Mio Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

Our friend Peter joined Robert and me for lunch today at Mio Restaurant downtown near McPherson Square as we begin to wrap up our Restaurant Week holdovers. Mio has been open for about a year, and they have a "Mediterranean inspired" menu of contemporary foods.

Peter liked the restaurant and the food a lot. Robert was more jaded, finding the food satisfactory, but not appreciating the decor (he called it "cookie-cutter contemporary restaurant"), and finding the service insufficiently attentive. I fell somewhere in between, though I really liked my food, and I probably have an overall positive impression of the place.

Robert and Peter ordered the same identical menus, so you won't have to look at so many food pictures (thanks, Robert, for taking the pictures during my camera's absence). They started with an unusual appetizer with no formal name, but which was an oval serving plate with toast, littleneck clams, a poached egg, and a large slice of paper-thin Serrano ham that had been flash-fried just crispy. Both of them liked it, and Robert's only complaint was that there was no salt or pepper on the table (or any of the tables, from what I could see) for him to use on his egg.


I wanted to be different, so I got the chilled beet soup with a chèvre (goat cheese) and, I think, crème fraîche blend sitting in the center of the bowl. The soup had a bright beet flavor with the chèvre adding notes of richness, making for a pleasant summer soup.


Their main course was the plancha grilled skate with white corn puree and brown butter. What looked like a big leaf of tempura basil garnished the top of the dish. Skate, of course, is a creature related to the stingray, and it has a nice, sweet, firm, white flesh that is easy to eat and remove from the bone. "Plancha" is a traditional Spanish cooking technique of grilling things on a hot metal plate. Both of them were pleased with their selection.


I, also, was pleased with mine, the Oaxacan-style "arroz con pollo"—chicken with rice—prepared with the chicken marinated with oregano and grilled separately from the rice. A little salad of watercress and curly endive topped the timbale of rice. I was a little nervous on ordering, though, as I wasn't quite sure what "Oaxacan-style" meant. Oaxaca is one of the states in the south of Mexico, and one of their distinctive local delicacies is fried grasshopper. Fortunately, that delicacy did not make an appearance today. Everything was well cooked and had a lovely flavor; a rich sauce adorned the plate tasting almost like a demiglace.


Desserts were also fun. Peter and Robert got the lime tart, a little round individual pie with a small scoop of "fresh cream" ice cream. Peter liked it, though Robert found his rather more mundane. I definitely got the best dessert, a warm circle of brownie-like chocolate cake dusted in powdered sugar with a scoop of chocolate-garnished peanut butter ice cream and a cappuccino-espresso sauce.



Peter washed down his lime tart with a big glass of milk.

And, that was our lunch. I thought it was a fun place, and I hear they do nice cocktails here at happy hour, too.