IndeBleu

Now that it’s under renovations I’m not sure how they’re planning on changing up the style of the venue, but from my experience BEFORE the changes, I’ve ALWAYS had a great time here. This is a review not for the food, but the CLUB PART that it changes into after a certain hour on weekends.
The crowd changes pretty much all the time depending on the type of music that’s being played by the DJ there on the night that you go. But the vibe of everyone seems to be the same as most other DC venues «GO OUT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME» knowing that, makes this spot a great place to go out there and BE SOMEBODY ;-) I loved how they had these dripped down curtains in a dark red hanging over the reserved table section (which is how I had a consistent buzz the whole night because of their bottle service which was also EXCELLENT). Great times, I was also there for my friends bachelorette party, which turned out to be a wonderful night as a whole even having 15 ladies with me!

Came here for restaurant week and loved it. I thought the service was excellent and our waiter gave delicious recommendations. The food is mostly what I would call Indian fusion. Don’t expect all of the traditional Indian dishes, they play around with the traditional foods in a creative way.
When you go, be sure to save room for the «spaghetti and meatballs» dessert. Trust me on this one.

I had a great happy hour here a couple month back and my girlfriend and I dropped over $ 100, well worth it. The bar area is almost nonexistent but our bartender was just the most charming young lady. The server made our experience.
We really just ate off the small plate menu but everything we ordered was very good, some of which we ordered a couple rounds of.
Once in a while I have to be at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for work late in the day and I try and hit this place up.
I tried to go back recently and apparently they are closed for a remodel? Disappointing but I should have checked the website before going.

The food has been consistently good although I cannot say the same about the service.
I really hate it when restaurants automatically charge gratuity for relatively large parties. I feel that it is insulting to the diner. The consumer should maintain the right to reward for good service and send a message for poor service. We had a party of 6 and before the waiter took our orders, I purposely asked if we could split our checks. The conniving waiter responded, «Wouldn’t it be easier for you guys if I put it on one check?» Really? We all stared at each other in disbelief. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t have asked. Part of the enjoyment of the dining experience is to have little to no discomfort. It is annoying to figure who owes what at the end of a meal when a waiter could easily solve that in the beginning.
In general, the art of good wait service has gone by the way-​side but also too is the understanding of good service.
Bottom line: Splitting checks should be part of a waiter’s repertoire.
We didn’t have to wait long for our food except for the dessert which took a long time to come out. Their rack of lamb was delicious and I enjoyed their «spaghetti and meatballs» dessert which was cardamom ice cream pressed through a ricer with fried Indian donuts — gulag jamun — with a syrup.
It was nice to see one of the owners there last night. She stopped by every table to say hello. Of course we did not mention the peeve of the night since we all thoroughly enjoyed the food.

This place was better than I expected and really does things the right way. I took my girlfriend here for her birthday on a Friday night and I she was very impressed. First and foremost the service was second to none, they made sure that from the moment I walked in everything was taken care of. Second, the environment was great, there was lots of space, there was good music and it wasn’t too loud. I ordered the lamb and and she ordered the Peruvian chicken, both were outstanding and cooked just as ordered.
The owner of the place came up to us at one point, called me buy my name and made sure everything was great.
I HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone who wants to have a special evening and wants good with with great service.

I went during Restaurant Week, so there was a limited menu, but what I got was excellent. I started with a blackberry mojito, which was muddled with real blackberries — delicious. The appetizer course was Tandoori shrimp on a tower of romaine lettuce, dressed with a spicy caesar dressing made with greek yogurt. Then I had the Peruvian style roast chicken, which was tender and perfectly cooked. Then, the dessert, the best course of all, was the «chocolate covered banana,» which was a banana custard that was so light and fluffy, covered with a chocolate ganache, and served with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. The courses got better as they went. I think the appetizer was my least favorite, though still good, and the dessert was the best. Overall, I’d recommend the restaurant for a nice night out. Very romantic atmosphere, and quiet enough to have a civilized conversation.

