There was a Washington Post article recently talking about the advent of Filipino food becoming a thing in the Washington, DC area.  It's always a little bit surreal thinking of the food that you grew up with as being a thing.  To me, it seemed like it was always around but it existed in little mom and pop shops where the cooking was closer to home made than professional.  That's not a bad thing.  The drawback in that is that you'll never be satisfied with anything but your mother's homemade cooking.

To me, in order for Filipino food to be successful as a restaurant, it had to be less homey, feel somewhat familiar, but also feel a little like maybe it wasn't made by your mother since why would you want to eat any other type of Filipino food?  The sense that Filipino cuisine was starting to become mainstream started for me at places like Maharlika and Talde.  Not only did they make Filipino food in an "elevated" way but they also made it cool.  This wave now seems like it's moving to DC.  I wasn't too swept up but my parents were curious enough to jump in.  We did Cathal Armstrong's tasting menu at Restaurant Eve and maybe that's my next article.  But, the next place we tried was Purple Patch mainly because it's wasn't full out Filipino and offered other choices.  Heck, I just liked there was a burger on the menu.

250 N Glebe Rd
Arlington, VA 22203
703.816.0222
www.ravikabobusa.com


I don't remember Ravi Kabob when I lived in Arlington a little over a decade ago but my work hours were crazy back then and I thought Ruth's Chris Steakhouse was at the top of my food food chain.  I could have used another word instead of using 'food' twice but a food food chain is not too far from a foo foo chain which sounds like an awesome thing.  It's not that I think that Ruth's Chris is bad.  It's that I thought that was the only type of fine dining restaurant that existed.  It's amazing what a decade and living in NYC does to one's culinary tastes.  Well, since I've come back, I've been told by just about everyone I've asked that Ravi Kabob is on the required reading list when it comes to DC food hot spots.

465 K St. NW
Washington, DC 20001
202.682.3123
www.eatkushi.com


There's this phenomena that I've noticed in DC where upscale apartment buildings also house retail shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and any other conveniences that a resident may want or need.  It's like a hotel but on a larger scale.  I guess this may be what they refer to as "bethesdafication" and it was in one of these types of "bethesdafied" buildings that I found Kushi Izakaya & Sushi.  It's in a neighborhood caught in between the trendiness of Penn Quarter and the cool hipness of H street.  The building also has Chipotle, Safeway, Busboys & Poets (which I very much need to visit) and so much more.  I guess if you're aiming for one-stop shopping, you'll want to live here.

414 H St NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.450.3265
www.boundaryrd.com


This week, work's been a bit of a bear so I haven't gotten to eat anything that was a) good for more and b) just good.  I have managed to funnel some good money into delivery pizza and fast food so I'm glad I'm doing my part in keeping the economy going.  The weekend, though, allowed me a few windows of time where I could venture out and get a few quality bites.  I was feeling a bit brunchy hence I went to brunch (yes I just wrote that sweet piece of logical deduction).  On Saturday, I decided to head out to Bar Pilar for a quick bite (a more detailed post will happen when I go back for dinner) and then Boundary Road on Sunday for a more involved brunch.

1234 H Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.388.3086
www.tokiunderground.com


I'm a member of donrockwell.com which is a very big and very active forum for people who love food.  There was a thread on there discussing Sakuramen and one of the latest posts gave the place a pretty negative review.  I was in disagreement with the post so I wrote about my experience and near the very end I said something like, "It's not Momofuku...blah, blah, blah".  So, a subsequent poster said, "Why does it have to be Momofuku?"  Well, I was going to respond but I like those forums so I didn't want to start an argument.  But, all I kept thinking was, "Well, because I like Momofuku, duh."

1612 14th St NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.986.8778
www.pearldivedc.com


For me, having a good meal is just as much about the food as it is about the people you're eating with. The ambience is important too but I find that you can make up for a lot of things if you really enjoy the company.  This was never more evident to me as when a good friend of mine came to DC and we had lunch.  We've had a lot of really good meals together from Dell'Anima to Sushi of Gari to Dieci to Sorella to RedFarm and I wanted to make sure we headed to a good place.  So, I chose to go to Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, yet another restaurant in the Black Restaurant Group.

