The Early Word on Clarendon's Green Pig Bistro

Green Pig Bistro has been open in Clarendon for the past two weeks now and already the early diners are lighting up the comment boards with raves — long raves — about chef Scot Harlan's offal-centric new restaurant. Pretty much everything out there waxes ecstatic about Green Pig Bistro, with minor complaints here and there. But what is it exactly that makes the early diners so excited? And, more importantly, does Green Pig Bistro merit the trek out to Virginia for the DC residents among us? Time to find out.

The Great News: One Don Rockwellian left a one-line post soon after the restaurant's opening: "It's only the second day, but this is the best restaurant in Clarendon right now." Then, a week later: "This place is truly excellent. It probably has my favorite burger outside of DC, and possibly in the area. You should go, and do it soon. Everything on the menu will be 30-40% more expensive in a month, except the entrees, which will be 20-30% more expensive." [Don Rockwell]

The Rave: Most Yelpers are excited about Green Pig Bistro, but maybe none more so than this rave: "Now- the food. WOW. The pork tacos were very tasty and a nice little portion for the price.  The bacon cheeseburger, which is 30% ground bacon (YES!), was out of this world. Where do they get their pigs? And the melty, homemade cheese was perfect. We also went with the fries topped with duck liver gravy and cheese. This was out of this world. The gravy had chunks of melt-in-your-mouth duck in it and I assume they used the same, melty homemade cheese to top the fries. This dish was like fancy cheese fries on crack." [Yelp]

Pretty Much The Only Bad News: Of course, leave it to Yelp to have pretty much the only negative review: "The food was okay, but not impressive.  We had the twice baked potato gnocci, which did not appear to be twice baked and was also generally very dull.  We also had the crispy pig tacos, which have promise, but were executed poorly.  They were almost entirely cabbage.  If they had had more crispy pig, I think they might have been good." [Yelp]

The Constructive Criticism News: One Don Rockwell commenter mostly liked what they found at Green Pig Bistro, though they had a few recommendations for improvement, too: "The food, overall, was very strong. The rabbit cake was superb. The skate was good, but not great. I liked their version of poutine, flavor wise, but I wish they would crisp up their fries more before putting the gravy on. The twice baked potato gnocchi were light and fluffy, but I felt that the sauce was pretty bland. The sweetbreads, in my mind, had too many things going on and not enough sweetbreads. The pieces that I had, however, were cooked perfectly and were flavorful. Duck confit salad was another winner. The parker house rolls were gone in 10 seconds, but please put more butter on the plate next time (everyone loves butter)." [Don Rockwell]

The Foursquare News: They've already got 96 check-ins on Foursquare and all the tips so far are positive — in particular for the "bangin" pork belly for two and pretty much any drink from bartender Andrew Shapiro. [Foursquare]

The Bar News: This Don Rockwell commenter brings up an issue that sounds like a good problem to have: "The dining room is ridiculously hot (I run cold, so If *I* say it's hot, it's sweltering), but I like sitting at the bar since Andrew is such a great bartender. They have a chalkboard special where the drink changes about every night since they only have 3 drinks on the menu. The only problem is that the bar gets so ridiculously crowded. I'm hoping that the crowd dies down a bit when the hype is gone, but I can't guarantee that since I've been recommending and bring lots of people TO it! " [Don Rockwell]

The Worth a Trip From DC News: Now should you make the trip from DC? This Yelper says yes: "Green Pig is the best new thing in Clarendon.  If you live in NoVa, congrats.  This place is a legitimately awesome bistro. ... If I lived in Virginia, I would be here frequently.  Even as someone who hardly ever leaves the District, there is a strong chance I will make a few repeat visits.  I would strongly recommend Green Pig Bistro for locals, and I'd even say it's worth a trip or two for prideful District residents.  This is a unique and excellent experience worth your time." [Yelp]

The Elite Yelper News: And what do the know-it-all Elite Yelpers think about this place? Well: "This was the most offal place I've been since moving to the DC area. If ever I have another restaurant owner contact me after reviewing their place on opening weekend, I'm simply going to link them to this review, to show that you can not only produce excellent food, but have a properly trained staff and an efficient kitchen, with just a bit of extra effort. To me, there is no excuse for poor service and bad food, no  matter if you've just opened or are going on 20 years in the business, if I'm a paying customer I expect to get my money's worth, and Green Pig Bistro absolutely delivers in that regard. This is a restaurant actually worth visiting Virginia for, something I rarely ever say about places that don't feature food from the Asian continent." [Yelp]