We’re counting down Post food critic Tom Sietsema’s Top 5 new restaurants in and around Washington, highlighting one restaurant each weekday until the full spring dining guide publishes on May 18.
Tom Sietsema’s spring dining guide countdown: Mariscos 1133 is No. 1
Welcome to my spring dining guide toasting 25 youngsters on the food scene. I’m kicking off the occasion by introducing my Top 5 picks, which are being announced a day at a time ahead of the publication of the full roster. The selection embraces a world of flavors at different price points; what the restaurants share are consistency — and lip-smacking cooking.
No. 1: MARISCOS 1133
The latest draw from siblings Alfredo and Jessica Solis contains everything we want from a neighborhood restaurant: service that treats diners like investors, a long menu that highlights seafood but takes other flavors into account, a cozy dining room dressed with pandemic-friendly booths and prices that encourage frequent visits.
The list of appetizers alone runs to nearly 20 dishes. The stars include a trio of handmade blue corn tortillas piled with marinated tuna, shaved red onion and avocado and lashed with a creamy citrus emulsion. “Let the party begin!” the colorful first course seems to say. Shrimp threaded on sugar cane skewers arrives with a smoky pineapple relish and a scoop of rice made fragrant with fresh coconut; whole scored flounder — fish enough for two — benefits from a marinade of garlic, lime juice and onions and a coating of flour seasoned with paprika before it hits the fryer.
The chefs wanted everyone to feel welcome, Alfredo Solis says. Plus, “my sister likes meat and chicken.” So the main courses include juicy skirt steak served with a neat stack of crisp yuca, stinging chimichurri and a choice of beans (go for charro beans swollen with the flavor of their porky broth). Jerk chicken might not register precisely Jamaican — there’s loads of cilantro in this version — but it definitely passes the deliciousness test. Birria tacos are packed with beef braised with chiles and not a little cinnamon. You decide how to use the customary hot consommé — as a dip or a sip.
No part of the experience gets overlooked. Almost two dozen wines are offered by the glass, and the cocktails, like the cooking, consider the expanse of Latin America. Toast your dinner — and this winner — with a pisco sour, caipirinha or piña colada.
1133 11th St. NW. 202-836-4107. mariscos1133.com. Dinner daily, brunch weekends. Mains $14-$29. Indoor and outdoor seating. Takeout, no delivery. Sound check: 77 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: No barriers at entrance, but the interior is snug; two tables are designated for wheelchair users, who have access to an ADA-compliant restroom.
No. 2: L’ARDENTE
Washington is awash in casual Italian restaurants and expense-account Italian venues, which makes L’Ardente particularly welcome. The newcomer, part of the $1 billion Capitol Crossing development, combines the best of both worlds, on and off the plate.
The top chef’s mantra: “Keep it simple but elegant,” says David Deshaies, also the talent behind Unconventional Diner. Wooden farm beams and Murano glass chandeliers share the sky-high ceiling, and pastas span goat cheese ravioli and a 40-layer lasagna that’s garnered more ink than some entire restaurants ever get. One of the first things you see when you enter the main dining room is a wood-fired grill whose dancing flames help explain the Italian name of the restaurant — “burning,” as in passionate — and the succulent char of the whole chicken.
The aperitif with the best sense of humor is “duck hunt”: a duck-filled raviolo suspended in a froth of duck jus, cream and foie gras and presented in a little cup with … toy duck legs. The playfulness continues with a risotto that comes with quote marks around it, since minced calamari stands in for the expected rice. Lobster stock mixed with seafood lends the dish its maritime flavor and creamy texture. My new favorite seat fronts the marble counter in the rear, where I can thank the pizzaiolo in person for his masterly margherita.
Every aspect of your visit supports the owners’ good intentions. The restrooms are dressed with coat hooks and full-length mirrors, the tiramisu hides inside a globe of chocolate that’s ignited at the table, and the check is presented in a little gold crown with Italian candies. Sold!
200 Massachusetts Ave. NW. 202-448-0450. lardente.com. Dinner daily. Shareable mains $48-$135. Indoor seating. Takeout and delivery. Sound check: 75 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: A small lift at the host stand allows wheelchair users to access the dining room. Restrooms are ADA-compliant.
No. 3: MELINA
When he was looking for a chef for his modern Greek restaurant in North Bethesda, Dimitri Moshovitis knew exactly who he wanted: Aris Tsekouras, whose koulouri, or sesame sourdough, reminded the restaurateur of the bread of his youth. “So much love into something so simple,” recalls Moshovitis, a founder of the fast-casual Cava chain.
