Acadiana

Acadiana

901 New York Avenue
Washington, DC
Metro: Either Metro Center or 7th St./Convention Center
Type of Cuisine: Cajun/Creole

So I woke up on one random Sunday morning and a friend of mine texted me saying "brunch?" (I might mention that she was the original impetus for the Bitter Sweet Blog idea and was going to write it with me until she got too busy at work). At that point, I figured it would be a low key brunch and said "okay." So she told me that she wanted to go to Acadiana. Since Acadiana was on my list of places I wanted to try anyway, I said "why not" and braved the auto show traffic (which was TERRIBLE) to get down to Acadiana. Apparently they started serving brunch in September with a three course prix fix for $32. I should mention that the fried who was with me here is far pickier than I am with food, hence the introduction of "bitter" to the Bitter-Sweet equation.

Menu:

Appetizer:
Me - “pain perdu” new orleans style french toast, bananas foster sauce
Friend - chopped “b.l.t.” salad maytag blue cheese dressing, benton bacon, cherry tomatoes

Entree:
Me - blackened tilapia sweet corn pudding, collard greens, crawfish lemon tabasco butter
Friend - chicken and smoked andouille sausage jambalaya

Dessert:
Me - pecan tart praline caramel, milk chocolate ice cream
Friend - warm raisin bread pudding butterscotch sauce, tahitian vanilla ice cream

Sweet:
Pain Perdu - I told my father last night that this way of preparing french toast may be the first time I've had one that truly tops his. He proceeded to tell me of a new way that he's concocted to make french toast. Dad, your french toast is good, but I still don't think it's going to top this. Who better to make french toast than the french or their American bretheren, the cajuns. I am a giant fan of both pecans and banana's foster and this dish did not disappoint. The bananas foster sauce trounced any maple syrup I've ever had. The sauce has a hint of pecans in it that perfectly accent the foster. It was a wonderful dish. If I had one thing wrong with it, it's a little bit sweet for an appetizer. In fact, I've seen pain perdu served as a dessert before. But it's brunch, so who cares really?!?!

Decor - I think that Acadiana's atmosphere won my praises because, unlike most other New Orleans style places around, it wasn't bordering on overly tacky. The decor was classy, but simple. There was a little bit of New Orleans flair in the place, but not overwhelming. The grand private room was just in front of us, and that room looked well decorated from my view. The restaurant is located on the bottom floor of an office building overlooking a large parking lot plaza near the Washington Convention Center. Despite that, I was quite happy with the large number of windows letting in a lot of natural light and the disguise they seem to have outside of the windows to accentuate the city streets while hiding the large parking lot (perhaps the fact that our table was around the corner from that view helped).

Set Up - The tables were spread pretty well and seemed large enough for their stated capacities, the acoustics were good and the windows were well utilized. The set up of the room didn't have very much wasted space, but had plenty of open space. It was a good atmosphere to have a conversation with your dinner companions and not with the next table at the same time.

Bread Pudding: Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste any of the bread pudding, but my friend seemed to enjoy it thoroughly (mostly from her facial expressions and lack of words while eating it). I can acknowledge that it looked very good with quite an appetizing white color to it.

Bland:
Tilapia - The tilapia was pretty basic. It was a tilapia (a relatively plain fish that takes on the characteristics of what it's prepared in) that was drenched in cajun seasoning (a good cajun seasoning). It was good, but nothing that really wowed me. The crawfish lemon tabasco butter was pretty good, but perhaps not my thing over the tilapia. I think that tilapia may be a bland order in a nice restaurant in any case. For brunch, however, it fit decently. The collared greens and the sweet corn pudding, however, were fantastic. Collared greens are actually the one thing that I developed an affinity for in the dining hall in college despite all of the other terrible food. These were definitely better than the ones in the dining hall (which is actually saying something).

Service: Our server was very pleasant, accomodating (a friend had allergies) and pretty efficient. She kept our glasses full enough even though we only had water. She got the check out on time and had no real faults with her service. She would have probably gotten a perfect score on any "secret diner" evaluation for service. That said, she just didn't wow me, and you have to wow me to get good ratings on service in a nice restaurant. Her recommendations in regards to food choices were largely unhelpful and non-committal and she didn't show an overwhelming amount of knowledge of the menu.

Pecan Tart- The pecan prailine was good, but too sweet. It was basically a standard pecan pie in a better presentation. For me, a better pecan pie is generally a little bit less on the sweet side allowing the taste of the nut to take over. This was far more into the molasses than the nut. The milk chocolate ice cream was pretty standard.

Jambalaya - I didn't hear very much about the dish from my friend aside from her disappointment when it came. It seemed alright, but looked and smelled pretty standard as far as jambalaya goes.

Bitter:
BLT Salad - It was essentially a wedge of lettuce put onto a plate with the other ingredients. It didn't look very appetizing and didn't seem to require much thought or preparation. There was pretty much nothing to it. I think my appetizer was the far out winner. Again, most of my opinion is from my friend's reaction.

Recommendation:
Quality:***
Value:$$

The food was pretty stable throughout. I think it's a good location (assuming you Metro or are already down there). It's convenient to a lot of offices, the Convention Center and Verizon. I like the atmosphere and I think it's generally a pleasant experience and among the better Creole cuisine you are going to get in this area. It's a bit of a unique place for you to try and for that reason, it's worth going. That said, most of the food is good, but it won't really wow you. You won't really remember what you had a week later unless you write a food blog where you started the posting two days after eating there. It's a good place, but you have to be in the mood for Creole and not just looking for "a good restaurant."

