Restaurants With Private Dining Rooms

[Free Wilma]

The folks at my husband's firm regularly want to hold dinners at restaurants that have private dining areas. It's always a bit of struggle to find the places that have rooms with doors that close and are genuinely private. They always seem to fall back on the steak house standards. I'm trying desperately to get them out of this rut and on to more innovative cuisine....especially since I'm often with them for yet another steak and creamed spinach night.

If folks could make suggestions it would be terrific. Also, it's nice if you know specifically how many people the room will seat. DR.com Members in the restaurant business PLEASE speak up and have your establishment included in this list! Thanks!

edited to add: Generally, price is not a big deal for these folks. They're not looking for a CityZen, Citronelle or Maestro at every meal....but occasionally that level of service is nice if they have the private facilities. Also, the group sizes can range from 8 - 45 depending on the occasion.

Edited November 29, 2005 by Free Wilma

[JLK]

Vidalia and Charlie Palmer Steak are the first two to come to mind.

Firefly has a semi-private space, however I don't think there are doors.

[StephenB]

FW, I have had success in staging private parties at the Sichuan Pavilion, 1820 K St. Their private room is capacious and their largest table, a round one with a Lazy Susan, holds up to 14. You can add other tables, of course.

The panels slide, the doors close and you are absolutely sequestered.

As for the food, I think they do a better job with banquets than with daily dining.

Here is the menu that I hit upon after some experimentation, and I think it's quite good.

Spring Rolls

Sichuan Dumplings

Crispy Shrimp Packs

Fresh Smoked Fish Fillet

Snow Peas in Ginger Sauce

Seafood Soup with Crispy Rice

Whole Lobster with Ginger & Scallions

Crispy Fish with Sichuan Sauce

Sichuan Lamb in Garlic Sauce

Sea Cucumber Country Style

Peppery Shrimp & Squid

Double Delight Pork

Crispy Sliced Duck

“Ma Po”Tofu

The place is, of course, considerably less expensive than the steakhouses you referred to.

If you decide to try it out, talk to maître d' Jimmy.

[ScotteeM]

Maestro does have a small private room. The Vinyard Room seats up to 14 people. The restaurant itself is also available for private lunches for up to 75 people. Maestro does not do lunch service, but is available to private parties.

The hotel itself also has private rooms available for dinners or parties.

[oliveDC]

A few more: Poste, Le Paradou, Palette (12 people), Ardeo/Bardeo and Acadiana (huge back room).

[Sthitch]

A few of the private rooms I have enjoyed are as follows:

Marcels

2941

Cafe Atlantico (they use the top level)

Matisse

Tosca (the curtain off the back portion of the dinning room)

[bilrus]

We have had our recent company holiday dinners for 10 people in private rooms at Galileo, 2941 and Colvin Run Tavern.

Some places require a pre-set or limited menu in private rooms or with groups over a certain size, ususally 12 people.

You better get on it - I was doing some calling around two weeks ago and some places are getting booked pretty quickly form the prime days.

[bookluvingbabe]

I attended a privte dinner at the Willard recently and was suprised at how nice it was. It's such a magnificant space and the food was quite nice. The sea scallops with avocados was just a lovely taste of the sea.

[Insider]

I attended a few Hill events recently.

The first, at Sonoma's 2nd floor "Fireplace" lounge. Easily held the 100+ guests. There was a second "Red Room" that went unused.

The second, at Bistro Bis, was informal, for approx. 20 guests.

The last, at CP's, smaller, intimate seated dinner.

Funniest of the three? Had to be attending the maverick Republican Senator's event UPSTAIRS at Sonoma, while being gently steered away from the California Democratic Leadership event DOWNSTAIRS.....

I tried to pry which party "consumed" more out of the maitre d', but he was quite discrete, saying only that they had "different tastes."

[MelGold]

If they're willing to cross the river, Evening Star Cafe has a private room upstairs called the No. 9 Lounge (seats up to 50) and depending on the size of the party, Vermilion will consider closing their upstairs dining room on traditionally slower nights.

[deangold]

Dino has a private dining room with doors that close. The doors are french doors with windows. We ahve several seating configurations:

One table that can seat up to 14 or 16, or two tables that can handle 20.