In a city loaded with diverse restaurants, from New American chic and upscale Italian to sandwich shops and burritos on the run, finding the best places to eat can be a real puzzle. Where's the best restaurant for a first date or an anniversary? Father's Day? What's the best burger joint? Who has the best service?

Ask Tom. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post's food critic, is on hand Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, listen to your suggestions and even entertain your complaints about Washington dining. Sietsema, a veteran food writer, has sampled the wares and worked as a critic in Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Milwaukee, and can talk restaurants with the best of 'em. You can access his Postcards from Tom to read his recommendations for other cities, read his dining column, First Bite and the Dish or read transcripts of previous "Ask Tom" chats. Tom's Sunday magazine reviews, as well as his "Ask Tom" column, are available early on the Web.

The transcript follows.

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College Park, Md.: Hi, Tom! First of all, I adore your weekly chats. I can't even afford 50% of the places you review but they're still fun to read about.

You must have mentioned this before but I have to ask: how did you realize that you wanted to be a food critic? How did you discover that you had the palate for it? Does everyone have the capacity to do what you do (with practice and experience, of course)?

Tom Sietsema: Thanks for the kind words, College Park, and stay tuned: reviews of some good cheap eats are right around the corner.

As to your questions, I've always appreciated good food. My mom and my father's mother were both great home cooks, and my parents always encouraged their kids to eat widely on the road.

For as long as I can remember, writing was always a hobby of mine. (I won a poetry contest in third grade, for something I submitted to Wee Wisdom magazine.) So I guess I've always felt comfortable around food and words.

As luck would have it, my first job out of college was as an assistant to my predecessor, Phyllis Richman, under whom I learned to cook, honed my reporting skills and so on. Everything I learned, I learned on that job and by hanging around professional chefs; reading cookbooks; travelling (even back then) and tasting, tasting, tasting. I do think writing is a bit like other skills, however -- it comes naturally, or it doesn't.

I could go on for hours, but there are burning questions waiting to be answered here.

Happy Wednesday, all.

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Please help, Tom!: Sorry to beg, but I'm really hoping you'll have a chance to answer my question today! My boyfriend and are I planning a romantic dinner to celebrate my 25th birthday and our two-year anniversary. We love food but can't afford to splurge on a nice dinner out often! For this occasion, we are thinking of going to either Cafe Atlantico (where we had a fabulous Restaurant Week experience) or Mendocino (never been, but their organic vibe appeals to me). Which would you suggest for a memorable and delicious evening? If it helps, we both eat seafood but not meat our poultry, and I LOVE dessert.

Thank you so much!

Tom Sietsema: Cafe Atlantico would be a good choice, but you say you've been before. If you want to try something new, I'd suggest the cafe (as opposed to the dining room in back) at Palena in Cleveland Park; the pre-theater or bar menu at 701 in Penn Quarter, which has the bonus of patio seating; or Mio downtown.

washingtonpost.com: 701 First Bite: His Small Plates Are Raising the Bar

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Penn Quarter, D.C.: Tom, have you heard anything about a new restaurant named "SEI" that is being built on 7th Street, NW, right next to the Shakespeare theater?

Tom Sietsema: I don't have any updates on the restaurant, which is one of two projects from the owners of Oya that I wrote about earlier in my Dish column last fall.

washingtonpost.com: Dish on Sei

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Washington, D.C.: No question, just feedback. Went to Insieme in NYC last weekend as part of an anniversary trip. It was excellent, of course, although nothing that made it above any number of good places in D.C. The pappardelle with goat was fantastic, making me pine to have the pappardelle with rabbit at Tosca yet one more time. The lamb entree, call it lamb four ways for lack of a better term, was just fine although not memorable or unique. The fettucine with crabmeat tasted too fishy and not enough crabby. Their wine offering is eclectic and, since they serve small "taste" portions, I was able to try Kerner, Lagrein and Freisa all during the same meal.

Our dessert plates had "Happy Anniversary" written on the rim in chocolate sauce. Amusingly, the adjacent table received the same treatment, leading to a nice conversation with strangers.

Thanks again for the Postcard!

