I recently had the chance to visit the J. Child exhibit again at the Smithsonian’s American History museum. I also took advantage of the time in D.C. to visit two great places: Zaytinya near the convention center near G and 9th; and a new place for me, Sushi Taro.

“Z” is a tapas or “small plates” type of place, but instead of Spanish food, is centered around Greek and mediterranean fare. Everything we had, from the veal cheek, to the crispy eggplant, to the heirloom salad was great. Bright flavors, well-seasoned, and great service too.

Another delight was their trio of ice creams dessert… they make these in-house, and you can choose three. The strawberry/lemon verbena one was great, but the rich vanilla with phillo and their thyme ice cream were even better. I highly recommend Zaytinya.

Sushi taro was interesting: we opted for a tasting menu. They offered three of these: a “traditional” one, one centered on fish, and a third centered on soft-shelled turtle. We took the sushi route, and we experienced almost twenty different tastes of different seafood. The meal was significant, but not so much that you left feeling uncomfortable. The tastes between different fishes is subtle, but when that next piece is alone on the plate or with two companions, the comparisons become intellectual. Intellectual eating doesn’t sound fun, but I tend to think folks who seek out rare foods or food experiences are considering what they eat in a very intellectual way.

Sushi Taro ended the meal with a mango ice cream that sounded pedestrian. Coupled with green tea, this dessert was quite extraordinary. While new to me, I’d recommend this experience to others who want to experience more traditional Japanese flavors.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at 9:19 am and is filed under Out-of-Town, Restaurant Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.