Timberlake's Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

We were near Dupont Circle the other day well past the normal dinner hour and still hadn't eaten. Despite the plethora of decent, cheap Asian restaurants in the area, Ryan wanted basic American style food. I warned him of its mediocrity, but he wanted to try Timberlake's Restaurant anyway, so there we went. Now, I don't dislike the place, I just don't have high expectations, and as long as one keeps things in perspective, it's fine.

I actually enjoyed my food (again, keeping things in perspective). I started with a cup of crab soup and then had a reuben sandwich. Nothing gourmet, but no complaints.

Ryan and Robert started with a spinach artichoke dip I thought rather bland. Robert's main course was the chopped steak special with mashed potatoes, gravy, and broccoli. I guess it was okay; Robert always cleans his plate and he seldom comments about food unless it's really really good or really really bad.


Ryan got a Tex-Mex burger with onion rings. His requested side of ranch dressing for the rings never materialized, so he had to go find another waiter to bring him some.


I passed on dessert, but Robert had a rather unattractively presented piece of key lime pie buried in whipped cream and Ryan had a brownie and ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and drowned in a sea of whipped cream. Nothing to write home about there.

The bigger problem was the service, which was rather slow, forgetful, and untrained. The guy seemed nice, but a bit spacy, and I was inspired before he took the dessert orders to chat him up and say, "I haven't seen you here before. Are you new?" And he was, somewhat—he'd been there not quite a month.