The Ciroc's Meet.... SIROC!

In the Hopkins household Ciroc equals libation and a great time.  Siroc (sirocco), on the other hand, actually means really strong wind......  I'm not quite sure how this connects to the place we checked out, but in any case... Siroc is located on 15th St. NW across the street from the McPherson Square park.  It's a pretty small non-decrepit place, so be careful not to walk past it.

Inside, Siroc is a warm and cozy place, good atmosphere for a date.  The menu is pretty extensive with small plates, entrees, desserts, and an extensive wine list.  What really makes this place a gem is the pasta menu, which is all hand made.

Since it was restaurant week, we got to try a few courses at a nominal price.  We shared a small plate Pan Seared Scallop which rested on a bed of black roasted lentils and tomato sauce.  The scallop was nice and fresh, and didn't have that sea taste you get with scallops. 

After this experience we were prime ready for our restaurant week flare, but it was kind of flat.  We started with appetizers of a crab cake on a white corn, clam, and tomato mix.  The crab cake had good flavor but it had a little too much of the mayo stuff that holds the cake together.  We also had a few signature pasta dishes; the wheat pappardelle (wide pasta) with roasted duck breast and a shiitake mushroom creme sauce.  It was just OK.  The pasta was good but for it the duck to be the premier protein, I would have thought mushrooms were the key ingredient.  B had the fettuccine with a tomato garlic and oil oil dressing and what was supposed to be shrimp.  When the plate arrived, it had scallops.  No biggie, cause B loves scallops but then they tell us 10 minuets later he could have had shrimp..... SMH.  We finished off with the peach skillet cake, basically peach cobbler and a red wine and ginger drunken pear with mascarpone gelato!  The pear was off the chain and I'm actually going to attempt to make it myself but the peach cobbler stuff was a disappointment.  The dough was very thick and lacked flavor.

As unofficial spokesfolks for Ciroc, we were really excited about this place but it did disappoint.  Maybe they only serve the good stuff during non-restaurant week times, but we won't be going to find out.  For that, Siroc gets a 2.5 hip hop star rating.