ABC Canteen - Fish & Chips, Tacos, Wings in Fairfax, VA - CLOSED

VERY SAD TO REPORT THAT THIS RESTAURANT CLOSED.

9528 Lee Highway
Fairfax, VA 22031
Tel: (703) 865-0377

When someone with 20 years of experience in the restaurant business opens a restaurant with someone whose delicious family recipes were passed down from her Mexican grandmother, only wonderful things can happen. This is the story of the Northern Virginia newcomer ABC Canteen in Fairfax.

The menu is surprisingly eclectic. It's comfort food with a Mexican flare.  You can order Fish and Chips with a couple Tamales on the side or some Tacos with Cod Croquettes or for some ultimate comfort food, treat yourself to Chicken Wings and Mac and Cheese.

Why this unique selection? Wesley Chen immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 8 and fell in love with Mexican food almost immediately. He has worked his way up in several well-known restaurant chains, both casual fast-food and upscale. Along the way, he met Violeta Vergara, who not only shared his passion for Mexican food, but also wanted to share with the world her grandmother's recipes from Oaxaca. It was the perfect partnership that spun off on its own. Adding to their team one more colleague, whom they've known for over 15 years, ABC Canteen was born in early 2015.

Building off their love of comfort food, Chen and Vergara composed a menu that reflects their gastronomic passions. This is why everything they serve is... wait for it... made from scratch! Even the tartar sauce and... get this... the Chili powder!  Only the desserts at ABC Canteen are commercially made, and personally selected by Chen to be placed on the menu.

You really have to love your food to invest so much effort in preparing it just right for your customers. And it shows. On a Saturday afternoon, just after the Blizzard of 2016, the parking lot in front of the restaurant was not fully plowed, but ABC Canteen had a steady stream of customers. Chen personally welcomed many of them by name, particularly those who over the last 10 months since the restaurant opened have become "regulars," whether eating in or taking out.

The fresh, flavorful food is easily a draw on its own. Every item on the menu seems to be popular. But the added bonus is Chen's engaging, though non-imposing, spirit that fills the restaurant with a welcoming cheerfulness making you feel right at home.

The cod prepared at ABC Canteen reminded us of our time in Reykjavik, Iceland some years back, where we had a chance to taste some of the world-acclaimed cod recipes of Icelandic chefs. Chen's Fish and Chips are not at all inferior to those. The main difference was that in Iceland the cod was plucked fresh from the icy waters only a few feet away.  ABC Canteen's flaky cod in a crispy light batter was equally delicious. It went great with a side of their home-made tartar sauce and a full plate of crispy fries. We ordered an additional side of the golden brown hush puppies, which were nicely seasoned, just a tad sweet and overall flavorful.

Tamales and Tacos were terrific on their own, though a short trip to the Taco Bar provided options like diced radishes, onions, pico de gallo and jalapenos, and a variety of sauces.

The chicken wings come either in honey barbeque or buffalo sauce. We opted for the honey barbeque with a side of chunky blue cheese dressing.

This was the first time we ever had a Horchata, which is a cold sweet rice milk- based drink, made from scratch, of course, with a hint of cinnamon.

The Pan Tres Leches (Tres Leches Cake) was a great ending to our meal with its light fluffy texture and sweet condensed milk.

Residing in a building that was once an Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips, the restaurant's decor is simple, definitely not shabby and not overdone. It complements, does not distract.  The dining area is open, clean and bright with floor-to-ceiling windows, overall unpretentious and appealing.

We will definitely be back, and will bring friends. Especially on Taco Tuesdays!

ABC Canteen is in a small strip with Hailey's 24-hr laundromat 

and Mary's Pollo a la Brasa restaurant

 Great deal!!!

 Chen taking our order

 Taco Bar with a selection of toppings and sauces

 Our Feast

 Fish and Chips with Tartar Sauce

 Tamale

 Chicken Taco

 Honey Barbeque Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese dressing

 Hush Puppies

 Horchata drink

 Full dining room with Chen chatting with one of his customers

 Pan Tres Leches

Saba Yemeni Restaurant - Fairfax, VA

3900 Pickett Road
Fairfax, VA 22031
Tel:(703) 425-1130

If you are looking for a taste of Yemen without getting on the plane, we are lucky to have a new restaurant called Saba right here in Northern Virginia! 