Tom Sietsema: Thanks for the feedback. I included Insieme primarily because it was close to the B'Way theaters (but also because I thought the cooking and service were up to Post readers' high standards).

washingtonpost.com: Postcard From Tom: New York

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Arlington, Va.: Tom,

Just wanted to share that the San Francisco Chronicle had an article in today's paper about noise in restaurants. It marked the 10 year anniversary of the Chron rating sound levels in its reviews. The Post, and indirectly you, got a shout out, too!! The word is spreading. Congrats!

Tom Sietsema: When I interviewed my former boss, Michael Bauer, he mentioned the Chronicle Food section would be re-examining the issue. Thanks for bringing the story to my (our) attention. (And does anyone have any recent local noise anecdotes to share?)

washingtonpost.com: Tom Sietsema: No Appetite for Noise and The Chronicle on 'The Din of Dining'

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Tom, Curious about something. Does any member of your party try to make special requests at a restaurant, to see how they handle it, while you're there for review purposes?

I have lots of friends who special order for medical purposes (allergies, celiac disease, etc.) and am always curious about how restaurants handle these requests.

Tom Sietsema: I dine out with a wide variety of people, some of whom have food restrictions. So yes, occasionally someone will make a special request (typically, it involves putting a garnish or sauce on the side). Do your friends encounter problems when they ask about ingredients?

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Small Town Critics: Morning Tom,

I really appreciate your advice on where and where not to eat. We don't eat out a lot so we look for the best bang for our buck -- and I don't mean the cheapest, but if we pay $200+ for a dinner I want it to be as flawless as possible. And you help us to find that.

The following is not a question as much as an observation. We live in a much smaller town but only a hour outside D.C. with a lot of mediocre restaurants. The critics, if you can call them that, are of the ilk where the food is always good and abundant, the service friendly and the decor nice. These do not help us choose a restaurant at all. And unfortunately these critics don't seem to really know anything about food: not getting chopsticks at a Thai restaurant but then realized what she ordered was a soup and therefore didn't need them. Another time, an article on hors d'oeuvres the writer mentioned the usual "Spanish" chips and salsa. Why would a newspaper close to a metropolitan area not have an actual critic? Any insight into this phenomenon?

Thanks, Tom. And D.C., you don't know how lucky you are to have an actual critic like Tom.

Tom Sietsema: (I swear, my mother didn't write this!)

You know what I think? I think a lot of newspaper managers think restaurant criticism is easy, or at least easier than it is. At some publications, the job is sometimes awarded as a perk to people, people who have no or few qualifications other than the fact they might like to eat. I'm lucky to work for a paper that supports my job and allows me to eat in restaurants multiple times before reviewing them.

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Review the Bill Before Paying: How many times have I hard that, but after a couple drinks, it's late, you're tired, you just want to leave, you pay. And there it is -- the next day when you finally look at the bill -- a one-inch-round cake -- with some drizzle in opposite color -- for $9. Nobody had desert or coffee. Or it's an unknown martini of some kind for $11.46. We only drank sparkling water. I am so tired of this. This past weekend, it happened, and I just should have left the appropriate revised money and left. Instead, I stupidly asked for a new check with the item we didn't order taken off. Fifteen minutes later, our waiter comes back and says the computers are down. Which as also a lie. I dropped the money and told him the total and left. This is three out of the past five checks. What gives? Is it a drug epidemic? Some kind of shakedown by the waiter? I can't see how, but it's happening too frequently and is now a bad trend. Comments?

Tom Sietsema: I'd like to think your experiences are due to simple inattention . . . but three out of the past five checks? That's a lot of inattention.

I eat out about 12 meals a week on average and find an error (sometimes in my favor) about twice a month. And yes, I always review the bill before I pay.

Have other diners seen a spike in mistakes on their restaurant tabs lately? I'd like to know.

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Alexandria, Va.: I enjoyed reading your review of Alto Plaza. This restaurant sounds perfect for Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" show.

Tom Sietsema: After that review ran, I heard from a reader who asked me if I thought about the economic impact of such a negative critique.

