The Curious Grape

Curious Grape has grown up! I had previously visited Curious Grape for dinner in early 2014 and was left disappointed. My recent visit was spawned by a Groupon (and yes, this was my only reason for a 2^nd chance).
We decided on Brunch and couldn’t have been more pleased by our experience. Here are the highlights:
+ The hostess was very friendly and accommodating offering to allow us to choose our seats
+ All tables were neatly set and no dirty dishes lingered on tables
+ Our waitress (Kelsey) was friendly, knowledgeable and accommodating (the table next to us had requested bread and the fresh baguettes had sold out since it was almost 2PM, so she offered alternatives)
+ We opted for water and our glasses were never empty (hey, I just finished two 75 minute Vinyasa sessions)
+ All entrees were perfectly prepared (to include the side poached egg)
+ Our check had a 10% off offer for any item in the store
I would highly recommend the Lavender Almond Hazelnut butter French Toast! Perfect portion size and just enough sweetness with the fresh berries to make you feel like you ate healthy.

I love this place. I personally think that the venue is too good for its pedestrian location, hence I was so surprised by how wonderful CG is.
CG is all around very classy. There is something delicious on the menu every time I have visited. Restaurants are plenty in this area, but a venue with food that hits the mark every time with a classy atmosphere and affordably priced, is extremely rare. And I love how patient and knowledgeable the servers are esp when it comes to pairing wines with meals and cheeses. My absolute favorite about this restaurant is that they offer smaller servings/​portions of the meals and wine pours! (I am an extreme light weight drinker, so I love this). I don’t know of any other restaurant that does this.
And if you liked your wine, cheese, and/​or some of the dessert items, you can buy it right in their shop.

Yesterday was my Groupon deadline so I called around 2pm and made a 7pm reservation. Upon arrival, we were seated within a minute or two by the window. This was perfect as we had a nice table and a shelf to use for all the extra flight glasses.
We only had our menus for 2 or 3 minutes when the manager apologized for taking too long and gave us a complimentary cheese app. It takes at least 5 minutes just to get through the beer & wine selections! But, hey, thanks That also eliminated the cheese section from our dinner options.
We decided to share the mushroom couscous, parsnips (first time eating those) and the fish entrée. I forgot the name, and it’s not on the online menu. A white fish in the jack family. I had a wine flight, he opted for the beer flight. When they were out of one of the beers, an additional 4^th was added.
The couscous went perfectly with the tempranillo. The parsnips went with the white granache. The fish went with the sauv blanc. The meal was excellent! Cooked perfectly, nicely seasoned, good portions to share but not overwhelm. It was nice to try a new veggie instead of the usual offerings. The service was attentive but not overly so.
And then the dessert — pumpkin ice cream with toasted marshmallow. A perfect amount to share and not cloying. YUM!
I’m definitely returning! I want to try the octopus.

My boyfriend and I went on a dinner date at Curious Grape a couple of weeks ago and truly enjoyed it. I loved the ambiance, the classy and professional vibe about the place, the excellent wine options (which naturally follows from the name of the restaurant), and the tasty food.
My bf ordered a merlot and I ordered a chenin/​blanc voignier from Pine Ridge, California, which paired perfectly with the salmon entrée I ordered. Their wine list is excellent and comprehensive. I also like that they describe the degree of lightness and body of the various wines.
For my entrée, I ordered the Salmon Nicoise (salmon, fingerling potatoes, waxed beans, olives, and salmon aioli). This dish was delicious and the salmon was perfectly crispy and tender at the same time, but the sauce was a bit too salty for my taste! It was hard to eat certain portions of the meal. The entrée did pair well with my white wine, though. My boyfriend ordered the grilled lamb chops (chickpea and cauliflower purée, fried chickpeas, saffron-​pickled cauliflower, currants, and Brussels sprouts). This looked good, but it wasn’t my bf ‘s favorite dish. We did order the Brussels sprouts as an appetizer and both loved it — great portion and perfectly crisped.
Overall, we had a nice time at the Curious Grape. Not our favorite restaurant of all time, but it made for a nice date night.
Oh, and Curious Grape also catered wine to a big event I recently attended and they had some EXCELLENT wine with perfect hors d’œuvre pairings. I highly recommend the wine shop!

