Flavors Soul Food Restaurant - Falls Church, VA

3420 Carlyn Hill Drive
Falls Church, VA 22041
Bailey's Crossroads
(703) 379-4411

I SO WANTED TO LIKE THIS PLACE. When I lived in New York City's Hell's Kitchen (today known as Clinton) in the mid-90s, there was a fantastic Soul Food carry-out on 9th Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets.  It was my absolute favorite default dinner joint until they closed in the late 90s. When I heard that there is a soul food restaurant at Bailey's Crossroads,  I was thrilled and kept it in the back of my mind as a place I'd love to try.  Being from New York, I consider Virginia to be almost the deep south, so the soul food should surely be even more fantastic here, right? I so miss the sweet yams, the tangy collards, the creamy mashed potatoes, the crunchy fried chicken with those wonderful spices and textures and that southern hospitality from that awesome NYC dive.

Recently, I was running errands and found myself driving along Columbia Pike about to turn off on Rte. 7 when I noticed it just to the side on Carlyn Hill Drive - there it was - Flavors Soul Food! Since I was in the middle of errands, I didn't have time for a proper sit-down lunch, but I definitely couldn't pass up an opportunity to stop in for at least something small to see whether this is a place I could return to when I had more time.

The standalone small restaurant (right behind Meaza) is a run down shack. Potentially, this could be good, I thought. Looking around, it's pretty obvious that overhead spending at this restaurant was not just minimal, it was nonexistent. Torn up chairs behind the cash register with their guts hanging out. The wood paneling and the rest of the decor looked like it was not only original to the restaurant, but perhaps even pre-dated it.  The grimy door leading to some kind of other room next to the kitchen behind the counter was quite ominous. The good news was that on a Sunday afternoon in-between standard meal times, there were at least some patrons dining here, so it had to be somewhat good.  

I approached the counter and began studying the menu hanging above. Despite the dilapidated feel of the place, the prices were quite average, or even above-average.  Since I could only carry out something small, I inquired with the serious-looking big guy behind the counter about the chicken sandwich. Specifically, I asked him what does it come with? "Bread," answered the big guy, who perhaps doubled up as the cook.  No lettuce, tomato, pickle or any special sauce? "NO." Okaaaaaay - no fresh vegetables, which would make the overhead even smaller than I thought! How about mayo or ketchup? "Only packets of mayo over here," he replied, "No ketchup." I asked what was the spiciest thing they had on the menu? I'll take that. "Nothing spicy, unless you add some of this hot sauce."  Wow, what a disappointment already, and on top of that not much hospitality, either.

I ended up ordering a veggie platter comprised of 3 sides for $10.95 - Collard Greens, Mashed Potatoes and Cole Slaw. It came with buns. To tell you the truth, I was particularly looking forward to some warm home-baked real soul food southern buns! Guess what - the buns turned out to be regular generic store-bought Giant (or elsewhere) buns you'd get shipped from a warehouse. The Collard Greens and the Mashed Potatoes were probably made at the restaurant, but they'd have to really convince me that the Cole Slaw was made at the restaurant - it looked and tasted store-bought, just like the buns. In short, the Collards were overly sour, the Mashed Potatoes were pretty bland, and the Cole Slaw was... well, it was not bad for store-bought.

Ok, ok, I didn't have the one thing that may have probably been THE ONE thing to have - their Fried Chicken and Waffles. If I ever came back, this is definitely what I would get.  But honestly, I am not sure it is worth returning here, even for that.  I think I asked the big guy how long the restaurant had been there and he told me it was 30 years or something to that effect, even though their Twitter page says they were established in 1997, which would make them about 18 years old. Either way, that's a pretty long time, so, it obviously has its dedicated clientelle. Unfortunately, I just won't be one of them.

Meaza Ethiopian Cuisine - Falls Church, VA (Revisited)

5700 Columbia Pike
Falls Church, VA
(703) 820-2870

If there is a go-to Ethiopian restaurant for us, undoubtedly it's Meaza. We first reviewed it back in 2011, but since then we've been there so many times that we are updating our review. We said in our last blog that we had "one terrific meal" at Meaza, but in reality we've had several dozen terrific meals there.  

