City Cafe

finally winter vacation. i've done so much cooking, baking, dining in the past few months but because studying trumped all of that, i've had no time to do some blogging. i hope that in the next few weeks, i will be able to catch myself up with all the food fun that i have been involved in. it's a bit ambitious...but then again, i'm an ambitious girl.

let's take a journey back in time to august when i first was visiting scranton. the day that i signed my lease for my beautiful apartment, dad and I ventured to find a quick bite for lunch. little did we know, this little "city cafe" would be such a beautiful gem.

i already have this sore spot for mediterranean eats, so when i glanced at the menu before deciding this would be the place that we would dine, i was already sold.

to start, dad ordered the pasta fagioli soup which he really enjoyed. yes, my dad will order soup in the summer. the flavor and seasoning was there and the pasta was fresh. what more can you ask for?

i ordered a spanikopita (spinach pie) which had spinach and lemon seasonings. the spanikopita itself was really good but it was colder than i would have liked. It could have used some warmth that would have knocked it out of the ball park.

for our meals, i ordered the falafel wrap. It was served in a pita w lettuce, tomato, and tahini sauce. the falafel was super tasty and had a great seasoning. i only wish that it had a little bit more crunch to its shell but nevertheless, i really enjoyed it. each platter was served with a small pasta salad which was also really tasty and definitely helped fill you up with out weighing you down.

my dad ordered the chicken wrap platter which was served in a pita w/Lettuce, tomato, onion and Tzatziki sauce. He really enjoyed it and commented on that the seasoning was spot because it allowed the sauce to shine without being overshadowed by the other seasonings.

Overall, we really enjoyed our lunch and meal at City Cafe. It is a perfect lunch spot and offers up quality and authentic Mediterranean cuisine for an extremely reasonable price tag.

Grade: B+

POSTED: December 27th
Visited: August: 19th

Souk

one of the final stops on my romp of H Street was another around the corner goody, SOUK. It had been a long time coming for good buddies of BOOF, Bill and AB and I to get together. I had been wanting to go to Souk for a while and I knew that Bill studied abroad in Morocco, so I threw out the idea of Souk and both agreed.

Souk is a smaller primarily tapas restaurant with a nice relaxed vibe. It is filled with warm colors and very decorative pillows on many of the seats throughout the restaurant. I had never realized that in addition to the small dining room in the front of the restaurant (along with the bar), there is in additional dining room in the back with very very dimmed lighting but more of the same color scheme. It also boasts an open kitchen and we all i know, i love an open kitchen. points for that.

to start off we ordered the hummus which was just a simple blend of chick peas puree, tahini, olive oil and lemon. i feel like it is difficult to go wrong with homemade hummus and Souk did a good job with it. No unexpected kicks or surprise flavors but it was good nonetheless.

i also ordered the Chiflour Bi Tahina which is fried cauliflour with herbs and tahina sauce. i can really never see anything wrong with a tempura vegetable and this was more of the same. The flavors were nicely balanced but there was no special kick to it. i think that it could have had some more complex flavors going on but it was still clean and simple.



Additionally, I ordered the Couscous a la Berebere which is couscous served with dry fruits, apricots, nuts and a yogurt sauce. this was recommended to me by Bill and my mouth may have been watering upon reading the description on the menu. unfortunately, it wasn't as good as the description leads it on to be. the couscous was cooked fine as were the ingredients but the flavor intensity that I was expecting from the dried fruits and apricots did not come through as much as I would have hoped. the yogurt sauce helped a bit but it was definitely one of those "great vision, not so great execution" dishes.

AB ordered the Chicken Shawarma which is roasted chicken with tomato onion salad served with Basmati rice. Both Bill and AB enjoyed this dish and Bill felt like she was back in Morocco, which is a clearly a good thing. The flavor and seasoning was there and definitely had mediterranean influences but it also had its own distinct identity.

Bill ordered the Lamb couscous which was a stewed lamb shank with a vegetable medley of squash, carrots, and zucchini served with couscous. This was a big hit and I even had some of the carrots which were really tasty. AB also took really well to this dish and enjoyed the flavor. There are occasions when restaurants mistake good seasoning from salting and this was not the case. The seasoning was nicely balanced.

Additionally, I ordered the Shrimp Biryani (i'm pretty sure that's what it was called), and it was really quite good. The flavor and seasoning was really present and had the nice "kick" that I had been looking for all evening. I would actually caution that unless you are accustomed to very spicy things and can take it, that you might not get it because I had to polish off that couscous to be able to finish it. However, I was really pleased with the dish and the flavor and I think that the bold seasoning that they used in this particular dish should be used more so throughout.

