Washington Renaissance Hotel, Washington, D.C.

It's Grand Lodge weekend. Friday night was the formal banquet, held in the big ballroom downstairs at the Washington Renaissance Hotel downtown, across from the Convention Center.

They served a salad of mesclun greens and vegetables with an Italian-style vinaigrette dished out by waiters for the first course.


The main course included a filet mignon, a piece of salmon sauced in cream and sweet fruits, a triangle of polenta, and steamed vegetables. While the salmon was a little nondescript, the filet was unusually good for a hotel banquet. Of course, fish is hard to hold for a service for several hundred at a time.


Each table also got a bottle of chardonnay and a bottle of shiraz. For dessert, we got pears poached in red wine with dulce de leche sauce and a strawberry garnish. It was a nice idea, but my pears, poached or not, still weren't at the desired degree of ripeness (and hence tenderness) for an optimum experience; in fact, several at the table ate their dessert and then asked what it was.


My main complaint with the evening was that they had set up several cash bars where the drinks were unexpectedly expensive and where they did not take credit cards.

The catering office at this hotel does a surprisingly excellent job. The food was better than expected for a hotel banquet in D.C. and I was very impressed with the service. They used a zone system where we had the same few waiters tending to our table the entire meal, and they were friendly and competent. Now, that is a rarity in hotel catering!