Restaurant Week - August 14th-20th, 2006

[monavano]

Great first post and welcome dgf. I appreciate your sharing the counter-experience with us. It was informative and your short cake accumen attests to MC's ability to do a worthy rendition of this desert.

[Demvtr]

Great first post dgf! It sounds like our parties ordered differently and had different service experiences, which is not surprising. I'm sorry you disagree with my take on Morrison-Clark, but I'm glad to have prompted you to start posting. I hope you'll continue. Enjoy the rest of Restaurant Week!

[vinist]

Both those posts show exactly why it really pays to give a restaurant more than one chance as far as service goes. Even great service can slip every now and then.

Demvtr...a dismemberment plan record cover as your avatar?! wow. classic!

[treznor]

Went to TenPenh for lunch (a party of 10!). We were very pleased with their menu. I had heard of course that the TenPenh/DC Coast/etc group does RW well and TenPenh lived up to the expectation. Had about 5-7 appetizers to choose from , all of their lunch entrees to choose from, and three desserts.

I had the spicy grilled calamari salad which was very good, the calamari were very tender and the srirachi sauce added a nice kick. We covered most of the entree menu, I had the crab three ways; the crab cake was decent though a bit too much filler, the crab ravioli was decent but not special, the softshell tempura was very well done with a nice softshelly taste and lightly breaded and the wasabi mashed potatoes that came with it had a nice wasabi zing and were of a firm but creamy texture with the softsell crab stuck in the top so it looked like the crab was clawing out of the potatoes...

Overall, a very good experience, especially considering it was a party of 10 and it was RW.

[Pat]

I thought the wait staff was fine, not perfect, but certainly not bad enough to put a sour note on my meal. Also, I experienced none of this water draught he mentioned.

Your experience mirrors the one I had there earlier in the summer, though RW is a different matter. At the time, I wondered why this place seemed to have fallen off the radar. Reading the comments here, especially such radically different experiences on the same night, seems to indicate that inconsistency may be a big problem for them. (OK, maybe I'm stating the obvious here )

I also deduced from the bonus points Open Table was offering to dine there at prime times that they weren't getting much business. I don't know if that's the case or not, but if they've not been getting a high volume of business and then got slammed for Restaurant Week, that can't be a good combination.

[Nadya]

Went to TenPenh for lunch (a party of 10!). We were very pleased with their menu. I had heard of course that the TenPenh/DC Coast/etc group does RW well and TenPenh lived up to the expectation. Had about 5-7 appetizers to choose from , all of their lunch entrees to choose from, and three desserts.

I had the spicy grilled calamari salad which was very good, the calamari were very tender and the srirachi sauce added a nice kick. We covered most of the entree menu, I had the crab three ways; the crab cake was decent though a bit too much filler, the crab ravioli was decent but not special, the softshell tempura was very well done with a nice softshelly taste and lightly breaded and the wasabi mashed potatoes that came with it had a nice wasabi zing and were of a firm but creamy texture with the softsell crab stuck in the top so it looked like the crab was clawing out of the potatoes...

Overall, a very good experience, especially considering it was a party of 10 and it was RW.

You know, I ate there once, and had a passably good meal, especially the grilled calamari salad, of which you speak, was very good. But I left with a lingering sense of discomfort that kept me from returning. I mean, apart from being serviced by five different waiters, what's wrong with the place?

Then it hit me. The hostesses were wearing these billowing silk-like caftan dealios seemingly stamped with "Harem 80% clearance sale" on top of their street clothes. Under a threat of death will I work at a place that makes me wear stuff that interferes with my carefully selected outfits, and for all I know, doesn't go with my complexion.

If that's what they do to staff we can all see, what do they make cooks do behind closed doors??

[mdt]

RE: New Morrison Clark Inn Review by Tom Seitsema- Three Stars out of Four(due to the oily sheen on the crab bisque not matching the muted tones of the wallpaper! Gosh, Love the Chat's.

