Lebanese Taverna - Bethesda

A week ago I visited the Bethesda location of Lebanese Taverna. Despite the Woodley Park location being one of my favorite DC restaurants, this is my first Lebanese Taverna visit since I started this blog.

Anyway, Bethesda location is a convenient walk from the Bethesda metro with plenty of parking around. The decor is pretty nice with high ceilings and, unlike many downtown DC places, not designed to be loud. (Note: My earlier comment that "The Woodley Park location is more impressive though." is retracted upon visiting the Woodley Park location again. They're both different, but both are quite nice in decor and ambiance.)

Lebanese Taverna does offer entrees, but I have always gotten several Mezze and shared them with people allowing me a wide variety of tastes. My dishes at this location this time were very good. I had the Kibbeh (meatballs of beef, lamb, burghul, pine nuts, almonds with yogurt), the shwarma (carved lamb & beef with tahini sauce), makdous (cured baby eggplant stuffed with walnuts, garlic, lemon, olive oil, pomegranate), the shankleesh (spiced aged feta), and some baba ghanough (eggplant dip). Most were strong, pungent and excellent, with baba ghanough being nothing special (although the person I split the meal with loves it here) and the baby eggplant/makdous being only pretty good, but not necessarily for everyone.

I have again been impressed by Lebanese Taverna, although I would probably rate Cava Mezze as slightly better than this visit, although you really cannot go wrong with either. I also need to remind myself to try an entree next time. I have had an entree from Lebanese Taverna catered into a former job site, which was extraordinary, but I do not know if it was from the Bethesda or Woodley Park location (equidistant).

(My rundown on the other locations)

Proof

775 G St. NW

I attended Proof for a birthday dinner. I had been here a number of times before as a late night stop for after movies or just to grab a drink. The atmosphere is pretty typical modern Penn Quarter/Chinatown D.C., although the restaurant's seating arrangement tends to allow for an intimate feel for the tables.

Before I start on the meal, I should say that from previous visits, Proof does a very good job with their cocktails and has an ample wine selection. Before dinner I tried an excellent dark cask conditioned beer at the bar. Throughout the evening the wine was quite good as well.

Dinner began with a course of meats (charcuterie) and cheeses. The selection of cheeses was rather good, and the cheeses themselves were enjoyable. The accompanying condiments for the cheeses were solid, but nothing special. I most enjoyed the cheeses that I had requested (a Humboldt Fog, a cave aged Gruyere, and a Pleasant Ridge from Wisconsin). Some at the table did not like strong cheeses so we didn't try any of their blue cheeses. Although I would deem this an acceptable cheese place, I would probably not make it a destination and would recommend Cork or Cheesetique instead. The meats were quite good, and more ample than most charcuterie I have tried. Someone else had ordered them and I do not remember specifically what we had, but two were quite good and two were simply solid.

Dinner was quite good. Prices were $25-$30 dollars for most (second) courses. Most at our tables got a salad for an extra $9, which I passed. For dinner I had the "Roasted Organic Chicken Breast" with "goat cheese-wild mushroom stuffing, sauteed rapini, creamy polenta". It was very good with a good balancing of flavors that were neither too mild nor particularly strong. It was a decent size, but not tremendous.

Overall, the food was quite good, although not remarkable or unique. Because this was a birthday celebration with 4 plates of charcuterie, 4 plates of cheeses, a round of salads, a round of dinner, 2 rounds of wine, 1 champagne round (may have been on the house), and a round of shots, plus paying for the birthday celebrant's share, and my $9 beer at the bar, the bill was quite hefty. Still, I think that if one were to simply split a cheese or charcuterie plate, have (only) a second course, and keep the drinks to one or two a piece, you could escape for around $50 per person.

Cava Mezze (Capital Hill / Eastern Market)

527 8th St SE, Washington DC 20003 (also has a Rockville location)
http://dc.cavamezze.com/home

I had heard about Cava Mezze from an acquaintance who is a regular at one of my regular bars. The restaurant did not disappoint. Although my experience was rushed because I was running late and had to make another event, the mezze that I ordered was outstanding. Also, the atmosphere was quite nice as well. Dark, long room, with nice wood decor. Also a nice outdoor area, although it was in the 90's so we ate inside.

