Looking for seafood restaurants in DC

Try McCormick and Schmicks! Yes, they are a chain (actually they prefer to be called something else because of unique chefs...) BUT the food is great and the fresh menu changes daily. While I normally dress up to eat there, I always see a broad range of clothing choices.

If you are looking for something more unique to Washington, one of my favorites is Old Ebbit Grill. (Not a seafood restaurant, but they have a lot of lovely choices!)

Pesce!!! http://www.pescebistro.com/
Jean Louis Palledin. Gorgeous!

Sadly, Jean-Luis died some years ago. But his widow still runs Pesce and it continues to garner good reviews.

Pesce is a very nice choice. Johnny's Half Shell and Hank's Oyster Bar are also good choices. Kincade's used to be good for seafood but I don't have a current report.

For chains, Oceannaire is far better than M & S -- and it's much closer to the JW Marriott, if that's the OP's hotel.

It's NOT a seafood place, but all the seafood offerings I've had at DC Coast (including mussels in limoncello) have been excellent.

Really very few restuarants in DC still require a coat and tie these days. A very new Italian seafood restaurant named D'Acqua has opened up just a few blocks down from your hotel -- here is info and a review http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=cityguide/profile&id=1071008. I second all of repete's suggestions as well -- Oceanaire is a favorite indugence of mine when I am in the mood for a lively atmosphere. Like D.C. Coast, mentioned by repete, Ceiba is another restaurant very close to your hotel that is known for good seafood, though it serves many other things as well.

When we were in DC last Sept we went several times to McCormick & Smiccs.We love seafood.The only thing that bothers us is the fact that the noise level in American restaurants can be a bit much.It takes away a lot of the dining experience.PAul

Agree w/ all repete's choices. Oceanaire is superior to M&S. One other to add to his thoughtful list is Kinkead's at 2000 Penn. Ave. NW

Pesce would be my top choice, however.

Pesce. Johnny's Half Shell. Kinkeads. Hank's Oyster Bar. Cashions and Corduroy's offer seafood but are not exclusively seafood. Acadiana's will have Cajun with seafood. Does Komi's offer seafood? I think so.

Oceanaire is a good place. Check it out.

You might also think about some of the ethnic restaurants. The best Thai restaurants have soft shell crab and prawns, as well as scallops. I guess it depends on what you mean by "seafood."

Wow, I was away from the computer all weekend. Thanx for all the suggestions. I wish we were going to be there long enough to try them all but I'm certain we'll at least hit a couple of them. Mike T, we are definitely interested in ethnic restaurants that happen to also serve "fish/seafood" by which I mean virtually any fish, plus shrimp (SO's favorite), scallops, etc. (We don't really go for oysters or sushi.) Thanks for all the suggestions.
gail

Kinkeads is excellent!

Several good seafood eateries:

Legal Seafoods (National Airport and near Verizon Center on 7th Street).

Oceannaire is good, trendy but pricey.

Hank's Oyster Bar is great (near DuPont)

Best oysters: Old Ebbitt Grill on 15th Street

If you like Shrimp and Grits, try Vidalia's on M Street.

I did post a quick trip report and thank you, but I see this thread has surfaced again, so I'll add my thanks for suggestions here, too. We were in DC 3/30 - 4/1. Friday, we tried to get a dinner res. for Pesce but by 1 p.m. it was already booked from 5:30 to 9:30. We got a 7 or 7:30 reservation at Ceiba, but found the manager had kind of a snotty attitude (we weren't dressed in rags, either). We were seated in a lower area, at a table immediately outside the kitchen and there were no other diners in the entire area. When S.O. asked for another table, we were moved up to the regular dining area (where there were still many empty tables but it was at least livelier). The food was good and the service was also. We ate Saturday night at D'Acqua, had good food, NO attitudinal problems, and good service (better than Ceiba).

Just posting a reply to this for anyone else looking for seafood restaurants in DC--I ate at the Oceanaire last summer and everything we had was fabulous. Those were probably the biggest soft shell crabs I'd ever seen in my life! I thought I was going to have to be a slob and unbutton my pants by the time we were done, which would have been shameful since my congressman was in the restaurant, too!

Gail,
You might want to send your impressions of Ceiba and D'Acqua to Tom Sietsema, teh Washington Post restaurant critic. He has a blog on Wednesdays at 11 AM.

McCormick and Schmidt's is in every big city, so if you want that same type of chain seafood that you will get at Legal SeaFoods (which is also in DC-right by the airport, and IN the airport) then you can go there.

As far as Acadiana-their food is mediocre to bad-(like most over-priced, pretentious DC restaurants)way over-salted, way over-priced.

Johnny's Half-Shell is a good choice-a restaurant that has been around awhile (not usual for DC restaurants) and is a bit of a DC institution.

However, seeing as you are right there on Penn. Ave.-arguably one of the two or three best seafood restaurants is right across the street- Kinkead's. This restaurant has been around for over 10 years now, their seafood dishes are consistently excellent, particularly that seafood platter they put out-but it is made for more than 2 people. Very fresh grilled fish, very well prepared, a menu that changes daily (which is important to me). You can't go wrong here.

Oceanaire is, as the other poster said also a chain, but I would take Oceanaire over McC and Schmidt's ANY day-Oceanaire's seafood is excellent, it has less of that chain restaurant formulaic mentality.

McC and Schmidt's is just like a TGIFridays, Ruby Tuesday's happy hour gang kind of place, except they serve seafood as their specialty-and it is nothing special.

You are ideally placed for both Kinkead's and Oceanaire-you can walk to both, and I think you'll be very pleased with both.

I read this thread before going to DC and thought I would try Oceannaire since it's the only one I haven't been to before. I got there at 4:55 or so and they were not seating until 5 p.m., so I hung out at the bar. Several professional black women were there before me, so I was not alone. Several more people came in, including a group of white men in suits. Suddenly someone comes over and offers to seat the white guys. They are seated right away and the rest of us are sitting in the bar area. No one says anything to us about being seated. I finally said to the group of black women, Weren't you here long before they were? They were like, "Yeah!" So they got up and found someone who seated them. I stood up and tried to get someon to seat me - the guy who had taken the group of "suits" for seating came by and literally stepped right in front of me - he almost knocked me over - and didn't even acknowledge what he had done.

Finally I got seated - even though the place was empty, I was seated all the back next to the kitchen - the guy just pointed at the table, didn't say anything such as "here's your table."

I sat at the table for almost 10 minutes and no one came by. I kept trying to catch someone's eye, and there were plenty of employees loitering about, but everyone just kept walking past me.

When I saw the menu, I thought, This is really expensive. Most of the seafood was $28 or above. I could eat at Kinkeads for that price, with a lot better service.

So I finally just got up and left.

If you click on my name, you'll see I don't make disgruntled reviews of restaurants very often (if at all). This was just the worst string of service I have ever seen in my life. I wouldn't spend a cent there.

Since I was hungry at that point, and wanted seafood, I just walked a few blocks to M&S. Yes, a chain and not fantastic quality, but good quality and the service was excellent.

Yikes, that makes me embarrassed to be the first to mention Oceannaire. Hadn't heard of that happening there and wouldn't have mentioned it if I had even a hint that something like that would happen.

Absolutely reprehensible.