Hmmm, this is a quote from Seitsema's review back in 2003, "At the Morrison-Clark Inn, a meal can start well and end well. But the path between soups and sweets is a rocky one."

I guess you are just trying to be funny.

[Phobos]

I made my first visit to Bistro Bis on Saturday night and came away fairly impressed. There were a few minor quibble points (the butter consistency was something akin to old playdough, some mis-deliveries by the busboys) but overall it was a strong demonstration of modern French bistro cooking: you're not going to get a lot of it, and it won't be cheap, but by God's it's going to look like a work of art and taste exquisite.

My dining companion and I sampled every option on the RW menu (there's only six, 2 for each course, so this wasn't exactly very hard). The CHILLED TOMATO GAZPACHO ANDALOUSE was tart and invigorating, though it could have been cooler. I had gotten only 4 hours of sleep the night before (I wish I had known that the whole White House Garden Tour thing was not in as well-publicized and highly-demanded as I assumed and did not require me being in line by 6:30 am to get tickets) and was feeling the stirrings of a sleep deprivation headache when we walked in. Half a bowl of gazpacho later, I was invigorated and ready to go.

The PATÉ DE CAMPAGNE is a departure from most pates, as it is not soft (the Bistro's term is "country style coarse") and contains pistachios. The dish serves as a good appetizer, though, and the mesculin salad is also refreshing.

For the main course, I had the SWORDFISH STEAK PROVENÇALE, which was cooked absolutely perfectly and managed to retain its own distinctive and fairly strong flavor while also benefitting from the ratatouille. My only regret was that I couldn't have more more more.

I only got to try a little bit of the POUSSIN À L'ANCIENNE, which goes to show how much my companion enjoyed it. The portion didn't look ample to me by any means, but she seemed quite happy with it and raved about the taragon in the sauce. This is a chicken dish that is unafraid to stand on its own merits, sans garnish.

With desert, the MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE is fine but is the presentation outweighs the taste; the promised bittersweet chocholate sauce is dabbed in spots around the plate seemingly more for decoration than anything else. The PASSION FRUIT-WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE also comes looking dainty and fancy but it delivers a strong and wonderful passion fruit flavor. The chocolate cup the mousse comes in is also notably good.

Nadya had the night off, but the waiter promised he would pass along my regards on her radio debut. The waiter in question, by the way, was excellent, even if he did call the Metro "the subway" hah.

I was rather surprised by how empty the bar area was, but the main dining room certainly sounded busy and happy (I had my back turned to the kitchen area). Overall, a very nice experience, and though my return trip will most likely have to wait until I have the funds to afford one of those tempting wine bottles in the wall (it'll also have to wait until I return to the US), I definitely recommend the place. The RW options are extremely limited, but satisfying nonetheless .

[Escoffier]

quote 'Phobos' I made my first visit to Bistro Bis on Saturday night and came away fairly impressed. There were a few minor quibble points (the butter consistency was something akin to old playdough, some mis-deliveries by the busboys) but overall it was a strong demonstration of modern French bistro cooking: you're not going to get a lot of it, and it won't be cheap, but by God's it's going to look like a work of art and taste exquisite.

You're right. There wasn't much and what there was was minimalist at best.

quote 'Phobos'The PATÉ DE CAMPAGNE is a departure from most pates, as it is not soft (the Bistro's term is "country style coarse") and contains pistachios. The dish serves as a good appetizer, though, and the mesculin salad is also refreshing.

After the first bite (and then sharing some) the entire four of us said the same thing; "Spam". The consistency and flavor of spam. The mustard was very nice and the mesculin salad was quite tasty (what there was of it).

quote 'Phobos'For the main course, I had the SWORDFISH STEAK PROVENÇALE, which was cooked absolutely perfectly and managed to retain its own distinctive and fairly strong flavor while also benefitting from the ratatouille. My only regret was that I couldn't have more more more.

