Need recs for a birthday celebration

We are celebrating the birthday for someone who is coming down from NYC who works in the fine dining industry up there and is a major foodie. Any suggestions as to where we should go here, in the city somewhere? Already tried Volt, Minibar, Komi and Cityzen - all booked. Anything along those lines?

Thanks!

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Komi
1509 17th St NW Ste 1, Washington, DC 20036

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Good hearty soups?

Is there a place here, particularly in the close-in MoCo, that primarily just serves soups? I'm thinking along the lines of those places in NYC, like Hale & Hearty Soups, where there's like 10 flavors to pick from each day.

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

What's the best Chinese-style bakery in the area?

I am really missing the fantastic Chinese bakeries back in LA, especially the Taiwanese ones. What I've tried here just doesn't even compare so far. I thought I'd ask the crowd here and see if any gems turn up that I haven't tried or heard of yet. Thus far, I've had the buns from Maria's in Rockville as well as the bakeries in the two Chinese supermarkets in Rockville - I think that would be Kam San and Maxim's? I've also tried stuff from Shilla bakery in Rockville as well as the bakery in the huge Lotte supermarket up in Germantown - both had buns that looked great but tasted so dry and artificial as to almost be inedible.

Is there anything I'm missing, even in VA? If it's really fantastic, I'd be willing to drive out there.

Thanks in advance for any recs.

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Anti-fans of Joe's Noodle House?

Oh! And one more thing - also wanted to say that it's not necessarily LA-style Chinese food I love. My favorite is probably Vancouver actually, which I think is even better than Hong Kong (blasphemy! :). Sorta like how a lot of my Korean friends think that Korean food in LA is even better than Korean food in Korea because here in the US, they are more generous with the meat and use higher quality meats and veggies.

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Anti-fans of Joe's Noodle House?

First of all, thanks for such an interesting discussion on this thread. As a relative newcomer to the area and this board, it's great to see all the different opinions.

I think my dissent with Joe's and some other places around here are similar to tdonline's. I don't really care that much about authenticity (hey, I grew up in the US, it's not like I'm THAT familiar with the real food back in China anyway) as I do about general tastiness. I found that a lot of the stuff I ordered at Joe's was overcooked (the pork liver dish for example - super tough and chewy, not tender as it should be, also a vegetarian duck whose tofu parts were dry and old and overall bland) or just not good quality (we ordered a duck blood dish, which is supposed to be nicer, smoother, and more expensive than pig's blood, but we could tell from the texture that it was more actually pig's blood or at least, very poor quality ducks' blood). At some other places, it's also just the poor quality thing (went to the new Shabu Shabu place from the folks at Bob's and the meat was such poor quality AND they were super chintzy with it). I also did used to think that a lot of Chinese people at a Chinese restaurant was a good sign, but have since begun to think like tdonline as well. When there aren't a lot of choices, where else are you going to go?

For flavrmeistr, enjoy your trip to LA! I'm jealous! Definitely try out Ding Tai Fung in Arcadia for xiao long bao's (but you have to go early when they open at 10:30/11:00am or you'll wait FOREVER), Dai Wo (which I believe is in San Gabriel) for excellent dan dan mian, gan ban mian, and this dish I don't know what it's called in English but it's a mix of tripe/stomach, firm tofu, cilantro and hot red oil. Go get bubble tea and some Taiwanese snacks at the various Lollicup chains throughout the area (others will disagree as people are very opinionated about their favorite bubble tea place, but that's mine!) And my favorite dim sum is at this place on Valley Blvd (either San Gabriel or Monterey Park, right near where the two cities meet) in the same strip mall as the Hawaii supermarket (it's a huge Chinese supermarket and the strip mall isn't that big, and this is the largest restaurant in that strip mall, the name has something with 8's in it, i think). If you want some Chinese breakfast, get up early to the 99 Ranch supermarket in Arcadia and go to the prepared food stand outside of the checkout lines and get their sticky rice roll with the fried doughnut inside. When it's fresh, it's FANTASTIC. In general, head to the Monterey Park/San Gariel area or the Hacienda Heights/Roland Heights area for concentrated pockets of Chinese places. I'm sure there's great places in OC too, but I'm not familiar with that area. Have fun eating and let me know if you got to try any of these suggestions!

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Anti-fans of Joe's Noodle House?

I love spicy food so typically do love Szechuan-style Chinese food. The red-oil dumplings and dan dan mian in particular. (Wait, are Szechuan and Sichuan the same? It's the American part of the Chinese American coming out in me, as you pronounce these the same in Chinese, but I've never quite figured out if they're the same but with different Romanization spellings) However, I'm just a fan of Chinese food overall, from Cantonese dim sum to Shanghainese xiao long bao (which I've long given up on finding anything that compares to Ding Tai Fung and others in LA - even Joe's Shanghai in NYC doesn't quite cut it) and stir-fried rice cakes to Hainanese chicken rice to the unique dishes of the Suzhou area, the Hong Kong style seafood restaurants to Taiwanese food which also has its own distinct dishes and style. A&J's I believe is originally from Taiwan as the chain originated out there and gradually spread through California and then to the East Coast, but they definitely aren't exclusively Taiwanese food.

Love all sorts of Chinese food had just been hoping to add Joe's to my rotation. Shocked by how terrible it was and was hoping to find others who thought similar and had alternatives to suggest! :)

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Anti-fans of Joe's Noodle House?

I bet I'll get flamed for this, but is there anyone out there other than me who doesn't like Joe's Noodle House (and is afraid to speak up :)? This board seems to be full of people who rave about the place so I thought I'd give it another shot after trying it once a year or so ago and not liking anything I'd ordered (I'm Chinese American and grew up on fabulous Chinese food in California, just to give some perspective, but I find A&J's here to be great).

This time, we had a party of 6, all Chinese Americans, and ordered about 15 or so dishes. I can honestly say that nobody had more than a single try of any one dish. They were all so terrible it seemed a waste of stomach space to put any more food in there. Granted, Joe's has lots of exotic dishes you can't seem to find anywhere else around here, but exotic doesn't equal good. They were all prepared so terribly with such low quality ingredients that I was embarrassed I had suggested the place to my friends. I mean, it wasn't even just that the food was OK and not wonderful the way we'd expected it to be based on reviews - the food was actually terrible! I would say definitely some of the worst Chinese food I've ever had! Can I honestly have ordered all the wrong dishes yet again???

Please tell me I'm not the only one out there who thinks Joe's is disgusting?

vgaw98 in Washington DC & Baltimore Area