fry's spring station

my new favorite place in c'ville. fry's spring station opened up across from durty nelly's recently and i had heard great things about it. the pizza is delicious! charlie and i didn't have any of the appetisers or even the beer, but everything looked awesome and we're ready to go back for more.

definitely a regular in the rotation!

l'etoile

we are so behind on posting...

for charlie's birthday earlier this month, we went out for a nice dinner at l'etoile - just a hop, skip, and a jump from our house. it was very nice. charlie started the evening with the foie gras that was garnished with cherries and was rich, decadent, and delicious. i was having trouble deciding between the goat cheese gnocchi (i have heard they are awesome), the scallops, and the tenderloin. on the waitress' recommendation, i had the tenderloin. it was very good. well cooked and nicely flavored, not too rich, and the garnishes were perfect. charlie's duck breast was so delicious that he is de-throning zocalo as the best duck in charlottesville. check out the menu and don't forget that l'etoile has a $30 chef's menu available on wednesdays and thursdays - awesome deal that we will be checking out later on.

Cazon Tropical

Last night we visited Cazon Tropical on the recommendation of a friend. There was no one in the restaurant (off 29 north behind Kohr Brothers) and only 1 more person came in while we were eating. The menu seems pretty authentic - but not being from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, or Honduras, I don't think I'm the authority on the matter... Their website says "Come and feel like you are eating at any grandmother's house in El Salvador, The Dominican Republic or Honduras, right here in Charlottesville, or just come and feel like you are on vacation, either way you will enjoy fresh natural food with the flavors of ours homes. We take pride in the tropical taste of our cooking and we just want to share with you ." and I feel like this is an accurate description. The food definitely tasted home made and there was nothing fancy or stuffy about it. As a heads up, they don't serve any alcohol, which was kind of a bummer. I would have loved a cold Corona with my dinner. Charlie enjoyed some authentic Pica Pollo and Tostones and we noticed that there weren't many vegetable options on the menu at all. Overall, a fun little discovery.

bashir's taverna

the econ dinner club was at it again this weekend. we haven't met for a while, so charlie and i called an "emergency get together" at bashir's taverna on the downtown mall. number one - i really love when it starts to get warm here and everyone is out on the downtown mall - including the musicians (good or bad). number two - bashir's is a fun place to eat. i think our tables tasted almost everything on the menu. charlie loved the lamb. the moussaka special looked delicious and comforting. the couscous trio served in a tagine looked colorful and delicious. the ham (raved about in the new york times, apparently) was melt-in-your-mouth tasty. not cheap - but the belly-dancing is free!

ten

ten out of ten in my book for ten on the downtown mall. this is some seriously good sushi. some friends of ours wanted to go out one night the other week and were delighted to stumble up the stairs into the high-ceiling'ed, mirror-walled, hip urban decorated restaurant. the seaweed salad - awesome, and the rolls were really really delicious - super-fresh, and light. i'm a big fan.

Belmont BBQ

We finally visited Belmont BBQ the other weekend. It was a beautiful day, so we got the food to-go and had a little picnic. The food was great. I got a rib a sandwich. Betsy had a pulled pork sandwich and we shared some french fries. The BBQ is delicious. The style of BBQ is definitely Virginian. The pork sandwich was a little juicy with a thicker sweet sauce. They also have spicier sauce options. The rib sandwich was very "wet." Generally I prefer more of the North Carolina style BBQ (which is an option too), but I really thought the BBQ we had was great. One option I think we'll have to get next time is a this bucket which they put essentially all of their kinds of BBQ in with a side. The french fries were good, but maybe a little too flavorful. In short, this is definitely a place we will be going back too. The best BBQ I have had in a while.

taste of china

on the recommendation of one of charlie's professors, we decided to check out taste of china in the albemarle square shopping center. the place was packed and i was extra excited to see a large group of chinese students in the back corner of the restaurant, clearly loving what they were tasting. there was a steady stream of diners through the evening and i understand why. the food was delicious. the restaurant lures you in with the cheesy neon light outside and the wall of menu photos right inside the door. the decor is minimal and the restaurant is really just a large room with as many tables as can fit. we tried the crispy beef, some dumplings, and a duck pancake dish. they were all great but we'll have to go back so we can taste some more of the options.

the chef, peter chang has quite the disappearing act and has attracted a devout group of followers who have followed him from tennessee to georgia to virginia - anywhere they can taste chang's food. no one knows how long he will stay in a location, so once located, people flock to his restaurants.

rumor is to ask for the authentic chinese menu!

tavola

our friends, dao and sarah, wanted to go out to dinner in belmont the other week. we focused on mas since charlie had never been. it turned out there was a super long wait at mas - which is a pretty standard occurance, but we were hungry. so we made the walk up the road to choose between tavola and the local. we ended up at tavola and it was fantastic! tavola makes their own pasta (delicious) and i have an awesome red beet risotto with huge sea scallops. it really was perfect. really great atmosphere, great wine, amazing food. definitely a nicer restaurant - but it comes highly recommended!

zinc

Considering this place is right up the street from our house, it is amazing to me that we haven't checked it out until now. I invited the "dinner club" to join us at Zinc tonight for some good company and good food. It did not disappoint. Our waitress was great and very patient with the 14 of us. She recommended 2 plates per person and highly recommended sharing to get a taste of everything. It is not easy to share! The food was delicious! There were rave reviews of the cheese platter, the chickpea fritters, the brisket, sardines, and mac and cheese. I tasted the escargot - really yummy, the frites (my favorite food group), and the steak tartare. It was all awesome! Charlie mentioned on the way home that we should head over more often and share a plate of something and some drinks. Good thing it's so close!