According to the absolutely lovely and hospitable owner for whom Meaza is named, this is the largest Ethiopian restaurant outside Ethiopia. Two large dining halls (one usually reserved for private banquets or evenings with a need for extra need for dining space) are filled with cheerful diners during typical meal times.  There are the "regulars," both Ethiopians and non-Ethiopians, as well as a rather consistent stream of "newbies" to Ethiopian cuisine.  Dress style of clinetelle ranges from the typical "ethnic dive attire" to beautiful colorful dresses.  We particularly enjoy watching the newbies' reactions when the large plate arrives to be filled by the waitress spooning out entrees of freshly made sizzling meats and delicious veggies from kettles, to be shared by everyone at the table.  The only utensils at the table are one's own clean bare fingers, using the injera bread to scoop up the delicious food.  

We go well-done on the meats, which is probably not authentic, but is more suitable to our palates than the traditional raw Kitfo (ground beef or lamb). We order our Kitfo well-done, or, on most occasions we go for one of the beef Tibs choices, usually it's the house specialty Meaza Tibs.  Because the Meaza tibs are not very spicy, we usually request that our Kitfo to be made on the spicier side, to complement one another, since one of us likes spicy food and the other one does not.  Kitfo is served with a wonderful side of white slightly salted grated cheese, which gives the meal a great flavor and a great texture.  While the meats are offered with one side order of veggies, we usually add the Vegetarian Sampler to our order to have a larger selection (and also plenty leftovers to take home!).  This gave us a wonderful array of choices like several types of lentils, cole slaw, potatoes, carrots, spinach and other small samples to make each bite different and delicious. A great choice also, if you're up for it, is the veggie sampler with the option to include a whole Fried Fish!  The fish comes out on the tray with its head intact (you may want to ask that the head be removed in the kitchen), but it's one flaky, tender and delicious option that you can choose, although it makes the meal a bit more filling. 

A perfect addition of several glasses of red wine and cold Perrier and we were good to go. Wonderful service by Genet made our meal extra special! But all the wait staff are wonderful. 

We say "amasat ganalo" (thank you very much) every time we finish our meal because it's truly a gastronomical feast.   

It's no wonder that Meaza is a winner of numerous awards, including "Best Restaurant" rated by Northern Virginia Magazine and "Best Bargain Restaurant" rated by Washingtonian Magazine.

Note to the frugal budget diners: Although Meaza is certainly a bargain restaurant, they regularly offer a Groupon for half off.  Get the Groupon and order double!

(Updated June 2015)

Kenji Fusion - Bailey’s Crossroads, VA

3539 South Jefferson St 
Bailey's Crossroads, VA 22041
703-575-8811
 

Coconut Herring???

Before you head over to the Asian Fusion restaurant Kenji Fusion in the Skyline/Bailey’s Crossroads neighborhood of Falls Church, consider this exchange between Frasier and Niles in the old sitcom Frasier*:

Niles: Frasier, I hope you're free tonight. I just secured a table at the most exclusive new restaurant in Seattle.

Frasier: I'm sorry - just not in the mood.

Niles: At least hear me out - this place is the hottest new thing in fusion cuisine.

Frasier: What cuisines are being fused?

Niles: Polynesian and Scandanavian. It's called "Mahalo-Valhalla."

Frasier: Well, perhaps there's a reason why God put those two countries so far apart.

Niles: I had my doubts too. But my gourmet newsletter gave three-and-a-half whisks to their coconut herring.

I quote this show because its further proof I am not a big fan of fusion restaurants. The old adage, “if you can do one thing well, stick with it. The more you add, the more washed out it becomes.” I think Kenji Fusion is evidence of this adage. In and around the NoVA dining scene there are really good Chinese, good Japanese, good Korean, good Thai, etc. Search this blog, or Yelp, or other reviewers and you’ll find them. IMHO, when each of the continent’s menus are fused, it takes a lot of guts, skill, and knowledge to pull it off. Kenji Fusion comes close, the food is OK, but what drops its bar is in its service and décor—both are nice, but fall way short of what a restaurant should be. If Niles’ gourmet newsletter gave three-and-a-half whisks to their coconut herring, then we give 2 whisks to Kenji Fusion.
 