Hidden Lunch Gem
Curious Grape has the most interesting food in Shirlington. Just learned that they serve lunch. I was there Saturday and came back again today. Menu is small, but they have a unique spin on everything on it. Both meals were very good. Service was very good too. Lunch is very reasonably priced.

If this place had more affordable entrees, I’d give it 5 stars. I love the concept that I can try wine in the restaurant and then buy a bottle to take home. (I also apprecipate that they offer a 10% discount for store purchases after you dine in. Plus, the restaurant sells half glasses of wine and beer.)
I visited with a Groupon. Overall, we had a fantastic experience. The restaurant was very slow to seat us, despite having staff avialable to do so, but the rest of our experience was great.
Here is what we loved:
1) Chicken roulade with local mushrooms, mascarpone, dates, marcona almonds, marsala jus ($ 25) — fantastic! Favorite dish of the night!
2) Sauvignon Blanc-​2013 Saint Clair, Marlborough, New Zealand
3) Ferraton red wine (French)
4) frozen milk chocolate hazelnut mousse espresso ganache, hazelnut praline, hazelnut macaron
5) banana semifreddo with rum butterscotch sauce, white chocolate pearls, pineapple, and coconut meringue (this was particulary small, but very good)
Here is what we liked:
1) atlantic halibut with black rice, sugar snap peas, plum wine beurre blanc ($ 27)
2) foccaia
3) a Virginia blackberry beer on draft
Their $ 39 three course pre-​fix from 5 – 6:30pm is appealing, so I’ll likely go back for that.

Our dining experience was memorable. The service was very attentive with very knowledgable wine pairing suggestions and excellent dining choice recommendations. We had the chilled cucumber soup which was crisp and refreshing while lite. The tomato and mozzarella salad was very flavorful with a blend of sweet fruits mixed in. I really recommend these two items. We also enjoyed their cheese plate selections and the deserts were the highlight. Hope to visit again when in Arlington area in the future.

As a lover and supporter of wine (secretly wishes I was a sommelier in training but I do not have the time nor the funds to pursue that). I am always excited to try a place that caters to wine. Any restaurant can offer wine, but lately I’ve been more curious about places who work to create dishes around the wines they offer. Segway to The Curious Grape, who focuses on fresh local food and good wine. Thanks to Groupon, we decided to feed our curiosity and stomach for dinner.
We were greeted and quickly seated. We were immediately surprised with how big their space was. Plenty of indoor seating, outdoor patio, a bar area, and a section in the back that can be reserved for private parties. They also have wine shop and sell local art work. Our server was fantastic! She walked us through the menu, where they make suggestions for wine pairings for each item. She also made some good recommendations of what wines to choose based on the food we ordered. This is what we chose: Fried Brussel Sprouts as our appetizer, Pork Ragu, and Dry Aged Shenandoah Tenderloin. They also bring out fresh foccia bread that they make in house along with olive oil. However you have to ask for the bread (they don’t believe in waste, but no worries with us). The Fried Brussel Sprouts were very tasty. It’s only been the last few years that I’ve been getting into brussel sprouts and these were tasty. We had a half portion, which turned out to be quite filling for us. My Pork Ragu was delicious! The pappradelle was delicious, and sauce, perfect. Flavors were well balanced. My wine pairing with my dish was the Pinot Noir Rose. My fiancé said he enjoyed his Tenderloin and his wine, which was called the Sexual Chocolate. The name alone probably lends itself to a good time haha. I think he enjoyed his wine a bit more lol.
Their menu is seasonal and changes often which is nice. We hope to come back a different time of year to get a good mix of seasonal offerings. Good wine, food, and service, The Curious Grape definitely fed my curiosity.

