Kiln — Restaurant in Alexandria

I just had the unique pleasure of dining at the Chef's Counter at Kiln. My fiance and I discovered this restaurant at New Kitchens on the Block, which is an annual showcase of up and coming restaurants within/near DC. They were serving a sweet potato and a peach bourbon cocktail. I was blown away by how this group of chefs could turn such a staple of the American kitchen into a unique and exciting dish. This is the “Ember Roasted Sweet Potato” currently found on their menu. The combined chipotle and chopped nut condiment paired with an agridulce sauce on the sweet potato will make you think you've never had a sweet potato before when you taste this. Walking out of that event, we immediately made a reservation.

Tonight we were treated with a 5-course menu that truly blew us away. The beauty of living in the DC Metro area is that if you want the best Mediterranean, Georgian, Ethiopian, Indian, Jamaican, Mexican, Vietnamese, etc. etc. cuisine you can absolutely find it here. However, The District of Columbia lies on the Potomac river just to the west of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. To the west of DC you will shortly find the Appalachian Mountain Range. This has always begged the question, “What is the cuisine of this region?” As much as you can find astounding restaurants with international motifs, I've never been to a restaurant in the DC area that showcases what can be found fresh in the mid-Atlantic and prepared to the level of a Michelin starred restaurant. I can stop looking. You can stop looking. And we can go to Kiln for that answer.

Executive Chef Matt Maienshein runs the kitchen like an all-pro Quarterback. And like any Quarterback worth their salt, you can tell that he runs it with the buy-in and respect of his team. As Carlos, Patrick, Cody, and others zipped around the kitchen, they were kind enough to answer any questions we had about the exquisite dishes being prepared before us. I was able to quickly assess that every chef in the kitchen loved being in this environment and working on this team. It became clear that Matt's connections with farms and fisheries live at the heart of this restaurant. He is meticulous in how he sources each ingredient and his and his team's experiences shape the dishes as they're put in front of you. They blend international flavors into this locally sourced produce to make each core ingredient in every dish shine. The asparagus was served with various sauces that absolutely brought forward the quality and char of the vegetable itself. The 18 hour cabbage changed what I felt one could do with cabbage. And the coulotte steak was just so damn good and paired so well with the broccoli rabe that I couldn't imagine a better main course to a dinner. And I already wrote about the magic of that sweet potato.

I'll rave about the cocktail program a little bit too. I had the “Cobblestoned” and the “Soul Kitchen” These two drinks were some of the best cocktails I've had in the DC metro area and I promise you I've been to various other Michelin guide and Michelin starred restaurants. The red wine foam on the Soul Kitchen was unlike anything I've had before. I suspect this restaurant will find itself on one of those lists in the near-future.

This restaurant is special. The Director of Food and Beverage, Betty Woodward, and Matt clearly have a vision. And they have the buy-in and additional creativity from their team and staff to make it an unbelievable reality.

Make a reservation and come here soon. As soon as word gets out, its going to be...

The menu prices would suggest a high level of culinary execution, or at least ample portions - we received neither.

We tried the country ham, seaweed bread, and a dish of greens for starters. For mains, we ordered the whole chicken, the mushroom risotto, the lobster gnocchi, and a side of crispy potatoes with malt vinegar aioli.

The ham was mildly flavorful, but nothing approaching a jamon serrano. It came with only a dollop of mustard and some of those long skinny “breadsticks” that I’m pretty sure came from a cardboard tube. 8 small slices of ham total. I could have gotten the same at Giant for $3.49 and had better plating.

The dish of greens was just radicchio with some herbs and a little acid-forward dressing. The predominant taste was, unsurprisingly, the bitterness from the radicchio. We all commented on how there was nothing the balance it - the vinaigrette and herbs did little to offset the bitterness. A sweet element, like mandarins, would have gone a long way to make this tasty. Otherwise, it was just something to suffer through.

The bread was good enough. The seaweed was gimmicky and didn’t add much. It’s just 4 dinner rolls. Why mess with a classic? We all commented that it was as if someone said “let’s just throw some seaweed into this and charge $12 for four rolls”.

The lobster gnocchi was passable. The gnocchi itself was tender and smooth, and the lobster and sauce were delicate. I wouldn’t order it again because I don’t love lobster, but if you do, you’d probably enjoy this.

The mushroom risotto was decent, with a nice pop of brightness that worked well with the earthiness of the mushrooms. With this dish, however, it was again an issue of portion size. It’s rice, guys… let’s not be so parsimonious.

The chicken was cooked well, but bland. The peanut “molé” sauce was bland. The whole thing was deeply uninspiring and boring.

The crispy potatoes were not crispy. They were whole new potatoes that I think had been prepared by parboiling, gently smashing, tossing in oil, and then roasting. But they weren’t crispy. They were not the salty bites of comfort food that one would expect from the description. They were overly large and, again, very boring. The aioli was thin and much too acidic. Where there should have been a balance between the malt vinegar and fat, there was really only an assault on my senses.

This place seems to have grand designs of progressive haute cuisine, but lacks the unified vision and execution to back it up. There was evident skill involved in some of the cooking methods, but poor understanding of flavors. If you’re going to serve mediocre food at luxury prices, at least make sure people are full...

I had a prior 5star review for this restaurant but felt compelled to delete it and update it to this new entry. I gave this feedback via email to the manager directly over email within a few days of our NYE visit. They emailed me back a few days offering to bring our group back to make the experience right.

I emailed the Betty W (the person I was told was the manager) on 26 FEB to take them up on their offer but I never heard back.

BEGINNING REVIEW: My party of 5 and I had reservation at KILN at 2130hrs on NYE , and I wanted to provide you and the Chef some direct feedback about our experience:

One of the most underwhelming dining experiences we've had in several years from soup to nuts. We are local to Old Town and we were so looking forward to this dining out on NYE and we have really nothing but regret. Some of the high level touchpoints to note:

1.) Reservation Scheduled for 2130hrs, we weren't sat until 2150hrs 2.) First Course didn't arrive to our tables until roughly 1045hrs 3.) Courses came out in incorrect order 2x (not a big deal but for what we paid, seems like a miss) 4.) The Food itself: a.) The soup had very little flavor; b.) Mushroom dish was very tough to eat and chew c.) The catfish was visually so unappealing that many left it uneaten at our table d.) The pork loin was very dry e.) The tuna meat was good but the broth was so far off from what would taste good with fish, it was very confusing f.) For a steak house not to have some type of steak course on NYE was very unfortunate g.) the cabbage was the only thing the table seemed to enjoy outside of the bread and butter.

5.) The Service a.) Waiter was nice but not really attentive, was surprised multiple times that our courses were delayed b.) The waiter noticed we were leaving a lot uneaten food, but did not ask for our feedback or if everything was coming out to expectations; c.) Out of a 3 HOUR seating, he asked me and my friend if we wanted a new cocktail only once d.) Our other guests ordered wine, of which the second bottle that came out was the incorrect bottle e.) 3.15hrs for a 10 course meal, we had no intention to stay that long and missed our follow on plans we had for the ball drop

6.) I tried to find the Manager on site that night for direct feedback but after waiting for about 15minutes i could not find them so I got your email from the hotel front desk

It was really an unfortunate experience given the prices charged and the lack of...