How many restaurants in America can you say embody timeless classics with its rich history and tradition? The Occidental, open since 1906, might have as a claim as any on that question. The restaurant, steps away from the White House, was revamped by the chef and restaurateur Stephen Starr last year.  My wife and I had a chance to visit The Occidental earlier this year when one of our favorite California wine producers, Catherine Kistler of Occidental Wines (coincidentally the same name but no actual relationship to the restaurant), held a collaboration dinner there. Our focus then of course was on the magnificent Pinot Noirs from Catherine (paired with a four-course tasting menu from the restaurant), but I wanted to open The Occidental for a proper dinner from the full menu. We finally made it back to the restaurant earlier this month. Overall, it was a solid dinner but with mixed experiences with some of the dishes.

The menu at The Occidental consists of American classics that would not be out of place for a power lunch of politicians and lobbyists. We started our dinner with a simple wedge salad with bacon and blue cheese (nothing particularly special), followed by seared foie gras that Jun remarked was one of the better ones she’d had recently thanks to the use of rhubarb sauce that paired quite well with the duck liver (although the $37 price tag for a relatively modest portion was a slight turn-off). For the main dishes, we skipped past different cuts of the steaks and other opulent-sounding dishes and went straight to the two dishes that had their own separate descriptions in the menu. According to the restaurant’s version of history, The Occidental was a site where a Soviet diplomat and an American journalist sat down to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis and averted a new World War; during that meal, the Soviet diplomat ordered the pork chop, hence the restaurant’s playful label “The Pork Chop That Saved the World.” It was a massive pork chop (at a whopping $56) and the texture of the meat was rather good, especially around the bone.

We both slightly preferred the other main dish, a stunning presentation of pheasant under a glass cover with smoke coming out once our server opened it (for $68). It’s not often you encounter pheasant meat at a restaurant, and The Occidental actually pulled this off quite nicely with delicious white and dark meat accompanied (again) by seared foie gras. The desserts were the part that left us a bit wanting for more. Despite the hype from other reviews of the restaurant, the pink champagne cake with vanilla custard was absolutely forgettable, and the banana foster that was flambéed tableside right in front of us by our server was more memorable for the presentation than the actual banana that came with brown sugar and vanilla ice cream.

Getting a reservation at The Occidental is not too challenging but the dining room can get pretty crowded during the peak dinner hours so if you want to dine during that window, I would still suggest booking in advance. The luxurious vibe of the dark dining room, with portraits of leading social and political figures in American history, and the smartly dressed staff do their best impression of an old school DC dining. There is full bar with an expansive wine list at pricier price range (including full lineups from Occidental Wines); I was surprised that the classic martini and Old Fashioned cocktails that I tried during our meal didn’t leave a stronger impression. While Jun and I concluded that we weren’t sure if we would be back by ourselves in the near future based purely on food (the hefty price tags across the menu didn’t help much, either)., The Occidental is a solid dinner option in the DC dining scene, especially if you are visiting from out of town or are a local who want to impress out of town visitors for the restaurant’s faithful homage to the bygone days of DC.   

KenScale: 7.75/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.5/10)

Address: 1475 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004

Website: https://theoccidentaldc.com/

Reservation via Resy