2.5 stars
I went to Curious Grape with a Groupon, because it always seemed a little cheesy looking and I wasn’t motivated at full price when there are other, perfectly good options in the same shopping center.
Our server was nice but extremely slow. It took about 10 – 15 minutes for her to bring out the glass wine I ordered, which was her special, off-​menu recommendation and not quite what I said I was looking for.
We started with the fried brussels sprouts, which I really loved and is the main reason I’m not giving this place 2 stars.
For my entrée, I had the seared duck, which was overdone, kind of chewy, and bland. I did like the cauliflower «grits» that came with it. We decided against dessert because the service on everything else was so painfully slow, and because the entrees weren’t great.
Overall, it wasn’t a terrible experience, but with one of my favorite restaurants/​wine bars in the same shopping center (Cheesetique), I really don’t feel the need to go back to Curious Grape to try anything else.

I had heard great things about the Curious Grape, so I made a reservation for the hubs and I for a Friday date night. We were greeted and seated promptly, introduced to the sommelier and our server and things started off great. I was really excited to try different wines with different foods and impressed with the atmosphere of the restaurant.
Also, the option of half portions is a great way to get to sample lots of the menu, so we were super excited to pick an ap and an entrée each and split everything. We placed our order and then pretty much lost our server for the rest of the evening.
I finished my first glass of wine with our aps and was looking forward to switching it up for dinner… But alas, when our server finally came back half way through our main course and she asked if I wanted another glass of wine, I figured I better not even ask for the wine menu, since she was so scarce. Not that it even mattered, that second glass of wine was not coming.
Meanwhile, we had the privilege of overhearing the other server in the dinning area ask the table of three next to us to please finish their wine so they could flip the table. Absolutely ridiculous! Not to mention the woman two tables over who I watched try to flag down our server multiple times to no avail.
I guess I should talk about the food, since that’s the only redeeming factor of our otherwise miserable date night experience. The food was actually very good. The Brussels sprouts are a must have. I can’t even describe how good they were, there were just soooo good! The mussels were OK, the focaccia bread (as a couple of people have mentioned) was good. For dinner I selected a half portion of gnocchi that was OK, it and the carrot purée around it needed salt, but fortunately the lamb that accompanied it was over salted, so together it made for a pleasant bite. My husband’s half portion of scallops were very pretty, and the bite of scallop he gave me was delish.
After dinner when our server finally paid us another visit, to bring us the check, (after we declined desert menus – honestly why even bother?) she literally just slapped it down on the table. No smile, no thank you, nothing. I don’t often leave a restaurant angry, but that was the last straw. It’s a small space and there was plenty of staff to go around. There are no excuses for treating your customers like their utter presence is a nuisance.
I see absolutely no reason to return to this restaurant ever again.

DC prices, Chef Boyardee flavors, and amateur hour service. I won’t be back.
Came for dinner to use a groupon that was coming up on expiring. We had looked at the menu and had high hopes for this location. Unfortunately the food failed to deliver and the service was godawful. We shared the fried brussels sprouts and I had the half order of gnocchi as my entrée. The sprouts would have been perfect if they were not salted all the way to sodium hell. Just way, way too salty, which is a shame because the crispy texture and accompanying sauces were great. The gnocchi was pretty flavorless and came with lamb that suffered from seasoning issues similar to the brussels sprouts. As a result it tasted like the aforementioned chef of canned pasta fame.
The service was terrible all night. Everything was slow to come out and our waitress would disappear for lengthy periods, including about 30 minutes or so between when we ordered and when our food came out. In that time I finished my beer, and after the food came out I ordered another one, which arrived just as I was finishing the food (I was famished by this time so I just ate it and kept my mouth shut, not wanting to wait any longer). Perfect timing!
There’s no reason to ever set foot inside here with a Cheesetique only a 90 second walk away around the corner. This place is like a Picasso of Cheesetique. The Curious Grape is like the monster from one of Cheesetique’s nightmares. If Cheesetique had a drunken one night stand with Pauly Shore, this place would be their bastard lovechild.
The one good thing I’ll say is that their bathrooms are nice. So if I’m in the area and I’m not hungry but I need to take a crap, I’ll consider stopping in here. But I might just hold it.

