Girl Meets Food

DC Summer Restaurant Week is from Monday, August 16, to Sunday, August 22, offering a three-course lunch for $20.10, and a three-course dinner at $35.10 per person.

But you don’t have to wait.  Here are some restaurants offering prix fixe menus before, during or after DC Summer Restaurant Week.  Check back for updates and additions!

The Fourth Estate Restaurant serves stylish American food in the historic National Press Club, using locally grown produce and meats for a menu that elevates taste above trendiness. They will be extending the special Restaurant Week menu an extra week, from August 23-29, 2010.  They also have a three-course prix pixe menu for $30 per person Thursday through Saturday. The Fourth Estate Restaurant, 529 14th St NW, 13th Floor.  202.662.7638

Nage Bistro will offer its special Restaurant Week menu throughout the entire month of August.  Start with a wild mushroom Baklava with pecans, blueberry compote, thyme, and goat cheese foam.  A choice of entrées includes grilled swordfish with seasoned bread crumbs, watermelon, and fennel; and Cajun meatloaf with rapini, potatoes, sundried tomatoes, and rosemary jus.  Nage Bistro, 1600 Rhode Island Avenue, NW.  202.448.8005.

In addition to offering a three-course Restaurant Week menu of innovative Japanese charcoal-grilled meats, fish and vegetables, Kushi Izakaya & Sushi will offer an expertly crafted sake pairing featuring three varieties of sake for $20.  The sake pairing is available during lunch and dinner throughout Restaurant Week.  Kushi Izakaya & Sushi, 465 K Street, NW.  202.682.3123

Restaurant 3 will extend their Restaurant Week menu for an extra week, from August 23-29, 2010, with a menu of comfort food full of soulful Southern flavor.  Restaurant 3, 2950 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA.  703-524-4440.

Café Saint-Ex will offer an indulgent three-course Restaurant Week menu during lunch only which will extend for an extra week, from August 23-29, 2010.  Cafe Saint-Ex serves up American Bistro style cuisine that comfort, while prepared with the finest quality ingredients.  Café Saint-Ex, 1847 14th Street NW. 202.265.7839

Rasika has a three-course prix fixe menu that start with tikka kaliya, seekh kebabs, clam caldine or sev puri; entrées such as chicken makhani, lamb roganjosh and tandoori salmon; and gulab jamun for dessert.  $30 per person Monday to Friday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Saturday from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. 633 D Street, NW, with validated valet parking for $7.  202.637.1222

The Oval Room’s three-course prix fixe menu that showcases appetizers such as roasted baby beets with walnuts and goat cheese; and crudo of rockfish with sweet chili, mango and cilantro. Featured entrées include shellfish broth and herb oil; and roasted beef striploin with Swiss chard. Dessert options include almond brown butter cake; or chocolate-red beet cake with and pistachio ice cream. $35 per person from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. nightly. The Oval Room, 800 Connecticut Avenue, NW.  202.463.8700.

Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca’s three-course pre-fixe menu starts with tonno with salad confit yellow fin tuna; or zuppa with chilled fennel soup. Entrée options are paccheri with large rigatoni with raisins, pine nuts and pecorino; and sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli with lemon and spinach. For the sweet, try panna cotta with a liquid black cherry bottom; tiramisu; and crema pasticcera with fried Nutella pastry cream. $30 per person from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca, 1100 New York Ave. NW.  (202) 216-9550.

701 Restaurant’s three-course pre-theater menu features grilled pineapple salad with jalapeño, hearts of palm and lime. Entrées such as roasted cod with lentils, haricot verts, and ver jus emulsion; petite prime New York steak; and goat cheese cavatelli with artichokes and oyster mushrooms. For dessert, try fresh berries with orange compari sorbet; or strawberry gelée with frozen yogurt.  $30 per person from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 5:00 to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. 701 Restaurant, 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.  202.393.0701.

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You might be a vegetarian, but you’re not a friggin’ rabbit for chrissakes.  You need real food, hearty portions, real satisfaction.

Restaurants treat you like a second-rate citizen, shoving a plate of table-scraps pasta under your nose in hopes of shutting you up.

Zengo's Crispy Tofu | Photo: Bryan Applegate

Why should carnivores have all the fun?  While your meat-eating dining companions feast on different flavors and colors, you’re nibbling on peas and carrots.

Fear not, leafy friend.  Girl Meets Food’s got your back.  In this dining guide, herbivores and carnivores can dine together in the Brotherhood of Man.

As in, “Man, I am so stuffed!”

♥ Chima has all-you-can-eat meats, fish, breads and salad bar, which is a bursting garden of fresh, beefy vegetables.  Don’t forget dessert.  You’ll leave feeling like a stuffed poblano.
Chima Brazilian Steakhouse
8010 Towers Crescent Drive
Vienna, VA 22182
(703) 639-3463

♥ Ping Pong Dim Sum has a countless array of dim sum—baked, griddled, steamed and fried, including fourteen meatless ones.  Steamed choy sum is a must-try.  Did I mention mushroom dumplings?
Ping Pong Dim Sum
Reserve now
900 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

♥ Vegetables get the first-class treatment at Rasika, including the mind-blowing palak chaat.  Bhindi amchoor with okra and dried mango powder is beautiful, schweet and savory.
Rasika
Reserve now
633 D Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 637-1222

♥ A separate, full-featured menu just for the veggie-centric, includes Zengo’s crispy tofu—not to be missed.  Also try the arepas with shitake mushrooms, cornmeal cake, avocado with crema fresca.
Zengo
Reserve now
781 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 393-2929

♥ Dukem’s exhaustive menu of veggie combinations include stews, salads, and an impressive meatless fasting menu.
Dukem
1114 U Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 667-8735

Is that what Neil Diamond would sing if he ate at Rasika?

My friend Angus and I had the pleasure of dining there for Winter Restaurant Week and I gotta say, with the phenomenal food, exemplary service, and great value, Rasika is one of the best dining experiences of my life.

Our server was so warm, friendly and attentive, I’m sorry I didn’t catch his name. And now I can’t find my receipt to look for it!

Palak chaat at Rasika

He recommended the perfect wine, was very professional, and most of all, was down-to-earth. He treated us like family. Kudos to you, Mr. Server Extraordinaire!

The signature palak chaat is flash-fried spinach topped with sweet yogurt, tamarind and date chutney. It was so light, so airy, so crisp, it immediately disintegrates in your mouth.

Another signature dish, the black cod, was incredible, with dill, honey, and star anise. It was so soft and satiny, I think I blacked out for a moment from the sheer awesomeness of it. Like sablefish and Chilean sea bass, this is one of the most tender, silkiest fish I’ve ever eaten.

For dessert, I chose my favorite, gulab jamun—round balls made of dough and milk solids, soaked in syrup. I was disappointed to see two tiny halves with a small scoop of ginger ice cream, but I was willing to forgive, seeing as that the rest of the meal was so fantastic.

At Rasika, not only did we receive three incredible courses, we also got rice and naan. I think that’s really generous.

What a great experience. Be sure to go if you love Indian cuisine or have never tried it. But beware. Once you dine at Rasika, any other place is sure to disappoint.

Rasika
Reserve now
633 D Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 637-1222