Bresca Review

I had dinner at Bresca tonight and it was phenomenal. Bresca is a New American restaurant on 14th street just North of Logan Circle. For the past couple of weeks they’ve been doing extended Restaurant Week. So instead of one week, they’ve done three weeks of different menus. Today was the second to last day of their last week. Below is the menu:

I didn’t have any of the add ons because a) more money and b) the three courses seemed like enough. So let’s begin!!!

The meal actually started with a couple of “snacks” as they called them.

The first one was a three cheese cracker as they called it. On top, there’s grated Comté cheese. Then there’s a housemade Gouda “whiz” and lastly, a Parmesan cracker. This was as small as it looks in the photo, if not smaller, but it was superb. I love cheese. This was a very strong start.

Next, we had a small little dish of what looked like dirt. In reality, that is puffed wild rice on top of a squash purée. In the middle of the squash purée there was a little black garlic purée. Oh my god. So delicious. I looooovvveeee garlic and I loveeee squash and I LOVEEEEEEE wild rice. This checked all the boxes.

So far, we’ve seen the two snacks and we haven’t even gotten to the real menu. This is where things start getting GOOD.

Wow. So the first course was a cavatelli pasta with wild mushrooms, mozzarella, and breadcrumbs. I know I said the former plate checked all the boxes but THIS. CHECKED. ALL. THE. BOXES. We have CHEESE, we have PASTA, we have MUSHROOMS, all in a delicious ricotta sauce. Wow. Talk about setting the tone. I could’ve left after this dish and been absolutely please and satisfied. The cavatelli was perfectly done, the sauce was rich, and the mushrooms were superb. This was incredible.

Now here we have the wagyu flank. First and foremost, LOOK AT THAT COLOR!!!! THAT IS HOW YOU DO A STEAK BABY!!!! I had forgotten to say anything about how I wanted it cooked so I feared the worst, but they did NOT disappoint. In the middle there’s a cognac sauce which was good, but not my favorite part of the meal. I ended up eating one piece of steak with the sauce and used the bread (photo coming later) to wipe up that sauce because I was not going to return that plate with a SPECK of food on it. All the way to the left, there’s their take on a creamed spinach. I was ready to dislike this, however, it was surprisingly very good. Obviously not better than the steak, but very, very good regardless. Lastly. This beautiful piece of meat here in the middle. My god. Aside from being perfectly done, the piece itself was just phenomenal. It wasn’t too chewy or gamey, it melted in your mouth and it was so good I ate it without any sauce and I didn’t even think it needed salt!! That’s a first for me!

This was a side of bread and butter that came with the wagyu flank. It was obviously delicious, but nothing of note compared to the other dishes.

We’ve made it to desert! At this point, I’m feeling fabulous. I’m feeling like I need to go kiss the ring of the chef. Nothing can kill my vibe. That’s a good thing because this dessert fell a little bit flat for me. It was an olive oil and pistachio cake with a sort of quince jam underneath and a pistachio kind of mascarpone on top. My favorite part of this dish was actually the pistachio mascarpone on top. It was super creamy but also very thick which I appreciate greatly. The olive oil cake was good, but it wasn’t very cake-like. I am very particular about my desserts and this was not nearly one of the best I’ve had. It didn’t ruin the rest of the meal for me, but it definitely put a damper on the high I was riding.

Lastly, we have these little sweets to finish off the meal. The one closer to the camera is a passionfruit gummy. It wasn’t remarkable, frankly. I would’ve liked maybe a fun coating instead of just plain sugar, but oh well, that’s life. The farther one is a caramel with fleur du sel. This was about as good as a caramel can get. It was great, but it wasn’t mindblowing.

To drink, I had two different mocktails. This is the first. This one is from the menu and it was called “Rhubarb Collins.” It had Bare Zero Proof Gin, rhubarb, lemon, and ginger beer. This was a great mocktail. I’ve had some gross ones in my day but this was perfectly sweet yet tart, and I love rhubarb so this did it for me.

Last but not least, I had this carrot ginger mocktail that the bartender freestyled and made for me. I was EXTREMELY skeptical when she said carrot. I was ready to flush that money down the drain. BUT!!!! It was actually really, really good. It honestly went neck to neck with the first mocktail which was shocking. It was carrot and ginger syrup, Bare Zero Proof Gin, and some tonic water. So simple, but so good. I always like letting bartenders come up with stuff and this woman knew what she was doing for sure.

Overall, Bresca got a 9.3 rating from me on Beli! I really, really enjoyed it and I didn’t leave feeling stuffed which is always a plus. My favorites were the main courses (the cavatelli and the wagyu flank) and I can’t pick a favorite between those two. I would definitely come back, but probably when they have a different tasting menu, because right now they’re doing a lot of the same things that were on the Restaurant Week Menu.

Note: First food review! Wahoo!