When fall comes and decides to stay for a few weeks here in DC, it’s hard to find a better excuse to strap on some boots and go walking around the city. The nights here teem with electricity and life, with people out everywhere, off in search of food and fun. Jen and I wandered around from place to place, trying to find something new that could quell the pangs of hunger and subdue the low growls emanating from our bellies.

It wasn’t until we started walking down the U Street corridor did we start to find places that weren’t completely filled to the gills, but also didn’t have such a din that we’d be forced to shout our conversation across the table over dinner. And that’s when we found ourselves walking into DC Noodles.

DC Noodles is one of the many restaurants that have sprouted up along the U St. corridor in DC. The restaurant is paired with an open doorway to the retail store Stem next door, offering various Thai fashion and home decorations, and is the latest offering from the Sak Group, who also lay claim to the successful restaurant Rice along 14th street.

The decor inside is simple and contemporary, with a large spray-painted mural on the wall greeting you as soon as you walk in. The staff here is very good, with quick service, attentive to filling your glass when it gets too low, and always appearing at just the right time with more food.

While noodles get a lot of the focus here, that doesn’t keep the chefs in the kitchen from playing with seasonal tastes and textures. Jen and I instantly gravitated towards the pumpkin empanadas as our appetizer. They arrived neatly packaged in a golden, flaky crust, with a sweet, warm, and creamy filling on the inside. The taste of the empanadas were strong enough to stand on their own, but a different experience altogether once dipped in with the accompanying spring roll sauce.

Pumpkin Empanadas

Jen put in an order for the Lad Na – wide noodles with tofu and a creamy gravy sauce, an unexpectedly filling comfort food. I was instantly envious of her superior choice in noodles. Damnit. How the hell does she keep doing that?

Lad Na - Noodles in gravy

The picture above doesn’t really do it justice, but this dish is HUGE. Not even a ravenous Swiss midget expedition team would be able to finish off the amount of noodles that comes in this bowl.

I ordered the Kua Gai – wide rice noodles with chicken and soy sauce, mostly because of a pretty seriously craving for the noodles. A very simple dish that wasn’t very complex on flavors or textures, but does wonders to sate those noodle yearnings.

Kua Gai - wide rice noodles with chickum

Again, these noodle dishes are enormous. How enormous?

Large enough for me to have a hard time finishing to bowl.

Well, to be fair, I did have a small tenderloin steak just a couple of hours prior to heading to DC Noodles, but still. You get your money’s worth here, which in a sea of high priced restaurants that can easily cost run you close to a Franklin for two, it’s always refreshing to see that some places can still provide great food at a great price.

Best of all, this place delivers.

Recommended for:

• Noodle afficianados
• Chopstick experts
• Vegetarians
• Secretarians
• Those birthed through Cesarian

Not recommended for:

• Low talkers
• Carb nazis
• Strict paleo diners
• If your last name is Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, or Zeddmore

DC Noodles can seen on a map here.

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FoodPairing is a Belgian site that aims to map certain foods that best pair with others through simple charts such as the one below. It’s nice way to find new and unique ways to match up some of the dishes that you might have started to become a little too familiar with on whatever diet you follow.

While it seems like this site is still in its initial stages of release, it shows a lot of promise. There a few hiccups, such as having overlapping paired options, rendering them unreadable, but luckily, the various pairings are also listed up at the top of the chart. Who knew that my baked sweet potato would so delightfully match up with some Baked Foie de canard Rougié? A tantalizing match made in heaven, no doubt, if only I knew what the hell the latter one was.

There’s also the option to see substitutable foods, since some ingredients that you look for in your cooking might not always be locally available or in season.

The options are still limited, so I hope they get around to adding more pairings. I’m still playing around with various sweet potato dishes myself, but I’ll try and come up with a tasty recipe for you all next week!

Check it out, play around with it a little bit, and let me know what you think in the comments!

Social @ Hotel Lumen

After a 3 hour rainy drive from Texarkana to Dallas, I was ready for a good meal. I had intended to set out into the cute neighborhoods to find a unique local restaurant, but it was simply too late to go exploring. Fortunately, the Lumen Hotel has a wonderful restaurant onsite. Also, the hotel staff lured me in with a free wine coupon as I missed the wine social earlier that evening. My company does not support alcoholic tendencies, so this free wine coupon felt like a Golden Ticket.

