Wow Nepal

Posted on 2026/04/06 by .

Wow Nepal, web site, 10728 Fairfax Blvd, Fairfax, VA, 703-880-9898. (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Road Trippersr | FFX Now]

The “Wow” here is exactly right, as it is wonderful to have a new great restaurant around. Most Nepalese restaurants in America are variants on north Indian food with batches of moms thrown in. This place is the real thing. The goat momos are among the best dishes in northern Virginia right now. The fish is excellent, everything else at least very good. Note that the place is small and fills up early, so arrive in time to get your seat. Strongly recommended.

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Chef Tan

Posted on 2026/01/03 by .

Chef Tan, 132 Branch St. SE, Vienna, VA,703-389-1733 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | TripAdvisor | FFX Now | Restaurantji]

Northern Virginia now has a real Hunanese restaurant! Most things are decent to good here, most of all I recommend the chili cabbage and the pork dishes, including the cumin ribs and the pork belly and the minced pork with sour greens. There are also some specialty dishes, such as snails and rabbit, but I have not had those. In any case, this place is tasty, regional, and also pretty authentic, so you should try to get there.

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Mama Chang cooked for me

Posted on 2025/09/30 by .

Chang Chang, web site, 1200 19th St NW, Washington, DC (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Washingtonian | TripAdvisor | Michelin]

Yes, the real Mama Chang, mother of Peter Chang, at 84 years old. They even named a restaurant after her!

It is the best Chinese meal I have eaten outside of China, and in contention for broader honors as well.

Here is a photo of the menu, which says everything. There was no weak course.

Mama Chang Menu

The restaurant Chang Chang, in DC, hopes to do this again next year.

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Mumbai Central

Posted on 2025/09/01 by .

Mumbai Central, web site, 7505 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA, 703-272-4551 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | TripAdvisor | FFXNow | Restaurantji]

In mall where the now-closed Falls Church Whole Foods used to be. Excellent Indian food, and some unique regional dishes. My favorite is Dhansack, a Parsi curry that I have not seen anywhere outside of India. The Kamal Kakdi Chaat also was a delight. The standard Indian dishes deliver too. For what you might call “central northern Virginia” this is currently the go-to place.

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One Night in Bangkok

Posted on 2025/08/30 by .

One Night in Bangkok at Duangrat’s, FB, web site, 5878 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA, 703-820-5775 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Eater]

On the second floor above Duangrat’s, in a pop-up kind of style. Very good Thai street food. I have had many of the dishes here, and do best by simply asking the proprietor to bring what she thinks is best. The duck rolls are especially good, but most of it is very tasty. You can create wonderful variety in your meal, and at quite a reasonable cost. Definitely deserves to be in the repertoire. Do check the hours before going, it is not open for weekday lunch or on Mondays? They report: “Featuring Thai street food, sweets, Asian pantry, gift shop, beer & wine, weekend grab & go, dim sum, 80’s tunes and lots of neon.” The atmosphere is good fun.

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Yeshi Kitfo

Posted on 2025/03/14 by .

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.

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The Curious Surge of Productivity in U.S. Restaurants

Posted on 2025/03/12 by .
    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.

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Bengaluru Cafe

Posted on 2025/02/24 by .

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.

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Is Indian food the world’s best?

Posted on 2024/12/19 by .

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.

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Peter Chang MacLean

Posted on 2024/09/03 by .

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.

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