In college, I used to travel to Washington D.C. once or twice a year to visit one of my best friends. When he stayed there post-graduation, I continued my annual visits. When he finally left our nation's capital to move to New York, I never went back.
Over Columbus Day weekend I returned to D.C. for the first time since 2008! I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with two sets of friends, each eager to show me their favorite places.
On my first morning in town, we woke up and took the Metro to the Farragut North stop. Our destination? The Hotel Tabard Inn.
We had a reservation, so only had to wait a minute or two for our table to be set. Once seated, we headed straight for the drinks. Two bloody Marys and a bellini.
A bloody Mary is such a science. It requires a delicate balance of vodka to tomato juice to garnish and the Tabard Inn version was an eight out of ten. Quite good!
While we looked over the menu, our waitress brought us a complimentary basket of baked goods. It was a mix of muffins and savory focaccia bread.
The banana muffin I sampled was heavenly. It crumbled onto the plate in the best way.
It's not common to order an appetizer round and an entree round at brunch, but hey, when in Rome, right?
To continue our brunch of gluttony, we asked for one of the house made donuts. You can order them individually or in a batch of six.
The donut was light, airy and dusted with sugar.
It was served with a beautifully swirled cup of vanilla whipped cream.
Unable to ignore this next item's description on the menu, we also ordered the half pound warm cinnamon roll. Yes, that's real.
In my opinion, a great cinnamon bun is defined by its frosting. This half pound monster was seriously lacking that signature drizzle.
With our teeth rotting, we decided to move onto more savory breakfast items.
One friend went with the grilled bistro fillet served with poached eggs, hollandaise and home fries.
He ordered the fillet medium rare and thought it was perfectly pink on the inside, it was a bit overcooked on the edges. Despite that, he raved, "This was a great take on the classic steak and eggs. The hollandaise was excellent, as were the poached eggs and the home fries."
Next to him, his fiance was enjoying the salmon eggs benedict. She too devoured the hollandaise sauce, but said it would have been great to have the sauce on the side since it was so rich.
She continued on to say, "The eggs were poached perfectly with exactly the right amount of runny yolk. The salmon was smoky and the homes fries were the best I've had anywhere."
I took a major departure from my usual choices and went with the frittata. It was caramelized onions, shiitake mushrooms, pecorino cheese and a side of mixed greens.
The caramelized onions were absolutely the best element of the dish. I couldn't get enough! Though I must admit, watching my two friends experience total euphoria eating their home fries left me a little envious.
At the end of our brunch we felt like we needed to be rolled out the door. We were stuffed! That being said, we vowed to come back and order just desserts. The Tabard Inn dessert menu includes something called death by chocolate, a milk chocolate banana tart, a sticky toffee pecan pudding cake and a vanilla creme brulee. I mean, come on. I need all those things.
Visit the Hotel Tabard Inn at 1739 N Street NW, Washington D.C. 20036.
