Irish Inn at Glen Echo

It’s the Old Angler all over again...a location that quietly attracts the affluent, a fancy menu, and food that merely meets the standard. Yeah, it’s a cut above the 4Ps and Ri-Ra, but significantly more joy can be had elsewhere for less money.

-dave

One of the difficulties in critiqueing restaurants is in comparing a place to your own standards. In my case (and I think this is true of my fellow food-plan reviewers), a restaurant that sets low expectations and meets them is going to be higher rated than one that sets high expectations and fails to meet them. A little storefront cafe that’s clean and friendly and serves good food might be a 9, while a white tablecloth, linen and silver destination place that serves food that’s merely good would get a 5.

The Irish Inn at Glen Echo, recently renovated and re-opened by the people responsible for bringing us Ireland’s Four Provinces, is in the latter category. The new management has really cleaned up the place. It looks nice. And the menu is ambitious and tending to trendy, with haricot vert this and arugula that and goat cheese the other thing, but the dishes don’t live up to their setting. Not that they’re bad, mind you. Three of us went recently, and we each ordered three courses. And everything was good. But just good, not great.

To start we had crab bisque, salad of haricots vert amd artichoke hearts, and shepherd’s pie. For main courses there were duck breast, lamb shank braised with root vegetables, and butternut squash risotto. For dessert there was something called “blackberry tipsy square” and “chocolate dome”. And while I can remember few nits to pick about these dishes (okay, the lamb required a bit more tableside surgery than I like; it was not ’falling off the bone’ as promised), there’s nothing to rave about, either. This plus sodas, one glass of wine, and one cup of coffee worked out to $51 per person (including tax and twenty percent tip).

In a less formal setting, at two-thirds the price, the Irish Inn at Glen Echo would get a 7; at half the price it might get an 8. But the best I can say is a shoulder shrugging “it was mostly okay”.