Tarting It Up

Rose Restaurant

Shamshiry has previously been our go-to restaurant for Persian cuisine, but Tyler Cowen's recent review of Rose Restaurant in Vienna inspired us to try out the new(ish) Persian spot in Vienna.

We'll have to make a couple more visits, but we might have found a replacement for Shamshiry.   Here's M's disembodied head floating towards the entrance:

I took these photos with E's new iPhone.  Be warned that my sense of composition leaves something to be desired.  The bread that came out was hot and pillowy, and was accompanied by yogurt sauce and spicy green sauce.

E and M both ordered the chicken kabob, and both thought it was excellent.  The chicken breast is moist and tender, and the entire kebob tastes as if it's been slathered in a buttery sauce (likely because the kebob has been slathered in a buttery sauce).  In our experience, Shamshiry's chicken tends to be cooked to a significantly higher temperature, and it isn't so saucy and flavorful.

In a slight bummer, Rose doesn't seem to feature all of the different rices that Shamshiry does.  However, when a table near us ordered zereshk polo (sweet and sour rice studded with dried berries), the waiter informed the table that they didn't have the rice that day.  Aha - a secret menu!  (or just my inability to fully read a menu)  I'll have to try to order it next time.

Also - the garden salad at the bottom was simple and good.  It's early September, and the tomatoes really should be excellent, right?  These were.  A garlicky dressing was served to the side.  It was worth having again.

I ordered the salmon, which was accompanied by rice infused with dill and studded with fava beans.  I stirred some of the yogurt sauce into the rice.

That picture turned out poorly.  The rice is seasoned superbly - dill and fava beans are perfect foils for the salmon.  No crisp tah dig though, and according to this Chowhound thread, it's not available even if you want it. 

Like the chicken, the salmon was cooked to a much lower temp than at Shamshiry.  I've never had a piece of salmon cooked anything but well done at Shamshiry.  Without my specifying the cooking temperature, the fish came out what most restaurants would call medium-rare.  I enjoyed the salmon but found it underseasoned.  A a healthy squeeze of lemon and schmear of the yogurt sauce woke up the flavors of the fish.

 

Our bill for 3 salads and 3 dinners came to $57 (sans tip).  This restaurant is a great new addition to the Vienna restaurant scene.

Rose Restaurant
126 W. Maple Ave
Vienna, VA  22180
(703) 255-2557

Nielsen's Frozen Custard

Long time no see.  J. has been busy with schoolwork (last semester, woo hoo); E.'s been busy with work-work.  I'm going to spend the next twelve hours feverishly trying to complete a project, I'm behind, so I MUST PROCRASTINATE.  What better way to burn up precious pre-deadline minutes than to write about our recent visit to Nielsen's Frozen Custard?

Vienna's Church Street is a charming place, with lots of brick sidewalks and little shops that call themselves shoppes.  Nielsen's Frozen Custard, which some hail as the best custard in the area, lives on Church Street as well.  It's an upmarket custard place: the interior is....well here it is.

Kinda Arts & Crafts movement-looking with faux tin roof ceilings and fireplace.  It's warm and welcoming, and my GOD do they serve great frozen custard.  It's delicious and somehow enigmatic: I've heard that frozen custard actually contains less butterfat than premium ice cream.  Yet it doesn't really melt.  Go ahead: visit Nielsen's, and you tell me if your ice cream melts.

That's M.'s oreo cone and J.'s vanilla cup.  Those who wax critical about ice cream joints always say that ONE judges the quality of the place by the quality of the vanilla.  Try this, it's great.  It tastes like nothing but fresh cream and vanilla bean.  The vanilla flavor reminds me of myself somehow: high quality, honest, pure, and 85+% fat.

It's delicious, but we don't go all that often.  I have to say it: we have a couple of minor quibbles with Nielsen's.  First, isn't it fun to go to a place like The Dairy Godmother, eagerly anticipating the flavor of the day?  I love the surprise of discovering cool new flavors there: snow angel, tollhouse cookie, Chocolate raspberry bavarian cream...isn't it fun just reading them?  And don't even get me started on the sorbets they serve up: lemon ginger, cucumber, apple cider, they're all transcendent.

You won't experience that particular thrill of the hunt at Nielsen's.  Nielsen's features three flavors of ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, and the flavor of the day, which is always pedestrian: oreo, coffee, lemon, raspberry, cherry, egg nog.  Ho hum.

Also, you walk into an ice cream shop, you want to smell waffle cone, right?  Or hot fudge a-bubbling.  Or cookies baking.  Or coffee percolating.  At Nielsen's, thanks to the menu that contains non-frozen-custard items, there's an unpleasant aroma of fried food that permeates the place.

Nielsen's Frozen Custard
144 Church St., NW
Vienna, VA 22180
(703) 255-5553

Nizam's Restaurant

I'm a little behind the times...the WASHINGTON Times, that is.  [[laughter that devolves into applause]].  No please, take your seats.  Thank you...

Thank you.

After writing the below entry, I found that the Washington Times recently reviewed Nizam's as well.  Phooey, I've been scooped!  I feel so derivative now!  Oh well - their experience (bad service, iffy food) wasn't mine, so feel free to compare and contrast between our reviews.  My review is also much more entertainingly written.  I think.

As I mentioned recently, I have a deep and abiding love for the fourth best place to live in America.  I'm going to say the unthinkable, though: I wish Vienna had more good restaurants.