The Oval Room is a serious restaurant. This Ashok Bajaj restaurant has a dining room that skews formal, and luxurious ingredients such as caviar, truffles, and foie gras often woven into the modern American dishes. It is known for attracting DC power players and is well-positioned as a business or special occasion dining destination.
Helmed by award-winning Executive Chef Bryan Moscatello,* The Oval Room delivers sophistication and elegance. One dish on the current menu gives you the gist: duck breast with rhubarb, strawberry, scarlet turnip, hyssop leaves, and licorice jus. Sounds terrific, right?
The Oval Room Executive Chef Bryan Moscatello
On Tuesdays throughout the summer, Chef Moscatello plays with his food and gives diners a thrill in the process. Test Kitchen Tuesdays features a $45 three-course menu that changes weekly. Guests can benefit from the chef’s experimentation with new techniques and ingredients, and sample dishes before they appear on The Oval Room menu.
I had the good fortune to experience this gem of a menu:
The Parents Are Away So Its Breakfast for Dinner |
Fennel Seed & Sage Caramelized Pork Belly | pancake · maple · chili · brittle
Pork belly paired with Cup of Joe- coffee, bourbon, maple syrup, and Bailey’s
Steak and Eggs | beef tongue · quail eggs · potato tots · caramelized onion dip · steak sauce
Steak and eggs paired with Over Easy- egg white, amaretto, rye, and lemon
Smoky French Toast | butter pudding · orange marmalade · blood orange sorbet
Smoky French toast paired with Rise and Shine- orange cream, vodka, grand marnier and aperol (not pictured)
Whimsical, delectable, eclectic- if you favor dining that’s fun as well as delicious- mark your calendar for Test Kitchen Tuesdays at The Oval Room. A $25 beverage pairing caps off the delightful experience, and is so worth it. The Test Kitchen Tuesday menu is available exclusively on Tuesdays, from 5:30 p.m. to close. The menu can be enjoyed in the 12-seat bar/lounge or on the 40-seat landscaped patio (weather permitting).
Up Next:
Who Cooked Roger Rabbit | July 31, 2018
Rabbit Liver Pate | truffle · apple · brandy · brioche
Rabbit Mignon | amaro · porcini · hazelnut · sorrel
Chiffon Cake | cream cheese ice cream · walnut · carrot · currant · candied rabbit pancetta
*Chef Bryan Moscatello served for two years as executive chef of the award-winning Calistoga Ranch in Napa Valley, part of the five-star Auberge Resorts Collection, where he oversaw the culinary operations for the property including The Lakehouse restaurant. From 2014 to 2015, Moscatello served as executive chef at The Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, where he gained a Forbes Five-Star award in 2015 for Element 47 and oversaw all culinary operations including seven world-class dining and beverage venues at the AAA Five Diamond hotel. Moscatello served as a chef-partner of the Storefront Company restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, from 2011 to 2014.
The Oval Room, 800 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
