Restaurant - Mio (American/モダンアメリカン料理) 
Location - Washington DC/ワシントンDC
Score - 3.5/5
Dish of recommendation - Duo of dry aged beef & pork burger, dill-potato salad
Comment - My friends are all nice enough to bear with me for my food pursuit. Some of them even take me to good restaurants that I never heard of. Mio is one of these restaurants. It's in a very cool, glass-facede building, which is still rare to find in the DC area. We got to the restaurant shortly after 1pm but could get seats at the counter. It's a good start, isn't it? I'm not being sarcastic. This already shows this restaurant's popularity.
I liked their lunch menu in that they do offer both pre-fix and a la carte. I chose the pre-fixed menu straight away because the burger was included only in the pre-fix menu. My dishes were
- Mixed greens with radish, Pecorino cheese, pomegranate citronette
Good amount of pecorino cheese (unlike most of the restaurants that put too much). Refreshing dressing. I usually can eat a large salad, but I found it a bit too large.
- Duo of dry aged beef & pork burger, dill-potato salad
It was a dish of two mini-burgers - beef and pork. I found beef burger more juicy. Pork burger was clearly something unique - probably because of both the meat and sauce. I enjoyed each piece, but I don't know if it is a good combination, from the point of not only taste also of quantity. I felt guilty about leaving a chunk of very tasty buns (as good as the ones at Westend Bistro!).
- Key lime pie 
Not too sweet:) Cream complemented the pie well. I also liked the butternut pot de crème that my friend ordered. Both choices will not be a failure!
Also two delightful things of their food are bread and acai juice. Bread, baked crisp and dipped with extra virgin oil, was more than enough enough to have with cheese, prosciuto and wine for a meal. Acai juice (with lemonade) was very refreshing, matching burgers well.
Friendly service and pleasant food mad
e me do some research on the restaurant as soon as I got home. Mio's executive chef, Stefano Frigerio, was a former sous-chef at Maestro in Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner before its close down. A couple months ago, I was deeply disappointed about the close-down when I found it out. At least I could taste some of their food surprisingly.
According to a waitress, this restaurant offers modern American cuisine with Italian influence. Next time, I would like to see more influence from Italian cuisine (though the chef seems to resist to typical dishes of Italian food, according to Tom Sietsema's review)!
感想 - 本来ならばOlivesに行く予定だったのが、場所を選んでくれた友人の気が急に変わって連れて行ってくれたのがMioです。DCのレストランは名前レベルでは相当知っている気でいたのですが、Mioの名前すら聞いたことがなく、やはりまだまだ勉強が必要と恥ずかしく思いながら、DCでは珍しいガラス張りのビルの1階にあるお店に入りました。(2月中旬にPostのレビュー記事が部屋の片隅にあることを後で気づいたのでした。)
友人はイタリアンっぽいお店と言っていたけど、メニューを見て？。どうみても、モダンアメリカンにしか見えず、確認したところイタリアンの影響を受けたアメリカンということ。おいしければ何でもいいので、気にせずにオーダー。
ランチでプリフィックスメニューを見るのは久しぶりだし、最近はまっているハンバーガーがあったので、以下のプリフィックスをオーダー。
- Mixed greens with radish, Pecorino cheese, pomegranate citronette
- Duo of dry aged beef & pork burger, dill-potato salad
- Key lime pie
最も印象に残ったのが豚肉と牛肉をそれぞれ使ったミニバーガー。特に牛肉の味付けが面白いなと思ったのと、バンが普通のバンとブリオッシュ的なバンの中間みたいな感じでkey lime pieがなければ絶対に食べきっていたはず。あと、アサイを使ったレモンスカッシュとかパリパリに焼き上がっていたパンなど、全ての食事に好印象が残ったのでした。
私の勤務先のすぐ近くにある、Ritz-Carlton Tysons Cornerで有名だったレストランMaestro(現在休業中)のsous chefがMioのシェフと聞いて、もともとMaestroで食事をしてみたかった私は更にいい気分になったのでした。
Mio
1110 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington DC, 20005
202-955-0075
★ - 3.5/5 料理は多分どれもおいしいはず。最近のDCのモダンアメリカンレストランブームに多少飽きている私は、もう少しイタリアン的なメニューだったらなあと思います。
