Mourayo 1732 Connecticut Avenue

Trudging back and forth to work every day, I always look at the restaurants that surround me on my way. Mourayo had always caught my eye. I knew it had received good reviews, but it always looked kind of unassuming to me. In fact, more times than not it was kind of empty. But it’s one of the only restaurants in my area that I knew was supposed to be good that I had not yet tried, so I was excited to go.

Heading into Mourayo on a Sunday night, we were seated right away with no reservation- definitely a surprise for a well-respected restaurant in D.C., even on a Sunday. I think the waiter was annoyed at us for waiting so long for the rest of our party to show up, and he didn’t seem to recover the rest of the night.

We started with the melitzanosalata-roasted eggplant, garlic, tomatoes, feta, olive and vinegar. I’m not a huge eggplant person, but it was tasty. The pita bread they serve there is really good, so really any vehicle to use the bread was fine by me.

The wine we ordered was a Greek Syrah. Now I’m not a wine connoisseur or anything, but I’d say it was a tad pricy for what it was.

There were a lot of entrees to choose from (good for me because I’m kind of picky and I like a lot of different options…but that sometimes leads to a panic order followed by immediate regret). I ended up ordering the Kotopoulo “Peloponnesos”- organic chicken breast w/ onions, tomatoes, and okra. It was good- I blame myself for ordering the chicken dish. The Pythagoras “Theorema”- pork loin medallions with figs, almonds, manouri cheese and honey sauce certainly stole the show from my dish. I also got a taste of the Htenia “Mykonos” -dry scallops pan seared w/ basil, eggplant, pistachio pesto. It was very tasty, but a pretty small portion.

All in all I’d say Mourayo was a pleasant dining experience. A little bit pricy, but can be well worth it if you order the right dish and have a more genial waiter- 85/100.