Category Archives: Downtown

Potenza

Posted on by Hungry in DC

Location: Downtown

Price: $$$

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary: A restaurant that is stuck somewhere in the middle

While we have been to Potenza before for drinks and bar food, we had never sat down for a meal. With a small but nice tap selection and a satisfying bar menu, we finally decided to sit down for a dinner at this downtown restaurant. What we experienced was little more than the typical Italian ristorante. While featuring nice ingredients and a few menu high points, Potenza did not break from the pack of the many other average Italian restaurants in DC and stand out as something remarkable.

For our appetizer, we chose the Arancini alla Salsiccia di Cinghiale, fried risotto balls stuffed with wild boar sausage and provolone. These lightly breaded balls were some of the best we’ve had of this classic Italian dish, the creamy provolone and risotto combination providing rich flavor without the expected weight. While the amount of wild boar sausage in the aracini was minimal, what was there packed enough of a savory punch to get the message across. The sauce on the plate had a nice hint of lemon that brought extra character to an already excellent appetizer. Deceptively light and incredibly tasty, we recommend this to anyone who steps a foot in Potenza, even if it’s for just a drink at the bar.

Our first entree was the Brasato di manzo con gnocchi, pan-roasted strip loin, truffled gnocchi, asparagus, and madeira butter sauce. The cut of meat was decent enough and sliced before being plated, as if to encourage a forked-combination of the gnocchi and strip loin. Together, the flavors worked well, both pairing nicely with the maderia butter sauce (cooking wine & browned butter). Separately, we noticed some short comings. The salt added on top of the beef cut out the magnificently savory juices and forced us to scrap the plate for more sauce. The gnocchi was a little tougher than we would have liked, but the lightly-cooked asparagus was still a great contrast to the soft texture of the potato pasta. Although it was a great dish when it came together, we wished that such great items would have been able to stand out better separately.

The second plate we had for dinner was the Rigatoni al Ragu Della Domenica, meatballs, spicy fennel sausage, spare rib, braciole, ricotta combined with marinara and rigatoni pasta. The meatball was a great combination of ground beef with a hint of basil. The spicy fennel sausage lived up to its name and displayed a spice that was wonderfully on the edge of too spicy. The spare rib’s texture was magnificently slow cooked , but its taste, unlike the other meats, was largely overwhelmed by the flavor of the marinara. The quality of rigatoni disappointed and forced us to wonder if it was taken from a box, a sin that could have been forgiven at a restaurant of lesser stature (Potenza boasts rightly an in-house bakery). While there was a lot to like in this dish, it seemed as though the kitchen combined different kinds of meats on a plate with some sauce, pasta and a hope that it worked out for the best.

Finally, our waiter recommended for dessert the Panna cotta al caramello, a toffee panna cotta topped with mint chocolate sauce, whipped cream, candied almonds, and caramelized banana. Even though it was full of plenty rich and sweet ingredients, we never felt like we were eating a spoon full of sugar. The cool panna cotta mellowed out the other members of the dessert without its own toffee flavor being lost the process. The whole combination held its form well, but still had a light texture on the tongue. It was a well executed dessert that gave us a beautifully sweet experience without the impression of having eaten a pound of sugar.

Washington has plenty of Italian restaurants. Few of them are absolutely terrible, but even less of them are absolutely superb. Potenza joins that crowd that fits somewhere in the middle. There were a few dishes that made us crave more, but there were some items on our plates that made us scratch our head. This is not to say anything we ate was unappetizing. It just wasn’t fantastic. We will still head to Potenza for drinks and bar food (aracini balls), but it’s hard to find a reason to steer someone there for dinner unless they’re simply in the area.

Againn

Posted on by Hungry in DC

Location: Downtown

Price: $$$

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: The best non-pub pub you will visit in DC

In the spirit of disclosure, we had been to Againn before for lunch and enjoyed it thoroughly; the house-made corned beef sandwich is a treasure to behold and they have a foreign draft list worthy of any pub. The thought of a Gaelic-named restaurant bringing integrity to Irish-inspired cuisine in DC made us eager to taste their menu again. Yet, when we sat down for dinner, our server explained the theme behind Againn and made no mention of an Irish inspiration. He said that it was a contemporary gastropub with a selection of over 100 different kinds of whiskies and a menu of traditional pub dishes re-imagined.

We started off with the Pumpkin Soup, pureed pumpkin and squash that was thinned out with milk before adding sage and brown butter. The soup was sweet, but not so sweet that it makes you think you’re drinking a pumpkin pie. The sugar complimented the pumpkin puree well and the addition of squash kept the soup grounded. Warm and hearty, the flavors of the soup are all very familiar and can get tiring after a while if you’re not a huge fan of sweets. Still, we would order it again, but possibly in a smaller quantity.

Our appetizer was the Marinated Olives, an assortment of seeded olives sitting in a bowl of olive oil that had been seasoned with orange zest, rosemary and fennel. The dish was really nothing more than a bowl olive oil with a generous amount of olives. If you don’t LOVE olives, then do not order this.

The first entree was the Braised Veal Breast, a healthy piece of meat sitting on a whole grain mustard spaetzle, red wine braised torpedo onions and a small pool of veal broth. The cut of meat was very tender, the slow cooked beef kept together only by a succulent but thin layer of fat. Well marinated and expertly braised, the veal’s savory juices worked harmoniously with the torpedo onions it sat on. The whole grain spaetzle extended the life of the flavors and did well to soak up the veal broth and mixed liquid, offering a slight crunch and not turning to mush in the mouth. As it should be, the veal was the prima donna of the dish while the extras performed admirably in their supporting roles.

