CityZen Restaurant
discussons in the past 3 months.
1330 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20024
(202) 787-6006 GO TO WEBSITE
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Located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in downtown Washington DC near the Potomac River, Chef Eric Ziebold’s CityZen has won numerous awards as one of the best restaurants in the US.
quick reviews (3 Reviews)
»CityZen - Unimpressed
My fiancée & I along with a colleague came to DC from NYC for a business meeting. On arrival at the Mandarin, we checked our Zagat app to look for a place to eat. To our surprise the best rated restaurant in the city was just a short elevator ride away. It was a pretty easy decision as we had to get up early.
The restaurant was beautiful, mostly full for a Thursday and we were looking forward...+READ
My fiancée & I along with a colleague came to DC from NYC for a business meeting. On arrival at the Mandarin, we checked our Zagat app to look for a place to eat. To our surprise the best rated restaurant in the city was just a short elevator ride away. It was a pretty easy decision as we had to get up early.
The restaurant was beautiful, mostly full for a Thursday and we were looking forward to a good meal. All of us ordered the three course meal and a recommended bottle of wine from the sommelier . We started with two back to back amuse bouche. Both were custardy and while good, nothing noteworthy or outstanding.
For the first course I had the pork jowl confit, my fiancée had the pumpkin soup with head cheese and our colleague had the artichokes. My confit was good, but over salted, the same could be said for the artichokes. The pumpkin soup, while not over salted, was again good but nothing outstanding – although it was my first time having head cheese and I really liked it.
The second course I had the duck, my fiancée the pork shoulder and I really don’t recall what our colleague had. But we all had the same comment, “They sure like salt.” I hate to keep using the same phrase, but again everything was good, but not outstanding. Not once did we utter “wow” or “You really got to try this.”
In the Zagat guide CityZen gets a 28 which is pretty much the top. In NYC anything above a 24, and at this price level, usually has a few “wow” dishes and a lot of “try this”, but none to be had at CityZen. In fact my fiancée & I swap plates and neither of us at any point tried to hold on to our plate. And I think my fiancée was relieved to get rid of her pork shoulder for my duck. So either the rating was wrong, very wrong, or it is confirmation that NYC restaurants are truly that much better. Note that I am not bashing DC, as I grew up here, but a CityZen would be hard pressed to get anything above a 23-24 in NYC.
The desserts were another story. Delicious. My colleague & I both had the Sky Bar and my fiancée had the pumpkin bread. Both were very good, although I do make a better ice cream. But the main star shined in both plates.
While a fine dining experience, the decor and service were great, the sommelier picked out a great bottle of wine and we felt well cared after without being smothered, however the food was not up to par, especially when considering the price and the ranking it receives in Zagat’s.-COLLAPSE
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»A Review of CityZen - it has the skill, but lacks the soul.
Full review with pictures in context here: http://uhockey.blogspot.com/2010/05/cityzen-washington-dc.html
Full Text Below:
I was number one on the waitlist for minibar on Tuesday, but I didn’t figure there was much chance I was getting in. With many of DC’s top tables booked for the other six days of my stay my backup needed to be something good – 2941, Marcel’s, Proof, The Oval Room, and...+READ
Full review with pictures in context here: http://uhockey.blogspot.com/2010/05/cityzen-washington-dc.html
Full Text Below:
I was number one on the waitlist for minibar on Tuesday, but I didn’t figure there was much chance I was getting in. With many of DC’s top tables booked for the other six days of my stay my backup needed to be something good – 2941, Marcel’s, Proof, The Oval Room, and others were considered but in the end I decided to go with my instincts – “hotel” restaurants generally provide excellent service for solo diners and with a long term Keller alum helming the kitchen of a restaurant consistently amongst Gayot’s top 40 food ratings each year I knew the food would hold up to the other kitchen’s on my tour itinerary.
