Restaurant Review: Central Michel Richard

This is a guest post from the GFF–  we recently went to dinner at Central Michel Richard after a long day at work.  She shares her thoughts in the post below. She has also written  other  restaurant reviews on this blog.

After having tried many restaurants in our neighborhood, we wanted to branch out and try something just a little bit nicer. I had been wanting to try Central Michel Richard for quite some time, so recently we decided to give it a try. We called about a half hour ahead of time to make a reservation and had no problem getting a table on a Wednesday evening. The atmosphere at Central is very nice, although the dining room was a bit loud when we were eating. One of the most interesting parts of the restaurant is that the kitchen is open, so you could watch the plates be prepared. Although I was not sitting facing the kitchen, my dining companion said it was an interesting thing to watch.
The menu at Central is very interesting. I would say the best way to describe it is a bistro menu. It has everything from charcuterie to lobster burgers to steaks. It was difficult to choose with so many options. Finally, we agreed to have cheese puffs (gougeres) as an appetizer. They were great, flaky light popover-like rolls with a lovely cheesy middle. It was a really good start to the meal. I would also like to mention the bread. Too often, the bread at restaurants is very unappealing. Not so at Central. The bread was warm and had a nice crackly crust with a very soft interior. Between that and the gougeres, we had plenty of carbs for the night.
For our entrees, I chose the lamb shank. The lamb was insanely tender, literally falling off the bone. The sauce that it was served in was also very flavorful. My least favorite part of the dish was the polenta that accompanied the lamb. It was not as thick as I typically like polenta to be, and was not as flavorful as the rest of the dish. The fried onions topping the polenta were quite tasty, however. My dining companion chose the beef short ribs. While listed on the menu as beef cheeks, our waitress informed us that tonight they were serving beef short ribs instead. The short ribs came with a homemade tagliatelle noodle. The dish was also listed as coming with a sweet potato puree, but not being a fan of purees, my friend asked for it to be left off, and the waitress was happy to pass that message along. According to my friend, his dish was also excellent. The meat was very tender and flavorful, and the tagliatelle was also well cooked and tasty.
To accompany our meals, I had a lovely glass of red wine, and my companion had a pilsner. Despite the non manliness of he size of his beer, we both found our drinks complemented our diner. Sadly, we were too full to try dessert, but those at the table next to us who were eating dessert seemed to be enjoying it. Overall, Central was a great choice for a restaurant. While certainly a bit too pricey for an everyday dining experience, it is a great place for a special dinner, or just when you want to try something a bit nicer than average. I'd highly recommend trying it at some point soon.

Review from Washington Post.

Reviews on Yelp

~ The GFF

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Restaurant Review: Ceiba

This week is Restaurant Week here in DC. If you're not familiar with the concept, a bunch of DC's fancy restaurant's agree to do a 3 course meal for cheap--$20.08 for lunch and $30.08 for dinner. It is a funny way to get to eat at some restaurants that are clearly out of our price range on a daily basis. To take advantage of that, one night we dined at a restaurant called Ceiba. It's a Latin American restaurant, seeming to specialize in seafood.

The only reservation we could get was for 5:30, earlier than a normal dinner. This was only odd because there were empty tables the entire time we were in the restaurant, so clearly we could have gotten a later seating. But regardless, we ate early. The ambiance of the restaurant is nice, very soothing, with lots of mirrors that make the several small dining rooms seem bigger. The meal began with some pita-like chips and a dip that resembled a spicy hummers. We quickly devoured two baskets of the chips, so clearly they were good. For cocktails, my friends chose a Mojito and a beer, but I decided to be daring and chose a drink called a pisco sour, which involved many things, including egg white powder. A little strange, but actually quite good.

One of the nice things about Ceiba is that for Restaurant Week, instead of having a limited number of dishes to choose from, they let you pick any entree off the menu. It's a nice touch. For my dinner, I had a ceviche to start, and a crispy whole red snapper as my entree. The ceviche was delicious, a bit spicy while still having the great taste of the fish. The snapper was also cooked very well. I was a little nervous, as they literally brought the entire fish to me in a platter, head and all (pictured right).....yikes. But, under the skin, the fish was very moist and the accompanying sauce and vegetables were great as well (although I was nervous about accidentally eating the fish's brain).

My dining companions both chose different meals. One friend, a vegetarian, had a mixed green salad to start and some sort of vegetable tamale. She said both were quite good. My other dining companion chose a shrimp cocktail (which he said was very good and spicy) and an Mahi tuna dish. Despite a little nervousness regarding the rawness of the tuna, and a general dislike of mashed potatoes, he also enjoyed his meal. Dessert was also quite good, with two of us choosing a guava cake (more like a banana bread) that was served with a cream cheese panna cotta, and the third choosing a Brazilian carrot cake served with chocolate ice cream. It was certainly a filling end to the meal.

Overall, I think we all agreed that Ceiba was quite a good restaurant. Of course, it was not a place to eat everyday, but it was a good Restaurant Week choice.

 

~ The GFF

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