Restaurant notes for the week
An embarrassing number of expensive restaurants this week.
1. Cascade Cafe, National Gallery of Art. A poorly-run cafeteria with surly service ("Remind you of the Soviet Union?" I asked), wildly expensive prices (something like $9 for a soggy Vietnamese summer roll where the mint had been omitted), poorly designed lines where there's no place to rest cafeteria trays while you pay, and mediocre food. My second time here, and my second time where I promise never to come back. A quarter of the way through our meal, we looked at each other, said "Why are we continuing to eat this?" and agreed to wait a few hours to go to...
2. Oceanaire, F St. between 12th and 13th. I just don't go here often enough. I feel in touch with my roots eating the little herring tidbits before the meal. Of course, that's defeated by the treyf crabcakes, but the Washingtonian magazine, which had a ridiculously huge article on crabcakes this month, is just crazy in failing to recognize these as the best in town: jumbo lump crab, very little filler. I don't even like crab that much; I'm regularly disappointed when I order it elsewhere. I was happy with my glass of Riesling. My friend's halibut was excellent; I was looking forward to the sablefish, since my only experience with sable had been smoked in delis, but found it disappointingly uninteresting. We ended up trading dishes.
3. Georgia Brown's, 15th between Eye and K. I had perlau, an interesting Carolina variant on jambalaya: very meaty, with much high-quality creepy-crawly seafood, but didn't quite have the kick of jambalaya. I don't understand the appeal of parsley, and I certainly don't understand the appeal of making it the dominant herb in a dish. Huge plate loaded with food: I couldn't finish my lunch-sized portion.
4. Equinox, Connecticut between H and Eye. My first time here, because it's so hard to get seated without reservations well in advance, and I wasn't that impressed. The crabcakes didn't measure up to Oceanaire; the overwhelming ingredient seemed to be capers. The beef main course was alright, but nothing that made me want to come back. Excellent dessert, but too many places in town do excellent desserts. The service was comically rude.
5. As Dave, Shani, and I sat at the Gallery Place Mall, I pointed to a "Coming Soon" sign: "There's a restaurant I'm not going to eat at." For if ever there's a restaurant guaranteed to be mediocre at best, it's a restaurant at the Gallery Place Mall with the name "Miso Hungry." Also coming soon: "Thai Chili," where the featured attraction appears to be karaoke.
1. Cascade Cafe, National Gallery of Art. A poorly-run cafeteria with surly service ("Remind you of the Soviet Union?" I asked), wildly expensive prices (something like $9 for a soggy Vietnamese summer roll where the mint had been omitted), poorly designed lines where there's no place to rest cafeteria trays while you pay, and mediocre food. My second time here, and my second time where I promise never to come back. A quarter of the way through our meal, we looked at each other, said "Why are we continuing to eat this?" and agreed to wait a few hours to go to...
2. Oceanaire, F St. between 12th and 13th. I just don't go here often enough. I feel in touch with my roots eating the little herring tidbits before the meal. Of course, that's defeated by the treyf crabcakes, but the Washingtonian magazine, which had a ridiculously huge article on crabcakes this month, is just crazy in failing to recognize these as the best in town: jumbo lump crab, very little filler. I don't even like crab that much; I'm regularly disappointed when I order it elsewhere. I was happy with my glass of Riesling. My friend's halibut was excellent; I was looking forward to the sablefish, since my only experience with sable had been smoked in delis, but found it disappointingly uninteresting. We ended up trading dishes.
3. Georgia Brown's, 15th between Eye and K. I had perlau, an interesting Carolina variant on jambalaya: very meaty, with much high-quality creepy-crawly seafood, but didn't quite have the kick of jambalaya. I don't understand the appeal of parsley, and I certainly don't understand the appeal of making it the dominant herb in a dish. Huge plate loaded with food: I couldn't finish my lunch-sized portion.
4. Equinox, Connecticut between H and Eye. My first time here, because it's so hard to get seated without reservations well in advance, and I wasn't that impressed. The crabcakes didn't measure up to Oceanaire; the overwhelming ingredient seemed to be capers. The beef main course was alright, but nothing that made me want to come back. Excellent dessert, but too many places in town do excellent desserts. The service was comically rude.
5. As Dave, Shani, and I sat at the Gallery Place Mall, I pointed to a "Coming Soon" sign: "There's a restaurant I'm not going to eat at." For if ever there's a restaurant guaranteed to be mediocre at best, it's a restaurant at the Gallery Place Mall with the name "Miso Hungry." Also coming soon: "Thai Chili," where the featured attraction appears to be karaoke.