We recently had the pleasure of dining at the  Melrose Georgetown Hotel’s restaurant, Jardenea. Executive Chef Nate Lindsay uses locally-sourced ingredients in his “farm-to-fork” creations. The restaurant has nice decor and very attentive service.

The cocktails, wines and pairing recommendations were excellent. The bread basket included olive bread and was served with a very creamy butter.

We ordered:

• Prince Edward Island Mussels with Sundried Tomato Pesto , Baby Fennel Confit, and Lemon Emulsion. The mussels were a little tough, but the sauce was amazing; we kept attacking the sauce with bread.
• Chesepeake Bay Crab Bisque. Usually this dish includes shitake mushrooms, but I am allergic, so they were omitted. The soup was perfectly creamy and flavorful, and they did not skimp on the chunks of crab they added to it. The texture of the crab was very good.
• Coriander Dusted Hawaiian Sea Bass on Soft Organic Blue Corn Grits. This is their signature dish and they did a wonderful job with the fish, which was moist, delicate and succulent. They make their own spice mix for their fish dishes. The blue corn grits were creamy, flavorful and worked well with the fish.
• Maple Leaf Farms Duck Duo: Crisp Skin Duck Breast and Duck Confit Ravioli with Rainbow Swiss Chard. The duck was most and tasty without seeming oily. “S” doesn’t usually eat duck, but she loved this dish. They did an excellent job with the brussel sprouts that were served with this dish; this is one of few memorable Brussels sprouts preparations that I have had anywhere. The ravioli were fried, and had a wonderful filling; I could eat a plate of these as an appetizer.
• Crème Brûlée. This was a great dessert; I made a point of trying the custard separate from the caramelized sugar crust, and it was better than a lot of others I have tried.
• Chocolate Soufflé with Crème Anglaise. This takes 20 minutes to make, but “S” says she would wait 30 minutes for it. It was “hands down worth the wait.”

Diners often come to this restaurant for special occasions; it was totally booked for the weekends of restaurant week and Valentine’s Day. There were many couples on dates when we dined at the restaurant. Chef Nate said that he recognizes that Jardenea is a special occasion restaurant for many people, so has his team pay close attention to every plate they produce.

They also have happy hour specials in the lounge (outside the restaurant). From their website:

“Join us in The Jardenea Lounge for the launch of our 5-5-5 special starting on September 5th! This exciting new special is offered every day from 5PM – 7PM and enables guests to enjoy $5 appetizers, $5 drinks and $5 off dinner at Jardenea Restaurant!”

-JAY