I did, briefly. But my job is to write the truth as I see it, and it wouldn't have been honest of me to have given Alto Plaza anything but the rating it got. There's just so much that's wrong with the place -- which is no bargain, by the way -- and readers deserve to know that.

washingtonpost.com: Review: Alto Plaza

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Washington, D.C.: Tom

I'm a little surprised by your review of Alto Plaza. If it was that bad, why kill trees with the article? I can not remember the last review that you put "[poor]" in the headline. I hadn't heard any positive spin about the place that needed correcting. There are a lot of poor to just horridly disappointing restaurants out there. Was it actually that bad?

Tom Sietsema: It was actually that bad, yes.

The answer to your initial question is in the last paragraph of the review, by the way. Also, I've given one other restaurant (the late Le Pigalle in Dupont Circle) a "poor" rating since I launched the star system in 2003.

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Restaurant Marvin, Washington, D.C.: Hello Tom,

This is Sheldon, General Manager at Restaurant Marvin in D.C. and I wanted to respond to a posting made a few weeks ago about reservation mishaps for the night of May 23rd.

It was stated in a blog posting that OpenTable was responsible for the snafu. This is not the case. The responsibility was unfortunately, that of the administrative staff of Marvin who made a technical error in attempting to close the day to reservations.

We have made accommodations with most of the guests who were displaced. However, if there are any guests left who are still unsatisfied, I would urge them to contact me directly at 202-797-7171, so that I may make amends. Moreover, I would like to apologize to the staff at OpenTable, who have been very supportive since the opening and who have graciously extended the offer of 100 points to the reservations that were made and displaced that night.

Thanks So Much,

Sheldon Scott

GM-Restaurant Marvin

202-797-7171

Tom Sietsema: Thanks for following up, sir.

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Houston, Tex.: Hi Tom,

I'm posting for a friend who is visiting D.C. with a group of co-workers. She is trying to organize a dinner out for 18 people at something like a "nice steakhouse." I used to live in D.C. and thought that the Occidental Grill might be a good choice -- great food, local institution, etc. But, I'm not sure if there are new restaurants that would be a better choice or if Occidental Grill is as good now as it was a few years ago. Suggestions?

Tom Sietsema: Washington has plenty of "nice" steak houses that would undoubtedly be happy to grill for a group. For something modern, I'd suggest Charlie Palmer Steak on the Hill. For something traditional, the Prime Rib gets my vote.

washingtonpost.com: 2007 Fall Dining Guide: Prime Rib

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Special Treat Restaurant: My special treat for the year rests on your always-accurate advice. I have the option of going to either Komi or Cityzen. Which would you choose? Why?

Tom Sietsema: Gosh, they are two very different, and very special, experiences. I admire both restaurants a lot. I guess it hinges on what kind of mood you're in (Komi is more casual, Cityzen is formal) and whether you prefer Mediterranean (Komi) or modern American (Cityzen) flavors.

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Arlington, Va.: Tom, I had a really awful experience at Poste yesterday, and was wondering what the appropriate way to deal with it was.

I met some friends there after work in the courtyard. We were able to get a first round of drinks and some appetizers, then it began raining, so we, along with the rest of the people in the courtyard, fled indoors to the atrium bar space, bringing our food/drinks with us. Some of the tables in there had Reserved signs, but some, like the one we sat at, didn't. We were immediately approached by an irate woman who told us we had to leave immediately because the table was reserved. We explained that we'd been on the patio and fled the rain, and sat at the table because there was no sign on it, and we'd assumed only the portion of tables with signs on them were reserved. She insisted that the whole atrium section had been reserved, that the people who'd reserved the place had "paid a lot of money for the space" ($5K), and we had to leave immediately. We asked if there was any way they could at least try to re-seat us in the main dining room as we'd noticed a number of empty tables there, or if we could have a second to finish our drinks while they finished rounding up the rest of the patio rain refugees.

At that point she threatened to call security if we didn't leave right that instant. We stood up immediately and left, leaving our unfinished food and drinks behind, but were at least able to tip our waiter (who had been very nice) on the way out. This whole encounter happened really quickly -- less 5 minutes from the time we sat to the time we left.

