Restaurant Week: Farmers Fishers and Bakers

Last Friday, my co-worker, her husband, Justin and I went to Farmers Fishers and Bakers (FFB) for Restaurant Week. I hadn't participated in Restaurant Week in a long time and had never been to FFB (even before the flood/renovation) so I was excited to try it out.

 

For our starter, Justin got the vegetable barley soup (which was average according to him) and I got the smoked salmon roll. Unlike most restaurant week menus, we were able to order most items off the regular menu, with some parameters of course (i.e.: no pork belly belly sushi rolls (darn!) and all entrees priced at $24 and under). What amazed me about FFB was the wide variety of food they had on their menu. They had everything from sushi, burgers/sandwiches, pizzas and roasted meat mains.

 

My co-worker's hubby went with the deep dish pizza.

 

 

While she went with the seared Lemon Meunière Diver Scallops...

 

Justin opted to get the 16 oz. Grilled Pork Porterhouse. It was tasty and juicy, but what I really liked on his dish was the corn pudding tamale on the side. Needless to say, I traded him a bit of my dish for the tamale!

 

I got the Cracklin' Pork Shank with Street Corn Off-the-Cob, Peanut-Cider Slaw, Red Eye Gravy. The pork shank wasn't as "cracklin" (read: crispy) as I thought it would be, but it was delicious nonetheless!

Although I was pretty full from our appetizer and entree, I still had room for dessert and boy were we in for a treat! For our dessert, selections we weren't limited to a few choices. If you thought we were given meager portions for dessert, you'd have to think again! I manged to get get the last slice of butternut cake with a side of bourbon ice cream. The cake was moist and decadent and the ice cream was the perfect complement. I obviously couldn't finish the cake so I gladly took the rest home.

 

 

Justin got the peanut butter pie which was sumptuous! The peanut butter filling was creamy and mousse-like and the peanuts distributed throughout (along with the graham cracker crust) gave it a perfect crunch.

 

 

Although I didn't take a picture of them, I got some cocktails as well. The bourbon mule I ordered was delicious (quite refreshing for a bourbon drink believe it or not), while the shandy beer cocktail I ordered is something I could have passed on.

 

Overall, I would say that we had a great experience! The company was lovely and the food was superb! I've heard so many good things about FFB's brunch (it's on my to-do list!), however, I would say their dinner is also something not to be missed!

 

Do you like going out during Restaurant Week? If so, what was the last place you tried?

Doing Some Dining in D.C.

To say that Justin and I have been dining around D.C. might be an understatement. I guess you could even call it pigging out. eek. But it was for a good reason! I had a bunch of daily deal coupons that were on the verge of expiring (leave it to me to wait until the last minute) so we had to use a bunch of them in a short amount of time. First up, Il Capo.

Before I go further, let me just tell you I actually had a coupon for Mi Vecindad for two drinks and two entrees. However, before my coupon expired, management decided to to change the restaurant concept. Instead of Mi Vecindad, a Mexican/Central American joint, it is now Il Capo, an Italian food eatery. Luckily, they still accepted my Mi Vecindad coupon, but we would dining of food other than what I had originally intended. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a shot.

Per the coupon, our meal started off with a margarita. Kind of odd for a new Italian place (I thought they might give us wine instead), but it was good and strong. 

We started off our meal with salad and calamari which were good, but they were nothing special...



For our entrees, I had the clam pasta and Justin had the spaghetti and meatballs. Again, nothing special. Justin and I are pretty picky when it comes to Italian food since it's something we cook ourselves quite often. I personally wish they had stuck with their Latin menu, but since this restaurant is so close to our house, I hope they are able to improve. Il Capo's old incarnation was always able to attract large crowds on their outdoor seating during the summer, so I wonder if they'll be able to get the same large crowds with their new menu.

The next place we tried was Boundary Road on H. St. Again, I had to use another coupon before its expiration and the caveat that came with this coupon was that I could only use it during lunch. On this particular day, I took a half day and picked up Justin from work.

We started off our meal with the lunch-sized portion of the quark (a type of cheese) and black pepper pirogi appetizer. It was delicious! We plowed right through the starter and were glad we opted to get the larger portion!



 Justin ordered the cheesesteak and I got the charcuterie sandwich which can be seen below. Having all of the different types of meat in one bite made it super tasty! The only gripe that I had about this sandwich was that the bread was so crunchy it kind of scraped the roof of my mouth! #firstworldproblems

The next place we dined at was Art and Soul, one of Art Smith's many restaurants. You may know him from his appearances on Top Chef Masters, Barbecue Wars, and of course he was Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for a decade.

We started off our meal with the scotch eggs which already had us reminiscing of our London trip...

Then for our main course we opted to get the fried chicken dinner for two, which came highly recommended. It was perfectly brined, seasoned, with super crunchy skin. It came with a side of collard greens and mashed potatoes. Here's  Justin eyeing the meal, wondering the best way to tackle it. We didn't manage to finish it (hooray for leftovers!) but I had to leave room for dessert!

For dessert we had these fig tarts, topped with powdered sugar with a side of vanilla ice cream. It's always a good sign when a restaurant has something different than the usual creme brulee, cheesecake, chocolate cake, etc.



So that's my review of three of the places we've eaten at. How about you? Did you do a lot of celebratory dining out during the holidays?