June 12, 2007 @ 11AM

I'd recommend giving Charlie Palmer Steak a call.

They've got a private room, they're well-equipped to handle private parties, the kitchen works at a high level, and you can catch a glimpse of the Capitol — big, imposing and alabaster — through the windows and through the trees.

How picky is picky? No restaurants other than American restaurants picky? Or please-don't-recommend-we-go-for-mussels picky?

I'll need some guidance, here.

Also: If you had your druthers on location, what would it be? More DC than Maryland, more Maryland than DC.  

And congrats to li'l bro.

You've got a few good options in Annapolis. And actually, all of them are in Eastport, just over the little bridge.

I like Lewnes's Steak House in Eastport. The place has lots of texture, and the steaks are good, too. And unlike a lot of the chain steakhouses, you actually feel that you could only be here and nowhere else.

O'Leary's is a good pick for fish and seafood. It's also in Eastport.

Continuing the Eastport theme, you might also want to look into The Rockfish — especially if you're looking for a more informal (but also livelier) atmosphere.

Hope that helps, some.

Good luck, and write back to let us know what you decided to do. 

Have you thought of Zengo, not all that many blocks away from Jaleo in Penn Quarter?

The place comes on like a trendy pretender, all splashy cocktails, and beautiful people, and bright, splashy surfaces. And the food, combining Asian and Latin flavors, sounds like the sort of straining mishmash you tend to find with wayward fusion.

But guess what? The dishes, many of them, anyway, work. It's just the sort of zippy, fun, conversation-starting, small plates cooking you want, I think, when you're on a first date and looking to gauge whether the person on the other side of the table is what you're looking for.

Alternatively, I'd also look into Oyamel (the bright, bustling small plates Mexican spot from the owner of Jaleo, Jose Andres) which, at long last, appears to have found its groove at its second home.

Give them some time, then go back again. The place is worth it for a simple, inexpensive and tasty night out.

But actually, it doesn't surprise me at all that a small, independent restaurant, swarmed by customers after being positively reviewed, would experience a few growing pains. 

It's one thing to know that a crush of newcomers is on its way. It's another thing to know how to handle it. And this is a place, remember, that used to be a grocery store.

Ah, beat you to it: We're heading to Yank Sing today for lunch.

And re: Gary Danko and your disappointment. This is something you seldom here from critics, but the fact is, when you're in a new city and you're not exactly looking to throw your money around, the smartest thing to do is to haunt the really top-notch ethnic restaurants.

They're usually much, much more consistent than the fine dining spots, because the menus don't change every couple of weeks, they're not constantly losing kitchen personnel, and they take great pleasure and pride in doing the same thing day after day after day. Expectations are so much higher with the big-ticket places that a little thing or two that goes wrong can spoil your night.

I'm not saying that I don't like and don't go to these places. I mean, I build entire trips around them.

But I do think you get a better accounting of a city — what it's really like — by eating in the sorts of places I'm talking about. And you often eat just as well.

Off the top of my head, and all in NoVa …

Pie-tanza. I think he'd enjoy himself there, and so would you. Pizzas, pastas, fun atmosphere.

Buzz, the new lounge/restaurant/coffee house. You should be able to find something for him there, and although it's not the sort of place you'd go for a full, sit-down dinner, it does satisfy a few needs. Breakfast, lunch, snack, etc.

Five Guys, which are, now, all over the area — like kudzu in the South. Burgers and fries. What wouldn't he like? 

Hope that helps, some.

I know there are lots and lots of others I could include on there, and I don't mean to slight anybody — but it's taking a while for the coffee to kick in this morning.

(It's gorgeous, I'm not complaining — hey, 64 and sunny and breezy! — but I'm not a morning person.) 

Ginger pork dumplings. My mouth is watering, even now … We'll be sure to get them this afternoon.

And thanks for all the great suggestions in the Mission!

Breakfast, whether I'm at home or on the road, is the one meal I tend to stint on — even though pancakes and croissants are awfully hard sometimes to pass up. I'm usually saving up calories for later, or too full from the night before! 

But Dottie's does sound good.

Anywhere for a great bowl of really good oatmeal? That's what I usually look for. 

I don't know.

I'd still be inclined to give a place like that — small, independent, overrun on a busy night — another chance, and especially if the food was tasty.

The only thing that smacks of rudeness is the snapping — and I really can't know if that was just a harried explanation, or somebody telling you to buzz off and cool your heels. 

Now, that's a recommendation.

I love this kind of food writing, when people take you by the hand and tell you, in no uncertain terms, how to maximize your experience. At times like that, you submit, utterly. 

Crispy chicken tacos. Consider them added to the list. I absolutely have to get there.

By the way: "Don't be fooled into only getting two because it seems slovenly to eat three" had me laughing out loud in the coffeeshop.

I would pay you to use this, if I could.

"Traditional" and "won't break the bank" — I'm afraid that's a combo that just doesn't exist in the city.

If I were you, what I'd do is, I'd look into some of the newer, more casual spots that have opened up in the last few years. And of these, I would focus on those with more classically French leanings as a way of satisfying the need for something traditional: Poste Brasserie, Central Michel Richard, Cafe du Parc, Brasserie Beck.

All of these places code young, and all are full of good, rewarding, no-tricks cooking.

You might also want to give a look-see to Blue Duck Tavern, which is slightly more expensive, but also slightly more traditional in its approach (at least in the kitchen): hearth-style cooking, with a focus on all-American ingredients.

"So big on" Five Guys? Not at all.

That's the danger of a forum like this, I'm afraid. I recommended it to a chogger looking to take a picky child out for a meal. Well, what kid doesn't like burgers and fries?

Five Guys is pretty good these days, not wonderful, and it wouldn't be my first or second pick for a good burger and fries.

Now, as for In-n-Out Burger … I'm right there with you. I love In-n-Out Burger. That's a burger to love and adore.

You know? That's a good idea. I think it'd make a nifty little guide for the web. 

Thanks for the suggestion, Woodley Park! 

One place you should add to your repertoire, especially since it's so close to home, is Zorba's Cafe. The patio feels like an overflowing party in the summer (and not the kind you see at Lauriol Plaza, overrun with striving networkers pretending to relax), and the food is bright and lively and good and cheap.

It's been one of my favorite spots in the city since it opened — gulp — 23 years ago. 

Great tip. Thanks.

Oatmeal to feel good and virtuous, pancakes with lingonberry syrup to erase that feeling entirely. : ) 

Man, you're my kind of eater!

That's a wonderful, varied, and mouth-watering dining guide, right there — and all in the space of a few sentences. Thanks!

Thanks for the tip about the enoteca — we're not too far away from Chez Panisse.

And the Ferry Building is also on the list for later in the week. I'm looking forward to the breads and cheeses and oils.

Anyway, I'm off to Chinatown with my wife.

Thanks so much for all your tips this morning, everyone. I'll try to get to as many of your recs as I can, and report back when I can. I really do appreciate it.

Meantime, eat well yourselves, and let's do it again next week at 11 ……….