Brasserie Beck by Robert Wiedmaier

Finally get to try Brasserie Beck owned by Chef Robert Widemaier, who is also the owner of Mussel Bar, Marcel's in DC, and BRABO at Old Town Alexandria.  The first thing you are going to notice when you go to Brasserie Beck, it's their huge beer list, their beer list is bigger than their regular menu, and I lost patient reading all the description of the beer, so I took a fast track and asked the waiter for a recommendation.

Bavik Pils

I told him that I like drinking light beer, and he recommended Bavik to me, which is perfect for my beer taste. Definitely a beer I can just hangout and drink on its own.

Brugse Zot

This beer tastes like lemon and honey, very interesting taste...Oh, I would think all the beer comes with their unique glass?

Mussels in sweet potatoes and shallot sauce

Mussels in truffle and mushroom sauce

Robert Wiedmaier is specialized in mussels, of course if you have been following my blog, I did visit his Mussel Bar in Bethesda before, which I wasn't too impress with his mussels there. Because of that, I was skeptical at first to whether I should order mussels again, but one of my food buddies who have been to Brasserie Beck before guaranteed how great it would be, I decided to give Robert Wiedmaier's mussels another try. Out of the two we tried, I like the truffle and mushroom sauce the most.  Truffle and mushroom is definitely one of the best ingredients combination, they have a common elements in their flavors, they are both musky and nutty, which I love! I highly recommend the mussels in truffle and mushroom sauce combo. And my food buddies was right, Mussel Bar doesn't do the justice for Wiedmaier's mussels, you have to pay the extra bucks and go to Brasserie Becks. I would definitely order it again next time I go to BB. Another note, their mussels are really fresh, comes in good size and cooked perfectly (meaning not overcooked).

Grill Sea Bass on tomatoes salad

Since we were both pretty full after two order of mussels, we decided to split an entree instead.  This is one of the special of the day, it's a whole Sea Bass, grilled, deboned and served over salad.  This is after the entree was split into two plates, the waiter was nice enough to split it for us before it was served. Extra points for good service, even though I usually only care about the quality of the food, not so much the service. Overall, this entree was good, there are two things I don't like about it though. First, (which you can't see from the picture) there are bread at the bottom of the salad, which was used as croutons, but they are not croutons, so they became really soggy at the end, why not use croutons? Second, I think there are too much cheese in this salad, which over powered the whole flavor of the dish. They failed to balance the texture and taste on this one.

Despite the mediocre special of the day, I would still go back to BB for their beer and fantastic mussels.  I will probably look into going for their half price beer Happy Hour special.

Brasserie Beck