Flippin' Pizza - Definitely Not NYC Style Pizza

13916 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy, store 22
Chantilly, VA 20151
(703) 230-6920
www.flippinpizza.com

Half Cheese Half Sausage Pizza

I first learned of Flippin' Pizza when I drove by Sully Plaza in Chantilly and happened to see a Flippin' Pizza food truck in the parking lot. The truck really sparked my interest. The design on the truck and the name: "Flippin' Pizza" made me think of New York Style pizza. How could there possibly be a good New York Style pizza in the DC area and from a food truck no less? That cannot be!  It sounds too good to be true so I wanted to check this place out.

After many many missed opportunities we finally made it to the Flippin' Pizza in Sully Plaza, the same location where I drove by and saw the food truck.  We went in on a holiday Monday (Memorial Day 2011, that just shows everyone how far behind I am on posting reviews) around 7:30 or 8pm.  There was no one else in the restaurant.  We weren't even sure if the place was open because it was a holiday evening and the place looked dark from the outside.  We ordered an 18" half cheese and half sausage pizza and 2 fountain sodas for dine in  (I think the guy behind the counter was hoping we'd take it to go).  There were only 2 guys working and neither really seemed too enthused about working that evening.  When I tried to pay and the employee asked me something like "don't ya wanna eat your pie first?"  I assumed in this type of pizza place it was normal to pay first and then wait for your food.  I don't know if this is the norm or the guy was just being nice but I was a little thrown off.  Anyway, I paid and got our Pepsi fountain drinks and sat down.  While our pizza was in the oven the employee went outside to check on some other guy's car (I think he worked there too) he told us he'd be back in a little.  Meanwhile another employee who had been out making deliveries came back.  I was worreid about our pizza burning in the oven, but after a couple of minutes the guy comes back inside,  who knows what he's been doing outside for the past couple of minutes.  By the time he comes back inside our pizza is ready!  I get up to bring the pizza to the table.  The pizza is very thin and greasy and I notice the sausage isn't the normal crumbles that I'm used to, it's more like sliced italian sausage links.  This must be normal for this style of pizza because it's certainly not the first time that I've had this sliced sausage on my pizza.  The greasiness may very well be the hallmark of a NYC style pizza.  Anita and I each take a slice and then take a bite.  Nothing remarkable.  The crust is blah and the pizza is dripping with oil from the cheese.  There's no great flavor or crust!  The crust is really mediocre.  There's not much sauce on the pizza.  This definitely not worth $15+ for a "NYC style pizza!"  There's not really much there at all.

Anita and I obviously couldn't finish an 18" pizza by ourselves no matter how thin it was so we asked to take the rest of the pizza home with us.  I guess Flippin' Pizza is trying to save money, because when we asked for a box to take the leftovers home with us we were given a sheet of aluminum foil, a couple of paper plates, and a paper bag.  Wouldn't a small pizza box have been a lot easier?  With the "to-go" packaging that we were given we had to be very careful to make sure our precious slices didn't slip out of the open side of the brown paper bag on the the floor of the car.

The verdict?  Talk about a disappointment.  Mamma Lucia in Fair City Mall over by the Shoppers on Pickett is definitely a lot better!  Try Mamma Lucia for a decent pizza in Fairfax or head on up to the Big Apple for  real NYC style pizza.  Flippin' Pizza is way overrated and overpriced! 

A&J - Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

A&J
4316 Markham St
Ste B
Annandale, VA 22003

Dumplings

So it was a typical Friday evening for David and I, as always we were contemplating
on where to go for dinner. We have to meet up with my cousin at Korean bakery, Shilla for bingsoo after dinner. For those who don't know what bingsoo is, it is a ice shaved dessert with assorted delicious toppings. It made sense for us to eat somewhere in Annandale for dinner. Of course, we would go to Korean restaurants since there a a lot of restaurants in the area to pick from. Unfortunately, we just recently had Korean food so we wanted to try something else. David wanted to go to Silverado, I was a little hesitant however I did not have any other idea so I agreed. 30 minutes later, we arrived at Silverado, that place was packed. The hostess said that it will take close to an hour to get a table for two. We didn't have enough time to wait, plus we were getting hungry so we left. David suggested that we try A & J knowing that I wanted to try Taiwanese food. I have never been there before, but David has.

