3100 North Washington Boulevard Arlington, VA 22201 | (703) 741-7636
Sunday night, I went to dinner at Lyon Hall, a lovely French brasserie, located right in the Clarendon area of Arlington. Honestly, walking into it, I didn’t know what to expect. I was told it was a French restaurant and after taking a really quick glance at the menu online, it looked to be a German restaurant, either way I was excited to try a new place out!
Walking in, I was greeted by the staff and while waiting for our table we had a seat at the bar. The lighting and decor was relaxing and the music selection was eclectic yet fitting, playing everything from blues to doo-wop to r&b and even 90s hip-hop. 🙂
Once we were seated, our table selected a bottle of pinot noir from their wine list and shortly after, we received our first course.
The first course, we’ll call it the ‘Chef’s Sampler’, was sent out to us by Chef Jonathan. A block consisting of cauliflower, pickled vegetables (the thinly sliced pickled carrots got two thumbs up from both of us), house made mustards (3), pork rillette topped with prune compote and my favourite of the bunch, the chicken liver and foie gras parfait (amazing! we were wishing it didn’t end). Spread on tiny pieces of toasted bread, it was the perfect way to kick-start our Sunday evening dinner.
Next up, we had the sausage platter from the hors d’oeurves section of their menu. The Sausage platter consists of Thuringian, bratwurst and lamb sausages, pickled red cabbage, potato salade, seasonal mustard. Each of the sausages had lots of flavour and their own unique qualities, differing in texture and flavour. Once again, there’s a house made mustard on the side and something pickled. I didn’t care too much for the potato salad but still no complaints here.
While we were still finishing up our Sausage platter, Chef sent out plates of the Thailand mussels and Dijon mussels. The Thailand mussels were our favourite of the two, consisting of coconut, lemongrass, chilies, and zucchini, all of the flavours wonderfully complimented the mussels and were absolutely delightful. The Dijon mussels were good too but a little too filling for me (since i was trying to save some room for the food that was still on its way) the large sausage slices topped with a lot of cheese made it feel more like an entree than an appetizer 🙂
Time for the main course! I ordered the pan seared red snapper. The dish consisted of smoked eggplant purée, squid ink couscous, roasted zucchini tomato marmalade, basil pesto and the pan seared red snapper, of course. Sad to say, I was already a little full by the time this course came out, so I was only able to get through half of it (the other half i took home in a doggie bag hehe). It was delicious. The squid ink couscous was interesting and the basil pesto was great.
My friend ordered the Diver Scallops. The diver scallops consisted of farro, corn, bacon, pickled mushrooms, swiss chard,
mascarpone emulsion and scallops. “They (the scallops) were perfectly cooked through, well seasoned, but slightly under-seared, aside from that, overall the dish was good.” -annonymous.
For Dessert, a plate of Flourless Chocolate Cake topped with Plums Caramelized with Sugar and Plum Ice Cream and a plate of profiteroles with pistachio ice cream were sent out next. Sorry for not having better photos, we kind of dug in before taking any. Dessert was nice. Not much room left to fully enjoy it though. My favourite was the pistachio ice cream, but the chocolate cake was wonderful!
Overall, our trip to Lyon Hall was great! Good sized portions, reasonable prices, great food and lovely service. After dinner, we were invited to see the kitchen area and speak to Chef Jonathan about our dinner.
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