Because of our press for time, the hostess recommended that we order non-meat dishes. The Washingtonian review that I looked at just before heading out had recommended: Spicy lamb sliders; watermelon salad w/ feta & mint; pork souvlaki; meatballs in tom sauce; avgolemono soup; disco fries; Greek yogurt w/honey & walnuts; loukoumades (Greek donuts). We didn't get any of that. In fact, some of it was not on the menu anymore. Instead we ordered: Grilled Haloumi cheese (with mint), Tyropita (dodonis feta, goat cheese, phyllo), Crazy Feta (dodonis feta & whipped jalapeno), and Eggplant Dip. I listed these in order of amazingness. The first three were really close with a gap before the merely quite good eggplant dip. The portions for mezze weren't as small as some I have seen around DC, so splitting four of them between two people filled up my date and left me satisfied - all the cheese was pretty rich. Also, as I closed the menu, I spied a Cherry Mojito. It was pretty darn good.

Anyway, I was disappointed in Yanni's Greek Taverna and have yet to make it to a Greek place in Old Town that I've heard about, so this place is clearly my favorite Greek place in D.C. Heck, I'll put it above those in Chicago as well and I suspect it even bests my favorite Greek place in St. Louis. More significantly, this is probably the best small dish restaurant I have had in D.C., with the Lebanese Taverna in Woodley Park being the next best. And yes, I have eaten at Jaleo, Zaytina, and most of the Penn Quarter places, even if I didn't rate them here.

Also mentioned briefly in my European section.

Update:
I stopped by Cava Mezze again. While waiting for my friend I tried a Dark and Stormy. It is a rare drink for me, so I am far from a good judge, but it was okay. I'd stick with the Cherry Mohijo. Anyway, the point of this update is the food. We had the Haloumi (again), the Lamb Sliders, Orzo, Tomato Meatballs, and Disco Fries. I might look up exactly what each of these was comprised of later, but the Lamb Sliders were fantastic, the Orzo (pasta shaped like large grains of rice) was quite impressive, and the Disco Fries (basically fries with a tomato and cheese mix dumped on them like spaghetti) were also great. The Meatballs in Tomato sauce were tasty, but not as good as the other dishes. We were stuffed and with 2 drinks the bill came to a reasonable $63.53, so without drinks $47, which is reasonable considering we could have fed 3.

Update: Grill from Ipanema

I went back here again and as my text message update below indicates, I tasted another good dish. I actually ordered the Medalhao de File for myself, which is a medallion of beef tenderloin rolled in bacon with a wine mushroom sauce. The Medalho de File was absolutely devine and better than I remembered. It is one of my favorite D.C. dishes. My date's Bobo de Camaro, which I ate a good amount of, was good as well. It is hard to compare to the Medalho de File, but the Bobo id a solid option if you're feeling like a seafood soup-like curry dish. Again, the drinks were good, but nothing to come back for on their own.

Bobo de camaro @ Ipanea Grill, good, like yellow curry, shrimp, quite large, drink batida de coco - solid, not spectular

For more on the Grill from Ipanema see my Brazilian section

La Tasca (Clarendon location)

I went here with a large group. We ordered the least expensive group plan (I was late and did not do the ordering.) The food was rather good. Some cheese bread was pretty good. The fried eggplant was great. Some meatballs in red sauce were pretty good, but nothing special. The desserts were quite good as well. The sangria was acceptable, but I've certainly had better. Overall, the food was decent and it wasn't too expensive for a large party. We were up on the 3rd floor, which was quite noisy, but had cool decor.

Cheesetique

2411 Mt. Vernon - also see update HERE

This is a cheese store with a small restaurant & wine bar in back.

On a Thursday, there was long wait for a table or spot at the bar for only two people. Fortunately, we spent the time looking at the cheese and buying some.