All in all, i enjoyed my time at Souk. There are definitely additional items on the menu that I would like to try and I think tapas is always a good choice among a small group of friends or for a date. If on a date, I would recommend asking to be seated in the back dining room because the front dining room can be a little bit of the fishbowl with the open windows. They had a lot of good flavors in some of the dishes, but I definitely would not be afraid to push the envelope if I were them.

Grade: B

Pasha Bistro

After spending way too much money at Border's going out of business sale, best buddy of BOOF, Mo and I found ourselves hungry in DC. per usual. It was a Sunday afternoon so somethings are open and somethings weren't. We originally intended to check out Maoz Vegetarian because I not only have heard so many great things about it but also I had a groupon to use there. Unfortunately, upon arriving to Maoz, we noticed that it was closed. sad day. sad face.

we were in the dupont area, so we knew that we could find something to satisfy our vegetarian and gluten-free taste buds, but nothing we saw seemed to appetizing. we continued to walk and were eventually in the area of another place I had a livingsocial/groupon deal to (i have a TON, i know it's a problem), Pasha Bistro. It ended up being the perfect stop on a warm but cloudy sunday afternoon. Pasha Bistro is located on 17th Street, in I guess what we could call the East part of the Dupont Circle Neighborhood. It is close to Komi (#1 restaurant in DMV), Mr. Yogato and Cafe Green to name a few.

the inside of Pasha Bistro is really nothing spectacular but it does feature a nice large covered outdoor patio out front which I am really a fan of and 17th street is another one of those great places to people watch. first things first, we had to ensure that the falafel was gluten-free so Mo could eat it, and not to worry...it was.

we started off by ordering some hummus which was nice, creamy and delicious. there is nothing like fresh made hummus served with ezme, feta and pita. the flavors were there and it was a nice and simple dish and the pita was also super delicious.

i then also ordered the spinach pie which was sauteed spinach and feta baked in a puff pastry and this was also very delicious. the feta nicely balanced the seasoning of the spinach and this was a dish that Mo really wish that she could have eaten. I wish she could have too. :-(

for our meals, Mo ordered the Falafel Platter which came with fries, a house salad and hummus. Mo enjoyed every part of the meal and it was nice to see a restaurant not skimp out on the house salad. she did mention that the falafel was good but it was not as fluffy on the inside as some others. the seasoning of the crust, however, was really good. the fries were also tasty shoestring fries more so then your average shoestring fry.

I ordered the Veggie Pita which was filled with grilled zucchini, eggplant, onions, bell pepper, and feta cheese. the veggies were all cooked really well and seasoned nicely and i really enjoyed it. it came with a large helping of those shoestring fries and they were really really good. i am also a big fan of the fact that despite Mediterranean cuisine really favors a lot of meat (lamb), there was more then ample veggie options on the menu. i did like that they included a lot of veggies and the pita was overflowing with them. job well done.



all in all, both Mo and I enjoyed our time at Pasha Bistro. if you are looking for a cheap, casual and tasty meal with buds then pasha bistro can definitely be your stop. I would definitely recommend it on a spring, cool summer or fall evening with buds on the patio.

Grade: B

Zaytinya

Let's keep this thing international.

after meeting on a continent half way across the world, we all managed to end up in the same place for a year of magic. Despite being closer to each other than ever before, it is tough to get the five us together but we managed to get four of us rounded up for a sunday night dinner.

initially, I had planned for us to go to Rasika (soon enough!), but they were unfortunately closed on sunday. So, taking the good recommendation of BOOF buddy, Sho, I decided on Zaytinya.

Best friends of BOOF, sio, hugdoll and twinskii met me at 6:45 for a dinner at the Penn Quarter gem. Some foodies out there may know that Zaytinya is home to Top Chef star, Mike Isabella, from the most recent season of the show . The restaurant is a mediterranean mix but the menu takes most of its inspiration from greek, turkish and lebanese influences.

The restaurant sits directly across from my personal favorite Smithsonian, the National Portrait Gallery, and it features wonderful ceiling to floor windows throughout the L-shaped restaurant. They have both weekend and weekday happy hours which is a definite plus, and when you pair that with some fresh baked warm pita bread and an olive oil/balsamic mix to dip them in, you will be good to go. Nevertheless, we were all just drinking water and hot tea that night because despite the wonderful light from the ceiling to floor windows, we did find it to be a tad poorly insulated.

