Ben's Chili Bowl

Have lived in DC, off and on, since Aug 2007. Tonight, my roommates and I walked to the World Famous Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street.

Good location for the U Street nightlife. Good service despite the fact that it's a line-up at the counter type of operation. Menus are a little difficult to figure out; if it isn't breakfast time, you are eating off the lunch menu. There is no "dinner" menu.

To keep this short: it's a landmark and probably worth trying for that reason.

I ordered the large bowl of "beef" (as in, "Where's The Beef???!!!") chili with cheese and onions on top. It's just so-so. I've ordered chili at Wendy's numerous times in numerous locations and have ALWAYS enjoyed Wendy's chili more than Ben's. And, though it may be "apples to oranges", I ALWAYS enjoy Skyline and Red Star "Cincinnati Style" chili's more than Wendy's.

One of my roommates makes a mean, meaty chili that is more comparable to the style of Ben's. The next time the President of France comes to DC, I suggest he or she stop by our place for some "real" chili.

Heck, I'll even whip up some of my decadent cream puffs for dessert.

UNO Pizza in Georgetown (Metro DC) - More Problems

Executive Summary: Previous visit sucked in mid-2008, next visit on Easter 2010 also sucked. Very unlikely to EVER return to this UNO location. May try UNO in another city someday, but if it also sucks, that will be the last time we try UNO.

Spent Easter Sunday prepping, painting, reversing a door and installing a new lock set in a basement room of my condo building with lots of help from the roommates. So, we decided to treat ourselves to a walk in the nice weather, a meal at Chicago Uno Grill ("UNO's") in Georgetown, and then a movie for two of us (the other roommate has better taste in movies).

We haven't been to UNO in Georgetown in a very long time, well over a year (maybe mid-2008). On that last visit we were also planning to see a movie, and we told our waitress so before we ordered to make sure we had enough time. Of course she said "yes". Great. We order. And we wait. And wait. And...you get the picture. I had to chase down our waitress (who seemed to disappear partway through our waiting). The pizza arrived very late, was not cooked properly, and was more or less room temperature. We complained, the manager came by our table, offered to remake it but we decline due to our time constraints. The manager adjusted our bill to zero, which was fair but still left us hungry and without time to get anything but popcorn and soda (a hot dog, you say?) at the concession stand. The manager also asked us to return soon and gave us a business card with a note on it - which I've since lost - that I believe might have resulted in a discount of some sort on our next visit.

So, Easter Sunday, around 3:30 PM, we arrive at UNO on M Street. I tell the hostess that they are on probation due to our poor experience on our last visit and to please give us a waitress who will see to it that it doesn't happen again. We are assigned a woman who was allegedly a "supervisor" of some sort. We ordered the "taster plate" appetizer, which was about $12. The photo to the left is what arrived at our table (there was a third ramekin of marinara but we'd already moved that to the table before I took this photo. The photo makes it look better than it was!).

There are supposed to be onion rings on this plate. There are a total of about 4-5 complete but very skinny "rings", and the rest of the meager pile at the "12 o'clock" position is broken pieces and bits. Two chicken strips, three "hot wings", and some fries. Perhaps folks in DC actually think this is a good value for their money, but I and my roommates certainly did not.

I walked to the bar and found a manager (I knew he was because he was holding a cash organizer (complete with money) for a register. I think his name was Frank. I told him about my concern and he immediately said they had run out of the mozzarella sticks but the kitchen was supposed to be adding more of other items to make up the difference. He came over and saw our plate. He began to remove the plate to return it to the kitchen while having it remade, but then asked if we'd like to nibble from it while we waited - YES PLEASE, as we were very hungry. Frank then came and asked if we'd like our pizza to come out with our remade appetizer plate, or should the pizza come later. "All at once is fine". The new plate was MUCH better, with a mound of onion rings, and more of each of the goodies than the first plate.

Then the pizza came. Prima Pepperoni. It seemed smaller than I remember, even though we had ordered the large. I thought, 'it's OK...it's really thick with toppings'. Nope - I forgot about the wire rack that supports the crust above the pan bottom. I thought, 'well, it's still filling at least because the pastry-like crust is worth eating'. Nope, not today - it was more dry and cardboard-like than I've ever had at an UNO, and I've been at them in a number of US States over the years. One of the roomies was very disappointed and only ate the toppings off of one piece - it's a good thing we had LOTS of appetizers left so he could keep eating.

