Mie-n-Yu

For my second night celebrating DC restaurant week, I went out with my dear friend Alyssa to catch up after not having seen her in some months.  Catching up with people is one of the reasons I like Restaurant week so much... it's an excuse to get together like any other holiday...  hence its holiday status in my book.  We chose Mie n Yu, a Georgetown restaurant whose menu follows the silk road from China through the middle east.  It has decor that might be better suited to Disney's Epcot... fountains pouring into Bowls, a room that makes you feel as if you were a tuareg in the desert.  Last night though, I dined in Afghanistan and Morocco... or so those were the dishes I chose.  I started with the Afghan Mantu, which is a beef and scallion dumpling that had mint yogurt and a tomato sauce.  All of this is fancy for undercooked potsticker from any Chinese place, although I enjoyed the yogurt sauce.  Maybe that was the Afghan part.  My entree was the Moroccan Beef.  It was a large piece of slow roasted local organic beef with moroccan fruits, cinnamon, honey and saffron chutney served over roasted root vegetables.  Now this was good.  Of course I love most chutneys having grown up with my grandma making them, but I've never put it over a slow roasted side of beef.  By far this was the best meal of my week.  For desert, I was stuck with either chocolate or cheesecake.  Neither are good choices for me gastronomically speaking, so I chose the less chocolatey sounding chocolate choice.  That would be the Pecan Chocolate Croustade with chocolate whipped cream.  It just tasted like pecan pie with chocolate chips melted in it.  Nothing special.  The service, while good, was impersonal and the vibe was lively and trendy which proved an interesting juxtaposition to the Epcot decor.  Overall assessment, a fun place to dine with a very creative and different menu.