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3100 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, Va.
(703) 908-4995
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-5; Entrees: $7-$16
Dinner: M-Th 5-11, F 5-midnight, Sat 3-midnight,Sun 3-10; Entrees: $12-$21
Brunch: Sun noon-3, $3.50-$15
Other Information
• American Express, MasterCard, Visa
• Reservations recommended
• Dress:casual
• Validated parking at lunch, free after 6
• Nearest Metro:Clarendon
• Entertainment: Nightly blues W-Th, jazz F-Sat
• Handicapped accessible
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To start with what's most important: I'm greatly impressed by Blue-N-Gold's beers. Ask your waiter for a tasting, though, since the choice is bewildering. This is a restaurant with the focus squarely on liquids. To stretch that further, the best foods I've had at Blue-N-Gold have been the soups. Oyster stew, for example, is delicious. The oysters themselves have that juicy metallic bite of the tastiest raw oysters, and there are lots of them, in a roasted garlic cream with celeriac, rich and suave. Salmon chowder might sound less elegant, but it is every bit as sublime, the fish soft and moist, the creamy broth slightly more delicate than the oyster stew's.
In contrast, the Voodoo chicken entree is dry, chewy and flavored with little but cayenne. The crayfish etouffe of stringy shellfish and a glossy sauce tastes of nothing more than salt and cayenne. And the hot sausages, buried under too-salty sauerkraut, are only marginally better than the cold version. Yet this is not an inept kitchen, just an erratic one. Swordfish marinated in citrus juices and bourbon comes well-browned yet sufficiently moist, and shrimp Doubloons are also carefully cooked and moist, with a nondescript, shredded-crab stuffing.
For a brewpub with some sensational beers, this place has a decent kitchen. What's more, it's a great-looking dining room: Tables on two levels are lit with the most wonderful lamps, some looking like salads, others like peacock tails, even some like tongues of flame lapping at the walls. Blue-N-Gold's tables are close together, and the room is crowded. But even though it's noisy, you can hear your tablemates without strain.
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