Fiola, DC

Chef Fabio Trabocchi was one of the first chef's names I ever learned.  I stayed one night at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner years ago and stumbled on a dinner reservation at their restaurant called "Maestro".  It was not until after the evening was over that I realized I had eaten at one of the best restaurants in DC (I believe it was ranked #2 at the time).  Needless to say that this was the first Michelin-level dining experience of my life and it absolutely changed me forever.  Sadly, Trabocchi left DC before I ever had a chance to go back to Maestro but..... he's back!

Trabocchi had retreated to NYC for years before returning to DC to open... Fiola!  And in a short time, Fiola is already rated #4 in Washingtonian Magazine.  I was super excited to head there for drinks and dinner and with a fun group of people to enjoy it with.

The bar scene is very DC yuppy with lobbyists hanging around decompressing after a day on Capital Hill.  However, the bar itself is fairly large and the service is great. It's so nice to not have to fight through a wall of drunks to get a drink at Happy Hour. After drinks, we were finally seated.  An adjustment to the size of our party meant we had to wait 30 minutes longer but the hostess team was very kind.  The ambience of the dining room is classy but not overly pretentious.  We are seeing the food in newer restaurants in DC be more of the focus than the ambience.  I never like leaving a restaurant feeling like they spent more money on the decor than they did on the ingredients and service. An example of this is while the food at Sax isn't "bad", I feel the food is well below the ambience and decor.

Our waiter was pretty much what you would expect when you are paying the prices they charge at Fiola.  He assisted with our selections with some recommendations and did not miss a beat the entire meal.  Nothing but positive things to say about the service.  We had a group of 5 so we opted to go family style with our orders so we could try more dishes.  My favorite way of eating!

Here is a run-down of what we ordered:

Appetizers:

Heaven = Fois Gras

Tuna Carpaccio - I apologize for the lack of a photo but the picture turned out terrible and already had a bite taken out of it.  This dish is remarkably colorful and not for people who judge food by appearance because there are a million things going on.  However, it had many subtle flavors that did not take away from the taste of the raw fish.  The dish was VERY busy.

Hudson Valley Fois Gras - A couple of people in our group had never had Fois Gras before so I had to do a little convincing that we would need two servings of this to avoid a riot.  It's such a satisfying feeling to make such a recommendation and then see everyone's face light up when they try something new. My friend next to me literally moaned and said "Oh god" after tasting the first bite of Fois Gras in her life.  If you visit Fiola without getting the Fois Gras, it would be a crime.  At Fiola, it's a piece of perfectly cooked deliciousness. 

 

The Bucatini with really tasty prawns

Bucatini - I have very little memory of this dish except that one of the people in our group was expecting actual sea urchin, not just sea urchin flavor.  I do remember the prawns were well cooked and the fresh pasta was perfectly cooked.  It's just so hard to eat Italian food at normal restaurants after having it at places like this...
















Lobster Ravioli - This is one of my favorite dishes, in general, so it's tough to impress me, however Fiola's lobster ravioli was exactly what I would expect from a 38 dollar dish.  Big chunks of lobster, homemade fresh pasta and a great flavor.

An excellent Lobster Ravioli

The tortellinis

Tortellini -  I don't really recall what was inside the tortellini as the menu appears to have changed since I went but wow, the pasta is so fresh.

Such a big difference between really good, fresh pasta and what a local Italian chain eatery serves.  Not that I eat at local Italian chain eateries any more :)  Ok, that sounds pretentious but the best way to get me to dip out of a Friday night outing is to tell me that we are going to Olive Garden.

It's hard to say "cockles" without chuckling

Branzino - A perfectly cooked piece of fish alongside some freshwater "cockles" which are like a small clam.  The chef used a liberal amount of foam in this dish.  Flavored foams are pretty cool for me but I can see how some people are a little grossed out by it.  The first time I had foam was actually at Maestro so it was interesting to see that while the rest of the culinary world has moved away from foams, Trabocchi still enjoys cooking with them.











 
For dessert, we enjoyed a mix of a delicious marscapone custard underneath a scoop of rhubarb lemoncello shaved ice which Italian restaurants call "granita". 


The meal was overall worthy of its #4 ranking in the DC area and I hope to return.  Let's just hope Fois Gras is still legal to be served before my next visit!


Rating - 5 out of 5 stars.  Great for a date or for foodies.  Although the food is a reasonable value compared to the top restaurants in DC hosted by a James Beard award-winning chef in the kitchen, it will set you back a pretty penny.

Bistrot du Coin - Dupont DC

I've been hearing about Bistrot du Coin for quite a while now as a lover of good French food, I finally had an invitation to go!  The restaurant in located near Dupont Circle just a few blocks northwest.  Parking can be a bit of a nightmare in this area if you go during prime dining hours.

The restaurant has a very homey feel to it in spite of being placed in the middle a hot part of town.  I really liked what they did with the decor.  The bar is a massive wood structure and adds a bit of class to the restaurant area.  There is an upstairs dining room that appears to handle overflow.  Ambiance is romantic yet eclectic. 

The menu was great.  It's a french restaurant so there is a decent selection of french wines.   The first thing I did though was hunt to find Fois Gras!  Mission Accomplished.  It's harder and harder to find Fois on menu's these days.  In addition to the Fois, we also ordered their ravioli's (something of a specialty at Bistrot du Coin) and a small pot of mussels in white wine, tomatoes, thyme and garlic.  For a main, we went with the filet with Bearnaise sauce.

Fois Gras and risotto.  Fantastic

This is BdC's version of ravioli's.  Lots of cheesy goodness.

The picture doesn't do the thickness of the filet justice.

All of the food was excellent.  The filet was enormous! I have no idea how restaurants can uniformly cook steaks that are 4 inches thick at the thickest point.  I'd really like to try their mussels in a creamy sauce such as their sauce with light curry.  Taking pieces of buttered french bread and dipping it into an amazing mussel sauce is heavenly.  That could have been my entire meal.  The French fries.... were incredible.  They didn't serve ketchup with them but they didn't need anything. 

Service was spotty.  I had to get up and find my waiter on more than one occasion and the manager had to take care of getting my check at the end of the dinner.  To the restaurant's defense, the place became a mob shortly after we got there and everyone in the restaurant world knows how crazy that can be when 75% of your tables at seated within 15 minutes of one another. 

Bistrot du Coin is on my list of places to try again in DC.  Prices were reasonable for good french food in the Dupont Circle area.  Definitely check it out if you are looking for a good French meal.

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars.