Last night marked the beginning of our culinary adventure in Washington, D.C. and we thought we'd take you along for the ride. It's Restaurant Week and that means the best restaurants in the city are offering 3 course meals for $35. Our challenge is to dine in 6 restaurants over a period of 5 days. Below you will find our review of restaurant #1 - Oval Room. Bon appetite!
Day 1: Oval Room (www.ovalroom.com)
Overall Rating: RRR (out of 5)
Ranked 9 in the top 100 restaurants in Washington, Parry and I expected a culinary journey and we weren’t wrong. Too bad the trek was filled with exciting menu concepts that for the most part fell flat on the plate.
Chef Tony Conte is imaginative offering up plates like Parry’s appetizer of seared scallops in a coffee mustard dressing. The scallops while overly salted were cooked to perfection and the coffee mustard dressing was surprisingly delicious. My duck confit with grilled peaches, and frisee pleased the pallet but didn’t ignite any fireworks.
Parry opted for a main course of Wagyu skirt steak with roasted Chinese eggplant, miso and fried potatoes while I selected the organic chicken breast with roasted zucchini puree, savory granola, coddled egg, and squash blossom. The skirt steak was sinewy and tough and Parry felt the Wagyu sauce overpowered every other flavor on the plate.
My main course fared slightly better. The organic chicken was cooked sous vide so it was tender and moist and the roasted zucchini puree was a smokey delight. The coddled egg provided a rich contrast to the plain chicken and the savory granola, while too sparse, was scrumptious.
Dessert proved to be the biggest let-down. Parry’s choice of chocolate custard, pistachio ice cream and espresso cream mimicked an upscale version of a frozen McCain chocolate cake. The custard, more cake than pudding forced the rich pistachio ice cream to claim centre stage. My vanilla cheesecake with graham cracker streusel and Bing cherry compote failed to inspire a second bite.
If the food failed to delight, the service downright disappointed. The Oval Room is reputed to be the restaurant of choice for local politicians and media celebrities. Parry and I paused to wonder why then the waiters failed to collected finished plates and when they did, why they elected to clear Parry’s plate before mine. We also questioned why our coffee was served when we were only half-finished our glasses of wine. This lack of attention to detail made Parry and I feel that the Oval Room is priced high-end while providing a mediocre dining experience.
At $35 for a three-course meal, the Oval Room is a decent meal out but would we return at the usual $85 per person? No way.
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