Yeshi Kitfo, web site, 3400 Washington Dr., Unit D, Bailey’s Crossroads, VA 571-347-7259 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | TripAdvisor | BirdEye | Reddit]
The best kitfo around, period. Just keep on getting it. They also have the best yellow lentils around. Good beef tibs, oddly no lamb tibs. Those dishes are so good, I can’t bring myself to order the others. In any case this place is a new favorite, go, go, go. It is also quiet and good for talking.
We document that, after remaining almost constant for almost 30 years, real labor productivity at U.S. restaurants surged over 15% during the COVID pandemic. This surge has persisted even as many conditions have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Using mobile phone data tracking visits and spending at more than 100,000 individual limited service restaurants across the country, we explore the potential sources of the surge. It cannot be explained by economies of scale, expanding market power, or a direct result of COVID-sourced demand fluctuations. The restaurants’ productivity growth rates are strongly correlated, however, with reductions in the amount of time their customers spend in the establishments, particularly with a rising share of customers spending 10 minutes or less. The frequency of such ‘take-out’ customers rose considerably during COVID, even at fast food restaurants, and never went back down. The magnitude of the restaurant-level relationship between productivity and customer dwell time, if applied to the aggregate decrease in dwell time, can explain almost all of the aggregate productivity increase in our sample.
That is from a new paper by Austan Goolsbee, Chad Syverson, Rebecca Goldgof & Joe Tatarka. A good paper, though I for one will note I consider the take-out experience (which I hardly ever do) to be a quality degradation.
The Curious Surge of Productivity in U.S. Restaurants
Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.
Bengaluru Cafe, web site, 3957 Pender Dr # 105, Fairfax, VA, 703-691-2468 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Washingtonian | RoadTrippers | Reddit | Restaurantji]
Right now the best dosa short of the Herndon-Dulles area. Excellent South Indian vegetarian food, lots of other regional dishes, note they are heavy on carbs, don’t come here looking for vegetables. Has a good Indian crowd, and you can trust your GPS, it is really is hidden behind all those office buildings, even if you feel a restaurant cannot possibly be here. Recommended.
From my latest Bloomberg column:
Why is the food so good? I have several overlapping hypotheses, most of them coming from my background as an economist. Interestingly, India’s culinary advantages can be traced to some good and some not-so-good aspects of Indian society.
First, food supply chains here are typically very short. Trucking, refrigeration and other aspects of modernity are widespread, but a lot of supply chains are left over from a time when those were luxuries. So if you are eating a vegetable, there is a good chance it came from nearby. That usually means it is more fresh and tastes better.
The sad truth is that India still has very high rates of food spoilage, especially when food is transported longer distances. The country is making significant progress building out its transportation networks, but in the meantime the American culinary tourist enjoys the best of all worlds: Our purchasing power is high, and we can spend our money eating super-local.
And:
India also has high income inequality. That means there is plenty of cheap labor competing to cook for diners with higher incomes. The “thickness” of the competition leads to innovation and experimentation — there are a lot of restaurants, food stalls, truck stops and the like. It is a buyer’s market. Furthermore, some of India’s best dishes, such as Bengali sweets, are very labor-intensive. Indian desserts that are mediocre in US restaurants receive the proper care and attention in Kolkata.
And:
Then there is the cultural side. India is a “food nation.” When I ask locals which are the best places to eat, which I regularly do, I am repeatedly struck by how many have strong opinions. When everyone is a food critic, standards rise accordingly. It also makes it easy for the visitor to get quality recommendations.
There are further good arguments at the link. In Bangalore I had a superb meal, Kayasth food, by Manu Chandra in Lupa, this was a special menu:
Is Indian food the world’s best?
Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see full post, links, comments and suggestions.
Peter Chang MacLean, web site, 6715 Lowell Ave., McLean, VA, 571-405-6686 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | TripAdvisor | FFX Now | Reddit | Restaurantji | NoVA Mag]
This is probably the second best of the Chang restaurants right now? I won’t go through the full Chang litany, but yes they do have most of the classic dishes here, cauliflower included. They also have the green chili fish, which is not always on the menu at Mama Chang proper. But the real treat here is the pork, which is from Amish farms. These are the best pork dishes in any local Chinese restaurant right now. The Twice Cooked Pork is especially fine. And get the beef with crispy rice with green chilies, again one of the best Chinese dishes around at the moment.
I have noticed repeatedly, over the course of many restaurant visits, that my servers want to take away my plates, my glasses, my cutlery, and indeed almost anything else — before I really want to give it up.