Saba Restaurant opened about a year ago, offering Yemeni comfort food specialties consisting primarily of large portions of meat and rice, cooked with delicious spices. If you are not a meat eater, your options will be limited, but it's definitely worth the visit anyway. After all, this newcomer made it on the coveted list of Washingtonian's 25 Best Inexpensive Restaurants in the DC area!

Saba is a medium-size restaurant, about 20 tables, with a large sectioned-off area in the back, where you can dine in a true Yemeni fashion, shoes off sitting on pillows on the floor.  We opted for a table when we came with a group of about 10 friends. It is great to come with a group of adventurous friends, so that we had a chance to sample a variety of Saba's dishes. Unknowingly, we picked a popular night - Saturday - when Saba gets quite crowded, so the wait staff, though friendly and knowledgeable, were clearly stretched to their limit.

The crowded dining hall, coupled with the poor exhaust system of the building's older construction, where Saba is located, made for a somewhat stuffy and hot atmosphere. We visited the previous tenant of this space - Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant, which we reviewed back in 2013, and this unfortunate feature of poor ventilation has remained.  In fact, the decor, the furnishings, and even the plates were exactly the same in Saba as they were in Sheba! So, by the looks of it, not much was spent on overhead in the transtition from an Ethiopian to a Yemeni restaurant.

One important thing did change, however, and not for the better: There is no alcohol served in Saba restaurant. None served and none allowed on the premises, so no BYOB. This was quite disappointing.

The menu options in Saba are monotone:  (1) Beef or lamb can be either roasted or slow-roasted; served on a bone, shredded or in a stew; (2) The spices seem to be rather identical from dish to dish; (3) The same side of the Yemeni salsa-type condiment called "sahawiq" comes with most entrees; (4) The generous portions of extra long grain saffron basmati rice or warm pita accompany all the food; (5) All platters are served family-style, ready to share, and all are sprinkled with wormy-looking onion bits; And finally, (6) all stews are topped with the same whipped-fenugreek dressing.  The Saltah stew, offered with either beef or only vegetables, comes out in a hot pot. The other entrees are served on large family-style platters.  All entrees come with generous portions of green salad with a light olive oil dressing, which the waiters brought out in large family-style platters, also.  Though there is not much variety to the menu, all the food we ordered was very good, flavorful and enough to share with friends.

One note, that of the two portions of Lamb Mandi that we ordered, one was quite fatty.  The staff, to their credit, offered to take it back and bring out another cut of lamb, so keep in mind if yours comes out this way.

We were disappointed when the appetizers we ordered never arrived AND when the restaurant actually ran out of silverware and gave several people in our group plasticware to use. Quite challenging to use plasticware with hot dishes, especially when it came to cutting meat!  We understand that the restaurant was filled to capacity with large parties, but.... come on.  Fortunately, the lamb and beef were soft enough to cut with a plastic knife.

Yet, a third disappointment came when we were ready to order dessert.  The menu featured a list of about 6 or 7 desserts that all sounded delicious.  Curiously, 5 of them ranged between $20 and $40 each!  We were told that they were unavailable for single portion ordering, they could be served only for larger parties. So why list them on a menu?  Individual portions were available only for two featured desserts: Rowani and Basboussa. BUT but they were out or Rowani! So, through process of elimination by the restaurant, we were stuck with Basboussa. We shared two orders among six of us, which was more than enough.  The Basboussa was a bit grainy because of the semolina base, only slightly sweet, and overall a light and good ending to our meal.

In all, we had a nice dinner out with our our adventurous friends.  Although we left happy and with full bellies, the experience was rather on the disappointing side and we are unlikely to return.  Do we recommend that you go to try it once? Yes. But that's about it.

 Entrance to Saba Restaurant is on the left side of the small shopping strip

 Main dining room with bar area under the TV

 Wall decor

 Sahawiq - Yemeni "Salsa" served with all dishes as a garnish

 Salad with delicate olive oil dressing and spices, brought out to share that comes with all entrees

 Lamb Mandi - roasted lamb with a generous portion of basmati rice and sahawiq (on side)

Haneeth - slow-roasted lamb with the same generous portion of basmati rice and sahawiq (on side)

 Saltah - traditional Yemeni stew served with warm pita bread

Basboussa - semolina dessert with honey, the only dessert that was available out of 7 on the menu

  

China Star Chinese Restaurant - Fairfax, VA

9600 Main Street
Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 323-8822

There is a great benefit to dining out with a group of people who enjoy tasting a variety of dishes and have opinions on each dish.  Undoubtely, China Star is a prime candidate to visit with as many people as can fit around your table, considering the extensive menu it offers with a wide selection of choices, nearly making you wish you could squeeze all 3 daily meals into one.  You can pick either of its two websites (yes, two?) to review the menu ahead of your visit, though narrowing your selection down is not easy because it all sounds so good.  Perhaps this is a restaurant where one can be advised to visit often to try everything in order to ultimately settle on the favorites.  