Bizou

Charlie has been hoping to eat at Bizou since we moved to Charlottesville. I'm not quite sure what sparked his initial interest. Was it a review he read? Was is the sign over the door? We've attempted to eat there a couple of times, but both attempts were made late night and service had stopped.

Our good friends Nate and Joey were in town the other week and Charlie's dream of eating at Bizou came true. The walls of the restaurant are lined with old and obscure movie posters and the restaurant feels a little like Miller's but cleaner. Joey had a delicious looking veggie stack. Nate had some sort of steak. I had a cod fillet with some sort of bacon cream sauce and Charlie had the meatloaf (apparently referenced as a "must have" in Food and Wine from 2004". The food was very good and definitely was filling. I didn't love the cod. It seemed heavier than I expected it to be. Charlie did devour his meatloaf though. Nate mentioned that the sauce on his steak - for some reason, I'm remembering barbeque sauce - was overpowering the flavor of the meat.

I'll have to get an official verdict from Charlie, but I think Bizou may not be our favorite find in Charlottesville, especially with all of the other fabulous restaurants here. I don't know though - we could be swayed...

Clifton Inn

We are getting married at Clifton Inn next July! So its a little weird that we have never eaten dinner there. My mom got us a gift certificate to Clifton, so for our anniversary we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy night out.

Clifton is a classy place. Not only is it a beautiful place, but the staff is great and the food is amazing. I had halibut, local quail, and a chocolate tart. Betsy had parmesan and pear ravioli, duck, and toffee bread pudding. We were also served a delicious little zucchini corn fritter before our meal was served. It was all great and I can't even decide what I liked best. Betsy liked the bread pudding and the fritter the best. Betsy's not a fussy food person, but she said "it sure was good." We like dressing up too. The best part about the whole night, though, is when we walked out the front door of the house. It is gorgeous, especially on a clear night. The property is really something. We are very excited to spend our wedding day and night here.

Cassis

So, a friend of ours knows some people who work at Cassis and he took us out for dinner there the other night. We actually didn't realize Cassis was worth checking out... The first time we went to Cassis was the first time we went out to bars in Charlottesville. It was a weird scene filled with cougars and "interesting" music. We basically wrote off Cassis, but we were wrong.

All the food we had for dinner was delicious. Our friend had the steak tartar as an appetizer and loved it. We all split roast duck breast with blue cheese polenta - yum. Betsy and friend had sea scallops, which were are waitress' favorite dish on the menu and I had the lamb. It tasted like it was slow cooked all day -- very tender and sweet. The whole menu seemed to have an autumn feel. The lamb was very much comfort food with lots of autumn/winter flavors and the sea scallops were very rich.

Cassis is on Water St. right next to Mono Loco, across from the Clock Shop. It is a little pricey, but we put it in the same category as Zocalo, so it's worth it. Also, it's a popular spot for Darden professors and wine tasting parties, so it seems to have a solid reputation.

Bang!'s Second Chance

The first time I went to Bang! I wasn't all that impressed. I don't know if it was because I had heard so much hype about it, or because the service wasn't that great, or even because we didn't order the right things, but the second time around made up for it. I met my friend Meg for dinner there the other night. We sat outside (which I loved - except for the major mosquito bites I woke up to the next morning) and I noticed that they have new menus. I think they may have cut out some of their menu items and scaled it down a little. We tried a mushroom ravioli/dumpling thing, pork tacos, coconut rice, and a vegetable noodle dish. Each one was really yummy and I love the tapas/family style way of eating.

Two thumbs up for Bang! the second time around.


They also seem to have really good cocktails...at least they looked good :)

Mono Loco

We had been to Mono Loco for breakfast, but hadn't made it over for dinner yet. That all changed last night. Another visitor - another restaurant, so we checked out Mono Loco. The food was really good...not up to Continental Divide standard or even El Puerto, but it was still good. There is a lot on the menu and it is hard to choose just one thing. They have a lot of seafood options too which I found a little surprising. Our friend, Randy, had a salmon burrito and thought it was very tasty. I wasn't as impressed with my dinner (so much so, that I forgot what I ordered). I thought it would be a contained dinner (like a taco or burrito) but it ended up being a loose salad-type of dish. They do serve a lot of food in terms of quantity and I would go back just for the atmosphere. Randy pointed out how many restaurants take advantage of outside seating in Charlottesville, and Mono Loco is no exception. I really like their outdoor area.

