I LOVE Yelp. I want to high five Yelp. I want to fist pound Yelp. Yelp IS food so fine. Thus to dedicate this AWESOME site and for my own pleasure, I'm going to do a nice review of the top 20 restaurants on Yelp that is listed in the 'Arlington, VA' region. Here is what the top 20 look like (MINIMUM 15 REVIEWS, thus excluding a couple restaurants):
1. El Charrito Caminante
2. Rays the Steaks
3. Ravi Kabob House
4. Kabob Palace
5. Super Pollo
6. El Pollo Rico
7. Lost Dog Cafe & Gourmet Pizza
8. Ray's Hell Burger
9. Astor Mediterrenean
11. Pupatella
12. Best Buns Bread Company
13. Bocatto Gelato and Espresso
14. Five Guys Burger and Fries
15. Thai Square (already done)
16. The Italian Store
17. Crisp and Juicy
18. Top Thai Restaurant
19. Kabob Bazaar
20. El Paso Cafe
I've already been to 13/20 of the restaurants so I COULD confidently write a review on them, but I'd like to give them all another try, however I might just write a review since I'm a cheap bastard and eating out costs money.
As for the remaining 7, these take priority and I will try and go to these over the next several weeks. Also, since a lot of the restaurants are generally known (it's in the top 20 on Yelp, cmon), I'll try and go to a couple restaurants that aren't very well known and throw them in the mix.
Also, since there are several kabob and peruvian chicken joints, here's a quick rundown of where you want to go for what:
KABOBS (Ravi Kabob vs. Kabob Palace)
Best Chicken Kabob- Ravi Kabob
Best Lamb Kabob- Kabob Palace
Best Chickpeas- Ravi Kabob
Best Sauce- TOSS UP (For yogurty- Ravi, for spicy- Kabob Palace)
PERUVIAN CHICKEN (El Pollo Rico vs Super Pollo)
Juiciest Chicken- Super Pollo
Tastier Chicken- El Pollo Rico (however it is more hit or miss)
Best Fries- El Pollo
Best Yuca- Super Pollo (El Pollo has no Yuca)
Best Service- Super Pollo (El Pollo is usually more busy)
Best Sauces- El Pollo
Yelp Rating: 4.0 w/77 Reviews (and counting)
Thai Square is roughly 3 blocks down from it's more attractive cousin Bangkok 54. However, what Thai Square lacks in looks, it more than makes up for with personality (seriously, guys really do consider personality). Me and my fellow foodies had 3 dishes in all: Crispy Duck w/Basil, Crispy Squid w/Basil, and Pig Knuckle Stew.
1. CRISPY SQUID W/BASIL
Sweet, spicy, crispy, basil-ly, off the top of my head, one of the top squid dishes I've ever had. It combines all the things you expect in a Thai dish, sweet and savory with asian spices, and packages them with deep fried morsels of squid (the ones that look like cork screws, not the circular kind). DELICIOUS.
2. PIG KNUCKLE STEW
I had no idea you could stew pig knuckles. I mean, what would they look like? Before the dish came out, I was half expecting pigs feet that resembles the pigs feet that you can find in those mysterious jars at a ghetto deli store. Instead, it looked like this (to the left). Imagine, if you will, that Pho made love to a slow cooked pig knuckle, it's offspring, let's call it PHNUCKLE, would taste like the combination of its parents. Not for everyone, but if you like Pho, you'll like PHNUCKLE.
3. Cripsy Duck w/Basil
I was less then impressed. The duck was fried to to the point where there wasn't any duck meat. And as for the duck skin(usually the best part), it was just ok. Just too tough for me.
All in all, was one of the best Thai expereinces I've had (just including those first 2 dishes). I personally think Thai is over-expensive, but compared to everywhere else, you're gonna have to pay roughly the same amount for an inferior product.
YOGEN FRUZ
It's as if IKEA is now trying to take over the world of frozen yogurt. No, this YOGEN FRUZ is not owned by IKEA, but with its fancy pink 'u' with 2 dots on top, it sure seems like it.
All swedish bias aside (and I have PLENTY, damn you swedes for making all black body spandex suits somewhat acceptable), YOGEN FRUZ makes for a pretty tasty treat. Creamier and sweeter then Pinkberry, they not only offer up a decent amount of yogurt for the price ($3.50 for medium + 1.50 for toppings), they add in a lot of toppings as you can see. I could tell they were slightly frozen, but the fruit was ripe and tasty. I wasn't as happy as my yogurt cup's pink smiley face/fancy U, but it was solid for what has become a market saturated with overpriced, bacteria infested frozen dairy items (that's yogurt).
RSS Feed