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Very Best Restaurants: Elysium, Morrison House

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

Elysium, Morrison House **
Alexandria , $$

Not since it was called Le Chardon d'Or under the leadership of chef Jim Papovich in the 1980s has the dining room at the Morrison House had cooking worthy of the setting, the loveliest traditional dining room in very traditional Old Town. Each evening chef Jim Garrison offers his guests a choice of a three-course, four-course, or five-course menu. At $35, $45, and $55, the menus are reasonably priced. The chef matches each course with a wine available by the glass or in a tasting flight to accompany each course at $15.50, $20, or $26, depending on the number of courses, and the choices are usually very good ones.

A recent four-course menu included a lovely roasted-garlic soup; smoked salmon with a salad of warm fava beans lightly dressed with lemon-pepper oil; medallions of wild boar, a little tough but flavorful and nicely paired with a mole sauce and a salsa of guava and mango; and for dessert, the Espresso Pot au Creme, looking like a cup of espresso but with a rich espresso custard beneath the foam. The five-course menu on the same evening started with a colorful salad of spinach and root-vegetable chips; then on to a lobster brandade with asparagus coulis; a superb cannelloni of duck and pheasant with chanterelle mushrooms, served in a sage-flavored broth; a combination cheese-and-salad course with a nice tomme de Savoy and roasted pecans; and concluded with a light chilled soup of Bing cherries.

Service is friendly, efficient, and well informed, all of which makes Elysium wonderful for a special-occasion meal.

Elysium, Morrison House , Morrison House, 116 S. Alfred St., Alexandria ; 703-838-8000. Open Tuesday through Saturday for dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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