Fiola is the new Italian restaurant in DC by Fabio Trabocchi, famous for his creations at Maestro in the Tyson’s Corner Ritz Carlton before the doors closed last year. Despite a slight mixup with the hostess losing our reservation, Jen and I were seated reasonably quickly for a weekend night. The buildout of the restaurant is of very high quality, with custom chandeliers, stone facade walls, and paneled wood walls as far as the eye can see. Despite the restaurant being given the high end treatment, some of the smaller details just didn’t work. Our first clue in was with the menus, with a sueded leather binding and thick, textured pages in between, neither Jen nor I ignore the fact that these were quite possibly the most flaccid menus we’d ever seen. The menu droops in your hand like…well, a sad flower (coughcoughpeniscoughcough) and the ink fails to adhere to the paper, leaving them virtually useless.

Thankfully, we received a different set of menus at our table than we did at the bar, ones a fair bit more legible. I’ll be the first to say that neither Jen or I would consider ourselves large, or even average sized Americans, but getting into the booth seating in between tables is virtually impossible unless you’re a size 0 as a woman, or, well, a size 0 as a man. I graciously took the chair seating at our table instead.

The bread service is a nice treat, a spiral shaped rolled bun that’s very reminiscent of a super fresh croissant, possibly the best bread service I’ve had in a long time. I’m sure the restaurant is quite aware of this, as you only get one to carry you through your meal, with just a tiniest bit of olive oil to accompany it. The olive oil to bread ratio is slightly disparaging, possibly due to the fact that I soaked up the entire puddle with one deft swab of my bread.

After several minutes of pouring over our menus, we decided to split the fried mozzarella balls, which turned out to be more a duo of mozzarella balls. These aren’t your Costco brand mozzarella digs. You know the kind I’m talking about, heavy on the bread, with a 75% chance of biting into… a hollow mozzarella case. Don’t you hate that ish? It’s like the stupid company that produces them should be selling “PARTY SIZED MOZZARELLA AIR BALLS” instead. Ridiculous.

Where was I? Mozzarella balls. Right.

These are fully and completely stuffed with a warm, chewy mozzarella, served in an sweet, aromatic tomato sauce and topped with just the perfect amount of parmesan. Absolutely amazing, although take care not to inhale these or you’ll miss out entirely.

Jen ordered the baby artichoke salad, which turned out nothing like either one of us had expected, not to say that’s a bad thing. The baby artichokes tasted like a cross between a typical artichoke and a radish, julienned and served with cheese (pecorino? manchego?) and a zesty green sauce of some sort.  A really fantastic salad, unlike any we’ve had before.

I ordered the Crostini of Cod, Tomato, and Oregano, served Fisherman style, based on the waiter’s recommendation. A trio of crostinis, each served with two hearty chunks of cod. A good balance on flavor, ingredients, and presentation, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bit underwhelmed after having devoured this dish. Maybe it was the fact that the waiter said it was possibly the best thing on the menu.* Maybe it was the fact that I was expecting a giant side of cod on a massive raft made of bread.** Maybe it just wasn’t that amazing of a dish.

Jen ordered the Pappardelle with oyster and royal trumpet mushrooms, a complete vegetarian’s delight. This dish carries itself like a meat pasta without the meat. Wide ribbons of pappardelle are mixed with chunks of sauteed mushrooms, then served in a savory brown sauce fit to satiate even the meat-eatiest of meateaters.

I had the Cacio & Pepe, a spaghetti chiatarra served with sheep’s milk based cacio cheese, crushed black peppercorns, and what amounted to a white sauce without the cream. Heavy without being overly decadent, and a well executed spaghetti dish, despite my initial reservations.

We skipped out on ordering desserts, but the kitchen graciously delivered a trio of sweets to each of us, with from left to right a chocolate chip macaroon, a mini gingerbread and caramel sammich, and jelly and shortbread biscuit sammich. All delicious, but both Jen and I agreed on the chocolate chip macaroon being the best of the three.

