Thanks for the heads up. I went ahead and made reservations on Open Table for 2 placs we could never get in during RW: DC Coast and 1789 & I can cancel them if they aren't participating this year!

Jason, they just posted the participating restaurants on Open Table. I booked for Acadiana, Ceiba and Colvin Run...

Definitely call even if OpenTable shows as booked. I was able to get a 2 top at Farrah Olivia for Friday night!

Anyone been to Charlie Palmer Steakhouse for RW? I made a reservation there because it's the closest restaurant to me...

I'm assuming you're talking about Farrah Olivia?

After years of them being booked, I reserved 1789 WAY in advance to ensure I had a table for RW. Does anyone know about their menu? Do they offer the whole thing?

We just returned from a meal at 1789 that I can't even describe in words. The entire menu is included, with a $10 upcharge on the lamb and sirloin. I had the quail waldorf salad, the pork and the bread pudding and recommend all 3, my husband had the escargot, wild salmon and chocolate dessert with Bailey's ice cream; enjoyed them all, but my dessert was much better. Nice wine by the glass list, excellent, really knowledgable service.

We ate at 1789 last night (the 8th) and were very disappointed. My girlfriend had the oyster stew (mediocre) and salmon- with brioche pudding. I had the quail waldorf salad (good) and roasted chicken with cauliflower. Both entrées and their sides were EXTREMELY salty. We both really enjoy salt but this was overpowering. It was as though they had been using a tablespoon instead of teaspoon when measuring. Neither of us enjoyed it enough to finish our entrées. Luckily the desserts were phenomenal. She had the poached pear with ginger ice cream and I had the bread pudding. Hopefully the terrible entrées were an aberration, but we won’t ever be dining at 1789 again

I went to Zola last night. It was terrible. The host was rude, the food was disappointing. The only good thing was the waiter, who was very nice. I got the duck confit. It was bad. I will never go back again

BTW, the menu PS7 presented to us did not have any upcharges that I remember.

The duck at Circle Bistro is the best in DC in my opinion...

I was able to come close to it on my own recently with this recipe, but still not as good.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231436

I'm just curious if anyone actually went to I Ricchi...I was excited to go for my 1 year anniversary with my boyfriend until I saw this:
http://www.iricchi.net/restaurant_week_menu_Monday.htm
Thoroughly unacceptable! Did they really offer their full menu for RW?

I had dinner at Smith & Wollensky last night. very good. RW menu was fillet two ways but hey want do you want?

meat: http://flickr.com/photos/73852597@N00/350993568/
dessert: (yes thats a dinner plate):
http://flickr.com/photos/73852597@N00/351014320/in/photostream/

FYI: 21 P
"RESTAURANT WEEK at 21P!
January 8 thru January 16. 21P will extend restaurant week 1/17-1/31. 3 Courses for $30. Reservations before 6:15 pm and after 8:45 pm will receive complimentary 4th course. See our special menu:http://www.21prestaurant.com/"

Anybody have any suggestions for a fancy, trendy type restaurant? Something like Oya, but not there cause i've been there.

More FYI: Butterfield 9
"WINTER MENU EVENTS
Double Restaurant Week
January 8th - January 21st"
http://www.butterfield9.com/index.html

Pre-Theatre Menu 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM Daily
Post-Theatre Menu 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Sunday – Thursday
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Friday and Saturday
Three Course Dinner $35.00 per person
http://www.butterfield9.com/menus/menu_theatre.php

FYI: Cafe MoZU:
"*Pre-Theatre menu is available
daily from 5:30pm-6:30pm and
costs USD 30."

FYI: lavandou
Pre-Theater Menus
from 5:00pm to 6:45pm
"Grilled Hanger steak,Red Wine or Roquefort sauce, french Fries"
http://www.urestaurant.net/cinema.html

Vidalia was excellent as usual--a few upcharges. Very creative spins on common dishes (mac and cheese, pork--done 3 ways). 1789 was largely good to us--a few salty stuff as people have noted. Waiter saw my wife had trouble picking between cheese and apple crostada--he brought the 2nd for free. Nice surprise.

DC Restaurant Group:
the age of small micro-desserts is over. If you're gonna give me chocolate cake or bread pudding, I want it to be the size of a small mammal, at least. If Smith and Wollensky can hook me up with a slice of chocolate cake the size of my head, you can too.

Everytime RW rolls around I think of this site...

Anyone know what's on the RW menu for lunch at Farah Olivia?

