911 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-837-9117
http://majesticcafe.com/

American | $$$

Every once in a while we find ourselves at a restaurant that astounds us. The Majestic turned out to be a special dining experience. I have thought about visiting The Majestic before but parking in Alexandria can be such a challenge it’s a deterrent to even the most diehard foodies. Since we were shopping in the area we stopped by without a reservation to see if they could seat us. Something I don’t recommend since the restaurant fills quickly.

The restaurant has a history as a café in its current location dating back to the 1940s. It was transformed into The Majestic in 2007 by Chef Cathal Armstrong’s Eat Good Food Group. Armstrong is best known for his Restaurant Eve, also in Alexandria and as a James Beard Foundation 7 time nominee for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

At the helm of The Majestic’s kitchen is Chef Shannon Overmiller who did a masterful job preparing dinner. Having worked under Chef Armstrong at Restaurant Eve she is well suited for the roll of executive chef. Her love of the region drives her desire to source ingredients locally and gives her the ability to tell you from which farm or fisherman your dish came. Watching her at work can mesmerize as she moves between the kitchen, staff, and guests, directing, inspecting and having a hand in each dish.

Our first appetizer was an amazing Chicken Liver Mousse with a Blackberry Compote and Black Truffles. It comes with toasted French baguette slices but after the first bite my wife told the waiter “we’re going to need more bread, we’re leaving none of this behind.” Served slightly chilled as a mousse it has a consistency close to whipped butter. The favor is muted and not as strong as a liver pâté. Amid bites my wife alternated between saying the names of friends who would love this and we have to come back here.

For our second appetizer we were sold on the Red’s She Crap Soup when Chef Overmiller told us it was an old family recipe. Made with Lump Crab, Cream, Sherry and Oyster Crackers it was delectable. It had a nice creamy consistency without being too thick. The homemade oyster crackers were a nice touch.

I chose the Amish ‛Jerk’ Chicken with a Creamy Cucumber Sauce and Spoonbread for my main course. The spoonbread was cooked perfectly with a great corn pudding like taste. The chicken was mouthwateringly moist and had the wonderful Jerk spice taste to the crispy skin. The cucumber sauce was light, refreshing, and helped cool down the Jerk spice.

My wife’s dish was the Chef’s Special of Grilled Caves Liver and Onions with Whipped Potatoes. The hand-cut liver was tender with a light liver taste. The combination of pearl and sweet onions in a savory sauce was perfect.

My French Press coffee with dessert was excellent, full bodied and smooth.

My wife had this silky smooth Key Lime Pie for dessert. The pie had a nice crust sitting on a luscious Coconut Crème Anglaise with ripe succulent Kiwi.

Given a choice I almost always pick a chocolate dessert. I am glad I tried the Chocolate ‛Lava’ Cake with Chocolate Sauce and Pistachio Brittle. The warm molten chocolate combined with the vanilla ice cream was heavenly. It is rich and probably best shared by two.

To finish the meal the chef sent us these nice ricotta and cocoa rolled in coconut truffles. I am not fond of coconut but these were really good.

We dinned about 5:30pm when the restaurant seats. The noise level was low and grew as the restaurant filled. It was never over 72 decibels which puts it at the low end of the hard-to-hear scale. The lighting is pleasant and won’t give you that dimly lit dungeon dinning effect that seems so popular these days. The wait staff is professional, attentive and personable. Our waiter Jamie answered all of our menu questions and made excellent suggestions. He was always nearby and our glasses were never less than half full. I hope he is available on our next visit.

If you are looking for an exceptional dining experience for a special occasion or just a culinary treat move The Majestic to the top of your list.

Chart House Annapolis
300 2nd Street
Annapolis, MD 21403
(410) 268-7166
http://www.chart-house.com/

Seafood | $$$

This was our first time at The Chart House in Annapolis where we met with relatives sailing in the bay. It is a large restaurant seating over 100 on the water just across the Naval Academy. The company has 28 restaurants in 14 states with a second in our area in Alexandria.

