Trouble in the West End

The trio of chefs that had been running Eric Ripert's West End Bistro in the Ritz Carlton on M St. up and suddenly quit this week. Or were fired. Or were pushed out but didn't actually get fired. Depends on who you ask.

Anyway, at this price point, I'd give it some time to settle down before you hop on over there. Though, based on this review below that I first wrote in July, there were some issues before the mass exodus:

The Executive Chef is Eric Ripert, of La Bernardin fame in NYC, one of the most prestigious chefs in the country. He doesn't spend enough time in the kitchen at WEB. I started w a fried duck egg 'salad' which was a handfull of green beens, dressed w a creamy dressing and topped w a fried duck egg. I wonder how they bread a duck egg for frying. But at the end of the day, the egg doesn't add a lot of flavor, and the 'greens' don't need the enriching of the yolk due to the creamy dressing. I thought the egg to be tasteless and superfluous, which at 14 bucks was unfortunate. Then I had the softshell crab appetizer as my entree. It was more a softshell crab extremity dish - Ripert's kitchen removed the entire body leaving only the legs. Now I can see the point of this, its an upscale restaurant and the dish is just an appetizer, this version was cleaner. But, this is dc. We take crabs seriously. And I missed the earthy richness of the body. Underneath the crab was a perfect nicoise-style salad, but it was ICE cold and clashed with the hot crab legs.

Finally dessert - peach cobbler w bourbon ice cream. Note the menu did not say galato or sorbet, but ice cream. It was a gritty mess. I'm guessing there was so much bourbon as to prevent proper freezing, but seriously I just paid nine bucks for this dessert, did you not test the theory first? The cobbler was pedestrian but satisfying. (yes, I know I'm a snob)

And now the service. I was dining at the bar. I expect casual service, but this was ridiculous. Friendly, but amateur - drinks went unfilled, plates went un-bussed, etc.

Bottom line, the dinner consisting of a salad, appetizer, and dessert was 100 bucks (inc alcohol) and was not worth it.