| Address | Hotel Madera, 1310 New Hampshire Ave., Washington, DC 20036 |
|---|---|
| Hours | Breakfast: Mon-Fri, 7 a.m.-10 a.m.; Brunch: Sat-Sun, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.; Lunch: Mon-Fri, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; Dinner: Sun-Thur, 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m., Fri-Sat, 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. |
| Phone | (202) 861-1310 |
| Fax | (202) 521-7378 |
| Website | http://www.firefly-dc.com |
The brunch is fantastic and such a great deal! The french toast has a slight citrus flavor with a hint of vanilla. It is cooked perfectly - slightly crispy but nice and moist in the center. Firefly also understands that DC-area restaurants offers expensive brunch cocktail options so Firefly's Saturday brunch offers $3 Bloody Marys and Sunday has $1 Mimosas. AMAZING!
Firefly is one of my favorite neighborhood places - good for brunch, happy hour and dinner. The atmosphere is warm and inviting and everything I've eaten there, save an unfortunate bread pudding, has been outstanding. The service is less consistent, ranging from a waitress who took 20 minutes to take an order after dropping off menus to a helpful server who offered great suggestions on the wine list.
I love Firefly for special evenings and there doesn't seem to be a crowd before eight. I had a huge lamb steak, asiago au gratin potatoes and three tastes from the garden; my companion had the barbecued salmon and we both loved everything.
We started out in the lounge area because we arrived so early before our reservations. It is a cozy little set-up and was the perfect place to sample some of the autumnal cocktails offered. Our transition to our table was seamless, and the birthday meal was made all the more smooth by a waiter who was both unobtrusive and vivacious. A hard combo to pull off. The food was very good, though nothing stood out as being absolutely spectacular. The wines by the glasses were impressive, as was the list of bourbouns. I'll definitely be back to check out the winter menu.
We were seated about 30 minutes after our reservation; they were contrite. The food was good, but didn't come particularly fast. I had fried oysters (mild-flavored and perfectly cooked) and mushroom risotto, which had a citrus cast. My best course was dessert, however: a rectangle of pastry, coated with a cardamom-flavored custard and topped with sections of grapefruit which had been lightly bruleed. A combination you'd never think of on your own, but that worked really well.
The truffle french fries are a must have, though don't eat too many because there is so much more to have for dinner and dessert. The steak is better than some of the fancy, more expensive steak houses and the dessert was out-of-hand good. Great for special occasions.
The salmon blt with grain salad was moist, delicious, and more than I could eat at lunch.
Even if the food had been mediocre, our visit to Firefly would've been worth it for the ambiance. The warm lighting, small dining room, and natural decor elements (a lovely tree covered in laterns is the centerpiece) create a marvelously cozy and unpretentiously romantic setting. Luckily, the food was far from mediocre. Our appetizers - PEI mussels and a chicken spring roll - inspired many inappropriate moans of delight. Entrees were slighly less spectacular (but when aren't they?). The roast chicken was yummy, though my dining partner was slightly less thrilled with his halibut and grits. The biggest winner of the evening were the frites, which no words can do justice to. Definitely the best I've ever had. I can only imagine what the truffle variation is like.
Something must have been in the water the day I visited with a friend for brunch. Our server offered us a choice of sparkling, distilled, or "DC's finest" water to get started. When I ordered a bottle of sparkling and a glass of "DC's finest" due to extreme thirst, he looked at me incredulously and asked if I weren't kidding. I do not appreciate this condescending attitude in anyone, especially not in someone I am paying to provide me a service. Unfortunately, the waiter's attitude continued throughout the meal and clouded the flavors of my salmon cake on cheddar grits, which came floating on a pool of butter (much to my consternation after inquiring about the amount of butter in the dish, our waiter having assured me I 'wouldn't even notice it.') The brioche French toast came positively smothered under a 3-inch pile of bourbon whipped cream; once most of it was scraped off, the dish wasn't bad. I can't completely dismiss the menu, as it looked good, but I'd say come here if you're ready to brave the waitstaff and the nutritional pitfalls hidden in the recipes.
Ok, I have to admit, our usual budget for eating out is totally slumming for most real foodies. However, we wanted to go someplace special to celebrate a birthday, and Firefly came recommended highly by a friend. It not only did not disappoint, but well exceded our expectations. On previous special occasions we've spent easily twice as much for restaurants that fail to live up to their reputations. The wine list, menu and dessert list all show creativity and inspiration. Everything we ordered was extremely visually appealing, superbly cooked, and tasted fabulous. The portions were generous, but not over-sized, leaving us feeling very satisfied, and wondering only how they could offer so much top quality ingredients at the prices they did. Our only complaint? It was a bit loud, and the low ceiling and hard flat surfaces did nothing to help dampen the sound, a little softening and quieting could improve the ambience even more. Since it was a special occasion, we made reservations earlier in the day via their free online system which was quick and easy, but it turns out it wasn't crowded and we could have been seated immediately even without them.
