PassionFish

As I mentioned in my last post, restaurant choice in the suburbs is not always that...robust. It is fairly easy to find a fast food restaurant, a boring chain restaurant that promises you a good time in its TV ads, an unpretentious deli, a bare bones Thai restaurant, an uninspiring pizza place, and a sushi restaurant of dubious quality. But to find a white table cloth restaurant that lovingly and carefully prepares food from locally-sourced ingredients and employs a waitstaff intent on making your evening special is a rarity.

Say hello to PassionFish. It's the sole suburban outpost of the local (DC) restaurant group Passion Food Hospitality, which also owns the wonderful DC Coast, TenPenh, Ceiba, and Acadiana in the city. Though my children tried very hard to ruin our evening, we had a great time. The space is gorgeous: two stories tall with floor to ceiling windows and a subtle nautical theme throughout. The staff were wonderful and accommodating, and they graciously ignored my son's antics. The wine list was a case study in what a wine list should look like. The list included wines by the glass, champagne and sparking wine, large format bottles, half bottles, and full bottles, organized by red or white, new world and old world. We had a 2006 bottle of a Sicilian white, Grillo, produced by Feudo Arancio. Delicious. Medium-bodied, well-balanced fruit and minerals. A perfect summer white.

Most importantly, the food was first rate; any restaurant that can get a picky preschooler to eat fish (in this case, a complimentary smoked whitefish spread that was plopped on our table with toasted baguette rounds right after we sat down) wins major props. And they had octopus on their menu! The oft-ignored fish, which I can't get at Whole Foods, was grilled to perfection and served with pearl couscous, slivered olives, preserved lemon, and harrissa as a warm appetizer. In a show of how creative the restaurateurs behind this restaurant are, the kids menu is nothing to sneeze at, and they do not throw calamari on the menu, like every other restaurant in this country that wants to be taken seriously.

Their menu includes a raw bar, sushi, cold appetizers (lots of crudos and ceviches), hot appetizers, salads, soups, and entrees and sides. Our entrees were all fabulous. Instead of reciting what we had, check out their menu at www.passionfishreston.com. I had flounder, my husband had branzino with a side of seasonal fricaseed veggies, my MIL had arctic char, and my FIL had prawns. We skipped dessert in order to get the kids out of there and save our sanity. But we will be going back again...soon!