IndeBleu is a good spot that has a chance to be great. The food is solid, the ambiance is nice but there’s something that’s not knocking my socks off. I do really like the rib eye but I can’t say that anything else is particularly memorable.
Ok, somebody corrected me yesterday and mentioned that the rib eye (or my senile memory of it) isn’t on the menu now. Ungood! :-(I am a bit of a carnivore and really enjoyed it. However I still say it’s a good spot that’s worth a visit.

Forget Restaurant Week. Look for Tasting Journal events at Indebleu. It doesn’t happen often — once in a blue moon — with the last event occurring July 2008 (see Joye P.‘s review at
). But when it does, I see no better excuse than to drop by for a $ 45 5-​course prix fixe menu with free wine.
Like many people, I knew of Indebleu only by reputation, both good and bad. Sadly, the prices were simply too costly to justify a random, haphazard visit. For 3 years, I kept deferring Indebleu until, one day, I learned of the Tasting Journal. The tasting journal menu is $ 45 per person (normally $ 65 without the glass of wine). With a dining partner, you could extend that to become a 9-​course tasting. Of all the Tasting Journal events, Indebleu offers the best value because its tasting menu is more than a hodgepodge of regular menu items (contra Uni, Leftbank, etc.).
I refer to Joye P.‘s 2008 review, which is spot on about Indebleu’s many hits and misses. But at $ 45, I didn’t mind the experimentation. There were a lot of combinations I never heard of; like spiced honeydew soup or tamago-​wrapped asparagus spears. I appreciated the opportunity to broaden my palate even if the execution fell flat. Nevertheless, I remained impressed with what the kitchen brought out. I was so curious about a «spaghetti and meatball» dish I kept seeing, I just had to order it myself. The Spaghetti and Meatball ($ 9) was actually a saffron cardamom ice cream, which was squeezed out from a pasta press to resemble strings of pasta, covered with sugar syrup and balls of gulab jamun (fried cream dough flavored with cardamom and rosewater).
The current Tasting Journal menu (running from May 20 to May 31) is entirely new and proves to be just as intriguing. Again, there are a lot of foreign sounding words and unfamiliar ingredients (e.g. pequillo pepper). Some of them, I can only hope to meet expectations; like the peach beignets with chevre (goat cheese) ice cream with crispy sweet basil. The last tasting menu did not convert me into a loyal patron but I’m always curious as to what surprises the kitchen can muster. [Last Visit: July 2008]
Tip: If you tell them its your birthday (or convince the waiter to comp you), they will bring out a small blue white chocolate monkey filled with chocolate mouse. It’s a tasty treat.
# # # # #
Reservations Required for the Tasting Journal special.
Learn more:
FIRST: Chili Relleno (Roasted Jalepeno stuffed with Spinach and Queso)
SECOND: Gingered Carrot Soup (Jalapeño and Herb Yoghurt with Crispy Pickled Ginger) or Baby Rocquet Salad (Baby Arugula, Spiced Cashews, Orange Supremes, Sherry Dressing and Marscapone Stuffed Dates)
THIRD: Bay Scallops «Green Curry» (Fresh Pan Seared Scallops over an Asian Style Ratatouille with Coconut Milk and Chili Purée) or Curried Mushroom Pasta (House made Fresh Taglietelle, Exotic Mushrooms, English Peas in a Mushroom Emulsion)
FOURTH (Wine Pairing with Course Choice): Yellow Fin Tuna (Fresh Tuna with a Warm Saffron Vinaigrette, Brussle Sprouts with a Pequillo Pepper and PeeWee Potato Sauté) or Roasted Lamb (Lamb with Piment d’Espelette Marinade, BabyTurnip Gratin and Fresh Mint Relish) or Vegetarian Mixed Grill (Halloumi Cheese, Zucchini, Olives, Tomato Confit, Cucumbers in a Fenugreek Sauce)
FIFTH: Peach Beignets (Cinnamon Sugar Dusted Chevre Ice Cream Crispy Sweet Basil) or «Tiramisu» (Kahlua Cake, Chipolte Chocolate Mousse, Van Gogh Expresso and Cocoa)

