We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Restaurant Week always sounds like a magical opportunity. Twice a year, many of the city’s best restaurants open their doors to the plebeians who can’t normally afford their financially destabilizing fare. For $20, you get a three-course lunch. For $30, you get a three-course dinner. That’s three to four star dining on a half-star budget. Unfortunately, the experience doesn’t always live up to the hype. Servers and hostesses can be downright disrespectful to the invading middle-class masses. Some eateries only offer a few entree choices on their “special” menus and keep their best dishes at full price. You don’t need to be a professional eater to know that you’ve been gypped. This week, we’re breaking down our RW experiences for you.
The restaurant: Sushi-Ko, 2309 Wisconsin Ave. NW, (202) 333-4187
The usual menu: Sushi-Ko is known for having some of the freshest, most inventive sushi in the city. Until my lunch trip today, I’d never visited this intimite Glover Park restaurant. I expected a mix of classic and creative Japanese fare—not just your average teriyaki box.
The RW menu: In a word: sparse. There were only two options for each course. The first course offering was a miso soup with a choice of seaweed salad or the Sushi-Ko salad. The second course selections were shrimp & vegetable tempura or a sashimi appetizer. For the third course, diners could opt for either a ten piece sushi assortment or chicken teriyaki.
The sneaky little surcharges: The whole dining experience was barely tailored to Restaurant Week. The RW menu was on a printout with various other lunch specials. The waitress also dropped off a regular menu.
The total cost of my meal: 35.56. Yikes. What can I say? I wanted dessert. My minimal prior RW experiences mentally prepared me for a third course with something sweet. And I’m a sucker for those banana tempura desserts. Oh, and I also wanted some sake.
The condescension factor: Our waiter wasn’t condescending—she was harried. Midway through my bowl of miso soup, she took my spoon. I needed that spoon. There were a few moments like that.
Would you go back? Glover Park’s kind of a trek for car-less me. Everything I ate was tasty, but none of it was particularly memorable. I ordered the seaweed salad, the shrimp and veggie tempura and the sushi platter. Maybe Sushi-Ko just can’t afford to showcase its best dishes at Restaurant Week. Maybe, it should have/could have reached for a more impressive selection. Either way, I think my bucks could have been spent better elsewhere.
This isn't a paywall.
We don't have one. Readers like you keep our work free for everyone to read. If you think that it's important to have high quality local reporting we hope you'll support our work with a monthly contribution.