Farrah Olivia by Morou, Crystal City - Now Operating Inside of Kora in Crystal City - Closed

[jrichstar]

We had a very nice overall experience here on Saturday night. Went a la carte as the tasting menus are just a composition of various items on the regular menu, so we went with what we wanted. Had the grits and escolar apps, painted gazpacho, chicken and salmon entrees and chocolate espresso cheesecake and peanut butter tart for dessert.

Everything was good to great but would particularly highlight the shocked escolar, which was really tender and buttery with some nice accompaniments, as well as the orange scented salmon, cooked to a perfect medium rare, with a side of yuca couscous which was surprisingly crunchy.

Service was excellent and it's a really contemporary, relaxing room. And nicely packed in for a holiday weekend so good to see the place is doing well.

[cheezepowder]

We came here for Sunday brunch. The restaurant week lunch special was still in effect with a few choices for each course, but we didn't want to eat 3 courses so we ordered off the regular menu. They brought us a bread basket with mini blueberry muffins, almond biscotti, zucchini bread, and banana nut bread, along with strawberry cottage cheese, saffron butter, lemon curd, and coconut cream cheese spreads. I enjoyed the breads and spreads. I love getting bread baskets with muffins at brunch.

For my entree, I had the poached eggs, spinach and bacon, and herb hollandaise sauce. It was an eggs benedict with spinach, and the bacon turned out to be 3 breaded and deep fried balls made of bacon bits and potato. They were very crunchy and tasty. I liked the eggs benedict too.

I also ordered a side of the waffle rings, which were 4 large onion rings coated with waffle batter. The onion rings were slightly sweet from the waffle batter and crispy but had soaked up some grease. I really liked my husband's side order of the country fries. They were cubes of very crispy, fried potatoes with onions and peppers on top. For his entree, he had the waffles (2 canoe shaped waffles). We had a very nice brunch.

[jandres374]

Finally had a chance to eat here today for RW lunch - they are not open for lunch and I work pretty much across the street. The place was packed today at around 12:30, although the dining room is not very large. There were 5 us and between us we had:

Apps

Painted soup (smoky chestnut, gingery squash, beet cider)

sourdough beignets | caramelized apples | candied red cabbage

Mains

Tarragon gnudi

cinnamon roasted pork loin | sweet potato | african cabbage confit

Salmon

Dessert

Chocolate espresso cheesecake

Sorbet of some type

Everything was well received by the group with the soup and salmon being the highlights. Did not get to try the pork but it looked very tender and cooked perfectly. Good pace to meal with nice service. Only a few minor quibbles - noticed we did not get any bread like other tables with 4 different spreads and waiter kept mixing up who was getting what dish and he also had same problem with drinks and dessert spoons versus forks.

Really wish this place would open for lunch on a regular basis, even if they only do it on Fridays like Hank's Oyster Bar does in Old Town.

[youngfood]

Closing 4/29 per Washingtonian. Story says they have a new restau-bar/lounge coming in Crystal City and plans to reopen Farrah Olivia in DC within a year.

[susanmab]

Closing 4/29 per Washingtonian. Story says they have a new restau-bar/lounge coming in Crystal City and plans to reopen Farrah Olivia in DC within a year.

I am very fond of Farrah Olivia, I hope to get back there one more time before they close. Years ago I worked in that space (when it was Sutton Place Cafe and then Blue Point Grill), so it's always a trip to be there.

[monavano]

Mourou is hosting on NoVa Magazine's Grill Warren today..now.

[goodeats]

susanmab said:

I am very fond of Farrah Olivia, I hope to get back there one more time before they close.

youngfood said:

Story says they have a new restau-bar/lounge coming in Crystal City and plans to reopen Farrah Olivia in DC within a year.

I wish that my pocketbook afforded this place more often; you all should run, don't walk, do not pass go or collect $100 before the end of this month. I caught Chef off-guard as he walked past the bar, saying hello and making small talk during my first visit recently. He said that they were caught off-guard as the initial verbal agreement was to renew their lease there. No space has been found in DC yet and permits are causing some stalls in the Crystal City locale, but hopefully, as the NoVA magazine chat confirms, June will be the month Kora opens. Right now, there's a $40 tasting menu that has some brilliant items on it, making it a great deal, as one can easily surpass that ordering a la carte from the menu.

