DC Winter Restaurant Week: Zaytinya

Saturday, January 16, 2010

DC Winter Restaurant Week: Zaytinya

Mission: Enjoy a four-course meal at one of DC's hottest restaurants for $20.10.

Station: Zaytinya

Classification: Contemporary Greek, Turkish, and Lebanese cuisine.

Legion: Insana, Mike, Nicole, Ryan, Luan, and yours truly.

It seemed like mission impossible, getting from Shady Grove to Gallery Place/Chinatown because of track maintenance that closed a stop along the way. I braved two trains and a standing-room only shuttle bus that smelled like moldy corn chips to get to Zaytinya. An hour and a half later, I sat down with my crew for the coup de grâce.

The pita/flat bread was marvelous and was even tastier with the hommus (puree of chickpeas, garlic, tahini), baba ghannouge (fire-roasted eggplant, tahini, lemon, garlic), and olive oil (that was cleverly paired with a sweet balsamic vinegar Z).

For my first course, I chose fattoush - tomato, cucumber, red onion, green pepper, radish, pita chips, pomegranate vinegar dressing. It was very good - the fresh veggies were refreshing and the pita chips provided a delicious crunch.

Up next was kotopoulo youvetsi - chicken, orzo, tomato, kefalgraviera cheese. This dish was ordinary and bland. Definitely not one of the highlights for me:

Third course was lamb bahar - spice rubbed lamb kebab, tabouleh, tahini sauce. It was fantastic - the lamb was so tender.

Dessert was to die for! Turkish delight - walnut ice cream with Skotidakis Farm goat's milk yogurt mousse, honey gelee:

Here are a few pics of other dishes our table selected and shared with each other.

Garides me anitho - sautéed shrimp, dill, shallots, mustard, lemon juice:

Soujok spetzofi - Syrian lamb and beef sausage, tomato pepper stew (this was amazing):

Greek apricots and yogurt - marinated apricots, vanilla yogurt cream, apricot sorbet, pistachio powder:

Mission: Completed! My taste buds are thanking me for experiencing Zaytinya.

The ride home was just as brutal only this time, there was an unhappy toddler who's blood-curdling screams for the water bottle his mother was holding caused the woman in the seat next to me to suck her teeth and mutter "Spoiled brat" under her breath. I love the DMV.

Digs Restaurant Week,

Susan