Occoquan Inn

[Kibbee Nayee]

Dinner last night at the Occoquan Inn was a pleasant surprise. The "historic downtown Occoquan" area is a very small knockoff of Old Town Alexandria, with art shops, boutiques and restaurants spanning all of about 5 or 6 blocks, mostly overlooking the tiny brown Occoquan River. The Occoquan Inn has windows and dining rooms that look out over the river, but with no outdoor seating. However, the attached Virginia Grill is more casual and has outdoor seating.

The menu is limited, but everything was above average. Daughter and I were scouting it out for an event we are hosting next month, and it passed. I had the Veal Occoquan, an ample serving of scallopini with a gloppy brown sauce as well as some scallops and crab meat. Not bad, except for the gloppy sauce, but the meat and seafood were flavorful and fresh. Daughter had the shrimp stuffed with crab meat, and at $25 this is one heck of a deal. The three large shrimp each covered enough lump crab to make three goodly sized crab cakes. She had to take two of them home with her. Girlfriend had the seafood medley, which again was a bargain for the amount of quality fresh seafood on the plate. All in all, a satisfying meal at a reasonable price in a comfortable setting.

The service can be a little slow and the kitchen is not likely to extract more than two stars out of our local food critic, but a nice meal can be had with better scenery than most establishments.

http://www.occoquaninn.com/