Deja Vu at Across the Street Cafe

Well, after hearing a lot of good things about the Across the Street Cafe, my wife and I decided to give it another shot. We previously went with some friends last month for Sunday brunch, only to find the restaurant closed. The hours state an 11AM opening on Sunday, but when we arrived - after 11AM - no one was around and it was completely dark inside.

Guess what happened this time? My wife and I make plans to see a 12:05 movie at the Majestic. We arrive at 11AM promptly. We did not want to have to rush through brunch, so we thought an hour would be plenty. You know, to eat, read the paper, I'm not really talking about in depth conversation here. But I digress.

Upon our arrival, what do we find? A restaurant that is locked up tight with no activity inside whatsoever. We did find a forlorn waitress waiting for Stan - the owner - to arrive and open up the restaurant. What is up with that? You open at 11AM and you plan to arrive at 11AM ready for business? That is if Stan could arrive by 11AM.

Either way, I was in the restaurant business long enough to know if you plan to open at a specific time it is best not to show up at that time to open your doors. What about prep? How could a restaurant be taken seriously if its owner doesn't care enough to get there on time and have things prepared? How about ovens warming, vegetables/herbs chopped, sauces ready, the bar fully stocked, no less simply turning your lights on so the place looks welcoming. And this poor server, who by the way was about to log her last shift after only 2 weeks working there. This young woman - who by her own admission was not terribly interested if the restaurant opened on time - was there before Stan. This to me is problematic.

Maybe it's just Sunday brunch. I don't know. The place has served meals; i do know that. And folks seem to like it. But I don't know if I'll try again. Should we? Can someone give me a compelling reason to go back and a time when their doors will be open?

And of course right next door, the Sabroso Grill was ready to go and about to open its doors. The doors were locked when we tried them, but you could see plenty of activity in the kitchen and they were ready for customers.

If my wife and I were bigger meat eaters we would have hung around and tried Sabroso. But instead we bailed and went to Austin Grill. Not a terrible meal, but pretty mediocre. I am not a fan of leaving a restaurant after brunch ready to burst and that's often the feeling I have leaving AG - with the chips, cheese, and general large quantity of food you are served.

But at least they were open, ready and got us out in time to see Frost-Nixon - which I highly recommend. My pick for best picture.

Si, Sabor

At the NE corner of Piney Branch Rd and Flower Ave sits a nondescript strip mall that I bet most of you have driven by dozens of times. There's not a lot to talk about concerning this strip mall, except a wonderful little Latin restaurant called Sabor.

I believe Sabor is still run by Jorge Chicas (from Zatinya) with his brother and mother. Together they have put together a wonderful - and mostly under the radar - dining spot. My wife and I have eaten there several times now. While we have noticed some inconsistencies, on the whole we are both typically very pleased with our orders.

In my opinion, their papusas, taquitos and tostadas are all quite good. And while I have yet to venture into their meat dishes, I have heard from others that their chicken, beef, and pork rival many other establishments which charge a helluva lot more than Sabor.

In addition to their food being very high quality, one of the other great things about Sabor is their prices. You can easily order lunch for two people and stay under $20, maybe even $15 depending on what you get and how hungry you are. But I would recommend going in hungry because you'll want to try a number of dishes.

It is worth noting that no alcohol is served - one of the reasons, at least for me - that you can eat at Sabor so cheaply. One last thing, I would most definitely recommend picking up some of their homemade corn tortillas when you finish eating. If I remember correctly, a package of 30 sell for about $1.50. You're not gonna get tortillas of this quality much cheaper than that. I would caution that they are fresh and with few preservatives, so they don't last in the fridge very long. So have some plans to make enchiladas, tacos or just warm them up and eat them with good salsa. Either way you go, you won't be disappointed.

I hope you get the chance to try them out. You'll be glad you did.

Not in SoCo

I wanted to do a short post for folks who may travel to Vegas and are not particularly interested in eating on the strip. If you like Japanese food, then you'll really want to check this place out.

The restaurant is called Ichiza (unfortunately its web site is not working so I'm linking to its Yelp review - 4 1/2 stars from 143 reviews - not bad). And these Yelpers are right. I thought the place was top notch. But it's not a straight sushi place. It is more izayaki - small plates. And you don't have to worry about spending an arm and a leg because it's small plates; their prices are quite reasonable.

I had 6 different dishes and they all were either good to great. There were some really interesting items on the menu, but I didn't order anything too exotic. Maybe I'd try the natto (fermented soy bean) next time. But I would highly recommend the shrimp dumplings (I know, pretty boring, but man they were good) and the broiled eel with cucumber was terrific.

After those two I moved on to one of my all time favorites, miso marinated black cod (butterfish). Now I have had better, but this was still really good. The low point of the meal was the next small plate, grilled shisito peppers (on skewers). They were fairly mundane. But, after adding some soy and red chili pepper, it did improve it, but only up to the level of good.

Fortunately I ended on 2 fabulous dishes. I was working up a pretty good rapport with one of the chefs (the young man in the white cap), so I wanted to see what he recommended to end the meal. He asked my likes and dislikes (very few when it comes to Japanese food) and we settled on an uni dish. And boy, talk about yummy. He took a nice sized piece of uni and placed it in a lemon that was cut in half with a bit of the pulp removed. He then placed a couple thin cucumbers between the uni and lemon, drizzled ponzu sauce on top and added some fresh wasabi. It was everything I had hoped for! A very simple dish that was just wonderful.

Since it was so good, I had to try something else. I again asked the chef what he thought and he fixed something unlike I had ever had. Its base was raw tuna, but surrounding the tuna was some kind of julienned and mashed Japanese potato and topping it off was a quail egg and fresh wasabi. The egg was my touch since they're one of my faves. His instructions were to add a bit of soy sauce, mix it all together, and chow down. I followed those orders happily.

So if you are in Vegas and are looking for something interesting off the strip, try out Ichiza. One of my favorite things about the place is you forget you're in Vegas.

Thai Derm Shout Out

In case folks missed it, our own Thai Derm was highlighted in Wednesday's Washington Post Good to Go column.

On the whole, the review was positive. The review highlights the curries, lemon grass soup and the Spicy Seafood entree. However, the writer does diss Thai Derm's noodle dishes. But I probably agree with her assessment of the noodle dishes - they are not the restaurant's main draw. In my opinion, it seems the noodle dishes have gone down in quality over the last couple years. I remember a few years back when dining at TD ordering noodle dishes a majority of the time.

But more recently I have been leaning toward their rice dishes and soups. In particular, 3 soups I love are the Gai Tom Kha (with shrimp instead of chicken) - a great starter, also Guew Teow Thai Derm and Yen Toa Foh (without the pork) are both terrific entrees. On the rice side, the Gang Gai and the Ma Muang Himpan (subbing tofu for chicken) are also really good.

On the fish side, my wife is a huge fan of TD's salmon dishes, and they will cook it to order - ordering medium or medium-rare usually come out nicely done. And if you dine on a Friday, check out the whole deep-fried fish. It's a bit of work, but I've always been happy when ordering it.

So if you haven't been to TD, head on over for some take-out or dine in. The folks are extremely friendly and you don't need to worry about dropping a large sum of money given their reasonable prices. Hope to see you there. Happy new year.