Nage

MJ and I had our Restaurant Week dinner at Nage, at Rhode Island Ave NW and 16th St NW (there's another one in Rehoboth). It wasn't either one of our first choices, but seeing as we made our reservation kind of late, we had to compromise.

We started out with a bottle of Oxford Landing Sauvignon Blanc, which was quite refreshing on a hot, humid, and sweaty afternoon. We were ready to order quickly since we were hungry and had looked at the menu ahead of time. Now, I'm no expert in cuisines, but I'm a little mixed up about what their concept is, it's fusion of American (Southern), French, and Spanish or something? MJ started with the chilled avocado-cucumber soup, which was simply delightful - nice thick and creamy texture with a lovely limey finish. It was so pretty in presentation and the portion was generous. I decided on the bbq braised short ribs - oh my gosh, it was so tasty. The meat was so tender, it was melting in my mouth and the sauce was perfect in sweetness and tartness and spice, and the fried green tomatoes and the slaw that came with it were very complementary.

The timing was excellent, as we were just finishing up our appetizers, the entrees arrived. It seemed appropriate to go with seafood, since it's name means "swim" in French or it's a broth that one cooks shellfish in (How the heck do I know that?! I don't know!! I'm so confused - damn it, I hang out with foodies too much, ahem, MJ and CC!). MJ had chosen the pan roasted barramundi (we had to Google barramundi on our phones, thank goodness for fancy phones, how did we ever get by before?!), and it was absolutely delish!! It was cooked well, yet not dry, and the sauce was fantastic - I don't know what it was really, but again, it was fantastic. I ordered the summertime seafood plate, which consisted of lobster, mussels, clams, and shrimp cooked in a lovely beer based sauce with potatoes and little bits of chorizo. There was a lot of food, but shockingly, I ate the whole thing. Yum!!

As full as we were, we couldn't turn down the desserts! I experimented with the tomato and basil frozen yogurt- I know it sounds totally funky, and it was, but it was yummilicious. It tasted like tomato and basil and balsamic vinegar in a most wonderful, palate cleansing, frozen yogurt kind of way. MJ ordered the special of the day, which was a bread pudding, which was good, but honestly, I don't quite remember it, as the delightful frozen yogurt overshadowed it. We were stuffed and tipsy, yet we somehow managed to roll ourselves out of our seats and go home.

There are a few things on the menu that I'd like to try that I didn't get to this time around. I would love to try the grilled octopus salad and the bacon wrapped softshell crab from the appetizer section, and if I were to choose a different entree, I would definitely go for the bay scallops with black fettucini. If I had room for dessert, I would hope that they would have the tomato and basil frozen yogurt again, I wouldn't get anything else! My impression is that they're not that busy, and that's too bad, my experience was awesome!! Tasty tasty!!!!

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www.nagerestaurant.com