Lauriol Plaza

Area: Dupont Circle (Red Line Dupont Circle metro stop)
Location: 1835 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009
Cuisine: Mexican
Cost: $$

Lauriol Plaza has had a LOT of hype. Ever since I have been in DC all I ever hear about is everyone going to Lauriol Plaza for happy hour to order their famous pitchers of margharitas. I must admit, they are DELICIOUS! I can probably finish one alone. But it is always more fun to share. Anywho, I'm transgressing. I've always heard so much hype about Lauriol Plazas drinks and their food. Now I definitely agree with everyone on the drinks part, because like I said the margharita's are a must have. They also offer some pretty decent selection of beers, if you are a beer person. Me, not so much.

Lauriol Plaza has outdoor seating outside, which is where I usually like to sit because I love people watching. There are two floors, a bar at the front of the restaurant, and an outdoor deck upstairs on the second floor. It is almost always a long wait to get a table. Oh, and parking is usually pretty bad, they have valet, but they usually fill up pretty quick. My suggestion, park far and just walk, use public transportation, or just save the Earth and walk.

The service can be iffy. Sometimes the waiters take forever but they are usually so on point you don't even notice it. As long as the margharitas are flowing I'm not complaining. They serve you salsa and chips to tide you over while you wait, which is always nice and I almost always end up asking for a second batch. The food itself, well it's pretty average. I'm not really a fan of the entrees. The mussells are pretty amazing, which is why I'm constantly being dragged to dine there, even against my will. The avacado salad is pretty good as well. Healthy, but fills you right on up. The tamales and enchiladas are okay, but your safer ordering the quesadillas. There is more hype to this place than the food is really worth. But hey if your the type to follow the hype, this place is definitely it, as it's always packed (all floors including the outdoor seating), and the drinks and mussells can con you into coming back time and time again.

Hank's Oyster Bar

Location: Dupont Circle (Q & 17th st)1624 Q St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Metro: Red Line Dupont Circle Metro Stop
Cuisine: Seafood
Website: hanksdc.com

So a couple of friends of mine planned a surprise birthday dinner at Hank's for my roomies birthday. It was a Sunday night, and they don't take reservations, you just have to get there to get your name on the list and wait. Since it was a Sunday night they weren't particularly busy, so it wasn't long before we could get a table. However while we were waiting for the rest of the group & the birthday girl to show up, we decided to grab a few drinks at the bar. Everything was going fine, UNTIL, a little bug decided to run around our drinks and nearly attack us. I grabbed a napkin and quickly killed the little fellow. I was HIGHLY disappointed with how the bartender reacted, he didn't even comp our drinks or grab a manager to let them know what just happened. It was a BUG on the bar!!! Right near our glasses. I was SHOCKED that the bartender didn't go out of his way to correct this one. This action made me skeptical about the rest of the dinner, but I was put to ease once we were seated to our table and we had the most patient waitress ever!

The restaurant is pretty small and fills up pretty fast. We had a party of 10, and I know from my own experience as a waitress, that waiting on large parties can be ANNOYING. You constantly have someone asking for something or making changes to their order, and it takes a lot of patience to work with. As the waitress gave us a chance to look over the menu (which isn't that extensive but sufficient) we were given goldfish crackers to snack on. I ordered 12 Malpeque oysters on half shells (@ $2/oyster, it's not bad although I wish I would have selected a variety of oysters), the lobster bisque, and a side order of collard greens. The oysters were pretty good, the lobster bisque had nice chunks of lobster and was seasoned pretty well. The collard greens were a bit on the sweeter side, but the quantity was pretty large, a dash of tobasco sauce was the solution so it wasn't too bad.

Anytime we needed anything the waitress was excellent at being attentive and quickly solving the problem. I like this place, and would definitely try it again. Everyone enjoyed the oysters (the toten's and sister oysters are pretty good) and the sauce they serve with it, are EXCELLENT! I strongly recommend this place, it's modern, casual, and cozy perfect for these cold winter days.

Hello Cupcake!

