For those of you unfamiliar with Central, it is the new offering by DC gastronomical savant , Michel Richard, who’s Citronelle has been an institution for as long as I can remember.  Central is a happy medium between French bistro and American café.  The prices are reasonable for a Richard establishment with most dishes priced around the 20-25 dollar range.   The food however was sort of hit or miss. Some of the dishes were superlative.  The French onion soup in particular was some of the best we have ever had.  I would refer you to Les Halles for some phenomenal onion soup but now, I feel that I may have been swayed to list a new king of the French onion.  This is a theme here at Central though.  The French based dishes shine through while the American ones seem a little bit muddled as if stuck somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic – neither here nor there.  The friend chicken was one such dish.  There was sort of an uproar at the table when the fried chicken was tasted.  Now we are of the opinion that fried chicken should be just that: fried.  The chicken at Central however starts off it’s cooked life as a product of brining and then is lightly breaded and fried.  This leaves the crust quite mushy and not consistent with the generally accepted definition of fried chicken.   The steamed mussels were also underperforming.  They were served lukewarm at best even when requested piping hot.  

All in all I would recommend their more-frenchier-than-not dishes over their American attempts.  The steak frites was very tasty.  It was tender and succulent, the juices were free flowing and the fries are probably some of the best fries in town.   The fries are nice and crunchy yet their insides and nice and soft and very potato-ey. Like any self respecting French bistro the attention paid to and the quality of their steaks and fries is very impressive.  Among their more American options, The Connoisseur especially liked the short ribs; deeming them to be “tender, succulent and just plain good.” Desserts are consistent with Richards reputation and are done well. Even in light of some of their gastronomic shortfalls I would readily recommend Central for an outing. Please be warned, however, that they are not accepting lunch reservations for the immediate future due to some issues with the construction.  For nice affordable French food in downtown, Central is tough to beat.  If you have not been to Citronelle please do not consider Central to be a substitute, it is merely a stopgap and should be viewed as such.  The dishes that they do well are done very well, but unfortunately their other dishes do not truly deserve the Michel Richard name.  But they are new, and perhaps they will evolve.

Price: $$$ 

 
This might be one of the easiest reviews ever.  Grillfish is exactly what it says it is.  In a town filled with politicians and other people who make their living treading the fine line between one side and the other and dodging labels, Grillfish is a bit of a breath of fresh air.  Unpretentious and cozy, the dining room is well sized and feels cavernous. It seemed like a place where you could go for a casual business outing but also a place where you would feel right at home for a nice family dinner out. I especially enjoyed the fact that their menu was simple. True to the name, there was fish; all kinds of fish, offered grilled or blackened.  For all the non-fish eaters out there Grillfish also offered a fair amount of seafood free dishes. With a name like Grillfish though, you really shouldn’t bother going if you’re not into fish.  I find this place to be a great healthy-ish option around town.  Fish is widely known to be a healthier type of meat rich with all sorts of unpronounceable nutrients, and grilling is widely known to be one of the healthiest ways to prepare food.

 
I don’t want to set a newish precedent and start writing about chain restaurants. Grillfish has locations in Miami and other places on the east coast. I want to make an exception though because this place is worth checking out if you enjoy seafood.  Their options alone warrant a visit, and while it may not be the best fish in town it certainly is a solid experiment in simple dining: The kind of dining this town really needs to start embracing.

Price: $$ (around 20 for an entree)

Cafe Milano
3251 Prospect St., NW - Washington, DC 20007 - 202 333-6183
http://www.cafemilano.net

A lot of DC heavy hitters already know about Café Milano and for good reason.  It is one of the few restaurants in DC where the buzz is actually deserved. It has a nice atmosphere albeit the place can be loud and less than intimate but nonetheless the cuisine is quite good and you’ll be surrounded with some of DC’s most influential. With dishes named Tortelloni Gucci and Ravioli Cavalli it is best to bring someone you hope to impress.  Much like their name sakes the dishes can be a tad on the pricey side and there is no Marshall’s equivalent for Café Milano’s food.  I tried the black bass served with potato, purple cabbage, fennel and a creamy olive oil sauce.  It was quite tasty and sleep inducing.  True to Italian tradition and stereotype the portions are fairly generous and go well with a bottle from their wine list. Café Milano also tends to be a favourite of people in from out of town, think Tom Cruise, Jessica Simpson, Lionel Richie. So it’s great if you want to try your hand at celeb spotting. So fix up. Look sharp. Bring a date. Enjoy.

