DINE DOWNTOWN WEEK- ELLA RESTAURANT

There were six of us dining this evening at Ella's with the Meet up group. We went to Ella for the $30.00 3 course Dine Downtown Week special. I've been to different restaurants through the years during this week and normally it's not the restaurant putting their best food out there. Most of the restaurants put out the normal meat,poultry,fish. Ella's menu was very interesting. To start with Sue and I and Catherine and Ryan ordered the Marrow bone (appetizers are extra)or bone marrow which ever you want to call it.. it was delicious..to die for delicious. A large gone cut in half seasoned and and roasted, topped with cilantro, celery leaves and capers and served with toast points. Really, all the herbs were not necessary. You then scoop out the marrow and spread it on the toast and your in heaven. Sue and I also ordered the Hazelnut Gnocchi, with sugar pumpkin, maitake mushrooms and sage browned butter.. YUM. From the dining week special menu( and you have to ask for it) I chose the Nantes carrot soup with creme fraiche, the pan roasted Skate wings with a mustard burre blanc, spinach and potatoes, desert was a trio of sorbets.. pomegranate, blood orange and meyer lemon. Also they had a special wine pairing, $15.00 extra for 3 wines paired with your dishes. I have no idea what the wines were, the waiter went over them but by the time I got them I had forgotten what was what. That was probably my only complaint, I wish they would have said what each wine was as they presented them with each course. Back to the menu..
The soup was delicious very rich and creamy, I had to stop myself from not finishing the bowl or I would have been too full to enjoy the rest of the meal. I'd never had Skate before so I was really interested in this. Our waiter told us it was cooked with the cartilige so if that bothered anyone you shouldn't order this dish. It gives the fish more flavor and it's the same as deboneing a fish but easier. The flesh just slides off the cartilage and is a nice white flaky flesh, very mild in flavor. I loved it..would have really liked to have another serving. If I ever see Skate on a menu I would definitely order it again. All of us except Robert and Casey had the Skate, they had the duck confit which both said was good but the duck was dry. The sorbets were excellent both the blood orange and the meyer lemon really had strong flavors and woke you up and cleansed the pallet. The other desert was the pear tart, which looked good but I'm not a big pear fan.

I have to say I was very very pleased with my dinner as were all of us there. It was so much better than I was expecting. Of course all of Selland's restaurants are excellent and I'd been to Ella's before but I think this meal was one of the best that I've had there. It seems they just keep getting better and better. If your looking for a great place to go for the Dine Out week this is it. I would encourage everyone to go! Bone Marrow

hazelnut gnocchi

Nantes carrot soup

Skate Wing

duck confit

pear tart

trio of sorbets

Catherine of Munchie Musings was also taking pictures so go check out her blog and see her take on last nights dinner.

ELLA REVISITED

We went to Ella tonight for a Mother's Day dinner. My sister is going to be out of town next week so we did an early dinner. I had been to Ella's earlier this year and I was not impressed. I thought the portions were very small for the price and the food wasn't up to expectations. Tonight I was skeptical but I have to say it was excellent. They increased the portions and the quality and preparation was up to expectaion. Of course not knowing that they increased the portions we ordered as if we would be getting small portions. There was 4 of us. We started out with 3doz oysters on the half shell. They were so good, my mother even ate a few. I think they have the best oysters in town. We then went on to Sweetbreads, and the short rib. We went to the salad course of lettuce(I can't think of the name of it) Pt. Reyes blue cheese, Japanese cucumbers and radish.. So good. We then had the Kona Kompachi a white fish grilled rare and the calamari. The Kompachi was just OK, not a whole lot of flavor but the Calamari was very good. We then had the Broccoli Rabe, the Papardelle Pasta. All these dishes were shared and everyone loved them. For Entrees I had the roasted chicken breast, my husband and sister had the duck breast and my mother had the lamb shanks. All were prepared as ordered, beautifully presented and tasted great. Of course you can't not have desert: Charlie and I shared the Cinnamon rolls and my mother and sister had the strawberries w/ tres leche cake. We actually had to go boxes..
I was very pleasantly surprised that it was so much better and I would now definitely recommend Ella. The wait staff is very knowledgeable and professional without being stuffy. Our waitress as a lot of fun.

