Chef Geoff's Downtown, Washington, D.C.

After attending Christmas Lessons and Carols at St. John's, Robert and I wandered in to Chef Geoff's Downtown for brunch. A festive jazz quartet played Christmas songs in the front dining room. We wanted to be able to chat, though, so we asked to be seated in the back dining room.

The food was pretty much as usual. It's not bad, but it's not special. "Mediocre" is a word that doesn't really communicate well the quality of the food, since that word has more negative connotations, so, perhaps "average" is a better choice, but I don't know what to consider "average" for D.C.

Anyway, Robert had the eggs Benny, their version of eggs Benedict, with home fries. I noticed that the poached eggs, which are supposed to be served with runny yolks absent specific request, were actually a little beyond medium.



I had the American chopped salad including chicken, bacon, and blue cheese, but I found the lettuce to be rather limp (dressed before I'd ordered it?) and the salad to be very bland. With our meals, I had a mild bloody Mary and Robert had a couple of extra-spicy bloodies made with Absolute pepper vodka.



Dessert was better. Robert had a pear-cherry crisp topped with cinnamon ice cream that he thought quite good.



I had an interesting gingerbread trifle made with a thick butterscotch crème anglaise sauce and accompanied by a little poached pear resting in a pool of butterscotch crème anglaise.



After dessert, Robert had a glass of the Cockburn port. Then he decided to do a Kody Pose for us.



Chef Geoff's isn't a bad place, it's just more like an upscale Denny's. Lots of people love it and think the food is wonderful; I just have never shared that enthusiasm.