That guy I'm going to marry (hmmm, maybe I'll just call him that instead of "the boy" or even "Craig") had a birthday last month, and because I'm such a delightful girlfriend-now-fiancée who wanted to plan a wonderful birthday dinner and eat dinner at this place myself because it's supposed to be basically the most amazing dining experience in the entire D.C. area and possibly of your life, I hit redial for the reservation line at Komi on November 18th from 12:00 to 12:45 until I finally got through to a human being. You see, they open up reservations at noon one month to the calendar day before your hopeful-please-let-us-get-in dining date. Ridiculous. It's a tiny, tasting-menu-only, highly revered restaurant with only 38 seats, and yes, I managed to snag us a reservation. Phew. Craig's excited for this dinner...(trust me, that's his excited face - he's pretty even-keel the vast majority of the time)...
Dinner was...deliciously amazingly delicious. And LONG. We were there about 2 1/2 hours. And we had five different people explaining and pouring and serving and taking care of us all night long. My only other tasting menu experience was on engagement night when I was too "eeeeeeeeekkkk!!" to really appreciate it (and I'll tell you about it anyway, I promise), but this was pretty wonderful as far as dining experiences go. Overall verdict: 1000x yum.
I "interviewed" Craig (less than a month later...not bad for the blog considering Spain hangs over my head) for some of his favorites from dinner, and here's what I got:
What can I say - he's a man of few words and FAR LESS reactive/over-the-top crazy than I am about...pretty much everything. Oh, the food...
I interviewed myself and found out I LOVED the following from the Greek/Mediterranean-influenced menu:
the slightly-salty-but-in-a-good-way crudo course (pictured above), especially the one with the crispy caper berry garnish tiny, adorable lobster rolls
the teensy half-smoke served with an IPA as part of our wine pairing - it was so D.C. and SO tasty
mascarpone-stuffed Medjool dates - it sounds really simple, but it was kinda amazing
our "main dish" - roasted goat with house-made pita and a host of garnishes, including tzatziki, hot sauce, and oregano sea salt that I couldn't stop sprinkling on every bite. Yeah, and I asked for more bread. It. Was. SO. GOOD.
frozen, tiny baklava for a dessert tasting
And after all of that and much, much more...we were incredibly full. With very happy tummies. And we had a fantastic wine pairing with all of this, which only made it that much better. Everything's better when you start with bubbles and finish with a dessert wine that's actually delicious and not crazy-sweet.
OF COURSE I had my camera perched in the seat next to me, discreetly sneaking in shots here and there so I could attempt to remember what we were eating since we ate about eight million things...and then I was politely informed by one of our many attentive waitstaff that Chef Johnny would prefer that I enjoy his food the moment it hits the table. Basically - please don't take pictures. Ok, that's cool by me, even though I seriously doubt the food loses any of its deliciousness in the two seconds it takes for me to capture it for posterity and memory's sake. Upon voicing this ("I really just want to remember everything we ate!"), our kind waiter had Chef Johnny write up the evening's menu for us. Which doesn't quite cover it when everything is described in one word, but it definitely helps. Thanks, Chef Johnny!
