The Oceanaire is a seafood room with locations across the country. I happened across the one in Washington, D.C. and found it a must to dine…

Atmosphere: It looked like the dining room on the Titanic. It has this 1940’s formality to it that you don’t find anymore. It was refreshing. We’ve become a society of casual people in almost all things – it’s nice to find a place where white table cloths and big leather booths feel appropriate. For a moment, I thought Joan Crawford might walk in to take her usual booth with L. B. Mayer…

Food: Seafood and a lot of it. Seeing as how I’m not much of a seafood fan, you’d think I would have picked another spot. But, the person I was with is a big seafood fan, so, she gives me the goods on all those things I won’t eat. But, I did have my usual – STEAK!

I have to say, the food was just okay. Not a stand out in any way, but, not bad either. I had steak frites and it tasted like steak frites . But, I did also have the shrimp and grits appetizer and it was great and also the creamed corn. I don’t generally like creamed corn, but I liked theirs. As far as the report on the seafood – crab legs – they tasted like crab legs.

Service: We’re going to give them a last minute B for effort because apparently, the day we dined, there was a mishap of some sort that shut the restaurant down before we got there. They had just re-opened when we arrived and were harried trying to recover. Several things went wrong during our lunch, but, at the end of our experience, one of our servers explained the situation, which, cleared up any misunderstandings.

The final word on The Oceanaire: Good save. Don’t ever let a patron leave your restaurant having experienced a problem for which you could have otherwise apologized and/or explained. Particularly if the food is average, you want to be sure they leave thinking the service was not.

Worth going for Lunch or Dinner – very extensive menu gives you lots and lots of things to try. One of them could be a stand out…