After the theater, R and I wandered around for a bit, trying to find a place for dessert/​drinks. CoCo Sala (my favorite) was packed, so R suggested Indebleu.
This was my first time, but I think they’ve done some redesigning recently, so the club bit has an entrance and the restaurant/​bar has a separate entrance and is tucked away upstairs. The restaurant bit is beautiful and just the right amount of pretentious, with dim, sexy lighting. We sat at the bar, which is small, intimate, and strangely cozy. The bartendress was über friendly; she asked our names and even remembered them, even though I can’t for the life of me remember hers.
For dessert we got the Some More: molten chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream and caramalized banana. Sooooooo nice. The chocolate oozed warm from its brownie casing, swirling with the ice cream, dancing in my mouth. They say you have to allow 15 minutes for this particular dessert, which was fine by us, but I’m not sure why. Yes, it was AMAZING, but wasn’t out of this world.
The cocktail menu had a decent selection, although they managed to spell «berry» and «Captain» incorrectly. Anyways, I got the Grey Goose cosmopolitan with black berries, known as Black Lace. Highly recommended. The black berries complement the citrus quite nicely. R (who’d also given up alcohol for Lent and wasn’t drinking til Easter) was chuffed to bits that they had his favorite nonalcoholic beer, Kaliber.
We considered going to the club bit, which is now called «Stir» (although for some reason, I keep wanting to call it «Spit»), but $ 20 covers are a no-​go.
Overall, a nice way to cap a great night. I’m sure I’ll find myself at the bar again soon.

Reading from other reviews, I have to agree with many of them — I had high expectations for this place and was disappointed. I tried their «Restaurant Week Redux» menu, so for 3 courses at $ 20.09 I wasn’t too disappointed but the night had its highs and lows.
I ordered a glass of their Chardonnay (I believe it’s DeLoach, but I know it was from Russian River Valley for sure) and it was bad. It had a striking bitter taste to it, which surprised me because I tend to go for California wines and I’m almost never let down. I also failed to notice that there was a half-​glass price and a full-​glass price. So I got my glass assuming it was $ 8, but when I got the check it was $ 16 — I was given a full glass of horrible wine, granted I should’ve had it taken back. But the waitress hadn’t even bothered to ask if I wanted to try it first or if I wanted a half-​glass or full-​glass.
My first course was the Tuna Tartare which was excellent but they didn’t serve enough of the crispy bread for the amount of tuna given. I ended up taking from the bread basket to finish it. I had the shrimp and risotto for my entrée. I was also let down by the tiny portion, as well as the fact that my shrimp basically looked and tasted like popcorn shrimp. The risotto was nice and cheesy but I felt like I could’ve made it at home and put Popeye’s popcorn shrimp on top. I had the l’Opera for dessert and I was impressed by that — the layered cake part had soft cake and a delicious cream and the pistachio ice cream was wonderful (and I almost never go for anything pistachio).
Overall I give Indebleu 3 stars — with 2 very important parts of the experience lacking in quality (wine and entrée) I can’t say it lives up to the hype. I doubt I’d go back again.

I suspect that I should never eat out on Restaurant Week. This place, as I have come to expect from most places during Restaurant Week was a disaster in every possible way.
Although the decorations are nice, as well as the food presentation, it just didn’t make up for everything else.
The service was almost non-​existent. It took forever to get drinks, then we considered walking out several times between courses. When they did arrive, they were wrong. When we finally were able to leave, after complaining but without receiving an apology, we vowed never to return.
The food was actually pretty good. :(

The 4 stars for this restaurant is mostly for the service and the food. The atmosphere and décor was lacking for a Friday evening. I guess it picks up later on. This place also used to be more focused on Indian flavors but no longer and I personally think it’s much better now.
But the food was right on point. We started off with the Lump Crab Fritters and I wish they were whole crabcake size. They were soooooo good! Fried just right. We also got the beef tenderloin and ribeye steak, which were equally as good, although my bf didn’t like the chocolate syrup something or other drizzled around his steak. The brocolli rabe and mashed potato sides were also great and set off the main entrees.
Overalll, great food, yummy Huckleberry Mojitos, good service but drab décor and atmosphere. Probably head here after 8 if you’re looking for that.