Milk Bubble Tea

A & J is located in the building which appears to be a small shopping mall. The restaurant looks almost like fast food place. The waitress handed us two paper menus and two pencils as we sat down. I was a little confused but quickly realized that she wanted to us to circle what we want. This reminds me the sushi menu at the Japanese restaurant but this is Taiwanese. Not a bad idea I assumed there would be nothing lost in translation.

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

We ordered dumplings, wonton noodle soup, and a spicy beef noodle soup. David also ordered a milk bubble tea to drink. The dumplings came out first. The dumplings were not typical Chinese dumplings that you used to see. These dumplings are like long rolled instead of traditional half mooned shape. There was a decent amount of filling, however it could definitely needs a little flavor beside the soy sauce dipping sauce. David commented that the bubble tea was very weak and watery. He wasn't too impressed with it. At last, our soups came out. The wonton soup has shredded fried egg and bok choy. The broth didn't have me at hello after I tasted it. It was a nothing memorable about it. What memorable about this wonton was I took a bite of wonton and realized that pork inside was bright pink. Immediately, a flow of thoughts and images of Gordon Ramsay screaming and yelling came to my head. Is this filling raw? We asked the waitress if the filling is raw. She was explained that it is not. They put special ingredient to make the pork pink. I'm not too sure what is it because I couldn't understand her very well. But she offered to bring it back to cook it some more. Meanwhile, I watched David eats his spicy beef noodle soup. I tried the soup, it was alright I didn't know how long we waited for the wonton soup to come back but the two tables next us came after us and left. At that point, I was getting a little agitated and didn't feel hungry anymore. I just wanted to leave.

Wonton Noodle Soup

David came up the counter to pay and said that we don't want the wonton soup anymore. The waitress was telling us that it should be ready soon and they're making a new soup for us. Are they just omitting the special ingredient or cooking the life out of the wonton this time? How come the second time around took so much longer than the first? I don't like to create attention to myself or make a scene but I said I don't want it and left. It was the first time that I have walked out of the restaurant, unfortunately we also paid for the wonton soup. Overall, we were not impressed at all with the food. I had better frozen dumplings and wonton from Chinese take out. It was the worst experience and I don't think I will go back to A& J.

By the way, they only accept cash.

Food Channel or Travel Network?

No the title is not a mistake.  It was intentionally done.  A good friend of mine recently pointed out that the Travel Channel has seemingly become the Food Network with all of their food related programming.  Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, Man VS Food, Food Paradises, Food Wars, I think that's all the food related programming that they serve up [no pun intended]. That's a lot for what's supposed to be a channel about travel!  Granted, you need to travel to these places to eat, but still I think there's a little too much focus on the food.  I know that Keith Famie (best known for being a contestant on Survivor and lesser known for his short lived show Keith Famie's Adventures, which was shown on Food Network) says "you haven't really been there until you've eaten the food" but there is definitely more to a place than just eating!  So the question is really, what's with the Travel Channel encroaching into the Food Network's space?  Maybe the Food Network should start traveling to difference places and reviewing the non edible attractions!

Pho Capital Menu and Hours - Fairfax, VA

I've been checking the Google Analytics and I've seen more than one person has been searching for the Pho Capital's Menu and their hours.  According to Pho Capital, their hours are:  Mon-Sun: 10 AM – 9:30 PM.  It looks like Pho Capital has a website (I'm not going to link to it because I reviewed the site and give it 2 thumbs down for both usability and accessibility and doesn't even appear in Google's top 10 search results) and it looks like they're trying to leverage social media by using Facebook (too bad not everyone has Facebook) and the helpful and genuine folks at Yelp haven't uploaded any pictures of the menu so I'm going to help everyone out by posting some pictures of the menu that I took.  Please keep in mind my previous review when perusing the menu.