Restaurants to Be Reckoned With

**** INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON

CONGRATULATING A COUPLE CELEBRATING THEIR ANNIVERSARY at the best-known inn in the country, a waiter tells them: "I always compare a good marriage to a fine restaurant. It takes a lot of dedication!" The Inn at Little Washington has been dedicated to its patrons' pleasure for nearly three decades. "It's white peach season," our host reminds us as he invites us to a pre-dinner cocktail in a jewel box of a lounge. "A peach Bellini to start, perhaps?" And so began my most recent visit to this romantic restaurant, its grande-dame good looks burnished by a subtle makeover and its cooking as memorable as ever. As always, a tray of exquisite hors d'oeuvres lands on the table, and my favorite bite is a tiny cone of tuna tartare topped with a tinier scoop of peppered mascarpone. Then the larger plates appear, in unison: a perfect diver's scallop dabbed with olive tapenade and treated to gazpacho at the table; a fricassee of sweet lobster, curried walnuts and tender gnocchi; "a little lamb duet" that partners parsley-edged loin and gingery tomatoes with a lamb kebab and a mushroom "moussaka." Are all the many flavors equal? They are not. But there's so much that's so cunning and seductive here, anything that's merely good gets relegated to the delete file in my head. Dessert in the garden is the path to take if the weather cooperates (crickets sing on cue!) and a tour of chef Patrick O'Connell's glamorous kitchen afterward is a must-see. Over drinks in the lounge, I marveled at the two-bite "Necco" wafers -- sheer potato chips sandwiching shimmering caviar. Each see-through chip bore a single leaf. "Did you notice the herb inside?" I asked my guest. He sighed and shook his head. "All I saw were stars."

· Middle and Main Streets, Washington, Va. 540-675-3800. www.theinnatlittlewashington.com. Open: for dinner daily. All major credit cards. Fixed-price menu: $138 per person Sunday through Thursday, $148 Friday, $168 Saturday.

**** MICHEL RICHARD CITRONELLE

AT MOST RESTAURANTS, THE AMUSE-BOUCHE IS ONE GRATIS BITE OF SOMETHING PLEASANT. But Michel Richard Citronelle is no ordinary restaurant. So patrons might be treated to two different displays of the kitchen's extraordinary range: one a visual play on cooked eggs, the other a luxe and creamy cake of minced green beans, ginger, grapefruit and basil oil -- the divine "green bean tartare." There are more elegant spaces in town for a grand dinner, but nowhere else is the open kitchen as thrilling to watch. And if the service needs tightening -- our call to place a reservation involved a long hold and an annoyed voice -- staff members such as sommelier Mark Slater are on hand to introduce you to (take your pick) a lovely $60 bottle of syrah or a $3,800 Romanee-Conti, the ultimate in pinot noir. Richard is the most-copied chef in the country for an obvious reason: His modern French food is some of the most dazzling you will ever encounter. Look for his eggplant "gazpacho" to show up elsewhere soon. The velvety puree -- liquid baba ghanouj -- is added to a bowl whose center holds bright cubes of vegetable gelees and a tiny tepee of perfect asparagus and beets. Think you don't like eel? Try Citronelle's thinly sliced glazed version, paved on a fragile surfboard of pastry, the eel's richness cut with a shocking Asian vinaigrette. In Richard's world, squab is cleverly transformed into "minute steak" and served with a beautiful circle of starch that pretends to be fried rice but is actually potatoes. And extraordinary lamb is rolled in porcini mushrooms and graced with a garden of glistening vegetables arranged just so on a balance beam of semolina. Eat your heart out, Paris, New York and San Francisco.

· 3000 M St. NW, in the Latham Hotel (near 30th Street). 202-625-2150. www.citronelledc.com. Open: for breakfast and dinner daily. All major credit cards. Entree prices: breakfast $8 to $20, fixed-price menu $95 to $155 per person.

**** MAESTRO

THE GREAT CHEFS OF WASHINGTON SHARE MORE IN COMMON THAN PRIME INGREDIENTS AND EXACTING TECHNIQUE. They also know how to share a fine joke with their patrons. Thus a pre-appetizer at Maestro, the most polished of our Italian restaurants, finds a warm salad of crawfish and tiny mussels in an herb sauce next to a cork-capped vial of a pale green liquid. A waiter instructs us to eat the solid, then the liquid -- which turns out to be (ha!) a refreshing chaser of green tomato soup. Visible in his stage set of a kitchen, Fabio Trabocchi is the serious talent behind your dinner, composed from dishes that fall into four categories: traditional, contemporary, vegetarian or chef's choice. No matter where you head, you'll eat sumptuously. In an elegant ode to summer, melon balls in three colors are arranged like musical notes on their plate, splashed with balsamic vinegar and dusted with crumbs of Parmesan and fresh mint. Gnocchi made with brandade is treated to a light foam of fish and milk, and suckling pig gets slow-cooked a full day, then presented as a rack, crisp bacon and shoulder, everything lapped with a sauce fragrant with fennel blossoms. A clever shopper with an eye for detail, Trabocchi puts as much care into presentation as flavor combinations. Thus, a flute of silken lychee panna cotta comes with a small globe of limoncello with a "stopper" of fresh rosemary. The chef's teammates, maitre d' Emanuele Fissore and sommelier Vincent Feraud, make sure you sit pretty and sip richly, and the background music is likely opera -- a fitting accompaniment to a riveting performance.

· 1700 Tysons Blvd., in the Ritz-Carlton hotel (near Chain Bridge Road), McLean. 703-821-1515. www.maestrorestaurant.com. Open: for dinner Tuesday through Saturday. All major credit cards. Entree prices: $30 to $70. Fixed-price tasting menu: Tuesday through Thursday $85 to $135, Friday $110 to $135, Saturday $135 to $155.

Hot Spots

** 1/2 BLACK'S BAR & KITCHEN

THANKS TO A $2 MILLION FACE-LIFT, the space looks better than ever. And thanks to chef Mallory Buford, the menu has never been more enticing. Whether you're perched in the clean-lined bar or in the dining room, which is set off with a life-size mural of a vineyard, be sure to get a few small plates to share with your table mates: Cod brandade fritters and delicate corncakes dabbed with green tomato jam hint at the kitchen's potential, which blossoms with the arrival of the entrees. Buford makes a great seafood stew and fries a beautiful fish, but he's just as at home with ingredients that once waddled or flew, as evinced by a bursting-with-flavor brined pork chop and a spice-zapped grilled duck breast. And their plate mates and potential sides -- sage-fragrant grits, sweet onion rings -- are good enough to star on their own. Give or take a service gaffe, and despite the noise, Bethesda's newest place to eat is also its most exciting.

· 7750 Woodmont Ave. (near Old Georgetown Road), Bethesda. 301-652-5525. www.blacksbarandkitchen.com. Open: for lunch Monday through Saturday; dinner daily; brunch Sunday. All major credit cards. Entree prices: lunch $8 to $15, dinner $19 to $30.