DC Restaurant Week: Lyon Hall

So I know I have a TON of posting left to do from CA (still haven't even gotten to the wine subject yet!) but I couldn't resist sharing a positively delightful experience from Clarendon last night.

HH was cancelled due to the Continental's propensity for massive flooding during a rainstorm, and the fact that it is basically the only bar in Rosslyn. So, we decided to check out a new place for Restaurant Week which I have been neglecting thus far this year. I had been hearing little snippets, all positive, about this new place in Clarendon called Lyon Hall, at the corner of Washington and Highland literally a block from the metro. (Also made the sad side-discovery that Clarendon Grill is closed? Or at least the windows are all covered in butcher paper.) Regardless. It was a GOOD IDEA.

Restaurant week this year is $35.10 for the set menu dinner, including app, entree and dessert (as always). However, THE R-WEEK MENU AT LYON HALL IS NOT SET. YOU GET TO PICK FROM THE ENTIRE MENU. (minus charcuterie). You pick one item from the left column (apps and salads), one item from the center column (entree, steaks or sausages) and one item from the right hand column (desserts!). Instead of 3 X 3 X 3 possibilities...I get 10 X 20 X 5??? The math is overwhelming!

G picked a Stella (classic but boring) but I picked the "Summer Set" flight of beers ($13) which included a seasonal (some kind of kolsch which the server described as "grassy" but didn't overwhelmingly taste like mowing the lawn), Früli Strawberry (a strange but true favorite of mine from my days sampling everything at the Dovetail), Allagash curieux (kind of a kick in the mouth, in a good way) and our fave of the bunch, the Yards IPA. Delicious!

"Summer Set" (L-R): Seasonal (kolsch), Strawberry, Allagash, IPA

On to the good stuff! Starters: Shrimp Cocktail (which unfortunately I can't eat), which came on a bed of ice with some kind of kelp-like substance and the world's tiniest bottle of Tabasco. We asked the waitress and she said the shrimp were from the Gulf. G said they didn't taste oily.

Please excuse the iPhone crap picture quality.

Plum Salad with little plum wedges, radish and duck prosciutto and lemon dressing. Yum!


Entrees: G got the Halibut which was crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside, and the menu said with "grilled peaches/snap peas/lemon balm sabayon."


I went out on a limb and got the Bockwurst with "lemon mustard-Bock Beer jus/spaetzle/carrot salad." Was not disappointed! Apparently all their sausages, charcuterie, chocolate and bread are made in-house. The sauce was fantastic, and mixed with the spaetzle was almost, ALMOST as good as my fave spaetzle at Leopold's in Georgetown. Carrot salad looked kind of like weird red-and-white ribbons and lent some crunch but not much else. Overall: DELISH!



Desserts were pretty good, but I was already pretty stuffed! G got the Chocolate Praline Cake (which had peanuts and I couldn't eat) that came with a nutella shooter (acc. to the waitress, nutella, heavy cream and ice) and I got the chocolate profiteroles. He said his was good, and mine wasn't too chocolatey - just how I like!

Profiteroles (AKA [ice] cream puffs)

Grown-up chocolate cake and chocolate milk?

Overall, a wonderfully pleasant experience and a great deal for Restaurant Week!

Johnny Garlic's: Kinda Meh

Urbanspoon failed me yet again (why do I even keep that app?) and by ACCIDENT we happened upon nor cal TV personality Guy Fieri's restaurant, Johnny Garlic's, in Santa Rosa, CA. (We had gotten a hotel nearby.)

Fairly nondescript exterior. Plenty of parking though!

And a rockstar interior! (no overpowering garlicky smell, unfort.)

We were pretty hungry for lunch but the interesting rotating wild game of the day was just bison (boring) -- and when you are tantalized with the possibility of rattlesnake or wild boar, not sure how you could settle for bison, which you can get just fine at Ted Turner's restaurants all over DC. Not wanting to totally ruin our palates before drinking copious amounts of wine, we opted for the lunch menu.

G got:

Tequila Lime Chicken Sandwich ($9.50) and garlic fries (+$1)

I got:

Bourbon Buffalo Meatloaf Sandwich ($11.50) and garlic fries (+$1)

Sandwiches were pretty good, ciabatta was soft and chewy, and who doesn't like fried onion things? Mine was nice and barbecue-y. The only thing that was disappointing was the garlic fries. Like, aren't those supposed to be a signature item at Johnny GARLIC's? They were drowning in olive oil which mixed with the powdered parmesan to form an unpleasant paste and made the fries soggy. Where were my little pieces of diced fresh garlic and parsley mixed in with extra crispy fries? The kind of garlic fries at Pluto's were the kind I grew up eating -- those are true nor cal garlic fries!

Overall, it was a decent meal, just kind of mass processed (kind of a bad thing) and full of Guy Fieri memorabilia (not a bad thing). There are just so many places to get amazing garlic fries (including the ones we got at AT&T Park in San Francisco for the Giants-Cubs game) in Nor Cal that it makes me sad that these particular ones are the ones representing us to the world on national television.

Guy, I love you and your nor cal pride, but you gotta step these things up a little!

This Week in California

Apologies for the radio silence, but we've been on vacation this week in California. Tons of pictures of delicious things to come! Below, a fruit tart from the Davis Farmers Market. YUM!

Ice Cream Club

Saw on a DC blog recently that a local chef was starting an ice cream club with new delicious flavors every week, for the month of August. If you know me at all, you would know that ice cream is my favorite food. I totally jumped at the opportunity.

Through yesterday's rain-and-windstorm, I made my way to the corner of 13th & Corcoran to pick up my quarry. My delicious, delicious quarry.



Haven't had a chance to try anything but the banana bread crunch, which was totally awesome. Real banana ice cream - none of that bright yellow Laffy Taffy fake stuff here - with crunchy chocolate covered things inside (banana bread?). Can't wait to try the rest when I return from vacation!

WongFirst: Rogue States

Forced the DC Trojans Social Committee to come to this burger place on Connecticut for our meeting, and I wasn't disappointed! I roll past this place on the bus every day on my way to work and I was sure curious.

I looked at the menu beforehand and it seemed like just another fancy burger joint - but everything was $7! (Fries not included.) Anything that looks that good for $7 is prob worth the trek up the hill into the wilds of Dupont. Check out the menu here.

I got the Rogue States burger ("house spice blend, chipotle, cilantro") recommended to me by the cashier ($7), sweet potato fries ($3.50) and a coke ($2). Cooked perfectly medium, the correct amount of spice (interesting but not mouth-burning), and the sweet potato fries were DELISH. I mixed up a little bit of their chipotle mayo, which tasted like smoky bacon, with ketchup and I had the best french fry sauce ever.

A bold interior design scheme.

Oooh pretty.

So you can get an idea of the sheer size of this thing.

To be fair, my dining companion's burger (ordered "pink") came totally, completely well done. She sent it back, and her second burger was, as she said, "mooing on the plate." I think it may have something to do with the fact that when I arrived first and ordered, there were only two other people in the restaurant, and it had gotten slightly busier once my friend arrived. Overall, worth a shot if you've never been, but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way for it. Except for the sweet potato fries if I had a hankering!