Boylan Heights

Speaking of burgers, the Econ Dinner Club ventured over to Boylan Heights on the Corner for our last get-together. Thumbs up all around. The burger varieties are so fun and different and not to disappoint. Charlie had some crazy concoction with onion rings, chili, wing sauce, everything on it - and it was goooood! I had a plain cheeseburger with avocado on it - delish! And their fries are delicious which automatically adds points in my book (they also have sweet potato fries - a good choice).

Service was a little off - granted we had 12 at the table - but overall another repeat restaurant in Charlottesville!

Henry's

Last weekend, we had a couple of visitors and decided to check out Henry's on the downtown mall. Charlie and I had seen it a couple of times while walking around (it's kind of hard to find since it's downstairs, under another storefront). We all had burgers and they were really really good. I had the Henry burger with an egg on top and it surprisingly wasn't very greasy or heavy.

A fun place to go for a casual dinner.

Dr. Ho's

Yummm Pizza...

Today, Charlie and I went on a yard sale search. We drove out towards Scottsville and on the way back decided to check out Dr. Ho's. I first heard about this little pizza place on the way to my sister's wedding when we got a little lost and ended up out by Dr. Ho's instead of at King Family Vineyards - whoops!

Anyway, the pizza makes up for the name. Charlie thinks it might beat out Mellow Mushroom and Christian's. The crust is great - very light and fresh. They have great toppings and I think they use all local vendors to supply their ingredients.

Worth getting lost for.

Trivia Night at McGrady's

So a lot of my friends hang out at McGrady's every once and a while, but Betsy and I have never joined them. This past week we wanted to get together with some friends who had been out of town for awhile and we agreed we should go cheap (we students don't get paid in the summer), so we settled on McGrady's. To my pleasant surprise it also happened to be trivia night, so after eating 10 wings for $2.75 we had an hour and a half of slightly embarrassing trivia fun. (No one believed me that the frog is on the foot of a horse.) There was a good young crowd at the bar and outside on the porch and it seemed like a mix of students, alum, and town folk. All in all we had a really fun time for pretty cheap and we are planning on going back, although we would like to get a seat on the porch next time. I also discovered that they are the town Steelers bar, so I will most likely be there a few times in the fall.

Si Tapas

We finally made it across the street to Si Tapas. The decor is super fun and the lights are extra dim...I mentioned to Charlie that I think this place would be really fun for a rehearsal dinner or small casual reception.

About the food: Charlie and I, being the food junkies that we are, ordered the most food out of everyone. While it is a tapas place, the servings are actually pretty large. We ordered the mussels, grilled asparagus, avocado fries, empanadas, and the carne tacos. Definitely a good variety and more than enough food. The mussels were a little bit bland but still very good and the bowl was huge. The asparagus was actually more blackened and that gave it a fun twist. Avocado fries were without a doubt my favorite selection of the evening. They were a little warm, very creamy, and had a very light breading around them. Really fun. The empanadas were my second favorites. They had a little kick to them, which I liked and the sauce they were served with was really interesting - kind of vinegar-y. And then there were the tacos - yum. I think there were 3 empanadas (smaller in size) and 3 small tacos. There was plenty of asparagus and it seemed like the avocado fries was just one avocado cut up.

Other hits at the table: Kulli had brussel sprouts and loved them. They looked a little crispy and she said they had a little kick to them - maybe wasabi? There was an order of the mushrooms that was well received. The massive olive sampling was fabulous if you like olives. The chicken kababs was a full meal in itself with rice on the side. The fish tacos looked amazing. I think everyone was really pleased.

Note: It seems like shell fish is not their specialty (we do live in Charlottesville) but it is still very good.

The drinks: Pomegranate mojitos were flowing freely and were highly recommended and many people enjoyed their own tumblers of wine. Word is the sangria is awesome and getting a carafe would be well worth it.

Next stop is the Is Venue upstairs. The music sounded fabulously fun.

Arch's

So, if you move to Charlottesville, I'm almost positive someone along the way has mentioned Arch's delicious frozen yogurt. I crave this stuff regularly - especially the Vanilla Bean with ooey Gooey Brownies on top (don't worry - no salmonella). The Vanilla Bean is key. I had No-Frill Vanilla this time and it just wasn't the same. We decided to check out their regular food menu at the Emmet Street location for dinner tonight. Charlie and I walked out totally stuffed and wondering how Arch's would fit into our long list of sandwich favorites. Let me tell you, they are up there and have definitely earned bonus points for the frozen yogurt option post sandwich. We both picked sandwiches served on sub rolls which were then grilled - really a cool twist that I haven't seen before. The grilling wasn't a typical Quizno's type of grilling. It was almost panini style without the grease. The ingredients seemed very fresh and the place was packed. It did take a little while to get the food but it was worth it. The salads looked awesome too. Also - Monday night special - free chips and a drink when you order a sandwich - perk #2! I think Tuesday's special is similar but with a salad order.