I rolled into Social pretty late. The place was empty! Not one guest was there. I had the place to myself which was killlahhhh. I chose a corner table with my back to the wall (need to see the shooter, of course). They had several vegetarian options. None were healthy, but this isn’t a place to visit if you’re on the Subway caloric restriction plan.

Two appetizers caught my eye. The tomato soup (sans shrimps) and macaroni & cheese were about to meet their demise. Both came out piping hot. On their own, both were excellent. However, I discovered dipping a spoon full of macaroni & cheese into the tomato soup was doubly delicious. I suppose this is something they teach ladies NOT to do at debutante school. I’m not a deb and I was alone in the restaurant. I finished my meal like a heathen…and it was wonderful. My free glass of wine was mediocre, but it was free so I sucked it down like a champ.

I can’t wait to stay at Lumen again and eat at Social. My meal was only $17 (tip included) and completely within my work budget. Also, other guests did visit the bar and were seated for meals, so the place was a bit more lively at the end. Definitely go. See menu here.

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Bistrot Du Coin, which translates roughly to, ‘Insert Coin’, is a restaurant in the heart of Dupont Circle that specializes in French cuisine, most notably, their mussels. That being said, they have a wide selection of French foods to offer.

The group I was with was ravenous, so we set off for a wide selection of meats, meats, and meats. Starting with the Moules Catalanes, which are steamed mussels with chorizo, the mussels here never disappoint. The combination of chorizo and mussels is unique, and went over well with everyone. There are variety of mussel dishes, and it’s impossible to go with one that’s wrong.

Continuing on, we sampled the Steak Tartare (raw ground beef with egg yolk), the Brochette de Boeuf facon Bistrot (skewers of grilled beef and vegetables), and the Pâté de campagne Maison (homemade pork pate). The steak tartare here is excellent. Soft, flavorful, and easily wrapped in the accompanying lettuce, I could never get sick of this dish. The beef skewers were good, but not a dish that was particularly memorable or exotic. One of those dishes that’s a safe bet to please almost any carnivorous diner. The pate here was, well…pate. I’ve never been a huge fan of pate, but it was good and perfectly edible all the same. With almost any dish you order here, you’ll get a side of fries. Steak tartare? Side of fries. Skewers? Side of fries. Order some fries? Side of fries. It’s ridiculous. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was likely some strong empirical evidence supporting that this restaurant was somehow funded by the Idaho farmer’s association with intents to marginalize the domestic rice market with an over-saturation of tuber products, packaged and shipped via a French culinary experience.

Sorry, I blacked out there for a second.

The meat dishes here are great, if not a bit on the heavy side. I had to order the Salade d’artichaut et asperges (artichoke and asparagus salad) just to even things out a bit in my belly, or suffer the consequences later.

Image Credit: DCist

I’ve eaten at Insert Coin many, many times, and I’ve never had a bad experience. The likelihood that you’ll actually be served by someone from a French speaking country is good, as that’s been the case on more than half the occasions I’ve frequented the restaurant. The casual dining and neighborhood feel is distinct and appealing to many people, as you’ll see that the place gets jam packed during dinner hours. If you can get here a little bit earlier or later than from around 7 to 9, you won’t have too much trouble finding a seat, but otherwise, be prepared to wait a bit or take a seat at the bar. The staff are always very congenial, and you can have a pretty solid French gastro-pub experience here without the pretentiousness most people associate with the regional cuisine. The din of other diners can get loud, so don’t expect a completely reserved experience, but revel in the fine French food at very reasonable prices.

Bistrot du Coin, which actually means ‘neighborhood bistro’, can be found on a map here.

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Jen and I went to check out Hudson, a place that we’ve both passed by numerous times, but have never actually visited. I’ll notice in the late weekend mornings that they have a pretty sizable crowd that goes in for brunch, so we finally took the opportunity to check it out.

