Last date I was here: 08/21/2010
Restaurant: Westend Bistro (http://www.westendbistrodc.com/)
Location: Foggy Bottom
Total Rating: 4.45
Food: 5, Price: 4, Service: 4, Ambience: 3, Accessibility: 4
Summary: Located in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the Westend Bistro is superstar Chef Eric Ripert's first casual neighborhood American bistro. Open since 2007, the Westend Bistro provides a wonderful mix of culinary flavors of the Chesapeake, Provence and the French Riviera. Closest Metro Station is Foggy Bottom - GWU.
Our second experience for this summer's Restaurant Week, we had semi-high expectations to try Chef Ripert's food, especially with his current stint as judge on Top Chef DC. The restaurant itself is decorated modernly with deep red and brown tones, yet has the same boring personality of the typical hotel restaurant. Our server only assumed we were there for the RW tasting menu, and did her best to push extra drinks and appetizers on us. We did try the RW chardonnay, which was very buttery and paired well with my meal. The service was what was to be expected of a restaurant such as this, and the menu had an interesting mix of choices. Ingredients were fresh and the flavors were very strong and alive - of which I very much appreciated and enjoyed. Portions were just right and the overall evening was very nice. There were some other seafood items on the menu that caught our eyes, such as the grilled octopus and of course, the mussels. The food would bring me back, but the location not so much. Make easy reservations to Westend Bistro on CityEats.
What I ate:
Tomato Consumme
with fresh heirloom tomatoes, feta and basil
Shrimp and Grits
with chorizo, garlic, scallion, and aleppo pepper
Vanilla Creme Brulee
Plus Keith ate:
Beef Tartare
with quail egg and hungarian relish, served with toasted bread
Flat Iron Steak
with a red wine bearnaise and truffled french fries
Profiteroles
cream puffs with a dark chocolate sauce