It’s kind of funny… earlier in the evening when at dinner here, I thought «i’m very much a fan of this place. I’ll review it highly on Unilocal!» But now that I’m here, I“m thinking «was it THAT great?» The answer is yes, but I say that with the caveat that it’s not what I was expecting. What I was expecting was luxe Indian cuisine. What I got was, well, food I’d expect to at any fancy restaurant, perhaps with a touch of curry. Of course, good food is good food, but if i’m feeling like Indian, I am expecting Indian!
I dined here w/​9 friends celebrating a birthday and the ambiance was very nice. They only placed 8 seats at our table, but that situation was remedied quickly — still, a 5-​star place doesn’t seat a party of 9 at a table with 8 seats. But no biggie.
Our waiter was attentive and professional but did not push us. They have an extensive wine and cocktail list that is definitely worth ordering from. They bring a delicious bread basket to the table with a mix of flat bread, seed bread, and a sort of «curry sourdough» that is intriguing. They also bring regular butter and apple-​butter, which is a nice twist (goes well with the curry bread). But the curry bread is pretty much the extent of the Indian flare I was expecting.
As an app, I ordered a DELICIOUS serving of mussels. They ain’t cheap, but the portion is pretty generous and it comes with two slices of delicious (huge!) bread for mopping up the sauce, which tastes like an Italian Arrabiata sauce (spicy tomato sauce to the non-​Italian). They had fresh cut garlic in the mix and they were awesome. In a rather quirky twist, they serve the mussels with a MASSIVE spoon and fork, rather than the small forks most restaurants give you — I found the fork to be too large to manage, and didn’t touch the spoon — but again, just a side note that removes the 5^th star.
As an entrée, I had the salmon with lentils and onion. Overall, I was a bit underwhelmed by this — it sounded AMAZING on the menu, but what I got was 3 small pieces of salmon sitting on 3 individual lentil-​filled sauteed onions. The sauce was somewhat bland that accompanied the meal, and so from an entrée perspective, I wouldn’t rave about it. Still, it was fresh and the presentation was unique (i say unique because I’m not sure if I liked it or not). Friends had the chicken w/​spicy pineapple sauce (which sounded, and they confirmed, was amazing), the steak w/​asparagus and potatoes (see what I mean about «non-​indian»?), the ahi tuna, and the ravioli (again, see what I mean about «non-​indian»?) and the foie gras, which was decidedly «odd» flavored.
The ambiance/​décor at Indebleu is quite nice, although a bit dark in spots. The restaurant is a lot larger than I anticipated from the outside view. I will say that I don’t like the fact that the wait-​staff shirts say «indebleu» on them — I think that’s cheesy; after all, we’re NOT at Applebee’s. One thing that IS cool is that they have really interesting sinks in the bathrooms; I tend to always visit a restroom at a restaurant because to me, if the restroom ain’t clean, it is a reflection of how clean they keep their kitchen. This place has a pretty cool set of faucets in their bathroom, and the place itself was quite clean — so kudos there.
We had a «birthday dessert» called the «Mango-​a-​trois,» which was some sort of Mango custard that again sounded better on the menu than it was in actuality.
I’d go back to IndeBleu for the ambiance, service, and delicious food, but if you’re looking for authentic Indian cuisine I’d stick with Heritage, Indique, or the (i’ve yet to try) Rasika that everyone is raving about…
End of long review!