Arriving at the Mandarin Oriental ten minutes early for my reservation at CityZen the hotel staff and reservationist couldn’t have been more helpful – doors were opened, “sir” and “doctor” used liberally, chairs and tables pulled out as I was seated (per request) at a table directly next to the glistening open kitchen where I would be privileged to watch Chef Eric Ziebold operate throughout the evening. Yet another Beard Award Winner, the third of my trip, Ziebold seemed to be at every station during my visit – a working man’s chef despite his critical acclaim. Matching the flawless kitchen the décor at CityZen was sleek, clean, and modern – everything in its right place, everything looking the part of a very fine dining establishment and surprisingly both the kitchen and the restaurant were quite quiet – Radiohead’s Kid A playing softly overhead.
Greeted moments after seating by my primary server for the evening, Renee, the service at CityZen was precise if not overly friendly – everyone did their job but no one seemed interested in knowing the diner or showing much personality. Questions were answered without delay, dishes described in exacting detail, requests (in my case for a substitution on the tasting menu, in the case of the table next to me for gluten free preparations) allowed without question, but everything seemed very stiff; fine-dining-by-number, if you will. Choosing the tasting menu and requesting the final savory be replaced by an item from the prix fixe Renee checked with Ziebold himself who stated it would be no problem, merely a $10 upcharge – much like in the kitchen it was clear that Ziebold was in total command of his restaurant.
Beginning the experience I opted for a mixed drink, in this case a CityZen Dark and Stormy with Fresh muddled Limes, house made ginger syrup, Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, Soda Water. A delightful beverage it arrived directly from the bartender moments before my amuse of the evening, Potato and Leek Panna Cotta, Lobster and Cajun aioli. A small morsel of chopped lobster beneath a buttery crisp the dish was approximately 2 bites and well balanced – the smooth and creamy custard and lobster forming a flavor not unlike a semi-solid spicy lobster bisque.
A follow-up to the amuse was three canapés – a Halibut Cheek Croquette on Tomato Confit, Bass Belly on Melted Leek, Head Cheese on Bread Soup. Confused as I generally expect canapés to precede the amuse proper I wasn’t about to complain about these choices, all three expertly prepared and cleanly presented without a lot of embellishment or fuss. All quite delicious I particularly liked the melt-in-the mouth croquette and the supple head cheese, specifically the way the smoky and melted collagen mingled with the garlic and thyme of the “soup.”
Arriving prior to my first course I was delivered two butters – a salted French option and an unsalted sweet Amish butter sourced from Pennsylvania. To accompany the butters three bread options were offered; Sourdough, Forcaccia, and Whole Wehat - all room temperature and replenished without requiring request. Serviceable but not extraordinary in any way I liked the Forcaccia with its smoky garlic tones best of the three.
Soft Boiled Path Valley Farms Hen Egg with Melted Spring Onion, Shaved Shoat Leg, Morel Broth would be my first proper course and it would also be my favorite of the evening. Flawless execution with the egg sous-vided to a consistency where the yolk and white were hardly distinguishable the dish came alive on mixing – the pungent spring onions, savory pork, and smoky morel mushrooms all flawless. Fine dining or not, I used some of the sourdough to mop the bowl clean.
My second course presented a heavier flavor profile and something I’d never tasted before – a confit of fish. Confit of Big Eye Tuna, Marinated Yama Imo and Yuzu Aioli was intriguing in its obvious Asian influence yet refusal to simply present a sashimi of Tuna. Served warm the tuna was supple, somewhat akin to a pan seared preparation with beautiful red flesh inside but a creamy exterior layer. Accompanied by smooth citrus aioli, radishes, and sweet vinegar marinated Japanese Yam the dish was again quite balanced with each ingredient serving a purpose to enhance the overall experience.
Continuing the trend of expert execution and clean plating the next dish was apparently one of Ziebold’s more famous seasonal creations - Beer Battered Chesapeake Bay Softshell Crab with Black Radish, Toasted Cashew, Rhubarb Gazpacho. The best softshell I’ve ever had, bar none, the crab itself was impossibly sweet while the bitter radish and acidic yet smooth broth lent some lightness to the otherwise hefty fried preparation. It was at this point, three courses into the five savories that I started to realize I’d seen and tasted preparations like this before – refined, flawless, cleanly plated, text book execution…Keller’s influence on Ziebold was evident in a good way.
