Cosi

Cosi

Somewhere Near You (East Coast, Mid-Atlantic, CA, TX, FL)

My Rating: 4/5

I know it's a chain but I've eaten here a couple times for lunch and I love it!  If I had a lunch budget - I would eat here a lot more!

What I've had:  (Photos are stock from their website - too hungry to take pictures!)

• Wheat Flatbread - Hot and fresh from the oven - overall crunchy but still moist and tender in the middle.  Yum!
• Bacon Turkey Cheddar Melt - Served on their signature flatbread with a spicy honey mustard sauce.  They toast it just perfectly so it's not like you're eating a giant cracker sandwich - still tastes and feels like a sandwich.  Proportions of bacon, turkey and cheddar are just right.  I added some lettuce to mine - and it was divine!  I would warn you though - the spicy honey mustard has a kick to it.  Cleared up my sinuses but it was not too sweet and the mustard was definitely not watered down.
• Signature Salad - "Mixed greens, grapes, pears, pistachios, cranberries and gorgonzola."  All the fruit was fresh and cut to bite size pieces.  Dressing was a sweet vinaigrette.  I don't really like pungent cheeses like the gongonzola so that was a downside for me but overall the salad was delicious.
• Sesame bagel - I'm not a bagel expert but this was one crisp on the outside, moist on the side, lots of sesame.  I actually took it home and made a egg sandwich with it (yum).

Everytime I pass by there seems to be a new seasonal salad, soup or sandwich - nice to know they keep their menu fresh.  They also have flatbread pizzas and soups that I've yet to try - but with free wifi, plenty of seating and friendly staff - I'm sure I'll try their other menu selections soon.  

Price:  $7-9 for the entrees. Kind of pricey for me as I said, I don't have a lunch budget (just bring food from home.)  But I feel like it's worth it.

Tony Cheng's in Chinatown

Tony Cheng's Mongolian

619 H St NW

202-842-8669

My Rating: 1.5/5 

I usually tend to avoid "Chinese" food in Chinatown because the few times I've tried it, it was really subpar.  This time was no exception.  My parents joined an East Coast tour and the bus brought them to Tony Cheng's on recommendation from the tour guide (though I'm pretty sure he get some sort of kickback for bringing a busload of people to this shizhole they call a restaurant...)

Other reviews gave this place a pretty good rating - I think the different levels of the restaurant serve different food.  So, no, I didn't have the "Mongolian" style dinner - which I don't think counts anyway because you're the one seasoning it and putting the ingredients together - the only thing you have to review is whether or not they burnt your food and if the price was decent.

We had the preset menu for all tour buses.  My bad feeling about this place got worse as I walked upstairs and noticed all the tables waiting to be cleared with near-full plates.  It was like everyone on the top floor of Tony's went up in the rapture, leaving all their bad Chinese food behind.  AND I also want to add - that there is really no excuse for having that many uncleared tables.  It makes the restaurant seem dirty, lazy and of course - everyone could see how bad the food was by the amount left on the tables.

The empty tables around us featured classic Americanized dishes like sweet n sour pork,beef & broccoli, sesame chicken and eggrolls.  Our food turned out to be more traditional, so we must have gotten the "Chinese tour bus menu" versus the "white tour bus menu."  You know the food's bad when the American-Chinese food is inedible (there is only so much MSG can do for you, Tony.)

At any rate, onto the food we actually ate (or tried to).  Sorry, no pictures - my parents didn't want their tour bus peers to look at me funny.  (Though I did impress them by participating in their conversation in Chinese - they seemed to think us younguns all are too cool to talk to old Chinese folks)

• Seawood Soup - Had some tiny bits of chicken and seaweed in it.  Not bad but not impressive either.  
• "Ging go pai gwut" or some kind of ribs (sorry I couldn't figure out the English translation of this).  It's kind of like a sweet n sour sauce - but...more Chinese.  I don't know how else to explain it.  It's a staple for many Chinese restaurants - usually not a favorite of mine.  The ribs were way overcooked, leading to tough, jerky-like meat in an overly tangy sauce.
• Steamed Big-Head Shrimp- Usually a favorite dish of mine - break off the head, suck the juicy shrimp brains, then peal off the skin for a nice moist bite of shrimpy delight.  But this shrimp was definitely not fresh.  And there's different levels of "not fresh" for seafood.  There's "this fish has been out too long" kind of unfresh.  And then there's seafood where you can taste that it's been frozen.  Granted, most all seafood has been frozen but...it's like you can taste the freezer burn.  That's what this shrimp tasted like.  (There's also food that you can taste has been microwaved...but that's a different story.)
• Woked Lettuce with Oyster Sauce - I can make this.  I am concerned when restaurants serve food that I can cook - because thus far I am a terrible cook.  All they did was throw some lettuce in the wok with diluted oyster sauce and call it a dish.  Again - I can make this - enough said.
• Roasted Duck - Too salty, unchoice meat cuts.
• 4 Season String Beans - woked the string beans too long - a little on the tender side.  I like my string beans to be crisp when I bite into them.  Flavor was OK.
• Steamed Fish - Sorry didn't catch what kind of fish it was.  It was decent.  Hard to mess up traditional soy sauce, ginger, scallion steamed fish though.  I will say - this was fresh though (I saw it's brothers and sisters swimming in the tank downstairs).
• Rice - Yea, I'm going to review the rice because it was cheap Chinese fast-food rice usually reserved for barred-up takeout places that serve wings and fishsticks on its menu.  Tony Cheng's has pictures of Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton inside the restaurant - I don't know what rice they had, but I doubt it was this.

