Bill
Great desserts don't usually come in a plastic bag folded and partially sealed with a sticker. Roti's baklava joins Potbelly's sugar cookies and oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies as exceptions to this general rule.
Honey infuses most of this baklava, but does not overpower it or drip profusely from it. Each element takes its fair share of the stage. The honey soaked through layers of light but tightly packed phyllo dough and ground nuts. The nuts are ground so finely that they can truly merge with the honey to become an elegantly smooth and sweet nut meal. The design and execution are masterful. This is the best baklava I've ever tasted, and it earns our divine rating.
1275 First Street NE, Washington DC 20002
(202) 618-6969
Google map and reviews (4/5)
Other DC locations (open and planned)
Capital Spice
Bill
Watershed gave the NoMa area its only table-service restaurant when it opened on April 22nd. Chef Todd Gray is known for Equinox near the White House, and Watershed is his big bet on NoMa's potential. For gourmet desserts, it's the only game in town right now.
Watershed normally serves these three cookies with a glass of local milk. I ordered it with a scoop of ice cream instead. The ice cream was smooth and better than average. The cookies were all you can ask of cookies. They were warm and soft with thin crispy layers spotting the tops and edges. Two kinds of chocolate chunks play off of each other within the cookies. The chunks are generously proportioned, and melt into the cookies to grace their inner layers with delightful gooeyness and flavor.
Watershed's cookies deserve our great rating. However, my group found the entrees merely average. That's particularly disappointing given the pricing.
Hilton Garden Inn
1225 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002
(202) 534-1350
Google map
Capital Spice
One Vanilla Bean
Open Table
