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2100 P St. NW
(202) 223-3824
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-2:30; Entrees: $9-$23
Dinner: M-Th 5:30-10, F-Sat 5:30-10:30, Sun 5:30-9:30; Entrees: $10-$25
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• Reservations recommended
• Dress: casual
• Complimentary valet parking at dinner
• Nearest Metro: Dupont Circle
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Owners Michele Miller and Jean-Claude Garrat show off the dining rooms like a couple who've just moved in to their first house. Here's the sun porch, with its slanted glass roof and walls, its brick floor, its sunny disposition even on gray days. Inside are three rooms and a bar, the main room furnished with sound-muffling carpet, dark-wood chair rails accenting white walls, and an overlay of paintings, drawings and prints.
Their restaurant serves "Mediterranean style" cooking, which means you can choose from eight or more pastas, several couscous and paella variations, even entrees from Morocco, with fanciful names and flowery descriptions. The menu at BeDuCi - short for Below Dupont Circle - is one of those something-for-everyone conglomerations. With such a long and complicated list, it's hard to find just what the chef does best. Soups aren't in the running. Grilled portobello mushroom is more satisfying (how can a portobello mushroom be bad?), and an appetizer of carpaccio, gravlax and prosciutto is a heap of good things.
The handwritten list of specials is the page to scrutinize. One day the star of the meal was a bowl of steamed mussels and clams in an herbed lime broth, one of those dishes that tempts you to use up all the bread to sop up the sauce. When in doubt, order a pasta special such as sun-dried tomato linguine with fresh artichokes and olives or squid-ink noodles topped by a flavorful tomato sauce, with shellfish and artichoke slices. Among entrees, too, specials show the most care. Vegetarians can do well with "Heather's Roasted Vegetable Brique," a stew of mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, spinach, onions and carrots wrapped in a crepe-thin layer of phyllo.
Desserts are made by Michele Miller - the likes of homey brownies with nuts and birthday-cake-style fudge frosting; sweet caramelized pineapple cobbler that is much like an upside-down cake; and dark, moist chocolate cake with raspberry jam between the layers.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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