Maura Judkis Wants To Hibernate at Roofers Union All Winter

Maura Judkis reviews Roofers Union in Adams Morgan for the Washington Post. She awards two stars to the restaurant helmed by Top Chef contest Marjorie Meek-Bradley. The restaurant is more casual than Ripple, where the chef also works. It excels in comfort foods like sausages, chicken pot pie, and French onion soup. She writes:

"The main dining room of Roofers Union is the Everyman of restaurants, like its working-class name implies. It is at its best serving up casual, likable fare: sweet-and-sour wings, oozy mac and cheese, a burger that gets a kick of spice from a chipotle aioli. It is the only restaurant I would consider going to just for an order of French onion dip — crispy and creamy, a retro snack one friend deemed 'addictive.' It doesn’t come with enough chips, but servers are happy to bring reinforcements."

She calls the food at the restaurant's downstairs bar Jug & Table "hit or miss" but admits the focus there is really on wine. Beer is also a strong suit at Roofers Union, yet cocktails are "trickier.’ The entire experience ends on a high note when Judkis actually gets to taste the dessert the chef made on Top Chef. Host Tom Colicchio apparently liked everything about the Greek yogurt mousse, pistachio sponge cake and saffron-poached oranges. [WaPo]

Tim Carman reviews Kizuna Sushi and Ramen for the Washington Post. He awards one and a half stars to the Japanese restaurant in Tysons Corner. Although he finds a few bright spots among the sake selection, a few of the ramen varieties, and the quality of the fish, he ultimately declares the restaurant "entry-level Japanese." He writes about the sushi:

"… a few of chef Phet Inthilith’s signature rolls border on the pornographic. I can barely wrap my mind around 'Rock’s lobster' — lobster tempura, sun-dried tomato, Asian pear, asparagus, wasabi tobiko and wasabi tartar sauce — let alone my jaw. Same for the 'piggie in & out,' which sounds like a term from 'A Clockwork Orange,' but is a maki roll stuffed with shrimp tempura, asparagus, bacon and then topped with more bacon as well as avocado, grilled salmon, spicy mayo and barbecued eel glaze." [WaPo]

The entire "100 Very Best Restaurants" list by Washingtonian is now available online, although the Top 20 were revealed last month. Fiola Mare in Georgetown take the top spot. The critics declare that chef Fabio Trabocchi's restaurant isn’t even Italian. Instead, it’s in a league its own— "Trabocchian." They write:

"The chef, now in his forties, has evolved a style all his own...—a style that embraces influences from France, Japan, and America. No chef in our area is cooking with more subtlety or power or with more expressive range. Take his filet of poached cod, paired with puréed artichoke and chickpea crema—it’s a trio that feels both unexpected and inevitably right. Or his Japanese madai tartare, with its perfect embellishment of grapefruit and paddlefish roe." [Washingtonian]

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