Bread turns out to be just one of the chef’s talents at Melina, named for Moshovitis’s 13-year-old daughter. His beef tartare and grilled octopus are special, too. The former is raw beef shot through with minced pickled cabbage, pickled mustard seeds and cured lemon — ingredients associated with Greece’s traditional stuffed cabbage. The latter, brightened with a parsley puree, comes with an elusive floral note: vanilla, which the chef adds as a contrast to the salinity of the octopus. The best kebab in recent memory is ground lamb pulsing with cumin and fenugreek and garnished with burnt onion ash.
The meal that transports me to Sunday in Athens is the lamb neck. Plied with roasted red peppers, the feast is served in the folds of parchment paper with pinches of nutty kefalograviera cheese and trailed by side dishes including fried potato and pickled onions. The idea is to make your own gyros with the help of oregano-freckled sourdough pita.
A lot of thought has gone into the restaurant, dressed with faux olive trees, roomy booths with mirrors at eye level and theater-length white curtains in the floor-to-ceiling windows. Kudos to whoever thought to stock the restrooms with changing tables — black ones, to match the walls.
905 Rose Ave., North Bethesda, Md. 301-818-9090. melinagreek.com. Dinner daily. Mains $20-$44. Indoor and outdoor seating. No takeout or delivery. Sound check: 70 decibels/Conversation is easy. Accessibility: No barriers at entrance; ADA-compliant restrooms.
No. 4: KISMET MODERN INDIAN
The eyes have it at Kismet in Alexandria, a spinoff of the posh Karma Modern Indian in Washington.
Take a look around. One wall is illuminated with what appear to be flickering candles; a broad ramp leads to a handsome raised bar, its stools arranged as if by a choreographer.
The food, from chef Ajay Kumar, is just as fetching. Grilled cubed sweet potatoes, seasoned to make your tongue turn somersaults, are stacked to form an orange pyramid on a plate dressed up with dots of white (yogurt), green (mint chutney) and red (tamarind sauce). A jazzy salad of puffed rice tossed with green chile and date chutney is presented in a little gold cornet. Kumar’s focus on presentation comes naturally. “I’m an artist,” says the Indian native, who paints landscapes and abstracts when he’s not in the kitchen.
Karma and Kismet are linked by a handful of dishes (lamb kebab, palak paneer), but the offshoot was designed to be less formal. A few seafood selections underscore Kismet’s proximity to the waterfront in Old Town. Grilled snapper, lit with Kashmiri chiles and tamarind, is not so hot you can’t appreciate the naturally sweet fish. If the food here tastes notches better than at some of the competition, it’s explained by whole spices that are ground in-house and the use of ingredients such as fresh coconut rather than bagged. Considering main courses hover around $24, the chef’s impulses are commendable.
111 N. Pitt St., Alexandria, Va. 703-567-4507. kismetmodernindian.com. Lunch Friday through Sunday, dinner Wednesday through Sunday. Mains $22-$34. Indoor and outdoor seating. Takeout and delivery. Sound check: 77 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: A ramp leads to the entrance; a second ramp inside leads to ADA-compliant restrooms.
No. 5: SHOTO
It’s the splashiest spot to open in Washington in years. No matter where you settle in the Japanese restaurant conceived by Arman Naqi, there’s something to ooh and ahh over. Behold the installation of hundreds of rocks, plucked from an active volcano and suspended overhead! The 25-foot ceiling pays homage to Japanese basket weaving, and one entire wall is green with preserved ivy, interspersed with faux fires.
“We wanted to give a transforming experience,” says Naqi, who was born in London and raised in Bethesda. He includes food and drink in that mission statement. The kitchen is watched over by chefs Alessio Conti and Kwang Kim, whose long menu includes fetching, one-bite tacos (picture salmon blended with wasabi mayo cradled in a potato chip shell), dishes treated to the clean heat of binchotan (spring for the pork ribs shiny with a barbecue sauce flavored with bonito) and sushi cut with the precision of a Savile Row tailor. (Kim has worked with some of the best in the business, and his attention to detail, including weighing the salt and the sugar for his sushi rice, shows.) Dislike making decisions? Let the talent take charge by ordering omakase, five courses of whatever Conti and Kim think is best at the moment. An upgrade fits in Wagyu beef, caviar and truffles.
Naqi relied on international connections to recruit staff. Your savvy server might hail from Italy; the engaging bartender shares that he’s from Hungary. Does the team play favorites? Reports from the field suggest VIPs get the red carpet treatment while unknowns are rushed through dinner. On a happier note, the audience on any given night might be the most diverse of any crowd in Washington right now. “Kanpai” to that.
1100 15th St. NW. (entrance on L Street NW). 202-796-0011. No website. Dinner Monday through Saturday. Indoor seating. Mains $34-$48. No takeout or delivery. Sound check: 82 decibels/Extremely loud. Accessibility: The front door is heavy, but attendants assist with opening it. A seat at the bar and two seats at the chef’s counter are designated for wheelchair users. Restrooms are ADA-compliant.
Source: WP