Alex was a delightful server at the bar and although I wish I could recall clearly and describe everything well enough to cause everyone to visit, I can't do the dishes justice without having taken notes. One very vivid dish, both visually and texturally was the lobster appetizer my friend and I split. Flanking the lobster was a fresh, brightly orange, burst-in-the-mouth-goodness roe on one side, with a dash of palm flour on the other. In the middle, surrounding the lobster was a pool of sauce that was more soup-like. Directly underneath the lobster were tapioca-pearled-risotto that was creamy, but not saturating your taste buds, especially when eaten with the sauce and the lobster. Finally, atop was a brandy-flavored foam that made the dish playful, yet lightly accented the other parts.

Don't forget to mop the sauce up with the accompanying bread, as it was that good. My heart goes out those contributing to this restaurant and Chef -- am sending thoughts for happy endings.

[susanmab]

Hold up - it seems the restaurant will *not* be closing at the end of April.

--

From: "Farrah Olivia by Morou" <info@farraholiviarestaurant.com>

Date: April 26, 2009 5:42:36 PM EDT

Subject: Farrah Olivia will remain open

Farrah Olivia Restaurant will remain open

(at least for the near future)

Farrah Olivia Restaurant will no longer be closing April 29th 2009. The new ownership of Balducci’s, whom is our landlord has allowed us to remain open while they figure out what is best for all parties concerned, in regards to our current location. They are willing to explore the possibility of us remaining their tenant. We love being in the City of Alexandria and are willing to do everything we can in order to remain here. The City of Alexandria and our neighbors have really supported us and we are proud to call many of our customers, our friends.

We are still opening, KORA, a new restaurant/bar/lounge in Crystal City (Arlington, VA) in the space formerly occupied by BEBO located at 2250 Crystal Drive. We are set to open early this summer. Morou’s brother, Amadou, formerly of I’Ricchi will be joining us in the kitchen. The restaurant will present a more casual concept.

We regret to inform any loyal customers whom have already made future reservations (after May 31st) - including reserved seats for events such as our popular Boutique Dining - that other arrangements may still have to be made and that we have to cancel this Thursdays Boutique Dining event because we were uncertain as to whether we would be able to remain open We greatly apologize for the inconvenience. All gift certificates received through Farrah Olivia can be redeemed at KORA but in the meantime, you at least have the next couple of weeks to redeem your gift certificates at Farrah Olivia.

We apologize for all of the confusion. We are doing our best to keep our customers and employees informed of the changes but it has been quite difficult due to changes management. We thank-you and our new landlord/neighbor for giving us the opportunity to continue business here in Alexandria

Sincerely,

Your Friends & Family at

Farrah Olivia Restaurant

[fred2650]

I had a chat with a Balducci Executive Chef (in their Alexandria store produce dept) last week and asked him about Farah Olivia leaving. He said that the new owners were still negotiating the lease, but that one of the options being considered was to expand retail space to provide for a wine and cheese tasting facility.

[outlier]

When we ate there last week (great meal, as usual), we were told that they expected to stay open until late June.

[sphere777]

Well, I was looking through Restaurant Week for places to go when I noticed that Farrah Olivia was on the list. This was surprising. A little digging revealed that Chef Morou has revived his cooking inside Kora, his brother's restaurant. So I made a RW reservation and will report as long as the debt ceiling is raised.

Note to Don (and/or moderators): Hopefully I handled this correctly. I did find the first thread but since I can't rename or merge, I thought I would post and let you folks do the dirty work.

[DonRocks]

Well, I was looking through Restaurant Week for places to go when I noticed that Farrah Olivia was on the list. This was surprising. A little digging revealed that Chef Morou has revived his cooking inside Kora, his brother's restaurant. So I made a RW reservation and will report as long as the debt ceiling is raised.

Note to Don (and/or moderators): Hopefully I handled this correctly. I did find the first thread but since I can't rename or merge, I thought I would post and let you folks do the dirty work.

[Done.]

Note that this restaurant-within-a-restaurant is only open Wednesdays through Saturdays, according to their website.

