| Address | The Watergate Hotel, 2650 Virginia Ave., Washington, DC 20037 |
|---|---|
| Phone | (202) 965-2300 |
This is a tired restaurant that leaves you asking what was the point of eating there. For starters, it is accessible only through a dingy subterranean corridor that belches anonymous corporate staleness. It leads to a dreadful little bar/lounge that serves as the restaurant's foyer and looks like something out of a Best Western in Lima, Ohio. The coat check "system" is rudimentary at best, and left us standing around for 10 minutes before being seated, even though the restaurant wasn't near full. The dining room, while not dreadful, is also past its sell-by date. The 60s/70s Jetsons architecture has been done over with some soulless early-90s gloss. The view isn't even that great. At night, you can't see the river at all; the only thing visible is part of the Rosslyn skyline. My party of 4 went during Restaurant Week. Unlike RW menus at many other places, Aquarelle offered only 2 starters, 2 mains, and 2 desserts. We got the feeling that the chef had simply made a bunch of the stuff and mailed his/her efforts in. The effect was not unlike eating standard-issue wedding reception food. To Aquarelle's credit, the lamb osso bucco was quite nice, but the chocolate dessert was tasteless and had the consistency of a hockey puck. The wine list was limited, overpriced, and completely lacking imagination. In a city filled with excellent restaurants, I can't imagine wanting to eat a full-priced meal here. Aquarelle is not utterly terrible, just utterly lacking purpose and hardly worth the price.
Admittedly we attended lunch during restaurant week; in my opinion a chance to sample a restaurant that we had not yet experienced as opposed to a once-a-year opportunity to eat out. The hostess and servers rivaled some of the least friendly TGI Friday's staff I've encountered. We sampled both the crab cake (tasteless and mostly bread) and the filet mignon (good but not outstanding). The caesar salad was pedestrian and executed poorly. The meal was topped off by a bland grapefruit panna cotta served WITH OUR CHECK. Indeed, the server handed us our check as the dessert was placed on the table. After the lackluster experience we were not surprised to see that we were charged $3.50 for each small glass of diet coke and each refill. If you are in the market for $20.00 worth of diet coke, pedestrian and pretentious food, and an arrogant staff then AQUARELLE is the place for you!!!
DC RW 2005 Aquarelle. I was disappointed in their dinner offerings. They had choice of appetizer: 2 diver scallops with vinegar slaw or soup of the day. They had choice of 2 entrees: soy sauce poached sea bass or lamb osso buco. For dessert, they had some chocolate dacquoise type thing with double cream yogurt.
The scallops were basically sea scallops, not the larger, rarer diver scallops. They were served cold. Basically, they tasted as if they'd been sitting on a plate in the refrigerator. The soup (lobster bisque with a tomato essence) was not much better. The first thing that came to mind when I tasted it was classico tomato alfredo pasta sauce. I did not get a sense of the lobster either.
Entrees. The sea bass was a nice sized portion of my favorite fish. The preparation and presentation was simply average. This beautiful delicious fish was served in a bowl of soy sauce atop 1/2 a bok choy. No food olympics here.
The dessert oh please. I have had better pastries out of my 6 year old cousin's easy bake oven. And the frozen yogurt? Let TCBY handle that next time.
The best thing about DC RW 2005 at Aquarelle? Sitting at table 8 and enjoying the wonderful view. The other diner I had dinner with wants to go back and eat from the main menu. I am not so sure I'm willing to give it another try.
This place has so much potential, so far failing to live up to it. The maitre d' was downright arrogant, saying we were about to eat at a restaurant that was a cut above all the others- but turned out not to be anything special. Too bad, given the amazing view and obvious talent of the chef, Chistophe Poteaux. Sorry I can't recommend this place given it's astonomical prices and only great -not superb- food.
We visited during restaurant week and I was surprised at how good our service was. They made us feel very welcome and took care of every need. The food was better than average and I would return, should my wallet ever permit it.