They offer an extensive salad bar or you can choose from several nicely prepared salads.

I didn’t have any Calamari but it looked great.

Seafood always tastes better when you can see the water. These wonderful scallops were perfectly cooked and topped with a Ginger Soy Sauce & Wasabi Cream on a bed of Wasabi Mashed Potatoes with Asian Green Beans. The sauce had the familiar Wasabi bite and was a nice complement to the mashed potatoes.

My wife tried one of the Chef’s Features, the Rockfish Del Mar topped with Grilled Tomato Pico de Gallo (a fresh chopped salsa), Avocado and Balsamic Glaze served with Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes. She liked the fish and said it was cooked perfectly. For my taste I passed on the avocado and took a bite with the balsamic. Rockfish is a mild fish and adding the smooth balsamic cranked it up just a notch making it an appealing dish.

My cousin had Crab cakes with Avocado Corn Relish and Lemon Butter served with Toasted Vegetable Orzo. The crab cake was delicious with just enough filler to hold it together and not drowned in Old Bay.

This Crème Brûlée was my reward for finishing my dinner. Topped with fresh berries this rich vanilla custard with its thin caramelized topping was heavenly. Knowing how wonderful it is it will take real willpower not order it as an appetizer on my next visit.

We ate before 6pm on a Saturday night and watched the restaurant fill up quickly. The dining room has a tall ceiling so noise was kept to a low 73 decibels. If possible try to eat early so you can find a parking space. Chart House has its own parking lot but it did not look large enough to handle a full restaurant and parking could become a challenge, as it is most nights in downtown Annapolis.

Royal Indian Restaurant
1250 Emmet Street
Charlottesville, VA 22903
(434) 973-2288
http://www.royalindianofcville.com/

Indian | $

My wife and I meet a large group of friends from the Charlottesville area several times a year at Royal Indian for dinner. We have never been disappointed. This was our first dinner at their new location on Rt. 29 directly across from The Federal Executive Institute. The new space is larger and quieter than the last with plenty of parking and access from both directions on Rt. 29.

I started with a smooth hot chai tea.

Roasted Cauliflower appetizer.

This Paneer Pakoras is a cottage cheese fritter dipped in gram flour batter. I have never had this appetizer and was intrigued with deep fried cottage cheese. Picturing the cottage cheese in our refrigerator I’m guessing my subconscious was saying it couldn’t be done, so I ordered it. The fritters have a consistency similar to tofu and are served with tamarind sauce to give it more taste. I can’t say I was disappointed, it’s just that I am used to Royal Indian dishes bursting with flavor, which makes it just an ok dish. But I am glad I tried it.

I love Naan bread and Royal Indian makes it fresh every day. We ordered several bread baskets which come with Naan, Garlic Naan, and a third selection of your choice. I didn’t hear what the third choice was because my brain locked up when I heard Garlic Naan. This is my favorite and the best I have had.

My main course was steaming hot Chicken Tikka served in a super-hot cast iron oval fajita griddle. This allows vegetables to keep cooking if you like them well done.

The Chicken Tikka with Masala sauce is amazing. The chicken had a hint of citrus from marinating and the Masala had the savory flavors of cumin and turmeric. Mine was ordered on the mild side but still a little hot. If you like it hot they can accommodate you. Some at our table prefer spicy food at a level that would cause normal people temporary blindness.

The finished product, Chicken Tikka over rice with Masala sauce.

My wife ordered the Lamb Korma which was wonderful. I have had the Beef Korma several times and I think it is my favorite.

We dined at the start of Charlottesville’s Restaurant Week and a member of our party got a great 3 course meal for $26. She ordered this vegetarian plate with Smashed Cauliflower, Green Peas, Potatoes, and Onions with Spices, Basmati Rice, and Spinach Bread.

We have tried other Indian restaurants but none compare to Royal Indian. The service is great and the staff always friendly. With the restaurant over half full the noise level was low at 70 decibels. The level of freshness and quality of the food for the price make it one of the best dinning values in Charlottesville. If you anywhere near Charlottesville you should dine at least once at Royal Indian to learn the standard with which to judge Indian restaurants.

