Italian Cafe

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Obscurity/Curb Appeal: Brian

The Thurber household had yet to sample the cuisine of Italy since our debut on the blog circuit. Thus, we decided on The Italian Café on Lee Highway as our spot for the evening. At first I was a bit confused upon arriving at Italian Café. When I first scoped out this place months before our blog’s conception, the restaurant’s signature red, white, and green awnings could be seen from any distance. Currently, Italian Café’s simple black and white appearance denotes its location on the corner between the Budget Inn and Fairfax Deli & Pizza. The parking lot had ample space including a unique, reserved spot in front of the door we could only guess was saved for godfathers and crime bosses. Despite its average appearance, the restaurant proved to be much more than a simple Italian eatery. A Falls Church staple since 1978, Italian Café is a common site to locals, but many folks we’ve talked to have yet to taste the fare. We encourage those patrons in the Falls Church proper area to forego the older establishments (Taco Laredo) and make it an Italian Café night. We promise it gives Pistone’s Italian Inn a run for its money.

Rating: 2 Thurbs

Food/Beverage: Tommy
Let me first say that we picked Italian Café because we wanted to go to a restaurant that we thought might be pretty good. Admittedly a selfish decision, but I wanted something “normal.” When we sat down for dinner, the waiter promptly brought a small loaf of Italian bread, seemingly baked fresh. The appetizers were good, mozzarella sticks and garlic bread, and were brought out quickly after we ordered them. I ordered the benchmark by which I rate all Italian restaurants, the pollo alla parmigiano (chicken parmesan, for those of you who have never been to Olive Garden). Brian sampled the tortellini, Matt correctly pronounced his meal containing no meat, and Jim decided on the baked lasagna. The sauce was good but not amazing, the chicken was tender, and the pasta was cooked just right. Midway through our dinner, Matt exclaimed (with a note of disdain), “This is a completely legitimate restaurant!” While not hidden, this place is still a gem, serving up quality Italian food, and a house Chianti that will make you say, “Mmmm, that’s red wine.” I’d pick this over Olive Garden if OG ran out of breadsticks and salad.

Rating: 3 Thurbs

Customer Service/Cost: Matt

What can I say? You did a good job, Italian Café. Everything was fast, friendly, accurate and good. The cost was decently affordable considering the amount and the quality of the food. The waiter taking care of us even claimed to have been born in Italy – and I believe him! Usually with these blog dinners, I’m prepared for some kind of massive screw up or, at the very least, some kind of weird quirk worth highlighting. But not this time, Italian Café. You had to go and be all normal and legitimate. I’ll give you a good score, but deep down I wish you were a little bit more ridiculous and/or awful just so I could have something funny to talk about here.

Rating: 3 Thurbs

Ambience/Entertainment: Mark

The atmosphere was quiet and slow, but this probably had more to do with our truly Italian, 9pm dinner time. After being seated, Frank and I had a sing off during one of his numbers, and as the guest of honor will attest, Frank is almost as good as I am. The Rat Pack guarded the coat rack from above, behind a wooden frame and glass.

The Chi-Chi stuccoed walls, built in wine case, and separate, non air conditioned party room all pointed toward the owner being 3rd generation Italian.

Rating: 2 Thurbs

Italian Cafe

Overall Rating: 2.5 Thurbs

Guest of Honor Review: Jim Swift

While contemplating what my night of Thurber goodness had in store, an old Italian proverb came to me: “You can always judge a restaurant by its mozzarella sticks.” I think that Michaelangelo said that. Mark had just ordered them as our appetizer, and I was curious to see if The Italian Café would fare well under this litmus test.

Located in a lonely nook of Falls Church, the Italian Café is struggling to keep its restaurant looking dapper, and judging by the state of the Budget Inn motel next door, they’re not doing too bad a job.

We secured a corner parking spot, and truth be told we were kind of excited about it. Until we realized that we were the restaurant’s second customers. With the obligatory posters of The Godfather and The Rat Pack adorning the walls, The Italian Café looked like my grandparents could have decorated it – except that they’re not Italian.

The restaurant was so dimly lit that you could not take a picture without a flash, which made us look like stereotypical Japanese tourists, but we didn’t worry because we were alone. It was like something out of a Godfather movie, and no pistols were found in the bathroom.

The food was good, and this restaurant hardly qualified for what I imagined this blog stands for: questionable restaurants. While the mozzarella sticks weren’t amazing, they were better than average.

This Week's Lottery Winner!

We have randomly drawn from the names entered this week. Here's Week 9's Guest of Honor.

This week we had only 10 entries, greatly increasing the odds of winning. Our guest this week is no doubt enjoying the fruits of his persistence (a close cousin of the fruits of labor). Remember to stick with it, next week could be you!

Edy's Chicken & Steak

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Obscurity/Location/Curb Appeal: Tommy

Off Route 7, in the Bailey’s Crossroads area, the curious passerby can easily stumble upon Edy’s Chicken & Steak. Set off from the rest of the strip mall, Edy’s boasts one of the two standalone structures in this area, the other being Olive Garden (I know, I know…you love their breadsticks). The large lit sign on the front of the building welcomes the diner to enjoy a fine selection of Peruvian cuisine. After all this time doing this blog, I still am not sure whether I’m supposed to rate a level of “obscurity” as a positive or negative, but if you enjoy dining at obscure places, you could probably do better than Edy’s. Edy’s loses points in the curb appeal for making us think they might have skee-ball and then pulling that fun-rug out from under us after we found out that it’s just chicken and steak. This restaurant appeared to be well-known, displayed in all likelihood the biggest crowd out of any Thurber dinner thus far, and even brought in a wide assortment of law enforcement who chose it for their dinner break. When you find a place that’s supported by cops and isn’t a donut shop, you know you’ve got at least a decent spot on your hands. Word to the wise, the decision to rant and/or rave about anything in this establishment could go down as the worst decision ever, as you’d most likely get tasered from 2 to 3 different directions. Just saying, if your chicken platter isn’t cooked the way you like it, smile, nod, and back away slowly.

