Kinkead's

Description:

• It's been open since 1983, but Kinkead's has a young spirit. This three-tier, 220-seat town-house restaurant is a reliable place to go for great food and festive atmosphere. Award-winning chef/owner Bob Kinkead orchestrates his kitchen staff in full view of the upstairs dining room, where booths and tables neatly fill nooks and alcoves. At street level is a scattering of tables overlooking the restaurant's lower level, the more casual 40-seat bar and cafe. A jazz pianist performs Tuesday through Sunday evenings from 7 to 10pm. When friends and I recently were seated too close to the pianist, we asked for a different table and were rewarded with what I consider the best seat in the house: the booth named after the irreplaceable master journalist, R. W. Apple, who used to dine here. The booth is tucked into a corner of the lively bar area and bears a plaque commemorating Apple. The worst seat in the house: anywhere in the "atrium," the area that extends outside the doors of the restaurant into an indoor mall.

  Kinkead's menu (which changes daily) features primarily seafood, but always includes at least one beef and one poultry entree. Among the favorite dishes are the fried Ipswich clams; cod topped with crab imperial; clam chowder; and pepita-crusted salmon with shrimp, crab, and chilies. Chef Kinkead piles on appetizing garnishes -- that crab-crowned cod, for instance, comes with sweet potato purée and ham-laced spoon bread. The wine list comprises more than 300 selections. You can't go wrong with the desserts, like the chocolate dacquoise with cappuccino sauce. If you're hungry but not ravenous on a late weekday afternoon, stop in for some delicious light fare: fish and chips, lobster roll, soups, and salads.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

The Washingtonian

•  Top 100 Restaurant 2008

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2009