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2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
(202) 296-7700
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-Sat 11:30-2:30; Entrees: $9.50-$16
Dinner: Sun-Th 5:30-10, F-Sat 5:30-10:30; Entrees: $18-$22
Brunch: Sun 11:30-2:30, $22
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• Reservations recommended
• Entertainment: Jazz at dinner
• Dress: casual
• Complimentary valet parking after 5
• Handicapped Accessible
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With most seafood restaurants, the best you can hope is that they will stock high-quality fish and simply treat it kindly. Kinkead's takes a breathtaking leap to another plane. Mussels take on a new personality in a heady lemony broth with slices of garlic and chunks of chorizo. Grilled squid, my favorite appetizer here, shows its most tender moments under a light coating of crumbs and herbs, skewered and grilled and bedded down with creamy polenta. Grouper grows tiresome elsewhere, but at Kinkead's it's at its most silky, encouraged into liveliness with a crunchy cornmeal crust, a subtle tomatillo vinaigrette and a crisp-edged potato-poblano hash. Hardly ever would I order seafood ravioli after the countless bland, pasty versions I've tasted. But at Kinkead's it's a star, the pasta filmy and the seafood filling haunting with shellfish flavors. What's more, teaming it with eggplant and fennel was inspired.
Did I say grilled squid is my favorite appetizer? So is Kinkead's seafood chowder. And its fried soft-shell clams with fried lemons. Not to mention its tuna carpaccio with shaved fennel salad. And did I call this a seafood restaurant? That's not to demean its meat dishes, which are far more ambitious than the usual seafood restaurant's nod to steak and chicken. Furthermore, the wine list shows a depth of wisdom, and the desserts are both homey and seasonal. Even the bread is excellent. The sprawling upstairs dining room at Kinkead's offers nooks and crannies, as well as a full view of the open kitchen. Its downstairs lounge invites diners who don't want to commit to a whole formal meal, and there's piano music to boot.
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