The swordfish was good, albeit small. It was a much better choice than the chicken (more the size of squab) because there was more of it.

quote 'Phobos'With desert, the MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE is fine but is the presentation outweighs the taste; the promised bittersweet chocholate sauce is dabbed in spots around the plate seemingly more for decoration than anything else. The PASSION FRUIT-WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE also comes looking dainty and fancy but it delivers a strong and wonderful passion fruit flavor. The chocolate cup the mousse comes in is also notably good.

When the desserts were offered, the subject of the "Trite Food List" came up. Molten chocolate cake, I seem to recall, headed up that list. The passionfruit mousse was very good and devoured quickly. The chocolate cup it was in was the highlight of the evening. Service was very good. Erica, our server waited patiently until we were all seated (one member had to find a place to park which took some time). Water was delivered quickly and the water glasses were never empty. The service was the highlight of the entire evening.

To bookend RW, we had dinner at the sister restaurant of Bistro Bis, Vidalia, last night. This is the way RW should be done. The entire menu was available, there were minimal upcharges, and the food was excellent. I'm not going to catalog what we had, suffice it to say, there wasn't a bit of food left after any course and three very satisfied (and full) people left Vidalia swearing to be back soon.

[Banco]

FWIW, I had the restaurant week dinner at the bar at Bis last Friday. Everything was excellent, and the portions were entirely appropriate for a three-course pris-fix. The standout for me was the poussin a l'ancienne, which had such a deep and luscious chicken flavor that it made me wonder where Chef Harran gets his chickens. I really have not had a chicken dish so deeply chickeny good since I was last in France, which unfortunately was quite a while ago. The preparation was exactly as anything "a l'ancienne" should be, which is deep and rich but uncomplicated, but also had Bis's characteristic fillip of refined presentation. The tarragon sauce and mushrooms made music with the bird. Despite my not being a big dessert fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the passion fruit mousse, which had just the right amount of bracing acidity from the passion fruit (whose role in the dish seemed obvious to me) to counterbalance the richness of the mousse and the chocolate cup. This dessert was also beautiful to behold.

I didn't have the paté last Friday, but I have before, and have always found it to be good. I've never tasted spam, though, so I can't compare, but any similarity between the two would rather surprise me.

[cheezepowder]

FYI, according to Willow's menu last night (and at the bottom of our check), Willow is extending RW to Friday, Aug. 25.

Willow's RW menu offered a good number of choices, and we enjoyed our meals. I liked our server who was attentive and somewhat formal in manner. There were 4? (can't quite recall) appetizers (including corn chowder and tomato salad), 4 entrees (trout with crab imperial, barley risotto with beats, some sort of beef steak, and lemon fried chicken), and 3 desserts (banana split, flourless chocolate cake, and a peach tart? crisp?). The corn chowder was very good - it was filled with lots of corn and chunks of potato in a creamy soup. The lemon fried chicken had a definite lemon flavor which made it interesting, though I don't think it made the chicken better -- I'm fine with my fried chicken plain. The breading was very crispy and tasty, and the dark meat chicken I ate was moist. There were two good sized pieces of chicken, (the white meat one I took home with me), very creamy mashed potatoes, greens, and a dipping sauce that was kind of like a lemony hollandaise that I didn't really like. The banana split was a half banana, split, with mini scoops of ice cream, whipped cream and strawberry. I keep thinking that I should eat more sundaes (I always just order a scoop of ice cream on a sugar cone) so I was happy to have a banana split. The table next to us ordered off the regular menu, and the one closest to me ordered the scallops (not on the RW week menu). I had to sneak a peek of how many scallops she got (see Willow thread.) She got 4.

[Yentruoc]

I have a reservation for 2 tonight at Corduroy for 7 pm that I will probably have to cancel, since SO is sitting on some runway somewhere...

PM me if you can take the reservation. I will let you know at 6 pm if it's yours.

[Poivrot Farci]

Vidalia and Bistro Bis ...why they have such radically different policies.