Went to Rosa Mexicano wednesday, but decided to eat off the regular menu. For lunch RW: apps: chicken flautas, guac (for two or with $6 add if one), some salad. entrees: beef enchiladas, fish w/ achiote, chicken/fruit salad (don't laugh, looked great). desserts: only one, the coconut flan (very good if you like coconut and flan) This was the deal killer since my wife does not like coconut. Off the menu, ended up having the guac, made tableside, very good. For entrees had the asada tacos, EXCELLENT, tasty flank w/ melted cheese, a few small interesting sides, this looked to be the top dish in the place to me. Also had the goat (cabritos) taco, fine, not as good as beef (gotta love beef!). Tables get a larger bowl of rice and black refried beans for sharing. I've had lots of good Tex Mex in Houston, Pappasitos, Gringos, Ninfas, I'm impressed this food was very good, interesting flavors and all and VERY generous portions. Its not that RW menu was bad, it is ok, I'm sure those enchiladas are excellent and even the fish looked appealing, in fact all servings are generous here (as they should at a fine Tex Mex place). They are extending their RW menu for a second week.

I'm kind of tired of going to Corduroy and Tosca every RW, trying new places this time.

Went to IRicchi last night (had made the reservation before I knew they were serving a limited menu and you have to cancel more than 2 days in advance). The service was TERRIBLE. We were out of there in less than an hour. The food was quite tasty but I have never been rushed like that ever before, not even in a chili's ;) I prefer Notti Bianche if you are going to do italian, which i went to last RW imo.

Lunch at DC Coast was amazing. I had a fantastic scallop appetizer, and tremendous grilled hangar steak, which was an admittedly heavy lunch--especially when followed by a caramel chocolate cake! My friend had the squash soup and salmon, and was thrilled with her choices.
Last night's RW forray was to IndeBleu, and everything from service to food to atmosphere was outstanding. I would highly recommend the mushroom crepe, salmon and marshmallow ice cream. Friends had the shrimp and salad and loved them, although the shellfish bisque was waaay too fishy for my taste. The veal was too saucy, but the chicken was great. Would higly recommend both DC Coast and IndeBleu!

I would not advise anyone to go to Zengo for RW for the simple reason that they have a great lunch "pre" year round for $20. Go for it and have the calamari salad (laugh when they put it in front of you, it's so big I was full halfway thru), the "flat iron steak" and any of the sorbet/ice creams. This is the best pre combination in town right now (yes, I have had all three apps/entrees on this menu, all great, but this combo is the best of each). The food here is very good, too bad you couldn't have that sorbet, it would have been excellent, as was my mango sorbet last visit. I make my own ice cream (Loews cream, Sunnyside Farm eggs--when I can get them--you know what I'm talkin' about here!) and their hazelnut is exquisite, even better than Tosca's.

Hello all. So far, I've had one amazing RW experience, and one awful one.

AMAZING - Dinner last night at Rasika (6:15 pm). Very attentive service, excellent recommendations - the talak chaat (spinach appetizer), black cod, and galub jamun dessert were all very flavorful, wonderfully balanced, and well-proportioned. My dining companion is Gujarati (Indian) and tends to be very picky, and she was impressed with the flavor and freshness of the food (though it was not as spicy as her home-cooked cuisine.) :) She is also strict vegan, and they made some nice substitutions to accomodate her with no fuss whatsoever.

AWFUL - On the other hand, Mie N Yu for brunch today was the first dining experience that I have almost walked out of. They couldn't find our open-table reservation and made us wait for 15 min before seating us, then the server gave us attitude about my husband's request for a non-lactose containing dessert course. After waiting 40 minutes without any food, we flagged down another waiter to bring us our 1st course (smoothies!). Thirty min later, my husband flagged her down again and mentioned that we had been there for an hour and were still waiting for the remainder of our food. The server said, "No you haven't," and walked away. My husband spoke to the hostess, and suddenly our food appeared, followed promptly by the dessert course, each delivered by the hostess. The staff's explanation was that there were 200 people in the restaurant and the server was "Eastern European", as if that somehow explained the entire staff's overall inefficiency and rudeness toward their patrons. At some point, the original server returned and explained that the rude server was "her friend, and a very nice person" who was having a bad moment. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. We did receive a $25 gift card, though I have no intention of ever going back there to use it. I was very happy that we experienced Rasika last night, because today's experience was by far the most frustrating and disappointing I've had in DC.