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1910 18th St. NW
(202) 483-2583
Hours of Operation and Prices
Dinner: Sun-Th 5-10:30, F-Sat 5-midnight; Entrees: $7-$15
Brunch: Sun 11-4; Entrees: $6-$9
Other Information
• Credit Cards: All major
• Dress: Casual
• Reservations: Accepted
• Parking: Street
• Handicapped accessible
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As its name implies, this restaurant on the cusp of downtown and Adams-Morgan has a warm-weather theme. The walls are lined with pictures of impossibly colorful fish taken by a local photographer, and the tables in the front bar room are dark sea blue. It's a fairly plain restaurant except for a couple of immense urns overflowing with dried flowers and two mirrored walls that give it a supper club look.
The menu is short, a mix of Middle Eastern - falafel, hummus, baba ghanouj, kibbeh and kebabs - with pastas, salads and a few inventive New American appetizers. Those appetizers are worth trying, yet the kebabs are the centerpiece of this kitchen. On the standing menu, the shrimp or lamb kebabs are terrific. The shrimp, rubbed with peppery spices, are so flavorful that you'd guess they were fresh rather than the usual frozen ones. The lamb kebab is lean and lightly marinated so that the meat is highlighted rather than masked by its seasonings. The chicken breast is well-seasoned, the filet mignon is tender, and each day there's a special kebab.
The kebabs come with a choice of four sauces on the side: a fragrant but tame tomato-basil; a tangy tahini that enhances most kebabs; a honey-mustard that overwhelms them all; and a fiery harissa for the adventurous. They are accompanied by broccoli, grill-striped zucchini and yellow squash. More important, the kebabs rest on a mound of utterly delicious pilaf - white rice tossed with a bit of wild rice and minced vegetables, well-seasoned and infused with the kebabs' juices, topped with some toasted pine nuts. The emphasis at Mediterranean Blue seems to be on traditional Middle Eastern cooking, and its kebab platters are bound to become a neighborhood staple. But its chef shows a talent for American invention that shouldn't be ignored.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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