We went to the main restaurant and asked to speak to the manager. We were told that the agitated, hostile woman was the bar manager. We then went to the hotel and asked to speak to the manager on duty there, who was an extremely nice man (named AJ) who was very sympathetic and kind enough to offer us a glass of wine. Which we accepted. However, as we were sipping in the lobby, our waiter came out, asking us if we'd closed out our bill, i.e. to pay for the food and drinks. We told him that we assumed that after we'd been treated that way and not been allowed to finish them, we wouldn't have to pay for them, but asked if the cost would come out of his pay for the night. He said it would. We finished our wine and went back to the restaurant to pay our bill, even though we all strongly felt we shouldn't have to pay for food and drinks we weren't allowed to finish and had tipped him handsomely, because we didn't want the waiter to have to pay for it. When we went inside we were told it probably wouldn't come out of the waiter's pay, at which point we left.

Leaving aside the issue of how horribly we were treated, and that the manager threatened to call security on three quiet women who had made the mistake of sitting at an unmarked but supposedly reserved table, how should we have dealt with the bill?

On one hand, I strongly feel that after the way we were treated we shouldn't have to pay for the food and drinks, especially since we hadn't been able to finish them. On the other hand, if we didn't pay for them, the waiter might get stuck with the bill, and it was totally not his fault. As I mentioned, we'd already tipped the waiter (handsomely). But if we'd tipped him the amount of the bill + tip, we still would have been stuck paying for the food and drinks, which doesn't seem fair to us either. How should we have dealt with this?

Thank you for your insight!

Tom Sietsema: I wish I had had a chance to read your (very good) post earlier, before the chat began, because yours is a complicated situation.

Some thoughts (based on your side of the story):

1) If a space is reserved, that detail should have been made clear to everyone.

2) The bar manager was way out of line.

3) You shouldn't have to pay for food and drinks you didn't get to finish, particularly when no provisions were made by the restaurant staff for you to finish them indoors.

4) Why would the otherwise "nice" waiter lie to you about your bill being deducted from his pay? Grrr. (Bad karma to lie, dude!)

5) Hotel manager sounds like a good guy.

6) If anyone in a supervisory role at Poste reads this, I'd love to hear their side of the story. Also, does the restaurant have rain provisions in effect?

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Favorite New Restaurants: If you could only visit three new restaurants (new meaning opened within the last year) which three would you recommend? Price range is $30-$40 for dinner for 1. Type of food doesn't matter -- any type will do. Please, please help.

Tom Sietsema: I'd be eager to return to Me Jana in Arlington for Lebanese; La Canela in Rockville for Peruvian; and Casa Oaxaca in Adams Morgan for Mexican.

washingtonpost.com: Review: Me Jana, Review: La Canela, Review: Casa Oaxaca

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Looking a gift drink in the mouth: I was at a friendly local chain last night when the woman at the next table spilled her large, half-full margarita. The waiter brought her a complimentary replacement. She complained that it was smaller than the one she had spilled and expressed her "surprise" that she hadn't been comped one of equal size because she had only taken "about four little sips" of the first one. "Why is it not in the same size glass?" I later heard her say she would take the difference in price off the waiter's tip.

Hello! Drunk Girl! The restaurant just bought you a drink as a kind gesture because you spilled your first one all over yourself through no fault of theirs. Be grateful!

Tom, what is WRONG with people? Any ideas?

Tom Sietsema: I think people take a lot of their anger and problems out on restaurants because -- because they can. Restaurants are in the hospitality business, after all, and most of them really want to make their customers happy.

I really hate hearing stories like the one you just shared.

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Takoma, D.C.: Wow -- I tend to be a few weeks behind on the magazine, so I hadn't seen your Alto Plaza review until just now. That place sounds like a diSASter. And reinforces what you like to say about reader reviews -- the two showing at the bottom of the page give the maximum number of stars.

Tom Sietsema: They also read suspiciously alike!

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Washington, DC: Didn't you "award" Two Quail a poor rating? Or was it just no-stars (but not poor)?

Tom Sietsema: You know, you're RIGHT! What a careful reader you are. To illustrate the star system in my 2003 fall guide, I gave no stars to both Two Quail and Taverna Cretekou (the latter has since improved, however).

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Gordon Ramsay, Los Angeles: The owners of Alto Plaza asked me to come and help them out. Then I read your review and refused. Varnish flavored ceviche? There's no coming back from that...

Tom Sietsema: Gordon has more time on his hands than I thought!

