Acadiana Restaurant

Acadiana Restaurant

901 New York Ave. NW

Happy Hour and Dinner

April 2013

Last week I received an invitation for drinks at The Columbia Room which is part of Passenger dc (more about that in the next post). Since I had a couple of hours to burn I asked a friend to join me for Happy Hour and a little Nosh at Acadiana Restaurant. 

Acadiana is part of the Passion Food Restaurant Group. Its located across from the DC Convention Center at Mt.Vernon Square. Take the metro green or yellow line to Mt.Vernon square although on street and valet parking were available.

This was my fourth visit but my friends first. We decided to sit at the bar even though we had dinner reservations. 

The interior is very tasteful but not stuffy (even though there are traditional white linen table clothes). The bar area overlooks the main dinning room with less than 6 high tables plus the bar  that seats about 20ish. Nothing particularly interesting about this area. 

Mixed crowd in business attire and polo shirts and jeans. The wait staff was very attentive and polite and the noise level was tolerable. The bar menu had $7 drinks, house wines and nosh.

We started with a couple of glasses of the happy hour red with the Creole and Boudin Balls. We loved our choices, as my partner commented to our waiter "as you can see we love balls". Oh well, its true (giggle) they were yummy, moist, seasoned just right not harsh. Happy hour portions in that they were small plates. No worry because we wanted to save room for dinner.

We decided to share 2 entrees so we got the Pan Roasted Crisped Duck and Grillades with Grits. Duck is my favorite and this dish did not disappoint.  It was explained that the duck is prepared over 3 days. While the skin was crisp and very  flavorful the meat was so tender. The portion was rather large (half a duck) on a bed of dirty rice and collard greens. The Grillades were served over cheese grits and mushroom pan gravy. I am not sure if the flavor of the duck made the Gillades taste a little bland, but I was less impressed. Having said that it was very good, very tender, moist, great portion and went well with the grits. Needless to say there was little left over.

Biscuits are served with this butter and honey concoction that my friend began to tweet about. I decided not to post the food pics because the lighting did not allow for the best outcome.

The staff was attentive never letting our wine glasses go dry. The team did a great job anticipating our requests and we were not left asking ourselves "where is the server" and this was a relief because when I go out to spend my doe I really don't want any regrets! 

Bottom line is that we will surely be back. The food was great, we felt very comfortable and everyone was very professional.