For Tantra Lounge: 3.5
Wow, I actually, uh… had fun here.
Whaaa???
Yeah. I mean, this kind of place isn’t my typical «spot» by any means. It’s the kind of place the beautiful people come out to in droves, where the DJ spins a lot of some weird hybrid bastard child of hip hop and house, and chicks stumble around looking for the closest animate or inanimate object to grind up on. Nice. And you gotta love that laser blue lighting because who doesn’t wanna feel like they’re in a humongous alien tanning booth? And seriously, judging from the power trip the dude who guards the roped off VIP lounge is on, can we just be honest and admit it stands for Very Insignificant Penis? Dude, this is not ’83 and you are not Corey Hart. Why are you wearing sunglasses at night? And indoors.
But frickin’ A, it was fun, man. I’m just as baffled as you are. My open bar wristband obviously helped, as did the company I was in. What really surprised me was the fact that the general crowd of strangers was actually very cool and very friendly. I didn’t encounter one snob, assbag, or douchehole all night. The music was by far the biggest obstacle to overcome, but hey, that’s what gin and tonics were made for. Three of them. Followed by two rum and cokes. Sorry, liver. I promise I’ll lay off ya for a couple of weeks… well, days.
But yeah… sweet Saturday morning hangover, that place is fuckin’ alright.

This is my second favorite Indian restaurant in DC area, the first being Rasika.
I love their new menu and the cocktails.
Service is excellent and so are the dishes.
Loved the pizza and samosas for appetizers!!!

Lunch here made me sad. My boyfriend and I went last year for Restaurant Week and had great meals, so we decided to return this year. I know they’ve recently gotten a new chef who was supposed to be really great, but… I didn’t see that.
Service left something to be desired. I found our waitress a little curt and it took the water guy forever to fill our glasses. They start you out with chips that are kind of like a cross between a tortilla chip and a papadum. These were good, and the two sauces on the side (a green chutney and a red pepper sauce) were really tasty.
Appetizers:
1) I had the crab fritters, which I really enjoyed. Nice flavor, not fishy, less greasy than I expected.
2) He had the «rocket» salad with spicy cashews and stuffed dates. I forget what they were stuffed with, but it was some type of cheese. Another winner. You had spicy, sweet, and savory all together, and the flavors complimented each other nicely.
Entrees:
1) I had the ravioli. I guess I should have expected these to be kind of disappointing, but at the time it seemed like a no-​fail kind of dish. And it didn’t exactly fail, I just didn’t exactly want to finish it. I thought the sauce kind of tasted like a curry you’d buy in a jar from the supermarket. Not a BAD dish, but definitely not one I’d recommend or order again.
2) He had the potato-​crusted salmon. Bland, bland, bland.
Dessert:
1) The blueberry struedel. I mainly ordered this because it said it came with black cardamom ice cream on the side and, I mean, that just sounds freakin’ amazing. They either served me the wrong thing, or someone thinks cardamom is a fancy word for vanilla (sounds like Brianne C got mint. wtf Indebleu?). The struedel itself was dry and boring. The whole plate was really just a disappointment.
2) He had some chocolate and pistachio thing that turned out to be pretty good. The pistachio ice cream on the side was nice, too.
The boy tells me that I’m too picky when it comes to restaurants, and maybe that’s true. And I know Restaurant Week isn’t exactly known for bringing out the best in DC’s food scene. That doesn’t change the fact that I’ve had better meals for less money in DC, and it doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t be excited to come back here again.

**Restaurant Week Review**
I dared to believe your updated review, Tom Sietsema, and you let me down.
Despite dining in a gorgeous room with low lighting and scarlet walls that my companions likened to the sexiest levels of hell, I can’t say that my dining companions will again be seduced by Indebleu’s allure. And I don’t know that I can blame the mediocre food on Restaurant Week kitchen mania, as some of the flavor combinations (mint ice cream with blueberry strudel?) should never have made it to the menu. Sigh…
I’m not sure who was in the kitchen Saturday night, but the salt shaker was in abundant use. There were hunks (hunks?!) of kosher salt in the potato cumin jus that finished my seared tuna, which was already topped with olives! Similarly, the lobster butter poured across the ribeye (nicely cooked) nearly rendered the dish inedible. And the scallops with a caper crust tasted like they had been dredged in charbroiled salt. The corn pudding looked unappetizing in its bowl, and its base of cornmeal and green onions detracted from the other flavors. Soon, every dish I sampled tasted only of salted onions.
The mussels fared a bit better, but did not taste remarkably fresh. Also, the opera cake, though subtly flavored, was nicely presented with pistachio ice cream. And the cucumber and mint achar that accompanied the lightly fried chips stood out with its bright flavors. But, the highlight of the meal was the mango sorbet, which was so strongly redolent of fruit that it seemed juicy. Unfortunately, the lemon sorbet at the other end of the plate was so sour that our throats nearly closed.
The desserts, good service, and attractive crowd are not enough to make me want to return to Indebleu. Neither are the upstairs bartenders. Should I need a bit of Indian spice while in Chinatown, I’ll just stop for a drink at Tantra.

