Ken Ford

It was nice to see Jeremy and Mike tending bar during my second visit to Westend during the Palma era; it was disconcerting to see myself as the only bar patron at 8 PM on a Saturday night.

Hello:

Nancy and I were sitting at the bar last night as well. We arrived early around 6 PM and were also pleased to find Jeremy and Mike working the bar. The bar was nearly completely empty and the restaurant itself was certainly not busy.

This was our 5th visit after the exodus of Chef Leo Marino.

Not surprisingly, the food quality dropped very noticeably immediately after the shake-up in the kitchen. Now, in our view, the food is improving but has certainly not fully recovered. Although we have tried much of the menu, last night was just a quick visit and we had calamari, burger, and mac and cheese. The calamari was as good as ever... an interesting rendition of that dish. The burger was way over cooked and not as good as previously. Mac and cheese was ok, nothing special.

I do hope this place improves but nearly empty on a Saturday night is not a good omen.

Ken

I hadn't been to Westend Bistro since the recent upheaval, and when I stopped in last week, I found out Chef Joe Palma had just arrived from New York a couple days before. I decided to order "safe," although that may not have been necessary: Sous Chef Adam Barnett arrived earlier this year from Liberty Tavern. He was formerly at the Inn at Little Washington, and has been the backbone of West End's kitchen for the past several weeks.

Piggy in a Pot ($14) had just gone on the menu, and was a simple bocal of excellent pork rillettes. Instead of with cornichons, it was served with a more complex salad of pickled vegetables and a few pieces of grilled country bread. If you like pork rillettes, you'll like this dish.

The first time I tried Westend, I ordered the Tagliatelle Bolognese ($19), served with tomato basil meat sauce. Leo Marino claims to have made this sauce from his grandmother's recipe, and despite it being an expensive bowl of dried pasta, this was a good, hearty sauce-based dish. Last week I tried it again, and aside from the noodles being slightly overcooked, the sauce just didn't have the same oily depth as before. A one-time blip, or a dish that falters from the absence of Marino, an Italian-American from Hoboken, NJ? From what I hear, this dish is also served at Ten Arts in Philadelphia, so I'm probably just reading too much into this.

The wine list is just as it has always been: an expensive embarrassment, and a point of shame for this otherwise fine restaurant. Like Corduroy, Westend is suffering from the transition from Breadline to Panorama: The bread is not as good as it used to be - with Tagliatelle Bolognese, you'd prefer to have some good bread for a sauce dunk, but this basket only underscored the tragic bread situation in this city.

Not wanting to end on a sour note (I very much enjoyed my meal), I'd like to say hello and welcome to Chef Palma, who comes to Washington, DC with a Le Bernardin pedigree. Welcome to Washington, DC, Chef - we all look forward to getting to know your work over the upcoming weeks and months.

Cheers,

Rocks.

I have been there a couple times since the "upheaval" and very much agree with the comments above. The food has slipped subtly, but significantly in my view. I hope that Joe Palma can turn it around.

Ken