I read somewhere that Virtue Feed & Grain had been nominated by Bon Appetit as one of the 50 best new restaurants in America.  The first thing I thought, was "waitaminute, I went there back in January...how can it still be a new restaurant?"  Oh.  It probably had only been open for a short while in January.  My second thought was that they had probably sufficiently worked out all the new restaurant quirks and it's now getting nationwide recognition.  Coincidentally, I had some friends come into town that were staying in Old Town Alexandria and wanted to meet up for some dinner and drinks.  Two birds and one stone later, we decided on an early dinner (6ish) at Virtue Feed & Grain.  Make that three birds, this is officially my first return visit to a place that I've blogged about and am blogging about again.  Yeah, just go with it.

1500 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.797.0169
www.doylecollection.com/restaurants/café_dupont.aspx


My mom loves Julia Child.  She's seen Julia and Julia several times and her go-to recipes for almost anything begins and ends with Julia Child.  Her and I have spent countless holidays making Julia's tarte tatin recipe.  I don't even know if that's the proper title but that's what it's called in my family.  So, when I saw that some restaurants in DC were celebrating Julia Childs' 100th birthday, we decided to try the prix fixe menu specially for the occasion at Cafe Dupont, located in the Dupont Circle Hotel.

901 N. Glebe Rd.
Arlington, VA 22203
703.962.6982
http://wobusa.com/Locations/ArlingtonVA.aspx


So......

This place opened a block away from where I live in Ballston.  It's the latest in a chain of bar across the US that serves, I think, over 500 beers on tap and in bottles at all their locations.  They have a small menu that consists of basically pretzels and hot dogs but allow you to order from other places in the neighborhood and bring your own food in.  They've got the pre-requisite cute waitresses, lots and lots of TVs, and even sometimes have live entertainment.  They even have this loyalty program that comes with a t-shirt.  Blah. Blah. Blah.

2605 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 2220
703.248.0150
www.earlsinarlington.com

I have a confession.  I am not Joey Tribbiani.  About half of you just went, "Who the f*ck is Joey Tribbiani?"   Some of you are thinking, "Of course you're not a character from a TV show that went off the air 8 years ago".  Then there's the three...um...two of you saying, "Yeah, you don't seem like a sandwich guy".  If you're still confused, here's one more hint:  "Ms. Chanandler Bong".  But, yeah, I'm not a sandwich guy.  I could be a burger guy but I don't consider them in the same food group as sandwiches (an inadvertent hint!).   It's not that I don't like sandwiches but they would never be my first or even third choice for a meal.  I think it's just a simple case of preferring hot food over cold food and I've always associated sandwiches with cold food unfair as that may be.

1117 V Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
202.588.5841
www.sekidc.com


After a long weekend of eating really rich, really not good for you foods, I wanted something clean & simple for dinner.  I thought about making my return trip to Toki Underground but ramen didn't quite feel right.  Then, I remembered that Izakaya Seki had just opened up last week and that the menu was really intriguing. So, off to 'authentic' Japanese-cuisine land I went.  Now, I have no idea what 'authentic' Japanese cuisine really is but there was enough promise in the menu for a good and healthy meal that I couldn't resist.

3000 Washington Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
571.257.5054
www.obylee.com

I've been looking forward to trying out Oby Lee ever since I saw the signage go up since this combination coffee shop & wine bar is directly on my way to and from work.  The other coffee shops in the area (Northside Social and the local Starbucks) both require a slight detour which, if you're late for work, is a huge detour for much needed coffee in the morning.  Oby Lee let's me pull right up, get a coffee, maybe some breakfast, and not lose an extra minute.  So, this past week, I stopped by for a couple of breakfasts and a quick dinner.

1725 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22209
703.841.0001
www.rayshellburger.com


As you can tell from my weekend in North Cackalackey, I've been eating pretty good and unfortunately, pretty heavy.  So, for today at lunch, I was thinking that I want something healthy to eat.  (Eyes on the post, please.  I see you suspiciously looking up at the title of the post).  I looked around to see what was close and decided that Ray's Hell Burger was the place to go for some healthy goodness.  Okay, okay, so I didn't find any of the healthier options appealing today so I made a beeline for perhaps (you'll see later) the most unhealthy option of all.  Don't judge.

