B-Too - The Belgians Are Coming

B-Too

1324 14th Street NW

B-Too Main Dining Area

B-Too is a spankin new Belgian restaurant located, where else, on 14th Street NW. Let me just say that the woman who invented french was a genius right (giggle)? I mean everything is better when you add french. Like, Le French Fries, Le French Kiss, Le French Twist, Le French Vanilla, La NoshDC…see. Is it me or are Belgian dudes HOT!! I think the most famous Belgian Americans know is Jean-Claude Van Damme, that man is like a fine french wine. He can kick your az$, do a split all in french. Does not get much better than that! And that Hunchback dude was a little more attractive when he started speaking that french!   

Jean-Claude Van Damme!

Okay, this is not a beef cake blog so lets get on with this…… 

One of my foodie partners, VH1, sent a message…"we gotta do B-Too. The Chef is the guy from the cooking show"(she mentioned some chef show). Well it don't take much more than that to get my butt in a seat. So I hopped on the 52 bus and headed up to Logan Circle. Now I also have the review for another new Frenchie that recently opened down the street so stay tuned for that.

If you are anything like me, you starve yourself all day, pour over the menu looking at the entree's at work thinking about what you gonna order. I like to go for at least three courses plus wine but that didn't actually happen here. More on that later. I also took a look at the information about the place and when I saw the Chef I realized that its the same guy from Belga Cafe. I have long been a fan of Belga's and actually went for dinner there a couple of weeks ago. I still saw some hunky Belgians working there, service was outstanding but the Mussels where over done so I looked around for Bart and he was no where to be found. Low an behold, he's moved uptown and opened B-Too.

On his site Bart say's “I’ve become known as ‘the Belgian guy’ for putting Belgian food on the map in D.C.,” and "I’ve received a lot of compliments from Belgians visiting D.C. who say they can’t find this level of food back home.” Wait, how long has this place been open that so many Belgians have been there raving about the food? I thought they very recently opened. How do you say, 'slow your roll' in French? Well, I guess we have no way of confirming this but I guess we should just be grateful Bart's put Belgian food on our map. Although that's entertaining, its not as clever as the 'arrival' page which gives United and Brussels Airlines flight information from Belgium to DC….priceless! I don't know about you but with all this incoming traffic I am buying some Brussels Airline stock tout suite!!

Well, VH1 and I were waiting on TR to arrive so we sat at the bar for a bit and had  wine but no nosh. B-Too has a happy hour menu and you know me…I LOVE discount drinks! I had the red wine. VH1 was there before me and the previous bartender forgot to show her the happy hour menu so she actually missed out on the discount but complimented her selection.

Once seated, we had a few questions about the menu and as always we asked for recommendations from the server. She was very helpful but she seemed a little green to me. One thing that may seem odd to mention but for some reason it stood out to me was when we asked for salt and they brought  this diner like shaker. You know the small glass with metal top. I was expecting something a little more interesting given the venue and how fancy schmancy the food presentation was.

TR got the Spinach and Garlic Chowder, Brussels Sprouts and Salmon, VH1 got the Waffles with Blood Sausage followed by Monkfish and Mac n Belgian Cheese (I think I ate most of it that) I got the Giant Shrimp and the Duck (surprise). Now as you can see from the photos the food presentation was rather elaborate. 

Blood Sausage and Waffles

Now I like interesting food from all over the world but I like my art on the wall. Just saying, the food arrangement was a little off putting but that didn't stop me from digging in….and guess what? Well just look at the pics. 

Duck Before

Sans Duck

All of these pictures were taken BEFORE we touched our plates of course except for the empty dish. When the Monkfish arrived it looked half eaten to me. Of course it wasn't but the presentation struck me as odd. VH1 said she really enjoyed it. We both enjoyed the Mac n Cheese it was very good.

Giant Shrimp

Tada! 

The Giant Shrimp was just that, one really big shrimp and regrettably not very flavorful. The Duck although odd looking was good. During dinner TR mentioned that the Salmon was good and I can vouch for the Sprouts. They were very good.

Monk Fish

Monk Fish

Brussel Sprouts

We really where looking forward to dessert but the selection was not interesting enough to temp us  and that has NEVER happened before. It seemed like half the choices had waffles and since we sampled VH1's waffles from her first course it was not something we wanted to repeat.

Salmon

Something that I notice more often now is that the staff tried to kinda bum rush us a little. I mean we were still eating and drinking so ahhh, back off Monsieur. Not cool. So bottom line is that for the most part we enjoyed the food. While I thought there was nothing outstanding about the Duck (Cork Wine Bar down the street does it better), VH1 and TR thought better of their choices. I will eventually return to try the mussels and the beer selection is outstanding. 

DC and especially this area of the city has really stepped up the culinary game and if a venue wants to stand out from the pack then they may need to be a little more well, outstanding.