Price: $$$$  ($30-40 entrees)

I upset my girlfriend this past week at a party by getting a little too drunk.  I needed a place to get myself out of the doghouse.  I asked around and was recommended Zaytinya in Chinatown.  Zatinyas is a greek/middle eastern tapas restaurant.  I looked at a couple of reviews and the place seemed to be held to the highest regards.  I decided to give it a try on a Saturday Night. 

Zaytinya does not take reservations after 6:30, so we had to do a walk in.  Parking is difficult to find in the area so I suggest taking the metro to the Chinatown stop or using Valet for $10.  We had about a 1 hr wait which isn’t too bad for DC on a Saturday night.  The place was full of young professionals and had a diverse mix of people.  While the environment was great for what we were looking for, I would not suggest going here if you are looking for a quiet romantic dinner.  The decor has sort of a middle eastern/modern feel to it; however, the bar is packed and loud.  I have to admit they have some of the coolest looking bathrooms I’ve seen, so you should definitely at least stop here for a pit stop. 

While everything I’ve mentioned thus far sounds great, I am a raised Southern Guy.   Being from the south, I could really care less about decor and appearance. I am all about the quality and taste of the food.  Unfortunately, Zatinyas proved to be nothing but a big dissapointment when it came to food considering its above average price.  Zaytinya suggests ordering 2-3 tapas per person.  We were starving so we decided to order 3 each.  We ordered the:

Chicken Muhammara: Marinated chicken served with a roasted red pepper & walnut sauce   6.95

Rating: Mediocre

The chicken was tender and cooked well; however, the sauce gave it a strange bitter taste.

Lamb Chops with Hommus Bil Toum with roasted garlic-chickpea puree 10.95

Rating: Poor

For the price, you were given little to no meat.  The lamb was cooked near rare and was very bloody.  I had to swallow this with a full glass of water.

Arayes Grilled pita stuffed with ground lamb and tahini  6.50

Rating: Poor

This would have been a great dish, but the lamb was sweet!  I am not a fan of sweets being in my food.  I think sweets should be saved for dessert.  If you are a fan of a bit of sweetness in your food, youll love this. 

Bantijan Bil Laban Fried eggplant with roasted garlic-yogurt sauce 5.75

Rating: Good

This was probably the best thing we ordered.  It was very simple and the garlic yogurt sauce complimented the eggplant very well. 

Mushrooms Saganaki Seasonal mushrooms with Kefalograviera cheese  10.95

Rating: Mediocre

I am a fan of mushrooms and cheese.  So I figured this dish would be heavan.  Unfortunately, the mushrooms were cooked in an extremely salty broth.  The cheese was tasty but made the mushrooms taste even saltier. 

Puff Böregi Fried, light pastry with haloumi, goat and feta Cheeses 5.50

Rating: Good

This was pretty good.  The pastry was perfectly cooked and flaky and crisp fresh from the oven.  The pastry was a little bit too oily and could have used more cheese. 

Since we didn’t like the food and did not eat all of the food, we decided to get an extra order of hummus:

Hommus “Lebanese Taverna” style  5.95

Rating: Poor

I was dissapointed by the hummus. The hummus lacked flavor and was bland.

The service was average.  Overall I recommend this place if your looking for a place to relax, hang out, and try a variety of foods.  If you are looking for genuinely good food with a good price, look elsewhere. I suggest heading down south where you’ll find the best food in the country.

-DesiChaat

Price: $$
 

Local 16 is both a nice neighborhood eatery and a lively weekend hotspot and the dishes unpretentious and quite tasty.  The fact that they work with many locally grown ingredients really scores high in our books, we’re all about being local here at Food Washington, and it’s refreshing to see a restaurant be that way.  The atmosphere of the place matches pretty consistently with the majority of the clientele; it’s decked out in dark colors and hip vibes and is trendy yet approachable.  As far as dishes go, the New York Strip is done quite well and is accompanied with all the American staples like spinach, and garlic mash potatoes.  There are a couple of other dishes on the menu where the inspiration is clearly foreign, but this is where it stops. There is no attempt at pure fusion, which is nice considering that fusion in Washington is a little like bipartisanship, largely for show and without any real substance. 

