What I've found at
Visions restaurant in the recent 2 trips I've taken there: innovative mussels, fried-to-perfection calamari, and well done classics like mac and cheese
The first trip was on Valentine's Day, and I was hesitant to come back. While all the food was delicious, the service was effing terrible! I understand that it is a crazy night for all restaurants, but when we first arrive, the restaurant was still slow enough that there was no excuse. Our server didn't come over until we flagged down a non-English speaking busboy and tried to communicate that we'd like to order sometime that night. Then our food came out very slow, slower than the food at surrounding tables. THEN he brought out the wrong entree for my friend and dealt with the situation in the worst possible way: 1) he didn't apologize 2) he gave us an inaccurate estimate of how long it would take to get the correct entree ("It'll be just a second"... 15 minutes later...) 3) he left my food sitting there getting cold and 4) he ignored the shit out of us while they were preparing the new entree, not asking if there was anything he could do while we wait.
Understandably we were ticked by the time it came to pay the check, but fortunately for Visions, they sent out a coupon in the mail the following week. Now that we're in the second great depression, I can't resist a coupon! My second trip was greeted by a sweet, attentive waitress who was friendly and tried hard to make up for any lack of knowledge. The food again was excellent, except for the spring rolls. They were solid, but just not up to the high standards Visions set for itself.
The crayfish spring rolls with a Thai peanut sauce. They could have easily been improved with a little more crayfish, but that is my only criticism of all the food.
Some fresh, and I mean fresh-piping-hot-straight-out-of-the-oven foccacia bread. Our waitress said she had been munching it in the back, and it was just too good not to share.
My amaaaaaaaazing mussels that I dipped my fresh focaccia bread in! I get mussels at almost every restaurant I go to. So by this point it is getting hard to impress me with a new, inventive way to prepare them. Visions was up to the task. This was basically mussels in a burrito style - black beans, tomatoes, leeks, and bacon. It may sound odd, but I vouch that it is fantastic and alone worth the trip to Visions.
The chicken mac and cheese, which they made special for us, since the menu had recently changed to a crab mac and cheese instead. I had tried this at the Taste of Bethesda, and it was just as good as I remembered.
A blurry picture (sorry about the photography skills) of my oysters rockefeller from the first trip. The oysters weren't terribly plump, but they were loaded up with delicious toppings!
My friend's calamari with lemon aoli. It was absolutely perfect! Lightly fried and not too chewy. Next time I go, I am going to make a meal out of the mussels and calamari alone.
My tuna steak entree with a creamy risotto and grilled squash. The tuna was slightly over cooked but still flavorful and delicious (before it got cold waiting for my friend's entree to come out.) The risotto was sort of an interesting side choice (rich with raw) but somehow it worked. Maybe only because I like risotto and tuna so much, though.
The long awaited rockfish. Obviously Visions presentation is not top of the line, but I appreciate that they are putting the effort where it counts more, meaning even though the rockfish looked like just a pile of stuff, it tasted amazing. The sauce soaked into everything but was still light enough that you didn't get sick of it.
Finally for desert a banana foster and long stem, chocolate-dipped strawberries. So rich and delicious.
So my conclusion paragraph of this very long story is that I realize Visions is trying to do the best they can having only been open about a year and half and having the last 6 months dominated by the new depression. The decorations are sparse, the presentation is basic, the servers are just kids, but the cooks pour their heart and creativity into their food. I don't know if they will make it through the next year, but if they get the chance to build Visions into what they aspire to, it will become a must visit. One day. First they need to fire that a-hole who waited on me this past Valentine's.
They served the tea at Againn (pronounced Ah-gwin) in Queen Elizabeth tea cups! It was too perfect.
Picture from Timessquarenyc.org 
Pictures of DC by me. There's a view from the W Hotel and the view from the front steps of the Portrait Gallery.
Pictures of New York by the Cherry Blossom Girl. I really need to take some good pictures in NYC this trip. I was in the city 3 times this fall, and I didn't take a single picture that did not involve me eating bbq! (Those pictures are also awesome but in a different, not-postable kind of way.)
And for the most part it was. The restaurant week menu was cut down a little bit, but not much. There were still enough choices to make most everyone happy. Erin started with the beef tartar. She's sort of a faux vegetarian, but her kryptonite is always beef tartar. It was delicious and came with a nice, wholegrain mustard. I had the tuna salad, which came with seared, sesame-crusted tune, anchovies, tomatoes, olives, some type of orange, fennel, and some other fresh delicious things that I am forgetting. It was light and extremely flavorful.
For dinner Erin, conitnuing with her vegetarian theme, had the lamb shank. It looked phenomenal, and she raved about it. Of the two pieces I tried, one was succulent and one was dry. So I would have give a mixed review, but it might be better to take Erin's word for it since she did most of the eating of it. I will say that you get your money's worth in portions, though! the shank was huge!