Mahi Mah’s Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Saloon
615 Atlantic Ave.
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 437-8030
http://www.mahimahs.com/

Seafood | $$$

Each year we meet friends at a timeshare in Virginia Beach for a week over 4^th of July. We have counted Mahi Mah’s as one of our dinner staples for over 10 years. After the dreadful experience we had this year it may be hard to convince everyone to go back.

Seating a party of 6 around 5:30pm at a busy ocean front restaurant is a challenge and we accepted the 45 minute wait. We were seated at a round table in the second dining room which was great. I understand that people coming off a long day on the beach crave air conditioning, but they had the AC cranked. I’m not sure if it was because we were sitting under a vent but I was cold to the point of it being distracting. The waiter came promptly and took our drink order.

For an appetizer we settled on Crispy Fried Calamari. It was crispy and very good. Two people in our party ordered dishes that came with French fries. The fries were a deep brown color suggesting they may have been made in oil that needed to be changed and were not edible. The waiter brought more fries that looked and tasted more traditional. Another friend decided on chicken and ordered the Wing Bucket. Admittedly the menu says you get 20 wings and we know wings can be small but when the bucket arrived it was a lot of chicken. Oddly it was not all wings, other pieces including a drum stick were thrown in. A little heads up from the waiter would have been nice when he sees this ordered for one person. Like the fries the chicken was a dark brown color. I declined to taste and noticed most of it went back to the room with us.

My wife ordered the Shrimp and Grits and liked it. The kitchen must have been short staffed and busy because the plate looked as if the food had been sloshed into it on a chow line at a penitentiary. Her dish had Sautéed Shrimp with Peppers, Country Sausage, slow cooked Collard Greens and a Stone Ground Cheddar Grit Cake. This is a good example of why it is important to read the description of items on the menu. Someone glancing at the menu thinking they would get shrimp on top of a bowl of grits may be disappointed.

I’m a big fan of Jambalaya so I gave the Jambalaya Penne Pasta a try. Their rendition of Jambalaya was good. I say rendition because it really wasn’t Jambalaya. Authentic Creole Jambalaya comes with smoked or Andouille sausage. The menu describes the dish as having Sautéed Red Peppers, Onions, Smoked Sausage, Chicken, Shrimp and Penne Pasta tossed in a Cajun cream sauce. Despite what the menu says after a few minutes of poking around it was obvious my dish had no sausage. I know they have sausage, I saw it in my wife’s dish. The pasta with the cream sauce, chicken, and shrimp tasted good but I couldn’t help wondering how much better it would taste if someone in the kitchen had cared enough to make it properly. With only 4 shrimp and no sausage $23.99 made it an overpriced pasta dish.

We passed on dessert and rounded up the 4 year old in our group. The noise level was high at 82 decibels but it is a large room and there were 2 tables of 8 or 10 shouting a lot. I always try to give a restaurant several chances if I have a bad experience but with 4 out of the 5 adults disappointed or having an issue with their meal it may be hard to convince everyone to go back. Given the fries had been sent back, I complained about being cold, and my dish was missing a primary ingredient, I thought a manager might visit the table. Either the waiter didn’t alert management to the problems or they didn’t care enough to follow up. Surprising since you never know who has a food blog these days.

L’Auberge Provençale
13630 Lord Fairfax Hwy
White Post, VA 22620
540-837-1375
http://www.laubergeprovencale.com/

French | $$$$

Dinner at this lovely French bed and breakfast is a real treat. Chef Joseph Watters has created a wonderful dining experience by taking a farm-to-table approach and sourcing as much food locally as possible. The inn is a 90 minute drive from Washington, DC. in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

We started with a tiny radish in a clay pot, gazpacho, and a small deviled quail’s egg. The quail’s egg tasted similar to a deviled chicken egg.