If my experience with the first courses made me think about The Laundry, course four sealed the deal - Sweet Butter Poached Maine Lobster with Baby Bok Choy, Crispy Sunchoke, Lobster Veloute looked straight out of my photos from Napa and tasted just as excellent. Skipping the sous-vide and instead presenting the Lobster as a slow poached version in butter it was succulent and snappy. Balanced with buttery bok choy and Crisp Sunchoke in a broth made of butter and lobster coral – again, detailed and refined, even if not very ground-breaking or daring.
Arriving next along with my main course was the house-made famous Parker House rolls – delightful, buttery, steaming hot and served in an elegant cigar box…it is too bad the standard Bread service wasn’t this good. For my main, the $10 supplement, an Aiguillette of Pekin Duck Breast with Citrus Braised Rhubarb, Fennel Salad, Navel Oranges, Foie Gras Vinaigrette. True to its name, this “cord” of duck breast was classic in preparation – rose flesh between layers of crispy skin and it sat next to a similar cord of similarly textured lemony rhubarb – an interesting interplay for sure. Topping the dish was seared fennel, sweet oranges, and a glossy sauce that pulled everything together – rustic yet refined, east meets west.
Finishing my savories I was offered coffee – with the time approaching 11:30 I declined…at this point the kitchen itself was actually cleaning up (though pastry Chef Amanda Cook and her team still appeared hard at work.) Having heard good things about the cheese program none was offered and I decided not to inquire – instead I awaited my palate cleanser, a smooth but unexciting Vanilla Ice Cream with Sour Cherry Gelee that served its purpose but really seemed no better than cherry Jell-O with whipped cream.
For my dessert I was served a Frozen Valrhona Chocolate Terrine with Orange Scented Fudge Cake and Blood Orange Sauce. Small and elegantly presented the cake itself constituted approximately four bites. Tasty if not ground breaking the dessert featured a cookie crisp bottom layer topped with an ice cream exuding accents of cocoa and orange – sweet balanced with sour, perhaps my expectations were set too high given Cook’s recent Beard nomination, but I wasn’t blown away.
Having seen multiple neighbors receive the mignardise plate I was somewhat disappointed when mine arrived without the house made cupcake, instead featuring pistachio Marshmallows, Cassis Macarons, and cold chocolate Peanut Butter Bars. Inquiring about the cupcake I was told they’d run out – c’est la vie. Tasting the mignardises it was clearly late in the day – the macarons were crumbly and the marshmallows dry…I did enjoy the bars more than my dessert proper, however.
When it was all said and done I left CityZen sated and appropriately impressed by Ziebold’s skills but overall the meal felt flat. At first I thought the disappointment may have been due to the sheer number of excellent dining experiences during my visit to the DC area, but looking back I think the problem was that CityZen tries very hard to be fine dining and ends up lacking soul in its efforts. Everything is fine, everything is elegant, but throughout the meal you feel like the diner…you don’t feel like a “guest.”-COLLAPSE
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»CityZen
Here's a lengthy excerpt from my blog post about a recent meal at CityZen. You can find the photos on my blog. (http://ulteriorepicure.com/2010/04/21/review-blade-runner/)
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Every one of Keller's disciples, whose restaurant I've had the chance of visiting, has been in the kitchen the night I visited. Eric Ziebold was no exception. Of course, Ziebold has an extra incentive to...+READ
Here's a lengthy excerpt from my blog post about a recent meal at CityZen. You can find the photos on my blog. (http://ulteriorepicure.com/2010/04/21/review-blade-runner/)
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Every one of Keller's disciples, whose restaurant I've had the chance of visiting, has been in the kitchen the night I visited. Eric Ziebold was no exception. Of course, Ziebold has an extra incentive to show up for work - his kitchen is open to the entire dining room.
Our table, in the smaller dining room often used for private parties, was the closest one to the pass. Sitting on a concrete floor next to a glass wall lined with metal, I was surprised to find the noise level quite manageable. Only the deafening clatter of the whisk and copper bowl, which injected itself episodically throughout the evening, was slightly annoying.
Neither of us was terribly hot on the six-course chefs' tasting menu ($110). Preferring the luxury of choice, we ordered three prix-fixe dinners to share. We selected nine dishes, asking for the third main course to be halved. Therefore, we had two sets of first courses, a main course each, shared a cheese course, and each finished with a dessert course.
