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Middle and Main Streets, Washington, Va.
(540) 675-3800
Hours of Operation and Prices
Dinner: M-W-Th-F 6-9,
Sat 5:30-9:30,
Sun 4-9
Closed: Tues. (except October, May)
Fixed-Price: $78-$98
Other Information
• MasterCard, Visa
• Reservations required
• Dress: Jacket & tie
• Handicapped Accessible
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Rare is the restaurant worth driving longer than an hour and spending more than $100 a person, but this one is. Even fewer acclaimed chefs stay close by their stoves in these days of chef-as-celebrity, but Patrick O'Connell does.
The Inn is modeled on an English country house, every corner touched with beauty (don't miss the flowers in the restroom stalls). The service is a ballet, with no detail overlooked. Dinner is fixed-price, starting with a demitasse of memorable soup and perhaps a couple of canapes, then four courses and tiny after-dinner sweets. Appetizers are the problem: The seasonally changing menu contains so many dazzling creations that in spring alone one might want to order the seafood risotto, the quail with homemade blackberry vinegar, the tuna tartare and certainly the napoleon of lobster and potato crisps with caviar. But then there's also the lamb carpaccio, the luscious salmon five ways, the two versions of foie gras (one with ham and black currants, the other cold, with pears and riesling jelly). And if either the boudin blanc with sauerkraut or the vitello tonnato is on the menu, I wouldn't dream of missing it.
While entrees are not necessarily the stars, the array is sumptuous. Seafood is abundant, typically lobster with grapefruit, native rockfish, or a tuna steak topped with foie gras. Red meat makes a strong showing with a magnificent tenderloin, rack of lamb in various guises, venison or veal. Then there's the unexpected vegetarian show stopper, what the menu bills as a "portobello mushroom pretending to be a filet mignon."
Desserts walk a tightrope between country-homey and urbane, with plenty of seasonal fruits represented in between the half-dozen chocolate selections. But the choice is made easy: You can sample seven desserts on one plate, or just settle for an after-dinner drink - and then wish to start this great show all over again.
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