CityZen
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
1330 Maryland Avenue, SWWashington, DC 20024
202-554-8588
CityZen was crowded the night I went with five work colleagues, even though it was a Tuesday. The entire table ordered the three course tasting meal, which turned out to be a fully sufficient amount of food, especially considering that the chef served us three amuse bouche.
One was an olive oil crema suspended in a creamy tomato sauce and garnished with chopped micro chives. Another was a delicious mushroom dumpling with a mushroom reduction that could be compared to the best mushroom soup.
For the first course, three of us ordered the Crispy Shoat Belly, shoat being the belly of a young pig. It was delicious - salty, had a crispy crust, was perfectly crisp. The skin was like a delicious pork potato chip. It was served with two delicious fried pickles, and its sweet acidity cut through the richness of the pork belly.
For my main course, I had the Barramundi, an Australian fish similar to cod, served with heirloom tomatoes and rock shrimp fritters. I found the dish underwhelming due to the rock shrimp fritters being mushy and because the fish itself was far less warm than it should have been. The buttery and salty rolls, brought to the table during the main course, were fantastic.
On this night at least, the waiter accommodated some requests at the table to make exchanges with the tasting menu. The presentations were beautiful, and the service for our table of six was well-timed. Our table was by the kitchen and it was fun to watch the servers run back and forth with different plates.
It was a fine meal overall and I would go back again on an expense account (the lamb dish looked delicious), but I am not likely to return soon if I will be the one paying.
S.S.Lee (07/23/08)
Editor's note: Chef Eric Ziebold of CityZen was named ‘Best Chef:
Mid-Atlantic’ at the James Beard Foundation Awards in 2008.