I’m at odds with the service here. While we never waited too long to order, to have our food delivered, or to have our water glasses refilled, our waiter never offered on a second glass of wine for Jen or bring plates for our either of our two rounds of appetizers without me expressly asking. The service has potential, but still needs a considerable bit of polishing and work. Despite a few gaffs, the overall experience was very good. Patrons tend to be on the well dressed side, so wearing at least a button down shirt if not a sports coat is advised for attending gentlemen. The damage is actually fairly reasonable for an upscale DC dining experience without the stuffiness, and despite entering a sea of Italian restaurants already flooding the streets of the District, I have a feeling that Fiola will do just fine.

See Fiola on a map here. (entrance on Indiana Avenue).

Recommended For:

• Pastafarians
• Vegetarians
• Paleoheads (there’s a ton of meat dishes here, too)
• Special Occasions

Not Recommended For:

• Thriftmasters
• Codependent Carls
• Stripclub-bound Downtown Hounds
• Zone Dieters

* He didn’t actually say that.

** I did actually hope for that.

Café Asia could almost be considered a DC institution of restaurants, with a location in Arlington (Rosslyn) and one in DC, of which this writeup focuses on the latter of the two. I’ve been to the restaurant on a couple of occasions, and while it didn’t break any new ground in dining experiences, it was modern, exuded a sleek, club like persona, and had been a reasonable pleasure to dine at both during lunch and dinner.

Jen and I headed over on a Friday night, and immediately upon entering the front doors, it was evident that something was quite different. The dimly lit ambiance was replaced with the lighting scheme of something that’d be more appropriately found in a study hall or a library. I ordered a selection of rolls from the sushi bar for the two of us, an appetizer for myself, and an entree for the each of us. To the credit of the restaurant, our sushi rolls came out to our table within 10 minutes of our order. To our dismay, the rest of our dishes arrive not more than five minutes later. It was quite possibly the first time I really gave thought to the fact that a good server will pay attention to when you dishes come out and control the cadence of delivery, an absolute shit server will let everything come to your table at once.

As for the food, the fried calamari is a good value and the various sushi rolls are slightly above average. The noodle bowls here display a decent array of noodles, but these tend to be disproportionately light on ingredients aside from the noodles and very heavy on the sugary sauce. Jen’s Pad Thai arrived with minced chicken, and despite the menu clearly stating this fact, we had overlooked it in hunger. Jen asked him for a vegetarian version, to which he blankly stated was impossible with the Pad Thai due to the sauce being pre-made, likely stewing in a giant vat from the start of the day. We asked the server to take it back, and did so begrudgingly.

While I wouldn’t call Café Asia the best of restaurants, I can’t say I’ve had a complete disaster of a meal like this before, so bad that I’m willing to say I’ll never eat here again. As it turns out, both restaurants have changed ownership in the past year, a change that is clearly not for the better. The restaurant has all the personality of an ironing board, the service of a half star Parisienne restaurant, and the much needed updating of an appropriately descriptive name, like Cafeteria Asia. Hey guys, don’t forget to bring your algebra books, we’re gonna cram before midterms over here before we go streaking across the quad.

Map? Your money could possibly be better spent buying $40 of scratch-off lottery tickets and huffing a plastic tub filled with gasoline for an hour while you engage in a political debate against a half dressed mannequin on the merits of electing a white-faced saki monkey in a tie and a diaper to Congress.

There’s a single highway that cuts through Khuk Khak, with a number of shops that stand shoulder to shoulder underneath the sweltering Thailand sun. Vendors hawk knock-off Louis Vuitton bags, scuba travel companies offer trips out to sea, and restaurants are beyond abundant. So much so, that it’s slightly difficult to pick out one that’s better than another. While walking up the highway, Jen pointed out one restaurant, Dao Thong, and suggested we stop in for lunch. The twin peaked rooftop looks as if the restaurant had been expanded at some point in the past, taking over its neighbor and doubling in serviceable size. I kept it in mind and hoped it was a good sign.

The front of the restaurant nearly spills over with ferns, plants, and bamboo plants. Pass through the veritable garden and you’re greeted by a number of tables made out of thick tree trunk slabs that give the establishment a very cozy and natural feel.

