Surfside, Tenleytown, Washington, DC

I’ve written about Surfside, the one at 4200 Wisconsin in the undefined area between Van Ness and Tenleytown. See here. We go there fairly often, mainly for their fish tacos, and sometimes we or Liza and Michael pick up a fajita box if there’s going to be an unexpected crowd on a busy day. In my previous post I described some of their fish tacos, a fish burrito, and the ceviche, and since that posting they’ve remained dependable.

This trip was different. We met the New Much Improved John Tanner, aka Jack, and his fiancee, Patterson Sheehan for Sunday brunch after church one Sunday. That means eight people at table. I have found, and my more patient readers (and probably some former readers) have found, that eight is more diners than I can handle unless I’m ignoring or cross-examining my table mates, which is just not going to happen.

Brunch, however, means a somewhat different menu, and while most people stuck with the familiar fish or shrimp tacos, Nancy and I branched out a bit, so let’s focus on the new.

Nancy ordered a salad, the Buck Island ($20.95), which includes a mix of arugula, cherry tomatoes, corn, avocado, grilled summer squash, goat cheese, and tomato balsamic vinaigrette, all topped with a salmon filet, blackened in this instance.

That is a big old hunk of salmon. Nancy was thrilled, and commented several times on how she enjoyed it. There wasn’t a hint of dryness, and the seasoning was just to taste. The salad was fresh and offered a range of flavors and textures that blended well.

I chose the Mackinack Burrito, which combines scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, poblano peppers, red onion, and jack cheese, all wrapped in a flour tortilla. Other burritos at Surfside include yellow rice inside the burrito, while here it comes on the side, as you can see.

That’s a hefty burrito, and you can see why the rice comes on the side. There’s no room in the burrito. You see at least three eggs in there, yearning to burst free. The eggs were nicely scrambled, and were creamier than usual. Mostly, they were abundant, and actually created an imbalance, with more egg than anything else, maybe everything else. That’s a minor problem, and one easily addressed by adding salsa to the mix. Extra salsa at Surfside runs you 95 cents for two ounces. It’s a pretty good salsa, and salsa is one of those things, like coffee, butter, garlic, and wine that always seem to make everything better. I do resent paying extra for salsa and, for that matter, chips. Imagine the cost of my meal at Sadie’s if I’d had to pay for all the salsa I ate. Actually, I’d pay it in a heartbeat. With the headwinds restaurants face these days, I don’t begrudge a little nickel and dime-ing. The restaurants, after all, get five’d and ten’d on food supples, etc. (I do draw the line at being charged $9 for bread service.)

And prices at Surfside remain reasonable, especially for this area. How many places give you a large piece of salmon and a salad for $20.95? My burrito, a very full meal, ran to $14.95. And Surfside is a nice place to eat. It’s lively but the noise is manageable, and if the weather is nice, the broad covered patio areas are a delight. Even with guacamole and several adult beverages, the bill for eight … could’ve been a lot worse elsewhere. I continue my hearty recommendation for Surfside, including for brunch, or any other time.

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