«Great wine menu, helpful staff, and fantastic food. Cute patio for the warm months. Portions are a bit small.»
…
So, yeah… that was my original review. While all of the above definitely remain true, I need to amend the rating to reflect my experiences with their wine shop.
Back in January my girlfriend brought me to the Curious Grape. This place is one of her favorite restaurants. The food, wine, and service did not disappoint. It was all a pleasant surprise. While there I fell in love with one of the wines we ordered. I meant to purchase a bottle to enjoy over the weekend, but forgot to do so before leaving :-(.
I thought of «my new favorite wine» a few times and ended up calling to confirm the name and type with a very friendly woman who told me that she would check to see if they had anymore in stock or enroute. She left a voicemail stating that they were out, but I could order some from their shop.
A few weeks later (early March) I finally decided to call in and order it. I checked on the order in a couple weeks later (after dining at the restaurant) and was told that there was no record of my order, but I could fill out an order form in the binder where they kept such records. I filled out the binder and waited another couple weeks. After hearing nothing, I checked in again at the wine shop and was told that I had not returned a call to confirm the price of my order and until I did so, they could not move forward. So, I asked if I could verbally confirm the order and have it placed while I was there in-​person. The staff member said yes and that was back in late April.
I honestly had forgotten about the order, but my girlfriend and I have a big anniversary coming up and while thinking of things to enjoy for the weekend, «my favorite wine» popped back into my head. I called to check on my order and yet again a very friendly staff person told me that I could order the wine for such and such price… back at square one. Several notes were taken on my order but no one had moved forward and placed it.
I told him I had tried to order it at least two times already and it just makes the best sense to cancel the order. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find a way to order it via another shop or distributor.
11/​08/​2014 update
I got my wine! Long story short… while talking to a manager about a totally different dining problem, I mentioned that I also tried (unsuccessfully) to place a wine order several times with their team. A couple weeks later I got a call from the restaurant asking me if I wanted to place the order (apparently, it’s something that they now can ship overnight). I requested it and shared that I was traveling but could pick it up the next week. The next week I called before coming and learned that the order had not been placed, but they asked me to give them a day. So, nearly 10 months later… I got my wine :). And, it’s as good as I remember.

I try to avoid Shirlington. I’ll go if I need something from a store there, but I’m never one to suggest getting dinner there. However, I really enjoyed The Curious Grape and I might start suggesting to meet there. Part wine/​beer store, part restaurant, this cozy shop is great for stocking up or for a leisurely dinner.
The store offers a great variety of wine and craft beer, plus pairing food (cheese, crackers, Taza chocolate, etc.). If I’m looking for a certain wine or beer, or want to go a bit higher end with my purchase, I’ll definitely stop in to buy something.
Dinner was delicious and the staff was fantastic. The host and hostess were incredibly friendly, and our server, Dana, was great. The busser also had perfect timing. Wine nor water was never empty and we never felt rushed.
We shared a bottle of sparkling rosé (my favorite), crispy Brussels sprouts, and a maple crème de pot for dessert. My friend had the pan-​roasted sea scallops with black rice, baby bok choy, and plum wine beurre blanc. I had the house-​made potato gnocchi with carrot purée, grape-​braised Shenandoah lamb, ewephoria cheese, and crispy sage. Both entrées were topped with a sorrel-​like green that was quite good. We both ordered the smaller size, which combined with bread, a side (full-​size), and dessert was enough. If you were really hungry, you might want to add another side or appetizer though. My friend loved her entrée and I loved mine.
A starter of bread and oil was the perfect way to begin the meal. The sprouts were nicely crisped, though a tad oversalted, but still great. I tried a bit of the scallops with black rice and they were well-​cooked. Plus, they were jumbo scallops, which I prefer. The gnocchi was perfectly pillowy with tender lamb and a mild carrot sauce. The crème de pot was tasty – it had a great maple flavor and paired well with the pomegranate, pistachios, and almond cookie.
The Curious Grape really surprised and delighted me and it’s definitely worth a visit, no matter how much you do not want to be in Shirlington.

