Barrio

8/9/2008
Park Slope: 210 7th Ave (and 3rd St) - (718) 965-4000
Price: Mid-Range
Rating (1-10): 7


If you find yourself strolling around the Park Slope neighborhood or vicinity, you should stop by Barrio for a relaxed atmosphere and solid Mexican food. I thought a rating of 7 might be high but in the end, decided it fair considering for the atmosphere, the quality of the food, and the value.

The food is fresh and light - a pleasant change from other Mexican joints that, though satisfying, leave you feeling like jabba the hut. I enjoyed the flavors in all of the dishes that I tried - and the variety of flavors in particular: delicious calamari-conconut flavored rice with spicy grilled shrimp; a "chile arbol" peanut mole, which tastes strongly of peanut and goes with a roast pork; or a chicken enchilada in a red salsa puree with more typical heat and a bit of tanginess. The seasoned doesn't burn your mouth out or go crazy with one element - sweet, sour, spicy, etc - and offset the balance - in fact, the food both in taste, freshness, and composition achieves a nice balance.

The fish tacos appetizer - though small in portion - were light and pleasantly simple, letting the ingredients be themselves with cilantro, cabbage, and citrus. The Yucatan shrimp dish were meaty, juicy (and not rubbery), strongly seasoned, and nicely charred. And the chicken enchilada was gone in about 5 minutes - the cheese (a crumbled queso fresco), raw onion, red salsa sauce, along with the chicken and tortilla were simply a great combo that and no part of it was unpleasant.

Improvements could be made - such as the addition of a starch to the Puebla pork dish, which would have been better served over rice to catch some of the pork juice and sauce. And I do wonder about the authenticity of the menu - some of the stuff they could do without like the chile caesar salad or granola and yogurt served at brunch. The concern is not only that it makes it disappointingly generic, but also might bring into question the ability to produce real Mexican food. It strikes me as a lack of confidence to stick with one true theme.

As enjoyable as the food at Barrio is the atmosphere, particularly in the warmer weather with all the open windows and a large outdoor eating area, looking out onto the stoller-filled, but pleasant and spacious intersection at 7th ave and 3rd st. With relaxing music (which I can't name) playing through the speakers and friendly, personable, unpretentious servers, the ambiance is calming and struck me as a place you could come back to consistently, for casual dinners, dates, or just to chill and grab a quick drink or bite. Although the owners seemed to have gotten it right with a lot of things about Barrio, the color selection of the exterior awning is a bit odd - bright orange and pink. On the one hand, its loud and vibrant and is about energy, but it's a bit of a shock. They say that people go crazy sitting in a red room - sitting under the awning outside on a sunny day might be a good place to conduct that experiment. I opted to sit inside given the heat lamp-like glow. I'll go when it's nighttime.

When I first visited Barrio, the service was a bit cluttered since it was one of the first weeks of operation, but they have since gotten into rhythm and continue to be a friendly establishment. Although it is possible to rack up a hefty bill here, especially if you get into the drink menu, there are more than enough very reasonable items so that you don't get to the cusp of feeling a significant pinch on the wallet. Given the fun atmosphere, good value, and quality of food, I wouldn't be surprised if Barrio starts to build up a contingent of neighborhood "regulars." I'm considering it myself.

Walter's Cafe

7/18/2008
Portland, Maine: 15 Exchange St - (207) 871 -9258

Price: Mid-Range

Rating (1-10): 6

Walter's Cafe is an enjoyable dining experience set in a nice space in the heart of the port area of Portland, Maine. The food is ambitious but is hit or miss, the wine list is good, and the service is decent. All in all, it's not bad but it's not great. You should go here for the ambiance and the steak, but several of the dishes were disappointing.

Steer clear of the caesar salad which was unremarkable and simply a head of romaine on a plate with some caesar dressing and cherry tomatoes. Zero points for ingenuity on a barely passing caesar. I would also not recommend the lobster pasta or the mushroom pasta, both of which come with a delicious sounding description but end up being somewhat boring. The ingredients - lobster and wild mushrooms respectively - sound amazing and then come out and are kind of ho-hum, maybe not the best usage (for example, I'd rather just have the lobster in the shell with butter and lemon).

