Tag: Reston

Ted’s Bulletin

I had heard of this place in some magazine or other because of the homemade poptarts.  So when I was in Reston and craving some mid-day breakfast, I decided to try it out.  It’s kind of like an upscale version of an old-fashioned diner.  If that makes any sense.

Well Dined | Ted's Bulletin

The menu is a mini newspaper (or bulletin, if you will) that also has some articles on the namesake and how the restaurant was founded.  They have boozy milkshakes (very on trend right now), so I tried the Bananas Foster with banana rum and caramel.  Very good.

Well Dined | Ted's Bulletin

Then I tried the signature breakfast combo – The Big Mark – which comes with 3 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, hashbrowns, toast, and a poptart (I chose the brown sugar bacon flavor).  Everything was great except for the sausage, which was way too spicy for me.  The poptart was indeed tasty, but I thought it needed a higher filling to crust ratio.

Well Dined | Ted's Bulletin

I brought a couple more flavors of poptart home (blueberry cheesecake and strawberry, I believe) to sample a range and so that Jasper could try them.  Again, they were good but we both agreed they needed more filling.

Here’s the fun news for breakfast-loving me – they are opening up a location at Mosaic, which is very close to me!  I might even sample some non-breakfast items… maybe… probably not.

Vinifera Wine Bar & Bistro

I actually ate here a while ago, but the experience was so bad that I have been putting off writing about it for a long time.  Vinifera is located inside a Westin hotel near Reston.  I decided to head out there for some wine and tapas before picking my husband up at the airport, and it ended up being a huge mistake.

I sat out on the patio, which was totally gorgeous, but it took 20 minutes before I could flag down a waiter to take my order.  I put in an order for a whole bunch of tapas at once, and also some wine.  The wine arrived pretty quickly, but the food didn’t even start arriving until 40 minutes later.  40 minutes!!!  And then it was only the little one bite skewers; the rest of the food took even longer.  That is totally unacceptable.  And the food wasn’t even that good.  Less than average, I would say, and I tried a whole range of things.  I won’t even break down for you what I ordered, because it was all so forgettable.  The $1-2 “pintxos” seemed like a great bargain, but they are literally tiny toothpick bites like you would find passed around at a party.  Tiny, not that good, not worth $1-2 each, and definitely not worth a 40 minute wait.  The rest of the food (and wine) was also overpriced.

I would maybe, MAYBE, say that it would be a nice place to grab a glass of wine on the patio, but not if you are on any kind of a timeline and watch out for a steeper than average mark-up.