Much like a turnip is different from a car battery, possibly the most glaring difference in policies are price point and product. Vidalia is Buben's baby, and accordingly offers higher-end gastronomy, silver flatwear, and moisturizing condiments in the bathrooms.

The Bistro is a bistro. More approachable and affordable. While both offer respectable fare, neither can offer the same "deals" by virtue of their product.

As for SPAM (Hormel insists that its product be in uppercase letter to distinguish it from unsolicited mail), the process of...processing it is similar to pate. I can assure that there are many types of pate de campagne in France; from artisinal to industrial and that there are nearly as many flavor nuances as there are varieties.

I am poo-pooing your slander of SPAM. SPAM is almost directly responsible for Allied victory in WWII and through convoluted logic allows us to ultimately enjoy French pates and perpetuates their fabrication. Consider the leberwurst alternative. And let us not forget the Wierd Al "SPAM" goof on REM's "Stand".

[Nadya]

DRINKING!

[Phobos]

DRINKING!

On a Sunday night? Tsk tsk. And by that, I mean "I wish that's what I was doing."

To make this sort of on-topic, I'd be interested in hearing more from the people in the business regarding how RW affects their average volume, revenues, etc.

[Pat]

We had a satisfying dinner at Vidalia last night for my birthday. It was our only Restaurant Week outing this time around after having kind of overdone it in January. For both of those reasons we ran up a bill quite a bit higher than $30.06 x 2

The highlights of the meal for me were the appetizer, dessert, and extra side dish we ordered to share (macaroni with goat cheese and truffle). The pork and beans starter was a knockout. I really loved it. My husband wasn't quite as keen on his cherry tomato and goat cheese appetizer, but he ate it all nevertheless .

For main courses, I had the cornmeal breaded catfish with dirty rice, oysters, and andouille, and my husband had the trout. I enjoyed the catfish dish as a whole, especially the dirty rice. The catfish itself was tasty but seemed a bit dry to me. I had a little leftover, which will find its way into fish tacos tonight. My husband was quite satisfied with the trout. He can be particular about fish preparation and doesn't order it very often, but he was pleased with this.

The pecan tart with chocolate sauce and ice cream I had for dessert was a perfect end to the meal. It was sweet and rich and just right. I forgot what my husband ordered (I didn't get a chance to try any before it disappeared), but I think it was the chocolate peanut butter torte.

The service overall was attentive and good, but we were brought bread plates quite a while before anyone materialized with bread, which wouldn't have been a problem except that I was really hungry. I kept staring longingly at the bread plate. The bread was well worth the wait once it arrived, though.

[Yentruoc]

My boyfriend arrived back in town just in time for him to change his clothes and run out the door to Corduroy- whew!

My beet salad was amazing- such a surprise to have the goat cheese as a thin layer on the plate rather than the chunks you usually see, with the hidden pickled onions just waiting for you below the microgreens.

His corn soup was the better of the two though- very smooth, yet with huge corn flavor. yummy.

I had the famous scallops, which were excellent- I was surprised to get 4! I wasn't expecting the dish to be so earthy, with the mushrooms, but I liked it.

He had the lamb sirloin, which was (at least according to the one bite he gave me) tender and perfectly seasoned, with creamy herb raviolis.

The desserts were fine- I'm not a big dessert person, so I could have gone just as well without them.

The only thing that was off putting was I regularly had bites of my entree that were gritty- I don't know if that was the 'shrooms or something else. A surprise considering all the kudos on this board. Of course, I didn't let that stop me.