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Takoma, D.C.: I'm not sure that waiter was lying (in the Poste anecdote). This seems just as likely: Normally when a party walks out on the bill, it comes out of the waiter's pay, but in this case, it was clearly such a disastrous situation that Poste wasn't going to handle it that way (but the waiter didn't realize it).

Just trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt here. How'm I doin'?

Tom Sietsema: Doin' good, doin' good. (Fair point, too.)

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Rockville, Md.: Hi Mr. Sietsema, Cava chef owner here with a quick question, what do think of the area where Belga Cafe is at for a new Cava? Thank you.

Tom Sietsema: You mean the EXACT SPOT or the area AROUND Belga? Either way, I'd show up.

washingtonpost.com: Tom on Cava

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20570: Dear Tom,

Last week a foursome from my office headed over to Mio to celebrate an office special occasion. Two in our party who ordered a prix fixe lunch chicken entree were taken aback to discover, when they bit into each of their chicken pieces, that the inside of each piece was red or pink. When we brought this fact to the waiter's attention, assuming that the chicken was undercooked, he explained that dark meat was used to make the dish, and the manager came to our table and verified what the waiter had told us. Sensing our dissatisfaction, he also removed one full meal from our bill and brought a fish entree to each of the two diners as a substitute. We have no quarrel with how the restaurant handled the situation after we complained, except that we did not receive an answer to our principal question: Why did the menu not disclose that information? Shouldn't it be presumed that, with a few exceptions such as coq au vin, the white meat of a chicken is what is being served? (Even KFC gives us a choice.) I think that's what most diners expect, and it is certainly rare in our collective experience to witness the converse.

Tom Sietsema: Something tells me that after your post is aired this morning, Mio's waiters, or Mio's menu, will begin detailing dark meat in that chicken dish. (I actually prefer the flavor of dark meat to white meat.)

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Centreville, Va.: Hi, Tom! I was wondering, are there any foods that you absolutely will not eat either because of the taste (for me, cilantro) or for personal reasons (for me, veal)? Does this ever affect the way you order and what you will or will not taste at a restaurant. Because I don't like cilantro -- well, I hate it -- I would have a tough time being really objective in a Mexican restaurant that overused this ingredient.

Do you have any issues like this?

Tom Sietsema: I've mentioned a distaste for black licorice in this forum before, but an ice cream I tasted in Amsterdam earlier this year had me rethinking that position. (The dessert was thrilling.)

Did you know that certain people have a chemical reaction to cilantro, and that they taste "soap" or "dirt" when others of us do not?

I do not, at this point, have any moral issue with eating most of what's there. I'll have that stand tested, mightily, later this month, however. (Sorry to be coy, but I don't want to spill the beans on a forthcoming assignment.)

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Alexandria, Va.: A week or two ago you asked about favorite holes in the wall. Last night I got a quick dinner (curries, rice, naan and chick peas) from Naan and Beyond off 17th. I was pleasantly surprised -- darn good food for such a suspect-looking place.

Tom Sietsema: I like the place, too.

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Alexandria, Va.: I haven't noticed a trend in mistakes on bills, but I am tired of wait staff rounding on the change. I recently had a 10.48 lunch tab. I paid with a $20, expecting 9.50 back (I don't care about the pennies). I had intended to keep the quarters and leave $2 tip. When the waitress returned the check with only $9 in it, I wasn't about to leave $2 (for a total of 2.50) but didn't have any change, so I left her $1 (for at total of 1.50). Part of me felt like a grinch, but the other part of me felt serves her right.

Tom Sietsema: Waiters, you hear that? Diners do NOT like to have their bills rounded up or down or sideways. Just return the change and everyone will be happy. (Maybe.)

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Arlington, Va.: Extra Extra Read all about it. Tom is going to actually recommend some cheaper places, "soon". How about now. The Washingtonian (with which I have no affiliation) just came out with its cheap eats issue. 100 interesting cheap ideas. In their regular Tuesday food chat, the reviewer always starts the chat with an interesting review of a local ethnic place that is worth trying (this week it was a Thai place).

