We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the winter lull Restaurant Week starts January 10. It’s a great way for us tight-fisted folks to try some of D.C.’s more expensive eateries for a moderate set price (up a penny this time around to $20.05).
The last restaurant week took place over the summer, partially overlapping with the Democratic Convention. We went to Ortanique, the semi-tropical themed joint on 11th St., NW that looks like a skeezy theater from outside but turns out to be quite opulent in the main dining room. I remember the food as being very good, but the service was beyond awful, making lunch stretch out for two and a half excrutiating I-wonder-if-my-boss-will-notice hours.
Where do you want to go for restaurant week?

For many, Baltimore is the home of crabcakes, crime, STDs and kitsch. However, those who must live in it might, sometime during their tenure, desire yuppie food.
Most restaurants in B-moreare not yuppie. They are cheap, they are excellent, they are unpretentious. But not yuppie. However, recently the yuppie haven of Baltimore was discovered. 5 minutes from Penn Station (so you can go there without actually entering the city), spitting distance from the 13th Floor, the Ottobar, and Red Maple, and a five-minute taxi ride from Inner Harbor sits XS.
Done out in exposed brick, brushed steel tables and menus, and corrugated steel floors, XS is Asian fusion and yuppyness in one. The waitresses and waiters skip around in black looking impossibly cool, and about half of everyone you know will be there. It is truly the place to see and be seen, at least if you are a yuppie or affiliated with Hopkins in some way.
Having tried things on the menu to various degrees of satisfaction, I would suggest simply skipping everything else and heading directly toward the sushi which they make quickly, deliciously, and delicately. Specific favorites include spicy tuna, spicy salmon, and the dragon roll. Also, don’t order mixed drinks, especially those involving chocolate; Simply order wine, even the cheapest of which is actualy pretty good.
As for desserts, absolutely everything is delicious but the banana tempura is of special interest. They deep-fry a banana, cut it up, and cover it with seasonal fruit, honey, and whipped cream. The carrot cake is also quite good, as is the chocolate lasagna which is simply layers of different types of chocolate.
XS is the kind of place you can lounge for a couple hours, trying to talk over the Persian trance music blaring in the background and leave feeling full, but not so much so that you cannot go out and boogie for another couple hours.
XS
1307 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: (410) 468-0002
open until 2 AM

The holy trinity of fusion restaurants in downtown DC that is Ceiba, DC Coast, and Ten Pehn got one thing right before they even touched a stove. They got a good PR person.
I picture virtuoso uberchef Christopher Clime of Ceiba sitting down with investors in a shady dark bar somewhere. He slowly shakes his head as designer after nervous designer unrolls fabulously graphics-rich website plans, delicate logo prints, exquisite bathroom sink catalogs, subtle business card designs, and their all important choices of individual hand-crafted bottled water cooler for each distinctive table.
All of these restaurants have the look down. You will furtively smuggle out the hand-painted napkins that your Ceviches arrive on in order to frame and put it on your wall. Guests arriving for a birthday can expect to find specially printed menus with their name on it to greet them. The desert creme brulee trio comes to your table in an elaborate candelabra.
With this kind of packaging, food wouldn