On closer inspection of our surroundings, after being seated, Jen notices that a number of the dangling orchids are actually potted inside of coconut husks held together with wire and pure resourcefulness.

A little sense of humor goes a long way with the two of us, something that the kitchen staff clearly understood with their cup and glass selection. Jen ordered a Pina Colada, made with the freshest of fresh coconut milk and carefully poured into a glass I should have offered to purchase after our meal.

Hot. But wait.

There’s more.

Pow.

My Thai Iced Tea, which apparently is just called “Iced Black Tea” in Thailand (go figure) was considerably tamer in comparison, but still a high quality pour despite the absence of alcohol. The restaurant opts to use pure honey as a sweetener instead of sweetened condensed milk or sugar, which makes me wonder why every other place in the world doesn’t serve it like this.

Not even a plate of food and already the restaurant is setting the bar high for itself.

The Tom Kha Gai, a spicy coconut broth based soup with chicken, scallions, peppers, and parsley, was a suitable kick in the face with a request of even the most minimal spiciness. Probably somewhere around 40,000 on the Scoville Scale. Surprisingly, the soup is good and tasty even on the most humid of Thai days, and comes decorated with a large, unripened mango flower atop a lettuce bowl of fresh shredded veggies.

Jen ordered the battered corn cakes, deep fried a golden brown and served with a sweet dipping sauce and garnished with a radish flower, easily a $8.00 USD dish in one of the fancier restaurants in DC, but a whopping $3.35 USD in Thailand. Then again, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a dish like this on any Thai menu that I’ve eaten at stateside, and it was worth the money to try out this northern Thai specialty.

For my entree, I ordered the seafood salad, a mix of s’crimps, calamari, octopus,  scallops, and assorted vegetables, tossed with another spicy sauce, and served with carrot flowers. The presentation alone was worth it the order. The seafood is super fresh, and there wasn’t anything wrong with the dish itself, but I doubt I’d order this dish elsewhere – seafood salad just isn’t my thing.

Jen’s spicy cashew salad was more fitting to her tastes – a blazing hot blend of cashews, onions, celery, and thai chilies, once again garnished with the types of flowers you rarely see outside of hotels or other kitchens with a large enough staff to cut these things out of vegetables.

Dao Thong also offers free dessert with every meal, and true to their claim, we were presented with a plate full of fried banana bites, accompanied by a small bowl of sweetened condensed milk for dipping, and garnished with an orchid bloom from their hanging garden.

If these mini fried cakes weren’t filled with molten hot bananas picked from the Eyjafjallajökull crater itself, I’m pretty sure I would have inhaled these things in a split second. I could eat a giant plate of these for lunch any and every day until I started to serious pork out. A nice little treat from the kitchen that goes above and beyond what most restaurants will do, especially for such an unassuming place.

Dao Thong doesn’t stand out as the most extravagant places when you’re passing by, but maybe that’s part of why it’s so great. Jen’s great eye really picked a solid place for us to eat, possibly THE best place in Khao Lak that’s not on the grounds of a resort. The restaurant also has a number of kitschy souvenirs to buy, and is an absolute must if you’re vacationing here instead of the bustling streets of Phuket. I’d even warrant to say it’s worth a couple of meals, as all of this cost us less than $15.00 USD with tip, you’d be hard pressed to find a better restaurant in town.

See Dao Thong on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vacationing Velmas
• Frugalistas
• Paleoheads
• Vegetarians
• Ducking Passing Storms

Not Recommended For:

• Climate Control Cathys
• Cambodian Cultural Preservationists
• Floraphobics
• Midwest Palette Marthas

Indian food isn’t the first thing I think about when I think of Easter. I tend to think of rabbits and eggs, and wonder how this German tradition beat out the resurrection of Jebus in popularity. Easter is also the first real holiday that the ladies can step out in sundresses and ridiculous hats, and boys posing as men can walk around in pants with tiny embroidered animals all over them, paired with a seersucker jacket and consider themselves fashionably prep.