Let’s start with the food simply because it was the only part of the meal that was acceptable. Savvy readers may want to skip this section and proceed directly to the décor and service below. Our orders consisted of several Japanese rolls (Philadelphia Rolls, California Rolls, Tempura Shrimp Rolls, Sweet Potato Rolls—oh wait, the Tempura Shrimp and Sweet Potato Rolls never showed up—more on that later). These rolls were “ok”, but I think a Japanese sushi house could do them much better. Our entrées consisted of Singapore Noodles, Chicken Tempura (never showed up—more on that later), Ginger Tofu with Veggies, and Chicken Teriyaki. All of our entrées passed the taste test, but because they were served out of order and some entrées came out late, detracted from the experience. Again, more on that later.

So you probably are here because you skipped the paragraph on the food. That’s ok,

because this is where the review really begins. Finding a place to start is difficult, so we’ll start with the décor as that is always the first impression. Kenji Fusion’s décor tries. Tries real hard, but fails miserably and ends up being very cheesy. Booths are huge, poorly lit, and very uncomfortable as the tables are so narrow that in order to eat you must sit at the edge of the bench. Great ideas in an open floor plan but too much thought on conveying a contemporary atmosphere and not enough though on diner comfort. The lighting is a too-dark mixture constructed with a back-light behind crystal glass balls. Makes for an interesting scheme, however, the gradual color reflections from one color to the next makes reading a menu extremely difficult. TVs showing sporting events and CNN were way out of place and distracted from the entire experience. Maybe limit the TVs to just the bar area?
 

On to the service at Kenji Fusion. OMG, how bad can service be? Order a sushi roll you’re likely to see a coconut herring delivered. OK, our guy may have been new, but he was inattentive, lacked experience (and a command of English), and did not understand the basics of dining service. Nothing could warn us more since he was very attentive on the front-end as we previewed the menu. He came by at least twice before we were ready to order ensuring we knew and understood the drink menu. Our dining companions noticed his elaborate square drawn out on his notepad, but that’s where the organization stopped. We purposely went slow through our order and “hoped” he would get it right.

We ordered two soups and four sushi rolls as starters. The soups arrived soon enough, but only two sushi rolls ever showed up. The menu states that avocado, crab sticks, etc. can be added to any roll order (for an additional charge), imagine our frustration when we ordered a sweet potato roll with extra avocado and had to argue with the waiter to convince him that the menu actually does say this is possible. Since the roll never came, we will never know if the extra was conveyed to the sushi chef. Did our starters (rolls, salads, etc.) actually start the meal? Hardly. Yes, soups came out first (believe it or not, the ONLY thing on our order that came out as ordered and were quite good), but they were followed by a mish-mash of screwed up orders.
 

You’ll have to follow closely here, because this actually happened to one of our diners: Food ordered—tempura shrimp roll (for app) and tempura chicken meal with Miso soup. What came to the diner? The soup, yes. But an entrée of tempura shrimp (with no roll). Ugh.

Three entrées arrived for the four of us with one forgotten about. We waited about 10 minutes for our Chicken – err – Tofu with vegetables to arrive. Yes, ordered tofu, but chicken came out. Obviously another error that was about as messed up as the rest of the service. I could go on-and-on, but you should be getting the point by now.

As with most fusion-type places, there is an attraction to serving a hybrid of different cuisines. If Mom wants Korean, Dad wants Chinese, and the kids want sushi, perhaps a place like Kenji Fusion works. But works only if comfort and service are not high on your list of dining needs. I’ll pass on the coconut herring.


* FRASIER. “Sweet Dreams” written by Jay Kogen, directed by Sheldon Epps. Original Airdate on NBC: 19th May 1998.