Hook -- a restaurant review

I've never reviewed a restaurant here before, but I wrote about Hook a couple of months ago, and my partner and I are in DC this weekend. I made reservations over a month ago to make sure we got a good table, because I really wanted to try it -- and I'm very glad I did. If you live in DC or you visit and you're looking for an excellent seafood restaurant, Hook is much more interesting and creative than Legal Sea Foods or McCormick & Schmick, the fish comes from sustainable sources, and the produce comes from local sources. It costs a little more, but it's worth it.

It starts with the decor, clean and modern. The downstairs bar is busy and loud. If you want something quieter, be sure to make a reservation and ask for a quiet table. They'll probably seat you upstairs where the colors are warmer and there's a lot less noise.¹

A meal consists of three courses, portioned so that you leave feeling satisfied but not stuffed.

The crudo is bite-size portions of raw or house smoked fish with three accompaniments. My partner started with the king salmon. I had the house smoked selection (salmon, mackerel, and bluefish). I had always thought of mackerel as a cheap fish. No more. Prepared well, as it was here, it has a pleasant salty tang and is a perfect way to prepare for the main part of the meal.

For the second course we both had the beet salad with goat cheese, crushed pistachio, and pickled watermelon. The yellow beets had a wonderful mild flavor that perfectly complimented the pistachio. Pickled watermelon was new and delightful. The dressing was red beet puree with olive oil. The menu changes according to what is available in the market, but our very knowledgeable server told us that the beet salad has been on the menu since Hook opened. I highly recommend it.

My partner had dorade (wood-grilled, served whole, bone in) over roasted yukon gold potatoes with grilled sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives. He let me taste it. The dorade had a wonderful delicate flavor enhanced by fresh thyme and slices of lemon stuffed inside during grilling. The potatoes had a nice crunch and rich flavor that played off the powerful sweetness of grilled sun-dried tomatoes. I had striped bass, simply grilled on a bed of pureed butternut squash with sweet potatoes and yukon golds. The bass was firm and moist with oil, more body and flavor than the dorade, but it was the tiny sage pgnoli tarts that I will remember longest. Just a pastry shell filled with pignoli, sprinkled with fresh chopped sage and baked until the crust was flaky and the pignoli were golden. Wonderful.

We finished with decaffeinated coffee.

There's only one thing they could do to improve Hook. Open it in a new location closer to a Metro stop. It's in Georgetown a very long walk from the nearest Metro (either Foggy Bottom or Farragut West). We took a taxi from our hotel on Dupont Circle only about $8 each way, but I prefer public transit when it's available.