Speaking as someone who doesn’t currently own a screaming child of my own (I’m worried the layaway payments will kill me), it’s hard to find an Easter brunch, and a buffet at that, that doesn’t come chock full of screaming toddlers at every adjacent table. Bombay Club, one of the finer dining Indian cuisine restaurants, does so beautifully.  The restaurant serves a hard to beat price for their buffet brunch ($25 a person at the time of this writing), with an option to upgrade to a bottomless champagne brunch ($35 a person at the time of this writing), and a 80 year old man banging out the best in classical music on the piano to boot.

The selection is high quality, but options are limited to two tables, with each table hosting about 8-10 choices of food and dessert. For the price, atmosphere, and childless crowds, this is a deal that’s nearly impossible to beat on any Easter or Mother’s Day Brunch.

See Bombay Club on a map here.

The JW Marriott in Khao Lak, Thailand is a resort that transports you far and away from reality. The entire place is the most luxurious and exotic locale I’ve ever visited, boasting seven different dining choices spread throughout the resort. The Waterfront, which aptly named for its location not more than 20 paces from the Andaman Sea, offers a smorgasboard of international cuisine on a daily basis.

If the idea of waking up to paradise and relaxation isn’t enough of an incentive to get out of bed every morning here, this brunch buffet ought to do the trick. By now, you should have an idea of what fat kid tendencies I still maintain from my youth, and this place plays right up to those yearnings.

Several stations fill up the perimeter of the restaurant, including a bread station (with fresh baked breaks, pastries, waffles, pancakes, and a crockpot of bread pudding), a stir fry station with the option to have a custom made stir fry with your chosen ingredients, an egg station (hard boiled eggs, soft boiled eggs, fresh eggs florentine, eggs benedict, and omelettes), a dim sum station (with sweet red bean buns, shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, custom congee, and fried rice), a row of meats (includ ham, bacon, snausage, and baked beans), and my personal favorite, a coffee and juice bar.

Several chilled buckets filled with fresh juices adorned the countertops, such as the Khao Lak Booster, a blend of mango, pineapple juice, ginger, and mint leaves, which garnered the most love from both Jen and me. The option to have your own specific blend of various fruits and juices existed, but, hey, why reinvent the wheel? Don’t make me think, just strap a feedbag to my face and let me do what I do best, baby.

I don’t think I made it up for a single round of food without refilling my glass with this stuff.

The option to have your choice of coffee, with unlimited refills, begged for experimentation in orders. I started with the lattes…

Which got me started on the cappucinos…

I started dipping into mochas, which the barista really had fun with. It turns out that not many other tourists were into mochas, so she went crazy with the chocolate sauce. Sorry, it got inhaled in a single gulp before I could snap off a photo.

I did manage to stay fairly paleo, straying off the beaten path of my eating plan only two days of our week stay here. It was surprisingly easy to do. That is, staying paleo. Grilled tomatoes, bacon, omelettes, ham salads, and fresh vegetables were always plentiful.

Jen cozied up to the various vegetarian offerings with her grilled tomatoes, red bean bun, fruit, pastries, omelettes, and hearts of palm salad.

Or what she thought was a hearts of palm salad, which after a quick implosion of her face, made me realize that she had picked up a giant scoop of calamari salad instead.

WHOOOPS!

Well. The ever doting boyfriend that I am, I helped remove it from her plate and dispose of it in my face. Maw. OMNOMNOMONOM.

The center island hosted a whole other section of various delights, including smoked salmon, prosciutto, chicken bologna (uh what?), cheeses, and a wide array of nuts.

Plenty of fresh vegetables and salads were available, with the salad offerings rotating daily.

Living up to the tropical expectations, plenty of fresh fruits were readily available, including cantaloupe, bananas, apples, watermelon, papaya, honeydew, dragonfruit, and guava.

Did I mention the fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh squeeze strawberry juice? I didn’t even know you could have strawberry juice.

