IndeBleu

Review by nancy_2223 on August 16, 2007

Review by unami_me on June 16, 2006

My sister came to visit me in DC for her birthday and I wanted to take her to a nice new place that I had gone after work for drinks...

This time, we thought it might be nice to dine at the restaurant on the second floor. The cuisine is a fusion between Indian food and French. As a huge fan of french food I was eager to get down and grub. The food, to our delight was magnificant!

Now, I've read the reviews online, but my experience at the bar made me game to try the food. Boy was I about to make a big mistake. I have never before witnessed such horrible service.

The waiter was rude and did not show us much respect. He forgot basics such as water.

If one is going to pay for a a pricey meal (plus wine), there has to be some basic level of service.

I would recommend this place only if they offered take-out.

Review by putmanld on April 13, 2006

The ambience, service, music & drinks were very nice. I was there to celebrate my friend's birthday & she had a ball! I didn't eat any of the food, but from what I could tell & was told, it was satisfactory. However, the drinks were terrific. We left just in time to beat the post-Happy Hour rush. I'd definitely check out this place again, perhaps for my own birthday in September.

Review by Ontheside on January 13, 2006

I'm still feeling residually hip for having been at IndeBleu last night. That's assuming that hipness is infectious, as all of the employees, and many of the patrons, of IndeBleu were carriers, while I was uninfected until I walked in. This is not, by the way, a criticism. In fact, I note the "cool" factor of IndeBleu to tie it into the fact that unlike some other restaurants, IndeBleu does not sacrifice food for atmosphere.

We were greeted by a host unironically wearing a t-shirt under his suit jacket. I had a moment of silent satisfaction when I realized that I recognized the electronica song thumping through the bar, until I realized that everyone else knew the song, too, because it was Moby.

I ordered my date a blackberry mojito at the bar, paid the equivalent of a new CD for it, and waited for our friends to show up. Once they did, we were immediately seated. The hostess that led us upstairs was French; our server was British.

One of my dining companions asked for the same drink that my date had carried upstairs with her, the aforementioned blackberry mojito. The waitress explained that, due to an earlier private party, the restaurant was out of rum. This was inexplicable in light of my date's 10-minute-old drink, but my friend moved on and ordered champagne instead.

The flatbread that starts the meal is outstanding. Mini-naan is the best term for it, and it has just the right measure of melted butter and garlic on it. The bread is delivered by a roaming staff member with a pair of tongs.

All four of us did the Restaurant Week menu. We tried all three appetizers. The bleu cheese mushroom dosa was the least-well-received. The dosa lacked the expected crispness, and the cheese was barely to be found. The mushrooms were, however, warm and pleasantly subtly flavored. The salad (shaved vegetables, orange lemongrass dressing, and spiced cashews) was competent, but neither the contents nor the dressing clearly traced their roots to India or France, at least not by taste. The spiced cashews were spicier than expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

As an aside, my salad arrived devoid of the cashews, and I had to mention to a runner that my salad lacked the promised nuts. She was more than gracious in promptly retrieving a small side of said cashews. On that same trip, she also brought one of my dining companions the correct appetizer, the duck samosa, as they had erroneously brought him the mushroom dosa at first. But this was no big deal, and it was a nice gesture for the server to go ahead and leave the extra appetizer on the table for us to split.

I did not try the duck samosa, but my dining companion said that he thought it was the best part of his meal.

Two of us ordered the vegetarian entree, which consisted of two hockey-puck size circles of fried, shaped green plantains. They had a wonderfully complex, slightly spicy flavor, a crunchy exterior, and a soft interior. The braised vegetables on which the plantains were perched were fine, but nothing special.

The chicken confit dish consisted of a small chicken leg (presented vertically), a sausage, and a stew of white beans. The only person that got that dish said his preference, in descending order, was the sausage, the beans, and the chicken. He had no complaints, but he also did not find it memorable.

I had the ginger-glazed salmon filet, which was just big enough that one could not complain about its size, but small enough that it did not threaten dessert. I have nothing but good things to say about the dish. The sauce was rich but not overpowering, and did not obscure the perfectly roasted salmon, which fell apart under my fork. The accompanying tomato-onion mash was spicy and reminded me of my favorite Indian dish, baingan bharta, which adds eggplant to the mash.

The desserts were uneven. The rosewater panna cotta was a flan with an understated flower flavor. The serving was barely bigger than a thimble. Really. It tasted fine, but it's not caviar. They should bump the serving to the size of, say, a ping-pong ball. The accompanying mango ice cream was amazing, but, again, the serving size was incredibly tiny. Melted, the ice cream would have filled half of a shot glass. Maybe. The mango foam was, as noted in another post, mango foam.

One of us chose the chocolate mint ice cream with cardamom hot fudge sauce and peppermint bark. Now, I used to work at Baskin-Robbins back in high school, and I can tell you that I could not stand mint chocolate chip ice cream (though it scoops well). IndeBleu's chocolate mint ice cream, though, is an ice cream connoisseur's dream. The ice cream is a smooth white, the chocolate has a rich, medium flavor, and the mint only hints, as opposed to searing your mouth like Scope. The fudge and the peppermint bark were nice complements, though neither were integral to the dish.

We left thinking that IndeBleu struck a perfect balance between good ambience and good cooking. And that may have been Moby I heard on my way out.

Review by bryndolan on July 12, 2005

This is really a neat new restaurant/bar, though we only had appetizers and drinks at the bar.The ambience is modern and chic. The service was fine, and there were lots of beautiful people around. The apps were quite good, albeit extremely tiny--like maybe 3 bites of food. I loved it except for the price--the bill for two at happy hour was $133, plus a $27 tip and $12 valet parking. I can't help but think that is, well, just a wee bit high. If you want to drop nearly $200 for a few drinks and a snack in a see-and-be-seen locale, then this is the place for you!

Review by hmalcomson on March 23, 2005

Over-priced, over-hyped, terrible service.

Review by Ajuna on January 6, 2005

Inde Bleu has a nice modern blend in decor.The menu is a real blend of Indian and French food. Generally Indian food tends to have strong flavors and French food is more subtle, the chef has managed to tone down the Indian flavor, yet retaining it and blending it with the French style.
The service is excellent, slightly rushed. We had a 4 course meal.I would definitely recommend the crab meat appetizer, and dosa with mushroom.

If you are expecting an either/or menu then this is not the place for you, if you are in the mood for experimenting, this is definitely the place to go! I highly recommend this place.