Jackson 20

11/20/09

AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!

by Galt79 at Citysearch

We were promptly seated and met by our waitress who believed herself to be pretty smart in congratulating us on our 1 year anniversary. A couple of glasses of complimentary celebratory champagne. Big fun. Ordered one of the wines off of the $20 list. Good enough for $20. We ordered the fried green tomatoes with arugula salad, blue crab buttermilk dressing as an appetizer ($12). Spectacular. Great mix of hot and cold, perfectly cooked crunchy southern fried food. Soon after we'd finished, the waitress brought over an appetizer order of the jumbo lump crab cake with seasonal slaw and mustard aioli--The-Chef-wanted-you-to-try-this-happyannive rsary ($15). Living around here, as you can imagine, one eats some crab cakes. These were exceptional. Hint of something unusual. Cinnamon? The slaw was fresh and asparagus-y. Just wonderful. I ordered the rockfish served with red quinoa, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, with butter sauce ($26), and my wife ordered the brook trout that came with crawfish etoufée, and smothered okra ($22). She's one to pick the one with the okra side every time. We ordered an extra side of braised collard greens with smoked bacon and caramelized onions to share ($6). The waitress returned in a couple of minutes to pour wine and let us know that they were out of the rockfish, and I switched over to the grilled veal meat loaf, roasted red potatoes, green beans, with house made ketchup ($19). The meals were presented beautifully. I'm pretty sure that our waitress went off by then. Someone else brought the plates. Some host guy stops by to chat, ask if everything's ok. Then chat some more. I mean, he was nice enough, pleasant (manager? hotel concierge? hanger-on? don't know.). Yeah, everything was ok. Onto the meat. Literally, figuratively. My veal meatloaf was superb. The housemade ketchup was a little sour, but it imparted a wonderful counterpoint to the grill flavor. The green beans were perfect. The potatoes, surprisingly underdone. Everything on the plate was so perfect, I kept trying to reconcile how that could be, but yeah. underdone. The veal was so good, I kept my standard veal joke to myself because I know it always embarrasses my wife (How's your dinner sir? I couldn't be enjoying it more had I tortured the calf myself). But I digress. This was seriously good. Different. Unusual. Special. Major. Also? A portion for two. The leftover veal was dinner again another night.

The collard greens were ordinary. Fine.

My girlfriend completely and utterly endorsed her plate, said everything on it was really good, really worked.

We had something of a wait to get our server back to take an order for coffee ($2.50) and bring the dessert menu. The coffee was drinkable. We ordered some sort of chocolate pot de crème to share for dessert which was excellent, and delivered with the wonderful "and-of-course-this-is-on-us-happy-anniversary." To sum up--exceptional food, serious pricing for Old Town (yet, we got about $50 in free food--apps, champagne, dessert--just kind of because we asked), and fawning and somewhat misguided service. But this seemed like a real restaurant. Serving food that you don't get in the 40 other adjacent restaurants. This was really, really good, but we wanted it to be just a tiny bit better. But it was really, really, REALLY good. I wouldn't hesitate to go back again. And again. Great. Heartily recommended. We had a terrific meal here. Better than almost any I've had in that neighborhood in the time I've lived around here.

• Pros: Great service, Great food
• Cons: None

11/20/09

Great Classic American Food

by Scatone at Citysearch

My GF and I went to Jackson 20 on a total whim while visiting Washington DC. We spent the day in Washington DC and wanted to find a nice place for dinner. We picked up a town guide in our hotel and one of the places advertised was Jackson 20. We had no idea how charming Old Town Alexandria was, or even that it existed. About an hour or so before we wanted to have dinner, we called up and made a reservations with Jackson 20. We were immediately taken back by the fact that they asked if we had any special occasion or if anyone had any food allergies. They wanted to make sure that we were completely covered in case we had any kind of special circumstance involved.

Anyway, when we showed up, we were seated right away. An earlier reviewer said that they didn't like the ambiance... we loved it... it was a great blend of modern meets contemporary styling. The lighting was great to give it the right amount of atmosphere. I can only describe it as mellow yet electric at the same time...

I'll get the only negative of the evening out of the way right now... we waited a bit to get our water and first drink. And when I say a bit, I mean, maybe 10 minutes... not too bad, but not that great either. If that is the worst part of the review I can give, you can imagine that we had a wonderful meal.

We started off the dinner with a few drinks. I had a chocolate martini and she had some kind of bar specialty. I could have had a little more vodka in mine and less godiva chocolate, but what are you going to do? For our meals, I had the Virginia Macaroni & Cheese Casserole with Bacon, Ham Hock and she hadBarbecued Pork RIbs with Apple Cider Cole Slaw and a side sweet potato. My Mac & Cheese was great!!! It would have been the perfect dish if they made the pasta fresh, or even used larger macaroni, but that's nitpicking. I mean, how many places really make their own pasta. The bacon was a great touch as it had a smokey flavor to it... just wonderful!!!! My GF's ribs were ridiculously tender and had a robust flavor and her sweet potato was the equivalent of... crack!!!! It was that good. Each bite just made me want more and more!!!

Overall, the service at Jackson 20 was pretty good, the ambiance was great and the food was highly enjoyable. I feel sorry that other's who posted reviews before me weren't happy with their meals. I highly recommend the restaurant and would go there again.

• Pros: Location, Menu, Ambiance, Service

10/13/09

good american food

by boyacasha at Citysearch

burger was good. drinks were awesome. had a vodka tonic and some other drings that really washed down one of the best burgers ever. someone got the salmon and that was good too!

• Pros: burger