Location: 1351 Connecticut Ave NW, DC
Cuisine: Desserts, Cupcakes
Price: $
Nearest Metro: Red Line Dupont Circle

So lately I've been having this sweet tooth and annoyingly haven't really had anything that would satisfy it. So I found out about this little spot in one of my daily email alerts from www.dailycandy.com saying that Hello Cupcake! was opening up. Well I figured why the heck not. A girlfriend of mine, her 18 month old son, and a mutual friend of ours decided to try this place out. Well when we got there (a Saturday afternoon around 3), it was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG line leading out the door! Once we got inside there were clean pastel colors decorating the walls, and everything looked so clean and crisp and just made you feel so happy. So we patiently stood in line, unfortunately they were out of most of the cupcakes that I wanted to try (for you vegans and Gluten free dieters they also have something to accommodate you), so I decided to get real exciting and went for the hc Original with buttercream icing. I love white cake with triple coconut (I REALLY wanted the dulce de leche cupcake but I was told they weren't going to sell it until the owner perfected the recipe), but nonetheless I was not let down. I ordered the 24 carrot (carrot cake, get it) for my friend whose birthday it was (I did sneak a taste and it was AMAZING. I will caution you, these minicakes are pretty rich and you may need a glass of milk to top it off, so be prepared. They are so goood! Oh a little thing I forgot to mention they change the menu daily so try checking out the website before you make your way over there, some of the flavors are sold daily and some are sold on certain days. So if there is a particular flavor you want to try make sure you are visiting this cute clean shop on the right day.

http://www.hellocupcakeonline.com/flavors.html

Al Tiramisu

Al Tiramisu
DuPont Circle
Italian Restaurant
Red Line
Website: http://www.altiramisu.com/


Ah, I've resurrected! And i've been hungrier than ever! On a late Sunday night around 9ish (almost past my bedtime) my sister who was in town, and I were looking for a place to grab some good grub. My roomie had given great accolades to this Italian restaurant called Al Tiramisu in DuPont. Well since we were both in the mood for Italian I figured hey why not. So we walk in and were greeted by a very tall, polite gentleman. The restaurant is sort of small and quaint, reminiscent of the restaurants in Italy, and was filled with couples. I was happy they were still open (it was about 10 at this point).

So we sat, and viewed the menu. It wasn't very extensive, but they had the usual pasta, salads, and anti pasta entrees. We both quickly agreed on the cheese and spinach ravioli. I took a glance at the wine menu and was surprisingly pleased. As I have said before I love wine, and they had two of my favorites. The wine list was more extensive then the food menu, not necessarily a bad thing. The food came amazingly quick which please me and my sister since our stomachs were literally growling at this point. The waiter asked us if we wanted cheese, and of course, I couldn't decline. We greedily ate our food and, I will say the food was decent, nothing to really write home about, but it was still filling and if it was a little cheaper I probably would have felt a lot more enthusiastic about it.

The dessert menu was pretty extensive as well, and I opted for the tiramisu (my fave dessert). My sister opted for a chocolate style gnocchi dessert that was served with ice cream. It's not on the website and I can't remember the name of it, but it was pretty good. I was a little disappointed with my tiramisu, I don't know if it was because I had extremely high expectations, it still hit the spot, but just wasn't what I was expecting. It was good just not the best. I would definitely suggest this restaurant if you want to stop for a swig of good Italian wine or for some yummy Italian dessert (just don't go in there with high expectations on the Tiramisu).

I might have to try it out again to see if I feel the rest of the entrees are worth the bang for the buck. LIke I said the food wasn't that bad, however if it was a little cheaper I might be more enthusiastic about it. The service however was fantastic, someone came by to make sure the water glasses were filled and to check and make sure everything was okay. I never once thought to myself "where is the damn waiter". That definitely made the experience pleasant. Wouldn't suggest this spot for large gatherings of friends, but if you want to opt for something a little more quaint and unpretentious.

Thai Chef

Thai Chef is a small space with a bar and a happy hour on their sushi a few of the Thai entrees and rail drinks that begins from 4-7. They have sushi and Thai food. The sushi isn't all that great. The Thai Chef dumplings were okay. The people are really nice there, but the service can be shotty. The Grilled Jumbo River Shrimp are pretty good, but the Hawaiin Duck isn't so tasty even though the tomatoes and pineapples in the sauce were pretty chunky and good. Wouldn't consider this spot if I was in the taste for sushi, maybe for a Thai dish, but I'll update my review when I have had more of the dishes on the menu.

Location: Dupont Circle
Price Range: $10-20

http://66.34.56.214/thaichef/main.html