Opal, Chevy Chase, Washington, DC – John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog

Time for yet another dinner to celebrate my birthday! This time it was just for Nancy and me. Where to eat this time? Opal, just up the street at 5534 Connecticut. I’ve reviewed Opal twice, here and here. We went on a weeknight and the downstairs was pretty noisy, so we were accommodated with a table upstairs. I ordered a celebratory cocktail, a Woodford Reserve on the rocks.

I’ll pause to philosophize. As often is the case, I got a moderate pour. I regard such moderation as a false economy. A generous pour, as at La Ferme, for example, sets such a positive tone for the meal, as does an amuse bouche or any other bit of lagniappe, especially at the start of the meal. On the other hand, placing a fee for bread service, the chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant, or the hushpuppies at a barbecue place sour the mood. Back to the meal.

Our mood was brightened by Chico, our server. He did an outstanding job. He had mastered not only all of the different dishes on the menu but how they went together. It was a treat to watch him work with the young couple at the next table out to celebrate their anniversary. They were getting the five course “simple supper” and he discussed possible substitutions and choices for the entree, and made the occasion memorable indeed.

We began to order and Nancy chose the arugula salad. Chico told us that the salad was too big for Nancy, and suggested we split it. Here’s my first portion,

and enough remained on the platter, briefly, for a second round for each of us. The menu said it included green goddess dressing, radish, almonds, and parmesan, and as Chico confirmed, pesto. Nancy and others were crazy about this salad.

I decided to start with the half dozen oysters cooked with a smoky tomato butter.

I squeezed on the juice from the charred lemon to balance and enhance the sauce. The oyster crackers had a touch of dill, so I suppose they were house-made.

I chose the swordfish with … “Carolina barbecue.” No, I wasn’t going to get a side of pork from Wilber’s, worse luck. The “barbecue” was a sauce that included both mustard and tomato, mostly tomato. The idea of a mustard sauce was a big draw, but the dish was not what I expected.

It came atop creamed hominy, and heirloom tomatoes apparently were mixed into the sauce, which also included something crisp. As you can see, that’s a whole lot of sauce, enough to overwhelm the rest of the dish. I suppose it was just as well, as the tuna had been overcooked and dried out. The sauce counteracted the dryness, but it wasn’t the type or quality of sauce that I expected.

I also had suggested we share a side of the wood cooked summer vegetables in tamarind sauce.

Tamarind sauces are usually both sweet and sour or tangy. This tamarind sauce was all sweet, and there was a lot of it. I was hoping for more caramelization of the vegetables — a little char.

Nancy ordered the trout, and that photo does not do it justice. It arrived atop creamed hominy

graced with a necklace of egglant caponata summer vegetables with a black olive vinaigrette. There also was a side of thick and tangy labneh.

Nancy absolutely loved her meal. The trout and the vegetables, especially with the labneh, were just what she wanted. She enjoyed the complementary variety of flavors. Everything was cooked and seasoned beautifully.

The bill included a three percent surcharge, as noted on the website, and with tip was just over $225, which seemed hefty. I suppose I would have been more reconciled to it if that cocktail had been a La Ferme pour. The dinner reflected our two previous visits to Opal, both linked above. When it is good it is very, very good, and … sometimes it’s not.

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