I had been saving this restaurant for a special occassion - it just looks so appealing sitting there on New Hampshire Ave. So I finally went with some co-workers for a birthday. Mistake #1 - it was a Wed night about 8:30pm. We walked in with no reservations and had to wait about 20 or so minutes. Good thing #1 - Waited at the bar and had some maragaritas. Wow. Talk about knock you on your feet drinks that don't taste bad. Loved the bar scene there. When we were seated, the place was starting to die down. If you plan on going here - try and sit / eat between 7:30 and 9:00. That seems to be the time to be there. The place was not as fancy as I expected it to be - the food was decent for its category - but overall this restaurant experience did not match it's reputation. My friend got the steak frites, and it looked like it may have been the best meal on the menu. Overall I say - go to the bar for happy hour - go somewhere else for dinner. You cant go wrong with good and strong!
Love this place. Small and great. After years of bad to mediocre eating establishments in this space (which is really the ground floor of a small boutique-y hotel), it's a relief to have one that we can rave about. Firefly is one of the few 'good' restaurants in Dupont that I can actually recommend to people; that is, they do a consistently excellent job on the food AND the service, and aren't overcharging. They keep a database of customers so that you have a better shot at getting favorable treatment on return visits. There are three sections -- bar/lounge area (small and loud but comfortable), front dining area (small and fairly loud with very closely spaced tables, but with loads of ambience thanks to the whole well-executed 'firefly' shtick), and rear dining area (better spacing and more reasonable speaking/hearing conditions). Ask for a table in the back or the (one) table at the front window when making reservations (which are pretty much required, unless you don't mind hanging out at the bar for hours. Thanks to the staff for taking their jobs seriously and making customers feel welcome.
One of the Kimpton Group's restaurants in the Hotel Madera in Dupont Circle. A great place to eat in the bar with your friends for great conversation and great atmosphere. The fries are excellent, and the servers are friendly as can be. You'll love it!
Ambience was great--cute little extras in restaurant and on tables. Servers and hostess very friendly and personable. Menu a touch small for lunch; not many selections. Needs more salads and lite fare. Yet, food quality very good. Look forward to dinner there one night.
I'll probably regret letting this out, but Firefly has the very best burgers in the city (only served at lunch). They also have a nice selection of wines by the glass.
I went to Firefly on a first (and likely last) date. Nothing wrong with the guy, but we just didn't have that spark. At any rate, we arrived at the restaurant early, about 45 minutes before our 9:45 reservation. This gave us a chance to relax at the bar over a cocktail. I wasn't sure how I felt about the big fake tree strung with lanterns in the middle of the restaurant. I guess it was supposed to be cool/trendy/different, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was looking at a prop for the Lord of the Rings. The lights hanging over the bar were too bright to complete that cozy backyard feeling the restaurant was trying so hard to emulate. The crowd was the entirely typical Washington DC version of trendy.
The host seated us right at our scheduled time. We were presented with a precious copper bucket full of breads (a similar copper bucket was put on the table later for dumping the empty mussel shells from my app). The service was efficient yet relaxed and friendly. After some discussion over several of the terms on the menu (my date was not a "foodie" and needed definitions for "crimini", "char", "mesclun" and "creme fraiche"), my date decided on the mesclun salad with blue cheese, walnuts and apples (does EVERY restaurant have this on their menu?) and the arctic char with lentils. I ordered the steamed mussels in a curry cream sauce and the pork tenderloin with gruyere macaroni and cheese and brussel sprouts. My date really liked his salad. Hard to go wrong with that one. The quality of the mussels were excellent -- big, fat, juicy and just slight briny. I only wish the curry cream sauce would've been more spicy curry than sweet cinnamon. I felt like I was eating a breakfast dish. The main courses were appropriately timed and came out several minutes after the salad and appetizer. His char and lentils were great -- everything on the plate was perfectly cooked. My pork tenderloin did not excite me as much as the char. First of all, it was a huge chunk of meat, it had to be half a tenderloin. I'm aware that many people would find this to be a boon -- I find it to be a waste and gives me no sense of satisfaction when after 6-7 bites it doesn't look as if I've eaten any of it. The other problem with the meat was that it was over-cooked -- I had asked for medium rare and it came out somewhere closer to medium-medium well. The saving grace was the little pools of veal reduction. The soft, tangy mac & cheese and slightly bitter, salty brussel sprouts were nice accompaniments.
Nothing on the dessert menu sparked our interest and we called it a night. All in all, a decent dining experience, with too gimmicky an atmosphere and too uninspired fare for my taste.
Good, small restaurant atmosphere and service was great. Food was great with one exception: My pork tenderloin was not thoroughly cooked. The waiter asked me "how do you want that done?" but I was always taught that there is only one way to eat pork, thoroughly cooked!!! This isn't the first time this has happened so maybe the US food supply is now so clean you can eat almost raw pork. I ordered medium but it came out medium rare to rare. From now on if a waiter asks: "how do you want your pork done?", I'll switch to steak!!! Only downside to a good evening and my dining companion loved her steak, soup, dessert etc.