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Amuses Bouche
Vichyssoise Panna Cotta
Smoked olive oil, Steelhead salmon roe.
Olive Oil Custard
Red pepper butter sauce.
First Courses
Clam Chowder Crepe Soufflé
Littleneck clams, Peruvian purple potato, Applewood smoked bacon.
Grilled Guinea Hen Liver
Confit of Savoy cabbage, Perigord black truffle, and roasted guinea hen jus.
Pan Roasted Loin of Kanagy Farms Shoat
Sauteed apple, Brussels sprout leaves, faritytale pumpkin, and shoat jus.
(First course portion $18 supplement)
CityZen Pork Bun
Minced pork cheek, spinach and kumquat
Wrapped in a black pepper dough with melted head cheese.
(Supplement $17)
Main Courses
Pan-Roasted Guinea Hen
Boudin blanc, pommes Sarladaise,
chanterelle mushrooms and foie gras emulsion.
Crepinette of Florida Red Snapper
Caramelized Savoy cabbage, applewood smoked bacon, pearl onions, and grain mustard sauce.
Mini Parker House Rolls
Cheese Course
Ticklemore: Goat. Devon, U.K.
Idiazabal: Sheep. Spain.
Abbaye de Tamle: Cow. France.
Bleu d'Auvergne: Cow. Auvergne, France.
Accompaniments
Spiced Marcona almonds and candied walnuts.
Apricot compote and a pear-red pepper chutney.
Pre-Dessert
Mango Sorbet
Vanilla bavarois.
Desserts
Banana Fritters
Creme brulee ice cream and mocha coulis.
CityZen Rootbeer Float
Sassafras soufflé with tonka vanilla ice cream and spiced milk broth.
Petits Fours
Oatmeal Cookie Cream Pies.
Spearmint Marshmallow.
Toasted Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate.
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I have to be honest: Ziebold's menus have never interested me. Perusing them regularly over the course of five years, my imagination has never been captured.
And that seems to have been my reaction to every Keller and Keller alumnus restaurant I've visited. I've left every one of them shrugging.
So why visit this one?
Because everyone I know who has been to CityZen has highly commended the restaurant to me. And, because, I am on that eternal quest to have my expectations unexpectedly surpassed.
Hope springs eternal.
I arrived with my expectations heavily checked, though.
Whereas I expected to be mildly bored, I actually left the restaurant deflated.
By the end of the night, CityZen had managed to siphon off a good deal of my slightly half-empty glass.
Service, at first, seemed razor-sharp. But it quickly dulled.
It was a very busy night. And it was apparent in the lack of attention and wildly inconsistent pacing. We waited at least 25 minutes between a couple of our courses, even longer for dessert. This wasn't as much of a problem towards the end of the night - we were getting full - as it was towards the beginning.
Some restaurants are able to pull off the round robin-style of service seamlessly, a relay with well-rehearsed baton passes. Our rotating servers seemed more like last-minute covers trying to fill in the gaps.
My empty wine glass sat on our table for more than half the night, even though I said I wasn't having any wine. Silverware was misplaced.
Bread, which was served from a large cigar box, was stone-cold. It wasn't quite icebox-cold, but it was unnaturally cold. Cold focaccia is not good focaccia.
The cheese course, which had me particularly excited (a trusted friend had said the selection was especially notable), arrived on a plate, not on a trolley, as my friend remembered. It's not the trolley I missed, but rather, the implied ability to choose from a larger selection. More troubling, however, was the fact that our server wasn't sure how to identify two of the cheeses she was serving us. For a restaurant of CityZen's caliber, this was disappointing.
But these are all trivial concerns next to the extremely fishy-tasting snapper I had as a main course. I smelled its fishiness before it landed on the table. The snapper - two thick filets wrapped tightly in caul fat, skin-side out (a cleverly bound "Crepinette of Florida Red Snapper") - was beautifully cooked. The fish was moist and soft within, crispy on the top and bottom. But it was ruined by its odor. I left the majority of it uneaten, focusing instead on the bed of softened Savoy cabbage, whose hamminess helped mask its fishiness.