There’s a mish mash of really good things and things that also though after some experience need some work.
The atmosphere here is a bit odd. You walk into what looks like a store and café, not sure if you are entering the dining area or what. There’s no hostess stand, so are you supposed to go to the dessert display register, or the store cash register? It’s really confusing.
That aside it is a wine bar and the menu quite simply explains how to pair the simple food items with the wines they offer. 3 oz and 6 oz pours available which is great, and there is a good selection. No to be out done, the beer selection here is also fantastic as well, so beer geeks and wine fans can both enjoy themselves easily.
The things that don’t quite work are their portion sizes. I ordered a half portion of the couscous and then a full gnocchi. The mushroom couscous even in half sized is too large, while filled with nice dente couscous and plump mushrooms it is a meal in itself. Half portioned of baked brussel sprouts is also plenty but flakey and salted perfectly, but with a beet purée on the bottom that is a bit tasteless and has nearly no pistachio nuts in it. Endive salad is really presented nicely and prepared properly, no gamey or strong flavors. The market fish is juicy and with a wonderful crackly skin, a colleague loved the chicken, and it looked plump, juicy, and not overly cooked.
The standard gnocchi though needs work. Over cooked and gummy it’s fairly tasteless, where’s the cheese aroma and flavor? It sits on a large bed of shredded lamb while plentiful is just too much starch and fat to eat at once. Stew like meat, and not what I was expecting (fully well done), it’s a glob to eat. It would have been nice to just have some nice small 3 – 5 pieces of rare/​med-​rare on the side, but you get well done stew meat. I strongly urge you get a half size. The carrot purée on the sides adds nothing to it, never mind it was virtually ice cold. However, the fried or crackly sage leaves are great, but they aren’t integrated into the dish. If they were broken and flaked on throughout they would make the dish better. Duck confit on the other hand is perfectly fine, but nothing amazing.
Desserts are solid, but nothing crazy. It’s nice they have choices of dessert wines to go with them of varying varietals (hooray Tokaj!). It’s too bad I was overly starched up, cause I really would have loved to have had one of the cheese plates but just couldn’t. We also then received 15% discount if we decided to buy anything in the store (cheese, chocolate, wine, beer) which we took advantage of since there were some good items to be had.
Our waitress while knowledgeable and pleasant was just way too chatty. It’s ok to explain a few things, but we don’t need a thesis. People want to order, and eat, we are hungry, we don’t want a lecture.
Overall there’s a great selection of drink here, the discount on the store is good (is that always an option for dinners?) prices are actually fairly reasonable. But they haven’t quite figured out their portions, some menu items are better than others, and while runners and management is attentive, our server often disappeared and talked too much. A little bit of touch ups and this place would be better.

I’ve been here three times (thanks, Groupon) so I think it’s about time for a review. All of the food I’ve tried tastes great, but has come out cold on two occasions. The service is not very good at all and I’ve had to wait 10+ minutes to get a table at dinner when I already had a reservation. They did ease the pain on that by sending out a wonderful cheese plate.
My favorite dish is the branzino with the cauliflower purée. Every component of the dish is so delicious and makes me want to keep coming back. My husband has had the burger, the flavor was charred and juicy but the burger itself was cold. Another favorite is the pork doughnuts. There were only three very small ones for $ 9.00 but they were full of flavor.
Not sure if I’ll be back… cold food and bad service may not be able to trump how tasty it was.

This place was curiously nicer than I expected. I’ve been by it several times and it never looked like too great of a place. However, the inside is super nice and trendy. And the food was much more gourmet than I expected.
That being said, while the descriptions are great and enticing, the actual delivery and the food product itself didn’t meet the expectations. It wasn’t bad by any means but I was expecting a little more… especially at those prices which are pretty well inflated. They can clearly stand to knock 20% off their prices. Apparently «locally sourced» ingredients come at a premium.
Nothing was too spectacular to highlight so I won’t. There’s a market section with some wine, cheese and other accoutrement as well.

