BLT Steak Bistro Laurent Tourondel

BLT Steak Bistro Laurent Tourondel
1625 Eye Street
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 689-8999
www.bltsteak.com

Rating: 4

BLT Steak Bistro is an elegant restaurant in the same category as Morton's or Ruth's Chris. Its located just a couple of blocks from the White House in DC. My wife and I dined on a Tuesday night. The restaurant was filled with mostly "suits" having expense account dinner meetings. The atmosphere is sophisticated with the usual steakhouse leather chairs and booths. The menu offers a great variety of seafood and steak with the usual a` la carte sides. The wine list also the usual extensive and expensive. We ordered partly from the evening chef's specials and from the menu. I started with a simple but delicious iceberg mini wedge salad topped with bacon, blue cheese, and thousand island dressing. The salad was generous enough that we split the appetizer along with the complimentary warm cheese pop-overs. For the entree we chose from the menu. My wife ordered the Braised Short Ribs. The sizeable rib was served in a kettle-like dish simmering in a wine sauce. The meat was delicious and falling off the bone. Definitely one of my favorite meat dishes I've ever experienced. I ordered a standard 16 oz New York Strip. This dish was everything I would expect from a high end steak house. It was cooked perfectly and delicious. BLT Steaks come with a variety of sauces to choose from. I chose the peppercorn, BLT's signature BBQ, and 3 mustards. For sides my wife chose artichoke hearts and english peas topped with pecorino cheese and pancetta from the Chef's specials. This dish was very good. I'm not a huge fan of artichoke but I really enjoyed this mix. I'm a purist when I eat steak so of course I ordered a side of onion rings. Dinner was fabulous and filling so we skipped dessert. I guess we'll just have to go back and explore this part of the menu. I highly recommend BLT and will definitely be back.

Joe's Noodle House

Joe's Noodle House
1488 Rockville Pike #C
Rockville, MD
www.joesnoodlehouse.com
Rating 3.5

Another Sunday and another outing with the family.  Our excursion took us up the daunting if not dreaded Rockville Pike.  We had to make the trip worthwhile so we planned to lunch on some ethnic cuisine that Rockville has to offer.  Joe's Noodle house is that and more.  It is a small trip to a Hong Kong Noodle house.  When we arrived we were clearly outnumbered by the Chinese speakers, a welcome feeling in any Asian eatery.  The Noodle House is not elegant, nor is it meant to be, but the food is authentic.  After being seated, laminated menus were passed out.  As promised on the website, it will take you months to get through every dish! But the menu is only the regular fare, look above the counter where owner mans the cash register. Fresh dishes are scrawled in English and Chinese with their price.  You place your order at the counter, pay and wait for delivery at the table.  The ordering experience is the exact opposite of the Seinfeld Soup-Nazi episode.  The staff answered questions and actually help modify our selections to suit our seasoned but non-native tastes.  Fast service does not mean brusk at the Noodle house.  The entire waitstaff really look like they are enjoying themselves and are helpful. Be careful, the portions are generous and the flavors intoxicating... we over ordered. We started with turnip cakes and cold sesame noodles.  Both were great, but a small note about the noodles.  They are not those cloying peanut butter noodles you may have grown accostumed to. These are the real deal: sesame through and through... A MUST! We had scallion pancakes to ease the heat of the fish and soft tofu hot pot. The kids were steered toward edemame and shrimp that they devoured. We are firm beleivers in a well balanced diet so we ordered seasonal chinese greens with garlic from the board behind the counter. We enjoyed it all but as you might imagine we over ordered. We took the remainder home after cracking open the requisite fortune cookies. Joe's Noodle House is a great find!

Rasika

This week I had a meeting downtown with some visitors from elsewhere...Nashville. Desperate for some ethnic cuise we went to the new "Bombay" bistro: Rasika. Billed as a modern indian cuisine with almost a tapas like menu we were intrigued. The Rasika syndicate includes the Bombay Club as well as Bardeo and others. The decor was as modern as DC gets and t was nie. The staff was very knowledgeable and helpful. A very nice opener to a meal. We order a series of smaller dishes to get a sense of the place. We started with the Palak Chaat. All I can say is ORDER THIS! This crispy spinach construction with dates and yogurt is probably one of the more original dishes I have eaten in a long time. The crispy bright green leaves have a new nutty flavor when added to the dates is almost mediterranean. I did not know spinach could be this good. Popeye would be taken aback: no greay green limp mush here. The other items included a mixed grill where the tandori chicken was a standout. The lamb was good but not as flavorful as one would hope. The aromatic lamb flavor was hidden in the masala. The salmon was delicious but still the yardbird was the best. We ordered and okra dish as well. Here is the test: can thy make okra without that gluey stuff hiding the herbaceous flavor of okra. They did so beautifully. I am a sucker for saag paneer. Unfortunately they had none at Rasika but, we had the crispy spinach so if there was a paneer dish I could have my craving mollified. Lucky for me they have a velvety ochre dish of Paneer Shaslik. It was great! Having lived in little India in NYC I am familiar with the over sweetened almost resin like desserts of Indian restaurants. I was encouraged by the lack of red velvet and Ravi Shankhar wafting from the speakers. This place will do some updated spicy or savory version of Gulab Jamun. I was disappointed. We were steered away from the those little honey balls that are reminiscent of Dunkin' Donut munchkin's slathered in honey. I had the apple jalabe. I was unimpressed but the heirloom mango with cardamom ice cream was a suitable ending. It was an updated traditional ending. Rasika was delicious I will go back. They care about their ingredients and it shows.

Rasika
633 D Street NW
Washington DC
202-637-1222
www.rasikarestaurant.com
Three Stars