Tom Sietsema and the Washington's Best Bets

I always look forward to the Washington post Annual Dining Guide and this year its Tom Sietsema's " Wine Bars that beckon" , "Pizza to die for " and "Hamburgers done right". Tom Sietsema's job is tough. The guide is titled Washington's Best bets and it literally is. 27 DC restaurants vs. 8 in Maryland and 9 in Virginia. The guide concentrates on a lot of high priced restaurants in Washington Dc and i think I understand the reasoning - if you are spending >$100 on your dinner you really want to go to a place which has been vetted by a food critic where as if the dinner was $17 you have less to risk and can experiment with restaurants that are not in Tom Sietsema's guide. Given the economy in the stage it is I would definitely recommend the Washington Post have two versions of this guide, an additional one like the Washingtonian's 100 Best Bargains. I am glad that Tom Sietsema added a Baltimore restaurant to the list Wood berry Kitchen.

Here are the restaurants from the guide that I would like to try:

Volt

228 N. Market St., Frederick
301-696-8658

http://www.voltrestaurant.com/

Woodberry kitchen

2010 Clipper Park Road, No. 126
Baltimore, MD 21211

410-464-8000

http://www.woodberrykitchen.com/

 

Cava ( of course I love this , restaurant a mile from my house)

9713 Traville Gateway Drive, Rockville, 20850
301-309-9090

http://www.cavamezze.com/

 

Nava Thai

11315 Fern St., Wheaton, MD 20902

240-430-0495

 

Passion Fish in Reston

11960 Democracy Drive

Reston Town Center


Reston, VA 20190

703.230.FISH (3474)

http://www.passionfishreston.com/ 
opening on Oct 22 (This restaurant is in Tom Sietsema's plans to review later this year )

According to the Sietsema article quoting the ZAgat 2009 survey people in the Washington area are eating as much or more than they did 2 years ago. Again this may be a Washington city stat and not the burbs. is your work place refrigerator more full with lunch boxes from home than before? Let me know what you think .