SkinnyPig Travels: Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City

If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to why don’t you go where fashion sits…puttin on the Ritz.

That song was originally written in 1927 in honor of The Ritz hotel in London, but I do think it’s kind of funny that the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City also happens to be attached to a multi-level shopping mall, The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. I guess fashion really does sit there.

The Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City is located in Arlington, VA, near the Pentagon (obviously) and just a short drive to Washington DC. The hotel itself is lovely and well kept, with an incredibly kind staff. They had a flight of whiskey and chocolate waiting for us in our room, so clearly they did their research on me. Two of my biggest weaknesses.

We stayed on the Club Level, which is awesome because they have breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner buffet spreads every day, as well as drinks. After running around all day to museums and such, it was nice to be able to pop back to the hotel and have a cocktail before heading back out.

Rarely do I find the food to be a draw of a hotel, but we had brunch at Fyve on our last day before leaving, and the chef had prepared a special menu for us. And by special I mean basically the entire menu. When you’re a food blogger, do as food bloggers do. It was amazing. Chilaquiles were one of the best I’ve had recently, and the fried chicken and biscuits were up there with some of the ones I had in Charleston a few weeks ago. Mac n cheese was no slouch either. If you have a breakfast or dinner meeting in Pentagon City, Fyve is a perfect spot for that. There was a man sitting at the table next to us coughing up his right lung the entire time too, and even that didn’t tarnish the experience for me.

We did some sightseeing in DC since it was so close by, and naturally we hit a bunch of restaurants. Jose Andres has a slew of them here, so it was hard to narrow down and pick one, but we went with brunch at Jaleo, which was UNREAL. Highly recommend if you’re into the whole tapas thing. Their pan con tomate might just be one of my new favorite brunch items, and the flauta de tortilla de patatas (mini omelette sandwiches with crushed tomatoes on crusty bread) were PERFECT.

Our Saturday night dinner was at Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse, located within the new MGM National Harbor. It reminded me very much of Vegas, complete with casinos. The steakhouse was on point, with delicious potato gratin and steak cooked to perfection. Honestly though my favorite may have been the roast pork lettuce wraps. Whoa. The server totally sold us on that one and I’m glad she did. My only complaint was that it wasn’t served to us by The Voltaggio bros themselves. Like, hand-fed. While someone fans us with a banana leaf. Sorry, I kind of love them.

Post-dinner, we had a nightcap at Denson, a really cool and vibey speakeasy in downtown DC. I didn’t get any photos because it was darker than dark in there, but if you’re in the mood for a cocktail in a swank yet cozy setting, this is a safe bet. We also popped into Partisan, right around the corner from Denson, for a more casual drink. Lots of fun bars to see here – I wish we had more time to check them out. But at least I had time to grab this shot. So necessary.

Lastly, can’t forget to mention the awesome rental car service I used for this trip! Maven is an app that lets you find and book your car near you, and all you have to do is confirm and pay, all through the app. You pick the car you want (which is usually not an option with rental car companies), and you pick it up at a parking garage near you. There’s no hassle of rental car hubs at airports or any BS like that. It was so so easy! There’s wifi in the car, GPS, chargers, and even a gas card in the visor, so just make sure you have the pin number if you choose to use that. Highly recommend downloading that app!

More pics in the slideshow below – just hover over the pic to see what’s what. So many #RCMemories. Thanks to the Ritz-Carlton for being a gracious host, and to all the awesome restaurants that kept us extremely well-fed.