Indebleu: Foodie Heaven or Trendy Cool Looking Food?
Eating at Indebleu is a bit entertainment and a bit great cuisine. I wanted to see if Indebleu's eating experience was more show than culinary success, so I went on a slower night when the club downstairs wasn't hopping so that I could really focus on the offerings on my plate.
Tuesday night, November 22nd I visited Indebleu for the 1st time with my sister Cynthia, her 2nd time to this upscale/trendy hotspot in Penn Quarter, my first. I had a Blackberry Mojito downstairs in the bar while waiting for my sister, and although I really enjoyed it's tartness and mint, I was a bit confused by the actual blended blackberry seeds that came flying up my straw - they seemed just a bit out of place, maybe a bit chewy, but I enjoyed the drink, it was refreshing. The bartender offered me what I thought was a Metro Map, but it turned out to be a Map of all the cocktails offered on the menu - what an original way to market their beverages!

Upstairs in the dining room, I had the 4-Course tasting menu, and my sister just ate a la carte, here are the dishes with comments at the end:
-Lilliputian tower of lobster and lump crab with marinated mango, pine nuts and curry oil,
-rabbit confit samosa on apple chutney with rum raisin jus and toasted pistachio,
-pan-seared tenderloin of veal, cardamom sweet bread sauce, stuffed tandoori potato and garden fava beans,
-napoleon of tuna tartare with crispy papadom, sunburst mustard and bee-cucumber pickle,
-crispy wild mushroom dosa with bleu cheese gratin and truffle oil,
-"spaghetti and meatballs" -- tableside, a server forces saffron-cardamom ice cream through a ricer to create ribbons of "pasta." Round rose-scented gulab jamun cakes are then served on top,
Comments: the tower of lobster and lumb crab was very delicious and mostly tasted of lobster and crab with a subtle aroma and taste of the curry oil. The rabbit confit seemed to have very little rabbit, but tasted fine, except that the rum raisin jus was cloyingly sweet, almost like hoisin sauce and frankly the rabbit samosa's probably could have been kicked up a notch with some hot/spicy flavorings to improve their flavor. Noticeably, none of the dishes delivered much heat in terms of chile power, but maybe that's the French influence? Tenderloin of veal was a real winner – very tender, and the sweetbread sauce simply added richness and a touch of herbaceous flavor, but this dish worked great – the whole was greater than its components! The mushroom dosa was another winner dish, and proves to me that mushrooms prepared in savory dishes can be the most decadent and pleasurable flavors on earth, even competing with foie gras! The dessert? The ice cream simply had too much saffron and cardamom, both aromas/flavors were way too much for a basic vanilla ice cream – the serving was very large as well and the ice cream is squeezed out of a very large spaghetti making contraption, which turned it into really cool spaghetti-like strips! The gulab jamun – basically Indian donuts cooked in sugar and rose water (very simplified explanation) were excellent and did very much taste exceedingly good combined with the ice cream – still, if the ice cream doesn't taste good on its own, then that's an important factor.

Almost forgot wine: had a bottle of the 2001 Bouchard "Les Rugiens" from Pommard, was very young and a bit rich and alcoholic, especially with the dishes. My comment about wine and Indebleu's cuisine: this is difficult food to pair wine with, especially with all the Indian spices, best to stick with inexpensive quaffers. Forget about Cabernet or big Bordeaux, if a Pinot Noir doesn't work with this food that well, then nothing richer will. Maybe and off-dry Riesling???

Overall impression: Excellent service (the server was very friendly and attentive, even humorous!), beautiful space and table layout. I had some issues with the sound emanating from the Lounge downstairs, but I'll go on a personal tirade at some future point about combining a restaurant and a lounge – Just Say No!! The food overall had excellent presentation, and it was obvious that it came out of a kitchen of an internationally trained chef: the way the food was layered, presented on plate, intensity of flavor, and use of fresh ingredients and minimal spicing. On the other hand, some of the dishes simply didn't work, but that may be partially because French and Indian cuisine have serious differences in their elements (future Blog, I guarantee it!). Overall, this is a serious restaurant, and serious foodies will enjoy many of the elements of this "fusion" cuisine, but as in all fusion concepts, some dishes work and some need to go back to the drawing board!