatoes or vegetables (all à la carte). When plates were removed from the table, it was as though the staff was just grabbing them in passing as they continued to walk on. They have a stated dress code of "business casual" but pointing out that "many of our male guests will be wearing a business suit" that they didn't follow, as we saw people in faded blue jeans, casual shirts, and sneakers in the dining room. We had no sense that staff or management was concerned with us having an enjoyable evening. Rush rush rush. Morton's was just an assembly line to get 'em in and get 'em out.

As you know, I try to match my comments and critiques of a restaurant to the image they try to portray and to their price point. I compare them to similar restaurants. I'm not going to expect some high school kid waiting tables at an Outback to have the same fine points as a professional waiter at a high-end steakhouse; nevertheless, I have actually had much more enjoyable meals at Outback Steakhouse than did I last night at Morton's. And, comparing this particular meal at this particular Morton's to their national competitors Fleming's, Shula's, and Ruth's Criss, Morton's isn't even in the same league.

Ordinarily after such a less-than-satisfactory experience, I would have visited with the manager about my disappointed expectations, but as this was a "free" meal for us, it just wasn't worth the effort. I'll just simply remember not to go back.

Taj of India, Georgetown, D.C.

After our big, late lunch in Bethesda yesterday afternoon, Kevin drove me back down to Foggy Bottom to return me home. Shortly after I got in, Leo came home from the gym and was all hungry, and started badgering me to go with him to eat. Eventually around eight, I acquiesced and re-dressed, so we walked over to Georgetown to Taj of India. Taj is a place on the far eastern end of Georgetown that we've often passed by on our trips to La Chaumière, Zed's, Don Lobos, and the former Au Pied Bistro, but we'd never actually gone to Taj. So, last night was its big night.

The decor at Taj is typical for Indian restaurants in the District. Tables are covered with white linens. Indian-themed art covers the walls. The dining room is more heavily staffed than other non-Indian establishments. Menu choices were fairly standard. Leo did, however, discover a couple of "full dinners" in the house specialities section that got us variety platters plus raita plus dessert, so that's what we did.

We started with the taj appetizer platter. This had a couple of fried chickpea fritters, vegetable samosas, beef seekh kebabs, and some particularly juicy and tasty morsels of chicken kebabs. For main courses, Leo ordered the Taj Tali platter, and I had the Indian Tali platter, both of which we shared. His platter included chicken makhani, with big chunks of chicken in a smooth, tomato-based sauce; lamb roganjosh in a spicy brown sauce; and beef saag, combining the beef with a nice, cooked spinach. My platter had saag paneer (spinach and chunks of Indian farmer cheese; I thought their cheese was just a touch chewy), vegetable curry, and bengan bhartha (roasted vegetables). Both platters came with some particularly delicious creamed daal (lentils), raita (yogurt sauce with cucumbers), naan bread, and basmati rice.

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Since dessert came with the dinner, even though we were already full, we went ahead and ordered. Leo got mango kulfi, or traditional ice cream, and I got the rice pudding called kheer.



My assessment of Taj? The food was okay, and even had a few surprising, delicious moments. Their great shortcoming, though, was the service. While that's always annoying at any restaurant, it's unusual and surprising at an Indian restaurant, where there normally is too much staff and they are at times almost overly attentive. We had several long moments of no service. Our table for four was fully set when we sat down, and an assistant removed the extra settings with noise and great clanking of glasses—it was the same at other tables, and I'm amazed none of the stemware broke. When I finished my little tiny pot of masala tea, I left the lid off so they could see it was empty and they never asked me if I wanted a refill (the refills are free here). No one ever asked Leo if he wanted another wine once his glass was empty. After we finished our main courses, we waited a long time to have our dessert orders taken. Then, once our dessert arrived, it wasn't sixty seconds before our waiter brought our check.....but then we had to wait a long time for it to be picked up and the cards run! I don't know what their problem was, since the restaurant was fairly full but never packed or bustling. Perhaps it was an off night. I don't know.

Mia's Pizzaria, Bethesda, Md.

After Kevin's paternal grandmother's funeral services yesterday afternoon, he and I went to Bethesda to join his mother and his friend Adam for a late lunch. Adam had read a review in The Washington Post that had intrigued him, so we all went to a new place called Mia's Pizzaria.

Mia's is an interesting place, set back quite a ways from the building line of the other places on the street, allowing them, I suppose, to have a big outdoor patio area in more clement weather. It has a large, fully-functioning bar, and the menu includes salads, pastas, and meat entrees, as well as various types of gourmet pizze. While the place eventually would be packed with a line by the time we left, upon our arrival, the dining room was fairly quiet.

We all started off with various by-the-glass wines, served in stemless wine glasses (ultimately, I think I had three different chiantis), and selections from the appetizer menu. The most interesting appetizer was ordered by Kevin's mother, a quite delicious-looking antipasto platter with an ample serving of very thinly sliced meats with cheeses and olives with a serving of marinated vegetables.



Adam chose the deviled eggs; he got four egg halves, and, while he said they were good, he noted that they were rather basic and could have used a bit more mustard for added zip.



Kevin had three miniature calzones that seemed to be stuffed with chopped mushrooms and cheeses.



I chose a mixed green salad upon the recommendation of the waitress after a little discussion about the virtues of the salad compared to the soup del giorno; I was, therefore, somewhat chagrined that she forgot my salad. So, as she served the other three their appetizers without bringing my salad, I made the comment, "Oh, how fun! I'm having my salad in the traditional French position!" but that got no response from her. Later after eating my entree, I inquired of her about my salad and she (obviously forgetting the discussion) denied that I had ordered it. Oh, well. It was, once it arrived, a nice little salad with a very tasty balsamic vinaigrette dressing.



For main courses, the others all had individual pizzas. Kevin had a salsiccio pizza with mushrooms, peppers, and sausage; Adam a barbequed chicken and red onion ring pizza with a very yellow (fontina??) cheese, and Kevin's mother had the white pizza, featuring mozzarella and fontina cheeses with roasted garlic.





I had the daily pasta special, a baked ziti; it tasted fine, but it had been made in advance, placed in individual serving dishes and refrigerated so it could be reheated when it was time to serve, and, alas, they did not thoroughly reheat the pasta.



Our waitress went on and on about the house speciality cupcakes for dessert, so Adam and I ordered them. They were fine....but they were just cupcakes!



The more interesting desserts were the ginger sorbet and mango sorbet that Kevin's mother and he had.



We got to meet Melissa, the chef-owner (and "Mia") of the place. She seemed like a nice young woman.

Mia's has a large, open-hearth fireplace and pizza oven visible to the dining room, which inspired a lot of macabre humor between Adam and Kevin, given the fact that the dearly departed had been cremated.

Kevin's mother was camera-shy and didn't want to become a celebrity in my blog. Adam, however, was more than happy to do a Kody Pose, and we snapped a picture of Kevin, too.