If you don't get the picture yet - don't eat here.  I know I got the fixed Chinese tourist menu - but I'm not going to give it the benefit of a doubt.  And if you are looking for "Mongolian BBQ" - go somewhere else please.  It's an insult to Mongolians and Chinese (and all other people) to eat here.

Service:  It's a Chinese place, I never expect much.  This was about the same as any other Chinese restaurant.  I was lucky I got a water refill.

Cost:  $15 a person including tax and tip - not bad.  But if you're looking for a cheap meal in Chinatown, $5-7 can get you a decent bowl of wonton noodles down the street at Full Kee or Jacky's.

Overall I give it s 1.5/5 - why not 1?  I'm saving that for places that are really dirty, have terrible service or make me sick.  :D

China Garden

So originally...there was to be a post a few weeks ago.  I spent a good amount of time on in it and my computer died and no - I didn't think to save it.  So now I've gotten over my frustration and have decided to dedicate my first post to the best meal I've had since moving to DC.

After scouring my iPhoto - I have decided that my penchant for taking food photos directly correlates with weight gain.  :D  

China Garden

Twin Towers - Mall Level

Rosslyn, VA 22209

703-525-5317

My Rating: 5/5 

Ok while it's technically not in DC - it IS metro accessible which is very important!  I came here with my parents and my dad's old high school friends.  Yes, HIGH SCHOOL - from Vietnam!  He hadn't seen one couple since he left high school, over 50 years ago.  Wow.

One of the couples knew the restaurant owner so we didn't even look at the menus.  The owner just said "OK I'll bring out my best since you have friend's in town."  

There were so many courses - I was too busy eating to take pictures of all of them.  Though, most of my food pics are rushed because I'm so excited to start eating!

From What I Remember: 

Crispy Scallops - not too battered, just crispy enough for texture, moist fresh scallops

Chicken & Mushroom Stirfry - not too greasy, just enough flavor - well done but in comparison to the other dishes, it didn't really stand out.

Leeks & Calamari - One of my favorites of the evening.  The sauce was really light and just a little bit sweet - but not to the point where you're like "WTFrak - why is my squid sweet?"  I don't like leeks at all, but I gladly ate all these - overall a very "情" dish.  (Clear~light)

Fried Tamarind Jumbo Shrimp - Another favorite.  It's fried well enough where you can eat the skin if you want (which I always do when I can - because I'm lazy like that - plus it keeps the flavor!)  You can't really go wrong with jumbo sized seafood - but add the tangy tamarind sauce to it and fry it up - delicious!

Black Bean Buffalo Fish? - I asked my parents what the name of the fish in English was - and I was told "buffalo fish".  Tastes like seabass - very slick, tender, juicy and the meat is a little bit sweet.  But I wasn't really a fan of the black bean action and there were way too many bones on this fish.  High maintenance!

Crispy Taro Duck - One of two best dishes of the night.  If you love taro (which I do) and duck (which I do) - you have to travel out to Rosslyn JUST for

 this dish.  It's Peking duck, with the skin on, deboned and topped with a taro puree, crispy taro puff and some sort of sauce.  Think those taro puffs you get at dimsum - but with duck attached to it.  The taro puree is a lot like mashed potato consistency.  I grabbed some and mixed it in my with rice for a nice taro-rice mashup.  (Get it...mash..up?!  Haha)

Crab Infused Rice - Number two of the best dishes of the night.  I got you with the word "infused" right?  It's such a catchy word ahah.  Anyway, they cook the rice with some crabby bits and crab juice.  Despite that, the rice is not too crabby - just slighty so.  It's served in the crab shell and the waiter scooped it out for us into bowls.  The leftover legs and claws were delicious as well.

Dessert - traditional Chinese mung bean & tapioca sweet soup & mung bean pastry.  Both not too sweet - but sweet enough to satisfy your sweet tooth.

I heard their dimsum is good too so I'm going back this weekend so stay tuned for the report.  

Well needless to say, I didn't pay for this decadent meal so I can't tell you how much it cost but from the website - it doesn't seem like prices are too bad (Avg cost of entree ~$11.00)

A Food Blog...Because I Eat..A Lot

Post one of many to come.  Many people often comment on how many pictures of food I take.  Inspired by Cyn's atasteofshanghai - I've decided to document my food adventures - one tasty morsel at a time.  Annnnd begin!