100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: 701

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Photo by Jeff Elkins

About 701

Cost:

cuisines
American, Modern

Before owner Ashok Bajaj replaced this jazz-playing power dining room’s chef, Ed Witt, with the Oval Room’s Tony Conte in November, the cooking had slipped into the hit-or-miss category. House-made pastas showcased Witt’s considerable abilities, but sides and starters suffered. Conte has cleaned up these accompaniments while tweaking entrées and appetizers—swapping out bay scallops for chubby Kumamoto oysters in a spectacular crudo with passionfruit brown butter and trading a Scottish salmon’s red-wine reduction and coffee crumbles for a simple sake-miso glaze.

Don’t miss: Fingerling chips with buttermilk dip; Caesar salad; beef tenderloin with beef-chili jus; rapini with oven-dried tomatoes and olives.

Open: Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for dinner. expensive.

100 Very Best Restaurants 2013


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.