1118 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.733.1285
www.andpizza.com


I had gone to Toki Underground last weekend and I was going to write...um...blog (let's be honest, this barely qualifies as writing) about it but I had ordered a special instead of trying out their classic ramen.  I tried to figure out ways to justify a post about Toki without having their most basic thing and my justification was just to go back and eat there again.  So, I went back this past weekend and got there a little later then last week and the wait was 30-40 minutes.  I would've waited but I was starving so I decided to try the new pizza place down the street, H &pizza.

101 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
202.547.8100
www.charliepalmer.com/Properties/CPSteak/DC/


I know I shouldn't be so relieved about having my week's worth of work-related dinners end but for f*ck's sake, I don't know if I could take driving into the District at rush hour on a daily basis.  If it wasn't for that the week would have been a real blast but traffic here really puts a damper on any mood.  Yes, DC does have a metro but it's not the best and hence makes driving more convenient in certain places.  Yeah, I just got to go out to dinner every night because of work and I should suck it up.  Don't judge.  Traffic sucks.

1837 M Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.558.9545
www.boqueriadc.com


So, the next stop in my work week of dinners is Boqueria.  It was more of an unofficial get-together with work folks than a more formal event but nonetheless, all that we had going on at work allowed me to have dinner in the city at this tapas transplant from the big apple.  I chose it precisely because it was a pretty established tapas place from my favorite restaurant town.  I guess it holds up with my theme of eating from today (first Shake Shack and now this).  It's also in the Golden Triangle.  Yeah.  I just laughed.  Again.  Oh, and this being a work dinner, photos are going to be scarce again.

1216 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.683.9222
www.shakeshack.com


My event driven work week is continuing and we had a ceremony on Capitol Hill today in the afternoon.  This was great on two counts.  We could go out to dinner afterwards (Boqueria post coming asap) and I could grab lunch in DC before the event.  I had been wanting to try out the Shake Shack downtown for quite a while now to see if they continues to produce great quality burgers as their empire grows beyond NYC.  It's also right around the corner from Boqueria so an easy place to park my car.

809 15th St NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.589.0060
www.bobbyvans.com


WHAT THE F*CK HAPPENED TO MY BLOG POST!?!?  I KNOW I WROTE ONE!  

So, I had written a whole post on my experience at Bobby Van's and I log on tonight to find that the post was mostly gone and it reverted back so that there isn't even a Bobby Van's post.  This is a recreation of my original post and hopefully I capture everything....For f*ck's sake.

11120 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD  20852
301.881.0081
www.addiesrestaurant.com


I went up to Germantown to watch one of my nieces play in a lacrosse tournament.   Her first game was around 8 a.m. and I went last year and remember being home by lunch.  I guess a year really makes a difference as they played four more games throughout the day and ended up winning the whole damn thing.  This was great, good and bad.  The great was that my niece won a friggin' lacrosse championship by playing five back-to-back-to-back (you get where I'm going) games.  Not sure where kids get all that energy but it sure was put to good use this day.  The bad was all I ate through the whole day was some Dunkin' donuts, a hot dog and a large cup of coffee.  The good was that Germantown is a bit north of DC and as I was driving home around dinner time, I could stop by Addie's.

423 8th St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
202.546.1935
www.eatdc3.com


Who has two thumbs and has always been a fan of a good hot dog?  This guy.  When I lived in NYC, I loved the fact that you could get a good hot dog on any corner of the city and let's not even mention that there isn't a better late night food place than Crif Dogs (Temptee Dog, it will change your life).  So, of course, this guy couldn't wait to try out DC-3 which is just a block away from Ted's Bulletin and owned by the same people.  I guess pretty soon they're going to own the whole block down there by the Navy Yard.  But, even I can't eat 10 hot dogs in one seating so I decided to pay multiple visits to DC-3 over the span of a week so I could try as many dogs as possible.