It should go without saying that if you happen to stay here at the JW Marriott, you should definitely take in at least one meal at the Waterfront. The restaurant is spotless, staff is bend-over-backwards accommodating, and the cuisine is laid out to satisfy almost any diet, whether you’re paleo, vegetarian, vegan, zone, British, German, Norweigian, or Cannibal.

Okay, not Cannibal. But have some the bacon. It’s just as good.

See the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Gastronomic Globetrotters
• Vegetarians
• Paleoheads
• Baron Von Eatsalots

A little crafting in the kitchen a few weeks ago and I came up with this recipe. With rising temperatures and the changes in season, this is a nice way to cool out with the berries you pick up at the farmer’s market.

It also uses the Arbonne Essentials chocolate protein powder, which uses stevia as a sweetner. Stevia isn’t 100% paleo, but if that’s the only bad thing about this dessert, I think I can live with that. I haven’t found another protein powder that works as well as this for getting a nice balance in consistency, flavor, and ingredients for me besides this one to make this a vegan and paleo dessert, something that actually works great for both Jen and me anytime. Not even the vanilla powder seems to get the right consistency for me, strangely enough, but that works, because, c’mon. Chocolate.

Empty two cans of organic coconut milk into a large bowl or container. Quality does matter, and so does the fat. Light or low fat coconut milk cans aren’t going to work here, you want as much of those tasty, natural healthy fats for this recipe to work. You can always get a pretty good price on these from just about ethnic supermarket, even if you have to go with a non-organic brand.

Add four scoops of Arbonne’s chocolate protein powder, and mix well with a large spoon. Get the coconut milk to blend as well as you can with the chocolate protein powder. Half the fun is hand mixing it, and I enjoy making this stuff so much, I don’t want to waste a lick of it in a mixer.

Once you’re satisfied with the mixing, add 1/3 cup of those organic, pesticide-free blueberries. Add the 1/3 cup of organic raspberries, and finally, the last 1/3 cup of organic blackberries. Strawberries work just as well, too.

Fold in your berries of choice until they’re well mixed into your bowl, seal your container, and stick it in the fridge overnight, or for at least 4-5 hours.

When it’s ready, your mixture will have thickened into an what is a pretty gigantic bowl of omnomness. I may or may have not been accused of eating cups of this stuff in a single sitting, so I really found it was helpful to exercise some portion control.

An espresso cup seems to be just the trick. For me at least. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a junior scoop of ice cream. Half fill that minicup with your mixture, and top with a teaspoon of chopped pecans.

Fill the rest of your cup with more of the chocolate coconut mix, and then top with another teaspoon of pecans. You can garnish your dessert with a blueberry or a sprig of mint, and serve.

pow.

You can let me know how this dessert tastes yourself. The first time I had it?

Ingredients:

• 1 handful (approx 1/3 cup) of organic blueberries
• 1 handful (approx 1/3 cup) of organic raspberries
• 1 handful (approx 1/3 cup) of organic blackberries
• 4 scoops of Arbonne Chocolate Protein Powder
• 2 cans of organic coconut milk
• 2 tsp of chopped toasted pecans (that you can pick up at Trader Joe’s)

Taverna del Alabardero is reknown by local gastronoms as the best Spanish restaurant in the District. The establishment has over 20 years of experience serving everyone from diplomats to discount diners (I’m talking to you, Noble Restaurant Week Aficionado) with not a sign of having a slow night.

The restaurant has separate menus for lunch, dinner, and brunch, as well as a vegetarian specific menu on request. Offerings are rotated seasonally, so a dish that you declare your favorite could be here one day, and gone faster than a 22 year old’s tax return in May.

It’d seem a number of people (including Jen and I) take Restaurant Week (RW) as an opportunity to dine here, but to be fair, you can’t judge the quality of this establishment purely based on an experience there during that time. To start, the only menus available are RW specific, either for meateaters or vegetarians, but without the option to go a la carte.

Dishes during RW are certainly well executed, with extraordinary presentation and balance. Jen’s citrus salad wasn’t substantial by any means, but a nice way to start her three course meal.

