Washington DC restaurant recommendation

I made my second trip last night to Acadiana, a four month old restaurant near the convention center in Washington, DC. It is fantastic! First, my thanks to Ryan and Erin, the bartenders who helped make my evening enjoyable.

The food is wonderful. I had, for the second time, the trio of soups as an appetizer. The trio is made up of chicken gumbo, oysters Rockefeller soup and turtle soup. While I think the gumbo is average -- for great gumbo visit your nearest Pappadeaux restaurant -- the oyster soup is rich and leaves you wanting more, the turtle soup with the splash of sherry is my favorite of the three.

I've now tried two entrees and they were both very good. I had Grillades and grits on my first visit -- and it took all my self control not to order it again last night. Last night I ordered the bar-b-que shrimp. This is clearly not the kind of bar-b-que shrimp we serve in Texas but it was still fantastic.

The order contained a pound of shrimp -- six of the largest shrimp you've ever seen. Now the shrimp are served with both head and tail on so you may want to ask for the head to be removed if you are queasy about your dinner staring at you while you eat it. The shrimp came with a good sized loaf of bread for sopping up the roux like sauce that the shrimp were served in. I ordered a side of grits just to make sure I would over-eat.

I skipped desert just because I was way too full. It was all I could do to lift myself off my barstool and waddle the one block back to my hotel.