The star here is the steak and I would definitely go back just for that. It comes with a stilton butter, which is very nice and adds that strong salty flavor. Also on the plate is sauce bordelaise, which is fine and doesn't hurt, but it's more just along for the ride. The meat is incredibly tender and delicious. I was savoring every bite and wish there was another. It has been a while since I've had a steak this good in a restaurant, and fortunately, it's not at steakhouse prices.

Walter's Cafe is a pretty good restaurant and it might suit your fancy but it's not a place that left a particularly strong impression or elicits a strong recommendation from me. Unless you're talking about the steak, which blew my mind.

Standard Bakery

7/18/2008
Portland, Maine: 75 Commercial St - (207) 773-2112
Price: Cheap Eats
Rating (1-10): 8

Standard Bakery is a haven for baked goods. Maybe it's a general thing about bakeries, but happiness just seems to pervade this place.

Standard is the kind of place that makes you look forward to waking up so you can stumble over and get a coffee and chose a treat of your choice - scone, croissant, cookie, or some other torturously good looking thing. It's probably not the most healthy thing in the world, but in small doses, it won't kill you. The breads, which are also served in Standard's upper-scale sister restaurants, are high quality as well and could be a satisfying meal by itself.

The staff is friendly and the atmoshere is warm, as a bakery should be, although as far as seating, there's only really a small patio area just outside of the front door. As long as you're not looking for an elaborate sitdown breakfast or brunch, this is all you need to chill out and enjoy a quick bite.

So if you're in Portland, Maine and looking for a simple breakfast or baked goods, this is the place to be.

Street and Co

7/17/2008

Portland, Maine: 33 Wharf St - (207) 775-0887

Price: Mid-Range

Rating (1-10): 7

Street and Co is the kind of restaurant that seems to blend perfectly with a quaint costal town like Portland. The food is solid and comes out with exciting presentation, but above all, the ambiance gets you in the mood for a cozy New England seafood experience. Service is casual here and it's not particularly remarkable but it's friendly enough.

Dim candle light, exposed brick, bunches of dried herbs hanging from wooden ceiling beams, simple white tshirt server uniforms, and an extremely aromatic interior all contribute to a rustic, warm atmosphere. It's a lot easier said than done to create this kind of environment without it being cheesy or forced or pretentious. The 'organic' feel is kind of trendy right now but Street and Co feels like a place that was onto it long before.

The food is more or less Italian with heavy doses of seafood, which you expect and want, being on the water in lobster capital USA. Many of the dishes (presumably those cooked on the stovetop) come out served in an actual beat-up saute pan, which adds to the simple and straightforward idea - no dots and swirls and Miro-looking dishes here. The mussels appetizer is truly delicious, with a rich, garlicky broth. You could just dip bread (which is from nearby Standard Bakery and also delicious) into this broth all night and leave totally happy. The crab and avocado appetizer is uncomplicated and fresh with a very generous serving of crab; it's a good selection if you're looking for light, healthy, unadulterated taste of the sea - the only downside is that the meat is mostly broken up and you don't get the large lumps o' crab that offer big, meaty bites.

The plates get more dramatic with the entrees, headlined by the lobster diavolo: a mammoth two person pasta in a saute pan, loaded down with a red sauce packed with an assortment of seafood including mussels, squid, lobster in the shell. When you see this on the menu, you figure, "when in Rome..." The diavolo is good enough but the joy of this dish comes less from the taste of the food and more from seeing the presentation and all the stuff in the sauce. The food itself could use some refinement: the sauce was quite oversalted, for one. And when cracking the lobster claws, water came rushing out into the dish, watering down the sauce. Clipping the ends of the claws prior to putting it in the dish would drain a lot of this water. The more simple lobster with butter-garlic sauce over pasta is a similar dish that tastes better - but perhaps it's not as exciting or chaotic as the diavolo. But one thing to emphasize is that with either one, and most any other dish I saw, is that you get your money's worth. These are very generous portions and they don't sacrifice the quality of the ingredients. I like places like this because it feels very hospitable.

The service is a bit scattered but not intended to be super-high end anyway. They might forget a thing or two that you ask for, or more than one person might come over and ask you the same question. But the weaknesses are not egregious and the bottom line is that you come to have a good time, and in places like these, you don't hold the staff over the fire. You get friendly, warm atmosphere and pleasing food for good value. Of course, for Street and Co to take it to the next level and really be a place that grabs a spot in your heart, it'll have to improve the personability and attention to detail in its service.