I and the other roomie did manage to eat the remaining pizza - there wasn't that much to it - but none of us had eaten ANY of the crust edges. In fact, we reassembled the pizza crust in the pan, something like a puzzle. I'd guess that about 30% of the "base" was still there upon reassembly, which is unheard of for us at an UNO because the crust is usually pretty good. 100% of the outer edge of crust was still there, too.

Frank tried to fix things for us. He never said anything of the kind, but I got the feeling his hands were somewhat tied. I did not complain about the pizza (although the reassembled pizza in the pan might be a tip off), so Frank didn't have an opportunity to make that right. The waitress was just OK, but she brought refills to the table without asking if we'd actually like another; as it happened, I had started with a regular Coke because I felt my blood sugar needed a quick hit, but I certainly did not want a 2nd one - I wanted a Diet Coke for my refill. But, since I'd already made a fuss about the appetizer plate, I just accepted the 2nd Coke and kept quiet. I also believe she should have refuse to bring the first appetizer plate to our table looking as it had.

I must recommend you stay away from this establishment unless you are in the mood to vent your frustrations at the staff.

Arthur Treacher's - Alexandria, VA

This was a first for me. One of my two dining companions seemed to have a fond recollection of having gone to Arthur Treacher's in the MidWest about 30 years ago. And who doesn't like fried seafood and french fries?

We ordered individual meals, but the plan was to share everything.

We all got the same type of french fries. They were sort-of like waffle fries but not quite. We all agreed the fries were pretty darn good.

The three triangular fish fillets I ordered were large and tasted fine. Not fantastic, but it was a nice change. We all agreed that the fish fillets were our favorite entree.

The companion revisiting his childhood ordered the shrimp. They were decent. Not particularly flavorful, but decent. Unanimously our second favorite entree.

My other dining companion ordered the chicken, not being as big on seafood and wanted something "safe" in case the seafood dishes weren't to his liking. It turned out that the chicken was the least favorite dish for all of us. The coating was "wrong" for chicken - odd consistency and not enough spice. The flavor was too bland, as if the chicken had been frozen too long (just a guess - I didn't ask). It was also on the dry side.

Conclusion: The price was surprisingly high for the quality of the food (maybe I'm just not used to the higher prices in Metro DC???). The quantity was fine, but the quality was too low. As my companion said, "It can wait another 30 years" before he tries Arthur Treacher's again.

Brenner's Bakery - Alexandria, VA

My visit to Brenner's Bakery was unexpected. I had never heard of them before. I saw the bakery while driving into the Belle View Shopping Center parking lot for the first time, trying to find a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream shop I had seen on my iPhone's AroundMe app (a very cool app which has proven useful on numerous occasions in the mere four months I have been using it). As it turned out, Baskin-Robbins was in the adjacent building, with a different parking lot. However, upon seeing Brenner's (and the traffic, and the annoying "traffic shaping" we would have to endure just to drive next door), we parked in Belle View's lot and walked into Brenner's first

We had just had a mediocre dinner at Arthur Treacher's nearby (reviewed on this blog), and were looking forward to the Oreo(c) Outrageous ice cream flavor my dining companions had convinced me was required eating. (That Baskin-Robbins no longer carried the Oreo(c) Outrageous flavor was disappointing but did not influence this review)

It was late in the day for a bakery, so the choices were limited, and I did not expect everything to be fresh. Freshness was not the problem.

My chocolate croissant had plenty of filling. Unfortunately, the filling tasted "off". I have to assume there was something artificial in the flavoring, or someone used Crisco blended with the chocolate. There was an unpleasant bitterness to the flavor. I am accustomed to eating very dark chocolates; 72% mostly, and occasionally 85%, so I do not believe that it was a lack of sweetness in the chocolate filling that bothered me. I even saved some of the croissant so I could try it again much later in the evening, but the flavor was similarly unpleasant.

