mio

mio
1110 vermont avenue NW suite 1 (between L street & thomas circle), washington, DC 20005
tel: 202) 955-0075
hours: lunch: monday-friday 11:30am-2:30pm; dinner: monday-thursday 5pm-10, friday-saturday 5pm-11pm; bar/lounge: monday-thursday 5pm-12am, friday-saturdya 5pm-1am; happy hour (selected house drinks and draft beers): monday-thursday 4pm-7pm

what was consumed: restuarant week - beet soup, egg & clap appetizer, salad, grilled chicken with rice, mini burgers, skate, desserts~

as the summer 2009 restaurant week is upon us, i'm reminded of a time in the recent past when my co-workers and i head over to a delightful downtown eatery: mio.

so, christine met up with the rest of my co-workers as she was green with envy at all of my stories of the good food we were eating during restaurant week. of course she was always welcome to join us, but it wasn't until this trip that she finally took us up on our offer. after making the short trek from the office to vermont avenue (which felt longer than it actually was. yes, we are wimps), we finally entered a pretty empty dining area that was mio. now, i don't think it was empty for any other reason than us getting to the eatery right when it opened (literally, we saw the people unlock the doors right before we reached over to open them to enter) to ensure that we would get a table (one of my (now former) co-workers refuses (with us, anyway) to make reservation. yes, you know who i'm talking about - hee hee). additionally, there were 5 of us hungry hungry hippos - not relaly a pretty sight (i.e., the servers may need extra help to accomodate us hooligans).

4 of us decided to participate in the restaurant week menu while one of us decided to get the mushroom and veal ravioli (which was tasty, but not a part of the restaurant week special. shucks). anyway, we started with a cold beet soup (c was working at domku and i imagine i had recently left my position there; we couldn't help but make comparisons. our conclusion? both are delicious in their own way. yay for diplomatic answers! haha), a poached egg with clams (i ordered this one!), and a mixed green salad (i'm sure there were fancy names for all of these things, but i have since forgotten). can you ever really go wrong with clams? there were also bits of bacon/ham in the mix and everyone knows that everything is better with bacon.

for our entrees, we had an assortment of things: grilled chicken and rice (2 of us, one of whom was me ordered this), mini angus burgers, and skate. the burgers were fantastic, as was the skate. even mr. i-don't-like-burgers (who is also the same mr. i-don't-make-reservations) even said the burgers were delicious! and oh, wow, the onion rings. deep fried onions? delicious. the grilled chicken and rice was cooked "oaxaca style" (i don't really know what that means) was tasty as well, but a bit salty for my liking. yes, even me who prefers the savory over the sweet. it was just a bit salty. of course, that didn't prevent me from eating the whole thing because it was still so freakin' delicious.

and then, dessert. the dessert lovers always fight for whatever they love and i usually get what's left over (for tasting). since there were 4 of us and 2 options, we got 2 of each. a tart lemon flan like custard thing and chocolate cake. the lemon dessert was quite tart, causes faces to pucker just a bit. but, you know, some people really like it. once you get past that sourness, though, it's such a refreshing (albeit on the sweet side) dessert. the chocolate cake was good too, but i think it was a german cake (i'm not so much a fan). of course, that didn't prevent all of the people in our party from polishing off all of the desserts - ha!

during the meal, there was very little talking (if i remember correctly) beyond compliments about the food and the sharing. that's a good sign of deliciousness, but does not lend to as entertaining of a post. just look at the photos and wipe the drool from your mouth please (oh, wait, that's just me). gawd, this is making me hungry ... per usual.

in the past, mio has extended their restaurant week specials up to a month (thus the appeal for us - if i recall correctly, we visted mio after the official restaurant week was over). looks like they're extended it this year (summer 2009) as well. in fact, looks like they're doing different "restaurant week" menus every week. definitely something to check out! YUM.

online: www.miorestaurant.com