[giant shrimp]

early saturday night at corduroy, even with a menu bereft of pork bellies, restaurant week was running smoothly. scallops were all over the place, every which way you looked, sitting proudly on soft mounds of mashed potatoes, the best, i am told, you have had in your life, two generous pair on a plate, enough to share a nibble. swordfish was standing in for the halibut, also a good choice. but there was a small drone from two ladies: i don't know why he likes this place so much, one said. our waiter is condescending, complained the other, followed by further carping he must have heard since he was often closer to the table than we were, the invisible man syndrome living on. we didn't let it spoil our enjoyment of a nicely caramelized peach tart and a grappa-splashed trio of sorbets.

a block away, royally refurbished only a couple of years ago, franklin park looks like it has crashed, although the fountains are working. the park has some of the best trees downtown, but the ground is showing the drought, and there seems to be drug activity.

the next park over at mcpherson square we watch ducks taking off singly to the south. they are flying full force on an upward trajectory, and if we had been just a foot taller they would have barely been clearing the tops of our heads.

we finished off restaurant week across the street at cafe 15, which was more relaxed and friendlier than we had expected, on-your-toes french without being stiff, and, less of a surprise, they care about wine. round tarts layered with pressed artichoke, tomato and eggplant was as good as something from julia. phyllo-wrapped lamb was tender and flavorful, although accompanied by less than rousing polenta. rockfish rocked and circular chocolate and passionfruit mousses, layered with cake, demonstrated that the kitchen knows how to excel at classic desserts. the dining room leans to the formal side, with dark plum walls and an assortment of bright paintings in modern styles. think tea time. it wouldn't take too many reservations to fill up this place, but it was half empty on sunday night.

[ctay122]

We had a nice dinner at Dino Friday night, it was our first time there. Our server, Emily, was perfect. We were able to enjoy a leisurely dinner at a nice pace. I think we were the third to last couple to leave (we got the hint when the lights were turned all the way up around midnight). You just don't want to leave a good thing! The one thing I did find (perhaps because of our location upstairs and the echo) was that it was too LOUD. I almost had to shout to my husband across this little 2 top table near the stairs. Next time I think we will ask to sit downstairs, where it seemed to be a bit more quiet. Of course it was a Friday night with 830pm reservations. A booth with a party of 4 nearby was having a good time, but they were just a little bit too noisy. We didn't ask to be moved and it got considerably quieter once they left. I think the decor was absolutely lovely. I am somewhat of a traditionalist (boring my husband said) at times and went with the Caprese Salad. But the bufala mozzarella was so light and creamy, and the tomatoes so juicy, I am was happy with my choice. Husband had the baby octopus which he said was outstanding. We allowed our server to select our wine. We enjoyed a bottle of Milleuna Primitivo - it was an excellent choice once we allowed it to open up a bit. Husband had the signature lasagne and I had the spare ribs with a side order of 3 cheese polenta. We both enjoyed the entrees, though my husband could not finish the lasagne, as he had to save room for dessert. I opted for the Parmigiano Reggiano with balsamic vinegar and he had the tirimisu (the chocolate tart or whatever it was called -I Noticed it as it was on its way to another table, probably the last of the night - was gone) which was one of the best I've had and I was only allowed one bite. We got to meet Dean, and he is a very personable man and we enjoyed talking to him. We will definitely go back, particularly if we can find a quiet table during the week to have a nice little romantic dinner. For my first time out, atmosphere, decor, service and quality of food, I would definitely give it a 5/5. Thank you Dean.

[deangold]

To make this sort of on-topic, I'd be interested in hearing more from the people in the business regarding how RW affects their average volume, revenues, etc.

We wwre up 50% over a normal busy week and 80% over the previous week. It is a hard slog and by the last night tempers were pretty frayed. We broke our record week by almost 15%. We made it through!

What is great to see is that a lot of people who dined during RW ahve already made a ressie for a future return and my mailing list got lots of new entries!

Interestingly we got to experiment with our seating and reservation system. We booked the room aggresively and as a result we know what the true capacity of the restaurant at busy time is. Because of this I have been able to redesign the reservation sheet so that it allows for more tables at prime times that will still allow the kitchen to keep up. All in all RW was a great thing at Dino. All in all as well, I am glad that the next one is not next week, altough you can still get the restaurant week special thru September 3!