Tackling D.C.'s Tackle Box

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

This weekend I went down to the Georgetown waterfront in D.C. to sample the menu at Tackle Box, located right next to the more expensive Hook, both owned by the Pure Hospitality Restaurant Group.

Less like your standard upscale District restaurant and much more like a random crab house you'd find in Ocean City, Maryland, Tackle Box is a small space filled with picnic tables that you'll likely have to split with other patrons. The big tip off that this place wants you to feel like you're at the beach is the music. Sublime, Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffet (least favorite musician ever and bane of my existence) float through the air as you decide what to eat.

A long-time sucker for lemonade, I opted for the (expensive!) strawberry lemonade for $4.50, which was syrupy and definitely bad for you.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

The fish dishes are pretty reasonably priced. My only beef with the menu was that I really wanted shellfish, and that was almost all fried. (I generally find fried fish as a waste of really good fish!) I figured if I was going to go fried, I might as well get something that's unavailable broiled or baked, so I went for the clam strips. For my two sides, I got sweet potato fries and a salad and a dipping sauce of spicy marinara, the entire dish costing $13.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

The salad was the second most disappointing salad I've ever eaten (first prize goes to a night out gone awry that ended up at Bennigan's ...). The dressing seemed like a thinned out mayonnaise, creamy yet flavorless.

The sweet potato fries and clam strips were delicious. They were perhaps the only truly good sweet potato fries I've ever had, tasty and just salty enough. The fish tasted fairly fresh (I'm not sure I could say the same for the fried bay scallops my friend ordered, which were a little briny), but the marinara wasn't where it could have been flavorwise. Rarely do I say that a sauce would benefit from more salt (oversalting Italian food is a giant peeve of mine), but it would have. That being said, I'm one picky pasta sauce girl, so maybe this marinara isn't so bad for your average eater.

Overall, the food was decent enough for its price and the strawberry lemonade was a sugar coma. I'm sure if the place had a liquor license a little rum in it would have brought me to the place Tackle Box was trying to take me--3 hours east to the beach.