Ocean M, McLean, VA

I don't know if its the slow economy or if people are away for the summer, but restaurants have been empty lately. Ocean M last night was no exception. Too bad, because I think that this restaurant deserves more customers.

For appetizers, my family of three had snails with garlic butter and merlot glaze (that would be escargot for you French snobs), risotto with asparagus and oysters on the half shell (that would be my son's choice). The snails and risotto were good, and it is difficult to ruin a raw oyster as long as it is fresh.

I ordered the pan seared rockfish with fennel & beurre blanc sauce for my entree, my wife went for another appetizer that I can't seem to remember for now and my son got the linguini with crabmeat and pernod cream sauce. I'm not a fan of western-style fish dishes, but my rockfish was probably the best fish I've had in a non-Asian restaurant. The flesh was moist, the fennel not overcooked and the sauce didn't overpower. I'd order it again. I tasted a bit of the linguini, and it was good, but not quite perfect -- the pernod sauce added an interesting and quite good accent to the dish, but the sauce was overall a bit too salty for my taste. My son finished all of it, though, and he doesn't usually order pasta.

I believe that the "M" in Ocean M stand for Mediterranean. The food certainly reflected French/Italian influences. This blog probably has zero readers so far, but just in case somebody out there lives near McLean and hasn't tried this restaurant yet, I suggest you give it a try.