Central Michel Richard — Restaurant in Washington

My boyfriend and I had dinner here in celebration of my birthday. This is a brasserie that serves both American and French food, and has won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant and Best Chef. Chef Richard calls it, "my American bistro, with a French accent."

We had a wonderful table directly in front of the kitchen, so we got to see the action (which we love). Service was interesting; we were attended to by at least three servers throughout the course of our meal. Our first server put in our orders for salads and then we never saw her again. Our second server brought us bread and our appetizers, then fled away like Cinderella at midnight. Our third server brought us our entrées and dessert. It was like a tag team operation and while all of them were perfectly polite, it was a strange dance of servers.

I ordered a frisée salad with bacon and poached egg. It was divine. I absolutely loved my salad. I thought all the flavors worked harmoniously and goodness, the poached egg. It was small and delicate but just so delightful. Honestly, if I had just ordered frisée salad alone, I would have been a pretty happy camper.

I opted for the iconic Michel's fried chicken, which is Central Michel Richard's signature dish. Southern style fried chicken inspired from KFC (hence the extra crispy texture which is actually made from old bread crumbs, raw chicken shavings, chicken stock, and milk) that sits on a fabulous potato purée. The chicken skin is crispy, meat is juicy, and did I mention the potato purée? It's amazing. But to me, the potato purée was more amazing than the fried chicken, which was essentially a more expensive, less unprocessed, "elegant" fast food dish. I guess it's hard for me to be crazy about one $25 fried chicken no matter how you try to put it on a pedestal.

My boyfriend ordered the other iconic dish of Central Michel Richard, lobster burger. Unfortunately, his lobster was undercooked and overall, he was a little disappointed given the hype and smell of this burger. We also shared a plate of mac and cheese, which was decent enough but nothing too extraordinary.

+Frisée salad with bacon and poached egg: $15 +Michel's fried chicken: $25 +Lobster burger: $30 +Mac and cheese: $9

For dessert, we decided to share the celebration cake. It's an ice cream/sponge cake with tons of fruit encased in a crunchy chocolate shell. Best of all, it's topped with a sparkling candle that looks like a mini-4th of July at your table. We broke open the chocolate shell and ate the ice cream/sponge cake housed inside. To our delight, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries tumbled out. The cake is also topped with more strawberries and blackberries. It's a great birthday cake to share amongst your table. Since it was just the two of us, we barely made a dent in the cake and since it was an ice cream cake, we couldn't take it to go.

Overall, a 3.5...

Great food and great service! We had no reservations and got in by sheer luck. (We sat in the waiting area and pulled together tables). The night began with a platter of pâté, sliced meats, and pickled vegetables. All very good, but I was expecting something a bit more varied. That being said perhaps the fault was mine because the menu said exactly what was on the platter. We had a salad with soft boiled egg, a great salad but a little on the salty side. Also we ordered their tomato mozzarella salad. The tomatoes were out of this world, as was the cheese, but the whole salad was very small. This one was so good I could have eaten a main portion of it! We all had cocktails, one was called a gin fizz, this was served at room temp and took me for surprise. I thought perhaps it was just a mistake, but we had two people order the drink and both were the same. We also had a blueberry drink, waaayy too sweet for me but the girl who ordered it seemed to like it. We also had two bottles of wine, both very reasonable. For mains we tried their famous lobster burger. This was the low point of the meal. I was very disappointed with this, it seemed like a really poor effort, fried, and put on a bun. If you didn't charge me for it, I wouldn't have known there was lobster in there. Not worth the 28$ price tag. We also had the steak Tartare, it was very good, and a very large portion. This was served already dressed, and not with the traditional garnish. Beef cheeks were nice, but again the temp was an issue. One of the girls ordered the mussels in a pot. This was the highlight for me, too many mussels to count, and huge. They were all cooked perfectly with not a hint of rubber-ness. The only drawback was that there was not enough bread to soak up all the goodness left behind by those little devils. All in all a great meal. I would recommend this again without any reservations. All my notes are minor and didn't disrupt the meal in any measurable way. The next time I go I know that I'll try a whole new set of items, and have no doubt that they...

This is fundamentally our favorite restaurant in DC. We've been here six or seven times in the last few years alone, and it absolutely never disappoints. It's our Thanksgiving ride-or-die, our special occasion must, and the epitome of our perfect brunch. We've found a way to work Central into many different occasions over the past several years, and we'll enjoy going back for years to come.

Dining service is excellent, and starts and ends with a French bistro comfort that avoids much of the pretentiousness so common for the cuisine. The Google blurb for the restaurant calls it "convivial"...I'm not sure I've ever heard the word used in a sentence before, but it is absolutely suitable for Michel Richard's Pennsylvania Ave masterpiece.

Central absolutely crushes what you'd hope for, and surprises in places you might not expect. There is an apparent degree of care in the creation of the restaurant's signature cocktails, and it's beer list has a variety of both local and far-flung draughts. Its signature dish is the Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes, and rightfully holds it's place as the quintessential meal for a first-time visitor. However, it's often-rotating retinue of truly wonderful dishes means you could throw a dart at the entrees and end up with your highlight of the month or year. Dishes sporting lamb and pork shank define excellence, and the Saffron Bouillabaisse has a downright frightening depth of flavor. Oh, and it's got legit wine, don't you worry.

Patio (++) and brunch (+++) give alternative dining options to test the limits of Central's perfection. It is, after all, right on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Service is very, very good (shout out to Boris!) and they'll be more than happy to help you find your happy place on the menu. Speaking of happy places, don't skip the small plates and appetizers! The gougeres (cheese puffs), bacon and onion tart, and tartare of filet mignon are sublime. You will find yourself magically transported to a Parisian bistro at some point in time during the meal, that is...