169715 Tue Feb 24 12:08:02 -0800 2004 2 14 Washington DC & Baltimore Area 0 908966 New repsondent to ChowHound. Good friend of ours has been posting for while. Visted these two restaurants recently. First, Fiore di Luna. Had reservations for Feburary 13th. Wanted to avoid the Valentine's Day madness. The name hasn't even been changed from Le Relais. Everything inside is same. A lot is disarray in the restaurant. patrons complaining about the service. Long waits between courses. Sat in the bar and waited and waited. Finally were seated at 9:00 for an 8:30 reservation. Hostess offered her apologies and would pay for our drinks. Had the calamari appetizer. Nicely prepared with a tomato based dipping sauce. Ordered the spaghettini with sausage and the gnocchi with mushroons. Finally arrived after 35 minute wait. Food nicely prepared and very good. Ordered a bottle of Siclian wine (Nero Avola) $29. They did not have this bottle and then selected a Montelpulciano @$55. Net is the bill came with no charge for bar drinks and the wine at $29. The manager came over and apologized for the service and said there was problem with their computerized ordering system. He hoped we would come back. We would give them a couple of months to sort themselves out. The food was very good. Upscale Italian similar to Cafe Milano (Ex-chef). Now to Duangrats. Went for a birthday celebration. Three stars and good reputation for upscale Thai. Well if the service was bad at Fiori di Luna, Duangrats was worse. The appetizers were medicore at best. The place was very noisy with little kids out on a Saturday night. Long waits between courses. Wine was ordered (very poor selection) and didn't arrive until we were half way through with our main course. Would not go back. Many other Thai restaurants that have better food (Luang - Reston, Tera Thai) with much better service. Would certainly no recommend or ever go back. Tue Feb 24 12:08:02 -0800 2004 0 Cosimo 1 908967 Welcome to the board! Thanks for the comments about Fiore di Luna. It is to their credit that they charged the same but, having been open over a month at your visit, I would have expected them to be smoother. It's also surprising that the same sign is up! I wonder how many people were there expecting Yannick in the kitchen? Interestingly Il Cigno has some of the longest waits of any restaurant in the area in the summer. They must seat 200 or so outside which is perhaps double what they should have. While we like their food, overall, and enjoy the ambience I've had one lengthy wait too many and will not go back. Maybe they don't understand this. Tue Feb 24 12:44:50 -0800 2004 908966 0 Joe H. 2 908971 As I live in Reston and visited Il Cigno. It too has a sporadic bad service history. I guess that's why Fiore has the same problem (owner the same). I have found the food at Il Cigno to be medicore at best and avoid it during the summer time. Actually I avoid it all together. The only good thing was that they tried to compensate by reducing the bill. It certainly has what seem to be experienced waiters and there is no renovation to contend with and an experienced chef and current restaurant owner. I wouldn't expect them to be that disorganized. We loved Le Relais and are very disappointed that it has closed. Impeccable service, outstanding food, the owners remembered your last visit, a very pleasent restaurant to have a great dining experience. Tue Feb 24 13:40:41 -0800 2004 908967 0 Cosimo