15 Ria - Why Do You Exist?

You expect a restaurant that's been around a while, and has gotten fairly good reviews, would be at least moderately good. Especially at $9 a sandwich. 15 Ria raises a few questions here.

Some time back, the Doubletree hotel folks were out in Dupont Circle, dressed as cookies, handing out cookies and coupons for free dessert with an entrée at 15 Ria, the Rhode Island Avenue Doubletree’s trendy restaurant. Doing what summer interns do best – scavenging and Xeroxing – our interns collected their cookies and coupons, and made copies for everyone in the office.

Fast forward a few weeks, and it’s time to redeem these coupons. Friday was intern T’s last day, so five of us joined T and the other intern, G, at 15 Ria for a farewell lunch. Six of us arrived time for our noon reservation, and were seated immediately in the almost-empty dining room, with one straggler arriving maybe fifteen minutes late. After sitting, we were asked at least five times if our seventh guest was indeed coming. Our straggler, Coworker L, arrived, and 15 Ria is still not crowded; I wonder why they were so concerned over Coworker L’s tardiness.

The restaurant is very pretty, with warm yellow and ochre, and the chairs are arranged around the tables, alternating one big-ish comfy chair and one more traditional dining chair. Some tables had couches. This I like. I do not, however, like whoever is butchering “Somewhere over the Rainbow” on the restaurant’s sound system.

We ordered drinks and bread arrived. The breads were a basic French bread and a very nice fig and pignolia bread. The bread was tasty, but I was a bit disappointed that they never offered more: the seven of us polished off the two small (5 or so slices each) quickly, and more would have been nice while we considered the menu. A good portion of the menu is available on the Restaurant Week special, but none of us want that much food, so we refrain. The food came, and trouble began.

Coworker S had a grilled veggie wrap, which she described as basic and boring. On this alone I would mark 15 Ria down several notches: grilled vegetables are possibly the easiest thing in the universe to do well – all you need is good veggies and a grill, plus maybe some salt. The choice of eggplant, squash, and peppers is not a great combination – all three starchy, two subtly flavored – and will not make a good sandwich; a chef should know that, or at least spice them creatively to make up.

Coworkers D and B each had the crab cakes, which looked very pretty, all golden-brown and drizzled with some sort of red dressing (not, I would wager, enough to taste). D and B said they were good, but neither seemed especially impressed. I was sitting at the other end of the table so I didn’t get a good look, and neither D nor B was especially talkative, so it’s hard to say more.

Coworker C had a roasted duck, which sounded really good, and she allowed me a taste. The duck itself was a good quality cut, cooked just right, but it was too salty, and with an overwhelming smoky flavor that masked the duck entirely. We agreed that it was Way Too Much.

I ordered a “Grilled Chicken Club,” which resembled a club sandwich only in that it had a toothpick through the middle: a toasted not very sourdough-y bun enclosed about 8 grilled chicken strips (think fajitas), a couple slices of avocado and tomato, and some lettuce. And a completely unremarkable “basil mayonnaise.” It came with a side salad - a nice selection of red and green lettuce doused in creamy vinaigrette. Coworker L had a bowl of tomato soup and half of the same chicken sandwich. She said the soup was “definitely tomato” – not unlike pureed tomato in a bowl.

Interns T and G both had grilled salmon, which looked OK, if a bit dry, and came with a grit cake, the idea of which fascinates me. They said it tasted like grits in the middle and hashbrowns on the outside, so I may have to attempt them at home. They were not particularly impressed by the salmon.

Next came dessert, for which there was really only one choice, as far as most of us were concerned: the “Dessert Flight,” small portions of the crème brulée, blueberry cobbler, and molten chocolate, served in shot glasses. A few of our umber just ordered full portions of the crème brulée. Let it first be said that small desserts in shot glasses is a fun idea, but 15 Ria should really invest in some small spoons. Eating out of a shot glass with full-sized flatware is an unnecessary challenge.

The molten chocolate is fantastic. Hot, gooey, dark, and not too sweet – a clear winner. The blueberry cobbler, similar to the tomato soup, tasted like cooked blueberries with a bit of cake on top. Borrrrrrrriiiiiing. The crème brulée is the real disappointment though: the menu advertises it as having a “hint of mint,” but this hint is more of an overpowering flavor of raw mint stems. The crème is a bit runny too. I love mint, but this is no good.

So: 15 Ria gets one thumb down. S got very ill later in the afternoon, and thinks it might have been from the food. 15 Ria gets two thumbs down. Oh well.

15 Ria
1515 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington DC, 20005
202-742-0015