Upon ordering, they start bringing out the delicious warmed pita bread that puffs up when heated. it was perfect. i am a bread lover to begin with, but the reason why Zaytinya wins special points in this regard is because the pita bread is lite and airy; therefore, it does not fill you up too much, like most heavier breads from other restaurants. They serve it with the aforementioned olive oil and balsamic mixture, which was simple yet very tasty.

To accompany our pita bread, we opted to order the three spreads for $12.00 deal. We decided on the classic Hummus, Baba Ghannouge and the outlier, Htipiti (try saying that three times fast or once for that matter). All were quite delicious but the Htipiti was definitely a winner and I would essentially go back just for that spread. It was a mixture of marinated roasted red peppers, thyme and feta, and the flavors meshed so perfectly together to the point where you could not stop of yourself from continuing to take bite after bite after bite...The hummus was classic and the Baba Ghannouge may have been the best I have ever had (the tahini flavor was not too overpowering), but then again, I haven't had too much Baba Ghannouge in the past to compare it to.

Zaytinya is a tapas restaurant (which is probably my favorite kind of restaurant) with all well-priced dishes. For the quality of the food that you get, it definitely feels like a steal because a majority of the prices are so reasonable. I will go person by person to talk about each tapa that was ordered.

sio ordered the Imam Bayildi which is Ottoman style roasted eggplant stuffed with onions and tomatoes. She also ordered the seared Sea Scallops with a yogurt dill sauce and the Aglaia Kremezi style Crab cakes served on top of roast garlic yogurt (i also ordered these). Unfortunately, the Iman Bayildi was lost in translation because we never received these which was really unfortunate because it sounds like it would have been delicious. The good thing is that we were not charged for the dish, so apparently, our waiter just missed the order completely. Sio said that the scallops were very delicious, as was the sauce that they were served with. I will comment that the mini crab cakes are definitely a must have at the restaurant. I never knew that people other than Marylanders knew how to do crab cakes so well, but clearly those individuals of the Mediterranean region are well versed. They were fried perfectly and packed a sizable punch for their small appearance.

Hugdoll went for the very traditional route and ordered the Falafel and a flat bread (?). Falafel is made up of smashed chickpeas which is then fried, and traditionally served with a tahini sauce. The flat bread was reminiscent of a pizza with no red sauce. Hugdoll commented that both dishes were done well and very tasty, but nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.

twisnkii went for the Fried Squid, which was again served with a garlic-yogurt sauce ( i am beginning to notice a trend!), and she was very pleased with the dish. I also believe she ordered the Spanakopita which is another traditional Mediterranean dish which is made of house made phyllo and stuffed with spinach and feta cheese. To me, it was reminiscent of an egg roll (see picture), but twinskii was very pleased with the taste and flavors.

I ordered the Kolokithokeftedes which translates into zucchini and cheese patties and they were served with a caper-yogurt sauce. I also had the aforementioned crab cakes and with my recent found obsession with brussel sprouts, i also ordered the Crispy Brussel Afelia which were served with coriander seed, barberries and garlic yogurt. I have already talked about the deliciousness of the crab cakes and the zucchini patties and brussel sprouts were more of the same. the Zucchini patties had a nice creamy and cheesy filling and it was slightly battered and fried which gave the bite size eat the perfect texture. The brussel sprouts were cooked my favorite way, broiled, so they had the nice crispy leaves but were not too burnt as it retained its natural flavor. However, they were a little bitter for my liking, so I personally would have maybe adjusted the seasoning to bring out the natural sweetness that brussel sprouts have.

All in all, Zatinya is a wonderful restaurant that I would definitely frequent again. The setting is accommodating for everyone as you could definitely have a nice date with your significant other but you can also bring a small or large group of friends The wrap around bar is also a very nice area and it is well separated from the dining area by a very architecturally and aesthetically pleasing wall (pictured). The walls that exist are white and royal/sea blue in color which is fitting for the mediterranean theme but I would recommend that they find some better insulation options for windy days. Also, the great ceiling to floor windows have large automatic drawn shades which is nice when potentially too much light is coming through at different points of the day.The menu is diverse in its flavors and cultural influences but everything works together to make a harmonious experience. Although we all opted for either seafood or vegetarian dishes, the meat menu was also plentiful, so I may have to make an additional trip and bring some other buddies that are more likely to order off that part of the menu. However, to be expected, lamb is definitely a highlight on the meat and poultry side. Overall, Zaytinya is a must go to restaurant in the city and I recommend pairing it with a trip to the National Portrait gallery on a nice Saturday afternoon.

Grade: A-