Value: It's not a great value for brunch. I paid $32 for a good french toast, tilapia and a pecan tart. To be completely honest I don't think it was really worth $32, especially if you get rid of the atomsphere. By far the best part of my meal was the french toast which was probably the least expensive part of the meal.

Oya

Oya Restaurant & Lounge
777 9th Street, NWWashington, DC 20001
Cuisine: Asian Fusion

My second restaurant week event this season was Oya Restaurant near the Verizon Center (Gallery Place Metro). I had heard good things about Oya before, but I wasn't particularly expecting very much. I went with three friends and all four of us took advantage of the Restaurant Week menu. We had four different appetizers, but ended up being tempted by the same entree and two of the dessert options.

Menu:
Appetizers:
Me: Grilled Sirloin w/ celeriac puree (normal price $10)
Friends: Coconut Shrimp mango beignett (normal price $9)
Cream of Crab Soup (normal price $8)
Spicy Crunchy Salmon (not on normal menu)

Entrees: Chilean Sea Bass w/ miso, edmame, beurre monte and stuffed peppers (normal price $29)

Desserts: Me and One Friend: Chocolate, Chocolate & Chocolate - frozen chocolate mousse in a chocolate shell.
Other Friends: Banana Bread Pudding w/ rum raisin ice cream. (normal prices $8.50)

Sweet:
Decor: Oya had among the most interesting decorum I've seen in DC restaurants. The restaurant was decorated largely in whites, tans and other lighter colors with a bit of a neuvo zen/ying yang feel to it. The walls included one of those glass enclosed water falls and there were numerous half walls throughout the rather open set up. It gave the restaurant a unique feel upon entering.

Entree: We all had the same entree and I feel like each of us made the right decision. It's rare that you can find Chilean Sea Bass at Restaurant Week prices
and we each took advantage of it. The fish was very moist and it cut very easily with a fork (which is good b/c I didn't have a knife for a while). The fish had a slightly sweet flavor that fit very well with the texture of the fish and very much accented the fish's natural flavor. The reviews were favorable for the sea bass across the table. The stuffed peppers were a subtle addition to the meal. The peppers did not have overpowering flavor, but again a very good rice and chicken(?) stuffing with a bit of a creamy (but not cheesy) feel. It was a soft compliment to the sweeter fish.

Salmon Appetizer: I didn't get to taste it, but the friend who ordered it loved it and the friend who tasted it claimed "appetizer envy" (he had the soup).

Drinks: Because of a slight cold that I had, I wasn't able to partake in the drinks or the wine list, but both are quite impressive. The drinks are expensive, but very creative, unique and they use good ingredients (very important). I wish I could have tried them. The wine list was also quite impressive. They have a good variety of regions, types of wine and prices. They also sell wine by the bottle, glass and "tease" which is a 2 ounce glass. It's an interesting idea that would allow someone to taste a good variety of wines without getting too drunk.

Ambivalent:
Sirloin Appetizer: It was a pretty basic smaller cut of the sirloin that I'd assume they serve as the main course. The meat seemed to be a good cut, although cooked a little more than I would have liked. It had a slightly charred texture to the outsides of the meat and was in a very mild sauce that was similar to a hollandaise (thick, starchy, white). It had some good flavor, but not an overwhelminly flavorful dish. Compared to the entree, it was pedestrian.

Soup: Again, I didn't have it, but I didn't hear positive or negative reviews of the soup.

Desserts: I had a chance to try both desserts. My dessert was very good on the first bite, but by the last bite, left me a little unsatisfied. I think the frozen nature of the mousse was a little disappointing and as the bites went by, the taste got a little more watery. Perhaps it was a little too subtle for a chocolate dessert for my tastes, but it was definitely still good. The texture was quite smooth. My friend had a similar opinion of it.
While the carmelized banana was a nice addition, I didn't particularly find the banana bread pudding to be anything special either. I didn't like the rum raisin ice cream very much, but the carmel sauce saved that dish for me.

Bitter:
Shrimp Appetizer: I don't eat shrimp, but my friend said it was a little too greasy and bready for an appetizer.

Service: Perhaps it was because of restaurant week, but we didn't feel like we were being served. Our order was taken very quickly and we were ushered in and out of the place. Our entire dinner (which ended with a fairly large tab) took about an hour. Our server was not very friendly and barely said a word beyond "What would you like to drink?" and "Are you ready to order?" The only thing that took a long time was to process the payment of our check (the only thing that should go quickly in a fine dining establishment).

Set Up: While it wasn't the worst set up I've seen (see Michel Richard's Central), the tables were placed a bit too close together. There was very little space between us and the table behind us on one side, and it happened to be a corridor frequented by the servers. I could hear most of what the other table was saying (which is difficult because my cold was making it difficult to hear other people).

Recommendation:
Quality: ***
Value: $$$

Three to Three and a half stars. The entree, drink list and decor are THAT good! By the way, this is out of five folks. The question between the two numbers is whether the service is bad, or just our server.

Three $ value rating. It is a decent bargain if you're in the area. While our entree was $29 (a little pricey), it wasn't super expensive compared to some of the other possibilities and it was much better than some other $29 entrees out there. I wouldn't travel particularly long distances to try Oya, but if you're looking for something before an event at Verizon Center, it's a good bet for a decent price.