Culinary Observations from Our Trip: Washington DC

We just got back from our 5 day trip to Washington DC. I could compose quite a long post about all the sights we saw, but it's the food that matters, right? It doesn't seem like Washington is known for anything in particular, however when we were there, the city was celebrating their Cherry Blossom Festival so many restaurants we went to had special cherry themed dishes and drinks. Other than that, the only other item that was often on the menu was oysters (which I never tried).

We left on Easter Sunday so we ran into a couple of issues when trying to find lunch on the road. We were on the highway in rural PA and finding that most restaurants even ones like Burger King and Subway were closed. We stopped in Tyrone, PA which in pretty much in the middle of the state near Altoona. We ate at a place called D'Ottavio Italian House (no website, 3 locations...I just added it on Urbanspoon). They had an Easter dinner special where you could get turkey or ham with mashed potatoes or stuffing, vegetable, salad and a scoop of ice cream for $11.99. Patrick, our friend Bob and I ordered the dinner special. I was just ecstatic to have ham, which is probably my favorite dinner meat. It turned out to be gross. Some ham pieces were fine, but others were overcooked, the (frozen)vegetables were very mushy and I thought Patrick's stuffing was the worst! Even the ice cream was a little gross. For dinner, we walked to Elephant and Castle (http://www.elephantcastle.com/). The restaurant is similar to a Gordon Biersch. I ordered the meatloaf with double green beans (bad picture):

It was very good especially the green beans! The service could've been better but it was holiday and there weren't too many servers.

Our hotel was across the street from a Starbucks so we ate/got a drink from there every morning. The boys got granola with fruit and coffee/milk and us girls got coffee/specialty coffee drinks.

For lunch on Monday, we ate at Potbellys (http://www.potbelly.com), which was also across the street from our hotel. Potbellys has soups and sandwiches. I built my own tuna sandwich and had a cup of spicy southwest vegetable soup. It was just ok, the soup was creamy which I didn't expected. I tend to like brothy soups. Everyone else liked their food. For dinner, we ate at Georgia Browns (http://www.gbrowns.com/), which our friends had been to and liked it. The food was very good...

Louisiana "Devil" Shrimp with Collard Greens

Blah, blah...the highlight of the dinner is that when we arrived, this man was leaving:

My biggest regret is that I didn't ask for a picture!!

On Tuesday, we took the advice of our legislator's intern (who is also from Buffalo) and went to We the Pizza (http://www.wethepizza.com/), which he said was the best pizza in the DC area. I was not crazy about it...the crust was definitely the issue. Everyone else liked theirs and I admit it could've been my pizza because I was the only one who ordered white pizza (they all ordered cheese and pepperoni) and half of the time I don't like the white (but when you get a good one, it is always worth it!).

For dinner, I met with my family who lives in DC and went to Gordon Biersch that just opened by them. We have a location here so food was fine and the waitress was very friendly. They still have a couple of opening kinks to work out still.

On Wednesday, we went to the other place that the intern suggested called the Good Stuff Eatery (http://www.goodstuffeatery.com/). It is burgers, fries and shakes. I got a burger, fries and a Milky Way malt. The burger was good but greasy, the fries mushy (I didn't mind) and the shake was very good. For dinner, we went to the 701 Restaurant (http://701restaurant.com/). The salmon which Patrick and I both ordered was phenomenal. It was the best salmon of recent memory.

Scottish Salmon with soy oil, bok choy and water chestnuts

 For dessert, we went to a place called FrozenYo (http://frozenyo.com/). Our friend had been there before and loved it. They have several locations in the city and surrounding areas, but none around here. It was delicious. I had 4 different flavors: cake batter, mint chocolate, chocolate, and banana cream with a couple different toppings like M&Ms, Oreo bits, fudge. You pay by the weight.

Thursday was our "Virginia" day. We went to Arlington National Cemetery and old town Alexandria. By the time we got to Alexandria, we were famished. We stopped at a place called Asian Bistro (http://asiabistrova.com/). We were banking on quick arrival of food so we ordered appetizers. The girls shared calamari and the boys each ordered crab wontons. I don't like crab wontons so I didn't try them but everyone else thought they were good. The calamari was also good but I didn't like the dipping sauce. Entrees were very standard. We were shocked when the bill came and it was $80!

Calamari

My hunan chicken...not very spicy!

Lo Mein

Sesame Chicken

We had a late dinner because we had gone on a walking tour that didn't end til around 8:30. We stopped at Old Ebbitt Grill. I ordered a cup of chili which was a little spicy and the chicken "cherryaki". The chicken was very tender, but the rice was too mushy. The "cherrytaki" sauce was good for the meat but it tasted weird with the rice. For dessert, we shared the chocolate layer cake with a raspberry sauce.

 

On Friday, my uncle had gotten us a tour of the Supreme Court so we ate at their cafeteria. It was very much "cafeteria" food...nothing special although Patrick liked his panini quite a bit. For dinner we were on the road so we ate at a Pizza Hut in Breezewood, PA.

 

Overall, all of our food experiences in DC were positive...YUM!