We ordered 3 cheeses with the Orange Fig Spread as an optional "Accompaniment". We had one soft cheese, one salty, and one fruity. They were pretty good, but not great. I prefer them being stronger. After that we got some flatbread or crostini or something. It was covered in cheese and it was pretty good. The wines - I had two white wines were solid, but not great. (Sauvignon Blanc Ponga ‘09 White Burgundy Vigneron Réunis ‘07 France).
Price wasn't too bad as cheese platters tend to be expensive.
Overall, it was a nice place, something a bit different and intimate, but not a top favorite - although I was pretty impressed by the cheese on sale, so I'll go back for that.

Sei

444 7th St. NW.

Original review:
About a week ago I dined at Sei, a sushi restaurant recommended by both a former coworker and the Washingtonian, which listed Sei at #68 in its top 100 restaurants.

My experience was quite good. In fact, I am willing to proclaim Sei my favorite DC sushi restaurant. Sei has several unique and creative offerings in both their sushi and their drinks. The execution of these creations is also quite good. Meanwhile, the price is not exorbitant with most rolls close to if not at $10. My date and I had 5 rolls and we didn't finish them, so you should be able to satisfy your sushi craving for about $40 of rolls. The drinks are pricier and have a temptingly long list of expensive wines and cocktails. The cocktails are worth trying, even if many of them are heavy with cucumber.

The decor is nice, upscale, and dark. Sei is a larger restaurant, but breaks the spaces into subsections to create a smaller feel. The downside is the noise. We had a window seat and even though it was probably on the edge of the noise, it was still noisy and difficult to hear our server.

Anyway, the specific dishes I had were:
Triple Tuna Roll: not unique, but a very good rendition
S.O.S. Roll: very fruity with strawberry & oranges and such. Good, but hard to tell it was sushi.
Fish & Chips Roll: Very good.
Snow White Roll: Eel and roasted apple, very good.
Smokey Eel Nagati: good, but nothing special.

Between us we had two drinks, the Silver Samurai and the Liquid Wasabi. Both were quite good, with the Samurai a refreshing cucumber based drink that seemed more appropriate for summer and the Wasabi having a lovely kick. I'd recommend the Wasabi.

For more sushi places see my Sushi post

Update: I dined at Sei again recently and I again came away impressed. The Snow White and the Fish & Chips rolls were excellent again, as was the other roll we tried, but the name is escaping me at the moment. I believe it was a less original roll though. My drink, some kind of blueberry concoction, was very, very good.


Update: Yet another trip to Sei, and again a good time. The restaurant was practically empty around 6pm on a Saturday, but had filled up by the time we finished dining. I definitely enjoyed the lower noise levels and less burdened servers. The selections this time were:
Surf N. Turf Roll, Albacore Roll, Snow White Roll, and Fish & Chips Roll.
I had not had the Surf N. Turf and Albacore before, but both were quite good, especially the Surf N. Turf, which, if I remember right, was lobster and kobi beef. The drinks (Japanese Mojito and Zen Collins) were quite good as always at Sei.

Eat First

I stopped for lunch at Eat First, another one of the many H Street Chinatown Chinese places. I ordered General Tsao's Chicken, which is not really the best dish to judge an authentic Chinese restaurant on, but nonetheless, it was decent to solid, but not special. The main selling point was that it was very inexpensive, just $4.50 or something like that, with other lunch options as low as $3.25. The portion size was ample with plenty of rice and free tea. The atmosphere and decor were pretty typical of a cheap Chinese place. Service was quick. I've had better Chinese on this block, but if you want a cheap lunch, Eat First isn't a bad option.

Lauriol Plaza

1835 18th St. NW

As I stated in my "restaurants I should note here", almost everyone I've talked to in D.C. is familiar with Lauriol Plaza.  So much so, that I need not go on and on here, but seeing as I just reviewed Alero, I should note Lauriol.  Most conversations about D.C. Mexican food quickly arrive at the same conclusion: Mexican in D.C. is disappointing, except Lauriol.

