This Cleveland Park dining room is a lovely retreat, with its pale-blue walls, candlelit outdoor balcony, and warm, knowledgeable service. But what’s going on in the kitchen? A Goan-style shrimp curry lacked any aromatic kick. A mini-uttapam, the South Indian savory pancake, tasted like something a McDonald’s in Mysore might conjure up—wet, spongy, and dotted with flavorless diced bell peppers. Dinner was a litany of disappointments: lumpy lentil cakes, pasty dal, weak tamarind margaritas. Only the tandoori quail was truly delicious—all four bites of it.
-This appeared in the December, 2007 issue of The Washingtonian.
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.