[agm]

Has anyone eaten at the new Farrah Olivia?

We ate there a few months ago, and were disappointed. I loved the old Farah Olivia, and never had a disappointing meal there, but I did hear that there were occasional off-nights, especially when Morou was not in the kitchen. I'm hoping that our meal in the new space was just one of those off-nights, but we haven't been back to find out. It wasn't bad; all of the elements of his cuisine were there, and the cooking seemed technically solid. A perfectly respectable meal. But the spark was missing; we wanted the original and got an OK copy. At some point we'll go back, in the hopes that it will be what it used to be.

[apicius]

On Saturday night I went for dinner at Farah Olivia with a group of friends and I did not taste the food of Morou in a while.

I was pleasantly surpriised.

Very good food, good product and all the temperature were closed to perfection.

I had a white tuna appetizer and a salmon tandoori which was one of the best salmon I had in a long time.

The food is as pleasant to teh eyes than teh palate.

This is a discreet and talented chef and I encourage everybody here to try Farah Olivia.

I will go back pretty soon.

in addition you have a free public parking next door which is rare those days.

[majmaj4]

I was also there on Saturday, but did not have the same experience. I found many of the dishes served at too cool of a temperature. The dishes were works of art from a presentation perspective. The wines by the glass were nicely balanced, a decent selection and generous pours. Normally the works of art and the mixtures of textures and would leave me wowed, but I was a little cool to the whole experience. It just didn't seem to justify the prices. The Tuna (my favorite dish of the night) with the olive caviar and pickled (apple or pear). Maybe I should have gotten the Salmon instead of the Lamb. The lamb was cooked to specs (medium rare or a little more on the rare side), but the mole was a not a spicy as I would have thought. The mint were technically impressive little droplettes, but didn't have as much flavor as I would hope. The passion or sensory or something like that dessert was disappointing not enough depth of favors.. only the herb sorbet was really tasty, the remaining was bland.

[hapatite]

I agree with the posters above -- I was excited when Farrah Olivia was re-opened inside Kora. We went there for a special occasion and it just wasn't the same. I loved the original FO and wish I would have left the memory as such. The colors, temperatures, and presentation were just... weird. It didn't have the elegance that the original FO had, and it made me miss it even more!

[DonRocks]

On 3/26/2012 at 9:04 AM, apicius said:

On Saturday night I went for dinner at Farah Olivia with a group of friends and I did not taste the food of Morou in a while.

I was pleasantly surpriised.

Very good food, good product and all the temperature were closed to perfection.

I had a white tuna appetizer and a salmon tandoori which was one of the best salmon I had in a long time.

The food is as pleasant to the eyes than the palate.

This is a discreet and talented chef and I encourage everybody here to try Farah Olivia.

I will go back pretty soon.

in addition you have a free public parking next door which is rare those days.

I haven't heard a word about Farrah Olivia in years - it "closed" on Apr 29, 2009:

Apr 15, 2009 - "Breaking News: Farrah Olivia is Closing" by Todd Kliman on washingtonian.com

Then, it opened as a separate space inside of Kora:

Dec 3, 2010 - "Farrah Olivia to be Resurrected in Kora's Private Dining Room" by Michael E. Grass on washingtoncitypaper.com

You can see the quoted post by the great Gerard Pangaud just above, written on Mar 26, 2012, and I have found reviews from diners well into 2013,.

However, I can't find anything written about the restaurant after 2013, and on Farrah Olivia's own Facebook page, it's marked "Permanently Closed":

So until someone posts otherwise, I'm going to go ahead and declare Farrah Olivia closed, which it probably has been for at least a couple of years. We can always reopen this thread should new information arise.

I also just read through this thread for the first time in years, making sure it was in good shape, and I'd like to issue a belated apology to dcdavidm - now located in Portland, and always welcome here with open arms - for my not having done a better job of moderation in this situation ("disgusting" was a poor choice of words, but it certainly didn't merit what followed). This was entirely my fault, and I should have never let this nasty attack see the light of day - David, you'll probably never see this, but if you do, I hope you have a "better late than never" attitude when it comes to apologies, and that you accept mine.