Vit Goel Lighthouse Tofu Restaurant

When the temperatures hit 105F, it's time for some soon dubu. We headed over to Lighthouse in Annandale and had a great early dinner.

 Fresh and tasty pan chan with Cass beer and soju.

 Small hamul pajeon (seafood pancake)

In my opinion, Lighthouse has one of the best pajeon. 

I love it, with its nice crispy crust and good proportion of seafood to scallions.

#1 Mushroom Soon Dubu Spicy

Here comes the sun...

Beautiful sunflowers from a beautiful friend.

Sakura in Fair Oaks

My husband loooves the hibachi table restaurants, which help him reminisce his childhood in Columbus, GA. I'm not as big of a fan, but mostly because it's too salty. Once in a while, we indulge his craving. After heading to a golf shop to get kitted out with some hot weather-appropriate golf clothes for our upcoming golf lessons, we went to a late dinner at nearby Sakura.

 Cold Sapporo and salty osuimono soup.

 Hibachi chef cooking the vegetables for the fried rice.

 Prepping for the onion volcano.

 Add the second liquid.

 Onion Volcano! 

 Cooking mushrooms and shrimp.

 Fried rice and cooking seafood.

 Shrimp and lobster finishing up on the grill.

Shrimp and ribeye steak hibachi dinner.

Soooo super salty, I fell almost immediately in a salt coma. The theatrics of the hibachi chef were well-done without being super over the top. 

BGR

Craving onion rings, we headed after work to BGR, which has a great version. We haven't gone here in awhile, but it's a great occasional diet buster. 

 Standard bacon Swiss cheese burger with lettuce and tomato, this was super juicy.

Husband went with the same burger with sliced onions and fries.

Viet House in Alexandria

We headed over to our local pho joint on the 4th of July for a quick lunch. After the derecho storm, so many stores had lost power so we skipped our normal grocery store run over the weekend. After lunch we had to pick up some groceries for the rest of the week.

 Summer Rolls

 Bun

Bucking my regular #15 pho order, I tried the pork with fried vegetable spring roll, cucumbers, carrots and sliced lemongrass chicken. This was way too much food for me, I should have stuck with my pho, but good.

 Lemongrass pork

Great combination with a small bowl of pho broth.

Dickson Wine Bar

At the suggestion of the effervescent Ms. K, we headed up to U Street after Pearl Dive Oyster Bar to Dodge City for sausages. Unfortunately we arrived 30 minutes before they opened for the night. Instead we wandered next door to Dickson Wine Bar. I haven't been back in a while, but it's a relaxing and cute wine bar. Apparently there's a new chef at Dickson, a low point were the spicy marcona almonds but the rest of the small plates were good.

 Olives

A bit tart from citrus, great with wine.

 Edamame

Hard to mess up, these were great with a nice spicy flavor.

 Hummus with warm pita triangles.

Waitress-recommended bbq chicken flatbread.

Great smoky flavor from the bbq sauce with fresh, bright flavors from the cilantro and carrots.

***

Great evening with the ladies, and fortunately my sweet husband arrived with our chariot to drive us home.

Pearl Dive Oyster Bar Happy Hour

The day before the July 4th holiday we got an early release from work. With an early release, I was able to try out Pearl Dive Oyster Bar's 4 pm happy hour start with some lovely ladies. We ordered a variety of happy hour menu items and the $5 wine special. 

 2-for-1 Oysters

 Delightful steamed mussels

Shrimp Po'Boy with fries

***

We were really lucky to make it to PDOB right at the opening time for happy hour, and snagged four stool seats. Space at the bar becomes a premium, as other guests arrive and squeeze into the small bar area. With 100F weather, the a/c struggled to keep the bar area cool. The bartenders did a great job at serving everyone efficiently and politely. The oysters were great, but my favorite was the super savory mussels.