Curb Appeal: 3 Thurbs

Food & Beverage: Matt

From the multitude of chicken-themed posters decorating the walls, to the tuxedo-clad cartoon chicken on the sign, to the massive rotisserie ovens cooking chickens in bulk, it’s no secret what Edy’s specialty is (it’s chicken, in case you’re still wondering). With that in mind, I can’t help but think we didn’t experience the best that Edy’s has to offer. First of all, as a vegetarian, I had to resort to a hodge-podge of side items for my meal – fried zucchini, fried yucca and a salad. Every time this happens to me, it somehow ends up costing me more than everyone else’s food and also somehow seems way less healthy. Lots of fried stuff, a pretty lame salad and the yucca alone (with a texture similar to foamboard) weighed about 5 pounds in my stomach. Everyone else got some form of sandwich with cheese and vegetables all over it. All sandwich eaters seemed to agree that their food was just “okay,” if a bit challenging to eat with a knife and fork. A few at least made some connection with Edy’s specialty bird by ordering chicken sandwiches. But as for straight up “rotisserie chicken,” we left that un-sampled. We did get a little more out of our cultural comfort zone in our choice of beverages, and Edy’s offers a large variety of canned or bottled “bebidas” to accommodate such curiosity. But all in all, unless eating their chicken in a whole rotisserie form drastically improves the dining experience, Edy’s really was just okay.

Rating: 1.5 Thurbs

Customer Service/Cost: Mark

Our meals were a steal. An orange cream soda, complementary ice water, and an entree rounded out a hair under $10. Well, it wasn't really a steal because the police officer would have tazered us in the throat had we actually been stealing. Customer service amounted to orders being called out in both English and Spanish. You pay, pick-up, eat, and bus your own table. Perhaps Peruvian rotisserie is going to make a move on McDee's.

Rating: 2 Thurbs

Ambience/Entertainment: Brian

When the name Edy’s is muttered most readers envision gourmet ice cream found in your grocer’s freezer. This would not be the case with our most recent stop on the Thurber Party of 4 dining circuit. Matt buoyed our hopes with fantastic talk of Hispanic skee ball and plastic ball pits prior to our departure. Unfortunately, Edy’s Chicken and Steak was not Carlos E. Queso. Similarly, Edy’s did contain an astounding amount of neon running lights on the interior and exterior and mirrors to simulate a larger space. Upon entering, we noticed the large number of tables and booths with Peruvian landscapes and idols adorning the walls. Overhead, order numbers were belted out in Spanish and English throughout the evening. I immediately noticed the lack of place settings or fancy napkin holders a la Taco Laredo, but what was provided would suffice for another largely self-service evening.

Contributing to Edy’s stellar atmosphere was the presence of Fairfax County’s finest. Was this due to disturbances or robberies? We believe not. It turns out Edy’s is a fan favorite of law enforcement officials the county over. Whoever said it only takes doughnuts to attract cops? Little to no music was played and what was became lost in the sea of patron chatter and order calling. Edy’s ambience is average at best and contained only one element missing from most other establishments we’ve visited: the din of conversation by fellow diners.

Rating: 1.5 Thurbs

Edy's Chicken & Steak

Overall Rating: 2.0 Thurbs

Guest of Honor Review: Lauren Keller

I was very excited about this adventure out, especially once we chose Edy's. One of the Thurber residents mentioned that they thought it was equivalent to a Peruvian Chuck E. Cheese. Visions of skee-ball and giant prizes were definitely swirling through my head. The evening started off well as the whole group was escorted in Mark's company car. (On a side note, the Thurber residents were ever the gentlemen, opening and closing all doors for me). Unfortunately, my dream of winning the boombox with my 30,000 tickets won from playing almost 30,000 rounds of skeeball were dashed when we walked in the door. In terms of atmosphere, I would put Edy's much closer to a Peruvian Boston Market--minus the large and varied menu--than a Chuck E. Cheese. I would recommend 2 things before you venture to this restaurant: 1) Bring cash because that's all they accept and 2) Brush up on your Spanish numbers because all order numbers were first announced in Spanish and then English. I opted for the numero 10--Chicken sandwich with cheese and onions. I chose this over the numero 9--Chicken sandwich. Both were the same price, so I am a little skeptical about the quality of the cheese and onions. As far as safety goes, I immediately felt secure once I spotted the fully armed Police Officer hidden behind a giant vase filled with fake coral and yellow tulips. My sandwich was a more expensive, heavier, more difficult to eat and less tasty version of a hot sandwich at Subway. If you are considering Edy's for a meal, I would recommend opting for Subway or Quiznos. The best thing about this restaurant was its proximity to Dairy Queen--where I ended the evening with a delicious cookie dough blizzard. And the company was delightful!

Lotto Deluxe

Tomorrow our newest guest of honor will be named for next week's dining experience.  As an added bonus, the guest will receive a yet-to-be-named door prize!  You heard right.  If you've ever needed more incentive to enter your name, this is it.  Don't delay.  Act Now!