The ratio of “they want to take it away too soon” to “they take it away too late” seems to me at least five to one.
Those who know me would not describe me as a lingerer over meals, or a very slow eater. So I do not view this phenomenon as merely my peculiarity, rather the servers often want to take my things away before I am done with them.
In many restaurants the servers seem to put more energy into keeping your table clean than in taking your order promptly in the first place.
How should we model this behavior?
One possibility is that the servers know they will be busier yet later on, so they want to get some of the work out of the way now. Surely that holds in many cases, but still I observe this “server grabbing behavior” in a wide variety of circumstances, including in near-empty restaurants.
Could it be that the restaurant managers give these instructions, hoping it will induce the diners to order further dishes and spend more money?
Another possibility is that the servers feel the need to signal that they are always busy, rather than standing around and looking idle. I can imagine that hypothesis having some truth, but it doesn’t explain the entirety of what I observe.
The most plausible general explanation is that the restaurant managers favor a more rapid turnover of tables than the customers do, and regular plate- and glass-clearing helps to achieve that end. It also creates another “point of contact,” giving the customer the opportunity to ask for the check. Still, you might think ex ante competition to attract diners would moderate this practice more than it does.
I have asked both current and former servers why there is so much emphasis on place-clearing, and usually I receive circular answers, such as “We want to make sure your plates and glasses are cleared away when you are done with them.”
So what is the best way of thinking about this practice?
Why do the servers always want to take our cutlery and plates and glasses away?
Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.
Yes, the fancy expensive places are great. But more generally, I recommend that you order the dishes with game and lingonberries, most of all lingonberries. Soups here are above average, and I do not generally love soups. The pizza is surprisingly good, make sure you order it with “pizza salad,” which turns out to be cabbage. If you are craving non-Western food, I would try Persian before Indian or Chinese. At breakfast, butter is consistently good. Overall, Stockholm is a quality food city, though it is not superb when it comes to breadth.
Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.
Don’t laugh, but basically you want to eat in the restaurants with the beautiful women. And with the views of the waterfront.
You may recall those are usually the opposite of the correct recommendations. But in Cape Town, there is no coherent “mom and pop” restaurant sector, based on either recent Asian or Latino immigrants, or based on an existing middle class. You simply want to go to the nice, fancy places. And you don’t need my list, many sources can tell you which ones those are.
The economics of that are simple. There is a well-defined class of people with a lot of money, and the best restaurants do everything they can to target them, including seaside views. That is by far the best way to get good food here, arguably the only way. You cannot in fact “arbitrage against the inequality,” even if you think you might wish to.
Usually you should order seafood, and (as in Chile) be suspicious of any menu item with a cream sauce, which will be overdone on the creamy side. You may see batches of Afrikaans words on the English-language menus, don’t worry just pull out your ChatGPT app and enjoy the feeling of strangeness.
I did have one meal of grilled meats and bbq in a black township, and it was not bad. But I would say you are going for the sociological experience more than for the food. You’ll also get some South African side dishes, such as the corn meal, that may not pop up in the fancier restaurants. So do that if you can, I also found the experience to be safe and not stressful.
Prices here are very low, and an excellent meal can be well under half of the comparable cost in the United States or Europe, maybe even 3x lower. Wherever you go, make sure they give you a seat looking out on the water!
Shinwari Namak Mandi, web site, FB, 5884 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA, 703-347-8311 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | RoadTrippers | Restaurant Guru]
Yet further evidence that this area’s Pakistani restaurants are better than the Indian restaurants. Ask for haleem, sometimes they have it! But it’s not on the menu. What they serve here is predictable, but I mean that word in the good sense. The real stand-out here is the bread – maybe the best I’ve had in any northern Virginia restaurant? Make sure you get that. With the rest of the meal you will be fine too. Note there is a seafood sign on the outside of the restaurant, but this is not mainly a seafood restaurant, noting that Pakistani fish fry is not to be neglected.
Southeast Impression, web site, 9530 Fairfax Blvd., Fairfax, VA, 703-865-4884 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Washingtonian | FFX Now | Restaurantji]
Real Malaysian food, right near my house! They have Thai dishes too, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to trying them. The Nasi Lemak is my top recommendation here. Most dishes are good, though the laksa I found too tame. The others you can improve through the condiments. Good beef rendang. The roti with lentils appetizer is top-tier. Quality vegetables. So my standard of living has gone up by quite a bit. Note this is a “nice” place, rather than a Mom and Pop, but it is not a “fancy” place. Still, circa 2024, the beef rendang does cost $27.
