Fish Lines By Phyllis C. Richman Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 13, 1998

The previous chef, David Craig, brought Pesce to new levels of accomplishment, and the crowds grew larger. But after he left, even while the new chef settled in, I saw no thinning of support. Pesce is simply a hit. It packs in diners as tightly as canned sardines (which this all-fresh fish restaurant would never serve). It accepts dinner reservations only for big groups, it won't seat a group until everyone has arrived, its tables are tiny, and its prices are high enough to make you wonder where the tablecloths and the fresh flowers are. The menu, which changes twice a day, is written on a large blackboard that's propped on a chair while you try to decipher its chalk marks. Pesce doesn't make it easy to remain faithful.

What this restaurant has going for it – besides adorable wooden fish on the brick walls and a chattery, neighborly good cheer – is a great fish supplier. Pesce buys the best and serves it at its freshest. Who cooks it becomes secondary. Within limits.

When David Craig left for the Tabard Inn this summer, Pesce hired Justin Nielsen, who'd been the chef at the Danish Embassy. He got a slow start, took off for a honeymoon, and only gradually has made his mark in the kitchen. The basic quality of the fish has remained consistently excellent, and manager Regine Palladin, as ever, instills her style. On the surface, little has changed.

The menu is still long on appetizers – seafood, a couple of soups and salads – with the perennial oysters on the half-shell, tuna tartare, Caesar salad, steamed mussels and crab cakes. The main dishes – three entrees of pasta and about six of fish and shellfish – are as complex as ever. Grilled fish is served in big white bowls with platforms of polenta and seasonal vegetables, all adrift in some seafood broth. This is modern fish cookery, experimental and intricately seasoned.

The wine list remains short, its emphasis on Italian and French whites, and decently priced. The bread basket is abundant and varied – though the focaccia is spongier than it once was. The service is efficient and jaunty, which means the tables can turn quickly without diners feeling mistreated.

The changes Nielsen has brought to Pesce are subtle. His cooking has been more flawed than his predecessor's, but it has steadily improved. Everything's going in the right direction. And he has brought one particularly strong suit: his Danish background.

The most sensational dish I found among the many I tried at Pesce over several months was pan-seared baby flounder with a Scandinavian flavor. It made me want to either come back again the next night or hop a plane to Copenhagen. Nielsen, I discovered, is a wizard with dill. The dish was simple (maybe that was part of its success).

Sparklingly fresh flounder fillets were seared until golden, cooked through but not dry, and served on a buttery dill sauce the texture of thick cream. Brussels sprouts, so soft they nearly melted yet delicate rather than cabbagy, teamed with diced potatoes to help sop up the sauce. It was a comforting and elegant dish.

Pesce is also one of the few restaurants where it's worthwhile to order shrimp. Except for the small and tasteless ones that show up in the pastas, they are fresh rather than frozen, thus sweetly flavorful. They're often served as an appetizer – pricey but worth it – either grilled or sauteed. They are also part of the occasionally available plateau de fruits de mer, which is a mini raw bar of oysters, clams, cooked mussels and stone crab with three sauces and seaweed salad. At $22.50, it can be a dramatic first course for two to four people.

Few of the other appetizers have been memorable. Oysters fried in soggy batter make you wish you'd ordered them on the half shell, crab cakes are pedestrian, mussels are fine but no better than routine, and brandade of cod – here served warm – tastes more of mashed potatoes than of salt fish. Any of these might satisfy, but seldom do they excite.

The pastas are complicated by many ingredients, rich with cream or salty with an excess of olives, bacon or anchovies. With minor adjustments they'd be perfectly good, since they are imbued with nice tangy broths or buttery mascarpone.

Nielsen's distinction lies in the fish entrees, especially that dilled flounder, his moist, thick steamed cod or his Spanish mackerel, crisp-skinned and velvety on a pool of intriguing octopus broth with wild mushrooms. He plays up fish we seldom see on other menus – rich, oily mackerel that is so fresh it doesn't taste fishy; Hawaiian opah that seems like a cross between tuna and swordfish; pink-fleshed char. Nielsen shows no instinct, though, for shellfish stew, which has been overwhelmingly salty and unfortunately reminiscent of spaghetti sauce. And in general the fish outshine their vegetables. While long cooking works with the Brussels sprouts, the limp asparagus, gummy parsnips and bland black beans are a disappointing surprise, given the precision of the fish cookery.

Pesce doesn't make many of its desserts, but as with its fish, it shops impeccably. Thus, in addition to a flawless little creme brulee and the inevitable tiramisu, you can find well-crafted fruit tarts and superb sorbets. Remember the blood orange sorbet at the next sign of drear winter.

Pesce – 2016 P St. NW. 202/466-3474. Open: for lunch Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday noon to 2:30 p.m.; for dinner Monday through Thursday 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., Sunday 5 to 9:30 p.m. All major credit cards. Reservations accepted at lunch and for six or more at dinner. No smoking. Prices: lunch appetizers $5.50 to $9.50, entrees $8.50 to $17.25; dinner appetizers $5.50 to $10.50, entrees $13.50 to $19.50. Full dinner with wine, tax and tip $35 to $55 per person.

Back to the top