It's Restaurant Week in DC, which means all the pricey restaurants that I normally can't afford are offering fixed menus for a lower price.

Last night, my friend Emily and I tried Co Co Sala, a restaurant and chocolate boutique in Penn Quarter.



I was sold on this place minutes after glancing over the menu and seeing every dish somehow incorporated chocolate. (You can check out the Restaurant Week menu here. Warning, it's a PDF.)

#chocolatedinner for the win.

The first thing I noticed when we got inside was just how dark it was. The only light came from the flickering candles on the tables.

Emily and I were tucked into a back corner, next to a couple I'm fairly certain were on a date. They were very nice though, and by the end of dinner we were chatting with them as we all took pictures of our food and apologized for the flash going off.

(Yea I had to use the flash, tried to take a picture without it and this is how it turned out.)



Aside from the fact it was a little hard to read the menu and see Emily across the table from me, dinner was awesome.

It started off with frozen hot chocolate shots (or sips as the menu referred to them.) Starting dinner with dessert is never a problem for me.



Salads were up next. We both got the summer peach salad, which was garnished with chocolate croutons and big slices of peach.



Turns out chocolate croutons are kind of delicious.

The main course consisted of a few small plates. I picked the shrimp mac and cheese and the crab cakes which were glazed with a chocolate tomato sauce. Emily opted for the bacon mac and cheese (so, soooo good) and the flatbread.



I loved the crab cakes, but immediately wished I had ordered the bacon mac instead of the shrimp mac. The shrimp mac wasn't bad. The bacon mac was just better, and I was glad Emily was willing to share because holy yum it was good.

Dessert, as you can probably imagine, was awesome. I had a chocolate chip shortcake with slow roasted pineapple that was the perfect combo of fruity and decadent.



Emily went for the straight chocolate and had some of the richest chocolate mousse I've ever tasted in my life along with vanilla creme brulee.



Overall dinner was amazing. I mean you pretty much can't go wrong if chocolate is part of every dish. For as small as the portions were, I left the restaurant surprisingly stuffed.

While my budget won't let me indulge at Co Co Sala very often, I'm really glad I got the chance to sample a bunch of the food during Restaurant Week. It's definitely a place worth keeping in mind for special occasions.