Café Promenade, Washington, D.C.

Last week was Restaurant Week in D.C. For various reasons, I wasn't all that enthusiastic this year about doing the seven restaurants in seven days routine, but my friends Peter and Paul insisted in me going to dinner with them this past Saturday. After a great deal of discussion and trial and error on getting reservations to our more preferred places, we ended up with reservations at Café Promenade in the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in the "Golden Triangle" area of downtown near Farragut Square.

The Mayflower is one of those old, splendid hotels that they just don't make anymore, and "ornate" just doesn't begin to describe the architecture. A long, white marble promenade runs the one-block length of hotel, and about half way down, the Café sits, surprisingly open to the central passageway. There's a large dome in the ceiling over the center of the restaurant from which hangs a spectacular and enormous crystal chandelier.

Now, the Café Promenade is one of those places listed in restaurant guides as "very expensive," where one should expect to pay over $51 per person for dinner, exclusive of tax, tip, and drinks. That makes the $30.08 per person Restaurant Week price especially attractive, though at the more expensive places, one should expect choices that are not typically on the regular menu. Such was the case here, as there were three choices each for first course, main course, and dessert, all of which were fairly simple compared to the usual menu.

Paul and Peter started with the caprese napoleon, a play on the traditional Italian caprese salad of sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil leaves and the current restaurant fad of making "napoleons" out of non-pastry, non-dessert foods. Here, the napoleon was sort of stacked in layers, though I didn't really feel the stacking effect when the plates arrived at the table. They both commented that tomatoes weren't in season.



I chose the New England-style clam chowder. It was pretty good as far as chowders go, with a balance of milk and cream in the soup and small pieces of clam midst the potatoes. While I've had better at several places, I didn't really have any complaints about the soup here. The fresh snipped chives and crumbles of flavorful bacon as garnish added a nice flavor touch.

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Peter got the petit filet for his main course. It was a very nice sized piece of meat, and not petit at all! He seemed pleased with the meat and the presentation. It came with a couple of steamed asparagus spears and some Peruvian purple potatoes, all atop a mirror of brown sauce.



Paul and I both got the broiled Arctic char. I wish I'd gotten the filet. The char was tasty enough, but more than a touch over cooked, and it arrived last at the table but still was merely lukewarm instead of piping hot. This was all quite a disappointment, since this restaurant is noted for its lavish Friday night seafood buffet. The slab of fish rested on a bed of some unpleasantly starchy and bland risotto that I didn't finish. The highlight of the dish was the accompanying steamed rapini vegetable.



Peter drank a Corona beer with dinner. Paul and I split a pleasant bottle of Brancott Sauvignon Blanc Reserve Marlborough 2003, a New Zealand wine.

I thought Paul and Peter's desserts looked rather like typical hotel restaurant quick-service food items. Paul had the ginger crème brulée that clearly had been made far in advance and thoroughly chilled, instead of being branded or broiled immediately prior to service. He reported an intense ginger flavor to the custard, but otherwise didn't find it noteworthy.



Peter had a square of chocolate mousse cake. It looked incredibly ordinary to me. A little pool of tropical fruit sauce garnished the plate, and several fresh berries sat in the pool.



On the other hand, I had a very enjoyable dessert. They took ricotta cheese, sweetened it, added a lot of cinnamon, whipped it, then piped it into a large bowled wine glass. The cheese was topped with lightly sweetened fresh blackberries and raspberries. It was a flavorful end to my meal that was light yet satisfying.

Surprisingly, we were not offered coffee during or after the dessert course.

The coffee issue highlights the major issue with the meal, though. The service was substandard. Now, at an ordinary national franchise place, the levels of service would have been adequate; at an elegant place with the pretentiousness and high prices of Café Promenade, the service was woefully disappointing. The food for the same course was not brought to the table at the same time. My fish was cold. There were no fish forks or fish knives. The plates didn't all match. We had to pour our own wine refills. The table was never crumbed. The three water glasses for the table had all been set on the opposite side of the table, and since I opted to sit in the chair instead of with Paul and Peter on the curved banquette, I never had a glass of water for the entire meal. When the wine bottle ran out, we weren't asked if we wanted more. And they never offered us any coffee.

Now, one of the great challenges of hotel restaurants is that often they are asked to do and be too many things. That's the case at Café Promenade, too, as they serve not only dinner, but breakfast, lunch, and even afternoon tea. I allow for these sorts of things in considering and evaluating hotel restaurants, but I have to say that Café Promenade falls short of expectations. While the setting is certainly beautiful, the food was fancy but uninspired and the service was disappointing. Had I been paying full price for the food instead of the great R.W. discount, I would have been much more disappointed. I would not object to another try at Café Promenade, since we had a very nice dining experience and the food was enjoyable over all, but as far as the fine, technical points of elegant fine dining, they miss the mark.


Paul's Kody Pose