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Chinatown DC -- Cool / inexpensive Restruants?

so I have an Open Table gift certificate for $200 and am going to use it for my wife's bday dinner...which she is ok with. I thought at first you could use it for ANY OT restaurant, but they have a more limited selection where you could use it. want it to be somewhere we could get our money's worth...for example, I pretty much always do Founding Farmers for her bday since it's her favorite but I feel like we'd be just slinging cocktails to get to $200. so among my options:

Osteria Morini (never been)
701 (been a few times for restaurant week)
Oval Room (ditto)
Art and Soul (been many times)

Jaleo and Zaytinya are also on there and favorites of ours, but harder to do with 2 people unless we get some really nice wine. thoughts?
 
I'd think Osteria Morini would be a no-brainer.

And what do you mean per the wine comment? You can roll through $200 on food alone at Zaytinya for dinner without much of an effort. Very small plates - that place is sneaky expensive.

Anyone else going to the Repeal Day Ball this year?
 
DCDeac said:
I'd think Osteria Morini would be a no-brainer.

And what do you mean per the wine comment? You can roll through $200 on food alone at Zaytinya for dinner without much of an effort. Very small plates - that place is sneaky expensive.

Anyone else going to the Repeal Day Ball this year?
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I agree on Zaytinya, but with just the two of us I don't think we'd hit that on food. last time we went we were in and out at around $100 with several cocktails each and maybe 6 plates.
 
6 plates at Zaytinya for 2 people? I'm unfamiliar with that kind of restraint! Impressive.
 
I coulda done a lot more but don't think I could've put them away myself...wife was getting full. I think we'll try Morini to branch out.
 
Anyone know a good spot to grab a quick bite to eat near the Friendship Heights metro before a movie?
 
There's Booeymongers, Corner Bakery and Pain Quotidian all right there that are quick eats. For restaurants, there are the places like Maggiano's and Rosa, but there's also Range and Sushi Ko, which are better. There's also a Cap Grille. It's not a great neighborhood for food. Do not go to Chadwicks. So gross.
 
Osteria Morini was awesome. highly recommended for fancy eye-tie food (have not been to any of Fabio T's places, though).
 
Checking out Gypsy Soul on Sat night. Anyone been yet? I've told RJ a number of times that I'd never go there since he put it out in BFE, but we have friends that live 5 mins away and they convinced us to make the drive out.

Also just made a res today to go back to Marcel's for next week. I haven't been in probably 5 or 6 years, but it was fabulous the one time I was there. Excited to go back.
 
wfudkn said:
Checking out Gypsy Soul on Sat night. Anyone been yet? I've told RJ a number of times that I'd never go there since he put it out in BFE, but we have friends that live 5 mins away and they convinced us to make the drive out.

Also just made a res today to go back to Marcel's for next week. I haven't been in probably 5 or 6 years, but it was fabulous the one time I was there. Excited to go back.
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I take it you read Sietsema's review?
 
No, but CopyCat is freaking awesome. Awesome drink menu.
 
our favorite spot for cocktails right now is Bar Charley. drinks are great and cheap! love the Tiki drinks on tap and the Manhattans.
 
tbh I never liked the passenger. Thought it was a shitty setup and uninventive cocktails. They'd put a can of shitty beer on the menu and sell it for $8 because it was obscure and no one knew it was shitty until they tasted it.
 
not a restaurant rec, but since this is a thread for DC Deacs, here goes: can anyone recommend a particular Toyota, Honda, or VW dealership in the area? starting the car buying process and I'm looking at those makes and there are so many dealers in the area and I don't know which one to first turn to. first step is test driving models and once I figure out what I want I'll start really looking at which dealers to shop at.
 
So we checked out Gypsy Soul on Sat night. Everything we had was great. Basically fancy southern cooking. At our table we had fried chicken skins, deviled eggs, chips and french onion dip, grilled octopus, seared foie gras, lobster and foie bisque, fried quail with grits and greens, grilled veal with grits, grilled pork chop and rabbit and dumplings. My biggest issue was that everything was incredibly heavy. So that's not really a complaint, but I'm just not that used to eating so much heavy stuff so I didn't feel great a few hours later. The place was packed and I'm sure will continue to do great business out there in Fairfax. But I'm just not sure I'm driving back out there to go back anytime soon.
 
I don't know of a particular dealership which is any better than the rest (honestly it's probably more dependent on the salesman you get and the time of year/deals going on) - but I've posted on other threads how valuable those car buying services are in an area where you have a choice of dealers so that might help you.

I have USAA who outsources it for free, but other banks and credit cards offer the same service. I've been really successful using the following approach: 1) Decide exactly what you want outside of the buying process. 2) Use a car buying service to get you offers and contacts at multiple dealerships. 3) Deal only with the internet sales manager if they have one - those guys go for speed over soaking you for extras and save hours of bullshit time. 4) Just be open about the offers you get and let them battle it out.

The best deal I was offered was through Passport by the way, although it wasn't Toyota. Ended up buying from Tischer which is now Silver Spring although not sure if they any dealerships of the cars you're looking at.
 
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