Establishments like the Curious Grape are the reason Unilocal should allow you to rate a business on various criteria and then average the results. This is because some elements were very nice, others were subpar.
If a restaurant is going to have specials or their menu has a «schtick», it’s really incumbent on whoever seats you to educate their guests. While we were promptly seated immediately after walking in, we were simply handed menus only to find out there was a tasting special at the bar and that the menu was structured in such a way you could make a tasting menu of half-​portions of food and/​or wine, and that wine recommendations were paired with entrees if you scanned across columns.
After waiting a while, someone who appeared to be a manager came by with water and explained the menu. We waited quite a while more before our waitress called out to us from about 10 feet away that she’d be with us soon before rushing off to another table.
Yet another employee came by with bread and olive oil which was really good, crusted with what I’m guessing was a nice sea salt. When our waitress finally did come back to us, she exploded into machine gun fire of words, asking if we wanted to start with a drink. We said it depends on what we ordered, she babbled on about a special tasting at the bar, and when my wife asked about their selection of whites her answer only established that they didn’t have a wine along the lines my wife wanted, but didn’t really offer an alternative with any confidence.
She ran off, bouncing to another table and we waited again. Then the hostess came over asking which of us had the cheese platter when we hadn’t even ordered yet. After watching our waitress follow her routine of running up to a table and then talking their ears off while ignoring the others, another and luckily calmer waiter noticed we had been waiting and asked if we had any questions. He could answer my wife’s wine question and we placed our entrée and wine order with him.
The wine came out rather quickly and both of us were very happy with our selections, but then we waited again. And waited. And waited. We really didn’t see our waitress much as she continued to run around like a hypoglycemic kid who just downed a bunch of Pixy Styx, which was fine by me as I found her tiring as I watched her inefficiency and overheard her hard selling other customers on email lists for discounts and specials in the store.
It felt like we waited 45 minutes to an hour from when we walked in to when we got our entrées. My wife got seared scallops with black rice and bok choy for $ 27, I got the beef tenderloin with potatoes and bacon with a wine sauce. My wife liked hers though the scallops were kind of on the small side. I liked mine as well, but the filet mignon was pathetically small, a petite filet really probably about 4 ounces, maybe 6 at best. The potatoes were good, but also a small portion with scant pieces of tasty bacon. Good all in all, but leaving me wanting more and definitely not satisfying me.
As we ate, our waitress checked in to see if everything tasted okay, and the manager asked the same. I felt like saying that it tasted great, but that the portions were not worth the money. Yet someone else cleared our plates then we waited, and waited, and waited again for our check.
In the end, the Curious Grape had nice ambiance, an interesting menu, and the food tasted good, however the spotty and annoying service coupled with the ridiculously small portions detracted from the experience. It was $ 79 for two entrées and two glasses of wine, and I expected a lot more for that much money.

I liked this place a lot. It’s in a nice space, right next to a strip of restaurants, bars, and shops in Shirlington. There’s free parking on weekends (and evenings, I believe) in a garage behind the restaurant. The restaurant is quite large, with plenty of room for several tables, a wine shop, a café, and a private dining room. The service was excellent from beginning to end. We had the five-​spice chicken and the duck confit. Both were very good and the presentation was lovely. The «creamed corn» (it’s in quotes on the menu) that came with the duck was outstanding. After dinner they gave us a 10% off coupon for anything from their wine shop or café. I would happily return to The Curious Grape!

Came back here for a full dinner service after only having snacks, coffee, and wine. Was very pleased overall and updated the review accordingly.
The place is still off the main strip of shirlington but has a patio and lots of space. The staff and owner are very friendly and attentive.
The beer and wine menu are robust and offer half sizes for half price which is great for trying different interesting choices. The waiter was very knowledgeable and helpful on the drink choices and even offered a few flutes as a tasting.
The entrée selection has a lot of great options and also has half priced half sizes, which the women not eating much love. Prices aren’t great but not outrageous either. The pastas were delicious and the duck confit was cooked perfectly and crispy on the outside. Food took forever to come out but they were very apologetic and made up for it. It was also my wife’s bday and they went out of their way to celebrate.
Desserts were excellent especially the key lime pie option. Pot de crème wasn’t bad either, although both were small. They were very rich and I didnt feel deprived.
Overall, off the main strip by half a block but well worth it, pass around the word that its way better than all the other overpriced spots in shirlington!

I love this place. I had a dinner with group. I received superb customer service.
The food is fresh. The entrée is mostly seafood and chicken.
I love the portion of the food. I can choose either half size or full size. I love it.
They got so many great wine list and beer list.
I will come back again.