So… I am way behind on this, as well as my posting of my photos from the trip… it’s been a month and they still aren’t up? I am just terrible.

Anyway, dinner in Washington at D’Acqua was amazing.

When we were planning our trip it was decided that we would go out for a “nice” dinner one of the nights, when looking at our schedule, we realized it was either Monday Night or Friday night for this nice meal since we would be at the Red Sox/Nationals games Tuesday through Thursday, and arriving Sunday night we weren’t in the mood to get all dressed up after traveling to go out for a nice meal.

We didn’t check places out ahead of time, we sort of just winged it the whole time while there. Before I get into D’Acqua though, I need to explain the other 2 meals we had out in the city.

The night of our arrival, we kind of just wandered to find a place, we were staying at a hotel up on the northwest side of the city, so we were close to what is called “The Golden Triangle” in Washington. So we went and wandered around a little bit til we found something that looked good, we stumbled onto a small place called Luigi’s Famous, not sure how famous it really is since I have never heard of it. Although the whole famous thing is always interesting since it seems like so many places are “famous”, but that’s beside the point. We had a really nice meal, we split an appetizer of calamari and then shared Assaggini luigi – combination of the tortellini, agnolotti, & ravioli in three different sauces. These were just awesome and totally hit the spot after traveling all day, even though we had some tasty peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch on the train, this was really nice. The atmosphere was quaint and quiet for a real nice end to the evening.

Then the next night we were wandering around the city, and came up to the White House, took some pictures and then realized it was time for dinner, so what better way to find a place than to ask someone who’s local, and who’s more local than a cop, right? Turns out the cop isn’t local either, turns out he’s from MA and works down there for the Capitol Police and actually knows someone who also works with Kate up here in MA, who woulda thought, right? So brief moment talking with him and then he tells us about this nice little place down the street, The Old Ebbit Grill. We get there are just the right time and put our names in, 30 minute estimated wait time, that’s nothing from our point of view. Ten minutes later and we were hearing the hostess tell people it would be an hour or more for a table.

This place was really cool, you could tell it had been around a really long time, it had that old feeling to it where you know that some major people had been sitting in those seats way back when, concocting deals and bargains in the background of the political landscape of the city. One thing I really really liked was the atmosphere that was created by the restaurant still using the very old gas powered chandeliers and lights. We had some delicious calamari as an appetizer(can you tell our favorite appetizer yet?) and then I had grilled salmon and Kate had a jumbo lump crab cake. Both were terrific!

Funny thing while we were sitting and enjoying our dinner, I kept glancing at the table to our left on the other side of a support pillar trying to place why the guy I could see looked familier. Eventually, right at the end of the meal it hit me and I turned to him to say hello. The person I could see was Ben, and the guy I could not see was Bryan. Both of these guys were part of the team who runs the Red Sox Fantasy Baseball Camp that I went to this past February. They also work with the “get away” trips put on by the Red Sox, and are lucky enough to get to go on the trips themselves. They appeared to remember me, or if they didn’t they faked it really well.

So those were our early week meals, the mid week meals were all at the National’s Park. To be honest, the food at the park was pretty tasty. Although, with record crowds all 3 nights, the staff at the stands were definitely not ready for the demand of the crowds!! Major props for the burgers and fries from “Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries“, there’s that “famous” again!! There burgers were pricy, but they were worth it, so were their fries. The delivery method after ordering was interesting, but still better than some other places I have been.

Then came D’Acqua on Friday.

We decided we wanted seafood, and then searched for a place through Yelp to find the right place, menu looked good and we got ourselves all gussied up for a night out to dinner!

We had a reservation, but we were early and they seated us anyway right away, it wasn’t nearly as busy as we had expected for 7pm on a Friday night, I think Washington might start a little later than Boston. Also interesting, there was a small area near the end of the bar, closest to the kitchen, with fish and other seafood items laid out on ice, apparently you can pick a fish to be your dinner and they will cook it for you. We stuck to the menu in front of us.

We started off by ordering a salad and an appetizer of pan friend mozzarella. The mozzarella was delicious with the flaky crust it was in. The salad was interesting, they actually just left the romaine lettuce leaves whole, piled them on the plate, then draped the anchovies and dressing over it.

Then our meal came, Kate dined on Beef Tagliata with basil flavored mashed potato and mustard sauce, while I had the olive crusted roasted lamb rack with potato rosti, carmelized shallots and garlic.

Blown away is about the only way to describe the meal, presentation was interesting as well. When they brought my lamb out, it was still in the full rack on a cutting board with a garnished plate as well. They actually cut my lamb next to the table, and laid it out for me on the plate before putting it in front of me. A bit extreme from my point of view but bonus points for the style.

Really though, the food was delicious, it melted in your mouth and the flavors of the sides combined with the main dish to compliment one another perfectly.

We savored our meal as we ate it, and were so happy throughout the whole meal.

Then came dessert, we went for it because while delicious, our dinners were not the normal tons of food that fills you up like a gut busting chain in the local strip mall. Dessert was their Chocolate Mousse Cake, and it was delicious as well, and a perfect ending to one of the finest meals I have had in a very very very long time.

I still slightly salivate when I think about this meal…