Restaurant Week at The Oval Room

Restaurant week is one of my favorite times of the year as it incorporates two things I really love -- delicious food and a good bargain! For DC restaurant week, you get a multi-course meal which you choose from a set menu for around $20 for lunch or $35 for dinner. If you do your research and choose right, you can end up saving a lot of money dining at a restaurant you otherwise probably couldn't afford. Since living in DC, I've done restaurant week at Cedar, Rasika, Zaytinya, and this year -- The Oval Room. 

Overall, I was really pleased with my experience at The Oval Room! According to their website, "The Oval Room is a critically acclaimed restaurant serving modern American cuisine with Mediterranean influences," but the real draw is that it's a fancy shmancy restaurant very close to the White House and the Oval Office. Another plus for me, they serve a good deal of seafood, and you know I feel about seafood!

Time to break down the meal... I was lucky to dine at Oval Room with one of my best friends who is a) not a picky eater and b) a good sharer, so I got to try two options for each course. For the appetizer, we got scallop crudo (raw scallops) with fennel, yuzu, chili & charred bread and poached shrimp with spicy tomato jam, horseradish, and lemon tapioca. The scallops themselves were absolutely amazing -- I don't know how to describe them any other way. You may be nervous about eating scallops raw, but the texture is not at all gummy and the taste is not "fishy." The flavors of the accompanying sauce were good, citrusy. But I personally preferred the flavors that were paired with the shrimp. The spicy tomato jam was delicious -- I wiped the plate clean -- and the lemon tapioca was a refreshing change of pace. However, the shrimp itself was nothing special. Not bad, just somewhat bland.

On to the main course, probably my favorite of the meal. We knew immediately that we wanted the salmon with grilled kale, crushed root vegetables & sherry maple emulsion. The salmon was perfect. Crispy on the outside, melt in your mouth on the inside. And the portion was very generous -- two substantial pieces. The kale was surprisingly a stand out part of the dish as well, much better than expected, while the vegetables were just fine but nothing to write home (or in your blog) about. 

Our second entree was the miso braised pork shoulder, which according to our waiter, was braised for an insanely long time (not his exact words). It was served with turnips & ancho chili condiment. The pork was incredibly tender, just fell apart in you mouth, and had very good flavor. A few small complaints though. There were about 3 teeny tiny turnips (which weren't anything that special) and the "condiment," though very tasty, was scant. Therefore, the dish was pretty much just meat. If I had only ordered this dish and didn't have the salmon dish to add some additional flavors to my meal, I may have been a tad disappointed.

Finally, time for dessert! I have an insane sweet tooth so we had the hardest time narrowing it down to just two. They all sounded amazing! We ended up deciding on the raspberry white chocolate torte with raspberry ice cream & pistachio crunch and the key lime cheesecake with berry coulis and graham cracker ice cream. Maybe I had too high expectations but the desserts, though enjoyable, didn't stand up to the high standards set by the appetizers and entrees. The raspberry ice cream was good, but the torte was just okay and didn't taste like white chocolate. Meanwhile, the cheesecake was yummy and creamy, but didn't taste like lime. And the berry I tasted was actually not good. But that's being extremely picky. If I wasn't tasting these desserts with the intent of critiquing them, I'm sure I would have simply said they were tasty!

I had a great time dining at The Oval Room and would definitely recommend it as a top restaurant week value. In addition to the delicious food, the service was definitely what you'd expect from a gourmet restaurant and the ambiance was upscale without being too stuffy. And most importantly, the company was superb!