Ah, 'tis the month of January---the month that brings cold weather, snow, freezing rain, and bitter temperatures to the DMV. This weather certainly makes us question why we live here and not in a place with warmer climate year round. But January is also the month where approximately 300 restaurants in the DMV participate in Restaurant Week. Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Week is a special event where participating restaurants offer three-course, prix-fixe meals for brunch, lunch, and dinner. Brunch and lunch is usually priced at around $22, and dinner is typically priced at about $35. Restaurant Week is an excellent opportunity to visit an expensive, new, or fancy restaurant that you might not ever go to otherwise. As foodies, we obviously have to go to Restaurant Week when it happens! We decided to enjoy the splendors of Restaurant Week this winter at Honeysuckle, which is located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Honeysuckle is a hidden surprise along M Street NW, where there are several fast food and fast casual places, but Honeysuckle stood out immediately when we arrived. When you enter the restaurant you are greeted by this cool, colorful mural featuring bees and unique skull-faced creatures. These skulls are not quite DÃa de los Muertos skulls, but they are very similar in style. Once you pass the mural, you go down a set of stairs and meet a portrait of Chef Hamilton Johnson holding a pig. It's odd, but oddly cool at the same time. Just past the portrait is a gorgeous frosted glass door that you enter the strikingly beautiful restaurant through. The first thing you'll probably notice is the huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling above the bar area, and said ceiling is fully painted with an artsy tattoo mural. If you visit Honeysuckle, definitely take a look around the bar area and at all of the decor in the restaurant. Honeysuckle's decor is modern, contemporary, and classy with quite a few eccentric notes throughout. The restaurant was not very busy when we arrived, but it was almost packed by the time we left for the night.
Honeysuckle's menu features Southern cuisine with a twist. Chef Hamilton is from South Carolina and has a passion for Nordic cuisine, so he combines those to deliver his interpretation on Southern comfort food. We opted to start the night with drinks. Damien had a Port City Brewing Monumental IPA from their draft list. It is a decent beer with solid, hoppy flavor. Simone had a glass of Austrian wine---Grüner Veltliner, Steinagrund Reserve---which was comparable to a Riesling, not very sweet but not dry either. Our waiter seemed a bit ambivalent about Restaurant Week and low energy, but nevertheless his service was prompt and courteous. Prior to placing our meal order we were given banana bread with butter and jam---it was very good. It would have been even better if it were served warm, but it was still quite tasty and devoured rather quickly.
For Restaurant Week, you are provided with options to choose from for each of the 3 courses. For the appetizer course, Damien ordered the Grillades & Grits. The grillades in this dish were made of pork cheek and were incredibly flavorful and tender. Pork cheek isn't something us regular folk usually cook, so it was a treat to have it. The grits were prepared well, but cold have used a bit more seasoning to make them perfect. The grits were served under the braised pork cheek and featured piquillo pepper and onion jam, both of which added great flavor to the overall dish. Simone's appetizer was the Pastrami Smoked Salmon, which was an interesting dish. The appetizer was sort of like a deconstructed potato salad with smoked salmon, a "beet 1000 island" dressing on the potatoes that created a pink hue on the dish, smoked roe, caraway croutons, and watercress as garnish. Simone wished that the watercress did not still have their stems, but that was a minor criticism. Overall, there was a good, but interesting flavor to the appetizer that might not make it for everyone.
For the second course, Damien's entree was the Cider Braised Beef Short Rib. The beef short ribs in this dish featured truffle-sheep's milk grits, pear butter, cipollini onion, and watercress as garnish. Talk about an absolutely incredible meal! The dish was beyond delicious and the short rib was cooked perfectly. The cider combined with the pear butter gave this dish subtle, wonderful sweetness in every bite. And the grits were excellently prepared and have a great depth of flavor, especially compared to the grits in the first course. The large cipollini onion didn't do anything for Damien and could have been left off the plate in his opinion. But otherwise, this was such a phenomenal meal! Simone ordered the Crisp Duck Leg Confit, which was accompanied by parsnip-dill risotto, a kumquat marmalade, and burnt honey jus. There was not a lot of meat on the bone, but the duck was cooked well and deliciously buttery, and easily fell off of the bone. The parsnip-dill risotto had a nice sweetness to it due to the marmalade and jus. It was a delicious meal, but Simone just wished there was more to the meal overall.
For the final dish of the night, Damien had the White Chocolate Blondie. This was a little out of his comfort zone because he does not normally order desserts with white chocolate, but he was compelled by the description and wanted to give it a try. The white chocolate blondie was paired with pine nut praline, blueberries, vanilla crème, and fennel ice cream. The blondie itself was very tasty, and each component of the dessert worked really well together when you had them in each bite. Now real talk---fennel is certainly not everyone's jam, but Damien generally liked it in this ice cream. The ice cream was definitely a bit fennel-forward for sure, so if you are not a fan of fennel, we wouldn't suggest this dessert. Simone had the Chocolate-Brown Butter Mousse dessert, which was made of baked bitter chocolate, salted hazelnuts, cocoa nib, fudge, and chocolate meringue. The mousse was enjoyable and not too decadent. When ordering this dessert, Simone had pictured a more traditional mousse served in ramekin or trifle bowl, but Honeysuckle's take on it was lovely and worthy of ordering.
Overall, Honeysuckle would get a 4 out of 5 from us. The food was tasty overall, but some of courses left us either wanting more or just seemed to be missing something. Each dish seemed to be a glimpse of the full, regular menu which makes us want to return. The decor was definitely a homage to pop culture, eccentric art, and bees, which is a play on the restaurant's name. Honeysuckle would be a great place for a date, a friendly dinner, or a group outing. There was a private room we noticed on our way out that could easily accommodate a group of up to 8 or 10 people. Overall, the decor and food left a wonderful impression on us! Until next time, we hope you try a new restaurant and enjoy some good food. We will be back next month!
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| Cool wall mural at the entrance to Honeysuckle |
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| Fancy (interior) door to the restaurant |
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| Artwork by our table |
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| Honeysuckle's Restaurant Week Menu |
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| Banana Bread |
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| Close-up of the Banana Bread :) |
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| Monumental IPA by Port City Brewing |
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| Glass of Grüner Veltliner, Steinagrund Reserve from Austria |
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| Grillades & Grits |
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| Close-up of the Grillades & Grits appetizer |
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| Pastrami Smoked Salmon |
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| Cider Braised Beef Short Rib |
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| Other side of the Cider Braised Beef Short Rib |
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| Crisp Duck Leg Confit |
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| Yum :) |
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| White Chocolate Blondie |
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| Chocolate Brown Butter Mousse |
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