By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

The only restaurant to make an appearance in every dining guide since 2000 is this place in Georgetown. One reason for that: Michel Richard is among the country's best and brightest chefs. Few others have his gift for weaving textures and colors into every dish, or his playful wit. The Frenchman's amuse bouche, for instance, might be a single bite of four miniatures, including a crab cake the size of a quarter and a ratatouille-filled taco not much bigger than a postage stamp. I adore the light crunch of potato and the silky feel of carpaccio-thin fish in his tall and elegant tuna napoleon "nicoise," which is such a crowd-pleaser that "we can't take it off the menu," a server cheerfully tells me. To order Richard's eel transformed into schnitzel, his veal translated four different ways on a plate that resembles a landscape or even his splashy fig tart is to buy admission to a fine-art show. So why not embrace the place more wholeheartedly in the star count? Once trendy, the underground dining room with its color-changing mood wall is "very '90s," as a partner in crime put it. And though the service is effusive if you happen to be recognized as a person of interest, the unknown diner can encounter more of a chill. Following a friend into Citronelle several minutes after he had been unceremoniously squished into a seat, I inquired about his reception. "I felt like a number," he said, and I sighed.

Fixed-price dinner menu per person: three-course $105, nine-course tasting menu $190, chef's table $350. Jackets are required.