It’s fair game to say that the owners have the expectation that the people filing in and out the doors are in for more of a bargain than Taverna del Alabardero’s absolute best performance. A sampling of this, a sampling of that, but neither Jen nor I could say the meal was truly memorable.

Their arroz con leche (rice pudding) with clementine ice cream even felt a bit blasé- again, a very good dish by any standard, but a dish without real passion or creativity.

Even the service, by and far, seemed lackluster. The one highight of the evening was having a conversation with Gustavo, the restaurant’s sommelier. The man spoke of true passion for Spanish food and his wine craft, enough that we were convinced to give the restaurant a second try on a regular dining night.

So… we did just that.

Fast foward a few months, and Jen and I (well, maybe just me) are excited to see how Taverna really operates. The restaurant is noticeably less crowded at the bar, but tables remain filled up with large boisterous tables celebrating special occasions, and couples like us enjoying an intimate meal in a upscale but relaxed atmosphere.

To start, Jen decided on one of the vegetarian tapas – the Parrillada de Verduras sobre Gazpacho de Espárragos

I took on the plate of Jamon Iberico (Iberian ham), something that might be a safe bet with any haute coutre Spanish restaurant, but a favorite of mine ever since traveling through Spain a couple of years back. The leg of ham sits near the bar, a massive display of perfectly salted perfection. Served with miniature breadsticks, this plate is a dish best shared between two, unless you have a particularly voracious appetite.

Jen’s order of the fried mushrooms came out spectacularly well – comparable to a vegetarian’s fried calamari with a similar texture but a much lighter taste. These things come out molten-burn-the-shit-out-of-your-mouth hot, so do take your time stuffing them into your face. I thoroughly enjoyed stealing several morsels of these off of Jen’s plate, but the deep fried action just wasn’t really doing it for her.

Not pictured is the Spanish cheese plate, which, even if you’re really into cheese plates, I’d give a pass on when eating here. The fresh chunk of honeycomb to accompany the cheese samplings is a nice touch, but overall, the cheeses just aren’t that great, especially at this price point.

I took a gamble on our server’s recommendation with the Rabo de Toro Estofado a la Cordobesa con Croqueta liquida y Zanahoria al Pedro Ximenez – a fancy name for Boneless Beef Oxtail Braised with Liquid Potatoes Croquette and Poached Carrot in a P.X Sauce, and I’m glad I did. The succulent portion of meat falls with even the gentlest pull of a fork. Bring it through the puddles of liquid potatoes and to your mouth, and you’ll never want to have another meat dish that’s any less tasty for the rest of your life.

How do I put this in no uncertain terms?

I could go back to Taverna del Alabardero right now for a second serving of this dish. I’m drooling on my keyboard as I type just thinking about it. I’ll spend months fantasizing about this dish, only to realize I need deep psychotherapy to get over this dish. It’s good. Really, really, really good.

To top off the meal with dessert, I took another recommendation from the server and ordered the Pisto de Melocotón en Almíbar de Café, Crema Catalana con Bizcocho de Magdalena – a Peach Ragout in a Light Cofee Syrup with Cream Custard topped with a Magdalene, which boiled down to a sweet, creamy soup loaded with chunks of fresh peaches. Good, but in retrospect, something I’d pass on entirely on a return visit.

So how’s the NON-Restaurant Week experience? Well, it’s tough to say. Jen was much less impressed with her meal than I was, although we both agreed that it was a 180 from our first foray there. She did end up losing a fight that the fried mushrooms put in her stomach with cramps and pains afterwards, but that’s more of an effect to her having completed a cleanse a month back and not being able to handle such deeply fried food. The oxtail was a home run with me, which makes me think that Taverna’s a great place to take a carnivore who’s looking for a extraordinarily executed meat dish. The deserts seem to be less inspired, and if you’re a vegetarian, you can make your own judgement call based on their menu online whether or not you’d like to eat here. It’s still nice to know that an upscale restaurant like this does indeed cater to vegetarian tastes to a high degree, where most places would offer a few salads and pasta dishes, and then call it a day.