My first course was the Carpaccio Reinvented. Tenderloin heated with a blow torch, freeze dried strawberries, and something called mighty blue from Spain. I do not understand what this is but it was good. A small tube sticking out the side allowed for last minute drizzling of vinaigrette.

The Chilled Minted Pea Soup with Buttermilk snow had green leaf Nasturium perched atop a Tzatziki sphere. The soup was light with the perfect mint flavor.

For my second course I chose A Hogs Trotter and a Sweetbread Story described on the menu as a custard thick farm fresh egg yolk and a smoked belly with fondant textured potato with an edible crispy potato film and concentrated stock of pork jus. I was seeing the chef liked to create items to visually fool you. I thought for sure I was getting a breakfast sausage but it turned out to be a crispy pig trotter with a soft inside.

My wife had A Walk Through the Hudson Valley with Foie gras, pickled Shirtless grapes, hazelnuts, and macerated apricots. This stunning dish is some of the best plating I have seen.

For my main course I chose the Strip Loin of Lamb with tabbouleh of couscous and quinoa, baba ganoush, tempura fried zucchini flowers with ricotta, and Rosemary Jus. The Rosemary Jus over the lamb was perfect, giving it a wonderful earthy taste. I loved the couscous and creamy ricotta together but it was hard to push the couscous around to mix it.

My wife had the Barramundi with steamed mussels, spring vegetables, and garden sorrel emulsion. I am not a fan of mussels so I take my wife’s word they were excellent. Also pictured is the small jar of super fine mashed potatoes created by pushing them through a tight mesh screen.

Our friends had the Duck Magret and the Wild Alaskan Halibut. I have no usable photo of the duck. The Halibut was cooked perfectly and came with an assortment of small fresh vegetables, almonds, and delicious caper-raisin.

In place of a typical sorbet to cleanse the palette before dessert the chef sent out a small chilled dish with a picked grape and champagne gelato on a thinly sliced strawberry. The waiter poured a rhubarb puree on top. It was all too much for me, I would have preferred sorbet.

My chocolate dessert with a dab of vanilla ice cream was just what I needed at the end of my meal.

The other desserts looked amazing. This vanilla ice cream ball was filled with strawberries.

Service was first class and the limited number of tables in the dining room kept the noise level low. Seating is available outside on a delightful patio but be sure you can stand the heat or humidity before reserving an outside table. Because of the plating and small delicate nature of some dishes dinner can easily take an hour and a half or more.

It was wonderful having authentic French cuisine in the nearby Virginia countryside. If you love French food or are a foodie looking for a magnificent meal consider a trip to L’Auberge Provencale.

Merrifield Garden Center Café
6895 Wellington Rd.
Gainesville, VA 20156
703-368-1919
http://www.merrifieldgardencenter.com/

Tucked away in a back corner of the Gainesville Merrifield Garden Center is the delightful Merrifield Café. Manager Chance Warhurst, grandson of Merrifield co-founder Bob Warhurst, has done a superb job of creating a small dining oasis in the midst of a bustling nursery. Open year round with about 25 seats, it is a great place to grab breakfast or lunch 7 days a week. We often visit on Sundays after church to avoid the crowds at chain restaurants. They offer an array of fresh salads, made-to- order sandwiches, and breakfast items all reasonably priced. Coffee is always free and the most expensive item on the breakfast menu is $6.00.

Four of my favorites for brunch.  Large fluffy pancakes, great French toast with bacon, omelets with an assortment of fresh ingredients, and a killer sausage breakfast sandwich.

My favorite sandwich for lunch is the hot roast beef and cheese with a tasty sweet mayo. My wife raves about the lamb gyros. Honestly we have had nothing that wasn’t great­­, which can make ordering a dilemma at times. If you can go a little early getting there before noon is best. Lunch can be busy with locals and tradesmen from the area who know they can get an inexpensive fresh high quality lunch quickly. Summer means patio seating is available so there is plenty of room. Merrifield has always been known for their wide selection of high quality plants, it’s great they have taken the same approach to the Café.