Choosing which establishment to patronize during Restaurant Week is always a challenge – who will offer full (or nearly-full) menu selections? Who will have a reservation free? Who will feature servers that roll their eyes at you when you say you’re there for the RW menu?
Take all those challenges and add a pair of semi-picky parents (though really no different than any other set who don’t consider special tibs one of the four food groups), and you had my dilemma for RW lunch selection. Figuring seafood would be a safe bet (neither parent likes Indian or non-Chinese Asian; Dad doesn’t care for Italian), I settled on DC Coast.
The Tunks restaurants really do a nice job of making you feel special during restaurant week. Though they slightly limit your dessert and appetizer selections, for lunch, we had our pick of the DC Coast entree choices. The service was attentive, and prompt without feeling rushed.
Our selections:
Yellow Tomato Soup: My dad raved. I was expecting something along the lines of Ceiba’s yellow tomato gazpacho, but this was warm, and a much richer offering. It was garnished with a sundried tomato mousse; yum!
Scallops appetizer: Two scallops, perfectly cooked, and accented with a spinach/bacon mixture and a pineapple sauce. Sweeter than my usual tastes, but the flavors all blended well.
Cold cucumber soup: Flecks of crabmeat make this one a winner.
Trio of sliders: I’m not partial to BBQ (sue me) but my father ordered this – a selection of chicken, pulled pork and beef brisket mini-sandwiches, and was more than satisfied. We could have done without the accompanying cole slaw.
Roast chicken with pomegranate sauce: This was delectably juicy, and the sauce was a nice touch. Accompanying vegetables were a bit overcooked, but were a colorful selection and candied pecans added a special kind of sweet something to the plate.
Blackened Tilapia: This was the meal’s gem – the fish was spectacular, and the paprika hollandaise that topped the asparagus was some of the best I’ve had.
I’m not a dessert fan, but the selections were good, and not too large to overwhelm at the end of the meal. I’d particularly recommend the lemon/blueberry creme brulee for something unique and delicious.
DC Coast is a safe bet for Restaurant Week: All the elements are in place to make it a treat of an experience for those trying to sample somewhere new at an affordable price.
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15Aug
One Response
First let me give you a piece of advice for getting restaurant week reservations. Get yourself a free account on OpenTable.com, input the date, number of people, and approximate time you would like and a list will come up of restaurants that have availability. If you are not sure if the restaurants that come up are participating, go to ramw.org and there is a list.
As for the unprofessional servers, they gotta pay rent regardless of the price of an all-inclusive menu. There are two things that those of you who can only afford some of these pricier restaurants during the promotion can do to help them to smile. First tip well. I do not mean 20% after tax, which is what they hope for on a regular night. I mean give them the amount of dollars they deserve for serving you the food that usually brings them income. If your meal including drinks and RW and tax costs you $80 give the hard working, over-tired, trying to smile but just got two dollars on a table of 8, server a $20. They have to give the same service at half (or less) the cost.
The second thing you can do is talk about it at work. Perhaps you are only an office go-getter and you can’t afford to eat like that all the time. Fine, we love to see you for one week in August and one week in January. But tell your boss how great a time you had and hand over the business card of the party coordinator or sales person and suggest that the food and service is worththy of the Company’s or Firm’s Holiday Party.
When your parents come to town and they want to take you out for working so hard and not borrowing money from them anymore, have them take you to the restaurant where you paid only $30 for three courses.
We will appreciate it and maybe the servers will be nicer and smile more.
Thank you. See you this week!