When you go visit Portland, Maine, I think it's this kind of dining experience you're looking for. You come to the town because you want to cozy, quaint, relaxed feel - and you want to get hit over the head with seafood. Street and Co delivers well on all of those things.

Makoto

6/28/2008

Washington DC: 4822 Macarthur Blvd NW - (202) 298-6866

Price Range: High End

Rating (1-10): 5

Full Review:

My recommendation for this place is easy: pass. If you're considering going, it probably means you're willing to spend some cash, and if you're gonna do that, you can find a more enjoyable experience elsewhere. At Makoto, treating patrons with tact or a true sense of hospitality is apparently optional. The food would actually be pretty average in Japan but they seem to be pretty impressed with themselves. What concerns me is that people will walk away thinking that Makoto and its austere, cold service are characteristic of authentic Japanese; that's not how it is supposed to be done. Both the food and the service should be artful, and they only come close with the former. I don't buy the hype about Makoto; I'm convinced it gets the kind of praise that it does largely because there's just a dearth of good Japanese restaurants in Washington DC.

A while back, I stopped in for a fine lunch, but our service at dinner was strikingly bad. Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were greeted with a curtain, and were unsure if we should peek in and announce our presence. When a server clad in a kimono emerged, she informed us that we would have a short wait in the shoebox sized waiting area, and gave us a wooden box to sit on. It was a few minutes before our 8 o'clock reservation (which required that we give a credit card number); we waited until 8:40 to be seated, with untruthful promises that we would be seated shortly sprinkled in periodically.

In one awkward moment during our wait, a couple entered the shoebox waiting area and two servers emerged - and then got into an uncomfortable exchange bordering on argument. After a momentary pause, the servers turned their attention back to the couple and found that their reservation was lost. The matter was sorted out and the head server then yelled (literally) that she needed to speak with her subordinate immediately in the kitchen. Once the comically uncoordinated servers left the shoebox, we looked over the at the couple and all of us acknowledged the strangeness of the exchange we had just witnessed.

It's also interesting to note the signage that greets you as you walk into the restaurant, and prepare you for the experience here. On the center of the front door is a gold plaque reading "Proper Attire Required." Then, inside the door, another plaque more specifically stating the dress code, prominently displayed on an otherwise undecorated wall. Directly below that is a sign telling you to turn off your cell piece. And finally, on the opposite wall, another sign declaring that the restaurant is not responsible if any of your stuff gets taken from the foyer area. Not exactly the most welcoming decor.

After being seated, we were hungry. We knew that we would be ordering the tasting menu, so my mother asked on her way to the bathroom if we could order as soon as possible. Before she was able to return, the head server flew over to me at the sushi counter and forcefully explained that I should order because we had asked to do so, shoving the menu in my hands and pointing vigorously at my options. There was a false friendliness that barely masked the server's overall impatient, temperamental, highly abrasive demeanor. How could a restaurant put their front of the house in the hands of such a colossally unpleasant woman?

After ordering, we were brought a kind of sake that we didn't actually want. It turns out we had ordered the wrong kind, partly because we ordered in Japanese and our server did not understand. At the risk of sounding insensitive, I found it troublesome that a server at Makoto would not speak Japanese - not only because it's a place that seems to insist so strongly on being traditional in its ways, but also because items on the menu, including the sake, are written in Japanese. What's the point of this if you have to translate it for the server anyway? In any mid to high-end French restaurant, I would expect that the server will have the training to recognize any item written on the menu in French, even if he/she doesn't actually speak fluently. So should it be anywhere where a menu item is written in a foreign language.

Before the food came out, I checked if I had any new text messages on my phone which was on silent. The head server flew at me once again yelling (again), as if I had stepped on the baby Jesus. She said that I had to turn off my phone immediately and that they would stop service if the chef saw me checking text messages. Perhaps what I did was insulting to the chef, which I take the blame for - but I cannot accept the reaction as a rational way of dealing with the situation.