Specializing in what the website describes as contemporary comfort food, the establishment was setting the stage for success with the two of us. At night, the entire place is illuminated by large pink lights that are a little less cotton candy and a little more 80′s horror flick. It’s not really too much of a problem, as it does give the place a certain distinction, but having all of our food cast in a pink glow wasn’t doing anything to accentuate the presentation of what we ate.

Luckily I managed to shake most of the pink off the photos I took.

The interior is very modern, but it would seem that people who frequent Hudson are more interested in the drinks rather than the food. It’s got to be a bit unnerving for the restaurant owners to see more than half the tables empty on a weekend night. This did, however, work out in our favor, as we received exemplary service all night. The wait staff was patient with our questions, diligent about keeping our drinks filled, and quick to clear our finished plates. The manager even came by to check on our during our meal, which was an added bonus, to know that they really care about the business that comes in.

Jen and I started off with the Truffle Mac’n'Cheese. Served piping hot in a cast iron skillet, this dish was amazing. The smoked cheese really came strong with the lactorial pimp hand. So strong, Jen and I had to verify that there wasn’t any bacon in here, and there wasn’t. Completely vegetarian, the smoky flavor is so intense, I started to stammer ‘Tha-buh-be-tha-buh-be-tha-buh-be-that’s all folks!’ after my first bite.

I don't know if the bacon censoring makes this better, or worse.

Jen didn’t hear it. So we’ll pretend it didn’t happen. But really, you have to try this mac’n'cheese, and tell me that you don’t think it tastes like bacon. Amazing for vegetarians with a serious bacon craving, although I couldn’t tell if it was the gruyere, the fontina, or the parmesan.

Truffle Mac'n'Cheese

For our main course, Jen had the Wild Mushroom Risotto and I ordered the Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Another great detail about Hudson is that you’re ordering a dish with no meat, they make sure to cook it completely meat free, and this included the risotto. Traditionally chicken stock is used to cook the risotto, although some places are thoughtful enough to use vegetable stock, which has less flavor, but works as a good vegetarian substitution. The risotto at Hudson was cooked with just butter and water, with no stock whatsoever, a complete surprise to the both of us.

Wild Mushroom Risotto

It’s so rich, it made me wonder just how much butter they used. Except asking ‘how much butter is in this?’ is never something you should or would want to ask. Jen really enjoyed it, with porcini and oyster mushrooms at the top of her dish, and a mountain of risotto underneath. I mean a LOT of risotto. There was definitely enough for two more meals by the time she was done eating.

I was, however, a little underwhelmed by my fried chicken. There wasn’t anything particular wrong with the preparation, as it came out perfectly crispy, laid out on a bed of dense, creamy mashed potatoes, and propped up by a fresh buttermilk biscuit. Perfect presentation. It was all exactly what you’d expect from the dish, were it to be served at any number of places. But that was part of the problem. The dish just didn’t really stand out. It was a little boring, for comfort food, and for the price of this entree and on the strength of the mac’n'cheese, I had higher expectations of this dish.

Imagine ordering a milkshake at a diner, and having the server pour a glass a milk, grab you by the shoulders, and vigorously shake the shit out of you until you’re so dizzy that you vom everywhere. You’re getting exactly what you asked for, so you can’t really complain, but it’s not what you had in mind. And the fact that you haven’t had a good shaking like that in a few years, well, you might as well take it.

The plain Jane of Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Hudson’s a decent little restaurant that has a fantastic location. Some of their dishes, like the truffle mac’n'cheese, are outstanding, some are freakishly large and rich, like the wild mushroom risotto, and some are complete wallflowers, like the buttermilk fried chicken, but nothing here is bad or even terrible. The service is excellent, and the staff definitely knows their food very well, if not their wines. The prices are a little bit on the more expensive side, but this is a good place to take anyone with a less adventurous palette who just can’t seem to find what they like with all the ‘crazy’ food here in DC. I’m sure you’d get a much better deal if you were to come in during Restaurant Week, which we just might do.

View Hudson on a map here.

Good for:

• Astronauts
• Cosmonauts
• Argonauts
• Vegetarians
• Relatives from the Midwest
• Bar hoppers

Not good for:

• Havenauts
• Wantnauts
• Tiethenauts
• Colonel Sanders
• Paleo Patrons
• Kelly Kapowski

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