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Old 11-12-2009, 11:45 AM
 
Location: Northern Virginia
1,418 posts, read 3,454,424 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michgc View Post
You guys are making me hungry for bagels and pizza.
Oh bagels and pizza, why have you foresaken me? (oh yeah I moved from metro NYC!). Rats

The food here is overall not impressive - so far at least. I am really surprised at the lack of mom and pop dining options. There are some, but yeah the chains have taken over for sure. Good thing i like Panera!
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Old 11-12-2009, 12:09 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC & New York
10,915 posts, read 31,388,802 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arielmina View Post
Oh bagels and pizza, why have you foresaken me? (oh yeah I moved from metro NYC!). Rats

The food here is overall not impressive - so far at least. I am really surprised at the lack of mom and pop dining options. There are some, but yeah the chains have taken over for sure. Good thing i like Panera!
The closest I have found to a good NY bagel in Virginia is Brooklyn Bagels which is on Wilson near the Courthouse in Arlington, next door to California Tortilla. Other good bagels are Bethesda Bagels and Bagels, Etc. on P St. NW, near DuPont. Georgetown Bagels are also pretty good. They are much better than the chains or grocery store bagels, IMO.
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Old 11-12-2009, 12:15 PM
 
Location: South South Jersey
1,652 posts, read 3,879,472 times
Reputation: 743
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen 81 View Post
Nowadays we have a plethora of Vietnamese, Korean, and Afghan/Persian options. Nothing about any of those is uniquely Washingtonian or Virginian, but we certainly have more of those places than any metro not named San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York (possibly Seattle, haven't done a count by count comparison ).
So now itty bitty *Seattle* has more ethnic restaurants than Chicago? I'm willing to give you that Seattle is likely to have a high concentration of East (and Southeast) Asians, being on the Pacific coast, but where on earth did it get the crazy cachet that it has around here? I'm willing to bet that on a count-by-count basis, Seattle has fewer Afghan and Persian/Iranian restaurants than does Chicago. (And I'm also willing to bet there are other U.S. cities [besides D.C., obviously, and NYC, LA, and SF, the other cities on your list] with more than Seattle, too.)

(I also find your claim that you were in Milwaukee but didn't go to Chicago a little suspect. It strongly hints that you don't realize how close they are to one another. )

Last edited by Alicia Bradley; 11-12-2009 at 12:55 PM..
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Old 11-12-2009, 12:21 PM
 
845 posts, read 2,326,631 times
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Incredible seafood in Seattle.
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Old 11-12-2009, 12:34 PM
 
3,307 posts, read 9,378,752 times
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As another poster said, Brooklyn Bagels is the best bagel place in the area.

For pizza, try the Italian Store or Tony's NY Pizza in Fair Lakes (I think they have a couple of other locations too).

I will say we rule for ethnic food. There's not a lot of cities where you'll find better Korean, Thai, Indian, Salvadorean, Vietnamese, and Ethopian food all in the same place.

There's a definite foodie culture here. It's not the same as the one where you came from (NY, Chicago, etc.), but that doesn't make it worse. I miss good bagels and pizza on every corner too, but we've got some interesting options to rival the other foodie destinations.
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Old 11-12-2009, 12:45 PM
 
Location: Home is where the heart is
15,402 posts, read 28,939,936 times
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I like the bagels at Einstein's.
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Old 11-12-2009, 12:54 PM
 
Location: Dudes in brown flip-flops
660 posts, read 1,704,676 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley View Post
So now itty bitty *Seattle* has more ethnic restaurants than Chicago? I'm willing to give you that Seattle is likely to have a high concentration of East (and Southeast) Asians, being on the Pacific coast, but where on earth did it get the crazy cachet that it has around here? I'm willing to bet that on a count-by-count basis, Seattle has fewer Afghan and Persian/Iranian restaurants than does Chicago.

(I also find your claim that you were in Milwaukee but didn't go to Chicago a little suspect. It strongly hints that you don't realize how close they are to one another. )
I have been to Chicago, and spent time in scenic Lake Forest. My sole ethnic dining experience in Chicagoland involved friends getting sick in Chinatown, so I wasn't going to bring it up. But based on my anecdotal evidence, ethnic dining in Chicago is abysmal! I don't know why it would be so surprising, though, for me to have visited Milwaukee on multiple occasions but not Chicago. I know they are like 2 hours away from each other on I-94, but I only know people in MKE, and Chicago isn't really that compelling a draw. It seemed very pleasant and livable, but it's not a vacation destination like a lot of the coastal cities are.

And yes, Seattle has a much higher concentration of Asians than Chicago, and "itty-bitty" Seattle is the 15th largest MSA in the country. 3.4 million people is not insignificant. The only reason I added it to my list, though, was b/c I figured someone would chime in saying that Seattle was great for Asian food, so I went for the preemptive strike. And I think the city that gave birth to THE most successful mid-scale food/beverage chain in the country, Starbucks, should have some cachet in the food world.
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Old 11-12-2009, 01:06 PM
 
Location: South South Jersey
1,652 posts, read 3,879,472 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen 81 View Post
But based on my anecdotal evidence, ethnic dining in Chicago is abysmal!
I'm sorry, but there are hundreds (probably thousands) of professional food critics who would disagree with you on that one.

(Sorry about your bad experience, though - I recently got food poisoning from a *salad* at Ted's Montana Grill in the Carlyle section of Alexandria; it's not a pleasant experience, to say the least. But I suppose I should've known better than to order a salad at a chain place around here - I have yet to have a chain restaurant salad in the D.C. area whose greens didn't taste like they were starting to ferment.)
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Old 11-12-2009, 02:11 PM
 
5,125 posts, read 10,087,409 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen 81 View Post
I have been to Chicago, and spent time in scenic Lake Forest. My sole ethnic dining experience in Chicagoland involved friends getting sick in Chinatown, so I wasn't going to bring it up. But based on my anecdotal evidence, ethnic dining in Chicago is abysmal! I don't know why it would be so surprising, though, for me to have visited Milwaukee on multiple occasions but not Chicago. I know they are like 2 hours away from each other on I-94, but I only know people in MKE, and Chicago isn't really that compelling a draw. It seemed very pleasant and livable, but it's not a vacation destination like a lot of the coastal cities are.
All I know about ethnic dining in Chicago is that it has great Mexican restaurants - much better than in DC - and that it must have some great Polish/Ukranian places if you're into that.

I've been to both Milwaukee and Chicago and I never thought a trip to one really called out for a trip to the other at the same time, either. I don't understand why Alicia Bradley thinks there's something suspect about visiting Milwaukee without making the extra schlep to Chicago.
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Old 11-12-2009, 02:22 PM
 
845 posts, read 2,326,631 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pcity View Post
As another poster said, Brooklyn Bagels is the best bagel place in the area.


I will say we rule for ethnic food. There's not a lot of cities where you'll find better Korean, Thai, Indian, Salvadorean, Vietnamese, and Ethopian food all in the same place.

I disagree. Not in the same league as LA or San Francisco.
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