Restaurant Week or Restaurant Weak?
It happens twice a year. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s the Restaurant Week breakdown. Who brought it out like a champ, and who deserves the title of chump?

Some DCist staffers hit up a few spots:

Spezie
I just had a pretty good RW lunch at Spezie. The raddichio salad had a nice balance between the bitter greens and walnuts and cheese. Braised lamb with fennel was a generous portion, and the fennel and lamb played nicely together (the fennel wasn’t overpowering as it can be). Panna cotta for dessert. Only downside was that soda was $2.75. Definitely better than the last meal I had there, a couple years ago for RW dinner. Oh, and the list of choices was huge: 10 things per course, 5 desserts. – Eric Denman

Marrakesh
I stopped by Marrakesh on Wednesday not realizing they were participating, but we were able to get a table fairly quickly without a reservation. The service was fantastic and the ambiance was wonderful, with the Moroccan music and a dancer. Unfortunately,everything we ordered had that Restaurant-Week-mass-produced kind of blah taste, with slightly overbaked phyllo and some bland lamb. I suspect they can do better on a regular night, especially if the service is always that good, so I’d go back. – Heather Goss

Ceiba
Ceiba‘s restaurant week deal was a good one, with every item on the menu available and the wait staff friendly and attentive. The Cuban black bean soup had an almost mole taste, while the tuna steak was mouth watering and the accompanying crab taquito was fantastic, with just enough lingering spiciness. The scallops were well prepared too. Add in $5.50 pisco sours and fantastic guava cake with a rich pannacotta-like addition and it was money well spent. – Andrew Wiseman

My wife and I went to Ceiba for lunch yesterday. The black bean soup, although it looked like a can of black beans in a bowl, was at least flavored well with fresh bits of parsley and bacon. The guava nectar cake was dry by itself, but when you spread the nectar around and eat it with the accompanying panna cotta, it more than made up for the dryness of the actual cake. Neither of us liked our sandwiches…the Cuban sandwich had little flavor (the gruyere-in-place-of-swiss didn’t work), while the hamburger was a buttery sloppy mess served on over-buttered sourdough. (Should have gone with traditional seafood fare or the steak churrasco). Oh, and the wait staff didn’t treat us like Restaurant Week trash (I’m looking at you, Galileo and Vidalia) and the coat check girl needs to find some job-appropriate clothing (so said my wife). – Andrew Chriss

Photo by christaki