Service here is inconsistent, at best. Our server and associated staff were very attentive for the first part of the meal. We never once had to ask for refills on wine or water, plates were quickly escorted away at just the right times, and recommendations were for the most part, pretty good. The service rapidly declined towards the end of our meal as the restaurant started to shut down, and we sat waiting for our check for 20 minutes as our server disappeared along with numerous diners around us. I finally flagged down another server who brought us our check, but it left us with an unfortunate sour note to leave on to what was otherwise a pretty good meal.

If you’re looking to try Taverna del Alabardero, the best time to head over is right after work, when their entire tapas menu is 50% off. Prices are otherwise a bit steep, and thankfully, we dined on a graciously provided gift card. I’d likely go back some time to try another one of their meat plates in the future, but I have a feeling if I do, I’d have to go without Jen’s company.

See Taverna del Alabardero on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Courting Fancy Spaniards
• Paleoheads
• Business Jerk Power Lunches

Not Recommended For:

• Obtaining Fancy Lanyards
• Restaurant Week Dining
• First Date Frugalistas

With a name like the Flying Pan in the heart of Hong Kong, the now ancient joke of “flied rice, you plick!” from Lethal Weapon 4 comes swimming up back from the depths of my mind. But all ridiculous jokes aside, it is incredibly difficult to find a good breakfast in Hong Kong. For all intents and purposes, it seems to be the one meal that the city would rather forget. There’s certainly a wide array to cafes willing to accommodate your money in exchange for meats of questionable origins, half-cooked, runny eggs, and all the congee you can eat, but after several frustrating days of disappointing meals, Jen and I turned to the Googles for help.

The one place that came up time and time again as the best place for a more traditional Western breakfast was the Flying Plan. Deep in the heart of ex-pat district in Central, it’s easy enough to find once you board the travelator- a seemingly endless stretch of inclined moving walkways that snake their way over the bustling commerce of the streets below.

The sign for the Flying Pan can be seen as you take the travelator (yes, that’s the official name of it) up the hill, and being situated in the ex-pat community is the perfect location for the restaurant.

Stepping inside past the sliding door (which you have to manually slide open and closed yourself), the familiar diner decor, large plastic covered menus and tiled tables all seem to beckon a comforting feeling of a greasy spoon back home, and being the only greasy spoon in the city that we could find, the restaurant already had a lot going for it.

There are some anomalies here- but all for the better. Copies of various publications are plentiful at the door, including a local version of the Wall Street Journal if you’re into catching up on current events. Omelettes and the house specials come with your choice of an array of freshly squeezed juices such as orange, grapefruit, apple, cranberry, tomato, pineapple, or lemonade. You also get your choice of two sides, including spiced apples (highly recommended), fresh fruit, grilled tomatoes (another favorite between Jen and me), potatoes, baked beans, grits, or a small garden salad, and THEN your selection of white or wheat toast, an english muffin, a biscuit or a bagel to boot.

There’s a copious selection of omelettes to choose from, and I’m a little upset that I never got around to ordering the Kitchen Sink – an omelette stuffed with veggies, meat, and cheese, something that’s quite obviously designed for my inner fat kid. That’s not to say you can’t get by with the other choices, like my selection of the Three Little Pigs, with bacon, snausage,  and ham. You also have the option of ordering an egg white omelette if yolks make you scurred.

Which they shouldn’t, you ninny.

Jen dove right in with the Eggs Sardou – an eggs benedict version sans the meaty awesomeness, but with the addition of artichoke, tomatoes and spimmach. I guess I can give her a pass, being my girlfriend and all.

The food isn’t the most amazing diner food I’ve ever had, but it’s the best breakfast you’ll find in the city at a reasonable price. Service is very good, the space is clean, and you can’t go wrong with any of the options of pancakes, waffles, french toast, or blintzes on the menu. If you’re up for a challenge, there’s always the 4x4x4 Monster Pan – a large platoon of 4 eggs, 4 strips of bacon, and 4 sausage links, served with 4 slices of toast, 4 sides, and your choice of either a large glass or 2 small glasses of juice.