One of my dining companions bought a chocolate "cluster" (the actual name we cannot recall now) that contained raisins and pecans. It was ball-like, and the chocolate flavor was throughout. It did not have a chocolate coating or "shell". The raisins and pecans just did not taste good together. It was overly dry (this may have partly been as a result of buying at the end of the day).

My other dining companion bought two oatmeal raisin cookies. They were OK, but a bit thick for my liking. He also bought a powdered sugar coated Linzer torte with raspberry filling. My companions report that the torte was dry and VERY hard, and the filling was very gummy.

Conclusion: The Brenner's website states they have been serving Alexandria for over 50 years. If our findings were fairly representative of Brenner's usual offerings, I do not understand their longevity. I simply cannot recommend Brenner's.

Qdoba.......or.....Qwonta

Having recently returned to living & working in downtown DC after nearly a year absence, I indulged in a guilty pleasure from my past - a grilled steak quesadilla from Qdoba on E Street NW, next to the Landmark E Street Cinemas (another guilty pleasure - I highly recommend seeing a serious movie at Landmark). I discovered back in late 2007 that it is highly addictive when dipped in a bit of Qdoba's Ancho Chili BBQ Sauce, so I always ask for a little plastic container of it to go with my quesadilla.

I try to brown-bag it most days, but sometimes I just feel like getting something I didn't have to make myself. It was one of those days, so I walked a few blocks to Qdoba. Ordering was pleasant enough, but when I reached the register, my quesadilla had gone from costing in the high sixes to the mid eights. DC's 10% sales tax on dining out couldn't account for all of that. I looked at the cashier and said, "Uhhh.....," but before I could get the words out, she informed me that they charge for the sauce.

"You charge for that now?"

"Yes."

"How much?"

"Seventy-five cents."

"You're kidding??? Seventy-five cents for the smallest container?" (gee, many times in 2007 and 2008 when I got the side of sauce for free the employees used the next size up - a container that probably holds 3-4x as much liquid)

(These small containers are the same kind that Five Guys has piled up adjacent to their ketchup pumps. El Pollo Loco has an entire chilled bar of five salsas with the same containers setup as an "all you want" arrangement - for free)

"Yes, we do."

"Well, I used to get these quesadillas all the time a year ago, and I always ordered a side of sauce and nobody ever charged me for it before. I'll take it this time, but you should know that seventy-five cents is way too much for that little container of sauce. If it was twenty or twenty-five cents I'd probably live with it, but at seventy-five cents, I'm not going to be back here to order another one of these." (maybe they should charge $0.23, so that with tax it comes out to an even quarter, in case somebody needs to buy one after they've paid for their main purchase?)

Mumble, mumble, mumble........ no discernible response from the employees to that.

I guess the two employees who were working at the register, and who were involved in the conversation, did not care that I wouldn't be returning to Qdoba.

I wonder if the general manager or owner would have cared.

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

This is not a review of a particular eatery.

I had occasion to wait for 2+ hours at Cleveland's Hopkins Int'l Airport (CLE) last weekend. It was to be my first time there and I was looking forward to finding the Cincinnati-style chili vendor that would undoubtedly be there. While I prefer Skyline Chili to Red Star, the latter has been very tasty when I've had it at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG).

I couldn't find a Red Star or Skyline Chili in my terminal, so I found the grand map of the entire airport, which was electronic and interactive. I had it display the food joints in each of the terminals. NO chili places of any kind were to be found at CLE! Worse, the selection of alternate dining was dismal.

There were multiple Max & Irma's (but none in my terminal, of course), which have been fine when I've visited them outside of airports, but I had my heart set on chili.

At this point I would have gladly gone to any part of the airport for a Chili's-To-Go and ordered tortilla chips and queso dip (when it's good it's loaded with chili meat). Alas, even that old airport standby was nowhere to be found in CLE.

So, I bought a blueberry scone and a pint of milk from what looked like a glorified cart-type vendor that had decided to bolt some of their operation to the floor. It was just OK - the scone was too sweet.

And, to top things off, there was no free wifi at CLE, but that's a topic for another blog....

D

Testing Mobile Blogging

Now I'll be able to easily post to this blog before I leave the
restaurants!

D