Restaurant Week Roundup

I'm all for trying new places and things to do so my restaurant week goals were ambitious: reservations Mon-Fri with various friends and foes and Saturday off for recovery (both gastrointestinally and economically). I did make it out four nights but had to beg off on Thursday due to exhaustion, lack of will, and generally crappy weather outside. Here's my report.

Aria Trattoria
Ambiance: a little sad and lonely
Service: chatty, obviously new to the service industry
Food: My companions enjoyed their hamburger helper but, sadly, I could not finish my lumps of gristle laid lovingly on a bed of burned spinach and "fingerling" potatoes. They tasted like actual fingers, so I guess that's one point for realism.
Bottom Line: I very much enjoyed the chopped fruit pudding in the martini glass and I bet this place would be a bit more lively on a warm summer weekend. The patio seems large and I would go downtown for a nice happy hour and dessert. Plus they validate for the most secure parking garage I've ever seen, so that's nice. But dinner there? Not so much.

Acadiana
Ambiance: bustling but not loud, busy but not crowded. We were overwhelmed with activity (ok, I was) when we sat down - wine list, menus, restaurant week menu, water selection, biscuits, spicy butter - all at once. I barely had my coat off and the table was covered with things to do.
Service: exceptional
Food: amazing. Go there, right now. The red snapper was somehow both smooth and crispy and I devoured every bit. We shared a bottle of French red wine which was a perfect companion to the beet salad with goat cheese and pecan vinaigrette, the fish amandine, and even the brown sugar rum creme brulee. They made this sweet corn pudding thing and collard greens that I could not stop ogling. Brilliant combination of flavors and textures. I woke up, I was so glad.
Bottom Line: This restaurant has improved ten-fold since I was there for restaurant week last year - it is one of the finest places to eat in this city.

Butterfield 9
Ambiance: typical DC niceties, white linen, etc. Kind of fancy/boring
Service: problematic because he waited 40 minutes to put in our order. But he was sweet, cute, and chatty, so MKD and I forgave him.
Food: hilarious. My mixed green salad and her soup were actually pretty good, if a little simple. My chicken was runty and dry, but her risotto would have pleased Chef Ramsey. Let's say that my plate utilized vast white space for visual impact and MKD was served 30 quarts of rice. But we were able to feed several neighboring countries for a week, so that was nice. For dessert, I had two tiny scoops of sorbet in a giant dish and MKD had a brownie the size of an iPod shuffle. We could have made some miniature porn with those raspberry balls.
Bottom Line: It's a nice place to eat, nice place to take your parents if they are paying. The bar area is too small for an after-work meet up, and the restaurant is too pricey to go with any regularity. Cute waiters, though.


The Caucus Room
Ambiance: your typical mahogany Washington suit dining.
Service: You would think they would know how to make a damn Horse's Neck, but I had to give them the recipe. To make up for it, the bartender gave me a glass of bourbon on the rocks and only charged me $18! Fantastic! Our waiter could not give a shit about our table - we asked for a wine list and he said "red or white?" and brought us a bottle of crap. Though it turns out he didn't charge us for it.
Food: One steak sent back for being cold, one salmon inedible because the spice was overwhelming, two more mediocre meals with undercooked vegetables.
Bottom Line: I was REALLY disappointed in this place because I had read that it was such a DC staple. I thought it would be more like Old Ebbitt but with a bit more fancy and pompous. We definitely experience the fancy and pomp, but the food was nowhere near as good as OEG. Luckily I would up at OEG later that night - but that's a post for another time.