Blue Iguana

Fair Lakes Shopping Center, 12727 Shops Lane (Fair Lakes Pkwy.) , Washington DC, 22033
703-502-8108.

our comments

This quirky little restaurant with its successfully inventive and ambitious menu brings city-style food to the ’burbs. We recommend the appetizer that offers three air-light corn cakes bathed with a chipotle cream and topped with several large shrimp. You can follow this up at lunch with assorted salads or offbeat sandwiches and small entrées, such as oven-roasted salmon or smoked lamb enchiladas. The dinner menu charts a slightly more expensive and daring course with roasted apricot chicken, pan-seared scallops and roasted pork loin on a bed of braised fennel with peas. For a delicious dessert, splurge on the chocolate truffle cake. Despite the dressy menu, the emphasis here is on casual dining.

- April 2005