One of the good things about dining in DC as opposed to NYC is that you rarely have to fight for reservations, even at the most popular restaurants. Sure, I have to clear my time to book at exactly the time the reservation window opens online at places like Maydan, but I never had any shocking moment where I logged in to Resy once the window opened and the reservations were all gone within three seconds! In any event, I recently had to plan my day in advance to snag a coveted reservation at a newcomer in the DC dining scene. Pascual, a Mexican restaurant from husband-and-wife chefs Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss who made their name in DC at a French bistro Lutèce in Georgetown, is named after San Pasqual, the Saint of Cooks and Kitchens. It might be surprising that a team behind a French bistro started a new Mexican project, but less so if you know the background of chef Coss, a native of Mexico City who trained at the city’s famous Pujol before working at Oxomoco and Empellón in NYC. So did Pascual live up to the hype of being one of the hottest restaurants in DC at the moment (it was also featured as the No. 1 restaurant in Washington Post Tom Sietsema’s Spring 2024 Dining Guide)? My wife Jun and I agreed that there were certainly some fantastic dishes, but the overall consistency was a bit mixed.  

For Jun, the barometer of a great Mexican restaurant is always in how good the guacamole is, so we of course started our meal with guacamole and tostadas (at $17), accompanied by (with an extra $10 charge) a colorful spread of salsa, verde and habanero sauces as well as smoked papaya, shishito escabeche, pickled radish and piña. Despite the stunning presentation, the guacamole was solid but not the most amazing one we’d had. Jun, who is always fond of fiery Mexican sauce, was stunned that the habanero sauce was not even spicy at all! After our initial disappointment, the dishes that came after got progressively better, with the exception of prawns that were forgettable. For a successful meal at Pascual, focusing on vegetable dishes seems to be a winning strategy based on our experience. When I tried a scoop of chayote salad that arrived several minutes after the guacamole, I quickly forgot about the latter and really enjoyed the salad that was a perfect summer appetizer with its refreshing texture enhanced with sunflower seeds.

My favorite dish of the night was fideos negros (think Mexican version of thin noodles) with huitlacoche (a type of corn fungus) and mushrooms. The earthy flavor from the dish was quite outstanding and I only wished we had ordered two of these. For the main dish, we shared a giant lamb neck barbacoa accompanied by ayocote beans and salsa cruda that you can wrap into tortillas to create DIY tacos. The braised lamb neck was tasty and its texture soft; the only question was perhaps the price tag ($54) that seemed reflective of the overall inflationary environment of today. For dessert, Jun and I were fans of the off-menu flan, while bunuelo didn’t quite have the crunchy texture that we were expecting from the restaurant’s answer to churros.

As noted above, getting a reservation at Pascual will take some efforts (it of course doesn’t help that the restaurant’s indoor dining space has only 30 seats), although things might ease up with the restaurant also opening up an outdoor patio. I liked the sleek, modern décor of the dining space that you might see at a hot spot in Mexico City. Another plus of the dining experience at Pascual is its strong cocktail list (you really do need to start your meal with margaritas), although the skeletal wine list made me wonder whether the restaurant could’ve experimented more in that department. Overall, Pascual offers some standout dishes that might tempt us to come back again just to see what other dishes we should check out. At least we know have a fairly good idea of what dishes to skip next time.    

Address: 732 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002

KenScale: 8.0/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.75/10)

Website: https://www.pascualdc.com/

Reservation via Resy