I’ve been to IndeBleu once or twice in my time in Chinatown. I really do enjoy it – this means a lot coming from me. It’s hard to wrench myself from a bar stool at RFD, let alone to go to one of them fancy bars.
Which IndeBlue certainly is. It’s a pretty lounget. And a French-​Indian fusion restaurant. They’ve got fancy furniture, mood lighting, words like «mélange» and a fine wine list. I must say, though, that the experience in one of their back rooms is a little too much like being in the womb.
Leave it to me to order Jack on the rocks every time I go there. At least the staff is efficient.
Multiple people have complimented IndeBleu on its food. I’ll have to make it down there sometime to try. I have had good experiencing with FrIndian cuisine (ever been to Tabla in New York City? One of my favorites there).

To sum it up: a terrifically terrible experience.
I haven’t been this glad to reach the conclusion of a meal in a LONG time. I’m not sure how the place stays in business. It is possible that things were different in 2005 when it opened but in 2007 I must offer up my awful experience as a warning.
$ 37 for a beef tenderloin that was not hot, with flavors about as tasty and sophisticated as airport hotel banquet fare. Need I say more?
How the restaurant manages to charge these prices, for such poor quality, befuddles me. Service was ridiculously bad. I watched our poor excuse for an amuse bouche (a shot of lukewarm cauliflower soup with an oversized dill sprig atop) run laps around the restaurant before finally ending up at our table. Particularly mystifying considering the place wasn’t even half full and no one else was seated near the time that we were. They tried to clear our plates while my dining companion was still clearly engaged in the act of eating. A wine glass was also swiped too soon.
Inde Bleu is overpriced, lacking in quality and provides poor service to its customers. The restaurant attempts fine dining but fails miserably. Staff is clearly untrained for fine dining service, food makes a play for unusual presentation but falls short, and even if you manage to be impressed by its appearance the food is still pitiful.
Take your cash, whether hard-​earned or expense account, somewhere else.

This place is sexy!
It’s gorgeous and charming!
With a lovely ambiance! I’m lovin’ it!
Definitely my ‘hot spot’ for a ‘hot date’!
The first time I got introduce by this place, when the first month their open, two years ago on the winter time! It was December!
First impression is always important!
I had a wonderful first time experience!
A good looking waiter with his British accent provided us with an excellent service, two years ago.
Hmm.British waiter at Indebleu as a French and Indian restaurant! Splendid!
I’ll never forget my first yummy appetizer, rabbit comfit samosa and with shrimp beignet as a second course, followed by lamb tandoori for the main course! Hmm. delicious!
Second experience is even more enchanting!
The other British accent waiter taking us to the Red room, the other side of the dining room! He said, we need to experience dining at the other lovely part of Indebleu.
I had tuna tartar as my appetizer and the scallop orange chicory as a second, and continue with the main course, once again the lamb tandoori!
Well, what can I say, I love it!
Not to mention the dessert! That choco sutra!
It makes my romantic evening so. purrrfecct!
Excellent service and excellent food presentation!
la nourriture est delicieuse !
The food is delicious!
Since then, Indebleu has is on my list of my favorite place for dinner or just hang out for drinks with friends and my potential date!
Or, whenever I feel blue and need to cheer my self up!
All I have to do is hit this lovely place!
Oh! What a wonderful memories that I had with this place!
Last month, October 25^th, I went there with a big group of friends, we had pre-​Cirque du Soleil Cocktail and Hor’dourves Party before we hit the Grand Chapiteau to see the ‘Corteo’!
It was awesome! Great food! Great time!