Your reviews are generally a total waste of time. You hear it over and over in this chat. The very first entry today was from a woman who says she cannot afford 50% of the places you review. Later someone says that they normally cannot afford a splurge. Do not give me this stuff about how you are reviewing places for people so when they go for that splurge. We need to know about places we can eat every day. How many of the 100 cheap eats places in the Washingtonian have you reviewed? Maybe five? The prices at so many D.C. places are reserved for the expense account set (all steakhouses, Le Paradou, The Source, etc.). Yet you review all of them. How many people actually eat at these places? Very few. Your role is not to review places so that we can live vicariously through you either. Your role is to find interesting places for us to go and eat on Friday night. You do not have to review a place because it reopens down the street with the same menu (Cordoroy) give us something new and interesting. Your reviews are really not helpful or useful any more and I rarely get past your epochal descriptions of the restaurants interior design to the actual food writing before I move on realizing that the restaurant is nowhere near my price range or neighborhood. Give us some ideas. Help us out. Don't just do what you think you have to. Throw us a bone in your chats or something.

Respectfully.

Tom Sietsema: Ouch.

I stand by my reviews, however: the mix of locations, the mix of styles, and yes, the mix of price ranges. You have to look at the big picture.

I don't think you're reading me very carefully, by the way. I plot out my reviews with consideration to price, be it in the Magazine, the Food section or Travel, where almost every Postcard offers a budget suggestion.

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Alexandria, Va.: Tom, have you seen those Pizza Hut commercials where unsuspecting guests are served "Tuscani" pasta to unsuspecting at a fancy restaurant, whose owner/chef seems positively delighted in playing his customers for nitwits? Do you know any self-respecting chefs in the Washington, D.C., area that would allow such a thing in their own restaurants?

Tom Sietsema: Not if they cared about their reputations!

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Great Falls, Va.: Tom,

My husband called me from Orlando, Fla., with a Morton's: The Steakhouse story that may set a new record for chutzpah. On Tuesday night, his GM had reserved a private room for a group of 12 to watch the Lakers-Spurs game while eating dinner. The food and beverage order totaled about $1,500 plus tax and tip. When the server presented the check, the customary 20% gratuity had been factored in, along with a shocking $800 surcharge.

When questioned, the manager said it was a TV charge. This was the first time a surcharge of any kind had been mentioned. Even more outrageous, they had applied the automatic gratuity to the $800 fee. At a time when most restaurants are tightening their belts to remain profitable, it is astonishing that Morton's would charge its customers such an outrageous fee to watch a nationally televised sporting event, private room notwithstanding.

Morton's hasn't completely cornered the corporate greed market. Recently, I read that the Outback Steakhouse/Bonefish Grill/Carrabas group was deducting a portion of credit card processing fees from servers' tips. They were exposed in a news article and the public reaction was so negative, they dropped the practice and reimbursed servers for deductions already taken.

I'm interested to know if you have heard similar stories.

Tom Sietsema: Yeow! Did your husband dispute the ridiculous TV surcharge? (I would have. It's roughly half the total bill!) And am I getting all the pertinent details here? I can't imagine a restaurant -- particularly in the current economic climate -- going out of its way to turn off its patrons.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Tom,

Better late than never, Blue Duck Tavern's patio is as pet-friendly as always!

Tom Sietsema: This is in response to a recent chat, during which someone asked about pooch-friendly restaurants.

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For the 25th B-day/2nd Anniversary Celebration: Since she loves desserts, how about small bites at 701 or some such place in Penn Quarter and then the new dessert tasting menu at Co Co. Sala? As a fellow sweet-tooth, I can't wait to try it.

Tom Sietsema: Great idea!

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Dupont Circle, DC: Incorrect bills -- My experience is like Tom's. I find a mistake on my bill about twice a month or so. Almost always it's in my favor -- a drink or dish left off -- rather than something added.

Tom Sietsema: And you bring the error to the attention of the server -- right?

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K Street, D.C.: As a budget-minded professional who regularly reads your chats and reviews, I think you're on the money as far as your mix of places goes!!! Yes, I can't afford to go to all of them, but it sure is fun to dream. And you do review the "budget" or mid-level places. Plus, I think you recommend the cafe in Palena more than the front room, and that is one of hte best deals/steals in D.C. Keep it up!

Tom Sietsema: I'm giving equal time here to everyone, myself included.

Thanks for the show of support, K St.

So long for now. See you next Wednesday, everyone.

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