Rice & Spice Thai (Ft. Belvoir)

After eating noodles at ChinaTown Express, the noodle craving got bigger. We (M and L) remembered that there was a Thai place near Olympians. After seeing good enough ratings on Yelp, we thought, "why not" and went to check it out.

Blah blah...no one in the restaurant...blah blah...not great seats...blah blah...average menu. The point is the food was pretty dang good.

M has the Lard Da w/chicken (stir-fried with rice noodles and Chinese broccoli in gravy). Quite tasty and they'll spice it up to the level you desire. Be warned they put a lot of gravy in this, so it's more like thai chicken with wide noodles in gravy soup. The food is better than it sounds, but it's a little off-putting on first glance.

L has the Rice & Spice Noodles, which we both agree looked and tasted like Pad Thai over lettuce(?!?).  Really good, though. Not spicy, though I'm sure they'd be happy to oblige.

Anyways, the wide noodles. If you've had Thai wide noodles, you think you know what you're in for. But these wide noodles are best described like this: lasagna sized noodles bathed in a tasty broth. They are relatively uncut, so you get this super-large "noodles" mixed with yumminess. The wide noodles are fantastic, and we both know we don't generally prefer/like wide noodles.

Cost
$$

Cleanliness
Clean.

Service
Good, but we were the only ones...

Pluses 
Good noodles, esp. for wide noodles
Large portions (we could split a plate)

Minuses
No music or anything in the restaurant
Little atmosphere

Overall value
Worthwhile.

The Original Pancake House (Falls Church)

Not the one that was on 7, but the new one on 29.  What an improvement.

We went sometime in 2009/10 to the one on 7. Then, the food was good, but the place was tightly packed, poorly lit, with terrible parking. Now the place is bright, well-spaced and plenty of parking.

We've been twice in the past few months and the food is great and the service is pretty good, too.

L - 1st visit - Praline (seasonal) pancakes; 2nd - Pumpkin pancakes
M - 1st - Cinnamon apple pancakes; 2nd - Buckwheat-GA pecan pancakes

Thoroughly enjoyed both visits. We do take our own maple syrup, because no one offers it... (boo!)

Peeking over at other tables, their omelets are obscene. They look to be 8" round and 2 1/2" thick. Packed with whatever its filling is. Eating one on your own may make for happy taste buds but an unhappy heart.

Cost
$$

Cleanliness
Very clean.

Service
Great.

Pluses 
Really good food
Friendly staff
Bright and open tables

Minuses
Distance
Price...maybe?

Overall value
Good value and it's probably lucky that it's not close or we'd be here very often.

Abi II (Huntington)

Salt and cilantro -- two great tastes that taste great...in moderation.  We can't overemphasize the moderation. We started with yuca con chicharones. Yuca! We love it. Fresh. Abi's version...not fresh, but freezer fresh...yum...ugh. Stale, frozen, and (given fried) a slight fishy flavor.  Not what we hoped for by any means. Chicharones! So hit or miss.  Abi's version...eh.  Fatty (go figure), but it was too chewy.

M ordered los gemelos (con pollo y carne).Tasty. Filled with good, slow-cooked (stewed?) meat. Nice, thin (but not too thin, just right!) tortilla. Plentiful portion! If it can be without cilantro, it'd be even better. Served with guac and sour cream. Too much cilantro, and after a while, the saltiness came through.

L ordered chuletas (pork chops). Served with beans and rice and topped with peppers and onions and a sauce that seemed like the juices, which is good in theory.  But the chop was drowning in this mix. It was like a game of find the chuleta.  And when it was found, then there was the challenge of finding the meat in the midst of bone and fat...quite a bit of fat.  Disappointing. Oh, did I mention that the chuleta and sauce were extremely salty? The beans were good as was the rice.

Cost 

$$

Cleanliness
Clean

Service
So-so. Would have liked to have a peek-in a couple more times.

Pluses 

Chips were great. The food is more authentic than many other places. Diverse amount of dishes. Open space in the restaurant. Large portions.

Minuses 

Food quality. Salt. Cilantro.

Overall value

Below average. It's a shame because we really want to like this place, but there are too many drawbacks and several options to settle for poor quality food.

Delia's Pizza & Grill (Springfield)

Big Note: We stopped going here because of quite a few sanitary issues being reported on Yelp.  That's just unacceptable and we have been options.  Olympians being one.

Prior review
Was really looking for a good, tasty gyro in the Springfield area.  Searched the web and found Delia's was rated four stars on Yelp and that there were not many bad reviews, and the ones that were bad weren't because of the food or the establishment itself, but personal tastes/expectations.  We were warned to expect big portions, too. And we expect places with reviews that like the come through. Boy, did she.

We started with the dolmades.  Eight tasty fig wraps surrounding a small light greek salad.  Very basic, which also means very good. However, the one drawback is it was mostly rice, so while tasty despite this, if you go in expecting/wanting/expecting more filling variety, you'll be disappointed on that part.

L ordered a gyro wrap. Thinking that would be it, we were told, "Well, it comes with a side" -- fries, garlic mashed potato, plantains, yuca, and several other that I didn't hear because I stopped listening at yuca and plantains.  Plantains are maduros, not tostones, so I passed, instead ordering the yuca.  So L's meal ended up being four dolmades and a plate of yuca, because they brought me what was like one-and-a-half yucas, cubed, fried a perfect golden shade of awesome. It came with two sauces: one "regular" mayonessa sauce (likely mayo, garlic, paprika and tumeric) and one chili sauce (pureed peppers of a green variety).  Both were good, but that chili sauce was quite notable because it was different and had a nice spiciness.  Not too much, but a steady spice.

The gyro was tasty...all four bites taken from it.  Not because the portion was that small, but because we were so full!  Can't wait to see how well it is the next day.

M ordered a calzone with ham, spinach, onion and black olives.  It was big.  Let's put it this way, cut in half, it spanned across the normal-sized to-go box. Tasty and very toasted, but...it was not as crispy as expected. On its own merit, it was delicious. I hesitate to unfairly compare it to other calzones. The lack of crispy shell is the only minor complaint. It will make a hopefully, good next day meal.

Things to try in future visits: pasta carbonara (because they know it should have pancetta), chicken poblano, dessert, and the Wednesday pasta BOGO for 2.95 (seriously).

Cost
$$ -- It will sneak up on you if you aren't paying attention.

Cleanliness
Clean.

Service
Quite good and notable. Our waitress Megan was a great, funny saleswoman ("When we see you tomorrow...") and made our first trip a fun time out. It wasn't that busy, and it was quite notable how other staff would come by to pitch in and make sure we were taken care of. Definitely added positively to the experience.

Pluses 

Portions -- Everything you may read on Yelp or Yahoo reviews are all true.
Service.
Variety -- They have a wide array of food options. Some can see this as a negative (as one reviewer wrote: Do one thing well, then branch out).  But the positive is you need a go-to place that hits multiple things well enough for those nights you may not know what to eat and want to avoid a chain.
Local-owned mom-n-pop.

Minuses
Maybe the price but honestly, you can split a meal and two drinks and come out around $20 for two.

Overall value

Great value as you'll be paying for two meals in one and quality of ingredients.