I travel out of state at least once every other month for work, and rarely enjoy the hotel restaurants. Our most recent visit to Nage Bistro in DC drastically altered this preconceived notion that hotel restaurants are second to others. Washington, DC is slowly teaching us that great hotels and restaurants are one in the same.

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How about a burger on a glazed doughnut? In addition to serving several upscale dishes, Nage recently introduced Monday gourmet burger night with a rotating weekly menu. One night you might have the option of a turkey burger, while the next week a piece of beef might be smothered in Maker’s Mark bourbon BBQ sauce. All burgers come with an order of your choice between ghost chili, garlic parmesan, vinegar, and traditional fries.

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After hearing the recent success of Nage’s burger night, we made our way over last week. There are two of us and three burgers each Monday, so we made the smart decision and tried all three. For starters, we were talked into the mushroom Baklava which immediately won us over. Al spent some time in Turkey and we’re always looking for good food that reminds her of her time there, which this Baklava did well.

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We started with our favorite burger of the night -The Roadhouse Burger which consisted of a Maker’s Mark bourbon BBQ sauce with thin onion rings. We felt this one was the perfect combination of taste and grill time  – a mouthwatering medium rare. Our favorite fries were served with this dish,and we highly recommend the garlic Parmesan. Delicious.

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We then moved on to a burger on a glazed doughnut with bacon.  This was definitely the most unique of the burgers, but probably not one we’d order again, though the experience was worth it. The burger was only slightly underdone, but the flavors of all the elements competed too fiercely, and the meat flavor was almost lost.

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Finally, we tried the Wangyu burger which is a 100% double kobe beef burger with bacon and Nage’s special sauce. The burger was juicy and the sauce was excellent. With this dish we were promised a thrill of a lifetime – ghost chili fries. If you are unfamiliar with ghost chilis, they are one of the hottest peppers in the world and can prove disastrous. However, we were pleasantly surprised that the heat was not overwhelming, but spiced expertly with a variety of other flavors. We would definitely try these again, and encourage you to do so if your palette caters to spicy.

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Consider ordering slightly more cooked than you would ordinarily. I’m a big fan of medium burgers, but at Nage I’d drift toward having it cooked medium-well.

Don’t stop before you get to dessert, because there is a campfire sundae that’s too good to miss out on. If you’re full, order it anyways just for a couple bites.

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Burger fans can’t miss Monday’s at Nage Bistro in DC.

Cheers!

 -Scott
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