| Address | 1120 King St., Alexandria, VA 22314 |
|---|---|
| Phone | (703) 684-9669 |
| Fax | (703) 684-9614 |
A bit of culinary innovation for the sake of innovation in my judgment
Limited menu, but the food is very good. Try the rib-eye! Huge portion, nice textures, great service.
Tries to be more chic than its parent, Del Ray fave Evening Star Cafe. The original place still has more character. And the food here seems not quite as good. It's very good and all, but the whole place feels a little strong on glam and a little less on substance. I've eaten here a few times and not been overwhelmed. Not great value for money - there are many restaurants in this price range that deliver more.
The bar has a fabulous look and feel to it- And the bar serves well made martini's making the 30+ mins not an issue. The service once we were seated was timely and the server provided good feedback on wine selection. We all enjoyed our appetizers, meals and desserts. This is the third time I have eaten here and brought others for their first visit. So far - I've not been disappointed nor have my guests!
Vermilion is a beautiful restaurant. It has the look of a fancy downtown DC restaurant with the feel of a local hangout. People are laughing at the bar together when you walk in. The lounge menu at the bar offers up little dishes to choose from and we chose three for a Sunday quasi-dinner at the bar: the spinach salad with spicy pecans, goat cheese, apples and bacon dressing; a shish kabob of tenderloin and shrimp with honey-soy sauce, and french fries (served in the lately ubiquitous paper cone) with horseradish sauce. We picked mojitos as the unlikely beverage for the meal. Everything arrived promptly and with a smile from the bartender. The salad was delicious and cheesey, the shish kabob was relatively plain but the beef was of high quality and the shrimp were ok. The french fries seemed to be a little cold, as if they were cooked before the rest was finished; the horseradish sauce they arrived with was good. Also, the fries were not at all salty, and I thought sea salt would have made a big difference.
All in all, we got a good full meal for a reasonable amount. Without the mojitos, it would have been only $17 before tip.
Vermilion also serves lunch with hearty portions for a good price.
I was one of a party of four eating dinner at Vermilion.
Atmosphere: very nice. Was full when we got there. Happening bar scene, and I thought overall a comfortable, welcoming neighborhood place top to bottom.
Service: fine. Not special, fine for this sort of place. One interesting “glitch,” see below.
Price: I thought that overall prices were OK; some of the entrees should have been cheaper. Our table ordered 2 apps, two starter salads, 2 starter soups, 3 entrees, 5 alcohol drinks, 1 dessert, 1 coffee, bill was $130 before tip.
The food: The menu was interesting, creative, lots of excellent options. Taste-wise, overall, very good. I had a prime rib with chipotle aioli, served over black beans – this was excellent. Also really good starter of endive salad, blue cheese and walnuts, balsamic vinagrette. Others really enjoyed the various things they ordered, including a poached halibut, seared almond-crusted salmon, some little crab cakes, and delicious frites.
The glitch: two of our party got the special soup, cream of mushroom. It was heavy, dense…ok, the consistency was like glue. And, very little taste. These two ate about half each, server did NOT ask about it when clearing. We thought in that situation question over quality should have been asked. BUT, later one of the managers came by on a general rounds, asking about how things were. Pleasant discussion of the soup, he clearly appreciated the feedback.
That said, Overall: liked it a lot, will definitely return.
I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they seated us once all eight in our party arrived. The wait was non-existent.
Our waitress was perky and well-informed about the menu without being intrusive to our conversation and comraderie. I started with a caramel apple martini which tasted exactly like a caramel apple, which I usually hate, but loved in drink form.
Vermilion is one of those restaurants where the chef has a name, as so you can expect to pay more than you might at other places where the cooks are faceless and nameless. That said, the food was well-prepared and the portions larger than you would normally expect in fancy-schmancy (did I just use those words?) pretender like this place.
I say pretender because inspite of the chef's name and the extravagant sounding names of the meals (Filet Mignon with Truffle Mashed Potatoes, Haricot Verts, and Cabernet Reduction), its really just a cute little Alexandria spot where I had steak and mashed potates with green beans with a red wine sauce. Not that that is a bad thing.
Ultimately, I could only give Vermilion 3 stars because I felt it was trying to hard to be more than it was. That said, we will definitely be going there again.
PS, if you REALLY want a fancy-schmancy meal, try Mie and Yu in Georgetown, but bring your platinum card because she ain't cheap. Dinner and tip for me and a date in November was 208 bucks.
Vermilion is a relatively new restaurant, opening in the summer of 2003. Most people are familiar with it by virtue of either its location (it occupies the building Kingfish was located in) or its ownership (it is owned by the folks who own the popular Evening Star Cafe in Del Ray). Never having been to the latter two restaurants, I had no preconceived notion of what type of restaurant I thought Vermilion would be. The answer: An excellent one. Vermilion fulfills a variety of niches in Old Town. The menu is comprised of forward-looking and innovative American fare, setting it apart from another great American restaurant in Old Town, the Majestic Cafe, which grounds its menu in the old South. The decor of Vermilion is vaguely reminiscent of old Europe or Anne Rice's vision of New Orleans, with crimson booths on the first floor, black and dark-colored woods throughout, and gas lamps lining the walls. The downstairs bar area is half bar, half lounge, with interesting furniture and a flatscreen TV behind the bar. It was packed shoulder-to-shoulder on the Friday night I visited, mostly with young professionals, but also with a few older locals spread around. I went with a party of ten for dinner on this Friday night, and we were seated almost immediately. I had been to Vermilion twice before for lunch, and enjoyed my meals both times, so I thought it would be good to try out the dinner menu. We were all extremely satisfied with our food, and with entree prices ranging from a $14 roast chicken served over mashed sweet potatoes to a $24 filet mignon served over truffle mashed potatoes and haricot verts, none of us spent more than we felt comfortable with. Most of us ordered appetizers of some sort. The crabcakes were well-received, though possibly a bit expensive at $9 for three fifty-cent piece size cakes. The clam chowder, thick with chunks of vegetables and clam, earned rave reviews from the people who tried it, and I found my ginger carrot soup amazing, possibly the best soup I've ordered in over a year. It was sweet but mildly spicy, and the texture was notable in that it was akin to a puree, but without being too thick or too thin. The cilantro-lime hummus, served with carrots, celery, and warm pita, was yummy, sizable, and quite affordable at $4. Six of us ended up ordering the rockfish as our entree, and I found it very well prepared, moist and tender, superior even to the perfectly respectable rockfish served at Bistro Bis. While the others had theirs served over goat cheese mashed potatoes (which they could not stop talking about), I subbed in mashed sweet potatoes, and found them to be a perfect complement to the fish. My girlfriend was more than satisfied with her competent, if not distinct, filet mignon, but another friend found the fettucini tasty, but bordering on too rich bathed in its smoked bacon cream sauce. Our server, Hannah, was pleasant, professional, and perfectly on top of everyone's requests despite the size of the party. And we appreciated the manager stopping by to see how everything was. The only regretable aspect of the experience was that none of us could bring ourselves to order dessert after such a satisfying meal. I intend to remedy that soon.
