Image: All the eels.
Last Updated: March 2026
Overview:
Maison is the kind of place that where initial impressions might mislead. The setting is sophisticated but the atmosphere is casual. It is a special night out spot that aspires to neighborhood hangout. Dress to impress or roll-up ready to relax. Whatever will help you savor the experience best. It bills itself as a wine bar, but the food is too sophisticated to be anything other than a serious restaurant. It is from the acclaimed team that also gave us Lutèce and Pascual, and across the street from the sponsoring Popal family’s Lapis. It is another star in that constellation.
The menu leans into sharable appetizers. For the croquette, the rich slightly sweet nature of the eel is flavor rolling in like high tide. Eel pieces are not only inside but also on top glazed and brûléed, with a smoked paprika sauce. Other early favorites include escargot, with the piles of snails under a pastry cap swimming in a creamy sauce, and tarama, a crispy sweet choux shell with sweeter cream inside but topped by smoked trout roe and dusted with dried seaweed. If you thought sea salt and caramel was a fun twist, prepare to be swept away. There are more standard dishes like a fluffy salad or Manifest bread with butter. Three to four of the dishes were larger. On our last visit, it was pasta with squash, chicken with chantarelles (another early standout), and monkfish in wine sauce.
The space still retains its old row house shape. The front bay-window space is open to walk-ins, then you move back to the main bar. In the rear of the building is a dark dining room that could make the most wholesome of dates feel like an assignation. The bright bar is not large – reservations needed for both sit down and bar seating. More seating is coming upstairs.
The wine list from sommelier Chris Ray, who came from Lutèce, is Old World and offbeat, including choices like secondary varietals from Loire or pinot noir from Germany. Also scratching below the wine bar surfaces reveals a strong cocktail program, albeit one with multiple wine-based drinks.
In short, it is a delight. Just decadent enough to be a treat, just cozy enough to be inviting. Our complaint is that the bar should be bigger so that more can squeeze in and walk-ins could be more easily accommodated. But lack of room is the penalty of success.
Other Guidance: There are many stairs, including to the main entrance, down to the bathroom, and up to the second dining room. Vegetarians and GF can pick around the menu, but lots of flour-based dishes.
Summary:
Cuisine: French
Neighborhood: Adams Morgan
Address: 1834 Columbia Rd NW, Washington, DC 20009
Website: https://www.maisondc.com/
Reservations: Resy
Other Critics/Voices:
Washington Post: Elazar gave it 2.5 stars, which is Very Good/Outstanding in the new rating system. IG.
Washingtonian: Preview
DonRockwell.com (no reports at last check)