Merry Christmas 2011 - Call To Action

A very Merry Christmas to everyone! In case anyone was interested in what Anita and I want for Christmas, we'd like for our readers to suggest their favorite restaurants for us to review. That's right folks, all you have to do is comment below with the name of the restaurant and we will try our very hardest to dine there and then write a review. This is your call to action. I wonder anyone is actually going to post a comment. Perhaps in a vain attempt to solicit a comment, I'm going to guarantee that we review the very first restaurant that someone recommends (assuming the restaurant is located in the DC metro area).

Wu's Garden

Wu's Garden Restaurant
418 Maple Avenue East
Vienna, VA 22180
www.wusgardenrestaurant.com

Let me start out this review by apologizing for being later on this week's posting.  There should be another post by the end of the week to make up for the delay.  Now on to the review.

I had driven past Wu's Garden almost every evening on the way  home from work.

Interior Decor

I was very enticed to try this restaurant.  I finally got the opportunity to eat there for lunch with Anita on a Saturday.  The parking lot looked empty as we pulled in.  We thought they may not be open for lunch, turns out they were in fact open they just didn't have a lot of customers.  We walked in to only find one other table of diners.  I was very excited and had high hopes upon seeing the interior decor.  I thought I had found my new go to Chinese Restaurant.

Ornate Ceiling

Anita and I or dered hot and sour soup and wonton soup to start.  The soup came out and it looked like some nice standard bowls of chinese soup. 

Hot and Sour Soup

The hot and sour soup was just blah.  It didn't have the heat or sourness to actually make it hot and sour.  The wonton soup was surprisingly (in a not so good way) different. 

Wonton Soup

The wontons looked liked typical and the broth was rich and and dark.  Apparently, the darkness came from the addition of miso paste, which left us searching for the tofu and seaweed that one would find in miso soup.  That left us confused, were we at a japanese restaurant eating miso soup or were we eating in a chinese restaurant eating wonton soup?  After we finished our soups the bowls were cleared from the table and out came our entrees.

Steamed Rice with Fried Egg

I ordered the hunan chicken as I always do and Anita got the triple delight.  What I was most shocked by was the steamed rice.  It had egg in it!  I'm used to having either plain white rice or in the fancier establishments jasmine rice. 

Hunan Chicken

I was not expecting to see egg tainting my bowl of rice!  The dishes were supposed to come with steamed white rice not something that reminded me of fried rice.  The triple delight was void of a sauce.  It seemed like only steamed vegetable with the trifecta of beef, chicken, and shrimp.  It was simply boring!  The hunan chicken had a sauce but it was a sweet black bean sauce without much heat.  I guess a typical hunan chicken may use a  base of black beans but this was very apparent!The vegetable assortment was also boring.  Seemed to be comprised of primarily broccoli. 

Triple Delight

I was hoping for more carrots, baby corn, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots.

The verdict?  Don't bother stopping by Wu's Garden.  While the interior looked promising, the food definitely left something to be desired.  I guess the search will continue for that go to chinese restaurant in Northern Virginia.

Crawfish in DC

Hot n Juicy
2651 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
http://www.hotnjuicycrawfish.com/

Mild Louisiana Flavor Crawfish

When one thinks of crawfish they probably think about New Orleans and not Washington, D.C.  Others might immediately think of crawfish's infamous nicknames: "mud bugs."  Just to set the record straight, crawfish can be had in our very own District of Columbia and I am referring to the crustaceans and not the other various types "mud bugs" that can be found in the city.  One doesn't have to travel all the way to the Big Easy to find crawfish, but just how good could crawfish in DC really be?


I have never been to Louisiana so I am definitely not the creole expert but I have been able to sample crawfish from many places over the years.

Oysters

The crawfish here were in fact hot and juicy, but it may have been too much of a good thing.  We ordered 2 pounds of crawfish - one pound was mild Louisiana flavor and the other pound was medium hot n juicy flavor. 

Large Crawfish with Monster Claws

2 pound orders come with corn and potatoes.  The corn was soggy from being cooked with the crawfish.  The potatoes were boiled redskin potatoes.  The crawfish tails were so juicy that the meat was downright mushy.  I believe this might be from overcooking the crawfish.  I really didn't care for the hot and juicy flavor.  The garlic flavor was way too overpowering. 

Cajun Fries

The best part of the meal were the cajun fries because they were nice a thick, just like I like em.  I found it really strange that the waitress warned us that the cajun fries were spicy.  You do need to be careful about heat levels for the crawfish themselves.  The medium heat was spicy.  I've heard from others that anything beyond medium is going to be practically unbearable unless you really like spicy food.  The fries weren't too spicy, what were spicy were the actual crawfish.  The oysters were blah.  They weren't the most flavorful oysters that I've ever eaten and we didn't get sick so they were just ok.  The prices were just slightly more than what you'd pay for the crawfish in Eden Center (I'm not sure of any other restaurant that also serves seasoned crawfish).

Dumb Waiter

The restaurant can accomodate a lot of people and they offer free refills on soda and they have a nice bottles beer selection.  The wait staff are attentive to refilling the drinks because they know that all the cajun spice can make the plastic soda cups go empty very fast.  The kitchen is located in the basement so they use a dumb waiter to bring food upstairs into the dining area.  That's pretty ingenious if you ask me.


The Verdict?  Save the drive into the District of Columbia and stop by Eden Center in Falls Church (just be careful in the parking lot).  The crawfish in Eden might not be as big as Hot and Juicy, but they are tastier and ever so slightly cheaper.

Breakfast Sandwiches at Panera Bread

Panera Bread
5857 Leesburg Pike # D
Falls Church, VA 22041-2324
www.panerabread.com

Exterior of Panera Bread in Falls Church

Occasionally if the morning traffic was a little lighter than usual I would stop in at Panera Bread for breakfast.  I have always enjoyed the Jalapeno and Cheddar Bagel Breakfast Sandwich.  The slight spiciness of the bagel along with the perfect saltiness from the ham and the real egg all bonded together with the melted cheddar cheese made it the perfect way to start off your day.  I had been hearing the tantalizing radio commercials the Steak and Egg sandwich and assumed that it would be as good as the Jalapeno and Cheddar Bagel Breakfast Sandwich. 

Steak and Egg Breakfast Sandwich

Unfortunately it was terrible.  The meat was chopped up into small pathetic tiny gray pieces that had no flavoring at all.  I really don't know how they can get away with calling the meat "steak."  A little seasoning would have been a step in the right direction, but the meat itself was just bad.  The white Vermont cheddar had a weird consistency to it.  The white cheddar was nothing like the yellow cheddar on the Jalapeno and Cheddar Bagel Breakfast Sandwich.  Oh yeah, on one such visit I wanted to get some coffee to go along with my samwitch.  I was dismayed and astonished to learn that they somehow didn't have any more lids for the to go coffee cups.  A cup of steaming hot coffee without a lid is risky business.  I couldn't believe that they had such poor inventory management that they could run out of lids.  I emailed Panera to complain about the situation and they were nice enough to offer me some coupons for my inconvenience.  It was a nice gesture, but they never should have run out of lids in the first place.  The last time that I went they had the lids back in stock.

The Verdict?  Stay away from the Steak and Egg Sandwich but please do try the Jalapeno and Cheddar Bagel Breakfast Sandwich.