Photo by Michael Andrade

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama landed one of the toughest reservations in town last night for a Valentine’s Day dinner when they ate at José Andrés’ recently re-opened Minibar. The Obamas arrived at the Penn Quarter restaurant, which takes only 12 diners per seating, about 7 p.m.

Twitter users in the area reported snarled traffic and road closures in the vicinity of the restaurant at 855 E Street NW, while inside, the first couple dined on one of the $225 20-course tasting menus and, presumably, one of the four beverage services ranging between $45 and $200 per person.

No word on what dishes Andrés’ kitchen served up last night, though The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema felt in a review last year that Minibar has sagged since re-opening following the location’s brief run as America Eats Tavern:

Inattentiveness creeps in, too. A risotto of beech mushrooms, unleashed with scissors from their see-through cooking pouch, smells of black truffles but tastes mostly of salt.

Andres has called Minibar “a place of collaboration, of creativity, of love. Here we honor the past and traditions and translate that into ideas for our future.”

If this represents the future, I’m going to start stockpiling roast chicken.

The Obamas departed the restaurant shortly after 9 p.m. without being spotted by pool reporters or photographers. And while neither Minibar nor the White House revealed what creative dishes Andrés whipped up last night, reporters assigned to cover the presidential date, by the way, holed up at nearby Austin Grill, where they subsisted on $15 all-you-can-eat tacos.