Local 16 was one of the first places to offer this kind of refreshing hipness in a formerly hard part of town, and still carries the flame. While lots of other great places have opened up nearby, there is still no alternative to the rooftop bar and patio. It is a nice place to just kick back with some friends for a lazy weekday and also a nice spot for a casual yet stylish first date. So come for the food, and stay for the drinks and a cool breeze on the rooftop. I would advise coming early though since the rooftop becomes cattlecar-ish as the evening progresses.

Price: $$ (20ish per person)

One could say that Oya is one of the growing ranks of NEW Washington restaurant – one that is long on design and easy on the eyes but a place where the food is just mediocre.  The restaurant itself is very well done and is evoking of a trendy bar in Reykjavik or Helsinki with it’s almost all white interior, chains hung from the ceilings, and waiters dressed in dark colors.  The atmosphere is nice and pleasant, you walk in and you are engulfed by trendy-ness, and all of it before you even order anything. It is once you sit down and begin to dine when the shortcomings of Oya come into sight.  First of all the service was incredibly slow. After having ordered several courses, we were at times waiting for 15-20 minutes between dishes.  This wait coupled with the small portions and a tinge of hunger did not equal dining bliss.  The menu is pretty well populated with a selection of sushi, chicken dishes and even an amount of vegetarian options.  We were pleasantly surprised with their sushi options and while they were pricey at 9-12 dollars a pop were definitely delivered in the most generous portions available at Oya.  The main dishes again like the restaurant were topnotch in presentation yet lacking in actual flavor.  Most entrée’s when tasted were a little on the bland side and incapable of matching the level of presentation.

Another disturbing thing was that Oya seems to be a little stingy with their beverage selection.  The cocktail list was limited and the complementing list of beers was capped at 4 kinds of bottles – Sam Adams, Heineken, Amstel Light, and Sapporo.  Not wanting to be a snob here, but a restaurant with a bar and 15 dollar drinks should at least have ONE beer on tap, and if they don’t they should at least make an effort to stock more bottled beverages.

If you’re looking for a place to wear that Paul Smith blazer recently bought off eBay, check out Oya.  The food is average, the service is average but it all comes in a nice package.  Food Washington wouldn’t go back. But you can – and let us know how it was in the comments.

Price: $$$ (25ish = entree) 

Curry Club
1734 Wisconsin Avenue nw, Washington, DC 20007 - 202 625 9090

The Curry Club is an interesting culinary experiment.  They are a conventional restaurant at the Upper Georgetown location but also offer a delivery service - "The Curry Club"  You can sign up for their email list by emailing curryclub@curryclub.net. Every Tuesday they send out an email with a special menu for the week. You then
have until Thursday at 2pm to submit your order.  They deliver the order to you on Friday.  This is especially convenient for those that want to have something on hand to satiate that periodic indian food craving.

As to the dining experience, the ambience is cute and a nice place for an intimate date.  Unfortunately for the Curry Club, the ambience overshadows the food which is mediocre and a little overpriced for what you get.  The portions are fairly generous when compared to other trendy-ish spots but not up to par with what we have come to expect from other lower end indian establishments.  The Beef Vindaloo was quite tasty and deserves to be the curry club favorite that it is, but we were left craving the chicken tikka masalas and the other chicken and vegetable curries that are supposed to be staples of Indian American cuisine.  Essentially the Curry Club is an experiment in trendy and comfortable eating. The food is not out of the ordinary and unless you are there for the intimate ambience it is an overpriced Indian food fix, and the name is not particularly fitting given the lack of curry on the menu.

Price: $$

 
Old Angler’s Inn: History. Food. Fireplace. Shaded Tables.  You really can’t go wrong.

Price: $$$

Price: $$  (20-25 per entrée)

One of the best lunch places in town.  The Bread Line features some of the best breads in the city and because bread is a great building block, some of the best sandwiches in the city.  The Menu varies seasonally and usually is a blend of flavors around the globe.  They also carry American staples such as the the tuna, the turkey, the prosciutto and the ham.  But are spiced up a little bit to cater to the sophistication swirling around this part of town (right next to the White House and the World Bank…).   The portions are large and the service quick and hasty.  This place is all about the food, allowing movers and shakers to jet in and out and back to moving and shaking.  If you’re in downtown and in the mood for a well done sandwich this is your place!  Be warned, the later your lunchtime the worse the chances of actually finding something to eat here, the best stuff goes fast.

Price: $