Unfortunately, of the five appetizers and about six or seven entrees, nearly all were disappointments. It is possible that our selections were simply wrong, but we cast quite a wide net, as you can see by the photos below, to get as many diverse flavors as possible. 

To begin with, those items marked as "spicy" or even "numbing" were anything but.  The fact that the Wontons, for example, were drowining in chili oil (see photo below) did not make them any less bland. Several appetizers sounded quite unique, which is why we ordered them, such as Cucumber with Mashed Garlic and Wood Ear.  The former consisted of bland and mushy cucmbers with very little garlic flavor. It was particularly mushy and slimy when combined with any of the other food on one plate. The latter turned out to be a pile of delicate thin black mushrooms, also quite bland until you reached the small stash of pickled hot peppers at the bottom of the bowl.  The Changdu Spicy Cold Noodle appetizer was also bland, and the noodles were annoyingly endless, rendering them nearly impossible to get off the serving plate without friends' help.

Now for the entrees, IF you are still hanging in there and thinking there is still a small chance you'll try Chine Star despite all you have read thus far. 

The entrees...  Well, someone on Yelp who loves spicy dishes as much as we all do, raved about the mild Fish with Pine Nuts, which, though not spicy was still all the rage. We figured with all the spicy dishes we were ordering, this would offer a nice balance.  NOT.  The fish was so mild both in flavor and texture, that, well... it was almost like eating something that was not there (if that makes sense), supplemented by more mushy cucumbers with the fish, boy, was this the wrong choice!  The Szechuan chicken - a combination of brittle fried popcorn chicken with small slices of potatoes (yes, potatoes in a Chinese restaurant!) and intermittent cilantro stems - was, in a word, DRY. The sprinkled red pepper added some heat, but definitely not any flavor.

Going into details about the remaining dishes, is not worth it because, frankly, you get the idea!

Oh, the smoked duck, was dry, and should probably have been smoked rather than eaten, although, jokes aside, it was probably the least disappointing of the entrees, though the bar, as you can see, is not high.

In a word, while Northern Virginia is not necessarily known for its great Chinese food, and this restaurant supports this perception, there are other Chinese restaurants that are much more worthwhile of a return visit, such as Peking Gourmet Inn or Mark's Duck House, than China Star.  

The good news is that the mediocre food was no barrier to a fun evening with a great group of people! 

 Dan Dan Noodle with ground pork

 Cucumber with mashed garlic

 Wontons with pork

 Changdu Spicy Cold Noodles (not spicy)

 Wood Ear (mushrooms) with Chili Oil Sauce

 Smoked duck

 Very top is Cashew Chicken

 Fish with Pine Nuts

 Shrimp with Asparagus and Kung Pao Chicken

Left is Szechuan Chicken and bottom is Beef with Snow Peas

  

Pho 88 Vietnamese Restaurant - Falls Church City, VA

232 W Broad St, Falls Church, VA 22046
(703) 533-8233

In a small strip mall in Falls Church City, Pho 88 is not to be missed.  It is a low-key Vietnamese dive with large windows brightening up the the restaurant's plainest of plain decors.  Like most ethnic dives, the ambiance isn't the draw here. It is the food in Pho 88 that definitely makes it a neighborhood favorite.  Pho 88 serves up reliably delicious food to a steady stream of clientele for lunch and dinner.

We have been here several times over the last few years and have enjoyed our meal every time.  Our lunch today was no exception.  Their spring rolls served with peanut sauce were very fresh, and, although rather bland, they were still moist and delicious.  Pictured here are spring rolls with shrimp and spring rolls with tofu ($2.95 each).  A few drops of hot sauce brings them to perfection.  We typically get the Pho with chicken that comes in a "small" bowl for $7.95 or a "large" bowl (slightly larger than the "small") for $8.95.  The Pho is aromatic, flavorful and plentiful.  Don't worry if you don't finish the whole bowl, of course you can take the rest home. Pho is better the next day anyway!