Hoping for a lighter dish to compliment our heavy veal, we ordered the Local Rockfish, a generous piece of fish sitting on top of beluga lentils, spinach and celery. Topping the rockfish was a slight swiss chard and a significant amount of romesco sauce made from pureed red and yellow bell peppers, paprika, and butter. Although we were first put off by the large amount of red paste, the thick cut of delicate and tremendously flavorful rockfish had plenty of area for the romesco sauce to compliment, opening up the flavors of the fish with its smoky, peppered tang. We would have preferred a more balanced proportion of lentils to spinach, but the sides did well to extend the life of the heavy fish. While we had expected a lighter dish, we still enjoyed the sleek and well spiced fish.

Wisely, we saved room for dessert and indulged in two choices. Our first choice was the Sticky Toffee Pudding, a toffee cake drizzled with a toffee sauce and toped with a homemade stout ice cream. Although intrigued by the stout ice cream, we quickly realized that it was not best to sample it by itself. The flavor was different and not altogether distasteful, but it shone its real purpose when combined with the toffee sauce and soaked cake. Even though it was soaked with sweet liquid, the cake still held its form well and tasted magnificently light. The toffee mixed with the tinge of the stout ice cream gave us a treat that was both familiar and new.

Our second choice was the Brioche Bread Pudding, a recipe that our server informed us changed us almost daily. This edition had the taste of a banana custard cake and held a delicate texture despite holding its form. Much like our previous dessert, this one was also soaked in a sweet caramel sauce and had a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. The brioche bread pudding combined with the melted carmel and fresh ice cream was a true treat and guaranteed a return trip to the restaurant.

Againn’s focus on the re-interpretation of pub fare hit the mark where so many other restaurants have failed. Many establishments turn out to be bad jokes, hollow impersonations or ignorant caricatures. Instead of being defined by any one cartooned culture, Againn elevates the menu of the generic, local pub and serves as an example for how even common, peasant food can be nobly reconstructed into fine cuisine.

Café Asia

Posted on by Hungry in DC

Location: Downtown

Price: $$$

Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary: A disappointing entrée selection paired with an above-average sushi menu does not make for a winning combination

When walking into Café Asia, we felt like we stumbled into a really boring night club. Large open spaces and an assortment of colored lights shining on the walls, we weren’t sure what impression the interior was trying to leave us with beyond being thankful we didn’t have to pay for a cover to get in the door. The club like atmosphere brought us to expect modern techniques to classic dishes, new interpretations to our favorite sushi rolls and an interesting drink menu.  Instead, what Café Asia ended up serving was a disappointing experience that made us wish we hadn’t ordered beyond our appetizers.

As with most sushi-related restaurants, we wanted to start with a rice wine. The sake menu is not the most extensive, but was better than the average Asian bistro. We decided on the Shirakabegura “The White Label” Tokubetsu Junmai, which describes being a delicate balance between traditional hand-crafted sake and advanced sake brewing technology. It was a cool, clean finish with a banana after taste. It was a good start to the meal and made me eager to get to our first course.

Our first order was the Spider Roll, soft shell crab tempura with tobiko and lettuce wrapped in rice and sea weed. A classic specialty roll found in any sushi dive, we were first disappointed by the minimal five pieces, but the amount of crab tempura jammed into each piece made it well worth the amount. Great seaweed and high quality rice brings the roll together. A California roll also offered great crab while a Cucumber roll showed off the fantastic rice. Most items on the offered sushi list didn’t stand out as especially exceptional or thought provoking, but the quality of the ingredients used did impress.

If only our review stopped here. Unfortunately we ordered sushi only as appetizers, relying on the entrée selection for our main dishes. This turned out to be a poor decision.

Our first entrée was Drunken Noodles, a common flat rice noodle dish made with Thai brown sauce, minced chicken, bean sprouts, peppers and fresh basil.  We would usually say we have never met a drunken noodle dish that we didn’t like. Café Asia turned out to be the exception. The noodles were barely tossed in the sauce, providing for an overly bland and almost rubbery rice noodle. The minced chicken was a different interpretation on the usually sliced chicken we would normally find with this dish. We sincerely hope to never find the chicken minced again, both the size and the preparation of the meat left almost no flavor for the diner.

The second entrée is Nasi Uduk, an Indonesian style coconut rice platter with spicy beef, crispy anchovies, pickled veggies, emping (acorn chips), chicken satay, gado-gado and spicy prawn sauce. With a lot on the plate, we had hoped to sample as much as we could of Café Asia’s culinary style and traditional-inspired cuisine. Yet, it turns out we should have focused on quality over quantity. The peanut sauce that covered most of the pieces of meat on the plate was a surprisingly bland for the large amount of finely chopped peanuts swimming in the mixture; this left a very uncomfortable consistency in the mouth. The chicken and beef by themselves were not terribly cooked, but the overbearing sauce made any real flavor fall flat. The combination of emping and gado-gado was a lot like straw and beans on chips, making me sincerely reconsider the idea of ever having Indonesian cuisine again. The pickled vegetables were a nice addition to the plate, if only for the vinegar dressing neutralizing the haunting taste of the emping and gado-gado. Half way through this poorly imagined assortment of woe, we did consider ordering a new entrée all together, but decided to just stick it out and quickly ask for the check.

While we have never advised anyone to visit a restaurant and avoid their entrée list, Café Asia is an unfortunate example. We enjoyed our selections from the specialty and regular roll menu, but were disappointed by what was presented to us for our main course. While the sake and sushi are worth a visit, there are other, better places to visit in DC for a sushi-focused experience. If you work in the Farragut Square area or have an online coupon for the restaurant (we used a LivingSocial coupon when we visited), then Café Asia might be worth a visit. Otherwise, save yourself the trouble and lingering regret.