And this was emblematic of the way our experience was in general: I understand why they have their rules and I understand the spirit behind it. But at almost every turn, they lack grace and tact in the way they enforce those rules. As a result, it feels contricted, stiff, and unfriendly. For example:

• I probably shouldn't even be checking my phone, but I don't need to be screamed at or told that they might not serve me. An alternative is to ask politely to refrain from using my phone in the restaurant; or better yet, if she had explained that the chef takes his craft very seriously and would like me to focus fully on the experience he is trying to deliver. Not only would I respect that, it would be a learning experience for me.
• They don't have to display prominent gold plaques that tell you all the things you're not supposed to do as you walk into the restaurant.
• They don't need to take your credit card number when you make a reservation, which comes off as some kind of veiled threat; rather, they could ask for your phone number and call to confirm your reservation prior to your arrival.

I don't find the reasons for what they do objectionable, it's the manner in which they do it.

The food is good - but as you might guess, it really was not the focal point in this atmosphere. The meal was nicely presented and sometimes quite delicious. For $60, the tasting menu is a decent deal because you get 9 courses including dessert, and the plates are probably about as good of Japanese food as you'll find in DC. Unfortunately, there isn't much drama or excitement as the dishes are brought to you. Instead, it feels like the courses are churned out in a machine-like fashion, as if there's a dish on deck for you as soon as the one you're working on can be bussed away. All the better though: with the service the way it was, I was ready to pound out the courses like a set of push-ups and get on my way. Here's a rundown:

#1: Opener of smoky, smallish green beans and conch. The conch is light, tastes nice.
#2: Nice sashimi plate was nice and came with a fresh grated wasabi which is always better. The tuna in particular was flavorful and meaty but still tender.
#3: A playful dish - salmon sashimi wrapped in a thin layer of radish in a cream sauce with a tomato, in a yellow boat-shaped dish. That was good, although somewhat unremarkable other than the visual. On the side was a piece of unagi (eel) on toasted bread sprinkled with cheese - weird and unnecessary. The other part of this dish was kombu (kelp) on a scallop which was outright disgusting. The strong kombu flavor complemented the scallop in a way that made it taste rotten.

#4: A deep-fried crab not with tempura batter or panko but with broken up osembe (rice crackers). It's a novel idea but again not necessary as the layer of osembe (though crunchy, salty, and delicious) overwhelmed the crab both in mass and in flavor. You need a big thick chunk of crab to make this work; anyting that's not the body, therefore, is more like a stick of fried osembe and a waste of crab meat. It's good with lemon and salt.

#5: Steamed fish with greens was one of the best dishes: flavorful, tender fish and vegetables in a broth of typically Japanese stock flavor.
#6: The sushi plate was disappointing considering the praise this place gets as one of the premier sushi places not only in DC but on the east coast. Not only were the sushi pieces too similar or the same as the sashimi plate, it was as small as I have ever seen. This is iSushi and unlike an iPod, smaller is not better.#7: I chose a common Japanese preparation of miso-flavored broiled orange roughy was light and nice in flavor but overcooked and surprisingly tough. Another option, the yellowtail is more tender and a meatier fish. #8: Last of the savory dishes, the soba dish, my favorite partly because of its refreshing nature but mostly because of the broth, which is made at the counter and adjusted for flavor by the chef. It's very good - the most memorable flavor of the night. The noodles are cooked to a perfect texture and there are several options for your garnish. I had the grated yam, which was nice.
#9: Dessert - a yuzu sherbet which was a nice ender to the meal: icy, not too sweet, with the yuzu flavor refreshing your mouth. If this was at an icy stand in my neighborhood, I'd probably get it 5 times a week.

Overall, I just didn't feel that the food was remarkable, certainly not enough to excuse the gruff treatment. In Japan, this place would be average, and there the top notch places may have many rules but they'll be revealed to you in far more subtle and artful ways. You'll follow them out of respect for the establishment naturally, not because they are harshly imposed upon you. And at no point would their sense of courtesy slip; for example, yelling at a customer would be inexcusable. Of course, to be fair, you'll also pay a lot more as well. But at the end of the day $60 per person warrants an enjoyable night out, and Makoto did not deliver that. If all you care about is the food, then maybe it's ok because it's as good as any Japanese food in DC and you'll get a full meal out of the tasting menu.

For me, it's a one and done.