Bibiana, A Review

Today, a dear friend of mine and I ate at Bibiana, the newest DC creation of Ashok Bijaj, best known for The Oval Room, Bombay Club and Rasika.  It was a bitter sweet moment as Bibana takes the space of one of my sentimental favorites, Luigino's.  It was here I developed a passion for northern Italian food, wine, even the art of cooking itself, as one could sit at the bar overlooking the kitchen and watch the evenining's creations at work.  But, as life goes on, so does the ultra modern chic take over in style.  Bibiana is now transformed into a vitrual W of a restaurant.  Maybe it was the passing of my sentimental favorite which made me find the decor a bit much, but it was all qualty and tastefully done.

The food, however, was luscious on every level.  The menu relfected the season in ingredients and preparation.  I chose chestnut soup as my first course.  So often tinny and thin, this was full and savory.  Poured in the theatric style around a dollop of creme fresh and two medallions of duck sausage, I wanted no more than to lick the bowl clean.  For the second course, I delighted in a veal ravioli with a sage butter sauce.  Luigino's first introduced me to home-made veal pasta.  For them it was a large, v]paper thin ravioli that melted in your mouth.  Bibiana's was a thicker pasta with a bite.  The sage sauce included bits of crisped pancetta.  A few more sauteed sage leaves would have been nice, but all and all, excellent.  The reviews are high for Bibiana and I would recommend it too.  Check it out here at http://www.bibianadc.com/.