The pommes Sarladaise that accompanied Houston's "Pan-Roasted Guinea Hen" were limp and greasy; the guinea hen, unspectacular. The boudin blanc and a swatch of creamed spinach, however, were very good. Ziebold could have started and stopped with those two items and had a blue ribbon plate.
And this is what I learned about Ziebold's cooking from my narrow experience: I preferred his heartier, bolder-flavored creations. They seemed more honest. More present. Maybe, even more Ziebold?
My favorite dish of the night was my first course, "Grilled Guinea Hen Liver." It had all of the guts and gusto of a rustic country dish, yet the precision of a Keller alumnus. It was head and shoulders above the rest. It was the type of dish - the quality, not necessarily the content - that I expected to parade out of Ziebold's kitchen consistently.
The nuggets of livers were amazingly tender and the confit of cabbage unnaturally silky, bathed in a rich guinea jus. If there was one disappointing thing about this dish, it was the black truffle, which had no aroma whatsoever, tasting instead of bitter flecks of char.
My friend's first course, the "Clam Chowder Crepe Soufflé," was wan by comparison, not rich enough to be a chowder. It was like all of the ingredients of a traditional chowder washed up in a tidal pool next to an omelet. Creative, overly precious, forgettable.
Ziebold's more refined dishes struck me as being Keller clones. (That chowder soufflé even arrived on Keller's signature houndstooth Bernadotte china.)
The "Pan Roasted Loin of Kanagy Farms Shoat," for example, looked and tasted like it could have walked straight out of per se under Benno's tenure. The shoat was wonderfully tender. It came with excellent jus (clear as a bell, clean as a whistle), and perfectly turned canons of fruit and vegetables. It was all very textbook, and just about as exciting as one. Apologies to the Keller fans here, I don't know what's wrong with me - Keller-type dishes just don't grab me.
Both of the amuses bouche were bold and delicious volleys with which to begin the meal, if not a bit predictable. Something creamy with something salty. I especially enjoyed the red pepper butter, which punctuated silky olive oil panna cotta with sweet-salty savor.
Then there was the "CityZen Pork Bun," which was very odd. I had imagined it to be something akin to a steamed char sui bun filled with melting head cheese. Instead, this "bun," shaped like a burrito, was more of an over-sized dumpling. More dough than filling, it relied mostly on the golden, pan-fried crust on the outside for personality than anything in it. But the rosy bed of "minced pork cheek" - corned, apparently - was delicious.
Headed by Amanda Cook, the pastry department here is solid.
Those cheeses, as common as they were, were exemplary, especially the Bleu d'Auvergne, which was especially meaty that night.
Both of our desserts were sophisticated versions of simple classics. Sweet teeth should look elsewhere for a fix, these desserts were lean on sugar, focusing instead on the natural flavors of the ingredients. Cook targets dessert-eaters like me.
The highlight was my "CityZen Rootbeer Float," a creative reinterpretation involving a sassafras soufflé and an edible straw (made of potato flour, I believe). It would have been even better had the "spiced milk broth" been served in a little creamer so that I could pour it into the warm, fluffy soufflé like you would do with creme anglaise normally. Instead, the wonderful spiced milk - subbing in for the frothy head off a root beer float - sat in a shallow pool around a quenelle of vanilla ice cream.
"Banana Fritters" were surprisingly hefty nuggets, each filled with a mashed banana filling. They were accompanied by a daringly bitter chocolate sauce that was two parts smoky, one part earthy. This was an adult dessert. It begged for a glass of red wine.
CityZen is a handsome restaurant. It's predictably sleek and modern - grand, even. But it has hardly any character. It might be listed under "high-end, nondescript hostelry" in a catalog somewhere: plush settees; high thread count linens; floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, temperature-moderated , glass-encased wine racks. A gleaming kitchen. High ceilings. There's some Las Vegas in its pedigree.
Highlights, there were a few (I failed to mention the warm, buttery mini-Parker House rolls that arrived in a small cigar box with our main courses, and the excellent "Jack of Allspice" cocktail that came in a pretty, long-stemmed coupe). Disappointments, there were more.-COLLAPSE
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