Don't forget to order the Vietnamese iced coffee with sweet condensed milk to make the meal complete. It has a strong caffeine kick to it. Just lift up the aluminum press, stir it up with the long tea spoon, pour onto the ice and ENJOY!

During peak hours the service can be a bit slow, but that does not detract from the great experience and the DELICIOUS FOOD.  

The parking lot in the back of the mall can be packed during the weekdays, but usually you can find a spot, and in the evenings it is generally easy to park.  Note their website says they are CLOSED TUESDAYS.

Oh, and as an extra bonus, Tutti Frutti, which recently opened next door, is offering anyone who eats at Pho 88 a 20% discount on frozen yogurt!  This is a limited-time offer, but definitely worth it! 

Btw, if you like sushi, another restaurant that we love in the same strip mall is Manekineko Japanese Restaurant! Review coming soon, so if you are not yet subscribed to our email list, go ahead and sign up so you don't miss any of our highly valuable descriptions of our dining experiences in the Northern Virginia area!

Shrimp Spring Rolls and Tofu Spring Rolls

Pho Ga (Chicken Pho)

Pho Ga (Chicken Pho)

Awesome Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Hard Times Cafe (several restaurants in the NOVA area)

4069 Chain Bridge Rd
Fairfax VA 22030 

(703) 267-9590

This is a great sports bar. My friends and I visit the Hard Times Fairfax location probably once or twice a week for great times to watch some hockey, baseball, and football, and enjoy the food. There are several locations, and I've tried most of them, but I keep coming back to the Fairfax restaurant for several reasons. The crowd, the service, and the cleanliness are above board for this location compared to the others. The managers are extremely accommodating.

For a place that caters largely to a younger crowd (it is down the street from George Mason University) the service is EXCELLENT. There are three separate dining areas (four if you count the pool hall). Weekend evenings and days with major sports activities such as NHL Playoffs (if the Capitals are in it), NFL games (if the Redskins are playing that Sunday), or the NCAA Basketball Tourney it gets VERY crowded so get there early if you want to get prime viewing seats.

Hard Times' grilled wings are the best wings I've ever had. These are not your typical deep fry, toss in a buffalo sauce, and serve up with celery and blue cheese. Hard Times grills their wings before seasoning (lightly, but meanigfully) with a wide variety of flavoring goodness. I absolutely recommend the “Original Texas Grilled;” however, a pound of your choice of Chili Lime, Honey BBQ, Old Bay, Sweet Red Chili or Teriyaki all will work well. Hard Times serves their wings with a side of wet naps for post clean-up. I think this is an insult to their wings as they are not the messy sauce dripping down your arms type of wings.

Hard TImes' chili is also the best chili I've ever had. If you’re lucky enough to show up on a night where they have their free nacho bar, you get to try a couple of their chili on tortilla chips. Hard Times chili almost has its own menu. Each type is worth trying: Texas, Cincinnati, Terlingua, and Vegetarian.

• Texas Chili: Coarse ground beef cooed in its own juice, using an authentic turn of the century family spice blend and recipe.

• Cincinnati Chili: Introduced in 1922 by Greek immigrants, it is a fine grind of beef with a tomato base and sweeter spices including cinnamon.

• Terlingua Red: A tribute to the Texas ghost town that hosted the first Chili cook-off. A redder color and spicy kick of championship chilies.

• Vegetarian Chili: Soy flakes cooked in a tomato base with fresh mushrooms, onions, green peppers, jalapenos & peanuts.

Try the vegetarian chili first--no, on second thought--save it for last. If you try it first, you’ll never get the opportunity to try any of the others. It’s THAT good. I prefer the chili au natural, but it can be served on spaghetti noodles (their version of ChiliMac), in nachos, on burgers and dogs, and even in their Chili Salad.

I’ve tried many other menu items including burgers, salads, apps, even coffee and dessert. Everything was prepared well, tasted great, and served with a smile. Their great food, great service, fun atmosphere, smoking and non-smoking areas, pool hall, countless TVs, outdoor patio and fun crowds all lend itself to a great way to spend an evening.

Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant, Fairfax, VA *** CLOSED ***

3900 Pickett Rd

Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 425-1130

If we hadn't bought a Specialicous coupon, we would have never gone here, but we are glad we did.  In a nutshell, the food was great, but the dining experience as a whole was not something we would return for.  The first thing that hit us when we entered Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant was the poor ventilation.  After a few minutes we got used to it, but sure enough when we walked out, the smell of an exhaust-lacking kitchen followed us all the way home.  We would say that this was the worst part of the dining experience.

Though the waitress served the entire dining room alone, she did a relatively good job and was very pleasant.  However, she was clearly overwhelmed with having to serve about 6 or 7 tables by herself. 

The other thing that we noticed right away was that most of the diners in the restaurant were American.  It’s great that Sheba caters to the American clientele, but all the excellent Ethiopian restaurants we’ve ever been to in this area all have a relatively large contingent of Ethiopians (typically all men) eating there, but at Sheba we noticed one table of Ethiopians.  Accordingly, when we sat down we were given a cutlery set – a fork and knife wrapped in a napkin!  That was extremely unusual, because Ethiopian food is typically eaten with hands (and injera--the spongy buckwheat-like pancake used to scoop up the food).  We looked around and the Americans eating at a table next to us were using forks.  This confirmed that this restaurant caters to a non-Ethiopian crowd.

We ordered our usual Ethiopian restaurant entrees – a vegetarian sampler and an order of beef Tibs with awaze sauce on the side. Bill had a Sambusa appetizer, which was a large deep-fried pastry filled with lentils.  Usually $3.95 gets you two small Sambusas, based on our experience at other Ethiopian restaurants, while here it was a single large pastry, which was OK.  The food was tasty, but lacking in the flavorful spice that is characteristic to Ethiopian food.  We usually expect a full flavored Ethiopian meal when we go to an Ethiopian restaurant, but this was not full flavored.  They may have toned it down for “gringos,” or maybe, as we wrote earlier, they do not cater to a crowd that appreciates the full experience.

If we are ever in the Fairfax area again and feel like having Ethiopian food from Sheba, we will most definitely go there, but rather than dining in the restaurant, we would take it to go.

Piero’s Corner Italian Restaurant, Fairfax, VA

9959 Main Street
Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 246-0097

As dining service goes, buffets naturally put the service on the diner. Diners have to do most of the work by serving themselves. The bussing staff is generally relegated to cleaning up empty plates, the wait staff keeps the coffee cups full, the hostess to welcome the guests, and kitchen aids make sure the buffet is stocked and fresh. Sorry to say that Piero’s waiters, bussers, and kitchen staff did not live up to their end of the service. But it was the wonderful company of friends that was well-worth suffering through the bad service and (as you’ll see) mediocre food.

The hostess sat four adults at a table more accustomed for two (even though larger booths were available—and yes, we decided to occupy the larger booth). After a long wait to order drinks and have our first round at the buffet, we finally placed our drink orders. We proceeded to a well-stocked assortment of breakfast and lunch items (more on those later) and returned with “Round 1” well before our coffee, champagne was served. The champagne was on the sweet side (odd) and the coffee came with the customary 2 creamer servings, but no sugar. I for one was finished with “Round 1” before the sugar made it to the table. Oh, and I need a spoon to stir my coffee--had to ask for that as well. Thank goodness for a silverware set that was made up of 2 forks, a knife so I could at least use the other fork to stir the coffee.

Reflections on “Round 1”? The English muffins beneath the Eggs Benedict were soggy, the French toast was cold, and the scrambled eggs seemed like they were there all morning. Oh, and do you think coffee refills were automatic? Think again—we had to pull teeth to get a refill. The omelet station did not offer egg-white-only omelets and the selection of omelet ingredients was blah.

After figuring out what did not work in “Round 1”, “Round 2” was a bit more enjoyable (isn't it always this way with buffets?). I was able to catch a fresh waffle coming out of the waffle iron, so I pounced on that. The butter actually melted a bit; however, a shortage in the syrup server and waiting on them to refill it caused the waffle to lose some of its just-from-the-oven freshness. We were pleased to locate a server making a choice of four different salads. The three lunch entrees were pizza, chicken breast in an unknown sauce, and a seafood Diablo-type dish with mussels being the only recognizable ingredient.

All-in-all, Piero’s was not the best NOVA has to offer when it comes to Sunday brunch. We are very big fans of J. Gilbert’s Sunday buffet so our bias and measuring up to the McLean staple is a difficult one at best. We will not be returning to Piero’s as our brunch with friends place will always be J. Gilberts.