I went with the porkchop with baked apples. Unlike the lamb, I did not fnd a dry bite in my meat. It was cooked to perfection, but the sides were only ok. They didn't all seem to go with each other. There were the apples and then some spinach-type leaf wilted with tomatoes and an onion. The salad stuff was nice and the apples were pretty good too, but I didn't like them together. The dish lacked cohesion.
The desserts were good, but slightly disappointing as well. I had the apple pastry. It was obviously housemade (or gave a very good impersonation of housemade). Points for effort there, but the apples weren't terribly sweet. The sweetness of the crust made up for it to a certain degree except that it was a bit overbaked, and the top ended up too dry and flaky. I'm sure it seem cliche, but what it really needed was a scoop of vanilla icecream to balance out the lack of sugar in the apples and the dryness in the crust. Sadly no icecream to be found.
Erin went with the seasonal sorbets and had no complaints. She had a passionfruit and a mango (I think). The mango was delicious, but the passion fruit was really something special. It was probably the most intensely flavorful sorbet I have ever and may ever taste. My whole face sucked it with flavor when I tried it. I don't think Erin could have finished a bigger portion of that sorbet even she had wanted to. It would have been overwhleming.
I greatly regretted telling our server that we weren't in a huge rush, though, because he took that to mean it was acceptable to serve us the most leisurely of dinners. It took a big flashing sign reading "WE'RE READY TO ORDER" to get our server to come back after bringing out drinks. Then our appetizers came out a few minutes after the apps at the table next to us (who had arrive a few minutes after us but still had their order taken first), and our dinner came out a good 10 minutes after theirs. Things only got progressively slower. Desserts came out easily 15 minutes or more after the table next to us, and the check actually never came. It was so late by that point that I had to flag down two different off duty servers (both were exceptionally polite and helpful) to bring the check and run our credit cards.
The crayfish spring rolls with a Thai peanut sauce. They could have easily been improved with a little more crayfish, but that is my only criticism of all the food.
Some fresh, and I mean fresh-piping-hot-straight-out-of-the-oven foccacia bread. Our waitress said she had been munching it in the back, and it was just too good not to share.
My amaaaaaaaazing mussels that I dipped my fresh focaccia bread in! I get mussels at almost every restaurant I go to. So by this point it is getting hard to impress me with a new, inventive way to prepare them. Visions was up to the task. This was basically mussels in a burrito style - black beans, tomatoes, leeks, and bacon. It may sound odd, but I vouch that it is fantastic and alone worth the trip to Visions.
The chicken mac and cheese, which they made special for us, since the menu had recently changed to a crab mac and cheese instead. I had tried this at the Taste of Bethesda, and it was just as good as I remembered.
A blurry picture (sorry about the photography skills) of my oysters rockefeller from the first trip. The oysters weren't terribly plump, but they were loaded up with delicious toppings!
My friend's calamari with lemon aoli. It was absolutely perfect! Lightly fried and not too chewy. Next time I go, I am going to make a meal out of the mussels and calamari alone.
My tuna steak entree with a creamy risotto and grilled squash. The tuna was slightly over cooked but still flavorful and delicious (before it got cold waiting for my friend's entree to come out.) The risotto was sort of an interesting side choice (rich with raw) but somehow it worked. Maybe only because I like risotto and tuna so much, though.
The long awaited rockfish. Obviously Visions presentation is not top of the line, but I appreciate that they are putting the effort where it counts more, meaning even though the rockfish looked like just a pile of stuff, it tasted amazing. The sauce soaked into everything but was still light enough that you didn't get sick of it.
Finally for desert a banana foster and long stem, chocolate-dipped strawberries. So rich and delicious.
And I got the mezzeluna pasta filled with oil soaked swordfish and baby capers on top. So phenomenal! Such flavor!
The roomie then went with the pheasant wrapped in pancetta (spinach and potato sides). We both love meat wrapped in meat, but the roomie thought her pheasant was a little too dry. I tried some and liked it, but I was glad that I got the red snapper.
My snapper was soft, well seasoned, and went perfectly with the oil soaked artichokes.
By this point I could barely move, much less contemplate eating any more, but then the desserts came out. Somehow, upon the sight of them, I found room. I had a nutella filled crepe with hazlenuts, a light chocolate ice cream and frangelico whipped cream. It was perfect. Light enough that I could have eaten 10 in a row.
All in all there were few misses at Tosca. The service was excellent other than a slight delay in waiting for the check, and the food drew equally near-perfect raves. My goal is to invest a few times a month in picking up a little something from Tosca for lunch so I can investigate more of their menu. It is such a shame I have worked right next to this restaurant for a year and a half and am only now discovering its deliciousness!
On this particular trip some wholesome family's crazy bush/tree thing was still blooming, and we had to stop and admire the enormous flowers that hung from its limbs. It is probably one of the last weekends for flowers. The weather is suppose to turn cold again, and, although giant, exotic flowers are cool, I am really excited for fallen leaves and excuses to wear sweaters.
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