Lauriol is usually packed; however, Snowmageddon served as excellent cover for me to sneak an out-of-town friend into Lauriol.  It also helped that his hotel was nearby.  Lauriol was not busy at all.  Not dead, but not busy.

First, the chips were rather good.  Not spectacular, but slightly better than Alero's.  My swirl margarita was good, but not as good as whatever crazy specialty margarita I ordered at Alero the week before.

I ordered beef fajitas with cheese and sour cream (extra).  Our food arrived almost as soon as we had ordered it.  I guess when you're used to being packed, you can whip it out quickly when the house isn't even close to full.  Quality did not seem to be sacrificed as the fajitas were delicious.  They are comparable to Uncle Julio's Chicago location, although the edge goes to Uncle Julio's as still the best restaurant fajitas I have ever had (also known as Rio Grande here in D.C., although I have not yet been to a D.C. location).  My friend also had beef fajitas.  Prices were good, with most in $10 to $17 range.

As for decor and atmosphere.  We sat on the first floor by the windows on the far end.  My back was to the windows, but my friend really enjoyed the view of Snowmageddon's early stages.  Although I really like the 3rd floor, I really liked the atmosphere and decor of the first floor as well.  

Alero

Although I did not think to review it on here at any point prior to this, I have eaten at 3 of Alero's D.C. locations: Cleveland Park, U Street, and Dupont Circle.  As one might guess, my not remembering them means that they were not especially memorable, although the company in each instance was.

Alero (Dupont Circle location) - 1724 Connecticut Ave NW

Recently I ate at the Dupont Circle location.  The chips and salsa were good.  Nothing special, but not bad.  I started with some kind of specialty frozen margarita with some blackberry liquor or something in it.  I can't find it in their on-line menu.  It was very good and others followed suit.

The meal itself was disappointing.  I ordered beef enchiladas.  They weren't bad, but they were bland and almost watery tasting.  No zing from any spiciness, not much flavor from the cheese, no savoriness from the meat.  Just kind of unobjectionable enchiladas.

The scene and ambiance pretty good.  The Dupont Circle location is a long, somewhat dark, narrow room with interior brick.  Our party sat in a somewhat hidden enclave at the back of the restaurant.  The enclave was a bit tight, not just for a party of our size, but for anyone who wants to sit across from each other.  Still, it was nice.

The other locations:

Alero (U Street location) - 1301 U Street NW

It has been a while, but I remember ordering something a bit more interesting and less common than an enchilada.  I believe that I remember a similar result though: acceptable, but not exciting food.  Also, I think that my margarita was pretty good.  Again, the physical restaurant was pretty good.  We ate outside in Alero's large enclosed area out front and it was fun.  Based on this location's proximity to me, the good margaritas, and the outdoor area, it seems like a fun place to get together for a happy hour during the summer - but perhaps not to impress anyone with the food.

Alero (Cleveland Park location) - 3500 Connecticut Ave NW

Okay, I last visited this location 3 years ago.  I don't know if I had anything other than the free chips and a margarita.  Again, the margarita was good and the chips were solid.  The location is smaller and less done-up than the others.  It's more of a niche.

Asian Spice

717 H St. NW

The sushi here was quite good. The prices were about $6-$8 for basic rolls and $12-$16 for special rolls. We ordered the Chesapeake Roll ($16), Beach Boy Roll ($12), Eel & Avocado ($7.50), Salmon Roll ($5.50), California Roll ($5.50), and the Philly Roll ($7). The special rolls (Chesapeake & Beach Boy) were quite good, although the Chesapeake is probably not worth the extra $4.

I also ordered two beers off of what was a surprising good beer list. I ordered Paulaner Salvator and a Schlenkerla smoked beer - two of my favorites - both in bottles ($6.50 & $9 respectively).

The downstairs seemed busy and a bit noisy, but we ate upstairs, which was a smaller space with good decor suitable for a nice date.

For more sushi places see my Sushi post