Review: Courtside Thai

Before entering the cafe, you will enjoy the scents of basil and mint plants that are mixed into the beautiful garden of flowers and chili peppers surrounding the outside dining area. In this way you are subtly introduced to the secret of Courtside Thai's success -- the abundant use of fresh herbs and spices. So when you are ordering, don't jump for your traditional pad thai, but look for the dishes described with delicious herb and spice combinations. For example, start with the Tom Yum soup or Grilled Shrimp and Mango Salad. The Tom Yum soup has a savory broth of fresh lemongrass and chili peppers with mushrooms and your choice of meat. Just sipping the broth is a treat, but watch out for the chunks of lemon grass -- biting into a piece can pack an unexpected punch. In the salad, the grilled shrimp is really a side treat; it is the spicy lime dressing and mangos combined with fresh scallions and mint leaves that steals the show.

The cafe serves great appetizers. Even the "traditional" chicken satay is marinated in a spicy lemon mix and served with a sweet and crunchy peanut sauce. It is simply better than your normal satay. I admit that once I was served a summer roll with shrimp and the mint leaves totally over-powered everything else. Otherwise, I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality dishes served at this cafe.

As far as entrees, I would suggest you review the Menu before you go. There are just too many superb selections. I will point out just a couple of my favorites. I like the chef's special, which is not on the menu, tilapia fillet cooked in the chili peppers and served with seasoned green beans. Also, the Courtside Catfish will totally change your perspective on how good catfish can be. If you do not favor seafood or curry, then try the honey roasted duck. And if you do not like spicy, then go to the Irish pub next door!

If the weather is nice, enjoy the outside dining area. It is wonderful. The inside dining area is a mix of Thai decor with impressionist era paintings, table tops and color scheme. It is okay, nothing special. The service can sometimes be slow and erratic. We have even had entrees come out at different times. This is especially annoying at lunch time when time is short.

But in the evening when I want relax in the outside dining court and enjoy very good Thai food, the erratic services doesn't bother me at all. I have never needed reservations for a table at lunch or dinner service.

Courtside Thai is located in historic downtown Fairfax at 3981 Chain Bridge Rd, Fairfax 22030, between Main Street & North Street. The cafe does not have its own parking, so you will need to park either on the street or at one of the public garages and to walk to the cafe.

Review: Lounge at The Source by Wolfgang Puck

The Source, is Wolfgang Puck's newest addition to his chain of high end, highly successful restaurants. The restaurant is located in the recently completed Newseum. The decor is modern with very clean lines and seating that includes traditional table seating, but also offers booths, lounge seating, bar tables, and seats at the bar itself. The crowd was made up of the typical DC business professionals from around the Capitol, who were hobnobbing and enjoying themselves.

A rare pleasure presented to Shelley and I this week: an entire day to ourselves, no kids. So we went to one of our favorite spots -- The National Art Gallery. When the gallery closed at 5 pm, we decided to just scoot across the street to The Source. When we arrived, we found out that seating for dinner upstairs did not begin until 5:30 pm. We were starving after a grueling intellectual workout at the galleries and decided to eat downstairs in the Lounge. (We were probably also a little under dressed and the dining room prices for entrees were in the $25 to $45 dollar range. We both know that either the Lacquered Peking Duck with Bing Cherries or the "American Style" Kobe Short Ribs would have sent me to the $45 side of the menu.) The fun thing about the Lounge is that it serves a Tour de Puck snacking menu with classics from his other restaurants, such as the Kobe Beef Sliders from Cut, his Beverly Hills Steakhouse or wood-burning-oven pizzas from Spago's in LA.

Shelley and I love cheese, so we had to start with the Artisinal Cheese with Honey Comb and Quince Paste.

The dish has a very nice selection of traditional cheeses (brie, blue cheese, white cheddar, hard goat cheese and soft goat cheese). The blue cheese was a nice mild blue-green veined cheese, I do not know its name. My favorite cheese was the soft goat cheese with a vein of aromatic vegetable ash. Shelley's favorite was the brie spread on a candied walnut. Served with cranberry wheat bread, quince paste squares, apples slices, candied walnuts and honeycomb, the dish was definitely a dessert. The honeycomb was fun, but we received just a tiny square and I really wished for a tad more. While the plate was nicely crafted, it really lacked color because all the cheeses where white. I would love to have seen a rich orange English cheeder and a carmel brown Norwegian goat cheese, to give the plate more depth in color and flavor.

Next, we had the Kobe Beef Sliders. The Kobe beef was mouth watering. However, neither Shelley nor I were fans of the bread and butter pickle in the slider. Once I removed it, I think the flavor of the Kobe beef was nicely highlighted with a mix of caramelized Vivaldi and fresh red diced onions.

To finish, we had the Pork Belly Dumplings. The plating was pretty, the pork filling was nice, but it was, well, a pork dumpling like at any Chinese restaurant. I was hoping for something special. It wasn't.

The service at the Lounge is, well, bar service -- even if you are sitting at a traditional table. Our cheese plate took forever to come, and then the sliders and dumplings arrived in just a few minutes after we order them before we had finished the cheese. But the bar staff was nice bar staff.

Overall, the Lounge at The Source is a fun and casual way to taste some classic cooking from one of America's most famous chef's.

The Source (Sixth and C sts., NW; 202-637-6100; http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/finedining/the%20source/dc/index.php) is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. Plates on the downstairs menu range from $8 to $15. In the upstairs dining room, entrees are $25 to $45.