| Address | 1 Marina Drive, Alexandria, VA 22314 |
|---|---|
| Hours | Lunch: Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m.; Dinner: Mon-Sun, 5 p.m.-9 p.m. |
| Phone | (703) 548-0001 |
| Website | http://www.indigolanding.com |
Other than the view, this place is terrible. DO NOT GO. The food is terrible. The manager is not sharp. The event planner, Brenda, is incompetent. DEFINITELY DO NOT BOOK YOUR EVENT AT INDIGO LANDING!
Indigo landing is open again, now serving "modern contemporary cuisine". The view across the Potomac is still lovely, and the planes are still noisy. The vibrations must be addling the staff's brains, since I don't recall such grouchy service at any so-called fine dining establishment anywhere. The bartender let me be surprised by the fact that the house-named draft beer was a lite. The waiter kept asking us if we wanted more drinks, despite the fact that we had all pulled out our notes and passed out documents (it was a meeting of the board of a local social group), and refused to provide separate checks after being asked several times. He had to go back to the office to find the local tax rate so we could calculate our shares.
The food: the day boat scallops were properly seared and very tasty. All four of them. Call me cheap, but $25 for a tapa sized serving seems excessive. The accompanying ragout was an ill-conceived melange of fresh (no doubt about that, as there was silk in it) corn, leek, and ham. The glass of wine I had was probably the best value of the evening.
So stop by on a balmy evening for a drink, but don't stay for dinner unless you are on an expense account, and be aware that the concept of Happy Hour drink specials has not reached the management there.
My fiancee and I went to Indigo Landing on their last weekend of the season. While we expected the restaurant to be out of some of their menu items, we were surprised to find out that everything was available. After looking over the menu and trying to decide what to order, we each decided to order one appetizer and one entree, and then share. The fried green tomatoes were the best we've ever had. The hush puppies were good, but I didn't much care for the dipping sauce that accompanied them. For our entrees, we ordered the shrimp and grits and the ruby trout. I must say, my fiancee got the better part of the deal because the shrimp and grits was out of this world! The shrimp was cooked to perfection and the grits were nice and cheesy. Not that the trout was bad, in fact, it was delicious, but the shrimp and grits was just that good. The prices were a bit high for the portion sizes, but the location, view, and taste more than makes up for that. With an appetizer and an entree each, we actually left more than satisfied.
Good value for brunch and the location makes you forget that you are sitting right next to Reagan airport. The only downside of brunch was that he Market Table (the start of brunch with a wide array of oysters, mussels, lobster bisque, cheese, fruits) was picked over and not refreshed regularly.
The brunch options though were very good and the service was the best yet.
Befitting the setting and the nautical decor, the menu is heavy on fish and shellfish, but the overall theme is Southern/down home comfort food: fried chicken, hush puppies, macaroni and cheese, banana pudding, and the like. The food was hit-or-miss for me. Things started on a promising note with an amuse-bouche of sausage on crispy cornbread and a bread basket that included a couple of fairly amazing sweet corn muffins with a hint of jalapeno spiciness. I started with the she-crab soup; it was by no means the best I've had (I think a seafood soup needs to be heavier than this), but it was pretty tasty. My wife's appetizer, on the other hand, left me with a lot of questions.
She ordered the crab-and-ham "monte cristo." Now, those of you who know me know that I take the monte cristo very seriously. It may be nature's most perfect food: a blend of sweet and savory, breakfast and lunch, meal and dessert. What she got resembled a monte cristo only in that it was fried. The appetizer consisted of three small, crabcake-like rounds that were seasoned heavily and incongruously with, I think, dill. They were tasty, if unfamiliar, but nothing like we expected based on the menu description. It was like spooning up a mouthful of Ben & Jerry's and tasting gazpacho.
Onto the entrees: I ordered the "Shellfish Bog," an assortment of seafood served over a bed of creamy rice. Good stuff -- especially the enormous scallop and the shellfish sausage. At the same time, it was a bit underwhelming for $32 (one of the pricier entrees on the menu -- most were in the $20 neighborhood); at that price point, I expect something more interesting. My wife had the fried flatfish; the fish itself was delicious: deep-fried and salty, it was a dressed-up version of a Filet-o-Fish (i.e. delicious). The side of hush puppies that came with the dish, however, were dry and flavorless hunks of fried bread -- an unforgivable crime in a restaurant that's trying to pull off a Southern motif.
Last but not least, the desserts. We shared the banana pudding and the raspberry fool (angel food cake with raspberry sauce and fresh berries). Both were very good, albeit slightly flawed (the berries were a shade too bitter, and there was a noticeably grainy texture to the pudding). But I wouldn't hesitate to order either one again.