_Eileen_

Ella Dining Room and Bar
1131 K St.
443-3772

Ella Dining Rooom & Bar

Last night we went to Ella for Sue's belated birthday dinner. It is located at the corner of 12th & K and is a little hard to find since there is just a little signage on the door.. look for the valet parking. It is one of Randal Selland's new restaurants. It is a very bright airy open space that makes the restaurant seem a lot larger than it actually is. There is a seating/waiting area to the left as you walk in and directly in front is a raw bar and curved around the back is the bar. To the far end is a large wine room and at the back of the restaurant is the open kitchen.
The point of interest in here is the far wall and the ceiling that is made up of shutters painted different colors. That was very interesting and something different that I haven't seen before .

When we were seated we were told that the portions were large to encourage sharing. We started with a dozen Oysters,Crispy pork belly ,grilled peaches & frisse, Braised Short rib red wine jus with glazed root vegetables, Grilled Prawns and Creole barbecue sauce. I have to say when the appetizers arrived we all looked at one another.. They considered these large portions? They were tastings. They were about the same portions as you would get at The Kitchen per course. The Oysters were wonderfully briny and fresh. The Pork belly was tender, crispy and just the right fattiness to make it rich. The Braised Short rib was meltingly tender but could have used a tad more flavor, the vegetables were crisp tender. The Prawns were fairly large(5) with a tasty barbecue sauce that had a slight bite of creole spice.

We then went on to the Heirloom tomato w/ Buratta cheese and Basil. We also had the Roasted Baby Beets w/watercress and pistachios and olive oil. I love Buratta Cheese so I was happy with my bite of the tomato and the Beets tasted pickled, but they were good with the watercress.

Entrees were the Roasted marinated Pork Chop w/brussel sprouts and baby carrots.
Crispy duck breast w/swiss chard and roasted figs.

Slow roasted salmon w/ preserved lemons, baby artichokes and lardons.

I had the Pappardelle Pasta ,poached egg, crispy prosciutto and preserved lemon sauce. The Pork chop was cooked a medium well, just a hint of pink. It looked nice and juicy. The pork chop was large... it was the only large entree. The salmon was perfectly cooked , the duck wasn't crisps but was cooked a nice medium rare the pasta was very good mixed with the poached egg.. kind of like a carbonara, not a wow but just a nice comfort food.

Desert was the Warm chocolate cake with a ganche center and toasted coconut ice cream, Brioche french toast, maple syrup and coffee ice cream. Profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, and Lemon tart with creme fraiche and blood orange sorbet The cake was good, nothing extraordinary, you typical lava cake. The french toast was different and really very good..and the coffee ice cream had a very intense coffee flavor.. I'd like that for breakfast. The profiteroles were little cream puffs filled with a scoop of ice cream with hot fudge sauce poured over. It was good. The Lemon tart was good but it seemed to have too much creme fraiche mixed in.. it was runny and not set...maybe that was how it was supposed to be. It was good and lemony and the crust was nice and tender. A lot of time you get a crust so tough it's hard to cut through... this was a perfect crust and the intensely flavored sorbet was a good combination with the lemon.

We all agreed that the portions were very small and didn't seem to encourage sharing, unless you just wanted one bite. There were 4 of us and to divide one portion was just a bite, even down to the entrees and deserts. The food was good with a few outstanding dishes. I think maybe we may have been spoiled having just recently gone to The Kitchen.. The Kitchen it ain't. If your not a big eater this is perfect or if you order a lot of dishes it's fine. As far as the price, it is very reasonable. With all we ordered it came to about $60.00 per person including a glass of wine(which reminds me, the waiter never did come by to asked if we wanted refills on drinks) a cocktail, after dinner Port and the valet parking fee. I think that's pretty reasonable.

I think I'd go back but with the girls.. my husband would never have enough to eat unless he ordered just about everything on the menu.

Pictures may make the dishes look bigger than they actually are.