Just enough to fuel a paleohead until lunch.

See the Flying Pan on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Vegetarians
• Frugalistas
• Late Night Breakfasts

Not Recommended For:

• Claustrophobics
• Vegans
• First Dates
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Hanging Out, Plotting World Domination

The Po Lin Monastery stands at the outskirts of Hong Kong, far and away from the bustling streets of the city. In fact, not only do you have to take the subway, known as the MTR, almost all the way to the end of the line, you  also have to jump on an hour long cable car ride to Ngong Ping village, and climb some 200 steps up to get close enough to stand in awe of a giant bronze statue of the Buddha.

Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen in DC, which isn’t to say that all are created equal. When it comes to competition like that, the capabilities of the kitchen are indubitably of importance, but what about the basics of a meal, the fundamental elements used in every dish?

Restaurateurs will sometimes go above and beyond to ensure their ingredients are of the utmost importance. Acquiring their agriculture locally and thereby supporting local community. Obtaining their seafood from sustainable fisheries. Making sure every steak and sausage comes from pasture-raised, antibiotic meats. Using local, organic dairy vendors for the mountains of cheese used for every plate.

Well, now you’ve got an idea of the lengths Dean Gold and Kay Zimmerman of Dino go through to ensure that your meal is as unforgettable as they can make it. After all, the devil is in the details.

This Cleveland Park restaurant is a long hike from downtown, especially in the sub-arctic temperatures Jen made me carry her via dogsled (Normsled), but it’d easily be a great walk in temperatures otherwise warmer that we encountered in our winter stroll (car and metro options would have been entirely too reasonable). Tables are outfitted with giant dishes of sea salt and bottles of olive oil, perfect to soak your fresh, tableside bread in.

Highlights of our meal included my order of the Uova alla Diavola. Creamy Sriracha achovy aioli, anchovy salsa verde and fresh yolks make for some of the best deviled eggs I’ve had in years.

A wide assortment of cheeses are available from cows, sheep, and goats, all paired with rustic slices of bread, fruit, and candied nuts.

My locally sourced Dr. Joe’s Pekin duck breast with pasta stood no chance to an appetite built up from a good 30 minute sprint uphill, with Jen cracking the whip and screaming “MUUUUUUSH! MUUUUUUSH!” to my lone ears and tired legs. She even noted that I was unconsciously pushing the strips of duck to the side of the plate as I powered through the plate,.

Jen: What are you doing?

Me: Huh?

Jen: Why are you pushing the duck to the side of the plate?

Me: Uh, apparently because I wanted to save the best of this for last.

But really, the duck here is unreal in flavor on a bed of Dino’s finest house made pasta.

The Budino de Pane, or bread pudding, however, was a bit lackluster not only in presentation but substance. Made with barberries and raisins, then served with a scoop of vanilla gelato and and amaretto whipped cream, this was by far my least favorite dish of the night, but with 10 other different dessert choices, I’m sure I can manage to eventually come up with something I like on that menu.

The service is of the caliber of the dishes served here at Dino. Our waiter was friendly and accommodating, great with casual banter and recommendations on the restaurant’s formidable list of selections. Nothing about this place screams “DC HOT SPOT” but rather, an upscale dining establishment that Cleveland Park just happened to be blessed with having in their ‘hood.

What is it about Italian restaurants that make them so plentiful throughout the District? Is it our region’s love for pastas, rich sauces, and abundant selections of wine? Or is it somehow a considered a comfort food among gastronom and omnomnomnivores alike?

Whatever the reasons, it’s refreshing to come to an Italian restaurant that simply, somehow, just does things better than the status quo.

Add in special considerations such as a $39 for three course special every night of the week, and that the restaurant has a number of gluten free options to choose from, I can’t see why I wouldn’t be returning.

Unless Jen suggests we take the dogsled again.

See Dino on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vegetarians
• Pastafarians
• Frugalistas
• Paleoheads
• Dinner Date after the Zoo

Not Recommended For:

• Indecisivists
• Jersey Shore Casting Call
• Haters
• Gators
• AC Slaters