While I was satisfied with my meal, a real blemish on the evening was the quality of service. The hosts, waitress, and food runners that we interacted with were all perfectly professional, but they were also very brusque and to-the-point. Questions about menu items were answered, but only in the most basic, factual manner. There was very little friendliness (or human emotion of any kind) from the staff. This is something that wouldn't bother me most of the time -- as long as I'm enjoying my meal, my waiter can do just about anything shy of openly spitting in my food and I won't bat an eyelash. But at the prices that Indigo Landing charges, I expect a higher caliber of service.
One last note: I regret we didn't have time to stop for a drink or two at the bar. It's a beautiful space and was attracting a good crowd for a Sunday evening when we were there. It looks like an ideal spot to have a drink or five on a lazy weekend afternoon, provided you have a designated driver to keep you safe on the Parkway once you've paid your tab.
This place is absolutely awful. Between swatting flies and trying to find something appealing to eat at their so called "appetizer buffet" the food was bland, unappealing, and the managment is arrogant. The entree's were small in portion and were not well prepared. The bacon was either burned or undercooked. Brunch at this establisment is a waste of time and money. Brunch consists of pickled & grilled vegetables w/ no flavor, some melon, bread, cold soup, cheese and crackers, and something that looked like dessert. Nothing was displayed properly. Honestly, the health department should do a surprise visit. McDonald's food was sincerely a step up from this place. I'm from the south and whatever this chef believes he's concoting is nothing you will find in any restaurant from Virginia to Timbuktu......Indigo Landing should be called Rip-Off Landing.
Nice view, great drinks, and very friendly service...too bad the local drive-thru has equally impressive "cuisine." Indigo would do well to hire a sous-chef that can bring a little more to the table, or at least lower their prices to match the quality of food. With such a prime location there is so much potential for this restaurant, hopefully they will live up to that potential soon.
The view was definitely better than the food. The value definitely did not measure up. I was total disappointed with the food. The view was a nice view.
Indigo Landing has good intentions. The cuisine is described as "Low Country" -- there are many words on the menu such as Bog that are cloudy descriptions (at best) to the average diner...
Our server was friendly but not too familiar; the night we dined was very slow, unfortunately for an empty restaurant, service was too.
There is a good selection of wines by the glass, bottle, and half-bottle that run the spectrum cost-wise, which is quite appealing.
The bread basket is creative -- something for everyone with "ham" breadsticks, delicious warmed salt-topped rolls, and jalepino muffins -- all of this was accompanied by a ring of softened butter with a dollop of honey in the middle - very cute and tasty to boot!
It took a VERY long time for our appetizers to be served (did I mention the restaurant was practically empty?) however, when they did arrive, the chicken & dumpling appetizer was by far the best item I tasted all night. The gravy was savory, the dumplings dense without being too heavy, and the chicken was off the bone and tender. My companion's fried green tomatoes were heavily breaded and somewhat bland. Unfortunately, after the chicken and dumplings, bland becomes a heavily used description for the remainder of this review....Also, many of the dishes include some sort of pork -- not a surprise for a country-style restaurant, but just something to note for diners who may not eat the other white meat (or it's salted derivatives).
Our entrees arrived while we still had our forks in the air from our last bite of appetizer... funny considering how long we waited for the apps in the first place.
My fiance's duck legs were tasty, however the stringy vegetable it was served on was mysteriously tangy and bland all at once. My brown buttered flounder sounded delicious on the menu, looked gorgeous on the plate, but was a disappointment to the palate. It was served with a monte cristo that lacked punch, not a great compliment to a bland white fish to start with. Our side of collard greens tasted green-y, but certainly doesn't hold a candle to mom's greens.
For dessert, banana pudding (him) and a second glass of wine (me). The pudding came w/ toasted marshmellow-whipped cream on top, which was tasty, but all-in-all, the dessert was mediocre. My wine was delightful!
Indigo Landing has great potential and wonderful presentation, but needs to work more on flavor and ensuring that the essence of a robust "Low Country" cuisine is actually present in each dish.
Indigo Landing has a great spot in terms of views, ambience, and uniqueness. The food was good, though when we ordered macaroni and cheese off of the kids menu for a 3 year old, they brought mac and cheese with a lot of spicy flavor. Needless to say, the 3-year old was not pleased. The waiter was doing a great job, for his first night there, but did take a little prompting to remember to open our second bottle of wine. Overall, though, the experience was very pleasant and thoroughly enjoyed by 3 generations of our family. (If we were not with 2 infants, we might have enjoyed a drink at the bar, which also looks like a fun way to spend a summer night.)
